more autumnal than...

...fallen leaves. last night, i felt like cooking properly for the first time in a while - cooking mojo comes and goes. inspired by box 20, i made the slaw with purple cabbage, onion and apple (all from this and previous boxes) and dressed it with olive oil and sherry vinegar. i mashed to parsnips and mixed in some diced fresh pear, and i 'roasted' a chicken boob. it was sizzled skin side down for 5 or so minutes on a high heat to get the skin cripsy, and then to the oven for about 15-20 minutes until it was cooked. it was rested well and stayed juicy.

here is a photo...

it's not a great photo, but you get the impression. the parsnip and pear match was fantastic, the slaw was crisp and cool, and the chicken was tasty. thanks box!

p

vegetable redemption

today was pretty much balls all round. not literally. i copped a massive man-cold that started on bad thursday and lasted until i was due back at work. the weather over easter here was spectacular, but i was either sleeping or sneezing. i thought i was getting better, but now i have the consumption, and someone has stolen my absinthe (not really - it's a moulin rouge reference for your reading entertainment).

but, today was box day, so i headed off from work in the rain (this is a good thing) and collected said box from the designated pick up point.

here is box 20 in all its seasonal glory...

what an awesome selection, and the source of the vegetable redemption of this balls-laden (heavy would be the wrong adjective) day. this box contained two big bunches of chlorophyllic spinach, some sprightly bok-choy, a deeply purple cabbage (pronounced ka-barge), some crunchy green capsicums, some zucchini (in german), fungus, parsnips, corn, grean beens, punkin, spudadoes, pears (2 species), apples and a reptilian avocado. outrageous!

this box typifies what i love about this whole thing. the weather is wintery, so your stomach-mind turns to thoughts of soups, stews and roasty-things. as if by magic, the box delivers. of course, it's not magic, it's just seasonal. it makes perfect sense.

i predict some spanakopita, some punkin soup, a slaw (with apple and onion and a simple lemon juice and olive oil dressing) to be served with some roasted protein and the maggie beer parsnip mash with pears. yummo! bring it on!! as always, recipe suggestions are welcome.

cheers,

p

quinces...

...are probably the ultimate seasonal fruit (followed closely by nectarines and white peaches). monday was an incredibly grumpy day for me. no apparent reason, but it was best to take be removed from circulation. i left the LRO early and grabbed some lunch on the way home. i stopped by the local fruit and vege shop and picked up some things for dinner, and, some quinces.

it was a baking lead recovery. these happened to be the best batch i've made. they were roasted in slapdash sugar syrup with some lime juice, zest and vanilla for about 5 hours. the secret to success here was the use of a cartouche - a bit of baking paper over the top while cooking. it kept to quince bits cool (cool - really? maybe just leave them out of the oven if that is your goal...try covered) and allowed the syrup to reduce, just as maggie suggested it would.

here is a photo...

they became an even deeper red after cooling for a little bit. i ate some straight away with some honey and cinnamon yoghurt. delightful and uplifting on even the grumpiest of days. 

p