I’ve spent the past couple of days gallivanting around South Australia, catching up with my family and reconnecting with old friends – some I hadn’t seen in a decade – during my high school reunion. Now that was a blast from the past!
Our eldest sister Candice and her wonderful master chef partner Frew again opened their Adelaide Hills home to me for a night and once more a vegetarian feast of bliss was served up. (You might remember Frew’s superb chickpea and celery rogan josh from earlier in the year.)
As Candice and I talked up a storm from their back deck, watched by Sulpher-crested Cockatoos perched on the railing and hoping to score some seed, Frew got to work on possibly the best sangria I’ve ever imbibed – and that’s including some exceedingly decent samples tested in Spain itself.
Here’s the feast recreated for you.
ZUCCHINI FRITTERS
What goes in:
2 zucchinis, grated
1 onion, sliced
2 eggs *
Garlic
Ginger
½ cup of flour
½ tsp baking powder
Grated parmesan rind (optional)
Salt
How you do it:
Mix all the ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl. Warm some olive oil in a shallow frying pan and add big dobs of mixture to make fritters. Flip them once so both sides are golden and crusty.
* Vegans can ditch the eggs and instead use mashed canned cannellini beans as a binder. Just lightly fry the other ingredients, then add the beans and refry in fritter shape.
TRUFFLE MUSTARD VINAIGRETTE
What goes in:
Juice of half a lemon
1 tsp truffle honey *
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
½ tsp hot English mustard
How you do it:
First, a little tip. This recipe follows the basic vinaigrette base of one-third oil to two-thirds acid. If you follow this ratio you can make a lovely range of vinaigrettes using acidic ingredients such as lemon, balsamic vinegar, lime or apple cider vinegar.
Okay, so here’s what you do: Throw all ingredients into a small clean jar and shake well until the honey is fully mixed through.
Never seen truffle honey before? Join the club. Apparently it’s available from gourmet or specialty food shops. Candice and Frew picked theirs up from a truffle farm in Western Australia. Here’s what it looks like:
* Vegans can substitute the truffle honey for a few drops of truffle oil and 1 tsp agave syrup.
SANGRIA (recipe from The Food of Spain, A Journey for Food Lovers cookbook)
What goes in:
1 ½ tbsps caster (superfine) sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp fresh orange juice
750ml bottle of red wine (preferably Spanish)
500ml lemonade
2 tbsps gin
2 tbsps vodka
1 lemon
1 orange
1 lime
Ice cubes, to fill pitcher
How you do it:
Put the caster sugar, lemon juice and orange juice in a large pitcher or bowl and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Add the red wine, lemonade, gin and vodka. Cut the lemon, orange and lime into halves, remove the seeds and slice all the fruit thinly. Add the slices to the pitcher and fill with ice. Stir well.
A word of warning: this sangria is exceedingly easy to drink and three jugs may have disappeared on our watch. But we managed to put aside our post-sangria hangovers and drag our sorry butts out of bed for an early morning ride on Candice’s lovely gentle horse, Duke, before I hot-footed it off to the airport.
Thanks for yet another wonderful stay, guys!
- Koren
Pretty piccies
