I probably should be writing about parsley due to the extreme garden takeover exercise it has masterfully succeeded in during my heart surgery recovery.
It’s like I blinked and now, like every polished ‘80s dish or your local butchery display, my pots and garden edges are framed with bountiful masses of curly parsley.
All that aside, the little combo today is about coriander and pistachio with a jalapeño dressing.
Our hodgepodge dinner was a fusion of French, Italian, Levantine with a splash of Mexican. Stay with me here.
So I laid down some puff pastry for a blind bake, let it cool, and topped it with a buttery onion, ricotta, goat feta, and parmesan mix. With asparagus on top before baking again. Then topped with a punchy coriander and pistachio salad with jalapeno dressing.
Served with lamb chops.
A feat actually because everyone ate it and the usual teenager critique of “it’s interesting” became “it’s good”. I’ll take what I can get.
When you think of salads, what comes to mind for you? For me it’s the classic iceberg, cucumbers, tomato and red onion. Your perfect little emoji salad. But as we all know, the salad doesn’t need much to be powerful. It can situate itself on the top of a meal instead of on the side.
It doesn’t need to be leafy, or have vegetables. Of course, anytime I imagine fruit salad, The Wiggles kindly invade my brain with theirFruit salad - yummy, yummy song. It could be fruit and nuts. Pomegranate and salt roasted cashews.
Herbs and nuts. The combinations are endless. You might find some tamari almonds at the back of the pantry and they would be an excellent topping with some fresh mint on top of grilled chicken.
Shelled and roasted hazelnuts with tarragon or oregano over creamy mashed potatoes.
Have you got a good vinaigrette in your repertoire? The trick is 7 ingredients. Extra virgin olive oil, vinegar (chardonnay, merlot, sherry, rosé, pickle juice, jalapeno brine), sugar (caster, brown, maple, honey, molasses), fresh garlic, mustard, salt and pepper.
Put it in a jar and shake. Keeps well in the fridge.
