My friend Gina once told me of a friend of hers, a male college buddy that had invited her and her friends over for dinner. He wasn’t much of a cook and quite poverty stricken as most university students tend to be (she also told us that he would come out to eat with an empty wallet and a fork to spear bits off other people’s plates). As if to spectacularly illustrate both points he served up a single course of plain boiled rice to his dinner guests.
“Do you have any soy sauce or ketchup?” Gina asked him and shaking his head offered them salt to have with their rice. She declined. Little did he know that if he had three ingredients in his cupboard, four if he wanted to stretch it, he could have cooked the girls a lovely meal. Yes, three ingredients. And one of them is Vegemite.
Vegemite for kids-or me!
Yesterday I posted about Nigella Lawson’s Masterclass at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. During it she cooked a dish originally from Italian cookbook writer Anna Del Conte that would immediately send people’s head whipping around for a double take. Vegemite spaghetti. She assured us that despite its rather kitsch and alarming sound, it was in fact delicious and if I’ve learnt to trust one thing it’s that when she says that it’s delicious, it usually is. I will admit that Vegemite isn’t usually to my taste and every time I say it I feel terribly “Un-Australian” (whatever that may mean).
Since it had three ingredients plus parmesan cheese it was easy for me to try it. I used the Barilla wholemeal spaghetti which is the only wholemeal pasta I like although it is near to impossible to find at the store! I was recently sent My First Vegemite which is a less salty version of the savoury spread and I decided to use it here. Embarrassingly, I preferred it but not after spying the note that it was recommended for children 1+ years old. I guess that would be me!
The spaghetti was in fact quite nice. It reminded me of a treat that I make myself once every 6-12 months. When I or my mother make soy sauce chicken I keep the salty, caramelised sauce for another day and use it as a spaghetti sauce. It’s not a dish I make often as there is an absence of vegetables but I figured using wholemeal spaghetti would work in my dietary offset program (like carbon offsetting but for diets). And after trying it I must say that sure it’s not magazine spread beautiful but it tastes very good indeed.
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| March 15th, 2011 by Not Quite Nigella
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What’s your favourite colour to wear? Well if you are in Mr NQN’s immediate family, the answer no doubt willl be purple. Mr NQN’s mother Tuulikki is so enamoured of the colour that come Christmas or a birthday we buy her something in purple. She even bonds with people if they are wearing purple.
We were at Mr NQN’s sister’s baby shower several months back and there was a woman who from the back looked and dressed exactly like Tuulikki. It’s a distinct look, there are several flowing layers, scarves of purple and silver jewellery and brown leather sandals. It turns out that Tuulikki had become friends with her when they had met on the Manly Ferry and noticed that they looked and dressed pretty much alike!
This recipe is for Tuulikki-not just for the colour but also because it is a simple, healthy vegan salad that can be made easily and I know Tuulikki doesn’t like to cook. I found these purple potatoes from Daly Gourmet Potatoes on a recent trip to Tasmania and they were gorgeous specimens along with the purple carrot that they also grow there. I used a few and am gifting the rest to Tuulikki. These purple potatoes that actually retain their colour aren’t easy to find. Most of them lose their colour quickly once they are cooked. I first saw this salad on Soma’s site and it has stayed in my memory ever since.
To keep the colour, these are best steamed whole without peeling. Some of the potatoes turned a navy blue colour as opposed to a purple whilst others remained purple which is a slight mystery to me. The potatoes themselves are waxy and hold their shape well and are very good for a salad. The salad was clean, refreshing and healthy so whilst I won’t be donning any flowing scarves, I did appreciate the gentle interplay between textures and flavours against the fruity dressing.
So tell me Dear Reader, what is your favourite colour to wear?
Purple Potato Salad
- 3 purple potatoes
- 2 pink potatoes
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 1 purple carrot, chopped
- 3 tablespoons pistachios
- 2 radishes, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup sun dried or fresh tomatoes
- 2-3 tablespoons sliced green onions
- 3 tablespoons lemon infused olive oil
- 3 tablespoons raspberry vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste
1. Steam the potatoes whole until tender and then peel and dice the potatoes once cooled. Toss with the chopped carrot, pistachios, radishes, tomatoes and green onions. Mix the lemon olive oil and raspberry vinegar together and then season with salt and pepper.
| March 4th, 2011 by Not Quite Nigella
When I was young, I thought that the most sophisticated things were French. I loved those wobbly supermarket creme caramels where you would break off the tabs and the whole caramel would come shimmying and wobbling down the sides. I always thought that it was a marvellous feat that it was able to do that-it seemed almost magical or as if science were involved.
I was in my thirties before I tried a gougere at of all places Alain Ducasse at the Dorcester Hotel. I didn’t like a terribly sheltered existence at all, quite the opposite at least food-wise, but when I sat down to a bowl of gougeres I became hooked. I was all too familiar with choux buns as a sweet item but as a savoury item they were a wonderful revelation. I scoffed gougere after gougere, forgetting the fact that I was about to embark on the degustation meal to end all degustations.
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| October 19th, 2010 by Not Quite Nigella
We were talking about Golden Books the other day. I got to reminiscing about my favourite ones and I recall my very favourite ever Golden Book was one called Elephant on Wheels. It was about an elephant who loved to roller skate. I loved it because I was forever being told not to do something by my parents. I have always hated being told what to do and so did this elephant Petunia. So she hid her roller skates in clever little places like in the garden as a bunch of flowers, the shower curtain rail and anywhere else that she could find. I admired how ingenious she was.
Rebelliousness aside – and that’s a bigger story, I loved her cunning. It’s a similar cunning and adoration for pastry that has me seeking out even more ways to eat pastry. I’m sure you’re all familiar with the apple tarte tatin. I’m a little too familiar with it if you know what I mean. Give me an pastry dessert and I turn into a dessert seeking missile. But tarte tatin can also be done as a savoury dish.
I found this recipe in the new Serge Dansereau cookbook “French Kitchen” where he cooks food that is made for home cooking ($59.95 by Harper Collins and look out for a giveaway soon 
). Isn’t it funny how quickly time passes. When we went to his Bathers Pavilion SIFF event last year he was talking about writing the book and now a year later here it is. Everyone discussed how much people wanted to do home cooking ever since Masterchef hit our shores (and now the kid version is here-how scarily good are these kids?).
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| October 7th, 2010 by Not Quite Nigella
I’ve never proclaimed to be a fan of many sports – tennis and ice skating are about my limit. In fact I watched my very first game of Rugby Union a few weeks ago. Granted the lure was that it was hosted by Tourism New Zealand and we were watching Australia vs New Zealand in a giant football by Sydney Harbour. So you understand that I now expect all rugby games to be catered affairs with free flowing wines in giant rugby balls…
Not Mr NQN, when he is playing on the computer he likes to put channel 1 on and this is when things get ugly. We barter that whomever has the laptop must give up the rights to channel selection and I inevitably get to choose as he usually hogs the laptop. I’ll even admit that once I stuffed the remote control down my pants so that he couldn’t change the channel. I’m not a cruel wife though, he is allowed to watch what he wants on occasion and when he really wants to watch a game I will make something nice for him (but yes mostly to entertain me). This weekend has two football games and no doubt he’ll want to sit pitched in front of the television watching them.
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| October 2nd, 2010 by Not Quite Nigella
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