KEY POINTS:
This is the season for crunchy, fresh, zingy salads and one of my all time favourites is that heaven-in-a-bowl Lebanese staple, tabouleh - parsley and burghul (cracked wheat) salad.
I also sometimes make salads solely from herbs and flowers - a big symphony of chervil, chives, parsley, coriander,
Vietnamese mint, dill, marjoram, basil and tarragon tossed with cornflowers, marigolds, pansies, borage, nasturtiums, verbena and calendula flowers. Throw in sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, verjuice (unfermented unripe grape juice) and New Zealand hazelnut oil and call it lunch.
Tabouleh is for people who find salads a boring, non-event. Traditionally, you would soak the burghul in water then add lemon juice and olive oil. But other countries make tabouleh-type preparations - they soak the burghul in lemon juice, tomato juice, onion juice or verjuice.
Some people also use chopped watercress instead of parsley.
You usually let the salad meld its beautiful flavours for a few hours before you eat it. Tabouleh has very little burghul in it actually and lavish amounts of parsley and mint. It is eaten scooped up in cos lettuce leaves.
Now is also the season for those red balls of juicy sweetness - cherries. Bowls of blushing, plump cherries along with strawberries are synonymous with Christmas in New Zealand.
My childhood memories of cherries are of little flavour bites, like lollies of pink, red or white fruit. These days it is bigger is better and expect the "two-bite" cherry - crisp, flavourful and juicy.
Cherries are so big they are like little nectarines now - great for a clafoutis (cherry flan) as there are less stones to spit out but somehow un-cherry like. I also like bitter wild cherries grown in the subtropical north of New Zealand.
Of course, humans are not the only creatures who adore cherries - we have declared all-out war with the birds who have a tendency to get there first and can wipe out an entire crop. We are also at war with the rain which makes the flesh soft, expanding it and cracking the skin. To combat these enemies, cherry growers use nets, calcium sprays and raincoats.
Like strawberries, cherries don't ripen once picked, so you have to pick them ripe. They are very labour intensive. Everything is done by hand and cherries retain the heat of the sun so much, that, once picked, they have to be immediately hydro-cooled to 2C to prevent over-ripening in the packing shed.
I'm a sucker for Christmas mince tarts every year, so if you've left it too late to make a cake, this is the perfect solution. If you are far too fabulous and busy to make the minced fruit filling, you could buy it then add the cherries. For mince tarts it is essential to make a rich short pastry, with at least half-and-half butter to flour.
Santa will know the difference.
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TABOULEH
Serves 6: makes 4 cups
1/2 cup fine grade burghul (cracked wheat)
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 cups finely chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup finely sliced spring onions
2 pinches cinnamon
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cups finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
4 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint
romaine (cos) lettuce leaves
1. Wash burghul, squeeze dry and soak in the lemon juice for half an hour.
2. In a bowl, combine the tomatoes, spring onions, cinnamon, salt and pepper. Drizzle on the olive oil and toss. Fold in the burghul, parsley and mint. Mix together.
To eat: Scoop tabouleh up with the cos leaves and munch to your heart's content.
- Detours, HoS