Simplest lunch in the world
May 5, 2009
A flying visit to the tropics for the weekend, with family at beautiful Magnetic Island in far North Queensland. It is an excellent escape and we plan to do it again before winter is out. Perfect swimming weather, and still warm enough to eat outdoors in the evening.
So if it’s cold where you are, and you want to pretend it’s still summer, turn up the heat and whack this on the table for the easiest lunch in the world.
1. Cooked prawns. We had tigers one day and red spots the next – succulent, flavoursome, delicious.
2. Bread. Sourdough best, otherwise any good crusty white.
3. Green salad with good oil & balsamic dressing.
4. Mayonnaise – preferably Norganics Soya Mayonnaise, otherwise Hellman’s (or homemade, obviously, if you can be bothered).
5. Two glasses of Veuve Clicquot.
Happy, happy, happy day.
How to shuck an oyster 
I’m afraid that since I moved up north to become the best friend of chickens, fresh mayo is the only way to go – especially with prawns. It only takes a few minutes in the food processor and really, no comparison.
GREAT – love your blog Annette, and you are soooo literate compared to One. Your Donne thang is quite amazing. So – are you going to give on the mayo technique or what??
Well, OK, seeing as they don’t give any prizes for it at the Noosa show, I suppose I can divulge. (However, my 1st prize winning rosella jam will remain top secret. heheh.)
First you need a whole egg. To get the amazing bright orange yolk you’ll need an actual chicken and a weeks worth of leafy green kitchen scraps, but that’s probably not an option for most. Then, about a cup of delicious olive oil, the juice of a lemon (we’ve got bush lemons up here – they aren’t too sweet), salt and ground black pepper, a clove or two of garlic if you’re fond of it and, a tabsp of grainy French mustard.
Whack all that into a food processor with only a table spoon of the oil, get it going, and then pour the rest into it in a thin stream. You can tell it’s the right consistency when it starts glooping. (Sorry about the technical term – it might take a few goes to master the concept of glooping).
The secret is to use the whole egg. I guess it’s not really truly proper mayo, but bugger the purists – they’re still developing whiskers’ elbow while my version is on the table and almost gone because it is completely delicious.
My blog used to be much fatter, but a while back journalspace crashed, taking everything with it into the ether. I’ve only just recovered from the nervous breakdown and started again at blogger – didn’t have any of it saved. And it was the address printed in the back of my book. Grrrr.
Warning -do not trust cloud computing.
No argument here. This is one of my all-time favourite lunches. Yum.
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