Ladies, bring a plate
May 30, 2009
Yesterday I was invited to speak at a literary lunch fundraiser, which took place in a large boat shed overlooking a beautiful bit of the harbour, full of very nice women who all seemed to be uber-professionals (radiologists, MCA guides, painters, doctors, etc) and at the same time very warm and generous people.
They also made the food – or at least a small band of great cooks from among their ranks did – for the 130 gals in attendance. And even before those women were thanked I could tell, looking at the buffet table, that this food came from good home cooks rather than profit-making caterers – it’s the generosity, people. Quality ingredients, bounteous servings and good taste: perfect rare roast beef, succulent chicken marbella, mounds of silky smoked salmon & capers, gorgeous salads, good bread and real butter.
I love a bring-a-plate* function myself, and I love that everyone has a signature dish or two. The Empress, for example, is duty-bound to lug a huge bowl of her incredible baba ganoush pretty much wherever she goes (I believe her secret is to smoke the aubergine first … mmmm). My own chart-toppers are a roasted carrot & mint salad, and a braised green bean, tomato & dill number for which I can never find the recipe and thus have to phone my sisters whenever I need it.
So I’ll show you mine if you show me yours. Here’s the simplest carrot salad in the world, and always beloved by all. Serve it warm or room temperature but don’t add the mint until the carrots have cooled enough not to cook the herb.
Roasted carrot & mint salad (as a side dish for 8 or 10ish)
- olive oil
- 2kg carrots
- 1 bunch mint, finely chopped
- balsamic vinegar
- sea salt
- Preheat oven to about 200 degrees C or hotter.
- Chop carrots into thickish rounds – about 1cm is good (they shrink a lot).
- Throw them into the biggest roasting pan you can find, or two pans – best to have them in a single layer if you can – with generous lugs of olive oil to coat, but they shouldn’t swim in oil or they won’t caramelise.
- Roast the bejesus out of them for around an hour, turning once or twice. Keep ’em cooking until they’re a deep golden-russet colour. The flavour really intensifies and sweetens as they roast.
- Pour off any excess oil and let cool for about 10 minutes.
- When the carrots have cooled a little but are still warm, slosh the balsamic vinegar over a little at a time, to taste. Be quite generous with it, but not so much as to overwhelm the carroty goodness.
- Let cool for another 10 or so, and then toss the chopped mint through (the colours are gorgeous) and season generously with crunchy sea salt and a little pepper.
- Throw it into a bowl, onto a table, and stand by for praise.
Okay. Your turn.
* When my English parents were first married in Oz they lived in a teeny bush town. My mother was asked to bring a plate to a function, which she thought was strange, but dutifully did so – and on arrival was embarrassed to find she was supposed to have put food on the plate first. Trap for young players.
How to shuck an oyster 
Charlotte, I cannot remember how I came here. But I think I’m going to love your blog deeply.
Genevieve, I have no idea how you got here either. But with talk like that I think you should come back all the time and bring your impeccable taste with you …
Thanks for raving about the baba Charlotte, but I only sometimes bother with the smoking business. I think the trick is using quite a bit of cumin, roasted and ground just beforehand, because this is one spice that tastes like not much if it’s not super fresh. Oh, and lots of salt and lemon juice. Hard to be specific because it depends how much you want to make but also bung the grilled flesh in a fine sieve/colander under a weight for a while to get rid of nasty juices.
That all sounds lovely, but what’s chicken marbella?
Oh, it’s fab. I will revisit this one soon – we’re talking chicken, green olives, prunes, brown sugar, lemon … an old rolled gold classic. Remind me to post…
[…] was one of our visitors last night, showing up with a big bucket of her baba ganoush, so all my hinting last week paid off beautifully. And we cunningly ran out of crackers for the assembled, so managed to sneak a […]