Lovely summer salads

February 20, 2009

My six-weekly visit to my hairdresser is a good opportunity to catch up on the current batch of magazines and the latest copy of Gourmet Traveller is usually put in front of me.

Hairdresser Vanessa is an adventurous cook and we usually swap notes on where we’ve eaten out, what we’ve eaten and what’s been going on in our own kitchens.

The February issue was on hand last week and I thumbed through it while the chemicals did their business on my hair.

Vanessa had already made some of the dishes featured and had more she wanted to try. I certainly found half a dozen I wanted to make myself and I picked up my own copy of GT at the local bookshop.

The sons came round for dinner during the week so I had a pretty receptive audience for my kitchen labours. In fact Ben called called by later in the week to see if he could get the recipes.

The first was featured in an article on the versatility of watermelon while the second was from a lovely but easy summer lunch menu.

I don’t know how many of you out there have a mandolin. Every time I get mine out to do some thin slicing, I invariably give up half way through. While it did a competent job on the fennel and celery, I abandoned it on the witlof which was too tender, and was easier to slice with my cook’s knife. I had visions of witlof and Pat’s finger salad – a waste of both ingredients.

Prawn, haloumi and watermelon salad
Serves 4

100 gm fine cracked wheat (bulghur)
100 ml extra-virgin olive oil
20 medium green prawns, peeled, cleaned, tails intact
25 gm haloumi, thinly sliced
Juice of 1 lemon, or to taste
400 gm seedless watermelon, thinly sliced
1/2 small Spanish onion, thinly sliced
2/3 cup each coarsely torn mint and flat-leaf parsley
Seeds  of 1/2 pomegranate

Soak cracked wheat in cold water until tender (8-10 minutes), drain well, set aside.

Meanwhile, heat 30ml olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat, add prawns and cook, turning once, until pink (1-2 minutes each side), transfer to a plate and keep warm.

Wipe out pan with absorbent paper, return pan to the heat, add 30ml olive oil and haloumi and cook, turning once, until golden (1-2 minutes each side). Remove from heat, squeeze over a little lemon juice, then arrange haloumi on platter, layering with prawns, watermelon and onion. Combine herbs, pomegranate and cracked wheat, season to taste and scatter over salad.

Return pan to heat, add remaining olive oil and lemon juice, season to taste. Drizzle dressing over salad and serve immediately.

Potato, fennel and witlof salad
Serves 6

600gm organic desiree potatoes, coarsely chopped
2 witlof
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 baby fennel bulbs, halved, very thinly sliced widthways on a mandolin, green fronds reserved
1 celery heart with leaves, very thinly sliced widthways on a mandolin
1 tbsp baby salted capers, rinsed, drained
60ml extra virgin olive oil
salad burnet (or parsley) leaves to serve

Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil, add potato and cook until tender (10-15 minutes), drain and cool slightly.

Thinly slice witlof widthways with a mandolin and combine with lemon juice in a non-reactive bowl to prevent discolouration. Add fennel, celery and potato and season to taste. Add capers, olive oil and coarsely chopped fennel fronts, toss to combine, scatter with salad burnet and serve immediately.

Recipes ©Gourmet Traveller, photographs ©Pat Churchill

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