Crunchy curry coleslaw

Are you all looking for interesting salads to include at mealtime over the Christmas period?

I was inspired to make this little gem by the 4 Blades Podcast episode 27 Simple Summer Salads If you aren't listening to these guys cook their hearts out while you stroll around the river of an evening then you really should give it a go. They are in hot competition with my favourite Doctor Who podcasts and that is a sad addiction I should not even mention on a cooking blog

So anyway I read Bec's ideas here as well as the show notes and the original recipe mentioned which is here

And then I made it up as I went along (which is usually what happens here at Cafe Disarray)

Take: a handful of parsley (stalks and all), some coriander (I used 4 leaves of sawtooth coriander from the garden) and 40 g green onions (I only used the tops)

Chop 4 seconds at speed 10 and scrape down the sides

Add what Bec calls the "choppy bits"

I like to put carrot and apple in the bottom because big chunks of cabbage don't bother me so much. So I put in a medium carrot in chunks and a small red apple.

 Top with 1/4 small cabbage - up to about 3/4 full. Cabbage is in chunks too like this:

Chop at speed 4 for 6-8 seconds - watch carefully and stop chopping if necessary so it is only chopped not blended

Add the other ingredients: 

80g sultanas

80g frozen peas

60g almonds (I used whole because that is what we had but slivered would be nice)

4 tablespoons mayonnaise

3 teaspoons curry powder (I used Keens)

Stir on reverse speed 4 for 4 - 6 seconds

That's it. Done. Have a glass of wine while the man does the barbecuing.

Steak and salad

Actually we had steak and four salads. And we ate outside because it was heavenly - this is what it was like:

How lovely is Townsville this time of year?

So anyway FOUR salads - I was on such a roll this afternoon!

Salad 1: French Cabbage Salad

This is fantastic for people who are a bit over coleslaw. 

You need:

1/4 white cabbage

1 red apple (I used a pink lady)

1/2 cucumber

1-2 sticks celery

a big handful of garlic chives or spring onion tops

Slice the cabbage thinly (you can use a mandolin for this if you like) 

Peel the cucumber but leave a tiny bit between each strip of peel you remove because it is just prettier that way. Slice thinly (again with the mandolin) and halve the slices

Slice the celery thinly too

Cut the apple in four, core it and then cut each piece into 8-10 depending on the size of the slices

chop the garlic chives

Throw it all into a bowl - a bigger bowl than you intend to serve in nd toss together. Hands are the best tools for tossing.

Then mix the dressing in the high tech dressing machine (a vegemite jar)

3 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 tablespoon olive oil (I used the lemon infused oil)

pinch seasalt

pinch raw sugar

Shake well and pour over salad - this one is fine to be dressed in advance

French Cabbage Salad

Salad 2: Fennel salad with mint

one head baby cos, washed and dried

one baby fennel

1/2 cup mint

Let me just say that any salad that treats mint as a vegetable rather than a garnish will be worth a try

Chop the cos roughly into pieces that are bite size

tear the mint from the stalks and add

Slice the fennel as thinly as possible

Mix dressing in aforementioned hi tech gadget

1/3 cup lemon juice 

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon baby capers

seasalt

fresh ground pepper

Pour over salad just before serving

Fennel salad with mint

Salad 3: Baby spinach with citrus

1/2 bag baby spinach leaves. If you have time to pick the stalks off this makes it a whole lot more appetising

1/4 red onion sliced very thinly

1/2 can mandarin segments

1 lebanese cucumbers cut into batons

Mix spinach, cucumber and onion together in a large bowl. Tip into serving container and top with drained mandarin segments.

Serve with a lemon and balsamic dressing - I used the one from here 

Check out the vintage Tupperware - this is a relic from my wedding shower in 1982

Baby spinach with citrus

Salad 4: Balsamic asparagus and tomato 

2 bunches asparagus

1 punnet grape tomatoes

2 dsp parmesan (15 ml spoon size)

Grind the parmesan in the Thermomix if you have one or grate it finely

Halve the tomatoes

Snap the woody ends off the asparagus and cut into 3-4 pieces. Cook in boiling water for 3-4 minutes then plunge into iced water and drain.

combine vegetables in a bowl and mix your dressing

100ml orange juice

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

a pinch of seasalt

Pour dressing over and sprinkle with parmesan. This one can be dressed in advance too.

Balsamic Asparagus and Tomato

Find a man to barbecue the steak for you 

There are 12 ProPoints in the four salads combined - 5 each in the salads with oil in the dressing and 2 in the parmesan. We served three and had lots of leftovers so I think you could eat your fill and track 2 PP plus your steak. And of course this knocks over the vegetable part of the Healthy Checks!

Just YUM!

Weight Watchers Tuscan Pork Fillet with Cabbage Salad

Tonight we are eating straight out of this Weight Watchers book

Well, kind of. You know I can't not fiddle with a recipe. Well some things just take longer if you don't crank up the Thermomix. And I used it to grate the parmesan so I thought while it was awake... I would just chuck all the stuff in for the rub and turbo it a couple of times. It did need a scrape down and a second go...

But then I added the honey and did the same again and when I turned the rub out on the pork fillet Taff assured me this one has a better consistency than 20 minutes banging away in the old mortar and pestle.

So anyway we rubbed it on the pork fillet (those are Taff's fingers)

And followed the instructions - popped it in with the potatoes and got on with the salad. My other deviation. I used wombuk. Because it is curly and nice and was in the fridge.

The salad is really great - balsamic glaze and olice oil instead of mixing a dressing and it is just cabbage, carrot and parmesan mixed well

Here it is in a heirloom bowl. Not my heirloom, this one was picked up at an op shop but it is a lovely bowl and just the right size for this as well as waist exploding trifles.

From this point on you people are lucky to be getting pics at all as I managed to mangle my SD card and the microscopic write protection tab is somewhere on the floor under my desk. Lucky I had an old micro SD from a phone and a reader that would go in the camera

After it came out of the oven it looked like this:

So you stand for a leetle while and then serve

Here is what I had:

only10 Propoints - amazing cheezy oily goodness

Lamb chops and warm cabbage salad

Dinner last night was quick and easy - warm cabbage salad is able to be kept in the pan until the meat is just right. Just take:

 1/4 cabbage (shredded)

 2 cloves of garlic (sliced) 

1 long red chili (sliced and seeded)

a couple handfuls of green beans (trimmed) 

gorgeous Chefs Toolbox tools make the job easy

Heat a large pan, fry garlic and chilli for a couple of minutes until they are fragrant then throw in the cabbage and beans and cook until just tender.

I served this with new potatoes, chantenay carrots and grilled lamb chops. Weight Watchers ProPoints, depending on how much potato you have, only 5 or 6 in total! (I didn't eat the tails from the chops)

Meat and 3 veg at Cafe Disarray