A medley
- rosemary
- 11 minutes ago
- 6 min read
Medley: "a varied mixture of people or things." Oxford Languages
In a post-Christmas lazy lull, and on a hot day, I am resorting to little bits and pieces. I feel a bit like this quote I found in the Smitten Kitchen newsletter:
"confused, full of cheese and unsure of the day of the week."
So oddments from here and there ... 'Medley' implies some sort of organisational process behind the combination of this and that to me. A selection has been made with an overriding theme in mind. However, I don't think the following has much organisation behind it. It's mostly recipes that appealed to me at a particular moment in time, from here and there, with the odd bit of marginally interesting or curious information. So here I go as they are listed on my Oddments page.
Chopping chives
I no longer know where I heard about this - but it's one of those weird things, that go viral and provides endless entertainment for thousands of people. Why, is a whole post of thoughts that I might attack some day.
The picture is of the first chopped chives to be scored 10/10 by an anonymous British Chef who has a viral Instagram page called Rate My Chives. According to Alison Turner of delicious. the premise of the thing is that:
"people submit photos or a video of their chopped chives to the account, and RateMyChives gives them a score out of 10."
The 10/10 score was given to one Cliff Lyijynen (cliffibom) - a Finnish/Singaporean chef working in Helsinki. I think subsequently one more 10/10 has been given and another one to 'cliffibom'. Well-known Michelin starred chefs have also been known to compete - Gordon Ramsay notoriously got a score of 1.2/10.
Personally I never chop chives. I snip them with scissors - but then I've never mastered the chef's way of chopping and slicing. And one of my early gurus told me to do it that way anyway. Maybe it was my mother.
Tea-soaked prunes - I'm a bit late with this one, as it's Tom Hunt - The Guardian's waste not want man, telling us how to make jars of tea-soaked dried fruits - particularly prunes - as gifts. Too late for Christmas. He takes them with him when invited to friends for a meal, but obviously you can just keep them for yourself to be:
"spooned over rice pudding, porridge, yoghurt, ice-cream or even panna cotta."
It's a waste not want not recipe because the idea is to use the spent tea bag that you just used for your cuppa. Although his recipe is for prunes he tells us that many other kinds of dried fruits can be given the same treatment and tells us what to expect from different teas:
"Earl grey adds fragrant, citrus notes, builders’ tea gives a malty depth, lapsang souchong brings smokiness, and chamomile or rooibos offer softer, floral tones."
He also suggests that "a splash of whisky, brandy or rum lends a gentle warmth." So next time you have a cuppa check out the back or your pantry for some dried fruit and make your preserve. You put some sugar, the tea bag and boiling water in a jar - add your fruit and soak overnight. The next day, strain out the fruit, boil down the liquid to a syrup, add your alcohol - if you want - and the fruit and keep in a sterilised jar. It's very waste not, want not and also very adaptable according to what fruit you have, what tea, and whether you want to add alcohol - and if so - what. Or maybe even fruit juice or cordial.
Today is the day I get my Smitten Kitchen newsletter, and in her introductory links she directed me to this mini video on Facebook from the head of the Woks of LIfe clan, explaining various things about those alarming Yum Cha restaurants, which obviously have a code of behaviour that, as a non Chinese, I do not understand.
Of course there is more to learn than this quick video but it is indeed useful - like this shot of food that came from the second level of the trolley. Not good - it's not fresh like the top level and consists of the leftovers they haven't been able to sell.
There are also tips about tea etiquette, and how to actually get the food just as it comes from the kitchen - not to mention what those mysterious marks on the bill are.
For the dummies amongst us.
Antipasti vegeterrine from Alice Zaslavsky
Too late for the Christmas vegetarians, but next time you want to impress a vegetarian try this. The casing is grilled zucchini, and the filling is layers of various roasted and sun-dried vegetables from the supermarket bound with an artichoke cream - the artichokes are also from the supermarket shelves, finished off as you serve with pesto, cherry tomatoes and basil.
Again this is yet another template kind of recipe I suppose. You can of course, roast and dry your own vegetables, and swap them for different ones anyway. So instead of just arranging all those things on a plate, give it a go.
I must have been flipping through Nigel Slater's Tender volume 1 for some reason, and saw this rather stunning photograph for the above recipe. The link is to Thomasina Mier's choice of her greatest recipe ever (not her own - somebody else's) for Country LIfe, and that in itself says something I guess.
Apart from it's beauty it was a brief word about radish sprouts that also caught my eye:
"Radish sprouts are stunningly coloured sprouted seeds with a spicy heat."
And why did Thomasina Miers choose it as her best ever?:
"Nigel pairs this salad with smoked bacon instead of the classic Bayonne ham, and dresses it with a creamy, tangy dressing. The combination is a dream."
And those radish sprouts.
Coles Christmas/summer recipes
The Christmas edition of their magazine had a few suggestions that were quick and easy - recipes from Jessica Brook who is one of their really good recipe creators.
For your next summer lunch, you could do worse than try this for an easy peasy starter, that looks great - if you serve it in some pretty glasses, or glass dish. It uses supermarket roast chicken, plus various other things including tarragon. A tiny bit of cooking is involved, but - being Coles - it's easy.
Very simple, a great combination of flavours, and really just an assembly job other than frying the prosciutto to crispiness.
I suppose it's a recipe designed in large part to publicise their Heirloom tomatoes - but then I would heartily concur with that.
Grilled prawns with cranberry agrodolce When I see recipes like this I wish I had a reason to cook prawns. In this case the prawns are sweetish because maple syrup is involved, but at least there is no chilli. It was the cranberry agrodolce, however, that caught my eye - more maple syrup. I love maple syrup.
If you are into flavoured butters, or even if you are not, this is a rather more interesting one than usual - chopped dill pickles, dill, chives and pickling liquid - and the butter of course - all mashed together and kept in the fridge or freezer. Why?:
"Spread on burgers, sandwiches, crostini and roasted meats, or melt and drizzle over popcorn."
I guess the melted version could be drizzled over all sorts of things. Good for when you've just got the odd pickle left in the jar. And doable with any other kind of pickle too.
If it wasn't for the fact that the mini capsicums are so expensive, I would be having a go at these. But if you grow your own and they flourish then it would be a really good thing to do. They look yummy, and also pretty easy to do.
I probably won't be making this because of the coconut and the chilli in the curry paste - Thai green curries are hot - but nevertheless it's worth passing on and also tearing out the page just in case. It might even be a good example for my kid's cookbook. The recipe is from Sarah Hobbs - their food director.
I do check out Woolworths Fresh Ideas Magazine as well, but they seem to have lost the plot a bit. I rarely see anything I want to hang on to just in case these days.
Now shall I make any resolutions for 2026? I don't think I dare look at the ones I made for this year.
YEARS GONE BY
December 31 - and yet another year has gone by but another one to look forward to
2024 - Shrubs of the non bushy kind
2023 - Nothing
2021 - On wine - ancient and modern
2020 - Missing
2019 - Inauthentic stir-frying
2016 - Location, location, location
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