Quinoa, Grape and Nectarine Salad

This weekend we went away with the family to celebrate my Father in Law's 60th birthday. My job was to bring a salad to eat at a BBQ lunch.

Not knowing exactly what cooking facilities I'd have available and wanting something that I could easily transport all the bits and pieces, I thought I'd look for a sturdy sort of salad. As I happened to be flicking through the latest Coles catalogue, I came across this recipe.

In true eat quaff laugh form, I modified it a little bit to suit my tastes, but it turned out to be an absolute winner! Everyone loved it and there was only a small bit left over, which is always a good sign.

I cooked the quinoa before we left home and just took it away with us in a container. The grapes I cooked in the morning and left to cool in the fridge, so that they wouldn't make the rest of the salad soggy. I didn't use up all the dressing on my salad, but you could use it all if you like a lot of dressing. Otherwise, keep it in the fridge for another time.

This was a great BBQ salad, but would be perfect to take anywhere you need to bring a share plate. The flavours were very summery, so if you're going to make it, you'll need to do it soon while nectarines are still in season. The white nectarine gave it a beautiful floral sweetness. Yellow nectarines would probably be quite nice too, but try to hunt out the white ones if you can.

To make this salad into a bit more of a meal, toss through some cooked chicken or flaked salmon for a protein hit.

Delicious!

Quinoa, Grape And Nectarine Salad

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1 cup quinoa

3 cups red grapes, removed from stems

1/4 cup marsala

4 spring onions, washed and root end removed, thinly sliced white and inner green part

100g rocket

2 white nectarines, seeds removed and thinly sliced

80g Danish feta, chopped

1/4 cup toasted pinenuts

1/4 cup toasted macadamia nuts, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Combine oil and vinegar in a jar and season to taste. This is your dressing.

Bring a medium sized saucepan of water to the boil. Add quinoa and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until it is cooked. Remove from the heat and drain well. Set aside to cool.

Heat a drizzle of oil in a large frypan over medium heat. Add the grapes and toss for about 3 minutes, or until they start to soften.

Add the marsala to the hot pan and toss around to coat the grapes. Continue to cook for another 2-3 minutes, or until the marsala has evaporated, but the mixture isn't too dry. Tip the grapes into a bowl and set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, combine the quinoa, spring onions, rocket, grapes, feta, pinenuts and macadamias. Toss through half the dressing.

Add the nectarines and fold through carefully so they don't break up.

Season to taste and add a little bit more dressing if you think it needs it.

Enjoy!

Turkey And Salsa

This week has been such a hot week in Melbourne, that I just haven't had the energy to write about what we've been eating. After 4 consecutive days above 40 degrees, and with no air conditioning at home, my brain was just fried!

Just because I didn't have the energy to write about food, doesn't mean that I wasn't thinking about what to eat and making some delicious meals.

When you're going through a heat wave, you tend to want simple food that has lots of flavour and doesn't take long to prepare. You also don't want anything that uses the oven or stove too much. There's plenty of heat around without adding to it unnecessarily! 

Salads are great when it's hot, but the same old thing can get boring if you have it night after night. This week I have tried to keep the meals generally cold, with a hot protein element to keep up our energy.

Last night we had some beautiful turkey steaks with an Asian inspired nectarine salsa for freshness. Turkey is a meat that I don't really tend to eat all that much. At Christmas time it comes out in many a meal, but I seem to forget it during the rest of the year. When I saw the steaks on special this week, I thought I'd give them a go. They took only a few minutes to cook in a frypan and were so moist and juicy, that I was really impressed. Because turkey is so lean, it does tend to dry out and can be unpleasant. These steaks came from the breast, so were pure meat, but not dry at all. I'll definitely look out for them again. I simply seasoned mine with salt, pepper and a sprinkling of lemon myrtle flakes. Delicious!

The salsa was my variation of one I came across in a Coles Supermarket magazine. I added a few extra bits and pieces that were in the fridge to give it a bit more zing. The sweet nectarine matched wonderfully with the lime, chilli, coriander and thai basil. White or yellow peaches would also work well. Combined with the sweetness of the turkey, it was the perfect hot weather meal. The salsa would also match with chicken, pork or a white fleshed fish.

To complete the dish, I made a very simple salad of crispy cos lettuce leaves dressed with a beautiful Rich Glen Estate Blood Orange and Fig Poppyseed Dressing. The dressing was divine and complemented the lime in the salsa perfectly.

Turkey Steaks With Nectarine Salsa

2 turkey breast steaks

A drizzle of olive oil

Salt, pepper and lemon myrtle flakes to taste

1 white nectarine, diced

1 yellow nectarine, diced

2 spring onions, thinly sliced

1 lime, finely zested and juiced

A handful of coriander and thai basil leaves, chopped

1 small red chilli, seeds removed and finely chopped

A handful of baby cos leaves, torn

A drizzle of your favourite salad dressing

Season turkey steaks on both sides with salt, pepper and lemon myrtle flakes.

Heat a drizzle of oil in a frypan until hot. Cook steaks for about 2 minutes on each side, or until golden and the meat is cooked all the way through.

Set aside in a warm place to rest.

While the meat is cooking, prepare the salsa and the salad.

In a small bowl, combine white and yellow nectarines, spring onion, chilli, coriander, thai basil and lime zest. Stir to combine. 

Pour over lime juice and gently stir. Set aside for the flavours to develop.

Place cos leaves on a serving platter and drizzle with salad dressing.

To serve, place turkey steaks on plates and spoon a generous amount of the salsa on top. Place some of the lettuce salad to the side.

And To Drink...

There have been lots of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks had this week in an effort to cool down. Plenty of combinations of soda, juice, cordials and spirits, with lots and lots of ice!

To finish the week, we decided to have a crisp and refreshing white wine. This wine by Henschke in South Australia was another one of the wines from The Fabulous Ladies Wine Society wine club. I had bought this one to drink in December, but we had so much going on in the lead up to Christmas and New Year's Eve, that we didn't have time to drink it. There was no better time than to pop it in the fridge when the inside of the house was 35 degrees!

Tilly's Vineyard is a blend of semillon, sauvignon blanc, pinot gris, riesling and chardonnay, grown in the Adelaide Hills and Eden Valley. As a blend it had a wonderful balance of citrus and acidity with a touch of peach. These flavours made it a perfect match with the salsa, which also had the stone fruit and lime combination. A crisp, dry white complemented the turkey perfectly and went down a treat on a really hot night. I may have added a couple of ice cubes to my glass in an attempt to cool down!

As a good quality quaffer to have on a hot night or take on a picnic, the Henschke Tilly's Vineyard was perfect.