Roast Pumpkin, Spinach & Feta Salad

I love salads that are a little bit different from the run of the mill garden salad.  Whenever I eat at the cafe below my sisters office, I'm always in awe of the sheer multitude of salads on offer, and how appetizing some of them look - even though I know that some of them are not healthy eating choices, despite being 'salads'.

One of my besties had a bbq last night, and Hubby and I simply couldn't bear the idea of showing up empty handed.  So she kindly shelved one of her salad ideas, and let me bring one instead.

After reading up on some recipes on our favourite www.taste.com.au, Hubby and I opted for our own version of a pumpkin, spinach and feta salad.

We started out by cutting up just over a kilo of butternut pumpkin.  We lightly coated the pumpkin in hot oil, salt, pepper and fresh rosemary, popped some garlic cloves in the oven tray and the whole lot went into the oven for half an hour.  

At that point, we took the trays out of the oven, drizzled the lot in balsamic vinegar and lemon juice and then put it all back in the oven, whacked up the temperature and let it finish off for about two and a half minutes.  Unfortunately, I clearly don't have suitable drizzling skills and the pumpkin really ended up doused in the vinegar.... but what can you do.  Sure smelled AMAZING in the oven....

 In the meantime, I rinsed off a can of chickpeas, grabbed about 150g of baby spinach and toasted enough pine nuts to cover the bottom of a small fry pan.  When the pumpkin came out of the oven, the balsamic vinegar had kind of caramalised over the top of it, and it took an IMMENSE amount of willpower not to just eat it all straight off the tray (it smelled and tasted that good).

I took the pumpkin pieces off the trays, and put them on a rack so the excess oil would drain off them while I finished preparing the spinach and pine nuts.  Then I put about 1/4 of the pumpkin in a bowl, 1/2 of the spinach, then 1/4 of the pumpkin, the rest of the spinach and then added the pine nuts and chickpeas.  The reason for separating everything up, was to let the spinach wilt a little bit with the heat of the pumpkin.  I let it sit for a few minutes, than gave everything a gentle toss to mix everything together.

Hubby made the dressing for the salad - more balsamic vinegar, the juice from 1/2 a lemon and some salt and pepper.

Just before serving, I diced up a big piece of feta and added it in, then drizzled the dressing over it.  This salad really cannot have been easier to throw together.  All it needed was the time it took to cut up and roast the pumpkin, and let's face it - you don't have to stand over the top of it while it roasts.

My final word?  Proof of the pudding was in the eating.  There wasn't a scrap left by the end of dinner.


 

Creme Caramel

Hubby and I have a shameful secret.  We've become addicted to My Kitchen Rules, and the pop up restaurants each pair of contestants have been creating.  On Thursday night I asked Hubby what WE would do, if we were contestants.  Thus began a very long conversation between the two of us, covering dishes from goulash, to pasta, to steak tartare and many things inbetween.  In the end, Hubby decided that he would want to do three courses of steak tartare for entree, duck confit for main with dauphinoise potatoes and creme caramel for dessert.

The next morning, Hubby remembered that my Sis was going to spend Saturday night with us, and suggested we actually undertake the menu, just for kicks.

So we did.

 
I left Hubby to deal with the steak.  And because Sis and I were at a Matisse exhibit all day, he ended up tackling the duck too, although he changed tack from dauphinoise potatoes and roasted them in duck fat as well.... a change we highly commended.  And he couldn't get hold of a whole duck, so he ended up with four duck breasts instead.

But when we got home, tired, weary, and with some ciders to share, Sis and I hit the kitchen for some creme caramel assembly.  We used a recipe from Francoise Bernard's 'La Cuisine: Every Day French Cooking', which Hubby had given me on our first wedding anniversary.

First off, we tackled our caramel - something Sis and I had never tried before.  But it seemed straight-forward enough - add sugar to water, and simmer in a saucepan until all the sugar is dissolved and it goes a medium amber colour.

At the same time, we started making a custard (also something neither Sis and I had tried before - Hubby always tackles that).  We heated 100g of caster sugar and a tablespoon of vanilla sugar in 500ml of milk until it came to a bare simmer (it had JUST started to simmer). 

 Then it was a case of carefully pouring the hot milk mixture into a bowl with three lightly beaten eggs.  While pouring, you have to whisk the eggs like mad, to stop the hot milk curdling them.  The end result is a light, frothy, vanilla custard.  Perfect.

That sat in it's jug for a few more minutes while we waited for the caramel to finish, then I carefully poured caramel into the bottom of four ramekins, and swirled it around to cover the whole thing.

Once the caramel was in, we filled the ramekins up with the custard mixture, then popped it in the oven for 35 minutes.  

 They came out and cooled down on the bench for a few minutes before being popped into the fridge to cool down until the end of our extravagant meal (I couldn't help myself - here are the piccies of Hubby's entree and main).

 When we got to dessert, the ramekins came out of the fridge and Hubby pondered dubiously over how we would actually get the creme caramels out of the ramekins without making a mess. 

 I smiled at him, ran a knife around the inside of the first ramekin, put a plate over the top and quickly turned it over.  A few sharp taps on the bottom of the ramekin as I lifted it away and VOILA!!  Creme caramel success!

The texture and flavour of the custard was perfect - it had set just the way it's supposed to.  The caramel was definitely overcooked - it had a burnt caramel flavour that wasn't unpleasant, but was definitely a beginners error.  All three of us were astounded at how well it all worked.  La Cuisine really IS every day cooking.