Thursday, April 22, 2010

MATT MORAN - when I get home

Penguin - Lantern  A$49.95

Regular readers of this blog will be aware of my obsession with cook books! On our Easter visit to NSW I bought this title at the wonderful Lesley McKay's Bookshop and have since made a couple of dishes with great success. And there are several more I plan to make soon.
Matt Moran is the co-owner and head chef at ARIA restaurant in Sydney.
The publishers have kindly agreed to let me reproduce the following receipe which I have since made three times to much acclaim from guests.

Iceberg, egg, pea and fetta salad 
This salad is a great combination of salty fetta, sweet hazelnut dressing, fresh mint and the crisp crunch
of chilled iceberg lettuce. An excellent crowd pleaser to serve in the summer.

2 eggs
1 iceberg lettuce
100 g shelled peas
100 g Persian fetta or any other
soft, marinated fetta
¼ bunch mint, leaves picked
1 red onion, fi nely sliced

Hazelnut dressing
3 teaspoons hazelnut oil
3 teaspoons olive oil
3 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

To make the dressing, whisk together the oils and vinegar
and season to taste.
Add the eggs to a saucepan of boiling water and boil for
3½ minutes. Remove the eggs from the pan and run under
cold water to stop the cooking process. When cool, peel
and cut into quarters.
Cut the iceberg into eight wedges and wash under running
water to remove any debris.
Blanch the peas in boiling water for 30 seconds. Drain, then
refresh in iced water to maintain their colour.
Arrange the lettuce on a plate and add the crumbled fetta,
eggs, peas, mint and red onion. Drizzle the hazelnut dressing
over the salad and serve.

Serves 6

Footnote:
I accompanied the salad with grilled tuna cooking it as Matt Moran suggests in another recipe in his book - Preheat the barbecue to its hottest setting or place a chargrill pan over high heat and chargrill the tuna fillets for one minute each side until medium-rare. This proved to be perfect.
Moran does seem a bit mean though with the amount of dressing he suggests. I doubled his suggested quantities. I own a lot of cookbooks but this one is a standout.

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