Cranston Michele - A simple table: fresh and fabulous recipes for every day

Contents

A simple table

This book started its life as a title or, to be more precise, an image of a plain white table with a bowl of beautiful foodfood that was simple and pared back but still bursting with colour and flavour.

Once I had this image and the title of the book in my head, I started thinking about favourite foods. These foods werent necessarily comforting in style, like a soup or Mums favourite stew, but comforting in the sense that these are the flavours we all return to time and time again in the kitchenthings such as caramelised onions, freshly chopped parsley, tomatoes and olives or that just-squeezed lemon or lime.

I asked myself what makes a certain recipe a family favourite and why do some of the old classics just keep working for every generation? All of us, no matter how accomplished we are in the kitchen, will often find ourselves on a Wednesday night enjoying the same dish that we quite possibly had the previous week, like a roast chicken, a tuna pasta or a herby cheese omelette. They are our culinary default settings that we keep returning to because we know them, we like them and we feel comfortable with them. These are the kind of recipes I wanted in this book.

This isnt a book about clever foodtheres no culinary gymnastics to delight a restaurant patron, theres no sous vide or liquid nitrogen party tricks and no mention of the word dietits about food to come home to or share with family and friends. Its also a book that is, in many ways, a response to the various conversations that Ive had in the schoolyard over the years, while waiting with the other parents for the home-time bell to ring. Its the answer to all those questions: What should I make for dinner?, What should I cook for friends on the weekend?, Whats easy? and How do you cook quinoa?.

And so, the book formed itself into chapters of recipes that were all about how we eat and who we are eating withfood for gatherings, food for families and comfort food for lazy nights in front of the TV.

Two bowls is a chapter about the meals you make when you are home alone or just cooking for two. Its also the chapter for parents who want something a little more interesting for dinner while the kids are happy with a quick-fix pizza or pasta.

Four plates is all about family food, whether its shared plates of corn fritters, schnitzels or baked snapper, or simple midweek roasts that will keep everyone happy.

One pot celebrates the idea of cooking everything together in one simple dish, and features warming, comfort food like meaty stews and flavoursome curries.

Weekend platters are the meals we cook for family and friends on weekends when there is more time to cook and more people gathered around the table.

On the side is a collection of favourite side dishes, which can be served as part of a weekend feast or to accompany a simple midweek barbecue, or to accompany many of the main meals in this book.

Pretty spoons is a chapter of simple, creamy desserts that combine indulgence and flirty fruitiness in one slightly sinful spoonful.

And lastly,

Teacups and cake plates is a chapter devoted to the simple joy of afternoon tea and home-baked cakes.

Whether we are enjoying a quick bowl of pasta with a friend or sharing a large weekend roast with the family, the very act of eating is a communal experience that is accompanied by the rattle of pots and pans, the clatter of plates and the jangle of cutlery, and its that simple, everyday experience that this book celebrates. And so I hope that a few more family favourites will be added to your cooking repertoire and that this book will become a dog-eared companion to those family meals and occasional celebratory feasts that punctuate our daily lives.

two bowls

The pomegranate brings a lovely tartness to this salad, and balances the richness of the fried fish.

Pan-fried whiting with pomegranate salad

Everyone seems to have a preferred method of removing the arils, or fleshy red seeds, from pomegranates, but I think this method is the easiest and most fun. Slice the pomegranate in half and place both halves in a large snaplock bag. Give the pomegranate halves a squeeze to loosen the arils, then seal the bag. Using a wooden spoon, give the rounded skin of the pomegranate several firm smacksthis should dislodge the arils. If not, give the rounds a firmer squeeze and then repeat the process. Pour the juice and arils into a bowl and remove any of the white pith.

35 g (1 oz/ cup) plain (all-purpose) flour

50 g (1 oz/ cup) instant polenta

teaspoon sumac

teaspoon ground white pepper

300 g (10 oz) whiting fillets

2 zucchini (courgettes), finely diced

2 Lebanese (short) cucumbers, finely diced

1 celery stalk, diced

20 g ( oz/1 cup) flat-leaf (Italian) parsley leaves

90 g (3 oz/ cup) pomegranate arils

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

60 g (2 oz) butter

lemon wedges, to serve

Put the flour in a large snaplock bag with the polenta, sumac and white pepper and season with sea salt. Seal and shake to combine. Open the bag and add the whiting fillets. Seal the bag again and shake gently to coat the fish in the seasoned flour.

Put the zucchini, cucumber, celery, parsley and pomegranate arils in a bowl. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and drizzle with the olive oil.

Heat the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat and fry the whiting fillets for 23 minutes on each side, or until golden and the thickest part of the fillet is cooked through.

Divide the zucchini and pomegranate salad between two pasta bowls and top with the fried whiting. Serve with the lemon wedges.

SERVES 2

Poached chicken and mango salad

The onion adds a lovely richness and texture to this dish, so make sure you are patient and cook it to the sweet, almost-burnt caramel stage. If you do, the flavour will work beautifully with the mango and lime.

This is a great salad if youre looking for something to make with left-over roast chicken; otherwise, poach a chicken breast fillet using the method on .

60 ml (2 fl oz/ cup) extra virgin olive oil

1 red chilli, seeded and finely chopped

1 red onion, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon tamarind puree

2 teaspoons grated palm sugar (jaggery) or light brown sugar