Pinot, Bretzels, and Cathedrals

Day 16, and the fairies in my head are beginning to lose the plot. Despite the last weeks worth of evening walks in the most golden of gin hours, they (the fairies) have chosen to bemoan the dry papery wind that is howling over the wheat pastures from the beckoning Rhine. I’ve run out of my regular moisturiser, and The Body Shop is closed. Also, no matter how often I rub lotion on my hands, they still feel like that wind.

The same fairies slept restlessly on account at the glaringly empty cereal jars in my cupboard. 2 weeks now, we have been in short supply of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and oats, and if I can’t drive to Germany soon to fill up my stock, how am I going to make my meusli? Honestly dear French-person, would it be so that much of an intrusion in your diet to have a readily available supply of regular sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds? And oats? Screw you and your unending supply of baguettes, banettes, pain compléte, pain raison, etc etc etc. (Also, thank you for your unending supply of the same list). No, the only meusli I will ever eat will be the meusli I make, every month, and quite happily, so I will not be buying meusli.

Then, they (the fairies, again) saw me in my wedding dress, and fell apart at the seams in horror. Not amusement mind you, but pure horror, and it was with only a half-reluctant hand that I opened up a bottle of wine with our dinner last night of mezze and tapas. Leftovers actually. But mezze and tapas reminds me that I live in a restaurant, so let’s call it what it is.

We braai’d on Saturday night, to welcome spring and the imminent clock changing, and we ate on the terrace. (This was far too presumtuous of me thinking it would be our choice of dining space going forward. It was very shortlived after we saw a 10 second flurry of snowflakes Sunday morning).

Anyway, I have a tendency to always over-cater our meals. This is a double-edged sword at the best of times. It’s actually quite nice to be able to tuck into leftovers for a light lunch when I don’t feel like unsettling the balance of paraphenalia in the dishwasher. However, the con of having too much food on the table, is that there’s always ‘seconds’, and let me say, that despite those godforsaken fairies that are having full-on brawls in my head, I actually do enjoy my cooking,

Last nights menu looked like this:

• Baguette crutons (oven baked, with a drizzle of olive oil)
• Hummus
• Potato salad
• Braai’d beef koftas
• Sliced tomato
• Olives
• (tinned) Dolmades
• Braai’d vegetables

Let’s not forget the brocolli and cauliflower au gratin for Beth. I’ve not included it in my tapas list, because let’s be honest, it isn’t. However, after making a large dish of it last week, and having had to box with my Drama to get her to eat it then, she’s subsequently asked for it every meal since. Can you see my eyes rolling waaay back into my forehead?

Now here I am, staring longingly into my fridge for lunch, and do you know what I am craving more than anything? Braai’d vegetable salad. It’s one of my favourite salads that takes way too long to whip up, but it’s worth the effort if you can spare the time. Me and my fairies feel like sharing it with you, because I’m hoping that sharing is caring and this will make me get over myself.

• 1 large aubergine (brinjal/egg plant), peeled, sliced crossways into 12-15mm coins. Place these into a colander, sprinkle a generous amount of salt over them, and leave them for more than 30 minutes.
• 2 large courgettes (zucchini/ marrow) cut into diagonal coins (does this make sense? Straight up will be too small, but you don’t want to use the entire length of the courgette, so slice them into coins at a long diagonal??)
• 2 large red peppers. Cut off the top and bottom, remove the inside seeds, and cut each pepper into roughly 3 pieces.
• 1 red onion, peeled, leave the root on, and cut into 8 segments. (the root should hold the segments together)
• 100 ml olive and sunflower oil
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 4 sticks thyme, stripped
• Salt
• Coarse black pepper

The step to degorge the aubergine is really important. By leaving it to soak up salt for more than 30 minutes, you remove the bitterness. Once you can see water droplets form around the aubergine, you can wash the salt off. Now add all the above into a big bowl to coat the vegetables in oil, garlic and thyme.

The next step is the time-consuming part. Usually I work out of my kitchen with my cast-iron steak pan. Before you start cooking, you will need to make a salad dressing with:

50ml Olive oil

50ml Balsamic vinegar

More salt and coarse black pepper

Place all the above into a deep serving bowl.

Next: Each piece needs to be individually grilled, hence it’s time consuming passion. Try a medium-high heat, make sure your pan is hot enough, and place enough vegetables on the base of the pan that fills the space. Grill one side, until it’s golden brown in colour, turn it over and cook the other side. You can (erm, should) allow the red pepper to become charred and ‘burnt’. Once they are cooked through, remove them from the pan. Place onto a cutting board. Continue with the next lot of raw in the frying pan. Once you have filled the pan with raw veggies, you can cut up the cooked veg into quarters, or halves depending on their size. The red peppers can be cut roughly into triangles. After they have been cut, put them into the serving bowl of balsamic vinaigrette. Continue in this manner until all the vegetables are cooked. Toss the vegetables through the vinaigrette as you go.

If your braai partner loves you like mine does, he can offer to braai these vegetables over the coals, although it may require an accessory with which to prevent the vegetables from falling through the grill into the coals.

You can serve this as it stands now, even if it hasn’t been refrigerated or cooled down. Alternately, you can use it as a sandwich filler- although a good French loaf, or a ciabatta will be best. Last year we were on a road trip, and stuffed this salad between doorstop sized wedges of ciabatta bread, and wrapped them up for hours. When we stopped to eat them, the juice had soaked into the bread and made it particularly delicious. (Although, there’s a possibility the slices of braai’d duck breast made it even more awesome.)

If you are so inclined to stretch this into ‘next level’ incredible, you can pick fresh basil leaves and tear them over the dish, along with torn mozzarella, depitted olives and sundried tomatoes. Also, it keeps in the fridge for a week, so the effort you put in keeps rewarding you.

If this recipe appeals to you, I am adding it in here with a printable word document :

And on that note, I am going to bid you adieu. I cycled down to La Rob this morning and found oats, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds at the organic shop so I am happy to say that the fairies have been banished for the time being.

I have had a craving for apple beignets smothered in maple syrup and cinnamon for 4 days now, so maybe my next letter will be something sweet and unhealthy 😉

Thanks, as always, for your time. I do hope that you are doing well, and your own fairies aere towing the line.

Best wishes, from a still cold Strasbourg.

Love,

Me

xxx