Thursday, August 4, 2011

Eating in and out

Last Friday I left pasta and creamy fish sauce in the fridge for Julio and took off. I struck it doubly lucky - the first night it was my brother-in-law's birthday dinner - fillet steak, mushrooms, mashed potato, broccoli and red pepper, brilliant baked parsnips with walnuts...


...then my other sister (who had just had a birthday) took me out for toothsome Thai, while her husband watched the rugby; and on Monday I went into town early and took myself out for an excellent breakfast. 


Monday night it was back to cooking happily for Julio, who has of course neatly solved my solitary dinner problem for the time being, and greatly enjoys almost everything I give him (not so keen on lamb, though).


The parsnip recipe came from that great New Zealand classic, Digby Law's A Vegetable Cookbook (I have the well-worn original hardback, pulished in 1978, but it was reissued by Hachette in 2007). I've still got some Waikanae walnuts, so I'll be making these soon.




Buttered parsnips with walnuts (Digby Law)

750g parsnips
1/3 cup water
6 spring onions, chopped
salt and pepper
50g butter
1 Tbsp chopped parsley
50g walnut pieces

Heat oven to 180C. Put scraped, sliced parsnips (best cut lengthwise through the core) in an ovenproof dish and add water, spring onions, salt and pepper. Dot with butter. Bake, covered, for 50 minutes or until parsnips are tender. In the meantime, toast the walnuts in a shallow dish in the oven for about 10 minutes.    
Just before serving, stir the parsley into the parsnips and sprinkle them with the toasted walnuts.


1 comment:

dave said...

Great photos, Anne!