Eat Well This Winter
Image from www.abetterchoice.com.au
Winter has finally arrived, and with it, a wonderland of things to enjoy at the Market: bags of hot jam donuts on crisp, sunny mornings, new sartorial choices for fashionistas who love layering, cheaper cuts of meat that are perfect for comfort slow cooking, and a slew of new fruit and vegetables to add to your seasonal shopping list.
Mandarins
In the winter months you’ll find the Market’s fruit and vegetable stalls laden with an almost overwhelming variety of citrus fruit. There’s tangelos, grapefruits and seasonal oranges that you don’t see at other times of the year, like the crimson blood orange, Seville for making marmalade and the sweet Cara Cara (the orange so nice they named it twice!). But the prize for sheer variety goes to the mandarin. The once dominant Imperial has been joined by a family that each bring their own special traits to the fold. Want something especially sweet and juicy? Try a Honey Murcott. Hate seeds and fiddling with small segments? The top-knotted Sumo is the way to go.
Image from A Better Choice
Like its cousin the orange, mandarin pairs well with pork and chicken. Try this Chinese inspired pan fried mandarin chicken or a light yet satisfying mandarin pork salad made with goats cheese from one of our many delis and new season Tasmanian walnuts from the Nutshoppe or indomitable Rita. For the sweet tooth, visit Atypic for some bean-to-bar dark chocolate that will make this salted chocolate mandarin tart extra delicious.
Parsnips
Too often parsnips are relegated to the supporting role in a medley of roast veggies, always outshined by the more popular spud. But with their sweet, earthy and slightly nutty flavour, parsnips deserve their time in the limelight.
Toss together a roast parsnip salad
Balance soft and sweet roasted parsnips with something fresh and green, something acidic, and something with a bit of crunch to make a winter salad that hits all the right notes. Try:
- Roast parsnip + cos lettuce + yoghurt garlic dressing + chopped hazelnuts
- Roast parsnip + roquette + lemon shallot dressing + chopped walnuts
- Roast parsnip + Tuscan kale + red wine vinegar dressing + shards of parmesan
Whip up a parsnip skordalia recipe
Traditionally made with potatoes, parsnip skordalia is a bright, lemony and garlicy side that will add a bit of sunshine to Greek-style chicken Marylands or grilled lamb.
Peel and chop 500g of parsnips into chunks and pop into a pan with 250ml (1 cup) of milk. Bring to the boil and then simmer with the lid off until the parsnips are super soft, about 15 minutes. Let cool slightly and then put the milk and parsnips into a food processor or blender with 1 clove of crushed garlic and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and blend until it becomes smooth. Add the juice of half a lemon and then bit, by bit, mix in 2 tbsp (40ml) of olive oil until it forms a smooth emulsion. Taste and then season with black pepper and more salt if required. Too thick? Add a little more milk. Too thin? Add a palm full of breadcrumbs and re-blend. Serve at room temperature.
Feeling fancy? If you’re serving a crowd and want to impress, double the recipe and slather a large platter with the skordalia. Nestle the cooked lamb or chicken pieces on top, scatter over some chopped herbs like parsley, dill or mint and if you’re feeling really fancy, some chopped roasted almonds or crumbled feta.
Bake an upside-down parsnip tart
This buttery, cumin spiked parsnip tart makes a great vegetarian centrepiece. Served with a simple green salad, it makes a casual yet impressive weekend lunch.
Wombok
Wombok is at its peak during the winter months, and with some growing to almost half a metre in size, it’s the Pesto the penguin of the cabbage world! Luckily our traders offer halves or quarters for those who don’t have the fridge real estate.
Wombok has a fresher, juicier and milder quality than other varieties of cabbage. Raw, use it anywhere you would a usual cabbage: in a slaw, sliced with red onion and coriander to fill fish tacos, as a side for curry katsu don or make this crunchy wombok beef and noodle salad that uses the budget-friendly rump steak.
When simmered in a soup or stew, wombok becomes soft and silky and the gentle sweetness really shines.
Image from A Better Choice
Or find that happy medium and make this quick and adaptable wombok stir fry recipe: Chop a 1/4 of a wombok into bite sizes pieces and 3 spring onions into segments 3-4 cm long. Add 2 tablespoons of oil into a wok and when hot, add the wombok and onions and stir fry for about a minute. Then add the sauce mix of your choice (see below). Mix through, then put a lid on and let the cabbage wilt in the steam for a couple of minutes. Finally, make a slurry of with 1/4 tsp of potato starch and 2 tbsp water. Add to the wombok and mix until it starts to thicken. Serve immediately.
Sauce mix ideas (find the ingredients at Golden Dragon Asian Grocery or the Asian Grocery):
- Chinese: 1 tbsp soy sauce + 2 tsp shoaxing wine + ½ tsp black vinegar
- Thai: 1 tbsp oyster sauce + 1 tsp fish sauce
- Japanese: 1 tbsp soy sauce + 2 tsp mirin + 1 tsp sesame oil
- Korean: 1 tbsp soy sauce + 1 clove crushed garlic + 1 tsp gochujang
Also in season:
Apples, bok choy (and other Asian greens), broccoli, broad beans, brussels sprouts, cabbage, capsicum, carrot, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, cucumbers, cumquats, custard apple, feijoa, fennel, Jerusalem artichoke, kale, kiwifruit, kohlrabi, leek, mushrooms, nashi, okra, onion, oranges, parsnip, pears, persimmon, pineapple, potato, pumpkin, quince, radish, rhubarb, silverbeet, spinach, spring onion, swede, sweet potato, tamarillo, tangelo, turnips