Lex Culinaria

CBBP#2 The season's bounty

Thanks to Jasmine at Cardamom Addict for hosting the second edition of Canadian Blogging by Post. And that's very much to Ruth at Once Upon a Feast for my sweet surprise package with a couple of interesting curry blends, the very nifty veg peeler that I was coveting only a few weeks ago in a local kitchenwares store, a gorgeous dark date and nut loaf, which was quickly gobbled up, some equally quickly devoured honey stix (they are great for stirring into tea) and some really nice dark chocolate that made a gorgeous pot of hot chocolate to go with the loaf, and to round it out, a couple great recipes to try.

Now I just hope Canada Post has managed to finally deliver the package I sent....

Canadian Blogging By Post: The Season's Bounty

It's been a pretty long time since I had enough time on my hands (and sufficient foresight!) to take part in one of the many great food blogging events. I'm glad I managed to find the time for this one. The blogging-by-post events are so neat, because they connect bloggers on a real, physical level in addition to the usual virtual connection. If you're not familiar with the blogging-by-post genre of events, the process is simple but delightful. A group of food bloggers, in this case Canadian food bloggers, all blog about a particular food theme on the appointed day - usually including a post with a recipe. This time 'round, the theme is "the season's bounty". After posting, the host of the event matches bloggers up and each blogger puts together a little care package on the same theme and posts it to another blogger on the list, so everyone gets a little treat. I love treats! Thanks to Cardamom Addict for hosting this round of Canadian Blogging By Post.

To be sure, Autumn is a bountiful season. There are so many lovely, fresh things to harvest and prepare. I feel a bit guilty as my "season's bounty" choice - olives- are not locally grown. They really do epitomise the season for me. I can't wait for the first crates to arrive in the Italian Centre Shop. Perfectly oval and green, with little blushing cheeks and the odd silvery leaf still attached to the stem. Olives are in season from September to mid-November and brining your own olives really is a labour of love. There's something about the lengthy process that feels very much like I'm preparing for winter, kind of like the ants rather than the grasshopper. I feel domestically virtuous.

Olivea are brined because they are so alkaline and bitter when fresh, they are absolutely inedible. The brining process decresases the bitterness to the tolerable level that olive-eaters enjoy. I use a simple brining recipe, like many others that are available online (or from a friend's Greek or Italian grandma). Once they are sufficiently brined -  a process that can take 6 to 8 weeks and as many changes of brine solution, I pack them into jars with sprigs of rosemary, thyme, lemon basil and garlic cloves, lemon rind, hot peppers...all sorts of things really.

If you're not into brining the olives yourself, or you don't have access to fresh olives, pick up a large quantity of plain brined, large, good quality green (or black) olives and make your own flavoured olives using the same recipe I use. Here's my favourite recipe for herb marinated green olives:

• 1 litre (4 cups) brine cured green olives
• 375 ml (3/4 cup) good quality extra virgin olive oil
• 250 ml (1/2 cup) lemon juice
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
• 1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper

In a large (1 litre) glass jar, combine all the ingredients well and cover the jar. Refrigerate, stirring occasionally. Let come to room temperature before serving. These will keep in the fridge indefinitely, but please allow them a minimum of one week to properly marinate before using.

If you'd like, you can substitue thyme or rosemary for the oregano.

An extra specail serving time for marinate olives is to heat them gently before serving so that they are warm. Yum. Now preapre to bunk in for the winter by curling up on the sofa with a good book, some soft Turkish bread and some tasty warm olives.

Mr. Fitzroy has picked a winner!

...and it's Kat On Thyme. What other choice could he possibly make. I mean, her name is Kat.

He clearly has his mother's palate as well. The triple sec and vanilla brined pork sounds right up my ally. Congrats to Kat!

The Summer Barbque Challenge Round-up

We all know what a huge proponent I am of the importance of sharing great meals with friends and family. The sort of meal I enjoy sharing most often happens out of doors, on a sunny weekend afternoon and doesn’t generally involve heating up the kitchen or folding napkins into perfect thirds.

Though I’ve had both near and total disasters in the kitchen preparing for regular dinner parties, I’ve never had the experience with a BBQ. There’s something magical about the ease and joviality that go hand in hand with the BBQ. No one’s worrying about the right fork and it’s totally acceptable to be so enamoured of what you’re eating that you end up with sauce on your chin. I guess that’s why I love barbeques so much… they really are the essence of what a shared meal should be -  enjoyment of great food, and lively company (especially when there’s good beer and wine!) - without the fussiness and formality that sometimes comes packaged up with more formal meals.

My most vivid childhood memories of eating a complete meal (as opposed to a particular food item or the preparation of food) are of summer suppers eaten outside with my parents and sister on the patio of the house I grew up in. We had a patio table with an umbrella that had a very hip (for the late 70s) brown and blue stripe on it. That was at the time long before patio furniture became plastic. Our table was a shiny powder-coated white metal. The meals were never really fancy – salad from the garden, baked potatoes – maybe done in foil with sliced onions, butter and a touch of honey – and steaks from the barbeque. I loved those meals. Heat would kick me under the table, or torture me by obliquely revealing to my parents some secret I’d confided earlier and which I was mortified to hear her repeat. After supper, we’d get Popsicles from the freezer. Those meals were lively and happy and exciting in a way that meals eaten inside never quite were.

Maybe it’s because the winters here can seem so long, but I really feel like I have in the past been much more adventurous with my indoor cookery than the outdoor variety. I felt stuck in a BBQ rut really, serving the same old standbys time after time. I swore to myself that this year would be different – I’d cook outside more, and I’d cook better and more adventurous things. So I issued the Summer Barbeque Challenge. I thought it would be a great resource to have a little online cache of great outdoor recipes to inspire our shared backyard meals all summer. So here we are…

The Summer BBQ Challenge has certainly turned out to be an international event with recipes from all corners of the globe all of which are amazing alternatives to the same-old-same-old that happens all too often around my own barbeque. After some initial confusion over what in fact I meant by “barbeque” the entries rolled in. 

Stephanie, my favourite Happy Sorceress brings us a tasty looking Lamb & Persian Rice Kibbeh and in doing so has unwittingly created for the barbeque one of my favourite Middle Eastern Dishes. Funny, without her, I’d never have thought of doing kibbeh on the barbeque. Thanks Stephanie!

McAuliflower of Brownie Points brought a tasty treat for vegetarians and meat lovers alike! Her Teriayki Grilled Tempeh that looks amazing. She did hers in a grill pan, but I reckon it’s going to get a workout on my wood fire pit grill this summer. This is one recipe that's stood the test of time...McAuliflower's brought this with her from her college days!

Helen of Beyond Salmon brought us two fantastic entries. First she provided great instructions on how to properly grill fish. I for one, have never really attempted to grill fish before because I was always worried about temperature control and the possibility of the fish sticking to the grill or breaking up and disappearing into the flames! With Helen’s great step-by-step instructions, I think I can finally conquer my fear.

Helen also made a great salad, with grilled ingredients. I don’t have much to say about Helen’s Grilled Asparagus, Tomato and Feta Salad, because I’m too busy drooling. I love grilled asparagus. I love tomatoes. I love feta. Yum.

Sandra of Un Tocco Di Zenzaro gave us the only non-English entry. Sandra, who lives in Turin, Italy made some chicken skewers that sound wonderfully yummy, no matter what the language! Her chicken skewers recipe – done both in Spanish and in Italian, would make a great addition to any summer barbeque.

Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once is from my very favourite city in the whole wide, wide world: Melbourne. When we lived in Melbourne, Cakes and I would barbeque our supper at least 5 nights out of 7 over the summer. I can remember some Saturdays when we’d barbeque both our lunch and our supper!  Getting away from the focus on the meat is Haalo’s potato skewers recipe, which is a fab alternative to plain potatoes in foil. I could practically smell the garlic and roast potato smell looking at that photo!

Kat of Kat on Thyme made an extremely adventurous Triple Sec and Vanilla Brined Pork Tenderloin with a Rhubarb Fruit Compote spanning two posts. This is definitely on my to-try list as I’ve become a great fan of brining meat ever since reading Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking. Plus, I’ve got some nice fresh rhubarb sitting on the counter……

Zorra of 1 x umruehren bitte also stepped away from the meats! The one Barbeque meal food that I almost always end up buying is the bread. That will probably change now that I’ve seen how soft and yummy looking Zorra’s home made pita bread looks. I can just imagine wrapping up a nice hot browned bit of lamb or sausage straight off the grill in one of those pitas.

Gabriella True of My Life as a Reluctant Housewife brings us the only desert entry with her amazing-looking grilled pineapple with caramel sauce. Yum. I really would like to experiment more with grilled sweet foods and this looks like a great place to start!

Craig’s & Lois Notes from the Cape sent in a fantastic recipe for melted camembert on a baguette. I can’t even bear to look at the picture because I am afraid the drool might short out my keyboard and then where would we be? No roundup. I think I’d probably be tempted to also grill the baguette too, but that’s just me and my new barbeque motto - no food should be left ungrilled! Seriously. Melted cheese? Too good.

Everyone need as good Barbeque sauce recipe or two in their repertoire. I’m glad I can add Dave’s world famous BBQ basting sauce from Robert at White Trash BBQ to mine. I find the selection of sauces at the store most perplexing. I get tired just contemplating reading the labels on 200 different sauce bottles to find one that I like. I’d much rather just make my own. I’m gonna put this one together with Helen’s fish-grilling instructions…

Intrepid Torontonian Ruth, of Once Upon a Feast, came up with a whole barbeque meal menu including grilled asparagus, cedar plank salmon, quinoa tabouleh, chickpea & couscous salad and blueberry mint granita. Wow. Now I have one whole barbeque party planned out and I’m not even tired! Those granitas sound great, and I’ve always wanted to do cedar planked salmon……

Kevin of Seriously Good is clearly making this his sausage year as well. In that vein he made us some super tasty looking Romanian sausage called Mititei, which I imagine is Romanian for “seriously good-looking sausages”. They’re user friendly too. You don’t need a sausage stuffer for these babies, as they are skinless.

My favourite Edmonton author/shopping enthusiast and all-round blog-girl, Jena of Naked Bootleg, added to the international flavour of the challenge by producing Korean barbequed chicken and beef with loads of garlic. She complements this with home made Sunomono, which is an absolute favourite of mine – I’ve never even though about making it myself before, but now that Jena’s brought this recipe to my attention, you can bet I will!

Blogless Erica sent us two really tasty entries from her online cookbook (why don’t I have one of these?). Her Sweet & Sour Broccoli Coleslaw looks like a great twist on an old barbeque favourite and the amazing sounding  Wheatberry & Roasted Beet Salad is right up my alley – I love roasted beets in a salad!

My favourite Southerner, William of Never Trust a Skinny Chef, throws it back in Rachel Ray’s face with a five-hour smoked chicken chilli. Could Rachel even stand to do a dish that took more than 30 mintues? We’re guessing not. After all, she’s probably too skinny to stand and cook for that long. She'd probably feel all faint and have to lie down. William smoked his own chicken folks. That’s dedication.

Robert from Al Forno wades into the backyard cooking fray with a great post on the history of barbeque sauces and the regional sauces of the American barbeque belt.  He serves up a great recipe for an old fashioned all-American barbeque technique that sounds amazing and which will certainly find a place in my repertoire.

And lastly, my own entry… Grilled Char Sui Beef Bundles

Fitzroy will be making his selection of the winner of the Summer BBQ Challenge later in the week when his mum manages to buy a new printer cartridge! Also, he's feeling a little out of sorts owing to the fact that he recently ate a bee. This necessitated a terrifying trip to the vet (actually, probably more terrifying for me and Cakes than for poor old Fitzy). I'd like to make sure he's in top form before setting him to such a difficult task!

Don't forget about the Summer BBQ Challenge!!!

There's a little less than a week left to get your entries in for the Summer BBQ Challenge, so get cooking and writing!

As an added bonus, my cat, Fitzroy, will be selecting a random winner* from amongst the entries. The contributor of the recipe he chooses will recieve this nifty prize pictured above - a copy of local Alberta cookbook legend Jean Pare's Most Loved Barbequeing and a packet of oak wine barrel staves for use on your grill.

*Method of selection: I'll print out all the recipes and place them on the floor in a circle. Fitzy will be deposited in the middle and the recipe he likes enough to lick or sniff wins the prize!

IMBB 25: Italian Bread Salad

I love the tomatoes at the Strathcona Farmer's Market. We buy probably 3 pounds every weekend from April to September. They look so nice and taste so fresh, I have such trouble resisting. What better to complement these gorgeous fresh tomatoes, than some tender, fresh basil, also from the Farmer's Market?

It is precisely because I love these tomatoes (and the basil is SO fantastic looking right now) that decided to make the Pappa Al Pomodoro - a Tuscan cooked tomato and bread soup for the "stale bread" edition of IMBB. I'd been contemplating making it since I received a copy of the Silver Spoon for Christmas, so we went off this morning to buy some of those gorgeous tomatoes and basil. When I got them home, I couldn't bear the thought of cooking them - I much prefer the tart flavour of these perfect fresh tomatoes to cooked. Besides, I bought gorgeous yellow, orange and red ones and cooking them would have blended their beautiful bright colours beyond recognition.

So I ended up using the ingredients one would usually use for Pappa Al Pomodoro to make a salad instead. Of course I added a couple of special touches, which I think worked pretty darn well. I had to stop Cakes licking the bowl. I can see this becoming a favourite in our house. It's light and tangy and refreshing. The fried ciabatta soaks up the gorgeous tomato juices without getting mushy or falling apart, lending it a meatier texture than most Panzanellas. This makes a great lunch all on its own. It'd be great for company because you can make it in advance and just let it marinate away for a few hours. It would also make an excellent starter for a meal of roasted or grilled beef.

Because this isn't really a Panzanella or a Pappa Al Pomodoro, I don't really know what to call it, other than ...

Lex's really good Italian bread and tomato salad

Serves 4 as a light main

80 ml (1/3 cup) good quality olive oil

3 large cloves garlic minced

300 grams day-old ciabatta, sliced into large cubes (I used 1 + 1/2 individual sized ciabattas from the Italian Centre Shop)

650 -700 grams (1 + 1/2 pounds) ripe red, orange and yellow tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or other good quality grey sea salt

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

juice of 1/2 lemon (about 50 ml)

1 teaspoon minced lemon rind

3/4 loosely-packed cup fresh basil

30 grams parmigianno reggiano, shaved

In a large stir-fry pan, heat the oil over medium - low heat. Toss in 2/3 of the garlic and slowly cook in the oil until golden. With a slotted spoon, transfer the golden garlic to a large mixing bowl. Increase the heat under the oil to just shy of high. When the oil is quit hot but not smoking, add the bread. Turn the heat down to medium-high and stir-fry the bread until it is well browned and the oil has been absorbed, about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop the tomatoes coarsely and add to the bowl with the cooked garlic. Add the remaining fresh garlic, salt, pepper, lemon juice and rind. Stir the mixture gently to encourage the salt to draw juice from the tomatoes. When the bread is nicely browned, stir it through as well. Allow it to marinate for 30 minutes to several hours. 10 minuted before serving, chop the basil up very roughly and stir it through. Stir through all but a few (reserved for garnish) of the Parmesan shavings.

Spoon into 4 low soup plates and top with reserved Parmesan shavings.

Summer Barbecue Challenge

...a one-off food blog event to inspire great outdoor cookery all summer long!

I really enjoy trying something new and interesting when I'm cooking. I love a challenge. Despite this I somehow manage to keep coming back to the same old standby foods when we do a barbeque: sausages, steak, potato salad, corn on the cob. I rarely venture beyond this.  I always think I'll do something different, but then I just don't seem to have any ideas.

Now that summer's truly around the corner (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere) the challenge of what to have with the barbeque is upon us again. This year not a one of us will fall be forced to fall back on the same old cliche barbeque dishes again.

...If you're like me, stuck in barbeque rut, step outside your comfort zone and come up with one interesting barbeque dish.

...If you don't seem to have any problem moving beyond the potato-salad-and-corn-motif, share your wisdom with us.

Here's the deal for this one-off food blog event:

1) between now and May 13, 2006 cook and write a post about a barbeque dish that you think is special;

2) email me the permalink to your post, your name and your blog's name on or before May 13th;

3) I'll post a roundup over the weekend;

and here's the BEST part:

4) we'll all have a virtual recipe book of fantastic barbeque dishes to inspire our backyard and campground cooking all summer long!

Sign up. Join in. Chow down.

EOTMEOTE #15 Film Noir Edition- Timballe of grits and cheese, with poached egg centre

..."Take that, you bully!"

"Oeuf!!!....now why'd ya have ta go and do that Mrs. Florentine?, all I said was you'd better be careful you don't go finding something out that you didn't really want to know. I thought you trusted me?"

"Awww, Mr. Benedict. I know you had something to do with it. Or you know someone who does. Either way, you're guilty as hell and I intend to see that you pay."

"That's an awful big fuss over a simple breakfast lady. What if things don't turn out the way you thought?"

"Well, Mr. Benedict, that's a risk a girls's gotta take once in a while. Now hand me that knife!"

"Mrs. Florentine! Stop! Please don't do this!"

"Oh...It's just a poached egg in the middle."

"I told you you'd be disappointed darlin."

That's it for the very brief film noir portion of this months EotMeoTE entry. As you can see, work's run me ragged and my brain just can't cope with any sort of task requiring thought. Forgive me my feeble effort.

The breakfast was good though.

Cakes and I eat poached eggs on cheesy grits for an awful lot of our weekend breakfasts. I'd have to say it's probably our favourite easy, Saturday breakfast food. We love it enough that variations on it have appeared on Lex Culinaria at least two times.

This weekend, hot off last week's runaway popular beehive pasta timballe, I decided to try a smaller version for breakfast, using grits. It turned out brilliantly, other than the fact that I think I cooked it a touch too long so the yolk was not as runny as I would have liked.

This entry is also special as it is the first time in a long long time that my weekend breakfast-making schedule has coincided with the end of the month and therefore I have a post for the End of the Month Eggs on Toast Extravaganza. EotMEoTE is the only (cooking) meme I know of that started out as a piss-take of memes. I invoke the longstanding EotMEoTE rule that any carbohydrate, in this case grits, can stand in for the "toast".

This use of grits makes a really nice presentation, certainly different from our standard Saturday pile'o'grits topped with cheese and spinach and a poached egg. I love the idea of cutting into the timablle and seeing the soft yolk ooze out. Like I said, I cooked mine a little too long though, so you might want to be a bit more vigilant in checking on yours for doneness by prodding the top gently with your finger to check for "give". You could also add all sorts of good stuff eityher to the cavity with the egg or mixed right in with the grits - chopped crispy bacon, spinach, sauteed mushrooms, chopped ham, onions.....

If you had pre-cooked the grits the nigh before, or if you has leftovers, this would be a snap to make for a special brunch or breakfast.

Breakfast timballe of grits and cheese, with poached egg centre

Serves 2

• 1 + 1/4 cup cooked coarse grits, cooled
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon carse ground pepper
• 1/2 cup asiago (or other strong hard cheese)
• 2 small eggs
• butter
• chives, crumbled bacon, more cheese, whatever you want to add...

Butter the inside of two oven proof glass or ceramic dishes (each about 350-400 ml). Mix salt, pepper and cheese into grits. Divde grits into thirds. Press 1/3 into each greased dish, to cover bottom and sides. leave 1/2 inch (1cm) room at the top of the sides. Crack one whole egg into each grit-lined cavity. Top with chives, crumbled bacon, more cheese, whatever you want.  Divide remaining grits in half.  Roll each half into a ball and use a damp rolling pin or your hands to flatten the ball into a circle that will cover the top of the egg and grits in the dish. Top each dish with a round of grits. Press gently aroung the egdes to seal. Bake dishes in a 350F oven for 15-20 minutes. After about ten minutes start checking every few minutes to see if the egs are set. Remove them from the oven when set.

Run a knife around the inside of the dish to loosen and then invert onto plate.

Retro Blog Party: a very special, very retro treat for you!

I love a good Blog Party and I promised Stephanie I'd bring something special tonight making use of the thoughtful Christmas present of Spam I received from my Sister and her fiance. How could I resist a special request from the Blog Party hostess herself?  If you're not familiar with Blog Party, click here for more details about this event and how it started. It's all a good bit of fun. And Stephanie is a most charming and gracious hostess.

I used the Blog Party opportunity to peruse my recently acquired version of Retro Food Fiascos. I wondered what to make: Spam and carrot jellied salad? Not exactly finger food. Roast spam loaf with cloves? Naw. More of a main dish. Vienna sausages in blankets...we're getting closer, but it doesn't call for Spam.

Then it hit me while in the car on the way home tonight... to the tune of Hava Nagila.... Spam-a-kopita, Spam-a-kopita, Spam-a-kopita.....

Okay, you get the drift. I'd best shut up before everyone who reads this descend into my own very special hell involving not being able to stop humming that tune!

Basically, It's just like spanakopita but with Spam, pineapple and cheddar cheese replacing the traditional feta spinach filling. They're not bad considering they're made with Spam. And how much more retro can you get than Spam and Pineapple? Not much, I tell you.

Although I wanted more than anything to continue the Spam theme by making the Spamshake (Spam, anchovies, tomato juice...I think I need to lie down a minute...I feel slightly woozy...) gracing the pages of Retro Food Fiascos, I'd used up all my Spam on the on the Spamakopitas.

I did, however, manage a retro drink that ties beautifully into the festive tropical party pineapple theme by making the most retro cocktail of them all - the Mai Tai. Can you say "Aloha?"

I used this recipe from Epicurious and I've got to say, they are quite yummy.

I hope Stephanie likes the Spamakopitas and Mai Tais. And I hope she doesn't mind all the fillo pastry crumbs on her floor!

Luckily, tomorrow night is Cakes' geek night with the BioWare boys and I'm sure they'll be thankful for the unscheduled gift of two dozen Spamakopita leftover from the Blog Party cleverly disguised as Orc-meat turnovers!

Paper Chef 14: Roasted baby beet, labanya and quinoa salad

Yay Paper Chef! You've done it once again. You've caused me to step outside my comfort zone and try something new, which (I am very happy to say) was a resounding success. Quinoa will henceforth be a new staple in our house.

For those of you who have no idea what Paper Chef is all about, let me explain very briefly. Owen Linderholm, of Tomatilla, thought it would be a great idea to do a blog-based version of (sort of) Iron Chef.  Once a month, on a Friday, Owen draws four random ingredients out of his magic chef's hat. The food blogging community then has until noon on Monday to come up with their own interpretation of the ingredients. Sometimes the ingredients are pretty easy to make into something. Other times they are a bit more challenging. What never fails to amaze me though, is the very different concoctions Paper Chef participants come up with. You'll never see the same thing twice, and you'll certainly see a whole lot of things that astound you. You'll also likely think, "why didn't I think of that?"

The thing I like most about Paper chef is that it makes me try new ingredients, or new ways of thinking about familiar ingredients, that I wouldn't otherwise try. I think the once monthly kick in the pants to trey something new makes me a better cook.

This month Paper Chef is being hosted by Belly Timber, so get on over there and check out the roundup of entries!

Now, the quandary. What to do with this months 4 ingredients? Quinoa, yogurt, cashews and "baby" (as in small not gerbers) food?

Before I tell you what I did, a word about Labanya. For those of you that have been reading Lex Culinaria since the beginning will now that labanya's nothing new in our house. It's a Middle Eastern soft cheese made from hung yogurt. Depending on the yogurt you use, it can be very mild and tastes like a cross between goats cheese (with a slight acid note) and cream cheese. It has a texture very similar to soft cream cheese. In our house we spread it on toasted bagels instead of cream cheese.

Okay. That said, this is where I ended up after pacing my kitchen deep in thought:

Roasted baby beet, Labanya and quinoa salad - serves 4

• 600 gm whole baby beets (about 6-8)

• 1 L full fat Greek style yogurt
• salt, pepper

• 2/3 c quinoa
• 1 Litre water
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup cashews, toasted and roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup Italian parsley, roughly chopped
• salt, pepper

• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 olive oil
• 1 egg yolk
• salt, pepper

• 3 cups baby salad greens

For the Labanya: Line a 2 litre mixing bowl with cheesecloth. Empty the whole 1 Litre of yogurt into the middle of the cheesecloth. Gather up the ends and sides of the cloth and twist until cloth is just taut over yogurt. Tie yogurt filled cloth so that it is suspended over your counter (I tie mine to the knob of the upper cupboard). Place the 2 litre bowl underneath to catch drips. Leave yogurt suspended overnight, up to 15 hours. After 12-15 hours, the yogurt should be reduced in volume by at least half. Untie bag and place stiff ball of cheese into a small mixing bowl. Stir in salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

This is what your labanya should look like when you unwrap it!

To roast the beets: Wrap beets in foil. Roast in a 425F oven for one hour. Allow to cool until you can handle them easily. Unwrap the beets and use your fingers to rub the skins off. Do this under cool running water, or you'll never get the pink out of your skin! Pat beets dry with paper towel. Slice beets very thinly. Set aside.

To cook the quinoa: rinse 2/3 cup of quinoa under cold running water in a fine mesh sieve. Place in small saucepan with a pinch or two of salt and 1 litre of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Drain cooked quinoa in sieve. Saute minced garlic cloves in butter over medium heat, when garlic is golden, add cooked, drained quinoa. Cook and stir for 3 minutes to evaporate any excess water from the quinoa. remove from heat, add salt and pepper, chopped parsley and all but 1 Tablespoon of the cashew nuts. Gently stir through 1 heaping tablespoon of labanya. Set aside.

To make the dressing: combine lemon juice, garlic, oil and egg in a small, tall sided container. Whip with an immersion blender until well blended and slightly frothy. Season with salt and pepper. If you don't have an immersion blended with a whip attachment, you could blend it on high in a jug-style blender.

To assemble: grease the inside of a biscuit cutter, or large round cookie cutter. Place greased cutter on plate. Layer several slices of beet inside cutter on plate, making sure the beet slices overlap so that the bottom of the circle is completely covered. dollop 1/4 cup of the labanya on top of the beet layer. Use the wetted back of a tablespoon to smooth the labanya layer out evenly to the edges of the ring. Fill the ring loosely to the top with the quinoa mixture. Press down gently on the quinoa with the back of a wetted spoon to compress. Cover the quinoa layer with another layer of overlapping beets. Press down to compress.

While pressing gently on the top layer of beets, gently slide the biscuit ring up and off. Scatter some baby greens over the top of the salad stack and sprinkle with a pinch of the reserved cashews. Drizzle dressing over.

I know there's a lot of prep work involved here, but it's not really labour intensive prep work at all. It's just waiting time. You could easily roast the beets, prepare the quinoa mixture and dressing while your yogurt is hanging. If you did this all the day before, you could assemble all four salads in 10 or 15 minutes.

This dish covers the entire taste and texture range and does it beautifully. The sweet and earthy beets, tangy garlicky dressing, springy quinoa and creamy labanya - Cakes kept asking if he could have another. This is definitely a keeper. Now if only I could figure out how to stop the beet juice from bleeding into the labanya!