Beetroot Salad

Ingredients
Green Grocer
4 teenage beetroot (see notes)
1 orange
1/4 pak choy (Chinese cabbage)
1 bunch italian parsley

Dry Store
~3/4 cup of sunflower kernels
~1/2 cup of pepitas (pumpkin seed kernels)

1 Tbsp red wine vinegar

4-5 Tbsp good EV olive oil

Salt and pepper.

Method
In a big bowl, add vinegar, EVOO, salt, pepper, juice and zest of orange (maybe just half the zest). Taste the dressing and adjust as necessary. It should be relatively sour.

Grate the beetroot and finely slice the pak choy and throw this on top of the dressing.

Toast the sunflower kernels in a dry frypan on a fierce heat. Keep them moving or they will burn. After a few minutes, they will start to pop and go brown and you will smell that wonderful transformation in flavour take place. Give the pepitas the same treatment. I always do heaps of these and put the excess in a bowl on the table.

Finely chop the parsley. Reserve a little to sprinkle on top because everything will look red once the salad is tossed.

Mix it all together - I prefer hands to utensils for this job as it is much more thorough, not to mention more enjoyable.

Notes
The bigger the beetroot, the earthier the flavour. You don't want babies because they are too sugary (and too hard to grate), but you don't want monsters, either.

I'm using an olive oil from Jingilli at the moment. It's pretty drinkable. In fact, in preparing for a dinner party recently, I transferred some oil from the 2 litre cask to a couple of empty beer bottles for ease of use. Twice that day, I took a good pull on the wrong beer bottle. I got a bit of a shock, of course, because I was expecting cold and fizzy and instead got warm and smooth, but it was by no means entirely unpleasant. Always taste your olive oil. If it's too bitter, add some lemon juice to your dressing. If it has no fruit flavour, insist on something better.

The pak choy will take some of the rawness out of the beetroot. It can be a bit intense otherwise. Play with the ratio until you find something that works.

Moules Marinieres

Ingredients
1Kg Mussels alive-alive-ho!

Green Grocer
2-3 medium tomatoes chopped into 1cm squares.
1/2 Bunch Italian parsley, finely chopped.
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped.
Maybe a few finely chopped shallots

Dry Store
1/2 bottle of White wine
Pepper
2 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil

Method
Heat the pan, add the oil and heat to smoking point. Quickly saute shallots then garlic then tomatoes just for a few seconds. Add pepper, mussels and white wine and put the lid on. The wine should bubbly like crazy for 5 minutes. Give the pan a shake occasionally to shift the mussels on the top to the bottom. DO NOT OPEN THE LID for at least 5 minutes. You can't steam something without steam and steam has a habit of departing from an open pot.

Check that 'most' of the mussels have opened (otherwise, give it a few more minutes).

Pile the mussels into a shallow bowl with some of the broth. Serve with more of the same wine and crusty bread that you rip at the table and dip in the broth. Sprinkle each bowl with some fresh chopped tomato and the parsley.

Notes

Beautiful food

Opulent. I am humbled by the sheer classiness of Cloudland. Perhaps,i hear you say, my judgement was impaired. Did you know that talking to a beautiful woman will decrease your IQ by up to 20 points? To which I reply that I am sure that I had my wits about me.
Jamon serrano with figs, goats cheese, apple reduction
Beef carpaccio
Saltimbocca chicken with a white polenta cake and more figs and a sticky Madeira jus
Gnocchi, as light as cotton balls, with blue cheese and spinach
Washed down with a 2008 -- pinot noir. An unusual pinot with heavy wood which left a real tingle on the tongue as it dissipated.