Melanie Walker

Crisp and fresh, sweetly sour, easy to make, and loved by all. This Italian salad is usually made with oranges but we have a tree laden with tangelos so I used them instead. Ingredients 200 gm fennel, very thinly sliced (a mandolin is useful here) 2 large tangelos, peeled and sliced thinly 2 Tbsp olive…

Fennel and kale pie

The days are lengthening, and the garden thinks it is spring already. The chinese cabbage tat soi is flowering, as is the cavalo nero, and the purple sprouting broccoli is in full throttle. I know that the remaining florence fennel won’t last too much longer; the bulbs weigh nearly a kilo, the core inside is…

Leek and silverbeet pie (Prasopita)

I cut this recipe out of the Listener in 1993 (see the photo of the cutting below). It’s a delightful story about Lois Daish and her greek neighbours in Wellington. She describes the smell of the pie wafting down the street and how she learnt from Voula how to make it. There is so much…

Cawl

While reading about leeks last weekend I came across reference to a famous Welsh national dish called Cawl (pronounced Cowl). Meat and vegetables are cooked in a broth which is not thickened but instead reduced by long cooking to concentrate the flavours. I wanted to try it out. Vegetables: There were many versions of this national dish, but…

Leeks with tomato and olives (Poireux a la nicoise)

Possibly the best argument for growing your own, baby leeks are a gourmet food you would never find anywhere else. Sow a whole packet of 250 seeds in late spring. Transplant a third of them to the winter leek bed and thin the rest to eat when they are tiny, like asparagus, teamed with a…

winter in my vege garden – leeks

Leeks can wait all winter in the vege garden and be ready when you want them, but you need to time their sowing so they are big enough before growth slows in the really cold part of the winter. Then, along with carrots and celery (which you also might have managed to grow in time),…