Fruit and unloved leaves

I insist you eat your greens, but I'm not quite at the mad witchy edible weeds stage yet.

I know I’ve had a request for ‘what to do with beans’, but I went out last night – I see myself as basically a one-woman stimulus package for local restaurants and wine bars until someone tells them they have to close – and on the way home I happened to be going past a local Woolies.

So I went in for a look. And look it was pretty bleak. I bought some treats, or proto-treats: brown sugar, double cream, industrial quantities of AA and AAA batteries; but what really struck me was the wildly divergent fresh food offerings.

There were no root vegetables, except parsnips and a couple of sad swedes. Poor parsnips, they actually make excellent chips. Solanums and curcubits were devastated too, and that I get. Eggplant, pumpkin, zucchini, tomatoes; these are all excellent vegetables.

There was however one curcubit that seems to be confounding shoppers. Guys, there were so many watermelons. Whole watermelons. Half watermelons. Sliced watermelons. Get a watermelon. They’re bang in season, as is basil, which I had no trouble spotting. Herbs were generally plentiful; use more of them.

You should still be able to find haloumi as well. Chuck some thick slices of watermelon and haloumi on a blisteringly hot barbecue just long enough to get a little colour either side. Arrange that on a plate with some fresh basil and salt and olive oil. That’s an incredible salad. If you want to get some grains involved here, something like freekeh or barley would be excellent, just arrange some little dabs and pockets of grains around your watermelon and haloumi.

If you’re struggling to find haloumi, ricotta would also be nice. Can’t get ricotta, and you’re also getting concerned about how much milk is in your fridge? Make it! This recipe is a good one for basic techniques but please don’t think you need to fuck around with ricotta baskets. Just chuck a clean tea towel in a fine sieve when you get to the straining bit.

Anyway, returning to my supermarket reconnaissance, I noticed a lot of fruit. All of you should eat more fruit. Your nonnas and yiayias and babas agree. You can count on pretty decent stone fruit through the end of March and in warmer climates maybe a little longer. Plums are GREAT now. Quarter them, pop them in a small saucepan with a bit of (ideally brown) sugar, a cinnamon stick or a couple of cloves or whatever’s kicking around, and maybe a tiny bit of water. Let them soften, and you’ll have delicious stewed plums to add to whatever oat-based breakfast you’ve subjected yourself to for the near future.

Apples are coming in too, and you can do exactly the plum thing above but with apples. I always think apples are ‘fine’ until I eat that first perfect Pink Lady at the start of autumn and I’m like oh hell yeah, apples are good as HELL. Judging by the number of apples in this Woolworths, everyone in Carlton feels the same way.

I reckon you could/should treat yourself to an apple pie. If you’re ‘working from home’ you’ve probably got time to get over your fear of pastry, which I strongly recommend as a project. This Maggie Beer sour cream pastry is perfect for recovering pastry-fearers; hands down the most forgiving pastry you’ll work with. After blind baking it, slice your apples, arrange them in layers and sprinkle in a handful of (again, ideally brown) sugar, some ground spices (allspice or baharat would work, or just freestyle it). You don’t have to, but you can put a top on your pie, or cut strips of dough and make a lattice. Either way give any exposed dough a brush with egg yolk. V rustic, v homely. Bake in a medium oven until the apples are soft or the pastry is golden.

For the fruit haters among you, from the produce dregs I also get the sense people don’t really know what to do with leafy greens. A few different types of lettuce and/or some soft herbs will get you a version of this green salad, and the dressing elements are bound to be floating around your pantry. Samin Nosrat says it’s the best green salad, and having made it myself on numerous occasions over the summer, I can’t disagree with her – not that I ever would.

But. My best purchase at this post-apocalyptic Woolworths was the featured bunch of beetroot. That is a fresh bunch o’ beetroot; those beet tops are practically singing with life. I’ll be using those first: sliced thinly for a salad along the lines of the Samin Nosrat/Via Carota one above with some mint and sorrel and parsley out of my garden. You could also slice and quickly sauté your beet tops with garlic and fold through a risotto.

Later in the week I’ll use the beets themselves. I can’t remember where I saw this recipe now but I served a ‘beetroot carpaccio’ at a recent dinner party: from memory you just cook the beetroot in a barbecue or oven until it’s getting a bit shrivelled round the edges (this will take a while, fair warning), and then slice it thin, sprinkle some salt, lemon zest and ideally, grated horseradish over the top. I don’t have grated horseradish at the moment either, or even creamed horseradish, but I have a feeling some strategic spoonfuls of toum would substitute really well.

I hope that’s given you some ideas, but for all I know everyone who shops at your supermarkets is supremely into watermelon and apples and butter lettuce and beetroots and none of this is practically helpful at all. I suppose the broader point I’m trying to make is that everything is fleeting, and you should enjoy it while you can. And that you should make pastry while you’re on that 9am conference call.

I will definitely cover beans in my next letter.