I finished Oscar and Lucinda propped up in bed on Sunday, one eye keeping tabs on the local gang of cockatoos, wheeling and screaming around the orchard, through a narrow opening in the curtains. At the precise moment that two of them chose to swoop low past the windows - a blur of white against the towering gums out front - Peter Carey’s Mr Jeffris, deep in the bush, murderous and angry, ‘took a pot-shot, but with no real intention of killing – just a shot which threw the white cockatoos into the air like screeching feathers from a burst pillow’.
I cannot offer a better, nor more hilariously apt description.
A couple of hours later Poppy and I watched them bursting from the pears and apples as we shooed them away, she barking, I waving arms wildly and laughing myself silly. Unlike the polite parrot couples, quietly eating their singular, ripe(ish) pieces of fruit, the cockatoos arrive en masse, willfully destroying fruit both ripe and unripe indiscriminately, yelling at the top of their lungs the entire time.
Summer, at last, arrived this weekend. There have been a few vague attempts at hot - and a lot of flooding rain - but mostly, it's been a fairly cool, and mild, and, yes, sane summer. But today? Today is an old-fashioned scorcher, dry and windy and h-o-t out, the kind of weather I dread. Had been hoping we might miss out...no such luck.
Hot weather means cool food. You need good tomatoes for this salad. The ones I was gifted the first time I made it had been homegrown by an eighty-year-old Italian man, so I don’t need to tell you that they were bloody good. It comes from Casa Moro (swoon) by Sam & Sam Clark, and is simple, sharp and sweet, with all the right sort of textures going on. Bread is essential. You know, for moppage. Perfect heatwave eating.
Tomato, walnut and pomegranate molasses salad
Chop tomatoes - juicy ones with loads of flavour – into chunks. Toss them in a large bowl with a palmful, more depending on how many tomatoes you had to chop, of roughly broken walnut halves. Make a dressing using a crushed clove of garlic, a ¼ tsp of ground cinnamon, 2 tblsp of pomegranate molasses (this is what makes the whole sing so beautifully), 1 tblsp of hot water and 4 tblsp of olive oil. Season, whisk, taste and season again if required. Drizzle generously over the tomatoes; toss over and over, adding some finely chopped parsley or coriander just before serving.
The irony of this post is that, after pressing publish, out I went and...a cool change was blowing beautifully through the yard.
Always the way, no?
Posted by: Lucy | February 01, 2011 at 04:20 PM
Oh hello! Yes it's a salad week, this week. Can't quite fathom meat during 35 degrees, can you? That does sound like a beautiful salad. Good tomatoes - miam! Pomegranate molasses sounds divine, will make. I have an almost-sekrit-practice-blog for my pet food project. Taking bad photos with an iPhone - horrendous!
Must find a camera... got one somewhere... country life treating you well?
Posted by: Richapplefool | February 01, 2011 at 04:25 PM
Miss Richapplefool, you are SO quick off the mark! It's grand, this, been made lots 'cos I'm a lazy-pants in the kitchen at the 'mo. Can't get motivated...will ya send me a link when you're ready to share, please? Maybe even an email?? (lucindadoddsATyahooDOTcomDOTau)
Country life (part-time) = bliss
Next time yer down here...and darls, I KNOW you have a super-groovy camera lying about somewhere. Something filmic and nice, to be sure...
Posted by: Lucy | February 01, 2011 at 04:31 PM
So glad you posted the recipe. It tasted wonderful. And yes, I think 80 yo Italian men have the market cornered on the tastiest tomatoes.
Posted by: another outspoken female | February 01, 2011 at 08:04 PM
Gosh your post made me laugh. I can fully relate to "gangs of cockatoos" and their paths of destruction. It happens all the time up here. The flying foxes are by far the worse when it comes to gang warfare. We've stopped netting. Too messy when they get caught. Oh well, such is life.
I've never heard of cinnamon in dressing. Interesting. Love the sound of pomegranate molasses though.
Posted by: Mariana | February 01, 2011 at 11:14 PM
Oh wow, no one ever gets creative like this with tomato salad! I can't wait until July to try, particularly as an older Italian gent gives me tomatoes too. So beautiful and hilarious about the cockatoos.
Posted by: Amanda | February 02, 2011 at 12:27 AM
Love the sky photos. I read Oscar and Lucinda several years ago, after watching the movie. We watched the movie again recently: it's one of our favorites.
Posted by: Simona | February 02, 2011 at 05:15 AM
Gosh, I can almost taste that dressing already! Sounds wonderful and perfect timing too, as I was wondering what to make for dinner without going anywhere near the oven. Your description of the cockatoos instantly teleported me back to my childhood - that unholy screech is not soon forgotten!
Posted by: Georgia | February 02, 2011 at 09:47 AM
Oh those cockatoos are naughty aren't they. Not only do they eat everything indiscriminately but they shout all about it at the same time. At times I love the sound, but at others it gives me a fingernails down the blackboard feeling.
Summer has hit here as well. We've had a couple of pretend days, but then this week we're in the energy and sleep sapping weather, when all you can do is flop around and complain . . . or maybe that's just me.
My lovely mother gave me a jar of pomegranate molasses for Christmas and it's been sitting in the cupboard, as it's not something I use/have very often. I think I might christen it with your gorgeous salad and some lovely oxhearts from up the road.
Posted by: kathryn | February 02, 2011 at 01:12 PM
AOF: Totally cornered it. They were gooood.
Mariana: It's a goodie, that quote, and they are hilarious, preposterous birds - they always sound like they're outraged to me. Noted 'bout the fruit bats...A question: do you still get lots of fruit for you guys, without netting?
Amanda: Yay for Italian men with fabulous tomatoes!
Simona: I'm going to hire it this Friday - thank you for the reminder. Glad you've enjoyed it, too.
Georgia: Yes, you guys have had it b-a-d up there...my family are melting away each time we speak. That dressing...SOO good!
Kathryn: I love them and hate them (well, not quite hate...) in turns. Growing up, neighbours of ours had a pet one that used to scream the name name of their son Mark...'maaaaaaaarrrrccckk!'. Was hilarious. But not at 2 am...the other TOPS use for pom molasses is something AOF put me onto - a little bit in a banana and rice milk smoothie. Magic in a tall glass. Yay for lovely mums, I say.
Posted by: Lucy | February 02, 2011 at 01:16 PM
I think that salad would call for a trip to the organics stalls at the vic market - it is as good as I get - wish I had an eighty year old man to give me home grown - but we do have local cockatoos that love a neighbouring tree - great entertainment
Posted by: Johanna GGG | February 02, 2011 at 08:26 PM
Hello Lucinda......first, I say thank you for those little meditative moments you provide me every time I receive a post update by e-mail. I too photograph and cook here in British Columbia, Canada. I try to imagine your life on the other side and other end of the world, and of course it seems jewel-like and storybook. I imagine you have a very interesting community there.
Tomato, walnut and pomegranate syrup sounds delightful, and I'm eager to try it if can find some tasty tomatoes!....harder to do at this time of year!
The reason I'm writing is because this salad reminded me of the most delicious salad I kept ordering in Turkey last summer:
Tomato and rocket(arugula) salad with a light olive oil and lemon dressing drizzled with pomegranate syrup.mmmmmmmmmm adjust the seasonings etc. to taste the important thing is the tomatoes, rocket and pomegranate! It could probably be further enhanced with walnuts!
Thanks again!
Posted by: Deborah Scott | February 03, 2011 at 05:04 AM
Johanna: yes, get thee to the organic stalls at the market! I've had some beauties this year. Come autumn it will be on for young and old. We have cockies in the park, too - like possums, they're great adaptors to city living.
Hi Deborah, and welcome. You've got me dreaming of a holiday in Turkey now...was it wonderful? My partner's ex-wife went a couple of years ago - brought back a beautiful hand-painted ceramic bowl - and adored it, said there was great food, and everywhere. That salad...I've a bag of rocket in the fridge right now...there's tonight's salad, thank you.
I cannot fathom how cold it gets in your part of the world, especially this year - things are crazy in both hemispheres at the moment...bring on autumn/spring, I say!
And I would LOVE to see your work - do you have a little space in blogland where I could have a squiz?
Posted by: Lucy | February 04, 2011 at 08:48 AM
Hi, I love your pictures are amazing! gloria
Posted by: gloria | February 04, 2011 at 10:47 AM
Thanks gloria - nice to meet you.
Posted by: Lucy | February 04, 2011 at 02:09 PM
a great series of moments described! I can just see the arms raised and waving with a slightly maniacal grin on your face ...
and speaking of pomegranate molasses, I was just here for the first time (almost TOO hipsterish for me, but you know, I go with the flow ;-)), and they put out bowls of olive oil for the pita bread dipping thing. What this bowl had was drizzles of their homemade pom molasses. SO YUMMY, I even ate white pita bread :-)
K-
Posted by: Karima | February 06, 2011 at 06:59 AM
Karima...I am almost speechless...he he...
and whoa, that's a farking brilliant thought - a bit like the bowls of oil and balsamic that were hip not so long ago. Tops! Got me thinking...
Posted by: Lucy | February 06, 2011 at 09:12 PM
Made this on the weekend, absolutely marvelous m'dear. And the leftovers are pretty wonderful tossed through some cooked spaghetti.
Posted by: kathryn | February 07, 2011 at 10:14 AM
What a gorgeous salad. Any dressing with cinnamon and pomegranate molasses is a winner with me.
Our orchard was totally pillaged by the galahs and cockatoos last year, but they have passed us over this year - thank heavens.
Posted by: Amanda | February 07, 2011 at 04:24 PM
Kathryn, I am SO pleased that you liked...and through pasta...not that's rather a good thought, darls.
Amanda: they are destructive bastards, but it's hard not to also love them. Glad they spared you guys this year!
Posted by: Lucy | February 09, 2011 at 09:44 AM
Love this salad Lucy!
and Oscar and lucinda... what a tale! Loved your telling of the book, the cockatoos etc.
S x
Posted by: sophie munns | February 11, 2011 at 03:05 PM