Culinary Corner Catch-up

With 2010 fast approaching it's a good time to catch up with a few events that didn't make it onto the blog.

In October, Anne Van Gieson (third from right) hosted another one of her very popular culinary corners. With the theme of 'Entertaining a Crowd: The Buffet Table', Anne passed on her extremely helpful tips on how to prepare ahead, how best to plan the menu and more.

As with all culinary corner sessions, we then got busy preparing a gorgeous array of buffet dishes: chicken with garlic/lemon/rosemary, spelt salad, sesame green beans, and a gorgeous spinach salad.

Recipe for Spelt Salad

This dish (shown at about 7 o'clock in the photo above) will make a healthy and delicious salad to serve over the holidays. It's super quick and easy to prepare, and looks gorgeous with freshly chopped mint and parsley sprinkled on top!

Serves 8 - 10

• 2.5 cups uncooked spelt, rinsed and drained (or can substitute bulgar wheat)
• 5 cups water - use vegetable stock if possible
• half cup of fresh mint - chopped
• half cup of fresh parsley - chopped
• half cup of minced red onion
• 6 tbsp lemon juice
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 1 or 2 tins of artichoke hearts, drained and chopped (or use roasted artichokes, but drain excess oil)
• 5 oz crumbled feta cheese
• 1 cup toasted pine nuts

Method: Rince and drain spelt or bulgur wheat grains. It helps to keep them from sticking together when cooking. Place in a saucepan and cover with most of the hot stock. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until tender. Stir occasionally and add more liquid if necessary.

Combine cooked spelt, chopped mint, parsley, onion and rest of ingredients! Stir, season to taste - and that's it! Serve at room temperature.