Vic Market

I’m just home from the market, I head into the Vic market each week to load up on fresh fruit, veg, meat, fish, deli stuff and flowers. It’s a lovely way to shop and I always enjoy seeing what’s new in season as well as what’s a good buy. It’s also social, I enjoy having a natter with my favourite stallholders as well as keeping up with some of the regular shoppers who keep the same routine as me. And of course you can’t beat the choice and quality of what’s on offer – a supermarket can never do that.

The bit that isn’t so fun is the putting away! Dividing meat into portions, labelling and freezing, cooking up a vat of something… it does take some energy. It’s good in winter though, I love to turn on the food channel, crank up the oven end stay warm while filling the house with beautiful aromas. Summer always makes me impatient to get outside.

Our favourite fish Trumpeter was on offer today. It has a really short season of just a couple of weeks. I’ll cook it simply and serve it with a salad – I need a fast meal tonight as we have to go out.

Chicken was a good price so I bought 2kg - that worked out to be 5 huge breasts. I removed the tenderloins and sliced the breasts through horizontally to make them thinner, then cut them into ‘fingers’. Flour, egg and breadcrumbed and placed the crumbed pieces out flat on a tray to go in the freezer. My girls will love this treat – and I’ll love that I’m ahead for another night.

I cut the remaining 3 fillets open to butterfly them and they’ll do to stirfry, bbq or pan-fry to turn into something like a warm chicken salad. Again I placed them flat into a plastic bag so that when it comes to thawing it will happen quickly. Often when I freeze something like this I also write serving ideas on the label for those mornings when I stand staring at the freezer hoping for inspiration….

I love to try different veggies and there’s always something new at the market. That’s one great aspect of being truly multi-cultural – someone always has something new to share, and they do so willingly. Today I bought chicory, it’s not something I grew up with. The lovely Italian lady suggested I blanch it quickly then toss it in a pan with oil and garlic, salt and pepper; I’m looking forward to trying it. Apparently it has a slightly bitter taste – sounds like it will be perfect with a roast or a steak.

Andrea