Adam Liaw's beer-battered mushrooms, and roast pumpkin with macadamia and chilli
We need to rebrand vegetables. I'm not talking about calling a carrot an "amazing stick" or anything like that, but the very ordinary idea of eating vegetables has, in the past few decades, taken on an exceptionalism that isn't in any of our best interests. If you tell someone you're having a meal of vegetables, they'll probably assume you're vegetarian, an animal rights activist, on a diet, trying to be "healthy", or wanting to eat something that's light instead of a full meal.
Those things might well be true, but having a meal of vegies isn't always about a philosophy, political statement or diet choice. They're vegetables! They're everywhere. And eating and enjoying them should be the most ordinary thing in the world. Eating vegetables does not have to mean sitting on the sidelines with a sad salad while the rest of your family eats steak. It doesn't have to imply a pile of bland, unsatisfying rabbit food. Here are a couple of vegetable recipes without a salad green in sight. And you don't have to be a card-carrying vegan to eat them.
Beer-battered mushrooms with curry salt
Serves 4 as an entrée
Asian mushrooms work best here, as they take very little time to cook and shouldn't absorb too much oil. Button or swiss brown mushrooms are fine too, but will take a bit more time to fry and be slightly more oily.
• 1½ cups self-raising flour
• 1 bottle (375ml) ice-cold beer
• 600g mixed fresh Asian mushrooms (such as shiitake, shimeji, hen-of-the-woods, enoki or eringi), or a mixture of button and swiss brown mushrooms
• 2 litres vegetable oil, for deep-frying
Curry salt (makes extra)
• 2 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp curry powder
Adam's tip The curry salt is great with tempura, but also works really well with fried or roast chicken. With tempura I use a Western-style curry powder such as Keen's, and for chicken I prefer a Malaysian-style curry powder like Baba's.
For the beer batter, mix the flour and beer together and whisk lightly to combine. Don't over-mix the batter. Retaining a few lumps is fine.
Cut any large mushrooms, such as eringi (king oyster), into smaller pieces, and separate any joined mushrooms like shimeji, hen-of-the-woods or enoki into smaller clumps. Trim the stems from the shiitake. For the curry salt, use a mortar and pestle to grind the salt and curry powder to a fine powder.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan to 170°C. Using chopsticks, dip each piece or clump of mushroom into the batter, and fry for about 3 minutes until golden brown. Drain on a wire rack and serve with a small pile of the curry salt for dipping.
Roast pumpkin with macadamia and chilli
Serves 4
A roasted pumpkin is a beautiful thing. Heating it slowly boosts sweetness and reduces moisture, giving it a rich, silky texture.
• 1 whole butternut pumpkin
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper, to season
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 large red chillies, finely sliced
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• ½ tsp brown sugar
• ¼ cup roasted macadamia nuts, chopped
Heat your oven to 175°C. Cut the pumpkin in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place the pumpkin on a lined baking tray and roast, uncovered, for 75 minutes.
When the pumpkin is cooked, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in a small saucepan over medium heat and add the garlic and chilli. Stir for about 2 minutes until the garlic is browned, then remove from the heat and stir through the vinegar, brown sugar and chopped macadamia nuts. Spoon the garlic, chilli and nut mixture over the pumpkin, including any liquid, and serve