Food and Love

While food and love are often intertwined in life and literature, they are inextricably linked in a new novel by South African author Melissa van Maasdyk, which includes a collection of recipes. A contemporary foodie romance, “Love Apples” revolves around commitment-phobic London food writer Kate Richmond, who heads to Mauritius on an assignment and, due to a downpour of drama, ends up questioning her entire philosophy on love and life. In addition to following Kate’s personal journey, the novel invites readers to sample the unedited dramas of a glossy magazine – with a generous side order of delectable food.

About the Author:

Melissa has worked as a writer, sub-editor and editor on various magazines, including Marie Claire in South Africa, Elle Decoration in the U.K., and Time Out in Bahrain. Food writing has featured prominently in her career, nurturing her passion for cooking, and adding flavour to “Love Apples,” her first novel. She currently lives in Abu Dhabi with her husband.

The following two recipes from the novel are perfect for a summer lunch or dinner and would work beautifully for entertaining this holiday season and Summer. For more, find Love Apples at Booktopia, www.loveapplesnovel.com

Chilled Pea Soup

With its fresh taste and vibrant green colour, this easy soup is summer in a bowl – the perfect thing to kick off a sunny lunch.

Serves 6 as a starter

• cooking spray
• 2 teaspoons butter
• 1 cup leeks, white part only, cleaned and chopped
• 3 cups vegetable stock
• 1 kilogram frozen peas
• 1/2 cup mint leaves, de-stemmed
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

To serve:

• sour cream or crumbled goat’s cheese
• lemon zest
• pea tendrils or chopped chives
• handful of fresh pansies, violets, and/or violas (optional)

Spray a large pot with cooking oil. Add butter and leeks, and cook over medium heat until leeks are soft (7–10 minutes). Add stock, and bring to the boil. Add peas and, once the stock has returned to the boil, cook for 3–5 minutes. Take pot off the stovetop, and add mint, salt, and pepper. Blend with a stick blender. Strain and set aside to cool.

Once cool, put in a covered container and place in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours. To serve, pour into bowls, add a dollop of sour cream or sprinkle over crumbled goat’s cheese, and top with lemon zest and pea tendrils or chives. If available, finish off with a sprinkling of pansies and violas. Serve with croutons or crusty bread.

Quail marinated in rose water and pomegranate syrup - served with almond and pomegranate quinoa salad

Used in cooking since ancient times, roses bring a subtle taste and fragrance to dishes. They also have digestive properties and make a beautiful garnish. Often used to flavour chicken dishes in the Middle East, they work equally well with more flavourful quails, which are native to Iran.

Serves 6. 6–8 quails, butterflied For the marinade:

• 1 small to medium onion
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed using a pestle and mortar with 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 3 tablespoons pomegranate syrup*
• 1 1/2 tablespoons rose water*
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander

* You’ll find pomegranate syrup and rose water at Middle Eastern grocery stores and delis. There are also a number of online sources.

To serve:

• fresh organically grown rose petals
• almond and pomegranate quinoa salad

To butterfly the quails, use kitchen scissors to snip along either side of the backbone of each, from top to bottom, and then remove the bone along with the neck. Open them out, and press down to flatten. You might like to ask your butcher to do this for you.

Grate the onion into a medium-sized bowl. Add remaining marinade ingredients, and stir to combine. Pour the marinade into a flat dish that’s big enough to take all the quails. Place quails in the marinade, rub the marinade all over them, and let them sit for 1–2 hours.

Place quails under a preheated grill, breasts down, and grill for 7 minutes. Turn over and grill for 7–10 minutes or until browned and cooked through. Serve alongside a mound of herby almond and pomegranate quinoa salad sprinkled with fresh rose petals.

Almond and pomegranate quinoa salad

• 1 1/2 cups quinoa
• 2 1/2 cups water, plus more if required
• 1 cup Italian parsley, roughly chopped
• 1 cup coriander leaves, roughly chopped
• 1/4–1/2 cup mint leaves (mint can be overpowering, so use less than other herbs)
• 8 spring onions, thinly sliced
• 150 grams sliced almonds, toasted in a dry pan
• seeds of 1 pomegranate, divided
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of 1–2 lemons
• extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Soak the quinoa in water for 10 minutes, and then rinse thoroughly. Bring 2 1/2 cups water (or amount stated on packet instructions) to the boil. Add the quinoa to the pot along with a pinch of sea salt. Bring back to the boil, turn heat down, and simmer, covered, for around 12 minutes – check after 7 minutes, as the water can be absorbed very quickly. Add more water if required, but be sparing, as you want light, chewy grains rather than porridge. Allow to cool, and then add herbs, spring onions, almonds, 3/4 of the pomegranate seeds, and the lemon zest. Finally, mix in lemon juice and olive oil to taste. Season with salt and pepper, and place in a serving dish or on individual plates. Sprinkle over remaining pomegranate seeds.

Cook’s note:

The easiest, least messy way to remove the seeds from a pomegranate is to top and tail it, and then make deep cuts down its side following the segment-demarcation lines. Submerge the whole fruit in a bowl of water, pull the segments apart, and remove the seeds. Skim off any pith that has floated to the surface. Drain in a sieve to leave just the seeds.

Photographs by Masud Mallik. The photographs were taken at the launch of Love Apples, featuring a menu of dishes from the novel, prepared by chef Sebastien Pinson of Brasserie Flo, The Ritz Carlton Abu Dhabi Grand Canal.

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