Using Silverbeet

I love my greens, possibly didn't always but these days I cannot get enough. Spinach and silverbeet are top on my list of yummy greens (beet leaves are almost there too.) The balcony garden houses rainbow silverbeet of varying colours.

When I was back in Adelaide my parents took me out for a lovely but noisy meal at a very upmarket restaurant called Enoteca. I have to say ther service was amazing, friendly, prompt but not too in your face. I made a few wrong menu choices and ended up with some perfectly pleasant but not mind blowing food. I suspect my irritable insides were protesting a bit, and the food, if I was in a better state, would have settled better. That said the champagne sat just fine so maybe I just picked dishes that did not go well together (an entree of quail lacked a defining flavour, but was very well cooked, the gnocci too was wonderful in texture but one note in flavour.) Dad, however, picked not one winner but two; an antipasto platter and a Wagyu and Black Garlic Special main that was simply divine (and much more steak than the waitress had promised.) Mum too picked well, and had, what I considered to be the dish of the night, a Warm Pumpkin Terrine. It included muscatels and pinenuts and was wrapped in spinach. It was an amazing and exquisately balanced dish, and I kept trying to steal more and more mouthfuls of it.

What does an upscale Adelaide restaurant and silvetbeet on a balcony garden have in common? Well I was so inspired by the flavours that I tried to make my own version of the dish at home, though with a few balcony gardener additions and subractions. I blanched a few largish silverbeet leaves for 10 seconds and plunged them straight into iced water. Into them I put a mix of diced pumpkin, rosemary, chicken stock, onion and garlic which I had reduced down in a frying pan.

I rolled them up like dolmades

And reheated when the rest of my meal was done. Steak, salad, peas and these silverbeet and pumpkin numbers! Yum.

They were a bit watery but ever so delicious. Next time I think I will add grapes (now if only the balcony garden could support a grape vine but with their root system running metres into the ground I suspect it would be impossible, but a girl can dream! I made these again a few weeks later, using leftover pumpkin risotto, which worked well too. It was cold so it rolled up better and had less moisture so I guess cooling the filling first is the key. All in all a good side dish, and a great way to use up some yummy greens!