TAKE IT EASY
Australian food personality Donna Hay wants people to cook at home,
Donna Hay is in her “absolute happy place” picking through a bunch of fresh mint.
The Australian food personality slips the perfect leaves into an ice bath. She sets the imperfect ones (most of them, in fact) aside.
“Only the pretty ones survive,” sighs Hay with a hint of guilt.
“It’s terrible. It’s Next Top Model: Mint.”
Hay — a prolific cookbook author, magazine editor, TV personality and food stylist — is in the Star test kitchen cooking from her newest book. The New Easy: 135+ clever solutions and flavour-packed recipes for weeknights and weekends is her 23rd book.
Hay has always made gorgeous look easy. Now, she makes easy look easy.
She has asked to make her spiced lamb and tahini tart. The dish (which isn’t a tart by Canadian definitions) slathers an ordinary pita with hummus and tops it with ground lamb mixed with pine nuts, honey, dried mint and a North African spice blend called ras el hanout.
You’re allowed to just scatter the perfumed meat mixture on the pita, but Hay can’t help herself. She rolls the meat into tiny, perfect marblesized balls while she talks.
Still, the pitas are ready for the oven in minutes.
“It speaks to me,” Hay says of the Middle Eastern-inspired dish, “because I actually just cooked this at home. I think the reason my children like this is because I’m not a huge believer in standing over them to make them eat their vegetables.”
Her boys — 12-year-old Angus and 9-year-old Tom — like their vegetables to come alongside dips. Tom calls this lamb pita concoction “dip pizza.” Both sons can make it themselves.
Hay is passionately devoted to getting people to cook at home.
“I think restaurants have a really great place in my life, but I don’t want to try to emulate something too difficult at home, even on the weekend; I just don’t have time.”
The New Easy promises to simplify kitchen life with new flavour combinations and new shortcuts. There are quick weeknight meals and special weekend dishes, with shorter chapters for salads/sides, baking and desserts. “Re-style” tips show you how to tweak and present dish- es into something new.
Hay adores basic ingredients that are simply prepared. She lives in multicultural Sydney in a country spoiled for choice when it comes to fresh food. But she’s best known for her exquisite food styling.
“I think when people first see my books, they fall in love with the pictures, which make their mouths water,” offers Hay. “Then they’re pleasantly surprised by the ingredient list and the fact the method is short and concise.
“I never write sauté or any sort of technical, cooking school trained word. And my food really looks like the photo, and that’s so important for social media. If you’ve cooked something yourself, you get extra credit.”
Hay doesn’t fake her pictures. She uses a water sprayer, paint brush and oil to gloss things up, but shoots only in natural light and says her team of 20 eats everything they cook.
We’ve barely begun to talk and the tart (I’ll call it a pita) is ready.
Hay arranges it effortlessly on a piece of parchment paper. She dollops Greek yogurt in the centre, sprinkles it with sumac and scatters it with those perfect mint leaves that have been refreshed in their ice bath.
The lamb pita is camera ready, and so is Hay (who came in wearing a funky black Ellery dress by Sydneybased designer Kym Ellery but slipped into something more casual for cooking).
“I think styling has got a lot more casual,” she muses. “It’s a little bit messier and little bit more inclusive so people don’t feel so pressured to perform.”
While we swoon over the food, Hay agrees to take the tiniest mouthful of black licorice ice cream from Sweet Olenka’s in Toronto.
“Oh, that’s so good,” she quietly moans with delight, hinting at an impending gelato pop-up she has planned. “I’m so glad you made me do that.”
Spiced Lamb + Hummus Pita
Star Tested Adapted and renamed from The New Easy. Ras el hanout is a North African/Moroccan spice blend with about 12 spices. There is no definitive blend. I used one from Trader Joe’s in Buffalo that included rose petals, cardamom and cloves alongside coriander, cayenne, cumin, spearmint and ginger. WilliamsSonoma sells a blend, as do some gourmet shops and spice stores.
4 large pitas (about 9 inch/23 cm)
2 cups (500 mL) homemade or store-bought hummus About 1-1/2 lb (675 g) ground lamb
1 tbsp (15 mL) dried mint
2 tbsp (30 mL) liquid honey
1 tbsp (15 mL) ras el hanout spice blend
1/2 cup (125 mL) pine nuts Kosher salt + freshly ground black pepper
For serving:
Plain Greek yogurt Ground sumac Fresh mint leaves Lemon wedges
Place pitas on parchment-lined baking sheets. Spread with hummus, leaving 1/2-inch (2-cm) border.
In bowl, combine lamb, dried mint, honey, ras el hanout and pine nuts. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle lamb over hummus. (Or form into marble-sized meatballs and arrange neatly on pita.)
Bake in preheated 400 F (200 C) oven until lamb is cooked through and golden brown, about 12 to 15 minutes.
Cut pitas into wedges. Serve topped with yogurt and sprinkled with sumac and fresh mint leaves. Pass lemon wedges separately.
Makes 4. jbain@thestar.ca