From Mmmmm! to Hmm...

A foodie friend recently gave me a can of mouloukhieh that he’d found in a Middle Eastern grocery. It was something I’d never even heard of, much less tasted.

Also known as mloukeih, molokhia and Jew’s mallow, this leafy green vegetable has – according to the Internet - a mucilaginous texture and laxative properties.

As the owner of a large can of mysterious green slime that may possibly play havoc with my bowels, I decided to bide my time and wait until I was in the right frame of mind to do it justice.

Meanwhile, on Saturday night I enjoyed a considerably more conventional food experience in the form of dinner at Molten Restaurant in Mt Eden. I’ve eaten there a number of times over the years and, after watching The Food Truck on telly (when Molten’s chef Michael Van de Elzen tries to create healthy alternatives to a range of fast food favourites), Don and I thought time to reacquaint ourselves with his slow food.

And I’m glad we did because the food and the service were faultless. My entree of vine wrapped Meyer lemon scented goats cheese, Melba toast and peperonata was delicious.

Unless it’s salmon, which I hate cooking at home because it makes everything stink, I almost never order fish at restaurants but Molten’s crayfish crusted hapuka with walnut fritters appealed. It was a delicious choice, which I’ve been thinking about ever since. It even inspired me to buy some fish, with the view to baking it in some kind of a crust for dinner tonight.

Don’s beef croquette entree and six week old Scotch steak main were also lovely. Neither of us had eaten such well hung meat before and found it to be fine-grained, tender and not at all gamey. We shared a panacotta with baked pears – also divine.

I expected to be confronted with
a can of slime, but the mouloukhieh
was quite watery.

Unfortunately I can’t quite say the same today’s mouloukhieh lunch even though the canned version is blissfully free of the mucilaginous properties that its fresh cousin apparently has.

Using an Internet recipe for inspiration, I fried some onion and chilli then added chicken stock, tomato paste, a bay leaf, some cooked chickpeas and the mouloukhieh. To the cooked soup I added a mixture of garlic, salt and dried coriander than had been pounded to a paste then fried in butter.

It was okay – quite tart and lemony like sorrel – and was very green and healthy tasting (so much so, that I had to have a piece of cake afterwards to recover).

I had seconds, but don’t have plans to repeat the performance with the large pot of leftovers now gracing my bench.

Mouloukhieh soup, anyone?

As luck has it, I’m catching up with my friend for lunch tomorrow. No prizes for guessing what I’m going to give him!

Molten Restaurant (open for lunch and dinner)
422 Mount Eden Road
Mount Eden 1024
(09) 638 7236
www.molten.co.nz