roast pork

Crackling crackling and I am the only one except Nico the dog who will eat it!  Luck!

We received a share in a pig on Friday and I have been looking forward roasting my part of the leg since it arrived!  We ordered the pork from www.longbushpork.co.nz which is local and rather well looked after.  I also asked the butcher for the fat to render (glorious lard coming up!), the snout for Nico the dog and all the other parts I could imagine!  Hams, sausages and gammon are arriving next week . . . I can't wait for the black bean soup made from the gammon-cooked-in-coca-cola-stock!

My piece of leg to roast weighed in at 2.1kg so I used the H-F-W formula of 20 minutes sizzle, plus 25 minutes per 500g and a half hour rest to calculate this schedule for our Sunday Roast :

The day before make rub by mashing together olive oil, bay leaves, garlic and salt and pepper and apply to pork and leave uncovered in fridge to ensure nice dry skin, leading to crackly crackling.
8am take pork out of fridge to come to room temperature
8.30am turn oven on to preheat to 220°C
9.25am put pork in oven
9.45am turn oven down to 160°C and cook pork for 1 3/4 hours. Peel and cut potatoes into egg size chunks, par boil for 8 minutes in salted water, drain and shake in pan to fluff then put on a plate to cool.  Peel parsnips  and cut into large chunks, toss in an oven dish with olive oil, maple syrup, salt and pepper then dot with butter.  Peel Brussels sprouts and put in steamer pan with some water. Peel and slice apples and put in a pan with a splash of water on a medium heat to turn into sauce.
10.45am Put a pan with some of the pork fat from the joint into heat for the potatoes.
11am put potatoes and parsnips in oven, stir and fluff apples.
11.30am take pork out to rest on a plate, remove crackling to a baking sheet and cover meat with a metal bowl.  Turn oven up to 200°C.  Turn over potatoes and stir parsnips.  Drain fat from roasting pan and make gravy by deglazing with some kind of alcohol and adding water and seasoning to suit.
11.45am Turn water on under Brussels sprouts, and put crackling in oven to reheat.
12noon have lunch!

ku·ma·ra and chick·pea frit·ters

Mmmm, crispy, cheesey vegetable goodness!

Last night we had baked kumara with steak and an awesome brussel sprout and cavalo nero dish as recommended specified by our friend Rachel.  However since I had decided to bake all the kumara in our possession so we could have them later there were three left.  I knew this wouldn't be a problem!  So tonight, with nothing much else left in the fridge we conjured up some fritters!  Hooray!  Past pie, nothing is better than a fritter.

Kumara and chickpea frittersserves 3
Left over baked kumara, perhaps 3
1/4 cup grated parmesan, plus the same agin for coating
1 tablespoon flour
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
1 400g can drained chickpeas
sal and pepper
olive oil
Preheat the oven to 180°c.
Squish all the ingredients together, bar the olive oil.  Form into patty shapes and roll in the coating parmesan.  Bake for 30 minutes sprinkled with olive oil.  Serve with your favourite sauce!

Oven Roasted Vegetable Curry

Who needs crushed beetils when you have beetroot?

 Happy New Year!  

For an auspicious start to 2011 try a vegetable curry : easy, healthy, fast and delicious.  All good resolutions.  I saw a recipe ages ago for a roasted vegetable curry (Sorry, I know not where) and made it with the idea in mind but not the recipe in sight.  Isn't that the best way?  I remembered the recipe because I thought it such a good idea to roast the vegetables to concentrate the flavours then add the sauce, so I took it further and continued to cook the sauce and finish the dish in the oven.  So easy, so good.

Oven Roasted Vegetable Curry
Serves at least 4 - depending on the vegetable volume

A selection of vegetables, cleaned, trimmed and cut into generous bite size pieces, approximately 1 cup per person, including :
Beetroot - very important for the colour!
Potato
Kumara
Courgettes
Carrots
Pumpkin
Aubergine
Capsicum
Onions
Cauliflower
Broccoli

Oil
Ground cumin, 1 Teaspoon
Ground coriander, 1 Teaspoon
Ground turmeric, 1/2 Teaspoon
Ground fenugreek, 1/2 Teaspoon
1 fresh hot red chilli, chopped
Garlic, 4 crushed cloves
Fresh Ginger, grated to give a tablespoon of pulp
A Cassia stick

400g jar tomato passata
165mL can coconut milk

Coriander leaves for serving
Plain boiled rice for serving

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Toss the harder vegetables (beetroot, potato, kumara, onions, carrots, pumpkin etc) in the oil and spices in a large roasting dish and roast for 20 minutes.
Add any softer vegetables (courgette, aubergine, cauliflower, broccoli etc), mixing well, and roast for another 20 minutes.
Toss all the vegetables again and cook for longer if they are not soft and caramelising at the edges. If the vegetables are soft and caramelising at the edges then stir in the tomato passata and coconut milk and cook until the sauce is simmering, slightly reduced and gorgeous - not long! Season to taste and serve on the rice with the coriander leaves on top.

Waldorf Salad

Waldorf Salad was created by the maître d’ of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City in the closing decades of the Nineteenth Century. First made with only apples, celery and mayonnaise, walnuts were added later but are now very much a traditional part of this easy salad.

"Waldorf Salad" was also the title of an episode of Fawlty Towers in which Basil Fawlty was unable to serve a guest his requested Waldorf Salad.
"I think we're just out of Waldorfs."
Basil says, then asks :
"What is a Waldorf anyway, a walnut that's gone off?".

So make sure you get lovely fresh New Zealand walnuts.

I like to mix half yogurt and half mayonnaise to make the dressing. Not so much for health reasons but rather to reduce the cloying-ness of a mayonnaise only dressing. Try half yogurt and half mayonnaise for coleslaw too. Also, I like to use white pepper as it looks nicer!

The ingredients are celery, apples, grapes or raisins and walnuts, with a yogurt-mayonnaise dressing, all served on lettuce. Apples are not strictly in season at the moment, but there are still nice ones to be found. A nice variation can be made with celeriac and pears, a Waldorf Remoulade if you will, and finely sliced fennel can be a nice addition when you have some.

Waldorf Salad

Serves 2

2 Tablespoons yogurt

2 Tablespoons mayonnaise
A squeeze of lemon
Salt
White pepper
1 Apple, chopped

½ Cup celery, finely sliced

¼ Cup raisins or ½ Cup grapes

½ Cup walnuts, chopped

Lettuce leaves

Mix the yogurt, mayonnaise, lemon and salt and pepper together for the dressing then stir through the salad ingredients. Serve the Waldorf Salad on top of some pretty lettuce leaves.

po·ta·to topped pie

New Zealand on a Plate! Sorry, Board.

Gosh! Could there be anything more New Zealand than a Potato Topped Pie. Sure, many, many countries have a starch topped pie. England has the Cottage Pie and the Shepherd's Pie, France has the hachis Parmentier and probably Australia thinks it has the Potato Topped Pie - but we Kiwis know better. But do any of these involve the all the magical ingredients of crisp pastry, savoury mince and creamy mashed potato all conveniently packaged in a handheld device?! No! Although Australia probably thinks it does . . .

Pies are such a New Zealand institution. There are so many occasions that a pie fits the bill : driving from Wellington to Auckland, Christchurch to Dunedin; a morning after a fine night out; a fine night out ; lunchtime; morning tea; at a rugby game; not at a rugby game; a cold and frosty morning; and the all encompassing student days - possibly replaced in our more responsible days with Sunday evening.

Pies are also seasonal, hot and comforting. They can be made from mince and cheese, just mince, possibly not just cheese (but once again I refer you to student days). They are freezable and you can make them in their entirety or the individual components ahead of time. The best time of year for a hot pie is of course winter, the perfect excuse to indulge in the pastry-potato-meat combination.

Potato Topped Pies
Serves 4

Pastry
150g Plain Flour
A Pinch of Salt
85g Unsalted Butter, chilled, cubed
Iced water to bind, approximately 4 tablespoons

Filling
2 stalks of celery
1 onion
1 carrot
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of butter
500g beef mince
1 tablespoon of plain flour
1 cup of chicken stock
1 bay leaf
Fish sauce to taste, approximately 1 tablespoon
White and Black Pepper
Salt

Topping
500g agria (or other floury) potatoes, peeled and cut up
Salt
White pepper
Butter, approximately 25g or as much as you like!
Milk, approximately half a cup of full fat
Grated cheese, optional

Make the pastry by mixing the salt and flour then tossing the cubes of butter through and putting in the fridge or freezer for at least 30 minutes. Then either rub the butter into the flour by hand or in several short bursts in the food processor. Add enough water to bind it into a ball then chill, well wrapped, for at least 30 minutes, or while you make the filling.

Make the filling by either chopping the celery, onion, carrot and garlic finely by hand or in a food processor. Sauté in butter until soft then add the mince, browning it well and breaking up the lumps with your utensil. Stir in the flour, mixing well, then add the chicken stock, bay leaf and the fish sauce. Bring to a good simmer then turn down to bubble away gently and come together while you make the topping. Leave the rest of the seasoning until you are ready to assemble.

Roll out the now chilled pastry and line 4 individual pie dishes (don't stretch the dough!) then return to the fridge while you make the topping.

Cook the potatoes then mash very well (we are looking for a fine mash, no lumps. Many a potato topped pie has been ruined with lumpy mash). Beat in the butter and milk to make a fairly loose mash then season to taste.

Check the seasoning of the filling and take off the heat.

At this point all the components can be chilled until you are ready to assemble and cook the pies.

When you are ready to cook, preheat your oven to 190°C and place a tray in the oven on which to stand the pies.

Fill your pastry shells three-quarter full with filling then arrange the potato on top as fashionably and as high as you dare. It helps stop the filling being pushed up over the pastry edge if you start with an edge of potato then fill in the middle and then pile it up on top. Sprinkle with grated cheese if you like then bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the filling is starting to bubble and the top is golden and you just can't wait any longer.

It is up to you if you have peas, mushy peas or a nice green salad before, during or after your fabulous kiwi pie!

P.S. This post is an entry for the Hunt for New Zealand's Top Food Blogger with Rick Stein.

waf·fles

Dimples!

I have been wanting a waffle maker for quite a while now, and I finally gave in. I thought (correctly!) that M, our one year old daughter would love them. And, surprisingly, waffles are a quick, easy and social breakfast for a Sunday morning. Social providing there is a plug near your dining room table.

Our plan of attack is to preheat the waffle iron in the kitchen while making the batter then moving the now hot waffle iron to the dining room once M is safely strapped into her high chair. Then open, pour, shut, cook, remove, cool and hand to M to feed herself while we repeat and indulge ourselves. Not such a long delay and since everything is happening at the table no distracting of a small child is even necessary!

I also have streamlined the batter preparation because I only have one set of beaters for my electric whisk ; we all know the order beating the egg whites and the rest of the batter has to done before folding together.

Waffles
Makes about 5, enough for 2 adults, 1 child plus some left over to freeze and reheat in the toaster for a quick snack.

1/4 cup of butter, melted
A scant cup of standard flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
a pinch of salt
2 small egg yolks
A scant cup of buttermilk
2 egg whites

Melt the butter, but only just, then leave to cool. Separate the eggs and put the yolks in a big bowl and add the the flour, baking powder and salt. With the clean beaters, beat the egg whites until stiff then with the same beaters mix the egg yolk and flour mixture adding the melted butter. Fold a third of the egg whites into the batter then gently fold in the rest. For best results use a metal spoon, but no one seems to particularly notice if I use the spatula!
Pour about 1/2 cup at a time into a preheated waffle iron. You will need to work out how hot your waffle iron should be but I set ours to about 10 o'clock, if you know what I mean!
I don't grease our waffle iron, but it is a new non stick version, so if yours is in need of greasing melt a little more butter in the first step then brush the iron lightly as required.
Serve with maple syrup. And enjoy your Sunday morning!

con·grat·u·la·tions!

To save me the problem of choosing the best way to use ricotta in order to win some fabulous Le Creuset goodies and of course some Perfect Italiano Ricotta I decided to let random.org do the hard work! All the ideas were great and there will be some ricotta cooking going on all around.

So congratulations comment number 7 - Antony!

Please get in touch with me through the email link above with your address and contact details so I can arrange for your prize to be sent to you.