The Laughing Gastronome

roast pork

2011-07-31T17:05:00.063+12:00

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

2011-07-27T19:07:00.002+12:00

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

2011-01-05T17:19:00.005+13:00


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

2010-12-16T11:36:00.000+13:00

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

2010-07-04T18:10:00.005+12:00

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

2010-06-27T09:12:00.000+12:00

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!

2010-05-17T20:34:00.004+12:00

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.

win!

2010-04-26T19:38:00.004+12:00

How would you like a wonderful Le Creuset baking dish, ramekins and spatula plus some Perfect Italiano Ricotta? Of course you would! And all courtesy of Perfect Italiano Ricotta. All you have to do is tell me in the comments your favourite way to use ricotta - it doesn´t have to be a full recipe, just an idea will do.

I will choose the idea I think sounds the best and the kind folks at Perfect Italiano Ricotta will send you the fab prizes shown above! Comments close in two weeks on the 10th May 2010. The winner will be notified soon after that. This competition is only open to New Zealand residents.

Come on, what are you waiting for!

po·ta·to leek and ri·cot·ta pas·ty

2010-04-12T10:06:00.004+12:00

pas·ty not past·y

I try to plan our week's meals. I also try to stick to the plan. Most of the time I do because it does make things easier, but sometimes the planned meal is exactly what we don't feel like eating. Last night was a case in point. I had thought that a nice Sunday night meal would be a salad followed by a pudding - a proper pudding with custard, you know. But come mid Sunday afternoon as the weather was getting cold all we wanted was something comforting, perhaps with pastry. Definitely with pastry.

We have got quite good lately at whipping up pies when we should have been having something more like a salad. But the beauty of things like this pasty is that the filling can be improvised with what you have on hand and pastry can always be made when you need it - of course there is flour and butter in the house!

Potato, Leek and Ricotta Pasty
Serves 4

Pastry
100g unsalted butter, cold
200g plain flour
A good pinch of salt
Ice cold water

Filling
500g potatoes, any type, peeled and cut into bite size chunks
3 large leeks
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
Olive oil
150g cheese, any type, but cheddar is good, grated
250g Perfect Italiano Original Ricotta
Nutmeg, freshly grated
Salt and pepper

To Finish
A beaten egg

First make your pastry by sifting the flour and salt into a bowl, grating the butter into the bowl and mixing it into the flour then adding enough ice cold water to make a dough. Wrap the dough and put into the fridge to rest while you make the filling.

Put the potatoes into cold water with a dash of salt, bring to the boil and cook until well done. Drain (saving the water for making bread) and leave to cool in a big bowl.

While the potatoes are cooking trim the leeks and slice into fairly thin rings and wash well. Melt the butter and a dash of olive oil in a heavy pan with a lid then add the leeks and cook over a medium low heat until very soft and starting to colour. Add to the bowl of potatoes.

Preheat your oven to 190°C.

Mix the grated cheese, Perfect Italiano Original Ricotta, nutmeg, and generous salt and pepper into the potato and leek.

Roll the pastry out to a large rectangle and heap the filling down the middle long ways. brush the edges with a wee bit of water then bring the edges to the top along the filling and press well the seal then fold over and crimp prettily. Place on a metal baking sheet lined with baking paper and brush with the beaten egg. Place in preheated oven and bake for 40 minutes or until looking lovely and golden.

Cut into slices to serve. Enjoy!

And if you did still want that salad you can always have it along side . . .

spin·ach ri·cot·ta can·nel·lo·ni

2010-03-25T18:18:00.008+13:00

Pretty rolls of green red and white.

A good purposeful vegetarian dinner, packed full of vegetables and protein is what us omnivores need more often. By purposeful I mean made on purpose, not just a meat meal with substitutions. For me vegetarian pasta is infinitely preferable to a meat packed pasta feast - to the extent of removing the sauce without the meatballs. Sure, the flavour is there, but spaghetti and sauce is much better and more meatballs for those that want them - nobody is complaining!

So here is a flavour packed dinner, infinitely adaptable.

Ricotta Spinach Cannelloni
Serves 4

8 pieces of lasagna, approximately 10cm by 15cm
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small red onion, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
500g passata
100mL red winefresh majorum, chopped
250g Perfect Italiano Original Ricotta
12 black olives, preferably Kalamata, chopped
2 tablespoons salted capers, rinsed and chopped
500g fresh spinach, washed well
Whole nutmeg
100g Parmesan, freshly grated
Salt and pepper
Cook the lasagna according to directions on the packet or if fresh until almost cooked. Drain and leave to cool on a tea towel.

Cook the spinach in a saucepan with just the water on the leaves, stirring often until well wilted. Drain and squeeze dry once cool enough to handle then chopped.

Sauté the onion in the olive oil until translucent, add half the garlic and cook for a few moments then add the red wine. Simmer for a few minutes then add the passata. Cook on a low heat for 15 minutes then add the majorum and salt and pepper to taste and turn off the heat.
Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Mix the Perfect Italiano Original Ricotta, olives, capers, spinach, a good grating of nutmeg, almost all of the Parmesan (reserving enough to sprinkle on the top before baking) and salt and pepper to taste.

Pour half the tomato sauce in an oven proof dish large enough to hold your rolled cannelloni in one layer.

Lay out the lasagna sheets and divide the ricotta mixture between them forming a sausage shape along the short end. Roll the cannelloni up, but not too tightly! Lay in the dish on the tomato sauce and pour the rest over the top. Sprinkle with the reserved Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 25 minutes then rest for 5 minutes before enjoying, perhaps with a lovely green salad. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

This is a great meal, especially since it is easy to make a modified version for the children of the house. My 9 month old daughter had a version with the sauce and filling before the olives, capers salt and pepper were added. Pretty handy . . . but messy!

Tattie Scones

2010-02-18T13:07:00.002+13:00

Better than bread, pancakes or toast!

So, what could be better than bread, pancakes or toast? For breakfast that is? Well the answer is all in the the title : Tattie Scones!

Tattie scones are Scotland's answer to the breakfast carbohydrate question. And there definitely is one!

How else can you use up left over potatoes be they mash or boiled?
How else can you prepare something tasty but with no last minute required attention?
How else can you make a very economical breakfast starch that is easy too?

Well I couldn´t improve on Tattie Scones!

Tattie Scones are perfect beside sausages, Lorne if you can get them or indeed make them, a slice of black pudding, a fried egg, beans and bacon.

You can make them ahead of time and freeze them, or just make the mixture and for maximum indulgence cook them in the bacon fat (if you do not need that for the eggs!).

Tattie Scones
makes 4 generous portions

450g left over mashed, boiled or baked potato flesh, or indeed freshly cooked
100g to 150g plain flour
salt

Mix the potato with enough flour to make a dough that is easily handled, adding salt to taste. If the potatoes were mashed or cooked with salt then make sure you don´t add too much. Remember that the tattie scones will probably be served with fairly salty things (bacon, black pudding, sausages).
You can rest the dough at this stage in the fridge until you are ready to cook them if you want the scones freshly cooked.
Heat a heavy frying pan to medium.
Divide the dough into four, form into balls and roll out on a floured surface to a circle to fit your heavy frying pan.
Melt a small amount of butter in the pan and cook each scone for a few minutes until it is starting to turn golden and puffy. Turn and cook with another knob of butter until the other side is done.
Cut into quarters and either cool then freeze or place in a 120°C oven until ready to eat.
To reheat from frozen place the quarters in the oven to warm while you cook your sausages black pudding, eggs, beans and bacon.

This is what Saturday morning brunches are made for.

fe·la·fel

2010-02-17T12:12:00.001+13:00

Felafel are balls of chickpea goodness!

I make felafel on a regular basis. I think that part of their charm is that they take very little actual effort and that effort is best spread over several days ; however the finished product has the satisfaction of a more intense labour.

Felafel may be made from dried broad, or fava, beans or perhaps more commonly now, chickpeas. The most surprising thing about felafel is that the dried beans are soaked before use, but not cooked. I have made a recipe for felafel with cooked chickpeas and they fell apart terribly.

A felafel meal in our house includes pita, hummus, beetroot, garlic yoghurt, salad, pickled chilli and felafel.

Felafel
Serves at least 6

Soak about 500g of dried chickpeas in cold water with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda for at least 24 hours.
Drain, rinse and dry in a tea towel.
Put the now dry chickpeas in a food processor and process until very fine. Add a teaspoon of yeast and of baking powder, a teaspoon each of ground cumin, coriander and half a teaspoon of turmeric and some salt and pepper. Add a couple of cloves of garlic and if you like, some grated onion that you have squeezed dry and drained. Keep processing until a small amount sticks together when you press a pile together with your fingertips. This will take longer than you think, and if in doubt keep processing.
Leave the mixture to rest overnight, or at least a couple of hours.
Roll the mixture into walnut sized balls, rolling in sesame seeds if you want.
Arrange the balls on a baking sheet. Spray with olive oil. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 200°C or until golden and delicious looking.

This will make approximately 36 felafel.

spic·y chips

2010-02-12T15:04:00.001+13:00

Here's a Friday night idea for you : Spicy chips eaten with mushy peas and vinegar.

Spicy Chips

1 large potato per person, about 250g each
Olive oil
Cayenne pepper
White pepper
Black pepper
Salt

Peel the potatoes and cut into fat chips. Put in a bowl of water in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 210°C, and put a large baking tray in to heat. Big enough to hold all chips in one layer. If there are more than two of you then you might need two trays.
Drain the potatoes and dry in a tea towel.
Toss in a dry bowl with enough olive oil to generously coat then toss to season with some cayenne, pepper and salt.
Spread out in one layer on the now hot baking tray and pop in the oven.
After 10 minutes turn the chips over. After another 10 they should be cooked, golden and delicious.
Serve with hot mushy peas and plenty of vinegar and relax . . .

These chips are reminiscent of the KFC beauties, a Friday night treat if ever there was one. Turn on the telly and enjoy!

sour·dough

2008-09-22T10:53:00.004+12:00

One of the best times to have fresh bread is on a saturday morning : the crusts almost immediately with just fresh butter as a sneaky snack, then some more once it has cooled for a late breakfast/early lunch.

This is how I make sourdough :

Thursday night :
Take the starter out of the fridge.
Put half the sourdough starter into a big bowl.
Feed both halves with the same amount of bread (strong) flour and water - so 1/3 starter 1/3 flour 1/3 water.
Put the lid loosely on the starter and cover the bowl with a plate or damp teatowel.
Leave both at room temperature with the jar on something in case it overflows.
Friday evening, as early as possible :
Both the bowl and the jar should be bubbly and look alive.
Put the starter in the fridge.
Tothe bowl add 450g of strong bread flour, 1 1/2 cups of lukewarm water, 1 teaspoon of salt.
Mix to a messy dough, adding a bit more water if necessary.
Cover the bowl with a plate or damp teatowel.
Leave at room temperature to prove until you are ready to shape the next day.
Saturday morning :
The dough should be have bubble holes on the surface and look like a very soft dough, if this has not happened yet leave for few more hours since this will depend on the activity of your starter.
Generously dust the bench with flour keeping a small pile for sprinkling nearby.
Gently scrape the dough onto the floured bench.
Pat into a rectangle and sprinkle with flour.
Fold into 3 like a letter a couple of times to form a loaf, sprinkling flour as needed.
Either place in a greased and floured loaf tin, place on a piece of baking paper or cut into rolls (but this will affect the baking time so trial and error here).
Cover with a damp tea towel and leave for 2 hours or so to rise again.
When you are 30 minutes from baking time turn the oven to 230°c and if doing a free form, not loaf, put a big cast iron pot with a lid in the oven at the same time to heat.
When ready to bake either put the loaf tin in or put the free form loaf with the paper in the cast iron pot cover and bake for 20 minutes.
Check and either bake longer as is, or for a darker crust remove from the tin or take off the lid and remove the paper and bake for another 5-10 minutes or until sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
Leave to cool on a rack for at least an hour before slicing (except for sneaking the crusts which I don't think counts!).

How I look after the Starter :
Don't screw the lid on tight, it needs to breathe!
Keep in the fridge, but try to remove several hours or a day before using and feed (as Thursday above).
Feed with a similar volume of flour and water.
Try to feed once a week, but the odd two or so week wait will not matter, but a layer of alcohol (the sour) might be on top if left longer - either stir in or pour off.
A sourdough starter is like a million pets in one little jar so be kind!

Evil Edna

2008-09-14T20:59:00.001+12:00

pump·kin ce·le·ri·ac soup

2008-09-11T09:00:00.004+12:00

One of my favourite blogs, Cook Almost Anything, recently showed a wonderful recipe for Jap Pumpkin Soup with Curried Onions. I really can only begin to tell you what a clever idea I thought it was to have a fairly plain pumpkin soup (no offence Haalo!) punctuated with a wonderful relish of curried onions : the very onions and curry seasonings that would usually be blended with the pumpkin soup, kept separate to highlight all the elements - brilliant.

Whenever I need inspiration or a recipe I target the Food Blogs, both familiar and new. There is something trustworthy about a home cook documenting and photographing what they are cooking purely for their own, and others's, enjoyment. So tonight, with a verging-on-rotting pumpkin and a softening-a-bit-too-much celeriac (I know, I know, food waste - saved!) I knew just where to look for inspiration - a recently google-reader-ed recipe with a nice curried onion twist :

Pumpkin and Celeriac Soup with Curried Onions
Adapted from Cook Almost Anything's Jap Pumpkin Soup with Curried Onions
Serves 4

Olive oil
3 cloves garlic
300g pumpkin, any kind, peeled, seeded, chopped
1 medium celeriac, peeled and chopped
Chicken stock
1t butter
1 red onion, sliced
1t curry powder, or more to taste
Salt and pepper
Cream

Heat the olive oil in a large pot and add the garlic, pumpkin and celeriac. Sauté for a few minutes until the vegetables are starting to soften then add enough chicken stock to almost cover. Simmer for about 15 minutes or until everything is cooked and tender.

Meanwhile, saute the red onion in the butter until soft then add the curry powder and continue cooking at a low heat until caramelised.

When the vegetables are cooked, blend with a stick blender or regular blender, seasoning with salt and pepper. Add enough cream to thin and enrich (to your taste) and reheat gently - not to a boil.

Pour the soup into warmed bowls and place a dollop of curried onions on top to complete the picture.

va·nil·la cream cheese logs

2008-09-10T10:00:00.005+12:00

As I have mentioned G was sick on his birthday, and as I have also mentioned chocolate Guinness cake is part of the birthday tradition. So, the Wednesday prior I prepare for the G-birthday by a supermarket trip for cream cheese and a can of Guinness (most other ingredients found in house by rote). So when I find myself stocked but without cake audience I have to consider my options :

[Lucky am I that the dairy product purchased in August does not expire until the following January - is it just me or is this just a tad alarming?]

So cream cheese then, obviously the Guinness is easily dispensed. How to use? With smoked salmon? Yes, but there is only so much one can eat. So to baking I go :

Vanilla Cream Cheese Logs
makes 2 dozen

200g cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Seeds from 1 vanilla pod
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Cream the cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix the egg and vanillas in lightly but thoroughly. Blend in the flour, baking powder and salt, but only until mixed - no more!

Roll into log shapes, marking tops as you like, and bake for 15 minutes or until firm and turning golden.

We find these biscuits a bit like a sweet cakey bread - yum!

Witloof and I

2008-09-09T20:07:00.001+12:00

Two large gins, two pints of cider. Ice in the cider.

Ah, Witloof : endive, witloof, chicory, escarole. Who are you? What to call you?

Witloof, leafed; olives, sliced; watercress, picked; grapefruit, supremed; spring onions, minced; vinaigrette, creamed.

Monty : Oh, how delicious!

I : another matter entirely.

Rabbit Schnitzel

2008-09-08T20:31:00.004+12:00

Schnitzel. One of the biggest food compliments G has given me was when he said that my schnitzel was even better than his Austrian friend Reinhardt's mum's Wiener Schnitzel. That was saying something.

[For the record the other biggest food compliment G has given me is that my apple pie is better than his Uncle Bob's mum's apple pie.]

Bless!

Anyway, when it is G's birthday I like to ask what he fancies for the weekend's festivities and augment that list with his favourites. Strangely enough, rabbit generally features on both. However this year G was sick and so was the butcher's variety ; no rabbit. But a couple of weekends later at Moore Wilson I found the rabbit - lots and lots of rabbit : fillet, loin, leg and complete muscular bodies all ready to lop. But what to do?

Now, if you have tried to cook rabbit you may also have had the misfortune to produce dry, gamey rubbish. Feel my fear. But what better way to protect from dryness than to coat in crumbs? Veal schnitzel is often a bit tasteless, expensive and hard to come by, but rabbit : flavourful, pleantiful, presentable. Hence, I present rabbit Schnitzel :

Rabbit Schnitzel
serves 4

250g rabbit fillets
50g flour seasoned with salt and pepper
1 egg beaten with a little milk
Bread crumbs

Trim the silver skin from the fillets and flatten to a uniform thinness with a meat mallet. Flour, egg and crumb the flattened fillets and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Heat a heavy bottomed pan and when at medium-high heat add olive oil and a knob of butter. Fry Schnitzels until golden on each side Keep warm in a low oven until all are cooked. Serve with mashed potatoes and peas.

Happy Birthday G!

2008-08-24T21:02:00.002+12:00

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday darling GG!
Happy Birthday to you!

pup·py pop·si·cle

2008-01-24T14:10:00.000+13:00

It has been brilliantly hot and sunny here in Wellington I thought I would give you dog owners out there a little tip for keeping your dog cool - puppy popsicles! They are particularly good for puppies when they are teething. Just almost fill a small container with water and add a nylon chew then freeze. Pop in your dog's water bowl when frozen for them to bob for and chew.

And may I introduce Nico, our new puppy :

Isn't she cute?! Sorry, I couldn't resist!

rec·i·pe

2008-01-20T12:55:00.000+13:00

"It is worth remembering that in its purest form a recipe was simply a cook's receipt written in a ledger to show where the housekeeping money had gone. At best it was an account of someone's meal, an aide-mémoire for the cook who might want to make a successfl supper again. To use either as an unshakeable chemcal formula is surely missing the point."

Nigel Slater, Appetite.

IV vs V

2008-01-07T11:17:00.000+13:00

Four spice or quatre épices :

White pepper (for savoury) or allspice (for sweet)
Nutmeg
Cloves
Ginger

Used to flavour meats during the curing process and in the case of the sweet variation rich cakes and desserts.

Five spice or Chinese five spice:

Star anise
Cloves
Fennel seeds
Cinnamon
Sichuan Pepper

A good flavouring agent for rich and fatty meats like pork and duck in a Chinese context.

clot·ted cream

2008-01-06T09:53:00.000+13:00

Q : What is the perfect accompaniment for scones?
A : Clotted cream, jam and butter - yes all three!

My brother-in-law is from Cornwall and I consider him the authority on Cornish goods : he makes the best Cornish pasties, has been to Rick Stein's restaurant and is an aficionado of clotted cream.

I have not had much clotted cream, but the few times I have I have appreciated it for its pure creaminess, delicious density and fine colour and texture. It is perfect with all deserts and afternoon teas. In fact don't bother with afternoon tea if you have no clotted cream. I made this for my brother-in-law at Christmas to have with the Christmas pudding, and we also had it with the mince pies. Oh yes. Really good.

Clotted Cream
makes 1 cup approximately

500mL cream

Preheat the oven to 90°c.
Pour the cream into a fairly shallow dish and cover firmly with foil.
Put the cream in the oven and leave for 8 hours.
Remove the dish from the oven and cool then refrigerate for at least 8 hours.
Skim the solid clotted cream from the liquid and eat with scones, Christmas pudding, mince pies, pies in general or how ever you choose.

Notes :
There will be a layer of a crusty yellow butter-like substance on the top. I just use this with the cream.
There will be a liquid layer beneath the clotted cream that is good for using in cooking where cream or milk is required : potatoes dauphinois , white sauce or bread.

Cheers Tonior! This is for you!

scone

2008-01-02T15:11:00.000+13:00

When we were in Scotland we were treated to two nights at Monachyle Mhor (Thanks Maw and Paw R!) . It is a wonderful place : beautiful surroundings, lovely atmosphere and brilliant food. The chef is Tom Lewis who took part in the Great British Menu representing Scotland.

While everything we ate there was fantastic, it was the scones that we keep mentioning . . . isn't it funny how the little things done so well are so memorable?

The tea (morning or afternoon, or both!) menu noted that the scones take 15 minutes - arriving warm, fresh and obviously straight from the oven - complete with clotted cream, fresh butter and jam. The scones were light and had a lovely crust, fluffy yet substanital within, and tasted like they were made with good, honest ingredients and skill. I must admit that we had the scones both days in lieu of lunch ; what are holidays about if not having a brilliant breakfast, fabulous scones then a fantastic dinner?!

Once home, I tried to recreate the scones, to good effect I think, the outsides perhaps a little rougher, but looks aren't everything, right?

Scones
makes 12

250g plain flour (I use white spelt)
pinch of salt
40g unsalted butter, cubed
1t cream of tartar
1t baking soda
150mL yoghurt

Preheat the oven to 210°c.
Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl and rub in the butter quickly with your finger tips. Sift in the cream of tartar and baking soda then quickly mix in the yoghurt to make a light dough. Form into the shape you fancy, either by rolling and cutting or just dolloping. Leave to rest for about 10 minutes on the bench before baking 10 minutes. Serve immediately!

Jan·u·ar·y

2008-01-01T09:00:00.001+13:00

January is a brilliant month, so many of the best fruits and vegetables are around :

Fruit :
apricots
nectarines
peaches
cherries
plums
blueberries
strawberries
raspberries
oranges
Vegetables :
new potatoes
sweetcorn
courgettes
tomatoes
globe artichokes
beans
aubergines
capsicum
cucumber
radishes

Doesn't that all spell ratatouille cooked on the barbecue or a wonderful mixed salad?

So what is this all a·bout?

2007-12-31T19:00:00.000+13:00

A new year and a new look seemed to warrant me thinking out loud upon what The Laughing Gastronome is all about :

I love food : I love to eat food, I love to cook food, I love to plan for food, I love to shop for food, I love to learn about food.
I want to be in aware of exactly what is within the food I eat and of what I give my family and friends to eat.
I need to know how make certain foods from scratch so should I wish to prepare them, or to judge a purchased version, I am able.
I want to know how to grow the foods I can with my limited resources.
I really care about reusing, recycling and reducing, and I am finding more and more ways to do these things.
I love cook books ; for inspiration, instruction and just to while away some time.
I love to eat seasonally ; there is nothing like the last feijoa or the first asparagus.
I love to learn a new technique, or to practice an old one. Sometimes the more difficult the better and sometimes the wonder is in the simplicity.
I value the right tool for the job, but have no space for the one time wonders.
I love finding a brilliant product or ingredient, new or old, that makes me wonder how I could live without it.
I love the preparation tips and food tricks that are shared among interested friends.

These are some of the areas that are to be explored on The Laughing Gastronome in 2008 - I hope you enjoy visiting.

Happy new year!

Tabasco Sauce

2007-11-05T10:49:00.000+13:00

The last of our chillies.

We grow Chillies every year on our deck, they just seem to thrive. I was always surprised how productive the bush always seems to be, and how hot the resulting chillies are. Then I read somewhere that to grow hotter chillies only water once a week . . . I thought I was just being lazy!

This year because we were going away on holiday I wanted to pick them all before we left and rather than just popping them in the freezer I thought some homemade tabasco sauce was in order. It is very simple. And not that authentic. I mean I don't have an oak barrel and three years, let alone the right type of chilli, so perhaps this should be amended to chilli sauce?

Beware the noxious gas release while the sauce is simmering - keep the extractor fan on and a window open!

Chilli Sauce
Makes approximately 1 cup of sauce

250g fresh destalked chillies, chopped roughly
1 cup cider or wine vinegar
1 teaspoon of salt

Mix all the ingredients in a pot and simmer for 5 minutes. Leave to cool. Puree and mature the thick paste in the fridge for a month in a glass jar. Sieve into a sterilised bottle.

corn·ed corn chow·der

2007-11-01T15:20:00.000+13:00

Hot and steamy, but nothing to focus on . . .

When I made corned beef and its delicious silky sauce there was a fair bit of cooking liquor left, and it was too good for this frugally amused gastronome to throw away. The liquor in which the modern corned beef has been cooked is not as overly salty as that your Mother or Grandmother would have known, thus opening rafts of possible future uses. On tasting the liquor before making the mustard sauce, I immediately saw visions of a damn tasty soup. At the time I thought lentil, but as it transpired, the soup was to be corn chowder. And isn't that so fitting, a corn chowder made with corned beef liquor?

Corned Corn Chowder
Serves 4

1 medium onion, chopped finely
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 large potato, peeled and cubed
6 cups of liquor from cooking corned beef, or chicken stock
500g frozen corn kernels
salt
white pepper

Saute the onion and garlic in a little olive oil until soft. Add the potato and stir to coat in the oily onion mixture. Add the stock and corn and simmer until the potato is soft, approximately 15 minutes. Puree with a hand held blender or similar and season with a little salt and white pepper. Reheat to serve piping hot.

fish fin·gers

2007-10-13T21:18:00.000+13:00

Fingers of fish.

Fish fingers are a childhood memory. The sort of thing you were allowed on a friday night if your parents were going out and you had to have dinner and be ready for bed before the babysitter came. They were best served with baked beans, maybe peas and perhaps some oven chips. The perfect rectangles of reconstituted, or apparently not, fish. Yum!

Well, fish fingers are still a treat in our house, but luckily now we know how to make them ourselves :

Trim some fillets of a a firm white fish - groper is particularly good - into fish finger shapes. Save the off cuts for fish cakes, this is a time when freezing the fish is just fine.
Mix some flour and polenta, about 1/4 cup of each should do it (although I think that sometimes less flour and more polenta would be better), and season with salt and pepper.
Rinse and dry the fish.
Coat the fingers of fish in the polenta mixture. You could double dip the fish fingers if you like by dipping the first dipped finger in beaten egg and then again in the polenta, this will give a thicker coating.
Spray a lined baking sheet with oil, lay out the fish fingers and spray again.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 200°C or until they look really good.

hol·i·day

2007-10-09T19:16:00.001+13:00

It is so good to go on holiday, and it really is so good to be home!

This was a holiday of family, friends - new and old - and also, plenty of gastronomic experiences! Not least being my first taste of lobster, chitterlings and tortoise shell jelly . . .

sau·sage

2007-08-27T20:04:00.000+12:00

Lorne, banger or Lop Cheung

I shall leave you with a picture of a most delicious local choritzo as we travel the globe for a month.

Scotland, England, China . . . but none so good as the sausage of home! But I wont mind trying!

Blogging by Mail

2007-08-12T15:09:00.000+12:00

What a haul!

Thank you so much Dolores it is just so great to get a surprise parcel! And what a parcel :

Coco Délice Chocolates
Caramel Sin
Peach Conserve
Diablo Magazine
Sunset Magazine

The chocolates lasted 2 days, the jam is still just going, the magazines were great fun to browse. But the caramel sin . . . this I had to used up once half of it had disappeared spoon, by spoon, some how.

But here is how to make a banana cake simply divine : make your favourite banana cake recipe and just before baking drop in spoonfuls of a wickedly brilliant caramel. Oh so good, we all know how wonderfully caramel goes with banana ; this cake will not last long.

Thank you Dolores for the great parcel, and thank you Stephanie for organising. Apologies to you both for the tardiness of my posting - I will mention computer problems and our 19 year old cat going missing (happily back now).

Corned Beef

2007-07-29T18:23:00.000+12:00

Granddad would have been proud!

If you ask any British person if they would like corned beef for lunch, don't be surprised if they are not that eager. In this matter New Zealand and Britain prove they are poles apart. The corned beef of which I speak is no reconstituted canned nightmare, but proud and noble beefy goodness.

I was very happy to recently rediscover how much I like this homely and simple food. Let me tell you how Corned beef and I became reacquainted :

Master W., with whom I work, came back from the butcher with a large piece of meat.
"What have you got there?" I inquired.
"A piece of corned beef" he replied.
"Oh my goodness I have not had that in years, maybe not since granddad died," I cried in excitement, "tell me how you are going to cook it!?"
He explained how he was going to carefully put it in the crockpot with some vegetables and spices, cover it with water and cook it slowly for hours until it was tender and able to be sliced with a spoon. "This," he continued, "will be perfect on Sunday after the Saturday night I have planned."
My mouth was watering and I knew then that I too would have to get a piece of corned beef for Sunday.

I called mum for her recipe, because I wanted to try my hand at reproducing the corned beef of my memory, and thank goodness I did! Mum asked me if I wanted the mustard sauce recipe too. This sauce is the best thing with corned beef, I wonder if in a way I wanted corned beef so I could have this sauce?

Mum's Corned Beef with Mustard Sauce

Corned Beef

Rinse the piece of corned beef and put it in a Crockpot or large pot with a couple of washed carrots cut in half, an onion cut in half and studded with cloves, a strip of orange peel, a few peppercorns and cover with water. Cook on low or high, according to your schedule, until the beef is cooked and threatening to fall apart, maybe 6 hours or so.

Leave any leftover beef to cool in the liquor, or indeed make this ahead of time, leaving to cool in the liquor and reheat gently when you are ready to eat it. Use some of the liquor for the mustard sauce, below, but do not throw away the rest of the liquor. This liquor makes a fantastic stock for soup. It seems that corned beef is not as salty as it once was, but you may not need to season the resulting soup.

Mustard Sauce

1 egg
1/4 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of flour
1 teaspoon of mustard powder
1 cup of corned beef cooking liquor
1/4 cup vinegar
white pepper

Beat the egg with the sugar, then stir in the flour and mustard. Mix in the liquor and vinegar and cook, stirring well, over a medium to low heat until thickened, as you would a custard. Season with white pepper. Serve hot with the corned beef and cold spread in your corned beef sandwiches.

Za'atar Naan Chips

2007-07-26T19:11:00.000+12:00

Want not waste not or third time a treat?

When I made the spelt bread and was so happy with the result I immediately decided to use spelt flour to make naan to go with our Friday night curry. Brilliant : soft, tasty and oh so good topped with a schmear of garlic butter.

I had made more dough than we needed for a couple of naan, so I popped it in the fridge so I could use it on Saturday to make some flat breads for nibbling on with a glass of wine. Delicious : Served with toasted za'atar mixed with olive oil for dipping, the spelt shined through once again. However we ended up with more flat breads than we needed.

So on Sunday I broke the flat breads up into pieces and mixed them with the left over za'atar and oil (do I throw anything away?!). Baked, spread out on a sheet at 180°c, for about 20 minutes until they were crispy and golden. Such a good snack, such a good way to use up that naan dough.

Once again a cracker!

it is spelt b-r-e-a-d

2007-07-20T14:22:00.000+12:00

and also made from spelt flour.

I love to try out new ingredients, and in the case of spelt flour, old ingredients that are new to me. I knew that spelt was the ancient form of wheat, was higher in protein and is more easily digested than regular wheat.

I was so happy to find that bread made with spelt was even better tasting and feeling than bread made with regular unbleached stoneground flour. It some how tastes breadier - I am sure that can't make sense! I was worried that it would be heavy and dense, but I was very plesantly surprised to find it was lighter than my usual loaf.

Obviously I need to try emmer wheat next . . .

Spelt bread
makes 1 loaf

2 teaspoons fresh yeast
1 teaspoon honey
~1.5 cups lukewarm water
~4 cups white spelt flour
1 heaped teaspoon salt

Dissolve the yeast and honey in half a cup of water and leave until it begins to froth. Add 3 and a half cups of flour, the rest of the water and the salt and knead to a dough. Leave to rest for 10 minutes then continue kneading, adding more flour or water as required to make a soft silky dough. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave to double in size, approximately 1 hour. Punch down, form into a loaf and cover again with a damp tea towel and leave for half an hour. Preheat the oven with a baking stone to 230°c.
Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Leave to cool for at least 20 minutes.

Za'atar

2007-07-18T20:55:00.000+12:00

Za'atar - a spice blend to get talked into trying!

Today, like many days, I went to Truffle, and as usual managed to walk out with more than I had on my list, well actually not even what was on my list. My list was not that expansive, it only included sumac which John encouraged me to change for Za'atar. If, like I was, you are not entirely sure of what Za'atar is then let me help you out.

Za'atar is an Arabic word that is used to describe both the herb thyme and a spice blend made from thyme, sesame, sumac and salt. Za'atar is commonly found on top of flat bread in a Middle Eastern restaurant, and now I know, I can remember times I have had it sprinkled on bread in mezze. Another way a friend described to use it is by dry frying it to release the aromas and flavours then mixing with olive oil to use as a dip for pita bread. I can be used to season many a bread, vegetable and meat.

If you are unable to find Za'atar common proportions are :

1 salt : 2 toasted sesame seeds : 4 sumac : 12 dried thyme

I used the Za'atar to coat some lamb backstraps and served them with tabbouleh, the last of my mother's tomatoes and roasted beetroot. I first rubbed the lamb with some garlic olive oil and generously coated with the Za'atar, leaving to rest and infuse for half an hour. I seared the lamb in a hot pan and popped it into a 200°c oven for 15 minutes then rested it for 5 minutes before slicing. Such a good, quick, easy dinner.

By the way, this was the dish and post that I cooked and blogged about when Emily, Zach and Max came to visit to film me for Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie. They were in New Zealand to do a segment on New Zealand and part of an episode about food blogging, both of which are in season two which should start to air in America from January 2008 and I imagine a little later in New Zealand.

Thanks to Commonsense Organics, Ian at Meat, John at Truffle and Paul at Rumbles for letting us visit! Your products and knowledge are amazing, but would I have called you my favourite shops if I did not think that?!

am·a·ret·to and Christ·mas pud·ding

2007-07-14T13:03:00.000+12:00

Amaretto and Christmas Pudding : very, very good.

When I made the Christmas Pudding last year I had more mixture than would fit in my mold so I steamed a couple of mini puddings in ramekins. These have been maturing nicely since last December and were perfect to pull out for our Mid-Winter Feast over at Nihowera.

I am not a particular fan of Christmas cake, but I love Christmas Pudding. Small slices of the rich pudding with a wee dram of Amaretto made a wonderful finish to a mid-winter meal. There are so many reasons to save the more traditional northern hemisphere Christmas dishes for a mid-winter feast and update our summer Christmas meal to reflect our summer weather.

Join us at Nihowera with your mid-winter/mid-summer Christmas feast ideas. Traditional or Modern, Summer or Winter, it is up to you!

cas·hew nut brown sug·ar bis·cuits

2007-07-09T17:25:00.000+12:00

Yin or yang? Yang I think.

Nuts are so good for you : did you know that nuts have been found lacking in the diets of sufferers of Parkinson's disease? They are good at regulating insulin and blood sugar, helping those who suffer from diabetes and glucose intolerance. Nuts have anticancer and heart-protective properties, rich in the antioxidant Vitamin E.

Isn't a nut biscuit a great way to take your medicine?

Cashew Nut Brown Sugar Biscuits
makes 12

100g butter, soft
1/2 cup dark muscovado sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup cashew nuts, chopped
24 whole cashew nuts

Preheat the oven to 180°c.
Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the egg and the vanilla. Mix in the flour and baking powder and finally the chopped cashed nuts. Roll 12 balls of the dough and place on a baking sheet, with room to spread. Press two cashew nuts on to each ball in a pleasing pattern. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden at the edges.

baked pump·kin ri·sot·to

2007-07-04T18:36:00.000+12:00

A risotto to cook while you gossip.

I think we probably all know that a risotto should be cooked on the stove top with constant attention and constant stirring, but there is another way when you would rather be in the living room with friends you have not seen in a while : the oven baked risotto.

Of course there are times when it is lovely to stand and stir, I know, but the oven baked risotto is a wonderful option for after work entertaining. Cooking in a pot that can go straight to the table for everyone to help themselves, hardly disrupts the gossip, giving an easy and friendly way to have dinner.

This risotto with pumpkin looks so nice too, the orange and the green invite people to dive in. The chicken is optional, but it definately makes it a bit more substantial.

Baked Pumpkin Risotto with Chicken
Serves 4

2 chicken breasts, cut into large cubes
2 cups Carnaroli rice
A splash of white wine
5 Cups of Chicken Stock
500g pumpkin, cut into bite size cubes
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon butter
A handful of Parsely, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 190°c.

Heat a pot with a lid suitable for the stove and oven, if you do not have this heat a frying pan and have an oven proof casserole handy. Brown the chicken in a little olive oil and remove to a plate, do this in batches if necessary. Tip the rice into the pot and turn in the chicken frying residual goodness. Add the wine and stir to dislodge the chicken fond from the bottom of the pan. Add the pumpkin and the stock and stir. Bake for 20 minutes, then stir in the chicken. There will still be quite a lot of liquid in the pot. Bake for another 15 minutes, then take from the oven and add the Parmesan, butter and salt and pepper. Stir for at least a minute or until the risotto is creamy, taste and serve sprinkled with parsely.

chil·li corn nib·bles

2007-06-28T17:14:00.000+12:00

Corn and chilli, a perfect match.

A store cupboard snack, perfect for eating while relaxing. Perhaps when playing cards while enjoying a glass of wine. Or for some impromptu nibbles when cracking open a bottle of wine with some friends seem like a good idea. Or even if you aren't hungry enough for a proper meal but know you should have something to eat or regret it at about 1am when you wake up hungry.

Actually they would be pretty good for when you do wake up at 1am hungry . . .

Chilli Corn Nibbles
Enough for a good snack for a couple of hungry people

1 egg
a good glug of Tabasco
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt
white pepper
2 heaped tablespoons of flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
splash of milk
1 cup frozen corn kernels
Olive oil for frying

Beat the egg with the Tabasco, oil and the salt and pepper. Mix in the flour and baking powder and enough milk to make a thick batter. Mix in the corn and leave to stand for about 30 minutes.
Heat a frying pan to medium hot with a good layer of olive oil and fry teaspoons of the mixture until golden and crispy. Keep the fritter warm in a low oven between batches and serve with a chilli sauce.

Brus·sels sprout soup

2007-06-24T09:03:00.000+12:00

I can't change thyme, but thyme can change soup.

For not having a scrap of cream in it, this soup is surprisingly creamy and satisfying. And full of the good flavours of Brussels sprouts. It is the brief 10 minute cooking of the sprouts that has prevented the little beauties from turning into the grey and bitter slop of many a childhood nightmare. I think this could be the recipe that could turn a Brussels sprout hater into a Brussels sprout lover, providing you don't tell them what the soup is made from before they have complimented you on your kitchen skills. The onion sweetens the soup, and the thyme gives a lovely savoury note, but of course substitute another herb you have handy if you have run out of thyme.

I don't think you necessarily need bread with this soup, but then again a piece of hot buttered toast never goes amiss.

Brussels Sprout Soup
serves 2 generously

1 large onion, halved and sliced
1 tablespoon of butter
250g Brussels sprouts, trimmed and cut in half, or quarters if especially large
500mL chicken stock
2 good sprigs of thyme
Celery salt and white pepper

Melt the butter and cook the onion over a low heat with the lid on for about 30 minutes or until very soft and almost melting. Remove the lid, raise the heat to medium, and cook until the onions just start to colour. Add the Brussels sprouts, stock and thyme and cook at a simmer for about 10 minutes or until the sprouts are tender. Remove the thyme and puree the soup. Season with celery salt and pepper, reheat and serve.

cream of to·ma·to soup

2007-06-22T14:14:00.000+12:00

Takes on and beats the best of the cans.

We left it as late as possible to harvest the last of the tomatoes and pull out the plants, finally giving into the cold that was about to hit. When we did we had a huge pile of tomatoes ranging from all green to ripe and wonderful. I tried to ripen the green ones on the window sill, just wanting the hugest pile of ripe redness before I set to boiling them up to pop in the freezer. I did sneak a few from the pile to make my favourite soup - cream of tomato.

Cream of tomato soup is something else mass produced that I like to try to imitate. And I am always very happy when it doesn't match up.

Hot and smeared with butter.

Cream of Tomato Soup
Scale to feed your crowd.

Fresh tomatoes
Parsley stalks, leaves reserved for garnish
Garlic
Tabasco
Salt and Pepper
Cream

Cook the tomatoes with just a dash of water, the parsley stalks and the garlic until completely fallen apart into pulp. Puree then pass through a sieve into a clean pan. Add water and cream to reach the thickness you prefer and reheat without boiling. Season with a dash of Tabasco and salt and pepper.

Serve, of course, with hot buttered toast.

min·i ap·ple pies

2007-06-22T13:31:00.000+12:00

Ernest Adams, Sara Lee or Laughing Gastronome?

I have this thing where I like to make things like those that are usually bought : digestive biscuits, custard creams and most recently, those individual snack size apple pies. They never turn out exactly how they are when bought, but that is a good thing, isn't it!

The apple pies I was hoping to mimic have a cubed apple filling in a thick, sticky sauce flavoured with cinnamon, short crust pastry - often quite cakey, which I didn't want to reproduce - and all sprinkled with sugar. You know the kind. I most often see them at office morning teas and they are always disappointing, making you wish you had stuck to the tim-tams.

These are perfect to take in your packed lunch, but if you want a full size pie, have a look here.

Snack Size Apple Pies
Makes 12 patty pan size

Shortcrust pastry
100g butter, chilled and cubed
200g flour
a good pinch of salt
1 egg, beaten
cold water

Filling
1 tablespoon butter
3 Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored and cubed
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cornflour, slacked with a wee bit of water

Caster sugar for sprinkling

Make the pastry by rubbing the butter into the flour with the salt, then forming a dough with almost all the egg, saving some for brushing the pies before baking, and enough cold water. Leave to rest in the fridge for an hour while you make the filling.

Melt the butter then add the apples, cinnamon and sugar, stirring together well. Cook on a gentle heat until the apple is tender, then thoroughly mix in the cornflour slurry and leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180°c and put a baking tray in to heat.

Roll out the pastry and using suitably sized cutters, cut 12 sets of tops and bottoms to fit a 12 hole patty pan. Line the holes with the larger circles, divide the filling among them, brush the edges with a little water then lay over the tops. Crimp the edges together with a fork then rest in the fridge for 10 minutes. Brush the tops with the reserved egg from the pastry and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 15 minutes.

la·sa·gne

2007-06-19T14:41:00.000+12:00

Hot, comforting food for a cold evening.

It is just starting to get really cold here in Wellington. We were ever so lucky in May with the warmest temperatures for the month on record. But June seems to have made up for that already.

It always pays to look on the bright side of life (are you whistling?!), and the bright side of winter is the food and the cooking : Stews, puddings, roasts. Things that are the antithesis of warm days and balmy nights ; save the cool, light dishes for summer. At this time of year I want something to comfort and to warm. Lasagne is just the thing.

Attractive? Maybe not. But very, very tasty.

I first made lasagne about two and a half years ago, I remember because it was what I took to my sister and her family when my youngest niece was born. That was my first lasagne because I flatted for years with a friend who made the best lasagne ever, so why would I make one, much better to talk her into it!

Simple Lasagne
serves 4

The meat
1 small onion, chopped finely
150g beef mince
2 cloves garlic, minced
bay leaf
1 teaspoon dried mushroom powder
1/4 cup red wine
1 cup tomato puree, not paste, or canned tomatoes
water
salt and pepper

Fry the onion gently in a little olive oil until starting to turn golden. Add the mince and fry until brown through out. Add the garlic, bay leaf, mushroom powder, wine, tomato puree and enough water to just reach the top of the mince. Simmer for 30 minutes, topping up with water as necessary, but the end result should not be too wet. Remove the bay leaf and season with salt and pepper.

The Béchamel
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/4 cups milk
salt and pepper
nutmeg

Melt the butter and stir in the flour. Cook over a medium heat for a minute then gradually stir in the milk, mixing well to avoid lumps. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

The pasta
150g fresh pasta, made with 100g flour and 1 egg, rolled thin and cut into squares.

Cook the pasta squares in lots of rapidly boiling salted water for a minute, in batches, then lay on a damp tea towel.

To complete
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Butter a baking dish and lay a third of the pasta in the bottom. Spread the pasta layer with half the meat then a third of the béchamel and a third of the Parmesan. Repeat the layers, finishing with pasta, béchamel and cheese. Bake at 200°c for 30 minutes and serve piping hot.

what we are drink·ing this week

2007-06-17T12:21:00.000+12:00

Served with plain roasted popadoms, followed by a mild chickpea curry, dahl and naan.

Served with smoked salmon, lemon, black pepper on lightly buttered bread.

Served with guacamole and pita chips.

Brus·sels sprout cole·slaw

2007-06-17T08:08:00.000+12:00

These used to make the best Sindy cabbages!

The idea for using Brussels sprouts in a coleslaw was, like all good ideas, the result of mistake, a misunderstanding. I had just got back from the shop and excitedly told G that I had bought some Brussels sprouts, and because coleslaw was on the menu for dinner G asked if they were for the coleslaw. OK, so that isn't exactly a huge leap to another tangent, but a Brussels sprout coleslaw is a new dish in our kitchen.

I said I came home and excitedly announced the Brussels sprouts because I do love the little green bundles of joy. I think perhaps this love goes back to my days of using them as cabbages for my Sindy dolls. And these were our first Brussels sprouts of the season ; my mother has always told me to wait until the first frost to buy Brussels sprouts. Ah, the joys of winter!

I think Brussels sprouts are the perfect stir fry vegetable, outer leaves removed and cut into quarters, the stay together and cook quickly in the heat of the wok. Lightly steamed they make a lovely pile of miniature cabbages (see above) to enhance any meal. For a quick fix - throw them around the roast for the last 10 minutes or so. Finely sliced, they can be added raw to salads.

So I knew what I was going to enter for the fourth round of Heart of the Matter, which is all about vegetables. This is an event is brought to you by The Heart of the Matter, and is hosted this month by Joanna.

Brussels Sprout Coleslaw
serves 2, but scales well

6 Brussles sprouts, outer leaves removed and finely sliced
1 carrot, peeled or well scrubbed and finely sliced
2 spring onions, finely sliced

dressing
2 tablespoons yoghurt
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon wasabi paste
white pepper and celery salt

Mix the dressing ingredients together well, tasting for seasoning, then toss with the vegetables. This salad will stand well, so can be made a couple of hours ahead and kept in the fridge.

por·ridge

2007-06-16T11:38:00.000+12:00

Och aye tha noo!

Greig is Scottish, and he of course makes the best porridge in the world. Ever. I am not biased this is simply a fact. He eats it rather differently to me however : I grew up having soft brown sugar and a bit of milk on the cooked porridge, and if I was lucky the top of the milk or some cream. My sister likes a wee dram of whiskey on her porridge, with the cream and sugar. But Greig, he just adds a bit more salt, and maybe a spot of milk if he is feeling a bit naughty.

One of the best things with which to stir the porridge is a spurtle. A spurtle is a wooden stick like tool which is able to get right into the corners of the pot, but doesn't resist its path through the porridge like a wooden spoon can.

We use organic rolled oats, never any that are processed more than that - what is the point? We sometimes mix in a proportion of jumbo uncut oats, just for a wee change, ye ken?

It is so wet and rainy here in Wellington today, that porridge was the perfect breakfast.

Porridge
serves 2

1 cup rolled oats
2 cups water
approximately 1 teaspoon salt
approximately 1 cup of milk

Mix the oats, water and salt in a pot and cook for a while, stirring frequently with your spurtle. Add the milk gradually to make the consistency you prefer. Taste and add more salt before serving with soft brown sugar, whiskey, cream and more salt.

It is so wet and rainy here in Wellington today, that porridge made the perfect breakfast.

Update - In light of comments I have had, I have done some research and since we are not able to buy steel cut oats in New Zealand, I was obviously mistaken that that was the kind I used! Sorry!

cas·sou·let

2007-06-15T18:45:00.000+12:00

Meat, meat, meat.

Arfi asked for it, so I will give her meat. Cassoulet has more meat than you should probably eat in one sitting. But when it is for a good cause, what can you do?

Arfi is raising awareness for iron deficiency in women by encouraging the consumption of meat to help alleviate anemia. I am lucky in this respect, and perhaps rather unusual, I have iron levels that are at the top, and sometimes slightly over, the normal range. This is unusual for a woman of my age. I do think it is in part due to my enjoyment of meat, but we must also consider other ways to get iron from our diets.

There are two types of iron, haem and non-haem. Haem iron is only found in animal tissues, non-haem iron is found in grains, fruits, vegetable, legumes, nuts and eggs. Haem iron is most readily absorbed by the body and also increases the uptake of non-haem iron. Yet another argument for a balanced and varied diet.

I think my secret weapon is cooking in cast iron pans, which apparently and debatably, contributes iron to the foods cooked. But I choose to believe it!

This is my simplified version of cassoulet, no claims to authenticity, but fairly easy and a great winter's meal. A couple of notes - I found I did not have enough beans when I came to prepare the cassoulet, so it turned out a bit more like cassoulet soup, which with some crusty bread was rather good! I made the Confit of goose, which I will write up in a later post. Confit of duck could be substituted.

Cassoulet
to serve 4

1 cup dried white beans, soaked overnight
250g pork belly, with skin removed but reserved
1 bay leaf
4 sausages, plain or spicy, cut into generous pieces
Confit goose breast, skin removed, cut into generous pieces
fresh thyme leaves
1 cup Chicken stock
1/2 cup grated cheese
1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs

Drain the beans and put in a pot with the pork belly and bay leaf. Cover generously with water and simmer until the beans are tender. Drain, reserving the liquid and cut the pork belly into generous pieces, discard the bay leaf. Brown the sausages in a little fat.

In a suitably sized oven proof dish, lay the pork skin on the bottom then layer with 1/3 of the beans, 1/2 of the meats, a seasoning of pepper and thyme and repeat ending with a layer of beans. Pour in the chicken stock and enough of the bean cooking liquid to just cover the top layer of beans.

Cook in a 180°c oven for and hour then reduce the heat to 140°c and cook for another hour. Cool and chill until the next day.

Cook again at 180°c oven for and hour then reduce the heat to 140°c for another hour adding more of the bean cooking liquid as you think necessary. Turn the oven back to 180°c, top with the cheese and breadcrumbs and cook until a nice crust has formed. Serve immediately with a hearty red wine and no other plans for the evening.

gri·ssi·ni

2007-06-13T15:12:00.000+12:00

Finally - crunchy grissini!

I am quite proud of myself - I have finally achieved something I have been wanting to successfully do for years : crunchy grissini!

You know those bread sticks that come in little packets at certain Italian restaurants, that you can sometimes buy in bundles at specialty food shops? (The only time I ever see them is at the Kirks sale - and I can't walk past them.) I just love them. I have tried and tried to reproduce them at home, but mine have always been too soft. You would not think it was so hard to produce a dry bread, would you? None of the recipes I had found, in books or online, have resulted in the dry, crumbly sticks for which I hanker. I have tried changing the recipe and the preparation, but finally I have discovered that the answer lies in the baking.

Grissini
makes 12 long ones

225g bread flour
15g fresh yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
Luke warm water

Dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup warm water and mix in 50g flour to make a soft dough. Leave for 15 minutes to start to bubble. Mix in the salt and the rest of the flour, adding enough warm water to make a good dough. Knead well and leave to double in size for an hour.

Divide into 12 pieces and roll into thin sausage shapes as long as your baking tray. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave again in a warm place for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 250°c.

Put the grissini in the oven and turn the oven off. Keeping an eye on them, and test one after 20 minutes, turning the oven onto 100°c if you think it is necessary.

As pictured above, I served the crispy, crunchy grissini with prosciutto, mortadella, salami and mozzarella for a wonderful antipasto.

ap·ple me·ringue

2007-06-11T19:00:00.000+12:00

Is this nostalgia, or a meringue?

My Gran used to make this pudding, a pudding I thought I had forgotten, but yesterday as I was stirring the apples I was stewing I was presented with a vision, a memory. A vision of Gran serving a wonderfully golden and white pillow of sweet fluffy cloud sitting atop smooth apple.

My Gran was not a lady to waste a thing, and that is one of the best parts of this pudding. Usually when you make a meringue, the yolks from the eggs are set aside, intended for another use, but probably end up wasting away in the back of the fridge and then getting wasted. Gran, who may or may not have invented this technique, beat the yolks into the apple. This seems to make the apple more mousse like, more creamy, just better. And there is no waste - isn't that marvelous!

Apple Meringue
the proportions below serve 2, but the recipe scales beautifully

1 cup of stewed apple
1 egg, separated
50g vanilla sugar

Beat the egg yolk into the apple. Put the apple into a suitable oven proof serving dish and heat in a 200°c oven while you make the meringue.
Beat the egg white with a pinch of salt until thick then add the sugar gradually, beatign until a glossy marshmallowy texture is achieved.
Spread the meringue on top of the now hot apples making lots of swirls and ridges to catch the heat and caramelise in the oven.
Bake for 5 to 10 minutes until the meringue is golden.
Serve with lots of cream to pour over.

pop·a·doms

2007-06-09T07:06:00.000+12:00

or how to cook popadoms at home without a microwave.

About four years ago our microwave caught caught fire. It was the second microwave I have blown up actually. The first time was at a flat I was sharing with a friend, I was cooking a kumara for lunch and the next think I knew there were flames and smoke pouring out the vents at the side.

We decided that I probably shouldn't have a microwave again, at least for a while.

I don't know how often you use a microwave, but we used to rely on it for cooking things as well as reheating and defrosting. We thought it would be hard to live without, but actually it was fine. There were a few times that I was a bit stumped as to how to do something without the microwave, but that was just because I had to do them differently.

The first time was when I was faced with cooking frozen peas. I honestly/sadly couldn't think how to do it without a microwave ; the peas were so much nicer being boiled in water on the stove.

Another time was when my sister's baby was just starting solids and she needed to heat Millie's food ; a pan of simmering water, with a bowl on top did the job, possibly better than the microwave.

Reheating leftovers was probably the biggest challenge. However we have found that soup gently heated on the stove doesn't get that crusty edge with the cold middle as it can in the microwave. Meat reheated in a foil package in the oven or in a pot with a wee bit of gravy or sauce tastes tastes much better without that rubbery texture and taste. Above all, a fresh cup of tea is miles better than your forgotten half cup reheated for the third time.

The most satisfying discovery of all was when we wanted popadoms with our curry. We had always cooked popadoms in the microwave. It is one of the most fun and exciting acts of microwave cookery. We could hardly think where to start with out the microwave. We now cook our popadoms in the oven and once you taste a roasted popadom next to a microwaved popadom I am sure you will only use the microwave to cook a popadom to entertain small children.

And with that final challenge overcome I can honestly say, I don't miss the microwave at all!

Home Roasted Popadoms

Popadoms, any size
Optional ingredients: oil and spices such as garam masala or ground cumin

Heat the grill in the oven to its maximum, with a shelf as close to the grill as possible.
If you want to spice up the papadoms spray or brush them lightly with oil and sprinkle with the spices.
Place the popadoms under the grill, either on a tray or directly on the shelf. I usually do no more than two full size ones at a time because they cook so quickly. Removing as soon as they are puffed and golden. I like a few singed areas, but if you do not, be extra vigilant. No need to turn them over if the grill is hot enough.
They can also be baked in a hot oven, but I think the grill gives the best result.

roast veg·e·ta·ble pas·ta

2007-06-07T20:52:00.001+12:00

Dinner!

So, I got home, no idea what to have for dinner, wanting to use up the vegetables we have before we get our box delivered tomorrow, see some orzo in the pantry that I decide needs to be used up, pull a chicken breast out of the freezer, turn on the oven, peel the vegetables, cut the vegetables, oil the vegetables, season the vegetables, and cook the vegetables, boil the pasta, fry the chicken, deglaze the pan with lemon juice and a chicken stock cube, serve dinner, take a photo, eat the dinner.

Not a bad evening's work.

herb·y corn·bread

2007-06-04T18:05:00.000+12:00

Cornbread can be whipped up in an instant for [almost] immediate satisfaction. Well I suppose that isn't actually true. It does take a wee while in the oven, but once you have mixed the ingredients and scraped them into a tin and into the oven, you can be relaxing on the couch until the timer finally rings and hot herby cornbread is ready for you.

If you can make muffins you can make corn bread, and anyone can make muffins, so it naturally follows that anyone can make cornbread. Like muffins, cornbread is chemically leavened and like muffins, cornbread appreciates a minimum of mixing.

Herby Cornbread
Makes 1 loaf, to serve 4

1/2 cup polenta
3/4 cup unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon honey
1 egg
1 can creamed corn, approximately 1 cup, if more reduce the yoghurt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup yoghurt
A good handful mixed herbs, chopped, such as parsley, coriander, chervil

Preheat the oven to 180°c and grease and line a loaf pan.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Beat the wet ingredients together in a jug. Mix the wet into the dry, but only enough to combine, then fold in the herbs.
Bake for 35 minutes or until turning golden.
Slice and enjoy!

fei·jo·a chut·ney

2007-05-27T11:32:00.000+12:00

An easy nibble, to start a meal.

I just love feijoas, and like to eat as many as I can in their short season, a season which is rapidly coming to an end, filling me with a sense of urgency - I must make the most of this most delicious fruit.

My friend Mel gave me her mother's feijoa chutney recipe, which with her permission I pass on to you. I have cut the recipe down to quantities that suit me. A jar of chutney probably lasts me six months, so the amount below gives enough for me and some to give away - sharing the joy with home made preserves.

Mel's Mum's Feijoa Chutney
Makes about 4 small jars

250g of feijoas, washed, trimmed and sliced
125g onions, chopped
75g raisins, chopped
125g pitted dates, chopped
125g brown sugar
1t ground ginger
1t cumin (curry powder was specified, but I had to improvise!)
4 cloves, ground in a mortar and pestle
A knife tip of cayenne pepper
1t salt
1 cup malt or white wine vinegar

Put all ingredients in a large saucepan. Bring to the boil and cook gently for 1½ - 2hrs until the chutney is thick. Pour into sterilized jars and seal.

Thanks Mel, and I hope you have a lovely time on your travels!

tu·a·ta·ra chil·li

2007-05-24T18:10:00.000+12:00

Who would have thought there is reptile in here?

Bron is hosting a very clever event - Wild Food - Edible Reptile, in which one prepares reptile to eat. What a great idea, certainly sets you thinking. Maybe even makes you a little scared.

I decided to use tuatara. Tuatara is a lizard like, nocturnal reptile, native to New Zealand. There can be a fair amount of meat on a tuatara since they can grow up to 60 cm and weigh 1 kg in their 100 years. They are scaly, crested and have 3 eyes. Tuatara are fairly easily found in the Wellington region, especially in Karori.

I actually got mine from Moore Wilsons, conveniently portioned and packed.

Kidney and black beans soaking in Tuatara Pale Ale.

Of course, I mean Tuatara beer. As if I would eat an endangered species, even for Bron.

I had an idea to soak the dried beans for the chilli in the ale instead of water then cook them in the same liquid. I think it worked really well, adding a much greater depth of flavour.

Tuatara Chilli
serves at least 4

1 cup black beans
1 cup kidney beans
1 bottle of tuatara
1 dry chilli
1 onion
garlic, how ever much you want
1/2 cup black lentils
chicken stock
ground cumin
ground coriander
fennel seed
chilli powder
salt and pepper

Soak the beans in the beer overnight, topping up with water to cover generously.
Bring the beans to the boil in the soaking liquid, with the dried chilli, then simmer for an hour or until tender. The length of time can vary depending on the age of the beans.
Fry the onion and garlic until golden, then add to the beans with all the other ingredients, plus any others you fancy, more chilli for example.
Simmer for another couple of hours until the chilli is tasty, cooked and thick.
Serve with cornbread, rice or tortillas, guacamole, sour cream or yoghurt, feta and salsa.

As an aside, I was making cornbread to my usual recipe when I discovered that I had run out of flour, so I substituted chickpea flour with wonderful results - I think I might make that my usual recipe from now on!

You have until the end of May to enter Wild Food, so why not grab yourself a reptile and join in!

mush·room soup

2007-05-20T08:00:00.000+12:00

A bowl of grey-brown goodness.

I love mushroom soup, and this is a particularly good one, and interesting too. It is thickened with wholemeal bread instead of a roux or other thickening agent. Apparently, using breadcrumbs to thicken soup is a technique which has been used since the Middle Ages. I think it is a much easier and reliable method as well, no fussing about really, just pop the crustless slice in the soup.

A thick soup is a great comforting and warming meal, just right for these Autumn days. Over at Nihowera we are featuring soup this week - have a look!

Mushroom Soup
from Tamasin's Kitchen Bible by Tamasin Day-Lewis Serves 4

340g brown mushrooms, sliced
55g unsalted butter
2T chopped parsley
2-3 sprigs of thyme
a glove of garlic, minced
salt and pepper
nutmeg or mace
1 thick slice wholemeal bread, crusts removed
1L chicken stock
150mL cream

Stew the mushrooms in the butter, adding half the parsley, thyme, garlic and seasoning when the mushroom juices start to appear. Soak the bread in a little stock. Add the break and stock to the mushrooms. Simmer for 15 minuted. Puree, add the cream, then reheat and check the seasoning.

Serve with a trickle of cream and the rest of the parsley sprinkled on top.

I also added a dribble of truffle oil, because I love it!

Nihowera

2007-05-16T18:10:00.000+12:00

A new website all about New Zealand food, products and news.

I have great pleasure in introducing Nihowera - a website dedicated to exploring New Zealand foods : produce, seasonality, products and news.

Nihowera is a collaboration between myself and Bron of Bron Marshall fame, fabulous chef and photographer extraordinaire.

Nihowera is a Maori word meaning :

[verb] be extravagant with food.
[noun] generous host.

Bron and I hope you enjoy Nihowera - go on, dive in!

bri·oche

2007-05-13T08:26:00.000+12:00

Yellow eggs, yellow butter.

Brioche is a rich bread, rich with butter and eggs. All those eggs and butter make the resulting bread a sunny golden yellow ; as is appropriate for Barbara's a Taste of Yellow event.

LIVESTRONG Day is the Lance Armstrong Foundation's (LAF) grassroots advocacy initiative to unify people affected by cancer and to raise awareness about cancer survivorship issues on a national level and in local communities across the country. LIVESTRONG Day 2007 will occur on Wednesday, May 16.

Brioche can be made with varying proportions of butter. The iconic petites brioches à tête are made with the most butter, but the loaf you see above has a more modest amount of butter - only half as much butter as flour. I find that this amount of butter gives the most versatile loaf, and is fairly easy to handle.

Some things to do with brioche :

slices lightly toasted and spread with marmalade for breakfast.
make rolls for the best hamburger buns.
baked with a vanilla scented custard to become bread and butter pudding.

Brioche
makes 1 loaf, or 6 buns

Sponge
1/4 cup unbleached bread flour
1/4 cup warm milk
2 teaspoon fresh yeast

Dissolve the yeast in the milk the mix in the flour. Leave in a warm place for an hour until it is frothy.

Dough
3 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
100g butter, soft, cut into 4 pieces

Beat almost all the egg into the sponge, reserving some for an egg wash before baking. I do this in my Kenwood Chef with the K beater. Then add the flour, sugar and salt beating until well mixed. Leave to rest for a few minutes. Beat in the butter, a piece at a time. Rest the dough in the fridge for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
Shape into a loaf, or buns, and leave at room temperature to double in size.
Bake at 180°c for about 30 minutes for a loaf, 15 for buns, or until the bread sounds hollow when tapped. Leave to rest on a rack for at least an hour before eating.

roast·ed toad·stools

2007-05-12T11:57:00.000+12:00

I have been asked why I called this blog The Laughing Gastronome.

In 1967 David Bowie wrote a song called The Laughing Gnome. Now, this song is a bit different than his usual work, but for some reason I find it hilarious! So what better way to pay tribute to something that has amused me than by naming my food blog as a pun on the title of a song that is full of puns itself. I mean, it isn't so strange, he does feed the [gastro]gnome roasted toadstools, dandelion wine, caviar and honey . . .

The Laughing Gnome
David Bowie
1967

I was walking down the high street
When I heard footsteps behind me
And there was a little old man (hello)
In scarlet and grey, shuffling away (laughter)
Well he trotted back to my house
And he sat beside the telly (oaah..)
With his tiny hands on his tummy
Chuckling away, laughing all day (laughter)

Oh, I ought to report you to the gnome office
(gnome office)
Yes
(hahahahaha)

Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
Im a laughing gnome and you dont catch me
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
I'm a laughing gnome and you cant catch me
Said the laughing gnome

Well I gave him roasted toadstools and a glass of dandelion wine (burp, pardon)
Then I put him on a train to eastbourne
Carried his bag and gave him a fag
(havent you got a light boy? )
Here, where do you come from?
(gnome-mans land, hahihihi)
Oh, really?

In the morning when I woke up
He was sitting on the edge of my bed
With his brother whose name was fred
Hed bought him along to sing me a song

Right, lets hear it
Here, whats that clicking noise?
(thats fred, hes a metrognome, haha)

Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
Im a laughing gnome and you dont catch me
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
Im a laughing gnome and you cant catch me

(own up, Im a gnome, aint I right, haha)
Havent you got an ome to go to?
(no, were gnomads)
Didnt they teach you to get your hair cut at school? you look like a rolling gnome.
(no, not at the london school of ecognomics)

Now theyre staying up the chimney
And were living on caviar and honey (hooray!)
Cause theyre earning me lots of money
Writing comedy prose for radio shows
Its the-er (what? )
Its the gnome service of course

Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
Im a laughing gnome and you dont catch me
Ha ha ha, oh, dear me

(ha ha ha, hee hee hee
Im a laughing gnome and you cant catch me
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
Im a laughing gnome and you cant catch me)

(one more time, yeah)

fresh yeast

2007-05-09T09:35:00.001+12:00

It seems so alive.

I bought my first block of fresh yeast. It cost about $2 and is big enough to make all the bread I could eat if I was to only eat bread for a month. I have shared it among my friends and family, and it is still going. I had read somewhere that fresh yeast only lasts two weeks, but I have had this wonderful item for three weeks now and it is still going strong.

If you like to bake bread, I whole heartedly recommend fresh yeast over dried.

Update : use twice the amount of fresh to dried yeast - both volume and by weight work.

Am·a·zon cake

2007-04-22T15:04:00.000+12:00

1/3 cup of cocoa powder - all it takes.

I stumbled upon this recipe, which I will reproduce below, and I can only reiterate Debbie's comments of just what a wonderfully easy, chocolatey, quick cake this is. Try it. It is brilliant.

I have made it many times now and have changed the recipe to suit what I always have to hand. Some modifications I have made :

I have used peanut oil, which gives a nice faintly nutty flavour, but I usually use olive oil because it is always in the cupboard.
I use white sugar or soft brown sugar, which gives a slight caramel flavour.
I have used different types of vinegar : red wine, white wine, cider, but not malt yet!
I have accidentally added more cocoa powder than required, to no ill effect.
I have scaled the recipe up and down, which is very easy to do, with no eggs to divide in half.
I have baked it in a loaf tin, a round tin and a square tin, all of which cooked perfectly.

Amazon Cake
via Words to Eat By, The New York Times, Cafe Beaujolais by Margaret Fox

5 tablespoons olive oil
1½ teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 cup cold water
1 ½ cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 180°c, grease a cake tin.
Whisk together the oil, vanilla and vinegar with 1 cup cold water, whisk in the dry ingredients, to make a smooth batter.
Pour into the cake tin and bake for 30 minutes or until it tests cooked with a skewer.
Cool in the pan.

beer for Eas·ter

2007-04-20T19:52:00.000+12:00

Beer for Easter - hooray!

My NZ Blogging by post parcel arrived on the door step on Thursday, the day before Good Friday - just in time!

So, I eagerly ripped open the box to find a wonderful 6 pack of Emerson's beer. There was London Porter, Dunkelweiss and Taieri George. Have a look at the Mary sent me an email, which I will quote here, describing her intentions for each :

"the Taieri George beer be eaten with some nicely sauced (but not highly spiced) sticky date pud, or as a dessert in itself. Let the dunkelweiss set for awhile to settle.. I would decant it, not carefully but I find less lees better for the dunkel. It may also accompany a light choc dessert but it's a nice way to end an evening solo. And the last, save for a chilly, wet and windy Wellington night in front of the fire.."

Thanks Mary - I think this is such a good idea for a blogging by mail parcel!

Unfortunately there had been a bit of a problem with the parcel, with it being sent back to Mary due to some of the contents being broken in transit. Sadly this also meant that the pud and biscuits that were included had to be thrown away in case they were contaminated with broken glass - what a shame . . .

plum cake

2007-03-27T17:22:00.000+12:00

What a fab way to use up plums!

When plum season begins and plums are all the fruit you want to buy, eating them from hand is just wonderful. But as time goes by and you are still buying all the types of plums in the same quantities, you need something else to do with them. Just to take a wee break, you know? I have the best answer to this most wonderful dilemma - plum cake.

I have tried making jam and chutney and stewed plums, but we don't eat that much jam or chutney and the same stewed fruit each morning is just, a little, well, boring. A slice of a wonderfully moist cake is a brilliant way to get your fruit quota, don't you think?

I just noticed that I said "wonderfully moist" in reference to the cake for which I am about to type the recipe, without realising that is exactly how Nigel Slater describes it in the title in The Kitchen Diaries - you must believe it is true now! Incidently, The Kitchen Diaries is one of my favourite books I bought last year.

Fresh Plum Cake
adapted from The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater
makes about 6 slices

75g of butter
75g of caster sugar
1 egg
35g of flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
90g almonds, ground in a processor to fine rubble
8 plums, stones removed and cut into pieces

Preheat the oven to 180°c. Line a loaf tin with baking paper.
Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg. Fold in the flour baking powder and almonds.
Pour the batter into the loaf tin and stick the plum pieces in to the batter, making sure to put some right to the edges.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into a batter area comes out clean. Leave to cool slightly in the tin, then remove to a rack.

Thai spiced fish cakes

2007-03-24T08:35:00.000+12:00

Easy Spicy Fish Cakes

A frequent friday evening supper in our house is spiced fish cakes. Of course, fish seems right on a friday; I like to suppose that the cultural traditions that make this so, also mean that the fishmonger has a good turnover at the end of the week - a good time to buy fish. Any white fish will do : I tend to choose tarakihi, because it is not as bad as other fish on offer. It is often fairly cheap, and since it is being ground up and highly flavoured the texture and flavour of more expensive fish would be wasted here.

Little fish cakes, piled on a communal platter is a lovely way to eat, and relax, after a hard week at work. They are quick and easy and undemanding in both their preparation and cooking - much easier than popping out for a takeaway, I really do think.

Thai spiced fish cakes
enough for 2

250g white fish fillets
1 heaped tablespoon cornflour
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 egg
a handful of coriander leaves and stalks, chopped
a chilli, chopped
2 teaspoons Thai curry paste
1 spring onion, white and green, sliced

To serve
Vietnamese mint, Thai basil, or another herb
Lemon or lime wedges
Chilli or soy sauce

Process all the ingredients, except the spring onions, in a food processor until chopped and combined. Fold through the spring onions. Place in a bowl in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Heat a heavy frying pan with a little peanut oil for frying. Fry spoonfuls of the mixture until golden on each side. Keep the cooked cakes warm in a low oven while the rest are cooking.
Serve sprinkled with herb leaves, lemon wedges for squeezing over and a sauce for dipping.

car·a·way and black ses·a·me seed bis·cuits

2007-03-23T16:50:00.001+12:00

Just right with a glass of wine on a sunny Sunday afternoon!

Last Sunday, Jules came round for a glass of wine in the last of the sun - it was so nice to finally meet him properly. He lives just up the road ; we knew we were neighbours and have bumped into each other a couple of times, but last Sunday was the first time we have sat down and started to get to know each other.

I made some little biscuits flavoured with one of my favourite things - caraway seeds. These biscuits are savoury and crisp, nice to nibble on with a pre-dinner drink. Caraway is such a soothing flavour, tasting like seed cake that Gran used to make and like Gripe water I remember having as a child! Black sesame seeds are just a bit nuttier than regular sesame seeds, and I think have a bit of an aesthetic advantage over the white ones in a biscuit like this. I made them in quite a rough elongated oval shape, but they could be cut out with a biscuit cutter if a tidier shape was wanted.

Caraway and black sesame seed biscuits
makes about 48

2 cups of plain flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
60g chilled butter, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons of caraway seeds
2 tablespoons id black sesame seeds
1/2 cup chilled water
salt

Mix the flour and baking powder in a food processor then add the butter, processing until crumbs form. Add the seeds and pulse briefly. Add the water a little at a time with the motor running until the dough just starts to come together. Turn out onto the bench and press into one mass, taking care not to knead the dough.
Divide into two logs, wrap in plastic and rest in the fridge for half an hour while the oven is preheating to 180°c.
Cut slices from the logs then roll out as thinly as possible to an elongated oval shape, or roll the dough out thinly and cut shapes with a biscuit cutter. place on a lines baking sheet and sprinkle with a little salt. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden at the edges.
Cool on a rack.

It has been an exciting week in other ways too :

On Monday I met up with Bea as she passed through Wellington - it is so wonderful to meet someone who so nice and is turns out to be just like she comes across in her blog, La tartine gourmande!

Barbara emailed me to say that our blogs were mentioned in the latest NZ House & Garden - so hello to everyone who have found their way here from there!

Also, NZ Blogging by Post - the Easter Edition is under way - I am looking forward to putting together my parcel to send this week, and of course waiting excitedly for the mail the week after!

New Zea·land blog·ging by post

2007-03-18T14:10:00.000+12:00

It seems like Easter is a great time have have another round of New Zealand blogging by post!

The last edition was at Christmas and we all got such wonderful parcels - so lets do it again! The details are the same :

Send me an email with the following details :

Your name and address.
Your blog's name and address.
Any allergies or things you would rather not receive.

I will then match everyone, in a random order, with their lucky participant. I will only pass your address on to the person from whom you will be receiving a box.

The Easter break starts on Friday the 6th April, so I suggest that Monday the 2nd April should be the latest date we post the parcels, which gives us two weeks to get organised.

If you could email me by Wednesday the 21st March. I will do the matching and email you the details of the person to whom you are to post a parcel on Friday 23rd March, which then gives us just over a week to get our parcels together.

And remember that because this is New Zealand Blogging by Post we can send anything we like - no customs and long delivery to worry about - this means home baking, cheese, honey - anything! Homemade or homegrown items are a wonderful thing to include if you are able to do so.

Let me know if you have any suggestions or queries - and please let anyone else out there you think might be interested know about New Zealand Blogging by post - the Easter Edition.

fish pie for pi day

2007-03-14T20:08:00.000+13:00

Today is pi day , March 14th, 14/3, 3.14!

Which made what to have for dinner an obvious decision - pie, fish pie in particular. Fish pie because it doesn't require pastry, and can be made from scratch within about an hour, with ingredients that are easy to find. All of which adds up to a great choice for a week day dinner.

Fish Pie
makes 2 generous individual portions

400g white fish fillets
2 bay leaves
6 white peppercorns
parsley stalks
1 cup of milk

4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into pieces
a knob of butter

1 dessert spoon of butter
1 dessert spoon of flour
leaves from the parsley stalks, chopped

grated cheese

Preheat the oven to 180°c.
Rinse the fish and place in a pan with the bay leaves, peppercorns and parsley stalks and pour over the milk. Cook gently over a medium heat until the fish is just cooked and flakes easily. Strain and reserve the milk, divide the fish between two individual pie dishes and leave aside.

Cook the potatoes until tender, then mash with half the reserved milk in which the fish was poached, a knob of butter and season with salt and pepper.

Melt the dessert spoon of butter over a medium heat then stir in the flour. Stir for at least a minute then add the rest of the milk a little at a time to make a smooth white sauce. Season with salt and white pepper and stir in the parsley.

Pour the sauce over the fish in the pie dishes, then top with the mashed potato. To easily cover the fairly liquid pie filling, put the potato around the edge of the pie dish in small amounts first then fill in the middle - this will stop the potato weighing down the filling and pushing the sauce over the side. Sprinkle with the grated cheese and bake, on a tray to catch the overflow, for 20 minutes until the filling is bubbling and the top is golden.

Best served with peas and a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc (you would be forgiven for thinking that is all I drink!). We chose French Farm Sauvignon Blanc 2006 - another South Island purchase, this time from the Banks Peninsula, near Christchurch ; perhaps my favourite Sauvignon Blanc.

But if you missed the opportunity for pie today, you can always approximate on July 22nd . . . !

a match made in heav·en . . .

2007-03-13T17:45:00.000+13:00

. . . and New Zealand when summer finally comes is as close to heaven as we can get!

Our first tomatoes were ready and waiting for us when we got back from holiday ; beautiful and red and sweet.

We had bought some olive oil while we were away so a simple starter came to mind - just tomatoes, olive oil and some fresh herbs. I picked the tomatoes and some tarragon, sliced the tomatoes, dousing them well with olive oil and sprinkling with the tarragon leaves as I went. Then they were left to sit while we opened a bottle of Kaikoura Sauvignon Blanc . . . and we still had no idea of the treat ahead.
This was such a good food and wine match : a fresh, fruity, well rounded Sauvignon Blanc really echoed the succulent flavour of the tomatoes.

I must say I was feeling pretty happy with my lot!

kou·ra for kai in kai·kou·ra

2007-03-12T18:57:00.000+13:00

What a way to start a holiday!

Koura (Maori for crayfish) for kai (Maori for food) in Kaikoura (first stop after Blenheim on a South Island of New Zealand odyssey).

As you drive into Kaikoura you start to see sheds and stands selling freshly cooked crayfish, and I ask you - what can you do but stop and get one to eat on the roadside overlooking the Pacific Ocean? I only wish we had a bottle of delicious New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc to complete the picture.

The crayfish are lined up screaming "pick me, pick me!". They look so wonderful : brightly coloured and obviously freshly caught and cooked. The only question is - do you want gravy? - as the koura is cut in half and placed on a plastic plate with some lemon and lots of serviettes.

As as we are back from our tour of the South, I can't wait to get back!

back soon

2007-02-04T19:00:00.000+13:00

map courtesy of Backpack New Zealand

I am off for a bit of a holiday and I can't wait! Sydney first, then a road trip around the great South Island of New Zealand.

I have lots of plans, and ideas, and things I want to do when I get back - but in the mean time enjoy the sites I have linked on the left . . . be seeing you!

men·u for hope : Truffle voucher win·ner

2007-01-23T18:17:00.000+13:00

Congratulations to Brian and Bex who won the $100 voucher very kindly donated by Truffle!

The other winners can be found here at Chez Pim.

Can you believe $60,925.12 was raised! Wow!

Thanks to all those who donated prizes, well done to all the organisers and bloggers and congratulations to all the winners!

cour·gette brus·chetta

2007-01-14T13:49:00.000+13:00

In four easy steps :

Thinly slice some courgettes in a little olive oil until very soft and caramelised.
Toast some slices of sourdough until crisp and golden, then rub with a raw garlic clove.
Pile the courgette on top of the toasts and drizzle with a little peppery and flavourful extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.
Eat in the sun with an icy, opaque, pastis.

ras el han·out lamb tor·tel·li·ni

2007-01-10T08:05:00.000+13:00

I wanted to make something else with lamb and the golden ras el hanout, and for some reason a lamb shank, seasoned with this wonderful mixture, and slowly cooked was all I could think about. I do love lamb shanks, they have all the best characteristics of lamb : succulent, sweet, and above all, something that is missing from a lot of lamb, a good flavour.
A lamb shank stew has to be one of the best winter dishes, but just doesn't seem right in in lead up to summer (yes, it still hasn't arrived). However, with slow braising being the only way to cook a good shank, some other way of serving the meat had to evolve.
Why not turn the meat into a tortellini filling? Why not indeed! It worked so well, especially with the strained braising liquid becoming an instant sauce. Just add freshly grated parmesan and some chopped parsley!
Ras el Hanout Lamb Tortellini
serves 4

To cook the lamb
1 generous lamb shank
1 Tablespoon golden ras el hanout
1 small onion, chopped
Olive oil
1/4 cup amaretto
1/4 cup white wine
Water, or a light stock

Rub the lamb shank with the ras el hanout and leave in the fridge for 24 hours for the flavours to develop. Heat a heavy based pan, only just large enough to hold the shank, with a splash of olive oil and brown the shank on all sides. Remove the shank to a plate and saute the onions until just starting to turn golden. Deglaze the pan with the amaretto and the white wine. Return the shank to the pot and add enough water to almost cover the shank and simmer gently for 3 hours or until the meat is tender and falls from the bone with a touch. Leave to cool. Remove the meat and reserve, strain the cooking juices and chill, then remove the fat, discarding the solids.

To make the filling
Meat from a lamb shank, cooked as above, chopped
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan
1 teaspoon golden ras el hanout
1 egg
1/4 cup fine breadcrumbs
Enough strained and degreased broth from cooking the lamb to moisten the filling

Mix all the ingredients together to make a smooth and soft filling, adjusting the amount of breadcrumbs and juice to make a good consistency.

To make the tortellini
Fresh pasta dough, made with 300g flour and 3 eggs

Roll out the pasta as thinly as possible, either with a pasta maker or with a rolling pin. Cut into 5 to 7 centimeter squares. Place a teaspoon of the filling in the centre of each, then form into tortellini by lightly moistening the edges, folding into a triangle and sealing the edges, pressing out the air. Wrap the triangle around your finger and pinch the corners together. Leave to dry for half an hour on a heavy tea towel.

To serve
Broth from cooking the lamb shank
Chopped parsley
Freshly grated parmesan

Bring a large pot of water to the boil with a generous amount of salt. Cook the tortellini, in batches if necessary, until al dente, about 2 minutes after they float. Heat the broth. Serve the tortellini in shallow bowls with some of the broth and sprinkled with parsley and parmesan.

squashed fly bis·cuits

2007-01-05T12:55:00.000+13:00

So, we used to call these squashed fly biscuits at school, others might know them as dead fly biscuits ; sound delicious don't they? But they are probably my favourite biscuit, properly known as Garibaldi biscuits. They are a flat, not too sweet, current filled slice, moreish, perhaps too much so for my own good. And the currents go all chewy, especially the ones that poke out the side . . . lovely!

There is something about dried fruit in things that just doesn't always seem right to me. A lot of things, like rice pudding and bread and butter pudding, seem to have raisins or their like added just for the sake of it - a gratuitous fruity embellishment - the ruin of something that was so much better plain.

Squashed fly biscuits are supposed to have currents, it is their reason for being, like a flat Eccles cake.

But then again I am not a mixer, if you know what I mean. I like to eat things separately from my plate, no squashing a bit of this and a bit of that onto my fork. If that was the intention of the meal then it would have been presented that way in the first place. Some might call me strange, I can live with that.

Bought squashed fly biscuits come in sheets of several biscuits that you are supposed to break in to separate items before eating . . . I tried to do this, and marked them out accordingly, but they kept merging into one as they cooked, oh well, there will be another time!

Squashed fly biscuits
makes a dozen

35g butter, melted and cooled
45g icing sugar
45g flour
1 egg white, lightly beaten with a fork
a small pinch of salt
100g currents

Sieve the flour and icing sugar and salt into a bowl, mix in the butter, then the egg white and finally the currents. Wrap in plastic and rest in the fridge for at least an hour. Roll out to a rectangle 5mm thick and then mark into 12 pieces. move the biscuits apart slightly then rest in the fridge for 30 minutes while the oven preheats to 180°c. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden, but not too dark. Cool and eat, one by one of course!

New Zea·land blog·ging by post round-up

2007-01-03T12:03:00.000+13:00

So what did you get for Christmas? I know a few things that some lucky New Zealanders got for early Christmas presents :

Barbara at Winos and Foodies received a box of goodies from me which I think she liked ; I tried to include some of my favourite things. I was interested to see how my mincemeat turned out, since Barbara made mince pies before I did!

Barbara put together a lovely parcel for Nigel at Curious Kai ; a thoughtful selection of food goodies including her homemade kiwifruit chutney.

Céline at Angel at My Table was very happy to receive a brilliant box from Nigel including some locally (for Nigel in the Hawkes Bay) grown strawberries and cherries - such a good idea to send those!

Céline passed the joy to Jules at the Wine Wanker with quite a selection including homemade grapefruit marmalade chocolate brownie.

Bron was the happy recipient of Jules's gift, a great assortment of treats, not least his homemade Vanilla bean infused Lemonade syrup ; the deliciousness of which I can confirm!

Arfi of Homemades found in her mailbox a parcel from Bron - just in time for morning tea! Bron had included homemade macaroons and her girls had helped with the parcel, making some finger puppets for Arfi's children - I think that is just lovely!

Tim from Take 3 Eggs was treated by Arfi to some Asian pantry supplies, not always easy to find in the smaller places around New Zealand, as well as a homemade Christmas cake, cookies and chutney!

Tim repaid the favour by sending Morven at Food, Art and Random Thoughts a parcel fairly bulging with home made goodies - including some blondies, which I have never tried, so hopefully Tim will reveal his recipe.

Paul at Eat NZ opened a parcel from Morven revealing, to his delight, a fantastic selection of goodies including some homemade feijoa relish and new breakfast trend - french marshmallow!

I was so very excited when on a Saturday morning Paul's box arrived. What a lot of wonderful goodies, including some homegrown beetroot and rosemary - a lovely idea to include something he had grown. I can happily admit not much lasted the weekend - but Christmas is not about restraint!

The inaugural New Zealand Blogging by Post was a fantastic success. We all managed to find local products, special items, and not least something homemade or homegrown - and to my mind - that is what it is all about!

I think the next round should be all about Easter - I hope you will join in!

va·nil·la in·fused lem·on·ade syr·up

2006-12-18T10:40:00.000+13:00

It was such a lovely surprise! I got home from work last thursday, checked the mail on the way in and found a jar of Jules's famous vanilla bean infused lemonade syrup in the letterbox.

Isn't it beautiful?! So golden and decadent. And so very lovely diluted with some sparkling water on a lovely summer day.

Thanks so much Jules for the fantastic surprise! I hope you share the recipe with us all ; there are people who want to know!

men·u for hope III

2006-12-11T21:04:00.000+13:00

Menu for Hope III is raising funds to support the UN World Food Programme, which provides hunger relief for needy people worldwide. Most of us writing and reading Food Blogs are able to treat food and cooking as a joyful and happy experience ; not everyone has this privilege. For many in this world, food is not guaranteed and is a matter of survival. Menu for Hope is an annual event, last year raising US$17,000 for UNICEF.

Supporting Menu for Hope is a small way for you to help those less fortunate.

I am proud to offer a $100 gift voucher to Truffle, Wellington, New Zealand, very generously donated by John and his team, to tempt you, and encourage you, to support Menu for Hope :

Truffle are specialists in fine European food and wine with both physical and online shops. Truffle are New Zealand agents for many exclusive and otherwise hard to find imported gourmet foods, carrying over 600 different product lines. A voucher for Truffle is a fabulous gift for yourself or for someone you love, care about or simply want to impress. A visit to Truffle will open an unbelievable world of gourmet rice, salt, wine, cheese, chocolate, truffles, saffron, vinegar, oils, jam, pâté, paprika, tuna, verjuice, capers, flour, nougat . . .

Raffle tickets are purchased online at First Giving, an online fund raising company. All ticket monies are collected by First Giving on behalf of Menu For Hope. Each prize has a unique number which should be included in the 'Personal Message' section at the First Giving site when you purchase your tickets and make your donation.

The code for this fabulous Truffle voucher is AP07, be sure to include this in the 'Personal Message' section as you donate at First Giving. Each ticket in the raffle is $10 - quite a bargin for a $NZ100 voucher - so buy a few!

There are many fantastic prizes offered by Food Bloggers for Menu for Hope III, details for which can be found on these Blogs :

Chez Pim - The full round-up of prizes worldwide.
Grab Your Fork -Asia Pacific/Australia/New Zealand.
Davidlebovitz.com - Europe and UK.
The Cooking Diva - Latin America.
Cardamom Addict - Canada.
Becks and Posh - US West Coast.
The Amateur Gourmet - US East Coast.
Kalyn's Kitchen - US (the rest).

Details for this prize :

Prize : $100 voucher for Truffle

Prize Code : AP07

How to purchase a ticket to support Menu for Hope III :

1. Go to the donation page at First Giving (http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhopeIII)

2. Make a donation, each $US10 will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize or prizes you'd like in the 'Personal Message' section in the donation form when confirming your donation. Do tell us how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code -for example, a donation of $50 can be 3 tickets for AP07 and 2 for AP14.

3. For US donors, if your company has agreed to match your charity donation, please remember to check the box and fill in the information so we may claim the corporate match.

4. Please also check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

5. Check back on Chez Pim on January 15 when we announce the results of the raffle. (The drawing will be done electronically. Our friend the code wizard Derrick at Obsession with Food is responsible for the wicked application that will do the job.)

buck·wheat and corn tor·til·la

2006-12-07T19:55:00.000+13:00

I love making tortillas. So what must naturally follow from a successful recipe? A bit of fiddling to see what else you can do! Well, what I tried as a variation on the flour tortilla was to substitute some of the plain flour for a different sort. In this case a buckwheat and corn polenta that I found at truffle.

Buckwheat polenta is also known as "Polenta Nera" (Black Polenta), which really isn't so black just a light golden grey with a few flecks of black to give it some detail, so to speak. I am dying to make a soft polenta dish with this but at the rate I am making tortillas I might have to buy another packet reserved especially for polenta!

Once again I made these using a chappati press but rolling would be just as good, but my dough was fairly soft so it would be trickier. I also found that these tortilla were crispier and more brittle than the flour only ones, as you can see from the photo. I think they would make great tacos maybe baked in the oven hanging on the bars of the shelf to form a truely crisp taco. As it was they became taco, less by design, more by accident - but they sure tasted good!

Buckwheat and Corn Tortilla
makes about 12

1/2 cup buckwheat and corn polenta
1/2 cup unbleached stoneground flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tablespoons lard or goose or duck fat
boiling water, about a 1/2 cup

Mix the flour and the salt together then rub in the fat. While stirring with a wooden spoon, add enough boiling water to form a dough then knead briefly. This dough will be quite soft, but the polenta will absorb some while it rests so err on the side of wetness.
Wrap in plasitc and rest for an hour. Heat a cast iron frying pan to hot.
Divide into 12 pieces and either using a tortilla/chappati press or a rolling pin form circles as thin as you can, cooking them for 30 seconds per side, or until then have golden patches and are puffy, then wrapping in a teatowel to keep warm and soft.

Christ·mas has come ear·ly

2006-12-03T08:39:00.000+13:00

Christmas has come early in my house thanks to the very generous Paul!

A bottle of Camshorn Pinot Gris from Waipara, Braeburn apple juice, 2 beetroot that Paul grew himself, some rosemary from his garden, cold smoked Akaroa salmon, ciabatta from Rachel Scott in Amberly, Talbot Forest Castle Rock cheese from Geraldine, Verona Salami made by Peter Timbs, Italian artisinal orzo, Valrona Caraibe chocolate.

As you might imagine lunch yesterday included the ciabatta, salami and cheese and chocolate. All of which were very special and delicious. I think I can buy the cheese up here, so it will be appearing again! We are going to have the smoked salmon today and the wine this evening. The apple juice was the perfect thing to have when we got up this morning - you can really taste the braeburn apples. The orzo will be ripped open tomorrow night for a special pasta. The beetroot and rosemary are such a special inclusion ; the beetroot will be roasted and served in a salad at lunchtime, and the rosemary will flavour some roast potatoes this evening.

Thanks Paul, I love it!

Parcels will be arriving around the country as we speak, and a round up will be featured here soon!

lorne sau·sage

2006-11-29T09:29:00.000+13:00

Roll on sausage has been our Christmas morning tradition for many years now. Eaten while we all open our stockings, it is the best kind of breakfast to nibble on while your hands are busy pulling off paper and sipping Champagne. The only changes we are going to make this year is to eat the roll on sausage with wheat beer as well as Champagne, but more importantly perhaps, we have made the lorne sausage ourselves.

Lorne sausage is a Scottish speciality. Instead of the sausage mixture being encased in sausage skins like sausage links, lorne sausage is a square, sliced sausage that fits perfectly in a morning roll or between two slices of bread. The sausage meat is made and then packed into a cling-film lined loaf tin and chilled in the freezer until it is set, but not frozen, then unmolded and sliced. The mixture itself is fairly spicy ; spicy with pepper, nutmeg and a bit of ground coriander. I always think it slightly strange that a traditional Scottish food should be spicy, but like a good peppery haggis, lorne sausage is indeed fairly spicy. HP sauce is the perfect accompaniment with the sweetness of the sauce going so well with the spiciness of the lorne sausage.

G is Scottish, and we really like this tradition that brings some his heritage to this, the other, side of the world at Christmas.

Lorne Sausage
makes 14 good slices

2kg of meat, half pork and half beef, with 20% fat, either from fatty pork belly or pork back fat, minced
1 1/2 cups fine bread crumbs, I used matzo meal
1 cup oatmeal
1 t ground white pepper
1 t ground black pepper
2 t freshly grated nutmeg
3 t ground coriander
3 t salt
1 cup of water

Mix everything together thoroughly. Fry a little of the mixture to check the seasoning.
Pack firmly into a plastic lined loaf tin, and chill in the freezer until it is set, but not frozen, about 45 minutes.
Carefully remove from the loaf tin and slice into 1-1.5cm slices.
If you want to freeze for later, perhaps Christmas morning, lay the slices on a plastic lines baking tray and freeze, bagging up once frozen.
To cook the lorne sausage, allow to thaw if frozen, then fry in a little oil or BBQ!
Serve in a soft roll for roll on sausage or between two slices of soft white bread for piece with sausage! Adding some HP sauce to complement the spiciness of the lorne sausage for a perfect breakfast.

Check Morsels and Musings for other Festive Food Fair fare.

mince·meat

2006-11-27T19:45:00.000+13:00

. . . and another new tradition for me . . . mincemeat!

Two kinds - one with meat, real meaty meat and one without, like we know it now-a-days. Looking at the picture above, the one with minced beef is on the right, I was surprised how light coloured it is, especially in comparison with the very dark non-meat mixture on the left. I am yet to find out how either tastes ; but I am dying to know if I can tell the difference and if the real-meat mincemeat is less sweet and sickly as Hugh promises. I will let you know! But if the meat mincemeat pies are not to our taste the mixture apparently make a wonderful stuffing for pork. Either way I win!

I haven't made very much because I only wanted a little, so multiply to your requirements.

Sterilise some jars before making these mincemeats by preheating the oven to 120°C and heating some clean jars and their lids for an hour. Once the jars are filled they will keep a while but can be used after a week or so. Turn the jars the other way up every so often to allow the liquid to permeate.

Real meat mincemeat
from The River Cottage Year by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, with a few changes
makes 550mL

125g finely minced good beef
60g beef suet, grated
60g each of currants and raisins
1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
50g dark muscovado sugar
35g ground almonds
25g preserved ginger in syrup, chopped, plus 1T of the syrup
25g mixed peel
grated zest and juice of a lemon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
60mL Cognac

Mix everything together thoroughly and store in the sterilised jars for a week or so before using to make mince pies (or to stuff pork!).

Mincemeat
from Tamasin's Kitchen Bible by Tamasin Day-Lewis, with a few changes
makes 600mL

110g each of sultanas, raisins and currants
60g of blanched almonds, chopped
1 apple, cored and chopped
135g dark muscavado sugar
65g mixed peel
grated zest and juice of an Orange
1/3 t freshly grated nutmeg
cloves, cinnamon and mace, ground to make 1/2t total
1/2t freshly grated ginger
55g beef suet, grated
1T dark rum
50mL Cognac

Mix everything together thoroughly and store in the sterilised jars for a week or so before using to make mince pies.

Check Morsels and Musings for other Festive Food Fair fare.

Christ·mas pud·ding

2006-11-26T18:48:00.000+13:00

Today is what we could call Stir-up Sunday and is the time to make the Christmas pudding, mincemeat and Christmas cake. This is the first year that I have done this, but since I have been meaning to for years, and now that I have broken through the barrier that was stopping me before, a new tradition [for me] has been born!

My Mother-in-law gave me a brilliant spherical mold a couple of years ago, and it is the perfect shape for a Christmas pudding. It has made many a ball shaped birthday cake, a spherical haggis and the foundation for a skull Pavlova one Halloween - a spherical mold is a vital piece of kitchen equipment - but this Christmas pudding has been its crowing product!

I used Tamasin Day-Lewis's recipe for Extravagant Christmas Pudding from her book Tamasin's Kitchen Bible. This is my favourite kitchen handbook and I can't recommend it highly enough. I added some dried cranberries, because I had them and they seemed to be the right thing to add, and adjusted some of the ingredients to suit what I had. I also ended up cooking two puddings because I had so much mixture, I did intend only to make one, but they keep and for a lot of people on Christmas day you might just need two. I actually had enough to make five individual ones in ramekins too . . . !

Extravagant Christmas Pudding
made 2 1L puddings

130g plain flour
cinnamon bark, mace, cloves and allspice, ground to make 3 teaspoons all together
1T grated ginger
130g each of sultanas, raisins, currants
75g dried cranberries
150g each of prunes, dried apricots and dates, chopped
300g dark muscavado sugar
75g each of Brazil nuts and almonds, chopped
130g brown breadcrumbs
2 apples, cored and grated
1 carrot, peeled and grated
110g beef suet, minced or chopped
4 eggs
200mL Guinness or another stout
50mL Cognac
juice and grated zest of an orange

Grease the mold or basin.
Sift the flour into a very large bowl then add the rest of the ingredients in the order given, and mix thoroughly. Add a little milk if necessary to make a soft batter. Fill the mold or basin to three quarters full and cover, with the lid or with a piece of greaseproof paper and foil that you had pleated together in the middle to allow room or expansion. Tie a piece of kitchen string securely around the basin making a handle as you do so. Place in a large pot, with a deep steamer insert if you have one or a trivet or a folded piece of foil to lift the pudding from the bottom. Add boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the pudding and simmer for 7 hours, topping up with water if necessary.
Remove from the pan and take off the lid. Leave to cool then unmold and rewrap with greaseproof paper and foil and leave in an airy place until the day.
Resteam for 3 hours to serve.

Check Morsels and Musings for other Festive Food Fair fare.

fen·nel and pea ri·sot·to

2006-11-24T08:43:00.000+13:00

I felt like making a spring time risotto for Hay Hay Its Donna Day #8 hosted this round by Cenzina. Two vegetables that positively squeal spring to me are fennel and fresh peas bought in their pod, so what else could I do but make a fennel and pea risotto!

I am fairly new to risotto having been put off at a young age by bad gloopy porridge like stuff and instant rice risotto (remember that?!), but I am well and truly a convert now. I bought some wonderful Carnaroli rice not so long ago and the frequency of risotto making in the house has certainly increased. I highly recommend trying the different types ; Carnaroli makes a drier risotto and Vialone Nano rice makes a creamier, starchier, risotto and also makes a great rice pudding. The Arborio rice I used to buy from the supermarket was fine, but without any characteristics to make it different from any other short grain rice. Perhaps I need to search out a better brand of Arborio . . .

Fennel and Pea Risotto
serves 3 (or 2 for dinner and 1 with leftovers for lunch)

1L Chicken stock
A generous handful of peas in their pods, washed
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 bulb of fennel, washed, fronds reserved, finely sliced
olive oil
butter
200g Carnaroli rice
50mL white wine or vermouth
dash of Pernod
30g finely grated Parmesan cheese

Put the stock in a pot and bring to the simmer adding the trimmings from the fennel, but not the fronds. Pod the peas, putting the pods in the sock and reserving the peas.
Heat a large heavy pan with a knob of butter and some olive oil. When the butter has melted and the pan is hot add the onion and fennel and sauté until soft and starting to turn golden. Add the rice and turn in the onion and fennel until nicely coated with the butter and oil.
Add the wine or vermouth and the Pernod and stir until the liquid is all but absorbed. Add the stock a ladleful at a time, stirring well all the time making sure each addition is absorbed, but not completely dry, before adding the next until all the stock has been used, or you judge the wetness is just right and the rice is cooked with a lovely creamy texture. Avoid adding the pea pods and fennel trimmings, perhaps straining the last amounts through a sieve.
Stir the peas through the risotto so they are warmed through but still retain their fresh crunch.
Turn off the heat and stir in the Parmesan and a bit more butter if you like.
Serve sprinkled with the reserved fennel fronds.

Check Cavoletto di Bruxelles for other wonderful risotto recipes that have been put together for Hay Hay Its Donna Day #8!

beetroot and brazil nut relish

2006-11-17T18:26:00.000+13:00

Beetroot is a guaranteed way to add a bit of pink to a meal, shocking though it is! Beetroot can be happily included in many meals, contributing not just colour but also sweetness and vitamin C and antioxidents among other benefits.

I think the best way to cook a beetroot is to wash gently, taking care not to damage the skin, trimming only the leaves, then wrap loosely in foil and roast for an hour or two. Sometimes I add some salt, pepper and olive oil, but only if they are within reach. After cooling enough to handle the skin comes away easily and then the purple globe is ready to be introduced to many a recipe. A newly found favourite of mine is :

beetroot and brazil nut relish
flexible ingredients, flexible quantities, flexible servings

Purée the roasted beetroot with some garlic. Add some brazil nuts ; the more nuts the thicker and more substantial the relish will be. Season with redwine vinegar, salt and pepper. Leave for a few hours for the flavours to develop. Serve with bread and cheese, roasted meats, felafels and pita, anywhere some bright pink relish would be welcome.

mace

2006-11-16T08:55:00.000+13:00

Mace is the lace like placenta that surrounds the nutmeg within the fruit. The lines and wrinkles on a nutmeg show where the mace was lying against the nut. Although indigenous to Indonesia, mace is now found in most spice growing areas. Both mace and nutmeg have the botanical name of Myristica fragrens, indicating the fragrant value of the volatile oils they contain. These oils are narcotic and poisonous in large quantities!

Mace may be bought as ground or whole blade mace, and more rarely, complete with the nutmeg it encloses. Unsurprisingly the flavour of mace is similar, but more pungent than that of nutmeg. The flavour of mace could also be described as slightly finer and fresher than nutmeg and is used in savoury dishes more than sweet.

Ways to use mace :

Ground and added to a spice mix for a cake.
Included in garam masala, or curry powder.
A whole blade included with peppercorns and a bay leaf to infuse milk for a white sauce.
Added to a poaching court-bullion for fish or seafood.
Include in the pickling liquor for onions or gherkins.

New Zea·land blog·ging by post re·mind·er

2006-11-15T09:48:00.000+13:00

Just a quick reminder! Everyone who has emailed me to join in with New Zealand Blogging by Post should now have received an email with the details of the lucky recipient of their parcel. If you did want to join in and have not received an email, please let me know as soon as possible.

gold·en ras el han·out

2006-11-09T13:08:00.000+13:00

There is a food and wine shop here in Wellington that I absolutely love to visit : Truffle. And luckily for those of you not in Wellington and unable to visit in person they now have a website complete with an online shop.

One of my favourite purchases of late has been a jar of Golden Ras el Hanout, a fabulous spice mix, which translates as 'House Blend'. This particular mix is listed as turmeric, chili powder, coriander seeds, cumin seeds and ground ginger. The label mentions that ras el hanout may contain rose buds and Spanish fly. Apparently it is the Spanish fly that makes this version golden, and apparently Spanish fly is not something you would list on the ingredients even if it did contain it - very exciting!

We have used a spoonful or two of Ras el Hanout in many a dish including a chicken and cauliflower stew and kitcheri, and rubbed it on several pieces of otherwise unadorned meat.

The lamb back strap in the photo above was rubbed with the Golden Ras el Hanout and roasted in the oven at 180°C for 12 minutes. We served it on some steamed silverbeet with roasted yams : a lovely, simple, delicious and interesting meal.

Truffle Food & Wine
1/22 Garrett Street
PO Box 11-770
Wellington 6011
New Zealand
Ph +64 4 385-2802
Fax +64 4 385-2801
truffle@xtra.co.nz
http://www.truffle.net.nz/

flour tor·til·la

2006-11-06T15:15:00.000+13:00

First of all, I would like to say, that the best way to cook these tortillas is with someone else. Someone with whom you can enjoy a glass of wine in the kitchen, working together while you chat. Then, they will be perfect.

Flour Tortilla
makes 12

2 cups strong bread flour
1 tsp salt
2 tablespoons lard or goose or duck fat
boiling water, about a cup

Mix the flour and the salt together then rub in the fat. While stirring with a wooden spoon, add enough boiling water to form a dough then knead briefly. Wrap in plasitc and rest for an hour. Heat a cast iron frying pan to hot.
Divide into 12 pieces and either using a tortilla/chappati press or a rolling pin form circles as thin as you can, cooking them for 30 seconds per side, or until then have golden patches and are puffy, then wrapping in a teatowel to keep warm and soft. This is where a kitchen partnership is so good ; one person rolls and the other cooks, all easy, no fussing (and no forgetting to turn that one which is now burning because you were busy rolling).

New Zea·land blog·ging by post

2006-10-30T20:52:00.000+13:00

Don't you think it would be lovely to put together a parcel for a fellow New Zealand blogger, send it off, and then wait with excitement until a parcel full of goodies arrives on your doorstep for you?

Great! Then send me an email with the following details :

Your name and address.
Your blog's name and address.
Any allergies or things you would rather not receive.

I will then perform a complex algorithm and assign each person a recipient. I will only pass your address on to the person from whom you will be receiving a box.

For practical reasons with Christmas and holidays approaching, please email me by Sunday the 12th November. I will do the differential equations and email you the details of the person you are to post to by Wednesday 15th November. We will all post our boxes by Friday the 1st December, giving plenty of time for delivery and enjoyment of the contents before Christmas takes over.

And remember that because this is New Zealand Blogging by Post we can send anything we like - no customs and long delivery to worry about - this means home baking, cheese, honey - anything!

Let me know if you have any suggestions or queries!

Update - Jules has suggested a great idea - we should all include products that most tipify our regions, and products that are hard to get anywhere else, for example wild thyme from Otago.

DMBLGIT : the win·ners!

2006-10-29T11:49:00.000+13:00

There were so many wonderful photos entered in the October round of Does My Blog Look Good In This! The standard of photography was incredibly high ; we all enjoyed the task of judging. We decided on 3 categories : Aesthetics, Originality and Edibility as well as an Overall Winner.

Without further ado the winners of DMBLGIT October 2006 are :

Aesthetics Chile Powder by Lisa of Homesick Texan using a Nikon D200 with a 55mm macro lens.

Originality
Pomegranate and peach sorbets in mini meringue baskets by Anita of Dessert First using a Canon IXUS 55.

Edibility

Caramel Apple Cake by Peabody of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody using a Nikon Coolpix 4600.

Overall winner
Dan Dan Noodles by Jenny of The Omnivorous Egg using a Kodak DX4530.

Thank you to everyone who entered, the judges, Bron, Bea and Mike, and Matt who has once again supplied the logo trophies for the winners to proudly show on their blogs!

Congratulations Jenny, Lisa, Anita and Peabody, please collect your trophies :

au·ber·gine and to·ma·to gra·tin

2006-10-26T19:46:00.000+13:00

A vegetable dish for when you feel like ratatouille but it is too early in the season for all the ingredients to be plentiful in the shop so you only buy an aubergine and a couple of tomatoes because you just can't resist even though it is a bit early.

I saw the idea for this in the Alice Walters book Chez Panisse Vegetables. It is a great way to serve aubergines and tomatoes, with their flavour bolstered by onion sautéed with herbs. The gratin is baked in the oven making it so easy to cook along side a roast chicken.

Aubergine and Tomato Gratin
serves 4, or as many as you like according to the dish and quantity of vegetables

1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
a dash and a drizzle of olive oil
robust herbs - thyme and bay for example
salt and pepper
1 eggplant, sliced
2 large tomatoes, sliced

Sauté the onion, garlic and herbs in the olive oil over a medium heat until soft and beginning to caramelize. Spread over the base of a suitably sized oven proof shallow gratin dish. Put a slice of tomato on top of each slice of aubergine and arrange nicely. If you have extra tomato or aubergine hide it under the matching slices or use it for another dish to leave the top layer looking nice. Prinkle with salt and pepper and a bit more olive oil. Cover with foil and bake at 200°C for 30 minutes then uncover and cook for another 15 minutes or until it is soft and cooked and begining to turn golden on top, there should not be any watery juices left.

DMBLGIT : the judg·es

2006-10-24T21:44:00.000+13:00

I have great pleasure in announcing the judges for the October edition of Does My Blog Look Good In This are :

Bron of Bron Marshall, photographer extrordinaire and DMBLGIT winner.
Bea of La tartine gourmande, very talented photographer and DMBLGIT winner.
Michael Owen, advertising and commercial London based photographer.

The winners will be announced right here on The Laughing Gastronome at the end of the month.

Entries can be found here - have a look and judge for yourself!

DMBLGIT re·mind·er

2006-10-23T16:32:00.000+13:00

Remember entries for the October edition of DMBLGIT close tomorrow, 24th October!

mar·zi·pan cake

2006-10-22T07:44:00.000+13:00

Here is a version of a Nigella Lawson recipe that just turned out so well ; she is right it is an Easy Almond Cake (from How to be a Domestic Goddess).

The almondness comes from marzipan and almond essence. It turned out I have three bottles of almond essence in my cupboard - no idea how they got there, I don't recall even buying one. I had some marzipan I had bought last Christmas for some thing I now can't remember.

This is all making me seem like a forgetful fool!

The only other thing you need to make this so easy is a food processor. You do not even have to ice it. Perfect. So if you can tick almond essence, marzipan and a food processor off your list along with some sugar, vanilla, eggs, baking powder and flour then you are ready to make the cake :

Marzipan Cake
makes a medium sized ring cake

175g soft unsalted butter, plus a bit extra melted
175g soft marzipan, cut into pieces
100g caster sugar
a few drops of almond essence
a few drops of vanilla essence
4 eggs
100g cake flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
Icing sugar to sift over.

Put the tin in the fridge and preheat the oven to 160°C.
Process the butter, marzipan, sugar and essences together until smooth. Add the eggs one by one then the flour and baking powder and process until smooth.
Brush the cold tin with the melted butter which will solidify right into any pattern there might be.
Pour batter into the tin and bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until golden and tests cooked. Cool in the tin before turning out.
Sift over a bit of icing sugar to make it look pretty.

ha·ris·sa

2006-10-18T20:52:00.000+13:00

Harissa can dress up many a dish :

Serve on top of a plain piece of griddled meat to turn it into something much more exciting.
Stir into yoghurt and use as a dip.
Include in a sandwich of left over roast meat to fool you into thinking it is not really left overs.
Use to marinate meat or vegetables before barbecuing to give an extra exciting edge.
Stir into yoghurt with some cornflour and use to coat chicken to make an easy Moroccan style chicken tikka.
Flavour a simple vinaigrette with a spoonful to make a great salad dressing.
Include as a relish in a mezze spread.
Dollop on top of a roast vegetable couscous to give another dimension.

Harissa is a Moroccan condiment which is usually really spicy. But you can make it yourself as hot as you like :

Green Harissa

1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons coriander seed
2 tablespoons cumin seed
6-8 green chillies (up to you!)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup coriander leaves

Toast the coriander and cumin seeds until fragrant. Puree all the ingredients together until smooth.

World Bread Day

2006-10-16T21:51:00.000+13:00

Monday 16th October 2006 is World Bread Day, organised as a blog event by Kochtopf.

Now, I love making bread, strangely enough possibly more than eating it, so it was hard to choose what sort of bread to choose for this event. So I didn't choose. I just decided to show a few different types of bread that I, and G, make, and to give a basic recipe for the most simple of breads.

The picture above shows clockwise from top left : challah, pain à l'ancienne, bagels, ciabatta, pita, buckwheat soda bread, crispbread and soft white.

Some of these breads have recipes on this site already and some are on the way! And there are many more breads that are not pictured - naan, English muffins, crumpets, lavash, and sourdough.

Simple Bread
makes one loaf

450g strong bread flour
1 teaspoon of yeast
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup tepid water

Mix the yeast and salt into the flour. Add enough water to hydrate all the flour, you might need more or less. Knead for about 10 minutes to form a smooth and elastic dough, adding more flour or water as necessary. Put in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for about two hours or until doubled in size. Punch down (literally) and form into a loaf shape, you can use a tin or go free form. Cover with plastic and leave to rise again in a warm place for about 30 minutes while you preheat the oven to 220°C. Slash the top of the loaf to prevent bubbles under the crust and bake for about half an hour or until the loaf sounds hollow when rapped on the bottom. Leave to cool for at least 30 minutes to complete the cooking before slicing.

And the best thing to have with bread? Butter of course!

chick·en bar·be·rry·a·ni

2006-10-16T19:39:00.000+13:00

This month Owen decided that Paper Chef should involve Barberries, Pumpkin, Spinach and Slow. I was rather pleased with the line up ; I had suggested barberries as a Paper Chef ingredient a wee while ago when I was seduced into buying a packet by the salesman's description of the tart red berries. Sadly, they had sat in my cupboard, unopened, until now. I had some pumpkin in the fridge and the silverbeet (my substitution for spinach) was looking perfect out in the garden, begging to be used for dinner. And slow . . . the perfect way to make a Monday night dinner!
When I first bought the barberries I found a recipe in Claudia Roden's The New Book of Middle Eastern Food for rice with chicken and barberries. The recipe describes it as the most famous and traditional of Iranian recipes, turning out like a pie with a crisp brown crust. To tell the truth this is what I set out to make this evening, but it is not what I finished with. As I was preparing the recipe I kept thinking this was rather like a biryani, so I decided to turn it into that instead, rather cunningly named as barberryani, do you not think!?
So that is the barberries, and, being slowly cooked at a low temperature with some of my homemade yoghurt, the Slow taken care of.
The pumpkin and silverbeet I turned into a warm salad, going rather well with the barberryani, both in terms of colour and flavour and Paper Chef.

Chicken Barberryani
serves 4

1 chicken breast
olive oil
1 cup of basmati rice, rinsed
3/4 cup yoghurt
1 small egg
a good pinch of saffron, soaked in boiling water
3 tablespoons of barberries

Sauté the chicken breast in a little olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, until golden and almost cooked. Cut up into large bit-sized pieces.
Cook the rice in boiling water until almost, but not quite, cooked. A grain squished between your thumb and forefinger should have a chalky inside. Drain.
Beat together the yoghurt, egg, saffron and its water, and salt and pepper.
Mix the chicken into the yoghurt mixture to coat, then remove the chicken to a plate.
Mix the rice with the yoghurt mixture.
Heat a heavy bottomed pot with a lid over a low heat with a coating of olive oil. Tip the rice and yoghurt mixture into the pot and push the rice up the sides to make a shell. Sprinkle half the barberries over the bottom layer of rice-yoghurt then add the chicken pieces then the rest of the barberries. Cover with the rice from the sides and push down gently to even the mixture. Cover and cook slowly on a low heat for about an hour or until the top feels nice and hot. Turn out onto a plate or into a shallow bowl to serve.

Warm Pumpkin and Silverbeet Salad
serves 4 with the Barberryani

1/4 of a large pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cubed
olive oil
salt and pepper
3 large leaves of silverbeet (or a couple of handfuls of spinach), shredded
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 lemon, juiced
Black or normal sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Toss the pumpkin with some olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast on a baking sheet for 30 minutes or until soft and caramelising. Meanwhile toss the shredded silverbeet with the garlic, lemon juice and salt and pepper in a large bowl. Tip the hot cooked pumpkin onto the silverbeet and toss to combine. Cover with a plate and leave aside until the silverbeet has wilted and the pumpkin is warm. Taste and add more oil, lemon, or salt and pepper before serving sprinkled with sesame seeds.

chees·y feet scones

2006-10-15T18:34:00.000+13:00

If it is a Sunday afternoon and you just feel like something nice to eat and you are feeling a bit amused - try these . . .

Cheesy Feet Scones
makes enough for afternoon tea for four people with a few left over to take to work during the week . . .

225g plain cake flour
pinch of salt
40g unsalted butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
150mL buttermilk
75g grated strong cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 220°C.
Rub the butter into the flour then mix in the salt, baking soda and cream of tartar. Lightly mix in the buttermilk, then almost all the cheese. Knead briefly until the dough is smooth. Roll out to 2cm thick and cut out foot shapes with a floured cutter and set on a lined baking sheet and sprinkle with the rest of the cheese. Leave for 10 minutes then bake for 10 minutes. Leave to cool while you make some tea, open some wine or just hang around a bit. Eat warm spread with some lovely fresh butter and enjoy the last bit of the weekend.

ov·en roast·ed as·par·a·gus

2006-10-08T19:47:00.000+13:00

I am so pleased the asparagus season has begun! And the easiest way to cook some asparagus to go with the roast chicken you are having for dinner is to wrap the wet-from-washing spears, sprinkled with a little salt and pepper, in foil and pop in the oven for about 5 minutes. Lovely! No boiling, steaming, heating an element or washing up, just using what you already have going.