Carrot, Kumara and Coriander Soup

Carrots are ridiculously cheap as well as nutritious, and have become a staple of mine of late.  I ate a lot of grated carrot salads in summer and am now experimenting with stews and soups.  This particular soup started off as a basic roast carrot and coriander soup, but I wasn't happy with the watery consistency so added kumara (sweet potato) for some substance.  If you like heat, a little chopped up chili wouldn't go amiss... You'll notice that I haven't added any quantities.  You can make it up as you go along, making as much or as little as you need.  The important part is to have a good vegetable to stock ratio so that the soup doesn't end up too watery.  I would guestimate 1 part cooked vegetables to 1.5 parts stock.


Ingredients
Carrots
Kumara (sweet potato)
Vegetable stock
Coriander
Orange
Salt and Pepper

• Peel a large quantity of carrots and kumara and chop into large chunks.  Put in a roasting dish (on baking paper so it doesn't stick) and sprinkle with salt.  Roast until cooked.
• In a large pot simmer vegetable stock with a good handful of chopped up coriander.
• Add the roasted vegetables to the stock pot and add the juice of an orange and a liberal grinding of black pepper. 
• Use a hand stick blender to puree the vegetables.  Add more salt and pepper to taste.

Mexican Chicken and Avocado Soup

I can't take credit for this one - my husband made this dish loosely based on something from a Mexican recipe book I bought a while ago.  I can however vouch for the tastiness of this dish.  If you don't mind spice then you'll love how it gets the blood pumping.  And the creamy avocado is a good foil for the heat.  It's incredibly nutritious, and we were extra smug at the knowledge that the chicken stock we used was homemade from the bones of a roast I had made.  I love having homemade stock waiting in the freezer.

Ingredients

Chopped, ripe avocado
Chopped cooked freerange chicken
Chicken stock
Crushed garlic
Salt
Olive oil
Fresh coriander (otherwise known as cilantro)
Chipotle chili (This is a smoked pepper which gives a smokey flavour.  It comes in small cans in the Mexican section of the supermarket)
Jalapeno pepper (Can find this in jars in the preserves section of the supermarket)
Fresh red chili

• In a pot add the slightest dash of olive oil to stop things burning and sautee garlic and chili, added in quantities to suit your palate.
• Add chicken stock and salt to taste.  Simmer until hot.
• While soup is simmering, chop up your avocado and cooked chicken and put in the bottom of your serving bowls.  Chop fresh coriander and put aside.
• Ladle soup into your bowls, over the chicken and avocado.  Top with coriander.

Broad Bean Hummus

Last Sunday I went to a Bring A Plate BBQ.  I made broad bean hummus and a tomato salsa and took a bag of jalapeno corn chips to go with them.  It was the first time I've made this sort of hummus and I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out. 

Hummus is one of those recipes that there are no precise quantities for.  Adjust the amount of garlic, salt and lemon juice to suit your palette.  I definitely prefer a lot of lemon - it makes a huge difference.

Broad Bean Hummus

Broad Beans
Salt
Lemon
Olive Oil
Garlic

• Put a saucepan of salted water on to boil. Add broad beans and simmer until beans are cooked.  This should only take a couple of minutes.
• Remove beans from your pot and put on a large plate so that the water evaporates and the beans cool down enough to handle. 
• Peel the beans (if you make a small tear the insides should just pop out) and put the inners into your blender, discarding the shells.
• To your blender add chopped up garlic, lemon juice and olive oil.  Blend until smooth.  You may need to add a little more olive oil as you go to loosen up the mixture.
• Put into your serving container and add more salt or lemon juice as needed.  Chill for an hour or so before serving.

Forgotten Cookies

My grandfather's very generous wedding present to me was a beautiful pistachio coloured Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer, selected by my aunt, who has impeccable taste.  I love it.  It sits in the corner of my kitchen practically demanding to be oggled at and adored.  And it's a pleasure to use.  The first thing I made was a batch of Forgotten Cookies.  Making meringue with a stand mixer is such a breeze and  I don't think I'll ever go back to being without one if I can help it as I am a very lazy cook and normally can't stand beating egg whites.

These meringues are delicious, simple and very cheap to make - for two egg whites you get about 12 - 14 cookies.  The recipe has been formulated to be made at the end of the day, for eating the next day (you'll see what I mean when you read the recipe).  Traditionally this American recipe calls for pistachio nuts and dark chocolate.  I cheat by using half a block of nut chocolate (my favourite is Whitakkers macadamia milk chocolate) which is a lot cheaper than buying nuts and chocolate individually.

Forgotten Cookies

2 egg whites (room temperature)
A large pinch of salt
Half a cup of castor sugar
Dash of vanilla essence or paste
Half a king size block of nut chocolate, cut into chips

• Turn the oven on to bake at a very high temperature
• Put two egg whites and a large pinch of salt into a bowl and beat until frothy
• Add the vanilla paste and a little of the sugar and contine to beat the egg whites, adding the sugar a little at a time.  Beat until the egg white forms very stiff white peaks
• Fold in the nut chocolate chips then put large tablespoons of the mixture onto an oven tray that has been covered in baking paper.  Leave a little gap between mixture blobs to allow for spreading.
• Put the tray in the oven and immediately turn it off.  Leave the mixture in the oven overnight and the meringues will be cooked and ready for nomming the next day.  Just for heaven's sake don't open the oven until morning!

Zucchini and Feta Fritters

It's usually around this time of year that people across the land are fielding complaints about excessive zucchini consumption, as they grow so prolifically in home gardens.    Zucchini is so mild that it can be a real drag to eat unless it's paired with something really flavoursome to compensate for the blandness.  One of my favourite ways to eat zucchini is in a salad with a chili dressing, grated in long wide strips with a vegetable peeler.  Stir fry is great, and then of course there is the classic fritter. I think that feta is pretty much essential to add some flavour, and they're delicious served with salad and a strong chutney.

Zucchini and Feta Fritters

1 large or 3 small zucchini
3/4 block of feta cheese, cut or crumbled into very small chunks
1.5 cups of flour
1 cup of milk
3 eggs
1 small onion, very finely diced
1 garlic clove, finely diced or grated
Salt and black pepper
Olive oil

• Wash, dry and grate zucchini.  With clean hands, squeeze the shredded zucchini and drain the excess water.
• Crack eggs into a mug or bowl and whisk with a fork
• Combine in a large bowl the sieved flour with all other ingredients.  Mix well.  If the mixture is too wet, add a little more flour to compensate.
• Heat a small frying pan and add a good dose of olive oil.  Wait for the oil to become very hot (but not burning) and add large dollops of the mixture to make fritters.  Fry a few at a time and cook well.  Drain on paper towels.

The hardest part of cooking fritters is making sure that they are cooked through properly.  It's so disappointing biting into a fritter to get a floury, uncooked centre.  This recipe makes about a dozen medium-sized fritters.  If you have leftovers, you can refrigerate and reheat these the next day in the oven, on bake.  Microwaving fritters will make them soggy.





Leftover fritter - in need of chutney

  

Chicken Rolls

When I was in Florence I spent an afternoon at a cooking course, which may be a lame touristy thing to do, but at least I took away some practical skills.  We made Crespelle Al Forno (Baked Crepes) and Tirimasu and an Eggplant dish with a name I can't remember, and we made some Chicken and Mushroom Rolls -which were delicious.  This is a variation that I made for lunch on New Years Day.

Chicken Rolls
Boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Sage leaves
Feta cheese
Stoneless black olives or olive tapenade
Olive oil
Butter
Cooking sherry or white wine

• Take each chicken thigh, lie it flat, and butterfly the thick end so that the meat is around the same thickness through the whole length.  Be a little careful so that you don't split the chicken.
• Put the butterflied fillet between two pieces of baking paper and gently use a mallet (or the side of a can) to flatten the fillet.  Start from the centre and work your way out.  Reducing the thickness of the fillet is important to help the meat cook through evenly.
• In the centre of each chicken fillet, place a couple of sage leaves and top with a hunk of feta and a dollop of olive tapenade or a couple of olives.  Don't overfill.  Roll up chicken and skewer the rolls closed with toothpicks.
• Heat a pan and add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and a small pat of butter.  Cook the chicken fillets, turning occassionally.  Add a swig of sherry towards the end of cooking, to loosen the juices in the pan and help prevent burning.  In the last couple of minutes of cooking you may want to add a few green beans and almonds to the pan, to serve as a side dish, along with a salad.

Buon Appetito

Mango Salsa

OK, so I promise not to go on about Hawaii forever, but it has obviously made an impression on me - including the cuisine.  Contemporary Hawaiian food does not comprise of a lot of traditional food like kalua pork, taro and lomi-lomi.  It instead references a lot of other cultures (particularly Japanese and Hispanic) substituting abundant local produce for ingredients traditional in the recipes of those cultures.  So you end up with food with a lot of macadamia nuts, lime, fish and tropical fruit such as mango, papaya and pineapple.  One of my favourites was the tropical salsas served with Mahi mahi or Ono (fish).  

My husband and I made this today for a friend's birthday BBQ:

Ingredients:
1 large cucumber
2-3 ripe mangoes
1/3 red onion
chili (I didn't have fresh chili so used kaitaia fire instead)
large lime
coriander
salt and pepper

Large dice cucumber and mango and finely chop coriander and red onion.  Squeeze over the juice of your lime and add chili, salt and pepper to taste.  Stir together and leave to sit for a while in the fridge for the flavours to develop.

Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake

The syrup for this guarantees a moist cake.  Depending on your tastes, you can add a little more lemon juice or rind for extra tang.  The trick to any good cake is to cream the butter and sugar until it is no longer gritty, and to not over-mix the dry ingredients.

Ingredients:

4 tbsp poppy seeds
1/4 cup milk
Juice of 1/2 a large lemon
200g butter, softened
1 tbsp finely grated lemon rind
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
21/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk

Syrup:
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water

• Preheat oven to a medium-high temperature. Grease a 25cm diameter pan and line the base with paper. Soak the poppy seeds in the milk and lemon juice for 10 minutes.
• Beat the butter, lemon rind and sugar in a very large bowl until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Sift the flour and baking powder straight into the bowl, in two batches, folding it in between batches, along with the milk and poppy seed mixture. 
• Spoon the cake mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
• When the cake is nearly done, make the syrup by combining the juice, sugar and water in a saucepan. Stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved and simmer for 5 minutes. Pour the hot syrup over the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven (use a skewer to poke holes for the syrup to soak into). Leave to cool in the pan.

Davidson Sloe Gin

Back in January my friend Kate came to visit me at work to drop off a birthday present.  Upon arriving she exclaimed that we had a rare Davidson Plum tree fruiting outside our office.  I had walked past it everyday without noticing its existence, and so Kate took me outside to introduce me to the tree.  This is what I found:

The Davidson Plum is unusual not only because the fruit grows off the trunk in bunches like grapes, but also because it is usually pollinated by bats.  The Davidson Plum is native to New South Wales and in the wild is considered a rare species. It has been saved from endangerment by it's novelty. 

Since Kate introduced me to the Davidson, I have been paying more attention to the landscaping at the University where I work.  I remembered the pineapple my manager pointed out, growing by the car park.  I noticed when some students stripped guavas from a tree outside my office.  I watched for weeks as an abundance of figs in the art school driveway dropped and rotted on the ground.  And I have been eyeballing the oranges in the architecture driveway, daydreaming about marmalade.  I haven't managed to rescue any other wasting fruit, but back in January I did take some of the Davidson Plums home to make Sloe Gin.  I also planted the stones in paper coffee cups to sit on my windowsill, where they are now flourishing.  I plan to plant three of my own Davidson Plum trees in my garden.

While I have been typing this, I have been enjoying a glass of my Davidson Sloe Gin.  It may be a little early in the day, but it has been a particularly rough week.

Davidson Sloe Gin

Wash and chop up the Davidson Plum's into small chunks, removing the stones.  Put the plum flesh into a swing-top jar along with white sugar and gin.  For quantities - use 100g of sugar and 100g of plum for every litre of gin.  Shake to stir and leave in a dark cupboard to infuse for 3 months before sampling.  Damson Plums would make a good substitute for this recipe as they are also bitter.  I suspect you could also use a standard plum and use less sugar to compensate.

Moroccan Preserved Lemons

My mother-in-law recently asked for a bunch of lemons from my tree, and a couple of weeks later I was returned this jar of preserved lemons. The recipe can be found here. I’m really looking forward to making some Moroccan dishes with these and olives and paprika and maybe some fish or chicken. If only I had a tagine.

Fennel and Orange Salad

There was some rather good looking fennel and Kerikeri oranges for sale at the markets.  A good excuse for a citrus and aniseed flavoured salad.  I served this with crispy roast potatoes and a whole snapper, baked with the cavity stuffed with the green tops of the fennel.  I seasoned the fish with sesame oil and salt.

Fennel and Orange Salad
Two large fennel bulbs
Two large oranges
Dijon mustard
Olive oil
White pepper
Salt

• Peel off the tough outer layer of the fennel and discard, along with green tops.  Wash and finely slice the fennel bulbs and put in salad bowl
• Peel one orange and segment, removing as much of the pith as possible.  Slice the segments and put in salad bowl
• In an empty jar put the juice from the other orange, a tablespoon of mustard, three tablespoons of olive oil, and a little salt and pepper. Put lid on jam jar and shake vigorously to mix
• Dress and toss salad and serve.

Oeufs En Cocette

I went back to the La Cigale markets this morning with my friend Kathryn and picked up some very tasty produce, including leeks and duck eggs.  I hadn't cooked with duck eggs before, so did some quick sleuthing on google and found this recipe, which looked like a good option for brunch.  I didn't have any mushrooms or creme fraiche, so here is my version with the equipment and ingredients I had at hand.

Oeufs En Cocette
(Duck) eggs
Leek
(Free range) Ham
Baguette
Olive Oil
Butter
Salt
Black Pepper
Parmesan

• Cut off the green part of your leek and discard.  Make an incision down the centre (lengthways) of the remaining white stem so that you can run your leek under the tap and rinse the layers to wash away any grit.  Finely slice the leek and cook in a frying pan with olive oil, sliced ham, salt and pepper.
• Grease ramekins with butter and sprinkle a little salt on the bottom of each ramekin.  Crack a (duck) egg into each ramekin.  Put ramekins in a deep dish frying pan/saucepan  and add boiling water from your jug, filling to just below the lip of your ramekins, to make a hot water bath.  Crank up the heat on your element and cook until the egg whites have cooked, leaving the yolks runny.   Grate a little parmesan over the top of the ramekins a minute before you are ready to remove them from their bath.
• Serve with toasted baguette.

I thought that the duck eggs tasted a little earthier than chicken eggs, but my partner doesn't taste any difference.

Israeli Couscous and Beetroot Salad

My two most recent food fads are combined in the below recipe.  Beetroot is delicious when it isn’t cured in brine and Israeli Couscous (essentially pasta) is a nicer alternative to straight couscous, which can sometimes be gritty.  This salad can be served with most anything, and leftovers are great with a soft poached egg for brunch.

Israeli Couscous and Beetroot Salad
Large beetroot
Israeli couscous
Mustard
Red wine or balsamic vinegar
Fresh basil
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

·        Boil the beetroot in a small pot of salted water until cooked.  You can test if it’s done by jabbing it with a knife to see if it gives, like with potato.  Drain the pot and fill with cold water to make the beetroot cool enough to handle.  Use a plastic bag as a glove, to avoid staining, and rub the beetroot to peel off the skin.  Dice large and put in your salad bowl.

·        Heat a good slosh of olive oil in a large saucepan, add 2 cups of Israeli Couscous and stir to coat in the oil.  Season with salt and pepper then add 2 cups of boiling water.  Cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Turn the heat off and put the lid on to keep in the steam, leaving for another 5-7 minutes.  Fluff with a fork.  Add to salad bowl.

·        Sir through a tablespoon of mustard and a couple of tablespoons of red wine vinegar and a good handful or two of torn basil leaves.  Adjust dressing to preference.

Croque Madame

Today is Bastille Day, or what the French simply refer to as le 14 juillet.

As I’ll take any excuse for a celebration, this morning I made Croque Madame.  The more common Croque Monsieur is essentially a ham and cheese toastie.  Add an egg and Monsieur becomes Madame.

Croque Madame

Nice white crusty bread, toast sliced

Ham

Egg

A good melting cheese

Dijon mustard (I like Master Foods dijonnaise for a creamier texture – but this is probably sacrilege)

A little butter, or if you’re more wholesome, cholesterol free margarine.

·         Butter two slices of bread and cut a big hole in one, using the rim of a drinking glass or measuring cup to cut out the circle.

·         Place the slice with the hole butter side down in a hot frying pan.  Crack an egg and put this in the hole.

·         Layer ham, grated cheese, mustard and the other slice of bread (butter side up) on top while the egg is cooking on one side.

·         Turn over when you’re ready and cook the other side.

Cooking your Croque Madame this way will ensure it’s nice and toasty on the outside, and when you cut into it you’ll get a runny yolk.

And here she is:

Bonne fête! 

Jafa Chocolate Chip Cookie

My baking doesn't always go to plan and when this happens I end up stomping around the kitchen, cursing like a sailor.  I get looks from my partner when I do this and I'm sure he's thinking "I don't think Martha Stewart talks like that".

We had some extra dark Whitakers chocolate in the house and it inspired me to have a go at making some jaffa cookies. I took a basic cookie recipe from the closest cookbook I had at hand and fooled around with the recipe, adding in cut up chocolate chunks, a bit of vanilla and some finely grated orange peel.  The flavour was pretty much there, but the base biscuit was too soft for my liking and the cookies spread across the baking sheet instead of  holding together as I had hoped.  I never seem to have much luck with chocolate chip cookies.  One day I'll have to have a go at working my way through Martha Stewart's selection of 15 chocolate chip cookie recipes to find one that I actually like.

Cheats Cherry Pie

I made up this lazy recipe last weekend.  It really tastes spectacular.  And I really wish I had a better picture to do it justice.

Ingredients:

Packet of Edmonds short sweet pastry sheets

2 x jars of Delmaine pitted cherries

120 grams caster sugar

3 heaped tablespoons of sieved corn flour

2  heaped teaspoons ground cinnamon

Instructions:

• Turn on oven to 'bake' setting at a fairly high temperature.  Lightly grease a large pie tin (with removable bottom) with butter.  
• Line pie tin with sweet short pastry.  You may need to use a sheet for the bottom and then cut strips to wrap around the inside of the tin, working the pastry like clay with your thumbs to meld the edges with the base.
• Cover pastry with baking paper and weigh down with pastry weights or raw rice then pop  in oven to ‘blind bake’.  Remove from oven when the pastry is starting to look cooked and remove baking paper.
• While pastry is blind baking, drain the cherries (reserving syrup) and put the drained cherries in a large saucepan with caster sugar and cinnamon and about 3/4 cup of the reserved syrup (which is sour).  Alter quantity of sugar and syrup to taste.  Cook until sugar dissolves.
• Add in corn flour, sieving it into the pan to avoid lumps.  Cook for 5 or 10 minutes, stirring.  The liquid should thicken to a jam like consistency. You may need to add more corn flour or syrup to get a happy consistency.
• Pour cherry mixture into pastry case (still in baking tin).  Cut a sheet of pastry into strips and make a cross hatch topping to the pie.
• Bake until golden brown.  Leave to cool before removing from tin.

Am not yet over the novelty of my new pie dish so stay tuned for more pie recipes.

Banana Maple Walnut Cake

Last night I whipped up the above cake for my betrothed to take to work on his birthday.  Iced cakes aren't particularly transportable, so I thought a practical option would be a banana cake.  I started with a basic Edmonds Banana Cake recipe, and for a bit of glamour turned this into a banana maple walnut cake.  Alterations to the Edmonds recipe include using 2 large bananas in the recipe, instead of the 1 cup specified.  I roughly squeeze the bananas still in their skins before peeling them and adding the pulp to the cake mixture, to save mess.  I also halved the amount of sugar specified and supplemented the rest with a good slosh of maple syrup.  Maple syrup is wonderful to bake with as it means the cake comes away from the tin easily when it comes time to turn it out.  Last of all I added a good couple of handfuls of walnuts to the cake mix before combining, and then after filling the cake tin (lined with baking paper - no need to grease the tin thanks to the maple syrup), decorated the top with a few extra walnuts.  I'd suggest using a smaller cake tin so that you get a deep cake, as the recipe makes a fairly small quantity of cake mix.  Bake until golden brown.  The cake should be crispy on the outside and oh so moist inside.

End result - apparently gone by lunchtime.

Pear and Mildly Ginger Muffins

It may look a bit of a wreck, but that's only because the last of the batch got mauled before I had a chance to pap it in all it's muffiny glory.  In actual fact I'm really pleased with how these turned out.  I've joined the revival for seasonal eating, and with autumnal pears, ginger is a brilliant match.  However as far as I'm concerned, ginger in baking needs the lightest of touches so I came up with the idea of poaching peeled pears in a sugar and crushed ginger syrup rather than adding ginger to the actual batter.  It makes for a more delicate flavour.

As a basic muffin recipe base, I tend to use Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Lemon Curd Marble Muffin recipe, doubling the quantities of everything as I use a large muffin tin. I like HFW's recipe as I think the addition of yoghurt makes for a moist muffin.  In this case I used honey flavoured greek yoghurt to complement the other flavours.  And of course instead of lemon curd I used small chunks of poached pear.  For this peel 2 large pears, core and cut into large chunks.  Bring a small saucepan of water to boil with 2 cups of sugar and a large teaspoon of crushed ginger (I use the stuff that comes in an easy squeezy tube).  Poach until just cooked, remove from the pot and put aside to cool while you prepare the muffin batter according to HFW's recipe.  Mix in pear at the end before you spoon the mixture into your tin.  It pays to keep an eye on these as they cook so that they don't burn. Things can go all pear shaped all too easily. 

Sorry, but it is an HFW recipe, so I had to have a bad pun in there somewhere.

Mizuna Salads

One of the few things growing in my garden at the moment is Mizuna - a bitter, peppery japanese green.  I find it too overwhelming in a standard savoury salad and have come up with the following autumnal lunchbox salads that offer some sweetness to balance the flavour.

Mizuna, cold roasted rosemary potato and pumkin (leftover from a roast), capers and balsamic vinegar.

Mizuna, beurre bosc pears, walnuts, blue cheese and an olive oil and maple syrup dressing.  I made the dressing by shaking up two parts olive oil to one part maple syrup in a jar.  Drizzle sparingly. 

Strawberry and Almond Crumble

This afternoon I decided to make room in my freezer by using up the last of my homegrown strawberries.  My recipe of choice was one that had firm approval at Christmas (demonstrated through Seconds being consumed, even after a huge Christmas feasting session). 

Nigella's Strawberry and Almond Crumble

It's easy and unbelievably good.  The combination of cooked strawberries, ground almonds and vanilla is a real winner.  The secret to any good crumble is to make sure that the butter and flour are well rubbed so that you get a proper crumble topping rather than chalk.  Also being patient and ensuring that the crumble is properly cooked through for similar reasons.

Nigella is controversial in our household.  Not for the usual issue of contention concerning Nigella, that of her love of calorie laden food.  The controversy derives instead from Nigella's use of the english language.  It makes my other half squirm in his seat.  "Why does she have to say 'tumble the berries into the bowl', why can't she just say 'put'?!"  We once watched her critique a panna cotta on an episode of Top Chef and she remarked that a panna cotta should quiver like the inner thigh of a seventeenth century courtesan.  It was too much for my love and he raged at the television.

I quite like Nigella's expressions, but I think they're best consumed in small doses, like her food.  For the record, Nigella may insist that crumble should be served with lashings of cream, but I instead opted for a more modest strawberry and rhubarb yoghurt.