the wednesday three

1. Mail: Even though I totally do not deserve it, I received mail today. Those who know me well know that I love getting things in the post. Real, tangible, thoughtful mail. One friend and I have been writing letters to each other for ten years now, since she left NZ when we were in 6th form. The letters continued between Auckland and Sydney, then Hertfordshire and China, then Wellington and Sydney and Taiwan and back. Nowadays, that friend has a Husband and a baby and makes beautiful art. Recently, she taught herself how to bind books, and today I received my very own in the mail (along with 2 letters, a handmade owl and a photo of said-beautiful baby). I am about 3 parcels behind in our mail exchange and owe her about 10 letters, but they are coming I promise. She's selling the beautifully hand-bound books over at her blog if you'd like to have a peruse. Gosh, I have talented friends. 

2. Gingerbread: Made from scratch, slightly gooey, and with fresh lime icing. Made with gratitude for a work-friend and a friend-friend who have both done recent favours for me that just made life easier. The recipe was adapted from Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess, and when it's fully adapted and perfected, it's going to get a whole post all to itself. And maybe even a shot at national stardom on my next Good Morning stint (Tuesday May 10 for those interested). 

3. Party plans: Since I'm obviously nowhere near nuptials of my own, planning an extravaganza of a party in honour of someone else's has been most enjoyable indeed. I know that many of you may now be over the media saturation of the Royal Wedding, but I am getting mighty excited about transforming my house and building a meringue tower/wedding cake covered in Union Jack flags. So there. I've been unashamedly sassing around with my extremely kitsch Wills and Kate shopping tote too (also real mail, from my sister in London). My former boss used to say that it's so important in life to celebrate happy occasions. And celebrate we will!  

feijoas a-plenty

My day-job boss blessed us with a bonus day off today, since we doubled up on Anzac Day and Easter Monday yesterday. I was especially grateful to have my first day back in Wellington to myself. It was sufficiently windy and cold, but after a sleep in I rugged up and reacquainted myself with the delicious coffee at a couple of my favourite cafes. I then perused the fresh produce at Moore Wilson's, discovered Piako's latest addition to it's gourmet yoghurt family: vanilla bean, and stocked up on baking ingredients.

A large bag of feijoas joined my cabin baggage last night, and this afternoon's weather demanded the afternoon be spent in the kitchen. Feijoa Coconut Gems were first - I'd seen these in last week's Viva section of the New Zealand Herald. Although I don't own gem irons, I just used muffin tins and they worked out just fine.

Feijoa Coconut Gems (Amanda Laird's recipe, published in the NZ Herald, and available here)
Makes 12

Ingredients

60g butter (and 25g extra for the tins)
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 egg
2 1/2 Tblsp golden syrup
1/2 cup chopped feijoa (I used quite big chunks, and had closer to one cup)
3/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup coconut
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup warm coconut milk

Preheat oven to 200*C. Put the gem irons in the oven (I just used muffin pans).

Beat together the butter and sugar until pale. Add egg and golden syrup and beat well.

Fold in the feijoas. Soft over the flour, then fold in coconut.

Stir baking soda into coconut milk and quickly stir into the mixture.

With the extra butter, divide evenly into the tins/irons. Drop batter into the tins and bake for about 10 minutes until golden.

Best enjoyed hot out of the oven with a cup of tea!

As long as this weather continues, so too will the baking. I've got an apple tart to blog, and the gingerbread that's currently in my oven smells divine. It was wonderful to be home, but it's also nice to be home. Hope you all had a good Easter break!

good friday brunch and pizza

Well I didn't quite get around to Hot cross Buns...again. I nearly got started on Greek Easter Bread after my friend gave me some she had made, but it just didn't quite happen yesterday either - I was too busy eating brunch at Queenie's Lunchroom with friends after a tasty Thai BYO the night before.

Queenie's is an unassuming little neighbourhood cafe, which sits in Freeman's Bay, Auckland. I'd heard consistently good things, and whilst I didn't rate the scrambled eggs I ordered yesterday that highly, the accompanying tea smoked salmon was a highlight and the sourdough toast they were served on was delightfully fresh. The meals of my dining companions were all given good reviews - cassoulet, huevos ranchos and delicious looking granola. It's a small but well formed menu, and the ability to build whatever breakfast you like out of an inspired list of sides essentially makes the breakfast menu limited only by your imagination (or how much you may have had to drink the night before).

Queenie's Lunchroom 24a Spring St Freeman's Bay Auckland

The coffee is Supreme, and delicious. The counter hosted an impressive range of sandwiches and baked treats too. All in all a solid brunch option in the Ponsonby area, and quite a delightful neighbourhood surprise.

Back at home in the afternoon and Mum was making pizza. She'd bought a pizza stone ages ago, for about $15 from Briscoes, and has since mastered her dough to produce an exceptionally cheap and easy alternative to takeaways.

The dough recipe used is from Sabato in Mt Eden (a gourmet food store at 24 Normanby Road), and you can top your pizza with whatever you fancy. Ours were Watties Pizza Sauce over the base - then mozzarella, thinly sliced roasted capsicum, some strips of prosciutto and a little red onion and a little fresh tomato. You blast them on the pizza stone in a hot oven until they're done to your liking - this takes about10-15 minutes.

Sabato Pizza

2 1/2 tsp active yeast granules
3/4 cup warm water
pinch of sugar
2 cups plus a little more '00' flour
1 tsp sea salt
3 tbsp extra vrgin olive oil, plus extra for the bowl

Mix the yeast with the sugar in 1/2 cup warm water. Leave for about 5 minutes or until foamy. In a food processor blitz 2 cups of flour and the salt. Then, with the machine going, add the yeast  mix, the olive oil and the other 1/4 cup of warm water. Process until the mixture forms a ball and add more flour little by little if the dough is too wet.

Process for another 30 seconds and place the ball of dough in a bowl brushed with olive oil, turning to coat. Cover with shrink wrap and a tea towel. Leave in a warm place for about 1 - 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled in bulk.

Lightly dust your bench with flour and roll out dough as thinly as you like and top with ingredients of your choice.

Cook in a really hot oven (240*C) in a pan, or on a pizza stone if you have one, until it has cooked to your liking - thin ones take about 10 minutes. I love a classic margherita - tomato, buffalo mozzarella and basil, and then a drizzle of chilli oil once it's out of the oven. If you prepare the dough early in the afternoon you have yourself a quick and delicious authentic Italian dinner. Serve with a rocket, parmesan and balsamic salad - bellissimo!  

bambi backsteak

My friend Jimmy went hunting again recently, and very kindly donated me a venison back steak. I cooked it last Saturday night, and it was enjoyed by me, my flatmate and a friend who has recently returned from overseas. We had it with a couple of bottles of red and it sure was tasty.

When chatting up getting chatted up by a cute boy in a bar recently, he asked if I was to cook him dinner what I would make. I asked what his favourite food was, to which he replied lasagne. I ambitiously said "well I'd cook you lasagne". Upon reflection, if trying to impress someone with a sassy dinner for two - I would definitely, definitely make this again. Just with more jus and maybe some greens on the side.

Venison backsteak on roasted potato discs, with lyonnaise onions and red wine mushrooms

I started off by putting the backsteak in a bowl with a couple of sprigs of rosemary and some cheap red wine. After a couple of hours, I started on the spuds. I decided to do roasted discs of agria potato - I preheated the oven, and the oven tray of olive oil, to about 200*C then added 1cm slices of potato, sprinkled with plenty of flaky sea salt, ensuring to cover them in oil once in the tray. When the potatoes were in the oven, glass of cheeky red in hand, I got amongst the onions.

I currently have on loan from a friend Stephane Reynaud's beautiful book Rippailles. Having read it and re-read it over and over, poring over each page and positively frothing with inspiration, I went with french style onions. The version I ended up with I believe were lyonnaise onions having consulted both Renaud and Damien Pignolet. Basically they are onions fried on a medium heat, in olive oil, to which I added some white wine vinegar, some salt, and a splash of white wine. Cooking them off for about 25-30 minutes meant they were soft, sweet and delicious.

In a frying pan on a high heat, I seared the venison and had the mushrooms and some red wine nestled up in the pan too. Using tongs, once I'd seared it on all sides, I cleared some space in the potato tray, and put the venison in the oven. I continued adding red wine to the frying pan to glaze the mushrooms, with a little rosemary. Making this again I'd add plenty of stock to make a larger quantity of jus - the boys on the receiving end of this meal noting a slight lack of jus their only qualm.

The venison was in the oven for between 20 and 25 minutes. I gave it a good squeeze to ensure it wasn't still squidgy and raw in the middle, and kept a close eye on it too, ensuring it didn't dry out. Once done I rested it for about 8-10 minutes. I sliced into it, and was reminded of my many days waitressing, watching the chefs do the same thing with a look of satisfaction at the juicy, pink, moist, perfectly cooked piece of meat. I would eagerly watch as I waited patiently to take the dish to the table - in those days served with mushroom risotto and truffle oil. 

Back to last Saturday night, and I stacked the crispy-outside-soft-inside potato discs, spooning over some of the onions. I then carefully placed a couple of slices of the medium-rare venison fanned out on top, and mushrooms round the side with a smearing of what become a rather thick jus-type-reduction. I didn't manage a photo before we dug in, and although I usually sit down to a meal and give a disclaimer of whatever I consider I did wrong in its preparation, I have to say this was probably one of the nicest meals I've ever made. Fresh local produce helped - thanks Jimmy! It goes to show what great ingredients, a bit of time and patience, and a lovely glass of red wine firmly in hand can do. Delicious.

home is wherever I'm with you

I breezed into work after my Tuesday stint on Good Morning and after a few hours breezed out again. I unexpectedly have come up to Auckland as my Dad was in hospital - he's recovering well though and it's nice to have some quality time in the City of Sails.

 We've been inundated with delicious baking - spinach pie, ginger slice, chocolate chippies, chocolate brownie, and a pumpkin and feta loaf. We also, to my absolute delight, have had bags of feijoas showered upon us. I managed to whip up two Feijoa cakes (the basic recipe being essentially this plum cake, but with sour cream instead of yoghurt and feijoas pressed in instead of plums - which is basically Annabelle White's feijoa cake). I also met a fellow food-blogger yesterday, which was lovely, and I note she recently blogged a feijoa cake too. The NZ Herald did a special on feijoa baking in Wednesday's paper, so I'm going to give their recipes a go this week as well. I love feijoas and they are abundant in Auckland, so I'm making the most of it while I can.  

The lemon curd tart I made on Good Morning on Tuesday was a huge success, it's such a simple easy and impressive dessert. I declare the microwave lemon curd recipe the winner, but it was much better having been left to set overnight in the fridge. The recipe for the tart is available on the Good Morning website, but here it is for you now as well.

Lemon Curd Tart 

2 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup caster sugar
100g butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups lemon curd

[I also added 1 cup of frozen blueberries. You can use any fruit - stewed apricots, passionfruit curd, a tin of apples - get creative and/or thrifty at your leisure!]

Method

Line and grease a spring form pan (I used a 25cm).

Put flour, sugar and butter in a food processor and blend until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Add the eggs and blend to form a soft dough.

Press two thirds of the dough into the base of the pan and up the sides - be careful not to have it too thick if you aren't a big crust fan.

Fill the pie shell with your filling of choice - in this case I spread the lemon curd in, then sprinkled over the blueberries.

Crumble the remaining third of the dough over the filling in chunks.

Bake at 180*C for 35-40 minutes until golden. Lightly dust with icing sugar and serve with whatever you fancy - ice cream, yoghurt, cream and impress the socks off everyone you know.

lemon curd times two

While tearing my hair out watching the Mystics win their first game on Australian soil in latest round of the ANZ Netball championship last night, I was simultaneously experimenting with lemon curd recipes in my chaos-riddled kitchen. I'm making a lemon curd tarty cake-pie (I can't decide which one it is) on Good Morning this morning, and although store bought curd is the stress-free option, I gave the homemade variety a go. Herewith, one recipe using a microwave and one simply a stove top.

Stove-top Lemon Curd
(the recipe is my kitchen-aficionado friend Anna's, adapted from Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion)

4 egg yolks
2/3 cup caster sugar
60g unsalted butter
2 tsp grated lemon zest
100mL fresh lemon juice (I used meyer lemons, and topped it up with the juice of a fresh lime too)

Whisk egg yolks and sugar until well combined but not frothy

Tip into a heavy based saucepan and add butter, zest and juice (add some passionfruit pulp here for passionfruit curd)

Stirring constantly, bring to simmering point over medium-high heat. This should take at least 5 minutes. When bubbles appear, remove from heat, continually stirring.

I then gave it a really good whisk. Allow to cool slightly before transferring to jars.

Microwave Lemon Curd
(loosely adapted from my aunt Robyn and a Ruth Pretty recipe)

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
50g butter
1tsp grated lemon rind
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

Place eggs and sugar in a 2 litre glass pyrex, or other similar microwave safe bowl. Beat until well mixed.

Add butter, lemon rind and juice.

Microwave on high for 8 minutes, stirring well with a whisk every two minutes. Be careful because depending on your microwave, you may not need the final two minutes - just keep a close eye on it.

Cool, then pour into hot sterilised jars. Seal when cool - or use immediately and store in the fridge.

It is really rather easy, and satisfying to master once you get the right consistency. Tart recipe to follow shortly!

caffeine and sunday

My friend began an email exchange when bored at work last week asking a number of would you rather's. Before the exchange descended into filth we were faced with would you rather live the rest of your life without wine or coffee. I couldn't decide. I love wine, but I also really really love coffee. For one semester of my university days I would have a triple-shot flat white every morning. That was before I embraced long blacks with all the angst of a fifth year student. When I made coffees for a job, I would mix it up with anything from short black shots to picollo lattes to get me through the day. These days my stock standard is a flat white, as long as I know it's going to be in a small enough cup with a big enough double shot. Pretty safe in Wellington.

My weekend was dotted with trips to three of my favourite Wellington cafes. They all serve Havana coffee, and I note that many people hold this brand as an undisputed favourite. I have room in my life for more than one favourite coffee brand and I regularly get delicious coffees spanning the many roasters featured around town. Deluxe cafe saw me yarn and laugh away Saturday afternoon, and then Queen Sally's Diamond Deli and Maranui, both in Lyall Bay, hosted a lazy Sunday cafe hopping catch up with a friend of mine.

If it's possible to simultaneously be in love with a cafe and want to be personified in a cafe, then I long to be and I love Queen Sally's. The attention to detail of cuteness, as well as inspiring cabinet food and delicious coffee makes this place an absolute treat. Even though they had melting moments with raspberry cream filling (my favourite biscuit and my favourite berry), I went for a pear and date oaty slice, served with yoghurt. The baking is just gorgeous - last year I made those chocolate peppermint delights after a visit here too.

My weekend was dotted with other things - kebabs, sadly yes. A burger at 3am, unfortunately also. Shots? Tequila, vodka, japanese rice wine. Karaoke? Meatloaf (what wouldn't he do for love? anyone?), Madonna (this may have been my ringtone for about 3 years), Bonnie Tyler (sung in the style of Old School) and unfortunately, it also involved the unleashing of my karaoke-possessed microphone-hogging alter ego, to an unsuspecting group made up of friends of friends, people I'd just met and people I didn't know at all. Friendships were solidified over Elton John though, and judging from the incriminating photos I took, any hostile thoughts should have been forgotten by now. Until next time a microphone appears.

In the meantime - tune in on Tuesday when I'll be cooking on Good Morning - I promise to keep my microphone hogging to a minimum!
  

dusky sun and veges

My Friday night was spent with a friend at one of my favourite old haunts, and included pints of the last of the summer ale, tanquerays and tonic, the odd agavero shot and an indefinable number of jagerbombs. I retained my title of sculling speed champion - female, and held my own against a cocky bartender (also a former work colleague) who I was dead-tied with. My friend and I ate mini wagyu-beef burgers, cheese fondue, zucchini and mint fritters and mushroom risotto balls.

Later that evening, I may or may not have taxied home clutching a greasy box of noodles.

Saturday morning I took the sunshine and slightly hazy head as an opportunity to make those pumpkin ginger brownies I was telling you about last week - the ones featured in my favourite magazine. I was not concentrating though; I added three times too much pumpkin, and they were a little squidgy. I also slightly over-gingered with the crystalised variety. The chocolate was rich and luscious though, and I think a ginger-lover would really enjoy them. A revelation did occur however - when my brownie pan was full, there was enough mixture to fill my mini muffin pans too. They were perfect bite sized treats, and more of these soft little delights to feature later. Promise.

I got the train up the coast in the afternoon, as my aunt had the pleasure of entertaining my other aunt's friends who had recently returned from overseas, for Sunday lunch. I was called in to sous-chef. It was like a mini-holiday for me though - a mini-holiday at what feels like a luxury bed and breakfast, with fresh towels, fresh flowers and constant delicious eating of fresh produce from the garden, glass of wine in hand.

Late afternoon saw me swearing at the TV watching netball, then before cooking dinner for the three of us, I walked my glass of rose across the lush green lawn to the vege garden whereupon I discovered the last of the strawberry harvest. I took the three I found back and photographed said glass of wine and strawberries in the last night before daylight savings gorgeous dusky sun. Arty.

Dinner was a success, and that was followed by a highly successful lunch. Baba ghanoush and fresh ciabatta, a salad of glorious olive oil, fresh figs and prosciutto, barbecued butterflied leg of lamb, green and yellow and red tomatoes from the garden covered in freshly torn basil, and chermoula on the side of crispy roast potatoes. So two tasty vegetarian recipes for you - one from dinner and one from lunch.

The chermoula is a mix up of feta, olives and fresh herbs, amongst other things. Extremely tasty with lamb and potatoes. The recipe is from an old cuisine magazine and available by clicking here.

The night before I did stuffed peppers in the style of my friend Anne, and they are a great vegetarian side dish.

Stuffed capsicums

Cut capsicums in half and de-seed. In a bowl, mix together olive oil, coarsely chopped black olives, capers or caper berries (with stalks attached) some finely sliced garlic, a couple of chopped anchovies, and a sprinkle of chopped parsley. Mix together and scoop mixture into each pepper, ensuring some of each gets in each one. Roast for about 25 minutes at 180*C.



[I would attach a picture but my computer has packed a sad. Once fixed, watch this space for lemon curd, impending TV appearances, mushrooms, roasted cauliflower, a Laos feast and maybe, if you're really lucky, a splash of scandal.]

autumn sun

I am still recovering from a 4-course lunch in the countryside sunshine, and since I enjoyed many, many glasses of rose, I'll save a full debrief for later. Under my aunt's expert guidance I mastered Baba Ghanoush - it was a recipe she had from an old life and leisure magazine. It's smoky and delicious, and vegan to boot.

Smoky Eggplant Baba Ghanoush

Take 2-3 medium eggplant and stab the skin a few times. Cook in a 250*C oven for about 45 minutes until they have collapsed.

Allow them to cool slightly before peeling them. Put the flesh in a colander to remove any excess liquid.

Put in the food processor with:

*3 tblsp lemon juice
*6 whole garlic cloves
*2 tbsp chopped coriander
*1 tblsp salt
*cracked pepper
*1/4 cup olive oil

Blend together until smooth. Taste, and season again and/or add lemon juice accordingly.

Serve in a bowl with a sprinkle of paprika and a wee drizzle of olive oil. Enjoy with some delicious bread, or some flat bread, or pita or crackers. We served it with some luscious olive oil too, with some warm ciabatta.

It's really tasty, and as you can see it's also very easy. Being immersed in cooking magazines all weekend, as well as the gorgeous lunch, has left me brimming with inspiration; more soon!