greek feast

December, as always, has been a blur. A blur of eating and drinking and hangovers and sunshine and piles of dirty laundry. If laundry was a struggle, blogging was always going to take a back seat, and somehow amongst it all I was able to get sorted. It took until Christmas eve and getting to my parent's house to actually stop and breathe and soak it all up.

We decided on a Greek-inspired feast for Christmas this year. I love the core ingredients of mediteranean cooking - lemon, garlic, mint, olive oil. Mum had bought a funny little Greek cookbook published by the Woman's Weekly and it was surprisingly inspiring. I took creative licence a bit, since I have certainly been influenced by Greek cooking before, and we ended up with quite a feast. It was a lazy and hot, food and bubbles-filled day at home, which was ideal.

We started with our only Christmas tradition - croissants and smoked salmon and bubbles for breakfast. That, and the angel which adorns our tree (a creative 5 year old me made in 1989) are the main Christmas constants in our family. The croissants we use are the frozen dough ones by Paneton - leave them overnight to prove and fresh pastry awaits you in the morning. With jam and lewis road creamery butter first (butter on butter, tis the season) then hot smoked salmon and lemon and cracked pepper to follow, I managed to down 3 of them. We skyped our sister in Wales before politely doing  presents after that. The Greek inspired feast then began.

The sun came out while I barbecued the haloumi and prawn skewers. I'd doused the thawed prawns in plenty of lemon juice, a few chilli flakes, some olive oil, some dried oregano, and some lemon zest. The haloumi just got lemon juice, before taking to the skewer and hitting the barbecue plate.

We had a spanakopita, tzatziki, a roasted eggplant salad, and amazingly rosemary roasted potatoes alongside the traditional Christmas leg of lamb, albeit slightly Greeky inspired. I rubbed it up with olive oil and salt and pepper, as well as lemon juice and zest, plenty of garlic, oregano, fresh thyme, and rosemary.

The cheesecake was the highlight. And although I appear to have been harping on about cheesecake in every forum available to me of late, I'm going to give it a little more airtime here. Why? Because it's amazing. It's a ricotta baked cheesecake with a very subtle lemon hint, and a tiny sprinkle of almonds. We served it with brandied figs and it was incredible. My Mum, who makes a mean cheesecake herself, declared it the best she'd ever had. 

Cheesecake with brandied figs
adapted from 'Greek' published by the Australian Woman's Weekly, by ACP books, Sydney.

1 packet wine biscuits
50g (ish) melted butter
500g ricotta
1/2 cup icing sugar
1tbsp lemon rind
1 tbsp cornflour
4 eggs
1/2 cup thickened cream
2 tbsp flaked almonds

1. Preheat oven to 140C. Grease and line a 20cm springform tin.
2. Process biscuits until fine. Add butter, and mix until combined. Press mixture into base of tin and set in the fridge for about half an hour.
3. Beat the ricotta, sifted icing sugar, lemon rind, and cornflour, until smooth. Use electric beaters or a food processor. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then beat in the cream in two batches. Pour mixture into the tin and sprinkle with the almonds.
4. Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes (note! mine took a good hour and a half, and then I put it in the warmer drawer while I began cooking the meal. Keep an eye on it, but you want it to be set (not still runny) and golden on top). Turn oven off and cool completely in the oven with the door ajar (or cook a bit longer then cool out of the oven). Refrigerate for an hour before serving with the figs.

Brandied figs
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup brandy
1 tbsp honey
figs and sultanas - about 200-250g

Stir sugar, water, brandy and honey together in a saucepan. Add figs and sultanas, and bring to the boil.  Reduce heat to a simmer, and then allow to cool in the syrup. We left ours overnight.

Serve cheesecake with figs and syrup.

I hope whatever you ate and wherever you were you had a great day, with plenty of leftovers. Happy holidays!

silly season salad

It was a Monday this week in which I had to do an emergency water-bottle purchase at the dairy en route to the bus stop before work. Having a case of the dries on a Monday shouldn't be that surprising at this time of year, but I'm pretty sure I was still recovering yesterday. It had been a busy weekend, which involved multiple spells of sun-drenched cider-drinking. Friday I had off from work in which to write a column and execute a dinner party, both of which went very well. You'll have to just wait and see about the column, and the dinner party? The dinner party I would like to have a little brag about, when I am not quite so tired (soon!).

I had some friends over for dinner last night though, and wonderfully, they brought half the dinner with them. Some family-farm schnitzel, a quinoa and pomegranate and lemon salad - so good. And from me? Some sausages I acquired recently from new favourite the Grey Lynn Butchery - I met Lucia the other day and she sent me off with a bag to try. So far my favourite is the venison and red wine, but the beef and blue cheese proved very popular last night too. But my main contribution to go with the meat last night was a big ol' bowl of greens. Essential at this time of year, and bloody delicious.

December Greens

2 bunches asparagus
1 head broccoli
1 packet snow peas
rocket
balsamicy-mustard-olive oil-s+p-lemon juice dressing
feta
lightly toasted almonds

In short, you chop the asparagus and grill it with olive oil, s+p and a sprinkle of chilli powder or flakes. Meanwhile, you heat a frying pan with a little oil, add the broccoli and a splash of water, mix it around a bit, then add the snow peas. Cook until, well, cooked, but also so they retain a bit of crunch. Chuck the rocket in a bowl, add the asparagus and the broccoli and snow peas, crumble over some feta, add the almonds and then dress with the dressing.

It will make you feel healthy and virtuous, and it looks great both in a bowl and on your plate. I'm also pretty sure a big pile of this salad will completely cancel out three quarters of a bottle of wine in terms of calories. Tis the season!

winner!

I'll omit the obligatory how-the-heck-is-it-December-already and move straight to outlining my excitement for the impending silly season. Parties, dinners, sunshine, Christmas music, and Bloody Mary's - it's going to be awesome. Last weekend was spent family-filled at the beach, and multiple beach swims and champagne barbecue brunches and rants over trivial pursuit were had. It set the tone for what is shaping up to be a very excellent summer. Which I am very much looking forward to after the winter of my both my discontent and multiple-fractured wrist.

There will be salad, speaking of which I've made a few on the Good Morning show recently. All the recipes are over at the GM website, and my salad picks for this time of year are the spiced baby carrot salad, a brown rice and broccoli salad (pictured below with the chilli and lime chicken thighs), a roasted eggplant salad with feta and mint, and the one with asparagus and quinoa. And if you're just going to have snacks for dinner, this pea and mint dip is so easy, as is this one with white beans.

 

On Wednesday I also whipped up, with rhubarb and pistachios, a white chocolate cheesecake. I'm a little bit obsessed with cheesecake; my Mum makes an amazing baked one with lemon and mango, and I became firmly addicted to a passionfruit and white chocolate number we used to serve back at my very first cafe job. I have a white chocolate cheesecake recipe in the now-in-stores Whittaker's cookbook, speaking of which, we have a winner!  

Using a very scientific method, I re-read all the entries to my Whittaker's cookbook competition, wrote out each name on a piece of paper, and drew one out of a hat. Congratulations Amy! I'm sending you a copy of A Passion for Chocolate. Amy's entry was not an embarrassing story, but a beautiful apple cake she recently made. Gorgeous!

Now, the entries. I asked for either a photo of something you've cooked or baked recently, or a funny/embarrassing story. And there is no better way to feel better about yourself than reading about other people doing embarrassing things. There were so many good ones. Lacy underwear stuck to backpacks, nappy mishaps in shopping malls, going in for the hug to a prospective employer by accident, pashing your friend's little brother on the dance floor at said-friend's 21st, oh how I laughed. And blushed. There were also some cooking disasters, and some beautiful baking photos. So a huge and hilarious thank you to everyone who entered.

I've been eating and drinking lots of delicious things around Auckland lately, and coming up I've got a dinner party to host and some Christmas baking to do and never fear, through the hazy heads and full bellies I'll be telling you all about it.