Lazy Sundays and Mexican food

Another VERY lazy Sunday, stayed in bed til around 10am reading a Jodi Piccoult novel..the rest of the day has been spent cooking, watching a movie and back to cooking.  We had a smoky scrambled duck egg dish with homemade bread, Kaitaia fire, fresh tomatoes and coriander for breakfast, chicken and homemade barbecue sauce quesadillas for lunch and now we come to dinner.  Al brown's chargrilled squid and chorizo on skordalia with red roast capsicum vinaigrette and I can make my own pita bread now!  It's a snap to make, you can find the recipe here followed by rhubarb and apple pudding with hokey pokey ice cream.  Utter gluttony.

Kinda Chinese banquet for three

To help myself get out of this anti food rut I've been in, I organised babysitters and hooned off to the Mt Maunganui library, straight to the cookery section intending on arming myself with cookbooks galore.
One that has stood out for me is Kylie Kwong's book Simple Chinese Cooking.  Everybody loves Chinese food right? even better when it's banquet style.  What I love about Kylie Kwong is she offers Chinese cooking the healthy way.  No msg, or too many deep fried dishes.  Fortunately for me my AWESOME hunter/gatherer father put the crab pot out the night before so we had fresh local paddle crabs to eat!  Chilli crab is a dish originating from Singapore which funnily enough isn't meant to be spicy so obviously I tweaked it a little!

Chilli-salt Duck Breasts with lemon
Jasmine Rice
Stir fry cabbage and brocoli in soy sauce and ginger
Chilli crab


Chilli-salt Duck Breasts with lemon

Like Kylie Kwong this is my favourite dish in the whole book.  I honestly have only cooked duck twice before and failed.. This recipe is so easy though, first you steam the duck then deep fry with a coating of flour, chilli and salt.  Amazing.

4 x 200g duck breasts, with skin, trimmed of excess fat
2 tbsp plain flour
3 tsp chilli powder
3 tsp sea salt
2 tsp Sichuan pepper, ground a little in a mortar and pestle
2 tsp sea salt
vegetable oil for deep-frying
1 large red chilli, finely sliced
2 spring onions, julienned
2 lemons, halved

Arrange duck breasts, skin side up, on a heatproof plate that will fit inside a steamer basket.  Place plate inside a steamer, position over a wok or large frying pan of boiling water and steam, covered, for 12 minutes or until duck breasts are half cooked.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine flour, chilli powder and first measure of salt.  Carefully remove plate from steamer basket, transfer duck breasts to a rack and set aside for 25 minutes too cool slightly.
Add duck breasts to chilli-salt mixture and toss to coat well, shaking off any excess flour.  Heat oil in a large wok until surface seems to shimmer slightly.  Add duck breasts and deep fry for about 2 minutes or until cooked through and lightly browned then remove and drain well on kitchen paper.
Cut duck on the diagonal into 1cm slices and arrange on a platter with a small bowl of Sichuan pepper and salt.  Garnish with chilli and spring onion and serve immediately with lemon halves.


Chilli crab

6-8 paddle crabs, rinsed, kindly end their lives first please then chop in half
big splash of vegetable oil
2 red chillies
3 tbsp chilli sauce
3 tbsp tomato sauce (yes like the chips + sauce variety)
knob of fresh ginger, grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
handful fresh coriander
2 tbsp fish sauce

Heat oil in a wok or large frying pan then stir fry crabs for 5-10 minutes or until they have all turned orange.  Add another big splash of oil, garlic, chillies, ginger and fry until fragrant.  Add chilli sauce, tomato sauce and a splash of water and mix everything together and crabs are well coated in the sauce.  Cook for a few minutes then splash in the fish sauce, sprinkle with coriander leaves and serve.

Bastille day feast

Bouillabaisse is a traditional french seafood stew, originating from Marseille.  I once ate this when I traveled through France with my family, at a little beachside restaurant in Hyeres.  Eating this in France however, is very different to how I would serve it at home.  Normally the broth is served with toasts smothered in rouille and the seafood as a second course but I just have to tweak recipes a little, can't help it.  My version of rouille is also tweaked, satisfying my love of garlic and all things red!

Serves 2-4

1 leek, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 small carrot, peeled and finely diced
2 potatoes, diced
1 tsp fennel seeds
wineglass of white wine..chardonnay
2 bay leaf

Peel of 1/2 an orange, remove all pith

500ml fish stock
1 400g can crushed tomatoes in juice
1 tbsp raw sugar
a pinch of saffron
500g hapuku fillet, or other firm white fish
12 greenlip mussels, scrubbed and beards removed
15-20 green prawns

une baguette

Rouille;
4 tbsp mayonnaise
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1-2 roast capsicum, skins removed, deseeded or about 1/2 jar of roasted red peppers
2 tsp smoked paprika
sea salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in a large pan then add leek, carrot and garlic and saute over a medium heat til beautiful and soft.  Add potatoes and fennel seeds and fry for a couple of minutes.  Splash in the wine, stirring to bring everything together, simmer for a couple of minutes.  Add bay leaves, fish stock, tomatoes, sugar and saffron. Simmer gently for about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile make rouille.  Basically chuck everything into a blender until smooth.
Add mussels to soup and cook until open, discarding any that haven't opened.  Add fish, prawns and turn off heat, allowing the residual heat to cook the fish and prawns.

Serve the soup in bowls with rouille spooned on top of toasted slices of baguette.

Oh shutup! Wholly cow wing rib

Regardless of the fact that I'm a control freak who plans meals a week in advance, I actually really love getting my other half to decide whats for dinner.  Having dragged him off to the markets at 8.30 this morning, he was hovering around the Wholly cow stall. $20 later we had a wing rib in the bag - and I reckon handing over a twenty for more than a kg of prime beef is totally justified.

Now, when you buy meat this good and this particular cut, don't be ridiculous by trimming fat off.  This is not a time to be on a diet.  Remove the beef from the fridge 20 minutes before you begin to cook it.  Smother the fat in a mixture of 2 tbsp wholegrain mustard, 2 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely chopped, 3 tbsp thyme leaves, sea salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.
Turn your oven to 200 degrees.  Heat a frying pan until smoking hot.  Sear and caramalise the fat on the beef and the two sides.  Place into your hot oven for 15 minutes then turn down to 180 degrees.  Roast for 40-60 minutes depending on how you like your beef cooked.  (20mins per 500g for med rare)

You could also make a gravy..yes, from scratch.    Pour some of the fat from cooking the beef into a frypan and heat, add a tbsp of flour and whisk til smooth.  Add half a wineglass of boiling water and whisk til smooth again, bringing to boil to thicken.  Once thick, add 300ml of beef stock, repeat process whisking til smooth and thickening to your liking.

PS: You can get wholly cow meat from the Tauranga farmers market

Salsa

As promised, here are two salsas to blow your mind.  Basically put everything into a blender and whiz away.  Add as little or as many chillies as you can handle.  I put 3 birds eye green in my salsa cruda, 2 birds eye red in my salsa roja.

I served these salsas with corn tortillas (tio pablo) shredded lettuce, grated cheese, chopped avocado mixed with coriander and lime juice, panko crumbed terakihi and a chipolte pepper sour cream.  My mouth is salivating just remembering....

Salsa Cruda

10 small green tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 handful chopped coriander
1-4 green chillies
juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon salt

Salsa Roja

1 can chopped tomatoes in juice
2 large red onions, finely chopped
1 handful chopped coriander
4 cloves garlic, crushed
juice of 1 lime
1-4 red chillies

Green Peppercorn Sauce

This is kind of bad for you.  But I don't care cos it makes me happy. Makes enough for two steaks plus extra to scrape up with your chips.  Trust me, you'll be doing that.


large knob of butter
dash of olive oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
splash or two of brandy, can use sherry or white wine if you wish but brandy is best
1 oxo cube, crumbled into 100mls boiling water, stir to dissolve
2-3 tbsp green peppercorns, drained
150mls cream
sea salt

Melt butter in a frying pan, adding oil to keep it from browning.  Add onions and saute VERY gently on a medium heat so they get all sweet, soft and delicious.  If you burn them start again.
Turn the heat up hot wait a minute then splash in your brandy, deglazing the pan.
Add stock and peppercorns and let it simmer for a minute.
Add cream then reduce, maybe 5 minutes on a medium heat.  Your sauce should be thick and a nice creamy peanut butter colour.

Enjoy! x

For my lover.......no greens in sight

Scotch fillet steak + green peppercorn sauce + homemade chips + a nice merlot.....don't mind if I do!

L O V E P A S T A

Queens birthday weekend sure was eventful.  Aside from the dancing...we created LOVE pasta!

Saturday was to be my BFF's engagement party lunch and being the foodie of our friends I put my hand up for some of the prep.  On Friday I slow cooked beef for a ragu, in port, organic tomatoes and beef stock.  Then at night my friends and I kneaded, rolled, cut, dried and made the pasta into pretty little baskets to dry.  We turned 5kg of flour and forty five eggs into parpadelle.  Only took five hours!  The next day we served the feast to 45 hungry guests.  It's a beautiful thing when woman band together and put on such a delicious feast, there was even a dessert table!  I am a little obsessed with dessert tables at the moment.

The menu du jour;
Beef ragu parpadelle
Tomato + chorizo mussels parpadelle
(homegrown) pumpkin, ricotta and pinenut parpadelle with salsa verde

We used Jamie Olivers recipe, simple + easy, you can find that here

- Dinner tonight -

Being the end of autumn there isn't much selection in my garden..although this afternoon I managed to harvest the tiniest baby beetroots, a few baby leeks and spinach.  I will confess to swiping my best friends brocolini out of her garden next to me!  Don't worry I'll pay her back with some red onions or something..



Spinach and leek stuffed chicken legs with baby beetroot, brocolini and golden sweet potato

4 free range chicken legs
sea salt and black pepper
2 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and ground
4 large handfuls of spinach, blanched and refreshed in iced water then squeezed dry
150g feta cheese
2 baby leeks, sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

8 baby beetroot, washed with 2-3 cm of stem left attached
8 stems brocolini, blanched and refreshed in iced water
4 golden sweet potato, chopped into chunks
leaves from the beetroot

4 tbsp balsmaic vinegar
2 mandarins, juiced
2 tsp dijon mustard
8 tbsp olive oil
sea salt and black pepper

To make the stuffing; gently saute leeks and garlic until soft and golden.  Meanwhile blanch your spinach then finely chop.  Crumble feta into a bowl, add cool spinach, leeks, garlic and sea salt and pepper.  Mix together well and set aside.

For the chicken, gently loosen skin from flesh all over the thigh bone.  You can remove thigh bone if you wish but I'm a mother of two not a chef!   Squash stuffing into a ball in your hands and shove under the skin, smoothing it down over the leg bone and meat.  You don't really need to secure the skin with toothpicks just push the skin back down over the thigh meat as much as you can.  Season with salt, pepper and cumin.

Roast sweet potato and chicken legs in a hot oven (200 degrees) for 30 minutes, adding baby beetroot for the last 10 minutes.

To make dressing;  whisk all ingredients together or shake in a jar.

When everything is cooked and your beetroot is nice and crispy, mix with dressing, beetroot leaves and brocolini.  Serve immediately.

Slow roasted tomato, lentil and goat chevre salad

This is the most simplest salad but so delish!  Serve with roasted chicken.

4 tomatoes, cut in half
1 red onion, finely sliced
juice of 1 lemon
sea salt
400g can lentils, drained and rinsed
200g soft goats chevre
handful chopped italian parsley
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
4 tbsp olive oil

Firstly turn the oven to 140 degrees.  Slow roast the tomatoes cut side up, sprinkled with sea salt and black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil for 4 hours.  You want the tomatoes to still be a little juicy.
Marinate red onion in half the lemon juice and a pinch of sea salt until ready to use.
To make the dressing, whisk mustard, the rest of the lemon juice, garlic and red wine vinegar, slowly whisking olive oil in to emulsify.
Once tomatoes are cooked, mix all ingredients together with the dressing and serve.

Chicken and preserved lemon tagine

A tagine is a pot unique to Morrocco, but not essential.  Serve this tagine over warm hot buttered cous cous, sprinkled with torn mint leaves.


Serves 4

4-6 pieces of leg and wing chicken pieces
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground ginger

sea salt and black pepper
2 onions, peeled and roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
500ml hot homemade chicken stock
1 bay leaf
large pinch of saffron
1 cinnamon stick
1 preserved lemon, sliced
handful of green or black olives, destoned
sprig of thyme

Turn oven on to 160 degrees.  Rub chicken with ground spices to coat, then fry in hot pan for 5 minutes or until golden on all sides.  Add onions, garlic and fry for a couple more minutes.  Place chicken, garlic and onions in a tagine or casserole dish then add all the other ingredients.  Put in your oven and cook for 1-2 hours or until the meat is falling away from the bone.  Season with salt and pepper and serve.  Easy and delicious!

Spiced kumara soup with crisp fried ginger

3 med size purple kumara, cut into large chunks
600ml chicken stock (preferably homemade)
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds, toasted then ground
1 bay leaf
2 onions, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
300ml coconut cream
handful fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped
5cm piece ginger, julienned
frying oil, ricebran, olive or peanut


Gently fry onions and garlic in a little olive oil until softened.  Add spices and bay leaf and stir until fragrant.  Add kumara and stock then bring to the boil.  Simmer for minutes or until kumara is cooked.  Puree in a blender adding coconut cream to thin a little.
To crisp fry ginger, heat oil until medium hot and looks like its swirling, add ginger and fry until crisp and golden.  This happens very fast so be careful not to burn.

Top soup with ginger and serve with crusty bread and butter.

Eco food

Eco food to me is............economical, environmentally aware and eatable.  With a little bit of education we can still eat good food ie free range or organic without the price sending your grocery bill skyward.  Every week I buy a waitoa valley free range chicken which is very Sophie Gray of me but I get three meals out of it.  One with the breasts, one with the thighs and wings and I use the carcass for stock be it for risotto, soup or casserole.  Here's my three recipes of the week.

Crumbed chicken breasts with roast red pepper, baby beets and goats feta
Apricot and preserved lemon chicken tagine
Spiced kumara soup with crisp fried ginger

Crumbed chicken breasts with roast red pepper, baby beets and goats feta.  Serves 4

2 chicken breasts
fresh wholegrain bread
1 egg whisked lightly with a splash of milk
plain flour
sea salt and pepper
handful of roughly chopped italian parsley
few tablespoons thyme leaves
handful of grated parmigiano reggiano

2 handfuls of mixed leaves - I used mizuna, cos, red oak, washed
2 red peppers
4 baby beetroots, peeled and sliced thinly
150g goats feta
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and pepper

Cut each chicken breast into 2 or 3 even sized pieces.  Sandwich between two layers of cling film then bash with a meat mallet or pestle until the chicken is an even thickness much like schnitzel.
Put wholegrain bread, herbs, sea salt, pepper and parmigiano reggiano into a food processor and whiz until you have coarse breadcrumbs.
Now make your crumbing station, put plain flour onto a plate, crumbs on another plate and whisked egg into a bowl.  Dust the chicken lightly with flour, shaking off the excess then place chicken into the egg.  Coat with egg, drip off excess then coat thoroughly with breadcrumb mixture.  Set aside until ready to cook.

Chargrill your peppers on an open flame until blackened and blistered then put into a bowl and cover with cling film.  This makes it easier to peel later when they are cool.
Put all the dressing ingredients into a jar or bowl and shake/whisk to combine, set aside

Heat up a pan add a spalsh of olive oil and fry your chicken til golden and crisp, about 2-3 minutes. Season with sea salt.  Mix together all the salad ingredients leaving the goat feta to sprinkle over at the end.  Serve.

Oh the weather outside is frightful

I just had to share this recipe with you all..it's from my favourite cookbook at the moment - Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi
Don't be scared of how long the list of ingredients is, spices are cheap from bulk food stores and if you'd like a recipe for preserved lemons I can always share that one too....

I truly believe in the holistic properties of spices; cinnamon to help regulate blood sugar levels, turmeric for it's amazing anti-inflammatory and antiseptic benefits, ginger for helping nausea, and even coriander for anxiety!  This recipe has a bounty of heat generating spices to warm your soul, and make you feel like you just snuggled back under the covers for a sleep in.

Ultimate winter couscous....serves 4

2 carrots, peeled + cut into chunks        handful dried apricots
2 parsnips, peeled + cut into chunks      1/2 can of chickpeas or 200g freshly cooked
8 shallots, peeled                                  350ml chickpea cooking liquid or water
2 cinnamon sticks                                 170g couscous
4 star anise                                           large pinch of saffron threads
3 bay leaves                                         260ml boiling vegetable stock
olive oil                                                 knob of butter
1/2 tsp ground ginger                             knob of harissa paste
1/4 tsp ground turmeric                         quarter of a preserved lemon, finely chopped
1/4 tsp hot paprika                                handful chopped coriander leaves
1/4 tsp chilli flakes
300g butternut squash, peeled + cut into chunks


Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.  Place the carrots, parsnips and shallots in a large ovenproof dish.  Add all the spices, bay leaves, big drizzle of oil, large pinch of sea salt and mix well.  Place in the oven and cook for 15 minutes.
Add the pumpkin, stir and return to the oven for another 35 minutes.  The vegetables should have softened yet still retaining a bite.  Now add the apricots, chickpeas and their cooking liquid or water.  Return to the oven and cook for another 10 minutes or until hot.
About 15 minutes before the vegetables are ready, put the couscous into a large heatproof bowl with a tbsp olive oil, the saffron and a pinch of sea salt.  Pour the boiling stock over the couscous.  Cover with cling film and leave for about 10 minutes.  Then add the butter and fluff up the couscous with a fork until the butter melts in.  Cover again and keep somewhere warm.
To serve, spoon couscous into a deep plate or bowl.  Stir the harissa and preserved lemon into the vegetables; taste and season if needed.  Spoon the vegetables onto the centre of the couscous.  Finish with plenty of coriander leaves.