follow that carrot

Almost four weeks ago we had a baby boy.  So I reckon I've a pretty good excuse for my lack of recent blogging.  But now it's time to get back in the proverbial saddle, and what better way than with some tasty home baking?  My partner and I both love carrot cake, so it was a no-brainer place to start.  I almost stuffed it completely, by forgetting it was in the oven, but fortunately got to it just in time - extra golden, but not yet torched!  Cream cheese icing covers the heightened colour nicely.  Kyle had to laugh though - virtually every time I bake I forget something. 

Anyhoo, carrot cake a go-go people, everyone loves it, so treat your office, or your family, or hell, just yourself, and make one.  You get to lick the cream cheese icing spoon. 

3 eggs
1/2 cup oil
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
3 cups carrot, grated
1/2 cup nuts (I used slivered almonds)
1 tsp lemon rind
3/4 cup crushed pineapple

CREAM CHEESE ICING

2 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 cup cream cheese
1 cup icing sugar
squeeze lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. 
2. Beat eggs until thick.  Mix in oil, then dry ingredients. 
3. Fold in remaining ingredients. 
4. Pour mixture into lined/greased 22 cm springform tin and bake for 40 minutes, or until inserted skewer comes out clean. 
5. Leave in tin for further 10 minutes following removal from oven, then move to cooling rack. 
6. Ice with cream cheese icing when completely cooled, sprinkle with sunflower seeds if desired. 

zucchini madness

It's that time of year, when zucchini plants run rampant and, if you're not careful, you end up with massive marrows.  We like to have a surfeit of zuccs, so always plant several plants.  It means we can eat zucchini every day, if we so choose, but also means that new ways to deal with the fruits often need finding... 

 

In the past I've made zucchini fritters, zucchini-based lasagne and zucchini soup.  This time it's time to introduce a new flavour alongside this sweet, summery vegetable - the lemon.  Zucchini and lemon loaf, with slivered almonds.  Yum!  This recipe comes from the January 2013 New Zealand Gardener, with the only amendment being that I used one loaf tin, rather than splitting between two and also added some lemon juice.  Enjoy mes amis!

 

400 g flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

250 g sugar

250 ml rice bran oil 

400 g grated zucchini 

grated zest and juice of lemon 

100 g slivered almonds 

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius. 
2. Beat eggs and sugar together until pale and creamy.  Beat in the oil and then stir through the zucchini and lemon.  
3. Stir through the dry ingredients - don't over-beat though, or loaf will be dense instead of light. 
4. Pour into greased loaf tin and scatter top with almonds. 
5. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until inserted skewer comes out clean.    

salmon fishing in the yemen?

One of the things I love about holidaying in Whitianga is Salt, a restaurant and bar with never-fail amazing food.  We eat really well at home and at friends' houses, which makes the restaurants' jobs a lot harder, but Salt always seems to meet the challenge. 

 

Eating there a week or so ago I had a simple and exceptionally tasty starter of cold cured salmon slices, with mandarin (or it may have been wee segments of tangelo) and buffolo mozzarella, all drizzled with a lovely oil (from memory I'm going to say it was avocado, but really any nice, full-flavoured oil will do - a basil one would be perfect!).  The plate was supposed to be with scallops (which Shaun had and loved), but being allergic I had those replaced.  And boom - mozzarella was the perfect foil for the stronger flavours of the citrus and the salmon.  You can grab a ball from most supermarkets, or from local foodie stores such as our Red Kitchen. 

 

Buon appetito and enjoy the summer! 

over turkey, time for a gin and tonic?

These biscuits are delicious.  Thanks to Jamie Oliver for putting me onto them.  Quick to make too.  And the perfect treat for that post-Christmas lull.  His version has orange zest, but I prefer to use lime.  Lime reminds me of summer holidays, and cranberries of Christmas, so its the perfect combination.  Chocolate?  Reminds me that I want another one, please.  I think these would be pretty tasty with some slivered or broken up almonds in them too, perhaps reduce the cranberries and choc chips by a quarter each, and make up the weight in nuts?  Pistachios?  Go for gold, see what works! 

75 g butter

100 g castor sugar

1 egg

zest of one lime

160 g flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

50 g dried cranberries

100 g dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees celcius. 
2. Cream butter and sugar, then mix in the egg and zest.  Add dry ingredients and mix, before finally adding in the cranberries and chocolate and mixing through. 
3. Place coin-sized dollops onto baking tray (I line mine with baking paper, but you could grease them with cooking oil or butter if you prefer), flatten and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden. 
4. Remove from oven and allow to cool on cooling racks before eating with a gin and tonic (or a hot chocolate, if you're Christmasing in cooler climes). 

Jamie's cobbler

A few weeks ago I borrowed the 2010/2011 Jamie Oliver Recipe Yearbook from Bates.  I think I've mentioned before that I've a bit of a weekness for flicking through recipe books, and particularly enjoy those from Jamie, Nigella and Rick Stein.  They're so full of colourful pictures, and useful tips, that even if you don't end up actually following any recipes they're well worth the peruse. 

 

Anyhoo, whilst perusing the 2010/2011 annual I came across a cherry cobbler recipe.  I'd never made a cobbler before (we don't really eat a lot of desserts), but it was so straitforward that I had to try it.  It is basically a crumble, but with sconey topping.  I made an apple cobbler, as those were in the fridge.  Apparantly the name 'cobbler' comes from the fact that the overall effect looks a bit like a cobbled street.  Hmmm.  Streetfood.  Yummy! 

 

500 g apple (either sliced up fresh, or stewed, or a tin from the supy)

squeeze of lemon/lime juice

225 g caster sugar

110 g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

40 g butter, chilled and diced

1 egg yolk

50 ml buttermilk (you can make a substitute using normal milk with lemon juice)

handful flaked almonds

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. 
2. Mix fruit, lime juice, and 175 g sugar together in the base of a pie dish (mine was about 24 cm). 
3. Beat egg yolk and buttermilk together.  In another bowl mix together flour, baking powder and remaining sugar.  Rub in the butter until resembles breadcrumbs. 
4. Pour egg mixture into flour and mix until you have a sticky dough. 
5. Drop walnut-sized pieces on top of fruit, leaving some gaps for the scones to expand into.  Sprinkle with almonds.  Bake for 25 minutes or until golden and bubbling. 
6. Serve warm with ice cream or cream. 

NB: The photo is not of my cobbler, as we devoured it before I thought about taking a picture.  But it gives an idea :)  Furthermore, I think this dessert would go well with a nice glass of single malt alongside - perhaps Talisker or Lagavulin? 

summer lovin'

Summer - berries, bacon and egg pie, fresh salsa and BBQ.  Plus asparagus, salads, lots of herbs and a whole raft of other gastronomic treats.  I love summer - there's so much colour and variety in food.  We're pretty lucky these days, as you can still access most foods in the deep, dark depths of winter, but they're often imported, hideously expensive and, frankly, pretty tasteless.  Nothing can compare to the summer foods we grow in our gardens or  pick up from the berry farm down the road. 

 

I had a virtually full carton of buttermilk in the fridge, left over from making an apple cobbler, so decided to make some muffins using a hoard of boysenberries I'd acquired.  Buttermilk is fantastic for baking (muffins, pancakes, scones etc) as it seems to make the end result just that much lighter.  We like to have some muffins or biscuits in the cupboard, for lunches, so this was a good way to use up the rest of the carton (you can also make a buttermilk substitute, by mixing lemon juice into normal milk and basically curdling it). 

 

Any berries will do for this, and throw in other bits and pieces as you have them - chocolate chips, almonds, pistachios...

 

2 cups berries

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup oil  

1 egg

zest of 2 lemons

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 and 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees celcius and grease 12 muffin tins (or line with cupcake cases). 
2. Mix egg, buttermilk, oil and zest together in large bowl, whisking to combine. 
3. Add dry ingredients and fold to combine - don't overmix, as this can result in tough muffins. 
4. Fold through berries. 
5. Spoon into muffin tins and bake for 25 minutes, or until inserted skewer comes out clean. 
6. Leave in tins for 5 minutes before removing onto wire rack to cool. 

Remember - always blow on the pie

We ate out at Fahrenheit on Sunday, for my birthday (happy birthday to meeeeee!).  One of their dinner specials was a fish pie, done with gurnard and salmon and a parmasan crust.  Sounds good eh?  We were all too busy chowing down on their tasty tapas to be ordering fish pie at the time, but it did make quite a few of us around the table go 'hmmm, yep, THAT's on the menu this week!'. 

 

So last night KB and I broke our proverbial fish pie cherries.  Having never made one before we didn't really have any preconceptions on how it should be done, which sometimes is a good thing.  We both knew, having eaten many a fish pie, that you bound the whole thing together with a white sauce, and topped it off with mash spud, but that was about it. 

 

We took a leaf from Fahrenheit's book and used salmon, but with a tin of smoked fish rather than gurnard, 'cause fish pie really tastes amazing when it's got that smokey flavour.  Freshly smoked kahawai would've been wicked, but we'll have to get out on the boat for some of that.  We threw in some dill and parsley, 'cause they always go well with fish, and also some capers, to give the creaminess a lift.  A little grated cheese in with the mash and finished off with a grating of parmasan and boom - mean fish pie.  I can't wait to have it again at lunchtime.  And with summer coming, and thus the kahawai-catching, there'll be many more on our plates! 

 

5 potatoes

3 cloves garlic

350 g piece salmon (relatively small fillet is all you need), chopped into small pieces 

300 g tin smoked fish

1 onion, diced

handful mushrooms, finely chopped

2 tsp capers

good handfuls dill and parsley, finely chopped  

salt and pepper

4 tbsp butter

4 tbsp flour

2 cups milk

milk and butter, for mashing potato

handful grated cheese

parmasan

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees celcius. 
2. Boil potatoes.  Mash with butter and milk, stir through grated cheese and set aside. 
3. Fry onions in pot, set aside in casserole dish (the one you'll use for the pie) - don't rinse the pot out, 'cause you'll use it to make the white sauce.  Add mushrooms, capers, herbs and salmon to dish as well. 
4. Make white sauce - melt butter in pot, stir in flour to make roux (paste-type stuff).  Slowly pour in milk, stirring constantly.  Season with salt and pepper.  Once thickened, remove from heat and stir in smoked fish (plus all the juices from the tin). 
5. Pour sauce into casserole dish and stir all together.  Top with mash and grate parmasan on top. 
6. Bake for 20 minutes, or until browned on top.  Serve with some steamed greens for an easy meal that'll have you going back for seconds. 

 

NB: Forgot to take a photo of the pie, but looked as you would imagine a casserole dish topped with browned cheesy mash to look.