Fahrenheit capers

There's a local restaurant in town, Fahrenheit, who do a tapas menu.  Tasty tasty plates of food, designed for sharing, but equally perfect as an appetiser or light lunch.  I'm usually lured in by the calamari, or breads and dips, before my eyes even get a chance to peruse the rest of the menu, but recently when there a word caught my eye...dill. 

I love dill.  It's quite a strong-flavoured herb, so needs to be used sparingly when coupled with more delicate flavours, but adds depth to dishes with its hint of aniseed.  KB and I recently used some dill in a horseradish and cream sauce (recipe to come, watch this space), but it's the super-simple, super-satisfying tapas that I'm waxing lyrical about at the moment. 

Basically, it was salmon bruschetta, with a creme fraiche base, rather than salsa.  Awesome.  And how did they stop the salmon-creme fraiche combo being too rich - dill and capers baby!  A winning combo, if ever I saw one.  I mean - you could use that for so much - creme fraiche, dill and caper as a sauce for pasta, as a base on pizza, a dollop on top of a steak... But, if you're wanting something nice and easy, but really really smart and tasty for the next time you're doing nibbles, try this...

loaf ciabatta (or sourdough, turkish etc)
olive oil
smoked salmon, sliced thinly
creme fraiche
capers
fresh dill

1. Slice bread quite thinly and brush with oil.  Grill to lightly toast.  I would cut the pieces to bite size. 
2. Mix capers into creme fraiche (I like quite a few, but that's to taste).  You could chop up and stir some dill through here too, if you want a stronger dill flavour. 
3. Lay strips of salmon on crostini (the fancy name for your wee toasts).  Add a dollop of creme fraiche and a sprig of dill.  Voila, c'est tout. 

NB: the photo obviously doesn't match - spoons in place of bread - but I'm sure you can fill in the gaps. 

Happy Birthday, Mr President...

It's our dog's 1st birthday today, so I made him a cake.  I realise that might sound crazy, and I could try and convince you I did it purely for Harry's benefit (7 years old, so you know, doing it for the kids), but I don't think anyone would buy that.  But hey, why not - it's his birthday, so oughtn't he have a cake?  So, if you've a pet and want to raise the eyebrows of those around you (make sure they don't have men in white coats on speed dial), here's a way to wish 'em Happy Birthday! 

1/2 dog roll (I'm sure it'd be fine for cats too)
strips of rawhide
rawhide stick
dog chocolates
peanut butter

1. Cut the dogroll in half, then halve that again.  Place the flat-top and -bottom piece on a plate. 
2. Spread some peanut butter on the rawhide straps (broken into pieces no higher than the bottom half of the cake) and stick onto piece of dog roll on plate.  They don't stick that well, but will stay put long enough for you to finish cake.  The peanut butter is good for dog's coat, but better check if making for a feline. 
3. Place some globs of peanut butter on flat-top of dog roll, just for that extra goodness!
4. Place rounded half of dog roll on top of peanut butter.  Put candle (rawhide stick) into top.  Press dog chocs into top half of cake - they have a tendancy to pop out, so press 'em in hard, and don't worry about covering the whole thing. 
5. Voila - joyeux anniversaire chien! 

Never-fail fruit cake

Being informed that the recipe you are being given is 'never fail' is rather daunting. But it also serves to awaken the fighter within - the scent of a challenge...

Penny, KB's aunt, gave me this a couple of weekends ago. It's apparantly foolproof. I don't know if it's 100% foolproof, but it's certainly not hard. My cake didn't turn out exactly as Penny's did (combination of addin ginger to the original recipe and forgetting to cover with foil for good 30 minutes!), but I think it came out pretty damn well. Not a failure, that's for sure.

3 eggs
400g mixed fruit
100g crystalised ginger, chopped
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
dash almond essence

1. Boil fruit, drain.
2. Whip eggs.
3. Place fruit and ginger in large mixing bowl, add eggs and sugar and beat.
4. Add remaining ingredients and mix to combine.
5. Pour into greased 20cm springform tin, cover with foil and bake at 180 degrees for an hour or so.

NB: Penny cooks her cake for about an hour and ten minutes. Mine took a good hour and a half. Just keep checking it, if going over an hour.

Let's hear it for the rainbow tour!, it's been an incredible success...

Okay, so these tasty little morsels have nothing whatsoever to do with Argentina, Eva Peron or her 1947 European Tour, but they're just so delightfully colourful that Lloyd-Webber's song sprang to mind. 

We were at Whangamata a couple of weeks ago and Emma was busy in the kitchen, chopping, cutting, slicing and dicing.  When I inquired as to what she was doing, I was told she was preparing 'summer rolls' - little Thai-style rice paper spring rolls.  They were so fresh and light, the platter was empty within minutes of its arrival on the table outside.  So good, they were, that KB and I made them again the following night...

rice paper - comes in packets like wraps, found in asian section of supy
finely chopped red onion, capsicum, red cabbage, lettuce
shaved carrot (use vege peeler)
coriander and mint
prawns
garlic, finely diced
butter

1. Prepare veges, set aside in bowls ready for assembly. 
2. Saute prawns in butter and garlic.
3. If preparing rolls on kitchen bench, have warm water running.  Otherwise keep a dinner plate filled with warm water alongside (keep replacing the water, it needs to be warm).  Wet both sides of rice paper wrap, place on assembly surface. 
4. Load up the wrap with your fillings (don't overload though, or you won't be able to roll it!) - we started with lettuce, then on from there. 
5. Roll bottom up over fillings, then top, side and roll to last side.  Place on serving platter and repeat, repeat, repeat. 

For the dipping sauce mix together: (keep tasting, to get how you like it)

soy sauce
fish sauce
sesame oil
sweet chilli sauce
lemon juice
finely chopped coriander

NB: Obviously you can use whatever fillings you like, or have to hand - try chicken, salmon, or perhaps even slices of cream cheese.  Apologies for the photo of the finished product - they got eaten so fast, the only one left was the slightly bung-looking first attempt. 

let them eat cake!!

There is a website called The Rhubarb Compendium. People have, since 1994, devoted time and energy to extolling the virtues of rhubarb.   Whilst I think that they probably ought to have better things to do, their waxing lyrical did help me stumble upon the following recipe.  Now what, you may ask, was I doing traipsing about the internet looking up rhubarb, especially given my recent comments about TRC's authors?  Well, simple really - our rhubarb plant was growing like the muscles of a Cold War-era olympian, and I needed to find a way to use some (other than stewed, which gets a bit boring).  So, without further ado, let them eat cake! 

Rhubarb Ginger Cake

180 g butter, at room temp

1 cup brown sugar, tightly packed

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1/2 cup plain flour

1 tbsp cinnamon

300 g sour cream

3 - 5 cups rhubarb, chopped into 1cm pieces

150 g crystallised ginger, roughly chopped

For the topping

1/3 cup self-raising flour

40 g butter, chilled

1 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp nuts (almonds, macadamias, pecans, whatever)

extra ginger, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC.  Grease and line 22 cm springform cake tin. 
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
3. Mix flours and cinnamon together.  Sift half over cake mixture.  Add half sour cream.  Sift remaining flour.  Add remaining sour cream.  Gently stir until combined. 
4. Fold through rhubarb and ginger.  Spoon into tin. 
5. Place topping flour in bowl.  Rub butter into flour with fingertips. 
6. Stir through remaining topping ingredients and sprinkle mixture over top of cake. 
7. Bake for about an hour and a half - check it after an hour or so, and just keep going until skewer or knife blade come out clean.  Stand for ten minutes before removing from tin and leaving on cake rack to cool. 
8. Serve with yoghurt or thick cream. 

NB: Apparantly Marie Antoinette actually said 'Let them eat brioche', rather than the infamous 'let them eat cake', but for my purposes I'm invoking some poetic license.  :) 

but don't you, step on my blue cheese shoes

We went to the Narrows Landing for dinner the other night.  Fantastic food and service, warm summer night, eating on the terrace.  Can't ask for much better than that eh?  Something on their menu caught my eye upon arrival, so naturally had to try it.  Blue cheese and honey bruschetta - blue cheese and honey!?  None of us were too sure how that combo was going to go down, but figured with blue cheese, how wrong can you go?  OMG - amazing!!  The two flavours complimented each other perfectly.  If I were to be poetical about it, I'd say it was like a gastronomic symphony, a veritable feast for the tastebuds. 

Last night I decided to recreate it at home, using my favourite blue - Kapiti Kikorangi.  You'll need:

4 turkish buns, ciabatta buns, or 1 ciabatta loaf
olive oil
blue cheese
honey (I used manuka)

1. Slice buns in half, as you would for burgers (if using loaf, slice nice thick slices, probably a cm thick).  Brush with olive oil. 
2. Grill soft, oiled side of buns until browned.  Turn and grill underside a little, but not as much as soft side. 
3. Spread liberally with blue cheese. 
4. Drizzle with honey (soften in microwave if needs be).  If using a strong honey, like manuka, be careful not to drown the cheese too much. 
5. Grill for a few minutes, until cheese is bubbling and honey has started to caramalise. 
6. Set on serving plate and allow to sit for a minute or two before serving. 

PS: Sorry I forgot to take a photo - next time! 

more zucchini goodness!

It's that time of year.  The zucchini plants are going crazy.  You go away for the weekend, come home and you have marrows.  Our two plants are producing zuccs faster than we can eat them, but at least it forces you to really think about what you can do with them.  We eat them a lot just sliced longways in half and then fried in butter (oh yes!!), or sliced and then layered in a lasagne (hmmm... potential for tonight...).  But recently I was given a whole new idea - zucchini fritters!

I know it may not be an earth-shattering idea, but it was novel to me.  I don't know why, seeing as I'm familiar with the concept of vege fritters - corn, potato etc.  But anyway...  Here's what we put in this time, but I reckon there are probably a million of different things you could put in.  Make sure you grate your veges early and set aside, 'cause a lot of liquid will come out of them, which you'll want to drain before frittering.  Buon appetito! 

2 zucchini, grated
1 each beetroot and kumara, grated
fresh herbs, chopped
capers
dash sweet chilli sauce
lemon zest
cumin seeds
2 eggs
flour, as necessary

1. Mix ingredients together and shallow fry in hot oil.  Yum!! 

Served with brown-sugared salmon and garden-fresh french beans.  Excuse the unappetising photo of fritter mix - one of those impossible-to-make-photogenic things.