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.   

Super-sumptuous soy sauce brownie

That's right people - soy sauce.  Not as quick as my 5-minute microwave brownie, but significantly more fudgey.  YUM!  

I had come across the recipe a while ago, on the website for kikkoman soy sauces (quite what I was doing perusing a soy sauce website, I can't answer you, but there you go!) and had been meaning to try it for a while.  Finally got around to it this week, with it being a friend's birthday (Happy Birthday Emma!). 

It made a fairly big brownie (about the size of a dinner plate), so plenty to go around.  Give this one a whirl, next time you're after filling up the pantry coffers...

250 g butter
200 g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 3/4 cups (tightly packed) brown sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp soy sauce
1 1/3 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius (160 if oven is fan-forced).
2. Melt butter and chocolate together in small saucepan, over low hear, until melted and smooth.
3. Combine sugar, eggs and soy in large bowl.  Add melted chocolate and mix to combine. 
4. Add other ingredients and mix into silky chocolatey mixture. 
5. Pour into greased 23 cm cake tin and bake for about 35 minutes, or until set (you want it slightly fudgey in the centre, not overcooked). 
6. Serve warm with cream, or yoghurt and berries, or slice when cold for a tasty lunchbox treat. 

*oink oink, œuf œuf*

A bacon and egg pie - staple food of the summer picnic.  And, by extension, going out on the boat, or as a convenient dish to take with for a weekend away, when you think you'll be arriving too late to faff about with making dinner.  Throw a salad together, reheat pie (or not), and voilà, Bob's your proverbial uncle. 

Friday past was such a day.  We were headed to Whitianga for the weekend and there was a good possibility we'd not be leaving until 6 pm or so (and thus arriving at 9 pm or so), and would need something to (a) peck on along the way (and other than a pie at Turua it's pretty slim pickings) or (b) eat upon arrival.  So a bacon and egg pie came to mind.  I'd not actually made one before, believe it or not (I promise I am a true kiwi - I eat marmite, watch rugby and have dossed on a friend's floor in London), but having watched Mum and KB's mum whip 'em up knew that wouldn't be a prob. 

So, next time you're in one of the above situations, or just have a mass of eggs that need eating and you're scratching your head wondering what the hell to do with 'em, just remember, to always blow on the pie. 

12 eggs (or thereabouts)
6 rashers bacon, chopped into large pieces
dash milk 
2 onions, chopped up
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped 
few tsp capers 
3 tbsp wholegrain mustard 
cup frozen peas 
1/2 capsicum, chopped up (had that in the fridge, so used it, could also use 'shrooms)
grated cheese, I used almost a cup
salt and pepper 
fresh herbs, if you have some

1. Spray oven dish with oil, or rub with some butter.  Turn oven on to about 180 celcius.
2. Break eggs into large bowl, stir to break up a bit.  Throw all other ingredients in and mix. 
3. Pour into dish and bake until all cooked through and golden on top.  I had to cover mine with foil for the last 15 or so minutes.  Think it took about 45 minutes all up.    
4. Serve hot or cold, with salad.  Or just throw into the hamper and enjoy!