Christmas fare

I like to do the same thing for Christmas every year and I told you about it last year so there's not much to say. This year we were only four around the table for Christmas dinner which brought its own challenges. Somehow a turkey dinner and a glazed ham are easier to manage for a crowd. Provides a greater challenge for the issue of leftovers.

We did the usual - turkey with sage & onion stuffing, roasted potatoes with capsicum, shallots & baby carrots in two colours, peas with feta and asparagus dressed with lemon olive oil, nut roast. Followed, of course, by summer pudding and cream.

Later, if anyone is hungry, there is sliced ham with boiled potatoes & salad greens. Don't underestimate the value of doing a ham for Christmas. It might seem like an effort if you haven't done it before but it's worth it. You will have something to serve at any meal for the next few days and you will be amazed at what you can do and unexpected visitors will be impressed.

This year Peter was inspired to bake the ham in an old-fashioned huff paste. This is an inedible pastry case wrapped around the ham. It keeps the ham beautifully moist & helps retain the flavour. I have no idea why it was called a huff paste - can anyone enlighten us?

Soak your ham in cold water overnight. The next day drain & dry. Heat oven to 180 and make a flour & water paste using about 1.5 kg flour & 750ml water for a 5kg ham. Roll out the paste on a floured board & wrap around the ham. Put it in a large roasting tin and bake roughly 20 mins per 500g. Err on the side of under rather than over because you are still going to glaze it.

When it is done, break off the pastry case & give the juice-soaked pieces of paste to the servants for their Christmas feast. Remove the skin & any excess fat from the ham and score the remaining fat into diamond shapes with a knife. Insert a clove into each diamond & spread your glaze over the surface of the ham. Then return to the oven & bake at 190 for 20-30 mins until the glaze is golden. This year we glazed ours with marmalade made earlier.

Now we have left overs to look forward to!

Pork & Fennel Sausages

If you are fortunate enough to live near the Island Bay Butchery you will know you have access to some of the most delicious sausages. If you haven't tried the pork & fennel I urge you to do so. If you live further afield search out a quality version near you. These ones are long & thin & that is definitely part of their charm.

Try them grilled with a salad of spring greens & roasted mustard haloumi. Separately blanch about 200g fresh peas, 300g broad beans, 150g sugar snap peas, 6-8 asparagus spears cut into three. Pop the broad beans out of their outer coats if you need to & toss all the vegetables in a dressing of juice of 1 lemon and 3 tbsp olive oil. Zest the lemon first because you want this later. Set aside.
Combine 1 tsp Dijon & 1/2 tsp grainy mustard (I always use Maille French mustard), with 2 tsp olive oil and the lemon zest. Break 200g or so haloumi into small pieces & put in a small roasting pan. Pour over the mustard mix & a good grind of black pepper. Toss well & roast 8-10 minutes at 200 until haloumi is golden. Turn once or twice. Toss with the greens and some basil or chervil leaves. Serve with a few radicchio leaves & those grilled sausages.

You might have bought too many vegetables at the market. I often do this and we have to eat them all at once. Most summer vegetables are delicious grilled either on the barbecue or on a grill plate on the stove top. Thinly slice aubergine & courgettes, keep asparagus whole. Brush them with olive oil & grill on a medium heat until golden. Aubergines take a bit longer so put them on first. Serve them on a platter drizzled with olive oil & topped with paper thin slices of Parmesan. I use the vegetable peeler. Pod & blanch peas and/or broad beans and toss with some crumbled feta. Serve with grilled pork & fennel sausages.

Some of you who are not white wine drinkers have asked me about risotto with red wine. Try this. Make a basic risotto using red onion instead of leeks & add 1 tsp fennel seeds. Before adding the rice add the chopped meat from 3-4 skinned pork & fennel sausages with a squirt of tomato paste. Stir around until the sausages are browned. Add red wine instead of white at the wine stage and cook as usual. Top with shaved Parmesan and some rocket leaves.

If you have any more ideas for using these delicious sausages let me know.

Along with birthdays we have recently had exams and we repeated the exam cupcakes. This is the third and final year of this event. Each year for Phoebe's end of year exams I have made cup cakes for her morning tea. This started because she does baking for her school lunches every Sunday & when she's studying she doesn't have time so I stepped in. I decided to make cup cakes & ice them with the theme of each exam. This year we decorated nine cupcakes. I hope you can tell which exam this one is for!

A birthday party

We recently had an 18th birthday at our house & I had great fun preparing the food. We started off with those old favourites, cheesy feet & hands. These are the ones using the cheese straw recipe & cutting into various shapes. Stars are nice if you don't fancy the feet. Or any shape you happen to have in your cupboard.

We had a selection of vegetables & crisps with the classic reduced cream dips and crostini with an avocado & pea spread. To make this, mix a ripe avocado, a cup or so of frozen peas - at least partially thawed - 1 clove garlic, a pinch of salt and 2 tbsp lime juice in your blender until smooth. Spread on crostini. It sounds odd but is delicious & is beautifully green. It won't discolour over the evening as traditional guacamole will.

For supper, I served a glazed ham with bread rolls. This was a great success & I recommend it for a party. You can glaze the ham the night before & if this was for more discerning guests you could include trimmings to go in the rolls. I also did mini meatballs on skewers with cherry tomatoes. I usually use lamb mince but on this occasion I used beef. Mix the mince with oregano, cumin, finely chopped fresh chilli & rosemary and bind with an egg yolk. Roll into small meatballs & fan grill 0n 180 about 15 minutes. Test one to see that they are cooked. I prepare these the night before & refrigerate on a large plate with cling film underneath & between the layers.

For sweets, we had vegan Margarita cupcakes & chocolate gluten-free cupcakes courtesy of Harriet. I made the best lamingtons I've ever made. I think the trick was the consistency of the chocolate dip. It was thin enough to hold to the sponge without being gluggy. I use shredded rather than dessicated coconut. The birthday girl prepared a very symmetrical platter of fruit.

The piece de resistance was the cake. The idea behind this was a bit convoluted & related to the TV series Chuck. You may get this if you have teenagers. Otherwise you only need to know that the cake was in the shape of a foot long chicken teriyaki subway sandwich. I made a triple recipe Madeira cake. It needed a very large cake tin! I cut the cake into three foot-long slabs resembling rolls. I then cut each roll in half - like a bread roll. I divided a block of royal icing into four. One section was coloured green then rolled out & cut into lettuce shapes & laid along the base of the rolls. Next was the tomatoes, coloured a reddy orange & cut into rounds. I then scored them to resemble the skin & membranes & pressed a fer poppy seeds into the centre. Next came slabs of yellow icing for the cheese. The chicken I shaped as shredded chicken & coloured very lightly. Onto this I dollopped maple syrup that had been thickened with a little muscovado sugar & a drop of red colouring for the teriyaki sauce. Then on went the tops of the rolls which I brushed with a sugar syrup & ground some chocolate sugar sprinkles I had in the cupboard to resemble mixed grain. When we brought it out there were some in the room who thought the birthday girl was being presented with sandwiches. What do you think?

Roasted vegetables

I seem to have latched onto a theme here. Roasted vegetables have appeared on the table many times in the last fortnight. Roasting suits most vegetables and it is easy to do as well as providing suitable nutrition for a vegan. You can do them all in the oven at once using your fan function. Just put the longest cooking ones in first. I usually cook them at 200-220.
I'll just talk you though a few I have done recently. Some I may have mentioned before but mybe you've forgotten or only recently joined the blog.
I can't go past crushed potatoes so I'll mention them first. Boil new potatoes until cooked then drain until they have stopped steaming. That lets you know they are dry. Put in a roasting dish so they fit snugly and, using the back of a teaspoon (or your fingers if they are the asbestos variety), press each potato gently until the skin breaks & the potato just gives a little. Drizzle over some olive oil & sprinkle on some salt & a herb of your choice. Roast in a hot oven about 40 minutes. If you don't have oven room to roast because you have too much going on in the oven, you can always boil them & toss in oil with salt & parsley at the end. I have discovered a delicious early potato called Perla which is brilliant for this dish.
Baby turnips & carrots go well with fennel. Leave the carrots whole (use a variety of colours if you can buy them or grow them) and halve the turnips if you think they are a little on the large side. Slice the fennel into chunks, toss in olive oil, season & roast in a hot oven about 20 minutes.
Try boiling baby beetroot about 30 minutes then drain & peel. Toss them in a dressing of olive oil & balsamic vinegar, (3/1) and 1 tbsp honey. Roast in a hot oven 20 minutes then toss in a handful of kalamata olives & sprinkle over some feta cheese. If there is a vegan at your table put the feta aside to sprinkle on individual serves & substitute a little brown sugar for the honey.
Roast baby kumara in their skins, either on their own or with shallots & garlic - don't bother to peel the garlic. Toss in oil & season. These will work nicely with rosemary.
Try roasting asparagus with finely chopped garlic & fresh chilli, a handful of ripped basil and 1/2 a dozen cherry tomatoes. Season, toss in oil & put in a hot pan then roast in a hot oven 21 minutes. Add 5-8 minutes to the time if you haven't heated the pan first.
The other day I found some courgettes and an aubergine that hadn't been used in a previous meal so used this method, adding the courgettes & aubergine cut into wedges. This is also a good way to entice reluctant vegetable eaters.
Do you have a favourite roasted vegetable combination?
I also thought I would mention Harriet's vegan mayonnaise that she made to accompany Antoinette's falafels. To half a block of silken tofu, add 3 cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp white wine vinegar & 1 tbsp grainy mustard. Pulse to lightly blend then with the machine on the lowest speed add 1/4 -1/2c olive oil until it resembles mayonnaise. This was delicious. Do not however add 6 cloves of garlic as Harriet did the first time. You can have too much of a good thing.
I also need to mention that I had my sister staying & she needed to be provided with a meal on the run. On a bed of baby cos & baby spinach I put a spicy chick pea salad. Heat 100 ml olive oil in a small saucepan with a finely sliced red chilli, 4 cloves garlic finely chopped, 1-2 finely sliced red onions, 75ml cider vinegar. Mix in a bowl with a drained tin of chick peas, 1/2 cup crumbled feta, 1-2 finely sliced spring onions & a handful of fresh mint & flat leaf parsley. To this I added some slices of pan fried lamb fillet. I rub my lamb with salt pepper & ground cumin & leave to sit at least 10 minutes before frying in a hot pan or griddle.
Harriet made Halloween themed vegan pumpkin cup cakes for pudding. Too good!

A dinner to remember

On Sunday we had a farewell dinner for friends moving to New York & I wanted to cook a dinner to remember.

We started with mussels & clams in a tarragon broth. Prepare the shellfish - 2 kilos mussels & 1 1/2 kilos clams for 6 -8 people as a starter. Boil together 1/2 cup white wine, 1 cup chicken stock & a bay leaf. Add the mussels & cook till opened then remove & do the clams in the same way. Set aside & cover to keep warm. Strain the cooking liquor through muslin to remove any grit. In a large pan cook in butter 100g streaky bacon & 1 onion thinly sliced, 2 stalks celery, 2 cloves garlic finely chopped, 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp tarragon, until the onion is soft. Stir in 3 tbsp flour & cook for 2 mins or so then gradually stir in the reserved cooking liquor & 1/2 cup cream. Bring to the boil - season with pepper only as the cooking liquor will be quite salty. Add a handful of raw prawn cutlets & simmer 5 minutes then stir through parsley. Tip the mussels & prawns into a warmed bowl & pour over the delicious creamy liquid. Serve with crusty bread to mop up the juices.

This was followed by a navarin of lamb. Start with a boned shoulder of lamb & cut into large chunks. Brown in batches in a large casserole dish. Take out the meat & fry until golden, 2 onions, 3 cloves garlic and a carrot thinly sliced & 1 tsp sugar. Add 2 tbsp flour to thicken, 1 tbsp tomato puree & cook 2 mins. Return the lamb to the pan with a sprig of thyme, a couple of bay leaves & 600ml chicken stock. Season, bring to the boil & simmer very gently about 40 minutes. Meanwhile cook baby spring vegetables to accompany - onions or shallots, carrots, turnips, potatoes. I just boiled them until tender except the onions which I oven-roasted to add a bit of colour.

When the lamb is done, remove it & strain the liquid through a sieve into a bowl. Use a spoon to press through as much as possible and then discard the vegetables. Return the lamb & sieved liquid to the pan & add about 50g each peas & french beans. I blanch the beans first to keep their colour & because I find they take a little longer to cook. When they're nearly done, stir in the other vegetables to warm them through & let them take on some of the flavour. At the end, stir in finely chopped mint mixed with a clove of crushed garlic.

The piece de resistance was pudding which I made earlier in the day. Warm 500 ml full fat milk with 250ml cream in the microwave. Put 120g caster sugar & 2 tbsp cornflour in a largish saucepan & sieve in 70g cocoa powder. Add 4 tbsp boiling water & whisk to a paste. Whisk in 4 egg yolks one at a time, followed by the warmed milk & cream & 2 tsp vanilla. Whisk over a low heat until it takes on the consistency of mayonnaise. This took about 8-10 minutes but might take longer. Just keep at it.

Take off the heat & whisk in 120g of the best 70+% dark chocolate you can get. Pour them into small cups or other serving dishes (about 150 ml each). Chill but don't forget to take them out of the fridge in advance because you want to eat them room temperature. I served these with local macaroons. Do you think my friends will carry the memory of this meal with them to New York?

Pumpkin, pasta & pesto

I keep thinking about bringing soup Monday to a close for the year and maybe moving to salad Monday. If you were in Wellington last Monday you will know why I didn't. We had the coldest day of winter. Temperatures didn't rise above 4 degrees! If it's cold in your town, try this delicious heartwarming pumpkin soup. Soften finely chopped onion (2), carrot, garlic (2), ginger (2 cm) in some olive oil with 1 tsp ground cumin & 1/2 tsp each cinnamon, turmeric & cayenne (maybe less cayenne if you're not a fan of spicy). Stir in a tin of tomatoes, 6 cups chicken (or vegetable) stock, 1 cup red lentils & about 800g pumpkin chopped into 2cm pieces. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat & simmer until the pumpkin is tender. Break up some of the pumpkin so that the soup is a rough lumpy texture. Season & serve with a dollop of sour cream & a pinch of cinnamon.

I have discovered a pasta recipe that I feel will become a regular at our table over summer. This week I made 2 versions - one for vegans & one for not. Both were delicious

For vegans blend a couple of handfuls of spinach leaves with a little olive oil & a handful of toasted pinenuts. You could use basil but I had lots of spinach. Genoese pesto for the non-vegan version. Put to one side.

Thinly slice lengthways one courgette per person with a vegetable peeler or mandolin & saute in olive oil. Steam a bunch of asparagus. Cook your favourite pasta according to the instructions. I used spaghetti for the vegans & egg tagliatelle for the non. Stir the sauces through the pastas, mix the courgette & asparagus and a chopped up avocado through both. Top the vegan one with breadcrumbs toasted in olive oil (often known as poor man's Parmesan) & the non version with Parmesan. Serve with a leafy green salad.

Pita meals & marmalade

With the advent of spring or at least rumours of its advent I have been thinking about lighter meals. I bought some spicy lamb sausages from the Island Bay Butchery and made a quick meal on pita breads. Heat the oven to 200 & saute 2 thinly sliced onions in a little olive oil with 2 cloves of garlic, 1/4 tsp each allspice & cinnamon & a handful of pinenuts. Slip the sausages out of their skins - this is quite easy, just slit the skins with scissors & peel them off. Use 1-2 sausages per person. Break the sausages into 1 cm pieces and add to the saute pan breaking then into bite sized pieces as they cook. When they're cooked and lightly coloured add a handful of flat leaf parsley & take off the heat.

Carefully slice pita breads in half so that you have 2 rounds. Allow 1-2 rounds per person depending on greed/ appetite. Put the pita on a baking tray and brush around the edges with olive oil - to coat the bits that won't be covered with topping. Divide the sausage mixture among the pita slices & top with halved cherry tomatoes -about 2 tomatoes per pita. Bake 10 minutes until the edges of the pita are crisp & golden.

Serve topped with a drizzle of Greek yoghurt & a sprinkle of cinnamon. I actually used Cleveland buffalo yoghurt & when I was in Auckland at the weekend I saw the buffalo and was able to thank them. I served this with a salad of cos lettuce, finely sliced spring onions, finely sliced orange pieces (peel a couple of oranges & remove all the pith then halve & slice thinly), black olives & feta slices. Make a vinaigrette with red wine vinegar or lemon juice. Coat the lettuce first with some of the dressing then layer up the orange & feta, scatter over the olives & spring onion & drizzle the remaining dressing. The citrus makes a great foil for the richness of the sausage.

Later in the week I made a vegan version using Antoinette's authentic Lebanese falafel. I have just discovered these and recommend you rush out & get some. The vegans drizzled over hummus instead of yoghurt & I had both. I served this with the orange salad again & our old favourite roasted asparagus, which I eat at least once a week at this time of year.

We went to Auckland for the weekend to help a certain sister celebrate a certain birthday. She had an overburdened grapefruit tree so we took a large bag full home & made some grapefruit. I use Edmunds & made a marmalade with 3 grapefruit, 1 orange & a lemon. Unfortunately it didn't set as well as I would have liked & I suspect the grapefruit were over ripe. I read that if they didn't have many pips they would be over ripe & contain less pectin. Earlier in the week when I was preparing them for breakfast they were very pippy but when I was preparing them for the marmalade we found barely a pip. We needed to wrap the pips in muslin & cook the with the fruit. Phoebe & I wondered if as the fruit ripened it ate its own pips. Can anyone enlighten us. Any way for those of you who have a jar of marmalade I hope it doesn't run off the toast.

Pork & left overs

This was a busy week and most of what we ate you've seen before, literally. I raided the freezer, partly because we were busy & partly because the freezer was getting too full to easily find stuff or fit more in.

On Sunday night we had roast pork, which I know is a favourite of a couple of you. I usually accompany pork with lentils & cabbage. I often cook lentils on Sunday to go in salad lunches for work so I just made a bit extra. And potatoes are expected by some at my table. Sometimes things go wrong and have unexpected results. Get your pork out of the fridge & leave it at room temperature for a good while to let the skin dry out. Sit it on a rack in a roasting tin big enough for the pork (and as it turns out a few potatoes). When you're ready to cook, coat the base of the tin with a thin film of oil and put the bones in the centre for the joint to sit on. If you don't have the bones just use the rack. Put the joint in skin side up (don't salt the skin because that will soften it - season the cut sides of the meat). Put it into the oven at the hottest heat (ours is 250) for 20 minutes then turn down to 180 and cook 30 minutes per lb (or 450g for you young ones)

Have I told you before about Margie potatoes? Boil potatoes cut into largish pieces (the size you might use for roasting) for about 20 mins, then drain. Generously cover the bottom of a saute pan with olive oil and when very hot add the potatoes. Turn the heat right down and gently cook for ages until they are golden & crisp on all sides. These are known in our family as Margie potatoes. They take about an hour or so. Anyway I was making these potatoes & something went wrong. The potatoes were browning nicely but not cooked inside and the pork was nearly done. I think I was doing too many things at once and lost 20 minutes, or maybe I didn't actually boil them for long enough. Anyway after a moment of despondency the potatoes went in with the pork and the pork had 20 minutes extra in the oven. The result was still perfectly cooked pork but in addition the best crackling ever experienced. I'm not suggesting you over cook your pork on purpose but just reminding you that most kitchen disasters can be averted with quick thinking.

The left over pork went into the lunch salads & if you accidentally cook too many potatoes, a cold roast potato is delicious in a salad.

We have a stack of boeuf bourguignon in the freezer so I used one of those on Thursday and served it with ribbon pasta which is a classic French accompaniment (nouilles fraiches) & a nice change from pommes vapeur (steamed potatoes)

I also made a batch of oatmeal raisin chocolate chip orange cookies, (no pecans in the cupboard) and Phoebe had made Nigella's Granny Boyd's biscuits so we are set for baking for the next little while.

Old Family Favourites

On Sunday I used up the last of my Nice'n'Spicy Nasi Goreng spice mixes. You may recall the Denningvleis from July last year. I made the Nasi Goreng following the recipe on the pack. I used pork with carrots, celery, capsicum, the last of the broccoli from the garden and some beans. And I served it with my sister's peanut sauce recipe - a great favourite in our house.
Saute chopped onion, crushed garlic & chopped ginger until soft. (She doesn't say how much - I just used half an onion, 1 clove garlic & a knob of ginger). Add 1/2 tsp chilli powder & 2 tsp curry powder & cook one minute.
Add 1/2 cup vinegar
1/3 cup sugar/ 1 tsp salt
2 tbsp peanut butter
1/3 c fruit chutney (we always use Tamarillo)
2/3 cup water (add more if too thick)
Bring to the boil & simmer until it thickens.
This sauce is lovely with spicy chicken on skewers and other Indonesian style dishes. Also very popular with children if you don't make it too spicy.
Apparently Phoebe's friends are very impressed with soup Monday as she reports on Tuesday the previous evening's delights. Monday is now her favourite day of the week because it includes both maths & soup - apparently a winning combination. Have any of you taken up the soup Monday concept, or even soup Tuesday? I recommend it. We've explored some great soups.
This week we went back to an old favourite, Pasta & Bean soup. I needed to use up some orzo I had bought a while back for something in particular & couldn't for the life of me recall what it was. I wanted to see the back of it & this soup seemed the ideal vehicle.
Heat a little olive oil in a large pot & soften a finely sliced onion & a finely chopped clove of garlic. Stir in a sprinkling of chilli flakes to taste with 2 bay leaves & 1/4 tsp dried thyme. Dried herbs are often good in a soup. Cook for a minute.
Add a can of crushed tomatoes, a can of kidney beans & one of mixed beans with 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock and bring to boil. Add 1 cup pasta. I usually use macaroni, but in this instance I used a mix of macaroni & orzo. You could use spirals or any short pasta you have in the cupboard. Boil gently until the pasta is cooked then season.
Serve topped with chopped parsley or try pesto & some grated or shaved Parmesan. This is something you can whip up in 20 minutes just from your store cupboard. Always a favourite with all our children.

Leeks and Peas

Leeks are good just now so for Soup Monday we had this variation on leek & potato soup. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil & a knob of butter in a large saucepan & add 2 leeks, finely sliced; 500g floury (I usually use Agria) potatoes cut up small; 2 cloves garlic, crushed & some chopped thyme. Heat gently until the leeks are very soft but not browned. Patience is required. Then add 5 cups of chicken or vegetable stock and 1 cup milk. Season & bring to the boil, then simmer 30 minutes. Don't worry that it looks a bit curdly - you're going to blend the curdle out of it. Add 3 cups frozen peas & cook another 5 minutes. Blend until smooth. Drizzle with a little cream to serve. What a colour! You'll notice this makes quite a bit, so freeze the leftovers. It's always good to have soup in the freezer in the weather.

On Tuesday I had to bin the chicken I had planned & this is why you should always have pasta & pesto at the ready. Boil egg pasta ribbons according to the instructions on the packet. Gently warm a large pan & when the pasta is done use a slotted spoon or tongs to lift the pasta from it's saucepan into the clean one. Stir through a tbsp per person of creme fraiche, the same of pesto. Season and add a knob of butter. Grate over some Parmesan. Serve with a green salad that you've prepared beforehand because once you start cooking the pasta you are less than 6 minutes from the table. If you've got pasta in your cupboard you've always got a meal.

On Thursday we had pea & prawn risotto. This combination is beautiful. Just make a regular risotto base (see May 09). You could substitute fennel for the leek and use Pernod instead of wine. Remember to be patient when softening the leek. You don't want crunchy leek. When the risotto is done, stir through 1/2 cup frozen peas & 1/2 cup frozen cooked prawns with the juice of 1/2 a lemon. You could use raw prawns and just cook them through in the pan. Cook a little more until the peas & prawns are ready then season, drop in a knob of butter, cover & leave with the heat off for a few minutes to rest. Serve with Parmesan.

The next night, if you've got some left over, make risotto cakes. I recently learned a clever trick to make these. Butter some ramekins & put a circle of baking paper in the bottom. Lightly beat 2 or 3 eggs & mix with the risotto & some Parmesan. Tip the mixture into the ramekins & bake in a moderate oven about 15 minutes until the egg is set. This is much better than trying to fry them as I have done in the past. They turn out really well. You could make it in one large shallow dish & cut into wedges like a cake.

Chinese greens

Along with the new job we have got into a new routine in the kitchen. Now that we're walking both ways, there is less time to spend on dinner during the week & I need to accommodate study. Wednesdays & Saturdays, when Phoebe works, we try to do something with fish or something else she's not so keen on.

On Saturday night we had something I've been meaning to try again for ages. I saw something on a tv programme but being unable to remember what it was & never writing it down, it was probably nothing like the meal I am about to describe. The key ingredient is a Chinese green - the leafy one with thin stalks & yellow flowers - Choy Sum.

Finely chop the stalks from a bunch of choy sum & soften in a pan in a little peanut oil, with some grated ginger (the grating plate is good for this), sliced spring onion, garlic & a little celery if you like it. Add sliced mushrooms & cook down a little. Then add a splash of soy sauce & stir through the choy sum. Add some baby spinach leaves if you have some to use up. Serve with pork cooked your favourite way and rice or noodles. A chop is good. In this instance, we had pork fillets which had been marinated in a mixture of vegetable oil, soy sauce & honey in a roasting dish. (For 2 servings use about 2 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp soy, 1/2 tbsp honey) We roasted the pork at 180 about 15 mins, turning once, then rested about 10 minutes. I am not a huge fan of Chinese flavours or Chinese greens but I just love this.

We didn't eat it all, so for Sunday lunch fried up the left over rice, veg & meat with some shredded carrot, pumpkin from an earlier meal, some ham that needed to be eaten & a plain omlette sliced on top. This was delicious.

On Sunday we had a busy afternoon in the kitchen. Phoebe baked cup cakes for an SPCA fundraiser & I made tomato sauce (ketchup type).

Brionnais to Paris

The last leg of our French journey took us through Brionnais & the Auvergne to Poitiers and then on to Paris. We spent a night in a small village called Varennes at a wonderful chambre d'hote, a sort of hosted B&B. We were provided with a delicious regional dinner by our hosts. We started with a glass of Kir in the courtyard & then we went into the dining room for a magnificent French repast. First came Jambon Persille followed by a pave of Charolais beef served with a jardiniere of vegetables. Essentially a beautifully presented plate of seasonal vegetables fresh from the garden, in this instance the garden just outside. The beef came from a farm up the road and was possibly the best beef I have ever eaten. In fact, the view from the dining room window (the one to the left of the circular tower) encompassed the fields in which the cattle were grazing. This was followed by a selection of local cheeses from the surrounding farms, chevres (goat's cheese) and the three varieties all tasted quite different from one another, Fourme d'Ambert and La Fontaine. I thought we were done but no, out came a Pear Charlotte, cooked by the 18-year-old daughter of the family. All this was accompanied with a Beaujolais wine - Gamay. We dined with our hosts and their family and the conversation was conducted in a mix of French & English. This was a meal to remember. As a footnote, breakfast was also amazing and included dandelion jam!

We drove to a friend's house in a small village the Auvergne, stopping at the village of Noiretable for lunch. We went to the Hotel de la Gare for lunch, which turned out to be an inspired choice. This was, as it's name suggests, a hotel with accommodation and the diners appeared to be local workmen enjoying their three course set menu with a piquet of wine. On offer was a set menu or an a la carte menu which consisted of a starter, a main & a pudding. I had the starter of terrine & salad, which was amazing, followed by Fromage Blanc which is a French specialty you must try if you go there. Basically its a very fresh creamy cheese with a yoghurt consistency, which you sweeten with sugar to your taste and mix with a little cream. Unbelievable! In Poitiers it was served with berries & honey but I really loved the plain version. This was an outstanding meal and epitomised French country eating at its best. Another feature of the hotel was that your pet could stay for free - there is usually a charge for cats & dogs.

On to Bertignat, a small village near the small town of Ambert, whose claim to fame is a magnificent cheese - Fourme d'Ambert & a round Mairie (town hall). We enjoyed both the cheese and the town hall...in the form of cake.

In fact this region boasts 3 appellation controlee cheeses. Two of them, the Fourme d'Ambert and Cantal are available from Le Marche Francais in Wellington. Another experience I must mention was Denis, the travelling Bordeaux wine salesman. A very pleasant hour was whiled away tasting wine from Denis' case in the comfort of my friend's living room. Ask me about it sometime. Denis was quite a character.

Everywhere in France offered a new dining experience. Poitiers was the closest we got to the coast and so fish was on the menu. In addition, I had the best omelette ever - so good I had it three times!

In Paris, we went for North African - the area round Boulevard Saint Michel is teeming with cheap restaurants and we picked the one with the most interesting looking menu. An alluring waiter stands outside the restaurants enticing the diners in, reminiscent of the sex shops in Soho (not that we know much about them, of course). I had couscous which was served with a variety of meat & chicken. The couscous was divine - very fine.

The other dining experience worthy of note was Cafe de Flore - the haunt of Sartre & de Beauvoir, on Boulevard St Germain. I had one of those fabulous composed salads the French do so well. We were very bemused by a dish of eggs which sat on the unoccupied table next to us throughout our meal. And I discovered another one inside. If anyone can enlighten me I would love to know what that was about.

It was in Paris that Phoebe finally enjoyed her soupe a l'oignon and I have had great success with this at home.

Heat about 60g butter in your Le Creuset. Add a kilo of onions finely sliced, with 4 cloves of garlic finely chopped and 2 tsps caster sugar. Cook slowly for about 1/2 an hour untill the onions are really soft & caramelised. Don't rush this stage.

Add 300ml dry white wine & boil rapidly until it has reduced by half. Then add 1.5 litres good beef stock with a bouquet garni & leave to simmer at least 30 mins. Make your own beef stock or buy good quality fresh in a plastic pouch. Don't spoil this experience by using boxed stock or a stock cube. The stock is the essence of this soup. Discard the bouquet garni & season the soup.

While the soup is simmering prepare a slice of French bread for each bowl. Put slices of bread - about 2-3 cm thick - on a baking tray & bake at 150 about 30 mins. You want them dried out but not coloured at all. When you take them out turn the oven up to 220.

To serve, place a slice of bread on the bottom of each dish - you need ovenproof dishes. I have a beautiful set of stoneware soup bowls my mother bought at the old Courtyard Cafe in Wellington circa 1985. They are perfect. Ladle the soup over the bread, ensuring equal distribution of liquid & onions. Cover the soup with a thick layer of grated cheese - Gruyere or Comte if you can get it. Place the bowls on a sturdy baking tray & bake at 220 for 30 mins until the cheese is golden & bubbling. You can grill them for 5 minutes if you are short of time but the baking delivers a result that is worth waiting for. Don't skimp on time. The soup freezes well so if you make a large quantity freeze and then you only have to do the bread & cheese bit on a busy night. This is a soup Monday favourite.