On the grill

We bought a Weber kettle barbecue for Christmas but we didn't get an opportunity to try it out until this week.  We have had 2 delicious barbecue meals plus much more.  The first day we did the simple rump steak and a corn cob.  The steak was amazingly tender.  To do the corn we peeled back the husk & pulled off all the hairy bits, then tied the husks back on using an elegant knotting arrangement.  Soak the cobs in cold water for 1/2 an hour or so then cook for 20 minutes in the kettle. 
Having had that success we tried a groper steak and a couple of our delicious Heather potatoes.  These have a beautiful bright purple skin when you pick them but it disappears within moments of heating.  I boiled it for 5 minutes or so first then roasted it in the kettle for 20 minutes.  It was perfect and the fish was moist & firm.  So as not to waste the heat in the barbecue we then grilled out lamb fillet for weekday salads & roasted the baby beets.  This could become quite fun but it's not very appealing to be cooking out of doors in a howling northerly so our opportunities for experimentation may be somewhat curtailed this summer.
I still have a some walnuts sitting in a bowl that were given to me by a grower & we found the perfect way to use them.  Beetroot & walnut hummus.  Start by roasting 50g shelled walnuts at 180 for 5-7 minutes.  Don't buy them shelled  - they will be disgusting.  Always shell them just before eating. Over a medium heat, dry fry 1 tbsp cumin seeds for about a minute & crush them in a mortar & pestle.  Set aside, but not so far aside that you forget to add them to the hummus. Whizz 15g stale bread in a food processor until you have fine crumbs then add 200g cooked beetroot, 1 tbsp tahini, 1 clove crushed garlic, the juice of a lemon, 1/2 tbsp olive oil salt & pepper and don't forget the cumin.  Blend to a thick paste.  Taste & you might want to adjust the flavouring or add a little more oil if it is too stiff.  Serve as a dip or spread.  
My other find for the week was panacotta.  I have always imagined this to be really hard but was inspired when we spent a night at the White Swan in Greytown on a special deal.  We stayed in the White Suite and dined in the restaurant where they served a vanilla bean panacotta.  I had a go when I got home & it was really easy. 
Combine 100ml organic whole milk & 250ml cream in a pan with 40g caster sugar & a vanilla pod halved with the seeds scrapped into the milk.  Put the whole pod in to infuse then remove it before adding the gelatine. Bring the milk just up to the boil without bubbling & turn off.  Soak 2 sheets of gelatine in cold water for 5 minutes then squeeze out the excess water & stir in to the hot milk until dissolved.  Leave to cool then add 150ml plain yoghurt.  Pour the mix into 125ml containers such as ramekins & chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours.  To turn out, dip the moulds into hot water & tip out.  I found I also needed to run a knife around the edges.  So delicious.
We had the tahini dressed salad again with roasted Heather potatoes & it may have been even better this time. Do try it especially if you have a glut of courgettes to get through.  We included scallopini which I love, not least for the lovely colour they bring to the salad. 

From the garden

The summer garden is producing potatoes, courgettes & lettuces as fast as we can eat them.  We also harvested our garlic on the longest day and plaited them with the help of our visitors.  There aren't many but I am pleased with them as a first attempt.  The weather is a mix of glorious sunny days as hot & calm as we ever have in Wellington, 2-3 days of gale force northerlies strong enough to whip the lettuces untimely from their beds.  When it's neither of those we are blessed with those delightful sea mists that engulf us & in Karori mean we are unsure if our neighbours have not been swept away by the previous day's northerly.  The upshot of this is that we are eating a great deal of the above in a variety of combinations, and dining out of doors when winds permit. 
For a really quick after-work meal cut some small potatoes into 2-3 pieces & boil for 8-10 minutes, then add a handful of trimmed green beans for an additional 3-5 minutes.  Meanwhile heat some olive oil in a pan & add thinly slivered garlic being careful not to let it burn.  Add about 50g of olives stoned & roughly chopped & heat through then remove from the heat.  Tip the olives into the pan with the potatoes & toss with a handful of shredded basil, the juice of half a lemon & some salt & pepper.  Serve with grilled courgettes. Our basil isn't doing so well.  Perhaps it doesn't like those northerly winds.
To make best use of these summer evenings we are aiming to keep things simple.  Peel 3-4 medium red onions and slice into 6-8 wedges, keeping the root attached at one end. Heat a tbsp oil in an oven proof  frying pan.  Arrange the onion in a concentric pattern in the pan.  Sprinkle with salt & pepper & cook for until they are quite tender & beginning to caramelise around the edges.  This will take 20 mins or longer, turning once half way through.  Trickle over 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar & cook a couple of minutes more.  Remove from the heat.  Using ready made puff pastry - keep some in the freezer - cut out a disk that will fit in your pan over the top of the onions.  Lay on the pastry sheet & put the pan in the oven at 190 for 20 minutes. To serve, invert the pan onto a plate and there you have an attractively presented onion tart.  All you need now is a leafy green salad.
An abundance of courgettes called for a lamb rump served with a Greek salad, quinoa with rose petals, the aforementioned courgettes & a dollop of fresh beetroot relish.  This was something I had a while back at Floriditas.  I successfully replicated it then forgot what I had done.  This wasn't it but I think this was better.  Very finely slice 1-2 red onions and finely grate 2 large peeled beetroot.  I used disposable gloves for this operation.  Put in a large pan & cook slowly until the onions are very soft.  Add juice & zest of one lemon plus the peel of 1/4 preserved lemon.  Season to taste.  Store in a jar in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
And when you have still more courgettes to use the next day, try deep fried courgette flowers.  For the filling, beat 100g Zany Zeus ricotta until smooth then stir in 2 tbsp Parmesan, a handful of finely chopped fresh herbs & salt & pepper.  Scoop the mixture into the flowers & gently twist the tops to secure.  You can use both the flowers with the baby courgettes attached & the other ones.  They are the male & female flowers.  When these are done prepare a tempura batter with 100g sifted plain flour, 40g cornflour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt.  Whisk in about 200ml ice cold sparkling mineral water until you have a thinnish batter.  Don't over mix.  Heat vegetable oil in a deep fryer or deep pan to 180.  Dip the flowers in the batter one at a time & drop into the hot oil.   Only cook 2-3 at a time in the pan to prevent the oil from cooling. Cook 1-2 minutes until the batter is crisp & puffy.  Drain on kitchen towel.   You'll probably have more batter than flowers so also cook tiny broccoli florets, red onion wedges & more sliced courgettes.
Phoebe treated us to a tortilla stack during the week.  Make a tomato sauce.  Soften 2 cloves garlic, 1 finely chopped onion, 1 finely chopped capsicum, 2 finely chopped green chillies.  Add 2 tins tomatoes & about 400ml water.  Swish the water around the tins first to catch all the tomato.  Add 1 tbsp tomato paste.  Cook about 10 minutes more.
Mix 2 tins black beans, 2 cups sweet corn kernels, 250g grated cheese in a bowl.  In an ovenproof dish, about 26 cm in diameter & 6 cm deep spread 1/3 of the sauce then layer on 2 tortillas so they cover the sauce & slightly overlap.  Spread 1/3 of the bean mix then 1/4 of the remaining sauce then 2 more tortillas.  Repeat so that you have 2 more layers (8 tortillas altogether) then top with the remaining sauce & sprinkle with more cheese.  Bake at 200 for 30 minutes.  Let it rest 15 minutes before serving in wedges with a green salad & an avocado salsa.  You can freeze the leftovers in wedges.
If you have a glut of beetroot or like me you just can't resist beetroot any way, try a beetroot & chocolate ice cream.  Make a regular custard as you would for vanilla ice cream using 300ml whole milk, 200ml cream & 4 large egg yolks.  Don't add vanilla.  Set aside to cool.  Put 300g whole beetroot in a roasting pan with a little water in the bottom to prevent burning & roast at 200 for about an hour or more until very tender.  Peel - use those disposable gloves - and blend to a puree.  You want no more than 300ml puree but a little less won't matter.  Melt 100g 70% chocolate & stir into the custard.  Then stir in the beetroot puree.    Leave to chill then churn either in an ice cream maker or using the freeze & whip method.  It is truly delicious.

Festive Fare 2011

Earlier in the month I had made Nigella's Chocolate Christmas cake, which has all the qualities of a proper Christmas cake, but somehow the addition of cocoa makes it palatable to non-Christmas cake eaters. I used cointreau rather than coffee liqueur and just used the fruit I had on hand including cranberries. I also got a little carried away & broke some Whittaker's Dark Ghana into chunks & stirred it through. This meant that some times you came across a gooey chocolate bit when eating it. I had no complaints. Sofie was in charge of decorations.
In the past I have started the Christmas festivities with a Danish.  This year I thought I would try something different.  I made a large batch of my regular breakfast juice which went down very well.  Getting the quantities right for 9 was a bit tricky & it came out redder than usual which was appropriate for the occasion.  It was very popular with all.  We followed this with a batch of strawberry brioches.
To make the brioches, make a sweet dough using 1 1/2 cups plain flour, 1/4 cup caster sugar, 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast, 1/2 tsp salt, 60g soft butter, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 cup warm milk.  Whisk the egg with the milk & vanilla then add to everything else in a bowl & knead to a soft dough.  Add up to 1 cup additional flour to end up with a soft but not sticky dough then wrap in cling film & refrigerate overnight.  I also prepared the strawberry filling the night before to save time in the morning.  Combine 100g soft butter with 1 tbsp strawberry jam, 1/2 cup caster sugar, finely grated zest of a lemon.
Take the dough out of the fridge at least 1 hour before you want to start.  Preheat the oven to 180.  Roll out the dough to a rectangle approx 45cm x 25cm.  Spread with the jam mix then sprinkle over 400g finely chopped strawberries.  Roll up the dough from the long side to form a log and cut into 9 rounds.   Butter a 30cm round cake tin & sprinkle with caster sugar.  The tin should be 4-5 cm deep .  Put them around the tin cut side up, with one in the middle.  Brush with a little butter & sprinkle with caster sugar.  Bake about 30 minutes.  You will need to cover with foil half way through to prevent burning.  When you take them out, leave for a minute or so then tip onto a plate & invert them onto another so they are crusty side up. Tip over the remaining juice.  Cool for at least 30 minutes & dust with icing sugar.  My tin was too big & they collapsed a little.  You could do them individually in Texas muffin pans.  Also very messy to eat but again I didn't have any complaints.  It sounds like a lot of effort but isn't really.
Christmas lunch was the usual suspects.  Mandy outdid herself with the production of a personalised menu for each guest.  We served gilded roast turkey with sage & onion stuffing or Christmas nut roast, with cranberry sauce & whisky gravy, accompanied by roasted potatoes freshly dug from our garden, shallots, baby carrots & capsicums, Fresh garden peas with feta, mint & olive oil and grilled asparagus with lemon infused olive oil.  We finished with summer pudding.
Later in the evening when we were feeling a little peckish we dished up the glazed ham with a salad.
On Boxing Day we dished up the now familiar Boxing Day turkey coleslaw followed by Christmas pudding & ginger wine ice cream.
Festive dining concluded with a magnicent rib of beef on New Year's Day.  I wanted a celebratory meal but without the heaviness of a full roast.  This was just perfect & the beef was beautiful cold with salad for the next few days.  In fact my visitors were sent packing the next day with some of it in their travelling sandwiches.  The rib is not a common cut of beef these days but our butcher recommend it for the tenderness of the beef & I concur.  I ordered the beef a week in advance so there was time for it to hang and age.  The whole piece had 7 ribs but we just bought 4 and that was more than enough for all the above - dinner for 7 and leftovers.
For pudding we had soft fruit macerated in Kawakawa Vinegar.  I bought this vinegar at the City Market & I stongly recommend you look out for it.  This fruit sald is another way to use up the palm sugar you bought for the tamarind chicken.  I think this would also be really nice with the Tamarillo Vinegar.

Winding Down

Happy New Year!  December was a busy month and there was quite a bit of eating out so I decided to take a break & return refreshed in the New Year.
During December when we did eat at home we were eating mostly vegetables, from the garden as much as possible.  I did do a summer lamb tagine I had been saving up.  Do try this, especially as the courgettes are plentiful right now.  For four, heat olive oil in the tagine & stir in 1 roughly chopped onion, 4 roughly chopped cloves of garlic, 1 tsp each cumin & coriander seeds, 1 tsp dried mint & a knob of grated ginger.  Do use dried mint here.  This gives an intense minty depth & you can add fresh at the end of cooking.  Once the onions have softened toss in 750g lean diced lamb & enough water to just cover.  Cook in the oven at 180 for about 1 1/2 hours.
Add a selection of summer vegetables.  The recipe suggests 2 small courgettes, sliced thickly on the diagonal, 1 red or green pepper, cut into thick strips, 4 tomatoes cut into chunks.  I added fresh peas & broadbeans because they were there.  I blanched the broadbeans & took off their outer jackets before adding.  Tuck them all around the meat & add a little more boiling water if necessary.  I never find it so.  Cover & cook another 15 minutes until the vegetables are tender.  Serve with lemon wedges & a soft leafy green salad.
I saw this amazing tamarind chicken recipe on the television & was compelled to try it. Do get some palm sugar if you can as I think it makes a difference.  I have been using tamarind concentrate in a jar, rather than a block, which eliminates the need for fiddly soaking.  It keeps & you will find plenty of uses for it.  If you don't have tamarind you can substitute lime juice or, at a pinch, lemon.  The tamarind is the sour component of the meal.  I had the leftovers in a lunch salad.
I sometimes pick up recipes from Le Marche Francais at the market & I was tempted by Oeufs Cocotte a Cabecous.  Cabecous is a small round soft goat's cheese.  For 2, butter 2 ramekins.  Crack an egg into each ramekin.  Add half the cabecous to each with 2 tsp cream & some chopped chives.  Season & put the ramekins into a bain marie and bake in the oven at 180 for no more than 10 minutes.  Serve with french bread.  Try dipping asparagus spears into the soft eggy cheese.
Hugh F-W has a delicious Summer Vegetable Soup which is wonderful to showcase the pickings from your spring garden.  Just use what you have to hand but whatever you do do not omit the lettuces.  If you can't buy a Little Gem  - I grow them from seedlings - you could try a baby Cos.  The lettuce gives the soup depth.  We need to rediscover braised lettuce.  It is delicious.
There is such a lot to be done with those early vegetables of summer.  You can add a selection of blanched vegetables to a risotto or try a Pasta Primavera.  Saute a selection of diced vegetables in butter or olive oil.  Start with onion & saute to a rich golden colour, then add celery & carrot & cook 5 minutes.  Add courgette & red capsicum & cook a further 20 minutes.  Add 1 cm asparagus lengths which you have already blanched.  Once all the vegetables are tender, add 200ml cream & cook until the cream has reduced by half.  While the cream is reducing cook some ribbon pasta.  Toss the pasta with the sauce & sprinkle over grated Parmesan & parsley.
During the week leading up to the festivities we treated ourselves to Hugh's Tahini Dressed Courgette Salad.  We made the semi-dried tomatoes, just cooking the tomatoes for 4-5 hours.  You need to treat theses as fresh & use within a week but you will find endless uses for them, for example tucking them in a delicious home-made hamburger.  I am sure you could also find endless uses for the tahini dressing.
Stay tuned & I'll fill you in on the festive dining in the next few days.