Versatile vegetables

Phoebe is always doing interesting things with cauliflower but I've never done much other than cauliflower cheese, curry or soup until now. This week I branched out with two new cauliflower ideas.

On Sunday we had lamb kofte with cauliflower "couscous".  To make the kofte for two, combine 300g lamb mince, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, chilli flakes, 1 clove crushed garlic, finely chopped parsley, zest of half a lemon, 1/2 tsp dried mint, salt and pepper.  Make little meatballs - I made 6 - and poke a pre-soaked bamboo skewer through each one, then shape into sausage shapes on the skewer. Set these aside while you prepare the couscous.
Break half a cauliflower head into florets and grind to a fine crumbly couscous-like texture in the food processor.  Spread these out on an oven tray and bake at 200 for 5 mins.  You could microwave in a bowl for a few minutes but I can't as I don't have one.  Set them aside to cool and cook the kofte on a tray in the oven for about 12 minutes.
While they are cooking mix finely diced cucumber, chopped tomato, a small quantity of finely diced red onion, chopped olives, chopped mint and parsley, and crumbled feta with the cauliflower. Dress with lemon juice and olive oil.  Serve with yoghurt and a little chopped dill.
I used the other half of the cauliflower to make a pizza base.  Crumble the cauliflower and lightly cook as above then wrap in a tea towel and wring out any moisture.  I didn't do this and mine was a little soggy but still delicious.  Mix the cauliflower with a little beaten egg, crushed garlic and a little grated parmesan, mixed dried herbs, salt and pepper.  Shape into a pizza shape on an oven tray lined with baking paper.  Make it quite thin - about 1/2 a centimetre.  Bake at 200 for 30-40 minutes.  It should be firm and golden.  Take it out of the oven and turn up to 220.  Spread the base with passata or a similar kind of tomato sauce, halved cherry tomatoes and blobs of mozzarella.  Grate over some parmesan and sprinkle on a few basil leaves.  Bake another 5 minutes until the cheese is melted and serve with a few more basil leaves.
I will definitely be trying other things with cauliflower.  Any suggestions?
I returned to a favourite from this winter.  The charmingly named Dr Feel Good winter salad.  This is a brilliant recipe and although it looks fiddly is well worth the effort.  I save a bit of time by using roasted capsicum in a jar rather than roasting from scratch.  These are great and can go in many dishes.  Try them with the cauliflower couscous.  On this salad occasion Phoebe was coming for dinner and got there first so I phoned ahead for her to turn on the oven and put the beetroot on to boil.  That was useful.  You will really like this salad and you can be flexible with the ingredients.
I also made brilliant little apple puddings that I was alerted to on Facebook.  When I told them at work they all cried, "too hard", but in fact they were "too easy".  And they did taste delicious.  I sprinkled with icing sugar mixed with cinnamon because I had some pre-mixed which had been left over from a cake I had taken to work.  It was a great combination and a little dollop of whipped cream is the perfect finishing touch.
Now that asparagus season is upon us I like to eat them as much as possible.  A great idea for a spring Saturday lunch is salad greens, thinly sliced radish and steamed asparagus piled on a grilled slice of sourdough that has been spread with mayonnaise.  Add egg boiled just enough to peel with the yolk still soft and drizzle over a little lemony vinaigrette.

Easter traditions

As you know Easter is always a favourite time in my culinary year.  There are traditional favourites we have every year and there is always the time to try something new.
I have been making Nigella Lawson's hot cross buns from Feast for many years but this year I thought I would try Cuisine's proclaimed best-ever hot cross buns.
These will be my go to recipe for the next few years.  They were spicy perfection.  The only improvement could be my crosses which were a bit too runny and elicited the following from Phoebe - "I don't think Jesus died on a blob".  It didn't stop her from eating them on Friday and Saturday and taking some home.  I used to try and make these for breakfast but it was always a bit pressured so I now go for a late morning brunch which carries us through to an early supper.  We can reheat what's left for breakfast on Saturday...and Sunday if necessary. They kept very well.
Our Good Friday supper was, as usual, smoked fish pie.  I don't really vary the recipe although I might vary the type of fish.  This year we used smoked hoki and warehou.  Both were perfectly flaky.
I used to make this regularly as a family meal and it was once a great favourite with the children but alas they all outgrew it and it has been relegated to Good Friday.  Much as I enjoy both making it and eating it, I don't mind that it has become only an annual event.  We all look forward to the meal, enjoy it and then put it aside until next year. 
Easter Sunday is always a good opportunity to have friends over and share some kind of slow cooked lamb.  We have usually enjoyed a leisurely but also industrious three days and we can still enjoy an evening with friends and a sleep-in the next day.
We started the meal with some Pascal's smoked paprika pate served with a selection of cheeses - tome de savoir, manchego and a Waimate brie, on grilled slices of  home-made sourdough. The pate is excellent - Pascal's grandmother's recipe, he tells me.  We got it at the City Market.  Try it.  I had just read about serving torn pieces of very ripe figs with rocket so we had that to accompany and I recommend it.
I often go for the middle eastern-style lamb but this year we looked to Jamie Oliver and a very British approach with a slow roasted shoulder of lamb and smashed root vegetables and greens.   Earlier in the day we had been tidying up the garden to get in some winter crops and came across the last of the agrias that had been missed.  That went in our mash along with the last of the garden carrots.  I have to mention here that it has been an outstanding year for carrots.  We have had a bumper crop with the largest carrot weighing in at 750g.  It was still sweet and delicious, not at all woody.  A bit like last years giant radishes which definitely didn't perform as well this year.
I also love swede in a mash.  It brings a lovely creaminess and a little goes a long way.  I often add swede to pumpkin soup as well.  For our greens we had red kale, cavalo nero and savoy cabbage.  There is a stall at the vege market that sells incredible kale and cavalo and can usually be relied on for outstanding cabbages and leeks.
As usual I thought we needed something else but in the end I refrained and I am glad because we had a delicious meal with very little effort.  There was enough to feed the seven of us at the table and on Monday I turned what was left into a delicious hash/bubble and squeak.
At Easter I like something apple-y to herald autumn.  I enjoyed the seasonal aspect of Easter in the northern hemisphere and I was thinking of Harriet, Max and Jasper  heralding the arrival of spring in their respective locations.  Here I like my Easter meal to represent the autumn bounty. I made an apple and blackberry crumble.  It is only recently we have been able to buy fresh blackberries and I am making the most of them.  Lightly stew 1/2 dozen apples in butter and three tbsp golden caster sugar, or any caster sugar, covered for 15 mins.  I used Cox's Orange plus a couple of windfalls off our tree.  Add about three punnets of blackberries and simmer with the lid off for five mins.  Strain the fruit, retaining the liquid.  Layer the fruit in a dish and top with a crumble mix.  I often add spices but on this occasion I simply rubbed butter into flour, added caster sugar and a little Demerara along with a handful of rolled oats.  Keep the crumble in the fridge until you need to top the fruit and bake.  I poured a little of the reserved juice over the fruit just before baking.  I served this with home made vanilla ice cream.
We had another success this Easter.  For the first time we had enough crabapples to make crabapple jelly.  Not a lot but enough to make 1/2 a dozen jars.  For the first few years of the life of the tress I was reduced to improvising cranbapple chutney. This was nice enough but does not compare to jars of delicious fruity jelly.  My Grandma always made crabapple jelly and I can't eat it without thinking of here which is an excellent reason to make it.

The Big Apple

Tagine Saturday was such a success but now it's over.  Peter bought me a cazuela for my birthday & the second half of my paella book is all about rice in the cazuela, so off  we go with cazuela Saturday.  The cazuela is a beautiful dish & I think would also be perfect for risotto so I am going to try that too.  The book says that the Spanish cook almost everything in the cazuela.  It distributes & retains heat well & is great for simmering & braising and cooking rice on the stove top.  These cazuela dishes are more soupy than paella which is a drier dish with that lovely crust on the bottom.We started with something simple - white rice with herbs.  If you don't have a cazuela do this in your Le Creuset or other Dutch oven style pot.  For 4, bring 4 cups of water to the boil in the cazuela.  Blend 2 cloves garlic & 1 tbsp parsley with 1/2 cup water in the processor.  When the water reaches the boil, add the garlic mix & a pinch salt.  The rice makes a difference here & I would recommend Spanish rice - Bomba or Calasparra.  If you don't have those use a short or medium grain rice - Calrose, Japanese short grain, or any of the Italian rices.  Don't use long grain or Basmati.  Add 2 cups rice with a bay leaf and a stripped thyme stem.  Yes, strip the leaves off the thyme stem!  We used the thyme leaves in the accompanying chicken.  Cook uncovered stirring occasionally for 10 minutes over a medium high heat.  Check the seasoning at this point.  Reduce the heat & cook another 8 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed & the rice is al punto - the Spanish equivalent of al dente. You don't want this to be dry & fluffy and it's not quite creamy like risotto but something in between.  You just have to judge.  This was so delicately flavoured that I think you want to serve it with something equally light like chicken or fish.
 We had our old favourite chicken with herbs.  Sprinkle 4 chicken thighs with salt & pepper & brown on both sides in butter with a little oil.  Lower the heat, cover & cook another 8-10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.  Set the chicken aside & tip away most of the fat from the pan.  Add finely chopped spring onion & when golden add 3/4 cup liquid - a mixture of chicken, stock, white wine, water. Scrape up all the bits on the bottom of the pan & reduce the liquid.  Add a handful of chopped herbs & pour over the chicken.
Sunday we went for a walk at Makara.  It was a lovely afternoon & half of Wellington was there.  We spotted some wild samphire & we had bought a fillet of porae from Yellow Brick Road at the city market, so we picked a little for dinner.  It was the perfect addition to our fish supper with roast potatoes & courgettes.
There was polenta in the cupboard & I thought it should be used up so we had chicken involtini - I think this means rolled up - with polenta.  This seems fiddly but isn't really & is worth the effort.  Make a creamy polenta - for 4, I use 6 cups water or stock to 1 1/2 cups polenta & add Parmesan & a knob of butter at the end.  Heat the oven to 200 & cut 2 large chicken breasts into six slices each including the tenderloin.  Pound them between 2 sheet of baking paper to about 4mm thick.  Lay out each slice, top with a sliver of prosciutto & a slice of mozarella.  You'll want 2 balls of mozarella for four.  Season & roll up, lay a sage leaf on top &  secure with a toothpick.   Brown on each side in a pan with butter.  You'll need to push the stick though when you turn it but it's not nearly as fiddly as it sounds.  Cook in batches so as not to crowd the pan then transfer to an oven proof dish & cook in the oven another 8-10 minutes.  In the pan crisp up a few sage leaves in butter.  Serve the chicken on a bed of polenta topped with crispy sage.
And of course you are wondering what became of the apples.  Well, Anzac Day was Apple Wednesday in our house & the smell of apples wafted through the house.  Try this cake substituting apples for pears.  I made three of these.  I cut the apples in quarters & then sliced them almost through from the fat side of the wedge (like a hasselback potato) before caramelising.
If you find you can't fit all the caramelised apples into the cake, take a break & eat the leftovers with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.  You deserve it.
That didn't make much of a dent in the apples and it was Florence White to the rescue with  a Somersetshire recipe for apple butter.  Quarter the apples - don't peel or core & put everything into a preserving pan.  I filled mine to the top - the recipe assumes you are using windfall apples so you just have as many as you bothered to pick up.  Cover the apples with water or water & cider.  I added liquid about 3/4 up the side of the pan.  Stew to a pulp which took about an hour.  Press through a sieve which was a little messy as there was a great deal of pulp & I had to use more than one bowl.
Wash out the pan, measure the pulp, then return the pulp to the pan.  Simmer for about an hour until quite thick.  Add 3/4 lb (330g) sugar for every pint (600ml) of pulp. I actually put much less - I started with a cup per quart (2 pints) then added 1/2 lemon plus peel per quart, then added more sugar and tasted till it seemed right- not losing the appley tartness.  But do remember the sugar is the preservative.  Boil up until it is stiff enough to spread without running.  Use the jam crinkle method to test.  Pour into sterilised jars & "cover in the old fashioned way with a piece of paper dipped in brandy".  That's what she says!  She adds that if properly made this will keep for 2 years.  We'll see.  It is so yummy that I could just spoon it out of the jars.  So far I have had it for breakfast on fruit with yoghurt.  You could certainly serve as apple sauce with pork.
That was not the end of the apples.  I peeled & thinly sliced a few then blanched to stop the discoloration & when cooled bagged up in pie quantities & froze.  We will have 3 or 4 pies over the winter.  The rest were stewed with rhubarb.  And that is the end of apples.