Birthday pork

The birthday season is upon us, although this year I only have two birthdays to cater and someone has to do one for me. It's an opportunity to do something special and with usually only Peter and me at home an opportunity to cook something we can't easily do for two. Isabel chose pulled pork - good choice. 
This is pretty simple.  Combine a tsp each of smoked paprika, English mustard powder and 1/2 tsp ground cloves with salt and pepper and rub into the flesh side of a piece of skin-on pork shoulder. We added a bit of Culley's hickory sauce for extra flavour. Our piece was around 2 kg. Rub olive oil and salt into the skin.  Pour 1/2 cm water into a roasting tin and add the pork skin side up.  Roast at 140 for about 6 hours or until the meat is perfectly tender.  Add a little more water if necessary.  When it is done turn the grill to it's highest setting and grill the pork until the skin is crackled and golden - it doesn't take long so don't let it catch.
I made an apple and broad bean salsa to serve.  Our broad beans are a few weeks away so I had to resort to frozen.  Combine 1/4 cup olive oil, 2 cloves crushed garlic, 2 tbsp each orange and lemon juice, 1/2 tsp each dried oregano and cumin, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, salt and pepper in a jar and give it a good shake. Pour into a serving dish.  Add 2 cups blanched and peeled broad beans, 1 julienned Granny Smith apple, 1 tbsp chopped capers, 2 tbsp chopped parsley. Gently combine.
We also had crispy roasted potatoes.  I sprinkled the par-boiled potatoes with a little polenta before roasting which crisped up the skin.
We also had leeks and cavalo nero because all meals right now MUST include chard or cavalo nero before these go completely to seed. Slice a couple of leeks and cook in olive oil and a little butter with salt until soft and sweet.  Take the tough stalks out of the cavalo nero and roughly chop then add to the pan, cover and cook a few minutes until the greens are wilted.  Season and add another small knob of butter.  Lost of recipes tell you to cook the greens in water then press out all the water with a tea towel and then chop the greens before adding to the pan.  I don't usually bother - it seems like far too much work and stains the tea towels green. My way seems to work fine.
We had the summer Pimms cake for pudding and once again this cake was the star of the show.  This cake is super easy and a bit of a show stopper. These were our first strawberries of the season - not home grown I'm afraid although ours will be ready shortly if we ever get any sun. The borage isn't flowering either so I used cornflowers for the blue.
What better way to use up pulled pork than Monday night tortillas?  To make flour tortillas gently mix 1 1/2 cups plain flour in a bowl with 1 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt.  Warm 1/2 cup milk in a small saucepan and pour into the dry ingredients.  Mix with your hands into a soft dough and rest in cling film 15 mins.   Then divide into 6 balls, roll out on a floured surface as thinly as you can and layer them between sheets of greaseproof paper with a light dusting of flour as you go. Cook them on a hot grill or cast iron pan - 40 seconds on the first side and 10 on the second.  Heat the pork in a pan with a little water and some smoky tomato sauce you have in the fridge.  Pile the pork on the tortillas and top with left over apple salsa.

Let them eat cake

I like to bake cakes but these days the occasions to eat cake become fewer.  With just two of us at home most of the time we are just not going to get through a cake.  It is nice to have a special occasion and an appreciative crowd to make  a cake a worthwhile undertaking.
This summer I have made three cakes I think will be worth revisiting next summer.
My favourite type of cake is the basic pound cake, lemon or blueberry, or my old favourite lemon yoghurt cake.  Sometimes they don't seem quite festive enough for occasions which call for cake.  I am not big on icing so a cake that uses fruit as decoration really appeals. In summer you can't go past strawberries.
The November Dish had a light as air sponge filled with balsamic soaked strawberries and a mascarpone cream.  I made this for both Isabel and Phoebe's birthdays. On both occasions we started the evening with this amazing strawberry cocktail.  It's relatively easy to produce a non-alcoholic version for the drivers.
To make the cake prepare two sponges around 20 cm in diameter.   Hull and roughly chop 3 punnets of strawberries then mush them a bit with a fork.  Combine with 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar and 2 tbsp. icing sugar.  Leave for half an hour then strain the liquid into a bowl.  When ready to serve put one half of the sponge on a serving dish and brush with the balsamic juices.  Top with the strawberries - if they are too many leave some aside to serve on the side. Mix 150 ml of softly whipped cream with 200g mascarpone and spread across the strawberries.  Brush the other sponge half with the rest of the balsamic juices and sit atop the cream.  Dust with icing sugar. 
In January I had a celebration at work which coincided with my discovery of this amazing spiced vegetable cake. We also had courgettes and carrots in the garden so it seemed perfect.  I recommend that you try this cake.  Substituting dates for sugar was a great idea.  The cake was neither too sweet nor too heavy.  I am not a fan of the cream cheese frosting on a traditional carrot cake.  I find it far too sweet and cloying.  This one seemed lighter.  Just think of this cake as one of your five servings of vegetables for the day.
Just when I didn't feel I could serve up the balsamic cake for a third time in three months, Dish presented me with the Summer Strawberry Pimms cake.  This is really too easy.  Into the bowl of your standing mixer add 350g very soft butter, 350g caster sugar, 350g flour, 2 tsp baking powder, pinch of salt, 1 tsp mixed spice, grated zest of an orange, 6 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract and the all important 2 tbsp Pimms.  Beat until you have a smooth batter & divide between two 20cm sponge tins.  Bake at 170 for 25 mins or until done. 
In a saucepan boil 1 cup Pimms, 1/2 cup caster sugar, juice of an orange and a lemon, 2 sprigs mint until reduced and syrupy.  Remove the mint.  Spoon the hot syrup over the smooth sides of the cooled cakes.  Beat 1 cup of softly whipped cream with 200g mascarpone and the zest of an orange.  Don't beat the mascarpone or it WILL curdle.  Spread half the cream mixture between the two cakes and the other half on top. Decorate with orange segments, strawberries,  mint and borage flowers.  I always have borage in the garden in the summer because it brings the bees to pollinate vegetables like broad beans and courgettes.  Once you have it, it will never leave.  I served this cake twice as well  - firstly as a welcome home to Max (from London) and Peter and Mike (from their Routeburn trek).  Then I served at as a celebration of having the entire family at the table for the first time in six plus years.  A fitting celebration.

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.

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?

Birthday Dinners

October/November is birthday season in our family. For the 3 whose birthdays are in other months this might seem like an exaggeration but for those of us who are part of the Oct/Nov glut it just feels like non-stop feasting. One of Harriet's friends once suggested Harriet was snubbing her - she said "every time I ask you to do something with me you claim a family birthday". But it happened to be true. Of course there are fewer of us around these days so this year was a light season but I think Phoebe & I made up for it with the unctuousness of our feasts.

As I think I mentioned before, we have traditional birthday meals & mine is mixed paella, however with the seafood lovers out of the country I went instead for American Cobb Salad.

This is a fantastic salad which I first had about 10 years ago in San Jose. I never found a recipe until a couple of years ago & it is a firm family favourite. I found it in an issue of Cook's Illustrated magazine on American Classics, where it is described as every bit the starlet of Hollywood's Golden Age (the 1920s) as Jean Harlow & Rita Hayworth. There is a long list of ingredients -don't leave any of them out. Having said that you can prepare a separate platter for vegetarians without the chicken & bacon. This is not actually as fiddly as it looks and your diners will love you. The trick to perfecting this or any arranged salad, is to dress each component before you arrange on the platter. If you dress it afterwards you will have dry patches. So start dressing the lettuce in a bowl, then as you arrange on the platter, toss each ingredient in the dressing residue in the bowl, topping up the dressing as you go. This way you will find it is neither under nor overdressed.

Phoebe had her usual dinner of Chicken Za'atar & Fattoush which is an old Nigella favourite. This is really simple. The night before put a whole chicken cut into 8 pieces (I have done it with just drumsticks for a barbecue) in a sealable plastic bag. Pour in quite a bit of olive oil & sprinkle over some sea salt & 2 tbsp za'atar, scrunch around & leave to marinate in the fridge. When you're ready to eat, tip into a roasting dish & put in a very hot oven (220) for about 45 minutes. They should be browned & slightly crispy with the chicken falling off the bones.

While the chicken is cooking, make the fattoush which is a traditional Middle Eastern bread salad. Dice 3-4 spring onions with a cucumber and 3 tomatoes. Mix in a bowl & add a bunch each of finely chopped mint & flat-leaf parsley and 1 clove garlic, crushed. Cut 2 pitta breads open lengthways so you have 4 thin round halves and toast on a baking tray in the hot oven above the chicken for about 5 minutes, taking care not to burn. When they are cooled snip most of them into the salad, in rough triangles then toss & dress with best olive oil & lemon juice. Season with Maldon salt & taste for the right lemoniness for you. I like mine quite sharp. Just before serving sprinkle on your few reserved pitta triangles & about 1/2 tsp sumac, which is a beautiful dark red middle eastern spice.

I also made Nigella's Old Fashioned Chocolate cake which is so quick & turns out perfectly every time. The pink flowers are from Cupcake Sweeties at the Sunday City Market. I had left over caramel from the Spanish biscuits & left over pastry cases from the Portuguese tarts & left over icing from this cake, so I put them all together & made Spaneenish tarts. They all groaned...but I note they ate them just the same.

Warmer days

I'm going to run quickly through some spring dinners we have had over the last few weeks. A firm favourite in our house is a very simple dish with chicken thighs, new potatoes & cherry tomatoes. Preheat the oven to about 200. Boil some smallish washed new potatoes about 12-15 mins. Meanwhile skin tomatoes using last week's method. Because they're cherries, the skins will pinch off easily. Cut each thigh into about 3 pieces & rub with olive oil & salt & pepper. Fry in batches until almost cooked & transfer to a shallow ovenproof dish. When the potatoes are almost cooled squadge them with your thumb until they are slightly crushed. I do this a lot so when I say crush the potatoes that is just what I mean. I find this really burns my thumbs after a while & if I have a lot of potatoes to do, I use the back of a teaspoon. Crush a bunch of fresh oregano leaves in a pestle & mortar with some sea salt. The abrasiveness of the salt helps with the crushing process - salt is also good for crushing garlic on a board with the back of a knife. Add about 4 tbsp of your best olive oil, a splash of good red wine vinegar & a few good grinds of the pepper mill. Mix it up and add to the chicken, potatoes & tomatoes with a few more oregano leaves. Toss carefully and spread in your ovenproof dish. Bake for 40 minutes or so until everything is golden & slightly sticky. Perfect with a green salad.

Scallops are in season & we like to make the most of seasonal luxuries. Try a rather decadent scallopy pasta for 2. Put the pasta water on to boil. Fry 100g pancetta until crispy & set aside. Lightly brown the scallops in the oil from the pancetta & set aside. Pour about 1/3 cup of bubbly (I used prosecco because it's not too sweet) into the pan & bring to the boil. Take off the heat & leave to stand a minute then pour in a little cream. Add the scallops & simmer 3-4 minutes, which is about the time you will need to cook your pasta if you use thin egg ribbons. Try fettucine. Mix the scallops with the pasta, add chopped chives & the crumbled pancetta. You'd better finish the bottle of bubbly because it won't keep.

A couple of Sundays ago it was almost like summer. Truly it was. Although I had been planning a completely different meal, I made a spontaneous decision to have ham & salad. I did crushed rosemary potatoes - that's boiling & crushing as above, tossing in olive oil, sprinkling about some salt & pepper with rosemary & roasting for 40 minutes or so in a hot oven. We had sliced free range ham, hard boiled eggs, grilled haloumi, salad, served with a selection of home made relishes. I also did my first asparagus of the season using a method I saw at the Clevedon Farmer's market once. I think I remembered it right. I put the asparagus in a large piece of tinfoil, seasoned with salt & pepper, squeezed on some lime juice & drizzled over some olive oil. I then loosely wrapped up as a parcel & steamed in a hot oven for about 12 minutes. It was perfect. By the way the Manurewa Hungarian sausage guy who has a stall at Clevedon also has his sausages at Moore Wilson now. I haven't tried them yet but always mean to. Has anyone had them?

Still on the tinfoil theme, we had to get dinner over quickly one night last week so I fished out a spicy bean stew, (July 5th), from the freezer & topped it with a fillet of terakihi steamed in a foil packet. I remembered my mother doing something similar with fish. In addition to olive oil & salt I added a bay leaf & a slice of lemon. It cooked in about 12-15 mins at 180.

For morning teas I have made a great loaf twice now. To your favourite Madeira loaf, add about 2 tsp finely chopped rosemary & leave out the lemon. On top sprinkle about 2 tbsp rosemary sugar before baking. I keep a jar of caster sugar with a stick of rosemary, similar to vanilla sugar. I usually use it when savoury sauces call for sugar. The loaf was delicious as some of you can testify. The other cake in the picture is a treacly gingerbread loaf with a lemon icing.

Cannelloni & cake

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned cannelloni. I found some in the pantry & thought I'd better use it. I filled them with pumpkin. It was so delicious that I made it again the following week with spinach which was even better and easier. A really good after work meal. In your food processor blend 2 bunches of washed spinach about 150g ricotta, a couple of cloves of garlic & a sprinkling of salt & pepper. To make a piping bag get a plastic bag & snip off a corner. Fill the bag with the spinach mixture and pipe into the cannelloni then lay in a greased dish into which they will fit snugly. Pour over a jar of passata - passata is an Italian tomato sauce that has been passed through a sieve to remove the seeds. It is like puree but fresh - not concentrated. I buy it in jars from Moore Wilson. On top of the sauce put slices of Clevedon Valley buffalo mozzarella, then sprinkle over a layer of Parmesan. Make lots and take leftovers to heat up for lunches. If you have left over spinach mix freeze it. I think it will be nice in little crispy pastry cases. I'll let you know when I get around to it. I made the pumpkin in a similar way but you need to cook the pumpkin first -I rubbed it with cumin & roasted it. And if you put a hot filling in the cannelloni then pour on the passata it cracks so you need to wait for the pumpkin to cool. Spinach is quicker.

Phoebe made a lovely spicy chicken one day and I have must tell you about lentils with poached eggs but it is the film festival and having been to 2 movies today as well as the market, a walk and weeding the garden, I'm feeling a bit tired.

A couple of weeks ago Leonie sent me this recipe for Whole Orange and Almond Friands - note no butter or flour.
2 large oranges (try to get home grown ones for a tarty flavour or you could use 3/4 mandarins)
5 eggs
220g/7oz white sugar
250g/8oz ground almonds
1tsp baking powder

Lightly grease friand tin/muffin tin with butter.
Pre-heat oven to 350f
Scrub oranges.Place in a saucepan and cover with water. Boil for about one hour. Remove and set aside to cool.
Cut oranges into quarters, catching any juice, only discard pips, do not discard skin. In a food processor/blender, puree to a pulp.
Separate the eggs. Beat whites till lightly fluffy (not stiff) beat egg yolks till fluffy and mix lightly into egg whites. Add the orange pulp and juice, ground almonds, sugar and baking powder and mix thoroughly but lightly. Pour into cases and bake for about 20mins to half an hour or until lightly golden. Bake longer if wet. Cool in pans for a few minutes before tipping onto cooling rack.
Options:
Drizzle with passion fruit syrup 10 minutes before taking out of oven.
Drizzle with melted Mars Bar when cool and top with a mandarin segment
Dust with icing sugar

And on the topic of butterless cakes, I met a wonderful yoghurt maker, Ad Sintenie, at Moore Wilson this morning. He is from Clearwater's organic dairy farm in Geraldine. You must buy this yoghurt. It is indescribable. Ad gave me a recipe for a yoghurt cake and it is in the oven now. You can buy the yoghurt at plenty of locations in the South island & at Nosh in Auckland. It is cheaper and considerably lower fat than any comparable youghurt. He doesn't do flavours because if you add fruit you have to add other stuff to the yoghurt. I could just sit down & eat the whole pot. Perhaps I shall put a dollop on top of my cake. I did

2 Little Piggies went to Market

Welcome to new blog followers. I'm interested to hear what you think and happy to answer questions. Actually I'm really keen to answer questions so please feel obliged to ask one.

School lunches for Phoebe at the moment consist of a wrap filled with shredded lettuce, grated carrot & cheese & shredded chicken. If you buy shredded chicken at the supermarket it is probably not free range but we have found a delicious & simple way to produce shredded chicken at home. You don't always have left over roast chicken to shred but if you buy a breast you can poach it with herbs & spices which produces a delicious moist result. In a saucepan, well cover the breast with cold water, add flavourings (e.g. 1/2 lemon sliced, 2 bay leaves, sprig of thyme, peppercorns), cover pan & bring to the boil. As soon as it boils take it off the heat & leave covered for at least a hour & a half. Shred & refrigerate. Use the poaching liquid as stock. This is about 30% cheaper than buying shredded. It's probably better quality chicken and it is delicious. Poaching chicken like this is also great for salads.

We made delicious quesadillas for lunch today using the wraps. Makes a nice change from a toasted sandwich. We spread a generous layer of green tomato chutney (home made) then a dollop of drained kidney beans, a layer of washed (& dried), shredded spinach, grated Gruyere, a sprinkling of thinly sliced spring onions, a grinding of black pepper. Fold them in half (or quarters if you think the tortilla won't hold the weight), then toast in a ridged sandwich press, or a ridged pan or grill. If you don't have any of those I would grill in the oven until crisp. They do need to be toasted on both sides.

We went to the market this morning and what a feast! Tamarillos at $3.99 instead of the $8.99 in the supermarket so I have a batch of tamarillo chutney on the stove. Mum's recipe which cannot be equalled. Simmer the following for 2 hours. Makes roughly 9 jars depending on size.

2 doz tamarillos, peeled
2lbs brown sugar
1 pint vinegar
1lb apples
1lb onions
1tbsp salt
1tsp cayenne pepper
1tsp pickling spice

Back to the market. Apples at $1.29 ($2.99 in supermarket). Used for chutney, made an apple cake & juiced a batch. We have a Wai-ora Farm lamb roasting in the oven. Gravy. I have always made the gravy in our house but while I was writing this Peter took over this evening & added Maria Pia's Vinocotto. It was truly delicious - really flavourful. I may never make gravy again.

We also bought some Heritage Meat Co. pork & apple sausages. They sell grilled sausages in ficelle at the market. A kind of up market piggy in a blanket, & the Romanian spiced sausage with chutney is hard to resist on a cold morning.

And this morning's find has to be the ceramic grater - a grate plate. This is amazing. Used it to grate nutmeg & ginger for the cake with great success.

And speaking of the apple cake. As well as apples this recipe had raisins and I had just bought this very exciting fruit mix at the supermarket - raisins, sultanas, cranberries, goji berries - so I used them. I think it moves the cake from a "sometimes food" to health food.

The Med in Winter

Roast chicken on Sunday? We started the week with risotto to use up the leftover chicken. On Tuesday we did a delicious mushroom and tomato pasta. We added the rest of the left over chicken. That worked well. A colleague at work rears little piggies in the Wairarapa and I got 3 of her free range loin chops. We pan fried them and made a sauce with cider, wholegrain mustard & a little cream. We served them with potato & celeriac mash, flavoured with a hint of horseradish & steamed Brussels sprouts. That is a problem with all these one-pot meals. They are not really conducive to Brussels sprouts. And Brussels sprouts are one of my best winter friends. I just like them steamed and then dressed with a little olive oil and a grinding of black pepper and a grating of nutmeg.

I have still been thinking spicy after last week's middle eastern focus and on Thursday we went back to an old favourite, Harira. This is a middle eastern lamb & chickpea soup. There are many versions so experiment until you find something you like. I start with the usual suspects, onion, celery, garlic, carrot, softened with 1/2 tsp each of ground cumin, ground coriander, allspice & chilli flakes. Take out the sofrito and brown about 500g diced lamb. When done, squeeze on a generous splodge of tomato paste and return the sofrito to the pan. Add 2 cups beef stock and 2-3 cups water. Bring to the boil, reduce heat & simmer v gently for about an hour. You just need the lamb to be very tender. Add 1/2 cup couscous and a tin of chickpeas, cover simmer a further 5 mins, then turn off the heat & leave to sit for 10 mins for the couscous to finish. Stir in some flatleaf parsley & serve with homemade Turkish bread topped with nigella seeds. You will return to this again & again.

I bought a Gourmet Traveller Magazine (Best of Italy edition) and was inspired by the "Battle of the Bol" article to try to perfect the classic Italian ragu. My pasta mentor is Giuliano Hazan, son of the renowned Marcella. I learned from Giuliano about adding milk or cream and using a ribbon pasta such as pappardelle instead of the more familiar spaghetti. I followed Emma Knowles' recipe, substituting beef for veal. I asked our butcher to mince the beef coarsely & he put it through the mincer only once. I finely chopped the pork myself with the pancetta. I used white wine instead of red because I had a bottle open, and I used a bit less cream but otherwise this turns out to be the ultimate pasta Bolognese. I recommend using pappardelle which is much easier for people with braces to eat and altogether nicer. Make sure you buy good dried egg pasta, not "fresh", unless you've made it yourself.

Sunday we were back in the Middle East with home made Merguez sausages. I made the sausages with the harissa sauce & aromatic pumpkin along with steamed spinach & broad beans dressed with olive oil & feta cheese.

To prepare no-fail spinach, wash & dry thoroughly - I use the salad spinner. Add the spinach in handfuls to the pan, pushing to the back as it begins to wilt. When it is all wilted, add a knob of butter and grate on some nutmeg with a grind of pepper. Even Phoebe likes this.

The sausages were such a success and delicious the next day on toasted leftover Turkish bread with the harissa and some green tomato chutney. I thought that you could experiment with other spice and herb mixes, such as Italian. I thought these might be good for people with heart conditions as they used lean mince. I thought they might disintegrate without skins but they held their shape beautifully and didn't even stick to the pan.

Tonight's dinner was my signature fish stew. Again make this how you like it. Experimenting has got me to this place. Make the usual sofrito. I usually add onion, garlic, carrot, celery, capsicum, fennel if I have some (or a sprinkling of fennel seeds), chilli flakes and a few saffron strands. When softened add 1 or 2 finely chopped Agria potatoes -cook for a minutes or 2. Then add a tin of tomatoes & 2 cups fish or chicken stock. Bring to the boil & simmer until vegetables are cooked. Add a selection of frozen sweetcorn, frozen of fresh prawns and scallops, and about 100g white fish per person. I sometimes include steamed mussels, clams or pipis at the end. This is about whatever you have in the cupboard or happen to fancy on the day. This is best quite soupy and eaten with a soup spoon, mopping up the liquid with some home made ciabatta. (or buy some if you are busy). As usual sprinkle some parsley on at the end.

This afternoon I made a fruit loaf for those fruit toast emergencies and a Madeira cake for school lunches.