Rollover meals

I am now flipping through the tagine book picking up the ones I missed, mainly because they were unseasonal when I did the first round.  This week we had a creamy shellfish tagine with prawns & mussels.  For 2 steam a dozen mussels in your usual way.  We use a little wine. Reserve the liquor for later.  Shell the mussels & chop them up a little if you like, but leave a few on the half shell to be decorative.
Heat some olive oil in a pan or tagine. Stir in 3 finely chopped shallots & 1/2 a fennel bulb.  Stir in 1 tsp harissa paste - we were lucky enough to be given a jar of homemade harissa at Christmas & this is just the right warmth.  Pour in 150 mls of the reserved liquor & bring to the boil.  Stir in 75 mls cream, the juice of 1/2 a lemon & a dozen prawns.  Simmer gently until the prawns are cooked.  Season with salt & lost of black pepper & return the mussels to the pan to warm through.  Sprinkle with parsley to serve.
As so often happens one small thought leads to an entire meal.  The thought was  - I need to use up those little gem lettuces before they go to seed.  What about peas & lettuce - otherwise known as petit pois a la Francaise?  That goes nicely with roast chicken.  And we do have some carrots that are ready to pick.  Enter baked chicken with lemon, potato & green olives served with petit pois & steamed baby carrots.
I didn't want to roast a whole chicken so we did Maryland pieces.  Cut some roasting potatoes into smallish chunks & lay in the roasting dish.  Scatter over quartered red onion, a handful of green olives, some slices of lemon, a few chunks of pancetta & a couple of bay leaves.  Stir 1 tbsp each tomato paste & balsamic vinegar into 75 mls chicken stock & pour over potatoes.  Lay the chicken pieces on top, skin up & drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt & pepper.  Roast for 50 minutes then test the chicken to ensure the juices run clear.  Transfer the chicken to a plate to keep warm & whack the oven up to 220.  Return the veg to the oven until the potatoes are cooked through & beginning to colour. 
And you'll see we make good use of leftovers.  The potatoes go in the weekday salads & the peas & carrots are reserved for Monday's soup.
Chop the fennel left over from Saturday, a stick of celery, 2 spring onions, & a couple of courgettes into small dice.  Heat a pan & add a little olive oil &  knob of butter.  Add the veg except for the courgettes & cook 10 minutes or so until soft.  Add 500g vegetable or chicken stock & when it has come to the boil add the courgettes.  Cook for a minute & add 100g peas & broad beans - I would use fresh in spring but frozen is good.  Cook for another couple of minutes & add Sunday's leftover peas & lettuce plus the chopped carrots. Add a little more shredded lettuce if you like.  Simmer another minute, add chopped herbs then season.  Serve with grilled sourdough.
We planted a few buttercrunch lettuces & one of them grew into the biggest lettuce I have ever seen.  We have been having it for lunches.
The winter veg have arrived and it is hard to know which to choose.  Put together about 400g of vegetables - shallots, carrots, parsnip, pumpkin, beetroot, potato.  Chop them into chunks or thick slices with the slower cooking items in smaller pieces.  Put them into an ovenproof dish.  Add 1 finely chopped clove of garlic, olive oil, salt & papper.  Roast the veg at 190 until all are cooked through & beginning to caramelise. 
Beat 6 eggs with chopped herbs & season.  Pour over the vegetables & scatter over grated cheese.  Return to the oven for 10-15 minutes until the egg is set & the cheese is golden. Serve with a salad to try & get through some of the giant lettuce & use the leftovers in lunch salads.  It slices nicely & is good warm or cold.
Thursday we had that pinto chilli.  There was part of the tin of pintos and part of the tin of tomatoes left over so I heated those through with the left over lunch lentils & a splash of balsamic then served on sourdough toast topped with a poached egg for Saturday brunch.
During the week I had such a treat.  One of you kind readers, having read last week's entry, turned up on my doorstep with 2 kilos of green tomatoes.  I have made the chutney and will be delivering some to the tomato donor in the morning.  Phoebe will also be delighted because a jar or 2 will be wending its way to her this week.

A Holiday by the Sea

We've just returned from 7 nights in the Coromandel.  We stayed at Kuaotunu and aside from the joys of walking on the beach & swimming, (yes! your eyes do not deceive - bathing in the sea did occur), we enjoyed the local produce which mostly comprised "fruits de mer".
On our way from Auckland we stopped at Coromandel Town which is a really delightful town that I heartily recommend.  Coromandel offered many delights.  Our first stop was the Coromandel Oyster Company which is essentially a roadside stall selling primarily oysters but also other shellfish products.  We bought Coromandel oysters on the half shell which we enjoyed with a slice of delicious bread we bought at the Chai Tea House (scroll to the bottom of the page).
We also bought a tub of Mussel Chowder which we enjoyed for lunch the following day again with the delicious Tea House bread.  It was a dense seedy sourdough loaf. 
Next stop was the Coromandel Smoking Company where we bought some smoked scallops & prawns along with a fillet of smoked kingfish which we prepared in a salad comprising potatoes, eggs & spring onions mixed with mayonnaise and served on a bed of lettuce.  This was a variation of a smoked fish salad we regularly have at home.  Unfortunately you can no longer buy Coromandel Smoking Company fish in Wellington as far as I know.  If you know something I don't please let me know.
We were staying in a bach at the back of a house & I had noticed some mint in the garden which gave me the idea of cooking a lamb steak served with roasted potatoes & yoghurt mixed with mint.  Lamb steaks are something I often cook on holiday because you don't need the resources of the pantry.  We always travel with coffee & our trusty espresso pot, along with a bottle of olive oil, grainy mustard, white wine vinegar, the pepper grinder & a jar of cumin.   We are well prepared for whatever culinary treat presents itself.
To our delight our host went out fishing one morning & presented us with a plate of freshly caught snapper fillets.  We served these simply pan fried with a squeeze of lemon, more roasted potatoes & a salad.  This was the most delicious snapper I have ever eaten so we were delighted when another few fillets came our way the next day.  We had plans for dinner so we used them in a salad for our lunch.
We also visited the local eating establishments.  One of the highlights for me was a visit to Colenso Country Cafe where I enjoyed a slice of plum cake so delicious I had to return a few days later & have another slice.  Speaking of plums, which did put in multiple appearances on this holiday, we visited The Artists' House at Whenuakite and on our arrival the artist (Julie) offered us a plum straight from the tree.  This was a magical plum experience - a Luisa plum which was egg shaped with firm yellow flesh.  I find most yellow fleshed plums floury & tasteless but this was firm fleshed & truly delicious.  Unfortunately I suspect they would not do well in Karori.  The artist was planning to make plum brandy with her surplus.
One evening we treated ourselves to a meal at Salt Restaurant in Whitianga.  I had the Coromandel mussels followed by the market fish.  Both were superbly cooked & presented.  On a return visit to Coromandel Town via the 309 Road (check out Stuart's pigs), we bought a tub of Oyster Bisque from the Oyster Company for our dinner.  We lunched at Umu Cafe (third down the page) and Peter & I shared a mussel platter.  If you are a fan of mussels you will love this.  There were smoked mussels, crumbed mussels, chowder, pate.  This was mussel heaven.
We will certainly be returning to those sandy beaches and enjoying more delights of the sea.  On the return journey we spent a couple of nights with relatives who were suffering, like the artist above, from a surplus of plums.  We are now enjoying Aunty Lorraine's plum jam on our morning toast.  They also had tired of apple cucumbers and we returned home with a large box.  I have since produced 16 jars of my grandma's cucumber pickle.  This is really simple.  You need
1 doz apple cucumbers or 6 long green (peeled)
3 lb onions
2 lb white sugar
2 pints vinegar
Chop cucumbers & onions.  Sprinkle with salt & leave 2-3 hrs.  Drain & add vinegar, leaving out 1 cup to mix with thickening.  Add sugar, boil till soft (1-2 hours).


Thicken with:
1 c flour
1 dsp curry powder
1 dsp turmeric
1 tbsp mustard powder
mixed with remaining cup vinegar
Boil till thick – 5-10 mins
Makes 8-9 jars (my 16 jars were probably smaller than Grandma's)
Give me a shout if you would like a jar.

The prodigal returns

On a busy Sunday night try this comforting potato dish. Peel 2-3 Agria potatoes & cut into 4cm chunks & lay in a roasting pan with 1-2 carrots, peeled, halved & sliced lengthways. Add about 250ml vegetable stock & season. Put in the oven at 200 for about 40 minutes until most of the stock is absorbed. Take them from the oven & drizzle over 50 ml creme fraiche, sprinkle over a slice of prosciutto chopped into smallish pieces, zest of a lemon & a handful of chopped chives. This would work as an accompaniment to almost anything but is a wonderful busy night supper because you can put it in the oven & walk away.

We have our student back for mid-term - well, kind of, when she's not off having fun with her friends. We delivered her favourite French onion soup for her soup Monday homecoming.

Because institutional food is processed and often lacking fresh vegetables, I made a light fresh chicken dish. Start by preparing some vegetables. Choose from thinly sliced spring onions, topped & tailed snow peas, julienned carrots, capsicum, courgette - whatever you have to hand. Heat a little vegetable oil in a pan & fry grated rind of a lemon or lime, 2 tbsp fresh minced ginger, 1 small red chilli finely chopped, 2 cloves crushed garlic. After a minutes or so, add about 500g boneless chicken cut into thin strips & stir fry about 5 minutes until lightly browned. Add 1 tsp grated palm sugar, 2 tbsp fish sauce, 2 tsp lemon or lime juice, 2 tbsp water mixed to a paste with 2 tsp cornflour. Simmer 2-3 minutes. Mix in prepared vegetables and a handful of bean sprouts & stir through to heat. Serve with rice or noodles.

You may recall I did a lamb stew with rose petals a few weeks ago. I still have a pack of rose petals, so for our Wednesday family meal I made quinoa with pistachio & rose petals served with delicious vegetable kebabs. Prepare the kebabs first. Choose a selection of vegetables you like - capsicum, button mushrooms, baby red onions and chop into kebab sized chunks. Add to a bowl with haloumi chopped into 3 cm cubes. Combine 2 tsp sumac, 1/4 cup chopped mint & parsley, 1 small red chilli finely chopped, 80ml olive oil, 20ml lemon juice & black pepper. Pour over the vegetables & mix through with your hands. Set aside for as long as you can - an hour would be good. Put some bamboo skewers into water to soak.

When you are ready to start cooking, put a cup quinoa in a saucepan with 2 cups cold water, bring to the boil, cover & simmer gently about 15 mins until all the water has evaporated. Set aside to cool slightly. Thread the vegetables and haloumi onto the bamboo skewers & grill about 10 minutes turning regularly. The good thing about kebabs is you can prepare the skewers to individual tastes. We did 2 per person - one pair with no onion or cheese, one no capsicum or cheese, one no mushrooms & 2 with everything.

Back to the quinoa. Toss through 1/2 cup chopped mint, juice & zest of a lemon, 1/4 cup slivered pistachios & 1/4 cup rose petals with a tbsp olive oil and season. This was so delicious & delicate. I think it might be a nice side dish with sliced lamb fillets for a crowd. You could roast the veg in the oven, which might provide more even cooking but you can't deliver the same degree of customisation.

This summer, 1/2 a dozen tomato plants sprang up unexpectedly in the flower beds. I think they must have come from seeds in the compost. We hadn't tended them or fed them & although they presented tomatoes, none ripened. What luck, as we were quite out of green tomato chutney. Last weekend I pulled the plants & made the chutney. Finely dice 2 onions, 2 cooking apples & enough green tomatoes to make up 1.5 kg of fruit. That was the quantity of tomatoes I had. Add 2-3 roughly chopped peeled garlic cloves, 2 tsp salt, 2 cups brown sugar, 2 cups malt vinegar. In a small square of muslin, wrap 2 tsp pickling spices. Try allspice & cloves or do what I do & keep a tsp each of allspice, cloves, white peppercorns, coriander seeds, yellow mustard seeds in a small jar labelled (with a Brother P touch labelling machine) Pickling Spices. Simmer everything in a preserving pan over a low heat until it becomes pulpy & thickened. Cool, remove the muslin bag & blend a little in the processor. Pour into sterilised jars, seal & label. This will be very popular. I will probably have enough green tomatoes when I pull the back tomatoes to make a second batch.

I suspect I often talk as if I have a huge garden. Those of you who have seen it will testify that this is not so. I have a few raised boxes & some pots. It wouldn't have fed a family of seven but we do get enough to keep 2 or 3 in whatever's harvesting at any given time. I haven't bought a lettuce since October & at times we had so many I couldn't keep up & had to share with some of you. We have had a bumper crop of carrots. I've stewed 3-4 sticks of rhubarb every week all summer. We enjoyed a good crop of potatoes. We grew radishes all summer. We have all the herbs we use growing. By growing our own we get more interesting varieties. My carrots are very pretty colours. I love the purple ones that are orange in the middle. We are now growing broccoli, red cabbages, winter spinach & a winter crop called corn salad which I am hoping will keep us in salad over winter with the radicchio that is still going strong. I urge you to try growing your favourite crops. Let me know what you recommend.

We dined on mince & slices of quince

The season is past now so it's a bit late I know, but this year I discovered the joy of quinces. I first bought a couple at Moore Wilson and I poached them in muscat & spices something like this. They were very rich but delicious & the colour was amazing. There was lots of poaching liquor left so I put it in the fridge & thought I'd get some more quinces. Then I noticed that the liquor had jellied in the fridge so we ate it on our toast. From there I just had to make quince jelly especially as we were disappointed by our crabapple trees and there was no jelly coming from that direction.
I found a great recipe for Quince Jelly from the blog I used to make the blueberry jam in summer. I had been led to believe that this would be a mission, but don't listen to the naysayers. It is so easy & the resulting jelly is so pretty & delicious that I will be doing this every year & trying some other jellies as well. I bought a proper jelly bag with stand from Moore Wilson. I was doing this after dinner & it got quite late so I let the pulp strain overnight (step 4) and I now think that is the best way to do it. You're not waiting impatiently for the fruit to strain so you're not tempted to rush. I did stage 2 in the morning before work - it was no effort & I was still out of the house by 8.00 a.m.
From there Membrillo (Spanish quince paste) was the obvious next step and by then I was feeling like an expert. I had some helpful hints from some of you & I ended up making 2 batches. I made this in the evening while we were playing board games at the dining table. That way I was present while the paste was thickening & I could keep an eye on it. We were playing Kingmaker and I used the paste checking times to review my strategy. I left it in the oven overnight for the last stage & I found that gave the best results. I have cut it all up into small squares & wrapped in cling film the stored in a flat plastic container in the freezer. Next year I will be trying other fruit as well but I suspect you can't go past the beautiful rich ruby red of the quince.
For my final turn with quinces I went back to Nigella and a preserve she tantalisingly calls Paradise Chutney. For this you also need fresh cranberries and the new season's cranberries arrived in the shops just as the quinces were coming to an end.
You will need:
500g of quinces peeled, cored & roughly chopped (save the peelings & cores)
500g cooking apples peeled, cored & chopped
a diced onion
250g fresh cranberries & 150g dried
500g white sugar
4 cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tbsp mustard powder
Juice & zest of both an orange & lemon
350ml cider vinegar

First boil the quince peelings in 750ml water until you have about 350ml liquid remaining. Then put all the ingredients plus the strained peelings liquid into a preserving pan, let the sugar dissolve over a low heat then bring to the boil & simmer slowly about 1 hour. Everything will cook down & become slightly pulpy but the quince pieces will still be recognisable.
Ladle into sterilise jars. You'll have about 2 litres. This chutney is great as an accompaniment to cold meats & with potatoes.
All you need now is a runcible spoon.

Blueberries

Over the holiday break we did a family outing to Staglands with our visitors. On the way back we stopped at the Blueberry Farm because we had promised some people blueberry ice cream. The shop was closed BUT you could pick - so we got a bucket each and went to work. Blueberries are not too bad to pick. Not back breaking like strawberries and you could slough off handfuls at a time so quite quick really, although some of us definitely collected more than others who never quite got the hang of it. There were 8 of us, and 1/2 an hour and 4 kilos of blueberries later we were done.

While the rest were off at the unicycle champs, Mandy & I got to work. I found a blog called Farmer's Daughter on an environmental website called Grist and I followed her instructions to make a batch each of blueberry jam & chutney. We ended up with about 6 jars of chutney & 8 of jam. One jar of chutney was consumed by a ham enthusiast before the holiday was over and we made quite a dent in the first jar of jam. It was effortless to make and I will be returning to this blog for more ideas. I had actually never made jam before becasue I was too scared but now am a convert.

Before we set off in the morning Mandy had made a pavlova using my mother's recipe. My mother was the queen of pavlova & Mandy inherited the crown. I've never mastered the art myself. This is my mother's recipe.

3 egg whites
9 oz caster sugar (about 1 cup)
2 tsp vinegar
2 tsp boiling water
½ tsp vanilla essence
2 tsp cornflour
½ tsp baking powder
Beat the first 5 ingredients until the egg whites form soft peaks then add the cornflour & BP.
Shape on to a baking tray. I noticed Mandy drew the desired size on the baking paper first and stayed within the lines. I thought this was a good idea. Put in oven at 190 C. Turn off oven and leave till cold. At least 2 hours. This turning off the oven seems to be the trick. I discovered in Mum's recipe book that she had the recipe from a friend but used the method from Aunty Cassie. Mandy also says beware of humidity. Apparently the enemy of pavlova.

We served pavlova decorated with blueberries.

That done we moved on to the promised blueberry ice cream. I used the standard Nigella method for ice cream making which I find failsafe, substituting blueberries for strawberries. This was delicious & I recommend you try it. It was suggested that I needed to break up all the blueberries because if you got a whole one you were biting into a frozen blueberry. I don't mind that but you decide for yourself.