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.

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.

Christmas Feasts

Christmas is the highlight of my culinary year. There is the planning & preparation, the cooking and eating and then the delight of left overs. One of the best things is that it is the same every year - family rituals to be enjoyed year after year, creating lasting memories. Our children didn't always like the Christmas food but they came to rely on the familiarity. And it is really easy if you always know what you are going to do - with a few twists & variations. I am very much a traditionalist.

In the week before the Christmas gingerbread is made and iced. This is usually a young persons' activity and we get teenagers who come especially for this activity. Then the Christmas cake is iced & decorated. I have had these decorations for a few years now and am very fond of them.

On Christmas Eve I do as much preparation as possible so that I have very little to do on the day other than eat & drink & relax with our guests & family. Our Christmas menu is the turkey with a sage & onion stuffing, and a nut roast for the vegetarians. This has been much maligned in magazines but my nut roast is much admired by non-vegetarians as well. I do a Christmas gravy using the giblets stock with the addition of a slug of scotch & cream.

For veg we have settled for roasted potato & kumara with baby carrots, capsicum & shallots plus peas & feta and grilled asparagus. This provides something for everyone and is very little effort. This year we dug our own potatoes. Boil new potatoes in their skins and prepare the other vegetables. Toss in olive oil and roast in a pan with some rosemary for 40 minutes to an hour. Boil some peas & crumble over feta. Grill asparagus & drizzle over lemon-infused olive oil.

Peter always does a summer pudding for afters. Lighter than a traditional pudding but retaining the traditional shape and using seasonal fruit.

And this year Mandy made the best ever crackers with personalised hats.

The traditional Boxing Day dinner is a Nigella salad we have been having for about 5 years now. It's a kind of Christmas Cole Slaw - red, green & white. This year served in the perfect bowl which was a Christmas gift.

In a very large bowl, mix together 2 red chillies, seeded & finely chopped; 1 clove of garlic minced; 2 tbsp caster sugar; 3 tsp rice wine vinegar; juice of a lime & 3 tbsp fish sauce and 3 tbsp vegetable oil then add 1 finely sliced red onion & some black pepper & steep about 15 minutes. Add your shredded turkey - about 500g - and steep another 15 minutes. Add half a chopped red cabbage & some sliced radishes. Last, mix through some coriander or flat-leaf parsley.

Our boxing day pudding is often a small Christmas pudding topped with Ginger Wine ice cream. I found this recipe on one of may father's tea towels & made it for him one year. It has been a firm favourite ever since not least because the ice cream doesn't ice up - the alcohol keeps it ice free. It works beautifully with the hot spicy pudding.

Combine 3 egg yolks with 1/2 tbsp water, 1 1/2 oz sugar & 3 fl oz Green ginger wine in a bowl and beat over boiling water until thick and foamy. Remove from the heat and keep beating until cool. Chill. Whip 5 fl oz cream and fold in. Pack and freeze.

Serve with hot Christmas pudding that has been flamed for the enjoyment of your guests

Then it's time to think of interesting things to do with ham.