Courgettes every day

Over the long hot dry that has been Wellington's summer this year we have been feasting from the garden.  Along with lettuces, spring onions, radishes and rainbow chard, we have had a bumper crop of courgettes.  We have had green & yellow courgettes and some wonderful scallopini.  I didn't know that as the scallopini grow they change from bright yellow to a rich creamy colour.
Very fresh radishes it turns out are delicious buttered and dipped in salt.  This turned up in a book of Parisian cooking as something to have with an aperitif, and also appeared in Hugh's veg.  Basically, spread a little of your very best butter - we are currently eating Lewis Rd - on a radish & sprinkle with a pinch of very best sea salt.
We have struggled to keep up with the courgettes and at times were eating them every day.  Luckily, there are so many good things to do with a courgette.  For an excellent fettuccine dish, gently fry 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic with a finely chopped onion & 4 thickly sliced courgettes until the onion is soft.  Add a pinch of saffron threads that have been soaking in 1/4 cup water for 15 mins or so - add the water as well.  Add 4 diced tomatoes and 200ml cream.  Stir this mixture through cooked fettuccine with 200g crumbled goat's feta and a handful of torn basil leaves.  Top with grated Parmesan.
Try a warm chickpea salad filled with summer veg.  This is a bit of an assembly job.  Start by softening a finely sliced red onion with 1 tsp cumin seeds in a pan.  Put in a large bowl with 2 tbsp olive oil and 3 tbsp white wine vinegar.   Rinse & drain 2 tins of chick peas & heat through in a pan of boiling water then drain & add to the bowl.  Cook 2 cobs of corn & scrape the kernels into the bowl - I have a gadget that does this really efficiently and is also good if you have braces or have just had your wisdom teeth extracted and can't gnaw it straight from the cob.  Steam or blanch some green beans & add to the bowl along with 1/2 cup pitted green olives, thinly sliced deseeded red chilli, 1 cup flat leaf parsley (remember I don't eat coriander but you might like to).  Toss to combine, season & sprinkle on some crumbled goat's cheese.  Some crusty sourdough would be nice with this to soak up the dressing on the plate at the end.
To really celebrate a glut of summer vegetables what about a Spanish vegetable stew - a menestra.  I used a few leaves of chard, a large handful of green beans, 2 courgettes, 100g green beans.  I would have added asparagus if they had been around. Strip the leaves from the chard & chop the stalks into 5 cm pieces, halve the beans, slice the courgettes lengthways into stubby sticks.  Bring a large pan of water to the boil & cook the vegetables separately for the appropriate amount of time.  Lift them out with a slotted spoon & refresh under cold water then set aside.  About 5 minutes for the beans, three for the chard stalks (not leaves), courgettes.  Reserve the cooking water.  Heat some olive oil in a cazuela or wide shallow pan and soften a thinly sliced onion & garlic clove.  Stir in 25g plain flour. Gradually stir in about 500ml of the cooking water & 1/2 tsp caster sugar.  Bring to the boil & simmer a couple of minutes.
Stir 150g peas & the chard leaves into the sauce & cook 3 minutes or so then stir in all the cooked vegetables to heat through.  You could have this as a light mid-week meal or as a side with fish.  Either way, it is a delicious way of serving summer greens.
When one courgette is hiding under the leaves & becomes marrow-like before you discover it, try stuffing it with a rice mixture.  I cooked up about 150g lamb mince with onion, garlic & 1 tsp each of cinnamon & cumin.  I mixed through about 1 cup homemade tomato sauce & 1/2 cup cooked rice.  Halve 2 marrow-like courgettes & scrape out the seeds.  Lay in a baking dish where they fit snugly and fill with the mince mixture.  Bake at 180 about 1/2 an hour until the courgettes are tender. 

Golden Weather

Wellington has had an outstanding summer and we have eaten outside more than usual.  This has been very conducive to summer dining and we have had lots of salady things and summer vegetables.  The garden has really enjoyed the sun and we have been racing to catch the courgettes before they escaped to marrowdom.
Summer feels right for Spanish cooking and we remembered a while back, on Rick Stein's series on Spain, he made an intriguing Catalan pasta dish which we've been meaning to try for ages.  Catalan use Fideua noodles which are short thin pieces of dried pasta similar in thickness and texture to spaghettini.  We found something called fadennudeln, which is German but which fitted Rick's description.  You could just use spaghettini & break it up.  Whatever you decide, have a go.
The recipe said to make a fish stock with tomato passata but we actually had some tomato sauce we wanted to use up so we improvised a bit and just used that, diluted with some light chicken stock.  I would make the fish stock next time if I had the time.
In the paella pan (if you don't have one use a regular slope sided pan), fry 2 cloves of thinly sliced garlic.  Keep a close eye on it because garlic burns easily and you are looking for golden rather than charred.  As soon as it colours scoop it out & set aside.  Add 150g of the noodles and fry them in the garlicky oil  until they are golden.  Again you are looking for light golden rather than dark.  Stir in 500g of the tomatoey stock or stocky tomato sauce, a little salt & the fried garlic.  Bring to the boil, then reduce & simmer 9 minutes or so until all the liquid has evaporated.  Remove from the heat, cover with an opened out newspaper and leave to rest.  When Rick did this all the pasta strands pointed upwards but that didn't happen for us.
While the pasta is resting cook the seafood.  We had squid and prawns which worked well.  You'll want to have them prepared before you start the pasta so maybe I should have mentioned this at the top of the page.  You should always read the whole recipe before you start.  Don't you hate it when you're halfway through cooking tonight's dinner when it says "now put in the fridge overnight"?
Use 75g-100g each of peeled prawns and sliced squid.  Heat a little olive oil in another pan, add the squid & prawns over a high heat for 1-1 1/2 minutes until just cooked but nicely caremelised.  Season with a little salt and serve alongside the pasta.  To serve the pasta, dot with aioli (which the Spanish call alioli).  If you don't like seafood you could probably sautee some chicken thighs cut into quite small pieces.
Now that the aubergine season is in full swing we have been making aubergine stacks with chicken and cheese.  We were inspired to this by a delicious meal we ate at the house of one of you.  I don't know if this is what you did but this is our method.  Slice two chicken breasts into thinner slices and flatten the thicker slices by bashing between cling film.  You want thin escalopes of chicken that will sit on a slice of aubergine.  Brush the chicken pieces with oil & white wine vinegar & season.  Fan grill at 200 for about 15 minutes turning once.
Slice an aubergine lengthwise and brush with olive oil.  Grill on a ribbed hot plate or heavy bottomed pan 2-3 mins each side  then finish off with 5 mins under the fan grill.  Grill thick slices of haloumi.  Heat through a small quantity of that homemade tomato sauce you always keep in the freezer.  To assemble, lay a slice of aubergine on the plate, top with a slice of chicken, a slice of haloumi, some torn basil leaves and top with a splodge of tomato sauce.   I think you could be flexible here and think about trying different cheeses & herbs.  Maybe try oregano with the haloumi & mozarella with basil.  You'd probably have to pop the assembled stack under the grill to melt the mozarella.  Or try paneer with coriander.
Last Sunday I made an outstanding vegan pudding I had been meaning to try.  This was inspired by a recipe from the raw food people in Auckland, Little Bird.  I don't actually subscribe to the raw food philosophy any more than I embrace veganism or gluten free for its own sake, but I will champion any meal prepared with good quality ingredients that tastes great.  These chocolate ganache tarts certainly measure up.  This is the version we saw on River Cottage Veg.  I used cashews instead of pecans - cheaper.  I used Blue Coconut oil, Green & Black organic fairly traded cocoa and I substituted the maple syrup for the agave nectar.  Actual maple syrup not maple flavoured syrup!  I also made individual tarts using muffin pans and a couple of extras served in a dish as mousse.  Think about freezing & serving as ice cream.  Note that you must serve this really chilled - at room temperature you may taste the avocado.  It will taste less sweet when chilled so sweeten to a little sweeter than your taste prior to chilling.  It is really rich so think about mini servings.  It is truly delicious so hungry people may eat two but people who overfilled on mains won't manage it even if they think they want to.
On a final note, over the next month we are hosting visitors from foreign parts  - the UK & Canada.  What shall I feed them?  Any suggestions for meals which show off what we produce in New Zealand and are summery?

Hola - it's a phiesta!

When a teenager asks to have a party many images leap into the mind of a parent.  Most of them are ones you don't wish to play out in your home.  Our children therefore steer away from the party word and instead suggest they would like to arrange a small gathering to celebrate their birthday or the end of exams or whatever.  I always call this thing "not a party" - until Phoebe & I were sitting down to discuss the food preparations for this year's birthday "not a party".   Her favourite cuisine is Mexican and as the event morphed from a planned barbeque and salad to a Mexican evening I coined the term Phiesta.  She made me promise not to say it in public, so this is just between us.  Don't tell anyone.
All good events start (and/or finish) with a cocktail (see last week's entry) so we began the evening with the ubiquitous Margarita.  I always thought I didn't like this drink and was pleased to see the back of a bottle of tequila which had been lurking since Phoebe made a batch of Margarita cupcakes a year or two ago.  It turns out I was mistaken and we now have to replace the bottle. 
To make the perfect Margarita, fill a glass with ice, add 1 1/2 oz tequila, 1 oz lime juice, 1/2 oz cointreau.  Stir until chilled.  You can make this in a salt rimmed glass or not.  Just one and you too will be planning a phiesta.
I should note that you need to buy a good quantity of limes, chillis of various kinds & avocados.  We started with tostaditas.  These involved topping good quality round corn chips (we used Mexicano) with a salsa, morsel of something meaty and a pinch of salad.  The first was prawns tossed in garlic & olive oil then sauteed.  This was assembled with a dab of almond salsa on the corn chip,  then a couple of shreds of iceberg lettuce, a small slice or two of perfectly ripened avocado. Then the prawn, another dollop of salsa & a sprinkling of finely chopped coriander or if like me you are averse, flat leaf parsley.  I used prawn cutlets & removed the tails after cooking. 
Make a quantity of almond salsa - it will be popular as a dip.  Take 2 dried guajillo chillis & tap out the seeds.  Soak them in boiling water for half an hour.  I bought them at Moore Wilson or you can probably buy them on line.  When they are done soaking, roughly chop them & blend them in a processor with 2/3 cup sour cream (I use Zany Zeus), 1/2 cup blanched roasted almonds, 1/2 cup grated cheddar, 2 tbsp coriander/ parsley, zest of a lime plus 3 tsp juice, salt & pepper.  Add more lime juice to taste & to get to a consistency you like.
Second tostadita was chicken.  Cut a chicken breast in half to get two thin flat pieces. Marinade in 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp lime juice, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp smoked paprika, 1 clove crushed garlic, salt & pepper.  This is enough for two breasts.  Cook the chicken in a pan until golden and slice or shred.
To assemble, spread the corn chip with refried beans then top with a slice or 2 of chicken, a dollop of lime crema then top with a little pile of julienned radish & coriander/parsley.
To make refried beans, heat a little oil in a pan and soften 1 finely chopped onion with 2 cloves crushed garlic.  Add 1 1/2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp dried oregano, 2 tsp finely chopped chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and cook for a couple of minutes.  If any teenagers mistake the chilles for tomatoes & eat three before realising the error, a glass of milk will help.  Don't ask me how you get three down before you notice they're not tomatoes! Back to the pan.  Add 2 tins of beans - you could use pintos or really whatever YOU like.  I used Westbrae organic chilli beans which was a mix of black, pinto & kidney - not flavoured which the label suggested but I assume intended for use in chilli or refried beans.  Cook gently for a few minutes to heat through then crush half the beans with a fork or other mashing implement.  Don't be precise - you just want some beans mashed & some not.  Stir through coriander/ parsley and 2 tbsp sour cream.  Oh, and add parsley/coriander to the list above.
To make the lime crema, mix 1/2 cup sour cream with 1/2 cup thick yoghurt, 1 clove crushed garlic, zest of a lime, 1 tbsp lime juice, salt & pepper.
I made an interesting dip with tomatillos & avocados.  I have sometimes bought tomatillos fresh at Moore Wilson but on this occasion I had to buy tinned.   Blend the tin of drained tomatillos with 1/2 cup coriander/parsley, 1 clove crushed garlic, 2 avocados, 2 tbsp lime juice, salt & pepper, tabasco to taste.
When I make guacamole I usually just mash avocados with a splash of lemon or lime & some hot sauce.  I went to a bit more trouble and the result was amazing.  Pound 1/2 small very finely chopped red onion, 1 lge finely chopped red chilli, 1 clove crushed garlic, 1/2 cup finely chopped coriander/parsley, 1 tsp sea salt, in a pestle & mortar until you have a smoothish thick paste.  I initially tried to blend it but you really need to go down the pounding path.  Transfer to a large bowl & scoop in 2 large perfectly ripened avocados with lime juice to get the taste & consistency you want.  Fold in some extra of the green herb you are using
For the main event we did tacos filled with pork carnitas and a vegan version with refried beans (sans sour cream).  I got 1 1/2 kilos pork shoulder, skin off, fat on, and cut it into approx 3 cm chunks.  Put it into a large roasting pan and toss with 2 cloves crushed garlic, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp sea salt, 2 tbsp water & cover tightly with foil.  Braise at 170 for an hour and a half.  It will be exceedingly tender.  When it's cooled remove the fat and drain off most of the liquid - leave about 2 tbsp.  I made this the day before & refrigerated overnight.  To serve put the pork in a saute pan & sprinkle over 2 tbsp soft brown sugar.  Cook over a high heat until the meat is golden brown & caramelised then sprinkle over the juice of a lime & let it bubble up.
We put dishes of the pork, beans, all the dips, a dish of shredded lettuce, and a pico de gallo on the table with plates and pieces of parchment paper (for ease of handling and left them to have what they wanted. 
Pico de gallo is a fresh tomato salsa.  Dice 2 cups tomatoes  - if they seem liquidy, sprinkle on a little salt & leave them to drain in a colander for 1/2 an hour.  Combine them with 1 clove crushed garlic, 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion, 1 finely chopped red chilli, 1/2 cup finely chopped green herb, juice of a lime, olive oil - I used Olivo's chilli infused - salt & pepper.
For afters, I made a chocolate cinnamon chilli cake.  This is sooo easy & so delicious.  Melt 200g butter & 200g dark chocolate in a large bowl over a pan of hot water.  Use the bowl you are going to mix the cake in. Stir in 1 cup caster sugar & 1 tsp vanilla extract & leave to cool.  Mix in 4 lightly beaten eggs, 2 tbsp flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp cayenne.  Pour into a greased, lined 20cm cake tin and bake 25 mins at 170.  It may not seemed cooked but you want a delicate almost crisp crusty top with something sludge-like within.  Leave to cool completely in the tin.
 To serve dust with icing sugar mixed with 1/2 tsp each cocoa & cinammon.  I think it would be nice to dust over a paper doily to make a pretty design but we didn't appear to have one.  Must buy some.  Serve with whipped cream infused with vanilla extract, and candied pepitas.
Pepitas are pumpkin seeds.  Combine an egg white (not beaten) with 1/2 cup caster sugar, 1/4 tsp cinnamon & 70g pumpkin seeds.  Spread this on a lined baking tray & bake at 170 for 10 mins turning once.  To turn it I laid another piece of paper over the top & flipped it then peeled off the first piece.  It was still a bit sticky in parts but it crisps up when cooled.  Break it into bits to serve.
We also served Margarita cupcakes - the vegan version.  These called for coloured sugar crystals & it just happened that we had bought Phoebe a tin of these from Dean & De Luca in NYC.
And in case you were wondering, in spite of the Margaritas and Corona beer served with lime wedges and eating slightly messy food on their knees, the house looked almost as tidy when the phiesta-goers left as when they arrived.  When one reveller came into the kitchen looking for something to mop up a spill, Peter asked how large, wondering whether to provide a sheet of paper towel or the whole roll.  The response - approximately 50 millilitres!