Report from the Front Line: The Food Show, Wellington

Since today was Mother's Day, I took Dessert Chef to the fabulous Food Show at the Stadium in Wellington.
OK, it was her idea, and I ate and drank a whole heap more than her, so really, she took me. In fact, since I tasted countless wines and she drove home, it really was her taking me out than the other way around.

Not to worry. Here's the up-to-the-minute review of New Zealand's biggest gastronomic event, as experienced by Yours Truly this very day. Yes, for once, my blog post won't be months out of date. It's good to be on the cutting edge.

Speaking of cutting edges, the highlight of the show for me was not actually any particular food or wine; it was the knives. Not just any knives, but ceramic knives. I have some great knives (a wedding present from my Mum, and still going strong), but these blades just blew me away.

I had just listened to an audiobook in which one of the characters has ceramic knives, which are worlds beyond any steel blade. So sharp that they don't blunt, lighter than steel - and of course never picked up by metal detectors, which is very helpful - I hardly believed it. Then I got to hold one, and cut with one.

*gapes*

They're great. I could slice a tomato literally paper-thin. At $110 on special for a small one, however, they're beyond this humble food critic's reach. but if anyone out there has that sort of money to spend on knives, I'd seriously recommend checking them out.

The other highlight was the Freedom Farms Bacon, purely on the basis of ethics and taste. I've talked often enough about getting more humanely farmed meat products into the mainstream, and as well as tasting delicious, this seems to be a step in that direction.

I learned a lot about different rice bran oils, and olive oils, and avocado oils, and tried probably three dozen or more (*gurgle gurgle* - quiet, tummy!) and disliked as many as I liked. I was surprised to learn that rice bran oil, which we think of as a terribly healthy option, is in fact a hydrolised product that is run through a chemical process before it gets to us. That's a shame, but we'll still use it - for now. I also discovered that avocado oil, which I've never eaten because of its hefty pricetag, tends to taste like overripe avocado. Yuk. I love avocado, but not once it's turned. There were some good ones, but they were really expensive. So hard to strike a balance.

I also tried numerous wines from several different regions and vineyards, and was surprisingly not blown away by any of them. That was also a shame. I wanted to buy wine, it's something I like to do because it means I get to drink wine. Oh well. Thinking about it now, though, I did drink wine, so that's probably OK. I didn't discover my next favourite Pinot Gris, though. Darn.

I've talked before about celebrity chefs, and while I err on the side of appreciating their passion for food even while I dislike the reality TV they have succumbed to, I have to admit a proclivity for snapping up their cookbooks if they cross my path at the right price. Dymocks Booksellers had a stand at the Food Show, and I grabbed a copy of Gordon Ramsay's Cooking for Friends for the bargain price of $20 (NZD). This book is not a "look at this great food that you'll never be able to cook" sort of a book. This is GR's family recipes, the stuff his kids make. And to celebrate this find, I dove straight in and cooked a recipe out of it tonight.

I know, it's unheard of. I'll be posting a meal that I've cooked on the same day as we ate it. I don't think that's happened since Day 1. But there you have it.

So, summing up the Food Show: Good. Yeah, lots of nice free stuff to eat and drink, as you'd hope (barring the $20 entry fee, of course, but I'm pretty sure we both ate and drank more than $20 worth of food). There was plenty of variety, and I even learned a few new things. It seems that nothing has made me sick, although my tum was telling me that I might have had just one too many lugs of olive oil by the time we left. Next year, I'll forgo breakfast to make even more of the delicacies on offer. Gordon Ramsay's Pasta with Baked Pumpkin and Rosemary
(With minor adjustments, just because I can)

Serves 3Pumpkin courtesy of our garden, no less.

Ingredients:
1 500g Pumpkin, deseeded and sliced into thin wedges
3 Rosemary Sprigs, chopped into 2cm lengths
4 Garlic cloves, peeled and halved
Lots of Olive Oil
50g Grated Parmesan
Drizzle a roasting tray with olive oil and sprinkle with freshly ground pepper and salt. Scatter the rosemary and garlic around, and drizzle with more olive oil and seasoning. Place into a preheated oven at 210C. Turn after 12 mins, then again after another 12 mins, until soft on the inside and lightly caramelised on the outside.
Set aside to cool. Discard the garlic and rosemary but reserve the oil. When cool enough to handle, remove the skin.
Place the pumpkin flesh and oil in a pot. Add a little more olive oil (I think I used a lot less to cook this than GR intended, as I had very little to reserve) and some water or vege stock to loosen it up. Blend with a hand blender or run through a food processor.
The pureed pumpkin should be more of a sauce than a soup, thick enough to coat the pasta but not runny. I think that I'd make mine a bit wetter next time. I wonder if UK pumpkins have more moisture content that the ones I grow out the back.

Keep the sauce warm while you cook a pot of pasta, steam some veges, and cook up your sausages or whatever, if this isn't your main course.
Drain the pasta and mix in the pumpkin sauce and the parmesan. Dish up hot, with freshly ground pepper, a grating of fresh parmesan, and perhaps a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Bean Wrappin'

This week is slipping me by, and it's like I've forgotten that I've got a blog to write. D'oh! I'll make my excuses later. Right now, I want to remind you that we do make an effort to cook vegetarian meals, just like I promised I would some time ago.

The fact is, the vego meals I've been cooking don't tend to be very interesting. This, I'm sure, is my fault, not the fault of the food. I was raised eating meat.

I'm not trying to break that habit. We're just trying to do different things.

Eating less meat is better for the environment and our health no matter how you look at it, so the vegetarian options really do matter. They haven't seen their fair share of airtime on this blog however, so today I will remedy that.

Beans are a brilliant substitute for meat. Packed with protein, fibre, and all sorts of vitamins and minerals, they're a one-stop shop for kicking off a vegetarian meal.
Just swap out a serving of Beef Mince (Ground Beef) for mild chilli beans, heated and spread over a third of a tortilla wrap. Season liberally with salsa and chopped salad - tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, cheese, capsicum, grated carrot, whatever - and dress the wrap with sour cream and your sauce of choice.
Just like that, Bean Wraps. Quick, easy, healthy, all those buzz words that make you feel righteous in your eating choices.

Not recommended if you work in confined spaces with other people, mind you.

A Curry Odyssey Episode 5: Raita

The Great Curry Odyssey Continues!

To go with the Lamb Korma, I also made fresh raita and roti breads. The raita was just so, so easy, and came out absolutely perfectly. A little planning is all that's required to make this tasty addition to your curry platter.

Fresh Raita

(Serves 4)
Start with a whole cucumber and a sharp knife.
Peel and slice the cucumber lengthwise. Scrape out the seeds and discard. Chop into roughly 5mm pieces.
Toss the cucumber pieces in a sieve with a generous amount of salt and leave to drain over a bowl or the sink. Rest for a good couple of hours. The salt draws out the bulk of the cucumber's bitter moisture.

When you're ready to finish it off, say, an hour before your curry will be ready and you have to make the rotis, rinse the cucumber off and pat dry with a paper towel.
In a bowl, mix up the cucumber with 1 Cup of natural yoghurt, 1/4 Cup of fresh chopped mint, 1t sugar, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Leave in the fridge until you're about to dish up.

Take the raita from the fridge and very quickly blitz, either with a hand blender or in a food processor. Dish up in big cold dollops beside your hot curry and roti.

The cucumber will quickly break down after you have processed it, so either freeze it soon after or make sure you eat it all right then. After all, it's probably the healthiest thing on the plate!

More Posts on the Great Curry Odyssey

Even More Tomatoes

While we're on the topic of tomatoes and barbeques, the two go together like, well, tomatoes and barbeques.
Just slice them up, sprinkle with freshly ground salt and pepper, fresh grated parmesan, olive oil and fresh thyme leaves.
Pop them on the back of the barbeque and let them sit there and cook while the main event is taking place around them.

That's all there is to it. Enjoy.

Celebrate Summer Fruit

How to get things rolling again after a post like that? There's only one way, and that is to celebrate new life.

I'm loving going to the market right now, as the stalls are overflowing with beautiful fresh summer fruit, straight from the Hawkes Bay, Nelson or wherever all this lovely stuff comes from. We've been eating fresh plums, peaches, nectarines, apricots, melon, cherries, strawberries, boysenberries, and blueberries in the last couple of weeks.
Yesterday I bought fresh cherries from a market stall for $5.00/kg!! They've been priced between $16.00 and $30.00/kg in the supermarket, and the ones I bought are perfectly ripe and delicious. I'm not even using them for cooking or desserts, just gobbling them straight out of the fruitbowl. This is a magical time of year. Berries are also in season and in plentiful supply. Again, what will cost you $5.00 in the supermarket for a punnet of berries you can find at the market for $2.00. Need I say it again? Get out to your local markets, people!
If you really feel the need to put these luscious summer beauties in the oven, try apple and boysenberry crumble with ice cream. Or just good old blueberry pancakes, hot off the stove, with a sprinkle of fresh blueberries on top. Get out there and enjoy it, it won't last long!

Shock! Horror! Vego Pizzas!

Yeah, it surprised me too.

As we were dressing our Friday night pizzas, I was overwhelmed by the amount of delicious ingredients we had handy that weren't meat. I still haven't had a pizza as nice as my Mussel and Chilli Pizza, but these were pretty good. In New Zealand we have a tendency to massively overdress our pizzas, a habit that we broke after eating real pizza in New York.
So as our pizzas usually go, these ones are a bit laden, but I enjoyed them no less for it.

One pizza had the following toppings, with pizza sauce on the base (homemade, of course), and a crumbly mix of cheeses on top - mozzarella, edam and parmesan.
Chopped Fresh Tomato
Chopped Onion
Sliced Mushroom
Finely Sliced Garlic
Grated Lemon Zest
Cubed Feta Cheese The other had the following toppings:
Chopped Fresh Tomato
Pineapple Chunks
Sweet Thai Chilli Sauce
Cubed Feta Cheese
Spoonfuls of Ricotta Cheese
I didn't even notice the lack of pepperoni or salami or sausage or any of that. When it comes to pizza, less really is more.

I never thought I'd say it

This post is so important that it's skipping the queue and pushing in at the front.

It contains the following mind-blowing revelation: Asparagus is delicious.

I'm not talking about the chewy muck that comes in cans, or even the finger-thick monstrosities that you can buy at the supermarket when it's in season, which requires more energy to chew and digest than you'll ever get out of it in the process (yes, that's a completely unscientific exaggeration which I won't even try to back up - it's just an ingrained prejudice). The good stuff - which you can currently find at farmers' markets for anywhere from $1.50 to $2.00 a bunch - is the crisp new baby tips. These are so sweet and crunchy they deserve to be gobbled up by anyone who has the good sense to lay their hands on them.
As to how to cook them, it couldn't be easier. The truth is that you pretty much only want to get them warm. Any more than that and they'll just go soggy and chewy like their bigger brothers and sisters.

Most nights we cook up a little steamer of carrots and broccoli. I steam the carrot for 10 minutes, adding the broccoli after 5 minutes. For the asparagus, just break off the bottom 1/4 of the stalks and pop them in the steamer when you take it off the heat, and let the steamer sit while you dish your plates. After that 2-3 minutes, the asparagus will be warm and moist and still crunchy and sweet. I drizzle a teeny bit of extra virgin olive oil on them too, and eat it all up straight away before it gets cold.
I can't believe I just did a plug for asparagus. Is that a sign of some degenerative disease? Seriously, this is lovely stuff, just coming into season, cheap and plentiful at the markets right now, and you would be doing yourself a big favour by getting it into you (without even starting on all the good stuff that must be in it - it's green all over, for goodness' sake!).

Sweet Mash

Following on from yesterday's steak post, I wanted to push the veggie side too. I also posted an edit regarding the gravy, noting the Tomato Paste that I add to the pan during deglazing to give the gravy its body and colour.

The other winner on the plate was the Sweet Mash, which will go brilliantly with just about anything, and is another way of getting more veggies on your plate.

Sweet Mash

(Serves 4)

Peel and cube 2 Potatoes, 1 Kumera and either 1/8 of a large grey Pumpkin or a whole Butternut Pumpkin. Boil rapidly in salted water until soft. Mash up with a fork, adding a little milk and butter to make the mash creamy and frothy. Beautiful stuff.

Draniki

2008 is the International Year of the Potato. Over these two days (September 8-9), in Paris, France, the International Conference on Potato Issues and Prospects is being held. No, I have nothing to do with it. I'm not even in Paris. The closest event we have going on in NZ is the 7th World Potato Congress, in Christchurch, March 2009. Which isn't even the Year of the Potato, but that's the Kiwi Way. Even when it comes to honouring the noble Potato, we're fashionably late.

Had we been just across the ditch, we might have had the opportunity to attend the Pinaroo Spudfest in South Australia (April) or the Unveiling of Potato Sculptures in Trafalgar, Victoria (June). Trust the Aussies to give credit where its due.

By not being in Slovenia two days ago (and why not? you might rightly ask) I missed the 8th World Festival of Sauteed Potatoes. That would've been good to be at.

No, here in NZ the best we can do is eat our spuds with pride. Following on from yesterday's Pioneer Potatoes, today we present a Russian dish, Draniki, or Potato Pancakes. For some unknown reason, except that our eyes must have been bigger than our stomachs at some point in the not-too-distant past, we had a tray of frozen mashed potato in the freezer, which served our purpose perfectly. If you don't have pre-frozen mashed spud on hand, feel free to make yours the old-fashioned way. If anyone really needs the low-down on whipping up top-notch mashed spuds, leave a comment to that effect, and I'll gladly oblige. Either way, I suspect that it's best to let the mash cool before adding the rest of the ingredients.

Draniki

Basic Recipe:

200g cold creamy mashed potatoes
2 Eggs
Freshly ground Salt and Pepper to season
1 Finely chopped Onion
2-3 T Flour
Olive Oil to loosen as required

Mix these all together until you have a dough. Add a little flour or olive oil as necessary.
The Draniki can be rolled into patties and cooked at this stage, or you can add more ingredients to make them tastier, or to upgrade them from a side dish into a main. We added whole kernel corn (from a tin), finely chopped red onion, and grated cheese. But you could add pretty much anything that will be ok with the 10 mins or so that it takes to cook them in the frying pan. Tuna, capsicum, tomato, cooked bacon, whatever.
Melt some butter in a small non-stick frying pan until it's bubbling, then add the patties to the pan. Cook until brown on the bottom, then flip and cook until brown on the other side.
Just like that, you have Draniki. And to think that we didn't even know that's what they were called when we made them (I recall I was bathing Isaac while Dessert Chef C whipped these up after a long day on the road, so any mistakes are mine). Serve with a crisp green salad and your favourite sauces.

Father's Day Fuzzies

Yesterday was my second ever Father's Day, and I think that's worth making a big deal over. So what did I get for Father's Day?

I got to have a little sleep in. That's always good.

I got brought breakfast in bed, French toast with bacon and banana and maple syrup. Nom nom. No photos though, as I was still in bed, of course.

I got a Father's Day Gingerbread from Our Emma who came for a visit, which was really nice.

I got to pull the leaking guttering apart and repair it (fingers crossed).

I got to plant the aforementioned potatoes. Mmm, the fragrance of compost.

I got to go to the hardware store on my own - usually not allowed as it can have a devastating effect on the family finances. But to my credit I only got what I needed for the guttering and a strawberry plant for Dessert Chef C, since she cooked me such a yummy breakfast.

I got to go to the butcher's shop and talk cuts of roast beef with an expert.

I got to put all the leftover wood from the fence-building project under the house.

I got to split up some more firewood, because despite all the promissory notes being issued by Spring, its still pretty darned cold here.

I got to take the chainsaw to the pohutukawa tree and trim it up a bit. More sun for the lawn!

I got to cook dinner. But that's another story.

I got to play X-Box.

And that was Father's Day 2008.

Now as promised, here's the Smashed Potato Recipe from last week. I'm so far behind on posting dinners that it's not really funny anymore, but I'll do my best to catch up this week. The inspiration for these potatoes came from Pioneer Woman, who has a great series of photos and detailed steps for making these her way. I improvised a bit with what I had on hand.

Pioneer Potatoes

Boil a pot of potatoes, cooking 1 - 2 per person as required. When cooked, toss lightly in olive oil. On an oven rack, place a piece of baking paper and brush oil on that, too. Place the potatoes on the paper and gently crush with a potato masher, so they look like so: Dress up the potatoes with a generous dose of freshly ground salt and pepper and olive oil, then add your favourite toppings. I used onion, parmesan, Italian herbs, and finely chopped garlic. Place under the grill and brown.
Serve with pretty much anything. We had ours with steak, chorizo sausage, salad, boiled kumera and a gorgeous Pinot.

Spinach Cannellonis

Here's one of those rare and exciting vegetarian meals that crops up in our kitchen now and then. Cannellonis can either be a fiddly pain in the neck or a breeze, depending on how everything comes together. Usually a bit of practice sorts it all out, though. I found that making these with meat was more difficult than the recipe here, because with something like mince you have to cook it up, wait for it to cool, and then it doesn't always hold together very well. So roll on vego dinner!

You'll need a box of pre-made cannelloni tubes, unless you're really keen and feel like making them fresh. If you feel such an urge, all the best. I can do spaghetti and ravioli, but I've never tried anything that actually has its own shape. Let me know how that goes.

Spinach & Ricotta Cannellonis

(Serves 4)

In a bowl, mix up 250g Spinach leaves (frozen portions are fine if you can't get hold of fresh Spinach), 250g of Ricotta cheese, and one small red onion, very finely chopped.
Stuff each Cannelloni shell with the spinach mixture. This might be messy, but it really is easiest just to do it with your fingers. You can mess around with spoons or piping bags if you like, but experience has taught us that fingers are just the best way. And how often do you get to play with your food, anyway?
Layer the stuffed tubes one deep in an oiled oven dish (or spread with baking paper - wonderful stuff in the cleaning-up stakes). Over the tubes, spread one 420g can of pasta sauce, or an equivalent amount of proper homemade stuff if you've got it. We don't. Watch this space when tomatoes are 50c a kilo in late summer.
Grate cheddar and parmesan cheese over the cannellonis and place in the oven at 200c for about 40 mins. For the last 5 mins, flick the oven over to grill mode and brown the cheese.
Serve with fresh veges and sticky sweet pumpkin.

Sticky Sweet Pumpkin

I'm always looking for ways to make veges more interesting. Sometimes I find recipes, sometimes I just make stuff up. This is one of those things. I figure if I can write a book I can write a recipe. It just requires some suspension of disbelief on the reader's/eater's part. Anyhoo, from memory these were yummy.

Sticky Sweet Pumpkin

(Serves 4)

Slice 1/4 of a big grey pumpkin into wedges, deseed and peel. Compost the seeds so that when you plant your spring garden you'll get little pumpkin seedlings springing up everywhere. At first these will be a boon as you replant them, then after a while they become annoying and you just have to compost them again. Oh well.

Roughly chop 3-4 cloves of garlic and place in a bowl with 2T of brown sugar, freshly ground salt and pepper, freshly grated nutmeg, 1T of olive oil and 1T of balsamic vinegar. Place the pumpkin in an oiled oven dish and brush the garlic mixture over the top.
Roast at 200C for about 50 mins.

Trawling the Net

Just stopped by gallimaufree and read this post, which sums up really well many of the things I've been yammering on about over the past few months. Seems to be a site dedicated to the more benign elements of self-reliance and survivalism, with a focus on:

building a non-secret society of nice people who respond to disasters, catastrophes, and apocalypses with humanitarian aid, kick-ass tools, and extensive knowledge.

Maybe a bit more intense than my own attempts at a pumpkin patch (roll on Spring!), but full of good advice and a great attitude towards life and the planet.

Over at Adventures in Beanland, Anne explores making your own baby food. This is something we did when Isaac was starting solids. When we were in Canada last year, and Isaac was only 6 months old, we were stunned by the amount of sugar that goes into baby food over there. He ate a lot of banana and yoghurt in those three weeks. Beanland has a whole swag of Vego recipes, for those of us who are looking for new and interesting ways to reduce our meat intake.

And in a spot of good news from those nice folk in California, someone is finally doing something about Food Wastage, by spearheading a Food Rescue Program in San Francisco. There's also a bill before the California Senate that would allow purchasers of catered food to mandate that all leftovers be donated to a food charity, rather than discarded as so often happens.

Its good to see that the revolution of attitudes towards food and waste isn't limited to my backyard, and its encouraging to know that I'm not just one isolated voice, but one of a growing number of concerned global citizens determined to do whatever they can to make our planet a better place for our children.

Ham and Vegetable Fritattas

Can you spell Vege Overload? This dish could just as easily be a vegetarian option simply by omitting the Ham. This is a great way to sneak a bunch of veges onto the kids' plates, and also a fantastic way of enjoying really fresh produce. Strange, you might say, it wouldn't seem that putting veges in a fry pan covered in egg would do anything for them, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Ham and Vegetable Fritattas (serves 4)

Cube and boil a kumara and two potatoes in lightly salted water.

Slice a handful of mushrooms, one red onion, 5 cloves of garlic, 1/4 of a capsicum, and 3 or 4 leaves of silverbeet. Cut a few florets of brocolli and cauli. Cut 3 slices of ham into small pieces (if you're not set on the vege rush).
When the potato and kumera are just cooked, drain through a colander, reserving the cooking water. Allow to cool slightly (so that the heat of the veges doesn't start cooking the egg prematurely). Return the water to the pot and put the pot back on the heat, bringing the water to the boil. Put the brocolli and cauli in a colander and place in the boiling water, blanching for about 4 minutes. This will heat the florets but leave them crunchy and full of flavour.

In a small non-stick frying pan, heat 1T of olive oil.

For each fritatta:
In a small bowl, add a portion of everything you now have ready, including a scattering of ham if you're using it, and 1-2 eggs (I always think I need to do 2, and it always ends up being too much for the pan, greedy boy!). Mix well. When the oil is hot (but not smoking) scrape in the fritatta mixture. Allow the egg to set on the bottom, then keep the fritatta moving by jiggling the pan frequently. When the upper side of the fritatta is semi-solid, flip the fritatta. If you're not confident that you can do this without destroying the meal (as I so often do), slide the fritatta out onto a plate, then place the frying pan upside-down over the uncooked side, hold it all carefully with a tea towel or two, and flip it over. Brown on the underside and dish with a bit of pepper and your favourite sauce or relish.
Repeat until you have cooked enough for everyone, or else some people might get a bit titchy at being forgotten.

Easy Vego Nachoes

Its a shame that I don't have the camera, because these look really good.

Distressed by the idea of eating what's left of the cabbage in the fridge, I decided I needed to think outside the square a bit to get my veges in tonight. I had planned on having nachoes, and the idea of a pile of buttery cabbage on the side for the third night in a row was not appealing. I made enough for 2, and put one aside for lunch tomorrow. But the main thing is I started cooking about 15 minutes ago and I'm eating right now. Yes, at the computer. I'm trying to kill two birds with one stone so that as soon as I've done my dishes I can get back into my writing work. On that topic, I passed that magical page 615 at lunchtime today. Yay me!

Easy Vego Nachoes

(Serves 2)

Slice one clove of garlic and half an onion. Fry these lightly in a small pot and then add 1 whole can of mild or hot chilli beans, depending on your chilli palate. Add 2 diced fresh tomatoes to the pot and warm through. As this is heating, place a pile of nacho corn chips on an oven tray with a piece of baking paper underneath. Grate some cheese over the chips and place under a hot grill until the cheese has melted. Pull the tray from the oven and split the nachoes between two plates. Serve the beans on the other half of the plate and dress with sour cream and a sprinkle of paprika. If its seasonal, slice half an avocado over the top as well.