All posts filed under: Recipes

Buttery Golden Pan-Fried Flounder

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When I was a little girl, a single steamed flounder, a plate of vegetables and plenty of rice would feed our family. My parents would allocate me and my sister a flounder roe each. Since flounder come with two roes by default, it was lucky they stopped at two kids. The roe was a treat!  The roe itself isn’t a thing of beauty, but I loved biting into it and imagining I was eating thousands of tiny fish at once. If you’re wondering what flounder roe tastes like, I find it mild and slightly creamy with a only hint of fishiness. The fish eggs are tiny – much smaller than other fish roe. Salmon is my number one fish, but if I must pick a white fish, it’s got to be flounder. I adore flounder but I usually steam or baked it. Flounder has a sweet flavour and a delicate texture. When cooked, it flakes with a little pressure and the large bones make it easy to eat whole. As a kid, my parents never shied away …

Lemonade

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A friend brought over a bag of real lemons. Real lemons are large, a deep yellow colour, with bumpy, thick skins. They smell super lemony – nothing like the anemic fake-looking lemons you get from supermarkets these days (what are they?!). Supermarket lemons make me frown. I was thirsty for something sweet and tart, so I made lemonade. I used a little of the J.Friend and Co honey that I received from a goodie bag for covering Out Standing In Their Fields a few weeks ago. The one I got is Vipers Bugloss. Don’t know what the heck that means? Me neither. Luckily, their website fills in all the gaps (it’s an alpine wild flower). It’s pretty awesome. You even get to know who the beekeepers are (Lucy and AJ), the vintage (2009) and where it is made (Clarence Valley, Muzzle Station). I’ve never needed to know that much about my honey, but it’s a nice touch. Especially in an age were ingredients come from all over the place. The first glass no doubt will …

Birthday Ham

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Party in the backyard I took the day off work for my birthday and The Koala came home a little early to help set up for my party. Our new outdoor table is getting plenty of use and the $20 I paid for it was a true bargain. I cleaned up a junk corner of our house last weekend and uncovered some parasols that we used for our wedding over 2 years ago. They’re so pretty that we had to do something with them. The Koala decorated a tree with them and I am stoked with how they turned out. Ham Ham on the bone is one of my favourite porky products and I look forward to Christmas ham every year. But ham once a year isn’t enough! For my birthday, my sister gifted me a Hellers Free Farmed half ham on the bone. From the Hellers website: Hellers Free Farmed products are sourced from selected New Zealand farms. The Sows are outdoors and once weaned, the piglets are raised in barns with no crates or …

Eleven Eleven Eleven. Stolen Hakanoa

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Everyone should invent a cocktail on their birthday. What a way to start the day right? Yesterday morning, the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the eleventh year of the century, I celebrated my birthday with a cocktail at 11 minutes past 11. For my birthday, The Koala bought me a bottle of Stolen Rum in gold. I first had this rum at Taste at the Cloud in a cocktail called Stolen Summer. It was delicious. Stolen Summer is STOLEN white rum infused with Manuka wood smoked Apricot, Peach and Nectarine, fresh lime and ginger beer. I’m still experimenting with Hakanoa Ginger Syrup at the moment so I thought why not pair them together? Stolen Eleven Eleven 1 shot Stolen Rum (or any smooth golden rum) 1/2 shot Hakanoa Ginger Syrup A squeeze of lemon A lemon wedge A sprig of mint Ice Add the rum, ginger syrup into a glass of your choice. Top with a squeeze of lemon juice and ice, a sprig of mint and lemon wedge. Sip in the sun.

Hakanoa (Ginger Syrup) Braised Pork Belly

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I’m quickly falling in love with Hakanoa Hand-made Ginger Syrup. “Made from filtered water, organic fairtrade raw sugar, fresh ginger, organic dried ginger, organic sultanas and fresh lemon juice,” this syrup ticks all the boxes ethically and best of all, it is delicious. More info on this product can be found on their website hakanoa-handmade.co.nz. I’ve used it to make sangria as well as ginger flavoured milk. Don’t know it until you’ve tried it. It is amazing. Best of all, I like to use it as a marinade in meat dishes and my favourite meat and cut has got to be the delicious pork belly. Free range pork belly should be available where ever you find free range pork. Maybe you are bored of pork belly these days. No problem. Hopefully the world gets tired of pork belly and it will return back to being a cheap cut of meat. More for me! If you still have room in your life for another pork belly recipe, try my Hakanoa Braised Pork Belly recipe. The addition of cornflour …

I Love Strawberry

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I love strawberries and I find it hard to resist buying just a punnet when I visit farmers’ markets. This recipe is so easy and uses very little strawberries that you could make it 2 nights in a row if you wanted to extend your punnet. Cooking strawberries is some kind of voodoo magic to me. The taste and fragrance of these hearts, so potent you will be amazed it’s not artificial. There is no need to add more sugar to this dish as jam is already quite sweet. I used feijoa and ginger from Peninsula Preserves that we picked up from Lyttelton Farmers Market last month. This post is an entry for Sweet New Zealand, a monthly blogging event open to all Kiwi bloggers. Founded by Alessandra Zecchini, this month’s event is hosted by Mairi from Toast. See here for more info on this month’s event. Strawberry Heart Puffs Makes 2 hearts Ingredients 1 sheet frozen puff pastry 5 strawberries  2 tablespoons jam  Butter for greasing Optional: icing sugar for dusting  Preparation Lay puff pastry out the counter to defrost. Preheat oven to …

Tofu Tuesday: Sangria

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One of my “To Do” activities this spring was to make white sangria. I first tried it this year at Urbis Design Day and thought it was a lighter, refreshing version of red sangria (which I also love). We had a few friends over in the weekend so I made both red and white. The white was yummy, but the red was even better. I’ve grown out of love with white wine over the last year or so and while I don’t like chardonnay, I picked it because it’s less acidic to me than the other whites. Thanks Mum for this cool blue drink set for my early birthday present! I’ve put it to good use already. I made a simple sugar syrup with 2 cups of sugar dissolved in 2 cups of water. Boiled for 5 minutes (stirring occasionally just for fun) and then cooled and stored in a glass bottle. I used fresh strawberries (sliced) and canned fruit salad with additional canned mixed berries for the red sangria. Tofu the bunny gets the green …

Spiced Carrot & Coconut Soup

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With the amount of eating over the last 7 days, I’ve been craving some simple vegetable dishes. I had half a loaf of Blackwoods Bakeries focaccia from the weekend and my parents had just given me a big bag of carrots. What started off as a pauper’s dinner got fancy real quick. Don’t let the carrots full* fool you. This is a rich and satisfying soup. *Edit: Wow, genuine Freudian slip. Spiced Carrot & Coconut Soup Dinner for 2 or a starter for 4. Ingredients 5 carrots 3/4 can coconut cream 3 cups stock (I used chicken but use vegetable if vegetarian) 1 teaspoon green curry paste (check if vegetarian) 1 tablespoon olive oil Sage garnish  *Use vegetable stock if you want to make this vegan or vegetarian Preparation Chop the ends off the carrots and cut into bite sized rounds. I didn’t see any point in peeling these ones, it’s up to you. In a large pot, quickly brown the carrots in olive oil. Add the green curry paste and stir through. Add stock, bring to …

Tale of two prawns: Steamed Garlic Prawns & Super Tasty Grilled Prawns

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A thing or two about prawns Prawns in New Zealand are imported raw as we have no prawn fishery. They are snap frozen at sea and can be easily thawed at home, so never buy thawed prawns because you don’t know how long they have been thawed for. Maybe it’s only been a couple of hours, but maybe it’s longer. Why risk it? If they’re snap frozen at sea and you thaw them just prior to cooking, they will be as fresh as possible. Prawn size and weight If you have bought prawns before, you may have noticed a special numbering system in place. It seems counter-intuitive, but the smaller the number, the larger the prawn. Less is more! Well, less is big. U10 or U20 means under 10 or 20 prawns per kilo. These are the biggest prawns and also the most expensive. Handy guide to prawn sizes (per kilo) Extra large 10/20 also displayed as U10 or U20 Under 10 and Under 20 prawns per kilo Large 21/30 Under 30 prawns per kilo Medium …

Oysters Hong Kong

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  Since we’re messing around with oysters this week, I figured I could mess around with Oysters Kilpatrick. My asian-inspired version uses ingredients like lap cheong, spring onions and black vinegar which you can find in any Cantonese kitchen. I’ve named it Oysters Hong Kong. From a previous post:  “Chinese dried sausages or Lap Cheong are dry cured sausages normally made of pork and fat. These are smoked, sweetened, seasoned and taste like awesome. The sausages I buy from my local are vacuum packed and hail from Canada. You might like these if you like streaky bacon cooked in maple syrup.”   Oysters Hong Kong Ingredients 12 fresh Pacific oysters (opened) 2 Chinese sausages (Lap Cheong) 3 tablespoons black vinegar 3 tablespoons spring onion, chopped Preparation Turn on grill to 200°C. Slice the Chinese sausages into thin rounds and fry until brown. Set the oysters on an oven tray lined with foil. Bunch up the foil so they oysters have a nice bed to lay upon. Top with the cooked sausage and black vinegar. Grill for 2-5 minutes. …

Make Oysters Kilpatrick

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I usually prefer my oysters fresh and unmolested, but things have changed since trying Oysters Kilpatrick for the first time at Mikano in April. They were Bluff and they were divine, but at $5 each, they are a special occasion treat. Oysters Kilpatrick is a dish from Australia and this 70’s retro-to-the-gills recipe isn’t for the faint hearted. Can you taste the oysters at their full potential? Maybe not. Are they delicious? Yes sir! I’ve always said Worcestershire rather awkwardly and today I noticed this month’s edition of Taste Magazine sorts me right out: How do I say…Worcestershire? The famous secret-recipe sauce named for its English home county has lost a syllable over time: ‘Wuss-tuh-shuh’ or just ‘Wuss-tuh’ for short. I’ve been ordering my oysters from New Zealand Seafoods (www.nzseafoods.co.nz) for years. They own oyster farms in Mahurangi Harbour and offer fresh, shucked Pacific oysters for $50NZ (about $40US) for 5 dozen. It’s about $6 to deliver which I consider money well spent. The oysters are always well packaged (export quality) and ready to eat. Oysters Kilpatrick …

Forage something and cook with it

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There is loads of onion weed in the garden again and a recent post on Alessandra Zecchini’s blog reminded me of the onion weed dumplings I made last year. I’m loving daylight savings time and it’s nice to be able to cook and photograph in natural light after work. I made these potato cakes for a pre-dinner snack but I think it will be easy to find another reason to eat these. I used the bottom 10cm of the plant which is the white/green base. It’s crisp rather than stringy. Thoroughly wash the onion weed and don’t use any that may have been sprayed with yucky chemicals. Otherwise, happy foraging! Onion Weed Potato Cakes Makes 8 Ingredients 2 large potatoes 1 egg, beaten 1/2 cup chopped onion weed 3/4 cup grated cheese salt (garlic salt optional)  black pepper Oil 8 onion weed flowers for garnish  Preparation Preheat oven to 180°C. Peel the potatoes and remove the skin. Continue peeling the potatoes until it gets too hard to grip. Reserve for another use – about a …

Lemon Sugar and Elephant Ears

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This post has been written as part of the new Sweet New Zealand blogging event founded by Alessandra Zecchini. It’s a chance for kiwi bloggers to share their sweet treats, so if you are a kiwi blogger and are interested in participating, check it out for this month. This month’s event is event number 2 is hosted by Allison at Pease Pudding and more information can be found here. Lemon Sugar I’ve been wanting to make flavoured sugar for a while and with our lemon tree growing some beautiful, thick skined beauties this spring, I knew I had to do something with the zest. Using my microplane zester (I love that thing), I lightly scraped the outside layer of a lemon and let the zest dry for about an hour on a chopping board. I then layered zest and white sugar into a jar. Leave the sugar for at least a few days for the lemony oils to permeate into the sugar. The result is pretty, but I haven’t used this sugar just yet. With the zest that was …

The secret to making Vietnamese Spring Rolls

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Vietnamese spring rolls (or summer rolls) are one of my favourite things to eat and I always order this as starter when we visit a Vietnamese restaurant. The light, refreshing roll contrasts with a punchy sauce and I feel like I never get enough of these things. The beauty of making food at home is you can have as many pieces as you like. You can eat as many as you like for a main course without confusing your poor waiter. I’ve made these rolls once before but it was a messy failure. My mistake was to soak the rice paper in hot water and for too long. By the time you roll up, it disintegrates and you can forget about trying to eat them with any ounce of dignity. I have found the secret which I will share with you below. When we were eating in Hanoi, Vietnam at the start of this year, I noticed that the rice paper rolls were a tad under softened. That led me to believe that the rolls …

Whitianga Scallops

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The seafood people came bearing scallops that had been plucked fresh from Whitianga. I can’t resist a fresh scallop so I bought a bag of them for $26. I was hungry and fresh seafood is a weakness. When they are fresh, the are sweet, tender and not at all fishy. They have this this flavour that reminds me of oysters and lobster. I wish there were more words in our vocabulary to define the difference. Scallops are one of those seafoods that I have yet to overindulge in. Even when we’ve travelled to destinations where scallops are plentiful, we haven’t eaten to our limit. In New Zealand, we eat both the white adductor muscle and the orange/white coral. They are sold as one. Both the orange and the white part are equally delicious. I would feel cheated if I were served scallops with only the adductor muscle. I might eye the server suspiciously and impore, “Where is the rest of my scallop?!”. Scallops in the morning? I woke up thinking about scallops. The Koala asked, …

Salad, pie and pudding

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Easy mid week 2 course dinner. This is the second Maketu Pie I’ve had and like the mussel pie, this smoked fish pie is flavoursome without being too salty. Salad Lay down a handful of spinach leaves, top with 2 slices of peppered havarti and 2 sundried tomatoes. Drizzle with french dressing. Pie Unwrap a Maketu smoked fish pie. Bake for 30 minutes at 180°C. Pudding Pear Pudding: Melt 2 tablespoons of butter with 1 cup of milk. Sift 1 cup of self raising flour and about half a teaspoon of cinnamon, mix with half a cup of sugar. Mix liquid with flour. Beat in 1 egg. Pour into 2 buttered ramekins. Slice 1 ripe pear and arrange in a circle on top of batter. Sprinkle with more sugar if desired. Bake for 40 minutes at 180°C. Since the pudding will take longer in the oven than the pie, you can put the pie and the pudding in the oven at about the same time. Serve with custard or ice cream or be greedy like us and …

A Dinner inspired by South East Asia

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  I had a hankering for the stuff we ate while in South East Asia. Hot, sour and savoury soups, banana pancakes were eaten in balmy countries. But what about on a cold winter’s night? I thought they would translate quite well so I made a brothy soup with noodles with some nice sirloin steak. I made this up on the fly using some of the flavours I enjoyed in South East Asia. This was followed by a dessert of asian-inspired banana pancakes with melted chocolate. Yum. Bok choy is cheap and it is super easy to grow. I know this because I’ve grown it before. But at $0.50 for a bag of 2 or 3 bok choy at my local Chinese supermarket, I don’t bother to grow my own. So easy to prepare, just wash and slice into quarters lengthwise. Good rabbit food too. When we have bok choy, Tofu the rabbit also enjoys bok choy. Beef Noodle Soup Beef Ingredients 1 piece of sirloin steak enough for 2 (200-300g) A little sesame oil …

Wedges Are Friends With Homemade Burgers

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  As much as I like fast food, homemade burgers with real beef patties you have formed yourselves are world apart. Every time we make burgers (and it’s becoming quite a regular occurrence) we manage to find this and that in our fridge until the burger becomes a towering monstrosity. So this time, even though I thought we had virtually nothing, there was still cheese to be melted, an onion to be sliced and fresh rocket from the garden. Not a towering world wonder, but still mighty good. With plenty of practice, I’ve perfected oven baked wedges. These are a perfect friend for your homemade burgers. Oven Baked Spicy Wedges Ingredients 3 large potatoes 1 tablespoon oil 1 tablespoon flour 1 tablespoon chili seasoning* (Mild, try 2 tablespoons for medium) Salt Pepper Preparation  Pre-heat oven to 200°C / 390°F.  Cut potatoes in half lengthwise and then into quarters and then eighths. All lengthways. You know, like wedges.  Place in a clean, airtight plastic bag.  Add all the other ingredients, twist the top tight and give …

Pork Shank with Incredible Sauce

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Mum gave us a bag of oranges the other day. I’m not a fan of fruit. No sir. So I immediately started brainstorming what I could cook these oranges with. I had a large pork shank in the freezer, waiting for it’s time to shine so I summoned it on a cold winter evening. I started this a few minutes after 5pm and it took close to 3 hours to make. So it’s not the one if you want to eat fast. But if you have a few things to do and can wait for an amazing dinner, this could be the one. We had a big can of Guinness on the side of this. The sauce is sweet, flavoursome and very rich. Make it for someone you love. This would be a great recipe to translate to a slow cooker if you have one. Pork Shank with Incredible Sauce Serves 2 with leftovers for lunch.  Or serves 2 with a food coma for dessert. Ingredients 1 large pork shank 3 oranges 2 tablespoons of …

The best weekday breakfast for a cold Autumn morning

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This is the congee I’ve been eating this week. I treated myself to a 50mm f1.8 lens for my Nikon D3000 this week and this is the first food photo I’ve taken with it. This lens has no auto focus when screwed to my camera so I’m hoping that this lens will force me to get better with the camera’s manual settings. I usually just put rice straight into water to boil for congee, but I read that soaking the rice prior to boiling  makes for creamier congee. It’s true! This week I’ve been eating congee with seasoned pork mince and ginger for breakfast. Garnished with fresh spring onion slices from the garden, soy sauce and sesame oil. Pork and Ginger Congee (Makes 3-4 servings) Ingredients 1 cup long grain rice (a rice cup is 180ml) Water 200gm lean pork mince 2 slices of ginger for each serve (cut into matchsticks) 1 stem of spring onion (chopped) Splash of soy sauce Drizzle of sesame seed oil Preparation Soak the rice for a hour or two …