All posts tagged: food

Our Growing Edge April Round Up

Published by

Every foodie enjoys a good foodie bucket list. We read them like a true/false quiz. Bucket lists really light my fire and several foodie bucket list items were tackled this month right here on Our Growing Edge. We cooked and ate home made pastas, master level baking, new vegetables, social occasions and experiments. This month’s challenge was largely dominated by New Zealanders and we also had bloggers from Singapore, Australia, Canada and the US. Danielle from Keeping Up With The Holsbys conquered one of her culinary nemesis: gnocchi. She even went a step further and made it gluten free! Rants, Raves and Rations made homemade pasta with lovely step by step photos and report to prove it. Jessie from Purple House Cafe made a stunning raspberry white chocolate croquembouche to tick off her bucket list. Jess is Canadian and did a stint here in New Zealand where she learned to pour a real coffee. Over in New York, ex-pat Hayley from Condiments On A City Life whipped up a casual soufflé. Jess from Jessness Required …

Foodbox Menu 1

Published by

This the first week of our Foodbox deliveries. If I didn’t plan out a menu, we wouldn’t have a hope of finishing all the produce. I have decided to receive a Foodbox once a fortnight instead of once a week. I rediscovered a jar of laksa paste in our fridge so features heavily on this week’s menu. I got personal with the paste and a free range chicken at the start of the week and a spatchcock chicken led to dinner for two and 2 lunches. Foodbox Menu 1 Items in bold are from our Foodbox. Hash brown, garlic butter mushrooms, free range bacon and fried egg. (pictured) Scrambled eggs with parmesan and onion on Vogels toast. Avocado and parmesan on Vogels toast. Chicken salad with lettuce, tomato, boiled eggs, broccoli florets, dressing. Roast chicken sandwiches: lettuce, edam, mayo, mustard, pickles, tomato. Spatchcock chicken, smeared with laksa paste, roasted with potatoes, kumara, courgettes, onions, carrots and garlic Laksa with fat noodles, prawns, lime, mushrooms, broccoli and onions. Pan fried salmon with butter lime sauce. Served with sweet corn, courgette and millet. Courgette pasta …

Foodbox 1

Published by

“Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing that a tomato doesn’t belong in a fruit salad.” Miles Kington It is Autumn and daylight savings means I wanna cut corners. I don’t want walk to the market after work in the rain and dark, so I get stuff delivered. It’s convenient, not lazy. Lazy would be ordering takeout because there’s no food in the house. Last winter, we ate through 3 months of Ooooby deliveries. I loved receiving a weekly delivery of produce and extra tasty add ons. I am trialling FoodBox for a month or two, to compare the experience. First impression Our first Foodbox arrived this week and we received the Appetiser which is $33 per week including delivery. A major difference for us this time round is that we now have a vegetable garden so I’ve put a few things on the “do not want list”. No point in eating home grown lettuce and store bought lettuce each week. The box weighs over 7kg and I’m a seriously …

Home Grown Radishes

Published by

This post is part of Our Growing Edge, a monthly blogging event to encourage us to try new food related things. I am the host for this month’s event. If you have a blog and have tried something new with food this month, come and join this event. Growing vegetables gives me a sense of child-like wonder. I get excited about each new advancement and I’m eager to visit the bottom of the garden every other day to view the changes. I’m proud of every little thing and show off each new thing to The Koala and to Tofu the bunny (one is semi-impressed, the other just wants to devour everything). I’ve never tended to a vegetable garden before but I’m sure glad for all the resources available these days. According to numerous websites, radishes take 4 to 6 weeks from seed to harvest. So every other week for the from 5 weeks, I would pull up a finely prickled plant to check if the radishes were ready. They weren’t. They weren’t bulbing and there …

4 years

Published by

In my world, each celebration is marked with a meal. It is compulsory. Birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, new jobs, babies, weddings are all celebrations and all come with a meal. I’m sure it’s Maybe it is just another excuse to eat well. I don’t need an excuse to eat, but if I can find one, I’ll take it. Today is The Koala and my 4 year wedding anniversary. We met on a summer’s night on Freyburg Square 11 years ago. We fell in love. You marry one person. Make an effort. Celebrate your triumphs. You miss an anniversary, you may as well miss them all. The secret to a lasting relationship? Enjoy and respect each other. Have similar but not identical views and interests. Maintain your own hobbies and friends. Be complimentary persons, not the same person. For example, if The Koala didn’t like pies, it might be over between us. But he doesn’t have to love the same pie as me. As long long as we both agree that pies are awesome, we can respect that he …

Autumn is the best.

Published by

Autumn is the best. I relish the crisp air, warm scarves and feijoa laden trees. Green leaves turn to red. Red wine replaces cold beer. Comfort food replaces chilled food. I’ve been feeling a little run down this week and my clothes have been feeling a little taut. You know, when your skinny jeans feel a tad too skinny and you worry what might happen to the shape of your middle when you attempt to sit down. I’m sure it is just the change of season and I’ll accuse daylight savings of lighting trickery. Before we dive into comfort food territory, I think it’s a good opportunity to revisit some of my favourite blog recipes. Light and bright food porn to tickle your fancy. For those heading into spring, this should be good inspirational fodder for you too. All thumbnails jump to relevant posts.

Foods You Need to Add to Your Bucket List to Try Before You Die

Published by

I’m delighted to have guest blogger Bridget Sandorford from CulinarySchools.org write about her own foodie bucket list. An adventurous, well traveled foodie, Bridget is a freelance food and culinary writer and has been researching sommelier training. In her spare time, she enjoys biking, painting and working on her first cookbook.  Foods you need to add to your bucket list to try before you die Life is boring when you eat the same foods day in and day out. Too many salads are not good for the soul. You need variety in your life and on your plate! Not only will branching out and trying new foods help you to find new favorites, but it will also give you great stories along the way (even – and  maybe especially if – you try out foods that you hate). My husband and I make it a point to try new foods to add fun, excitement and variety to our lives. Even when we find foods that make us turn our noses up in disgust, we’re glad we tried them – and we …

Monday Bunday: Foodie Bunnies

Published by

  Hope you are having a great Easter! Today’s Monday Bunday is a real treat found via Pinterest. But try as I may, I cannot find any information on the original artist. How sweet are these foodie bunnies? The artist has expertly captured a specific type of bunny. I love the downturned mouths, short ears and compact shape and I can tell that the artist loves bunnies and food very much. I don’t know if these were posed and drawn from life or fictional scenes but I wouldn’t let Tofu the bunny within a metre of a whole croissant. He loves baked goods and would gobble it up without batting a third eyelid. I still remember one Easter when he stole a hot cross bun from my handbag. If you thought that rabbits couldn’t commit a crime, I can assure you, if there are baked goods involved, they are ruthless. If you recognise the these illustrations or better still, if you are the artist please comment below. Back to work tomorrow. Le sigh.

Chinese Tea Eggs

Published by

When I was a little girl, I knew that every now and then, a magical pot of tea eggs could be found steeping in the fridge. We used to eat these yummy, beautifully marbled eggs as a tasty snack. I never really thought about where they came from or how they were made. Tea eggs or “cha yeep dahn” in Cantonese literally translates to “tea leaf egg”, is a traditional Chinese snack and big metal tubs of tea eggs can be found all over China by way of street venders and market stalls. Easily portable, pre-cracked and already wrapped in a natural casing, tea eggs are a wonderful whole food. The yolks have the grey outer due to being cooked for a time but this in no way affects the flavour. Tea eggs can be eaten hot, warm, at room temperature or cold. If you prefer cold or hot boiled eggs, then proceed as per your preference. Chinese tea eggs taste mildly salty-sweet, aromatic like aniseed with a good dose of “egginess” of course. Now that …

Deal to a freshly caught fish

Published by

The Koala, Tofu and I are lucky to have lovely neighbours who we share our yard with. They have been fishing this summer and this week we were gifted two red snapper. I was stoked to able to cross off a bucket list item: Deal to a freshly caught fish. First I scaled both fish. With the fish and your hands in a plastic bag seriously cuts down on flying scales and mess. From what I’ve read, it’s also a good idea to scale fish outside, but I prefer to be by our sink. Our neighbour had kindly gutted one fish so I used that as a template. In case you didn’t already know, fish guts are disgusting. To be honest, I never gave it much thought. All the fish I’ve cooked or eaten have come to me sans guts. Fish guts look like a mini version of the people guts that you might glimpse in a zombie movie. It’s not all pink and red, but some orange and yellow hues. Gruesome. As revolting as …

I’m not done yet

Published by

“A year from now, you will wish you had started today.” – Karen Lamb For those that have been following this blog for a while, you will know about my seasonal to do lists. Since winter of 2011, every season I have written a to do list of about 10 foodie challenges to push my cooking skills and eating experiences. I am leaps and bounds ahead where I was before I started. I feel confident enough to think “Ok, I can do this” as long as I pay a healthy respect to recipes and the advice I glean from those more experienced than I. It’s been an amazing ride. There’s immense smugness satisfaction in telling people that I’ve made bacon or ice cream or cheese or tomato sauce or a pavlova. I guess gloating rights is part of the accomplishment. If you own a sweet car, you want to show it off right? (That’s a genuine question, I’ve never owned a car) Many of the things that went into my lists were foods that I …

Our Growing Edge First Edition! (Jan/Feb 2013)

Published by

It’s coming up to midnight, I’ve had an espresso and ironically, I’m writing this on an empty stomach. I think I would prefer Chinese water torture over missing dinner and then compiling a lengthy food filled post. In the spirit of the Oscars this week, I would like to give a huge thanks to all the foodies who joined the very first edition of Our Growing Edge. This event would be nothing without your passion, skill, hard work and hungry bellies. With 35 submissions to Our Growing Edge this month, there was plenty of variety in the new foodie experiences. This event showed a surprisingly well rounded cross section of what foodies are doing. Blogs from New Zealand, Australia, UK, USA and Canada were well represented. Blogs from Asia or with Asian culinary backgrounds also made an appearance. Success! Before we move onto the highlights… It would be wonderful to have Our Growing Edge hosted on different blogs all around the interwebs. To host a month, all you have to do is write a round …

The Demystification of Cheesecake

Published by

Mum always had a few baked goodies in her repertoire. When I lived at home and was asked what caked I wanted for my birthday, “Cheesecake!” is what I would say. Mum would make a GIANT pan of cheesecake. Not typical a family size cheesecake that fits in on a plate or a 23cm (9″) round tin, but a family-reunion size glory that could only be assembled in a roasting pan. Everyone else would have polite obligatory slices, only making a dent in it. I would get to polish off the rest of the cake over the following days. Good times. That was well over a decade ago now and I never once tried making a cheesecake for myself. Don’t get me wrong, I still eat cheesecake, I’ve bought lots of cheesecake and requested them to be made for me too. I guess cheesecake has always been somewhat of a delicious enigma. I add things to my bucket list because I want to understand them and get to know them better. This post is the demystification of cheesecake. …

Flirting with a Russian ballerina

Published by

I’ve always been scared of making pavlova. The crisp but delicate shell and frothy interior threatening to any non-baker. The fancy Russian ballerina name doesn’t help any either. What is it trying to be exactly? Any kind of baking that is more science than art is taboo to me but I was determined to give it a whirl. I put it on my bucket list at the start of summer and I’m glad that I got to conquer it. I was never been a huge fan of pavlova. It is a national treasure here in New Zealand and the dessert kiwis think of fondly in summer. A pavlova melts in the mouth like a cloud and doesn’t require any chewing, just a quick inspection in the mouth to get the flavour and and down it goes. Made mostly from egg whites and sugar, it lacks…substance. After reading many recipes, I settled on Nessie’s recipe from Baking Equals Love. Nessie is a fellow kiwi and an accomplished baker, only recently blogged about her first pavlova. I …

Easy Stroganoff

Published by

The other day, I made the bold claim that my parent’s stroganoff was the best stroganoff I ever tasted. There are few problems with this bold claim: I was immediately challenged to a dual (or a stroganoff off) I hadn’t tasted this stroganoff in a good 15 or so years When I last ate it, I didn’t really know what a stroganoff was When I asked mum for her recipe, she gave me a basic low-down rather than a step by step So, armed with mum’s rough guide and my own experience with cooking by feel, here’s my adaptation of the recipe. Use rump or sirloin steak with white button mushrooms. My family always had stroganoff with rice because dinner without rice is not really dinner at all. Feel free to use pasta if you prefer (I did). Did it live up? Yes. Is it the best? I’ll have to test out more recipes to be sure. I see a few slow cooker recipes out there which leads me to imagine you could make a …

Try A New Grain

Published by

I get bursts of foodie enlightenment from non-foodie movies. Years ago, when I watched the Japanese epic film Seven Samurai, I learned that  millet was a food. In the movie, the poor, desperate villagers offer their precious white rice to the samurai when they could only afford to eat millet. I always wondered what could possibly be less precious than rice? In my life, rice has always been cheap. Many people will screw up their noses at millet as it’s known as bird feed. Not so glamourous and hardly something today’s foodie would choose to eat, right? Millet is technically a seed but used as a grain so for blogging purposes, I’m calling it a grain. Millet is gluten free and being a seed, it holds decent nutrients and makes a great substitute for pasta, rice etc. It’s very easy to cook, lasts in the pantry for ages and fairly versatile it seems. Tomatoes are in season here but if they are not, feel free to omit them or replace them with capsicum (peppers). I used …

Dumpling Wrapper Prawn Ravioli

Published by

I have an open relationship with dumplings. I adore them, but sometimes I get busy and we see less of each other but when we’re together it’s phenomenal. My maternal grandmother made dumplings for us and my parents also made them us. For most of my life, my dad owned various eateries and wontons or dumplings were always on the menu. Dumplings travel well too. No, I don’t mean fill your pockets and go for a run, but that dumplings in one form or another appear in many cuisines. The concept travels well and has wide appeal. Naturally, as an adult, I’m more curious and experimental when it comes to my dumplings. If it tastes good, authenticity is nothing. Because I never ate ravioli until much later, ravioli will always be just an Italian dumpling to me and I make ravioli using dumpling wrappers. Sure, you can make pasta from scratch, but taking this shortcut will save some time and it’s not like you’re going full lazy. There’s still at least half an hour to …

Awesomesauce

Published by

Every New Zealand household must stock tomato sauce at all times or risk village ridicule by vegetable flinging and it is without a doubt, our national condiment. In New Zealand, ketchup is tomato sauce. Marinara is what we call pasta sauce. So when a kiwi wants tomato sauce, it’s always the condiment, not the stuff you eat with meatballs and pasta. It calms him The Koala loves tomato sauce more than anyone I know. He can’t eat a pie or steak without it and pasta dishes (even marinara) need tomato sauce applied liberally on top before he can enjoy it. I recently read that tomato sauce calms people. The Koala eats a lot of tomato sauce and he’s pretty calm so I guess it explains a few things. Perhaps I should keep a little bottle of sauce in my bag as “rescue remedy”. I’ve always wanted to try making tomato sauce because I never knew what went into it and we go through a lot of sauce on a regular basis. The recipe This recipe …

Mid-week holiday

Published by

Waitangi Day in the middle the week is freaking AWESOME. I completed 2 of my 10 summer tasks. If we had public holidays on Wednesdays more often, I’d get more shit done. Not burnt out enough to need a full day’s quiet time, not tacked onto a weekend to lead to 2 days of partying plus one of nursing a hangover. Waitangi Day is unofficially considered New Zealand Day and there’s a whole lot of history if you want to get into it, but for most kiwis, it is a public holiday that can be guaranteed to be sunny. My morning was spent nursing a bowl of leftover pasta, attending to emails and blogging while cooking up a batch of tomato sauce. Eager to take it for a test drive, the afternoon was spent with a van-load of friends at Cheltenham Beach. This is our favourite swimming beach at high tide (don’t even bother at low tide). We enjoyed fish and chips with my bottle of home made tomato sauce, a refreshing swim, making sand …

Foodie Mecca

Published by

Coco and I checked out the eagerly awaited Ponsonby Central yesterday. It was busy and happening with a good number of people enjoy the sunshine and foodie mecca. With butchery, fresh produce, fish, bakery, cafes and many street food style, Ponsonby Central is foodie heaven. They have office space upstairs too and I swear, if I win a substantial prize in the lottery, I’m buying office space here to freelance in and preparing to get fat. Hands down the most popular place in the street food lane is El Sizzling Chorizo who specialise in Argentinian BBQ. The big hunks of smokey marinaded meat cooking in their open kitchen looked fantastic. We had a day of moseying planned so were not quite in the mood for a meat feast (one should have a lie-down/siesta booked immediately after). Judging from the happy eaters, this is the place to get a meat fix. We started at the furtherest end of the eating lane at Maldito Mendez. This place is all about the fresh and punchy flavours of South …