All posts tagged: meat

Rainbow Bowl: Sweet soy ginger braised pork belly

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I‘m not a salad kind of girl but I love a good rainbow bowl. Sweet soy ginger braised pork belly on rice with a perfectly gooey free range egg, sauerkraut, cucumber, carrot, capsicum, spring onion and a dollop of my favourite mayo. Garlic furikake and wild Korengo seaweed for texture and flavour. I could eat this breakfast, lunch or dinner. This pork belly braise uses black vinegar. Also known as Chinkiang Vinegar, this can be found at Asian grocers. Delicious for dipping steamed or fried dumplings into. You can use balsamic vinegar as a substitute. Sweet soy ginger braised pork belly Makes 4 portions INGREDIENTS 500 grams ( 1 lb) pork belly, cut into large cubes 2 tablespoons brown sugar 3 slices ginger 3 cloves garlic, smashed 2 star anise 2 bay leaves 1/2 teaspoon five spice powder 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes 2 tablespoons black vinegar 2 tablespoon soy sauce 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce 2 cups hot water PREPARATION Heat a non-stick frying pan and add pork belly. Fry on medium heat for 5 …

Vietnamese Shaking Beef

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It’s been a minute since The Koala and I visited Vietnam. We visited in January 2011, completely unprepared for the winter. We got off the plane in the early, early hours of the morning, were accosted by motorcycle drivers, dropped our bags off at our hotel and went in search for our first meal on foot. We happened upon a little noodle shop that was packed first thing in the morning. We figured that any place that was packed with locals for breakfast would be a good bet. Once we were seated, we realised the shop only sold eel. Options included fried eel, eel soup, eel noodles or eel porridge. Every item on the menu was under $2NZ. And that’s how we ended up eating eel for our first meal in Vietnam. We couldn’t speak a lick of Vietnamese but we got through our trip by pointing and our drawing skills helped us out more than once. Still, we made some incredible food memories and I still think fondly upon the Vietnamese way of cooking and eating. …

Pork belly adobo and a Crockpot giveaway

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This post was made possible thanks to Crockpot and I am delighted to give away a Crockpot Sear & Slow CHP700 (RRP $299.99). Just complete the entry form at the bottom of this post to enter. Pork belly adobo is comfort food. Adobo is the (unofficial) national dish of the Philippines. A country of 100 million people, inhabiting 7000 islands, you will find many variations, both regional and personal of this delicious Pinoy stew. Some cooks make it with pork, others with chicken, others still with both chicken and pork. Accepted ingredients are soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, garlic and bay leaf. With default savoury, sour and sweet notes, variations include the addition of ingredients such as pineapple, coconut milk, potatoes or hard boiled eggs. I’ve added potatoes to my slow cooker adaptation which soak up the sauce and takes on a gorgeous hue. What I love about this dish is that aside from the pork belly, if you cook regularly, you may already have these ingredients at home. The ingredients list feels familiar and not too …

Dumpling wisdom from a retired dumpling professional

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I am a lucky girl who grew up eating home made dumplings. The dumplings we ate were stuffed with pork mince with different variations. I asked my Mum what ingredients were in the dumplings of my childhood and this post is based around her answer. 12 years ago, back when I was still a hungry design student, I worked in our family’s Chinese take-out. Since I loved dumplings so much, I helped myself to dumplings at the start of every shift. Free dumplings is a (self-proclaimed) perk of working in the family business. Dad made the filling and wrapped a hundred dumplings ahead of time and the dumplings were cooked during service. One of my duties was cooking dumplings fresh to order. So while I can’t proclaim I was a professional dumpling wrapper, I did get paid to cook dumplings. This makes me somewhat of a retired dumpling professional (see pro tips at the bottom of this post). Fast forward 12 years, my love of dumplings has grown. I don’t cook dumplings for money anymore and my …

Too easy free range sausage rolls

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I could eat my weight in sausage rolls. If I see sausage rolls at a party, I’ll make a beeline and scoff them without shame. I’m not the only one, there’s always others. I know who you are. Sausage rolls are one of New Zealand’s most beloved foods. Golden puff pastry with a meaty filling, cut into bite-sized morsels and served with plenty of tomato sauce, sausage rolls appeared at all the childhood birthday parties I attended growing up. They are a comfort food and a party food for all generations. Sausage rolls can be eaten hot or cold making them equally good for winter nights or summer picnics which is why I’m submitting this post to Taste of Summer edition of Our Growing Edge this month. I’ve been experimenting and perfecting this recipe using L’Authentique’s french grind. Made locally, L’Authentique sausages are made from free range meat and contain no fillers. Coming in a range of different flavours, I’ve made these sausage rolls at home using their Toulouse, Angus Beef, Pork & Fennel and Chicken & Bacon sausage meat. My …

Tasty hot dogs and a meaty giveaway

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L’Authentique (law-thon-teek) is a small local charcuterie run by Frenchmen. Charcuterie (sha-koo-ta-ree) is the culinary art of turning meat (mostly pork) into delicious things such as sausage, bacon, ham, terrines and pates. Known primarily for their handmade sausages, I love L’Authentique’s gluten free, dairy free and free range meat products. There are no fillers here and definitely no carcinogens (for those who worry about recent food headlines). The Koala and I have been eating lots of L’Authentique sausages this year. We tried the whole range of sausages so far and they are great to serve up at home or to take to a barbecue where you want to impress. I’ve yet to meet a sausage lover who doesn’t fall in love with L’Authentique sausages. Summer collaboration L’Authentique have just released two summer sausages for the Kiwi barbecue. In collaboration with Javier Carmona, Executive Chef at Orleans, a hot and smokey Louisiana Andouille (ahn-DOO-eee) sausage that comes in a 4 pack; and in collaboration with Hallertau Brewery, the Asian-inspired Peking Maximus which is made with Hallertau Maximus …

Goats go to Hell…Pizza

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I was recently invited to try the the latest from Hell Pizza. I make pizza at home and standard toppings are not my speciality. Smoked salmon, spiced lamb and fat prawns wind up on pizzas at our house. Hell Pizza are on that adventurous foodie journey too so I was interested to see what was on offer. Enlisting the help of some Wellington food heroes, Hell Pizza have created the “El Cabra”. The Spanish word for goat, this Mexican-inspired dish was created by Chef Martin Bosley, Panhead Custom Ales and Mexican restaurant La Boca Loca. Hell Pizza are infamous for their naughty marketing tactics and controversial pizzas (hide your rabbits and your kangaroos) but this time, I feel like they’ve gone for something pretty accessible. I’ve eaten goat recently and I’ve cooked with it before and it’s really nothing to be nervous about. The flavour of the goat meat is very similar lamb – one of our country’s most prized meats. It’s a wonder why we don’t see goat on the menu more often. Did you know that all Hell Pizzas …

10 tips for charcoal barbecue noobs

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The Koala doesn’t spend much time in my kitchen our kitchen, but like most red-blooded kiwi males, The Koala is happy behind a barbecue (with beer in hand). We haven’t had a barbecue for a few years so The Koala and I bought ourselves a charcoal barbecue for Christmas. Introducing our Charmate 57cm Premium Charcoal BBQ. There were 3 options for this size which we dubbed the cheapie ($80), the middle of the road ($200) and the Weber ($400). We went for the $200 option and also picked up a cover, a barbecue tool set, a lighter, Manuka wood chips and 2 bags of hardwood lump coal. Yes, we got ourselves coal for Christmas! We must have been bad this year.   Gas barbecues are super popular here in New Zealand because they are quick, convenient and cheap to run. But we figure, we cook with gas in our kitchen every day. We know what gas cooking tastes like. We would like a new experience please!   Charcoal is different to gas (no shit). You get a …

Duck Duck Duck!

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To celebrate 4 years of Bunny Eats Design, I’d like to share a few wonderful things that I’ve gushed about, salivated over and adored. You might have noticed I have a little love affair with duck. Be it duck fat, duck liver or duck legs. If you followed my 31 reviews in 31 days last month, you may have noticed I ordered duck quite a few times last month. Yes, duck and I are old friends (well, the ducks might not think so). With special thanks to Saveur Duck, we are giving away a whole duck to each of 3 prize winners. Now 3 of you can join me on my duck feasting! Due to the logistics of this prize, this competition is only open to Auckland, Hamilton and Wellington residents. To enter, simply fill in the form below.

6. Cazador

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In celebration of Auckland Restaurant Month, I will be posting 31 quick-fire reviews on 31 restaurants and cafes in the Auckland CBD and city fringe. The atmosphere is… A charming kitschy restaurant complete with round archways, plastered walls and more taxidermied beast and fowl than some diners will feel comfortable with. The bar area was packed and boisterous at 6pm when we arrived, the dining area quietly well behaved. Come here for… Game meat (and vegetable) dishes served in an unfussy style. Simple clean flavours using unusual ingredients. The menu of about 5 starters and 5 mains changes frequently with daily specials to entice. The most interesting thing on the menu… Crumbed lamb’s brains with sauce gribiche (current menu) Poussin hearts with pancetta and parsley (daily special) Unexpectedly wonderful… Braised ox tail Crumbed lamb’s brains with sauce gribiche I would come back to try… Everything. They menu is updated every 2-3 weeks to keep things interesting, though favourites will re-appear in various forms. Catering to… Omnivores and adventurous meat eaters. Free range, ethically sourced meat eaters. …

Devouring the beast

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  Last Saturday, my friends Coco, Miss A and The Koala and I enjoyed a day of activities related to the beast. Observing the beast First, the girls and I joined up mid-day and went to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Auckland Museum. 100 photos from both professionals and amateurs wielding professional cameras amazed and inspired us. Devouring the beast Later that day, we joined up again, this time with The Koala in tow and feasted on beasts at Cazador – Auckland’s only game meat restaurant. I’d been dreaming of this animalistic day for a while. Looking at photos of beautiful birds and beasts and eating birds and beasts later. It’s a macabre pairing so I’m glad we let a good 6 hours pass between the two activities. Cazador comes highly recommended by anyone that visits and was a wonderful experience. The food is cooked simply, letting the unusual ingredients shine. More on Cazador in my dedicated quick-fire review later today. Like any good food blogger, I had studied Cazador’s latest menu prior to our visit. Their …

Do you read labels?

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I actually enjoy grocery shopping because I don’t spend a long time reading labels. Shopping would take longer and be more of a chore if I had to read the label of every item. I generally have products I know and trust and those I never read the ingredients list on, things like steak, bananas, butter etc. A bargain…? We usually buy our meat at the butchers because of the price and quality. Our local supermarket more expensive and the quality is not as good, but we recently shopped at a discount supermarket (the yellow and black kind) and I was amazed that the meat was half price or less. That should have been a warning, but the bargain hunter in me said, “Woohoo! A meaty bargain!!!”. I bought a package of “steak” at the discount supermarket. The “sirloin” was on special at $10 per kg, so thinking I had eyed up a fantastic deal, I bought a pack. Sirloin steak at our local butchery is $25.95 per kg, so that should have triggered alarm bells. …

Slow Cooked Orange Pulled Pork (with crackling)

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We are hoarding oranges. We don’t eat oranges, but they keep turning up, hence the collection. I have good intentions, I mean to eat them, which is why I haven’t cancelled or blacklisted oranges. If we had a juicer we might get through what we we receive from our boxes. Therefore, the next best thing is to use orange as an ingredient. Luckily, we love our meat with fruit in this house and The Koala was eager for me to test out another pulled pork on him. I used a boneless pork shoulder for my Hoisin pulled pork recipe but this version uses one with bone in as it was cheaper this week. Feel free to use either. I am loving our first winter living with a slow cooker. A hand-me-down from Mum, it’s worth the extra space it takes up on our counter. To save on time and dishes, I used the ceramic pot and lid from our slow cooker to marinade in. This requires substantial fridge space so if you don’t have this, …

Happy meat makes me happy

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I’ve always wanted to buy meat direct from a farm, but I thought that was reserved for people with chest freezers in the basement. We have neither chest freezer or a basement. We are really lucky here in New Zealand to have many independent farms who offer meat to the public. If you follow Bunny Eats Design on Facebook, you might have noticed me recently gloating about the 20 or so kilos of beef we have in the freezer. The skinny Steve and Pip delivered the meat from their 1300 acres in Wairarapa direct to our home. It really doesn’t get much easier. Eketahuna Country Meats raise their own deer, lamb and Angus beef. Eketahuna Country Meats offer: Angus beef (whole $1300, 20kg packs $300, half or quarter*) Lamb (whole $220*) Pork (whole $600, half $300*) Someone who has been buying beef this way for years gave me a wise tip: Don’t eat all the steak first. With 9 packs of mince and 7 packs of sausages in our lot, I can see why. The …

The Shanghai Chicken Project

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The premise I’ve followed the blog Sybaritica for a while and I enjoy John’s experimental and honest love of Asian cuisine. It was there I found out about The Shanghai Chicken Project and his buddy Stefan’s Gourmet Blog. The Shanghai Chicken Project is based on a mysterious chili chicken dish of dubious origin with pine nuts and broccoli leaves. If you have been following my blog for a while, you’ll know I love a good foodie challenge. I also happened to have some premium New Zealand pine nuts and a fermented chili paste I was hoping to play with so it like it was meant to be. The Shanghai Chicken Project rules: Prepare a dish inspired by Bamboo Restaurant’s Shanghai Chicken. It has to include chicken, chiles of some sort, vegetable greens, and nuts. It could be a known recipe or one of your own — traditional or newly invented. Blog about your dish or send Stefan photos and a description of what you did. Lee Kum Kee’s Chili bean sauce (Toban Djan) Toban Djan …

Big Bad Wolf – Gourmet Charcuterie

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This post is part of Our Growing Edge, a monthly blogging event to encourage us to try new food related things. Chandler from The Chef With Red Shoes is the host for month’s event. If you have a blog and have cooked, eaten or experienced a new food this month, come and join this event. I can’t remember where I read about Big Bad Wolf, but the idea of eating at a gourmet charcuterie (sha-koo-te-ree) had me swooning. Charcuterie refers to (mostly cured) meat products such as bacon (pancetta, prosciutto), ham, sausages and salamis, terrines and pâtés. Ham is one of my favourite things in the world and though I made bacon once I prefer to leave my small goods to the pros. We visited Wellington last week and when I divulged this place with The Koala he was just as excited as me. It wasn’t our intention to eat alpaca, but it just turned out that way. We dropped in for a nibble and beers on Sunday and Big Bad Wolf did not disappoint. We would have come again …

Easy Stroganoff

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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 …

Lamb Sausages and Grapes

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Lamb is getting cheaper and cheaper here in NZ and I suspect it’s to do with our strong kiwi dollar. A lot of the lamb raised here gets shipped off to overseas markets so it’s a treat to be able to afford it. Still, if you don’t want the commitment of a whole lamb leg, lamb sausages are a cheap and tasty way to eat lamb. Nosh Food Market usually put a different sausage on special each week and last week was their really good lamb sausages for $11 kg. Nosh’s Black Rock Butchery are surprisingly good and their specials are very good and it’s no small feat that Nosh recently won the NZ Ham of the Year prize at the annual 100% Bacon and Ham competition. At Nosh, you can ask the butcher real foodie questions, like portion sizes and their cooking reccomendations. A stark contrast to the supermarket where I once asked the lady behind the seafood counter if they had any flounder left (on special that week). She did not know what …

Make Bacon

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After reading the book Heat by Bill Buford, I’ve dreamed of curing my own pork. Curing meat uses salt to draw out the moisture and this allows the meat to last much longer. When the apocalypse that we’re all waiting for hits, we might need low tech techniques like these to make our food go further. Maybe. In the meantime, there’s nothing wrong with home made bacon just for fun. Traditionally, pig slaughter takes place in autumn, after a summer of fattening up and curing begins at this time of year too. The work is generally done outside and needs cooler temperatures to keep the meat happy. Winter is too cold in many parts of the world to work outdoors, so Autumn is the perfect season. Also, in the northern hemisphere, the holiday season follows soon after autumn and there is much appreciation of pork over the festive feast period. Christmas ham anyone? I’ve always loved the idea of curing/brining my own bacon. I wasn’t sure if I was going to smoke it too since I …