-The KitchenMaid-

Sweet sweet Friday: Plum Crumble Cake

2012-02-24T06:55:00.002+13:00

For months now the weather forecasters have been promising us an Indian summer. Now, with the trees outside nearly blown horizontal by winds of up to 130km and rain seeping in the dining room window, I read that they are admitting we might be waiting until 2013. Lovely.

In the meantime, summer must be happening somewhere in New Zealand because the market last week was full of stonefruit - big, juicy Golden Queen peaches and Omega plums. Some of the plums suffered a bit from being squashed on the way home (not to mention being rolled along the kitchen floor by a pair of small hands), so they ended up in this cake.

Plum Crumble Cake
I started experimenting with this cake a few weeks ago, using rhubarb, when Melissa came over for morning tea. I think this version is better - and as luck would have it she's coming over this morning so I'll see what she thinks. Don't be put off by the length of the instructions - with a processor you can get this in the oven in 20 minutes or less (especially if you have a date with Grand Designs on TV. Oh Kevin, how I love thee...)

150g soft butter
300g caster sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp almond essence (I have a thing for almond essence at the moment, but you could use vanilla)
100g ground almonds
150g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Fruit - about two cups of sliced stonefruit or rhubarb

Crumble topping
50g butter
50g flour
1Tbsp sugar

Preheat the oven to 170C and grease and flour a 22-24cm tin.
Put the crumble ingredients in the processor and whiz briefly. Tip out into a waiting bowl.
Slice the fruit and set aside.
Put the butter and sugar into the processor and whiz until well creamed. Stop the machine and tip in the essence, half the ground almonds and the eggs. Process again for 10 seconds. Scrape down the sides and pulse again. Tip in the rest of the almonds, the flour and baking powder. Pulse until mixed.
Scrape out into the prepared tin. Top with the fruit, then the crumble mixture. Bake for 40-50 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean-ish. Leave in the tin for five minutes, then turn out carefully. Good warm after watching Kevin McCloud or cold in the morning for breakfast.

Have a sweet, sweet Friday everyone. I had a moment of madness and signed up to do another half-marathon on Sunday... so think of me, when you're lying in bed reading the paper, won't you?

F.E.O Chicken

2012-02-22T06:42:00.001+13:00

People often assume I do all the cooking at our house and sometimes, when I am feeling especially like slack housewife, I let them. But during the week, at least in the horrible after-work rush, the Boy Wonder puts his pinny on* so when I get home from work dinner is already underway.
Last week he rang me at work, sounding rushed. I immediately envisaged the house being on fire or the Small Girl being in hospital but something much bigger was at stake.

Him: "I need to know the order again."
Me: "What order?"
Him: "For the chicken. What do I do after the flour and before the oats?"
Me: "Oh. Egg. Flour, then egg (a beaten one), then - what? Oats? There's some panko breadcrumbs somewhere I think..."
Him: "No, I'm going to use oats. Ok, so egg, then flour, then oats."
Me: "No, flour, then egg, then oats. Flour, egg, oats. Do you really want to use oats? I think breadc..."
Him: "No, I'm going to use oats. Flour, egg. oats. F.E.O. Ok. Got it. Text me when you're on the way."

F.E.O Chicken
So, what I have learned from this is that a) I don't always know best and b) my husband makes excellent fried chicken. This is - roughly - how he does it.

Chicken pieces - we use free-range, bone-in chicken thighs, because that's what I buy at the supermarket
Flour
Salt and pepper
A beaten egg or two (also free range, see above)
Rolled oats
Peanut oil

Put some flour in a shallow bowl and grind in some salt and pepper.
Crack the egg(s) into a bowl and beat lightly.
Tip some rolled oats into a third bowl.
Dredge the chicken pieces in the flour, then egg, then oats (recite the F.E.O mantra if you are worried about getting confused). At this point you can set the chicken aside in the fridge if dinner is some time away.
Heat some oil in a large heavy pan over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook, turning occasionally, until the juices run clear. Turn the heat down once you have a nice golden crust and just be patient. "It takes a while, but you want it to be cooked," says the expert.
Serve with homemade chips and salad made from the cos lettuces you grew yourself in the mini allotment at the end of the garden. The little bits of oaty crust that get left behind in the pan are an excellent treat for whoever does the dishes.

*He doesn't really wear an apron. He does have a high-vis vest though - but it might be a bit flammable to cook in.

Who does the weeknight cooking in your house?

Guilty pleasures: The Macaroon

2012-02-21T06:32:00.001+13:00

Since today is Shrove Tuesday - the day in which you are supposed to have one (or many) last feasts to use up all the decadent foods you've sworn to give up for Lent - I thought I should offer you some food porn.

This is the guilty pleasure I mentioned in my list of food resolutions - a coconut macaroon from the supermarket. Looks benign enough, doesn't it? Then take a look at this...

In case you can't quite read the small print, there are more numbers here than in a maths textbook. Even the coconut is not quite coconut, but something called 'Kokomix' - which has lots of other goodies in it like milk fat, stabiliser, preservative, colour (colour? it's white!) and modified starch. The most depressing thing is that the 'chocolate' is a mixture of cocoa powder and various fats - but it DOES have coconut oil, which I guess boosts the overall coconut factor a bit.

What this label doesn't tell you though is that these toxic treats really are delicious. I first discovered them at an Italian cafe in town, where they cost three times as much despite being identical. Learning that they were on sale at the supermarket just a few minutes' walk from work was my downfall towards the end of last year. Not now though. I am strong. I have willpower. And I am going to go one further and give up chocolate for Lent. After all, my chocolate dependent friend Ann once gave it up for a year - surely I can manage six weeks, right? Especially since the chocolate on the macaroons doesn't count...

Are you giving anything up for Lent? Or is retox, not detox, your motto?

Musical Monday: Jazmine D.L

2012-02-20T06:45:00.000+13:00

Sweet sweet Friday: Biffo Biscuits

2012-02-17T06:35:00.018+13:00

I've felt very out of sorts with the world this week. You'd think running 21.1km through the scenic Buller Gorge would have drained me of all aggression and anxiety, but apparently not. (It did leave me unable to move without wincing for a day or two, but that's different.)

So when I found a recipe for cookies that promised to help get rid of any excess anger, I couldn't wait to try it. Even if you don't make these you must read this fantastic post from the archives of Rhode Island blogger Lydia Walshin, who imagines the life of baking powder as an opera libretto. It's one of the funniest things I've read all week - and the fact that there's a cookie recipe at the end of it makes it all the better. When I emailed Lydia, who has a whole swag of blogs on the go, to ask if I could link to her post and adapt the recipe, she told me that "all recipes are meant to be played with". I think she's my new favourite person.

Biffo Biscuits
Do you know what biffo is? It's Antipodean slang for violence or bother, ie, you might come home with a black eye after getting into a bit of biffo at the pub.
The Small Girl and I made these yesterday after our usual Thursday visit to the supermarket (which is often full of people who look like they would love to give you a broken arm or two).
It was surprisingly therapeutic, partly because she had such a good time eating most of the mixture. We did have a bit of a fight at the end when I tried to get her to wash her hands, but there were no black eyes.

125g soft butter
120g soft brown sugar
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp ground ginger
1/2tsp ground cloves
3/4tsp baking powder
80g wholemeal flour
100g rolled oats
60g whole oats

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a baking tray. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until soft. Add all the remaining ingredients and mix well, using a spoon and your fingers. It's especially good, messy fun to squelch the mixture through your hands. When you have played with it long enough, or your mother tells you that if you eat any more you won't eat your lunch, roll into small balls and place on the prepared tray. Press each one lightly - using a small fist or a fork - and bake for 10-15 minutes or until lightly golden. Leave on the tray for a few minutes, then remove to a rack to cool completely. Makes 16-20 small cookies, depending how much gets eaten/goes on the floor in the process.

Have a great weekend, everyone. The Boy Wonder has been doing a lot of cooking at our place recently so I've got some fun things to show you next week...

Happy Birthday Cuisine

2012-02-16T07:03:00.000+13:00

New Zealand's longest-running food magazine is 25 this month. Congratulations, Cuisine!

What's your favourite food mag?

Sweet sweet Friday: Sara Lee Cheesecake

2012-02-10T06:44:00.003+13:00

Not content with wading into the murky waters of recipe ownership, I have now trumped myself by making a cheesecake that looks just like a bought one. Not a posh bought one, mind you, but the sort that comes from a supermarket freezer cabinet.

I didn't mean to pay homage to Sara Lee or Crofters, it just happened. And the fact that it happened when we had some very discerning guests for dinner made it all the more amusing. At least, they were laughing with me, not at me. Weren't they?

Sara Lee Cheesecake
The really funny thing is that on the Sara Lee website they have a recipe for 'making' a cheesecake, which involves taking one out of its box and spreading jam on top. This is slightly more complicated than that, but I think you'll find it's worth the trouble. If you are going to top it with jam, use the poshest, fruitiest sort you can find. I used 'Blackbird Valley Blueberry Jam' from Moutere Gold, which is too nice to have on toast. Quince jelly would be great too.

150g digestive biscuits or similar
100g butter
450g cream cheese (not 'light', please), at room temperature
100g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond essence
200ml cream
Posh jam or lemon curd or fresh berries

Line a springform tin with clingfilm - I used a 24cm tin but a smaller one will be fine.
Melt the butter in a medium-sized pot and let almost brown. Pulverise the biscuits to crumbs in the food processor and add to the butter. Mix well and press into the prepared tin. Stick in the freezer while you prepare the filling.
Put the cream cheese, sugar and essences in the processor (don't worry about stray crumbs) and blitz until mixed. Whip the cream until it just reaches the soft peak stage. Fold in the cream cheese.
Pour the mixture onto the base and smooth the top. Spread with the posh jam, curd or sprinkle with fresh berries. Cover and stick in the fridge for at least two hours. Unveil to a rapturous, if amused, reception.

Have a sweet, sweet Friday everyone. I'm supposedly running a half-marathon tomorrow, argh!

Stirring up trouble

2012-02-08T06:28:00.002+13:00

I feel terrible. Last week I was contacted by the editor of a cookbook who asked that I remove a recipe from it from my blog. I'd attributed the recipe and raved about the book, but the editor reminded me that the recipes were copyright and that, essentially, it wasn't fair to post it. I accidentally compounded the issue by not seeing the comment until the weekend, which resulted in another aggrieved comment, but have since deleted the recipe.

I felt awful about it, but in my defence, this particular recipe had been published online before - by a newspaper with about 250,000 more readers than this blog - which made me feel it was ok to publish it myself.

But it has made me think - how should the food blogging community share recipes from other sources?
I know I feel a bit peeved if I discover someone has ripped a recipe of mine without attributing it, but who really 'owns' a recipe?
Are recipes like Facebook photos, available to everyone unless you set barriers to sharing them?
And - this is the really tricky bit - what if you have a recipe which came to you from Great Aunt Doreen, but unbeknownst to you really originated from the Edmonds' Cookbook, or Larousse Gastronomique, or Jamie Oliver? Is it Doreen's? Or yours? Or does it still belong to the original recipe writer?
Has this happened to you before? How do you handle other people's recipes? Should we develop a food blogger's code of ethics?

I'd love to know what you think - especially if you've been asked to take recipes off your site (or you've asked someone else to remove 'your' recipes). In the meantime, there's plenty to chew over in this piece about recipe ownership.

The Silver Spoon's Pollo Arosto

2012-02-07T06:52:00.000+13:00

Who was it that said the more things change, the more they stay the same? This time last year I was shamefacedly admitting that I'd never cooked a single recipe from The Silver Spoon, the mammoth Italian cookbook apparently given to new brides that the Boy Wonder gave me for our wedding anniversary in 2007.
I dragged it out for the first-ever instalment of Belleau Kitchen's Random Recipe challenge - and made a promise to myself to dip into it more often, which I have done. A bit. Well, I use it for reference a lot, and we did actually make an amazing swordfish thing out of it together, which was not in the usual rules for new Italian brides in the 1950s.

But to celebrate both Random Recipe's first birthday - and our wedding anniversary - I dipped into The Silver Spoon again last night to make this rustic pot-roasted chicken. I was covered in dirt following an afternoon in the vegetable garden and felt more like an ancient Italian peasant woman than Sophia Loren, but that's not such a bad thing, is it? There is an elegance in rustic simplicity, after all.

Pollo Arosto
This requires only a modicum more attention than an oven-roasted chicken and you don't have to stand over the stove for long. The Silver Spoon recommends eating it with ''buttered carrots'' but we had it with rice and bowl of salad greens.

4Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 stick celery (I actually used a bulb of fennel, which worked well), chopped
1 stalk fresh rosemary
1 good chicken
salt and pepper

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy pot with a lid (like a Le Creuset or similar). Add the vegetables and rosemary and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Wash and dry the chicken and season the cavity with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string (or a bit of green bias binding, if that is the only thing that comes to hand). Raise the heat and add the chicken to the pot. Cook for another 15 minutes, turning occasionally. Splash in a bit of water or wine and clamp on the lid, then cook over low-medium heat for 45-50 minutes, until the chicken is cooked. The vegetables will cook down to a deliciously dark and sticky sauce, which is very good with rice.

Musical Monday: Pokarekare Ana

2012-02-06T06:25:00.000+13:00

Happy Waitangi Day chums (please excuse the Air New Zealand branding at the end, this was the best version I could find).

Sweet sweet Friday: Digger Cake

2012-02-03T06:57:00.002+13:00

Last year I had a massive dose of guilty mum-itis after ignoring the reminder notices about fundraising for the Small Girl's nursery. I couldn't bear the thought of ringing up donors for the charity auction, so I recklessly dashed off an email to the organiser offering my baking services as an auction lot instead.

Unfortunately, we happened to be sitting next to the nice people who generously bid a lot of cash for the prospect of me making them something (egged on by the Boy Wonder and some cheap Italian wine). Then I promptly forgot about it, until I got an email in December, asking me to make their son's third birthday cake in January. Suddenly, ringing up and begging for donations didn't seem like such a bad idea. But then I remembered the third birthday party we went to last year, where clever Kate had made a quarry sort of cake, complete with Lego diggers, and everything seemed to fall into place.

Digger Cake
Rather than give you a step-by-step guide, here's a rough outline of how to make your own digger cake extravaganza. Cake decorating is not my forte but this was surprisingly therapeutic. The best bit was digging out holes in the quarry, because it felt like such a wicked thing to do. Perhaps I need to get out more.

2 x chocolate cakes - I made two cakes to this recipe and cooked them in 19 x 29 cm brownie tins.
1 x batch of Dan Lepard's meringue buttercream icing - adding a splash of orange essence and tinting it 'digger yellow'
1 x packet chocolate finger biscuits - for the retaining walls around the cake
1 x Crunchie bar, some chocolate peanuts, and sundry other bits of chocolate for rocks etc
Other sweets could also be good - peppermints for concrete blocks, liquorice straps, jelly baby bystanders...
1 x digger toy of your choice

Trim the top of the cakes so they are level - save the bits to use as decoration later. Put them on a cake board - or a large piece of cardboard covered in foil or wrapping paper. Slather on the icing - pretend you're a plasterer, if you really want to get into the theme of it - and work your magic with the sweets and digger to create a suitable ambiance.

Have a sweet, sweet Friday everyone x

Hungry for more

2012-01-31T07:06:00.000+13:00

Just over a year ago I asked for your input when I was redesigning the food supplement of a newspaper. Now - as if I didn't have enough on my plate - I'm doing the same for a website. (I do love my job sometimes. In fact, I love it most of the time.)
Anyway, now I would love you to let me know what you like - and dislike about food on t'internet.

...Nineteen, twenty, my plate's empty!

What sites do you love to look at for food news, reviews and general inspiration?
Do you meander around the 'lifestyle' sections of big news websites, or prefer to go off piste with a few trusted blogs?
Do you use recipe finder tools? Do you watch 'how-to' videos online?
How do you feel about "sponsored" recipes (ie, "These recipes are brought to you by brand X")?
Do you visit some sites purely to read the recipes of a particular chef or writer?
What about food on Facebook - or Twitter?

I'd really love to know what you think. Comment away, and hopefully I'll be able to come up with something you'll love in a few weeks...

Tangzhong Bread

2012-01-28T13:32:00.000+13:00

My powers of concentration are shot at the moment, so bear with me if this post goes awry. That said, even though I can't be relied upon to make a cup of tea, successfully go to the shop to buy a paper or remember to leave a key out, I did manage to make this bread for January's Fresh From The Oven challenge.

I'd never heard of the Tangzhong method, which involves making a flour and water roux (rhymes with - and looks like - glue), and at first glance this seemed horribly complicated. But I followed Silvia and Ivan's advice and all was well. Mostly. The point I'm trying to make is that if I can get this to work, you can.

Tangzhong Bread
The glue-roux may seem odd but it is supposed to make the bread very light and fluffy, with good keeping qualities. The former is definitely true, but we've eaten both the loaves I made too quickly for me to confirm the latter. Do not attempt this without a freestanding mixer, unless you are a masochist or very strong.

Tangzhong:
30g flour
155ml cold water

Dough:
125ml milk
1tsp dried yeast
350g strong flour
55g sugar
1tsp salt
1 egg
30g butter

First, prepare the tangzhong. Whisk together the cold water and flour (there should be no lumps) in a small saucepan and cook over low heat (stirring all the time) until the temperature reaches 65C. This takes about five minutes. If you don't have a thermometer, cook until the spoon you're stirring with leaves a trace. Pour the tangzhong into a small bowl and leave to cool to room temperature (by the time you have everything organised it should be fine).
Wash out the tangzhong saucepan and scald the milk, then pour into the bowl of a freestanding mixer and let cool to blood heat. Add the yeast and stir to dissolve.
Wash out the saucepan AGAIN and use it to melt the butter. Set aside.
Add the flour, salt, sugar, egg and 120g of the tangzhong to the yeast and milk. (Don't throw the remainder of the tangzhong out, you'll need it later.)
Stir to a soft dough, then add the melted butter. Turn the mixer to low speed and let the dough hooks work their magic for 15-20 minutes. The dough is very soft and sticky. You can tell if it's ready by taking a small piece of it and stretching it to a very thin membrane before it tears.
Remove the bowl from the mixer, cover and sit it in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size (around 90 minutes).
Knock the dough down on a lightly floured counter top and knead gently to let the gas escape. Form it into a loaf shape - I took advice from here (though I found it very difficult to roll out and just pressed it out with my fingertips, then rolled up). Put in a well-greased loaf tin, cover with plastic and let double in size again (about an hour).
Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Carefully brush the risen dough with the rest of the tangzhong (it will be quite solid by now, so thin it down a bit with milk or water) and bake for around 30 – 35 minutes until golden.

Sweet sweet Friday: 'Wonder Day' Biscuits

2012-01-27T07:30:00.002+13:00

It seems like years ago now, but I came home from our Christmas holiday at the end of December to discover the most amazing present in the letterbox - a copy of Dan Lepard's Short and Sweet. I'd heard a lot about the book - there's even a Twitter-based cook-off sort of thing called 'Short and Tweet' - and it's even better than I dreamed it would be.
The Random Recipes hook for January is to select a recipe from your newest cookbook, so I dipped into it with glee.

Wonder Day Biscuits
Dan Lepard calls these 'One A Day' Biscuits, but the Small Girl has renamed them 'Wonder Day' biscuits and is having trouble accepting that she's only allowed one a day. I blame her genes, because her father calls them 'Two or Three a Day if you're Daddy' Biscuits. They're very, very good, especially as a pre-breakfast snack if you are about to embark on a long run (which I am supposed to be doing at the moment). They are also good with a cup of tea in bed when even the thought of getting up makes you want to cry.

POSTSCRIPT
My apologies - I have removed this recipe from my blog at the request of Dan Lepard's editor. You'll just have to buy the book (which is absolutely worth it). Bon appetit!
Have a sweet, sweet weekend everyone x

Avocado Hummus

2012-01-25T06:46:00.000+13:00

Late last year, when the avocado mafia were bombarding me with emails about how to use avocados in all manner of things instead of eating them as nature intended (on Vogels toast, with lots of lemon juice, salt and pepper), I went on strike and hardly ate any. But a couple of weeks ago I found some that were perfectly ripe, with firm, buttery flesh and had a bit of a binge. Well, I ate two in two days. Is that a binge? This is what I did with the third one.

Avocado Hummus

This is hardly a recipe - more what I would tell you to do if you rang me up and said, "what shall I do with this avocado?". It was a complete spur of the moment experiment that turned out exceptionally well. Don't you love it when that happens? The hummus has a faintly green tinge and the lemon juice seems to stop it from going brown if you don't eat it all in one go.

1 clove garlic, smashed

good pinch of sea salt

zest and juice of 2 lemons

1 tin chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 ripe avocado, halved, stoned and peeled

2 spring onions, white part only, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, smashed

good pinch of sea salt

zest and juice of 2 lemons

a slosh of good olive oil

a spoonful or two of tahini (optional)

Put the garlic, salt and lemon zest and juice into a food processor. Whizz briefly. Add all other ingredients and blitz until a smooth puree forms. You may need to add a little more lemon juice or olive oil to taste, but you don't need much olive oil thanks to the avocado. Scrape into a bowl and serve. Store in the fridge for up to three days.

On another note, my friends at Crumbs have declared 2012 to be the year of the vegetable (take that, London Olympics!). They're harnessing the power of the interweb to collate a whole lot of vege-friendly recipes, so do nip over if you're in need of inspiration or have something to share.

Mother lode

2012-01-23T14:21:00.003+13:00

It's common to speak of the recently deceased as if they were a saint, but my mother, who died on January 12, actually was one. Mum may not have invented the concept of 'keep calm and carry on', but she embodied it, sailing serenely and smilingly through the storms of life, especially those brought about by having 10 children.

Mum may have been saintly but she wasn't dull. She was charming, funny, quick-witted, well-read, well-travelled and well-dressed (except when in her motley collection of gardening clothes or in the various 'idiot' hats she wore to the beach). She was also a fabulous cook, both inventive and adventurous. When most of my school friends were eating meat and three veg, we were eating dishes mum had discovered on her travels or in books. When failing health meant she was taken into care last year she told my sister that the rest home food wasn't bad, "but it definitely needed condiments".

Last week, as our family gathered to farewell mum, we spent a lot of time sitting around the table that has been the scene of so many meals, conversations and celebrations; laughing, crying, talking.

Mum and Dad should have been there; one standing on the other side of the kitchen bench looking for their wine glass, the other telling us we were making too much noise. Their days, as their headstone will read, "were filled with gladness". Now all we can wish for is that they are reunited, enjoying a gin and tonic and talking about what to have for dinner.

Star grazing

2012-01-10T06:33:00.002+13:00

Look into my crystal ball, for I am going to tell you what is going to be big in food in 2012. (And make sure you have pen and paper ready because after that I'll have the winning EuroMillions numbers and a hot tip for the Wellington Cup.)

I have no idea what is going to be "hot" this year. Actually, I can barely tell you what was hot last year. From memory, I made a lot of bread, ate a lot of dark chocolate, drank gallons of tea and grew a lot of chillies. I expect 2012 will be much the same (not least because last week we planted some Thai Dragon chillies in our new garden). Apart from the occasional blip I achieved my 2011 goal of making all the bread we eat and I can't imagine going back to the bought stuff. I haven't chanced upon a similar goal for this year yet, but I do have a set of resolutions that I want to share with you:

1. I will learn to sharpen knives, because we have three amazing knives that were wedding presents and they have never been sharpened. This is ridiculous. And they are getting a little blunt.
2. I will learn to carve a turkey/chicken/poussin/quail properly, because it is 2012 and I do not want to spend next Christmas Eve trying to speed-read a Martha Steward tutorial on turkey carving, only to forget it all the next afternoon.
3. I will buy a slotted spoon, because there is no need to add stress to my life by using a fish slice and a pen/teaspoon/knife/whatever else comes to hand when removing a poached egg or bagel from boiling water.
4. I will wear gloves to do the washing up and remember that wet teatowels are of no use whatsoever when handling hot oven trays, because my hands are wrinkled enough already and the Small Girl does not need to hear a string of increasingly colourful curses as her mother burns her fingers (again).
5. I will delve into the piles of recipe cuttings and cull them ruthlessly, because I am well on the way to becoming a mad old lady with drawers full of recipes.
6. I will buy a tart tin with a removeable base so we can eat more pies.
7. I will sit down to eat.
8. I will not sit down to eat at my desk, if I can help it.
9. I will just say no to the enormous glace cherry-topped macaroons sold at the supermarket (after I've bought one to show you, just once, how amazing they are).
10. I will remember how lucky I am to be able to have food in my fridge and family and friends to share it with.

Do you have any culinary resolutions for 2012? Go on, inspire me...

Sweet sweet Friday: Krummeltorte

2011-12-30T15:15:00.001+13:00

One last post before 2011 comes to a close - and just enough time to fit in Random Recipe for December. I felt quite aggrieved when Dom suggested we use a recipe from a book we were intending to give to charity, considering that I'd done a pre-move book purge just weeks before. But yesterday, when trying to fit more books on the shelves than was good for them (or me), I realised several more could find new homes.
Top of the pile was the 10th anniversary edition of Sophie Gray's Stunning Food From Small Change, which I acquired when I interviewed her in 2010. Gray, who changed her cooking and eating habits when she and her husband decided to become self-employed (and took a massive cut in income), was a bit of a novelty when this was first published in 2000. She did radical things like suggesting meatless meals, avoiding convenience foods and generally going in for a bit of kitchen DIY (I know, I know, some people don't know this stuff...)
It's not the most inspiring book, but I have found myself turning to it in times of severe economic hardship. Even so, I think it's time for someone else to benefit from Sophie's choices.

Krummeltorte
It's not all red lentils and ways to stretch one sausage to feed four in Gray's book - here's a slightly tweaked version of a recipe from the 'Decadence' chapter. It's a great high-speed pud to have up your sleeve, especially at this time of year when visitors seem to be forever knocking on the door.
If you don't have lemon curd and sour cream (I had both in the fridge rapidly approaching use-by dates), some tart, stewed fruit would be fab.

2 cups self-raising flour
1 cup sugar
100g cold butter, cubed
2 eggs
2 cups lemon curd
1/2 cup sour cream (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line a 24cm springform cake tin or loose-bottomed tart tin.
Put the flour, sugar and butter into the food processor and blitz until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the eggs and blitz again until it just forms a dough. Turn out and press together, then press two-thirds of the mixture into the prepared tin. Mix the curd and sour cream together, then pour on top of the dough. Crumble the remaining mixture over the top. Bake for 35 minutes or until golden. Dust with icing sugar before serving with a dollop of cream or yoghurt.

Now, the best thing about doing this was not only did our lunch guests wolf this down like there was no tomorrow, but I made some space on the bookshelf (and in the fridge) AND found the beautiful cake stencils my sister sent me for Christmas about a decade ago. Now, what shall I throw out next...

Hope you welcome the New Year in style, wherever you are. See you in 2012!

Chocolate Orange Wreath

2011-12-28T14:02:00.000+13:00

Most people have leftovers to cope with after Christmas; I have leftover blogging events. Well, they're not leftovers as such, more that I couldn't quite squeeze them in before December 25. But in the spirit of caring and sharing, let me present you with the We Should Cocoa/Fresh From The Oven mash-up: a Chocolate Orange Wreath.

The We Should Cocoa guest ingredient for December is orange and I have cunningly worked it and chocolate into the festive wreath recipe set by Michelle of Utterly Scrummy for this month's Fresh From The Oven challenge. You can omit the chocolate of course, but it does add a suitably OTT dimension. I made this the weekend before Christmas and it was just what we needed to keep us going. I had thought about making it again for Boxing Day breakfast but with litres of cream and sherry flowing through my veins from the day before I decided discretion was the better part of valour. You could, however, make it on December 31 and it will be perfect for a late New Year's Day brunch (and any leftovers will be great toast the day after that).

Chocolate Orange Wreath

Don't be put off by the lengthy instructions, this is really quite simple to make. Anyway, it's the holidays - what else would you be doing but playing in the kitchen? Use whatever fruit/nut/chocolate combo you like in the filling, but keep more or less to the amounts specified.

Dough:

3tsp dried yeast
315ml lukewarm milk
1Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
50g soft, but not melted, butter
1tsp mixed spice
420g plain flour

Filling:
50g soft, but not melted, butter
2Tbsp brown sugar
45g plain flour
1tsp almond essence
1/2 -3/4 cup mixed peel

1/2 cup white or dark chocolate bits (just smash up a block)
1/2 cup slivered almonds

To finish:

1 egg beaten with 1tsp milk

Vanilla icing: 1 cup icing sugar, 2tsp vanilla extract and 1 - 1 1/2 Tblsp hot water

Pour the milk into a large bowl (or the bowl of a freestanding mixer with a dough hook) and sprinkle over the yeast. Leave in a warm place to start acting for five minutes, then add the other ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon. Knead by hand for 10 minutes, or with the dough hook for three or four, until you have a soft, springy, satiny dough. Grease the bowl and return the dough to it. Cover with plastic and leave in a warm place until doubled (about an hour).

While the bread is proving, make the filling by beating together the softened butter, sugar, essence/extract and flour to make a paste and then fold in the fruit and nuts. Now is also a good time to line a baking tray with nonstick baking paper so you don't have to rush later.

When the dough is ready, turn it out onto a well-floured surface and punch down. Knead for a minute or two, then roll it out into a large rectangle shape. Spread the filling over the dough and then roll it up, starting from the longest side.

Now comes the fun bit. Using a sharp knife slice the roll in half lengthwise. Put the dough onto the lined baking sheet. Twist the two halves lightly together, cut sides out, and form into a circle, pinching the ends together. Leave to prove again for about 45 minutes - 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size and then brush with the lightly beaten egg and milk.
Bake at 200C for 20 - 30 minutes or until lightly browned and cooked through.

Transfer to a rack to cool. Drizzle with vanilla icing if the mood takes you and serve. If you're making this a day in advance and would like to reheat it, skip the icing stage. Wrap it well in foil when cool and reheat in a moderate oven for 10-15 minutes. You can work your magic with the icing just before serving.

Glazed and confused

2011-12-22T07:13:00.003+13:00

I'm on holiday as of today, but before I log off and concentrate on packing the Small Girl, my best apron, Delia and Nigella into a suitcase so we can then hop on a very small plane in about, oh, an hour, I wanted to show you my Christmas cake...

As much as I love marzipan I don't really enjoy royal icing, so this kind of glazed topping is much more my kind of thing. Doing it really reminded me of my mum, who used to get me to do it when I was a teenager, claiming I could be more 'artistic'. In hindsight, I think she was just trying to keep me busy, but I fell for it every time. A few days ago a friend was bemoaning the fact that her mother still kept the Christmas cake for her to ice on Christmas Eve and I felt an infinite sense of loss.

Glazed Christmas Cake Topping
The advantage of a glazed topping is that you can do it in about five minutes, then run outside on the wet grass in your socks to take a photo. Delia devotes pages to this sort of thing, but really, there's nothing to it.

Just melt together some apricot jam or marmalade with some brandy or rum - say two parts jam to one part brandy/rum (about 4Tbsp jam and 2Tbsp booze should do it). Brush the surface of the cake with the sticky mixture, then arrange fruit and/or nuts of your choice on top. Brush with more of the sticky goo to keep them all glued on and leave to set. Keep somewhere cool until you unveil it.

Thank you all for your friendship, stories, comments, cooking advice and recipes this year - this might be my vanity project but I couldn't do it without you. I wish you a very merry and safe Christmas.

I'll be back next week to tell you all about cooking the first turkey my in-laws have EVER had for Christmas dinner (that's why Delia and Nigella are coming with me). Wish me luck!

Lucy x

Lucy's Christmas Chutney

2011-12-20T06:58:00.001+13:00

There are many pre-Christmas things I have failed to do this year. If you're going to the letterbox every day in the hope that I've remembered to send you a Christmas card, let me save you the trip. It's December 20 and my Christmas cards are sitting on my desk, half-written. At least, I think they're here somewhere. A box unpacked itself on the desk over the weekend and it's a miracle I can find the keyboard.
The only thing that's stopping me feeling like a complete failure is that I had the presence of mind to a) make the Christmas cake and b) make my famous Christmas chutney before we moved house. Yes, the 2.25g cake and a polybin full of jars added to the load, but it was worth it. I've been dispensing jars hither and yon all week and it's done wonders for my festive spirit. I'm just sorry I can't post them.

Lucy's Christmas Chutney
I've been making this since 1997, when the internet was just a baby and I was just a slip of a girl (ish). It's great with ham, cold turkey, cheese and bread, especially if all of these things are consumed while reclining on a deckchair/sofa and reading something you got for Christmas. This year I added walnuts (about a cupful) for a bit of crunch, but it's great just as is.

450g tart green apples (about 3), peeled, cored and cut into 1cm chunks.
225g onions (1 large), peeled and chopped
8 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 cup dates, roughly chopped
1 cup seedless raisins
1 cup prunes, roughly chopped
2/3 cup crystallised ginger, roughly chopped
2 tsp salt
1 tsp curry powder
2 cups white sugar
3 1/2 cups white vinegar
Combine all the ingredients in a large pot and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
Reduce the heat and simmer very gently uncovered for about 45 minutes until the mixture is thick and the fruit is soft. You should be able to squish the apple with the back of a wooden spoon and the raisins will look swollen and plump. Don't wander off and forget about the mixture, it will need regular stirring to prevent it from sticking. If it becomes too thick, add more vinegar.
Spoon the chutney into sterilised jars and seal with cellophane or tight-fitting lids. Makes about four 350ml jars.

Sweet sweet Friday: Lee's Shortbread

2011-12-16T06:36:00.000+13:00

My mother-in-law makes the best shortbread. Really, she does, I'm not just trying to butter her up before Christmas. She makes masses of it, cut into huge, palm-sized slabs. This time next week I am hoping to be eating a piece with a nice cup of tea and doing the crossword. Here's the recipe so you can hopefully do the same.

Lee's Shortbread
Lee doesn't flavour her shortbread but when I made a batch recently I added some powdered kawkawa, a Maori herb traditionally used as a tonic for its liver-cleansing properties. It has a pleasantly green, peppery flavour (and makes the shortbread pale green, which is pretty). You can find it here.

250g butter, softened but not melted
3/4 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup cornflour
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 170C. Cream butter and sugar, either with a wooden spoon (and a strong arm) or in an electric mixer. Sift the dry ingredients and add, mixing well. Turn the mixture on to the bench and knead briefly to combine.
Usually, Lee forms the dough into a sausage shape, wraps it in clingfilm and sticks it in the fridge for 15 minutes. Then she cuts off rounds about 1cm thick and places them on a tray.
At Christmas time, she rolls the dough out on a well-floured bench and uses a biscuit cutter to make stars. She then places them on a tray and puts the tray in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Whichever method you choose, prick each biscuit with a fork before baking for 15-20 minutes. The shortbread is cooked when it is firm to touch and starting to turn golden. Remove from the trays and let cool on a rack. Makes lots.

Have a sweet, sweet weekend, everyone. It's going to be wet and cold here, perfect baking weather!

Kitchen wear

2011-12-14T06:33:00.013+13:00

Are you the sort of person who is hopeless at Christmas shopping because you keep seeing things you'd like for yourself? Then look away now, because I suspect you'll be quite taken by what I'm about to show you.

A couple of months ago I seemed to spend every Friday morning at a seaside cafe, en route to delivering whoever was staying with us that week to the airport. We had a stream of different visitors - all men - over the course of a month and I began to think that the waiting staff would start to talk - 'oh look, there's that woman again, with another new bloke'. But I digress. In between reassuring the guest of the week that there was plenty of time to get to the airport and making sure the Small Girl didn't make too much of a nuisance of herself, I noticed one of the waitresses was wearing an amazing pendant. It was a tiny knife, sharp-edged and glinting silver in the sun. I couldn't help myself and more or less chased her around the room to find out where it came from. "Oh, my boyfriend makes them,'' she said shyly, as if everyone was so lucky.

To cut a long story short(ish), I gave her my email address and her boyfriend, Tim, got in touch. He's since set up a website showcasing his work and is happy to do commissions. Come on, there must be someone you know who would like a doll-sized sterling silver fish slice earring (and the ladle looks amazing as a pendant) ...

Salted Chocolate Peanut Butter

2011-12-13T06:22:00.002+13:00

I spent ages trying to think of a fancy title for this post, then I realised it didn't need one. I mean, 'salted chocolate peanut butter' drew you in fast enough, didn't it?

Salted chocolate peanut butter
This started out as ordinary peanut butter. We'd run out, I had a bag of peanuts, I threw them in the oven to roast them, then into the processor. Then I was thinking about a friend of mine with whom I share an abiding love for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and I threw in a handful of 50 per cent cocoa chocolate that was in the pantry. And a pinch of salt for luck. A few moments later I realised it was going to take a lot of willpower (or another bag of peanuts) if she was going to get any of it in her Christmas stocking. Here's how you do it.

200g raw peanuts
100g good quality dark chocolate, chopped
flaky sea salt, to taste (about 1/2 - 1tsp)

Preheat the oven to 200C. Tip the peanuts into a roasting dish, then put it in the hot oven for 10-15 minutes. Shake the dish occasionally and keep an eye on the peanuts - you want them golden brown and nutty smelling, not incinerated. Remove from the oven and let cool for five minutes, then tip them into the processor. Blitz until they form a grainy paste. They will make a hell of a racket and you'll think nothing is going to happen, but it will. Have faith. When it's looking more like a paste, tip in the chocolate and 1/2 tsp salt and whizz again. Taste and add more salt/whizz until it suits your palate. Scrape into a pretty (and clean) jar. Tie a ribbon around the top and attach a small spoon. The recipient will know exactly what it's for.

How are your Christmas preps going? Stay tuned for more last-minute ideas in the next week or so.

Musical Monday: I Don't Claim to Be an Angel

2011-12-12T18:41:00.001+13:00

Sweet Sweet Friday: Christmas Cake 2011

2011-12-09T06:51:00.001+13:00

About a month ago I interviewed Dame Alison Holst, who had just published her 100th book - her life story, with added recipes. For non-New Zealanders, Alison Holst is as famous here as Margaret Fulton in Australia, Delia in Britain or Martha in the US. She graduated from the University of Otago in 1959 with a degree in the quaintly titled subject of 'Home Science' and was preparing for life as a teacher when suddenly she was catapulted into cooking on television. Dame Alison laughed as she told me the only advice she could find on cooking on TV was not to wear a patterned apron. Anyway, she made a meatloaf with hardboiled eggs embedded in one end of it for her audition, advising viewers that they could serve half of it hot one night and have the egg-studded remainder cold the next. The resulting show, 'Here's How', was a massive hit and Dame Alison remained a mainstay of cooking on TV here for decades afterwards, along with promoting New Zealand produce to export markets.

Why have a patterned apron when you can have a patterned saucepan?

She still writes a regular newspaper column with her son Simon and even though their food is hardly at the Ferran Adria end of the spectrum, they are probably the most trusted foodwriters in the country (especially among people who don't cook very much). 'Alison Holst' is regularly cited as one of the most Googled names in New Zealand and her little books on muffins or feeding children are legendary.
The new book, A Home-grown Cook: The Alison Holst Story, doesn't air any dirty laundry (come on, were you really expecting 'The Mother of the Nation' to have any?), but it does feature some of her favourite recipes. I enjoyed talking to her so much that afterwards I decided her famous Golden Christmas Cake was going to replace our usual chocolate and fig extravaganza this year.

Alison Holst's Golden Christmas Cake
In the introduction to this recipe in the book, Dame Alison says this is the favourite cake of her great friend and equally famous New Zealand broadcaster, Sharon Crosbie. She soaks the fruit in chardonnay, but as we'd accidentally drunk the bottle in the fridge I was saving for this purpose, I used green ginger wine and added glace ginger to the fruit mixture. This cake apparently only needs a week to mature, so there's plenty of time to get down to business if you haven't got yours underway yet.
This recipe is reproduced with kind permission.

For a 20cm square or 23cm round or square (2.25kg) cake:

3-4 cups (about 1kg) of crystallised mango, papaya, pineapple and ginger, cut into 5mm cubes
1 cup golden sultanas
1 cup dried cranberries or extra sultanas
1 cup chardonnay (or other white wine)
3/4 cup natural glace cherries
250g butter
1 cup sugar
5 large eggs
1 cup ground almonds
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp almond essence
Grated rind of 1 orange and lemon
1 1/2 cups high grade flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Put the crystallised fruit, sultanas and cranberries in a large pot. Pour over the wine and simmer, covered, for five minutes until nearly all liquid is absorbed, then leave to stand in the covered pan overnight or for eight hours to soak up remaining liquid. The fruit will have a beautiful jewel- like appearance. Stir in the quartered cherries, if using.
Heat oven to 150 degrees Celsius (140C fanbake), with the rack just below the middle. Prepare a 20-centimetre square pan, or 23cm round or square pan, lining sides and base with baking paper.
In a food processor or large bowl, beat the soft (but not melted) butter and sugar until creamy. Beat in one egg at a time, adding a spoonful of the ground almonds after each one. Beat in the essences, remaining ground almonds and the finely grated citrus rinds, then sift in the flour and baking powder. Combine the cake mixture and the cold, prepared fruit using your hand and spread mixture evenly in the prepared pan.
Bake at 150C for 45 minutes then at 130C for 1 1/2 to two hours. Cover the top with baking paper if it browns too fast. The cake is cooked when a skewer pushed deeply in the centre comes out clean.
When cooled, wrap loosely with baking paper, then refrigerate.

I made ours before we moved house (for which I am now truly, truly grateful) and am planning to decorate it with more glazed crystallised fruit a la Delia in a week or two. I'll show you a picture then!

Have a sweet, sweet weekend everyone. I am hoping to finish unpacking, find where the camera has got to and make something decent to eat...

In situ

2011-12-08T14:25:00.000+13:00

Seems hard to believe, but we have been in our new house for a week. I'd love to say this was my new kitchen, but the truth is I can't recall where the camera is so am unable to show you the real deal.

Pretty, don't you think? Image via here

I won't bore you with the details of moving day - I mean, I'm sure you've all gone through it before too - but this particular move has reminded me of childbirth in that I used muscles I didn't know I had (different ones, admittedly) and that the actual move is just the beginning. The cleaning (why, oh why would you leave your house with years' worth of grime encrusted in the kitchen?), the unpacking, the sick child who is awake most of the night for several nights and throwing mega tantrums the rest of the time... suffice to say, there haven't been any gourmet marvels coming out of our new kitchen yet. But the 1980s oven does seem to work well, one of our new neighbours came over with a pot of marmalade, and there are rumours of a tamarillo tree in the garden. So far, so good...

What have you been up to in my absence?

Another moving story

2011-11-29T06:54:00.000+13:00

It's been just over a year since we packed up all our worldly goods and moved to the castle house. We've survived fleas, gale-force winds, snow, small children on the rampage, house guests by the busload and the relentless partying of our neighbours. Now though, we are on the move again, to a house of our very own, just across town a bit. I am hoping it will be less flea-ridden and less windy, though still as attractive to visitors (especially those with DIY skills).

Please excuse this short break in transmission while I devote my kitchen energies to scrubbing and scouring (and reminding the Small Girl that things in boxes have to stay in them until we are in the "new big house"). Stay tuned for reports from our new kitchen next week (hopefully there won't be any "breaking" news before then...)

Lucy x

Panettone problems

2011-11-28T06:51:00.000+13:00

There's probably a list somewhere of things you shouldn't attempt to do the weekend before you move house. Making panettone, the notoriously time-intensive Italian Christmas bread, is probably one of them, but I thought it would beat cleaning the oven(s) and making decisions about what to do with all those little things that pile up on the kitchen island while you're putting big things into boxes.

The main reason for this folly was that Sarah of Maison Cupcake chose panettone for the November Fresh From The Oven challenge and this weekend was my last chance to make it. I thought I devoted a reasonable amount of love and attention to the dough - I even nursed it on my lap to keep it warm while watching the last, tear-jerking episode of Downton Abbey - but I did neglect it a bit, shoving it in the fridge overnight because I was too tired to stay up and let it rise some more. Then I baked it in an angel food cake tin (I didn't have the right sort of 18cm high, round tin anyway - and I'd packed all the others.
While it looked good enough (untraditional shape aside), it was surprisingly dry and much heavier than I had hoped. I blame myself, not the recipe, but I don't think there's much point replicating it here until I can figure out what exactly went wrong. I'm also consoling myself that none of my Italian cookbooks had a recipe, which infers that all good Italians buy theirs instead. In the meantime, here's a well-researched recipe I wish I'd remembered bookmarking last year. It sounds both incredibly easy and delicious - and there's still lots of time before Christmas to get it right.

Have you made panettone before? Do you know any tricks?

Sweet sweet Friday: Banana bread

2011-11-25T06:36:00.001+13:00

A couple of months ago, when I was on the world's fastest trip to Sydney, I ended up in an Italian deli talking to a bunch of Australian housewives about how lucky they were to have such great access to wonderful (and inexpensive) Italian foodstuffs. They told me I was lucky because I didn't have to pay through the nose for bananas. Then they launched into a lengthy conversation about where to get the best bananas from, how someone knew someone who'd paid $10 for two, and how the Great Australian Banana Shortage of 2011 had affected their diets. Fairtrade or ethical bananas didn't get a look in.

Ernesto's Banana Bread
Luckily, bananas - even ethical ones - remain in good supply here. The only trouble I have is keeping them from ripening too quickly, especially given that we're moving house next week and I don't need a freezerful to cart across town. This banana bread recipe, which I hunted down for work, is from a local cafe with a fantastic pastry chef who also makes beautiful chocolates. I've added more bananas (well, you can never have too many) and nuts. It makes a huge loaf and keeps really well.

4 bananas
4 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp vanilla essence
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 1/2 cups white flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup walnut halves, optional

Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease and line a large loaf tin. Slice two of the bananas (into whatever shape you like) and set aside.
Mash the remaining bananas in a large bowl and add the eggs, oil, milk, vanilla and lemon juice. Beat well. I do this in my freestanding mixer, but you could just as easily do it by hand.
Sift the dry ingredients over the top and fold in gently until combined. Pour half the mixture into the greased loaf tin, then scatter over a handful of chopped banana. Pour the rest of the mixture into the tin, then arrange the remaining sliced banana and walnut halves, if using, on top.
Bake for 40-50 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.

Have a sweet, sweet weekend everyone. We will be deep in packing/cleaning/tidying hell, eating lots of sustaining banana bread to keep us going...

Kitchen DIY: Ricotta

2011-11-23T06:44:00.000+13:00

When I was a child there was a popular T-shirt for sale in tourist shops, emblazoned with a slogan about New Zealand being a place with three million people and 70 million sheep. I think it was the 1980s version of the fake New Zealand tourism posters in Murray's office in Flight of the Conchords ("New Zealand: your mum would like it" etc).Anyway, while the human population has grown to four million, the sheep have dwindled to 32 million. Dairy farms now rule the roost, with around six million cows dotting the landscape.

Rush hour (image via here)

Rather than making New Zealand the land of milk and honey, intensive dairy farming is blamed for fouling our waterways and having a serious impact on soil quality. As if that wasn't bad enough, market forces mean dairy products are ridiculously expensive, organic or not.
But let me step off my soapbox for a minute and show you my latest favourite trick, DIY ricotta. I don't have the patience or the extreme attention to hygenic detail to make my own proper cheeses, but ricotta is a cinch.

DIY Ricotta
I found this recipe through Twitter, but I can't now really recall exactly where it came from. I wrote it down on a Post-it in shorthand (see, being a journalist can be useful occasionally) and promptly lost the link. Proper ricotta is made from the whey byproduct of other cheesemaking, but this is the cheat's version. Milk thermometers are easily found at kitchen shops (Wellingtonians: buy them upstairs at Moore Wilsons).

1 litre full fat, not homogenised milk
125ml cream
2Tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar
pinch of salt

Put all ingredients into a large and very clean pot. Heat slowly, stirring often, to 96deg C (205degF - which might be easier to see on your thermometer). Take off the heat and let rest for 15 minutes. While that's happening, line a sieve with clean muslin (or a new Chux cloth) and set it over a deep bowl. Pour the curd-y mixture into this and let the whey drain away.
At this point, you can eat the ricotta warm, drizzled with honey, or you can let it drain in the fridge overnight, covered. Makes about 200g.

Have you ventured into the whole of cheesemaking?

(C)hollaback girl

2011-11-22T06:31:00.000+13:00

Look what I made in the weekend...

This, dear friends, is a six-strand chollah bread. Here it is from another angle...

Pretty cool, huh?

Good shiksa that I am, I more or less followed this recipe from Belleau Kitchen (which Dom says came from the WI, oddly enough) because I liked the idea of being able to get it all ready the day before, then pull it out of the fridge to be baked in the morning. But when it came to the plaiting I watched this fantastic video to see how to do it. I set the laptop up on one corner of the work surface and went to it with the dough on the other, hitting pause as necessary. I had to rush - the Small Girl was waking from her nap and some friends turned up - but it was still great fun.

The chollah itself was great - and amazing toasted the day after. It might not be very kosher, so to speak, but this would be a great Christmas morning loaf because all the work is done the afternoon before. And, you know, you never have enough to do on Christmas Eve, do you?

Did you make anything new over the weekend?

Musical Monday: The Suburbs

2011-11-21T07:32:00.002+13:00

Sweet sweet Friday: Gruffalo Crumble

2011-11-18T06:43:00.000+13:00

Don't tell the World Wildlife Fund, but sometimes the Small Girl and I have hippopotamus sandwiches for lunch. Only sometimes, mind you. Other times we have rhinocerous on toast, or elephant jam. Her absolute favourite though (and mine too, because hippopotamus is dreadfully chewy), is Gruffalo crumble.
"A gruffalo?," I hear you ask. "What's a gruffalo?"
I admit, I hadn't heard of The Gruffalo until earlier this year, but it's a major phenomenon known by most parents of small children. If you think you're too old for picture books, it's also been turned into a film by the BBC. Robbie Coltrane voices the Gruffalo and it's utterly perfect.

Gruffalo Crumble
This is a hybrid of various crumble recipes. In truth it's a 'crisp' rather than a crumble, because you melt the butter rather than rub it in. This is much faster and - as long as you take care with the hot butter - more child-friendly to make. Less of it will end up on your kitchen floor this way too, which is always helpful.
This makes enough for a large bowl, but what I do is mix it up, then put it in a ziplock plastic bag and freeze it. Then, when we're in the mood for gruffalo crumble, I can shake a bit out over the top of a ramekin or two of cooked (or, gulp, tinned) fruit, put it in the oven and before you can say "silly old fox, doesn't he know, there's no such thing as a Gruffalo", pudding's sorted.

125g butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup flour (last time I made this we forgot the flour - and it was fine)
3/4 cup coconut
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp ground ginger
handful of sunflower and sesame seeds or chopped nuts

Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir well. Add the melted butter and mix again. Crumble over cooked fruit (dark plums and apple are a favourite combination in our house) and bake at 180C for 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the dish. The mixture freezes well and can be cooked from frozen.

Have a sweet, sweet weekend, everyone x

Christmas countdown: Pickled Beetroot

2011-11-16T06:49:00.000+13:00

One of my most treasured possessions is my sister's copy of Delia Smith's Christmas. She gave it to me three years ago, complete with notes on some of Delia's most sensible suggestions (the instruction to have a pre-lunch glass of champagne on Christmas Day is heavily underlined).
I was reading it the other day for relaxation purposes when I found a recipe I hadn't seen before for pickled beetroot and shallots. It was enough of an "a-ha" moment to propel me into the kitchen immediately - and now I have the perfect gift for a friend for whom Christmas is inextricably entwined with the prospect of ham and beetroot.

You can find the recipe here, along with lots of other sage advice about festive food. Just don't forget how much you (and I) deserve that glass of bubbles.

Getting this made has made me feel incredibly organised, though not as organised as the Let's Make Christmas crowd. How are you getting on with your Christmas plans?

Random Recipe #10: Moro Soup

2011-11-15T06:27:00.001+13:00

A note to Antipodean readers before we begin: I'm sorry if you were enticed here by the 'Moro Soup' heading. This is not a post about turning the iconic chocolate bar, apparently beloved by triathletes (if you believe the ad campaigns), into a soup. Stop reading now before you get disappointed.

For everyone else, the real title should be 'Hassan's celery and white bean soup with tomato and caraway'. It's from Moro East, the lovely book by Sam and Sam Clark of Moro restaurant fame about their East End allotment, with recipes from fellow allotment holders interspersed with their own creations. It's particularly poignant now as the allotment has been bulldozed in the name of the 2012 London Olympics. Perhaps athletes do exist on chocolate bars after all.

Hassan's celery and white bean soup with tomato and caraway
The book was my choice for Random Recipes #10, brought to you by Belleau Kitchen AND Jac of Tinned Tomatoes, who hosts a monthly soup challenge called No Croutons Required. Not only does this deliciously rustic soup fit the NCR vegetarian criteria, but it just happened to use the huge bunch of celery and masses of spring onions in my fridge. I took a few shortcuts along the way - I used two tins of cannellini beans rather than soaking and cooking my own, plus I used a tin of tomatoes rather than "500g of flavoursome fresh tomatoes", as the latter are pretty thin on the ground here at present.
However I faithfully followed the recipe for DIY celery salt, which is completely addictive. Even if you're not in the mood for soup, you've got to try this.

250g dried cannellini beans, soaked in cold water overnight, then drained and cooked in fresh water for about an hour, or until tender (or two tins of beans, drained and rinsed)
10 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large head of celery, trimmed of roots but including leaves, sliced into 2cm chunks
8 spring onions, roots trimed but including green tops, sliced into 1cm chunks
4 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
1tsp caraway seeds
500g fresh tomatoes, blanched, peeled, seeded, roughly chopped (or 1 440g tin)
1tsp celery salt (recipe follows)

To serve:
extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon
a small bunch of rocket
black olives
Turkish bread
Celery salt

Heat six tablespoons of the olive oil in a large saucepan and add the celery. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring often, then add the spring onions, garlic, caraway and a pinch of salt. Cook for another 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft and beginning to caramelise. Add the tomatoes and celery salt and cook for a further five minutes.
Add the beans and either 250ml of their cooking liquid or water, plus the remaining four tablespoons of olive oil. Bring to a simmer, season to taste with salt and pepper, and cook for another five minutes. Check the seasoning and serve with a drizzle of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of celery salt. Rocket, spring onions, black olives and Turkish bread are suggested accompaniments. Makes enough for four.

DIY Celery Salt
Take a handful of green celery leaves and put them on a baking tray. Dry them in a low-medium oven until completely dry but not scorched (takes about 10 minutes). Crumble to a powder with your fingers, then mix with equal parts of flaky (eg Marlborough or Maldon) salt.

Musical Monday: Like Water

2011-11-14T15:35:00.000+13:00

Sweet sweet Friday: Apple Blondies

2011-11-11T06:32:00.001+13:00

One of the things I love about blogging is that it's broadened the scope of things to worry about when I'm awake in the middle of the night. Now, instead of fretting about work I haven't done, bills I haven't paid or the looming spectre of a big fat mortgage, I can lie there wondering how I'm going to think up a post to write. A couple of days ago I realised, when awake in the dark and quiet pre-dawn, that of all the things I could be tossing and turning over, my main concern was November's We Should Cocoa challenge, in which we have to make something involving apple and chocolate. The good news is that a couple of mornings later I woke up and the following idea came to me like a vision. I might start worrying about the Lotto numbers next...

Apple Blondies
This might sound like an unlikely combination, but if you think about it, apples and butter are natural partners (and white chocolate is surely a close cousin of butter, don't you think?) I threw in some cranberries because they seemed seasonally appropriate (to Christmas, that is, not the southern hemisphere spring), but you can leave them out if you like.
Frankie readers: this is a sort of appled-up version of the pumpkin and ginger brownies y'all went mad for in issue 40.

250g stewed apple (or unsweetened applesauce) - if you're making this from scratch you'll need about 3 or 4 apples - see below for details
250g butter, diced
250g good quality white chocolate, roughly chopped
3 eggs
250g caster sugar
150g flour (plain white or gluten-free or spelt, depending on your cupboards)
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup dried cranberries

First, cook the stewed apple. Peel and core the apples, then slice and put in a small pot with about 1/4 cup water. Cook, covered, over medium heat until the apples are soft enough to mash to a smooth puree. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 180C and line a brownie pan (I use a tin about 30cm x 20cm).
Put the chocolate and butter into a heatproof bowl and melt gently by putting it into the warming oven. Keep an eye on it - it will take five to 10 minutes. This is a stress free, energy-efficient way of melting chocolate without having to worry about double boilers and the like.
Let it cool slightly to room temperature.
Beat the eggs and sugar together until combined and thick, then beat in the cooled chocolate and butter. Add the apple and stir to combine. Sift over the flour, baking powder, salt and spice, then fold in gently.Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 25-35 minutes. Timing is everything with brownies - you want them firm at the edges but still slightly wobbly in the middle. Leave them in the tin to cool for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely. Cut into bars or squares as you see fit. Makes lots, freezes brilliantly (and tastes AMAZING frozen).

Have a sweet, sweet weekend, everyone. I'm hoping to make our Christmas cake, do some packing and have an afternoon nap or two (not necessarily in that order). What about you?

The glass jars are half empty

2011-11-10T13:23:00.000+13:00

It's not much, I know, but I wanted to show you the extent of my Christmas preparations as they stand so far. I went to the supermarket this morning too, but you can shoot me if I ever try to document that (no offence to the people who do).

It might not look like much but I find scraping the bits of glue and old label off jars to be one of the most tedious tasks of all time. Now it's done though - well, for this batch, anyway - I can't wait to get started.

How are your Christmas makings and bakings coming along? Any progress? Lots of inspiration can be found here.

Let them eat olive cake

2011-11-09T06:56:00.001+13:00

Some things sound odd. Bacon ice cream. Caviar foam. Olive cake. But wait, olive cake is actually very, very good. This recipe comes from an amazing woman I met a couple of months ago after discovering her sweet cured olives. Helen knows everything there is to know about olives (and then some) - and this is absolutely delicious.

Helen's Olive Cake
This is like an antipasto all-in-one - a light, fluffy scone-ish dough loaded with good Mediterranean flavours. I've added feta and herbs because I happened to have lots of both at the time. Make this for a weekend picnic or to serve a group of very hungry people with drinks.

1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
leaves from a few sprigs of thyme or rosemary
3 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup plain yoghurt
1 roasted red pepper (from a jar), chopped
2 cups black olives, pitted and chopped
6 sundried tomatoes, chopped
2 1/2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line a 24cm cake tin. Cook the onion, garlic and herbs in a little olive oil until soft, then set aside to cool slightly.
Beat the eggs, oil and yoghurt together in a large bowl. Stir in the cooked onion and garlic, roasted red pepper, olives, feta and sundried tomatoes. Sift the flour and baking powder over the top and gently combine. Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 40-50 minutes. Cool to room temperature before cutting into wedges with a serrated knife. Best eaten on the day you make it, but leftovers can be frozen and successfully taken to work for lunch.

Fancy a dip?

2011-11-08T06:42:00.001+13:00

Imitation is said to be the sincerest form of flattery, but did you know it is also the most economical?
Take this dip, for example. I whipped it up after falling in love with something similar but financially ruinous to buy. All it took was a quick squizz at the ingredients on the bottom of the tub it came in, a bit of experimenting with quantities and before you knew it I had something just as good. Better, even. If only I could manage the same trick with shoes...

Blue cheese and walnut dip
This is barely a recipe - there are three ingredients and about 30 seconds worth of method - but I urge you to down tools and make it.

150g cream cheese, at room temperature
50g blue cheese (a fairly tangy, crumbly one is best)
50g walnut halves, broken up with your fingers

Put everything in a small bowl and mash together with a fork until it is a homogenous mass. Good with celery sticks or robust crackers. Alternatively, spread it on some toasted wholegrain bread, top with slices of pear and stick it until the grill until bubbly. Keep anything you don't use at once in the fridge, covered, for up to a week.

What's your favourite copycat trick at the moment?

Musical Monday: VCR

2011-11-07T15:24:00.001+13:00

Sweet sweet Friday: Walnut Surprises

2011-11-04T06:48:00.000+13:00

My niece says you should never pass up a social engagement because you never know what you might get out of it. Last year, bearing this in mind, my sister and I reluctantly allowed the Boy Wonder to drag us to a party. Let me be clear: this was a party with a small 'p'. There was a rugby game on the TV, around which most of the action was gathered, and a strong gender split in the manner of 'ladies, a plate'. The men of the group gathered around the television, shouting encouragement, while the women sat at a table and talked about people they knew and how much their husbands earned.
I didn't know any of them, except the hostess, and my sister, who had arrived the day before from Taiwan, was immediately persona non grata to this coven. They were suspicious because she revealed she had spent a few years living in this particular town, and I could see their brains working furiously to work out her age and how it was she was "from Taiwan" yet didn't look Chinese. My sister, who is charm itself, bravely smiled through the whole ordeal, including being chatted up by the host (at which point the hostess couldn't get us out the door fast enough).
Anyway, the highlight for me, apart from laughing our heads off all the way home, was the plate of chewy, sticky date balls that someone had brought as their 'plate' for the evening. It's taken me a while to track down the recipe, but it proves my niece was right (even though my sister will never go to a party with me again).

Walnut Surprises
I've searched high and low for this recipe, finally finding something like it in an ancient Annabel Langbein. The original is very, very sweet - including the nuts makes it a little more sophisticated. If you don't like walnuts, try pieces of crystallised ginger instead.

150g butter
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
250g dates, finely chopped
1tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 egg, beaten
3 cups rice bubbles
about 24 walnut halves
Coconut, sesame seeds or chopped walnuts, to roll the balls in.

Put the butter, sugar, dates, vanilla, salt and ginger in a large pot and bring to the boil. Let simmer for three minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and let cool for a minute or two, then add the rice bubbles and the beaten egg. Stir well. As soon as it's cool enough to touch (wear gloves, if you're very sensitive), take small amounts of the mixture and shape into balls around a walnut half. Roll in coconut, sesame seeds or chopped walnuts, then put in the fridge to set. Makes 24.

Are you a party person? What's the worst one you've ever been to? Have a sweet, sweet weekend everyone, whether there is a party involved or not x

Berry nice

2011-11-03T13:38:00.001+13:00

Look what I found at the supermarket this morning...

They aren't the juiciest, most flavoursome specimens, but they're the first of the season I've seen (and the Small Girl and I polished off a punnet for morning tea). There's a bottle of rose in the fridge and the sofa is bathed in sun... what a pity I've got work to do this afternoon.

Have you had any new season strawberries yet, southern hemisphere friends? What have you done with them?

Clean and soba

2011-11-02T06:34:00.000+13:00

One of the things that most exercises my brain is the constant struggle to think of things to take to work for lunch. It's more than a little embarrassing sometimes to sit at a desk piled with cookbooks and food-related press releases eating banana on toast (though I do point out the toast is homemade to anyone who asks). Yesterday though, while digging about in the pantry for some teabags, I had a lunch epiphany that merits sharing.

Miso Soba Salad
This is fast, easy, cheap, good for you and very portable. Think of the noodles as a base to which you can add lightly cooked broccoli or green beans, or grilled chicken, or strips of omelette - or all of those things. I've just discovered karengo fronds and am addicted to their salty, seaweedy goodness. If you can't find them, try snipping up a sheet of nori (the green stuff that sushi gets rolled up in) instead.

180g (two skeins) soba noodles
3 spring onions, finely chopped
2Tbsp sesame seeds
2Tbsp karengo fronds or a strip of nori, cut into little shreds

Dressing:
1Tbsp miso
2Tbsp hot water
juice of half a lemon (about 2 1/2 Tbsp)
1Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2cm piece fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped

Cook the noodles in boiling water for four minutes. Drain immediately and rinse in cold water. Tip them into a bowl and toss through a teaspoon of oil to stop them sticking together. Toss through the spring onions.
Toast the sesame seeds and nori or karengo for a few minutes in a dry pan. Be careful, as the seeds will burn the minute you turn your back. Set aside.
For the dressing, put the miso and hot water in a small jar with a lid. Shake well until the miso dissolves. Add the remaining dressing ingredients and shake again until mixed. Pour this over the noodles and stir well. Sprinkle the toasted seeds and seaweed over the top. Serves two.

What do you take to work for lunch?

Christmas countdown

2011-11-01T06:27:00.001+13:00

Do you realise there are just 54 more making and baking days 'til Christmas? Quick, reach for the smelling salts!

I'm in a bit of a quandary about when to start my Christmas activities this year, partly due to our imminent house move on December 1. On one hand, I would love to move into our new house and think, 'a-ha, thank goodness I did all that baking and preserving and general faffing about already'. But on the other, I'm not sure it's a good idea to add to the pile of things to wrap and pack and move. Actually, filled jars and tins might stand a better chance of making it across town than empty ones. I can already envisage the conversation with the Boy Wonder:

Me: What happened to all the empty jars in the pantry?
Him: I put them in the recycling.
Me: But I've been saving those all year!
Him: Too bad. We've got enough to do without packing empty jars.
Me: And what about the Christmas cake?
Him: What Christmas cake?
Me: The big square package in the box in the pantry
Him: Oh, I thought that was just rubbish. I threw it out...

In the meantime, I've been revisiting what I made last year, because a friend and I are making plans to have a Christmas makeathon together. Top of the list will be these deliciously spicy Christmas tree decorations, not least because the recipe makes loads AND the dough can be frozen. Next, the ever-popular best-ever brownies (also makes lots and can be frozen). If you're really short on time, then both the date truffle fudge and the chocolate body scrub can be made in minutes (and the former will be consumed even faster).

One decision I haven't made yet though is what kind of Christmas cake we'll be having this year. I'm not sure I want the Small Girl to get a taste for the brandy-soaked figs and chunks of dark chocolate that stud our traditional cake, but I can't decide what else to make. Any ideas gratefully received.

If you need a little more inspiration to get your Christmas planning underway, I suggest checking out Vanessa Kimball's Let's Make Christmas idea (which has already got scores of organised people showing off what they've made already) or Polka Dot Daze's Christmas Challenge. Don't dilly-dally though, there's not much time left!

Musical Monday: The All Blacks

2011-10-31T06:31:00.000+13:00

A week after the final whistle blew, the rugby world cup mania that gripped New Zealand is fading. But this video captures the whole fingernail-biting intensity of the last match - whether you're a rugby fan (or New Zealander) or not...

Sweet sweet Friday: Sticky Buns

2011-10-28T06:58:00.004+13:00

It never fails to surprise me when I see people having leisurely breakfasts in cafes on weekday mornings. Do they not have jobs to get to? Or children to wrangle? Leisurely breakfasts are a thing of the distant past in our house, so I try to make up for it by occasionally having two breakfasts on weekend mornings. These chocolate and hazelnut-filled sticky buns, which I made last Sunday with this month's Fresh From The Oven challenge in mind, would be just the ticket.

Sticky Buns

Claire's original recipe uses a rich mixture of butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins in the filling, but I had some incredible hazelnut spread (made in Blenheim, by Uncle Joe's Nuts) lurking in the cupboard that I'd been dying to use. Mixing it with some smashed dark chocolate turned it into a kind of extra posh Nutella. You may think the icing is over-egging the pudding, to mix food metaphors, but it makes it even more luxurious. If you can't find this spread, try the best hazelnut butter you can buy. Or, use more butter and sprinkle it with ground hazelnuts. Or just use Nutella, I guess. I invited a friend around to share these with us and was actually glad when they couldn't make it, they're that good.

250ml lukewarm milk (around 40C)

2tsp dried yeast

1Tbsp brown sugar

2 egg yolks

50g butter, melted

600g strong white flour

1tsp salt

Filling

50g very soft butter

100g hazelnut butter

100g dark chocolate, smashed into little bits

Icing

1Tbsp melted butter
1tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups icing sugar
Hot water - from a kettle - to mix

Put the warm milk into a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of your freestanding mixer) and whisk in the sugar and yeast. Leave to activate (froth) for 5-10 minutes, then add the melted butter and egg yolks. Stir in the flour and salt to form a dough, then either knead by hand for about 10 minutes, or in the mixer with the dough hook for about five minutes, until you have a smooth, springy dough.
Return to the bowl and cover with plastic wrap, then leave in a warm place until doubled (about an hour).
Knock down and press out with your fingers until you have a large sheet of dough. Mix the butters together and slather on top, then sprinkle with the smashed chocolate. Roll up tightly, as if making a swiss roll, then cut into 3cm slices. Place into a large, well-greased roasting dish or cake tin, allowing about 2cm between them. Cover with plastic and allow to rise for another 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200C. When the buns have risen, bake for 10 minutes, then cover loosely with foil and bake for another 10-15 minutes until they are well-risen and golden.
While they are cooking, mix the icing ingredients together, adding hot water until you get a reasonably runny consistency. When the buns are done, slide them onto a rack and liberally drizzle with icing. Makes about a dozen. If you can resist eating them all in one go, they can be frozen.

Have a sweet, sweet Friday and a great weekend everyone x

Seeing into the future

2011-10-27T07:02:00.000+13:00

Did you know I can see into the future? At least, when it comes to lighting, dining room and kitchen trends for 2012 I can. I spent most of last week working on features on these topics for a UK magazine - which meant working well into the night so I could catch PRs at work in a completely different timezone. Now I can tell you anything you want to know about what's hot and what's not in these areas. I can also tell you about the use of vitamin K2 in treating osteoporosis or about ways to combat seasonal affective disorder because I was working on stories about them too, but please don't ask me, I might burst into tears with exhaustion.

A bespoke kitchen by Barnes of Ashburton (barnesofashburton.co.uk)

In other news, I AM getting a new kitchen, though it's not quite as pretty as the one pictured. After much to-ing and fro-ing we have taken a step onto the shaky property ladder and move in a month. Our new kitchen isn't nearly as beautiful as the one we have now, but it will be ours, which is a strange concept to get used to. And the Boy Wonder is already talking about things we could do to it (in about 20 years' time). That, reader, is why I married him.

What would be in your dream kitchen?

More creative spaces - kitchens or otherwise - here

Impromptu salad

2011-10-26T06:52:00.000+13:00

Do you ever look in your fridge and think, "damn, where has that bag of salad leaves/head of broccoli/bottle of wine gone?" I do, frequently. Which is why, the other night, I bravely went out into the garden in search of Something Green To Have With Dinner. Our miniature vegetable patch has suffered much neglect over the winter months and even the spinach, which now looks like something from The Day of the Triffids, is beyond use.
But amazingly, the parsley has taken off in great leaps and bounds while I wasn't watching, and I now have a huge patch of it to pick from. There's also mint growing in the middle of the lawn, but that's another story.

Impromptu Salad
No matter how lean things get in the rest of the cupboards, we always, or nearly always, have olives and red onions. A splash of vinegar, some capers, handfuls of parsley and voila, an impromptu salad to have with deep-fried whitebait and chips. Stir some drained, rinsed chickpeas through this salad mix and you also have something to take to work for lunch the next day. Oh, hang on, where are the chickpeas...?

1 red onion, finely sliced into half moons
3Tbsp red wine vinegar
2Tbsp salted capers, rinsed
a handful or two of black olives, pitted
lots of fresh flat-leaf parsley - three or four big handfuls, perhaps?
extra virgin olive oil

Put the onion in a heatproof bowl and pour over some boiling water. Drain immediately. Transfer the onion to a salad bowl and pour over the vinegar. Stir and leave to macerate for at least 20 minutes. Add the other ingredients and toss gently. Add a splash of good extra virgin olive oil and taste for seasoning - it should be refreshingly sharp, but not so much that your throat burns. Serves four as a little salad or add a can of chickpeas and it's lunch for two.

Mac Attack

2011-10-25T06:35:00.002+13:00

Whoever wrote 'comfort me with apples'* obviously didn't ever sit down to a bowl of macaroni cheese. The Boy Wonder hates it, thanks to some traumatic childhood experience, so it has attained almost mythic fantasy food status for me because we never have it. In the weekend, when I was working and solo parenting and gardening and cleaning (and everyone else was partying, including our neighbours), I made some as a special treat. The Small Girl, being an avowed lover of all things pasta, adored it, but not as much as her exhausted, cheese-and-carbohydrate-craving, mother.

Instant Macaroni Cheese
This is essentially a Nigella Express recipe, but with a little less cheese - and no macaroni, because I use rigatoni or penne instead. The bigger shapes are better because they fill up with the sauce like miniature cannelloni. This quantity is perfect for one adult and one child, especially if the adult is ravenous. I know the evaporated milk makes it sound like one of those '4 Ingredients' dishes I was snooty about last week, but trust me, it really is good. And there aren't any dishes!

125g rigatoni or penne
1/2 cup evaporated milk (the 'lite' version is fine)
2-3 handfuls of grated cheddar
1 egg
pinch of smoked paprika and/or cayenne pepper
salt and pepper

a little extra grated cheese and some stale baguette, for crumbs

Preheat the oven to 200C. Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until al dente. While it's cooking, mix all the other ingredients together in an ovenproof bowl big enough to take the pasta. Drain the pasta, then put it in the bowl with the cheese mixture and stir until it's well coated. Sprinkle over the extra cheese and breadcrumbs. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until golden and crunchy on top. Be careful if giving this to a small child - the sauce is hotter than napalm.

What's your stress-busting dish of choice?

* I do know who wrote 'Comfort me with apples' (for I am sick of love) you know. I don't just sit around with my nose in a recipe book. (And it wasn't Ruth Reichl, neither.)

Sweet sweet Friday: Mandarin Ice cream

2011-10-21T06:35:00.008+13:00

There are swag of cookbooks popular at the moment that boast that each recipe uses just four ingredients. Now, I've had a look at some of them and the claims are true - if you like to eat things made from pasta sauce out of a jar, sausages, frozen hash browns and ready-grated cheese. I may be a terrible snob, but there's no joy in cooking - or eating - that kind of food, no matter how strapped for time or money you are. Instead, you could spend five minutes making this incredible ice cream, which uses just three ingredients.

Mandarin Ice cream
If I was to list my greatest achievements of 2011, this would be one of them. Make it and you'll see what I mean. This is (albeit slightly retrospectively) my entry for this month's Sweet New Zealand blogging event.

175g icing sugar
finely grated zest and juice of 2-3 mandarins/clementines/oranges (you need about 1/2 a cup of juice)
500ml cream

Put the zest and juice into a small bowl and let steep for five minutes. Strain into a large bowl and sift in the icing sugar. Stir well, then add the cream. Beat until soft peaks form, then pour into a plastic container (or a loaf tin lined with clingfilm). Cover and freeze for four hours, or until firm. Resist temptation to eat the lot in one go, spoonful by greedy spoonful. It's also very good with last week's chocolate chilli sauce, should you need another reason to make some.

Have a sweet sweet weekend, everyone. Go the All Blacks!

Avocado vinaigrette

2011-10-18T06:45:00.003+13:00

I am being plagued at the moment by emails from the avocado mafia. Avocado pears are now in season in New Zealand and the PR firm charged with marketing them is leaving no stone unturned, so to speak. I don't mind that - everyone's got to earn a living somehow - but I object to some of their suggestions. The day I opened the email breathlessly spouting the delights of adding sliced avocado to macaroni cheese my finger hit the delete button so fast there was practically steam coming off it.
Avocadoes, to my mind at least, should not be heated. Nor do they belong on pizza, in cheesecake, or in smoothies. I think the best thing to do with one is to mash it on wholegrain toast with lots of salt, pepper and lemon juice. The second best thing is to eat them as follows.

Avocado Vinaigrette
This is sort of how I remember my mum serving avocado in the late 1980s. Then, avocados were reasonably new, exotic and expensive - as described in Avocado Baby, the John Burningham picture book of the same era. Avocado Baby tells the fantastic story of the Hargreaves, who despair for the health of their sickly child, until he starts eating avocadoes and becomes imbued with superhero strength.

1 ripe avocado
1 rasher good, free-range bacon
1 ripe tomato, optional
salt and pepper
1tsp fish sauce
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1-2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Fry the bacon until crisp. Cut into dice and put in a small bowl. Dice the tomato and add, followed by the fish sauce, vinegar and olive oil. Stir and add salt and pepper to taste. Halve and stone the avocado, then fill the cavities with the bacon mixture. Eat with a small spoon and a contented smile. A good lunch for one avocado lover.

What's your favourite thing to do with an avocado?

Musical Monday: Harper Valley P.T.A

2011-10-17T15:49:00.001+13:00

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Sweet sweet Friday: Hot stuff

2011-10-14T06:46:00.002+13:00

When I saw that chilli was the guest ingredient for October's We Should Cocoa challenge I knew just what to make. I have a very vivid memory of making a sort of chewy chocolate chilli-infused biscuit from a recipe a work colleague gave me about eight years ago. I remember making them really well in the kitchen we lived in then, which was painted lime green with blue cupboards (the landlord later moved back in, poured lots of money into a reno job and the kitchen won awards for its more tasteful colour scheme. But I digress.) Anyway, with approximately eight house moves in two hemispheres since then, the recipe seems lost forever. But that's not such a bad thing, because I came up with this addictively good sauce instead.

Chocolate Chilli Sauce
Pour this over ice cream, eat from a spoon or let set in the fridge, then roll teaspoonfuls into truffles. You won't regret it...

250ml cream
250g dark chocolate, finely chopped
25g butter
1tsp chilli powder - you can always add more at the end, but go gently to start with

Put everything into a small pot and melt together over very gentle heat (use a double-boiler if you have one). Stir constantly until smooth. Taste for hotness and add more chilli if you are a real hothead. If you're not using it straight away as a sauce, decant into a sterilised bottle and store in the fridge for up to two weeks. Warm gently before serving.

Have a sweet, sweet weekend everyone. My workmates have co-opted me into running a relay up some of Wellington's finest goat tracks. Is it too late to sprain my ankle?

Invalid's benefit

2011-10-12T07:06:00.000+13:00

The Small Girl is ill. Not life-threateningly sick, just miserable, out of sorts, not wanting to eat anything sick. For a child who loves to eat, this is a bad sign. In the weekend I tried to atone for all my bad mothering by making her a sort of invalid's pudding, the sort of thing that Nanny would take up on a tray in books. She turned it down flat. So after putting her to bed I lay on the sofa with a cold cloth on my forehead, gobbled up every last bit and felt much better.

Caramel Pudding
I made this completely by memory - having a vague recollection of reading about it in an Alison Holst cookbook for toddlers that I picked up in a charity shop (and then, with great strength, put down again). There's something similar, which is hailed as a great restorative for the infirm, in the Edmonds' Cookbook. It's a bit like a very thick custard. I wouldn't serve it at a posh dinner party, but there's something weirdly addictive about it (imagine eating cake mixture and you're on the right track).

50g butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1tsp proper vanilla
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk (not skinny milk, thanks)
walnuts (optional)

Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy (you can do this in the mini bowl of your processor if you're a slack mummy like me). Pulse or stir in the lightly beaten egg, vanilla and flour. Put this mixture in a small saucepan and gradually add the milk, stirring constantly over a low heat until it thickens. Don't let it get too thick or you'll end up with glue. Pour into four ramekins and top with walnut halves if desired. Chill until set.

Do you have a favourite morsel to tempt your kids back into eating when they're ill?

Random Recipe #9: Fear of frying

2011-10-11T07:03:00.002+13:00

Oy vey, this months' Random Recipes challenge really pushed me out of my comfort zone. Not only did I have to let some strange man rifle through my cookbooks, but then I had to confront a life-long fear of deep-frying.

Let me explain. The strange man was Gary from Exploits of a Food Nut. I met him on the internet - you know how it is these days. Anyway, as per Dom's instructions, I had to choose a recipe at random from Gary's cookbook collection, and he got to do the same with mine, even though we live some 12,000 miles apart. Thanks to Twitter, that part was easy - Gary got James Martin's My Kitchen and I got New Pleasures of the Jewish Table by Denise Phillips.
The hard part was realising I was going to have to heat a litre of oil to 200C on my stove top. I'm not sure why I've got such a deep-seated fear of frying. I think it might have something to do with being at primary school, when one of my classmates, who was pretty and clever and fantastic at athletics, came back from a long absence with a protective bandage covering her lower leg. She never talked about it and we weren't supposed to either, but it had something to do with boiling oil and a fire. She later went well off the rails and last I heard she was in jail for GBH after beating up an old lady for her handbag, but that's another story. This one has a much happier ending, even though I was so overcome with the process that I forgot to photograph the end result.

Egyptian Fish Balls with Tomato Sauce
I can't recall how I came to have a copy of New Pleasures of the Jewish Table, nor do I remember ever making anything out of it. It's a great little book though, full of socio-cultural food history (and good recipes). It's a bit short on deep-frying advice, but I rolled my sleeves down, banished the Small Girl to watch rugby with her father and got on with proceedings. Fear factor (and a few dishes) aside, this is a great, family-friendly dinner. Make the tomato sauce first so you've got one less thing to worry about.

The fish balls:
700g white fish (I used alfonsino, Denise suggests bream, haddock or cod)
2 onions, peeled and quartered
2 cloves garlic
zest of one lemon
handful of fresh parsley
2tsp ground cumin
2tsp salt
3Tbsp matzo meal (I whizzed up a few crackers in the processor instead)
1 egg, lightly beaten
plain flour, for dusting

The tomato sauce:
2Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
2Tbsp tomato puree
120ml red wine
450ml vegetable stock (or water)

For the sauce, heat the olive oil in a large pot and saute the onion and garlic for a few minutes over medium heat. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to the boil, then simmer gently for 30 minutes. Set aside while you get on with the fish balls.

For the fish balls: Put the onions, garlic, lemon zest and parsley in the processor and whizz until finely chopped. Add the salt, cumin and fish and whizz again to form a smooth mixture. Tip into a bowl and mix through the matzoh crumbs and beaten egg. Dust a couple of plates with flour. With wet hands, take tablespoon-sized amounts of the fish and roll into balls, then place on the floured plates.

To deep-fry, heat one litre of vegetable oil in a deepfryer or in a deep, heavy bottomed pot. Heat to about 200C and fry the balls in batches (about five at a time should do it) until golden brown. When they're cooked, add to the tomato sauce and heat through gently for about 10 minutes.
Serves 4-6 with rice, couscous or bread and salad.

Now, can anyone tell me what to do with the used oil? Can I pour it down the sink?

Musical Monday: Call Me

2011-10-10T15:23:00.001+13:00

Tonight I'm hosting an event with New Zealand chef, author and all-round good bloke Al Brown. I have a morbid fear that I'm going to introduce him to the audience as Al Green - keep your fingers crossed for me that I don't get them confused...

A postscript: Al Brown was great. I didn't get his name wrong, but I didn't fall off the stage or make any faux pas. I may have forgotten to introduce myself, but that's a small matter in the grand scheme of things, isn't it?

Sweet sweet Friday: Delectable Date & Orange Scones

2011-10-07T07:06:00.003+13:00

At my day job I can count on getting at least three emails a week from readers wanting me to print a recipe for date and orange scones from a trio of cafes in town. The clever woman who invented these scones isn't keen on sharing her recipe for fear that every other coffee joint in New Zealand will start making them, which is fair enough. But I have got so sick of emailing these people back with the stock reply that I've taken matter into my own flour-covered hands and invented a recipe myself. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, isn't it?

Date and Orange Scones
These are much lighter than the scones at Maranui, Deluxe or Queen Sally's Diamond Deli, which are dense slabs of date-streaked heaven. A dear friend declared mine to be better, but then, she was sitting in my kitchen eating one at the time. See what you think.

3 cups plain flour
2Tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups dates, chopped into thirds (this eliminates the danger of biting into a stone)
2Tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or melted butter, but evoo is easier!)
1Tbsp golden syrup (or date syrup, or brown sugar)
1 egg
1/2 cup plain yoghurt
1 - 1 1/4 cups orange juice (the good, freshly squeezed stuff, with 'bits' in it, not concentrate)
1 navel orange, washed and finely chopped (skin 'n' all, though you can discard the navel bit)

Preheat the oven to 220C and put the oven tray in to heat up (don't grease or flour it).
Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl, then stir through the dates. Mix the remaining ingredients together in a jug, then pour into the dry ingredients.
Mix VERY lightly with a flat knife or rubber spatula until a soft dough forms. Add the extra 1/4 cup of orange juice if it looks very dry. Tip out onto a cool floured bench top and pat into a flat shape about 2.5cm high. Cut into squares and put immediately on the hot oven tray that has been waiting in the oven for this moment. Leave about a thumb space between them so they have room to nearly join up while cooking.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden, crusty and well risen. Leave on the tray to cool briefly, then eat with lashings of butter.

Thanks for all your great food for thought this week, I've loved reading it. Thanks too to everyone who came up with a suggestion for what to do with the coconut flop. (What do you mean, 'throw it away?') It was too eggy to biscotti-fy, I haven't been in the mood for trifle and it was too fragile to turn into a frisbee (the BW was about to try, then saw the look on my face). In the meantime, I've stashed it in the freezer while I work out what to do next. It's probably quite good frozen, I think...

Have a sweet, sweet weekend x

One plain, one fancy

2011-10-06T06:56:00.000+13:00

Our lovely French houseguest has gone, leaving us with promises to meet again and the world's biggest pile of biscuits and chocolates. I get a shock every time I open the pantry.

Among the haul is a tin of assorted biscuits, similar to the Sampler tins we used to get at Christmas. We never had bought biscuits when I was a child and these were a special festive treat. But they came with rules: whenever the tin was opened I remember someone (Mum?) reciting the mantra: "one plain, one fancy". Shortbread, Dundee biscuits (the round ones with sugar crystals on top) and Krispies were most definitely in the 'plain' camp, while pink wafers, custard creams and anything chocolate were 'fancy'. I think this rule was invented to stop us eating all the good ones first - there was nothing more disappointing than prising open the lid to find there were only boring ones left.

I thought everyone's family obeyed these sorts of rules, then I met the Boy Wonder, whose family operate under the assumption that if you don't eat all the good ones first, someone else will beat you to it. It's just as well we don't have bought biscuits very often or there would be (even more) robust debate in our house.

Do you have 'rules' about biscuits? What do you judge as 'plain' and 'fancy'?

Spice Roasted Cauliflower Salad

2011-10-05T06:51:00.001+13:00

When I was a child, my mother had a stock response that came out when I asked what was for dinner. "Something out of my head'', she would say mysteriously. From memory, this meant either "some sort of casserole" or "I haven't decided yet". Worryingly, the Small Girl has now started asking "what are we having tonight?" when she gets up in the morning. I have no idea what we're having tonight, but this is "something out of my head" from last week (and very good it was too).

Spice Roasted Cauliflower Salad
There have been beautiful cauliflowers for sale for practically nothing at the vege market, but I often buy one and then can't think what to do with it. After reading Molly Wizenberg's 'A Homemade Life' recently, in which she describes caramelised roast cauliflower (among other things), I started looking at the cauliflower in my fridge in a different light. I've used Molly's cauliflower cutting method below, but the rest is all my own work. If you don't have the spices below you could substitute a good curry powder.

Spice mix:
1tsp cumin seeds (or ground cumin)
1tsp coriander seeds
a good pinch or two of cayenne pepper (less if you are frightened of hot stuff)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2tsp ground ginger
1/2tsp garam masala
1/2tsp salt

1 cauliflower
1 tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3-4Tbsp olive oil

3 handfuls of spinach, washed, dried and shredded

1/2 cup plain, natural yoghurt mixed with juice of a lemon, 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard and a tablespoon of good extra virgin olive oil, plus salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 220. Put all the spices in a small bowl and stir well.
Wash and dry the cauliflower, then sit it on a chopping board, stem end down. Cut into 1cm-ish slices - some will break into little bits, others will stay whole. This is ok. Cut out and discard any big bits of stem. Transfer the cauliflower into a large bowl, tip in the chickpeas (if using), the spices and the olive oil. Mix well, using your hands, until everything is well coated. Tip into a large roasting dish and put in the oven for 20-30 minutes, until the cauliflower is tender and crispy. Set it aside to cool slightly.
Put the prepared spinach in a serving bowl, tip the cauliflower and chickpeas on top, then drizzle the yoghurt dressing on top. Makes a good take-to-work lunch and is especially good alongside some simply cooked fish. Serves four generously.

What are you having for dinner tonight?

Pride comes before a fall

2011-10-04T06:51:00.000+13:00

In a year punctuated by bad news, I have finally had some of the good stuff. The thing is, I've let it go to my head.
The good news is that The Kitchenmaid has been nominated in the blog section of the 2011 Culinary Quills, organised by the New Zealand Guild of Foodwriters. It was a big shock, especially considering that my fellow nominees are big cheeses in the food writing world. I know it's not exactly the Nobel Peace Prize, but you've got to take compliments where you can, right?

Anyway, I came home, believing my own PR, excited about cooking dinner for a French friend who's here reporting on le rugby. The Small Girl ran in circles around the kitchen while I confidently went off-piste with a cake recipe, thinking what a genius I was. Then this came out of the oven...

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a delicate melange of eggs, white chocolate, lemon zest, butter, sugar and coconut. It is approximately a centimentre thick, except in the parts that stuck to the tin. It is also a good lesson to not get too cocky. Luckily Victoire was late, so I had time to whip up an emergency crumble instead (and the Boy Wonder cooked a sublime roast chicken).

Now, there's a prize* for the best suggestion for what to do with this coconut flop. Any ideas?

*The prize: One coconut flop, conveniently thin enough to fit in a small envelope, can be posted anywhere!

Musical Monday: Screems From Tha Old Plantation

2011-10-03T10:44:00.001+13:00

Sweet sweet Friday: Lemon Biscotti

2011-09-30T06:53:00.001+13:00

Some days, you don't feel like an all-singing, all-dancing, all-chocolate-with-caramel-and-piped-rosettes extravaganza. Some days, all you want is a something to nibble while you sit down with a nice cup of tea to read the paper and do the crossword. These biscuits are just the ticket.

Little Kitchen Lemon Biscotti
This slightly tweaked recipe is from a sweet book a friend sent me recently, Little Kitchen Around The World. It would be a great Christmas present for a keen small cook - or their parents. They're not biscotti in the sense of something you crunch into fearing an expensive visit to the dentist, but an an intriguing mixture of soft and chewy. The two other things you should know about them is that the raw mixture is addictively good and the cooked biscuits are very good with sharp cheddar cheese.

130g butter, melted
2 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2tsp baking powder
1/4tsp baking soda
1 cup caster sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
150g sour cream
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
finely grated zest of two lemons

3/4 cup icing sugar

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and sugar into a large bowl. Add the melted butter, vanilla, sour cream, eggs and lemon zest and mix well to a firm dough. Cover the bowl with plastic and put in the fridge for at least 20 minutes (you could probably leave it for two hours without any harm coming to it).
When you're ready, preheat the oven to 200C and line three baking trays with baking paper. Sift the icing sugar into a shallow bowl. Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls, then roll them in the icing sugar so they are well-coated. Place them on the prepared trays, allowing room for spreading.
Bake for 10 minutes, until light gold in colour. Cool for a few minutes, then remove to a rack to cool completely. Makes 36.

Have a sweet, sweet Friday and a great weekend, everyone.

Freeform olive fougasse

2011-09-28T06:50:00.000+13:00

This month's Fresh From The Oven challenge, set by Claire of Purely Food, was to make fougasse.
"Bof," I said to myself as I planned what to eat for a pre All Blacks vs France match dinner on Saturday night. "It will be a piece of gateau!"
Claire gave us two recipes to choose from, one from model-turned-baker Lorraine Pascal, the other from French chef Richard Bertinet. I made a rosemary-scented, olive-studded homage to Lorraine's version on Saturday afternoon, but the yeast didn't spring into life and they turned out more like Frenchified pretzels.
The next day, less distracted by le rugby, I had another go, remembering what I'd read from Bertinet's recipe about "showing the dough who is boss". These ones were much better, despite some woeful dough shaping on my behalf, resulting in some rather freeform fougasse. I might have taught the dough a lesson, but it was obviously determined to teach me one right back.

Fougasse
This is essentially Bertinet's recipe, though my measurements are a little different and I've added a soupcon (note: that's different to a soup spoon) of olive oil to enhance their keeping qualities. Silly really, because when these come out of the oven it's impossible not to devour them immediately.

500g strong flour
350ml lukewarm water
1 1/2 tsp dried yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
1Tbsp olive oil
olives, optional

Pour the water into a mixing bowl and add the yeast. Stir to dissolve, then leave for five minutes to start frothing. Add the flour, salt and oil and mix together, then turn out onto the counter and knead. Following M. Bertinet's instructions, I did this all by hand, but it is a very sticky dough and it would be a lot easier in a freestanding mixer (I know, I am lazy). Either way, you want the finished dough to be smooth, springy and not too sticky when you have finished kneading/mixing it. Resist the temptation to add too much extra flour. Scrape into a mixing bowl and cover with plastic. Let rest for an hour or so in a warm place.
At this point, turn your oven to its highest temperature and put in an oven tray.
Gently tip the risen dough out onto a floured surface, then dust generously with flour and cover again with a teatowel and let rest for five minutes.
Slice the dough in half with a very sharp knife or plastic scraper, then cut each piece again into three triangles. You're aiming for a fern shape - whether you get there or not is another matter.
Slash cuts into each piece of dough - I used a pair of kitchen scissors - and gently open the cuts up with your fingers. Flour a large sheet of baking paper and place the slashed dough on top. Gently press olives or any other toppings into the dough.
Take the hot baking tray out of the oven (remember it's hot!) and slide the dough and paper on top. Put in the oven and then splash in a little cold water on the walls (of the oven, not your kitchen) to create steam. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until golden.

In season

2011-09-27T06:47:00.012+13:00

Daylight saving (aka Summer Time) started in the weekend and despite a bitingly cold wind, it feels like winter is finally properly behind us. Digging through my wardrobe this morning I remembered a woman I used to work with who was a serious clotheshorse and incredibly dedicated shopper, who would think nothing of spending £100 while nipping out at lunchtime. She was my boss when we first moved to London and I remember her chattering away about how she was going to spend the weekend sorting out her summer wardrobe. This involved two things: one, buying all the latest fashion mags and circling all the things she planned to buy; and two, getting all last years' stuff down from the loft (and putting the winter stuff up there in return). At the time I was living out of a 60-litre backpack and my summer wardrobe consisted of two T-shirts and a dress (my winter wardrobe consisted of the same, but wearing them all at once). I felt like Cinderella, but without the fairy godmother.

The latest addition to my kitchen, in this season's pastel shades

Anyway, what I was really wondering, was - how do you approach the new season's food? Do you put all your winter-y cookbooks up in the loft, behind last year's handbags? What do you do when it might feel like summer when you get up in the morning, but winter by dinner time? And have you invested in any new kitchen kit for the coming season?

Musical Monday: Saltbreakers

2011-09-26T19:51:00.000+13:00

Sweet sweet Friday: Gateau Yaourt

2011-09-23T06:36:00.001+12:00

Four years ago I was in Paris, hoppity skipping around the Stade de France and Parc des Princes in the name of work. A lucky break meant I got a job working at the Rugby World Cup, reporting on the efforts of the Samoa team (until they got knocked out of the tournament) and bossing around a motley crew of international journalists at matches in Paris. It was the best of times (It was Paris. Need I say more?), it was the worst of times (you try going to a press conference and asking questions in French about a sport you know nothing about, or dealing with pouty French men who won't do what they're told by a stroppy Antipodean).

I'd never been remotely interested in le rugby, in fact I'd gone out of my way to avoid it. But in Paris it became a great passport: "Ah, vous etes neo-zelandaise? Allez les All Blacks!" It was all great fun, until France beat New Zealand in the quarter-final. Actually, that's a lie. It was still fun after that. Tomorrow night, the two teams face each other again. I won't be sitting in a bar in Paris, but I will be eating slices of this classic French cake. It's the least I can do...

French Yoghurt Cake - Gateau Yaourt
If you believe everything you read, gateau yaourt is the sort of cake that every French housewife makes (presumably in between flirting with the butcher, telling off the baker, having a torrid affair with the milkman, wearing Chanel No.5 and not getting fat). It's very simple to make and usually flavoured with rum (or "rrrrhuuum"). This version, adapted from Susan Loomis' 'On Rue Tatin', is a bit fancier thanks to the addition of melted chocolate. The end result is supposed to be a bit more marbled than the one pictured, but things don't always go to plan. Ask les All Blacks.

200g plain flour
3/4tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
200g sugar
finely grated zest of one orange
125ml (1/2 cup) plain, full-fat yoghurt
120g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
90g dark chocolate, melted and cooled

Preheat the oven to 190C and grease and line a 24cm tin. Beat the eggs and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and beat in, then fold in the yoghurt and melted butter. Pour half the batter into the prepared tin, then add the melted chocolate to the remaining batter. Mix well, then pour this into the cake tin. Swirl the mixtures together with a flat knife to marble. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the cake passes the skewer test and bounces back slightly when you touch it. Let cool for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar to serve.

Bon weekend, tout le monde et bonne chance aux joueurs!

Tofu surprise

2011-09-21T06:47:00.001+12:00

Wait, come back! That headline is ironic, I promise. Poor old tofu gets such a hard time. I agree, the extra firm stuff is like chewing the bottom of a Converse sneaker, but the melt-in-your-mouth soft stuff is wonderful. If you don't agree, then you should make this surprisingly good make-ahead bake that is jammed with tofu and brown rice and olives and spinach. Then tell me you don't like tofu.

This is how it played in our house:

Him (in mock Australian accent): "What's for dinner, darl? Is there tofu in there?"
Her: (in 'I am not cross with you yet, but I might be' voice): "Yes. And it's going to be delicious."
Small Girl: "Dinner time!"

Afterwards:

Him: "Is there any more?"
Her: "Yes, and you can even take some for lunch tomorrow!"
Small Girl (singing): "I saw a little green frog last night..."

Tomato Tofu and Rice Bake
This is adapted from an 80s Annabel Langbein recipe I remember my mum making. I know it sounds worthy (tofu! brown rice! spinach!) but it's really tasty. Please use soft tofu. I buy it from the vege market from an ancient Chinese woman and it costs about $2 for 500g. You can make this ahead of time and refrigerate, covered, until you're ready to cook it. Leftovers are good hot or cold.

3 cups cooked brown rice (let me know if we need a rice tutorial, but I'm figuring you know how to cook rice if you've got this far)
2Tbsp olive oil
2 red onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 x 400g tins of tomatoes
a squirt of tomato paste
300g soft tofu, sliced into 2cm chunks
1 cup kalamata olives, pitted
1 cup cottage cheese/ricotta
3-4 handfuls of spinach or silverbeet, blanched in boiling water and squeezed dry
2 handfuls of grated Parmesan
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease an ovenproof baking dish.
Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil and cook gently until soft and golden. Add the tomato paste and cook for a minute or two, then add the tomatoes. Stir and let simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes until the sauce is thick. Add the tofu and olives and let cook gently for another five minutes. Remove from heat and season.
Layer half the cooked rice in the bottom of the greased dish, then cover with half the tomato tofu mixture and half the spinach. Spread the cottage cheese on top, then repeat the rice, tomato and spinach layers. Sprinkle over the Parmesan. Cover with a lid or a sheet of greased foil (it's important to grease the foil, or the cheese will stick to it) and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil or lid and cook for another 5-10 minutes until the cheese is crispy and the dish is piping hot. Serves four.

What's your favourite way with tofu?

Asparagus Tart

2011-09-20T06:42:00.000+12:00

One of the joyous things about working in magazines or newspaper features is something called Forward Planning. You see, we don't just have clever ideas on the spot and turn them out the next day (that's what online journalism is for), we have to think about them in advance. In the UK, this meant people started ringing me up about Christmas story ideas in July. I quite liked going to champagne and mince pie tastings in the middle of summer in London because it felt like home, but it also means you are seriously over Christmas by the time you've written or commissioned 20,000 variations on how to stuff a sodding turkey and not get fat.
Things seem a little more relaxed in the southern hemisphere, but I have felt a bit like my old self in recent weeks thanks to an obsession with when the asparagus season is starting so I could organise my asparagus issue. Acting on a Twitter tip-off, I finally found some in two different locations last week so I could rush out and grab some to photograph. See, there is an element of public service journalism in what I do...

Asparagus Tart
My favourite thing to do with asparagus is to cook it really quickly in boiling water and dip the stems into melted butter, salt and pepper, but I needed to photograph this tart for work. It's really good - and very, very easy.

1 sheet frozen puff pastry
1 egg
125g sour cream
about 40g Parmesan, grated (a couple of handfuls)
about 16 spears of asparagus, washed and the tough ends snapped off
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 200C. Lie the pastry on a baking sheet and score a line about half an inch from the outside (like you're drawing a frame inside the pastry edge). Mix the egg, sour cream, cheese and salt and pepper together in a small bowl, then spread this on the pastry, inside the 'frame'. Lie the asparagus on top. Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until the pastry is risen and golden. Makes a nice light lunch for four with salad and bread.

There seemed to be a lot of interest last week in the Small Girl's cooking abilities. Here's a shot of her in her favourite role, chief taster.

"Look Teddy, it's not too hot, it's just right"

What's your favourite thing to do with asparagus?

Musical Monday: Christchurch

2011-09-19T19:17:00.000+12:00

Sweet sweet Friday: Raisin Toast

2011-09-16T06:56:00.002+12:00

One of my favourite things to do on a weekend morning is to get up early and go for a run. Mad, I know, but there's a difference between getting up early because you want to and getting up because a small child is demanding that you do. Often, if I end up running through town, I see people still staggering around from the night before. Last Sunday I ran past a house where one woman, in a spangly dress and runaway mascara, sat on her front step with her dressing gown-clad flatmates, giving them a rundown on her antics the night before. I felt very old and boring by comparison. But I also had the smug satisfaction that I was running home to put a slice of this fruity bread - which I'd made the night before, because I am THAT rock 'n roll - in the toaster. Take that, young 'uns!

Spicy Fruit Loaf
Don't pull one of those 'but I can't possibly make bread' faces, this is really easy. Make it on a Friday or Saturday night (before you go out, if you have a more exciting life than I do) and you'll be rewarded with lovely toast in the morning.

500g white flour
1 1/2tsp salt
1/2 tsp allspice
2tsp yeast
150g raisins or sultanas
zest of one orange
150ml milk
100ml boiling water
1 egg
2Tbsp honey (or jam!)

Glaze
About 3Tbsp orange juice
3Tbsp brown sugar

Put the boiling water and milk into a large bowl - with any luck it will be the perfect, lukewarm temperature. Add the yeast and honey or jam, stir and leave to sit for a minute or two. Add the egg and stir again. Add the raisins, zest, flour, salt and allspice and knead to form a smooth, satiny dough that springs back when you punch it. You can do this in a freestanding mixer with a dough hook, or with your hands, as your kitchen dictates. Return to the bowl, cover with plastic and let rise in a warm place until doubled (about 1-1 1/2 hours). Turn out, punch down and knead gently, then form into a tight ball and put into a greased 23cm cake tin (or form into a sausage and put in a large loaf tin). Cover with plastic again and let rise for another 30 minutes. During this time, turn the oven to 220C.
When the oven is hot and the dough has had its second rise, carefully put it in the oven. Turn the temperature down to 190C after 15 minutes and let the loaf cook for another 10 minutes, until well-risen and hollow-sounding when you tap its bottom.
Just before you take the loaf out of the oven, put the orange juice and brown sugar into a small pot and bring to a simmer over medium heat until syrupy (about three minutes). Brush this over the hot loaf when it is cooked. Let cool on a rack while you put your pyjamas/party dress on.

Have a sweet, sweet Friday everyone, thanks for coming to visit this week.

Indian Tomato Soup

2011-09-14T06:49:00.000+12:00

May the heavens forgive me but I've just tampered with a Madhur Jaffrey recipe. I was having a "oh no it's a week until payday and we have nothing for lunch" moment combined with lingering guilt over not making a single thing yet from her newest book - and this was the result.

Indian Tomato Soup
You know how they say "so simple even your kids could make it"? Well, with just a little help from me regarding measuring and guidance so turmeric didn't go all over the kitchen, the Small Girl made this. She's two and three months. Ok, I turned the element on and gave it an occasional stir, but you get the picture. It really is that easy.

2 tins peeled tomatoes (chopped makes it even easier)
100g red lentils
500mls water (wash out the tomato cans)
1Tbsp coriander seeds
1Tbsp ground cumin
1/4tsp ground turmeric
1/2tsp chilli powder
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 5cm piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped (or, if you can't be bothered, cut in a few pieces and chuck them in whole - I often do this with frozen ginger)

Put everything in a pot. Bring to boil then turn down and let simmer gently for about an hour. Top up with more water if it looks like it's getting too thick. Taste for seasoning, add about 1tsp salt. Remove the giant pieces of ginger at this point. Serve sprinkled with handfuls of fresh coriander. That's it. Serves 4.

Nose to scale

2011-09-13T06:45:00.001+12:00

On Sunday morning I escaped my chores and fled to the City Market to watch Martin Bosley deal to a practically still-flapping snapper (a kind of bream, to Northern Hemisphere readers). It was 90 minutes of brilliance.
I don't do this sort of thing very often, in fact the last time I went to any kind of cooking demo was to a risotto masterclass at Carluccio's in Covent Garden. I was massively pregnant, ravenous, and unable to drink any of the chianti my fellow classmates were knocking back. This was a rather different kettle of, err, fish.
Martin, who is a bit of a megastar among New Zealand chefs, turned this 3kg beast into tartare and carpaccio, then baked the fillets in a soy-mirin glaze before serving up the head with a lemony beurre blanc. The assembled group looked on admiringly, sipping glasses of Gisborne chardonnay ("It has to be past noon somewhere in the world," the man sitting next to me said cheerily.)
It was an incredible, inspiring class. I admit, I don't have the knife skills to make carpaccio at home, but I feel confident enough to tackle the head. Now it's just a matter of catching one...

Martin Bosley, left, and his lovely assistant, Seamus

If you are in Wellington over the next few months you should definitely check out the other classes on offer. Martin Bosley will be back again the weekend before Christmas, but there are lots of other great people scheduled in before then. Go on, you know you want to...

Musical Monday: Good Fortune

2011-09-12T06:58:00.000+12:00

So, PJ Harvey has won the Mercury Prize, again. Hurrah! Here's my all-time favourite PJ tune (I know it's from the ancient past, but I still love it). Do you have a favourite PJ Harvey song - or do you think someone else should have won the Mercury?

Sweet sweet Friday: Boozy Truffles

2011-09-09T07:06:00.001+12:00

We Should Cocoa, the sweet little blogging event brought into the world by Chele and Choclette, is one this month. Hasn't it grown? I feel particularly attached to WSC, in the manner of a doting aunt, because it was the first blogging challenge I felt brave enough to enter. This blog baby has been just like the real thing, causing late nights (unable to sleep after eating too many chocolate caramel bars), tears (my jeans don't fit - was it that last slice of chocolate roulade?) and moments of triumph (beautifying chocolate honey tea). Mostly though, just like a real baby, it's been a way to discover lots of other likeminded souls. So thank you, Chele and Choclette, I can't wait to see how your baby grows from here.

Boozy Chocolate Truffles
The theme of this month's WSC challenge is to make something suitable for a first birthday. As luck would have it, I went to a first birthday party last weekend and made up a batch of these decadent truffles for the parents of twins Alex and Will. These are strictly adults only - I boxed them up and called them 'Parenting Pills: Take one and lie down when suffering from symptoms of extreme parenting'. The twins' mum, who must be the most calm person I know, later emailed that she had upped the dose to three. I think that's testimony to their addictive nature.

250g dark chocolate, roughly chopped (I use Whittaker's 72% Dark Ghana)
50g butter
125ml cream
3Tbsp dark rum (or brandy, or whisky, or a liqueur of your choice)
1 egg yolk
2 x 70g packets of hundreds and thousands (non pareils) or similar

Put the chocolate, butter, cream and rum into a heatproof bowl and put into a low oven - or over a saucepan of simmering water, or in a microwave - and melt, stirring occasionally. The oven method is really easy, as long as you don't forget it's there.
Let cool for a minute or two, then stir in the egg yolk until well mixed. Let cool for 10 minutes, then chill in the fridge until set (about an hour).
Roll teaspoonfuls of the mixture into balls - this is a sticky job, don't even think about answering the phone etc while you're doing it - then roll in the hundreds and thousands. You can use sifted cocoa instead for a chic-er look, but the coloured sprinkles are very cheerful and make a nice textural contrast. Keep in the fridge until serving.

Have a sweet, sweet Friday everyone x

Random Recipes #8: Corn & Feta Fritters

2011-09-08T06:53:00.002+12:00

After the success of last month's Random Recipes challenge, in which the Small Girl thoughtfully selected 'Great Ways With Steak And Chops', I put her to work again to choose September's recipe from a pile of magazine clippings and pull-outs. I confess, I only gave her a small selection to work with, for I am destined to become one of those mad old ladies who lives in a house overflowing with things she has cut out of the newspaper or scribbled down on the back of a phone bill. Whenever we move house (something we've tended to do every 12-18 months in the last six or seven years), I find more recipes tucked into novels or - worse - tucked into other recipe books. There must be a name for this - Compulsive Recipe And Cookbook Kollecting (CRACK) perhaps? Shall we start a support group?

The Small Girl pulled this out of a pile of papers tucked into the handwritten recipe book I made when I first went flatting. There's a burn mark on the back (left it on the element, Wanganui, 2001) and all sorts of things tucked inside, including a tea-stained note to my 1996 flatmate Kim from her sister Kirsty ("Kimbo: put your heater on the clothes, hope you don't mind, need some for tomorrow. Early night for me, you crazy partier"), a 100 riel note (Cambodia, 2000), a bank statement from a defunct account (2004) and lots of torn-out pages from Observer Food Monthly (London, 2005-2009). Oh, and the recipes...

Corn, Feta and Microgreen Fritters
I'd like to say the Small Girl chose this particular recipe because she loves corn fritters, but alas, she didn't eat a single one. Oh well, I thought they were pretty good. Judging from the font and layout, I think the recipe comes from an old copy of NZ House and Garden magazine. The attached story talks about the benefits of cooking with 'microgreens', which were the next big thing a while back. Health benefits aside, I think using fresh herbs from your garden (or kitchen) would do the trick nicely.

1 cup flour
3tsp baking powder
1tsp salt
Black pepper
2 free range eggs
125ml soda water
2 cups corn kernels (1 can, drained)
125g feta, crumbled
1 cup microgreens (or finely chopped fresh herbs)

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper into a bowl. Add the eggs and soda water and beat until smooth. Stir in the corn, feta and greens and let stand for 10 minutes.
Cook spoonfuls in a well-greased pan over medium heat until golden on both sides.
Remember, as with pikelets, the first one will be a disaster while you get the temperature right. Keep subsequent fritters warm in a 120C oven while you cook the rest. Serve with chutney and more greens. Makes about a dozen.

Little fried fish

2011-09-06T06:51:00.001+12:00

It's whitebait season again, but we've yet to hear any reports from the Coast as to how its going. This isn't unusual - whitebaiters are notoriously secretive, especially those who sell their catch without the knowledge of Mr IRD. Last year the Boy Wonder experimented with frying the tiny fish in a pan, Spanish-style, rather than binding them in traditional egg fritters. It was a great success, if labour-intensive. But last week he stumbled on an even better way - a sort of oven-fried version, made with a recent newspaper-wrapped delivery from Westport. The other thing that's changed from last year is that a pound of whitebait (they only come in Imperial measures) used to be enough for two of us - now we have to share it with our smallest dining companion. That's not a bad thing.

Oven-fried whitebait
Excuse the Coaster-style description, but there's no point giving this a fancier name (except 'bloody good oven-fried whitebait' perhaps). All you need with this is a crunchy green salad and a bit of baguette. Oh, and lots of lemon halves.

1 lb (about 560g) whitebait
flour
salt and pepper
olive oil - about 1/2 cup

Defrost the whitebait and rinse under the tap to get rid of any grit. Drain well.
Preheat the oven to 200C and pour about 1/2 cup of olive oil in a roasting dish. (You may need more - the BW is a bit vague on exact measurements). Heat the oil in the oven for about five minutes. While it's heating up, dredge the whitebait at a time in seasoned flour (shake off the excess in a coarse sieve.) Carefully tip into the hot oil and return the roasting dish to the oven. Cook for about 20 minutes, until the little fish are golden brown and crunchy. Serves two greedy adults and one voracious toddler for dinner - so at least four adults for lunch.

Do you have a favourite way to cook - or eat - whitebait?

North Beach, Westport: Feel the serenity

Sweet sweet Friday: Parfait Amour

2011-09-02T06:54:00.005+12:00

My BFF has a new boyfriend. It's been a slow-burning thing that we have been watching from a discreet distance for some time, but last weekend they came over for dinner. I practically had to sign an affadavit first, promising the Boy Wonder and I would be on our best behaviour and not embarrass her, so we were more than a little nervous before they turned up. I cooked skate wings in browned butter; there was some sort of salad and polite conversation - I felt very middle-aged thinking of how it used to be in the olden days when we met boys we liked. I did take the precaution of making a showstopper pudding, just in case I needed to atone for any previous faux pas. It did the trick nicely; I think they'll be back.

Plum and chocolate parfait

Lest there be any confusion, Parfait Amour is the name of a purple liqueur with some sort of curacao base. It looks like methylated spirits; I've never been tempted to drink it. This pudding, on the other hand, proved irresistible. I used tinned Black Doris plums, but suspect pureed berries would be equally good. You might have to sieve them first though - seeds in your teeth aren't very seductive.

250g tinned Black Doris plums (or berries), stoned and pureed

180g dark chocolate, melted and cooled slightly

250ml cream

3 eggs

70g caster sugar

Beat the cream until soft peaks form, then fold in the pureed fruit and melted chocolate. Set aside.

In another bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until pale and thick (this is easiest with electric beaters, unless you have forearms of steel). Fold this mixture into the cream very gently.

Line the bottom and sides of a loaf tin with clingfilm - be sure to smooth out any creases - then pour in the parfait mixture. Cover with more clingfilm and put in the freezer to set for at least four hours.

Take out of the freezer 5-10 minutes before you are ready to serve and turn it out onto a pretty plate. Cut into slices and serve with extra plums or berries and whipped cream. Serves 8.

Have a sweet, sweet weekend everyone. It's officially Spring in the southern hemisphere now, hurrah! This post is my entry in a new blogging event, Sweet New Zealand, organised by Alessandra Zecchini and hosted this month by Alison at PeasePudding.

Dedicated followers of fashion

2011-08-31T09:32:00.001+12:00

It may surprise you to learn that New Zealand Fashion Week is on at the moment. I mean, New Zealand isn't exactly renowned for its haute couture or gorgeous inhabitants (no one ever comes away from a trip to Aotearoa saying "oh, the women are so stylish!" or "the men are so handsome!").

A fine Kiwi specimen, image via here

I don't follow many fashion blogs, mostly because I don't need to be reminded that my 'look' (harried working mother, accessorised with streak of toddler snot) isn't going to win any prizes. But for this one, written by a colleague of mine, I'll make an exception. If you have any interest in fashion, Antipodean or not, you should check it out. You should still check it out if you're not interested in fashion, because it's hilarious - and because she asks why food critics say what they think but most fashion writers don't, which is an excellent question.

Are you a dedicated follower of fashion?

Pumpkin Parmesan Buns

2011-08-30T06:37:00.000+12:00

I've fallen off the breadmaking wagon with a resounding thud in the last fortnight, thanks to a combination of factors including too much work, the snow, a warp-speed trip to Sydney and coming to the end of my 20kg sack of flour. But before I fell into the clutches of a bag of Vogels and a stray baguette, I joined the Fresh From The Oven crew, who "meet" once a month to extend their breadmaking skills.

Sally at My Custard Pie set the challenge for August, suggesting participants deal to their zucchini/courgette glut with a recipe for Courgette Cluster Bread. Zucchinis are currently about NZ$13 a kilo here and they look battered, bruised and extremely weary after a long journey from somewhere warmer. But pumpkins are in massive supply at our weekly vegetable market and I had the bright idea to use them instead.

Pumpkin Parmesan Buns
These are easy to make, deliciously light and fluffy and they keep really well (if you can resist eating them). Next time I'm thinking pink - beetroot, feta and fennel seeds, perhaps?

450g peeled, seeded and grated pumpkin
675g strong white bread flour
1/2tsp salt
2tsp dried yeast
4Tbsp parmesan, grated
Freshly ground black pepper
2Tbsp olive oil
Tepid water - about 250ml
Milk, to glaze
Sesame seeds, to sprinkle

Mix the flour, yeast, parmesan, salt and some black pepper together in a bowl, then stir in the olive oil and courgettes. Add water until the mixture comes together as a firm, soft dough. (As per Sally's instructions, I did this and the kneading in my KitchenAid with the dough hook. If doing it by hand, turn the dough onto a lightly floured board or work surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Lightly oil a bowl and put the dough into rise, covered with cling film or a cloth, for about one hour or until doubled in size.
Knock back the dough in the bowl and then turn out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead again briefly until smooth.
Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and roll to shape into even balls. Lightly grease and line the base of a 30cm cake tin (or a roasting dish of similar size) with baking papert. Place one ball of dough in the middle and all the others around it.
Brush the tops of rolls with milk and sprinkle over some sesame seeds. Cover again with oiled cling film or a cloth and leave to prove until doubled in size and the balls touch each other - about 30 minutes.
Put into a preheated oven at 200 C for about 25 minutes until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Musical Monday: Same Mistake

2011-08-29T21:37:00.000+12:00

Ignore the advertising and blatant product placement (hello, iPhone 4!) at the start and this is very cool...

Sweet sweet Friday: Orange Polenta Muffins

2011-08-26T06:28:00.000+12:00

I found this recipe while doing some detective work for my job. (What can I say, I'm easily distracted.) I'm also watching The Wire at the moment and "po-lice" work is all I can think about. Anyway, this is a tampered-with version of the recipe I found while trawling the internet for something else entirely. I don't know if it would stand up in court as a decent defence, but it's pretty good all the same. Plus, you can eat the evidence!

Orange Polenta Muffins
If you like my fruity vegan muffins, you'll love these. The orange peel adds intense flavour, the dates are little nuggets of caramel and the muffins themselves have a light, tender crumb.

1/2 cup brown sugar (increase this to 2/3 cup if you like things very sweet)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1½ cups milk
2 navel oranges, finely chopped (including peel)
1 cup dates, finely chopped
1/2 cup dried apricots, finely chopped
1 cup polenta
1 cup white flour
1 cup wholemeal flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1½ tsp baking powder
1½ tsp cinnamon

Handful of longthread coconut for decoration (optional)

Preheat oven to 200C. Grease a 12-hole muffin tray.
Mix the sugar, oil and milk together in a large bowl and let sit while you prepare the other ingredients.
Sift all the dry ingredients into another bowl.
Add the oranges and dried fruit to the wet mixture, then add this to the dry ingredients. Fold together gently until mixed. Divide between the 12 muffin holes and sprinkle the tops with long-thread coconut if desired. Bake for 25 minutes until risen and springy to touch. Let cool for five minutes before turning out of the tray.

Have a sweet, sweet Friday everyone. I'm hoping to watch as many episodes of The Wire as possible...

And the winners are...

2011-08-25T14:56:00.000+12:00

Thanks to everyone who entered The Kitchenmaid's first birthday giveaway. It was great to get your feedback on what you'd like to see more of and I hope to bring you more good food and ideas in the year to come. But without further ado, here's the list of lucky winners:

Kate of Kate's Cakes And Bakes has won Alexa Johnston's gorgeous new book, What's For Pudding?

Libby of Lovely Wee Days has won the Wellington On A Plate goody bag, complete with a bottle of Wairarapa pinot noir, a bottle of Lot 8 olive oil and a Wellington On A Plate apron and teatowel.

And Janice, Paisley Jade, Heavenly Ingredients, Shaheen and Choey have won twin packs of Whittaker's 72% Dark Ghana chocolate. Whittaker's is the only commercial chocolate brand made in New Zealand and I can personally vouch for its deliciousness. It's the only chocolate I use in baking (and we eat a fair amount of it too).

Sorry I couldn't send everyone a prize, but it's been hard enough not eating my way through that box of chocolate as it is! If you've won something, drop me a line or DM on Twitter (@thekitchenmaid) and I'll arrange getting your prize out to you.

Random Recipes: Burmese Curry

2011-08-23T07:02:00.000+12:00

There are few things more random than the meanderings of a two-and-a-bit-year-old, so I put mine to good use and got her to select the cookbook for this month's Random Recipe challenge.

I can't remember how I came to be in possession of Great Ways With Steak & Chops. It was probably a joke gift - I have 'Cooking For Couples' and '100 Dishes For Two' that we got as engagement presents. GWWSC was published in 1972 by the Australian Women's Weekly and written by its well-respected food editor, Ellen Sinclair. Her name should have prompted me to open this book earlier, but food snobbery being what it is, I thought the whole book would be full of appalling examples of 70s cuisine. There are many things in this book I will never, ever, make - such as Veal Oscar (veal steaks topped with canned asparagus, lobster meat and bearnaise sauce) or Pineapple Bacon Cutlets (lamb, topped with tinned pineapple rings, wrapped in bacon, breadcrumbed and baked), but GWWSC actually has some interesting, even enticing, recipes. This is one of them.

Burmese Curry

Ellen Sinclair, who wrote loads of other titles for the Australian Women's Weekly, certainly knew her stuff. These recipes are very well-written and easy to follow (even if the photos are hilariously awful). The original recipe was very dry, so I splashed in about a cup of water as detailed below and upped the chilli quotient as detailed below. This can also be cooked in the oven - after adding the water clamp the lid on and let it bake for about 1 1/2 hours at 150C.

900g chuck steak, cut into 2cm chunks

2Tbsp oil

4 onions, finely chopped

5cm ginger, grated

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2tsp turmeric

1/2tsp chilli flakes

1 beef stock cube

1 1/2 - 2 cups water

2tsp soy sauce

Heat the oil in a large, heavy pan with a lid. Add the meat and brown well, add the onions, ginger and garlic. Cook until golden brown.

Add turmeric, chilli, water and stock cube and bring to the boil, stirring.

Cover, reduce heat and simmer gently for one hour or until the meat is tender. Add soy sauce and salt to taste. Serve with rice. Serves 4-6.

Musical Monday: Last Friday Night

2011-08-22T14:13:00.005+12:00

Disclaimer: I am no Katy Perry fan but this song was all over the radio as I sat trapped in traffic in Sydney over the weekend. And the video, which pays homage to every teen cliche ever invented, is sheer brilliance. Look out for the cameo from Kenny G (yes, that Kenny G) and Corey Feldman and Debbie Gibson, who were pop idols when I was a teenager and now play Katy P's parents. Argh, I am truly ancient...

Sweet sweet Friday: Giant Meringues

2011-08-19T06:31:00.001+12:00

I went to a wedding party last weekend. The bride wore blue suede shoes and a pretend veil; I wore the proud smile of someone who had managed to carry a platter of beautiful marbled chocolate and rosewater meringues across town without breaking any of them.

Chocolate and rosewater meringues
This is essentially the giant meringue recipe from the Ottolenghi cookbook, with a little added chocolate marbled through them for fun. Don't even think about making these without a really robust freestanding mixer - come over and I'll make them for you. The only tricky bit is pouring the hot sugar into the egg whites - don't try this with small children or pets underfoot. This is my entry for August's We Should Cocoa blogging event, in which the special guest ingredient is rose.

600g caster sugar
300g egg whites (I find this is about 8 large free-range ones), at room temperature
2tsp rosewater
75g dark chocolate, melted and cooled (but not cold)

Preheat the oven to 200C and spread the sugar on a large roasting dish lined with baking paper. Put the dish into the oven and leave for about 10 minutes, or until you can see the sugar start to melt at the edges. While the sugar is in the oven, put the egg whites into the bowl of a freestanding mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Just before the sugar is ready, start the machine on high speed and let the whites froth up.
Carefully pour the hot sugar onto the whites in a slow, steady stream (with the machine still whisking), then add the rosewater. Keep beating on high speed for about 10 minutes, until the mixture is thick, silky and billowing. It should hold its shape when you lift a spoonful from the bowl (make sure you turn the machine OFF before you dip a spoon in!).
Turn the oven down to 110C and line two baking trays with baking paper. Gently marble the melted chocolate through the meringue mixture and scoop large blobs onto the prepared trays. Keep in mind that they will double in size in the oven, so leave plenty of space between them. You should make 10-12. Carefully place in the oven and bake for about two hours, until the outsides are completely firm but the centres are still a little soft. A little chocolate will leak from the bottom - don't panic, this is normal. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before storing in a cool, dry place until you can no longer resist them.

Have a sweet, sweet Friday, everyone. I'm off to eat and drink my way around the Hunter Valley!

Lucy had another little lamb and this is how she cooked it

2011-08-16T06:40:00.002+12:00

Hello, my name is Baabaara. Image via here

I thought it was best to get the gratuitous and possibly bad taste lamb photo out of the way early on. Please, don't be offended - I love lambs as much as the next person, especially if that person is cooking this spicy, slow cooked lamb shoulder in my oven, then serving it up to me with crispy roasted potatoes and steamed greens.

Slow cooked shoulder of lamb
This is my version of a Hugh F-W recipe. It is a firm favourite in our house for a number of reasons, not least because it is very low-maintenance and extremely delicious. Mature lamb (ie, the sort that lies about being younger than it is) is especially good cooked this way.

1 lamb shoulder, bone in (about 2kg)
2tsp cumin seeds
2tsp coriander seeds
2tsp fennel seeds

2tsp black peppercorns

2tsp cinnamon

3tsp sweet smoked paprika

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

4Tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary

1 dried chilli, chopped (or 1-2tsp chilli flakes)

3tsp sea salt

2Tbsp olive oil

Preheat the oven to 220C. Toast the cumin, coriander, peppercorns in a dry pan until fragrant. Tip into a mortar and add the garlic, rosemary, smoked paprika, dried chilli and salt. Crush/grind for a bit, then add the olive oil. If you don't have a mortar you can do this in a mini food processor or just use a bowl, a wooden spoon and lots of elbow grease.
Score the skin of the lamb and put it into a large, lidded, ovenproof dish (like a Le Creuset or similar). Rub half the spice paste over the meat, then put in the oven for 30 minutes. Take it out and rub the remainder of the spice paste on to the meat (I use the back of a spoon). Tip a small glass of water into the pot (not over the meat), put the lid on and return to the oven, turning the heat down to 120C. Let cook for at least six hours, until the meat is falling off the bone.
If you want to cook this in advance, remove the meat from the pot when it is done and discard the bones. Pour the liquid into a container and let cool, then refrigerate both the meat and liquid. To reheat, put the meat back into the (now clean!) pot. Scrape the layer of fat from the now jelly-like liquid and throw it away quickly before anyone sees. Put the jellied liquid in with the meat and reheat at 150C until piping hot.

Musical Monday: LDN

2011-08-15T14:13:00.001+12:00

Sweet sweet Friday: Lemon Posset

2011-08-12T06:46:00.001+12:00

I have a book in my possession called 'The Man Catcher's Manual', which offers all sorts of advice about finding a sugar daddy. The only piece I remember is that one should always carry an uncrushable jersey day dress in their handbag so one doesn't have to be seen at 10am the next morning in last night's cocktail frock. Alas, I have had little use for this piece of information, but have found it extremely handy to always have a very simple dessert recipe in my apron pocket. I haven't attracted the attention of any wealthy benefactors with it yet, but this can only be a matter of time...

Lemon Posset
We have Jill Dupleix to thank for this tremendous recipe (and my sister Marion, who first alerted me to it). Jill Dupleix is one of my favourite writers - not least because I emailed her once when she wrote about quinces in The Times and she replied about 10 minutes later - and her recipes are brilliant. You should really go and buy one of her books. (Marion's recipes are great too, only she hasn't written any books. Yet.)
This is velvety, creamy and tangy all at once. Use Yen Ben or another acidic variety of lemon for best results.

450ml cream
125g caster sugar
60ml (4Tbsp) lemon juice

Pour the cream and sugar into a small pot. Heat gently, stirring to dissolve the sugar, and bring to the boil. Let simmer very, very gently for three minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Let cool for 10 minutes, then pour into four ramekins or little coffee cups. Chill for a few hours before serving. Serves four.

Have a sweet weekend, everyone, and don't forget to enter The Kitchenmaid's fab birthday giveaway!

The Kitchenmaid is ONE

2011-08-10T06:51:00.000+12:00

Like most blogs, The Kitchenmaid had a long gestational period. With the naivety of most first-time mothers I thought it would be a good maternity leave project, something to keep my brain moving. I was going to run it in my spare time, along with website on parenting, training for a half-marathon and continuing my freelance work, because, you know, babies are really easy. Yeah, right. Pull the other one, sweetheart, it's got chocolate cream cheese icing on it.

Anyway, today marks one year since my first tentative post. I'd like to thank Joan of Sempiterna Me, who acted as an encouraging midwife, and everyone who has stopped by and shared their thoughts, tips and ideas ever since. I couldn't - or indeed wouldn't - do this without you. And last but by no means least, thanks to the Small Girl and Boy Wonder who help out in all sorts of ways, not least by being such appreciative eaters.

Now - it might be The Kitchenmaid's birthday, but I'd like YOU to get the presents. So, thanks to the generosity of Penguin Books, Visa Wellington On A Plate and Whittaker's Chocolate, I have a bumper hamper of loot to give away.

There's a copy of Alexa Johnston's new book, What's For Pudding?, a Visa Wellington On A Plate goody bag loaded with Wairarapa pinot noir and olive oil, plus a Wellington On A Plate apron and tea towel, AND a whole box - that's 10 x 250g slabs - of Whittaker's 72% Dark Ghana Chocolate (which will be split up into pairs).

All you have to do to be in to win is:

1. Become a follower of The Kitchenmaid if you aren't already. It's easy, really it is...
2. Leave a comment below, telling me what you'd like to see more (or less) of on this blog - baking? cooking advice? gluten-free ideas? book reviews? pictures of animals? relationship advice?
3. Spread the word - for every extra mention you give this giveaway (and The Kitchenmaid) on Twitter, Facebook, your blog, your national radio or TV show, your local deli, your hairdresser etc, you get an extra chance at winning. (Just nip back and leave another comment to let me know.)
4. This giveaway is open to readers in all geographical locations, though it will help if you have a reliable postal service. Actually, it might be tricky to arrange posting wine and olive oil, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it...

Don't forget to tell me what you'd like to see more of on The Kitchenmaid, because cooking for one just isn't fun. Good luck!

Kitchen DIY: Fried Eggs

2011-08-09T06:40:00.001+12:00

I know you'll think I've really flipped out over this one, but I was reading MFK Fisher's hilarious essay 'How Not To Cook An Egg' (in Love in a dish and other pieces) and it occurred to me that I had never fried an egg. I remember my dad making them occasionally for breakfast when I was a child, but I've never been that keen on eggy dishes. In fact, I never really fancied them at all until I was pregnant and eating a runny egg yolk was seen as akin to shooting up in the toilets.

Fisher's piece on eggs is a wonderful piece of writing, with all sorts of historical fact (and fiction) and useful information - such as the method for 'frying' an egg that I'll detail below. But above all I love it because it begins with this line:

Probably one of the most private things in the world is an egg until it is broken.

Fried Eggs a la MFK Fisher
Fisher says that a biochemist once told her that every minute an egg is cooked makes it take three hours longer to digest. Whether this is true or not, it makes sense to me for eggs to be as lightly cooked as possible. Don't make me tell you about the powdery, sulphur-laden boiled eggs of boarding school lunches, I couldn't stand to relive them.
Fisher calls this method "a compromise" - I call it quick and foolproof.

The freshest, most free-range eggs you can get, at room temperature
Butter
Olive oil

Heat a shallow, heavy pan and drop in a knob of butter and a drop of oil. Heat until it is sizzling, then break in an egg or two. Clamp a lid on tightly, turn off the heat and leave for three minutes. When the time is up, slip the egg(s) onto a slice of freshly made toast. The eggs will be "tender and firm and very good".

How do you fry eggs?

Musical Monday: One Day Like This

2011-08-08T20:18:00.000+12:00

cal Monday

Sweet sweet Friday: Aunty Shirley's Orange Madeira Cake

2011-08-05T06:43:00.002+12:00

Aunty Shirley makes the best madeira cake I've ever had. I prised the recipe off her several years ago and thought I must have written it down wrong, for it never turned out as light and orangey and altogether wonderful as hers. So last year I invited myself to her house for a masterclass and discovered I'd been doing it all wrong. Shirley, who is actually the Boy Wonder's great aunt, beats the living daylights out of her cake. If it was a dog she'd be arrested. As it is, her cake is so good it should probably be illegal. It's taken me until recently to get up the courage to try again. I channelled Shirley's 'take no prisoners' attitude and let the beaters do their work.

Aunty Shirley's Orange Madeira Cake
Actually, it turns out this isn't Shirley's cake at all, but the recipe of one Mrs E G A Mason. I love these old cookbooks with tried and trusted recipes from home kitchens - I suppose blogs have replaced them. This particular book also had recipes for 'Darkies', which probably ARE illegal now (and rightly so). Shirley bakes this in an extendable square tin but I make mine in a 24cm round one. She also ices it with an orange butter icing, but it's almost as good left plain. Just remember to beat it soundly - Shirley uses electric handbeaters, I used my freestanding mixer - and all will be well.

4 eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
125g butter, melted
3Tbsp milk
juice and grated rind of one small orange
2tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line a 23cm tin.
Beat the eggs and sugar until pale and thick (about five minutes), then add orange juice and zest, flour, milk and melted butter. Beat again for a couple of minutes ("you need to get air into the mixture," says Shirley). Add the baking powder and beat again for about a minute. Pour into the tin and bake for 45-60 minutes. Cool, turn out of the tin and ice with orange butter icing.

Have a sweet, sweet Friday everyone. I'm going to spend the weekend planning The Kitchenmaid's first birthday party...

Welly on a plate

2011-08-04T06:40:00.002+12:00

Welly on a plate

Wibble wobble

Welly on a plate

Sorry, couldn't help myself. Tomorrow marks the start of Wellington On A Plate 2011 - 17 days of culinary heaven involving beer, blind dining, burgers, cupcakes, cocktails, canapes, chocolate, demonstrations, degustations, dinner deals, fashion shows, a hummus contest, kitchen tours, long lunches, martinis, an amazing Masterclass, offal, oysters, pasta and pastry making, pies, pinot noir, truffles and a look at zoo food (among other things). I've been so immersed in writing about the festival for work that I now feel a bit like you do when you've cooked an epic feast. Yes, it all looks lovely, but I'll happily settle for a cup of tea and a lie down!

However, if you like the look of this lovely apron and teatowel, you can buy your own here or you can stay tuned because I might, just might, have some goodies to giveaway when The Kitchenmaid turns one next week... In the meantime, are you attending any Wellington On A Plate festivities? What are you looking forward to?

Kitchen DIY: Mayonnaise

2011-08-03T06:29:00.000+12:00

Given that I live with a mayonnaise denier and a toddler who shouldn't be eating raw egg (if you believe the books of childrearing doom), I don't go in much for making it. We don't even have the bought stuff in the fridge. But the other night I was suddenly possessed by the need to whip some up. (These odd compulsions often strike when I have a lot of other, more important things to do. Does that happen to you?)

DIY Mayonnaise
Really, this is so easy. I made it in less than five minutes - by hand - while supervising the Small Girl "doing some cooking". Then I shredded a celeriac in the food processor and made a sort of remoulade by adding a little more mustard and lemon juice to thin the mayo down a bit. Both the mayo denier and our daughter wolfed it down. What they don't know won't hurt them, etc...

1 free range egg yolk
1/2 clove garlic
good pinch of salt
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1tsp white wine vinegar
pinch of sugar
150ml oil (half olive, half vegetable oil), in a jug
more salt, pepper, lemon juice

Crush the garlic with the salt in a mortar and pestle or with the flat side of a knife until it forms a paste. Scrape this into a small bowl and add the egg yolk, mustard, vinegar and sugar. Whisk together (I use a miniature whisk to add to the fun). Continue whisking with one hand while adding drops of oil from the jug with the other. Increase the drops to a thin, steady stream - don't go too fast - and continue whisking until you have a thick, glossy, mixture. Voila - c'est mayonnaise! Add more salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste. Use immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to two days, if it lasts that long.

Rye and molasses bread

2011-08-02T07:08:00.004+12:00

I've finally assuaged my white bread guilt and made a successfully dark and flavoursome loaf after weeks of turning out lead bricks. There are various recipes floating around for no-knead brown breads that you mix up and stick in a cold oven, but I can't seem to make any of them work. This one, however, adapted from something I copied down from A Pod And Three Peas ages ago, does the trick. It's a bit like homemade Vogels rye bread, only nicer.

Rye and Molasses Bread
This bread came out of the oven looking so dark and brooding I wanted to call it Heathcliff, but thought that might be a Wuthering Heights pun too far. The molasses gives it a distinctive flavour, but you could always substitute treacle or golden syrup. Either way, this bread is really, really good with slabs of cold unsalted butter.

2tsp dried yeast
650ml warm water
1Tbsp molasses
500g wholemeal flour
100g rye flour
100g rolled oats
1tsp salt

Put the water and yeast into a large bowl (or the bowl of your freestanding mixer) and whisk together. Add the molasses and whisk again. Add all the other ingredients and mix well. Leave for five minutes, then either plug into your mixer and let the dough hook work its magic for about five minutes or turn it out and knead it for five minutes. It is a really, really wet and sticky dough - the mixer is far easier.
Scrape the dough into a well-greased and lined large loaf tin (mine has an internal measurement of about 25cm x 8cm), slash the top and put the whole thing into a plastic bag. Leave until doubled - around 60-90 minutes - then bake at 200C for about 45 minutes. I turn it out of the tin at this point and return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes to get a nice, crusty bottom. Let cool completely on a rack before slicing.

Musical Monday: Up Up Up

2011-08-01T17:20:00.001+12:00

Sweet sweet Friday: Lemon Cake

2011-07-29T07:07:00.001+12:00

Part of the joy of cooking is found in the planning and anticipation, but sometimes life gets in the way. Like on Tuesday night, when I had to whip up an emergency birthday cake between getting home from work, getting the Small Girl's dinner, putting her to bed, putting on two loads of washing and getting out the door again less than 90 minutes later.
Did I panic? No (well, ok, I panicked a tiny bit). But then I remembered Julie's Aunty Ade's Lemon Cake. It was done in a flash, even with the Small Girl "helping". Actually, she's getting quite good at it, and she doesn't even want to lick the spoon. Perhaps I could start her on doing the dishes next...

Quick Lemon Cake

This needs a food processor, because "Not Quite So Quick Cake" doesn't have the same ring to it. I've never met Julie's Aunty Ade,but she's obviously a clever woman.

2 lemons

1 1/2 cups caster sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup canola oil

pinch of salt

1 cup yoghurt

3Tbsp lemon juice

2 cups self-raising flour

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line a 24cm cake tin (it will cook even faster in a ring tin, but a springform tin will lessen the anxiety when it comes to turning it out).

Peel the zest from the lemons with a potato peeler and put in the processor with the sugar. Whizz for about a minute, until the lemon peel is pulverised. Stop the machine and add the eggs, oil and salt. Whizz again until smooth. Add the yoghurt, lemon juice and flour and pulse until smooth.

Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 35-40 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes then turn out of the tin. Then, either ice when cold, or serve with a dollop of Greek yoghurt. Or, wrap the tin in a teatowel, throw in the car and drive across town. Stop at supermarket for candles. Arrive, pretending to be unhurried, super-organised working mother. Then realise your friends know you better than that!

Have a sweet, sweet Friday everyone. I'm going to spend it recovering from my first experience of cooking on live TV, which you can see here. (Note to self: horizontal stripes = bad idea!)

Kitchen DIY: Tahini

2011-07-27T07:05:00.000+12:00

So, the other day I met someone who dropped a bombshell. "I never eat tahini," she declaimed. "It's a salmonella risk."
I don't normally go in for wacko food panic but she was someone who would know about such things. I thought of how I merrily slap tahini into hummus or sauces or help the Small Girl put it on toast and felt a bit faint. Then I came home and made my own. My kitchen is probably less sterile than any tahini processing factory, but it was fun all the same. And from a thrift point of view, doing it yourself is very cheap.

DIY Tahini
This is a method I worked out after a bit of net surfing. It produces a darker, grainer paste than shop-bought, but I like its nutty flavour.

1 cup sesame seeds
4-5Tbsp olive oil

Toast the sesame seeds lightly in a dry pan - and I mean lightly. Don't wander away or get distracted, give them your undivided attention for about three minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool.
Tip the seeds into a food processor and whiz until they start to form a paste (a couple of minutes). Drizzle in the oil until the mixture slackens to the consistency you want. Scrape into a sterilised jar and store in the fridge.