Monthly Archives: August 2011

Maple & Pecan Roasted Yams

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I feel sorry for yams. They are cheap as chips, so delicious, and so easy to prepare, but they are so under-used and under-rated.

I think their appearance puts people off. And I’m not arguing, they’re not exactly beautiful. But you have to see past that! Into their soft, tasty souls.

Yams always make me smile at a sweet old story about my great grandfather. My Granddad Cecil had been a sawyer, when he came back from the first world war I think, and had lost three or four fingers (OSH and ACC - not so big a deal back then).  As a little girl, I found this fascinating, and I always used to try and have a good look at his hands without being too obvious. But actually, I think he loved showing the great grand children his injuries!

I have a cousin who recalls going to Granddad Cecil and Nanny Myrtle’s for roasts as a little boy, and Nanny would always have yams on the menu. My cousin tells me that as they sat down to eat, Cecil would give him a nudge, point at the yams with their evenly jointed knuckle-y looking lines, then grin at my cousin and hold his hands up, and wiggling his stumpy jazz hands for my cousin. I don’t think Todd has eaten yams since.

I decided to do something a little different with these yams a couple of weeks ago. Usually I just roast them as they are, but it struck me that yams have that nice sweetness, kind of like pumpkin, that goes well with things like ginger and cinnamon and such. So I cooked these ones with a little maple syrup and pecans, to serve with this farmhouse chicken casserole and roast potatoes. I actually ran out of time and oven space to properly roast them in the oven, so I steamed them in the syrup in the microwave. but I think either method would be equally delicious.

Maple & Pecan Roast (or Steamed) Yams

Mix together 1 Tbsp rice bran oil (I avoid using butter in cooking wherever possible, but you could use butter, or low-fat spread!), and 2 Tbsp maple syrup. Pour over the yams and roast them in the oven or cover and steam in the microwave. Serve drizzled with extra maple syrup and sprinkle with lightly toasted pecans.

And that’s it! So don’t overlook yams next time you need a great vege for your roast. They will serve you well.

Rhubarb & Tamarillo Bread & Butter Pudding

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I’ve been intrigued by bread & butter pudding lately. It’s not something I grew up with so I’ve been trying different recipes to work out how it’s supposed to taste. After a couple of pleasant but unspectacular puddings, I think I’ve found the winner.

I really liked the hot tamarillos in the second pudding attempt, so kept them in but paired them with rhubarb this time. Mmmm. And finally the stars aligned and I got the custard to pudding ratio right. It was the dawning of the age of aquarius, age of aquariuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus. Aquarius.

Rhubarb & Tamarillo Bread and Butter Pudding
Serves 4

1 bunch rhubarb, trimmed and chopped into 5 cm lengths
4-5 tamarillos, quartered
1-2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2-3 Tbsp brown sugar
4-6 slices of fruit bread*
raspberry jam
3 eggs
3 Tbsp caster sugar
1 cup trim milk
icing sugar, to dust
ice cream and/or custard, to serve

*I tried different kinds of fruit bread in all these puddings, including homemade, and Bürgen was the nicest

Preheat oven to 200°(c). Place the rhubarb and tamarillo in lined baking or roasting pans (I used separate brownie tins). Splash the rhubarb with a tablespoon or two of cold water, and drizzle the balsamic vinegar over the tamarillos. Sprinkle both tins with brown sugar and bake until tender (about 10-15 minutes, I think). Leave to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, spread the fruit bread with raspberry jam (one side only), and cut the slices diagonally into quarters. Lightly spray a ceramic baking dish with non-stick spray, and layer half the bread quarters in the bottom of the dish, jam side up. Set aside.

When the tamarillos are cool enough to handle, slip their skins off (should just slide off easily, like capsicums). Layer the tamarillo and rhubarb over the bread. I only used about two thirds of the fruit in the pudding, but didn’t decrease the quantities in the ingredients list above, because you need to put the leftover fruit in a covered container in your fridge, and then you need to eat it on your breakfast cereal or porridge for tomorrow and maybe the next day if there’s enough. Need.

Layer the remaining bread quarters on the top of the pudding, jam side down, so you have a big jammy fruity sandwich.

In a new bowl, whisk together the eggs and caster sugar until frothy, then whisk in the milk. Pour this over the pudding and let it soak in for 5-10 minutes. Then bake at 160° for 30-35 minutes until firm and golden. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve warm/hot with custard or ice cream.

This is also my entry for this month’s Sweet NZ, which Alessandra Zecchini is hosting. Yum! Looking forward to seeing what other bloggers have been making.

Slow Cooked Spicy Lamb with Pearl Barley

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I’m moving on from winter. I’ve seen daffodils and a lamb. I’ve even dried washing outside without needing to put woollen gloves on to hang it out.

So this is the last stew or casserole post for Quite Some Time. It’s a good one to end on. The photos don’t really do it justice, but this casserole was really good. Lamb so tender. Pearl barley so perfect a partner. Flavours so toasty yet fresh due to the lime and coriander.

I adapted this recipe from one in an old Mindfood magazine. I find it’s nicer made in a slow cooker, but you could cook it in the oven if you prefer.

Slow Cooked Spicy Lamb Casserole with Pearl Barley – Serves 2

1 Tbsp olive oil
about 400g diced lamb (e.g. from shoulder chops)
1 small brown onion, finely chopped
½  red capsicum, deseeded and finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
½ tsp ground black pepper
½ tsp ground white pepper
½ tsp salt
½ tsp garlic flakes
½ tsp ground paprika
½ tsp dried thyme
400g tin chopped tomatoes
¼ cup beef stock
1 Tbsp olive oil, extra
½ cup pearl barley
1½ cups beef stock
1 lime, grated rind and ¼ cup juice
¼ cup fresh coriander leaves, chopped
extra coriander, to serve

Spray the slow cooker bowl with non-stick spray, and turn the slow cooker on HIGH to pre-heat. Heat half the oil in a large frypan, and cook half the lamb for 4-5 minutes, or until browned on all sides. Put this in the slow cooker bowl. Heat the remaining oil, brown the remaining lamb and add that to the slow cooker bowl too.


Put the frypan back on a medium heat, and gently cook the onion, capsicum and celery for a few minutes, until the onion softens. Stir in the black pepper, white pepper, salt, garlic flakes, paprika and thyme. Cook for 1 minute or until aromatic. It’s a shame this blog isn’t chronological; if it was I would have added a spoonful of my harissa paste at this point. Anyway, add the tomatoes and stock, bring to the boil and then transfer everything to the slow cooker. Put the lid on and cook for four hours on HIGH, or eight hours on LOW.

About 45 minutes before you want to eat, heat the second measure of olive oil in a saucepan. Add the pearl barley and cook for 2-3 minutes until the barley is coated in oil. Add the second measure of beef stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for 30-40 minutes, until the barley is tender. Stir through the lime rind and juice, and coriander. Season with salt and pepper and spoon into serving dishes. Top with the lamb casserole and garnish with extra coriander (I may have forgotten to garnish so picture may not reflect instruction!). Voila!

Friday’s Favourite Five

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It’s been a great week for food blogs … especially Wellington food blogs – everyone seems to be on detox following Wellington On A Plate! My favourite five picks from this week:

Have I missed any that you’ve loved?

Wellington on A Plate: Ruth Pretty’s Food, Frocks & Frivolity

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Wellington On A Plate has just finished for 2011.  I think it’s been a really good festival! I didn’t get to as many events as I would have liked, but I did end up eating at a whole heap of new places. The deals restaurants run during the festival are well worth checking out.

One event I did make it to was Ruth Pretty’s “Food, Frocks & Frivolity”, held at her home in Te Horo. Such a great afternoon!  It was a weddings-y themed afternoon where the women were free to roam around the house sipping cocktails and bubbles, enjoying the continuous supply of canapés, watching cooking demonstrations from Ruth and her staff, and stopping to look at displays from local businesses – jewellery, shoes, dresses, flowers, photography, even hair & make up artists who were ready to give anyone a touch-up! Ruth had a tea stop with beautiful china cups, and a coffee machine and barista set up outside if you felt like a break from bubbles (I didn’t). It’s probably for the best that my own wedding has been and gone. I would have been an uncontrollable bride at an afternoon like that!

We started off with a browse in Ruth Pretty’s kitchen shop (loving the latest addition to my wooden spoon collection, and can’t wait to try the Blooker cocoa I bought) and coffees in the garden room before the afternoon started.

Then we were taken over to the house and introduced to all the staff, and made a start on the cocktails (‘Rosebud’, made with Absolut Vanilla Vodka with passionfruit, cranberry and pineapple) And then the canapés started. I only managed to get pictures of three. They were all beautiful – but the chorizo stuffed dates were A. Mazing.

‘Beehive’ Honey Cones filled with Whipped Goats’ Cheese and Dukkah

Chorizo-Stuffed Medjool Dates with Piquillo Pepper and Tomato Sauce

Tuna Tartare with Miso Braised Eggplant

(Also on the canapé menu: Zany Zeus Feta, Sundried Tomato & Mint Tarts in Parmesan Pastry Cases; OceanNZ Abalone with Ginger Sesame Dressing; Scampi Tails in Chopsticks with Lime Wasabi Dressing and Karengo Fronds; Farm Raised Venison Meatballs with Orange Ginger Glaze).

I headed straight for the kitchen, which we were free to wander in and out of. Around the room there were little macaron-filling stations where we could fill and pretty up a little box of macarons to take home. There’s something women love about macarons, pretty boxes and ribbons. It was mayhem. But see how cute they look!

 
 

The highlight of the afternoon was Ruth and her assistant Veronika making beautiful celebration cakes. There were three.

Firstly – a three tiered round chocolate cake, filled and iced with ganache. So impressively iced! Veronika had the cake on a type of lazy susan, and spun the cake around, spreading the icing, while Ruth just tipped the saucepan of ganache over the top. Result:

The second cake was a cube cake – as tall as it was wide! This was made up of three square cakes, each having 6 layers of sponge, meringue and chocolate ganache. Whoa. This was the cake to end all cakes.

This was iced with a white chocolate buttercream icing. I think one of the nicer touches of the afternoon was that the bowls of icing and ganache were left on the table beside a large pile of spoons… so we could all sample!

 

Thirdly, the croquembouche. The tower of choux pastries. Here they are, waiting to be filled with crème pâtissière and stuck together with toffee:

Here you can see Veronika dipping them in caramel toffee – working quickly to get in there before it sets – and building the croquembouche. This was great to watch!

Then adding spun sugar all around the croquembouche…

Finishing touches…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there you have it, one croquembouche:

Then it was time to dismantle the minutes-old croquembouche. This seemed a little sad. But we had to focus on the positives. Like eating the three finished cakes.

Delicious! My favourite was the croquembouche.

Lovely way to spend an afternoon. Recommended if Ruth does a similar event next year!

Harissa Paste

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I don’t really know how popular Harissa is around here. It should be very popular. It is a North African ingredient – a kind of chilli paste you can use for just about anything.

It is seriously easy to make – you just toast some spices and grind them up, then put everything in the food processor. I whizzed some up last week, and have already used it in heaps of dishes – I made this persian-style pilaf with chickpeas, mint and harissa. I added a teaspoon of harissa to tonight’s prawn laksa dinner, and we used it spread (thinly!) on bruschetta for lunch at the weekend. You can also mix it through couscous, add it to stews and casseroles, and it seems to work as a rub or marinade for any kind of meat, chicken or fish. And if you make it at home, you can decide how hot you want it! Always a bonus.

Harissa Paste

2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp garlic flakes
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
3 long red chillis, finely chopped
3 Tbsp tomato puree
juice of one lemon
olive oil

Toast the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, garlic flakes, fennel seeds and cayenne pepper in a dry frying pan over medium heat. Just heat them until they start smelling delicious – they can burn really quickly so watch out! Pound the toasted mixture with a mortar and pestle until you have  a coarse powder.

Place the powder in a food processor with the chopped onion, chilli, tomato puree and lemon juice. When they’re not $6 each (can you believe it??) you could add roasted red capsicum to the food processor too. I went without this week.

Once you have everything on board, whiz up the paste. I found I didn’t need any olive oil, but if your paste is a bit on the dry side, blend 1-2 Tbsp olive oil in gradually.

If you’ve never tried harissa before, I definitely recommend trying it! I’m sure you can buy it from supermarkets or places like Moore Wilson’s if you’re not bovvered about making your own. Once it’s in your fridge, you’ll find all sorts of uses for it.

Farmhouse Chicken Casserole

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At this time of year, I’m usually over stews and casseroles.

When I first read about “hearty fare”, “winter warmers” and “comfort food” in autumn food magazine editorials, I can’t wait to stock  up on tinned tomatoes and blade steak. But by the end of August, I’m ready to shake the next person that writes about “satisfying and hearty recipes to warm your soul”. Bring on the asparagus and spring salads.

But if there was ever a week for casseroles and stews, this was surely the week. Thick snow falling in Lambton Quay? I never thought I’d see the day.

This is a chicken dish my mum used to make for our family all the time. It’s nothing fancy, but the white wine and honey give the chicken a nice flavour – and the gravy sauce is really yummy over roast potatoes. I really like the frozen vege mix in this recipe (possibly because it’s a childhood favourite!), but you could use other frozen or fresh veges.

Farmhouse Chicken Casserole

6-8 chicken pieces (I used one thigh cutlet and 1 drumstick per person)
few Tbsp flour
1½ Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cups chicken stock
¼ cup white wine
2 Tbsp cornflour
1 tsp honey
1 Tbsp chopped Italian parsley
ground black pepper
1½ cups frozen vegetables (I used a pea, carrot and corn mix)

Preheat the oven to 150(c). Pat the chicken pieces dry with a paper towel and coat them lightly in flour. Heat 1 Tbsp of the olive oil in a large frypan and cook the chicken for 4-5 minutes on each side, until it’s nice and goldy brown. Pop it in a greased casserole dish and set aside. Heat the remaining oil and cook the onions and garlic for 4-5 minutes, until the onion is soft. Add the onion and garlic to the chicken in the casserole dish.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, mix together the stock, wine, cornflour (mix it to a paste with a bit of cold water first), parsley and pepper, and heat until the mixture thickens. Put the frozen veges in the casserole with the chicken and onions, and pour the sauce over everything. Cover and cook in the oven for about an hour and a half.

I served my casserole with steamed broccoli, roasted agria potatoes, and some maple and pecan roasted yams (yum, right? post to come on them shortly).

Hope everybody’s keeping warm….

Friday’s Favourite Five

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I’ve had such a sweet tooth this week … bet you can’t tell from my favourite five food blog posts:

Empty Cupboard Pizza

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I like cooking at the weekends. I like taking my time and putting real care into my cooking, rather than trying to shovel something out because we’re starving when we get home from work on weeknights. So I like making at least one lunch over a weekend, instead of eating leftovers.

Still, some Sundays are lazier than others. And some Sundays, the fridge and pantry are emptier than others. On those lazy, empty cupboard days, only pizza will suffice.

Even though many years have passed since I bought a ready-made pizza base (*shudder*) I can’t believe I ever did.  Just about every cookbook I own has a basic pizza dough recipe; and actually they’re all pretty basic, pretty quick and pretty tasty. Certainly all of them are better than the supermarket chilled ones.

I particularly like this one from Alison Holst; it’s easy to work with and roll out, and it goes nice and crispy. And she’s kind of my hero. While I love kitchen adventures, and cooking recipes out of my fancier books (Jamie, Nigella, The Silver Spoon), I really respect Alison Holst’s work for ordinary families.  Her recipes are reliable, inexpensive, un-intimidating and, usually, really nice. I’ve always grown up with Alison Holst cookbooks (I have a classic ‘Cooking for Children’ book in ’70s yellow and orange with her kids in corduroy pants on the front cover), and I learnt a lot of my basic cooking skills from her books. Those skills are ultimately what lets me try new ingredients, techniques and recipes. So thanks, Dame Alison!

Basic Pizza Dough
This quantity made two pizzas like the one in the picture.

3 tsp instant active dried yeast
½ cup milk
¾ cup boiling water
2 tsp sugar
1½ tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 cups high grade flour

Measure the yeast into a large bowl. Combine the milk and boiling water and add this to the yeast with the sugar, salt and olive oil. Leave it to stand for a couple of minutes. Add half the flour and stir well to make a thick batter. Add the remaining flour and stir to make a dough firm enough to knead (you might need a little bit of extra flour or water).

Tip onto a floured surface and knead for 5-10 minutes, then cover the dough loosely with cling film and leave to rise for about 10 minutes before using (patronising tip of the day: get your toppings ready and cut up your veges, and then it will be time).

Turn the dough onto the floured surface again and divide into two for this sized pizza, or smaller/larger, depending on your preference. Roll out and top away (see below). Bake it at 200(c) for 10-15 minutes.

Topping
Firstly, a spready topping. I’m one of the geeky people who buys a whole can of tomato paste, then spoons it into ice cube trays and freezes it, then turns all the little frozen tomato paste cubes into a zip lock bag and keeps them in the freezer so I always have tomato paste at the ready. If you’re not as organised obssessive as me, you could also spread your pizza base with hummus (soooooo good with chicken and plum sauce), pasta sauce (go easy on it though to avoid the sog), pesto, a dip of some kind, pureed cannellini beans & olive oil … and probably others I can’t think of right now.

Secondly, an arrange-y topping. When I made this, I didn’t really have any fresh ingredients for it at all. That is a little sad, I know. But all was not lost. A couple of cans and a couple of jars saved the day. Nobody needs another pizza topping suggestion list, but in case you can’t identify the ingredients from the photographic exhibits, I used:

  • random can of stuffed green olives
  • 1/2 a can of artichoke hearts
  • small can of anchovies
  • thinly sliced red onion
  • little cubes of feta
  • thinly sliced peppadews
  • thinly sliced semi-dried tomatoes

Hmm, it didn’t seem so at the time, but reading that list back, this was one salty pizza.

Thirdly, a sprinkly topping. Cheese is really your only answer here. But you can also add chopped herbs (fresh or dried) and seasoning mixes.

Best eaten straight out of the oven when it’s still a little too hot to hold! Great Sunday lunch … and then leftovers for lunch on Monday to remind you of a weekend that by then seems so long ago.

Best Blog Award

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Isn’t this little blog award cute? I’ve spotted it popping up on various blogs recently, and Nessie at Baking = Love has now bestowed it up on Time for a Little Something. Thanks, Nessie!

I’ve only been blogging for a few weeks but it’s been heaps of fun so far – a great motivation to try new things in the kitchen, and to try and make food look extra pretty. I think Mr J. might be less appreciative sometimes; he gets a yell of ‘dinner’s ready!!!’ from the kitchen, and then sits at the table with knife and fork poised, while I fluff around with his plate and take pictures.

The deal with the award is, you answer a few questions and then choose the blogs you wish to pass the award on to. I think some of the blogs listed below may already have had the award – I just chose to do a round-up of my favourite NZ blogs :)

The Questions:

Whats your favourite colour?
Hmm. Changes every week. At the moment I’m loving navy!

Whats your favourite song?
Too hard! It may be cheesy, but ‘What a Wonderful World’ sung by Louis Armstrong is pretty special. I walked down the aisle to it at my wedding. Awww.

What is your favourite dessert?
Jeez, who wrote these? Let’s pretend that says favourite desserts. Pavlova. Ambrosia. Brandy Snaps.   Christmas Pudding. Raspberry and Chocolate combinations.Sticky Date Pudding. Our family trifle recipe that uses raspberry fizzy drink instead of sherry. Lemon Delicious. Among others.

Whats pissing you off?
Can I say hard questions that ask me to name my favourite things?

When you’re upset you…
Get cranky!!! So look out.

Black OR white?
Black. Black. Black. Hmm, maybe white. No, black. Definitely black.

Biggest fear?
Mice. So irrational, but so scuttly.

Your best feature?
My towering 5’3″ height.

Everyday attitude….
OK everyone, let’s get as organised as possible.

What is perfection?
Family and friends and delicious food.

Guilty pleasure...
This week? Eating lemon curd by the spoonful straight out of the jar.

My Top 15 New Zealand Blogs (in no particular order):

Alessandra Zecchini. Alessandra is an amazing cook, baker, photographer and food writer. This blog has really interesting and unusual recipes.

Toast. Toast features good, simple but delicious food, often using beautiful seasonal produce. Lots of delicious vegetarian dishes. Also the recent Baileys Chocolate Truffle Cake caught my eye…

The KitchenMaid has loads of great cooking posts. I love her DIY posts, like mayonnaise or tahini paste.

Bunny. Eats. Design. This is a very cool blog which includes delicious food, funky design and pictures of a cute rabbit. Did I say it was eclectic?

The Culinary Explorations of Mrs Cake. A great Wellington food blog with a delicious emphasis on chocolate! Great unusual kitchen ‘projects’ too, like home made ice cream bars or bacon & chocolate chip cookies.

Hungry & Frozen is a well known food blog – Laura makes some great stuff. Peppered with references to musicals and interesting stories. How about chocolate french toast sandwiches?

Heartbreak Pie. I love the photos on this blog. I’ve picked up some good cafes to try and some great food inspiration here.

Lovely Wee Days. This lovely wee blog is a communal blog about things the authors have been cooking, baking, trying or visiting.

Pease Pudding is one of my very favourites. The pictures are so pretty, and the recipes are so interesting. Alli is a very talented lady.

Sasasunakku. I haven’t been following this one for very long, but I really love it. Beautiful photography and styling, and great writing. I’m still waiting for summer to come so I can try the strawberry tiramisu.

Milliemiripoix is another Wellington food blog I rate. I tried her hot milk, honey and nutmeg drink recently and can definitely recommend it!

Plum Kitchen. The picture on the main page will suck you in. The first time I visited these Chelsea Buns were featuring and I’ve been hooked ever since.

At Down Under is a very pretty blog. The food looks amazing! And I’m wanting to try the hot chocolate.

L’il Magoolie is not a cooking blog – but a popular blog by a very cool mum in Christchurch. I don’t have kids but can’t help loving the colourful blog with great links.

Mousehouse. I’ve only discovered this very recently. Again, I may not have kids but I. Love. This. Dollhouse.

And of course I’m a big Baking = Love fan!

What other local blogs do you love?