Week 25

Saturday
Jamaican beef patties! (Took about an hour). Made the pastry, made the filling (prime beef mince, garlic, chilli pepper, onion, kumara, red bell pepper, spices: curry, thyme, cayenne pepper, paprika, s/p). Made the pastries, and baked them in the oven. Ate them with chutney sauce: mango chutney, tomato ketchup and some Kaitaia fire.

Sunday
Made buttermilk pancakes for brekkie/brunch with left-over grilled pineapple, and berries. For dinner we had wraps with left-over mince mix, grilled aubergine, lettuce, ketchup & Kaitaia fire. Also made wraps with goat cheese, honey, walnuts and mesclun salad (YUM!!).

Monday
Persian marinated chicken skewers (cardamom, tumeric, etc.), millet (grains cooked in broth), and a Lebanese fattoush salad: consisting of baked pita bread crisps, cucumber, tomato, bell pepper, red onion, and a fresh herb dressing of parsley, coriander, two leafs of mint, and some black olives, two garlic cloves, olive oil, lemon juice, pepper, and some sumac.

Tuesday
Oven-baked, marinated BBQ pork ribs (home-made marinade), stir-fried veggies (aubergine, mushrooms and asparagus), and Jasmin rice.

Wednesday
Ciabatta buns (baked with butter, garlic and parsley), with chicken burgers that were premade (chopped up chicken breast with parsley, some coriander, lemon zest, some lemon juice, salt, pepper), and aioli, tomato with basil and olive oil, avocado, and lettuce. Also had fried kumara ‘chips’ on the side. YUM.

Thursday
Went out for dinner (Carolyn’s) and had gnocchi. ^^

Friday
We were in Hawke’s Bay this weekend: we had bacon and egg pie (Kiwihihi ;p)


Monday's dinner

Tropical side dishes

I've been wanting to post some tropical side dishes that work amazingly well with hot, spicy (Asian) fish dishes. We often eat mango salsa with Mexican fish tacos, too. I love fruit in dinners! It adds another spectrum to the flavours (fresh, sweet, tangy, ahh..). Here are some favs:

Stir-fried pineapple

Ingredients
- 1 fresh pineapple, 'peeled' and cored, cut into pieces
- 1 Thai red chilli
- 2 cloves of garlic
- a piece of ginger, grated
- 1 tbsp Thai fish sauce (nam pla)
- 2 tbsp soy sauce (I used light)
- 1-2 tbsp sugar (I used soft brown sugar)
- 2 tbsp roasted unsalted nuts (I used peanuts)
- 1 lime, wedged

Method
Heat a pan, and some vegetable oil (I used canola). Stir-fry the garlic, ginger and chilli until they start to colour. Add the pieces of pineapple and stir-fry them too until they start to change colour. Mix the fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar, and add it to the pineapple mixture. Keep stir-frying until it starts to caramelize. Serve on a plate with the roast nuts sprinkled over them, and wedges of lime on the side. Especially good with hot fish dishes (like stir-fried squid), and rice.


A borrowed pic of mango salsa - will upload my own soon!

Mango salsa

Ingredients
- 1 mango, peeled and cubed
- 2 spring onions
- At least 1 Thai red chilli
- Half a red onion
- A piece of cucumber
- Lime juice of one lime
- Thai fish sauce (nam pla), to taste
- Some palm sugar or sweet chilli sauce (1 tbsp-ish)
- Some fresh coriander
- Roasted, unsalted peanuts (chopped)

Method
Cut-up the mango, spring onions, chilli, red onion* and cucumber place in a bowl. Mix the liquids for the dressing, also add the coriander, finely chopped. If you're using sweet chilli sauce - don't add too much as it will take over the taste. You just want it slightly sweetened (so palm sugar or brown sugar might be a better way to go - honey is a good idea, too!). When serving, sprinkle with freshly roasted, unsalted peanuts. Really good with fried panko-crumbed fish.

Week 24

Saturday
Crumbed lamb chops with chimichurri marinade (parsley, garlic, red wine vinegar and olive oil), with grilled asparagus, yellow bell pepper and sundried tomato mesclun salad, and toasted ciabatta.

Sunday
Thai-inspired stir-fry squid with wild rice and stir-fried pineapple.
- (Stir-fry squid with white onion, okra and yellow bell pepper, garlic and chilli, soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar and lime)
- (Stir-fry pineapple: stir-fry garlic, chilli, and ginger, then add pineapple, brown a bit, then add mixture of fish sauce, lime juice and sugar – stir-fry until caramelised)

Monday
Oven-baked snapper with a panko-breadcrumbed, coriander, garlic and chilli crust, with grilled and fried kumara, and salad of avocado, asparagus, bell pepper and a fresh herb vinaigrette, and a garlic ciabatta.

Tuesday
Mexican poached chicken (garlic, onion, bay leaf, thyme and oregano), fried pinto beans (garlic! chilli!), grated cheddar, an awesome roast veggie-coriander-lime salsa(!), and mesclun salad, in huge wheatmeal wraps.

Wednesday
Two Indian curries: muttar paneer (niice!) and paneer butter masala (mwah), with asparagus, bell pepper and white onion, with Jasmin rice and mango pickle on the side. Yum!!

Thursday
We got home late, and made wheatmeal wraps with scrambled egg and bacon, avocado, tomato, lettuce, mustard, ketchup and Kaitaia fire (not that bad at all!).

Friday
Ciabatta with home-made black olive tapenade (black olives, 2 garlic, capers and parsley), grilled veggies (asparagus, red onion, red bell pepper and aubergine – marinated in olive oil, garlic and parsely), with crumbled French goat cheese and pine nuts on top (grilled in the oven, too).


Saturday's meal

SciFi Squid

Howdy! Yesterday, Sunday, we were off to the fish market as more often (usual?) in the weekends. We were gonna get some 'flat' fish to fry with a coriander & lime panko-breadcrumbed crust...and some already-fried fish (but no chips) for lunch! ^^ Gurnard as usual, with some tartare sauce, in the -albeit weak- spring sun in the harbour! Woohoo. :) Not bad!

When we were at the market, my eye fell on some arrow squids (..hm that sounds a bit gross). I've been preparing squids for a couple of years now, and once you get over the sci-fi element of it, you realise that squid really is a very versatile ..fish? ..sea-creature? Food! :D

In this post, I'll go through the different preparation steps for squid, to end up with a beautifully easy and tasty stir-fry recipe (which I made up & made yesterday). Not for the faint-hearted! But here we go:

SciFi Squid Preparation
First, one finds the squid and placeth it on a board:



Get ready to get your hands dirty. Grab the squid by the tentacles ("grab 'im by the beans!" ;P)(sorry in-joke), and try to pull out most of the intestines out of its..head/hat. Also be careful not to break any of them, as it can get quite messy. Cut off the tentacles below the eyes (again -sorry slightly alienesque- be careful not to hit the eyes. Believe me.). Pick up the tentacles, spread them out, and in the center you'll find the squid's beak. Take it out (you should be able to do this just by hand). You should have something like this now:



Alright. Still with me? Awesome. Time for the yucky bit ("What, that comes only now?!" ..sorry. :p). Put the knife inside the head/hat of the squid, and put the tip of the knife at the end of it. Now pull the knife towards you, opening the head/hat in one straight line. You can now fold it open, and remove any remaining yuckies. It's important at this stage to also remove the spine (or any other hard bits you might find). The spine is located along the middle of the hat (kinda where you'd expect it - if you ever had any expectations about squids). On the other side, remove all the skin - you can pull it off, or scrape with a knife. Your squid should be all cleaned by now, and look a bit like this (yeah that totally looks 'clean', doesn't it?):



Yay!! You just cleaned some squid :D Excellent. For $1.67 and the tastes you'll have later on, that was definitely worth it, right? Right? ;) When you cut up the squid for cooking, think about carving a little roster-pattern in the pieces - this makes them curl up nicely when they get cooked/wokked! ->



Thai-inspired stir-fry squid

Ingredients
- Two or more home-prepared squids (it's the best! ^^)
- 3 garlic cloves, finely minced
- 2 Thai red chillies, chopped up
- Half a white onion, or more
- Some beans (green beans or okra beans)
- Some chopped-up carrot
- Spring onion

- Oyster sauce (1-2 tbsp)
- Fish sauce (1 tbsp)
- Palm sugar, or brown sugar (1 tbsp)
- Soy sauce (1 tbsp)
- Lime juice (a wedge or two)

Method
Heat a wok up till a decent temperature - add some oil (we used canola), and the garlic and chilli. Stir-fry a little, and add the squid. Stir-fry until the squid looks cooked (when it's white, with a little purple (fo' real!), and looks chewy - that is, more firm). Combine all the liquids and the sugar in a little bowl, and add. Fry for a bit, and take the squid out of the wok. Now fry the veggies in the wok, and put the squid back in there when they're nearly ready. Add some more condiments if necessary, and some black pepper. Done! Serve with rice. Easy-peasy and supertasty, too! ^^


We ate this dish with wild rice and stir-fried pineapple. Yuum!!

Week 23

Not the most exciting cooking week, we've probably been a bit too busy..

Saturday
(At the section in Kaitaia). Soy and linseed pitas with grilled zucchini, red onion and bell pepper, mesclun salad, two pieces of cured salmon, cream cheese and horseradish sauce. Crème brûlée for dessert, finished on the section with a gas burner. \o/

Sunday
Got Burger Fuel burgers. Not very nice (too much sauce).

Monday
Thai chicken cashew nut – a stir-fry with chicken thigh meat, chilli pepper, white onion, asparagus, okra beans, some red bell pepper and spring onions, and a tamarind-sauce (bit too much tamarind though) and cashew nuts – with Jasmin rice.

Tuesday
Spring salad with roasted white and purple/black potatoes, garlic, grilled asparagus, spring onion, red onion and courgette, marinated artichokes, black olives, caperberries, anchovies and some boiled eggs. Niiihiice.

Wednesday
Thai yellow curry (with a little bit of red curry paste mixed through it, as well as a kaffir lime leaf), with shrimps, bell pepper, white onion and okras. With Jasmin rice, of course.

Thursday
Left-over yellow curry with some rice at the lab, and Wayne made kippered fish pie at home, which was awesome! Kippered fish (I forget which one..hoki?), milk and parsley (and something else..) filling, and a beautifully fluffy mash on top, with grated cheddar and sliced tomatoes laid out over it. For me..surprisingly tasty (;p)!

Friday
Dinner at Carolyn’s: mushroom risotto and oven-baked salmon and lemon, and sautéed bok choy and green beans. YUM.


The Spring Salad of Tuesday

Tiramisù originale!

"Great", you think, a food weblog that consists primarily of boasting/sharing cooking ideas over a weekly period. Gosh. Just what the internet still needs. But abide with me for now, as I will attempt to put up new recipes weekly, too! :) I'll start out with some retrospective Success Dishes (i.e. made & loved before).

And remember, as Shakespeare also pointed out, prudent as ever:

Tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers.
- Romeo and Juliet: act 4, scene 2

Tiramisù originale
As some of you know, I used to work in an Italian food store/traiteur/caterer, as a shop assistant (and unasked-for-adviser, something I do quite well ;p). If it was quiet in the mornings though, I would help out in the kitchen, too. My favourite was helping out with making a traditional tiramisù, because I might just 'spill' some mascarpone-mixture and have to 'clean' it up..



Here is the recipe that we used to use, and that I have checked with several traditional Italian recipes online. More importantly, I, and others, have also tried the tiramisù that came from this recipe.......and, it is good people. It is Good. Give it a try sometime! Here is the recipe:

Tiramisù tradizionale

Ingredients:
- 1 package of savoiardi (Italian ladyfingers)
- 200g mascarpone, at least*
- 3 egg yolks
- 150 gr caster sugar (I used a bit less sugar than other recipes, because I don't like sugary desserts)
- 4 shots of espresso, lengthened with a little bit of water
- some Marsala (Sicilian red wine)
- cocoa (best quality you can find...like Dutch cocoa ;))
(*Actually up to 500g is good - more is better! Add an egg yolk and some sugar in case you use more though.)

Instructions:
Start off with making the 'zabaglione': beat the 3 egg yolks together with the caster sugar, and mix it well. Add some marsala (just a dash, or a bigger dash ;)), mix, then add the mascarpone, and mix again. Put on the side.

Dip savoiardi biscuits in the espresso until they are sufficiently soaked (soaked, but not drenched: you don't want them to fall apart). Make a layer in the tin/dish (which should be the size of a normal oven dish for the cited quantities) of the biscuits, filling the whole space. Add a layer of the zabaglione (use approximately 50%), and finish the layer with some sieved cocoa. Repeat with another layer of espresso-dipped savoiardi, zabaglione and cocoa. You can also add chocolate chips to the cocoa if you like.

And that's it! Put it in the freezer to make it 'settle' for a couple of hours, and then transfer it to the fridge (a while before eating it, so it isn't frozen). Then, eat, enjoy! It's as easy as that :D Buon appetito ^^

Week 22

I'm writing this now as we're leaving for Kaitaia this evening!! Woohoo up north again :D Where the sun shines and the beach is always near. ^^

Saturday
Tempura (of onion, kumara and salmon - should’ve done salmon differently, really) and home-made sashimi (salmon), with soy dipping sauce (combination of soy sauce & mirin and some other things), pickled ginger, wasabi and some Japanese mayonnaise. Also, an iceberg-cucumber mini salad with sesame and soy dressing.

Also made the cured salmon! (See other log)

Sunday
A Turkish pide (panino-like bread) filled with: garlic butter (garlic paste & melted Danish butter), omelette with feta, mustard, fresh avocado and tomato, some fancy lettuce. YUM! The bread was amazing (from the Fish Market).

Monday
Thai chicken lab/larb (with chicken thigh meat again), with Jasmin rice and som tum-style (spicy & sour-ish) cucumber salad with peanuts.

Tuesday
We made falafel and hummus with a 2.55kg tin of chickpeas ($5.50) we bought, which took a lot of time but was pretty nice. Ate the falafel patties with some corn wraps, and hummus (+ ketchup, Calve garlic sauce, Kaitaia fire), fresh tomato and iceberg lettuce. So good. <3

Wednesday
We had devilled sausages (I altered the recipe a bit though)(of course ;)), made with chorizo sausages, onion & apple, served with potato mash, and a small mesclun salad (with cider vinaigrette).

Thursday
Had left-over falafel, hummus, salad, tomato, bell pepper and a garlic pita bread. YUM.

Friday
Pumpkin soup with home-made chicken broth. (After this please no more pumpkin for a while!! We’ve been going a bit crazy with pumpkin this winter). The home-made chicken broth definitely added flavour to it though.



Mjaaaaaaaaaam falafel. ^^