Auckland Aniversary Exploits

Welcome to February - and what better reason to depart Jafa-town than an invitation to a beach-side gathering on the Coromandel.

Beautiful Front Beach, just across fromWhitianga and beside Cook's Beach. A truly sensational part of the country and we were so spoilt by being beach-side.

Some favourite food moments from the weekend:

How could we not have mussels, fresh out of the sea and simply grilled with cheese and bacon - and accompanied with a cold sparkling called Verve.

Cape Gooseberries

I always love finding these - growing wild where they were once in a garden. Unfortunately not ripe and not plentiful, but enough for a photo. I once made jam with these while camping at Waihau Bay on the East Cape, and lavished that on the pikelets we made on the barbeque. I came home with a seedling from this trip - courtesy of the fab Diana's roadside stall near the Ferry Landing.

Wild Blackberries

My all-time favourite thing for berries is

Hot Fruit Sponge.

Cook them with the tiniest dribble of water, adding apples if you need to make them go further, and when hot dot spoonfuls of the following sponge mixture over and bake for 20 minutes at 180C.

Fruit Sponge:

50gm butter

1/2 cup sugar

Cream these together, then add 1 egg and incorporate.

Add 1 cup of flour and 1 tsp baking powder.

I cheat by adding milk 1 tbsp at a time until a thick batter consistency. The more milk you add, the less 'sponge-like' so you may want to reduce the flour instead.

MUST be served dredged with sifted icing sugar and piles of soft NZ whipped cream.

Breakfast

the ubiquitous Hobbs smoked salmon, this time served with corn fritters topped with a refreshing tomato, spring onion and lemon salsa.

                                       

All this is what makes New Zealand New Zealand.