An easy everyday lentil thingy

Took my mum to hear Ray McVinnie at Farro in Lunn Ave. He was preparing a dish of brown lentils and baked salmon which I now make all the time. It's very easy, salmon is ridiculously cheap and can go in the freezer for when you're late with dinner or have people for lunch.
Organic brown lentils: boil for 20 mins until al dente. Drain them then stir into a bunch of baby spinach, add chopped sundried tomatoes and a chunk of baked salmon broken into big pieces. Pepper. Lemon juice. Ray added flavoured sour cream but it''s not needed.
The heat of the lentils and salmon will wilt the greens. This is ever-so-yum, and left-overs make a great lunch for the next day too.
Thanks Ray!

Yay Brett's cook book's here

What a fantastic job you've done with this Brett!
I'm green with envy...

...and what a generous thing, to add a page from the other 11 Series 1-ers.

Thank you, it's going onto my recipe book shelf right now!

MasterChef Book Series One coming soon.....

can't wait - I get a copy for me! and I have a recipe in it I'm told. Famous-ish at last....
Wonder if I can get the Masterchef top 12 to meet for a signing session?

Mainland Butter giveaway with Simon Gault

International, Masterchef Simon Gault (I met him - famous by association again...) in association with Mainland Butter has launched a series of webisodes. Simon, like many excellent chefs, agree that the simple things in life are the best and shows this by cooking some mouth watering recipes inspired by his love for Mainland Butter.

To celebrate one of life’s simple pleasures I'm very pleased to be able to offer a Simple Pleasures competition prize pack for one of my readers including; Simon Gault’s book Nourish, a months supply of Mainland Butter along with some spicy fruit loaf and a cooler bag.

Cool! Free stuff! and what's more, it's free USEFUL stuff....

To be in the draw to win visit http://www.asimplepleasure.co.nz/

and find the answer to the following question:

What does Simon Gault serve with one of New Zealand’s

favourite fish?

Snapper topped with________________

Email me with your answer and I'll draw a winner by 15th September 2010. Good luck!

Sydney at short notice

Laura and I took off for a quick shopping trip - what a luxury!

a day walking from Bondi to Bronte - what  magic weather!

nothing hard in this - but we loved the service in the cafes and the generous portions - this breakfast for $7

Dinner in the food hall at Chinatown was a feast for the senses. Dumpling soup, honey prawns, barbecued fish with lemon grass and chilli - ready for the price? $30

and although this sushi trai is nothing new we were impressed with the service again, and the amount others were eating.... 11 dishes nothing unusual! Sushi and sashimi would make a great masterChef challenge...

And finally on the last night, bar snacks at The Piano Room in King's Cross with live music by Scott. Salt and chilli squid! Yum!

thanks to the wonderful judges...

This from Simon:
Which other contestants stood out for you in the early run? Would you have liked to have seen more of anyone?
Simon - I would have liked to have seen more from Christine; I would have liked to have seen her show a little restraint on her first challenge; I think she could have gone further but she didn't and it's all about the day and the challenge.

and also from Ray

Which finalist do you wish we'd maybe seen a bit more of in the kitchen?

Ray - Christine

What an experience!

Thanks so much to Imagination Television and TVNZ for the opportunity

MasterChef Winner Brett McGregor

and the winner is the one who won on the day. (Deep... really deep.)
Brett baby, I had to laugh at the wrap party when he said he was glad it's all over. Ha! I don't think so.....

So now life goes on for the rest of us, in its various new forms. And Imagination Television has already started fielding entries for the next series.
Why not have a go?
I'll start a little series of helpful hints and background to what to expect for all you wannabes...

Cook books and "celebrities"

I loved finding out what the top 4 (Steve, Tracey, Kelly and Brett) had devised for their cook book ideas.

I read Richard Till's comment that 25% of Whitcoulls' Christmas delivery of books was cook books. There's obviously a great deal of people who love them. My mother buys them all - she loves them for the photography. I do wonder how many people buy them for no other reason than to have them on the shelf or the kitchen counter? Staging the kitchen perhaps? Well, I'm shallow like that - and I expect others are too.

Now I expect that Kelly will continue with her book too... her idea for a Feelings or Mood based book was quite inspired, given her belief in fitness and whole body well-being. Very interesting, especially choosing to use no meat or fish in her recipes from the cookbook challenge. She was able to take it from the concept stage through to plating wonderfully creative and visual dishes.

Guess who's coming for dinner...

hmmm.... movie titles as blog postings.... I'm reminded of The Pride of Miss Jean Brodie. Ross' nickname for me.

Meanwhile, Ross came to have a meal with us and brought preserves. Capsicum and Apple Jelly, Feijoa jam (correct me if I'm wrong - can't read the writing!) and  chillies in brine.
Love men in the kitchen, especially men who bottle.

Indian Dinner Party

A combined effort, my favourite kind.

choko chutney - sour!

Stew's favourite fragrant cardamon chicken

an oldie but a goodie - watermelon curry...

coconut eggplant

dhal

spiced plantain slices, an adaptation of a recipe from Kerala region of India

Stew's chicken dish in foreground, cooked with coconut oil...

I discovered that this is too rich for me! Out goes the bottle of coconut oil.

chick-pea flour pancakes

Gary made a superb beef dish with onions 3 ways: caramelised, pureed to provide juice,

and a variety of baby onions

you-know-who came for dinner

the worst thing was having to get up at 6.30am the following day for rowing.
After a diner party that ended at 4am.
Very glad the recycling rubbish goes this week too...

My sister Ann is the most talented photographer I know (sorry Rob) and she was on hand to take the pictures.

the boys far out-numbered the girls, but that's okay

there were some very serious moments

some very nice dishes

a little bit of practice at getting "plated" on time....

recipes old and new

help from my fabulous husband

more intensive discussions than you could shake a stick at...

the odd hand signal

and everyone's best jokes came out. Plus some that were most inappropriate for children...

And another 3 bite the dust...

terdarn darn darn ... it's so annoying that they had to go. Great episode but juts keep remembering that it's about the show, not about the cooking so much!
What a shame to lose Karyn, always controversial but what I love is you stick to your guns always. Haven't spoken to a single person who would've stabbed it, by the way...

Mark's awesome, and look - he's a lot like John Travolta....

and ta ta to you Sue - what a star, I do admire your perseverence. You did so very well.

Go on, everyone, try that Chicken Fricassee!

gone but not forgotten

Rob was one of my picks for the overall winner - right from the time we went into final round of auditions. Sorry to see him leave the show, but hopefully good things will come his way anyway.

I remember him being quite surprised at the time of the 24-down-to-12  challenges, because Simon said he came across as arrogant. Rob and I joked about it and I thought it couldn't be further from the truth. I think of Rob as a gentle soul - one of the beautiful people. His sense of aesthetics is huge, his cooking skill is excellent. And I also  like to think that he'll be 'discovered' as a model (sorry Rob!) or an actor... He's on the wrong side of the camera as a photographer!

Meeting old friends

...and new ones. Fiona was in the top 24 of Master Chef in it's first season (that's this one) and she was up in Auckland today to run a workshop in Manukau so of course we had to get together for a coffee.

that's Arjay, Karyn and Fiona

me and Fiona

We talked cook books, future visions regarding cooking, networks, food ideas. Great to be able to share a conversation like that with a like-minded sould thank you.

Please look up Laura in Wellington

And best of luck with the writing idea... happy to be a sounding post, editor, proof-reader - anything!