Indian in the countryside

This dinner happend a few weeks back but not to waste the photos - and the lovely company. Caro cooked, superbly as always, and came up with this marvellous array of food.

I think Indian must be almost my favourite - after dessert...
Caro made verything right down to the naan.

My next mission -  to make my own peshwaari naan.

Apple forest

Look what I did with some black and red food colouring and some beautiful little apples

Dinner tonight at Adie's with Grant doing his Italian meatballs and I get to take dessert. Get your false teeth ready girls!

For the toffee:1 1/2 cups sugar and 1/2 cup water, plus 1 tbsp vinegar. Simmer till sugar is dissolved, boil for about 8 minutes then add colouring. Roll the apples in it.

Eat and enjoy!

Stew's Birthday

Okay it's not really a food post, but we had 18 for dinner and I had work that day so it was an exercise in organisation and relaxation. We shifted the outside table in , covered everything in white cloths and had the simplest meal - a whole fillet on the barbeque, caesar salad, potatoes dauphinoise and a huge chocolate log and apple strudel to finish.

 

Oliver arrived from Wellington

 The Howick chapter pulled funny faces....

 My brother Craig was in town unexpectedly

 Richard enjoyed the beers and food as usual

 Big McWatson got heavy with the photographer,

 Ann captured some of the food (for once it wasn't all eaten before we remembered to take pics.)

 Stew tried really hard to enjoy himself

 The olds made it too...

and as usual, everyone stood in the kitchen while I tried to cook. Pete!

Dinner Party Thursday at the Hobbs'

We've been entertaining on a Thursdays a lot lately ... it's the last day of the 'working' week for me and I often feel like I can cope with the cleaning up afterwards on my day at home.

Adie and Grant came along - fresh from haircutting services. Stew had corrective eye surgery that afternoon too so we were all pretty spruced up and ready to eat.

The Menu:
Homemade oat biscuits (super easy) with Miriam's Chicken Liver pate

My homemade dukkah served with fresh walnut bread and olive oil for dipping

Seafood chowder - wonderful with fresh clams, salmon and prawns and accompanied with a little ciabatta and lots of butter (that's for me).

A salad of spiced venison fillet, caught by Stew a few months back, with roasted kumara, baby spinach and roasted red capsicum. Unfortunately (as is often the case at our place) the food was consumed before a camera could be found...! But it was wonderful, very colourful, and I loved the dressing.

Simply coat venison or lamb fillet with toasted cumin, fennel, mustard seeds, lemon zest and ground pepper and marinate for an hour. Cut the kumara into wedges and roast - I use the electric frypan for this. Toast some pine nuts, roast a red pepper and slice, and make the dressing. When you're ready, cook the venison quickly over the bbq. Cover with foil and let it rest for 10 minutes then slice thinly. Pile all the ingredients into a large bowl and top with this dressing:

Dressing:

Half cup greek yoghurt, quarter cup lemon juice, a pinch of paprika and a few leaves of mint finely sliced.

Followed all this with a simple dessert course which is very unlike me - for one thing I'm not a blue cheese fan, and for another I like sweets. But this was very elegant and easy.

Blue cheese, pear and honey parcels with that walnut bread, toasted this time.

Peel and slice enough pears to give half per person. Slice and fan the halves on squares of baking paper.

Crumble about 50gm good blue cheese over the top. Top with a tablespoon of honey and a good dollop of thickened cream or runny cream.

Staple them up into parcels that won't leak and bake 20 minutes. Let them rest for a while if you like. Cut them apart and present on platters - one for each guest.

We had a bottle of First Knight Ambrosia from the Food Show, made in Gisborne. It was utterly divine with the pears - as you can see from the amount left in the bottle.

21 at a 21st

Oliver had his 21st at our place this week with some friends, some parents and a grandparent or 2. Before they all arrived we chained him to the stove and put 4 paua in front of him. Oh, and a beer.

Oli's Paua Fritters

4 large paua (ours came from Chatham Island - luxury!)

Trim the lips off them to remove any chance of rubberiness

1 large red onion chopped finely

2 medium carrots, peeled and grated

1 cup plain flour

5 eggs

plenty of salt and pepper

Mince the paua and add everything else. Stir well. Cook. (I do love recipes like this...)

Stew fried them later in very small spoonfuls to serve cold on platters with a wasabi mayonnaise dip.

Simple Wasabi Mayo
Find a mayo you like in the pantry or fridge.
Add wasabi to taste
Stir well and season with salt and pepper and lime or lemon juice
Thin if necessary with cream or ricotta

Auction the cook...

everyone needs a sister with this much enthusiasm ... big sis Ann in Rotorua is a huge supporter for Rowing Rotorua, and is helping with fundraising for 3 Rotorua rowers to go overseas: New Zealand Representatives NZU23 Team Julia Edward and Laura Fischer and NZ Junior Nigel van den Akker. I'm off to an afternoon tea Charity Auction event at the Blue Baths in Rotorua next weekend where I've agreed to be auctioned off as a cook for a dinner party of 8. Yeearrrgh!!! (Let's hope Mum wins the auction)

Have a look at Ann's great rowing blog.

smoked snapper

You know me, I'm having a smoking obsession... Stew and I hot-smoke a piece of salmon over the gas hobb for breakfast about twice a week - the cost? around $5. Serve with ricotta (no fat in that, and the texture is wonderful!) and capers - lots of capers - on  a toasted bagel.
Last week I spotted fresh whole snapper for $8.95 per kilo at the swoopermarket - I swooped! And there it is in all it's scaled, boned and opened glory. (Still vacuuming scales from the floor a week later - must remember to be less exuberant with that...)
I added brown sugar and soy sauce as normal - that did not last long! We had people here for dinner a day later. The home made hummus I'd served with drinks was a no-no - Raewyn has an allergy to herbs of any kind. Lucky for us the fish was a hit ..... served with garlic pita and slatherings of lemon

Pumpkin Churros

This is a very different (and easy) dessert made with a choux pastry flavoured with pumpkin and spices then deep fried.

Combine 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 cup sugar which will be used for rolling the churros in when cooked.

2 cups flour combined with 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground cloves and 1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 cups water
4 ounces butter (Sorry - I still think imperial. Use 100gm)
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
4 eggs

Oil for frying

Bring the water and butter slowly to a boil and when the butter is all meted tip in the flour and spice mix all at once. Be ready to stir quickly. The aim is to have all the liquids and the flour combine and cook together so they form a ball around the wooden spoon. When it leave the sides of the pot it's cooked. Let it cool slightly.
Now add the eggs 1 at a time, beating after each one. Stir in the pumpkin puree.

Get about 2 inches of oil hot in a small-ish pot. Let's say around 20cm diameter....). You want a good rolling boil. Once again, I use rice bran oil because it can stand the heat without burning.

Put the churros mix into a piping bag and extrude small sections into the pot. I use the kitchen scissors to cut the paste into sections about 4cm long as they come out of the bag.

This is one of those times I could really use a third arm. But it would look ridiculous.

Cook no more than about 6-8 at a time, or the temperature will lower. Lift them onto paper towels as they cook.

I took it for dessert at a bring-a-plate dinner at the end of rowing season. Serve with whipped cream or ricotta and maple syrup. Or just eat them with the sugar and cinnanmon.

This didn't lose too much by being kept hot. They stayed nice and crisp on the outside. One for making again...

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