Rugby World Cup Adventures in Aussie

Can't believe we managed to book a trip to Australia for the very time of the RWC Final in which New Zealand was to STAR (and eventually win...). Neverthless that's what happened. And there we were surrounded by ants ... green ants... bloody ginormous blighters.

Found a cool little beach bar (below) on the beach at Thala Lodge which was sensational. Mental note to stay there for a day or two when I win Lotto. Another mental note to build one of these in the retirement village I'm planning for later in life with friends.

 Have not had this experience in New Zealand supermarkets: pick up beetroot chips packet (also a new one) to find live GECKO alongside. Much screaming, other supermarket patrons seriously grumpy, but not something one expects. Livestock on the groceries.

 Close up of gecko between bags seen below.

 And at last we found a place with a cool beer (or 3) where we could drag a table to watch the game on the giant screen. Most of us couldn't watch the second half.

persimmon jelly... an experiment

So I had these gorgeous looking things that bring back terrible memories of my father forcing me to taste them ... and have never eaten them since.
I saw someone peeling and eating one, like you would a pear, and I tried that... beautiful! And the colour is so jewel. Surely they would make excellent jelly?
I boiled them up and forced them through a seive - first mistake. Do not force, the syrup should stand in a muslin-lined colander to slowly drip through. (I knew that...) and now I have it doing just that.
It's also rather bland - delicate, but bland - so I've added cinnamon stick, honey, lemon juice and a little ginger.
More soon!

Nasties

I've had a few conversations lately about food aversions and where they come from. For me, it has a lot to do with the things I was forced to eat as a child.

Peanut Butter: we 3 kids had it in turn (week about) to make the school lunches for everyone. My brother would make peanut butter sandwiches every  time.... and there's the problem. Even now I can't stand people eating it near me, putting their peanut butter-covered knife in my jam, breathing in my direction. It is indeed heinous.

Broad Beans: mother dear (such a good cook in other ways) why oh why did we have to eat frozen broad beans, boiled within an inch of ther lives and served in piles... and with our father insisting that all good children had to eat everything on their plate we were loathe to eat anything else until those beans were gone. Anything else seemed like a reward after them.

Kidneys: this is an odd one: I don't in fact have an aversion to these, I just haven't cooked them for years. However my cat eats them almost exclusively, and now I associate them in my head with cat food.

Brussels Sprouts: see broad beans above... however I'm almost convinced to give these another whirl after my brother (see Peanut Butter above) announced them to be his favourite vegetable. I've cooked them lots, I'm simply not convinced.

Black pudding: dad loved this, and I have cooked it, but still I imagine the floors of the butcher shop with the sawdust and other unimaginable sweepings going into the casing...

There are also some foods that I've tried and found to be very disturbing. Amongst those would be

Kina: having hunted this shellfish down in a Waihau Bay rock pool I can honestly say I've eaten these under the best possible circumstances. Never again.

Tongue: sorry, but I can't get my head around this one. A picture in my head of a very large, very blue cow's tongue cannot be controlled.

Mango: something about the flavour and the texture of a ripe mango makes me retch.

Taking control of ...Plantain #2

Another delicious and super-easy recipe to turn Plantain into a more-ish and intriguing dish that goes beautifully with an Indian-themed meal or as a snack with a beer on a summer evening.

Fried Plantain (Kela) Slices

1 large Plantain

1/2 cup water

1/2 dsp turmeric

1 dsp red chilli powder

Salt - about 1 tsp

Heat the above in a large pan with the Plantain slices in a single layer. Cover the pan and simmer in this masala until the liquid is almost all gone. Never add more liquid.

Add 1/4 tbsp tamarind paste and tip the pan till all the Plantain slices have touched it. Be gentle with the slices.

Heat 1 cup oil in a large flat pan.

Add

1 tsp black mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp asafoetida (if you don't have it, leave it out)

1 cup curry leaves

Garlic to taste

Cook for a while till the smell fills the kitchen. Add the Plantain slices; do not cover them now. Lower the heat to a steady simmer. Turn when brown, fry both sides. Whn crisp on the outside but still soft in the middle they're ready to serve.

Fearsome Food... Plantain

So - Episode 1 in my mission to confront the scariest ingredients.
What do you think when you see Plantain? My reaction was always one of avoidance, until I decided to look further and try some recipes.

Now I'm sold on Plantain - the green cooking banana. At present I can buy it for 99c per kg at Lim's Gardens in Glen Innes - but Nosh have it for $1.49 too.
Plantain looks a lot like banana, but it has 3 distinct stages in terms of cooking - when green or yellow it cooks just like kumara or potato and is best treated as a vegetable. Once black, treat it as you would a banana - best for sweeter dishes. Highly nutritious, good source of potassium and Vitamins A & C, high in dietary fibre and high in carbohydrates. Popular in Carribean and Indian cooking.

Here's the first recipe: please try it - it's fragrant and delicious, very easy and no tricky ingredients.

Plantain Kofta with Thick Tomato Cream Gravy
500gm (about 3) green Plantain
1/2 cup finely sliced onion
1 tbsp finely chopped root ginger
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
6 green chillies finely chopped
Boil the Plantain in plenty of water for about 30 minutes or until soft like cooked kumara. Cool, peel and chop. Add onion, root ginger, green coriander and chillies. Season with salt and pepper. Form into 15 small balls (koftas).  Shallow fry in a littel oil (handle gently) and place into an oven-proof dish.

For the sauce:

6 green cardamom pods, seeds removed

4 whole cloves

1 inch cinnamon stick

1/2 cup chopped onions
1 tbsp garlic paste

150 ml chopped tomatoes - or half a can

1 tsp red chilli powder

60ml cream

1 tsp honey

pinch of mace

Pour all but 3 tbsp oil out of the frypan. Crackle the whole spices then add the onion and garlic and cook slowly till transparent. Add tomato, red chilli and salt to taste. Cook until the oil surfaces. Add 2 cups water. Bring to the boil, then strain and puree. This is where my old mouli comes into its own - a wonderful old implement for smoothing vegetables and soups. Return the tomato gravy to the heat and bring to the boil. Add the cream, remove from the heat and add honey.

Carefully pour the gravy over the koftas and heat in the oven until just warmed through. The koftas are very fragile but it won't matter if they amalgamate through the gravy - the flavours are divine.

Serve with rice or Indian bread. I have a recipe for a wonderful Indian pancake which is filling, luscious and easy - look for that recipe here.

A worthy Challenge......

There are so many wonderful and unknown ingredients out there... every day we see them at the supermarket, in magazines, in recipes, in passing. Not only are there the new - the bewildering, the wondrous - but there are in my mind some fearsome items as well.
I've decided to choose one a week, and learn what to do with it. But not just research it; I mean to cook something with it. Tame it! Take control of it! Much like learning a new word a day, this will be a really good means of extending my cooking vocabulary. Hope you'll join me! Maybe even suggest ingredients you're worried about.

Let's start a list:
Offal of all kinds: liver, kidneys, stomach and intestines, tongue, brains
Yeast
Sago
Marrow
Eggplant
Eel
Duck
Shrimps and Calamari
Rabbit

Right - that's a good start!
Meet you back here regularly and we'll knock them off.