New business ideas

Thinking about a new purpose in life... will wait out 2012 as the upcoming conference and the Dec-Jan trip to India are more than enough for now.
BUT bring on January and I need a better job.

Catering... picnics.... lessons..... demonstrations..... lovely old cups and saucers...... something involving better cooks than me...... illegal stuff, like cooking in my kitchen that's not registered... designer occasion catering... workshops... tastings with beer, or champagne... weird and wonderful party cakes....
Or shall I just go rowing?

Oh I'm in coffee heaven

Just look what I have this morning ...

the most beautiful little black and gold cups, halva and Arabic coffee.

The coffee is hot, sweet and strong and Maryna - Stewart's newest employee - has brought some Arabic coffee which is flavoured with cardamom.

Where is our nearest Arabic shop!? I'm suddenly a black coffee drinker!

Bees can't be ignored, honey

Are you noticing articles cropping up in unlikely places lately, about honey bees?

Turns out (to those of us who didn't realise) that these small fellas are pretty darned important. Not only are we seeing a rise in home bee-keeping, but there are examples like the team of 4 girls from Oturu School (Far North of NZ). At this school the environment plays a big part in learning. Pupils sell produce from their bees and trees and olive pressings. The girl-team are making their way to take part in an international problem-solving competition  at the University of Wisconsin, after winning a place in a national competition. Their idea is to educate people about the importance of bees so that the dwindling populations of honey bees can be revived in New Zealand and globally.

Taggart Siegel, a film-maker who lives in New Zealand 3 months of every year, is also a mouthpiece for bees around the world. His documentary about them, Queen of the Sun, has received acclaim around the world. Seigel calls bees "the legs of the plant".

40% of our food is reliant upon bees - and in an agriculture-based country like NZ, that means we need to take notice.

Membrillo - Quince Paste

Why why why did I not share this at the time.... made it just before Easter when quinces were in the shops - they're not now though!
This traditional Italian/Spanish paste is nice nice nice - deliriously amazingly delectable with a strong cheese.

Take your so-ugly-they're-beautiful quinces and cover with water

Boil them until the skins crack. At this stage they're easy to peel, and you can take the skins off when they're cool enough, and remove the pips and cores.

Boil again until soft.

Now strain off the water, puree the fruit and add the same quantity of sugar - weight for weight.

Slowly bring back to the boil while stirring to make sure the sugar is all dissolved.

You need to let this cook now for ages - let's say an hour but it may be longer. Stir occasionally. It changes slowly from a light beige colour to a strong pinky red and gets very thick.

Once you think all the moisture has boiled away, pour it into a baking-paper lined tin. Some people now bake this on low heat for another hour to make sure it's going to set.
I was over it by then - ours is set just enough but gosh it's good... I wrapped it in several blocks in baking paper and it keeps in the fridge for ages. If you let it. I didn't.

The Shoestring chef

this sounds wonderful - wish there was something near me like this... very useful! Cooking classes for $15 every Thursday evening in Kingsland by the Shoestring Chef - email them to learn more. It's held at Crave cafe amongst industrial buildings in Kingsland, behind the main shops. I want their lights! And their large White's Aviation photo of Auckland!

Thai dessert

I decided I liked the sound of Coconut Icecream with cardamom biscuits. The icecream recipe is most intriguing because it uses basil seeds. (Otherwise known as Sabja, Subja, Tukmaria, Takmaria, this ingredient is used in traditional Indian cooking and helps the body to cool).
I found them at Farro Fresh, but I think a garden centre would have them too.

the recipe calls for you to soak some seeds in water which the woman at Farro and I agreed sounded most odd, but in the interests of learning I went along with it.....

Dry seeds into a dish

Almost imediately they start to swell and form a gelatinous skin....

and at this stage they can go into the dish. They look a little bit like fish eggs...

Coconut and Basil Seed Icecream

2 and 1/2 cups coconut milk

1 and 1/4 cups cream

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp sweet basil seeds

Bring the coconut milk, cream and sugar to the boil. Remove from heat and let it cool down a bit. In a separate bowl beat the eggs well. Gradually add the milk and cream mixture into the eggs - too fast, and the eggs will cook. Let it cool completely and then refrigerate to chill.

Pour the cold mixture into a small loaf pan, cover with plastic wrap and remove any air between the film and the surface. Freeze for 2-3 hours, until it starts to get firm. Remove from the freezer and beat or blend until smooth. Put it back in the pan. Separately, put 1/2 tbsp sweet basil seeds into 1/2 cup water. Give them 5  minutes to expand. Gently fold the seeds into the ice cream and put back in the freezer with the plastic covering. Freeze several hours.

We served this with Cardamom flavoured biscuits (recipe coming) and Peach and Mango coulis.

another banana experience!

I'm loving the variety that's showing up everywhere now, just wish there was enough time in the day to try cooking it all...
here's another banana I came across recently at Lim's Gardens in Glen Innes - they are HUGE!

they're labelled Tindor but I think they're actually another kind of plantain...

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.

A duck adventure...

first take your dead duck
I bought one from Lim Gardens in Glen Innes but alas, I did not expect to find this...

not as appealing as I'd imagined... but I pressed ahead and boned it as I would a chicken.,

Starting with a cut along the backbone

then peel the meat and skin down off the ribcage, separating the legs from the body as you go.

Once you have the main rib cage out (I left the wings and half the legs on) you can lay it flat and stuff with something flavoursome.

I used orange zest, homemade wholemeal bread crumbs, fresh sage, butter and onion with lots of salt and pepper. Pull it all up into a roll, tuck in the ends and tie securely with string. Score the skin, then sear as much of the prepared roll as possible in a very hot pan to render the fat from under the skin. Put a little water in the bottom of a pan, add the duck and cover. Braise for 2 hours. Remove the cover towards the end of cooking to brown the outside, then slice to serve.

Sausage Maker

Bought a George Foreman on Trade Me yesterday, $91 for a machine that was bought for $225 new in  October 2009. And the aim is to make sausages so I need some ideas. I'm keen to see if I can make seafood work inside casings...
Thus now for sausage skins - apparently the place to go is Dunninghams at 655 Great South Road Penrose Auckland ph 09 525 8188 for natural or synthetic.

Another new eating experience

Hmmm... Plantain eh... bought these when I was shopping with my sister-in-law Cheryl recently because I never have tried cooking them. I read somewhere that you can stuff them with a spice mix and bake ... Sounds great! Reporting back soon.

Cheese Making Courses 2010

I decided I'd like to make cheese. I'm a crafter from way back, so I like making things and I certainly like eating cheese - my mother sent me a link to Jo Seagar's website, where there is a weekend-long course in March 2010.
I also found a few offered in Auckland that are shorter and cheaper - but I do want to do something good so will do a little more research.
Katherine Mowbray is running classes on Saturdays right through 2010 in Epsom for $120
Jean Mansfield is offering Farmhouse Cheesemaking in Auckland, North Shore, Katikati and Masterton for $195 including lunch and a glass of wine
NZ Cheese School deliver courses to the food industry and also have 1-day course for the home cheese-maker for $195 at various locations around New Zealand.