Posted on Aug 30, 2005 in Do, Living in New Zealand, Storecupboard Specials | 0 comments

Eat Local Challenge: Your daily bread

Eat Local Challenge: Your daily bread
Bread is very important to me. I love it fresh, I love it stale and ready for toasting, l love it with cheese, I love it in particular – fresh or toasted – with good salty butter. I love the way it mops up your plate after you’ve had a particularly tasty tomato pasta dish. I love the...
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Posted on Aug 28, 2005 in Cook, Living in New Zealand | 4 comments

Eat Local Challenge: Spanakopita

Eat Local Challenge: Spanakopita
There are so many things that you can’t go near when you’re trying to Eat Local. I had written this piece about Spanakopita ever before I started this challenge but, pressed for choice on Saturday night, it was something I happily turned to. I had spinach and onions from Canterbury, feta from...
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Posted on Aug 26, 2005 in Do, Living in New Zealand | 0 comments

Eat Local Challenge

Eat Local Challenge
I’ve just discovered the Eat Local Challenge posted by Jen on her life begins at 30 blog. She invited fellow food bloggers to make the commitment to eat locally produced food during August. In her own words: “For the month of August, I would like to invite all bloggers to join me in taking a...
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Posted on Aug 24, 2005 in Do, Living in New Zealand | 0 comments

Yoga – and Pumpkin Pie

Govinda’s in Dublin – a vegetarian restaurant run by the Hare Krishnas – has a great reputation and was one of those places that I always intended to go for dinner. Somehow I never managed to make it there but, when I was searching for a yoga class in Christchurch lately, I discovered that...
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Posted on Aug 22, 2005 in Cook | 0 comments

The simple things in life: Ham and Pea Soup

The simple things in life: Ham and Pea Soup
As it is winter at this side of the world – although the temperatures seem to have taken a turn for the better lately – I’ve been cooking lots of soups. I love making anything that just takes 20 minutes of chopping and frying, and then is happy to sit simmering on the cooker for an hour or...
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Posted on Aug 20, 2005 in Cookery Books, Read | 4 comments

Bill’s Open Kitchen by Bill Granger ***

Bill’s Open Kitchen by Bill Granger ***
Australian cook Bill Granger is the darling of the Sydney restaurant scene. He open his first café, Bill’s, twelve years ago and hasn’t looked back since. Earlier this month he opened his third Sydney restaurant and he has just visited Christchurch to launch his fourth cookbook, Simply Bill....
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Posted on Aug 18, 2005 in Do, Living in New Zealand | 6 comments

All things chocolate (beer)

Beer drinkers, as wine drinkers, are pretty well catered for in New Zealand. There are plenty of microbreweries and brew pubs about – Brew Moon, the Dux de Lux and the Twisted Hop are amongst some Canterbury favourites – but even the big breweries have pretty decent beers. One of the biggies is...
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Posted on Aug 16, 2005 in Storecupboard Specials | 0 comments

Peas, beans, lentils and other useful things

Peas, beans, lentils and other useful things
I’ve always been a lover of peas, beans and lentils – things that are cheap and can be turned into something delicious without too much effort. But, in Ireland, a hectic schedule prevented me from really getting involved with these in their dried form. Instead I had to content myself with their...
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Posted on Aug 13, 2005 in Cookery Books, Read | 2 comments

Comfort Food: Eating for Pleasure by Maxine Clark ****

Comfort Food: Eating for Pleasure by Maxine Clark ****
Now this cookbook is right up my alley. The combination of the words comfort, food, eating and pleasure – especially in winter – talk far more to me that those hated phrases low fat, slimline and reduced calories. Which isn’t to say that comfort food is going to have a drastic effect on...
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Posted on Aug 11, 2005 in Bake, Storecupboard Specials | 2 comments

Chocolate and chilli: Mexican Hot Chocolate

Chocolate and chilli: Mexican Hot Chocolate
I think that my interest in the Mexican combination of chocolate and chilli may have been originally sparked from watching the film adaptation of Laura Esquivel’s Like Water For Chocolate in college. The fire of chilli and the dark richness of chocolate seems, to me, to be a rather good combination....
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Posted on Aug 9, 2005 in Cookery Books, Do, Living in New Zealand, Read | 0 comments

Savour New Zealand: Dean Brettschneider

Savour New Zealand: Dean Brettschneider
New Zealand baker Dean Brettschneider was one of the people that I encountered at the recent Savour New Zealand in Christchurch. Together with Lauraine Jacobs, a Cuisine food editor, he has recently published Taste, the third in a series of quality books on baking. At Savour New Zealand, when not signing...
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Posted on Aug 7, 2005 in Food for Friends, Living in New Zealand | 8 comments

Pies in New Zealand: Chicken and Mushroom Pie

Pies truly are a New Zealand classic. Maybe it’s because of the British influence and their Pork Pies, although colonisation of Ireland didn’t leave us with any such culinary heritage. As I mentioned the other day, pies are eaten by Kiwis on long road trips – the guarantee of a good pie...
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Posted on Aug 5, 2005 in Cookery Books, Read | 2 comments

Taste: A New Way to Cook by Sybil Kapoor ****

Taste: A New Way to Cook by Sybil Kapoor ****
In a world full of cookbooks, Sybil Kapoor’s Taste: A New Way to Cook is truly innovative. Kapoor writes from a far more scientific perspective than most food writers, explaining in great detail about the elementary tastes of sour, salt, umani (savoury), bitter and sweet. She helps the reader to...
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Posted on Aug 3, 2005 in Food for Friends, Living in New Zealand | 3 comments

The Boyfriend’s birthday dinner: Beef and Chorizo Pie

Yesterday was the Boyfriend’s birthday so I decided to throw a small surprise birthday dinner – just us, three of his sisters, one sister’s boyfriend and our two Scottish Housemates. The plotting and planning for this has been going on for a couple of weeks but, after pondering various...
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Posted on Aug 1, 2005 in Read | 5 comments

Most useful cookery books

After just putting up my own review of Stephanie Alexander‘s The Cook’s Companion a couple of days ago, I was delighted to see it featured in the Waitrose Food Illustrated Magazine’s top ten most useful cookery books. My other favourite from the list, by a long shot, is Nigel Slater’s...
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