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October 30, 2005

Peter Gordon's Tomato and Chilli Jam

Before I came to New Zealand I had only vaguely heard of Kiwi chef Peter Gordon. From articles that popped up every so often in the English newspapers that I read, I knew that he cooked at The Sugar Club (still, I think, a truly brilliant name for a restaurant) and that he was designated king of what became known as fusion cuisine. That all changed when I made my first batch of his Tomato and Chilli Jam. Now he is known as the person responsible for coming up with the recipe of this addictive addition to sandwiches, sausages, noodles, patés, cheese, cold meats or just about anything that needs a little zip. I discovered it through an article in Cuisine magazine and you'll find the recipe right here.

It's not difficult to make, even if you don't have a blender. I just chop everything up as small as possible and throw it all in together. Don't be tempted to leave out the Asian fish sauce (aka nam pla). It may smell disgusting when you open the bottle but it really adds depth to the flavour. The first time I made this Tomato and Chilli Jam was during the autumn glut of tomatoes. They didn't cost too much and, most importantly, were ripe. If you make it during the winter as I did the last time (we ran out - I was desperate!) you'll be simmering the mixture for far longer than 30-40 minutes but it will eventually come together in the end. Well worth spending a Saturday morning on.

Posted by Caroline at 5:53 PM | Comments (0)

October 28, 2005

Starbucks Challenge

After some discussion about Fair Trade goods, green LA girl challenged me to take the Starbucks Challenge. In their policy document - Starbucks, Fair Trade, and Coffee Social Responsibility - they say that "Fair Trade Certified coffee has been promoted by Starbucks as a brewed "Coffee of the Week" and can be brewed by coffee press during store hours upon customer request." The challenge was to ask for a cup of Fair Trade coffee in Starbucks and see how easy it was to get served.

Last Thursday afternoon I felt the need for a cup of caffeine and, it being after 4pm, most Christchurch cafés were shut. This I will never understand. Why shut up shop at the time most people desperately need coffee? Still, it did give me a good opportunity to finally go into one of those not-very-well-patronised-by-me branches of Starbucks which seem spread like a rash all over the city. I wandered along to the best located Starbucks in Christchurch, slap bang central in Cathedral Square, and said the magic words: "Could I get a cup of Fair Trade coffee, please?" But no! Obviously the staff at the aforementioned Starbucks had not read their own policy document. They did point out that they had bags of Fair Trade coffee on sale - not exactly what I was looking for.

Seeing as I was feeling rather wimpy that day and I REALLY needed the caffeine, I took a mug of whatever coffee of the week that they were offering (I don't even remember what it was!) and slunk off to the corner to sip in peace, mentally kicking myself for not being more pro-active. Still, it doesn't look like I'm alone - other people taking the challenge around the world seem to be having similar problems.

Posted by Caroline at 12:22 PM | Comments (3)

October 26, 2005

A tale of camping food and missing sleeping bags

Last weekend being a long weekend, the Boyfriend and I decided to abandon Christchurch and open our personal camping season with a trip to the small town of Geraldine. For me, camping is a challenge to see what I can cook with limited ingredients and resources and this, the first camping trip of the year, was an opportunity not to be passed up. The night before we took off, I dug out Nigel Slater's Real Fast Food - the perfect camping cookbook - and started studying the recipes. So intent was I on packing the bag of food and so concentrated was the Boyfriend on getting us out the door on Saturday morning that no one thought to pack those camping essentials - the sleeping bags.

All happily oblivious, we were on the road at a good time. As we headed down south towards Geraldine, we took time to stop on the way to check out the Darina Allen-recommended The Store at Dunsandel. Annabel Graham of Camla Farm has turned the main post office and dairy of this wee village into a welcoming and thriving café. Tempting foods, ciders and wines are stocked alongside the bleach and plasters necessary in any village store while a shelf-full of cookbooks kept me entertained during lunch. We picked up a couple of bottles of Camla Farm cider for quaffing later and our food - crumpled Iraqi flatbread with humus and olives for me and a lamb pesto fichelle for the Boyfriend - was a far tastier option than the normal pie-stop.

After setting up the tent in the central Geraldine Holiday Park more foodie pleasures were in store for us. I browsed through the fruit juices, jams, toppings, sauces and jellies in Barker's shop, trying spoonfuls of chutney, smelling jars of mustard and limiting my spending to blackcurrant fruit juice syrup and passionfruit curd. A quick look around Talbot Forest Cheese (I was sorry to miss out on a chance of tasting their goat's milk mozzarella) and Fellmann's chocolate shop and it was time for coffee and a shared piece of Citrus Slice at the relaxed Easy Way Café.

It was only that evening, after a hearty meal of Nigel Slater's Sloppy Joes, as we ate homemade shortbread from the local market, topped with spoonfuls of Barker's passionfruit curd (a truly great combination of sweet and tart, crunchy passionfruit seeds and crumbly shortbread) that the Boyfriend suddenly realised that we had no sleeping bags. Worst still, we had also managed to leave our camping whiskey in Christchurch. Despite digging out the car boot liner to serve as a blanket, Saturday night wasn't the warmest and that was the end of camping for that weekend.

Still, without that night under canvas I might have never got around to making Sloppy Joes. Fast and intensely savoury, this is a perfect one-pot meal for camping. Make sure that you have plenty of kitchen paper to hand because, as Nigel says, this will run down your chin and up your arm. Ideal for a casual environment!

Sloppy Joes for Campsite Cooking
Minced beef or lamb - 500g
Onion - 1 chopped
Garlic - 1 clove, sliced
Red pepper - 1, diced
Worcestershire Sauce - 2 tablespoons
Tomato ketchup - 2 tablespoons
Chopped tinned tomatoes - 1 tin
Tabasco or other pepper sauce - to taste
Sea salt, freshly ground pepper (yep, I do pack the salt and pepper mills while camping!)
To serve: hamburger buns or baps - 4

Heat a frying pan if you've had the presence of mind to pack one – otherwise borrow a pan from the campsite owners or your friendly local camper - and cook the mince until it starts to turn brown. While it's getting on with it, grab one of the campsite kitchen's chopping boards and get busy with the vegetables. You will, of course, have brought your favourite knife from home.

Land the onion and garlic into the pan and fry until the meat is completely cooked. Add the red pepper, Worcestershire Sauce, tomato ketchup, chopped tinned tomatoes and Tabasco to taste. Simmer the mixture in the pan for 10-15 minutes until mixture has reduced and it is smelling good and tormenting all the other hungry campers making their dinners.

Meanwhile, put your hamburger buns, preferably sesame seed-sprinkled ones, into the oven - if there is one - to heat. Otherwise throw them in the toaster for a few minutes. Do all your washing up and pack your food. Send the Boyfriend across to the tent with your food bag and to lay the picnic rug on the ground.

With the pan in one hand and the hamburger buns on a plate in the other leave the kitchen and carefully walk to the tent. Lay out the plates and roughly sandwich the Sloppy Joe mixture between the warm buns. Pour yourself a glass of rough red wine and see how much of the Sloppy Joe you can get in your mouth before it starts pouring out the other side. Pause as you realise why the dish is called Sloppy Joe but go back for seconds before it gets cold.

Finish with homemade shortbread, passionfruit curd and the realisation that you have no sleeping bags for the night ahead.

Adapted from my well-travelled copy of Real Fast Food by Nigel Slater.

Posted by Caroline at 1:45 PM | Comments (2)

October 25, 2005

Cup conversion issues

Although I'm not a huge fan of her bare basics books, Delia Smith's website is a very useful reference point. She has a helpful table of conversions here that are especially good when you're trying to convert a recipe using American cup measurements to metric but, alas, there are no references to the New Zealand or Australian cup. I didn't initially realise that these measurements were different - a cup is a cup is a cup, right? - but apparently not.

Apparently the US standard cup is smaller than the NZ/Australian one, about 240ml as opposed to 250ml (depending on who you're reading). Also, just to really confuse matters, the tablespoon in Australia is 20ml instead of the international standard of 15ml! Unless you are baking with a very precise recipe (and mine tend not to be), these differences shouldn't cause too many problems - after all, I've gotten away with using Kiwi cups for American recipes before this - but it's just something to be aware of. I think the best way around it is to have two sets of cups. Then you've no excuse for bellyflopping cakes and the like!

Posted by Caroline at 3:34 PM | Comments (7)

October 23, 2005

Brilliant But Basic by Genevieve McGough ***

It's not often that chefs can manage to simplify techniques so that they are both intelligible and useful to those of us who confine our cooking to the home kitchen but Auckland-based Genevieve McGough has managed it in Brilliant But Basic. In this slim publication she deals with a total of 19 different techniques, teaching formulas for useful cooking basics such as meringue, risotto, slow-cooked meats and cheesecake.

Each section starts with an explanation, a basic recipe and then the cream on top - substitutions and variations. Where this approach really shines is in the Classic Dressings chapter. The area devoted to Pesto and Pistou runs through appropriate herbs and nuts to use in these dressings, offering combination suggestions. Just the idea of coriander and cashew nut dressing with camembert cheese had me almost raiding the herb patch, despite the fact that we're a long way from having enough coriander to give more than just a dab of flavour! The vinaigrette and mayonnaise sections, too, offers some delightful innovations. For anyone who eats a lot of salad and is interested in expanding their dressings repertoire this chapter alone would make the book worth buying.

But that's not all Brilliant But Basic has to offer. Hot smoking and brining techniques are a few of the more off-kilter, but appealing, ideas. One evening, lacking a starch to accompany a stew, I successfully road-tested McGough's plain creamy risotto. The next time I'll get stuck into some of her ideas involving smoked paprika and roast garlic.

While the recipes included in each section are sometimes too restaurant-kitchen for this home cook, the ideas behind them are sound and McGough gives the reader the knowledge and the guidelines for success. For cooks at any level, Brilliant But Basic is a book that will repay careful study.

Brilliant But Basic by Genevieve McGough is published by Penguin Books.

Posted by Caroline at 10:12 AM | Comments (0)

October 21, 2005

A self-sufficient lunch

Last year, while still in Ireland, the Boyfriend and I attended a cheese-making weekend workshop at Rossinver Organic Farm in County Leitrim. My knowledge of cheese-making had previously been limited to a school outing during primary school. A schoolmate's father, Glenroe's Matt O'Brien, used to make a wonderful farmhouse cheddar called Glenosheen in the eighties. Sadly, Glenosheen Cheddar no longer exists but that was my first taste of a real cheese and, even to a pre-teen palate, it was quality stuff. I was no less fascinated by the workings of Matt's little cheese factory and, years later, all I had observed there made sense when I attended the cheese-making course at Rossinver.

Over the course of a fascinating and activity-packed weekend, Hans and Gaby Wieland taught us how to make a hard pressed gouda as well as yoghurt and a soft cheese, which we rolled into little balls and stored in olive oil (there are some pictures of the class in action here). Rossinver Organic Farm is a beautiful setting, we were fed delicious organic food at morning tea and lunchtime and the weekend was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Despite the very best of intentions, my cheese-making exploits since then have been non-existent - I managed to leave my unused rennet, cheesecloth and thermometers in Ireland, of course - but when I came across a simple soft goats cheese recipe in the Zest section of The Press recently I was determined to try it out.

Wandering down to Piko, I had no problem getting my hands on a litre of goat's milk. There were several choices but, in the interests of Buying Local, I bought the one produced in Canterbury. A few minutes on the cooker with the yoghurt and it had curdled enough to strain. I poured it into a cheesecloth-lined sieve, left it to drain and then salted it. The first time I made this cheese I got distracted during the heating process. As a result, the end product was more crumbly-textured than I would have hoped but a little natural yoghurt stirred through turned it into a more desirable spreadable consistency.

It was a gloriously warm spring day as we sat at the kitchen table with the French doors open to the warm breeze, eating my fresh-made goat's cheese on some homemade Brown Bread and focaccia (I'm getting creative with the Breadmaker!), accompanied with some freshly picked salad greens from our tiny vegetable garden. I've made it several times since then and I'm starting to think that maybe it's time to dig out the notes I took in Rossinver and start trying to make proper cheese.

A Simple Goat's Cheese
Goat's milk - 1 litre
Plain natural yoghurt - 120mls
Sea salt

Put the goat's milk into a saucepan and mix the yoghurt through. Place over a low heat and warm until the mixture separates. Pour into a cheesecloth lined sieve and drain. Mix with sea salt to taste.

Posted by Caroline at 12:25 PM | Comments (6)

October 20, 2005

Beer and food matches

One night a few weeks ago the Boyfriend and I accompanied our Scottish physiotherapist housemates to a celebration of International Physiotherapist Day. Now, going to celebrations of other people's careers is not something that we would normally do but, as this was taking place at Christchurch's Canterbury Brewery, we decided to make an exception - just this once, you understand.

Canterbury Brewery, now owned by the Australian based company Lion Nathan, is pretty old. First named Ward's Brewery, it was founded in 1854 - not long after the first settlers arrived in Christchurch. The heritage museum in the brewery reflects this, telling the history of beer making in general, as well as concentrating on the brewing in New Zealand.

The physiotherapists of Christchurch, plus ourselves, were conducted to the heritage museum first. After wandering through that our guide - a very enthusiastic brewer who occasionally does these tours at night - explained the whole process of brewing and took us around the parts of the brewery which are open at night.

As soon as we walked out onto the brewery floor we could smell that rich barley/hop scent that will always remind me of Dublin's Guinness brewery. Unsurprisingly, this is the company that also brews New Zealand's Guinness. The most interesting part of this tour - there's not actually too much going on at night time - was when our guide led us into the large room, complete with massive gleaming copper vats which contain the malted barley, where they were actually making the beer. The brewing is a 24-hour operation, with brewers working in shifts, but the bottlers seem to get nights off.

We returned to the Heritage Centre bar for what was to be the high point of the evening - a beer and food matching session. It must be admitted that we were pretty hungry at this stage, not to mention thirsty! With the group seated around a long table, a pair of glasses in front of each person, we were delighted when our guide started to pull out bottles of Canterbury Draft and six of Mac's Gold. As at a wine tasting, he spoke (for too long in a hungry/thirsty person's opinion!) on the various merits of each brew and how to get the best taste from your beer. Glasses, not bottles, seemed to be the key thing but at that stage it was getting distracted by finally having some beer in front of me. The guide told us that these particular beers go best with pizza and, to our delight, proceeded to hand out three large pizzas so that we could test for ourselves. They didn't last too long.

The next set of beers were Steinlager and Stella Artois, accompanied by a platter of salami, olives, cheese and pickles. At our end of the table the pickles and olives disappeared so quickly that you might have thought that the four of us were still students!

The guide finished off the evening by explaining the merits of Speights Old Dark and a boutique brew, Speights Porter, which he said are good companions to blue cheese and chocolate mud cake, large examples of which were then produced.

I'm not sure that I'll be changing my usual glass of wine with dinner to one of beer but the Canterbury Brewery tour did make the point that, as with wine, there are definitely beers that go better with some foods than others. My personal favourite was the blue cheese and Speights Porter combination, something which I definitely intend on trying again sometime soon. Hurray for International Physiotherapist Day!

Posted by Caroline at 3:52 PM | Comments (0)

October 18, 2005

A decadent solo supper

Asparagus is very much in season at the moment in New Zealand with signs hanging by the roadside offering freshly picked spears of this gloriously upright vegetable and quantities of it available in greengrocers. Despite the plenty, I must admit that the Boyfriend and I have been slow off the mark this year and have only had a couple of feeds of it - so far. We need to hurry up and feast before the season ends.

Our favourite way of preparing asparagus is to simply roast the slim spears with butter and parmesan until it tastes good. When I saw the my first bunch of the season at the Saturday market in English Park, its fate was sealed. It was during a weekend when the Boyfriend was at a conference and I had that purchase earmarked for a decadent solo supper. A loaf of ciabatta from the organic vegetable stall and I was all set.

That night I luxuriated in, for once, having an abundance of asparagus to eat. Not having to share was definitely an advantage! I used the ciabatta as a scoop for all the buttery juices, rendering cutlery obsolete. Fingers were definitely made before forks for this dish. Matched with an assertive Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, my Roasted Asparagus had a short, but delicious life. This is such an effortless dish I've not bothered to give measurements in the recipe below. You alone will be the best judge of how much parmesan and butter you would like - but it is difficult to have too much.

Roasted Asparagus
Asparagus
Butter
Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Trim the ends of the asparagus spears by bending them and they will break naturally at the point where they become tender. Place into an oven-proof dish where there is enough space for all the asparagus to lie flat. Dot with butter and grate a little parmesan over. Place in the oven. Check after 15 minutes and, using a vegetable peeler, cut some slices of parmesan to lay over the spears. Roast for about 20 minutes until tender.

Serve with some soft ciabatta or focaccia to mop up the parmesan butter and a good glass of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.

Posted by Caroline at 3:02 PM | Comments (5)

October 16, 2005

Thoughts on cookbook collections

Just looking up Margaret Costa's Four Seasons Cookery Book - a friend loaned it to me the other night and I was wondering how much it would cost to get my own copy! - and I came across this article by pedant in the kitchen, Julian Barnes. I thoroughly enjoyed his debate about and efforts to cull his collection. His "certain words of advice, all of it paid for in money" are worth taking a look at, especially number 5 - "Never buy a juice book if you haven't a juicer" - apropos of the book that caused the whole conundrum, Nigel Slater's Juice. Juice is the one Slater book that I haven't purchased but, by coincidence, I got it out of the library yesterday. And no, I don't have a juicer either.

As regards the Four Seasons Cookery Book, it's not as if I really NEED another cookbook but Margaret Costa has a lot to recommend her, despite Barnes' dismissal of all but one of her recipes. I've developed a love of seasonal cookery books recently (Amanda Hesser's The Cook and The Gardener, At its Best: Cooking with Fresh Seasonal Produce by Margaret Brooker, Xanthe Clay's marvelous collections of Daily Telegraph readers' recipes - In Season and It's Raining Plums) and this seems like the original and, dare I say it, perhaps the best? Well, I'm certainly not going to buy it while I'm in New Zealand - it's not even 12 months since I arrived and I already have a more than respectable and difficult to transport collection here - but maybe when I go home...along with Nigel's The Kitchen Diaries and Claudia Roden's New Book of Middle Eastern Food. This, of course, despite the fact that there is a whole library of cookbooks waiting for me in Ireland. I'm starting to feel like Heidi over on 101 Cookbooks!

Posted by Caroline at 4:57 PM | Comments (12)

October 14, 2005

23/5 Meme

A couple of days ago I got tagged for the 23/5 Meme by my favourite Melbourne Plum. Unlike the last meme I was involved with, it is not a difficult one - you just have to go digging around the archives, find your 23rd post and ponder on the meaning of the 5th line. Hmm...

Finding my 23rd post wasn't too difficult. I had just discovered this wonderful New Zealand fruit and was pretty eager to tell people all about it in Feijoa Frenzy. My 5th line? "The hallmark of the feijoa, apparently, which has its own unique taste." Well, it doesn't do so good as a standalone line - you'll just have to go read it in its original situation and see does it look better!

Now begins my real problem. The most difficult part of this meme is who to tag as most people I know online seem to have already participated! I think that may be a question to ponder for a little while longer.

Updated Tuesday 18 October: I've finally gotten around to figuring out who to tag next. From the amount of thinking I've put into it, I'm starting to feel that this meme has become a little like those chain letters that used to go around when I was in school! Anyway, my choices/victims are:

No Eggs Or Nuts
life begins at 30
Zen Foodism
and, in the non-foodie related angle of things...
Year of the Big Drought
Adam Fields (weblog)

Here's hoping none of them have been tagged already...

Posted by Caroline at 3:29 PM | Comments (2)

October 13, 2005

At Home, At Play by Penny Oliver ***

Penny Oliver, the New Zealand author of Beach, Bach, Boat, Barbeque, has returned to outdoor pursuits for her latest book At Home, At Play. With fabulous photographs of rivers, cooking over outdoor fires, mountains, camping with frost on tents, kayaking and heavy snowfalls, she intersperses her recipes - divided into chapters called Eat Up, Chill Out, Warm Up and Time Out - with views of New Zealand.

This book is a nice reflection of New Zealand's relaxed indoors and active outdoors lifestyle, full of recipes that will be useful no matter where in the world you are. While Roast Tomato, Pepper and Basil Soup may be perfect for the New Zealand winter, it's not going to lack anything if made on a stormy day in Ireland, and Oliver's one-pot Apricot and Walnut Chocolate Cake looks like the perfect fit to any situation where cake is needed. Her insistence on using high quality locally grown ingredients is something that can be applied where ever you live.

At Home, At Play is a celebration of place as much as a cookbook which makes it more unfortunate that the publishers neglected to label Ian Batchelor's magnificent photographs of the New Zealand landscape.

The ubiquitous Edmonds Cookery Book - in print for almost 100 years - is still the quintessential Kiwi recipe book but, for anyone looking for a modern foodie's take on New Zealand, At Home, At Play is the place to start.

At Home, At Play by Penny Oliver is published by New Holland.

Posted by Caroline at 5:27 PM | Comments (0)

October 11, 2005

A weekend hideaway

After a stressful week, all you want to do at the weekend is get out of the city (without driving too far), stay in a comfortable place (without paying too much) and eat some good food. In search of just such a place, the Boyfriend and I stayed at the historic Governors Bay Hotel last weekend. Although it is only about a forty minute drive from Christchurch, once you emerge from the Lyttelton tunnel, which cuts through the Port Hills directly south of the city, you feel like you're arriving in another, more relaxed world.

With the outward appearance of an old New Zealand country pub, the Governors Bay Hotel has a level of comfort and service that would shame most city hotels. The fact that the bedrooms aren't en suite may be off-putting for some but, given that their Winter Escape Package - bed, breakfast plus two-course dinner - only costs NZ$150 for a couple this is a small quibble. What's more important is that the rooms, though small, are cosy and come equipped with solidly comfortable beds, something all too rare in overnight accommodation.

We arrived in the afternoon of a miserable Saturday so the view at that time was nothing to write home about although the roaring open fire in the bar did lift our spirits. Still, the rain lifted enough to allow us a good ramble along the shoreline directly underneath the hotel before we wandered upstairs to our room, legs aching, to read several of the glossy magazines that were piled high in the corridor.

Although it wasn't a particularly cold evening, another open fire made the simple dining room into a welcoming and intimate setting for a wonderful dinner. Full marks have to be given to the waitress who, in a rugby-mad New Zealand not only turned off the television at the start of what was (apparently) an important match, but who managed to be there whenever she was needed without hovering, allowing us to relax and enjoy our food. And enjoy it we did. Beautifully presented and very tasty, the food at Governors Bay Hotel is far above the level that you might expect in a country setting. I was also delighted to find my beloved Kapiti ice cream on the menu. A few drinks and the tail end of the match (for the Boyfriend - I still don't know who was playing!) in a packed bar and that was us done for the evening.

We woke to a clear, sunny and warm morning, which was a welcome contrast to the previous day's downpour. With breakfast starting at a relaxed 9am, there was plenty of time for another walk out the elongated Governors Bay wharf before we had to face food again. Just as well, as breakfast almost topped the previous evening's efforts. Combine free-range eggs and sourdough bread and I'm happy, especially when the kitchen also makes the best porridge I've ever found outside my own house. Relaxed and content, we ate outdoors on the veranda, wearing our sunglasses to avoid glare from the intensely blue sea of Lyttelton Harbour before us. Not even 24 hours there, and we didn't want to leave Governors Bay.

Governors Bay Hotel is situated on the Main Road, Governors Bay, Lyttelton. Phone: 03 329 9433

Posted by Caroline at 4:41 PM | Comments (0)

October 9, 2005

Cookbooks by the bed

I've been taking full advantage of the Christchurch City Library and their ever-fabulous selection of cookbooks, a pile of which are currently sitting by the bed. I've always been an avid reader of cookbooks - in Ireland the Boyfriend accused me of spending more time reading them than cooking from them! - but now it sometimes gets a little out of hand.

I love to dip in and out of different cultures through food, moving from the Mexican romance of Like Water for Chocolate through celebrations of seasonal produce in both New Zealand (At its Best by Margaret Brooker) and France (Amanda Hesser's The Cook and the Gardener) as well as finding practical new ways to use my breadmaker (Pizza, Focaccia, Filled and Flat Breads from your Bread Machine by Lora Brody).

There are times when I go looking for something which I've been wanting to read for a while (Tamasin's Weekend Food by Tamasin Day-Lewis, Tessa Kiros' Falling Cloudberries), and the library ordering service is particularly good if the book turns out to be out on loan or at another branch. Sometimes I refuse to walk down the cookbook aisles for fear that I'll find a book that I just have to take and read - never mind the other dozen that are at home - a month just isn't enough to get through them all!

Currently reading:
It's Raining Plums: Seasonal Recipes by Seasoned Cooks by Xanthe Clay
Like Water for Chocolate: a Novel in Monthly Instalments, with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies by Laura Esquivel
Pizza, Focaccia, Filled and Flat Breads from your Bread Machine: Perfect Every Time by Lora Brody
Sydney Food by Bill Granger
At its Best: Cooking with Fresh Seasonal Produce by Margaret Brooker
The Cook and the Gardener: A Year of Recipes and Writing from the French Countryside by Amanda Hesser
Tamasin's Weekend Food: Cooking to Come Home to by Tamasin Day-Lewis
Falling Cloudberries: A World of Family Recipes by Tessa Kiros
Plenty: Digressions on Food by Gay Bilson
Feast@Home by Julie Le Clerc

Posted by Caroline at 5:29 PM | Comments (6)

October 7, 2005

Blogging by Mail 2: The arrival of the parcel...

Yesterday morning was miserable. It was wet and stormy, I hadn't slept well and I woke up with a nasty sore throat. I was lying in bed, feeling sorry for myself (I had to cook dinner for nine last night) when the Boyfriend said "there's a parcel here for you!" A parcel in the post is never something to be sniffed at, especially when I had a suspicion that it was sent from America by my Mail Blogging partner, Deborah. Before I knew it, I was out of bed and tearing open the wrapping to receive a veritable avalanche of goodies! And that was only the start. When I checked the proper post (as opposed to the parcel post) later I found a card telling me that there was another parcel to be collected at the post office. This morning, the third - and final - parcel was delivered, along with a lecture from the postman as the bottle of porter (yes, porter! Alaskan Smoked Porter, actually) it contained fell out as he took it out of his sack. He was not impressed - apparently the New Zealand post office take a dim view of bottles of alcohol falling out of parcels. Thankfully it survived, although I don't think I'll be opening it for a while. Mr Postman said it had survived a lot and it should be put on display.

Thank you SO much Deborah - your parcels made me almost forget about the sore throat and cooking dinner was much easier when I could bribe myself with a few of the luscious Lemon Caramels made by the Little Flower Candy Co. I think they'll be accompanying the Boyfriend and myself to the cinema this evening.

When I'm at home during the afternoon I have a little coffee ritual - temping work is slow at the moment. I make a cafetiere (a present from the Boyfriend's step-grandmother) of coffee, lay out the milk jug and sugar bowl (presents from my visiting mother and aunt) and sit in an old-fashioned low armchair (given to us by the Boyfriend's parents) with a pile of cookbooks and some sweet bites - the perfect time to do some taste tests on Deborah's package.

My first choice were the beautifully packaged Valerie Chocolates. This quintet of two almond and two almond fleur de sel toffees, enrobed in dark chocolate, won my heart immediately. Both the almond fleur de sel toffees disappeared promptly - the combination of sweet and salt, crunch and softness being exactly what I adore. That set a trend, as I opened the Peanut Butter Filled Pretzels - another salty, crunchy bite sized treat - and accompanied those with little nibbles from the bar of Five Star Fruit & Nut Chocolate. Did I mention that the fruit and nuts are praline, pecans and cherries? So good that I had to have even more chocolate and so I rounded my decadent coffee afternoon off with some pieces of the richly intense Chocovic Guaranda Chocolate.

And that's just for starters. There's a bar of Scharffen Berger mocha chocolate to try tomorrow, some Altoids Apple Sours (something to clear the palate after those Lemon Caramels at the cinema, perhaps?), a raw food cocoa mole LaraBar, some maple organic granules, a pack of Pica Limon sachets (Deborah recommends them sprinkled over corn on the cob, mango or an apple with a squeeze of lime juice) and even a bag of Purple Corn Flour Mix which I'm going to have fun using. All that, plus reading material too - a recipe for Old Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies, a little Whole Foods Market cookbook and a copy of the Food Arts magazine.

Thanks again to Deborah for all the trouble that she went to - it truly was an amazing series of packages to receive! - and to Samantha for hosting this round of Blogging by Mail (and for letting a late entrant get involved!).

Posted by Caroline at 5:18 PM | Comments (2)

October 6, 2005

Pumpkin heaven

My only experience of pumpkins while in Ireland was at Halloween during my first year in Dublin. One of my then housemates bought a pumpkin and carved it into a grinning Jack O'Lantern to sit in the window. I had only ever made Jack O'Lanterns from turnips before and was amazed at how easy it is to hollow out a pumpkin rather than spending ages digging your difficult way through the tough flesh of a turnip! With touching (and undeserved) faith in my cooking abilities, he set the pumpkin flesh aside and informed me that it was my job to turn it into something edible. I failed the challenge, I must admit. Every time I opened the fridge the watery yellow flesh rebuked me and it wasn't too long before it made the trip to the dustbin. Since then I've seen pumpkins appearing in Irish supermarkets in time for Halloween each autumn but I've never even been remotely tempted.

However, it's an altogether different story over here in New Zealand. In autumn, pumpkins in every kind of shape, size and colour are piled high at the markets and, due to their superior keeping abilities, they linger happily on in kitchens long after the first harvest. There are many different varieties, but the Crown Pumpkin - a medium sized round pumpkin with corrugated grey skin and, unlike that Halloween one, sweet orange flesh - is one which I've used most.

Despite that bumpy past introduction, I've really enjoyed eating and cooking pumpkins here. I love roasted pumpkin - toss it in salt, freshly ground black pepper and olive oil and cook at 180°C for about 40 minutes - to accompany stews, especially a recent Bean and Pork Hock one. Any leftovers brighten up a miserable wintery day when converted to Spiced Pumpkin Soup, there's an interesting-looking Pumpkin Salad here and it can be used in curries, with pasta, for a tortilla, to make gnocchi, or in pies. It has a great affinity with kumara, the Maori sweet potato, and the Boyfriend's mother recently cooked us a rich and delicious Pumpkin and Kumara Soup. In short, the humble pumpkin is an entirely versatile vegetable that can be used in either sweet (Govinda's Pumpkin Pie, for instance) or savoury dishes and has an affinity with either spices (cumin, coriander, cinnamon) or herbs (rosemary, sage). I wonder if I'll be able to get pumpkins that taste this good when I'm back in Ireland?

Spiced Pumpkin Soup
Olive oil - 1 tablespoon
Onion - 1, chopped
Garlic - 1, chopped
Turmeric -1 teaspoon
Ground cumin - 2 teaspoons
Ground coriander - 2 teaspoons
Garam masala - 2 teaspoons
Roasted pumpkin - 1kg
Chicken stock - 1.5 litres
Coconut cream - 200ml
Fresh coriander - a small bunch, chopped

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion and garlic for a few minutes over a moderate heat, until softened. Add the spices to the pan and fry for a moment until the mixture smells fragrant. Tip in the roasted pumpkin and chicken stock, bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Purée with a hand-held blender or use, as I do, a potato masher for a more textured soup. Add the coconut cream, warm briefly then serve, sprinkled with chopped fresh coriander.

Serves 4.

Posted by Caroline at 6:34 PM | Comments (6)

October 5, 2005

Parcels in the post

I've always loved getting parcels in the post (hence my involvement with Blogging by Mail 2!) and this year in New Zealand has only accentuated that fact. When you're far away, it's always nice to know that your friends and family at home are thinking of you, something which is even more appreciated when there's chocolate involved! My mother is great for sending on bars of Butler's Irish Chocolate and chocolate Santys at Christmas time - I even got a (very squashed) box of Black Magic for my birthday and a slab of Bournville (especially useful for bach hot chocolates).

But a recent package from my Monaghan friend really hit the spot combining, as it did, my love of chocolate and books with my current interest in all things Fair Trade. Her Italian boyfriend works with Amnesty International in Dublin and he's behind their range of Amnesty chocolate which is made using fair-trade cocoa. Three bars of that (two plain, one praline) plus a yummy looking book called Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran - is it any wonder that I feel spoilt! Now I just have to find an evening at home so I can curl up in the armchair with my new book and do some taste tests on all that lovely chocolate...

Posted by Caroline at 4:19 PM | Comments (9)

October 3, 2005

Slow Food on Film

I was just taking a look round the Cork Film Festival website when I came across their Slow Food on Film event. Slow Food Cork are behind this amalgamation of food and film which is in its third year. It always sounds amazing but, as I'm normally based in Dublin (when I'm not in New Zealand!), I haven't yet managed to attend.

This year they're showing five short films - from Cuba, Switzerland, France (x2) and Mexico - at the cosy Kino Cinema on Washington Street accompanied by a selection of foods from Cork producers. It's a mouth watering line-up - Frank Hederman's smoked fish, chorizo from Fingal Ferguson (both of whom got a great write up in the OFM recently), Desmond Cheese and Ardsallagh Goats Cheese from Bill Hogan and Jane Murphy respectively plus, just in case you're still nibblish, a selection of patisserie and tapas.

The Slow Food evening is a veritable bargain at €10 and it takes place on Monday 10 October at 6.30pm in the Kino Cinema. The Cork Film Festival booking office (021 4272263) is now open at 15 Grand Parade.

Posted by Caroline at 2:48 PM | Comments (0)

October 1, 2005

Observer Food Monthly - September 2005

Due to the vagaries of the post between Ireland and New Zealand, my reading of the Observer Food Monthly is always a few weeks behind. Seeing as we're never in season with the produce it doesn't really matter and it's always a red letter day when the most recent edition arrives, along with recipes and restaurant reviews torn from Irish publications - thanks again Mum!

Today's arrival was long awaited, ever since I saw on the Observer website that they were publishing extracts from Nigel Slater's new book The Kitchen Diaries. I commented in an earlier post that this day-by-day account of what he eats sounded like a blog - and it certainly does share certain similarities although, unlike many blogs, you'll never catch Nigel saying that his recipes were inspired by other cookery writers! The article is a very enjoyable read and almost has me wishing that we were still in fresh sweetcorn and plum season as opposed to sailing blithely through spring.

If you're outside the areas where the Observer is available, and not so lucky to be sent regular magazine packages, you'll find the text here. As for me, I'm off for crunchy toasted sourdough bread, tart lemon marmalade and coffee, while poring over a few unexpected treats in the OFM - Rachel Cooke's account of eating and drinking her way around County Cork in the company of Lindsay House's Richard Corrigan and Jay Rayner's tour of San Francisco with blogger extraordinaire Pim Techamuanvivit.

Posted by Caroline at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)