A few of our favourite things...

Becs: I have been the fortunate recipient of lots of home grown quinces this year...aside from making a few jars of quince paste I have roasted most of them to serve with Posh Porridge.  The method I use is based on one from the Dunsandel Store Cookbook and is the easiest I have tried with minimal prep involved - quince are a pain to cut/core when raw.  Wash the quinces well, rubbing off the fuzz on their skin with a cloth. Cut in half or quarter if especially large and fill a large lined roasting tray.  Cover with a cup of sugar, and add an inch of water to the pan.  Cover with foil and bake at 150 C for 3 hours or so until tender.  Once cool it is easy to remove the skins and cores.  Pour the syrup into a saucepan and reduce until desired consistency and sweetness.  These can be preserved in jars or frozen.

a few of our favourite things

Miriam:  When I was at Libby's a couple of months ago, I admired her recipe book stand, and so (with Libby's blessing) ordered one of my own too.  Coincidentally, I had recently bought a clock made by the same designer and Becs had independently bought a few items from the online store too.  Check out the Objectify store here for the full range.  The Ripe cookbook featured on my recipe book stand is another of my favourite things too - so many great recipes.

Libby: I don't usually have an "afternoon" tea break during the week while at work. It's not that I have a stressful job and am too busy to stop, it's just not a habit. But on the weekend I love to bake something nice and have it with a cup of real loose leaf tea. This weekend, inspired by Time for a Little Something I baked Scott's Farewell Square, (from Ladies A Plate).

a few of our favourite things...

Miriam: Whittaker's Chocolate has featured on Lovely Wee Days before, with their Berry & Biscuit and Ghana Peppermint both getting mentions. The peppermint is normally my favourite in their range, but now this Peanut Butter is a close second. Worth a try if you're a fan of peanuts.

Becs: Well they wouldn't win any prizes at an A&P show, but they are plentiful and delicious!  My crop of tomatoes this year has suffered from watering restrictions, a poor summer, and general neglect. Despite this I have been picking a good haul every few days.  My enthusiasm for preserving has waned a bit by now, so I have moved onto the minimal effort option - roasted tomato sauce.  No recipe needed, just fill a few oven trays with roughly chopped tomatoes, sliced onions, peeled garlic and any other veg you have lying around.  I throw in a few sprigs of rosemary and some fresh bay leaves.  Drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper and sugar.  Slow roast for a couple of hours at 160 c until the liquid is cooked out.  Blend up and freeze for a deliciously concentrated pasta sauce.

hot cross buns 2012

I use this hot cross bun recipe Libby discovered years ago, and posted last year. I have always found it to be an excellent recipe but had mixed results this year, and thought I would update the recipe with a few 'critical success factors' that improved them for me. Today's batch was perfect.

So here's the revised recipe for 2012, complete with a few tips...

- Don't be too heavy-handed with the fruit; too much produces a heavier bun

- Soaking the fruit overnight or at least for half an hour makes a huge difference, they are plumped up and delicious. I cover the fruit with boiling water, and grate in the lemon and orange zest at this stage too. (I always soak dried fruit for any kind of baking...or use some of the whisky soaked raisins I always keep in the fridge for the market)

- Using the water from the soaked fruit adds a nice sweetness to the buns, and helps them colour up well while baking, I always do this.

- When leaving the dough/buns to rise it should be covered tightly with clingfilm to produce the warm, humid conditions needed. A teatowel thrown over does not suffice; the dough will dry out and form a crust on the outside, preventing it from rising.

- Making the dough at night and leaving the shaped buns to rise somewhere cool for the 8 or so hours overnight will work in a pinch, but will always be heavier. Ideally let them rise somewhere warm for 1-2 hours; it gives a much lighter result.

HOT CROSS BUNS 2012

100g raisins or sultanas

100g currants

Cover with boiling water and leave for an hour until plump, grate in the zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon.

50g flour

2 tsp dried yeast

2 tsp sugar

1/4 cup warm water                     

Combine in a small bowl leave for 10 minutes to go foamy.

500g flour

2 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 tbsp dutch cocoa (for depth of colour not flavour)

1 cup warm water

60g butter, cubed

Combine flour, salt, spices and 10g of the butter. Mix well and add the warm water (you can use the water from the soaked fruit). Knead for about five minutes until a smooth dough is formed. Add extra flour if needed.

Gradually add the remaining butter bit by bit, kneading it into the dough. At this stage I sometimes add a third of the drained dried fruit.

Leave to rest for 10 minutes then mix in the dried fruit and citrus zest. Add extra flour as necessary - you want the dough to be smooth and satin-y.

Cover with gladwrap and leave to rise for an hour or so.

Shape into 12 buns (weigh them if you want to be exact!) and leave to rise until doubled in size on a tray or in a shallow tin.

In the morning, make a paste with 1/4 cup of flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1tbsp oil and enough water to make a smooth paste (about 2-3 tbsp).

Using a piping bag, pipe crosses onto the buns then put them into the over for 20-25 mins at 190 degrees Celsius. While they are baking, prepare a glaze with 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup of boiling water and stir until smooth - add a little orange zest or vanilla paste if you wish. When the buns are baked, place them onto a cooling rack and brush over the glaze.

Enjoy hot from the oven with real butter!

A few of our favourite things

Libby: Lately I've been making a delicious vinaigrette with capers and parmesan. It's basically this recipe by Julie Buiso, though I use red wine vinegar and the only thing I am precise about is the oil to vinegar ratio. As the recipe suggests it's ideal with a sturdy, bitter leaf like radicchio but it's such a tasty dressing it's also good with something plain like buttercrunch. 

 

Becs: I am a technology laggard at the best of times, so my recent purchase of a Kindle e-reader was quite proactive! I really enjoy reading and wasn't sure if reading this way would appeal so much, but I just love it. (I love its' snug new Cath Kidston case too...) Perhaps best of all, there is now no unfortunate lag between books when I lament the lack of reading material. A new book is just the press of a button away via my amazon account.

A few of our favourite things

Miriam: I am a picker and a licker in the kitchen. I think that's why Becs gave me this tea towel for my birthday back in October. I've just 'framed' it, using an embroidery ring. It now hangs proudly in our kitchen which I think sets the scene nicely.

Libby: My freezer is crammed with things I stash away with the best intentions but never get around to using: overripe bananas to turn into banana bread... leftover bread to blitz into breadcrumbs and half-used bags of frozen vegetables I've long since lost interest in. But in amongst all, carefully wrapped in newspaper I found a small bag of whitebait that I'd bought back in January! A very exciting Sunday evening discovery! The whitebait was turned into fritters with the help of a couple of eggs, a very small amount of flour and some salt and pepper. We ate them with a squeeze of lemon on an unseasonably warm and sunny Wellington evening. It felt like perhaps Summer wasn't quite over.

Becs: I have been on a preserving binge lately. Batches of tomato chilli jam, tomato sauce, pear and walnut chutney and spicy plum sauce have been brewed up, and bottled with the help of my ever faithful wide neck funnel. An essential tool to get sticky things into jars neatly and with a minimum of mess! The funnel was a present from Mum several years ago, and is one of my most used kitchen tools, as I use it weekly when bottling sauces and compotes for Posh Porridge.

Lamb, aubergine and cardamom curry

A few months ago I visited the spice shops in Petone and picked up lots of whole spices, including cardamom pods. Cardamom seems to be enjoying a revival at the moment and I feel like I'm constantly coming across new recipes - both savoury and sweet - that call for a few of the little green pods. Or perhaps it's just because I now have them in the pantry.

This delicious curry has a few pods thrown in but if you don't have any you could use ground cardamom. Just a little though - a quarter teaspoon or so - as you want the cardamom flavour to be subtle. It's a difficult flavour to describe - I've heard it described as "medicinal" and "camphorus" which I think sounds awful but really it's not... it's aromatic and ever-so-slightly aniseed-y and together with the other spices in this curry it's just perfect.

The curry and accompanying bean recipes are based on a recipes from last August/September's Dish magazine. I've simplified the curry, added aubergine, and used diced lamb instead of chops. I've never been a chop fan. So much work for so little meat. The original recipe is also garnished with golden brown onions - something I've never been able to make without burning and I don't really like anyway so left them out. Enjoy!

The curry

400g diced lamb

2 small aubergine, diced

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 onions, sliced

1 teaspoon salt

3 whole cardamom pods, lightly crushed

1 cinnamon stick

1 cup water

1/2 cup cream

spice paste - blend in food processor to a smooth paste:

1/2 cup raw cashews

3 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons ginger, chopped

1 teaspoon each ground cumin, coriander, garam marsala, chilli & tumeric

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1/2 can chopped tomatoes

to garnish...

fresh coriander

1/2 cup roasted cashews

Heat a large casserole over a medium heat and add the oil, onions and salt. Cook for about 10 minutes until the onions are soft. Add the spice paste and cook for another few minutes stirring frequently. Add the diced lamb to the pan and stir to coat in spices.

Add the cardamom, cinnamon stick, water and cream. Combine well, cover and simmer over a low heat for 1 hour. Stir from time-to-time. Uncover and add the diced aubergine. Cook for another 20-30 minutes, uncovered until the lamb and aubergine are both very tender and the sauce is nicely reduced.

Serve in bowls with rice, a scatter of fresh coriander and cashews and these colourful beans...

Green beans with coconut & chilli

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 teaspoon yellow or black mustard seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seed

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 teaspoon tumeric

1 red chilli, seeded and finely sliced

400g green beans, topped, tailed & diagonally sliced

1/4 cup long thread coconut

water

salt

Heat the oil is a large sauté pan over a medium to low heat. Add the onion and cook until soft - about 10 minutes. Add the spices, chilli and garlic. Cook for about five minutes, stirring. Add the coconut, beans, water and salt. Toss everything together and cook until the water has evaporated (add extra water if needed) and the beans are tender but crisp.

a few of our favourite things

Miriam: Mike and I have just come back from a lovely weekend in Wellington, being very well looked after at Libby & Jabez' place. As well as the many culinary delights (special highlight was being treated to these hot cross buns for breakfast), I also enjoyed a green tea on our flight back to Auckland. Although not quite as good as a happy hour wine, it felt quite nice and cleansing after a great weekend of overindulgence.

Libby: Yes, it was a weekend of overindulgence with lots of Wellington food highlights... little garlicky rolls at Vivo and dosai at Roti Chenai on Friday night... bomboloni at Floriditas and haloumi at Nikau on Saturday... and a Sunday morning spend-up at Moore Wilson followed by Caffe L'affare mocha.

Becs: Coincidentally my favourite thing this week is beverage related too. These dutch stroopwafels are made in Waihi, and were recently recognised in the Cuisine Artisan Awards - according to their website "they're typically enjoyed as 'lids' for hot beverages - you place the biscuit atop a cup of hot tea or coffee, leave it for a few minutes to allow it warm through, then enjoy it in all its sweet and gooey deliciousness." They are lovely and not too sweet like the imported ones I've tried.

a few of our favourite things

Libby: It might officially be autumn but I've been enjoying the last of summer's sweet corn this week. I love it sliced so the kernels stay together and added to colourful salads like this one. The trick to getting the kernels to stay together (so it doesn't look like to tipped the corn out of a can) is to lie the cob on its side and using a large knife slice closely, but not too closely, to the cob. You want the "root" of the kernel to stay on the cob.

Miriam: On a trip to Sabato recently, I sampled these Pinoli pine nuts. Wow. So big, fresh and tasty, and none of that nasty papery end (I'm sure there's a name for it) that the supermarket pine nuts often have. I felt compelled to buy some. Sadly, at $10 for a 70g packet, these will not become an everyday item, but definitively worth it for a special meal.

Becs: Fresh figs are here! I bought a couple last week for $3 each, they were enormous, perfectly ripe and pinkly sweet inside. They went on top of a pita-based pizza with caramelised onions, blue cheese and a balsamic dressed salad with toasted walnuts.

a few of our favourite things...

Becs: I had a visit to Auckland last week, where I enjoyed the comforts of Miriam's lovely new home. Daisy is allergic to peanuts, so on a trip away sans Daisy I am always accompanied by a jar of Pic's peanut butter. Breakfast is inevitably Vogel's bread toasted until crunchy, cooled (I like toast to be cool enough so the butter doesn't melt) then spread liberally with a layer of butter then Pic's. I enjoyed the above breakfast two mornings in a row, sitting at the sun-basked table. While I enjoyed some delicious bites in Auckland (a Mexi-kai pulled pork taco, a Little and Friday custard doughnut, a Kohu Rd ice cream cone with scoops of their banana and dark chocolate icecreams, and some incredible homemade kokado) humble peanut butter on toast still ranked right up there.

Miriam: I love Katherine Smyth ceramics. Mike's sister Sarah used to have a design store and before it closed we were lucky enough to get in an order of six 'duck egg blue' pasta bowls. They are so nice to eat out of, and having six means there's normally a couple available for serving sides out of too. However, rather than satisfying my pottery desire, it has only further fueled it; I've been eyeing up the ceramics on this website here.