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...

Miriam: I've been in Peru for a couple of weeks now and I must say that in general the food has been very disappointing, often bland starch accompanied by miscellaneous meat and far too much salt. However, we're slowly discovering some wee gems, like these empanadas, fresh from a pizza oven in a wee back alley operation in the town of Pisac. Filled with cheese, tomato and olives they were just perfectly fresh and well balanced. We went back for seconds.

Sadly, the coffee in Peru is a world away from the flat whites i'm used to in NZ. It's pretty standard to order cafe con leche (coffee with milk) and be presented with some hot water, a sachet of Nescafe and a jug of milk. I think I'm better sticking with coca tea (used to help with altitude sickness) or this delicious 'happiness tea' at one of my now favourite cafes, Grande Heidi in Cusco.

Becs: I missed Downton Abbey when it screened on TV earlier this year, but after hearing so much raving about it I decided to buy the DVD and have a Downton marathon. I loved it! Pretty dresses, scenery, intriguing storylines and scheming galore, I can't wait for series two to be released.

Libby: The Meyer lemons in the shops at the moment are just lovely - bright yellow and so juicy. I had a go at preserving some this weekend. I packed sterilised jars with coarse salt and lemons (quartered nearly all the way through) and topped up with lemon juice and a little boiling water. I was amazed at how many lemons I could squeeze into a jar! Now they have to sit for a month - fingers crossed they work. {Lurking in the background is my LEAST favourite thing for the week - failed one-bowl-banana-bread that's missing one vital ingredient: sugar! I halved the recipe, but somehow managed to delete the sugar altogether...}

thursday baking - cappuccino date slice

Thursday baking this week was made by Mum, who has been making this yummy slice for years. It's like a coffee (flavoured) cake with dates in it, and being a melt and mix, one bowl recipe it is very quick and easy to put together. The dates tend to sink to the bottom; I'm not sure how to avoid this, as flouring the dates first tends to result in pesky bits of uncooked flour getting trapped in their crevices, not so nice! Maybe we could try chopping them a bit smaller. It's quite sweet so is nice cut into smallish pieces, Mum took it to a morning tea so this batch was bite size.

Cappuccino date slice - Jo Seagar - Week 23

Slice

2 eggs
1 c brown sugar
180g butter, melted
1/2 c milk
2 tbsp coffee and chicory essence (avail in the coffee section of supermarkets)
1 c dates, chopped
1 1/2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder

Coffee Icing

2 c icing sugar
1 tbsp coffee essence
25g butter, melted
boiling water

Preheat oven to 150c. Line a 20 x 30cm slice tray with baking paper.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl or cake mixer, add the other ingredients and mix well to combine. Spread into the tin and bake for 30-35 minutes until firm in the centre. Cool in the tin.

To make the icing beat all ingredients together with enough boiling water to form a smooth, glossy icing. When cold cut into 30 slices. This can also be frozen.

A few of our favourite things...

Libby: My favourite place in Wellington for coffee at the moment is Memphis Belle on Dixon Street. The guys that own and run this place know how to make good coffee and I don't think they'd send a coffee out if it was less than perfect. The decor is an eclectic mix of the 60s and 70s (you can just make out the Crown Lynn "Pioneer" saucer the cup is sitting on) and with floor to ceiling windows on two sides, its an interesting place to sit and people-watch. That's if you can get a seat, there are only a few tables and they're usually full!

Miriam: A couple of years ago, Becs started a pudding making business, Cream. It's was so successful, Sunday magazine (that comes with the Sunday Star-Times) featured Cream Handmade Puddings in their 'going up' section. Cream took a break, but recently has been resurrected, and the sticky date puddings are as delicious as ever! When I was in Christchurch a few weeks ago, Becs packed a pudding in my bag to take back to Auckland. It was very popular in my household, quotes from the lucky recipients included "I loved that pudding" and "that was one of the nicest desserts I've eveeeeeeeer had!!" If you're lucky enough to live in Christchurch go buy one of Becs' puddings at the Christchurch Famers Market.

Becs: I had always been a little underwhelmed by chorizo, until I tried the fresh version from Christchurch based Mariano's. Theirs have a meaty texture and a lovely sweet, smoky flavour. I like to split the skins and squeeze the meat out, panfrying it with some red peppers before adding a few spoonfuls of romesco (or red pepper pesto) and a pour of cream or lite evaporated milk, before tossing through hot spaghetti with a handful of roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley and some toasted pumpkin seeds. A little goes a long way, so a pack of 4 chorizo served this way will easily serve 4.

A few of our favourite things...

Miriam: After a couple of wines at my favourite local bar Winehot, some friends and I wanted a cheap and cheery dinner. We took a risk and tried our luck with an unknown (to us) Chinese restaurant across the road; Vanilla Noodle House. The risk paid off! For the grand total of $11.60 each, the 5 of us shared 5 dishes and were stuffed full of yummy food. The highlight were these prawn, pork, egg and chive dumplings; fresh and delicious and at $9 for 20 dumplings, it just goes to show, sometimes it is nifty to be thrifty!

Libby: Most of Saturday morning was spent at the farmers market at Riccarton House. I bought some Italian sausages from The Real Sausage Company to bring back to Wellington with me. These sausages are heavily spiced so I like to remove them from their skins, cook them into a ragu and serve on one of my other favourite things... wide ribbons of parpadelle.

Becs: I love these coffee beans from Peoples Coffee that Libby brought down to Christchurch this weekend. My Rocket espresso machine is highly fickle when it comes to the freshness of coffee beans, and it worked wonders with these beautiful beans that were roasted just days ago. (Although I suspect Libby's excellent barista skills also came into play!) PC commendably state on their packaging the date of roast, rather than the over-extended best before date that most NZ coffee roasters favour, that gives absolutely no indication of the freshness of the beans.