Onion chutney from Beaneaters & Breadsoup

There is this awesome, awesome book called Beaneaters and Breadsoup cowritten by a Kiwi Jason Low. Borrow it! This guy went to Tuscany and basically took snapshots of local artisans ranging from potters, winemakers, beekeepers to homemade wool mills and all share their recipes. Highly recommend it for a read for foodies.

Makes about 500 g

1 kg of onions (whatever kind you've got and in a hurry want to get rid off)
100 g salt
5 cm cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp cloves
1 Kg sugar
600 ml balsamic vinegar
200 ml cider vinegar (Or verjus, or wine vinegar)

Halve and thinly slice the onions and place in a bowl. Add the salt, toss well and leave to stand for 5 hours, to allow the onions to release their liquid. Rinse the onions under cold water and pat dry.

Tie the spices up in a square of muslin and place in a medium saucepan with the sugar and both vinegars. Bring the mixture to the boil, stirring regularly until the sugar dissolves.

Add the onions and bring back to a simmer. Cook until the onions are transparent and the liquid is dark and syrupy for about 1 hour.

Setting point - Do a setting test like you would making marmalade by dabbing a teaspoon of the mixture on a cold plate and leaving it in the fridge for 30 seconds to see whether it is setting OK.

Refrigerate when cool.

Serve with cold meats and roasts. Or, as a relish/chutney maybe with a slice of cheddar if it takes your fancy:)

Ma's super onions she grew in her garden last summer!

Peregrine Wines Oink! Oink! Belly

Currently I am working for a winery based in the "Valley of Wine " (Gibbston Valley,Central Otago for Peregrine Winery.
I have never worked in a more beautiful place in my life and I am so fortunate to be part of the clever team steered mostly by its business manager Craig Biggs. Craig is a chef in his other life and kindly shared his braised pork belly recipe here which he picked up at St Anton, Austria.

Quite a few years ago Craig worked in a kitchen of a pensione. Other than banging out oodles of Apfelstrudel (another recipe I must scab off him soon)and grating fesh horseradish which as a child I was nuts for and often times polished off my aunts stash before she had any chance of doing something with it... , the only other gastronomic highlight for Craig was roasting lots of pork belly.

Since pork belly stole my heart at Queenstown's Luciano's a few months ago when a kind person shouted me dinner out, I scabed off Craig his recipe for braied pork belly to save pennies,continue to impress upon friends my cheap culinary can-do or for a top notch date to impress with.

Cooking time 2 hours, about enough time to watch news and two favourite programmes which for me would be 30 Rock and How I met your mother!

Ingredients (serves 4)

Pork Belly (Havoc Farms - happy pigs - organic) $25
Olive Oil
Salt
'What's in the fridge" veggies (make it up):
Yams
Celery
Potato
Onions
Carrots
Fennel seeds - 2 tsp
Garlic
Lemon
4 Apples
200 ml White wine

Enough potatoes for mash

Method

Dry and score the pork rind. Rub a small quantity of oil over the skin and sprinkle over a good quantity of salt. Ensure the rind is well covered with salt.

Over a medium/low heat sweat off the lsiced vegetables in the oven dish until soft. Add apples and fennel seeds. Mix well.

Using the same pan, place pork belly skin side up on the bed of apples and vegetables. Add the wine to the pan making sure that the rind stays out of the tide but the meat is resting in liquid.

Place whtout a lid into a moderate 180 degrees oven and bake/braise for around 2 hours.

Keep an eye on the meat and keep the wine topped up if necessary but let the jus thicken and reduce towards the end of the cooking. This method slow cooks the belly meat but also works up a cracking, cracking crackling!

When cooked, the pork belly will pull apart soft with a crispy brown crackling. I find it easier to cut through the crackling when the belly is on its back i.e. crackling side down.

Put a generous helping of mash in the middle of a serving plate, then add a couple of spoonfuls of roasted veggies and sit the pork belly on the bed of mash/vegetables to serve.

Spring is in the air, and so are lamb racks!

Rack of lamb with a bread, mustard, rosemary, garlic crust





1 rack of lamb
1 slice of toast
Whole grain mustard
Village Press (cheapest) garlic oil
Rosemary (straight from garden)
Salt and pepper

Or, an alternative crust to make with pinenuts, rosemary and garlic which is the dearer option of the two as pinenuts cost a bomb.

Method

Turn oven to high. Place toast in oven to quickly dry out. Once dry, crumble bread in blender to make instant breadcrumbs. Add to wholegrain mustard, rosemary and garlic oil. Apply mixture on the rack. Cook rack for 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

Watch that the crust does not burn. Cook lamb medium to well done to suit your personal preference.

Serve with salad or vegetables and roasted potatoes or lightly buttered spaghetti.

Italian meatball soup for brrr! weather

When I was working in comms at NZ Post my colleague Tanya Stoyanof sent me this recipe and is one of my oldest emails sitting in my inbox nothing done about. It's been sitting there stewing for over three years and I think it's about time I take it out and cook it.
Tanya, my colleague's family originates from Bulgaria the country where literature was born. This soup is literature defined in a soup pot and eats like a good heart rendering novel combining all the hearty ingredients to stave off the wintery cold.

Mince is regularly on sale at the supermarkets most of these days and getting 500g mince for a fiver if not under is doable on most shopping trips.

Tip: Edit and use the meatball recipe here for a quick Indian! Just stir under Patek Korma curry sauce and a can of coconut cream for an Indian variation on this recipe and substitute the basil with coriander Raj's your uncle!

Meatballs:

500g lean beef mince
1 red onion - grated
3 cloves garlic - crushed
Handful finely chopped fresh basil, or fresh out of the tube
Salt, pepper to season
1 lightly beaten egg
1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs

Mix all ingreds together and shape tablespoonfuls into balls

Soup

Make tomato sauce or cheat like I do and buy ready made Tomato/Garlic/Basil pasta sauce (Dolmio 550g I think?) or a can of Watties chunky tomatoe soup works a treat and is cheap!
4 cups good qual chick stock (homemade is best)
2 cups water

Put in deep saucepan and bring to the boil

Add meatballs and turn heat down to gentle boil for approx 10mins plus.

Add veggies of your choice preferably what's on special at the supermarket e.g. diced courgette, spinach leaves, fresh beans cut in half, carrots, celery and 1/2 cup of risoni (Barilla is best. See if it's on special!)

Continue to simmer uncovered for approx 5 mins or until pasta is cooked, veggies tender and meatballs done

Serve immediately in big bowls plain or sprinkled with chopped Italian parsley (optional) and grated fresh parmesan

Yummy with toast or hot crusty bread like Ciabatta if you can stretch your pennies that far

Pumpkin soup with coconut

Bring the tropics into your winter by adding a touch of coconut and curry to your pumpkin soup. This recipe is perfect for ticking all the boxes: comfort food, best substitute for a savoury Pina Colada cocktail come dinner come winter, quick, easy, filling and last but not least perfect for frozen pre made dinners.

I have actually made two different versions. One is with coconut milk only (nice and simple) and the other with curry for something different to stop becoming complacent in the kitchen. If you are making an ample batch you may as well make two types and freeze one for later.

Ingredients

½ Pumpkin $2.50 instore special
1 can Home Brand Coconut Milk $1.50
1 tbsp Pams Curry Powder $ 1.50
1 tsp Patak’s Korma Paste
1 can of Home Brand chopped tomatoes
1/2 onion
Meat of your choice
Salt and pepper

Method

Cut and peel half a pumpkin. Cut into reasonable size segments bigger than what would take up too much time prepping, and smaller than what would take up too much time cooking.

Steam pieces in a big saucepan for around 20-30 min until the pumpkin is soft and mushy. Take off the heat and blend pouring in a can of coconut milk still blending. Make sure there are no chunky bits left.Ladle half of the soup into a plastic container for freezing or eating later.

Add to the remaining soup chopped tomatoes, softened finely chopped onions, curry powder, Patak paste (or other Indian curry paste) salt and pepper. Make sure you taste it and see whether it is tasty enough. Fry up meat of your choice (chicken, steak,lamb) and add last. Ladle this variation into a plastic container for freezing or eating now.

Come on over! coconut brulee

I have given up forking out 100 plus dollars on cool recipe books and bought into recipes through hearsay, magazine and tellie which I can splice and merge with my idea of cooking (cheap, cheap, cheap). Here goes a creme brulee one that I picked up from the Listener.
This recipe is SO cheap, quick and easy it's out there for impressing people. It's got me hooked. Great for a Malibu theme dinner party or excuse to get the Hawain shirts back on during winter!

1 can of coconut milk
2 tbsp of palm sugar (but caster sugar will do)
pinch of salt
4 egg yolks

Banana, tinned pineapple pieces or anything tropical that is on special for garnish
4 oven proof tea cups or ramekins
roasting dish

Method

Pour coconut milk into saucepan and combine with salt and sugar. Then warm up the mixture on the stove and set to the side. Whisk well your egg yolks in a separate bowl. Pour the warm coconut milk bit by bit into the yolks whisking all the while. Once everything is combined pour the mixture into the tea cups or ramekins.
Turn on the oven to 180 degrees, fill a roasting dish with boiling water and place the dessert into the water bath for approx 40-60 min. ( Watch a TV show)

Over a saucepan melt the palm sugar (caster) in a splash of water. Garnish the puddings with seasonal tropical fruit or canned tropical fruit.

If you have a blow torch, sprinkle some sugar on the dessert and heat with the torch but it's not necessary.

This dessert is best made, like Lasagna, the night before.

Holy Breadmaker!

Bread is a workout and a half to make by hand and even for those with bread makers who try and follow a recipe keep producing bricks at the end of all the effort.
Experimenting is the only thing to do about it and thanks to my ma's Panasonic and my Breville we have had to do some experimenting to find the right recipe for the right machine. However when the aroma of fresh bread wafts through the house and warm slices are served with homemade jam for brekkie the past bricks quickly become a blurry memory and a feeling of having all been worth the efforts becomes cherished.

Following are recipes for Breville and Panasonic bread makers for keen bakers and those who want to leave the brickwork to men.

Surebake Yeast - You must use this yeast for bread making. All Purpose Active Yeast will not work and is only suitable for pizza dough.

Panasonic
2 tsp Surebake Yeast
350 g White flour
100 g Wholemeal flour
1 tsp Gluten
1 tsp Butter
Pinch of salt
350ml Water

Panasonic programming
Select French
Push Start

Use the Timer to set bread making for morning or late afternoon breads.
If you are adding extras e.g. herbs or raisins (see variations below) use the dispenser lid.

Breville
2 tsp Surebake Yeast
350 g White flour
100 g Wholemeal flour
1 tsp Butter
Pinch of salt
350 ml Water

Breville programming
Select French
Select Medium Crust
Push Start

Method for both bread makers

First add the yeast then add the rest of the dry ingredients; flour, gluten (if applicable), salt. Then add a knob of butter and the water. Try and aim the ingredients as close to the kneading blade as possible. This way assures that all ingredients are combined well.

For Breville users, once you hear the kneading blade starting to mix ingredients, open the lid after a few minutes, check the mix, take a spatula and scoop out the flour that gets stuck into the corners and manually mix it back under the mix with the blade running. This way you are helping mix together all the ingredients and will save the bread from floury edges.

Generally I reckon it depends on the sequence in which the ingredients are added to determine the best outcome.

Variations

For savoury dinner bread add fresh herbs e.g. chopped rosemary or basil for example.

For sweet breakfast/morning tea bread add nuts or/and raisins



Tips!

The way bread turns out and looks, varies from bread maker to bread maker nonetheless tasting equally as good:)

Buy bread makers on Trade Me or advertised in your local rag for as little as $40. That's where I got my Breville. Before you hand over the cash ask to try it out or ask the seller to show you bread they made before you come/check out the bread maker at their home.

If you are trying to impress someone or having pp around bake some bread before hand give the house a nice welcoming/ homely feeling.

Bread making is gt for making ahead of time and freezing.




Best of luck!