Snow White's meringues

Looking like the Wakatipu a week ago, these meringues are whiter than white, sweeter than sweet and make the perfect heavenly accomplices to dessert, tea parties, cake decor and the like.

Usually meringues are a product of having excees egg whites from making custards and brulees for me.I freeze them for making meringues later when I have more time up my sleeve. Later can mean months.

A cooking tip, when making meringues the egg whites should be at room temperate before you start.

Also you should know one frozen egg white weighs about 40g.
For each egg white you need 60g sugar.
You can work how may you’ve got stashed away in the freezer by weighing the bag of egg whites.

Ingredients:
Sugar
Egg whites

Method:
Preheat oven to 140 degrees. Whisk egg whites until stiff. Use an old fashioned hand whisk, electric beater, free-standing mixer or blender even.
Nigella uses her free-standing blender, I use my thirty year old electric beater which I balance on the edge of my glass bowl and let rip for as long as it takes for the whites to become stiff.

Pour sugar in little and slowly at a time with a metal spoon. Don’t pour the whole lot in at once. Make sure its not grainy from the sugar but satiny. The meringue will take on a wonderful satiny gleam.

Line one or two baking trays with parchment or greaseproof paper or a silicon mat, some sort of silicon non stick lining paper, which at about $30 are available at most homeware shops like Briscoes. I think the Warehouse even sells them.

I use a pickn’ mix recycled Allison Holst’s zip lock bag, cutting the corners to substitute for a piping bag which make just as good twirls. See photos.

Spoon mixture into bag and once the bag is half full of the meringue mixture , unfold the bag’s skirt and give pressure to the meringue within, keeping one hand at the top and one at the tip where the meringue is flowing out of.
Turn out preferred meringues to your liking. If you prefer to use a spoon, that’s ok too. Just plonk a generous dollop of mixture on greaseproof paper!

Sprinkle the raw meringue with almonds or hazelnuts!

Put the trays of meringues in the oven for about 40 minutes, tap them regularly to check how hard they are becoming at regular intervals. When they feel firm (and you can lift one up to check that the underside is cooked) turn the oven off, but keep the meringues in there until they are completely cold.

If you take them out too soon the abrupt temperature change will make them go hard and dry and even crack.

Once they are cold you can keep them for a long time.

Mad for madeleines

Madeleines are plump, little sponge cakes traditionally flavoured with just vanilla. These have a small bit of orange zest in them for added warmth and aroma. Gt for lunch boxes, morning teas and for afters.

I have always wanted to make them and the urge grew stronger. With the purchase of an el cheapo silicon Madeleine tray from one of Briscoes’ fab sales the deal was sealed.

The only drawbacks and there are two. They take 2 hours to prep i.e. the mix needs refrigerating 2 hours. So the trick is to do it during your fav TV night. Second, they are notoriously stubborn to get out of their tray without cracking them so generously grease tray with grease spray and do it with patience on your side!

The upside, they only take 13 minutes to bake and seconds to devour.

So total time to make is 2 hours and 13 minutes
½ c butter
2/3 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp of orange zest
3 large eggs
1 c all purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
2 tbsp caster sugar

Method:

Cream the butter and granulated sugar on high until it is light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract (Pams) and orange zest (grapefruit, lemon or lime juice would do) to the butter. Turn the mixer to low speed and add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl with spatula as needed.

Beat the mixture on medium-high for about 3 to 4 minutes, until the mixture has lightened in color and is very fluffy. In a separate bowl mix together the flour and baking powder. Very gently fold the flour and baking powder into the egg mixture. Once the batter is smooth, cover it and transfer to the fridge for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375F. Generously grease 2 standard madeleine pans (or one and bake one after the other) and spoon the cold mix into the molds. Bake them for 10 to 13 minutes, until they are puffed and turn golden brown. Invert the pans onto wire racks and give them a hard tap to remove the cookies from the molds. Serve them warm dusted with a bit of caster sugar for the best flavour!!

Don't they look cute?

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.