Filed under: Food on the Web
This morning did not go to plan but, there again, there was no plan in the first place. Last evening, we had a great time with friends who were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary. Along with friends old and new, even being the nominated sober driver couldn’t spoil the fun as we tucked into Kiwi staples like barbecued sausage and steak together with less common fare such as delightfully spicy Tibetan pea cakes.
So, after waking up, I made tea and grabbed the papers before heading back to bed for a lazy read of yesterday’s news. Leafing through the entertainment section, I was thrilled to see that the long-delayed film about a personal hero of mine has been released here ahead of the UK. The Flying Scotsman tells the story of the turbulent life of Graeme Obree, the Scot who took on the might of the professional cycling world and beat the daunting ‘hour’ record on an unconventional homemade bike. Despite showering in seconds flat and racing off in the car, it soon became clear that I’d never make it to today’s screening on the other side of Auckland so I turned round and headed home.
As it happens, this turn of events meant that, over a lazy breakfast whilst surfing the web, I hooked up with a long-time web buddy who I haven’t chatted with in ages, which more than made up for the disappointment. Roger and I, along with our other buddies Chuck and Jason, used to write for the same geek website a few years back.
Anyhow, we chatted and Roger told me that while we were catching up on news, he was smoking his Boston butt out on his porch. After much laughing at my end, he went on to tell me that a Boston Butt was a cut of meat and independent web research confirms this. As it turns out, Roger has been writing up a good few of his culinary triumphs on his blog as well. Along with the pulled pork of the Boston Butts, his slow cooked ribs, brisket and smoked BBQ chicken can be found in the Food category on his site with accompanying photos on his Picasa pages.
Right, I’m heading down to Dante’s to chat with Kevin while he gets the wood-fired oven up to temperature. If you’re lucky, I’ll convince him to write about how he press-ganged me into working as kitchen hand during last Friday night’s busy service!
Filed under: Kevin's Recipes
Running a busy pizzeria leaves you little time to cook, unlike Buzz who has time to burn in his 9 to 5 life-style . So if time is an issue this recipe will always be a winner. Like most genuine Italian food, simplicity is a clip around the ear from Mamma when you get too excited with the ingredients. So keep it simple and do it well. Here’s how.
Spaghetti Carbonara al Dante for two
500g of speck bacon (streaky bacon will do) if speck not available
Two large free range eggs
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Angel hair pasta
Olive oil or garlic infused olive oil (optional)
Set a large pan of salted water to the boil, followed by pre-heating a frying pan with olive oil. In the meantime chop all the bacon into squares and then lightly whisk the eggs in a separate container with a little salt and set aside. Add your pasta to the boiling water and place the bacon into the hot frying pan and cook till crispy. Remember to always stir the pasta and bacon to keep it free. When the pasta is almost ready (al dante) drain and shake of any excess water, drizzle a little olive oil over the pasta before adding it to the frying pan with the crispy bacon. Fold it all together, now give the eggs a second whisk and add it all to the pan. Continue to fold the pasta till the eggs start to turn to a scrambled egg like texture and then serve, with freshly ground black pepper and a glass of crisp white wine.
For me, food is invariably linked to a memory or a place. As we ate a deli-style lunch today and I idly dipped my ciabatta in garlic olive oil, my mind went straight to the Spanish dish Gambas Pil Pil (chili prawns), always among my favourites and a great excuse for eating great bread and downing a few glasses of red wine. However, the place I associate with this dish isn’t some Spanish fishing village but London’s Docklands.
Ten years back, my office was near a great Balearic/Spanish tapas bar and restaurant on the Isle Of Dogs. This neighbourhood hangout served great gambas pil pil, squid, chorizo and tortilla, all authentic and as they would be in a local Spanish eatery, so Spanish colleagues told me. On a sunny day, it took very little to convince me to pop over the square and across the bridge for a lunchtime treat of a tapas or two, a glass of house red and an hour pretending I was somewhere in Northern Spain.
Sadly, time saw the clientèle drift away to the bright lights and big name restaurants of Canary Wharf’s new business district but whenever I make this dish myself, I think back to those days and the friends I fought for the last prawn in the bowl and the last bread in the basket!
There are many ways to cook the gambas but, if you don’t have the traditional pottery dishes in which to bake and serve these, they can be cooked in a pan on the top of the stove in two minutes flat as set out below.
Gambas Pil Pil
10 medium prawns
3 tbs. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
salt to taste
sliced lemon
1 chilli, chopped
1 tsp. parsley
a pinch of paprika
Peel prawns leaving tail section intact. Heat oil in a pan, add garlic, chilli and saute for a few seconds. Add prawns and cook quickly on high heat until coloured, no more than 60 seconds. Add salt and parsley and toss over heat for a minute. Garnish with paprika and lemon and serve in a bowl with crusty bread and a bottle of wine.
I like to cook for family and friends but occasionally it can be fun to cook for a bigger crowd.
As mentioned elsewhere, a few years ago I agreed to cater a one hundred cover wedding meal for the son of a good friend. The night before found me in the kitchen of a community centre chopping endless piles of vegetables for a ratatouille, helped by a guest who turned out to be a policeman just back from war crimes duties in Eastern Europe. The next day I was on my own and set to cooking to cook the meal in the garden of the centre, using two barbecues, a gas burner and not a lot else. Although it was a little chaotic, I had a great time and the guests got their meals without any dramas.
A month or so back, I invited my four colleagues from my management team and their partners to dinner at our place. As we’re a new team, we haven’t socialised much so I thought dinner would be a great way to kick back, avoid work talk and get to know each other a little better. Yesterday was the day of the team dinner and, true to form, I was still scanning cookbooks for possible recipes over breakfast. After a few cups of coffee and some thought as to dishes I could cook concurrently, I settled on a menu inspired by Italian food and flavours.
I set out with my eldest and youngest to pick up the ingredients from the local producers and the nearest supermarket. The local supermarkets have a fair range of international ingredients and there are a few European food importers in the area that I can use to get them less common items. However, one of the delights and benefits of living in our township is that we have so many fruit, vegetable and produce growers nearby, most of whom have a farm shop, so picking up fresh seasonal produce is never a chore. Needless to say, we spent a fair amount of time and money assembling the ingredients we needed.
From this mound of produce, my second eldest took over and helped me prepare a meal for ten in just under three hours. With our two large tables pushed together and set with pretty much every piece of cutlery, crockery and glassware we own, we welcomed everyone with wine, freshly baked foccacia and olives, chatting for a while before sitting down to eat the dishes we had prepared. These were:
Chickpea and Leek Soup – based on a chicken and vegetable stock, this is not a strongly flavoured soup but a warming one that suited the cool evening well – inspired by a Jamie Oliver recipe.
Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni – a classic Italian dish of which there are many, many variations to choose from.
Spaghetti with Rocket, Tomato and Olive Dressing – another Oliver inspired dish that’s quick to put together and serve.
Porcini and Roma Tomato Orzotto – my own recipe made with aborio rice,
barley, porcini mushrooms and crushed tomatoes and chicken stock. Since first discovering Barbara Kafka’s Microwave Gourmet, I have rarely made a risotto the traditional way and yet have had raves from risotto snobs who can’t believe I use a microwave.
Peperoni Mandorlati – a delicious antipasti of sauted peppers with almonds, raisins and pomodoro from the always entertaining and authoritative Antonio Carluccio’s Southern Italian Feast.
A selection of desserts followed including pineapple upside-down cake, apple cake and a great cheese board provided by my boss. We accompanied these with a tawny port, a semillion dessert wine and a contraband bottle of homemade limoncella smuggled in from Italy. After coffees and teas, our visitors scooped up their kids – who’d had their own movie and popcorn party in the den -, said their goodbyes and headed home.
The inevitable pile of washing up we faced after closing the door was soon done but we left the tables set up because, this evening, we had close friends and their two daughters over for a cheap and cheerful one-pan dinner. For the second night running, we had ten around the table, with our two families tucking into a simple supper of quartered chickens roasted with cherry tomatoes and basil, served with potatoes and salad.
As a kid growing up on my own, I loved seeing big families sitting down to eat together in the old films and was envious of my Italian neighbours with their loud, boisterous and exciting family meals. I would dream of sitting around a big table surrounded by my family and friends and always thought it would be the best way to spend time. I’m rarely disappointed.
Filed under: News
Clockwise from top left: Now That’s What I Call Music CD cake; Chocolate Spots And Measels cake; Pastel Flowers cake; Mad About Mermaids cake; Cake Instead Of A Kayak cake; Sphinx cake.
There was a birthday in our house today and, along with the cards and presents, this always means one of Wendy’s cakes. Since coming to New Zealand, where the hallowed traditions of morning and afternoon tea are still observed, Wendy has been baking pretty much every day. Muffins, snacks, fairy cakes, pikelets, you name it, she’s baked it – but it is her birthday cakes that we’ve come to adore.
These usually require a fair bit of sneaking about, secret baking sessions and general excitement in their construction. Each time a cake is made, Wendy always tries to pick a theme that is individual to that person – a kayak for me (although I’d actually wanted a real one!); a sphinx for our budding Egyptologist; a CD for the music-mad teenager. Each cake is something special for us to remember and are often talked about months later, with a fond memory and a lick of the lips.
Filed under: Food on the Web
A recent comment here from my fellow foodie, blogger and noble pursuer of productivity Ian, of Ian’s Messy Desk, reminded me that he also writes a great food blog – and has been doing so since 2003. Somehow, in my effort to find the best RSS reader for the Mac OS X*, his lovely Thought For Food had slipped from my feed radar.
Having reinstated it to my ‘must read’ list, I caught up on his most recent posts and links and found many of my favourites amongst his. As a big fan of the paprika spiciness of chorizo, I liked the look of the spicy macaroni and cheese suggested by Not Eating Out in NY. Likewise, it made me smile to see that he had also linked to Heidi Swanson’s excellent 101 Cookbooks (see the blogroll) and her great piece on why hand-made pesto will alway beat the shop-bought stuff.
*Having tried them all, only Vienna remains installed but, for that access anywhere goodness, Google Reader tends to be my favoured reader for the time being.
I came home from work this evening to the smell of a great homemade curry and rice, the spices of the curry mixing with the nutty aroma of the basmati rice. Cooking perfect rice should be easy but can be difficult to master unless you have found a foolproof method that works for you time and again. I struggled to get consistent results for ages until I learned to cook rice by the absorption method.
As there are many different variations of this method, here’s one from Mridula Baljekar’s Real Fast Indian Food that works like a dream. One of the best things about this method is that it isn’t time sensitive, so you can concentrate on other dishes knowing that, give or take twenty minutes, the rice will be still be hot and ready to serve.
Cooking basmati rice
10oz basmati rice
20 fl oz (1 pint) hot water
Wash the rice in several changes of water, and then soak it for 15 minutes. Drain throughly and put in a saucepan. Add the water and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to the boil, and then reduce the heat to medium low. Cover and cook for 3-4 minutes, until the surface water has evaporated. Reduce the heat to *very low*, and cook for a further 5 minutes (still covered). Leave to rest until ready to serve, then fork through. Should be nice, dry and fluffy – and if your pan is well sealed, will stay warm for about half an hour.
Don’t be tempted to skip the important rinsing and soaking stages to save time, they are important steps to achieving the final flavour and texture.
Now you have all that hot basmati rice sitting around, how about a fast fish curry to complete that quick meal?
Fast Fish Curry – serves two
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
½ red pepper, finely chopped
½ green pepper, finely chopped
1 tsp red chili pepper, finely chopped
2 tablespoons curry powder, heat to taste
200g tub creme fraiche
3/4lb white fish fillets, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
salt and pepper
dill and coriander
Heat oil in a frying pan or saucepan over medium heat. Cook onion, red chili, garlic and peppers and stir until tender – about 5 minutes. Mix in curry powder and continue to cook and stir 2 to 5 minutes. Blend creme fraiche and herbs into the mixture and simmer until thickened. Mix in fish cubes and cook – 3 to 5 minutes depending on thickness. Season with chopped dill, salt and pepper. Served on a bed of plain basmati rice and sprinkled with hot paprika powder and fresh coriander, this curry is great washed down with a Guinness.
Fresh is always best, just like those TV chefs are always telling us. Let’s be honest though, there are times when you run out of an ingredient or just can’t be bothered, so go ahead and use garlic paste or powder, chili paste from a tube and dried herbs galore. The first time I made this curry, it was with the cheap cod fillets I found at the bottom of the freezer and garlic from a jar – it still tasted fine.
Filed under: Kevin's Recipes
Regardless of what Buzz says, I do have some food in the fridge and this recipe is proof. This dish combines a number of things I had to hand at the time and is based on the garlic-infused olive oil that I use in the pizzeria.
Gypsy Pasta – serves two
1 medium red onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, medium chopped
2 large field mushrooms, sliced
1 cup of kalamata olives
6 sun-dried tomatoes, sliced into matchsticks
garlic-infused olive oil
While cooking the pasta, heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan, add the onion and garlic and saute over a medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. As the onion starts to turn translucent, add the sun-dried tomatoes and heat through before seasoning to taste. When the pasta is done, drain and return to the pan, adding the sauce, the mushrooms and olives. Fold together and allow to sit for 3-5 minutes to allow the mushrooms to soften and take up the flavours. Serve with crusty bread, Parmesan cheese and a boisterous red wine.
My tips for cooking the perfect pasta are always use lots of salted boiling water, allowing the pasta room to move and always use fresh Parmesan cheese, not the dried up stuff in tubs.
Filed under: Buzz's Recipes
The Easter break has been very relaxing and has offered plenty of opportunity to enjoy and be thankful for good food. It has also served to reinforce how food brings people together, with friendship and food often being inseparable.
The hot cross buns we enjoyed with our coffee on our sunny deck this morning were brought by a friend whom we invited to share our Sunday roast dinner yesterday. Wendy cooks a superb roast chicken with all the trimmings and we often invite folks who’d otherwise be on their own to join us in what has become a family tradition. The smell of the Sunday roast is one that every member of your family loves and the meal is one we all eat without exception, a rarity in a house with four kids and a mum who doesn’t eat red meat.
On Good Friday, I popped out to see Kevin and, after a little searching, found him at home rather than the pizzeria. With the holiday trade was surprisingly slow so he was enjoying a little downtime with his wife and business partner, Tanya. Over a few beers, we talked about recipes and how we each have our own favourite standby dishes that we can rustle up quickly when the need arises.
Like a good few others who cook food for a living, Kevin and Tanya rarely has much in the fridge at home so, with my wife Wendy making pasta with a tomato and sausage sauce for the kids, I suggested that Kevin and Tanya join us for a ‘grown-ups’ meal later.
Kevin and I headed back to my place, stopping by the pizzeria to grab a few ingredients on the way. Soon, with nicely aged pizza dough baking for bruschetta, I set about making one of my standby dishes as a small snack while we waited for Tanya and Wendy to arrive.
Pasta with anchovies
As dishes go, pasta with anchovies is about as simple as it gets but gives a deep lasting flavour without the need for fancy ingredients or techniques.
Pop a few anchovies in small amount of milk to soften their flavour. Sweat finely diced onion in olive oil in a pan over a medium heat until they start to become translucent. Remove the anchovies from the milk, finely chop and stir into the onions. Add a little of the milk to the mixture and then place an aluminium foil ‘cap’ directly onto the mixture, pressing to the edge of the pan to seal as best you can. Reduce the direct heat to the lowest possible or, as I do, use a diffuser to slow cook the mixture for as long as it takes to prepare your pasta. I find that long pasta such as spaghetti or linguine work best as the sauce clings to the strands nicely. When the pasta is al dente, drain and add to the anchovy and onion mixture, tossing gently to coat evenly. Serve with freshly-ground black pepper and, if you like, grated parmesan or pecorino.
As I prepared and served the bruschetta, Kevin cooked the main course – another simple pasta dish using garlic-infused olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes and capers. Again, the emphasis was on using a few prime ingredients to do the work and letting the food speak for itself. As this was accompanied by several bottles of robust and fruity red wine, I’ve asked Kevin to provide the recipe as my memory is a little hazy.
Saturday was our wedding anniversary and like all good husbands I left it too late to organise anything fancy. Instead, I checked the freezer, fridge and pantry for the makings of a decent meal and came up with steamed salmon with herbs served with a sweetcorn and pea salsa. As our romantic date was at the dinner table, it came complete with three gooseberries (one is away at camp) who don’t like steamed fish. Easter wouldn’t be Easter without lamb so, earlier in the day, I came up with a meal that’d satisfy the kids and that I could prepare alongside the salmon.
Dad’s Sneaky Lamb burgers
There’s nothing like a home made burger to get the juices flowing and they offer a great opportunity to sneak new flavours into kids’ meals under a ‘fast food’ disguise.
500g/1lb lamb mince
1 cup day-old breadcrumbs
½ onion, finely diced
¼ cup chopped parsley
½ tbsp curry powder
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp onion salt
lettuce, to garnish
tomato, to garnish
Pre-heat a non-stick pan, cast iron skillet or barbecue hotplate. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix by carefully by hand. I find that, as long as one doesn’t overdo the breadcrumbs, the mix holds together fine but, if you need to, use an egg to bind the mixture. Divide the mix into eight portions and form these into round patties by hand, using a cookie cutter as a mould if you like. The patties may look big but they’ll shrink in the pan. Cook the patties for between 3-5 minutes on each side, turning them only once but pressing gently with a spatula to ensure they cook through and are not too thick. Serve on home-made baps with lettuce and tomato garnish – and the mustard and ketchup of your choice.
As for today, Kevin popped over and we’ve had a nice lunch of ciabatta, salad and leftovers with Wendy and the kids. Later on, we’re off to a barbecue where, for once, somebody else will be doing the cooking.
Filed under: Dishes of the World
Although the days are still warm, the Southern Hemisphere autumn has brought cooler evenings. When autumn comes, I invariably start to think of comfort food – food to warm the body and soul as the nights draw in – and fabada is a perfect dish in this respect. A hearty bean stew dotted with succulent meat and sausage, it has been a favourite in northern Spain for centuries and now across the world thanks to the growing popularity of tapas.
This dish is simple to prepare and easy to cook and what’s more, the deep rich flavours improve if you gently reheat the dish the following day. I know this because, while working in Europe, I once made fabada for a shared lunch at my office. After trying some, a Spanish colleague turned to me and said ‘this is the taste of home, the taste of my mother’s cooking”.
Fabada Asturiana – serves four
1kg (2lbs) fabas/white or butter beans
500g (1lb 2oz) lacón/gammon
250g (9oz) morcilla/black pudding
250g (9oz) chorizo/paprika sausage
100g (4oz) pancheta/bacon
2 tablespoons olive oil
2-3 strands of saffron
Soak the beans overnight, drain & rinse. Place the beans, pancheta, morcilla, chorizo and olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan and cover with water. Bring this to the boil and skim. Cover loosely and leave to simmer for about 1-1½ hours. Make sure the water covers the beans during the cooking process by topping up when necessary. Lightly roast the saffron in a frying pan and crush it. Add this to the pan halfway through the cooking process. When the dish is cooked remove the meat and cut into pieces, then leave to rest for 20 minutes before serving.
