Filed under: Buzz's Recipes
Over the last couple of days, I have been chatting with a great guy called Drew who runs a data recovery and computer forensics business on the East Coast of the US in an area where I used to work. Our chats brought back memories of good times I have spent and great meals I have eaten in that area. I can recall fun nights eating bar snacks in a Fairfax sports bar after long weeks in the office, weekend drives for exquisite seafood at a harbour-side table in Annapolis and meat and potatoes on St Patrick’s Day in an Irish bar in Baltimore.
While I like to eat healthy and try to watch my waistline, I must confess I am a complete sucker for ‘Americana’ food – those heart attack meals and snacks that are tightly woven into a Walter Mosley novel, a Scorsese film or your favourite US comedy show. Meals like a gooey cheese Philly steak sandwich, spicy buffalo wings with a pitcher of beer, crayfish and lobster tails piled high, Caesar salads with crispy croutons and spaghetti & meatballs with a shirt-staining sauce.
All this got me to thinking about a snack that would transport me back to those times without the expense and hassle of the 12 hour flight and the intimate attentions of Homeland Security and here’s one I found in my recipe file.
Crab and Avocado Melts
Healthy this recipe ain’t but a little of what you fancy (or all things in moderation as my Gran used to say) is nice now and again, so I have scaled back on the full-fat original where possible to lower the impact on your insides.
2 cups grated Cheddar cheese, mature for preference
1 can (6 ounces) crab meant, rinsed, drained and flaked
1/3 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
6 slices streaky bacon, cooked and snapped into chunks
1/4 cup light sour cream
1/4 cup light mayonnaise
Salt and pepper to taste
2 avocados, seeded, peeled and sliced
5 muffins or bagels, split and lightly pre-toasted
Combine 1 cup cheese, crab meat, green pepper, bacon, sour cream, mayonnaise and salt and pepper in a large bowl. Spoon crab mixture onto muffin halves. Top each with avocado slices and remaining cheese.
Grill until the cheese melts and your mouth waters.
Iced tea is among my favourite drinks on a hot summer’s day. I’ve often tried to make it by cooling hot brewed tea but only with limited success. I recently came across a cold infused iced tea recipe at The Simple Leaf. As we have no loose leaf tea in the house, I tweaked the recipe a little and found the resulting tea very drinkable and refreshing.
Cold Infused Iced Tea
With cold infused iced tea, you may find granulated or caster sugar doesn’t dissolve very well, so use powdered icing sugar instead.
4 good quality tea bags
1 litre cold water
juice of a lemon
2 tbsps icing sugar, or to taste
Place 4 good quality tea bags in a jug. Add a splash of hot water from a kettle to just wet the tea bags for a minute, pour in a litre of cold water and then remove two of the tea bags. Put the jug in the fridge and leave to infuse for at least 6 hours or overnight if preferred. Remove the tea bags, squeeze the juice of one lemon into the jug and add the sugar if desired. Stir and pour over ice in tall glasses.
Filed under: Buzz's Recipes
Hummus
Our detox handbook mentions ‘a small amount of hummus’ being allowed, so I adapted my usual hummus recipe by roasting the garlic cloves beforehand to soften the flavour and adding a little yoghurt to thin it down. This recipe also lacks the tahini found in most hummus.
300g can chickpeas, well drained
2 cloves garlic, roasted then peeled
½ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
2 tbsp light raw yoghurt
Place the chickpeas and all other ingredients, except for the yoghurt, in the food processor and process until smooth, adding a little more olive oil if needed to get the preferred consistency. Decant into a bowl and gently mix in the yogurt.
Filed under: Buzz's Recipes
Grilled field mushroom with guacamole & zucchini chips
The chips are easily made by diagonally slicing a zucchini, salting the slices to draw out the moisture and then grilling for 3-5 minutes on each side, so as to leave nice lines on each chip.
6 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 small red chillies, finely chopped
2 tbsp mixed herbs
2 large flat mushrooms, stalks removed
salt & ground black pepper, to taste
1 large avocado, peeled & mashed
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp lemon, juiced
2 tbsp light raw yoghurt
Preheat the barbecue plate or grill to a medium-high heat. Combine oil, garlic, chillies & herbs in a small dish and brush over both sides of each mushroom. Season mushrooms with salt & pepper and leave for 5 minutes. Place mushrooms flat-side down first onto the barbecue plate or grill and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side, until tender. Meanwhile, combine the avocado, raw yoghurt, cayenne pepper, lemon juice with salt & pepper in a small bowl and mix well. Place the grilled mushrooms onto plates and carefully top with the guacamole mixture, garnish with the zucchini chips and serve.
The weekend is here and the cleansing continues. The breakfast smoothie was accompanied by 40 more of the cursed capsules. A peppermint tea quickly followed in order to ease the reflux and mild heartburn one gets from trying to wolf such quantities too quickly. This is not the way I usually start the weekend. For me, weekends are about spending time with friends and family and food is almost always involved. With the gorgeous run of hot sunny weather we’re having currently, it is hard not to feel that we are somehow wasting it by not having a barbecue.
After getting up late, I walked to the library to renew a couple of cookbooks, including Matthew Evan’s lovely The Weekend Cook, a title whose irony was not lost on me as I swiped the book out at the excellent ’self-serve’ facility. Stopping in at the pizzeria on the way back to see how Kevin was doing, he was quick to spot that I was out of sorts. “You’re not your usual sparkling self” was his parting shot as I walked away 10 minutes later, unable to enjoy our usual banter about this new ingredient or that great recipe.
The rest of the day was spent reading Per Petterson’s melancholy In The Wake, leafing through the newspaper and diddling about online, grumbling all the while about the boredom of cleansing. Late in the afternoon, I suddenly decided that I wouldn’t be beat and that I’d find something within the limits of the detox regime that I could cook on the barbecue for SWMBO and me.
Forty-five minutes later, I served up grilled field mushroom marinated in olive oil, balsamic vinegar and herbs, topped with a light guacamole and cripsy zucchini chips, together with spicy corn of the cob. I plated these up and served them along with a simple salad of cos, spring onions and cherry tomatoes, dressed with olive oil and red wine and a single celery stick filled with a hummus and raw yoghurt mix.
We both enjoyed the meal and reveled in the flavours and textures. The mushroom and guacamole combination, not something I had considered before, worked really well, making me wish I had made two each. The corn was fine if a little too caramelised in places; this was due to an uneven spread of herbs and spices, something that wouldn’t have happened if I’d been able to combine them with butter to coat the corn more evenly – rather than the olive oil I used on this occasion.
For the first time in six days, I really enjoyed preparing and eating a meal and, for a few moments, I even forgot my cravings for freshly baked bread sandwich with a nice juicy steak!
Christmas is over and the New Year is here. The time has flown by and, with relatives visiting and friends popping over, we have had plenty of food to enjoy. Kevin and Tanya joined us for a meal on Christmas Day and here’s what I rustled up for them and the family including my mum and her partner, visiting for the UK.
Beer Can Chicken
Simply one of the best ways to ensure your roast chickens are truly moist and yet have the most flavoursome crispy skin. This is best done cooking with indirect heat on a hooded gas barbecue/grill, though it can be done successfully in a large conventional oven.
2 chickens
2 440ml cans of beer
1 cup home made barbecue rub
Open the beer cans and drink half of each so that both are half empty! Rinse the chicken inside and out and dry thoroughly. From the neck end, use your hand to separate the skin from the breast of the chickens, working all the way down to and over the meat of each leg. Tip ½ of the rub under the skin of each chicken and massage to ensure it is evenly spread over the flesh beneath the skin. Spoon any leftover rub into the opened beer cans. Close off each neck cavity by stretching skin over it and securing with a cocktail stick or two then insert half a lemon to help seal the neck and provide a stopper to prevent the cans poking out. Grease the outside of the cans (to ease removal later) and insert into the cavity of the chicken and spread out the legs to form a tripod. The back leg of the tripod is the beer can. Tuck the wing tips behind the chicken’s back. Place chickens in a large roasting pan to retain juices – I use these to occasionally baste the birds and pour over the carved meat later.
If using a three burner barbecue/grill, preheat the two outer burners and place the pan in the centre over the unlit one. With a two burner, simply preheat the burner on one side and place the tin on the other. I used the warming shelf grill attachment to help stabilise the chickens – though not before spilling one can, as the photo above shows
Cover the grill hood and cook. After 1¼-1 ½ hours (a drumstick will move freely in the joint when done), the skin will be a dark crispy golden brown and the meat is cooked through. Remove the pan from the grill and let the chickens rest for five minutes before carefully removing the cans – preferably with tongs; get help if necessary – and carving as normal.
Home made barbecue rub
This can be absolutely anything that tickles your taste buds – Google provides infinite inspiration or try one of the many pre-made seasoning mixes from the spice section of your local store. From recollection, I included some or all of the following:
Garlic, onion salt, chili powder, black pepper, coriander seeds, turmeric, paprika, rosemary, oregano, parsley, cinnamon and nutmeg.
As I’m sure I have mentioned here before, I like nothing better than spending time with good friends over a long meal and a few drinks and yesterday evening was a great example of this.
The Chairman of the Board is a life-long surfer who press-ganged me into a small band of brothers who make a twice-yearly ritual visits to his surf shack on the Northland’s east coast for surfing, seafood, ales and salty tales. Despite two of these trips and daily chats over coffee, we have never managed to get together with our respective partners until last night.
While the Chairman and our better halves settled down to getting to know each other over drinks on the deck, I rustled up a simple anti pasti of tomato slices topped with bocconcini, avocado and basil leaves, dressed with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic.
After much talk, we moved to the table and settled down to our meal. The primo course was a red pepper soup accompanied by a baby spinach and mushroom salad with a cider vinegar, olive oil and mustard dressing. The secondi was an involtini of chicken served with penne and broccoli.
With dessert, cake and coffee, this little lot took us close to midnight and our friends headed home with a parting request for the recipes below, the plan being, I believe, for the Chairman to extend his cooking portfolio beyond tuatua fritters cooked on a barbecue at the beach.
Red Pepper Soup
This soup is bursting with the best of Provence in the South of France; a combination of garlic, tomatoes, fennel and herbs that provide deep satisfying flavours without being overly rich. In hot weather, try serving it chilled as an alternative to gazpacho.
5 shallots, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 red peppers, chopped small
400 ml can choppped tomatoes,
1 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/2 thyme
2 bay leaves
500 ml chicken or vegetable stock
250 ml low-fat creme fraiche
fresh thyme sprig to garnish
In a pan, lightly saute the shallots and garlic in the olive oil until soft, then add the peppers and cook slowly until the peppers are soft. Add the tomatoes, crushed fennel seeds, paprika, herbs and stock to cook over medium-high heat until mixture comes to the boil. Remove from the heat
and allow to stand for 10 minutes. Blitz the soup in a food processor until almost smooth but still having a little texture. Gently whisk in most the low-fat creme fraiche until smooth and return to a low heat to ensure it is warmed through. Serve garnished with a spoonful of the remaining creme fraiche, a sprig of thyme and a sprinkle of paprika.
Involtini di Pollo con Penne e Broccoli
Taking the swordfish involtini recipe in the ‘Aldo Zilli’s Italian Food for Friends’ cookbook, I substituted chicken for swordfish and lengthened the cooking time accordingly. Find a good butcher who can cut and provide you with a crown; that is, the complete breast of large chicken, organic if possible, like the one I used. You can cut this into two breasts and then cut each again lengthways to provide four more than ample portions to work with.
75g fresh white breadcrumbs
40g pecorino or Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
5 green celery leaves, chopped
small handful of lightly toasted pine nuts
salt and freshly ground black pepper
75ml extra virgin olive oil
4 plump chicken breasts
2 or 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
500g penne pasta
450g broccoli, trimmed and divided into small florets
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
2 fresh red chillies, seeded and sliced or 1 tsp of crushed chillies
grated zest of 1 lemon
celery leaves, to garnish
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/400°F. Mix together the breadcrumbs, just over half the cheese, the celery leaves, a little salt and 1 tbsp of the oil to form a rough paste. Place the chicken breasts between sheets of greaseproof paper or cling film and pound with a rolling pin to thin and flatten slightly. Remove the paper or film and lay out the four flattened chicken pieces. Divide the crumb and cheese paste equally among the pieces, spreading it out evenly. Roll
up the pieces and secure each roll with a wooden cocktail stick, or butcher’s string if you prefer. Place the rolls on a baking tray with the rosemary sprigs among them and drizzle with olive oil. Roast on a high shelf for 20 minutes, turning to brown evenly half way through. Meanwhile, cook the penne in a large pan of boiling salted water for 10-12 minutes until al dente and drain when done. At the same time, steam or boil the broccoli for 5 minutes until tender and bright green, before draining and refreshing. Gently heat the remaining 3 tbsp of olive oil in large frying pan and add the garlic and chillies. Cook for 1 minute, then add the broccoli and lemon zest. Cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring or tossing frequently. Stir in the pasta and the remaining cheese. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste before plating. Slice each roll diagonally and place on the pasta. Garnish with fresh celery leaves to
serve.
Today is Labour Day here in New Zealand and, wouldn’t you know it, the sky is overcast and no-one wants to do more than lounge around the house. We plan to have friends over for a roadt dinner later but, with bored kids and wife to feed, I needed to sort lunch in double quick time. A quick search of the web and a minute in the pantry was all it took to come up with following recipe – straight forward, no-fuss food that was easy to make and nice to eat.
Onion Pasta
By slowly cooking the onion until it starts to caramelise and then adding the stock and seasoning mix, the onions take on a sweetness that’ll win over the harshest onion critic. I know this because one of my daughters is anti-onion and she ate this dish with no complaints.
2 thinly sliced sliced onions
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp dried basil
1 cup chicken stock, or 1 tsp stock powder in water
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of powdered garlic
500g pasta of choice
Warm the stock, add the basil, pepper, salt and garlic powder, stir and leave. In your largest frying pan or skillet, heat the oil, butter and cook the sliced onions until they take on a golden brown colour. Add the prepared stock and seasoning mix, reducing the liquid over a medium heat for 10 minutes, adding a little more stock to keep moist if required. Drain the pasta and toss with the onion mixture thoroughly and serve. To help folks dress the pasta to their liking, I served side dishes of grated cheddar and blue cheese, roasted pine nuts and freshly torn basil leaves.
A tweaked version of Onion Pasta @ Allrecipes
Filed under: Buzz's Recipes
I had breakfast with a colleague last week at a cafe in one of the posher parts of Auckland. As I’m not a great lover of the ubiquitous Kiwi breakfast of Eggs Benedict, I thought I’d stick with scrambled eggs on toast and I was pleasantly surprised by the cafe’s variation.
A lightly toasted bagel was offered in place of the toast and this came piled high with scrambled eggs and accompanied by a side order of bacon. The well seasoned eggs were pan cooked the old fashioned way, rather than steamed in a jug or zapped in a microwave, in my book a misdemeanor and hanging offense respectively. The tang of the little chunks of feta, along with the saltiness of the bacon, nicely offset the creaminess of the eggs.
After a morning run with the dog and despite the absence of bagels, I whipped up my own version this morning, substituting granary bread and adding a few herbs to flavour things a little more. Eating this in the spring sunshine with a good cup of coffee was a lovely way to start the day.
My Swiss niece and her Mexican husband have just had their second child. By way of celebration, I thought I’d offer up this recipe for a soup with a difference. The chilis, avocado, coriander and limes bring an unusual twist to the tomato and stock base. Good luck to Annette, Memo and both their boys now, as they will soon be moving from Europe back to Mexico for the second time.
Tortilla Soup
Don’t be afraid to experiment with recipes like this, a little less of this, a little more of that and adding a favourite ingredient to see how it influences the final dish. Tortilla soup comes in many guises, as these Flickr pictures show.
2 cloves garlic
½ onion, halved
4 tomatoes
6 cups chicken stock
1 tbsn corn oil
2 sprigs coriander
8 corn tortillas
2 hot chilis
2 avocados
1 cup queso fresco or feta cheese
½ cup sour cream
3 limes — halved
Cut the chilis into thin ring and remove the seeds. Halve, peel and thinly slice the avocados lengthwise. Put the garlic, onion and tomatoes on a baking tray and roast at high heat until charred, should be about about 5 minutes. Peel the tomatoes, coarsely chop and place in a blender or food processor with the garlic and onion and blend until you have a thick puree. You can thin with a little stock if it’s too thick to pour. In a large saucepan over high heat, warm the 1 tablespoon oil the add the puree and stir for a couple of minutes. Reduce the heat to low and cook uncovered for about 5 minutes until the puree reduces slightly. Add the coriander sprigs and the remaining chicken stock and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes longer.
In the meantime, cut the tortillas in half, then cut each half crosswise into thin strips. In a small frying pan over high heat, pour in oil to a depth of ½ inch. Fry the tortilla pieces in batches until crisp, about 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain. Fry the chili rings in the same oil until crisp, about 1 minute. Ladle into individual bowls, add the fried tortilla strips to the soup and top with some of the chili rings, avocado slices and crumbled cheese. Serve immediately with the cream, limes and remaining avocado slices and chili rings in separate bowls at the side.
