Birthday blogg

15 November 2011

It is the night before my birthday and it feels a little like the night before Christmas or really a little better as there are cards and calls are all just for me. 

I love my garden so when the husband asked what I might like I asked for a shredder for the rubbish and weeds that takes so long to compost and as we all know compost is the answer to a healthy garden. 

The husband always buys this sort of thing on Trademe so god knows what it will be like. The daughter is cooking the birthday dinner and as her cooking is improving it should be a nice evening!!

I am almost at the end of my peas, most of which have been eaten on the spot but at one stage I was able to make a side dish of peas, little gem lettuces from the glass house, spring onions all sweated together in a little butter and some finely chopped tarragon, divine.

We have also had little carrots mixed with the new seasons broad beans as accompaniments to some of the left over little lamb chops from last year’s lambs.  (We have to use them up as this years lambs are growing so quickly that roast leg of lamb could be this year’s Christmas dinner).

But the big problem in my life have been pea pods (only joking).  Although I eat most of the peas by the vines and chuck the pods over the fence there is a problems  when there are enough to bring them inside - I hate to throw away those beautiful bright green casings.  So this time I made pea pod soup with the last leeks from the allium garden.

Peapod soup (you will probably never make this but it is delicious)

Sauté one onion with a small chopped leek and throw in about two handfuls of peapod after the little green round gems have been removed. Add two cups of chicken stock.  Cook until all the vegetables are soft.

Push through a sieve, which is hard as they are quite fibrous but it is worth it. Add half a teaspoon of sugar, salt and pepper and a little cream if you like. 

We had this on one of those suddenly wintery night that happens at this time of year, with a poached egg slipped into it and the yolk broke in a golden stream of luxury.  French bread and lots of freshly made salty butter, food of the gods or the Robinsons which is near as dammit, as my old mother used to say.

We had two nights on the boat last weekend first time for nine months.  I said to the husband that I really feel that I can relax on the boat as all I can do is relax, read and of course cook.  So I made the most delicious pineapple and lemon cake and a very smart herbed chicken casserole. I always take a bag of herbs with me on the boat just incase.  I left it in the oven while I was reading and could smell something burning and it turned out to be the wood at the back of the stove and there was mad panic with the fire extinguisher at the ready.  It all turned out alright and the husband instantly drilled some more ventilation holes and the chicken was delicious.

Pineapple and lemon cake

Melt 150gms of butter with 1 cup of sugar and let it cool.  Add a small tin of crushed pineapple and two lightly beaten eggs. Add the juice and rind of one lemon. Gently fold in 1 cup of whole meal flour and 1 cup of white flour and 2 teaspoons of baking powder.

Bake at 150c for 1 hour.  While the cake is still warm poke a few hole with a sharp knife and pour over a mixture of half a cup of boiling water mixed with half a cup of castor sugar and the juice of one lemon.

Chicken casserole a la boat

Four chicken thigh with bone in and skin on.  Add a handful of finely chopped herbs, parley, rosemary, thyme, sage or what ever you have.  Chop two onions and two large cloves of garlic and put them on the bottom of a shallow casserole dish and lay half the herbs on top with a teaspoon of chicken stock powder. Put the chicken on top in a single layer and chuck on the rest of the herb and slide in half a cup of water.

Bake for half an  hour with the dish covered with foil and a second without.  Cook at 180c. the skin should be golden and crispy.

This weekend it will be strawberry jam and strawberry ice cream, it is the season for it.

16 October 2011

The silverbeet is bolting which means it will have to be ripped out.  I have removed all the big leaves and steamed them with some chicken stock and butter, then finely chopped them and put them in containers ready to add to some to lasagna  or cream sauce.wen I need it

Silverbeet in one of those things that you need to have in the garden but some varieties are bitter and unpleasant to the palate, you get that furry feeling which makes you think that the chicken are the only ones that should eat the stuff.  But I have found that perpetual spinach does not have this problem. I know rainbow silverbeet look wonderful in the garden but in my opinion it tastes disgusting.

I have been really tired the past couple of weeks and the husband has been bringing me breakfast in bed.in the weekends. Always the same, a boiled egg with toast soldiers, delicious.  He has mastered the art of the boiled egg.  Perfectly cooked, soft in the middle and the white just the right level of firm, every time.  The chicken are producing well and the yolks are so yellow they are almost red.  Very impressive.

Last night was the rugby and the husband went to baby sit for his daughter and so I cooked Pad Thai to take with him.  I love those thick rice noodles which you soak in boiling water while you make the sauce.  I know that you can buy the packets but it is some much better to make it yourself and then you can adjust the flavour and heat as you like.

So soften a chopped  onion in a little oil and then add a tablespoon of brown sugar, a tablespoon of tamarind paste, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, lime juice to taste (about 1 lime), 1 tablespoon of chunky peanut butter, 1 tablespoon of  fish sauce and 1/2 teaspoon of chili flakes. Throw in four chopped chicken thighs or a cup of green prawns and stir until just cooked.  Add the drained noodles, a handful of chopped coriander and top with chopped roasted peanut.

This is just a rough guide and let your sense of taste be your guide. If you like it sweeter then add more brown sugar and if you like it hotter then add more chili flakes. This sauce lends itself to adding fish and even hard boiled eggs as well and is delicious and will keep in the fridge for a few days.

I have been enjoying the first of my broad beans, peas, leeks and asparagus.  I pick them and sneak into the kitchen and boil them until just tender and sit in the spring sun in complete bliss.

Off out to dinner.  It is so nice to be cooked for.

15 October2011

We have been away to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary in Queensland.  We were to spend four days in Palm Cove near Port Douglas.   Now it is always a mistake to even think 'gosh that went well' or even worse to say it.  Ask we touched down in Cairns I thought it and as we went though customs and picked up the rental care I said it.  We then turned the wrong way on the highway and set of south toward Sydney instead of North and it was all down hill from then on.
The hotel was glorious and we popped up to the road the the super market and pick up some store for the following days.  The husband was a little quite and opted for a quiet night in instead of braving the hotel restaurant.  I shrugged and wondered a little and the next day we had a walk along the beach which was peppered with warnings about crocodiles coming down the river, the stinging jelly fish and the sharks swimming close to shore.  But the sea was a glorious blue, the sand very white, the temperature a wonderful 31c and the husband even quieter.
After a little lunch the husband opted for a sleep which lasted until 6pm and I began to worry a little more.  Now he does sleep a little in the afternoon (a perk of the geriatric) but this was more sleep than usual.  We attempted an celebration dinner at Nu Nu which is one of those restaurants up there with Daphnes in London and Tetsuya in Sydney and perhaps Number 5 in Auckland.  The food was wonderful the it was not a success but after my second mango Martini I talked enough for both of us.( I had the crispy chicken livers and he had the duck curry with squid)
Things did not improve the next day and I cancelled our trip to the rain forest and out to the reef.  At midday he collapsed, an ambulance was called and we spent the rest of the holiday in the Cairns Hospital.  Funny every one was so kind and it was time away it didnt seem to matter.  Just seems a natural part of the 'in sickness and health' bit you say when you get married. But it the flights to and from Australis were wonderful and I love Queensland.

Back to reality.

18 September 2011

Things seem to have been busy down on the farm and some how I have not had time to add to my blog and of course I am back at work so time is of the essence.
Last weekend was the weekend of the grand daughter and she helped with everything.  We planted some new tomatoes in the glass house with a cucumber and a zucchini.  She' that has to be obeyed' was responsible for planting the pansies and adding small amounts of fertilizer under the plant as it went in.  As everything is done in a hurry by the grand daughter the job was done super fast.
Peas are climbing up their stakes and flowering already and we have at  over supply of silver beet and eggs.  I have cooked the silverbeet and chopped it finely before squeezing all the moisture out and adding it to white sauce made with equal quantities of cream and milk and a good grating of nutmeg.  This mixture freezes well in small pots and is available at a moments notice or even better if I remember to take it out before going to work.

 I do the same with mashed carrot and parsnip and I find it easy to put the mixture into small plastic zip lock bags which I can squeeze the air out of and flatten so that they sit neatly in the freezer andit unthaws in a trice. And I have just used up the last of the runner beans which I froze using this method during the glut of the heady hot days of last summer.
I had coffee with the daughter at the garden centre and talk, as always turned to our vegetable.  She is of the same opinion that if you have a small garden you should only grown the things you like to eat not the things that look pretty.  For example the husband wont eat lettuce.  Says that he is not a rabbit and he hates the stuff.  But he love radishes and spring onions, fresh peas and beans.  Beetroot is always a great mainstay and he loves it in sandwiches and with the weekly hamburger ritual.
So going back to the discussion with the daughter we are both going to have a big push and experiment with the tomatoes this year.  I never seem to grow enough and remember the days up north when I used to freeze great bags of whole tomatoes for use in usual winter casseroles, their skins just slip off as they thaw and you just chuck them into sauces etc.  they do loose a little flavour but are terribly convenient and not washing of sauce jars.  And by that time you are sick of making sauces, relish and chutney.  there is also the thought that the end of season is coming and you have to use the green tomatoes as well. 

I adore friend green tomatoes.  They are so simple. Cut the tomatoes into thick slices and sprinkle them lightly with salt and pepper and a little sugar.  Quickly dip them in beaten egg and polenta for a really crunchy coating.  Delicious with mayo or as a really interesting accompaniment with steak or fish.  You can do the same with firm ripe tomatoes but you don't get the same textural experience which is quite unique to this dish.

On Saturday night I delivered some eggs to the next door neighbour and with a couple of brandies we had a delicious chicken and cranberry pate. Yesterday I managed to get some organic chicken livers and set about replicati it.  (Organic chicken livers have a much softer taste an as so many of the impurities of what we eat are filtered through the liver and I have a bit of a horror of what non organic chooks are fed).

So at 10pm in some unexplained burst of energy I set about to replicate it and successfully succeeded.

Chicken and cranberry pate
Gently saute one diced  red onion in 125grams of butter until it is translucent.  Add 125 gms of chicken livers and cook very slowly until they are just pink. Turn the heat up a little and add 1/4 port, a pinch of chili flakes, 1 tablespoon dried cranberries, a good grating of nutmeg and a teaspoon of chicken stock powder.  Cook for a minute and set aside to cool slightly.  I add a large tablespoon of cream fresh at this point but it is not necessary but adds a silkiness and another dimension.  Throw in the blender and blitz until smooth.  Pour into potetls and eat with loads of unsalted butter and die a blissful death!!!

I have used this method using diced chicken thighs gently cooked in the butter mixture and that is even more delicious spread on hot Vogels bread with a tomato just picked from the garden.

I think I need to talk more about pate and what you can and cant do to add to them.  How to add texture or add smoothness.

2 September 2011

I have had two weeks looking at my life and what I want.  I know that I am good at some things and not at others but I know most of all that I miss my painting. The creative part of me is missing and I need to begin again and I will.  I can now breath properly again and feel I can go on again with my life and face the crippling realities that age brings with it. My scalp has stopped itching and my mind has cleared; all with the help of a little rest and some conscious breath. And the pain has gone.

I have had the motto that if I cant make it we don’t have it and since we have been at the farm and with the time constraints that I face I manage well. Today has been cracker day using an old recipe of my mothers and a new recipe of Annabelle Langbines. Used with cheese and dips they are make the combination of crispy, soft and delicious and very cheap to make. I had the crackers with the relish that I made a couple of days with a little cheese for lunch.  Oh bliss.

I have also decided that I do not have to grow or make things that I don’t like and those jars of piccalilli, which I hate, and the jars of cucumber pickle which I will never give away, have gone to the hens.  Pickled eggs perhaps!

I made lavosh for a party that I catered for last year and they were a real hit, try them. They come out just like the ones the buy in the smart shops, which look fragile and mysterious. The secret is a heavy rolling pin and a smooth rolling motion. But watch the oven carefully.

Today is also the day to plant the sweet peas.  There are memories of last years harvest when big bunches graced the tables and their perfume filled the evening air.  I love the white ones but I don’t like the purple ones. I love the frilly ones and so do the bees. Sweet peas bring a lightness to the garden in summer as the plants struggles at the height of abundance and in many cases serious overload. 

Oat crackers

50 grams quick cook oats

175gms wholemeal flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ ground pepper white or black

¼ cayenne powder

1 teaspoon salt

100gms cold butter diced

2 tablespoons castor sugar

4 tablespoons milk

Put all ingredients except the milk in the food processor until well mixed. Pulse until the mixture forms a crumbly texture.  Add the milk gradually until it forms a ball.  You might need a little more milk.  Knead gently and leave wrapped in greaseproof paper for 15 minutes.

Roll our thinly and cut into shapes, whatever takes your fancy but not too big.

Bake on baking paper at 180c for 10-12 minutes or until they just begin to colour. Leave to rest on the tray for 2 minutes and then transfer to a rack.

Lavosh

1 cup plain flour

⅓ cup wholemeal flour

2 tbsp each black and white sesame seeds or 4 tbsp just one kind

1 tbsp finely chopped fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp salt

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp sesame oil

½ cup water

To finish: 

extra virgin olive oil 

flaky sea salt 

Preheat oven to 165˚C and line an oven tray with baking paper. In a mixing bowl stir together the flours, sesame seeds, oregano and salt. Mix the oils and water together and add to the dry ingredients, stirring to form a soft, pliable dough. 

Divide the dough into 4 pieces and roll each out on a lightly floured board as thinly as possible. Each piece of dough should yield a rectangle about 34 x 16cm. Cut each rectangle into strips measuring about 4 x 17cm and roll again. They need to be virtually see-through.

Carefully transfer strips to a baking tray, brush lightly with oil and sprinkle with flaky salt. Bake until crisp and pale golden – about 15-18 minutes. Allow to cool fully then store in an airtight container.

31 August 2011

I have been acting as the daughters ‘prep slave’ as she has had some huge photo shoots on at the moment and has needed a little help with the shopping and some amount of the chopping. I must admit that I was both surprised and flattered when she asked me and I felt very nervous that I might muck up.

I can’t tell you the dishes that I helped to prep as they are for her articles in the Sunday Star Times but watching the photographer at work this morning bought back memories of the food shoots we did for Gourmet Magazine. 

Being the publisher and editor of a collection of magazines in the 80’s was one of the most exciting times of my life. I loved the world of producing such beautiful magazines and being able combine some of my cooking and artistic skills and to work with the assistance of a brilliant team.

Anyway it is the daughter’s time and she shows a brilliance for the things that she is producing and an amazing for-sight to follow the career that she loves and shines at.

The son from the Bay of Islands is down in the big city moving his step daughter in to a new flat and he came for the night.  It was wonderful to catch up with his news as I have not seen him since the daughter’s wedding. As a child he showed a gift where fishing was concerned and he would fish for hours at the end of the Russell wharf. I remember he was staying with my mother in Russell and she would take down his breakfast and lunch to the wharf as he was so committed to the chore of catching every last sprat in the universe.  When she went down to get him for dinner at 6pm he asked plaintively if he could have dinner on there as well?  Needless to say he was dragged home, as he was only five at the time, but he was up at first light again the next day.  He has gone on to be one of the most highly respected fishermen in the Bay and now he runs a highly successful deep sea charter  boat. He tells me that he has won most of the prizes at this years club prize giving. 

I am getting my ‘mojo’ back.  I have almost finished two weeks of rest from my job.  I have had some excellent counselling during which it was suggested that I watched a program called the ‘Big silence’ or I think that is what it was called. Any way, it follows the journey of four people who chose to spend two weeks at a ‘silence retreat’.  I won’t go into it any further but I have taken some of the experiences and lessons they learnt and translated them into a gradual and manageable learning experience for myself I  this was in the hope that it would help me control my anxiety levels in the future or at least give me some new skills to put something in place when faced with situations that might cause me anxiety.

So this is what I have been doing.  I call it my ‘silent routine’ not very original I know.  So for four hours each day I live in silence.  Not talking, phone off, no TV or radio and no computer.  You have no idea how hooked one is on using the above as entertainment and a tool to inhibit looking at one’s life and relationships in a very quiet and meaningful way.  To empty one’s mind of the dross that we carry is really interesting and coupled with some deep breathing some amazing revelations happen.  Try it but it is is very very hard. I don’t think I could do the two weeks but who knows.

Back to the domestic issues.  Curried sausages to night because the husband likes them. Curried sausages is a meal that brings back memories for both of us as this was fashionable in the sixties. But in those days the sausages were boiled and served in a very pale not very curried sauce containing apples and sultanas. Now days curried sausages are much more exciting and they are browned first which makes this a more appealing dish. The left over rice will be the makings of fried rice for tomorrow night.

Tomatoes have hit outrageous prices this winter and as I try to buy local and in season so besides the tomatoes from the green house we have gone ‘tomatoless’ as I know many families have this year.  But yesterday I found a tray of tomatoes labelled seconds.  I have bought them home and they really are fine but just funny shapes and a few little black spotsso I will make a very spicy relish to get us though the rest of the cold months. Excellent folded though pasta or thinned down and tofu added.   

Curried sausages

Brown six sausages of any type and set aside.

Make a sauce with of one chopped onion and two peeled and chopped apples in one tablespoon of oil and the fat from the sausages until they are soft.

Stir in one tablespoon of curry powder (choose whatever strength you like but I think mild is best) and cook until it sizzles. 

Then add two tablespoons of flour, 1 teaspoon stock powder and 1 teaspoon sugar and a cup of milk and stir over a low heat until it thickens.

Add back the sausages.  You can add cooked potatoes and some peas for a one dish meal. Or serve with boiled rice.

Fried rice

Fry together one finely chopped onion and 4 chopped rashers of bacon. At this stage you can add anything you fancy spring onions, grated carrot, crushed pineapple, a little cabbage and stir together until the additives are soft. (I add chopped prawns as the husband likes them and doesn’t eat bacon.)

Stir in two cups of cooked rice and add 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, more if you need to, and a beaten egg.  Cook until the egg is cooked and a crust begins to form on the bottom of the mixture.

Spicy tomato relish

Chop two onions and six tomatoes. It is better if you skin the tomatoes but who has time.

Put in a large saucepan and cover with white vinegar and add 1 cup of white sugar. I use white vinegar and sugar because I do not want the final result to be too dark.

Add 1 tablespoon of curry powder, 1 teaspoon each of salt and pepper.

Cook for about an hour at simmer until thick and bottle. The mixture will reduce by half.

Cool a little before bottling.

miranda robinson: 29 August 2011

miranda robinson: 29 August 2011: Yesterday I had lunch with four old friends. The operative word is ‘old’. Both in age and the time we have know each other. The four o...

29 August 2011

Yesterday I had lunch with four old friends.  The operative word is ‘old’.  Both in age and the time we have know each other.  The four of us have known each other for the past forty years, we have had ten husbands between us and produced ten children. 

There is something comforting about old friends and the reminiscing about the things that we all know, remember and understand.  We have been though a lot together.  Marriages (both our own and our children), divorces (both our own and our children’s), the deaths of spouses and unfortunately the death of one of our children.  We have wept together over the deaths of our parents and our mutual friends.  We  understand each other without words. There is unspoken telepathy, a connection that time and experiences has dictated.  As one of these friends once said to me ‘we are bound together by our secrets’ and in some cases our lies. We can't afford to fall out, there is a cement that will continue until our own demises.

Lunch was a quiche studded with black olives and little red cherry tomatoes. The filling was creamy and rich, full of finely sliced onions which gave it textural element which all quiches need. The quiche was followed by chocolate mousse, rich and a perfect ending.

In the late seventies a friend and I had a little restaurant called Eve and I.  One of the main lunch time draw-cards was the quiche that we served and let me tell you men do eat quiche.  And they come back for seconds. But I still can’t get my children to eat quiche now as the were bought up eating the leftovers for their dinner.  Although I say men do eat quiche the husband wont. I now serve a self crusting quiche if I need something to serve to someone drops in suddenly and stays on for lunch.

With the husband still away it was to me a simple meal in the evening.  I make an Asian broth, once again from the store cupboard.  I started to make this at work when I was trying to find a way to like tofu. It works and is delicious. I also make this at home and I add a few prawns from the freezer (soaked in warm water until thawed) or it is also very fresh and appealing if you just poach sliced white fish in it for just a few minutes.

Someone asked me the other day about tofu and if there is any way to cook it or serve it which makes it more palatable.  I have always run a mile from the stuff and have tried it in many guises.  Stir fried, deep fried egg and bread crumbed but firm tofu in the broth is the only way I have found that I like the stuff.

RECIPES

Self crusting quiche

Mix together:

1 cup milk

1 cup cream

1 cup white flour

4 eggs

1 cup of tasty cheese

1 tablespoon grainy mustard

1 teaspoon chicken stock powder

This is the basic mixture and the things that you can add are unlimited. I have used a drained tin of salmon, a cup of creamed corn, grated zucchini, softened  onion and bacon. You can bake it at 150c for about 40 minutes but do not overcook, softer is better.

Chocolate mousse

This has to be quick and easy and as I always have cream in the fridge, I am almost ashamed to admit this in this age of the fat police, and the rest of the ingredients in the pantry cupboard.  I can also make this on the boat with the help of long life cream, it works.

I use Nigella Lawson’s recipe as it fast and easy

3 cups mini marshmallows
100gms softened
250 gms best quality semisweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1/4 cup hot water from a recently boiled kettle
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt the marshmallows, butter, chocolate, and water in a heavy-based saucepan. Cool but don’t let it go cold.

Whip the cream with the vanilla and fold together.

Asian broth

This is a true fridge/pantry cupboard broth but at work I can keep everything for a hasty lunch with or without tofu or fish.  If I am at home I can add finely chopped coriander and mint.

2 cups of water

2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce

1 tablespoon lime juice from one of those little plastic lime bottles

1 tablespoon fish sauce

A good squeeze from the tubes of lemon grass, coriander, garlic and ginger

1 teaspoon of chicken stock power

Simmer together and adjust any flavouring to your own personal taste.

28 August 2011

The husband set of for Australia yesterday evening.  He had a cold and really was feeling miserable plus his eye was sore and he wasn’t feeling great.

So here I am with a list of things that I should have done when he was here but somehow I never did. I think this includes spending a little more time in bed in the morning and catching up on my reading!

I have started with the fridge and getting rid of all those bottles and jars that I know we will never use. 

When we lived up north I used to clean out the fridge on a Sunday morning  and we would have what the children used to call ‘fridge soup’.  All the weeks left-overs would go into a pot, a few unused boiled potatoes, the end of the cabbage, those end bits of meat finely diced and onions augmented with perhaps  a tin of baked beans or corn. Just add chicken stock and there is meal fit for a special family.

If there was enough meat left over then it would be turned into fritters, as special treat with tomato sauce.  Add some grated potato for extra ‘crispy’.  So really you can fritter anything but you have to make the right batter.

I have been making yogurt for the constitution and as the recipe  makes too much for one, and as the husband wouldn’t be seen dead eating it, I have to find ways to use it. So this morning I made an apple, yogurt and olive oil cake which has been in one of the files I found when I used to do the recipes for tele text, a real blast from the past. The step daughter had just turned up and there is something so luxurious about eating warm cake, drinking good coffee while sitting in the sun.  Oh bliss.

Now that the husband is not here I can eat what I want to and eat healthily. The garden has wonderful little leeks and the spinach is great and with a handful of little last tomatoes from the glass house makes dinner look rosy. I might even throw in the last of the frozen runner beans which have turned out to be positively delicious.

Meringues and run and raisin ice cream are on the cards for tomorrow. A lot of dill in the glass house and the mint and parsley that is just romping away. So that means Green Goddess mayo as well. My friend, Phillipa, seems to get hers really green and I will endeavour to do the same in the morning.

The weather is wonderful at the moment even the frosts are gone for the meantime at least. Planting is happening as it feels right but one can be lulled into a false sense of security. But two grafted tomato plants are in the new places in the green house and a new courgette. I hope they grow and produce earlier and give me a little more variety to the diet.

Fritter batter

1 cup of white flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon chicken stock powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients together until you have a thick coating batter.  You may need a little more milk.

Fold in any finely chopped or grated mix that you might fancy.  Salmon and spring onion. Carrot, onion and cabbage.  Corn and bacon. If you have it you can fritter it.

Apple, yogurt and olive oil cake

Beat 3 eggs, 2/3 cup of yogurt,1 cup of brown sugar and ½ cup olive oil until they are thick and creamy. Fold in two cups of cooked apple.

Sift 2 cups of white flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon.

Fold these two mixtures together and tip into a cake tin and bake 45 minutes at 150c.

Origins of Emails to myself

Recently we had some friends from England, Peter and Helen Cleland, on the boat with us. We had some radical impromptu meals which they seemed to love.

Helen wanted to know how to ‘throw’ food together and I promised to ‘throw’ together a little book of some sorts of things I cook in my own haphazard manner.

Mind you, my food is meant to look haphazard and thrown together but in truth is it the meals are planned meticulously. Menus planned well in advance and shopping done to meet this planning and this makes things much easier for me. Time to drink and talk more than I should!

Peter Cleland happens to be the son of the wonderful woman who first inspired me to cook. Nora Cleland awakened in me what I consider to be a one of the few gifts that I have. I also found that my birth mother also has this gift (although her palate is fading and she is inclined to be like the old woman in the vicar of Dibley who made anchovy and marshmallow sandwiches or raisin and marmite quiche}.

I use the term ‘gift’ modestly but this gift has been passed onto my stupendous daughter Laura, who, I hesitate to say is using her talent and taking her gift to the next level. I never thought I would/could say this…. but she is almost a better cook than I am.

Most of the things I cook are based on the things that are available in the garden, the store cupboard and as a result of my unplanned grocery shopping.

I loved Nigel Slater’s book when he wrote a sort of diary of what he had cooked for his family over a year. The book was punctuated with little anecdotes which makes the book real and heart warming.

I read recipe books in bed and watch endless cooking programs but rarely do I use a recipe but I gather ideas in my sub conscious until needed.

Cooking is my therapy, ‘my act of service and love’. It is my creative outlet, my downfall which makes me fat at times. It is my torment, it is my triumph and my happiness. And I suppose it is my obsession.

Boating salads

Hot smoked salmon and tomato
Asian prawn
Celery apple and walnut

Lemon slice

ANZAC Monday

I am trying to eat the bits in the fridge instead of feeding them to the chooks. I know the scraps come out as eggs but as they are off the lay it seems a bit of a waste.

We had welsh rabbit for breakfast to eat up the left over mashed potato. When I lived in high country I used to make this for the shearers for morning tea and they loved it.

½ mashed potato
½ grated tasty cheese
1 egg yolk
1 small finely chopped onion
1 finely chopped tomato
White pepper to season

Mix it together and heap on brown bread that you have toasted on one side. Put under the grill until they are bubbling nicely.

They are substantial and will keep the most hungry going until lunch or you can serve them for lunch.

Another thing that I do with left over mashed potato is gnocchi. There is something about mashed potato, you can never make enough, I always make too much. My mash would kill a stable of race horses. I remember Grahame Thorne, a friend of the past, making mashed potatoes by mashing the boiling water back into the potato, it was disgusting. You need lots of butter and cream whipped into the well boiled potatoes. Leave on the element to dry off any water that might be lingering in the bottom of the pot.

For little expense and a little time you can have a substantial meal. I recently taught a couple of you girls I work with to make these. They were enchanted when the little dumpling rose to the top of the boiling water that we had popped them into. And even more impressed when they were laid on a deep rich tomato sauce and covered with a little cream and grated cheese and baked in a hot oven until bubbling and little brown crusts of deliciousness form on the top.

1 cup mashed potato
½ cup of flour (this will alter according to how soft the mash is)

Mix the two together with your hands until you feel it forming a soft firmish dough

Divide the mixture into four even pieces and roll them out like we used to roll plastercine until they are about an inch thick. Then cut the ropes into I inch cubes. You are meant to squish it with a fork but I just put my finger into them to flatten them before dropping them into a pot of boiling water a few at a time. The little dumpling will rise to the top and them you take them out when they rise to the top. Drain on a clean dry tea towel before popping them into a dish which you have placed a layer of tomato sauce. Dribble over ½ cup of cream and sprinkle with ½ grated cheese. You can place them on white sauce cover with a little white sauce and sprinkle with cheese.

Cleaning Saturday

On Saturdays Robyn and her trusty husband come out to the farm to help and clean. They have been with us for seven years now and since we moved out of the city they still make the journey into the country every Saturday, come hell or high water. I try to make some thing interesting for lunch. This weekend it was white bean, tuna with fettuccine.

Empty a tin of white bean and a tin of chunky tuna into a bowl with half a teaspoon of dry chicken stock powder and the rind and juice of one lemon. I usually add a good handful of finely chopped of flat leafed parsley and a good dollop of grainy mustard. Boil pasta until soft, it needs to be well cooked I think. You can heat this mixture in the microwave before adding the cooked fettuccine.

I usually try to get some preparation cooking done for the following week. Bake a cake, biscuits, make a casserole, make the bread for the week. I also pick and prep the things that have grown in the gardening during the week while I am at work.

I picked the last of the sweet corn and the leggy basil and the bolting coriander which became Coriander/basil almond pesto ready to pile on spaghetti for a hurried meal or spooned onto some grilled chicken or fish.

I found two little cucumbers nestling in the last browning leaves of the vine. I peeled them and made an Asian inspired Dressing by mixing tablespoon of sweet chilli sauce, with the juice of a lime, ½ tablespoon of soya sauce. Tip over the chopped cucumber and chill in the fridge for a long as you can bear it.

There are vases of nasturtium flowers on the window sills punctuated with bunches of rocket. I don’t like rocket much but the big plump leaves look really flashy mixed in with the bright orange flowers.

The last of the green tomatoes need to be picked to be made into green tomato sauce of chutney or green fried tomatoes. Green fried tomatoes.

Feijoas abound for my coconut and almond cake and the last of the quinces are ready to be made into jam, paste. They lambs from last year are in the freezer and this year I make a delicious quince and lamb casserole. The little lamb chops are delicious with Herb butter

I have started to use pulses, beans, rice and pasta more now as they are always at hand.
But recently an African friend has introduced me to dried corn which can be used as Dhal but I have been making a very interesting peas and corn soup.

peas and corn soup
fried rice
Estelle’s chicken, almond and orange risotto

1 May 2011

In spite of the Royal Wedding it was quiet on the food front.

I cooked a leg of lamb slowly in the oven after covering it in herbs from the garden and crunching 10 cloves of garlic on top.  Dribble with olive oil and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. It needs to be wrapped in several layers of foil and cooked in a low oven for about 4 hours.

The meet should just fall off the bone and can be attacked with a couple of spoons which avoids the trouble of carving at the table.

I made a bean, tomato onions mess which I spooned around the lamb.  The bean and lambs mixture needs to put in a large serving dish that has a lip so that the sauce does not slop over the side onto the table.

Chop two medium onions and sauté until soft then add four chopped tomatoes chook down and add 1tsp sugar and lots of salt and white pepper.  Then add two tins of cannellini beans and simmer until some of the liquid has gone.  Spoon into the platter and lay the lamb on top and sprinkle liberally with finely chopped parsley.

Sunday lunch was a kind of a cottage pie made of the left over lamb mixed with grated carrot and cooked onion.  I mixed in the left over bean mixture with a packet of Maggie Brown Onion gravy.  I sliced up some of the ciabatta bread which was left over and spread it with butter and put it on top of the mixture and then baked it in the oven until the bread was brown and crispy.  There was the last jar of tamarillo chutney which bought back memories of other meals that this is perfect accompaniment for.

Scrambled eggs and rice pudding for supper I think.

27 August 2011

It was one of those nights.  The neighbour had promised me lemons for lemon honey and cordial and so I popped in only to find that they had some friends staying. 

Well  one drink led to another drink and the husband was called to come from home and join every one for dinner.  Homemade vegetable soup, which had been bubbling away on top of the wood burner, followed by vegetarian lasagne. I must admit I looked at the makings of the lasagne, which I spotted on the  top of the stove when I arrived, didn’t look very  attractive but I was proved wrong. The flavours were wonderful layered and intense and when I got home I asked the husband if he had liked it.  He had two helpings. And he had no idea that there was no meat in it.  The top was covered with loads of stringy mozzarella cheese which I find has little taste without being mixed with other cheeses but texturally it is wonderful and the strings always cause some merriment when the dish is served.

I had asked the husband to bring down the left over meat pie we had had the night before but it looked rather paltry when he arrived so I popped it into the back of their  fridge.  I will rescue it when I pop down later to deliver some cordial this morning.

A few weeks ago I stayed the night with the daughter  before travelling on one of those hideously early flight to Australia to visit the grand children and their parent. I took one of those mysterious cooked Chinese ducks that you see hanging in the window of the local Chinese restaurants.  They look so glossy, ebony in fact, rather like the polished woodwork on a boat. But  the heads being left on make then look rather as if they have been lying on the road for too long.  Somehow, when the duck is stuffed into a white crinkly plastic bag with no protection from dust and germs, the whole exercise becomes even more foreign. But I have never managed to cook a duck that has tasted so exotic as this is such a wonderful excuse to have the experience at home without the hassel.

Anyway I digress.  That evening we tore of the chunks of grey flesh into bite size pieces and chopped up some of the skin to make an avocado, melon and spring onion salad with my secret Asian dressing. This dressing is so good that I used to make it at Christmas as give it away as part of a little hamper of homemade goodies. 

 I insisted that the daughter put the carcass in the  freezer for me so that I could take it home when I returned from Australia.  So, after considerable nagging to get the ‘thing’ out of the freezer, I took the creature home a couple of weeks later.  I simmered it for two hours with lots of soy sauce, spring onions, ginger, a little palm sugar and a diced carrot and of course water to cover.  After the beast had cooled I stripped off the remaining meat, of which there was surprisingly a lot, sliced the skin finely, put the liquid back on the stove to reduce by half and then poured the flesh.  I left this to cool and then put it in the fridge for the fat the solidify.  The next morning I skimmed of the layer of rich yellow fat, to be used later in the week for roast potatoes.   I have been enjoyed the rich duck soup for lunch for the last two days. It is dark, velverty and comforting and a testament to not wasting anything.

My mother had a thing about chicken carcasses.  Before she died or rather before Alzheimer’s crippled her capacity to function as the inelegant, vibrant and wonderful human we remember her as, the only dish she could make was Chicken and Asparagus. A concoction, with her diminished mental capacity, became a wonder to behold and somewhat scary.  As Mother made this offering quite often there was the resultant quandary as to what to do with the left over carcasses. It was inevitable that these offering were prepared on a Friday and the rubbish was collected on the following Thursday and then there was also the problem of flies and smell.  So the darling put them in plastic bags and when I went to clean out the flat, when I moved her into a more supervised care environment ,I found twenty three of the little gems wrapped up in white plastic shrouds stuffed in her little fridge freezer.

I will write more about my mother and Alzheimer’s in a blog of its own as I feel that this is not only warranted but could take time and thought to get across the true meaning and value that she added to so many lives.

vegetarian lasagne

meat pie

avocado, melon and spring onion salad

secret Asian dressing

Chicken and Asparagus

15 August 2011

It was a busy weekend in a rushed kind of way. We had a night at the cottage for the first time in two years. The story of the cottage is a magical one, one of joy and success and a feeling of completeness.  It has bought to me a feeling of happiness and contentment and in some distant part of my mind, a sense of  achievement, that I have never had.

The Cottage

I had always dreamed of a magical cottage it was inspired by my reading of an author called SARK.  She is of course from California and one of thos out there women who give you permission to rest, nap and smell the roses.  She came into my life when I was desperatly tryint to get over my break up with my second husband....more of that later....and gave me that kind of spiritial pat and the heart which we all need at times.

Anyway.  My friend had been looking for me an one day as she was driving up the Rahu valley behind Paeora she found it.  I decided to take a look and fell in love with the rickerty dewelling which you could not see for vines and undergrowth.  There were holes in the walls and the floor in the third bedroom had been removed for access to water and the room lined silver for warmth.  To add to the value we had a full scale 'pot' growing factory to dismantle.

Any way for three years we poured love, sweat and tears into this little love nest until it is shiny and perfect.  Well almost.

We have had happy times there, we have greived there when my mother died, friend have borrowed it to confront wayward children there and I have gathered strength there when my job got oh so difficult at times.

I also was able to indulge myself in learning to paint and though this made a new and very valuable group of friends. The Valley became a rich source of new if not excenteric friends who got together each Sunday night for a meal and to share their weeks trials and tribulations.

So for old times sake I cooked for the group and it was such fun,  the warmth and happiness shone through as though we had not been apart for two years.  There had been weddings, new partners, deaths and births in the valley.  There had been storms and doughts and almost pestulance and plague.  But things were just the same.

Due to the hurried naure of the meal I resorted to a 'super market meal' and it was grand. Pre cooked chicken casserole followed by pav with thickened cream and Delmains passion fruit sauce.

On returning home and there was a  visit of the grand children to see the new lambs and collect the eggs and an early Sunday dinner of fish cakes, mushy peas and tamarillo chutney followed by home-made ice cream with the last of the passion-fruit sauce.

The next day  there was the lunch for the husbands accounting group.  Lamb , barley and vegetable soup and may be some beer bread made early before going to work. Lemon cake was made even though I was tired.  I made the lemon cake that was featured in my daughters article which featured in the Sunday Star Times yesterday.  I am such a proud mum.

Lamb , barley and vegetable soup

tamarillo chutney

fish cakes

mushy peas

chicken casserole

lemon cake

8 August 2011

The garden is beginning to change and we have been moving plants around, the peas are up and the broad beans are beginning to climb through the new intriguing support system I am trying out.  I am using plastic netting which I put over the bed between four stakes when I sowed the broad bean seeds and as they grow they found their way through.  There are three further levels and this is now supporting them as they grow strong and true, amazing.

The chickens are laying really well and now we have the problem of using them and preserving them in a form that will last.  Mayonnaise and now ice cream.  Mashed eggs for the sandwiches during the week. And the usual lemon and manderine honey.

I am trying to make things stretch a little further use more economical ideas.  The use of the chicken carcasses that are now available at the super market can feed us for three days. They are a miracle to the budgeter. I boil them for an hour with a little salt and then pick of the enormous amount of flesh that is left. Chicken and pasta with the few tomatoes that are left in the garden. Chicken mixed with the first of the leeks, finely chopped with parsley, sage, thyme mint and folded through with a little thick white sauce and sandwiched between pancakes that are always in the freezer.  Topped with a little more white sauce and some grated cheese. Finally I puree the last third with the vegetables used in the boiling process and served with spinach and rice dumplings. 

Cauliflowers are white and perfect in the garden at the moment with their big green leaves folded  over their knobbly forms, that is if I can beat the slugs to them.  Cauliflower baked in the oven with capers and olive oil and flaky salt. Cauliflower in a cheesy sauce baked until the cheese speckles with beautiful brown spots, perfect with a salad and some crusty bread. Curried cauliflower soup with green peppers and specked with red chilli.

I have also taken to buying chicken nibbles and keeping them free flow in the freezer.  They are perfect baked slowly in my wonderful barbeque sauce.

As I am writing this it is slowly dawning on me that I am cooking for two.  I have always cooked for a family, the family has slowly become smaller.  It is the reverse of the frog in hot water and slowly the water of family life and being a mother is becoming a distant memory and the coming of the old and lonely time  is becoming more real. 

Working in an environment where most of the staff and the clients are young gives one a false sense of aging.  One thinks one is the same as the others and your just not.  You forget you have wrinkles and you don’t look in the mirror very often, and then suddenly you catch a glimpse of your unrecognisable self in the mirror, shock horror, you’re an old lady and emotionally alone.  You may live with someone, you may have a family but as you age you become more emotionally alone.  Your thoughts become more complex, your routines more ridged, your ability to adapt to change becomes more difficult.  Small things seem more important and moments more monumental. It surprises me just how supersensitive I am becoming to my environment, to my moods and to those around me. Hyper vigilant you might call it.

The other thing that is becoming more difficult for me is understanding why people have to die.  They die and leave underlying need for connection and a more intense fear of rejection.  Why, why, why do things have to change, I hate it.

The one thing that is constant is how my perpetual spinach keeps growing.  I have now discounted silver beet in any form.  With perpetual spinach you don’t get the terrible funny fuzzy taste. I have added finely chopped spinach to the lasted lasagne that I am trying today which I have mixed it through cottage cheese with grainy mustard.

Saturday is the day when Robyn and her husband come to help and they always have their lunch in the fish’n’chip shop in Silverdale but there always has to be morning tea.  This week it was scones and apricot jam.

We moved the asparagus into its permanent bed.  It is hard waiting for the two years to be up and then you can pick the think juice stems.  Last year the ferns were such a nuisance as they fell all over the path until they turned yellow and could be cut back.  I did tie them p but they looked tight and constrained and not as they should be. I am going to try and get purple asparagus to add to the mix. There is something magical about the way that the deep purple spears turn a deep green when they are cooked.

Ice cream

Chicken and pasta

Chicken in pancakes

Chicken soup with spinach dumplings

Curried cauliflower soup

Cauliflower cheese

Baked cauliflower

Barbeque sauce

New Lasagne

Scones

Dried apricot jam