Green tomato's and red sauce.....

Back online (yes, it was a much extended holiday.........) and busy making fresh tomato sauce. Well it would be 'fresh' tomato sauce except once again we have had a mildew explosion in the garden and my tomato plants have shriveled to sad wizened shadows. I will let the picture speak for itself.........

Anyway, as so often it's tinned tomatoes to the rescue. With the addition of onion, garlic, plenty of fresh basil and a good pinch of sugar I have a very respectable sauce for my wee pizzas. My basil crop has been fantastic, which has soothed my squashed gardening ego somewhat, and produced a delicious jar of fresh pesto. I deviated from my usual mortar & pestle method of preparation and went all high tech with my food processor. I actually started using my blender, but it is so utterly useless I would have had more success rubbing the leaves between my fingers, so food processor it was. I loathe washing kitchen 'gadgets' at the best of times, but washing something that didn’t even do the job was especially irksome. The processor results in more 'chopped' leaves, which I don’t think is quite as nice as mortar crushed, but I was working with industrial quantities and I didn’t want my arm to fall off........



Pesto: Into your functioning blender, or food processor, put a good clove of garlic, copious handfuls of sweet basil, seasoning, and a palmful of pine nuts (or a mix of peanuts and pinenut, more economical and very yum) and blitz together. Then drizzle in olive oil, I use Spanish olive oil brought in two liter tins, it lasts for ages as it is protected from the light (the enemy of oil) and is more economical than smaller bottles. I have long since stopped worrying what this says about my oil consumption. I figure if I am eating oil I am not eating butter, which despite its utter deliciousness even I acknowledge I should try and consumer less than my body weight of annually.....

To prove I am not a complete failure in the garden please gaze in pleasure at my lovely fresh chilies, I have Habaneras, and cayenne peppers busy resisting mildew (bless them!) and fattening up daily  I feel a Mexican momento coming on.......

P.S All was not completely lost on the tomato front, I did make nine jars of Green Tomato pickle, nothing beats it on hotdogs or burgers, mmmmmmmm!

Hello again......

I finally have a laptop........which is proving really useful given we were burgled recently and lost among other items the PC and camera. I now know why people back-up their computers, a tad too late of course but I'll know for next time.........yippee. The Karma Train always stops however, (not a huge consolation when dealing with insurance companies, very tedious ) but a couple of little creeps out there have some bad luck coming....
Dinner is leftover roast beef, salad and creamy potatos, comfort food par excellance........there would be a cold Yorkshire Pudding involvement also but I was peckish......

A lovely weekend......ole!

Spent mostly puttering in the kitchen. Such classic study avoidance behaviour resulted in some lovely oatcakes to have with cheese (square as my cookie cutter is in a box packed away somewhere....), a very delicious Mousakka, nine jars of spicy apple and walnut chutney (the best chutney recipe ever. Really), and a whole lots of mexican taco type things complete with refried beans. The last dish was the most challnging in terms of presentation, I'm not sure it is possible to make frijoles refritos look like anything other than brown sludge, but it sure tastes good.......the following recipe is based on one from Jake Tilson's lovely book "A Tale of Twelve Kitchens"

Frijoles Refritos

Put one cup of dried black Turtle Beans(no need to soak) in a saucepan with a couple of large cloves of garlic, a large sprig of fresh oragano (or 1/2 teaspoon of dried), a dried or canned chille (I used a chipotle chilli in adobo sauce from a can, it had a lovely smoky taste and a bit of heat, great with the bland beans) and a chopped onion. Cover with a couple of cups of cold water & boil for 30-40 mins. When your beans are soft add salt to taste. Mush the beans up a bit with a potato masher, then chuck the whole sludgy mess into a frypan containing a chopped tomato, a little more adobo sauce to taste, another half an onion and a couple more cloves of garlic, all softened in a tablespoon or so of oil.......stir until most of the liquid has evaporated and you have a pasty mix to smear on the bottom of some freshly cooked corn totillas, so much yummier than it looks........

I served this with some marinated fish in lime and chilli, fried prawns and sizzled beef which I had marinated in more of the canned chilli, some oil, some chopped coriander and some fresh chilli. Fresh guacamole, tomato and sour cream added another layer of flavour, and I topped the lot with a couple of fresh sauces , one sesame, and one chilli, both utterly addictive.

I get these from the fantastic Mexican Specialities here in Ellerslie (on Celtic Crescent, just off Marua Road, go there, it's proper Mexican, not Tex-Mex). They also make the fresh tortillas, I just love that corny slightly lime smell....... They are only open for lunch Thursday through Saturday, Mr PK had an incredible Chiles en Nogada there this weekend. It  is a poblano chilli stuffed with a really fragrent intriging meat/fruit mix , spiced and cooked, then covered with a cold creamy walnut sauce, spinkled with pomegranet seeds and parsley. It looks amazing and tastes even better. Jose, the chef (and along with his wife Maria the owner) are orginally from Mexico, where he expained this is a really traditional celebratory dish. I immediatly went home and tried to find the recipe, it is pretty labour intensive, but I am planning on having a bash this weekend. I thought I should try shelling my own walnuts as apparently this will really improve the sauce, so I must remember to buy a nut cracker.......if it tastes anywhere near as good as Jose's I will be muy feliz.......

I forgot to take my camera to Mum & Dads so I dont have any pics of my Mexican feast, instead please admire one of my roses, I will be sad to leave them when we move.......I have no idea what variety it is, but I love the colour. Pretty

A new house........

The Minister of Finance and I are off on a new adventure. We have sold our twenties bungalow and are setting up home about 1.5km away (we never move very far!) in a very cute 50's weatherboard......I can see a wonderful retro kitchen in my mind already. In the meantime I will at least have a brand new oven to play with, which I am very much looking foward to. I have posted a picture of my present cooker to give you some idea why a new oven might excite me somewhat............it's called an "infra-ray" which kinda gives you some idea of its vintage origins. It may actually be older than me........

I think I'm ready to face it........

By 'it' of course I mean the trauma that is a Masterchef audition........what was I thinking dear reader??? A more stressful, (and ultimatly fruitless) few days I cant remember, clearly I have a temprement (not to mention face and DOB)  for blogging, not TV. While my gravy let me down (it was a bit tough caramalising onions on a nuclear commercial hob for a novice I'm afraid....), my new improved yorkshire pudding batter was rather fabulous, when I can bear to even think about Toad In the Hole again I will happily share it with you.
So blog I shall. It has been a while, as you can see I am still playing with the layout. I got myself a couple of photography mags (I had to look apature up in the dictionary...), and have been practising but we still have a way to go.........!
Supper last night was rather lovely, a piece of snapper lightly coated in flour and egg, then shallow fried with steamed asparagus, all swathed in hollandaise sauce, yummy. The sauce took all of five minutes in a little bowl over a pan of simmering water, honestly.......
Take one egg yolk and place in said bowl, with a teaspoon of lemon juice,a teaspoon of white wine vinegar,  salt and pepper. Pop over a small saucepan of simmering water, so the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water, and use a small whisk (mine came free off the front of a cooking mag years ago, it's perfect....) to combine. Keep whisking while the mix heats up gently, then start adding in cubes of cold unsalted butter, I used about 50 grams. I know just reading that is giving you a pain in the chest, but bear with me.....keep adding your butter while contiuously whisking to emulsify, and also avoid the sauce overheating, which turns it into an oily mess and makes you cry. If this looks at all possible simply lift the bowl away from the water and whisk like mad. Taste and add more lemon if you like. Delicious, just dont have it every day....

Soup for dinner

I found some chicken stock in the bottom of the freezer (unlabelled of course, but I was pretty sure......), and soup seemed very appealing. Pumpkin is cheap at the moment, and when roasted takes on a lovely nutty sweetness, which is delicious in soup(another brilliant Delia idea). It also means I dont have to risk life and several digits hacking off the pumpkin skin, instead it peels of f easily when cooked.
Combine with your stock, some sweet browned onions and just a couple of sage leaves (don't go mad or you will have a liquid more akin to tonic than soup) Simmer gently & blitz with a stick blender, for a rich creamy soup with very little cost or effort, yummy.
We are having it with some cheese & chili rolls I picked up at Bakers Delight last week & popped in the freezer, and a Joy Bar for afters....................yes I know, JOY BARS?! Like an Eskimo Pie but with that Jelly Tip stuff through the middle, sooooo good. Don't even look at the ingredient list, just unwrap in the privacy of your own home, preferably with another consenting adult & enjoy:)
If you have a decent cinema nearby go along and see Coco avant Chanel, it is about the life of Gabrielle Chanel from her poverty stricken beginnings as a seamstress to her rise to couture glory in Paris. Audrey Tautou is wonderful as always, and it is fascinating to see how the ideas for Chanel's simple, beautiful clothes (she is credited with creating the LBD no less), when most wealthy women at the time sported more lace & frills than an 80's wedding dress.....tres bon!

How long!?

Ok, I have been very naughty with my posting, the last one was so long ago it is nearly ancient history.........shameful. I am now combining work with studying French & History (one is tres difficult, I'll let you guess which....), and I am BUSY. Which means prep time is shorter, and I have a whole new view of preparing dinner. I have so often heard people complain about not having enough time or energy to prepare a meal at the end of the day, but for the most part I have always enjoyed it as a wind down , with a yummy treat at the end.....
However when five chapters on the Ming dynasty await, plus ample practise required of my appalling french accent, suddenly a lazy 25 minutes stirring risotto seems like wanton extravagance.
So, after a few weeks of thrown together dinners (those plastic pots of flash soup & a pre cooked chicken can only go on for so long....) I have realized a little more planning is in order.
So please bear with me while I find my muse, and come up with yummy treats for the end of the day (and lunch, the student cafe isn't exactly health food) that appear in less time than it takes me to massacre the french alphabet......