The end of autumn

Wet, wild & revolting. That’s been the weather the past couple of weeks, and it’s still been autumn … officially. But yesterday at least a break in the weather, time to lay pea straw over the largely dormant veggie garden … and to pull out the cauliflowers that never performed. Still have vague hopes for the leeks, however. And there are still carrots, and at least one more feed of silver beet. But winter starts tomorrow … again, officially. A fairly arbitrary distinction. Today, the end of autumn, we had sleet & even snow! Fear the garden is going to be very neglected for the next few months, and fearfully unproductive. But spring’ll come again, and there’ll be all the delights of fresh produce once again. Can’t wait!

La Casa Pasta

There was a fairly harsh review of La Casa Pasta, in Dixon Street, in the paper recently. It was accurate enough, no doubt, but wasn’t it missing the point about the restaurant?  We eat there occasionally, for something quick & inexpensive on the way to somewhere else. Like, the other night, grabbing a meal in town between finishing work & a movie. The place was packed by 7 p.m., so, even if the cannelloni are crepes rather than pasta, they’re doing something right. I think maybe it’s the sense of a restaurant experience. A candle on every table, a bottle of water provided immediately. Opera playing. A feeling of warmth, and of people having a good time. Friendly wait staff, too. And all this for not much more than the cost of some fast food option gobbled at a grubby table in a brightly-lit, stainless-steel takeaway bar. So, you can be all superior and say the food’s not genuine, or you can accept the place for what it is, and just enjoy the experience. After all, the spinach-stuffed crepes in a tomato sauce were perfectly tasty. Although I realise that maybe calling the food ‘tasty’ is for a restaurant reviewer like a model describing a fashion designer’s clothes as ‘comfy’. Not quite a compliment.

Anyone for a nackerjack?

Dashed into the Sunday market  on the weekend (on our way to see the fantastic film version of The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino as a captivating Shylock) to grab, among other things, a few leeks. For I had in mind a particular dish … leek stew with a nackerjack. I love that word, nackerjack. Apparently it’s a kind of toad, but in Devonshire the local name for a kind of dumpling. So, this a very English dish, and perhaps what passed for peasant food in England. Leeks, potatoes & flour the core ingredients. I’ll give the recipe, but didn’t really pay attention to quantities. Three leeks, three medium sized Agria potatoes.

 450 gms leeks, cut into 3 inch pieces, and washed

350 gms potatoes, peeled and quartered

350 gms bacon, diced

900 ml chicken stock

Salt & pepper

 Put all in a casserole. Cover & cook at 200 C for an hour. In the meantime, for the nackerjack …

 225 gms self-raising flour

½ tspn salt

100 gms shredded suet

 Mix together with enough water to make a soft dough. Put on a floured board and pat out into a dumpling. Place on top of the stew, cover, and bake for a further 20 minutes. Or thereabouts.

 Mind you, I found we had no suet, so used butter & rubbed it in to the consistency of coarse breadcrumbs. Slightly scone-like, but good. And the whole dish hearty winter fare. Next time, might try replacing the bacon with chicken. That I can imagine working nicely.

Meals for tired people: tuna & tomato sauce

Rather than being about eating seasonally, this blog has of late been more about rustling up meals in reasonable time from at-hand ingredients. Years ago, in London, I used to joke about reading Martha Gellhorn’s Pretty tales for tired people on the tube, because the title seemed so apt for commuters. Maybe nowadays it’s a case of Pretty-quick meals for tired people?  Dreadfully lame, I know. Sorry.

But, anyway, another one of those nights. And thank heavens for tinned food. The amazing thing about this dish, though, is how fresh-tasting it is.

2 tbspn olive oil

1 finely chopped onion

1 clove of garlic, also finely chopped

Put in a heavy based frying pan, and cook for a few minutes. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes, and cook gently for a further 10 – 15 minutes. Remove from heat and add a tin of drained tuna, breaking up and working through the sauce to warm it up. Season with salt & freshly ground black pepper. Add a knob of butter (which gives the sauce a glossy finish) and chopped fresh parsley (at least something home-grown!). Serve over spaghetti, which can be cooked while the sauce is being prepared.

 For a change, the other night, I worked a generous tablespoon of home-made tapenade through the spaghetti. That worked well, seemed to complement the sauce.

Flash roasted salmon

One excellent use for the fresh basil pesto … a dollop atop a flash-roasted salmon steak. I mentioned this to a friend bumped into in the supermarket, who didn’t know what I meant by flash-roasting, so … Pre-heat the oven to 250 C. Place salmon steaks in a lightly oiled baking dish and season. I like to sprinkle with sea salt flakes. Put in oven for 6 – 8 minutes. Plate, and add the pesto dollop before serving. Delicious. One of my faves. Again, thanks to Annabel L.

Fresh basil pesto

The wilting look of the basil plants on the window sill as winter starts to bite has been bothering me for days, so before heading off to work this morning I decided to put them out of their misery. Stripped the leaves, put them in the food processor with a thinly sliced clove of garlic, about half a cup of toasted pine nuts, a generous amount of freshly grated parmesan (about 2 tbspns?), and extra virgin olive oil. Seasoned and then blitzed the mix. Looked a tad dry so added a little more oil … better to err on the conservative side with the oil at the outset, I think, and to avoid an over-oily, gluggy mess … and hey presto, fresh basil pesto. Wonderful, alluring green and tonight, I think, we’ll use some as a dip, as we sit with a gin & tonic in front of the fire and savour taste memories of our distant summer. Or, perhaps, imagine a winter escape to the sun.

Scalloped potatoes

Well, the tapenade made from those dodgy olives didn’t kill us … thought I should post today just in case anyone was wondering! And I wanted to mention the scalloped potatoes I served with the beef niçoise last night. The best ever, in memory, were those served at Le Beauchamp restaurant in the days when I was waiting there post-university … crisp top, creamy sauce … mine aren’t as good, I admit, and as I seldom make them I always have to phone my mother for guidance. Where would we be without our Mums! Anyway … slice potatoes thinly, layer in a baking dish, season, plus a crushed clove of garlic spread through; pour a milk & cream mix over so just touching the top layer, throw on a few dabs of butter. Cover with grease-proof paper and put in oven. Remove paper when about half-way to allow browning. I think perhaps my potato slices were a bit too thin last night … I used the food processor … and if the dish didn’t quite measure up in terms of appearance, it won on taste.

Black olives

A jar of black olives in the fridge, and suddenly I noticed a bit of mould forming. Not the sort of thing you expect with olives … I mean, aren’t they pickled & preserved & stuff? But anyway, a call to action. Carefully skimmed off the unwelcome growth & threw out the top couple of layers. Food processor out of the pantry, to blitz …

1 cup pitted black olives

a couple of garlic cloves, crushed

½ a dozen anchovy fillets

2 tbspn capers

… and a short time later, tapenade.

 

Not quite sure how I’ll use it all, but it should keep in the fridge for a little while. Although I did use some immediately, in yet another Annabel Langbein dish … her beef niçoise … I suppose tomorrow I’ll discover whether or not I should have discarded the whole jar of olives!

Caribbean chicken

Late home, again = Annabel Langbein to the rescue, again. Annabel Langbein + chicken breasts in fridge + new lidded frying pan = her Caribbean chicken. Which recipe fortunately I’d glanced at the night before, so grabbed a couple of kumara from the green grocer in Aro Street on the way home.

4 skinned, boned chicken breasts

2 tbspn lemon juice

Flatten the chicken between cling film with rolling pin or mallet. Mix with the lemon juice & leave to stand while preparing veggies.

1 tbspn butter

1 onion, finely sliced

2 kumara, peeled & diced in 1 cm pieces

200 gms pumpkin, ditto

¼ cup orange juice (though, not having any, I used pineapple with no ill effect)

Heat butter in frying pan. Add onion, cook till just browning. Add kumara, pumpkin & orange juice. Cover & cook for about 30 minutes, until tender, adding more liquid (water) if it dries out.

2 tspn each toasted cumin & fennel seeds

¼ cup toasted coconut

Mix in the seeds & coconut. Roughly mash the veggies, i.e. break up into smaller bits. Season well with salt & pepper.

 

Meanwhile, the chicken should be seasoned & pan fried in 2 tbspn butter. I sliced them & served atop the veggie mash mix, with emerald green broccoli florets on the side. Looked good, tasted good, & I wondered about mixing a few pineapple chunks into the veggie mix with the seeds & coconut next time. ‘Cos am sure there will be a next time.

Escape to New Plymouth

Taranaki’s always seemed a bit off the map to me, but snippets of information popping up on the news over recent years have piqued my interest … and the weekend just past I finally got there. It was generally sunny in New Plymouth, a blessing after too much rain of late, and I was impressed by the place. The coastal walkway is superb, the Len Lye wind wand a real talking point. The Govett Brewster a good little gallery, Pukekura Park a great place for a Sunday morning stroll, and the whole city most walkable. Yes, I’d go back. But what about the eating? Which I’d been looking forward to. This was my birthday treat to myself, after all. Brickbats & bouquets there …

… the cheese & onion scone at Bach on Breakwater, 2 stars, but almost $5 for a scone!?

… the Montrose wine bar, 1 ½ stars for being stylish

… Aborio in Puke Ariki, 2 stars for offering me toast for breakfast (& making it sourdough) even though toast wasn’t on the menu, and doing it all with a smile

… 1 star to Lush, for a decent little quiche lorraine, but do improve the layout, it feels like a thoroughfare

… and ½ a star to the café at the Govett Brewster for having a good feel, but poached eggs shouldn’t come nearly hard-boiled!

 

As for the real disappointments …

… the tea house in Pukekura Park, great potential, but a terribly disappointing date scone; it’s supposed to have dates in it! And those nasty, foil-wrapped butter pats are NOT stylish.

… Salt, the pretentious restaurant in the Waterfront Hotel. Where to start? A Mr Bean-ish maitre d’ who looked lost & not at all in control on a busy Saturday night. Paper napkins. My steak (overcooked) served as one of those silly deconstructed dishes, which look eye-catching but where one cylindrical mound doesn’t link clearly to another; one turned out to be over-dry & starchy … not very good. And as for the crème brulée … I sent it back! Out of the fridge & briefly warmed with a candle flame, if you’re lucky, sprinkled with chopped pistachio nuts … unacceptable. And such a shame. A decent dessert would have saved the meal, had us leaving with smiles on our faces. Instead of feeling quite grumpy about the whole experience. But a lesson re-learned. Avoid hotel restaurants if you want a good meal.

 

Anyway, next time I’ll know where to go. And where to avoid.