“Bring Me Flesh And Bring Me Wine”

December 3, 2007March 22, 20202 Comments

“lalalalalala….deep and crisp and even…” Thanks to Mum for the idea for the title by the way. And the donation – we would be eating bread dipped in water were it not for her kind, unexpected cash injection. And – just try and act surprised – this is a lengthy post, so don’t read it if you have to be somewhere in the next hour.

SO, the Team Hadfield Annual Christmas Dinner is officially over. I am officially all kinds of shattered after Tim and I spent over an hour doing the dishes (I washed, he dried, I felt like the sorcerer’s apprentice with the neverending plates appearing) but I can’t really complain since I’m the reason all the dishes were there in the first place. The dinner was a massive success, so much fun, and left us all groaningly full. Here it is – no pictures of Beckham, no kittens, no music reviews. Just FOOD.

As you know from the previous post (that’s if you actually read it and didn’t just pause on the David Beckham picture) I had been making things in advance, and the same pattern continued on Sunday. Tim had work at Starbucks at 7.30am, so I was awake fairly early. That is, my body was awake, my brain was a little on the fuzzy side.

First thing I did was make the ice cream. Sound a little madcap, I know, but I thought the Lemon Prosset would look rather stingy in bowls on its own and this is the easiest ice cream recipe I know. Nigella (who else!) has variations of it in a few of her books, the version I used was the Bitter Orange Ice Cream from Nigella Bites. It defies everything one is taught about making ice cream and shouldn’t work, but oh, how it does. Simply dissolve icing sugar – about 150g – in the juice of a couple of oranges, add 600mls cream, whisk till softly whipped and…freeze. You are supposed to add lime juice to this but I didn’t have any, so I upped the orange hit with a teaspoon of my beloved Boyajian Orange Oil (Nigella actually namechecked it in her books!) which made it headily…you know it’s difficult to find a synonym for “orange” so I’ll stop talking about it.

Above: The Orange Blossom Special…I used a whisk, rather than the electric beaters, because I figured that any extra activity would be beneficial. Considering all the cream.

While the ice cream was a-freezing I got on with the Rugelach. Now, I’m not one to appropriate other cultures – she says – but I think that there is nothing wrong with enjoying the many foods that the world has to offer. I say this because of a photo I saw of Justin Timberlake poking out his tongue in imitation while receiving a powhiri – Maori welcome – on his recent visit to New Zealand. I’m not quite sure why this annoyed me, but I had a bit of a think and concluded that it was one thing for me to make Jewish food, but it would be another thing entirely to say, wear a yarmulke while doing so. Anyway, I was getting so philosophical you could call me Anne of Green Gables and I nearly forgot to actually make the blooming things. Luckily they are a doddle.

Above: Doesn’t the sight of this make you want to convert…just a schmeer? Rugelach is pastry (which has butter, sour cream AND cream cheese in it, making it very sticky but easy to roll out) brushed with melted butter and, for artery thickening effect, rolled around chocolate and brown sugar. It is glutinous, but it was the only glutinous thing on the menu and frankly I’m not a miracle worker. This recipe comes from Nigella’s Feast and is, she says, a Hannukah treat. Nigella herself is actually Jewish, although not a practising one, hence the fact that I used her recipe for ham as well!

My cousin Paul came over at this stage and I realised that (a) I needed more chocolate to dip the truffles in and (b) I really wanted a drink. Luckily I managed to juggle both without detrimental effect, but I will say this – vanilla Galliano is sickly. I tend to enjoy a drier drop. There was a funny limbo time in the afternoon, because I didn’t want to get started on the meat and veges too soon, but of course everything would need quite a long time cooking.

The Fully Festive Ham, also from Feast, is a complete joy to make. It is worth pointing out that what I used was not what New Zealanders would know as ham – here we tend to get ours precooked, which we then just glaze and cook on Christmas day. The stuff Nigella uses – which is easier to find in England than here – is uncooked ham, called gammon, or here, pickled pork. Don’t be put off by the ‘pickled’ bit, it’s truly just uncooked ham. This means you can simmer it in whatever you want. Like coca cola. But that’s another story…

Above: The ham, submerged in a litre each of apple and cranberry juice, plus onion, cinnamon sticks, pink peppercorns and a star anise. You are supposed to use allspice berries but I didn’t have any. Anyhow I thought the star anise looked rather pretty bobbing round and the pink peppercorns would add the necessary earthiness. This simmers away for a couple of hours so it doesn’t really require too much effort.

I stuffed the chickens, which was about as undesirable a job as I remember it to be (and the cavities are strangely cold.) I scrapped the idea of challah, and bought some bread rolls, as well as a gluten-free loaf instead – didn’t have the psychological space in my head for dealing with more dough – so luckily I didn’t have to worry about faffing about with oven temperatures.

The potatoes went in the oven and the kumara and parsnips were chopped up to go in Tim’s electric frypan that he got for his 21st. It is worth knowing that you can quite effectively “roast” vegetables in this machine, if you are feeding a crowd. I made a quick salad, to offer crisp contrast, out of a packet of fancy salad mix and half a block of feta. Ooooh I love feta. I made a quick dressing out of balsamic vinegar and olive oil, and that was it – simple is best sometimes (ha!)

Above: The ensalada. The “green stuff” that saved our arteries from all the chicken and ham and chocolate…

As we were setting the table, Emma said “weren’t you going to do some peas?” Bugger! Quickly biffed them in the microwave, and then thought, heck, I might as well make some gravy too. So I poured the chicken roasting juices into a pot, with a spoonful of the cranberry sauce that I used to glaze the ham (which was in the oven at this point) and even though it ultimately makes things gluggy, a spoonful of gluten-free cornflour. While this was boiling up I added a slosh of Marsala, quarter of a porcini stock cube and a cup or so of water and let it bubble away.

Above: “They call it riding the gravy train…” I’m something of a gravy novice, and gluten-free is probably not the best way to start, but it was pretty good stuff. Behind you can see the remainder of the stuffing which I cooked in my silicone muffin tray for people.

And then, it was time to eat.

Above: The groaning board (which handily extends out.) Far left is the ham, then the chickens, and the salad on the right. Of course the chickens were free range, they taste so much better, and as the ham came from our delightful local butchers I was reassured it was a happy pig in life.

Above: Tim’s plateful. I’m full just looking at it.

Mercifully, everyone liked it. The stuffing was very well received, the ham was unbelievably tender (hey, it’s a good recipe) and we all just ate and ate and ate and ate. We had a brief pause between courses, just enough to try and locate a nook into which pudding could fit.

Above: Psychocandy – from front to back, the Rugelach, the Crunchie Bar Slice, and the Chocolate Truffles. For some reason I never got a photo of the ice cream or the Lemon Prosset, but here – one looks pale and slightly orange, the other looks pale and slightly yellow. As Jack White opined, “Sugar never tasted so good.” I’m so glad I decided to do heaps of things- I honestly can’t decide which I like more. By the way, the sweeties above are resting in none other than my Nigella Lawson Living Kitchen platter, which is ENORMOUS. I got it ridiculously cheap on Trademe and didn’t realise how huge it was when I bought it. It is gorgeous though and the perfect vessel for the dessert. Again, a giant “phew” that everyone loved the desserts. I knew the Lemon Prosset wouldn’t fail me!

Now that I have been cooking for two days, washing up for over an hour and typing for two hours…well I don’t know how to finish that sentence but my brain is tired and I’m not looking forward to work tomorrow. It was a seriously rewarding weekend (not least because of all the eating) and I had such a great time cooking up The Feast and feeding people who are important to me. It doesn’t feel that long ago that we had ours last year, and I who knows where we will be this time next year…

By the way if anyone is here at this point -thanks for reading so far and sorry if it is a little uninspired…but to be fair, my sinuses are packed with ham and my lungs are filled with truffle mixture which may have contributed to the syntactical errors and glaring ommissions above…To finish, it has to be said that the only thing that is better than having an enormous Christmas dinner…is roast potatoes for breakfast the next day. Note to self – rekindle your relationship with Pontious Pilates.

"Victoria, What Do You Want From Him?"

December 2, 20076 Comments

Above: Doesn’t that question kinda answer itself?

I got this photo off the stuff.co.nz website (wherein you can also see a photo from last night with Emma’s head in it – we were sitting in front of some very dressed up girls whose photo got onto this site) Since Tim’s camera is broken we used Emma’s – she has the same model – but it is very slow and has terrible zoom. Therefore none of our photos are worth writing home about, unlike the above… When the game finished massive fireworks went off, which was all very thrilling, and Becks waited for ages before taking off his shirt. Everyone cheered when he did – he must have known that’s what half the crowd was there for. He played for the whole game, which was fantastic, because he was only contracted to play a minimum of 55 minutes. What a guy!

Above: Becks in action – as Cheeky Hobson would say, “It’s so physical!” Becks is in the dark blue, by the way.

All semi-nudity aside though, it was an amazing game and Beckham was all kinds of classy. Even though we lost, the crowd got on their feet and cheered when he scored a goal. It was unbelievably exciting to watch him in action – I don’t know much about soccer (Me:”who is that guy in yellow, Tim?” Tim:”The ref.”) but whenever he had the ball it looked effortless and graceful. Every now and then I would turn to Tim and say “I can’t believe we are watching Beckham!!” Alright, the gushing is over already!

Because the weather was so exemplary yesterday – one of those days that come along just often enough in Wellington to remind you why on earth you live there – it was very difficult not to join Tim, my cousin, and his mates outside to drink in the sun. But there were most definitely things to be done!!

Above: The chocolate malteaser slice from Nigella.com. Except it has chopped up Crunchie bars in it instead. Who knew that malteasers were heavily glutinous? Not I! Crunchies are a more than worthy substitute in this gloriously tacky slice, which comprises a heady mix of biscuit crumbs (gluten free of course) melted chocolate, golden syrup, crushed Crunchies, and, ahem, butter. I am going to chop it into elegant triangles and serve it with coffee alongside the truffles and rugelach, but if you make this for a five year old I guarantee they will be your best friend for life.

Above: Tim, helpfully stirring the stuffing for me. Frankly, with all the bacon in it the stuffing didn’t look so wonderful in close up…unlike Tim!

The recipe is from Nigella’s Feast, and is slightly unusual but intriguingly delicious. Three onions and two green apples, blitzed in the food processor followed by a ton of bacon (the idea of finely chopping it all makes me want to weep – hoorah for food processors! Unfortunately the onions made me sob like a baby anyway) which is fried up in butter with the zest of an orange. When it is cool, crumble in a loaf of gingerbread – the unusual bit – and add some eggs before cooking. It tastes and smells incredible and is also made with gluten free gingerbread (the stuff that comes in the green plastic packet at the supermarket – expensive but really really edible.)

After this I made the chocolate truffle mixture, which came up looking too unattractively brown in the photos, so I thought I’d wait for the finished product before commiting it to film. Then I got Tim to help me peel vast amounts of potatoes, which I was parboiling in advance (Nigella says it’s okay!) for roasting them tonight. I only have one stockpot, you see, which will be occupied with the ham.

Above: Potatoes, tiddly tee! But really – that is a Big Pot.

After that I sat down in the sun for a while, with another Nigella creation, from Forever Summer, a cocktail that goes by the joyfully camp name of “Pomme Pomme.”It is a combination of Apple Schnapps and apple juice and is seriously a delight to imbibe. So delightful that I forgot to take a photo of it. So I had another one. And forgot to take a photo of that. So I had another one…and decided that since a drink that is largely apple juice doesn’t make the most exciting photo subject I’d just leave it.

I also made the Lemon Prosset, which doesn’t come with a photo, (would you believe I forgot again?) but it does come with a recipe as it is so flipping fantastic. The recipe is from an old edition of Cuisine Magazine, and is child’s play to make. In fact the only hard thing about it is trying to measure 600mls and 100mls, both are rather awkward amounts.

Lemon Prosset:

Bring to the boil, stirring all the time: 600 mls of cream and 2/3 cup sugar. As soon as it starts to boil, turn the heat way down and stir for exactly three minutes. Once the time is up, take it off the heat, and stir in 100mls of lemon juice. Chill overnight, in about 6 ramekins or one bowl, and serve to your rapturous guests.

By the time all this had been achieved, it was time to head into town for the game, and you all know how that went. Tonight’s the night, as Neil Young would say, and I have so far made some orange ice cream (surprise! A new addition to the menu, because I can) and started on the rugelach. So, a lot to get done…better get to it then! Next time I post I may or may not be ten kilos heavier…

Enchilada y Ensalada

November 22, 2007Leave a comment

Tomorrow night is the Muse concert! Excitement! It seems like only yesterday that I got the text at work from Tim saying that he had bought the tickets. Adding to the general sense of anticipation is that Muse seems to have won every “Best Live Act” award up for grabs in the last couple of years. On top of that, Tim and I watched The Aviator yesterday, which featured one Rufus Wainwright in a cameo, singing at the Coconut Grove. Absolutely cannot wait to see him in February! Speaking of The Aviator, isn’t Cate Blanchett amazing? So elegant, I felt dumpy and short-legged just watching her act the pants off anyone else on screen.

Above: Roger, in homage to the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet.

I’ve been having a marvelous time cooking dinner at home. It is endlessly gratifying to be eating at a big wooden dining table, with the sun streaming through the French doors, and drinking nice wine (not cheap plonk for once!)

Last night’s dinner:

Above: Free-form enchiladas (much easier than the real thing.) I made a cumin-scented meat sauce, to which we added tomatoes, cucumbers, rice and cheese, and encased the lot in these nifty pesto-flavoured wraps that Mum had bought. I waited till people started to eat before telling them about the secret ingredient – a spoonful of cocoa in the mince. It isn’t some fanciful fusion-style addition, but a classic one, giving depth and warmth and mercifully, not the slightest hint of chocolate flavour. Unfortunately we couldn’t use any avocados as they were still too tensely unripe, like a clenched fist, but I managed to find a softly yielding one for tonight’s dinner.

Above: Since it was so hot today, I decided to make something light that wouldn’t sit heavily in the stomach, or indeed, wouldn’t involve stirring things endlessly over a hot oven. So; I sauteed some diced chicken breasts (oh the luxury! We only ever have thighs and wings, and though I love the flavour of thighs, breasts are so versatile. Just realised how funny that could sound taken out of context…) toasted some walnuts, chopped up the one edible avocado I could find, and tossed it all with half a pack of those wonderfully useful mesclun salad packs and some diced cucumber. To go with I boiled up some potatoes and drizzled them with something else I look forward to when I come home – that mellow, green-gold avocado oil.

Above: The potatoes, and some tomatoes that tasted blissfully of themselves. I think the last time Tim and I bought tomatoes was February – they have been so expensive, not to mention watery and anemic that we gave up on them, but thankfully their season to shine is coming round.

Watched Rent on DVD on the big screen TV today – what a revelation! Haven’t seen it in a while, and had forgotten how knee-quiveringly brilliant it is. I do realise I speak as someone a little biased though. Tim even sat through it (pointing out all of the character Roger’s “Bon Jovi Moments” to my brother Julian) which gives me hope that one day he will like it.

Who knows what we will be having for dinner tomorrow night – probably Burger King or somesuch – but with any luck there will be some Muse photos to post! Hoorah! As Shakespeare would say, “Where art thou, muse?”

No pudding again? Souper…

November 1, 20074 Comments

First post of November! Wait, it’s November already? Aaargh! Tim and I spent 4 hours at the library today, watching the BBC production of Richard III, which although erring on the side of endless, is really very enjoyable, with lots of fantastic lines. But still: Four Hours. I am drained…

I have restrained myself from making pudding lately, because, well, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to lay off the sugar a little. And boy, do I miss making pudding…sometimes a quartered orange just doesn’t cut it, but it is, as Nigella accurately notes in How To Eat, “something to stave off that moment of loneliness and despondency that always threatens to settle when you realise eating is over for the day.” Though it pains me a little to quote Meatloaf, she took the words right outta my mouth. The words were no doubt covered in butter.

Last night I made another recipe from Nigella.com, Tomato, Red Lentil and Chorizo Soup. I realise that chorizo probably isn’t the thing to eat if one is worrying about having too much pudding, but I figure the inclusion of red lentils and canned tomatoes instantly squashes any of that…At any rate, it was flavoursome and full of veges (and lentils!) and was very easy to make.

Above: Everything looks good in the bowls Ange left at our flat. Thanks, Ange.

Speaking of which, this soup would, I’m sure, be fine if you wanted to take it in a vegetarian direction and leave out the chorizo, or indeed you could replace the chorizo with bacon or somesuch to make it gluten-free. Now that I’ve talked it up, I feel I should provide the recipe, which is…here! Note – I halved it, used canned tomatoes, and didn’t have any capsicums. Still great!

To go with, I used a recipe from Annabel Cooks, a book by a very pleasant NZ cook, which I haven’t really used much because of the…expensive…nature of many of her recipes. I realise that someone so devoted to Nigella can’t throw stones but it’s different with her!! Anyway, Annabel Cooks is all “feta cheese” and “creme fraiche” this and “pine nuts” and “boneless skinless chicken breast” that. I did however find a recipe containing things I had in my cupboard, which was her variation on a dish that I consider to be a Kiwi ”classic” – potato bake.

The main difference in this one is that the potatoes are grated (kindly done by Tim.) It bakes slowly in the oven, ensconced in a mixture of eggs, milk and cheese, and comes out almost like a giant baked rosti, with lots of delicious crunchy bits on top and creamy yielding potato below.

Above: Looks good, right? Also vegetarian and gluten-free…oh what a world we live in.

Tonight’s dinner was a bit dull because I was pretty drained after all that Richard III and hadn’t planned anything exciting (and obv there was no pudding.) More soup though – something from Alyson Gofton’s Flavours cookbook, which is a million times superior to her schilling Watties products for Food in a Minute. Flavours has a good concept, too – each recipe is dedicated to a different flavouring, some familiar, like cocoa, vanilla pods, and ginger, some a little more interesting, like sherry, tumeric, and walnut oil, and some are those “I bought this on a whim and now what?” flavourings like saffron, verjuice and tamarind. I made the Garlic Soup, which although worryingly flatulent in title is nothing more taxing than onion soup with garlic in it. It is easy to make, with a lovely creamy texture – despite no cream – and is good for when you don’t think you have anything in the cupboards.

Above: Someone else: “Why is that photo cut off…let me adjust it a…” Me: “It’s supposed to be creative!” Just as some people can strew throw-pillows about their houses without looking messy, while others just look like they dumped cushions everywhere, well…you guess which category I fall into.

PS: Without wanting to sound like I’m asking for them…Don’t be shy with comments!

The Hardest Button To Button…

October 23, 2007March 14, 20204 Comments

We had a bit of a feast yesterday because, well, yesterday marked two years since Tim and I started going out. Yay for us! We toyed with the idea of going out to dinner but (a) it would cost too much, (b) I like to cook too much and (c) we didn’t want to make too big a deal of it. So instead, we splurged on some steak, which I marinated, Scandinavian-styles, in vodka, garlic, thyme and olive oil. This recipe comes via Nigella’s Feast and is very simple. I did take a photo of the steak marinading in one of those bags you get at the bulk section at Pak’n’Save (which I always hold on to for this very purpose) but…it looked a little too unattractively like something out of “Silence of the Lambs” for my liking. For all of our sakes, it will not feature here.

I had a hankering to do something with white chocolate for pudding and found the perfect recipe in Nigella’s Forever Summer: Blonde Mocha Layer Cake, so named for its pairing of coffee and white chocolate flavours. Sounds like hard work, but really it isn’t. It is a coffee flavoured sponge sandwiched together with creamy white chocolate icing, and it’s a doddle to make. So, while the steak was marinading fleshily, I got on with the cake.

It is based on a Victoria Sponge recipe, one that Nigella often adapts in her books. I creamed equal amounts of butter and sugar (225g) and added four eggs, 225g self raising flour, 1/4 cup strong black coffee and a tablespoon of milk. Dollop this into two buttered and lined 21cm caketins and bake at 180 C for 25 or so minutes. This recipe can be made plain – with all milk instead of coffee – and roughly halved (that is, 125g butter, sugar, and flour, 2 eggs, 2 T milk) it makes fantastically easy cupcakes, which you bake for about 20 or so minutes. Anyone passing through our flat earlier this year will remember my brief but torrid affair with cupcakes, which resulted in all sorts of creations (mostly Nigella’s)…lavender cupcakes, orange cupcakes, carrot cake cupcakes, coca-cola chocolate cupcakes…The point is, it is all kinds of versatile.

Above: Two moons! Actually, the golden coffee flavoured sponges fresh from the oven. (incidentally, I found out that it was the place where I work that was behind the “Two Moons” ad all those years ago! It has been their most well received ad campaign ever apparently.)

While they were cooling I boiled the potatoes in preparation for another recipe from Feast, “Sticky Garlic Potatoes.” While they were bubbling away I heated up some olive oil in a roasting dish in the oven, and chopped some garlic cloves. The idea is, once you have drained the boiled potatoes, you bash them up a bit with the end of a rolling pin or somesuch, tip them, with the garlic into the hot roasting dish, and roast them, the garlic and oil sort of “catching” the fuzzy bits and making it all crispy and delicious.

Once they were in the oven, I heated up the pan for the steak and put some frozen beans on to boil. Now I have to admit here that I forgot to scale down the marinade ingredients (Nigella’s recipe feeds a lot more than two) so…the steak was a schmeer on the intense side. To be honest, I had to send it back for a second go in the pan in order to cook out all the vodka. I was a bit annoyed with myself because I’d made this before with great success. In the end it tasted great – and looked pretty good too.

Above: Say it with steak, not flowers, I reckon…the potatoes were all they promised to be: crunchy (but creamily fluffy within!) and garlicky. The beans were…well, they made our dinner look healthier.

Because the table was too covered in junk for us to eat on we opted for the lounge where we watched another installment of Season 2 Outrageous Fortune on DVD…before switching over to TV3 to watch the current season’s episode. They should definitely be paying me for all the free advertising I’m giving them! In the ads I made the icing for the now-cooled sponges. It involved butter, (90g) white chocolate, (250g) sour cream (250g) and icing sugar (250g) in rather terrifying proportions. It was very easy to make though – melt this, stir this, sift that – and looked absolutely wondrous:

Above: Mmmmmmmm….There was actually rather a lot of icing, which made licking the bowl all the more gratifying.

I then thickly iced and sandwiched the sponges. It has to be said that the baked sponges look rather shallow and unimpressive, but once they are filled and iced it is another story altogether. I thought a dusting of cocoa on top might make it evocative of a cappucino…See?

Above: The finished Blonde Mocha Cake.

I have to say, it is an inspired flavour pairing. I think if I was having an actual espresso, I would rather have some dark chocolate, but for coffee in cake-form, white chocolate is the way to go. It’s rich fudginess is the perfect foil for the smoky depth that the coffee provides, the slight bitterness of which means that the combination isn’t at all cloying.

Recurring Steam

October 14, 2007Leave a comment

There was a half price sale at Briscoes last Saturday. Tim, Kieran and I trooped down there to idly have a look at any bargains…and walked out an hour later groaning with bags. One of my purchases was a pudding steamer, something I have been looking on Trademe for for a while now. I made Nigella’s Golden Syrup Steamed Pudding, from How To Be A Domestic Goddess which was unbelievably delicious and very easy. You mix up a fairly basic sponge batter, grease the pudding bowl and lid, put golden syrup and lemon juice in the bottom of the bowl, dollop over the batter and clip on the lid. Lower this into a pan of boiling water, cover, and let steam for about two hours. Couldn’t be easier and seriously, couldn’t be more yum. Unfortunately, there aren’t really that many recipes these days that call for a pudding steamer and oh, how I long to steam something…

Above: Golden Syrup Steamed Pud. Perfect for when it’s raining…which is every bloody day at the moment in Wellington!

I can’t remember what I actually cooked for dinner that night, (ie, the meat component) but I do remember what I made on the side – a wonderful, wonderful thing called Pan Haggerty which comes from The Accidental Vegetarian. I know that some blogs post recipes but I’m not sure whether or not you need permission or something so you don’t get sued. So, I won’t give you the recipe but I will say this: (slowly) You thinly slice up potatoes and an onion, layer it in an oven dish, dot with butter, bake, then top with cheese and grill. Pa-dah! So good…I might make it again tonight. The photo below is a bit rubbish (especially in the context of the standards of the rest of the photos) but I thought I’d include it as it seems to convey the golden warmth of the potato-ey, cheesey dish.