"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…

Fa La La La La!

November 30, 20071 Comment

The First of December today! Tis officially the season to be jolly now – not October, as many soulless chain department stores would have you believe. This means that our $2 shop mini Christmas tree can be displayed now – and it is, perched aloft on our microwave (which is perched aloft on one of the fridges, incidentally – we have space issues in our kitchen), helpfully absorbing radiation everytime we defrost some mince.

Guess who we saw yesterday?

Above: Becks on the big screen! He was actually on the field in reality too, but LA Galaxy (lined up here during half time to recieve a pounamu ‘trinket’ as the commentator clumsily put it) were on the complete opposite side of the field to us.

Above: Ohyeahtherewassoccertoo. But Beckham!!

Just kidding. I admit freely – well, I do loathe sports – that to me last night’s Phoenix/Adelaide game was a mere precursor to the Beckham game tonight, but in fact I really got into it, and have to say soccer is faaaar more exciting to watch than rugby and more elegant, too. We lost in the end – but it was rather thrilling to watch, and great fun to be part of the record crowd turnout for soccer in New Zealand (around 18,000 – Beckham was probably laughing his head off that this was the biggest crowd we’ve had.) So, am something of a convert to The Beautiful Game – but remain unwavering in my belief that Sport = Bullying.

Anyway, because this is a food blog, and not some kind of psychological diary for how being forced to do sport at school has scarred me for life, (I’m not kidding though, I think it might have…) I’d better get back on topic. Have just picked up my enormous chunk of ham from the butcher, and am going to start cooking all manner of things in advance for tomorrow night. Needless to say, I’m very, very excited!

The Air Near My Fish Fingers

November 29, 2007March 14, 20203 Comments

Have just done The Grocery Shop for the Christmas Dinner, which is breathing down my neck…wait that doesn’t sound so positive. It’s looming – wait, that sounds too shadowy and dark. The Christmas Dinner approacheth! I won’t lie, I’m feeling a little frazzled but I really don’t want to turn into one of those people who insist on doing everything themselves and then complain that they have so much to do. But look at it this way: The dinner is on Sunday. I am working all day tomorrow, then we are going to the Phoenix/Australia soccer game. On Saturday night is the Beckham/Phoenix game. I will be very, very busy. I was going to get the truffles started tonight, but of course the only (so far) thing I forgot to buy was bloody icing sugar and the stuff we have has gluten in it which kiboshes that. Never mind, I feel that making truffles after 10.00pm can only end with a tearful breakdown, followed by eating All The Truffle Mixture.

In other news, the USB cord for the camera arrived today, so I can stop borrowing Kieran’s (extremely flash!) camera. It also means I can show you the finished Chocolate Guinness Cake – yes, him again! (I don’t know why I think of this cake as having masculine properties, it is clearly far too late at night for this sort of thing.)

Above: A tip for ye, don’t for goodness sake ever use lite cream cheese for the icing of this cake. It is runny as heck and no amount of refrigeration would thicken it. So I abandoned the idea of emulating the froth on top of a pint and went for the artistic drizzle look instead…still tasted like a dream – this is a seriously special cake.

Anyway, we spent an inordinate amount of dollars at the supermarket tonight. It was partly covered by a generous donation from an anonymous fan of the blog cough*mother*coughcough* which helped immensely. I was too exhausted after all that to think about food so this was our dinner, and a fine one it was too:

Above: Fish fingers (or fish sticks as our Canadian friend calls them) and chips from Aro Valley (it’s a place near where we live, not a magical valley where fried foods grow on trees.) Had a sudden craving for fish fingers after thinking about retro food, prompted by a cooking forum I frequent. Now I am feeling full and cranky, but after salad for lunch I think it balances out…plus I drank sooo much green tea at the office after reading about how good it is for you.

So yes: tomorrow night and the next night will be spent watching football so I have to plan this out somehow. I will leave you with a maths problem, because not only is any maths a problem in my books but…well, that’s it really.

2 stuffed Chickens need about an hour and a half at 220 C

Potatoes need to be at 200-220 C for an hour or so.

Challah needs to be at 180 C for about 40 minutes and apparently starts going stale instantly so can’t be made ahead.

The ham can be baked at either 200 C for 20 minutes or at 180 C for about 40 minutes…

The Challah shouldn’t sit round for long, the meat can handle sitting for a bit covered in foil, and the potatoes need to be hot. If my brain explodes from crunching these numbers, what time will the 3.45 train get to London and exactly how many apples will Sally have left?

Everybody Must Get Sconed

November 27, 2007March 14, 20203 Comments

Before you ask, I didn’t make scones just so I could use that as a title. I am not like the oily Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice, who stored up delicate compliments and witticisms in the hopes of being able to drop them in the conversation at some stage…Ah, who am I kidding.

Outrageous Fortune is about to start and I’m blatantly not going to finish this by 9:30 – I guess I will have to dash back in the ads. If Judd doesn’t come back, or worse, if Cheryl pashes Gary I wouldn’t even try reading any further because it probaby won’t be coherent.

There is much to be excited about this week: David Beckham, old Goldenballs himself, is gracing our fair shores and the entire Team Hadfield (plus some ring-ins) are going to see him and LA Galaxy playing the Phoenix team this Saturday. Then on Sunday is the annual Hadfield Christmas Dinner (well, we had one last year, which is as good as a tradition to us fickle youth.)

The menu will run thusly, and you will be finding out about all this later on in the week.

Dinner:

Fully Festive Ham (From Nigella’s Feast)

2 Roast Chickens

Roast potatoes, pumpkin (if I can find someone to chop it for me) and kumara

A big green salad

Boiled peas.

I may attempt bread sauce. Am also toying with the idea of making challah, but don’t want to end up a gibbering wreck and not enjoying myself at all.

Dessert:

Lemon Prosset

Platter of Chocolate Truffles, Rugelach (a Hanukkah treat also from Feast) and Malteaser traybake, a recipe I found on Nigella.com which I am quite wild to try out.

I have already booked my slab o’ piggy from the butcher and will be picking it up on Saturday morning. I need to do a big grocery shop though – especially since Tim and I are still living off what was in our cupboards before we went up home last week. Like Santa, I will be making a list, and checking it twice. Last night’s dinner, by the way, was a vegetable curry with brown rice – the curry consisted of cauliflour, carrot, and parsnip, and although it tasted good the parsnip gave it an odd sweetness.

Above: Vege curry, brown rice, retro plate! To beef it up (ironically), I added some baked cauliflour on the side – it is a Nigella suggestion to dust them with ground cumin, which I didn’t have, so I used some garam masala instead. I prefer cumin, but it is a fine substitution. I realise the word ‘cauliflour’ doesn’t exactly make one’s knees quiver with excitement, but this is a great way of cooking it.

Above: It wasn’t Salute to Cauliflour Day or anything…I just had a lot of the stuff. Just bake florets, dusted in cumin, in a hot oven for about 20 minutes.

The scones I made quickly, without a recipe in fact, not because of some smug sense of self-importance, but because I wanted it done quickly. I do realise that a recipe gives you more chance of success, but I’ve never been one to roll out the dough and stamp out rounds – I prefer it more free-form, which also means you don’t handle the dough so much.

Above: “They’ll scone you when you’re at the breakfast table…” Once baked, the warm scones were eaten while we watched Knocked Up on DVD, a movie which is not for the faint-hearted but seriously, intensely funny.

Outrageous Fortune update: Loretta, don’t give away your baby! Cheryl, don’t go near Gary! And once more, Judd! Come back! Only two more episodes till the season ends which means only two things: things will get even more fraught on the show, and there will be a black hole in our Tuesday evenings till Season 4 starts.

Guinness Gracious Me

November 25, 2007March 14, 20201 Comment

Another day, another disorganised camera drama. This one isn’t on the scale of The Pork Debacle or the day the biscuit photos disappeared…but it is nonetheless a pain. This means I can’t show you a photo of my new pride and joy, a large bottle of sherry – a present from Mum – which I am super excited about using, or all the cookbooks that Tim lugged back for me from home, which I also can’t wait to try out, or – more’s the pity – the finished Chocolate Guinness Cake, which deserves every bit of its capitalisation – it is enormous, dense, and dark, a king amongst cakes.

Don’t fret though, as I do have some photos which I uploaded to the hard drive before leaving home. I organise with one hand, and disorganise with the other. And, as all you can do is step back in time, here are some things from the weekend, when I was still at home.

Above: The veges for the Tunisian vegetable stew from Nigella’s Feast! Look at them all! I made this, and the Chocolate Guinness Cake also from Feast, to take along to a family party on Saturday. Tim helped me chop everything, otherwise it would have taken hours. I have often made the meatballs – just the other day we had them, in fact – and have made the vege stew before, but haven’t had them together yet, as per Nigella’s suggestion. Well, it is a fab combo, and great to take to potluck dinners. We didn’t have any harissa, so I just added a bit more cumin to the mix, which didn’t matter as there were going to be people of all ages eating this who might not like chilli!

Above: The meatballed stew in its toureen, with Feast in the background…never realised how useful those cookbook holders are for preventing your books from getting mucky – haven’t seen one in shops for ages though! This stew is not only easy, it is delicious, very good for you, and adaptable as heck.

Above: Butter and Beer, together at last. Mine and Tim’s favourite things, respectively… Reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer asks Apu if he has any of that beer with candy floating in it, “You know, Skittlebrau?” Apu says Homer must have dreamt it. So Homer buys a dozen beer and a packet of skittles. By the way, the above picture is for the Chocolate Guinness cake. We could only find packs of 4x440ml cans and the cake needed a mere 250mls so Tim manfully dealt with the rest…

Above: This is the biggest one-tin cake I have ever made! I don’t know what makes it so enormous – perhaps the Guinness bubbles?

Mum is posting me the usb cord for the camera, so you won’t be able to see what the iced cake looks like till then. Let me tell you this though: It tasted intensely gooood. And, I suspect, it would taste even better the next day. Now, I’m off to work, which is a little jarring after a week of gallivanting and watching movies I’ll admit…

That’s Entertainment…

November 25, 20071 Comment

Just a quick post, to tide things over. Tim and I have been back in Wellington, at Hadfield specifically, for a couple of hours now – after saying goodbye to Mum and Dad and bonding with the kitties for one last time, we jumped on the bus which would take us on our distinctly uncomfortable, 10-hour trip back to the capital. There is lots to write about, but I’ll do that tomorrow. In the meantime, I thought I would let you know that Muse were absolutely mind-blowingly wondrous. This isn’t my own personal music-review blog, exciting thought though that may be, but I will divert briefly from the food for today. As words can’t describe adequately how excellent this concert was, I thought this might help:

Above: This photo, taken by Tim, pretty much sums up what the gig was like.

Above: And this neatly describes how we felt the entire time. Dad and Julian loved it too; Julian braved the mosh pit, while the rest of us enjoyed the fantastic view from our seats.

What the pictures don’t quite convey, however, is how unbearably WARM it was inside the stadium – by the end we were sweating like mules carrying barrels of tequila to Mexico. Isn’t it funny with big-name concerts – you spend all the time beforehand thinking “How soon is now?” And then when it actually is happening, it feels like you have been there forever, but also that you need to focus on every-single-second before it is all over, and then when it is over – did that really even happen? Maybe this is just me – when I do care to engage my brain I tend to overthink a situation…

Anyway, we are about to collapse into bed, but just so we remember this is a food blog, I boiled us up some pasta when we got back to the flat, into which I stirred a little butter (okay quite a bit) and grated over some fresh nutmeg. Instant comfort food, which is what the soul craves (even if the hips don’t) after a ten hour bus trip.

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?”

"Home, Home Again…I Like To Be There When I Can"

November 18, 2007Leave a comment

Above: Gratuitous shot of Rupert the cat sitting in Dad’s drum kit. Roger, our newest kitty, is far too mercurial to be caught on film. He was named for Roger Waters, who wrote the lyrics for the song that I took the title from.

Tim and I went to my cousin’s 21st in Rotorua the weekend just been, and by the time we got home last night I was too tired to make anything other than spaghetti on toast. It is lovely to be home though (Wellington is home to me, but here in the country with my parents is home, if you know what I mean.) So, no pictures of what we have been eating, which is not to say we didn’t eat well on the weekend – the pub that the party was at provided us, among other things, with the singularly most incredible potato wedges I have ever had in my life.

The morning after we went to my aunty’s fantastic burger bar: Rapscallions, on Fenton Street (opposite the Police Station!) She opened it about two years ago, but this was the first time I have actually been in it, and I was seriously smitten with the place. We didn’t have any burgers because it wasn’t open yet (and thank goodness, as I was far too hungover) but we cooked up some bacon, eggs and hash browns and Charlie showed us their new addition – an enormous shiny espresso machine. Tim had a go making coffee too and noticed that, ahem, they had much nicer milk jugs than Starbucks has.

Above: Outside Rapscallions.

Above: Inside – the counter and the blackboard. Notice the neat handwriting – my aunty is also a teacher.

Above: Charlie making coffees and hot chocolates for everyone.

Above: Mum’s Chai Latte – isn’t it pretty?

Above: Me, having a go at frying the bacon. After my 3 minute stint behind the grill I have newfound respect for Tim’s time spent employed at McDonalds – it gets so hot back there!

Above: My favourite bit, the tables shaped like jigsaw pieces. Apparently you can actually fit them together too!

So, if you are ever in Rotorua, for goodness sake get thee to Rapscallions. Even in my unable-to-eat-anything state the burgers looked incredibly delicious – I would be the sort of annoying customer that would spend fifteen minutes bouncing between options, unable to choose what to eat because it all looks so good- not to mention the fact that you can get coffee of such quality that it will impress a guy from Starbucks.

Finally:

Above: One for the road. Well, I haven’t seen the cats since July, so I think a little gratuity can be allowed.

"Once in a while I return to the fold…

November 16, 20071 Comment

…of people I call my own.” Tim and I have about 20 minutes before we are to jump on a bus to Rotorua for my cousin’s 21st, after which we are going up to my home for a spell. Didn’t get to sleep till 2am last night, because Ange was visiting and Team Hadfield was united once more! Nevermind – we will have alllll the time in the world to sleep on the bus. For anyone not from NZ – find a map, look at where Wellington is and then where Rotorua is – you will see what I mean.

I think I’ve mentioned before that I have been trying to cook purely from what’s in the cupboards, since we are going away. It’s actually a good excercise in restraint. Last night I made the Union Square Nuts from Nigella Bites, which were incredibly moreish and quite beautiful looking, all burnished in varying degrees of gold.

Above: these are maaaarvelous; mixed nuts tossed in a little butter, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, and rosemary before being toasted in the oven.

Keeping with the nutty theme, I made some satay sauce to be poured over brown rice, which was just too overwhelmingly brown to take a photo of – trust me, it didn’t look so good on film. All in all a very unhealthy dinner – turns out I was labouring under a misapprehension that nuts are good for you, apparently the little blighters are densely packed with pure unadulterated fat. How depressing! They are very filling though, Tim and I ended up staggering about in a nut-filled stupor for a while after.

Am very much looking forward to going home, I’m sure I’ll get a chance to cook dinner and put it up here – not to mention a few gratuitous photos of Rupert and Roger the cats.