Simple seared fennel & pumpkin salad

The prices of fennel bulbs in Sydney almost makes me wonder if they are secretly a staple food in Australia. It took me a while to reach for one though, because normally I only consider fennel bulb edible if it’s shaved paper thin or caramelised in the oven Ottolenghi-style, but when the only knives you have are blunt as hell and you don’t have an hour to roast a side dish…well, it turns out great discoveries can be made.

I’ve been enjoying thickly sliced fennel bulb that is seared whilst covered in the pan, which keeps it refreshing but a little sweet with a hum of aniseed, rather than a blast. It’s like lazy roasted fennel basically. It retains a slippery crunch as long as you sear it on a high-ish heat and not for so long that it goes limp and squishy (if this happens, you could potentially puree it and stir through some cream cheese for an interesting dip). The end result reminds me a little of a sweeter, more fragrant version of celery. It also doesn’t require a mandoline, mad knife skills, slow stewing or cooking then roasting!

The seared fennel is glorious with crumbled feta or haloumi as pictured above, with some pumpkin and carrots cooked the same way as the fennel to bring out their sweetness. For extra health brownie points I added some butter beans and crunchy buttery lettuce, and chowed it all down with some focaccia. You can take it in whatever direction you like, but the fennel, pumpkin and/or carrots, and some tangy white cheese are a lovely combination. The pasta version (minus the lettuce) with feta is wonderful, because all the flavoured oils and feta coat the pasta for a lovely sweet/salty dish that doesn’t need any extra seasoning. You could go for kalamata or green olives that have been marinated in lemon for an equally yummy vegan option too.

Seared fennel & pumpkin salad

makes as much or as little as you like, but the quantities below make enough for 2 as a main with some bread or tossed with cooked pasta

• 1/2 large fennel bulb, thickly sliced (across the lines)
• about 2c peeled pumpkin,* cut into triangularish** chunks about 1″ (2.5cm)
• optional: 1 carrot, cut into bite size chunks (slightly smaller than the pumpkin is fine)
• 150-200g feta, crumbled, or haloumi slices seared on two sides
• optional: greens as a bed, or the fennel greens as a garnish

*Go for butternut, buttercup, or crown pumpkin, that is deeply orange. Avoid yellowy or pale orange pumpkin, which will not be very sweet.

**Some corners will cook faster and these help the pumpkin form a bit of a sauce when tossed with everything else. If this messy approach doesn’t wash well with you, cut into cubes.

Add about 2-3 Tbs oil to a large frying pan (it is essential that the veges aren’t stacked too high), add pumpkin and carrot, cover and let cook on medium high heat until the bottoms of the vege chunks start going golden brown. Add a small splash of water, stir, cover again and cook until brown on the underside. Test for doneness with a small sharp knife (or try a piece). It’s ok if they are ever-so-slightly undercooked, as they will keep cooking a bit as they cool. Remove from pan.

Cook fennel the same way. Turn off the heat and add the pumpkin back into the pan, along with pasta if using. Add most of the feta/haloumi and stir. Plate (place on top of salad greens if using) and top with remaining feta and fennel greens if using.

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Foodie Fave

I picked up some amaranth flakes and am using them left right and centre! I feel like it deserves its own post but feel free to email me with any ideas and I’ll mention them as well (with credit of course!).

Honey caramelised onions & chevre sammy

At the end of any particularly busy week, all I want is simple home made comfort food. I’d be lying if I said this sandwich, made of oat & honey bread I made from scratch, with home-caramelised onions, was whipped up in two minutes (although it could be if you bought the bread and the onions). However it is worth the foresight you will need to put it all together. There’s not much active prep time, but bread and caramelised onions need time to just hang a bit.

For those with busy schedules, I suggest you mix the dough after dinner, let the dough rise, shape it and chuck it in the fridge overnight. The next morning, preheat the oven while you brush your teeth and do your morning routine, then chuck the dough in to cook. The onions can either cook while the dough rises (you only need to stir it every ten minutes or so), or while the bread cooks.

Honey & oat bread

Inspired by Artisan Bread in 5, the book that has prevented me from ever having to buy bread. This is a soft, slightly chewy and moist loaf – kind of like a soft oat and honey ciabatta.

Makes one large flat & wide loaf (wider and longer than a supermarket loaf, but much flatter). Don’t worry too much about measuring perfectly.

• 1 3/4c warm water
• about 1 1/2 Tbs honey (nothing too fancy, as it will get cooked!)
• about 2 tsp salt
• about 3/4 Tbs active dry yeast
• about 2 Tbs oil (omit if you want a crustier loaf)
• 2 c white flour (plain or bread/high grade flour)
• 1 c quick cook oats

Mix first five ingredients just to dissolve the honey a little, then mix in flour. The dough will be bordering on being a thickish cake “batter.” Cover (not airtight) and leave until the dough has doubled in size, and flat on top. Let it rise at least 2 hours though. At this point you can (Option A) shape it, or if you’ve run out of time, (Option B) chuck it in the fridge (covered still) for up to five days until you’re ready to shape it.

When ready to shape, heavily grease a baking tray with butter or margarine (or it will stick like mad) and dust with flour, or line with a silicon baking sheet or a reusable non stick baking sheet*. Dust the top liberally with flour (particularly the edges), and using a spatula, scrape the dough out onto your baking tray. Using your spatula, shape the dough into a loaf shape. Dust the top lightly with flour if the top is all wet dough exposed. If you’re using dough that has sat in the fridge overnight already** (Option B), you can now proceed to the next step. Otherwise (Option A), chuck this tray in your fridge or somewhere cold overnight (or for at least 4 hours).

Preheat your oven to 220C (430F). If you’ve just shaped the dough (Option B), let it sit out during the preheat. For those who chose Option A, leave the shaped dough in the fridge during the preheat – it doesn’t need any more rise time. Once your oven is up to temperature, bake for 20 minutes (check at 15 minutes if your oven runs hot), until the loaf is golden brown.

If you want a super soft crust, wrap the loaf in a clean tea towel (or non stick baking sheet, or paper bag) as soon as it’s out of the oven. Otherwise let cool on a rack.

Note: Option A will produce a more porous loaf, whereas Option B will puff upwards more.

* I loved these so much that I wrote to Lynette and did a giveaway of them. I basically use them every two or three days now!

**This is so the oats can soak up enough liquid

Honey caramelised onions

• onions (if you’re not using red onion, use a tad more honey)
• salt to taste
• oil to coat onions
• drizzle of honey

Peel and halve your onions, and slice (about 5mm). Mix with other ingredients in a frypan that has a lid.

Cover and turn heat to low. Leave for about twenty minutes (unless you use gas or induction, in which case leave for twenty minutes). Uncover, stir and add a teaspoon of water if things are sticking to the bottom, then stir. Repeat until the onions are properly browned and very soft. Try not to hurry them by turning the heat up (difficult, I know).

Sandwich

Use the bread on the day it’s cooked, otherwise toast it for this sandwich. Spread liberally with spreadable chevre (or make some cheat’s chevre, see below), dollop with caramelised onions.

If you have fresh thyme (I envy you soooo much), chuck that on there too. Some thinly sliced cucumber would make a nice crunchy refreshing foil to the richness of this sandwich. Use store bought ciabatta if you need to, or whatever your favourite sandwich bread is. If you buy some caramelised onions, topping them with a little drizzle of honey will achieve a similar effect. Have fun with it. Then enjoy :)

Cheat’s chevre

If you can’t find chevre, you can smoosh some goat’s feta in with some thick greek yogurt, or make labneh with a sprinkling of salt (make sure you use very tangy yogurt. Or you can mix harder varieties of chevre with thick yogurt. These options won’t be the same obviously, but they are pretty tasty options nonetheless (and quite a bit cheaper!). Remember to use the whey from making labneh in soups or dressings, it would be a major shame to throw away.

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Taste magazine feature

This little blog of mine was lucky enough to be featured in this month’s Taste magazine (a New Zealand food mag, for those reading from outside New Zealand) :)

It was a little poignant reading this little piece of New Zealand whilst being in Sydney! I do miss the sense of familiarity and close-knitness you develop so quickly in New Zealand, where mostly everyone has time for a bit of yarn. Luckily I’ve found that feeling at work, but the fast-paced food culture is a bit more nonchalant and intimidating over here so far, with a few exceptions (my workmate pointed out that Fratelli Fresh is two minutes away from work…!).

The recipe featured in Taste is an old favourite – apple and rhubarb crumble. If you’re looking for other awesome sweet things to make from the magazine, the beautiful pear tarts on page 74 are the real keeper, from Treats and Little on Friday. I’m also drooling all over Julie Biuso’s brown sugar meringue with chocolate cream, even though I’m not a fan of meringue generally speaking. So if you’re looking to get some yummy sweet ideas, this issue is all over that, plus you get to read me harp on about myself :P

Have a lovely weekend :)

Clean out your nutella jar, and have your hazelnut hot chocolate too

Having discovered that house hunting in Sydney is as soul-crushing as most people say it is,* Will and I both needed some serious comfort food, so we’ve taken to throwing back hot chocolates like a central city Sydney-an would throw back coffee. Today, when I noticed our nutella getting to that annoying almost-finished stage, a delicious idea began to form in my head.

Instead of trying to scrape the last bits of nutella out from the awkwardly-shaped jars, I concocted a mindblowingly amazing hazelnut-kissed hot chocolate. All you need is cocoa (since nutella is so sugar-laden), and if you like your hot chocolates fairly sweet, some additional sugar of some sort, or honey.

Heat your milk of choice in a mug in the microwave, until hot to the touch. Meanwhile, spoon about 2 heaping teaspoons of cocoa (the stuff you bake with, not necessarily drinking cocoa) into your nutella jar**. Pour the milk into the jar, cover tightly, and shake it like a polaroid picture until you can see that the nutella is off the sides. Taste, and add sugar (pref brown, or use honey) if it’s a little “dark” for your liking. Pour back into your mug if drinking out of a jar isn’t your scene, and enjoy! If you want it piping hot you can microwave again for another ten seconds or so. 

* The situation has become so dire we’ve resorted to increasingly ridiculous hyperbolic statements to keep ourselves amused/sane, very few of which would be appropriate for a food blog. If you’re ever planning on moving to Sydney to live, I don’t suggest house hunting on foot. You’ll be that much more sore (literally and figuratively) when the real estate agent doesn’t show up, or when you realise the address has been advertised incorrectly, or when the apartment does not live up to the ad.

** This is also where you can add whatever other things you like in your hot chocolates, like vanilla extract or sea salt.

PS. I wouldn’t advise heating the nutella jar in the microwave as the plastic will likely do weird things. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

PPS. Coincidentally, if you didn’t already know, the easiest, cheapest way to make a regular hot chocolate is to heat your milk of choice, and add cocoa and sweetener to taste.

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Foodie Fave 

One of Sydney’s greatest redeeming features would be the food (good places are dispersed, but plentiful). We’re currently walking distance from Central Baking Depot, whose tarts are lovingly crafted from case to filling – the flaky, crumbly, buttery, properly deep golden crusts are a miracle in themselves, not just a delivery mechanism for the filling.

Expanding the horizons of roast veges

In this case, with a simple butter toasted cumin tomato sauce (although other spice-unrelated ideas are presented under the photo).

To understand the origins of this simple step forward: I have a hard time getting excited about making my own curry. Inevitably I don’t have one of the fifteen spices the recipe calls for, or one of the multiple hours the recipe requires me to foster the pot for. However, I am a rather avid fan of the aroma and deliciousness that is toasted cumin, sizzled with garlic and onions in a little butter, stirred into tomato goop. That stuff I can drink for dinner, but then I went one better and poured this sauce over roast veges, which became a real eureka moment (the aroma kept me busy from having a eureka photography moment though, sorry :P).

Unlike a curry, the veges are roasted on their ownsome to develop their own unique glorious flavour – the sauce just makes the veges a little more exciting, without dominating the show, but still cling nicely to each unique-tasting bite. No need for a food processor to blitz a gravy. Use whatever veges you have in season. Heck, you can even use a different spice, or spice set (garam masala, cheapo curry powder, curry paste, coriander seeds…). To make this into a fully fledged meal, I’ve made a few suggestions at the bottom of the recipe. It makes pretty good leftovers as well, and could also be pureed with cream cheese for a pretty rad dip. Hell, you could omit the spice and use olives and herbs and take this in a Mediterranean direction (I’ve actually done this with different veges, subbed cooked pasta in for the potatoes, chucked grated cheese over and baked till golden…best pasta bake ever). I would recommend potatoes no matter what though, because…who doesn’t like roast potatoes?!

Roast veges & eureka sauce

Makes as much or as little as you want. 1x 400g can of tomatoes + a large roasting pan full of veg will make a dry curry though, as a guide – so alter to suit your preferences.

• Enough vegetables to fill your roasting dish/tummies, cut into bite-size pieces (I used cauliflower, broccoli, button mushrooms, potatoes, carrot, and red onion)
• oil to coat the potatoes

Preheat oven to 200C (400F) before starting anything. While it’s doing that, cut your veges.

Once the oven is hot, drizzle your potatoes with oil in the roasting pan, and stick in for 15 minutes* (if not using potatoes, skip this step). You can make sauce while it cooks, or finish chopping the rest of your veges. Remove par-cooked potatoes from oven, and stir through other veges to coat in a bit of oil (if using broccoli, try to get these to sit at the bottom to prevent the florets from burning, unless you like that about roasted broccoli). Return to oven for 15-20 minutes, until veges are ever so slightly under cooked. Pour sauce over and stir through, and return to oven for 5 minutes.

*You can cover the potatoes with a baking tray if you want to use less oil but don’t want them to go too dry and leathery. This also prevents the oil from burning.

Eureka sauce

• 1 x 400g can tomato goop of choice** (I had chopped toms, but normally use bottled passata)
• about 30g-40g butter (who really measures these things) or a few Tbs cooking oil if you’re lactose intolerant
• a Tbs cooking oil (to prevent butter from burning)
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1/2 tsp salt (more if using unsalted tomato goop)
• 1 tsp cumin (ground or whole)

**Acceptable choices include: passata, puree, chopped tomatoes, whole tomatoes in juice, or chopped fresh tomatoes

Toast your cumin in a pan on medium heat until fragrant, or you can do it when you were preheating the oven, but be careful that it doesn’t burn – you have to have your nose about you!

Melt butter on medium heat with everything except the tomatoes. Once the garlic starts to smell fragrant too, pour your tomatoes in, and turn off heat (you can leave the sauce on the heat).

Some ideas to make into a full meal:

1. Add chopped semi-firm tofu in with your veges.
2. Once out of the oven, top with cubes of feta or haloumi.
3. Add chopped paneer when adding the sauce (and some spinach).
4. Sprinkle over grated cheese once you’ve stirred the veges through.
5. Sear meat while you sear the garlic/onions, and cook the meat most of the way through in the sauce rather than taking the sauce off the heat immediately after adding the tomato.

If you have any other ideas, feel free to share them with me, as I have a feeling I’m going to be resorting to this a lot as the days get cooler – any excuse to have the oven on will be a good one!

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Foodie fave

I’m starting to actually enjoy eating cauliflower leaves, which are mostly thrown away. They have a wonderfully refreshing note to them. To use them, just strip them off the larger stalks, but you can leave the smaller ones whole. They are especially yummy with stir fried Chinese cabbage and a little Japanese soy sauce, you just have to let them cook for a bit first before adding the Chinese cabbage. They’d also work well in soups, where you can add the stalks (finely chopped) as well. Basically you treat the leaves like cabbage or kale. Some blogs seem to suggest you need to cook them for an hour, but I think that would cook the life out of them! Given that cauliflower plants are mostly leaf, it seems pretty wasteful to sell them with the leaves cut off!

PS. I have landed safely in Sydney, and have already found a cute coffee place! The goats cheese, caramelised onion and thyme sandwich was just what I needed to distract me from all the noise – I feel like such a country lass living in the CBD >.<

Smoked eel scramble

Last year I was lucky enough to find myself helping to judge the Taste Farmers’ Markets NZ Awards. I’ve heard that this year, one very lucky voter for their favourite market will also be asked to join the judges this year, and there’s also a trip for two to tour Melbourne’s markets up for grabs – so go vote if you’re in NZ! If you’re keen to be in to win some other foodies prizes, remember to like the facebook page as well.

One of the very deserving winners was Moko smoked eel, who sell at various markets in Canterbury, as well as Rare Fare. Now I’ve never been an eel fan, but this stuff is thoroughly addictive – the texture is more like smoked pork or smoked chicken, and the flavour is meaty, smoky, and fishy all at the same time! It’s only available seasonally though, so when I stumbled across one of the eel-catchers-in-chief, Robert, at the Lyttelton Farmer’s Market, I was delighted to pick some up as a treat. He had whole eels with the bone in for $5, or the deboned version for $10 – I highly recommend getting the whole eel, as the bone is really easy to remove, and you can then use the bone in soups. The skin, which is very tough, should be peeled off (easy), and can also be chucked into soups to add flavour.

I had so many ideas for optimising my eel-eating experience (never thought I’d ever say that). In a sandwich with home made guacamole, in a salad with cherry tomatoes, spring onions, corn and celery (maybe a little mayo), on crackers with cream cheese… but you know how you can’t wait for another trip to the store, so you throw something together and it turns out to trump all your other ideas? I present to you my favourite go-to dish for using tomatoes that are a bit past their best (I blame my mother for buying too many when they’re “on sale”). A little squirt of good tomato sauce/ketchup really elevates this, but you could easily use barbecue sauce instead (another suggestion I never thought I’d make!). Alternatively, a little brown sugar will suffice (for those of you who can’t stomach the idea of store-bought tomato ketchup!). The result is a slightly sweet, smoky, rich and moreish scramble that is nicely balanced out with juicy tomatoes. Some fresh corn shaved off the cob would make a wonderful addition too.

Of course if you can’t find smoked eel, sub in another smoky protein and you should be good – whether it’s smoked tofu, salmon, trout,* chicken or bacon.

I could probably have eaten this all by myself, but realistically it serves about 2 as a main side with toast.

• 3 free range eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt & freshly cracked pepper
• cooking oil
• 1 red onion, sliced (thick or thin wedges) (or use brown onion or spring onion)
• 2 tomatoes, cut into sixths or eighths
• small handful de-skinned, de-boned smoked eel, torn into small bite sized pieces
• squirt of good tomato ketchup or barbecue sauce, or sprinkling of light brown or raw sugar
• chives or spring onions for garnish

Heat a large non stick or cast iron frying pan on medium high heat. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs with about a teaspoon splash of water, salt and pepper until frothy. Pour about 3-4 Tbs oil into you hot pan and immediately add onions. Once onions are browned on the underside, pour eggs over the top. Once the edges have set, scrape the set edges into the middle. Once the eggs are almost cooked (no orangey bits left), add tomatoes and eel to the pan and squirt over tomato sauce. Turn off heat (unless you’re using induction, in which case leave the heat on a lower setting for a minute or so), and stir to distribute the sauce nicely. Taste and add more salt if needed.

Serve with chives and a hunk of good bread.

*I’ve observed that smoked trout is to Aussies what smoked salmon is to kiwis in terms of price & availability…except I’ve never found smoked trout in Christchurch at all.

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Unbelievably easy honey & vanilla “ice cream”

I call this “ice cream” because this is so rich that you’d never want to eat a whole bowlful of this (not even the cupful pictured…but the cup was too pretty with the roses that I couldn’t resist). However, it is handy as an addition to desserts – like that scoop of ice cream you really don’t need with your favourite crumble, or that dollop of whipped cream to go with a tart fruit pie/crumble. Rather perfect for Autumn fruit things coming out at the moment, including any cakes that didn’t go as awesomely as planned (sigh, can’t always be brilliant). Also, this doesn’t need an ice cream maker, nor does it require ANY stirring after being chucked in the freezer.

It is still super soft, fluffy and smooth, like ice cream should be – not icicle-laden or heavy at all. It’s also a tad better for you as it’s made with no refined sugar, but it’s also tastier for it. Use raw honey and this could even be a health food! Kidding.

I’d also recommend playing around with different flavours. I used vanilla extract (which is basically vodka + vanilla bean), but cointreau or limoncello would be lovely too, or even Tia Maria. Alcohol helps keep this soft. You can make your own real extracts too, and it’s actually fairly easy – check out Pastry Pal’s awesome guide. You could also drizzle through some tart fruit preserves (since this is fairly sweet already) – unsweetened compote for example. Now that I think about it, a rhubarb version of this would be pretty amazing. EDIT: Freeze-dried fruit (or the fruit powder) sprinkled on top would be pretty rad too – check out Alessandra’s NZ giveaway for some that’s made in New Zealand!

…and just in case you were already thinking it, yes, this is basically really fantastic frozen whipped cream. However it is much nicer than anything you’ll ever get out of a can!

Thanks to Stone Soup & Meg Kat for inspiring this :)

Honey & vanilla “ice cream”

makes about 1L

• 300ml whipping cream
• 140g very solid honey (I used J Friend & Co.’s viper’s bugloss honey)
• 20ml (1 Tbspn + 1 tsp) real vanilla extract (or liqueur of choice)
• 70g (about 1/3c) unsweetened yogurt (I used Clearwater’s pot set yogurt)*

* EDIT: should still work without this too, but at the time was trying to make it a little lighter

Place honey, vanilla and yogurt in a bowl, and place that bowl in another larger bowl of hot water.

Meanwhile, whip cream until soft droopy peaks form and keep their shape when dropped back onto the mixture when you lift the mixer or whisk out.

Stir honey until the yogurt is incorporated. Fold through the cream with a fork or spatula, until just incorporated. Scrape into a container and freeze overnight.