blur of a week

What a challenge we had last week, but even after Airline blunders, missing lamb and savoy shortages, we made it!

So no trophy this year, but we had a great trip to Christchurch, and caught up with family, and enjoyed the awards.

Came back, and nearly was bumped off our flight......the one I needed to be on to cook the dinner for the NZ food writers guild. But after a bit of protesting, threatening to sue and the threat of me litterally exploding in the middle of the airport, I flew back on time.

Katie and wee Brodie had to wait for another flight.

The dinner went very well. Big thanks to Bill and the team at the Rutherford for their help,

and Wangapeka Prime Lamb for finding the missing lamb(Through no fault of their own, or mine), and Lamb and Beef New Zealand for sponsoring the dinner( and asking me to cook it!).

And now we get to enjoy the first normal week in some time.

Aaaaaah

So back into book writing mode.

Mean as Beans

A week of catching up last week and more of the same this week as business gets busy, but first some very helpful comments to address... thanks to all who contributed, some great idea's and also some suggestions which we'd considered already but helps validate our vision of the project.

Someone asked about what we cooked at home - so far most of what we've shown here in the blog has been Grant's highly refined gastronomy; I, on the other hand lean towards something a lot more rustic and hearty.

Rustic and hearty I say? Nothing could be more so than baked beans - I owe much of this recipe to a chef buddy Matty. He'd use cheffy ingredients like pancetta and not use the canned goods I have below, But my version is simpler, faster and a third of the price to make, fulfilling one of the requirements of my food stylings - thrifty.

Scotty's Mean-as Beans

a glug of Olive oil
tsp of cumin seeds
1/2 tsp of fennel seeds (optional)

- get these started in a large frying pan on a medium-low heat, just sizzling and toasting

While that's doing it's thing dice up the following ingredients - not too finely, nice chunks.
150g of smokey bacon (I use Pestals, if you go to their butchery in Stoke you can buy bacon ends which are cheap-as, a little too smoky for some dishes -but perfect here and also a less fatty cut)
1 red onion
2-4 garlic cloves
1 green capsican


- raise the heat of the pan to medium-hot and add the bacon first to get some colour on it, shortly followed by everything else. Toss contents of pan around keeping what you can off the floor, bench and cooktop.

While that does it's thing get out
a 440g can of chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp of tomato paste
a good sprinkle of dried oregano


- add to the pan, stir through and turn down to a simmer. I will often dice up some fresh tomato and add this as well, don't worry about skin and seeds - rustic styles here. The three types of tomato bring different elements to the pallet, richness, sweetness, acidity and freshness.

Drain and wash
a 440g can of cannellini beans


- add to the pan and heat through

At this point I add some roughly chopped herbs. Usually basil or flat leaved parsley, but sometimes a shred some fresh spinach from the garden. You could add chilli earlier in the process but I just throw a dollop of Kaitaia Fire in it and a good amount of salt and pepper - stir through and serve up.

Back into it.

Well, young Scotty has been away for a week or so in Aussie land. Not the place I would want to be when we knocked them out of the world cup... anyhow.

We had a great brainstorming session, we shortlisted many suppliers we know and like.

Had a trial run at assembling some ingredients pictures to accompany the recipes, and then thought......NO, we need more!

So we will also travel to some places and show where the ingredients come from.

I have been drafting intro's for the recipes, and ingredients.

I was amazed how easy it came out.......but how it wasn't reading the way I was trying to write it. DOH!

Still, a couple of glasses of Nelson Sauvignon Blanc and it flowed so much easier.

Wierd. I put it down to letting the ingredients talk for themselves, and the bigger the glass, the better they spoke.

So Blackenbrook, I thank you for the intro to the cured salmon, and the goats cheese mousse!

Opinions please

So its help me time, can I please have a bit of feedback.

What makes a perfect cookbook?

Apart from the restaurants recipe content, what would everyone like to see?

Suggestions please?

Perhaps......

Our favourite food, things we like to make at home etc?

or

Bits around Nelson, the markets, fishing boats, orchards etc?

or

Something completely different?

Everyones feedback is welcome!

Petit Fours + More

A big photo shoot this week as I'm off across the ditch later this week and will leave Grant and Katie to write up some recipes in my absence.

Below we have a Chocolate trio, Crème Brûlée (edit), a Strawberry *something*, Fudge and Turkish Delight, Sugared Olives (ah-huh), and Goats cheese mousse.

Salmon, Salad & Sunshine

This week we all got a bit more sunshine, I found time to tended to my vege patch thanks to daylight savings and there being no more week night pool matches to be sidetracked with.  Meanwhile Grant found his way to sunny Blenheim give a cooking demonstration, and we both received a little extra exposure thanks to the Nelson Mail this week... [link]

Yes, now you've had a good laugh here's this weeks dishes. The first is a classic tomato, basil and mozzarella salad. No doubt you've seen this before but just look at the quality of this locally sourced cheese!
The second is currently on the menu at the Mint Dining room, it's a sugar cured salmon with green apple cannelloni and a sour cream soufflé.  The salmon is amazing and we've documented the curing process for the book, it is something you can do quite easily and the results are far better than store brought products.

The big bake off

So, embarrassing video posted....Thanks Scotty!

We had a lot of fun baking up a storm the other day, we have 'proved' (bakery humour) the recipes to be successful.

Bit of a mission scaling them down from restaurant sized to home cook size.

But we have now completed a whole section of our 'book'......... well my content anyway, still needs Scotty's magic.

Bit of background, Katie and I asked Scotty to help us with a professional entry into the New Zealand Hospitality Awards Of Excellence.

(We needed to defend our title of serving the best Lamb dish in New Zealand.)

We worked well together, tasted some wine, and had an idea......... (Turned out to be this blog.)

By the way, we are finalists, serving one of the top 4 Beef dishes, as well as Lamb dishes in New Zealand! So thanks Scotty!

Awards 4th November 2011, keep you posted.