Soy Salmon with an Avocado, Lime, Wasabi Salsa

I hope you all enjoyed a long weekend break over Easter, for me it was nice to be home for four days and the sun shone all weekend long. The last of our summer days I think, the gannets have all but a few flown from the colony, leaving just me behind till they return next year.

We often cook this dish on the BBQ as part of several dishes but Easter weekend we decided to have it on it’s own for our Sunday brunch served on a piece of whole grain toast, very decadent. It’s a really versatile dish that can be served as an entree on its own, as a main with steam veg or even as a canapé on little crispy croutons

Salmon cooks well on the BBQ, you need to remove the skin though as it will stick to the BBQ grill. The method is the same if you decide to cook it on your barbie. The marinate of soy and sugar caramelizes beautifully on the flame grill but here I cooked it in my cast iron pan and it was almost as good, I wasn’t going to fire up our charcoal BBQ for just one fillet so it was a good compromise.

I usually only buy one 4inch wide salmon fillet between the two of us, although I really enjoy salmon it can be quite rich and a small amount goes a long way so I have based my recipe on one fillet but you can easily double the quantities if you are cooking for more.

Ingredients for two
1 Salmon filet, sliced in half length ways
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
1 ripe avocado
1 tsp wasabi paste
juice and zest of 1 lime
2 spring onions, finely sliced

Method
Remove the skin from the salmon, it marinates better this way.
Warm the soy and sugar together so that the sugar dissolves.
In a small flat bottom container pour the soy and sugar, add the skinned salmon.
Marinate for 15 minutes turning every couple of minutes.
While the salmon is marinating make the avocado salsa.
Cut the avocado in half and remove the stone and scoop out the flesh.
Place the avocado flesh in a bowl with the lime zest and juice and wasabi paste.
Mash together to a lumpy texture rather than smooth purée.
Add the sliced spring onions and season with salt and pepper to taste, put aside in fridge.
Heat a cast iron or heavy bottom frying pan with a tablespoon of veg oil and place over a medium heat.
Once the pan is hot put the salmon fillets in and cook for 1 minute, turn the fillets over.
Brush the cooked side with more marinate and cook the second side for 1 minute.
Turn the fillet over and repeat the process on both sides, brushing with marinate and cooking each side for another minute (cooking time altogether 4 minutes).
Test the fillets are cooked to your liking, I prefer them a little undercooked.
Serve with the avocado salsa.

Easter Citrus Loaf with a Marzipan Centre

For those who are familiar with the German Christmas cake Stollen you will understand where this idea comes from. European Christmas treats are my favourite but what does that have to do with Easter? Well in NZ I find it too warm over Christmas for all those hearty winter cakes so I don’t tend to make many or buy any over that period but as the summer comes to a close here in New Zealand my UK brain still ticks over and thinks winter….and that means Christmas….and that means lots of marzipan, fruit cakes, spiced biscuits. The problem is, its only April here so I have decided to roll my Christmas goodies into Easter which will be dangerous to the waist line as I will no doubt eat my fair share of chocolate too!

This is an easy sweet dough mix with the addition of a little butter and milk for a richer brioche crumb. It’s perfect just cooled from the oven but if you can’t manage it all in one day it’s also good lightly toasted the next.

Ingredients
3 cups high grade flour
1 & 1/4 cups warm milk
1 tsp instant yeast
1 1/2 tbsp honey
50g candied/glacé citrus peel
20g butter, chopped
200g marzipan
Extra flour for rolling
1 egg for glaze

Method
Place the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the centre.
Add the yeast and warm milk to the well in the centre and allow the yeast to dissolve for a minute.
Add the honey and citrus peel and bring the ingredients together to form a soft but not sticky dough. If it is too dry add a little more milk or likewise if too wet add a little more flour.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes.
Press the chopped pieces of butter into the dough and continue to knead for another 5 minutes.
It gets a little greasy at this point but eventually the butter melts and combines fully into the dough.
Place the dough back into the bowl and cover bowl with a plastic wrap to stop it drying out.
Let the dough prove till double in size. Once double in size roll the dough out into a flat oblong 14inch x 6inch, a bit like a fat baguette.
Roll the marzipan into a cylinder shape to fit the length of the dough and place in the centre.
Fold the dough over the marzipan and press closed at one side, the seam is at the side rather than underneath.
Preheat the oven to 200C and flour a baking sheet.
Place the loaf onto the floured baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap but ensure it doesn’t touch the loaf otherwise it will stick.
Let the loaf to prove again till doubled in size.
Whisk egg and brush top of loaf with egg which will give it a nice golden shine.
Bake for 35 minutes. It should sound hollow when tapped so you know it is cooked.
The topping it just a sugar icing with a few extra citrus peel scattered over the top.

Taste Magazine Feature

If you buy the Taste Magazine this month, April, you might recognize someone in it.

I arrived home this afternoon to find a copy of the Taste Magazine in my letter box and guess who was on page 74? Me! Taste Magazine are doing feature articles on food bloggers each month and they had asked if I would like to present a recipe and photo for April and they would also write an article about me, my blog and cooking school to go with it. I was quite chuffed to be asked and love the article they have done. The April issue should be in stores this week but for non NZ followers I’m afraid it isn’t online.

Chocolate Mocha Brownies & Sweet NZ

I have had the Donna Hay 10th Birthday App on my IPad for ages tempting me with the chocolate recipes, particularly these brownies. The problem is when I open this App the photos are so incredible and life like that I end up spending hours just looking through them, analyzing them and dreaming about replicating them one day. The actual cooking gets forgotten as the time whips by but I finally got round to making them this weekend. I only had mocha chocolate in the house left over from a cooking workshop so I decided to make it with that but you can use any food quality dark chocolate.

Check out the amount of chocolate in these babies, they have to be a chocoholics dream!

The final product was everything Donna Hay promises in her photographs, the only disappointment was my photos didn’t look like hers…ah well, more practice behind the camera and more eating of brownies ;0)

This is also my submission for Sweet NZ which is being hosted by Emma over at My Darling Lemon Thyme

Ingredients
300g dark chocolate 70% or mocha chocolate is what I used, chopped
280g butter
6 eggs
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup plain flour

Method
Preheat oven to 180C and line a 20cm x 30cm cake tin with baking paper.
Melt butter and half the chocolate in a pan over a low heat.
In a large bowl add the eggs, sugar, flour and rest of the chopped chocolate and briefly whisk together.
Pour the melted butter and chocolate into the bowl with the flour mixture and whisk again to combine.
Pour into prepared cake tin and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly. If served slightly warm the chocolate bits will ooze out which is rather delicious but they are pretty dam good cold too.

A Road Trip, Boulders at Koutu, New Zealand & Fresh Oysters

A road trip up North the other week found us discovering the boulders at Koutu, it hadn’t been on our list of places to stop, it doesn’t seem to be an overly promoted destination but it was certainly one of my highlights of the trip. It was an overcast morning and the water of the Hokianga Harbour was calm and grey offering an appropriately moody setting for these ancient boulders.

The boulders are just below the high tide line, the perfect home for oysters to grow, there was thousands of them with not many people passing through to harvest them so we enjoyed a few for breakfast straight off the rocks. If you are going to harvest oysters you must ensure to remove the whole shell from the rock, not just the top shell. This allows another oyster to eventually attach itself to that area of rock whereas they will not attach to the remains of other oysters, we must look after our mollusc environment for the future.

Breakfast of Indian Eggs & Cafe Gala Mt Eden

This dish was inspired by the Gala Cafe in Mt Eden where I met up with a group of Auckland food bloggers the other week. Before meeting the girls I had a peek at the menu online to see what I would fancy for breakfast that day, always better to decide before going as the catching up and chatter is a little distracting from the menu. The dish Mother In Law’s Indian Eggs, what a fabulously named dish, how could one pass this choice up? Although I did hesitate briefly on the Spanish Sardines on Rye and the Arthur Reuben Madison Ave Deli Sandwich.

The eggs where served fried on Turkish bread with a Masala spice, freshly chopped tomatoes and coriander. I’m not a big fan of fried eggs but these were cooked perfectly, no tough crispy underside, just lightly browned and flipped briefly to cook the sprinkling of Masala spice on top. The most popular dish at our table was Eggs Benedict, very generous in portion with oodles of Hollandaise sauce. The coffee, Alpress, was excellent and the atmosphere was bright and airy with high ceilings and funky art covered walls. I would easily recommend the cafe and go there again.

My version of Indian Eggs is with slightly pan sauted tomatoes, spring onions and a few spices, letting the eggs steam in the same pan by placing a lid over everything and turning the heat down really low. Some of you may not like spicy food for breakfast, although I can eat it any time but it would make a good brunch or even a quick and simple dinner. I made mine in two mini frying pans but you can use one family size pan and place it in the middle of the table for diners to serve them selves.

Ingredients – for 2
3 tomatoes, roughly chopped
4 spring onion, finely sliced
1-2 eggs per person
Handful each of fresh coriander and parsley, chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp Garam Masala powder
Salt & Pepper

Method
In a sauce pan add a couple of tablespoons olive oil.
Add the sliced spring onions, cumin and mustard seeds and sauté for a few two minutes.
Add the tomatoes and cook for a further minute to heat through (no longer as they will cook further once eggs are added).
Stir in half the chopped coriander and parsley and season with salt and pepper.
Add the eggs, one or two per person then place a lid on the pan and lower the heat right down. This will allow the eggs to cook through and steam a little.
Cook for another 5 minutes until the egg white is no longer opaque but the yolk is still runny. Or longer if you prefer harder eggs.
Sprinkle over the garam masala and rest of the herbs and serve.

Courgette Kasundi Soup

Sometimes the most satisfying dishes are the ones you throw together quickly with ingredients left over in the fridge. Last weekend after catering a four course wedding breakfast I found myself with a big bag of courgettes left over. I have no idea why I had over estimated on courgettes when I was only using them in a roast vegetable stack for the vegan option on the wedding menu but with a work trip to Sydney the next day and a hubby that won’t eat veg if I don’t cook them I wanted to use them up. A quick courgette soup was the answer and as I was getting the veg out of the fridge my eyes landed on a jar of Kasundi I had bought the week before while at the farmers market in Doubtless Bay, those flavours would give it some zing. If you don’t have a jar of Kasundi here is a recipe if you want to make it. I’m certainly going to when I have more time, it’s great for additional flavours to a dish or using as a chutney or dip.

Ingedients
8 courgettes/zucchini, grated or julienned in a food processor
2 tbsp Kasundi
2 cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped
2 cups veg stock
2 cups water
4 spring onions, finely sliced
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
Pinch cayenne pepper, optional

Method
In a large pan over a medium heat, add a tablespoon of olive oil and the sliced spring onions and garlic.
Cook for two minutes and then add the Kasundi, courgettes, stock and water.
Let the soup simmer for 10 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper and a pinch of cayenne pepper if you like a bit more chili kick.
How simple is that?
Serve with a nice crusty loaf.

This is where I bought my beautiful pot from, The Stone Store in Keri Keri which is the oldest stone building in NZ.

Apple & Ginger Brioche Scrolls

The combination of ginger and apple has been banging around my head for a few weeks and finally this weekend I managed to satisfy my imagination and tummy at the same time making these brioche style rolls. I have used quite a bit of ginger in this recipe as I like to the hot bite of ginger but if you prefer it a bit milder then used less.

I can be quite impatient waiting for bread dough to rise, a bit like the watch pot never boils but as I had finished rolling these up and putting them in the muffin tins my surfing buddy called. It was like Malibu surf out at Muriwai, for those not familiar with Muriwai that means a drop in waves from a regular 5-7 foot to a mini 2 foot, perfect for a lazy Sunday surf after a busy week at the office and a wedding catered for on Saturday. So no pot watching…well dough watching today, the dough had risen perfectly by the time I came out of the surf, in the oven and ready to eat after a shower, maybe even two after all that exercise. Then enough time to fit a siesta in before getting dinner on.

Ingredients-makes 8
3 cups high grade flour
2 tsp dried yeast grains
1/2 cup warm milk
50g butter, soft
2 small eggs
3 tbsp castor sugar
1 apple, cored and grated
2 tbsp brown sugar
3 tsp ginger powder
2tbsp sugar & 2tbsp water for the sugar glaze

Method
Preheat oven at 180C and cut 8 squares of baking paper to fit 8 muffin tins.
Place the flour and castor sugar in a bowl and make a well in the middle.
Put the yeast into the well and pour the warm milk over the yeast and leave to dissolve for a 2 minutes. It will start to bubble.
Stir the milk into the flour, it will be quite dry at this stage.
Add the butter and eggs and bring the ingredients together to form a bread like dough. If it is too sticky (depends on egg size) add more flour so you can knead the dough without it sticking to your hands.
Knead for 5-8 minutes, the longer you knead the better.
Put the dough back in the bowl and cover with a plastic bag to stop dough from drying out. Rest for 10 minutes.
While the dough is resting, place the grated apple into a bowl with the brown sugar and ginger and mix together.
Roll the dough out to 12 inch x 8 inch with the longer side closest to you.
Spread the apple and ginger mix over the dough.
Roll the dough up, away from you, into a sausage shape so that once rolled it still measure 12 inch.
Slice the dough into 8 rings and place each one in the middle of a square of baking paper. Put each one into a muffin tin/cup and allow dough to prove and double in size.
Bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and set aside.
Put the sugar and water for the glaze in a pan and bring to the boil for 1 minute.
Brush brioche rolls with sugar glaze and its best to eat them warm.

Diesel is a little exhausted after all the baking and surfing too!

Quick Apricot Tart

I’d like to take advantage of the apricots before they start to disappear as we come to a close of the stonefruit season but the the days are whizzing by. Smoothies and quick fruit tarts seem to be the extent of my sweet treats in the past few weeks. It’s been a crazy start to the year, in a good, way with the school being booked up with many groups and full classes but I don’t have the brain space when teaching to think about photography the food we are creating. Might have to recruit someone to capture a few moments at some upcoming classes to share with.

So here is very easy quick apricot tart for those who want a treat but don’t have much time to cook or don’t want to indulge in cooking.

Ingredients-enough for 4
1 sheet of ready rolled puff pastry ( approx 24cm x 24cm)
8 apricots, halved and de-stoned
2 tbsp of ground almonds or hazelnuts
3 tbsp brown sugar

Method
Place sheet of puff pastry on a greaseproof baking sheet.
Sprinkle the ground nuts across the whole sheet of pastry.
Lay the apricots across the puff pastry, 4 across and four down (photo shows 1/4 of tart).
Sprinkle the brown sugar over the apricot halves.
Bake in for 30 minutes or until pastry is puffed and golden.
Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Liebster Blog Award

The Liebster Blog Award was given to me by RaeDi at Hummingbird Hollow who not only invites us into her kitchen sharing her weekly recipes but also into her garden via beautiful pictures of daily goings on and yes, pictures of the visiting Hummingbirds that you really should see.

The rules of the Liebster Award are:
1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog
2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you
3. Copy and paste the blog award on your blog
4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed (see below)
5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

When you follow many blogs as I do, it’s always hard to choose which you would like to pass the award onto, I have picked a few of the blogs I have followed for a while as well as new blogs to me, avoiding my Kiwi blogging community as that would be too difficult to choose from. I’m not even sure the ones I have picked all fit category 5, it’s difficult to tell with no visible stats on this so I’m not going to be too pedantic on that one.

1. http://londoneats.wordpress.com/ I have been following for quite a while, I love the combination of a Scot living in London combining influences of food and culture from previous places lived in Like Scandinavian, Germany and Belgium.

2 & 3. http://chicaandaluza.wordpress.com/ and http://foodblogandthedog.wordpress.com/, two of my favourite Spanish food bloggers, although both originating from the UK. I love to see what they are eating and experiencing in Spain and wish I could join them one summer on the food explorations.

4. And so you don’t think I follow purely food blogs only here is Kirsten who has amusing tales from her garden. http://kirstenmatthew.com/blog/ who is a New Yorker turned ‘life style blogger’ in NZ who has the most disobedient chickens around.

5. http://liverpoolfoodblog.co.uk/ is the only other Liverpudlian blogger I know so I am quite fond of this blog which keeps me in touch with food trends from my hometown.

Please do take the time to check out what these wonderful bloggers are up to today!