Lemon Syrup

Lemons ideas part one...
Ingrid is away and I am in charge! She is sunning (fingers crossed) herself in the UK and Croatia whilst I am finally getting it together post baby. Its only taken 5 months to get my head around when my baby  sleeps, poops, eats and cries! Meanwhile our poor blog has been neglected...

I am getting the ball rolling with some spring ideas for using lemons.
I love "Roses lime cordial" and saw in my aunties fridge the other day a bottle of "posh" lemon cordial. I looked at the label and all it had in it was water, sugar and lemon juice. It came from a shop up the road from me so I popped in to get some but was horrified at the price $15.00 (It came in a beautiful bottle so that's probably what you are paying for) so with an abundance of lemons I decided to make my own.

What you need
1 1/2 cup lemon juice
1 cup water
1 cup white sugar

How to make
Bring to the boil and simmer until the liquid becomes syrupy. It will take about 20-30 minutes.

Other ideas for lemon syrup...
Drizzle over cakes and loaves
Mix with gin/vodka and lemonade
Mix with tonic water for a non alcoholic G+T
Pour over pancakes or piklets
Pour over vanilla ice-cream

     

Chicken and Asparagus Rolls

Ok, so the weather has been pretty unpredictable, ok it's been absolute pants and summer ain't been showing it's face around here enough, but it's still hot (ok, muggy) and we have flys and ants taking over our house, so it got me thinking about picnic food, and bits of this and bits of that - all thrown together, food designed to mesh quite happily together. So this is the result of what I found in my cupboard one unpredictable wet summers day, when a picnic was made in the backyard just as a glimpse of sun broke through.

ALSO TRY: Lemon juice and ground peppercorns make a great rub on roast chicken

QUICK IDEA: If you don't have tortillas, just roll one asparagus spear and spread the chicken mix in a slice of fresh sandwich bread, and bake in the oven for a twist on asparagus rolls.

Lemon Pepper picnic tortillas
Serves 4

What you need:
Bunch of asparagus (4 per tortilla approx)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 x lemon
cracked peppercorns
2 tbsp butter
1 x onion (chopped finely)
2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups of milk
1/2 Leftover roast chicken (ripped apart and chopped roughly)
4 x tortillas

How to make:
Prepare chicken

On a medium heat, add butter to a frypan, fry onion until soft, add flour to make a paste then add milk slowly, allowing to thicken. Add leftover chicken to heat through. Squeeze half the lemon and cracked peppercorns.


Prepare asparagus
Chop hard stalks off asparagus. Lay on a baking dish, drizzle olive oil, squeeze half the lemon and cracked peppercorns. Grill both sides. Remove from oven.

Assemble:
Set oven to bake 200 C. Bake tortillas for 3 mins, lay on a plate and spread chicken sauce mix down the middle. Add asparagus. Fold the bottom up then fold each side of the tortilla inwards and tie with a piece of string.

Summer Dips

I love dips especially in summer but has anyone noticed how one pot of gourmet dip bought at the supermarket doesn't go far? Its really easy to make your own and you can get creative at the same time and devise your own concoctions...
The first dip came about when I was heading to Ma and Pa's for "Guy Fawkes" night and didn't have a huge amount to contribute. Of course my parents don't mind but I always love taking something new for them to try. There was 3/4 of a tin of beetroot slices leftover from the good old "KIWI" burger (for those who don't know its basically a burger with beetroot, egg, cheese and pineapple as well as the other usual things) and a few gherkins as well as a tub of cream cheese. All I did was blitzed these things together with a touch of lemon juice and some chives from the garden and ended up with a pretty pink dip.

Beetroot and cream cheese dip with crunchy garlic Ciabatta

What you need
300gram tin of beetroot
2 big spoonfuls (tbs) of cream cheese
1 gherkin
Juice of 1 lemon
A few chives or coriander

How to make

Put everything into food processor and blitz until smooth

Serve with anything crunchy!

Hummus - the perfect picnic snack

Hummus is possibly the most popular dip in the chiller at the supermarkets in Auckland. Why? probably because its reasonably healthy as well as delicious. Its between $3.00NZD - $5.00NZD per tub and to be honest a tub doesn't go far if you like dipping. It's so easy to make at home, all you need is a food processor. Traditionally hummus has tahini (sesame paste) in it. I never buy it, never use it so improvised with sesame oil (just a dash) and it worked a treat!

Like with the beetroot and cream cheese dip you can get creative and add your own touch. I love spicy food and had a few jalapenos in the fridge so in they went.

Other ideas could be...
Baked pumpkin or Kumara (sweet potato)
Sun dried tomato
Wilted spinach leaves
Roasted carrot
Avocado

Jalapeno Hummus - addictive!

What you need
300gram tin chickpeas (drained)
Juice of 2 small lemons
2 cloves of garlic
4 tbs olive oil
a splash of sesame oil
4 jalapeno slices (optional)

How to make
Put everything into food processor and blitz until smooth
Serve with anything crunchy!

I ended up making a second batch of this dip because I ate so much of the first batch, there wasn't enough to fill the bowl for the images!
I also forgot the garlic the second time round (DUH) but am please to announce it still tasted great and full of flavour thanks to the lemon and jalapenos.
Get blending and blitzing this summer!
Vanessa x

Grapefruit granita

Organic grapefruit straight from the tree

Summer is just around the corner, I took my pasty white legs and sad looking chipped toenails out for a walk in the weekend, I got rid of my black winter uniforms and put the brights to the front of the wardrobe. I ignored the rain, that changed the venue for my son’s 2nd birthday party, I blanked out the downpour that prevented me going for my usual lunchtime walk. I decided it was summer in my little world and I was going to carry around my big oversized sun above my head and I was going to make Grapefruit Granita.

So, if like me, your desperate for summer right now, try this icy dessert or go Italian and have it with brioche for a traditional breakfast.
Other flavours to try: lemon or lime juice, mandarin oranges, jasmine, coffee, almonds, mint, strawberries, berries, chocolate, watermelon, pomegranate, mango. I even found a recipe for ginger and fennel.

I also put some of the liquid into ice cube trays for summer cocktails

Grapefruit Granita
What you need
2 1/2 cups grapefruit juice
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup white sugar
grapefruit zest for garnish

How to make
Combine juice, water and sugar in a bowl and mix until the sugar has dissolved. Place bowl in freezer, cover with cling film and freeze until hard. (2-3 hours) Use a fork to scrape and break up the frozen ice to turn into a granita. Serve in chilled glasses or bowls. Granish with grated grapefruit zest.

Feijoas - love em or hate em!

Even though we are sisters, we have a very different approach to food and photography. Each fortnight we are going to choose the same ingredient or theme and post the result. These are results of our fourth food fight.

Feijoas

• They originate from South America.
• Feijoas were introduced into New Zealand in the 1920`s.
• Common Names: Feijoa, Pineapple Guava, Guavasteen.
• Feijoas have been described as 'the world's healthiest food' by the New York Times.

Eat Feijoas au naturale - unusual but delicious

Vanessa's Dish - Pork Scotch Fillet stuffed with Prunes and a Feijoa Sauce

Ingrid suggested Feijoas for the next food fight, maybe she is a closet feijoa lover? I, however, never really got into them. I remember travelling and meeting other Kiwis and when the discussion came around to what we missed from home, feijoas featured highly. The love of feijoas even extends to wine and vodka - both interesting but I think I am going to stick with my grape Chardonnay thankyou!     

This coincided with an opportunity to start compiling images for publication in some magazines. The brief was seasonal produce with recipes and photos of both the before and after... Off to the fruitshop I went searching for the perfect feijoa.

I decided on making a savoury dish with my feijoas, one inspired by a restaurant I worked in whilst at university. My twist is the feijoas! 

Pork and Prunes cooking in my favourite Le Creucet pot

What you need 

Scotch fillet of pork

12 Prunes

2 Onions

Olive oil

Salt and pepper 

8 feijoas 

A heavy casserole dish with a lid

A food processor or blender

Pork, prunes and feijoa sauce - really delicious, would definitely make again!

How to make

With a long knife make a cut through the length of the fillet.With your fingers, stuff as many prunes as you can in to the fillet. Season with salt and pepper and coat with olive oil. In the casserole dish add a bit more oil and brown the fillet all over.When brown, add the onions and put into a warm oven (about 160 - 180 degrees). Bake for about half an hour - this depends on the size of your fillet so keep and eye on it and don't overcook. When ready, take out of the dish and set aside to rest. (Its a good idea to wrap in tin foil at this stage)

Feijoa sauce
Scoop out the feijoa flesh and add to the pot that should have a bit of juice in the bottom. Simmer until the feijoas are soft. Stir occasionally so you get the lovely flavours from the bottom of the dish. When the feijoas are soft, blend until smooth. Taste and if needed add additional salt and pepper or even a bit of sugar if its too tart. I didn't do either!

Serve over the rested pork.

This would go great with a simple baby spinach and beetroot salad. Enjoy

Ingrid's Dish - Feijoa bread and butter puddings

Free fruit from my forage - I can't believe you went to the fruit shop sis!

Feijoas are everywhere at the moment, rubbish bags of feijoas kept turning up at my office, the neighbourhood children are using them as missles, the tree next door keeps off-loading them all over my driveway, and the funniest sight of all is the up turned bums protuding out of all the bushes - foraging is alive and well in my neighbourhood.

So if you aren't sick of the site of the humble feijoa (and being 'outed' as a feijoa lover, I'm not!), and your feeling a bit autumnal, these mini feijoa puds will warm your tastebuds.

Feijoas are sweet so if you want a low calorie option you could omit the sugar all together.

Feijoa bread and butter puddings

Makes 4

What you need

1 1/2 cups single pouring cream

3 eggs

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

8 slices of white bread (any bread will do)

4 feijoas 

How to make

Set oven temperature to 160C. Mix cream, eggs, sugar and vanilla. Whisk to combine. Cut crusts off bread slices and rip or cut into cubes. Place into a bowl. Remove flesh from feijoas and dice into the bowl. Pour cream mixture into bowl and fold through bread and feijoa.

Spoon evenly into cups. Place cups (ramekins) into a baking dish half filled with water (It stops the puds drying out) and place in centre of oven for around 30 mins or until set. Sprinkle with nutmeg.

Peaches and Nectarines

Even though we are sisters, we have a very different approach to food and photography. Each fortnight we are going to choose the same ingredient or theme and post the result. These are results of our third food fight.

Peaches

Peaches, they evoke memories of summer whether it be tinned with ice cream or fresh from the tree. Unfortunately today the luxury of picking peaches off your next door neighbours tree or even better yours, seems to be dying out. Never the less they are a romantic and nostalgic fruit that have so many uses both sweet and savoury.   

  

Interesting Peach Facts

• A peach pit contains hydrocyanic acid, which is a poisonous substance.
• Nectarines are a variety of peach with a smooth skin.
• A medium peach contains only 37 calories.
• The juice from peaches makes a wonderful moisturiser.

Vanessa's Dish - Peach pastries

It was partly disorganisation and also not knowing that nectarines were actually peaches that encouraged me to use tinned peaches. Previously I thought tinned peaches were a bit naff and common and really the only use was in a smoothy or on ice cream, which incidentally I can't stand.

Anyway it motivated me to get on with the challenge and without a garden to raid, tinned it would be. I am not a pastry person and when you can buy it for about $2.00 a block who would bother making it. I pulled out a block of flaky pastry from the freezer and put tinned peaches on top - it was as easy as that! My son loved them, we called them peach surprises and I was impressed how pretty they looked, they even reminded me of something that might come out of a French bakery...hmmmmmm

Peach Surprises - the biggest surprise was how easy they were to make

You will need   

A block of puff pastry

A tin of peaches

Sugar

How to cook

Defrost the pastry

Cut into shapes - I used a pastry cutter but you could do squares easy enough without.

Place the peaches on top in an attractive design - I sliced them in half to make thinner slices.

Put on baking paper and sprinkle with sugar - brown or white. 

Bake  at 180 degrees for about 15 mins - keep checking as the sugar and syrup do burn. 

When cooked take off the baking paper as soon as you can. 

Sprinkle with icing sugar if you desire

Lovely with a coffee and a bunch of friends or something to put a smile on the kids faces.

Ingrid's dish - Honey baked nectarines with vanilla and brown sugar

Thanks to a little breeze and the neighbours tree, dessert was homegrown.

 

The in-laws arrived a month ago and the first thing they like to do when coming from a chilly British winter, is get stuck in to all the juicy summer fruits on offer in New Zealand.

I had planted seedless watermelon and rockmelon to coincide with their visit in the hope that I could show off my green fingers but I had no luck and they are still creeping their vines along my patch quite happily. Anyone know if they will still grow through winter?

So when I saw my neighbours nectarine tree, edging over the fence, I thought, with a little breeze we might be ok here. I only needed a few, one nectarine to feed two. So with a little help from the British, I was on my way to making a tasty dessert straight from 'my' garden.

Honey baked nectarines - I just wished I made more

The beauty with this dessert is you can prepare it, and place it in the oven whilst your still eating your dinner, and it can be served straight from an overproof pan, keeping dishes to a minimum. And it looks really impressive in a 'french country' kinda way. Enjoy

Honey baked nectarines with vanilla and brown sugar

enough for 6

You will need

3 Nectarines (ripe and cut in half, one nectarine for two)

sheet of baking paper

3 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence or scrape out a vanilla pod

3 Tbsp honey

6 Tbsp yoghurt (drizzled with honey)

How to make

Set oven temp to 180C. remove stones and place cut nectarines on baking paper in an oven proof dish/ pan facing up. Drizzle honey, vanilla, and sprinkle brown sugar on top. Bake at 180C for 15mins, scoop up the juices and coat nectarines and bake for a further 15mins or until golden and sticky. Serve with yoghurt, drizzled with honey.

Discover Dragonfruit

I was perusing the fruit and vege shop the other day and I got quite excited when I came across this vivid and bony looking fruit. Bright cerise in colour, with a sharp exterior, I just had to see what was inside.

The shop girl got quite excited too, apparently she got hooked on Dragonfruit whilst travelling in Cambodia, she told me they taste a lot like kiwifruit but not as tart, she also said not too many people seem brave enough to try them. I said to her it was more likely the price ($6.90 NZ each) than the bravery.

However, I was curious, and I also wanted to photograph this little puffa fruit, inside and out. And visually, I wasn't in anyway disapointed. Cut open, the Dragonfruit was quite spectacular, as you will see from the pics. However, the taste test was a bit hit and miss. Here are the results of the taste test.

Dragonfruit taste test

Ingrid: Sweet tomato ending with a crunch (the seeds), pleasant, would be great in a 'flashy' fruit salad

Bloke: ordinary taste, bland, reminded him of something he couldn't quite remember which makes sense considering how boring this fruit was 

Rhys (16 months): I heart dragonfruit


Dragonfruit facts

• It grows on a climbing cactus. 
• It tastes better when stored in the refrigerator
• To enhance the flavor, sprinkle it with a bit of either lemon or lime juice.
• Dragonfruit can also be made into wine, fruit juice, or jam.
• They have been known to cause allergic reactions in some people, such as rash, hives and swollen lips.

Slow many tomatoes

In season: Red and yellow tomatoes

Vanessa and I are always discussing the merits of 'growing your own', we both agree that our fruit and vegetables taste better, but for all the hard slog of maintaining our gardens, does it actually save any money? I think not. All the vege we actually harvest are also in abundance in the supermarkets, even the organic produce seems cheap in season.


That's not to say, I'm about to give up on my patch, even if it looks like a bloody graveyard at the moment. The tomatoes that survive the birds, suffer an even worse fate, when Rhys rips them off their branches and squashes them through his wee fingers. 

I like that it's teaching my young boy where his food comes from?! I would love for him to go to daycare, and mention that his mum is green fingered. I do kind of enjoy being self sufficient even if it is for show, but at the end of summer when your garden starts looking neglected and sad, I start to wonder why on earth I bother.

I always end up with a huge excess of the same vegetable that excited me at the beginning but irritates me towards the end of its cycle, why oh why can't I have a garden that sprouts a few of this a few of that and repeats the cycle all year round. If anyone knows how I can achieve this let me know.

However, I have already planned my next crop, so I'm not about to give up anytime soon. I am, after all, a creature of habit. So what do you do with red and yellow tomatoes, You slow roast them, and enjoy them in a salad, on cous cous, on toast, add it to eggs and toast for breakfast, or serve them as a side for dinner.

Slow roasted tomatoes with garlic and thyme

Slow roasted tomatoes
You will need

tomatoes - as many as you got

balsamic vinegar

brown sugar

olive oil

salt/ pepper

garlic

thyme

How to make
Line a baking tray with baking paper. Cut tomatoes in half, sideways, leave the stalks on. Lay them out on baking tray, with pip side showing up. Drizzle olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle over brown sugar. Throw in some garlic cloves, and thyme.

Bake at 160C for around 90mins or until tomatoes start to shrivel. Added bonus, this dish will make your house smell like your in Italy.

The last of the summer plums...

A quick trip to the next door neighbours garden to check out the summer fruit trees left me in a panic... The plums were nearly all gone. 

Either the birds were feasting or they were squashed under feet and attracting the fruit flies. I dashed home to get a bag and climbed the trees in search of the last of the summer plums. So, now I had done the gathering, what to do with them.My first attempt using them was a plum chutney. The taste was amazing however it turned out more of a sauce than something you could lop on to a crumbly Cheddar and cracker so idea #2 was to preserve the fruit.

Preserved/stewed plums

600mls water

1/2 cup sugar

Enough plums to fit into the pan with out piggy backing them!

A shallow pan with a lid (frying pan)  

Heat the water and sugar until the sugar has dissolved. 

Add the plums and put a lid on the pan.

Cook for about 5-10 mins 

The plums cook really quickly and any longer and the fruit will start to fall apart. 

If preserving, sterilize the jars, add the plums whilst hot, then the syrup and seal.

Keep any remaining syrup as it makes a refreshing drink, try these ideas...

Plum syrup and soda

Plum syrup, gin and tonic - lots of ice and a wedge of lime

Plum syrup topped up with sparkling water

Add a dash to your bubbly for a tart kick

Ice cubes for any fruity drinks

 

Custard, Almond and Fresh Fruit Cake

Images from Nanas birthday picnic. The cake was her birthday cake...

Excess plums in the garden - make this delicious fresh fruit and custard cake...

Custard, Almond and fresh fruit cake

175g butter, softened 

¾ cup caster sugar

2 eggs

2 cups self raising flour, sifted

½ cup ground almonds

 ½ cup flaked almonds (optional)

1 cup milk

¾ cup thick vanilla custard (bought or made)

Fresh fruit such as blueberries, pitted cherries, stoned plums, nectarines or peaches

Custard and icing sugar, to serve

Preheat oven to 180 deg C or 160deg C fan bake.

Grease a large and deep cake tin.

(ideally the one that has the removable base) 

Line or butter base and sides 

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

Stir in flour, almond meal and milk.

Spread half the mixture into the cake tin.

Top with custard.

Arrange fresh fruit over custard.

Spoon remaining mixture over fruit.

Using a spatula, smooth top.

Sprinkle with flaked almonds. (Optional)

Bake for an hour  until the knife comes out clean. If the cake is still undercooked at one hour, give it 15 mins more. Remember when cooled it will solidify more. Don't over cook!

Serve with a sprinkle of icing sugar, custard or yoghurt..