Cooking with lemons

My little lemon tree is a real survivor. When I planted my tree some five years ago, it was placed in a hole strewn with old roots, in a garden that has major drainage issues, and all through winter my little lemon tree has sat in it's very own swimming pool. It really has fought hard to establish itself. It's first year it produced one hard lemon, then nothing the following two years. But this year, little suns popped up in the corner of my garden, and lifted my spirits. The only problem was I had to swim across the lawn to get them. So this food fight is in celebration of my tough little lemon tree and soggy Ugg boots. Enjoy Ingrid

Vanessa's dish
Lemons are abundant this time of year, so much so that they are often left rotting under swelling lemon tress. Such a shame. I have one such tree next door and every year its bursting at the seams and it appears its only me collecting the rewards. Usually its either for lemon and honey drinks, a squeeze or two over fish or to look fresh and inviting in a big glass bowl on my dining table.

Lemons add a touch of summer to a long winter

For our 11th food-fight I pondered with the idea of something sweet and zesty but the trouble is I always lick the spoon and spend a couple of days scoffing the treat!
I have just started a 10 week challenge at the gym and because I have low willpower when it comes to food, I have opted to use the lemons in a savoury dish. To zoosh it up a bit so its not just adding a squeeze to a dish I have attempted homemade fresh pasta.  

Fresh homemade fettuccine - delicious

Fresh pasta is actually pretty easy to make, not much can go wrong with the dough. Rolling it out takes a bit of getting used to but its worth the effort. The trouble I had was the dough/pasta sticking together after I placed it onto a plate - even with extra flour. (any suggestions - please comment)

What amazes me, is the cost of fresh pasta in the supermarket, like with my cheese making its not actually the ingredients that adds to the cost, its the process and the time - home made pasta is in this category. But once prepared, cooking it is a breeze and it lasts for about 3 days in your fridge.

Homemade pasta with lemons, capers and olive oil  
You will need
500grams flour
4 eggs
2 tbsp olive oil
Water to mix

How to make the pasta dough
In a bowl (or on the bench) measure out the flour. Add the eggs and olive oil to a well in the centre and mix them up taking a bit of flour from the sides of the well. Keep doing this until its coarsely mixed.
Add a bit of water to make it into a smooth dough. Knead Knead Knead for about 10 minutes. You will need to add flour as you go along to stop it becoming sticky. When you have kneaded it for 10 minutes, wrap it in glad wrap and put it in the fridge while you make the pasta sauce.

Pasta sauce
you will need about...
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup capers
Salt and pepper to taste

2 chopped tomatoes

1 chopped onion

6 cloves of garlic (depending on how garlicky you like it) 

Shrimps or prawns (shelled or not)

Saute the onions and garlic in a little oil until soft, throw in the chopped tomatoes and capers and briefly cook. Add the oil and lemon juice and heat through. Finish with salt and pepper and chopped coriander or basil.

Now its time to roll out the pasta.
If you have a pasta maker, put small flat balls through the non blade rollers and keep thinning the dough by reducing the width of the rollers. When it's about 2-3mm thick, feed it through the fettuccine rollers. If you don't have a pasta maker, you can just use a rolling pin and a knife - it might even be easier. Apparently you can roll up the thinned dough into a tube shape and cut through so you get long ribbons.
My tip is to constantly add flour to prevent sticking and avoid the spaghetti rollers as I found them too small and the dough kept getting stuck.

Boil a large pot with salty water, I heard Ray McVinnie on NZMasterchef say it needs to be as salty as the sea. When its boiling, add the fresh pasta and cook until al dente or firm to the bite. Approx 5 minutes. Whilst this is cooking reheat the lemon and oil sauce and sauté the shrimps briefly in their own pan. When the pasta is cooked, drain and add the lemon sauce then toss through the shrimps. Serve with chopped herbs. Bellissimo!!!

Fettuccine with lemon, capers and shrimp - simple and fresh

Confession - during the final photo shoot I headed to Ingrid's house with everything and the kitchen sink but arrived and realised I left the pasta sitting on my kitchen bench! GUTTED! Time wasn't on my side so I raced to the supermarket to get store bought pasta for the shoot and our lunch! When I arrived home hungry and Jake was in bed I feasted on my own fresh pasta, sauteed frankfurters, store bought pasta sauce fired up with chili and capers. 

All I can say is totally satisfying and delicious - I will be making my own pasta again! 
Vanessa

Ingrid's dish

I was so impressed with candied lemons, sticky and gooey and sweet but still with the tartness. I would also recommend using them on top of a cake (lemon or vanilla), with the sticky sweet lemon juice dripping down the sides - no need for any icing.

Lemons were more successful than limes, the limes skins were tough whilst the centres disintegrated.

 

Lemon and lime tart with candied lemons

What you need
Pastry

125g butter (cold, and cut into cubes)
100g (1/2 cup) caster sugar

1 x egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon zest (grated finely)

250g  (2 cups) flour

How to make
In a food processor, blitz the butter and sugar until just combined. Add beaten egg, vanilla and zest, lightly mix. Add flour and process until crumbly. Don't over mix. Should only need a few seconds. Knead lightly on a floured surface, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30mins.

Roll pastry on floured surface until large enough to fit loosed based flan tin 24cm. Grease tin. Lift pastry into tin. Press into sides. Trim edge. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for another 30 mins.

Preheat oven to to 200C or 180C fan forced oven. Remove plastic wrap, and line with foil, making sure the foil goes over the edges. Add rice or beans for blind baking. Blind bake for 10mins. Remove rice or beans and foil and bake for another 5 mins. Reduce oven temp to 160C / 140 fan forced. Let cool.

Lemon and lime zest filling

What you need

5 eggs (3 whole, 2 yolks only)

3/4 cup caster sugar

1 x lemon (juice) approx 50mls plus zest

1 x lime (juice) approx 50mls

200mls cream

50g butter (melted)

How to make

Whisk eggs, yolks and sugar until creamy. Add cream and melted butter. Mix in lemon and lime juice and lemon zest. Whisk. Pour into cooled pastry.

Bake for 40 mins until filling has set. It should have a slight wobble in the centre when ready. Cool.

.

Candied lemons

What you need

1 1/2 cup of caster sugar

2/3 cup water

3 lemons (sliced thinly) (My candied limes weren't so successful, so just stick to lemons.)

How to make

Put sugar and water in a pot on medium heat, and stir until sugar dissolved. Add sliced lemons and bring to the boil. Cook until the liquid thickens. Around 10 mins. Let cool and place lemon and lime candied slices on tart. Pour syrup into a jug. Serve with yoghurt and warmed up lemon syrup. Enjoy

Ever wondered how to eat Yams?

Our tenth food fight, Wow! We started with eggplants in February licked our lips over peach sweets in March, made good use of a bucket load of basil, decided chokos were actually quite special and mastered some homemade pasta in June and we are still enjoying the healthy competition every fortnight.

We have even upgraded our setup, with some fancy pancy lights (a new studio light kit, with standy uppy lights and a free sand bag! very important when your clumsy) and a really expensive lens to add to our shared photography kit, a Canon 100m 2.8m. Thank you to a very helpful Graeme Buckingham from http://www.photowarehouse.co.nz/.

We aren't really sure yet quite what it does,or whether it will make us look better than we actually are! but all the food bloggers who are anyone have one, so that seemed like a good enough reason. So we are amped to experiment and see what we discover. So look out for some experimental food photos coming your way soon. 

I've never ever cooked with Yams, but I fell in love with their colour on a recent trip to the Avondale Markets (Auckland). So that's a good enough reason to make them the subject of our next food fight.

Quick snack: poke a few holes in skin and microwave for five mins (turning halfway)

Yam facts

• Despite a physical similarity and a frequent confusion with their names, yams and sweet potatoes are not even distantly related. They are in two different botanical families. Yams are actually related to grasses and lillies.
• Estrogens (sex hormones) were first made from a similar compound in yams. Yams were used commercially to produce hormones for contraceptive pills, and steroids. (Don't let this put you off!)
• New Zealand yams are better known as ocas.

Ingrid's dish: Chilli and lime yam wedges

I love potato and kumara wedges, you can take your french fries or chips back, give them to someone else, I don't want your skinny strips. Yams are the right size and super easy to make into a wedge, and they lend themselves well to a bit of spice. I thought these would look great as an appetiser for a party, you could add a creamy aioli or a dip.

Chilli and lime yam wedges

What you need

Makes enough for 2

500g of yams (sliced lengthways)

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 Lime (for serving)

Seasoning

1 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 lime zest grated

1/4 tsp garlic powder or throw a couple of peeled garlic cloves on baking tray
1/2 tsp cumin
pinch of brown sugar

1/2 tsp sea salt (to taste)

How to make
Line a baking tray with baking paper, brush with olive oil, lay yams skins down. Brush with olive oil. Combine all seasoning ingredients or grind in a mortar and pestle until you have a fine powder. Scatter over yams. Bake at 180C for 35 mins (turn half way) or until golden. Serve with lime.

Raw Yams - Try roasting them with a honey spice...

Vanessa Dish: Honey baked yams
Most of us stick to the usual veges in our winter roasts. We often comment "I wonder how you would cook those? or they look interesting". Yams look pretty weird, they are small and knobbly but like Ingrid said have an appealing yellow/pink colour.

They are super simple to cook and cook quite fast because they are so small. I decided to throw them in with a roast dinner, but jazz them up a bit with a honey and spice coating.

Don't be scared and give them ago. If your kids like potato, they are sure to like the sweet sticky cute yams!

Yams - A cross between a potato and a kumara taste wise (Sweet potato)

Honey baked yams

What you need
500grams Yams
2 tbsp Honey
2 tbsp Olive oil (or vegetable)
Salt/pepper
2 tsp spice mix - try chili, ginger, lemon pepper, harrissa mix, chili and lime seasoning. (I used ginger)

How to cook
Melt the honey and add about 2 tsp of spice mix to the honey. Drizzle over the yams and season with salt/pepper to taste.

Bake in the oven along side your roast meat for about 20 - 30 minutes. They are ready when soft. (just like potatoes, stick your fork in to test)

Enjoy, Vanessa

PS - I love Ingrid's idea of serving them with aioli - go the whole hog and serve this with your roast too. Make sure it's extra garlicky!

Honey spiced yams - surprise the family!

For pizza and pie lovers

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 the results...of our 'cheese food fight'


Vanessa's handmade mozzarella turned into Sardine, mozzarella and tomato pizzettes

Handmade mozzarella - not bad for a first attempt but still needs refining

When we decided our next food fight was going to be cheese it was the perfect motivation to get stuck into using my cheese making kit. My friends bought it for my recent birthday on the proviso I make cheese and have a tasting party! It was a beginner Italian kit featuring Ricotta, Mozzarella and Marscapone. I decided to give the Mozzarella a try and follow up with handmade pizzas.

The first challenge was the cheese, I raced down to my local dairy to get full cream milk (who has that today?) and got chatting with the owner who hails from India. I told him what I was up to and he looked at my 2 litre and told me to buy at least double - how right was he. He makes Panneer, an Indian cheese often fried and added to curry.

Thanks to Mad Millie beginners' Italian cheese kit www.madmillie.com and the girl in the youtube clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTJTxF1-ASs these are the steps I followed to make my Mozzarella. 

Mine tasted fine, but was rough on the surface and quite dense.  I think the combination of homogenized milk and working it like play doh rather than stretching it made it that way. If you know the reason why - please post us a message.   

Boutique cheese - worth every penny! (Homemade mozzarella)

Mozzarella cheese (recipe from the Mad Millie cheese kit)

What you need

4 litres of un-homogenized milk (I used homogenized so that may be where I went wrong?)

2ml calcium chloride 

2 tsp citric acid dissolved in 1/4 cup of cool water

1/2 tablet of rennet dissolved in 1/4 cup of un-chlorinated water (once again I used regular tap water and I think its chlorinated so maybe that's also where I went wrong?)

Salt to taste

Equipment  

Large pot

Slotted draining spoon

Thermometer

Large knife

Rubber gloves (I didn't  as the girl in the you tube clip didn't wear them!)

2 large bowls

Butter muslin

How to make

• Put milk into large pot and add calcium chloride.
• Heat milk to 13 degrees C (55.5 F) before mixing in the diluted citric acid.
• Heat the milk to 32 degrees C (89.5 F) whilst constantly stirring to prevent scolding the bottom.
• Once the temperature is at 32 degrees C (89.5 F) remove the pot from the heat and stir in the diluted rennet.
• Cover the pot and leave to sit for 25-30 minutes.
• Check the curd. It should be firm with a clean break. If ready cut the curd with a knife into 3cm (1 inch) cubes. 
• Place the pot back on the stove and heat the curds and whey to 42 degrees C ( 107.6 F) Stir the curds carefully while heating. 
• Scoop out the curds and place into a butter muslin lined colander. Let it drip for 5 minutes. 
• Prepare 2 bowls, one hot 70 degrees C (158 F) and one cool salty ice water.
• Put rubber gloves on. 
• Take a handful of Mozzarella curd and place it under the hot water for 20 seconds. I used the slotted spoon for this stage - like the girl in the you tube clip. 
• Carefully stretch the curd until it is smooth and flexible. (I found this stage difficult)
• Work the curd into a ball and plunge into the salty ice water. 
• Continue with the rest of the curd. 
• Eat fresh or put in the fridge in a sealed container.

pizzette with red wine and spicy sauce

Now what do I do with the stuff?

Mozzarella isn't really my cup of tea, I like strong flavours like anchovies, the stinkiest blue around, spices and aged Cheddars. Mozzarella is rather bland. Its more of a cooking cheese and synonymous with pizza so problem solved. 

Made from things in my cupboard and the dough made with help from my three year old! A perfect way to include your kids and they love the finished product.  

Sardine, mozzarella and tomato pizzette 

Pizza dough

You will need
2 tsp yeast (instant dried)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 1/2 cups of plain flour
1/2 cup warm water


How to make

• In a bowl add the warm water, yeast, salt, sugar and olive oil. Leave for about 10 minutes until its activated and a bit bubbly. 
• Add the yeast mixture to the flour by making a well in the centre and mixing it with your hands to form a dough ball. 
• Knead it until its smooth - this takes about 10 mins - using the heel of your hand works well and you get in to a rhythm. Great exercise!
• Put into a bowl coated in a bit of Olive oil and place some where warm to let it prove (rise) to double its original size. I leave it for an hour or so. 
• When ready punch the dough as its quite light and re-work it into a ball. 
• Its now ready to use. 
• Roll it out to the desired thinness/thickness - I always go thin.
• Place on to a floured dish or pizza stone and add toppings. 
• All I added was tomato sauce, tinned sardines broken up, cheese and a sprinkle of coriander once cooked. 
• Bake at 200 degrees for about 10 minutes. 

Once you have the dough made - its really quick and easy!
Vanessa x

Delicious -  sardines, mozzarella and tomato pizzette

Ingrid's dish: How to turn leftovers into a simple puff pastry pie

I really struggled with this post, as I felt a bit of competitiveness when Vanessa revealed she was going to make cheese. How could I top that! Its a bloody cheese post and she's going to make the stuff from scratch.

So I began some research into what I could make that could topple her mozzarella off its cute pizzette. I had some asparagus and some Gruyere,and puff pastry in the freezer and I thought, I like the combo, could I make a really posh asparagus roll, with some homemade mustard, and flaky pastry. Could I wrap it in a fancy pancy way? Could I balance out the nuttiness of the Gruyere with a dash of homemade relish?

Then I did my usual google search (my starting point for everything), and every chef around that used that combo seemed to have created a tart, they looked really good but I didn't want to copy. I even asked a colleague who was interviewing Julie Le Clerc for a story, if he could ask her what I could do with asparagus and Gruyere that wasn't a tart! (I forgot to tell him ...and puff pastry), and he came back to me, saying Julie would make a salad and toss some macadamia nuts in with it too. Nice one Julie, sounds delicious, however I don't have that on hand, and I wanted this to be simple, and straight from my cupboard.

So I ended up going around in circles, stressing out about cheese all week long, (who does that?) only to end up whipping up a puff pastry Mexican pie using leftovers from the night before. Not quite the competitive edge I was hoping for, but never the less, I thought it was such a great idea for transforming last nights dinner into a completely different dish altogether.

Avocados are in season, so make the most of them.

So basically all it is, is take your leftover casserole, bolognese sauce, roasted vegetables, or even a stir fry, sprinkle some cheese and wrap it in puff pastry and bake it for 25-30 mins on 180C. Job done!

I used leftover mince bolognese, added some kidney beans and made a mexican style pie. I picked rocket from my garden, grabbed a few avo's from my neighbour Johanna's tree (fellow food blogger for Continental Fresh Ideas) http://nz.lifestyle.yahoo.com/food/freshideas/blogs/ to make a guacamole and had a little winter picnic with my son Rhys in the backyard. Enjoy. Ingrid

Winter in Auckland sometimes feels just like summer.  

Mexican puff pastry pie with guacamole 

What you need
Makes 6
Leftover bolognese sauce 

Store-bought puff pastry (defrosted)

1 egg + tsp of water (lightly beaten with a fork)  

1/2 can kidney beans

1 cup of Gruyere cheese

How to assemble:

Defrost puff pastry. Set oven temp to 180C. Cut the pastry sheet into six even rectangle strips. Mix bolognese sauce with kidney beans. Spoon bolognese mixture into the middle of one side of the pastry strip, sprinkle grated cheese and fold over to meet the other side. Using a fork press down the edges on all three sides. Brush each side with egg wash (it helps it to go golden brown) and sprinkle some more cheese on top. Bake in oven for 25 - 30 mins. Serve with rocket and guacamole.

Guacamole
1 red onion (chopped)
2 soft avocados (mashed)
1/2 tsp chilli (to taste)
1 tablespoon lime or lemon (squeezed)
Salt to taste 
1 ripe tomato (diced finely)

How to make
Simply mix everything together to make a smooth dip. Fold diced tomato through just before serving.