I brought a gorgeous cookbook last week. It’s called The Green Kitchen. It’s vegetarian, has stunning images and a gorgeous layout. This was the first recipe I tried which was a real success and I can’t wait to make them again.
I’ve called them hotcakes (the original recipe is pancakes) because here in NZ pancakes are really large and quite thin where as these are smaller and thicker – like hotcakes 
RECIPE
3 ripe bananas, mashed
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup of coconut, dessicated or thread
1 cup of blueberries (thawed if frozen)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp coconut oil for frying
2 tbsp of maple syrup or honey (for topping)
2 tbsp if plain yoghurt (for topping)
Mix together the mashed banana, lightly beaten eggs, coconut, cinnamon and most of the blueberries (reserve some for serving) in a bowl. The mixture is a bit runnier than a normal pancake mix.
Heat the coconut oil in a non-stick fry pan till bubbling then turn down to medium. Add a large tablespoonful of the batter to the pan for each hotcake – smaller than pancake size but larger than pikelets. Cook for two – three minutes until they look reasonably set. Flip carefully (they’re a little tricky but if they are set enough it’s not too difficult). Cook the reverse side for a minute or two, they should be a nice golden brown.
Stack the hotcakes and serve with a dollop of yoghurt, a few extra blueberries, some runny honey or maple syrup and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Invite me for breakfast.
Serves 4
These are delicious, light tarts that are not too sweet (no refined sugar) and are gluten free. I have also made this as one large tart you just need to cook the crust longer.
Almond Crust
130g butter
1/3 cup manuka honey
200g ground almonds
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary leaves
pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 180ºC.
Melt the butter and honey together then add in a bowl with all other ingredients, mix well. Using your fingertips, press dough into the bottoms and sides of 8 x 8cm tart pans (buttered or nonstick) ensuring the crust is not too thick. Prick holes with a fork.
Bake in the oven for 10 mins or until golden brown. Leave to cool in the tins, then place in the fridge til cold before you remove them carefully from the tins. I find this step helps with perfect tart shells.
Pear & honey filling
5 ripe pears, thinly sliced (I leave the skin on)
Juice and zest of half a lemon
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup manuka honey
6 small sprigs of rosemary
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to the boil. Turn down a little and cook until the pear are soft but not mushy and the mixture is surupy, this takes about 20 – 30 mins. Keep stirring to avoid the mixture from burning.
Remove from heat and allow to cool.
When you’re ready to serve, scoop pear compote into the tart shells. Top each tart with a dollop of thickened cream, greek yoghurt or mascarpone and garnish with rosemary.
This is very easy and tasty, the chilli adds a bit of extra flavour burst. It also looks so impressive and colourful when served.
RECIPE
For the salad:
2 eye fillet or 1 sirloin or 1 scotch fillet steak
1 large handful of rocket
2 large handfuls of salad leaves
2 spring onions, chopped
1/2 red capsicum, sliced
6 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup of toasted sesame seeds
1 small handful of fresh coriander leaves
Zest of 1 lime
1/2 cup of mung bean sprouts (optional)
Freshly ground salt and pepper
For the dressing:
Zest and juice of 2 limes
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 small red chilli, chopped finely
1 teaspoon sugar
1 clove garlic, minced or diced
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander
Freshly ground salt and pepper
Whisk all the dressing ingredients together and place in a lidded jar. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Marinate the steak for 1 – 2 hours in a little of the dressing.
Barbecue or pan fry your steak till medium rare. Set aside and rest for 5 minutes. Meanwhile mix all the salad ingredients together except the lime zest and 1/2 of the sesame seeds. Serve on to a platter.
Thinly slice the steak and add to the top of the salad. Shake up the dressing and pour some over the beef salad and some into a dipping saucer. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with the rest of the sesame seeds and the lime zest.
We all get run down and tired, at these times I know I need more fresh greens in my diet. I have a small garden with perpetual spinach, rocket, kale and herbs. This tiny garden feeds me so well, I especially love rocket and all it’s cost me is one packet of seeds because it self sows and regrows rapidly everytime I snip a bunch.
Omelettes are an easy, healthy meal expecially when combined with lots of greens…
RECIPE
3 free-range organic eggs
1 large handful of spinach & kale (or just spinach if you have no kale)
1 large handful of rocket
1/2 an onion
1 courgette, sliced
1/2 cup of a mixture of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, toasted
6 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup of parmesan, grated
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Herbs: Sprigs of thyme or chopped parsley
Process the eggs and half of the spinach/kale with a stick blender to make a lovely green eggs mixture.
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a frypan and gently fry the onion till soft. Chop the other half of the spinach and kale roughly. Add to the pan with the sliced gourgettes. Fry for a couple of minutes then remove from the heat and place a lid over the pan to steam the vegetables for a few minutes. Remove all the veges from the pan and set aside.
Add another tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and heat, add your egg mixture to the pan, turn the heat down to medium and cook without stirring until firm but still soft. Sprinkle half of the parmesan over the omelette then add your vege mix and spread out. Add the halved cherry tomatoes and rocket leaves to cover. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the omelette in half in the pan, cut in half and serve. Sprinkle with the rest of the parmesan, toasted seeds and nuts, herbs and more rocket leaves.
The great thing with omelettes is that you can use any combination of vegetables that you like so try different variations.
Pappardelle are large, very broad flat pasta noodles, similar to wide fettuccine. The name derives from the verb “pappare”, to gobble up – love that! Pappardelle is my favourite pasta and thankfully we have a wonderful fresh pasta brand called pastamia which is made in Taupo by Angelo Tredicucci. Locally here at Waihi Beach you can purchase it from the farmgate deli.
One of my great sources of inspiration for food and food styling is Australia Katie Quinn Davies from whatkatieate.com. Check her blog out and her books, Katie is nothing short of amazing! This is originally one of Katies recipes but I have changed it slightly and have not made my own pasta (shame on me) or used garden fresh peas (wrong time of year). However it’s the flavours that are sensational. And I firmly believe in slow cooking beef, lamb, chicken and pork roasts to maximise on tenderness, flavour and goodness.
RECIPE
1 x 250g pack fresh pappardelle pasta
1.5kg leg of lamb, bone in.
8 cloves garlic, peeled
2 celery stalks, cut into about 3 pieces each
1 large onion, roughly chopped
4 large sprigs of rosemary
Half bottle white wine
1 cup of water
2 cups frozen minted baby peas
Large handful parsley and mint, chopped
Zest and juice 1 lemon
Olive oil for cooking
Salt and pepper
Grated parmesan
Preheat oven to 120°C.
Place your lamb in a large lidded roasting dish, pour over the wine and water. Scatter the onion, garlic, celery and rosemary around the lamb. Pour a glug of olive oil over the lamb then season well with freshly ground salt and pepper. Place the dish in the oven and slow roast for 6 hours. Check the liquid level half way through and add water if needed.
Remove the lamb from the roasting dish and cover with tinfoil, rest. If you feel the liquid in the pan has too much fat in it put it into a container and place in the freezer for about 40 mins then you can easily lift the fat layer off and discard.
With a stick blender puree the liquid and vege contents of the roasting dish together with 1 cup of the frozen peas, parsley and mint. This is the basis for your pasta sauce.
Zest your lemon and then squeeze and add the juice to your puree, reserve the zest for serving. If you feel the sauce is too thick, add water. Season to taste.
Cook your parpadelle pasta in salted water till al dente and cook the other cup of frozen peas. While this is cooking shred the lamb, the meat should fall off the bone. If you have bone marrow add that to the pasta sauce. Strain your pasta and peas, mix together and stir in the sauce. Gently stir in as much of the shredded lamb as you wish, I usually leave some out to serve on top at the end.
Serve and top with more lamb, lemon zest and grated parmesan. Season with freshly ground salt and pepper. I also garnished with rosemary sprigs and Italian flat-leaf parsley.
I’m lucky enough to live in a place where there are a lot of high producing fig trees! The figs below are fresh, local produce.
This is a favourite recipe of mine created by Tauranga chef James Broad from Cuisine concepts. It’s simple and delicious. If you can’t find soba noodles then you can use udon or ramen.
500 grams soba noodles
500 grams prawns
Spring onions, sliced
Fresh coriander
Dressing
80 mls Japanese Soy sauce
1 lime – juice and zest
10 mls Fish sauce
50 grams palm sugar
20 mls Bestow Beauty Oil (optional)
Cook noodles till soft, cool.
Add dressing ingredients to saucepan except the Bestow Beauty Oil (if you are using it), heat to dissolve palm sugar, cool, add Bestow Beauty Oil. Combine with noodles and sliced spring onions.
Quickly pan fry prawns in a hot pan with a tbsp of olive oil and a knob of butter. Add to noodles, toss together, season and serve with fresh coriander.
Anything with custard in it is a winner in my world especially these portugese custard tarts (Pasteis de nata). Eat them while they are still warm from the oven, you’ll think you have died and gone to heaven.
My puff pastry seems to ‘overpuff’ they shouldn’t look quite as puffy as they do but they are still yummy. I’ve also made them with sweet short pastry which is equally as good but not the traditional way.
1 x 500g pack of flaky puff pastry
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
4 tblsp cornflour
2 cups milk
4 egg yolks
1 vanilla pod, scraped or 1 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 180°C. Roll out the pastry and cut into 12cm rounds with a cookie cutter. Line muffin tins. Prick the pastry with a fork.
Place the sugar and water into a pot, stir and bring to the boil. Boil for 3 mins till syrupy. Remove from heat. Cool slightly.
In a bowl mix the cornflour and 1 cup of milk to a smooth paste. Whisk in the egg yolks, the second cup of milk and the vanilla. Pour this mixture into the pot with the sugar syrup and mix well.
Stir constantly over a low heat until the custard thickens, takes about ten minutes. You should now have a thick, velvety custard.
Remove from the heat, cover and cool.
Place spoonfuls of cooled custard into the pastry cases and bake for 20 mins until custard is golden brown.
For those mid winter ailments leek and potato soup is hearty and warming.
80g Butter
1 tbsp olive oil
2 leeks, sliced
½ onion, chopped
1 clove garlic peeled
3 cups chicken stock (preferably home made)
3 good sized Potatoes, peeled & diced
A good handful of spinach, chopped
½ cup cream
Salt & Pepper
Chives, chopped
Heat the butter and oil in a frypan till frothy, turn the heat down and add potatoes, onion, leeks, garlic and salt and pepper. Gently fry until soft and starting to turn golden. Add the chicken stock and bring to the boil. Add the spinach and turn down to a simmer for about 5 minutes. Stir in the cream.
Take off the heat and cool, blend to a puree. Reheat and serve, season to suit and garnish with chives.
