I take immense pleasure from food. Whether I am standing barefoot in the kitchen on a sunny Sunday morning blending herbs from the garden to make a quick pesto, planning a 3 course meal for a mid-winter dinner party, or standing over the stove surrounded by preserving jars, elbow deep in jam, I am happy.
My love of food has been fostered by many things. My Mum, who cooks the most delicious meals from a seemingly empty kitchen, is a constant source of inspiration and advice. I attribute my curiosity for all foods new and unusual to the time I spent in Asia as a teenager where chickens are bought live in the market, wrapped up in newspaper and tied up with a piece of string doubling as a handle. Where the most prized of fruits, the Durian, is banned from hotel rooms due to its pungent smell. And where the fish markets overwhelm the senses, boasting daily catches of almost unimaginable sizes, colours and textures.
For me food is constantly evolving. It adapts to the contents of your fridge or pantry, to the age or tastes of your guests, or most simply, with the seasons. Food can evoke a sense of nostalgia. It soothes and comforts, fuels and nourishes, surprises and satisfies. It brings us together.
More recently it is my vegetable garden and a new found passion for cooking fresh, seasonal, unprocessed food that inspires me. The process of selecting ingredients and experimenting with flavours, textures and colours that compliment each other is at once both challenging and rewarding. And when at last sitting down to eat, it is the company of good friends and family which is always the perfect accompaniment to any meal.
12th April 2013
Lemon sago
This is a dish which for me harks back to my childhood. My brothers and I would delight in the times that Mum would surreptitiously turn to the fridge after the dinner plates had been cleared, gingerly removing from it 5 dainty glass serving dishes all filled with lemon sago. Dessert was a rare treat [...]
3rd April 2013
Ginger kisses
These ginger kisses are for my boyfriend. He’s rather partial to them you see and prior to me making these ones he had only ever eaten ginger kisses of the store bought variety. A fact which as a passionate cook and foodie is rather hard to stomach (excuse the pun!). And so we set about [...]
11th March 2013
Ginger & orange steamed pudding
Should you be shrewd enough to have picked up on the format our blog follows, you will know that this month’s recipes are all inspired by campfire cooking. Not being able to lay claim to ownership of a Webber BBQ, I knew it imperative I find an alternative cooking method which would fit the month’s [...]
4th March 2013
Coconut & lime roast chicken
This is the second of two recipes intended for our hangi which sadly was rained out. I had intended to marinate the chicken overnight, then wrapping it in banana leaves before placing it into the hangi baskets to spend the day slowly cooking. Whilst the rain quashed these plans I decided to resolutely stick to [...]
27th February 2013
Bliss balls
I couldn’t place more emphasis on the importance of eating fresh, unprocessed food. Having an awareness of the origins and make-up of the ingredients that we cook with is a very important step in the cooking process and one that shouldn’t be underestimated. Avoiding processed foods and instead starting with fresh, unprocessed ingredients when cooking [...]
11th February 2013
Chicken sandwiches
It’s a rainy Saturday in New Plymouth and whilst I am lucky enough to be sheltered indoors from the elements, my boyfriend is not quite so fortunate. Underneath the house, safely tucked away in his mums garage is his beautiful Humber Super Snipe and this weekend has been earmarked to give her a bit of [...]
12th January 2013
Eggplant roulade
There is nothing like the satisfaction of growing ones own vegetables. Towards the end of last year we moved house and one of the first things we did was buy 6 large apple boxes into which we dumped 4 ½ cubic metres of soil and a whole lot of love. Not long after the addition [...]
4th January 2013
Cherry vanilla tarte tartin
Almost two years ago now my friends and I took advantage of an invitation to a wedding, held the bottom of the south island, to pack our bags, load the cars and set off on a road trip to explore the beauty that lies at our doorstep. I had slept very little the night before, [...]
18th December 2012
Rice, orange & black olive salad
Inspiration for this salad came from a wee gem of a book which I picked up at a book fair several years ago held in a great old hall attached to the Anglican Church down the road from us. I recall wandering down on a lazy Saturday morning and as I entered into the cavernous [...]
24th November 2012
Vietnamese inspired chicken burgers
This recipe began life as a chicken ball. Bursting with flavour, its outward appearance (pale and insipid) did little to promote its culinary virtues. I saw in it the potential for greater things however and thus set about turning it into a chicken burger. Full of flavour, the patty itself required very little attention, other [...]
6th November 2012
Ginger chilli chicken on rice
I cannot claim this recipe as my own and instead I must admit that it is a specialty of the eldest of my two younger brothers, Tim. He whips it up in the blink of an eye, fires up the BBQ and before you know it the air is filled with the aroma of lemongrass [...]
1st November 2012
BBQ’s and the impending arrival of summer
Summer is teasing us down here at the bottom of the earth. She sends sunshine beating down upon pallid wintry skin, warming fingers and toes still frozen from ice-laced southerlies. Bodies unfurl and unwrap and greedily soak up her radiant heat before retreating once again as sun turns to rain and balmy daytime highs turn [...]