Party Food – Cooking Blog – Find the best recipes, cooking and food tips at Our Kitchen.

Eggplant roulade

December 7, 2017 No Comments

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 of these fine raised beds to our back garden we received a lunar calendar from a friend, an ancient relic from the 70’s whose colours had long since faded, lending to it an apt sense of mysticism

Spiced pumpkin tarte tatin

October 25, 2017 4 Comments

Rosie McLean is a final year student studying for a Bachelor of Culinary Arts at Otago Polytechnic. Rosie has her own blog where she indulges us in her weakness for all things sweet. As a special Halloween treat, Rosie popped in and cooked this amazing dish. I must admit that I personally ate four of the six servings….how very selfish of me. Check out Rosie’s blog www.aspaceforpudding.com and definitely give this dessert a try – I gave it a big double thumbs up! Thanks Rosie!

Tiny Apple and Elderflower tarts

May 4, 2017 5 Comments

With summer finally gracing us with her presence, I am eagerly anticipating spending several afternoons, when the sun is shining, gathering elderflowers to make cordial and hopefully elderflower champagne, which our colleague Simon (of Simons lemoncello cake ) has very kindly given us a recipe for.

Beer Braised Ribs with Radish & Broad Bean Salad

November 9, 2016 1 Comment

These delicious and saucy ribs will make your mouth water, we combined beautifully soft broiled beef ribs with a fresh palate cleansing broad bean and radish salad that evokes feelings of summer and time with family or friends around the table with plates of lovingly prepared food.

Easy Smoked BBQ Brisket

February 10, 2016 No Comments

This recipe came from a recent obsession with Southern US barbecue. I’ve written before about the pseudo meat-monks that will religiously tend a fire from dawn till dusk. This recipe recreates that flavour with a style of worship that is much more hands off. An overnight spice rub and a two hour smoke creates a beautiful exterior and it is finished in the oven, low and slow, for much easier temperature control.

Dark Chocolate Torte

January 5, 2016 2 Comments

Happy New Year everyone! After a holiday season filled with delicious food, some of you might not want to look at another slice of cake or bite of chocolate again for some time. I, however, have not been deterred and am feeling inspired by this beautifully rich dark chocolate torte.

Ricotta filled, orange scented doughnuts

January 2, 2016 10 Comments

Almost two years ago now, while travelling around southern Italy for a few weeks, we happened upon a small café in the town square of Catania, Sicily, with a counter stacked high with sweet treats. Choosing to forgo the famous cannoli, I bought the biggest doughnut I could find

Festive spiced nuts

December 16, 2015 No Comments

After not writing a blog post for a while I want to say so much about 2015 it really all boils down to being content with the year I’ve had and excited for the year ahead. Although I’ve been light on posts

Curried avocado and cauliflower

September 23, 2015 No Comments

I’ve been on a sabbatical from contributing recipes to our blog. Unlike Richie’s 2013 rugby sabbatical mine has been unintended…and with less effect on both the team and the nation. With Richie giving the country a massive shoulder-ride at the moment, I shouldn’t really compare my situation to that of this great human, but I thought timely to include a rugby reference

Smoked Steak

April 30, 2015 No Comments

What? Smoked Steak? You don’t smoke steak! You SEAR steak! Before you assemble the angry mob, hear me out. Because this could be the best steak you have ever had.

Chocolate Cherry Rum Cake

February 26, 2015 2 Comments

If you want to drop a bomb on your dinner party. This cake it totally nuclear. The Engineers (our poor friends who we inflict our culinary experiments on) didn’t stop their thumbs up mutterings for days after this went out at afternoon tea. The lovely Genevieve (one of our superstar product evaluators) and I have been plotting and planning this cake for quite some time.

Sausage Rolls

December 8, 2014 No Comments

What a marvelous year it has been in the culinary triumphs of my eldest daughter, Ada. Her four years of culinary training in my kitchen have given her the confidence to be in my eyes certified to prepare some beautifully simple dishes without (much) assistance. Getting there has included many moments of hair-raising anguish, resulting in some Gordon Ramsay style reaction on my behalf to her techniques.

Saag Aloo pie

September 9, 2014 No Comments

Becky works alongside me as one of our cooking product evaluators and she never fails to come up with new and inventive ways to test our cooking products. Her passion for cooking equates to a lot of delicious ‘engineer feed’ coming out of the lab so we asked her to whip up a favourite for Our Kitchen.