Although I love to be outdoors, exploring, visiting new places, meeting new faces, and old, I always love to come home. "Lets head for paradise" the kids say when we leave the city to head for home. Where we live is very beautiful, but its more than that that make it paradise for us. Its the things we do here. The fires on the beach, walks in hills, friends round for food, picking our veg and fruit from our own garden, watching our ducks fly down the garden at feeding time. A wealth of time and love has been shared at our little home.
Me with my favorite 4 people!
This Saturday I had a glorious day. Our youngest had a rugby match and with car pooling there was no room for me to go. As much as I love to support him in his sport, it is a very rare thing indeed for me to find myself at home alone! And as if to make this time alone even more special the sun came out and turned it into a glorious warm winters day.
So what to do with half a day totally to myself?! I whizzed through housework as quickly as I could. Then slipped out side, tidied some of the garden, did some weeding and then.....one of our olive trees laden with beautiful black shining olives caught my eye. straight away I could see a little line of jars sitting in my kitchen full of olives quietly curing away.
So I dropped everything and started picking.
Soon I was curled up on the sofa with a bowl of clean rinsed olives, making a little slit from top to bottom down one side of each.
After that I filled jars with the olives and poured a 10% salt brine right to the top. Now all I have to do is shake the jars each day and change the brine solution each week for 3 weeks
Then they just need to be marinated in a vinegar brine solution with flavorings such as garlic, oregano and lemon. I ant wait, I'll let you know how that turns out.
Feeling all motivated I turned my attention to some new products I had been working on for our shop available at the Preserved Workshops and online. Lately I have really got into finishing salts and sugars. I love making them as its so hands on and it really feels like a lot of love goes into them, it also makes the house smell gorgeous with smells of lemons, oranges and chilli drifting through. Its such a delicious way to lift a dish. Smoked Chilli salt on your pizza, citrus salt on your fish, lavender sugar on your cup cakes...mmmmmm. They are so beautiful and colorful too. I'm looking forward to using them more in the kitchen and sharing my recipes with you, and I'll let you know when we have them ready for the shop!
Soon the peace was over and the house was filled with the sound of exited kids home. I love lazy afternoons where you just lie about chatting to each other, fire going, toy soldiers covering the hallway floor, mucky knees and smiling kids. Even more happy when they discover Ive made their favorite for tea - spaghetti bolognaise. My special ingredient is I start by frying off some home cured pancetta, then taking it out of the pan and frying off the mince in the juices before adding it back in. It adds a real depth of flavor, home dry cured smoked bacon is also wonderful releasing a wonderful subtle smoky flavor through the dish.
But my favorite recipe of the weekend has to be pancakes with stewed tamarillos and Creme anglaise. Its simple and delicious to make and tamarillos are in season now!
Stewed Tamarillo
Blanch the tamarillos in boiling water for a few seconds and then plunge into cold water, this should make it easy to remove the skins. (optional but the skins can be a it bitter)
Cover the bottom of a saucepan with water, add the tamarillos, some brown sugar, cinnamon stick and a pinch of nutmeg. heat gently and let stew, until the fruit is soft. using a slatted spoon remove the fruit leaving the juices, reduce until think on a medium heat.
Creme Anglaise.
A delicious light custard sauce.
Beat together 4 egg yolks with 1/2 cup white sugar until it is light pale yellow and when you lift the whisk up the mixture leaves a ribbon on the surface for a few seconds before disappearing.
Beat in 1 tsp of cornstarch (optional but helps stop the eggs scrambling if you let the temperature on the next step slip to high.)
beat continually while drizzling in very gradually 1 1/4 cups boiling milk.
Pop it all in a heavy based sauce pan over a low to medium heat and stir continually until it coats the back of a spoon with a lovely light creamy coating. DON'T let it come anywhere near a simmer or it will scramble so keep an eye on it!
Take off the heat and beat for a couple of minuets as it cools.
Pancakes - crepe style (Made by my fab hubby)
Mix together with a whisk 1 cup of flour, 2 eggs, 1 cup milk, 1 tbs melted butter and a pinch of salt, until it is lovely and smooth.
Pour a ladle into a nice wide frying pan, move the pan around to spread out the mixture, add more if needed, but your looking for a nice thin crepe. Once it has dried out and lost its shine flip it over, it wont take long, maybe 30 seconds to cook that side.
slide your pancake onto a plate, spoon on some of the tamarillos onto one half of the pancake, add some of the reduced sauce and top with creme anglaise, fold over and enjoy! mmmmmm. Iv made myself hungry now, I think I might just leave you all and go make another batch.
Have fun in your kitchen
Anna.
for information on Pig in a Day workshops and more www.preserved.co.nz
This Saturday I had a glorious day. Our youngest had a rugby match and with car pooling there was no room for me to go. As much as I love to support him in his sport, it is a very rare thing indeed for me to find myself at home alone! And as if to make this time alone even more special the sun came out and turned it into a glorious warm winters day.
So what to do with half a day totally to myself?! I whizzed through housework as quickly as I could. Then slipped out side, tidied some of the garden, did some weeding and then.....one of our olive trees laden with beautiful black shining olives caught my eye. straight away I could see a little line of jars sitting in my kitchen full of olives quietly curing away.
So I dropped everything and started picking.
Soon I was curled up on the sofa with a bowl of clean rinsed olives, making a little slit from top to bottom down one side of each.
After that I filled jars with the olives and poured a 10% salt brine right to the top. Now all I have to do is shake the jars each day and change the brine solution each week for 3 weeks
Then they just need to be marinated in a vinegar brine solution with flavorings such as garlic, oregano and lemon. I ant wait, I'll let you know how that turns out.
Feeling all motivated I turned my attention to some new products I had been working on for our shop available at the Preserved Workshops and online. Lately I have really got into finishing salts and sugars. I love making them as its so hands on and it really feels like a lot of love goes into them, it also makes the house smell gorgeous with smells of lemons, oranges and chilli drifting through. Its such a delicious way to lift a dish. Smoked Chilli salt on your pizza, citrus salt on your fish, lavender sugar on your cup cakes...mmmmmm. They are so beautiful and colorful too. I'm looking forward to using them more in the kitchen and sharing my recipes with you, and I'll let you know when we have them ready for the shop!
Soon the peace was over and the house was filled with the sound of exited kids home. I love lazy afternoons where you just lie about chatting to each other, fire going, toy soldiers covering the hallway floor, mucky knees and smiling kids. Even more happy when they discover Ive made their favorite for tea - spaghetti bolognaise. My special ingredient is I start by frying off some home cured pancetta, then taking it out of the pan and frying off the mince in the juices before adding it back in. It adds a real depth of flavor, home dry cured smoked bacon is also wonderful releasing a wonderful subtle smoky flavor through the dish.
But my favorite recipe of the weekend has to be pancakes with stewed tamarillos and Creme anglaise. Its simple and delicious to make and tamarillos are in season now!
Stewed Tamarillo
Blanch the tamarillos in boiling water for a few seconds and then plunge into cold water, this should make it easy to remove the skins. (optional but the skins can be a it bitter)
Cover the bottom of a saucepan with water, add the tamarillos, some brown sugar, cinnamon stick and a pinch of nutmeg. heat gently and let stew, until the fruit is soft. using a slatted spoon remove the fruit leaving the juices, reduce until think on a medium heat.
Creme Anglaise.
A delicious light custard sauce.
Beat together 4 egg yolks with 1/2 cup white sugar until it is light pale yellow and when you lift the whisk up the mixture leaves a ribbon on the surface for a few seconds before disappearing.
Beat in 1 tsp of cornstarch (optional but helps stop the eggs scrambling if you let the temperature on the next step slip to high.)
beat continually while drizzling in very gradually 1 1/4 cups boiling milk.
Pop it all in a heavy based sauce pan over a low to medium heat and stir continually until it coats the back of a spoon with a lovely light creamy coating. DON'T let it come anywhere near a simmer or it will scramble so keep an eye on it!
Take off the heat and beat for a couple of minuets as it cools.
Pancakes - crepe style (Made by my fab hubby)
Mix together with a whisk 1 cup of flour, 2 eggs, 1 cup milk, 1 tbs melted butter and a pinch of salt, until it is lovely and smooth.
Pour a ladle into a nice wide frying pan, move the pan around to spread out the mixture, add more if needed, but your looking for a nice thin crepe. Once it has dried out and lost its shine flip it over, it wont take long, maybe 30 seconds to cook that side.
slide your pancake onto a plate, spoon on some of the tamarillos onto one half of the pancake, add some of the reduced sauce and top with creme anglaise, fold over and enjoy! mmmmmm. Iv made myself hungry now, I think I might just leave you all and go make another batch.
Have fun in your kitchen
Anna.
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