An old Prussian recipe for aromatic veal, pork, anchovy meatballs simmered in a tart caper broth which is then turned into a sauce with the addition of herbs and sour cream. The meatballs buck our contemporary obsession with frying everything and are deliciously succulent as a result. The broth self-thickens from the flour the meat…
Food : Pork Pie
There is something glorious about the simplicity of traditional pork pie. In effect it has two ingredients , the produce of a pig and wheat flour. We can allow ourselves a few spices , and a torn herb leaf or two, perhaps a few stock veg for the jelly but really it is the triumph…
Food : Spiced Lettuce Soup
Lettuce soup is a surprisingly divisive dish. There is something about taking a green we eat raw and cooking it that really upsets people. The reality is that like spinach, lettuce can work in both raw and cooked applications . I have a few old NZ cookbooks that feature recipes for lettuce soup and with…
Food : Home Washed Rind Cheese
While I don’t make cheese at home anymore , or indeed monger it for a living anymore , I do subvert it every now and then for fun. I love the funky, tangy, expressively fermented world of washed rind cheese. Washed rind cheese or, smear ripened to use the technical term, is a family of…
Food : Tomato Kasundi
This year I had a decent tomato harvest allowing me to make sauces and chutneys. Tomato Kasundi combines 2 of my favourite things , preservation by pickling or fermentation and the flavours of the Indian sub-continent . Kasundi is a chutney that comes in a number of forms but outside of the Indian community is…
The Year of the Garden
This year I have put a lot of effort into my veg garden. As the pandemic rages on, the world teeters on the edge of another world war and far right conspiracy theorists attempt sedition an hour down the road the garden seems like a good place to hide. New raised beds and lots of new…
Food : Crispy Tofu and Soba Noodle and Black Bean Salad
This pan Asian / fusion / café culture salad is very much my jam in the warmer months. In part inspired by the awesome Soba Noodle salad at Maranui/Queen Sallys with the addition of crispy tofu in a Korean bulgogi sauce . The deep fryer really helps the crispy tofu but I’m sure an air…
Cider : Orchard Update Winter 2021
Three new trees in, and first samples of the last vintage.
Cider : Vintage 2021
This year I invested in a scratter and press so I could start making cider. My trees are still too young to really provide any sensible quantities of fruit so I supplemented them with scrumped windfall fruit from trees I located around the village , I also put out a call on the community facebook…
Life : On mortality , mobility and riding a bike.
On mortality , mobility and riding a bike. My father died last year after a decade of creeping dementia. In his end he followed his mother right down to dyeing at the same 70 years of age. This weekend in particular I find myself missing him.Both my father and my grandfather were competitive road cyclists,…
Raise the Dawn 