Dinner for Stu

Our friend Stu was arriving to stay and we had a family dinner…Of course this is always a good opportunity to try out more dishes for the blog.
Emily at work told me about some cauliflower fritters she had had for dinner the previous night. This got me thinking. I was planning to make the Cauliflower Soup in the previous post for the first course…maybe we could turn this into cakes...
Got wondering which herb to use and decided to try sage.
It worked well.
So here we go

For 8 people
1 ½ cauliflowers broken into florets
1 onion chopped
1 litre chicken stock

1 cup parmesan cheese
1 cup ground almonds
2 -3 eggs
8 sage leaves finely chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Flour (optional)
Rice Bran oil

½ cup best mayonnaise
1 chili chopped
Juice of 1 lime

Cook the cauliflower and onion till soft
Drain well (save the stock it will make great soup.
Blend with a stick blender don’t make it too smooth
Add almonds and parmesan
Whip the eggs and add with sage leaves to mixture
Add 2 eggs first you probably will need 3 but test the water first.
Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper
Put into fridge about an hour
Form into patties this quantity made 20.
Fry in oil till golden

Serve with the Lime Chili Mayo
Just mix all ingredients together chill for about an hour to meld the flavours

Sicilian Styled Fish with Squashed Basil Potatoes
Jamie Oliver has been cooking some great food…I really want to cook almost everything
So I do apologise if you get sick of seeing his name. I also apologise for the photo my camera was running out of batteries and that was the last shot before it failed…
Anyhow!!!


Sicilian Fish

200 gms white fish per person e.g. Hapuka, Swordfish
Several stalks rosemary
4 lemons thinly sliced
1 jar capers
8 tablespoons Olive oil
1 jar anchovies
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cut fish into chunks about 4 cms and place in a bowl
Put rosemary leaves capers and oil into mortar
Scrunch up with the pestle and add to the fish
Massage fish well
You can do this in advance and keep in fridge till ready

Heat oven to 220C
Into your roasting pan lay out the fish
Season with S & P
Cover with lemons and anchovies
Pour over any remaining marinade
Cook for 20 minutes






The Potatoes
Jersey Bennes
Handful of basil
Freshly ground black pepper
Good olive oil I used the Italian Colonna Orange infused oil…this is like liquid gold a sensational oil

Cook the potatoes till fork tender
Drain
Add basil and as much oil as you feel fit
Squash up with a fork
This is divine!

Serve with a crisp green salad.

Now dessert

Wicked Crème Caramel with a twist of Lime

This quite rich but delicious
To feed 8

The Caramel
1 cup sugar
6 tablespoons water
Bring to boil and simmer till it turns golden about 15 minutes
Keep an eye on it...it can turn from golden to burnt in seconds.

Meanwhile prepare The Custard

2 cans condensed milk
Equal amounts of whole milk
Zest 3 limes in strips
1 vanilla bean split scrape seeds out
6 eggs

Scald milks with lime and vanilla seeds and pod
And strain

Beat eggs in a bowl
Temper eggs with a little hot milk
This is to reduce the chance of scrambling the eggs.
When mixed add rest of milk

To compile the dessert
Light butter ramekins
Pour a little caramel into the bottom of each ramekin
Be careful it is very hot.

Then share the custard between the ramekins

Bake at 150C in a bain marie for 25- 30 minutes
It should still tremble a little in the middle

Cool and then chill for at least 3 hours.

To serve either put a dob of whipped cream on top
A little lime zest for garnish











Or you can turn them out

This is a really rich dessert and the only thing to go with it is
Another Jamie idea

Thin Sliced Pineapple with Mint Sugar. Yum!!!

12 mint leaves
½ cup sugar
Bash in mortar and pestle till all mixed together










Peel pineapple
Cut into quarters
Remove stringy old core
Thinly cut long slices
Arrange on a plate and sprinkle with minted sugar



How about that!
What an easy dessert.

Cauliflower Soup

Inspired by Anthony Worrall Thompson
This soup has ground almonds as a thickening agent and it is really tasty

Butter 2 tablespoons
1 onion chopped
1 cauliflower broken into florets
Chicken stock
70 gms ground almonds
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
Nutmeg

Garnish
Cream
Parsley finely chopped
Toasted sliced almonds


Melt butter in stock pot sauté onions till soft
Add cauliflower mix around
Cover with stock
Bring to boil and simmer until cauliflower is fork tender
Add almonds cook for about 5 minutes
Season with nutmeg freshly ground black pepper
Check for salt add if necessary
Blend

Serve garnished with a swirl of cream
Parsley and sliced almonds

N.b. you can buy a wonderful product called Almond Accents.
These have been seasoned and already sliced and toasted for you.
Excellent for garnish actually they make nice little nibbles to have with drinks.
I used the Italian Parmesan version

Jellies for the Big Kids and for the Little Kids

Emma and Bron of nihowera held a Mid Winter Christmas event.
Couldn't think of anything nicer to add to the dessert trolly but these lovely jellies. Our little kids love them too.
Have a look at their site.




An Idea from Jamie Oliver
It is summer berries locked in a beautiful jelly.
Fresh are preferable but the frozen berries are fine
Booze for the adults...apple juice for the kids.

For the Kids Jelly
150 mls freshly squeezed Tangelo Juice
1 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons powdered gelatin or 4 leaves
Apple juice
Packet frozen mixed berries
Or punnets of summer berries

Warm the tangelo juice
Add the gelatin and sugar
Stir till dissolved
Strain into measuring jug.
You up to 500 mls with apple juice

Fill the glasses with berries
And pour jelly liquid over to the top.
Into fridge till set.
Bring back to room temperature to serve

Top with fresh cream maybe a little shaved chocolate on top.

Now for the Adults
Follow the method above
Replace the apple juice with your favourite Sparkling Wine.

Isn’t this pretty

An Indian Savoury Pudding

I don’t cook a lot of Indian Food the restaurants do it so well. But I do love it and I was inspired to make this Pilaf/Biriani Layered Pudding by watching the mad Indian Chef Reza Mohammad.
There are 4 steps for the 4 layers but for multi-taskers…No probs.
He suggested that you soak your rice for 2 hours and then rinse it well.
He said it lengthens the grain!!! I don’t know about that but it did cook more quickly than normal

Step 1:
Soak wash and cook 2 cups basmati rice in plenty of boiling water till rice just cooked.
Mine took about 7 minutes
Don’t over cook as it will become gluggy.
Step 2:
Fried onions

2 tablespoons Vege oil (I like rice bran)
3 large onions sliced
1 cinnamon stick
6 cardamom pods
2 tablespoons garlic chopped
2 tablespoons grated ginger
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons garam masala

Gently fry onions in oil with cinnamon & cardamom about 20 minutes till brown
Add garlic ginger cumin and garam masala stir around 2-3 minutes
Put to one side.

Step 3:
½ cup Puy lentils

Cook lentils in unsalted water for about 20 minutes till lentils just cooked.

Step 4:

500 gms lamb mince
2 tomatoes chopped
2 chilies chopped
2 tablespoons ginger grated
2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
1 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons yoghurtR>3 tablespoons chopped mint
3 tablespoons chopped coriander

Pinch saffron in ¼ cup warm water

Into a hot pan throw in the lamb…no fat there is plenty of fat in the lamb
Don’t overcrowd the pan, do it in 2 lots if it doesn’t fit.

Brown the lamb...I also drained the excess fat off and then put the lamb to one side.
In the oil remaining in the pan
Add the tomatoes chilies, ginger and garlic stir around then return lamb to pan.
Add enough stock and simmer 15-20 minutes
Add yoghurt, and chopped herbs
You are now ready to layer

Grease a pudding basin very well with butter.

Now here we go
A little rice on the bottom
Scatter some Puy lentils
Sprinkle saffron water over just a little
Little bit more rice then a good layer meat mixture
Fried onions,
Good layer of rice, Puy lentils, little rice saffron water, onions, meat etc
Finish with rice.
Sprinkle with the remainder if the saffron water.
Dot with butter.
Cover with foil
Cook 170C for 50 minutes.

Hold your breath and turn out

Voila a wonderful savoury rice pudding

It was delicious we ate far too much.
Long walk next day