Glorious Ghee

Up until about a year ago I religiously used olive oil for all my cooking. I preferred it over more refined oils which are extracted using solvents and then refined, deoderised and bleached. For someone who likes to eat foods which are as natural as possible the product that remains after all that processing doesn’t really seem like food to me. The downside of using olive oil in cooking however is that it is stable only when used at lower temperatures. If used at high temperatures the oil burns and can form various harmful compounds. So whilst I still love using olive oil in salad dressings and in low heat cooking, I now regularly make ghee as it is fantastic for roasting and frying at high heat. Ghee is an ingredient which originates in ancient India where it is deeply revered in Indian cooking as well as in Ayurvedic medicine and religious rituals. It is also used in Middle Eastern, South East Asian and African cuisines. It is really easy to make, has a wonderful rich, nutty smell and taste and is a beautiful golden yellow colour. Another bonus to using it is that you know you are cooking with an ingredient which is produced right here in New Zealand.

Ghee

Almost fills at 1L jar

2 500g blocks butter (you can use salted or unsalted butter)*

Put the butter into a heavy-bottomed saucepan and put it on the stove on a medium heat. Melt the butter and then bring it to a gentle simmer. At this stage a foam will form on top and as the butter simmers away the milk solids will drop to the bottom of the saucepan. After about 15-20 minutes you if you take a wooden spoon and gently push the foam aside you will see the milk solids on the bottom through the clear golden ghee. At this point you can either remove the pan from the heat or let it cook further until the milk solids are golden brown and the ghee has taken on more of a nutty flavour. Remove from the heat. Line a sieve with muslin or cheese cloth and set over a large pyrex jug or bowl. Slowly pour the contents of the saucepan into the sieve so that they milk solids are separated from the liquid ghee. Once separated pour the ghee into a jar, seal and store either on the bench out of the direct sunlight or in the fridge. Either throw away or use the milk solids in something else (see below).

You can use just one block of butter to make this recipe. It will just cook faster if you do it this way.

*If you use salted butter then the milk solids that remain are too salty to use for anything else. If you use unsalted butter however then the solids are obsoletely delicious and can be stirred through rice, used in a crumble topping or used to make Indian sweets.

Recipe originally published over at The Spinoff

Tomato Tarte Tatin

3 years and 3 months ago we packed up all of our belongings and traded life in the little seaside village of Devonport in Auckland for life in a similarly small town in rural Taranaki called Inglewood. I was 33 weeks pregnant with our third baby when we moved and 6 weeks later I gave birth to her right here at home. Such a gift to have a wee girl (our first two are boys) bless our family and to finally have a home of our own with a garden full of fruit trees, vegetable gardens and a wee stream babbling away on our western boundary. It took a good two years to adjust to this new place we call home but now I can’t imagine living anywhere else and feel grateful everyday for the four walls that shelter us and the earth beneath our feet that feeds and nourishes both our bodies and souls.

We have almost 60 fruit trees here, a handful of berries and ever-expanding vege gardens. Since we got here I have dug 6 additional beds (there were 4 here when we arrived) and this summer the majority of the vegetables we ate were out of our garden. I remember the feeling of overwhelm when we first got here, not really knowing where to start in the garden. How was I meant to raise seeds and where? What should I grow and how do I beat the birds to all our fruit?! I spend a lot of time in the garden now, as do our kids, and I feel deeply connected to it. What a joy and a privilege it is to be able to be the guardians of this wee patch of earth.

One of the crops I’ve finally succeeding in growing this year is tomatoes. Our location part-way up mounga Taranaki has a significant impact on our growing season, making it shorter than it would otherwise be if we weren’t to live here. With this in mind, I have taken a rather experimental approach to the way I grow our food, simply planting whatever I fancy, stepping back and waiting to see whether it thrives or dies. I’m happy to say that at last I’ve planted a crop of tomatoes which have thrived! I’ve beaten blight and hungry birds and we have been enjoying a variety of beautiful heritage tomatoes which have mostly ripened on the windowsill (that’s the beating the hungry birds bit). It is a wonderful feeling – I’m turning them into pasta sauce, chutney, eating them on toast and in salads, and have also turned them into this delicious tomato tarte tatin that I recommend you try. If you aren’t too keen on making the pastry yourself, then use a good quality store-bought flaky one instead.

Tomato Tarte Tatin

Serves 6 as an entree or light lunch

100g butter, wrapped in tin foil, frozen

170g flour

75ml water, chilled

3 tablespoons ghee (or olive oil)

1 onion, quartered, finely sliced

5 cloves garlic, finely sliced

500g tomatoes, halved, seeds scooped out

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

125g feta cheese

3 tablespoons yoghurt

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons herbs (I used a combination of parsley and basil)

1 small clove garlic, finely grated

Put the flour and a pinch of salt into a bowl and remove the butter from the freezer. Peel away a bit of the foil so that what remains in your hand is still wrapped (to keep it from melting as you grate it) and grate the butter into the flour. Use a butter knife to stir it in as you go. Once it is all grated stir in the chilled water using the butter knife then tip out onto a clean surface, shape into a disc, cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Heat 2 tablespoons of the ghee in a heavy-bottomed frying pan and over a medium heat fry the onion for 15 minutes or until it begins to caramelise. Add the sliced garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes. Tip this mixture out into a small bowl and do no clean the pan. Add the remaining tablespoon of ghee to the frying pan and add the tomatoes cut side down. Cook for 3-4 minutes over a medium-high heat until most of the liquid has evaporated. Turn over the tomatoes and sprinkle with the sugar and balsamic (avoid pouring it into the tomato halves) and cook for a further 2 minutes. Remove from the heat. Take the pastry out of the fridge and divide in two (the second piece can be frozen for another use). Roll out to about 3mm until it is just bigger than the diameter of the frying pan (my frying pan is 25cm). Carefully lay the pastry over the top of the tomatoes and tuck in the edges. Put in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden. Remove from the oven and immediately turn out onto a serving plate. While the tarte tatin is cooking put the feta, yoghurt, olive oil, lemon juice, herbs and garlic into a small pyrex jug and blend using a stick blender until smooth. Serve this with the tarte tatin alongside a green salad.

Originally published on The Spinoff right here.

Blackberry Picking

This one of my favourite times of the year when we pile the kids in the car and head east, over the hills to where the blackberries grow best. As this is now the third year in a row we have picked we've wised up a bit and know now that gumboots are the footwear of choice, jeans the best bottoms and a sun hat with a stupidly large and floppy brim the best thing to keep the sun from scorching ones face. In the past two weeks we've picked twice and have already squirreled away an impressive 8kg in the freezer. The goal is 20kg so we're off to a good start.

I think it’s safe to say that the annual blackberry pick has now become a firm family tradition. I find there’s a certain nostalgia to this humble pastime and I await the first day of picking each year with the enthusiasm of a child on Christmas eve. I love the warmth of the summer sun on my back, the birds singing, the leaves in the trees above our heads gently rustling in the breeze. Most of all though I love being out in the countryside with the people I love best of all foraging for food that will fill our freezer to remind us of sunny summer days when the winter rain clouds gather and we huddle by the fire.

Seeing as the ground under our apple tree is already dotted with windfall apples I figured a blackberry and apple pie was in order. I don't make pies often as I feel they can be fiddly. This one however is quite the opposite. Both the dough and the filling are quick and easy to make and it all comes together easily. I can see this one becoming a firm family favourite. Be sure to use both the cooking apples and the eating apples for this recipe. The eating apples are first fried in butter and sugar to soften a little and even after the pie comes out of the oven they still hold their shape lending texture to the pie. The cooking apples however give and completely soften forming a soft filling to envelop the apple cubes. Best served straight from the oven with ice cream or cream.

Blackberry & Apple Pie

Serves 10

325g flour

4 tablespoons sugar

175g + 25g butter

6 tablespoons yoghurt

450g eating apples, peeled, cut into 1cm cubes

350g cooking apples, peeled, cut into 1cm cubes

2 cups/225g blackberries, fresh or frozen

1 tablespoon milk

Put the flour, 2 tablespoons of the sugar and a pinch of salt into a food processor and pulse to combine. Add 175g of the butter and process again until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the yoghurt and pulse again until just combined. Turn out onto a clean bench, shape into a disc, put into a plastic bag and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC and put a pizza stone or baking sheet in the middle of the oven. Heat the remaining 25g butter and 2 tablespoons of sugar in a heavy-bottomed frying pan and fry the eating apples for 5 minutes or until beginning to soften and any liquid has evaporated. Add the cooking apples and fry for a further 2 minutes before adding the blackberries and setting aside. Remove the pastry from the fridge and generously grease a 26cm pie tin. Divide the pastry into two making one half slightly bigger than the other. This will be the base. Roll out the pastry until it is 3-4mm thick and drap over the pie dish so that it lines the base and sides. Use a sharp knife to cut off any excess. Next roll out the top until it is just a little bigger than the diameter of the dish. Fill the shell with the blackberry and apple mixture, brush the edges of the pastry shell with milk (where the top will join with it), put on the top then using clean fingers push off the excess pastry, pushing down gently to seal the pie together. Decorate with remaining pastry if desired, brush with milk then bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.

Citrus Salad with Gin Syrup and Brandy Snaps

In 2012 we were blessed with our first baby, a beautiful boy we named Mahea. I was fortunate enough to work for Fisher & Paykel at the time as an industrial designer and I’d taken maternity leave to stay at home and bond with my wee babe. 6 months after he was born the design team asked if I would take on a bit of work managing the food blog that we had begun. I loved the work and it was great connecting with people again and best of all I could do it all from home while our little boy slept.

Fast forward another 6 months and I decided to make the leap from being an industrial designer to being a food writer, stylist and photographer. The rest is history really but I am so incredibly blessed to have worked with some wonderful people doing wonderful things since I began this journey. The recipe below is one I wrote while doing a stint working with the team at Cuisine Magazine. I wrote a regular feature for the magazine for 3 years and the recipe below was one of the last I did before I finished. It was one of three recipes I wrote using locally grown or produced food. This one includes Juno Gin which is made right here in New Plymouth by a passionate and very talented husband and wife team.

It is a wonderful combination of textures and flavours and makes for a seriously impressive dessert.

Citrus Salad with Gin Syrup and Brandy Snaps

Serves 6

900g Greek yoghurt

55g butter

80g brown sugar

40g flour

½ teaspoon ginger

½ teaspoon cinnamon

2/3 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed + 3 oranges

½ grapefruit juice, freshly squeezed + 2 grapefruit

2 limes

3 tablespoons golden caster sugar

3 tablespoons Juno Gin

Mint leaves for garnish

The day before serving this dish place a sieve over a bowl or jug (I used my large Pyrex jug) and line with muslin or cheesecloth and spoon in the yoghurt. Pick up the corners of the fabric and twist together to close. Put a small plate on top and place into the refrigerator overnight. Overnight the yoghurt will thicken and take on the consistency of sour cream. It is now called Labne. Tip out of the muslin/cheesecloth and store in the refrigerator in an airtight container until ready to use. Either discard the whey or pour into a glass jar and refrigerate for use in cooking.

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with baking paper. Put the butter and sugar into a saucepan and melt, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat, set aside to let cool somewhat before stirring in the flour, spices and a pinch of salt. Using a teaspoon spoon out onto the baking tray, leaving plenty of space for them to spread. Bake for 8 minutes or until bubbly and golden. Keep an eye on them as they will burn quickly. Remove from the oven, cool then blitz in a food processor to form rough crumbs. Store in an airtight container.

Pour the orange and grapefruit juice into a saucepan, add the sugar, bring to the boil then simmer for approximately 15 minutes or until it starts to become syrupy. Leave to cool, stir in the gin then pour into a bowl. Using a pairing knife remove the skin and all the white pith from the citrus fruit. Starting with one of the oranges and working over the bowl containing the syrup (so you can catch the juices) cut down one side of a segment separating the membrane from the fruit. Cut down the other side then gently pull the segment away and place into the bowl. Repeat with the remaining orange segments before working your way through the rest of the fruit. Gently mix to coat all the fruit in the syrup and leave for at least 2 hours or as long as overnight before serving. To serve spread a tablespoon of the Labne onto a small plate, top with the citrus salad and syrup and then the brandy snaps. Garnish with small mint leaves or shredded mint.

Vegan Strawberry Ice Cream

With summer fast drawing to a close I suggest making the most of the last of the summer fruit and whipping up a batch of this vegan strawberry ice cream. Regardless of whether or not you are in fact a vegan I suggest you give it a go as it is quick and easy to make and just the thing for a lazy afternoon spent in the sunshine.

Vegan Strawberry & Vanilla Ice Cream

Serves 10

2 x 270ml tin Ayam coconut cream (this brand is high in fat so if you can't find it then seek out another high in fat)

150g sugar

2 tablespoons cornflour

2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste (I use Coleridge & Taylor, it has a superior flavour)

500g sweet, ripe strawberries, frozen when not in season, pureed with a stick blender

1 cup coconut yogurt

Pour a few tablespoons of the coconut cream into a small jug and stir in the cornflour. Pour the remaining coconut cream into a heavy-bottomed pot, stir in the sugar and then heat over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Stir in the cornflour mixture and continue to cook until it thickens. Remove from the heat and cool a little before adding the vanilla bean paste, the strawberries and the yoghurt. Let cool then pour into an ice cream churn and churn as per the instructions. Or pour into a bowl and freeze for 1 ½ hours before blending with a stick blender. Continue blending every hour until it is too thick to blend anymore. Freeze overnight and remove from the freezer 10 minutes before serving to allow it to soften a little. Serve scattered with rose petals and freeze dried strawberry powder if desired.