Here in New Zealand, there are two popular breakfast foods: Toast (as in, toasted, sliced bread) and muesli.  Some Kiwis eat cereal, and there are a few varieties in the supermarkets, but there are heaps of choices of whole-grain, hearty muesli.  It is available toasted or just plain.

Rus and I have enjoyed muesli since Day One here, but it is quite expensive, especially considering we like ours as organic and garbage-free (i.e. preservative, additive, extra sugar and salt, etc.) as possible.  Bags can cost up to $11 each for about four servings!  There is relief, however, because it can be made at home cheaply from ingredients that can be purchased in the bulk section of most local supermarkets.  This Tasty Tuesday is all about how to make your own wholesome, healthy, breakfast cereal.

This is how I make it - and save lots of money on “the most important meal of the day” (of course, it can be modified to fit your chosen dietary restrictions and preferences):

4 cups rolled oats (not instant)

1 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup pumpkin seeds

1/4 ground flax seed

2 tbsp rice bran oil

1/4

1/2 chopped walnuts (optional)

1/2 cup sliced or chopped almonds (optional)

1/2 cup dried fruit (raisins, apricots, mangos, bananas - anything!)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit (150 degrees Celsius).

2. In a large bowl, mix the rolled oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flaxseed, nuts, and rice bran oil until thoroughly coated.

3. Place the mixture in a baking dish or lasagna dish and into the oven.

4. Toast in the oven for 5-7 minutes, turning the mixture over every few minutes until the desired toast level is reached.

5. Once the level of toast is reached, pour the toasted oats into a bowl.

6.  Add the remaining ingredients and stir.

7. Allow to cool and serve with milk or hot water.  Enjoy!

Samosas are some of the best things to come out of India.  These flaky, meat- or vegetable-filled pastries are positively addicting!  The beauty of samosas is the pastry can be filled with just about anything; you can make them your own!  Rus and I enjoy them whenever we eat at an Indian restaurant, and one can find many heat-and-eat varieties in the grocery store freezer section.  Nevertheless, nothing beats a fresh, homemade samosa, and this Tasty Tuesday, we are making vegetable ones!

Note: Samosas require quite a bit of time and effort, but they are worth it!

Ingredients:

1 small cucumber, grated

1 cup plain yoghurt

4 peeled and cubed potatoes

1 peeled and cubed carrot

4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 large chunk of ginger, finely chopped

1 bunch of fresh coriander, finely chopped

3 bunches of fresh spring onions, chopped

1 red onion, chopped

1 teaspooon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

rice bran or olive oil

2 cups warm water

salt to taste

pastry squares, enough to make 30-50 samosas (you can use any fresh store-bought pastry or make your own; I used pre-made, pre-cut wonton pastry from my local Asian Food Warehouse)

Here’s what I did:

1. In a large frying pan (with a lid), saute the red onion in oil on medium-high heat until they begin to soften.  Add garlic and ginger and saute those.

2. Stir in turmeric and cayenne pepper

3. Turn down heat to medium-low heat and add carrots and potatoes.  Stir.

4.  Add one cup of warm water, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally.  The goal is to soften the carrots and potatoes to the point where a fork easily pokes into them.  You may need to add more water during this process.  Warm water is recommended so as not to cool down the pot too much.

5.  Once the carrots and potatoes are soft (there should be little water left in the pan), add the spring onions and fresh coriander.  Mix thoroughly, then remove from heat.

6. Add sea salt to taste.  The stuffing should be the consistency of roughly-mashed potatoes.  If it needs more mashing, do so now.  If not, the stuffing is complete!

7. Take a pastry square and put a tablespoon of the stuffing in the middle.  Fold the opposite corners over to form a triangle and press the edges closed (it might help to moisten the edges to help them seal).

8. Repeat until the mixture is finished or you run out of pastry.

9. Time to cook the samosas!  You can either bake these on a greased cookie sheet at 175C/350F for 15-20 minutes (or until golden brown) or fry them.  We chose to fry them in rice bran oil at 150-175C/300-350F for two minutes on each side.  Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

10. Mix the yoghurt and grated cucumber together to create a dipping sauce (the yoghurt calms the spicy tingle on the tongue).

11. Serve!  Eat with chutneys, fruit preserves, and the cucumber-yoghurt sauce.

Results:

This dish takes awhile to make, even using the pre-made pastry.  Chopping everything took about 45 minutes, filling the pastries took another 30 minutes (and we only made 20), and deep frying took another 30 minutes.  On top of all of the prep time, they were messy to make - and turmeric, used appropriately as a dye in India, will stain just about anything it touches.  Was it worth the effort?  Absolutely!  These were melt-in-your-mouth goodness…we could hardly wait long enough for them to cool down without burning our mouths!   Simon, currently not an “adventurous” eater, thought the sample was so good, he went back for seconds!  Arno also loved them.  The other flatmates were not available for tasting.

The verdict?  While it was a bit of a Disaster in the “prep” and “clean up” categories, the end result for this Tasty Tuesday was a definite Delight!

Winter has now melted into Spring (Fun Fact: 1 September is the official start of Spring in New Zealand), which means it is time to harvest our Winter garden.  While we were away in the States, all of the veges grew much larger and many of them produced.  We have already eaten four crowns of beautiful, fresh broccoli!  Currently, there is one head of cauliflower nearly ready to pick.  Also, all of the lemons on our lemon trees are bright yellow and ripe for picking!

In other news (and not unexpected given the particularly cold Autumn), all but one of the eighteen lettuce plants perished.  Also, the cabbages have not materialised like I expected; however, they are flourishing and simply might require few more weeks before harvest.  As a first-time grower of brassicas, I am not yet sure of the timing.  That being said, the weather in late-Winter has been spectacular - sunny, dry (for the most part!), in the mid-teens during the day and above-freezing at night.  Hopefully, this will be the boost the plants need to finish production before I have to pull them out - seeds for our Summer garden are already sowed inside!

All things considered, it was a good experience learning to grow (and growing new things!) in such a small space.  I am not yet sure we have broken even cost-wise on the garden setup, but I am sure we will come out ahead once we harvest the Summer garden.  Can’t wait to eat more fresh broccoli and try the fresh cauliflower!

With the advent of Spring upon us, and the winter snow melting in the Alps, Rus and I are eager to get back on the trails.  So this Tasty Tuesday’s inspiration comes from the latest edition of Wilderness magazine, with an excellent recipe called “Unlucky Fisherman’s Risotto”.  According to Wilderness, “There’s an unspoken rule of fishing in the backcountry: If you don’t catch anything, then you must be prepared to eat the bait”.

This particular recipe is (hopefully) a better-tasting version of the “real” version above.  It’s well-planned, well-measured, and “weight-sensitive” - suitable for carrying and cooking on a tramp!  Since Rus is my favourite tramping partner, he decided to assist with this week’s culinary adventure -  even choosing to cook it using our camp stove and camping pots - to test its true viability.  Was it a Delight or Disaster?

Ingredients

300g Arborio rice

100ml olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

4 cubes chicken stock (or 1L)

150g chorizo sausage

1 courgette (small zucchini), chopped

1 red capsicum (bell pepper), diced

50g parmesan cheese, shaved

salt, pepper, parsley

Here’s what we did:

1. Chop ingredients as instructed

2. In a small pot, bring the chicken stock to a simmer, then cover to keep warm

3. Lightly fry the chorizo, onion, and garlic

4. Add oil and rice; stir for two minutes or until rice is well-coated in oil.

5. Pour in a cupful of stock and stir over a medium heat until it’s absorbed.

6. Add the rest of the stock a cupful at a time, stirring frequently.

7. Add the courgettes about half way through, and the capsicum with the last cupful of stock (to prevent over-cooking).

8. When all of the stock has been added, and the rice is soft, throw in the parmesan, season to taste, and garnish with parsley.

Prep time: 45 minutes; serves 4

So…how did it taste?  The chorizo did a brilliant job of flavouring the rice dish.  The capsicum and courgettes are nice additions, both for texture and depth.  The rice came out soft as expected, though we did not need to use the entire one-litre of chicken stock (instead, about 750mL).

Flatmates say:

Dylan, Arno, Leanne, and Simon all loved it.  Rus also liked it.  I thought it was great, especially as a hearty meal after a tramp; however, I could do without the parmesan, and I would skip the salt (the chicken stock provides plenty to make it tasty).  Monique was not available for testing.

I think this will become a regular recipe, from which we will begin experiments with different ingredients - both for tramping and dinners at home.  All around, this recipe was a DELIGHT!

Rus and I had been looking forward to a trip to Blenheim since we arrived in New Zealand.  About four hours north of Christchurch, with slightly warmer and sunnier weather, Blenheim is home to New Zealand’s largest vineyard region, the Marlborough region - and over sixty-five wineries.  The bleak, cold Christchurch weather prodded us north…

I booked our stay at St. Leonard’s Cottage, a homestead nestled amongst the vines in the heart of Blenheim’s wine country. We rented a car, packed it up, and was on our way mid-afternoon on Saturday.  The ride north on State Highway 1 is immensely beautiful and actually a pleasure to experience.  Once we were near Kaikoura, nearly two hours into our trip, the snow-capped mountains came into view, alongside the blue ocean to the right.  With daylight fading, this sight gave a new meaning of “purple mountains’ majesty”!

Soon it was dark (and I mean dark - no lights anywhere), and the rain began to fall.  We were hoping for a weekend of dry, sunny weather, but it was starting to look like the damp cold was following us.  We drove through the town centre and after a few missed turns here and there, we found the road where our accommodation was located.  Down a long, dark driveway, we came upon the house, an old single-story character estate built in the early 1800’s, and were immediately greeted by Paul and Daphne, our hosts.  Paul showed us to our self-contained cottage, called “The Shearer’s Quarters”.  It was one big room with a queen and a twin bed, a kitchenette complete with table and four chairs, sitting area, and full bath. It was fabulous!  Under the impression that St. Leonard’s was bed-and-breakfast, I asked when breakfast would be served. Daphne kindly informed us that breakfast was in the fridge in the cottage - fresh eggs from their hens, freshly-squeezed orange juice from the oranges in the orchard, and homemade jelly and marmalade to eat with toast; we could make breakfast ourselves at our leisure.  Yum!  I couldn’t wait for breakfast in the morning; however, in the meantime, it was time to venture out in search of dinner.   It was after 8:00PM, and we were hungry!

We got back in the care and drove back into town in search of a restaurant Paul and Daphne recommended.  Surprisingly, there was little activity going on in the town centre on a  Saturday night!  The cold and drizzly weather might have been a deterent.  Or, perhaps as harvest had recently ended, all of the grape-pickers returned to their homes.  Anyway, we were able to get a table at a wine bar called Scotch right away.  Rus and I both ordered steak and a bottle of pinot noir - from Marlborough, of course!  It was a beautiful wine called Clayridge. The steak was decent; not the best but still quite nice.  We each had a glass of wine and planned on taking the rest back to the room; however, we were informed by our server that we could not take the bottle with us (the rules in Blenheim are different from Christchurch, where one is permitted to take an unfinished bottle home).  So, since Rus was driving and not wanting to “waste” a perfectly good bottle of wine, we talked and people-watched at the restaurant for another hour whilst I finished the rest of the bottle of wine (tough job, huh?).  Afterwards, we made our way back to the cottage.

After a nice, hot shower, we climbed into the most comfortable bed we had experienced in New Zealand before drifting off to rest up for Sunday’s activities…

Ginger cookies (or “biscuits”, as they are often called) are popular treats here in New Zealand - often as an accompaniment with tea or coffee, or to help settle an upset stomach.

Rus made ginger beer again over the weekend, and we were thinking of ways to use up the ginger left over after steeping.  The answer?  Ginger cookies!  So will they be a Delight or a Disaster?

The first thing I did was to Google “ginger cookies recipe”.  After viewing several, I chose the one from Southern Food.  Once again, I had all of the ingredients at my disposal (except molasses, but I used a great substitute which I will mention later); these included ginger (I used 1/4 cup fresh ginger instead of dried ground), flour, brown sugar, cloves, cinnamon, sugar (I use raw), baking soda, egg, and butter.  I substituted a mixture of honey and pure maple syrup for the molasses and real, hand-churned butter instead of margarine.  In addition, I included 1 tsp. pure vanilla, 1 tsp. ground nutmeg, and 1/8 cup flax seed (I love to add flax seed to cookies because it adds fibre, nutrients, and heart-healthy omega-3s!  Naturally, and unfortunately, with all the butter and sugar, this still does not make the cookies magically turn into health food!).

Here is what I did:

1. Combine flour, soda, flax seed, and spices in a bowl and set aside.

2. Cream sugar and butter. Beat in egg, vanilla, and honey/maple syrup mixture until light and fluffy.  Add fresh ginger and mix.

3. Stir in flour mixture just until blended.

4. Chill for 2 hours or more (I chilled overnight for convenience purposes).

5. Preheat oven to 190C (375F).

6. Shape dough into small balls, roll in granulated sugar, and place on lightly greased baking sheets about two inches apart.

7. Flatten each ball with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar.

8. Bake about 8 to 10 minutes, until set.

Results:

These cookies turned out beautifully from the beginning to end; they are easy to make.  The crispy edges were fabulous, giving way to a moist centre.  I thought the raw sugar on the outside would make them too sweet; however, to my pleasant surprise, it gave the cookies a crunchy texture and almost made them sparkle like glitter!   Overall, the spices were not overpowering.  Furthermore, and amazingly enough, I could barely discern all of the fresh ginger.  Regarding cookie size, the first batch was a bit too large for my liking (eight per cookie tray), so I made the balls smaller.  This adjustment yielded me fourteen cookies each of the next two batches.    The recipe says it will yield 96 cookies; I produced about a third of that number total.

Flatmates Say:

Monique, Ryan, Leanne, and Dylan loved them.  Arno does not like ginger, so I could not get his opinion on this one.

These were some of the best cookies I have ever made.  Since they do not taste too sweet or rich, it is easy to eat too many!  This Tasty Tuesday Ginger Cookie recipe was definitely a DELIGHT!

When Rus and I stopped by Lake Tekapo months ago on the way back from Queenstown, we purchased some amazing salmon.  This salmon is organically farmed in the glacial canals that connect Lakes Tekapo and Pukaki in the middle of the South Island.

I decided to make a quick, tasty salmon dish.  Delight or Disaster?

Using just green onions, red onions, fresh garlic, fresh ginger, basmati rice, a leaf of lettuce, and the salmon, here is what I did:

1. Remove skin from salmon; cut into approximately 250g fillets.

2. In a medium sauce pan, place one cup rinsed basmati rice in two cups of water on high heat.  Bring to a boil, then turn heat to low and simmer until rice is cooked.

3. Chop onion, garlic, ginger, and saute in olive oil on medium-high heat.

4. Once onions start carmelizing, place salmon in pan (the idea is to pan sear the salmon fillets).

5. Once crispy, flip and cook the other side.  Make sure the fish is cooked on the inside (sometimes it helps to cover the pan to achieve this).

6. The onions, etc. should be crispy at this point.  Turn off heat.

7. On a plate, lay down a rinsed leaf of lettuce.  Place a serving of the basmati rice on top.

8. Serve salmon on top of the rice, with a generous sprinkling of the onions on top.  Add salt and fresh lemon to taste.  Enjoy with a chilled glass of Chardonnay

Prep time: 25 minutes; serves 3

Rus and I loved this simple salmon dish.  The fish was amazing, no doubt because it is raised in water with a high mineral content.  The crispy onions added a nice complementary texture against the smooth texture of the fish.  The plain rice balanced the other stronger flavours nicely.  All in all, this was a DELIGHT!

Rus and I returned from Blenheim with hundreds of freshly picked, ripe, New Zealand oranges and grapefruit we picked at the homestead where we stayed while we were there.  There was entirely too much to eat, and we love fresh orange juice (who doesn’t!?), so we decided: “Let’s squeeze ‘em!

This Tasty Tuesday - freshly-squeezed orange juice: Delight or Disaster? Basically, this was going to taste heavenly no matter what.  The “disaster” potential lies in the amount of orange we waste, if the juice has too much pulp, seeds, etc.

Our house is not equipped with a juicer (does it seem from these posts that the house is not stocked with anything?  I assure you it’s not as bad as it seems!), so we went off in search of an inexpensive juicer.  We found one at The Warehouse, plastic (ugh), with a filter built in, for a few dollars a piece; we bought two. Upon returning, we immediately and eagerly started squeezing!

Here is what we did:

1. Rus cut the fruit around the equator.  He squeezed and handed me juicer #1.

2. I dumped the juice into a funnel, which led to a 1.5 litre bottle ready for the finished product.

3. Manually wipe the juicer of extra flesh and seeds into an additional strainer (we used a sifter and a filter bag (normally used for straining hops for beer-making).

4. Pick up juicer #2 and repeat.

5. Squeeze additional juice out of strainers.

Twenty minutes and about fifty oranges later, and we had a beautiful finished product!

The moment of truth: The juice was as delicious, sweet, and tangy as we expected - absolutely spectacular.  Thankfully, over the next few days, we were able to squeeze nearly FIVE LITRES of juice.  We can’t wait to go back to Blenheim for more fruit and do it all again!

This Tasty Tuesday was definitely a Delight!

I am currently reading a book called The Lollipop Shoes, the followup to Chocolat by Joanne Harris (if you have not seen the movie, I highly recommend it!).  In it, the main character, Vianne Rocher, runs a chocalaterie in Paris and constantly makes hot chocolate for her teenage daughter and customers - the old-fashioned way - melting blocks of dark chocolate (”70% cacao or more only”) in a double boiler.  She also makes it with some seemingly unconventional ingredients: with vanilla pods, chilis, star anise, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, brown sugar, rum, even cardamom among them.

Every time I would read about hot chocolate with chilis in it, I kept thinking: Is that honestly any good?

So this Tasty Tuesday, we will find out!  I am making hot chocolate using a double boiler and experimenting with added flavours. Delight or Disaster?

Here is what I used: Whittaker’s Dark Chocolate (1/3 bar), 1 pod star anise, 1 whole dried chili, 1 tsp. double-strength pure vanilla extract (the real stuff, not imitation), 1 tsp. cinnamon, and 1 cup of milk.

1. In a double boiler (since we do not have a real double boiler, I used a saucepan and metal mixing bowl), melt the chocolate bar.  I also added some organic chocolate powder so as not to use all of the chocolate bar.

2. Add chili, vanilla, cinnamon, and star anise.  Stir.

3. Add a few tablespoons of  milk.  Simmer while stirring continuously.  This will bring out the flavours of the ingredients in Step 2.

4. Slowly add the rest of the milk.  Bring to nearly a boil, continuing to stir.

Remove the chili and star anise pods.  Pour into espresso or small coffee cups and enjoy!

Results:

I loved this hot chocolate.  It was smooth and very rich, definitely worthy of slow sipping, and only a small amount needed to satisfy.  The flavour of the star anise really stood out, with a hint of spice from the chili.  The vanilla and cinnamon were just discernible.  Rus thought it was too rich and wanted more milk added to his.  Monique loved it, saying it the added flavours gave it an unexpected tang and depth that was missing from the cafe hot chocolate she bought on her way home from work.  Dylan called it “beautiful”; he liked the warmth the chili brought.

Next time, I might experiment with cardamom and another dried chili.  Perhaps try adding some dark rum and brown sugar, with no milk - black - as one of the book’s characters takes it.  The possibilities are endless!

This Tasty Tuesday was a DELIGHT!

Rus and I are off to Blenheim (pronounced BLENN-uhm) for a short weekend getaway.  Blenheim is in the Marlborough region, about four hours by car north of Christchurch, near the top of the South Island.  It is New Zealand’s largest wine region, with 65 vineyards, and famous for its world’s best Sauvignon Blanc.  We will thoroughly check out as much as possible, and, of course, report back to The Starbuck Report!

Cheers!