My week seems to be getting filled with sport at the moment, not just with our two boys getting to finals time with their rugby and hockey, but also as a cook. Wednesdays are filming days for foreverfit.tv, an online gym and Internet TV channel, while my Mondays are taken up with cooking for the mighty Steamers.

For those of you that know me well, it’s obvious that I love food in all its forms and being a cook it is a little hard to stay at the peak of fitness. Who am I kidding with the peak of fitness thing; nothing makes you feel short, fat and old like walking into the Steamers training rooms to be surrounded by real athletes. Speaking of real athletes, we all should be very proud of these exceptional young men that represent the Bay of Plenty on the rugby fields around the country. I am constantly astonished at their dedication and discipline, and their constant search for improvement.

So why is the chef involved? Simple really, food is supposed to be tasty, easy and fun, especially during training. It’s too easy to make a list of all the things you’re not allowed to eat instead of exploring new flavours that can make mealtimes fun again. For our young athletes striving for their personal gold medals the sacrifices are already enough with out dismissing the joy of good food.

Hot and Sour Thai Chicken Broth

This recipe is based on a version of Tom Yum soup – a spicy, clear, refreshing broth found on the menu of most Thai restaurants.  It can also be made with tiger prawns and is very low fat.  This soup is also nice made with Japanese miso stock.

Serves 4

2 skinless chicken breasts (175g each)

1.2 litres chicken stock

10g bunch coriander leaves, stalks removed and set aside

2 small red bird’s eye chillies, halved and de-seeded

1 stalk lemon grass, roughly chopped

2.5cm piece of ginger, peeled and sliced

2 medium ripe tomatoes

3 salad onions, trimmed and finely sliced (including green parts)

50g fresh, shelled peas (or frozen)

50g sugar snap peas, cut in half

1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce

1 tablespoon tamarind puree

Juice of a large lime (about 2 tablespoons)

Method

Put chicken stock into large saucepan and add coriander stalks, one of the halved chillies, lemon grass and ginger.  Bring to boil, stir, then cover and simmer gently for 15 minutes to allow Thai flavours to infuse stock.

Skin tomatoes with hot water and cut into quarters, removing seeds, then cut quarters into three lengthways so you have thin slices.  Cut chicken breasts in half widthways and slice into thin slivers.  Strain stock, discarding flavourings, and return to the pan.  Bring to a simmer, then stir in chicken slivers and half of salad onions.  Stir and cover, leaving chicken to poach gently for 5 minutes until cooked through.  Meanwhile, finely slice remaining chilli (washing hands afterwards!)

Next, add peas, sugar snaps, sliced chilli, fish sauce, tamarind and lime juice to the soup, stir and gently simmer for 2-3 minutes or until peas are tender.  Stir tomato in and divide coriander leaves among 4 deep bowls.  Ladle hot soup on top, sprinkle with remaining salad onions and serve.

How can I recommend a wine when this is all about being fit? Well for those, like me, whose athletic ship has already sailed a little glass of Gewurztraminer hits the spot. Try Osawa Wines from the Hawke’s Bay.

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This week it’s all about risotto, in this case seafood risotto. Risotto can be as rich and fatty as you want to make it, which obviously in this case we’re trying to avoid that. The trick to avoiding fat is to recognize that fat is what we as humans find interesting and flavoursome, so eliminating it runs the risk of making our food taste a bit boring. Once you accept this you can see the importance of seasoning, spicing and building strong base flavours. The homemade fish stock is the start point that builds the flavour, and is so easy to make. just wash the bones before you use them and follow the recipe. you can get the bones from Sandfords (cheap or free) or if you’re out fishing keep the bones. Make lots as it freezes well.

For the risotto, I’ve shown the pan method though on monday I did it in the oven adding the fish just for the last five minutes, both work really well. I also added saffron to both the stock and risotto which brings a wonderful richness and colour. As i said earlier we tend to associate flavour with the fat content, so just removing it will leave your meal missing something. replace with real natural flavours and its a joy to eat again. See you next week.

Fish Stock

2kg soaked and washed fish bones

50g fresh herbs

3 litres cold water

12 white peppercorns

2 medium onions

2 bay leaves

2 white leeks

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 sticks celery

600ml white wine

Method

Sweat the vegetables and herbs with the olive oil until soft but without colouring them.  Add the fish bones and stir to coat.  Add water and wine to cover and bring to the boil.  Skim and simmer for 20 minutes.  Allow to cool (about 3 to 4 hours), sieve and store in the fridge or freezer.

Easy Risotto

The main point to remember when making risotto is that any liquid that you use, whether it is stock, wine or cream, should be boiling hot before you add it to the rice.  This will stop your risotto from “clumping”.

For 2 – 3 main servings:

1 cup Aborio or risotto rice

2½ cups stock, boiling

½ onion or 2 shallots, chopped

1 – 2 cloves garlic, chopped

Extra virgin olive oil

100 ml white wine

Salt and pepper

Parmesan, grated

Extra hot stock, olive oil or butter

Method

Heat the wine gently (and saffron, if using.)  In another large pan, heat a little olive oil and sweat the “soffrito” slowly – garlic, onion and any other root vegetable being used (e.g. carrot, leek).  Add the rice and heat through for 1 – 2 minutes (called toasting).  Add hot wine and allow to reduce.  Add the boiling stock all at once, bring back to the boil and add seasoning.  Cover and simmer for 15 – 18 minutes.

Add flavourings, rest for a few minutes and then stir through parmesan, a little extra stock, gently heated cream, extra virgin olive oil or butter – the amount depends on how ‘allonde,’ or creamy, you like your risotto.

Suggested additions:

  • Ø Porcini: Soak 15g dried porcini in 250ml warm water for at least 20 minutes.  Strain and use some of the stock in risotto.  Add sliced porcini at halfway point.  Add heated cream at the end, along with parmigiano and chopped Italian parsley.  Drizzle with Truffle oil.
  • Ø Smoked Mushrooms: As above, but use Aromatics Smoked Mushrooms instead of porcini.
  • Ø Smoked Salmon: Add chopped leek to the initial ‘soffrito’.  Before adding Parmesan, add chopped, cooked Smoked Salmon.
  • Ø Chorizo & Saffron: Add a pinch of crushed saffron to the wine/stock and, before you add the Parmesan at the end, fold through 2 cooked, chopped chorizo sausages.
  • Ø Pumpkin: Cook cubed pumpkin slowly in EVO with garlic and some red wine and add with the Parmesan.
  • Ø Lamb, Feta & Capers: Add 1 – 2 seared lamb fillets, marinated in Balsamic Vinegar and Infused Olive Oil (Lemon or Porcini) plus 2 tablespoon salted capers, soaked and rinsed and 100g cubed Creamy Feta.

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This idea of writing about our food at home is proving to be a real hit with all the family. Our 11 year old food photographer, Fraser, is getting more and more demanding, i think it must be the artist in him trying to get out. What is really neat is how we are all learning something new.

So, on to tonights meal. I was preparing a private cheffing job that included puff pastry so figured I’d use up the off cuts for our meal. The trick with beef Wellington is to precook the beef to the point that it needs 12 minutes in the oven inside the pastry (thats how long the pastry needs to puff up and colour), also season the steak really well before you wrap it in the pastry.

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This blog is following the feeding of The Bay of Plenty Steamers through the next ten weeks. I’m writing it for the players, so that they can keep track of the recipes that we are using and hopefully gat a bit of fun and taste back into their food. That said I hope it can be of interest to  others. I will be talking directly to all the team and most of the advice will be rugby specific and in line with the teams dietary needs. If anyone has questions or need help please email through this site or facebook.

So on to this week, I really wanted to introduce Quinoa to the team as frankly it is an astonishing superfood, high in vegetable protein and gluten free. Almost more importantly it is really quick to cook and available in most supermarkets. You’ll see from the recipe that you need to panfry or dry toast the washed seeds for a while and then cover with boiling water, the easy trick is to heat the pan and fill the kettle, drop in the slightly damp quinoa and turn the kettle on. Use the time it takes the kettle to boil as the dry toasting time, then carefully add the boiling water (carefully, because it will hiss and spit for the first few seconds, then calm down). The toasting stage is important as it will release the natural nutty flavour of the quinoa.

Now to the chicken, try to buy whole chickens as it will be cheaper in the long run and learn how to butcher it (any problems, let me know and I’ll show you how next week). Leave the bone in as it will add more flavour. With the seasoning try to avoid the jar type and stick to the powder, as they tend to add all sorts of rubbish to the jar that you don’t need. The best powder I’ve found is the one at Cambrian Meats in Judea, although the supermarket ones would do.

Usually Butter chicken is made with cream, but in this case we’ve substituted with lite coconut milk to cut the fat content.

Mild Butter Chicken

1 whole chicken, preferably free range

2 tablespoons of butter chicken spice powder

1 tin crushed tomatoes

500 ml lite coconut milk

small bunch coriander

seasoning

Separate the breast, legs and thighs of the chicken from the bones and sprinkle with the spice powder. Place in a sealable box and refrigerate overnight, (including the bones)

Start by bringing the coconut milk to the boil and reduce for 5 minutes then add the tomatoes. Meanwhile panfry the chicken pieces for colour and flavour, and place in a casserole dish. Pour over the sauce and place in a medium hot oven for 25 minutes.

Season to taste and sprinkle with chopped coriander, Serve.

Quinoa Salad with Roast Vegetables & Halloumi

Serves 6

1 red capsicum, chopped roughly

1 yellow capsicum, chopped roughly

1 red onion, sliced

1 courgette, sliced

1 small carrot, peeled and chopped roughly

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cloves garlic

1 cup quinoa (pronounced ‘keenwa’)

Salt & pepper

1 cup spinach, chopped roughly

150g haloumi cheese, grilled until golden brown, (optional)

Vinaigrette dressing

Method

Roast chopped vegetables (except spinach), garlic and olive oil in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for 30 to 40 mins until golden brown.

Meanwhile, wash quinoa with cold water in a sieve and squeeze dry in a clean tea towel.  Place quinoa in a pan, place over a medium heat and fry until lightly toasted.  Cover with boiling water and simmer gently until all the liquid has been absorbed.

Remove vegetables from oven and add to quinoa with spinach and seasoning.  Add dressing and mix well.  Place in a bowl with grilled haloumi on top as a garnish and serve.

Vinaigrette

Makes 400ml

½ tablespoon smooth Dijon mustard

50ml red wine vinegar

50ml balsamic vinegar

100ml hazelnut oil

100ml avocado oil

100ml olive oil

½ teaspoon salt

6 turns white pepper

1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed

Method

Place all the ingredients into a blender and blitz for 60 seconds.  Strain through a fine sieve.

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Every week the boys cook one night, my dearest wish is that once they fly the nest they will be able to look after themselves without resorting to fast food and who knows the life skill of being able to cook just might help them socially if you know what I mean.

The rules are simple, they must plan the meal and do it all themselves with me in an advisory role only. Tonight Alex has found a Bill Granger recipe for panfried marinated beef rice paper rolls with Vietnamese dipping sauce. I guess the get my recipes quite a lot so a change is as good as a rest.

I’m so proud of how much effort they go to, and how special the meal becomes. And of course with two boys the competition is on, with each trying to outdo the other.

Now to do the washing up, the one job that I can usually sidestep as the cook, but not tonight.

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Lasagne is one of those dishes that all the family loves, even when I’m being a bit sneaky and adding lots of veg to the beef mince. So many parents seem to have problems getting veg into their kids, and at times our two have been interesting. Although to be fair Alex and Fraser are really cool about their food and seem to enjoy Daddies nightly experiments.

The trick is to clear the veg drawer and panfry some onions, garlic, carrots, mushrooms, peppers and whatever else that you want, then add it to the mince that your cooking off with tomatoes. To give it a real depth of flavour spend some time on the white sauce or bechamel and then don’t spare the parmesan.

Béchamel Sauce:

100g butter

100g plain flour

1 small onion studded with whole cloves

1 bayleaf

1 litre milk

A little freshly grated nutmeg

Salt and pepper

Firstly simmer the milk for a couple of minutes with the onion, cloves, bayleaf, nutmeg and seasoning, and leave to one side to infuse. Now melt butter for béchamel in a saucepan.  Whisk in flour and cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly, then gradually whisk in the warm milk, having discarded the clove studded onion and bayleaf,  and continue to cook for 10 minutes, stirring constantly until thick and smooth.

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For all those that were at the Cook School at The Good Food Trading Company today, here are the recipes.

I’ll definitely post the seasoning recipe as soon as I can.

Veal Scaloppine with Mushrooms & Madeira

Serves 2

2 x 150-180g veal scaloppine

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Plain flour

15g butter

15ml olive oil

4 thin slices lemon

1 cup thinly sliced mushrooms or rehydrated porcini

¼ cup Madeira

¼ cup good quality beef stock

Method

Season meat with salt and pepper, then dip in flour and dust off excess.  Heat butter and oil in a frying pan.  Drop in lemon and brown on both sides.  Remove to a hot plate and add veal to pan.  Seal for 1-2 minutes, then turn and seal the other side quickly.  Remove veal to oven.  Tip mushrooms into frying pan and stir for 1 minute.  Add Madeira and allow to bubble up, stirring gently.  Stir in stock and bring to boil.  Serve scallopine with sauce immediately, accompanied by ‘pommes sarladaises.’

Pommes Sarladaises

Scatter finely chopped garlic and plenty of freshly chopped parsley over a pile of tender browned potatoes, parboiled then sautéed in duck fat.

Tips for Pan-Frying:

  • When pan frying meat, you should fry in an uncovered wide pan as a lid traps the steam and the food stews rather than frying crisply.
  • The fat should be pre heated before adding the food to be fried; otherwise it will absorb the fat and become too greasy and will also not brown and form a skin to trap its juices, becoming dry and tasteless.
  • Meat, poultry or fish should be fried in small batches; otherwise the temperature of the fat will be lowered and again hinders the browning process.

Fry as quickly as possible until the browning is complete, and then turn down to moderate heat to cook the inside through.

Fried food should be served as soon as possible after cooking.  Juices gradually seep from even well browned meat and fish and they dry up and toughen on standing.  Potatoes lose their crispness and fritters deflate.

Wine Reduction Sauce:

3 shallots, finely chopped

¼ leek, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon olive oil

300ml wine, fortified wine or spirit

300ml stock

spices,

300ml double cream

Lemon juice to taste

Seasoning

Method

To make sauce, sweat shallots, leek and garlic in the olive oil.  Add stock,wine and spice to the pan and reduce to quarter of original volum.  In a second pan, reduce cream to half the original volume.  Add stock mix to cream and hand whisk.  Add lemon juice and seasoning to taste.  Set to one side.

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Its a constant challenge to feed a family in such a way that is fun and healthy. As A chef I have to constantly fight the urge to fall back on the chefs advantage of being able to use high fat/high sugar and bazaar expensive products. This is family food and needs to be nutritious, tasty and fun, otherwise everyone gets bored. If we can continue to make meal time a fun, family time we’ll, hopefully, never lose the ability to all talk around the table.

The trick with this meal is the Quinoa, that truly amazing South American grain that is so astonishing good for us. This is one of the oldest sources of plant protein and thanks to the Spanish conquerors, was so nearly lost to history. Thankfully in the high Andes some was secretly grown year after year and was rediscovered for the rest of us about 50 years ago.

Quinoa Salad with Roast Vegetables & Halloumi

Serves 6

1 red capsicum, chopped roughly

1 yellow capsicum, chopped roughly

1 red onion, sliced

1 courgette, sliced

1 small carrot, peeled and chopped roughly

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cloves garlic

1 cup quinoa (pronounced ‘keenwa’)

Salt & pepper

1 cup spinach, chopped roughly

150g haloumi cheese, grilled until golden brown

Vinaigrette dressing (see below)

Method

Roast chopped vegetables (except spinach), garlic and olive oil in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for 30 to 40 mins until golden brown.

Meanwhile, wash quinoa with cold water in a sieve and squeeze dry in a clean tea towel.  Place quinoa in a pan, place over a medium heat and dry fry until lightly toasted.  Cover with boiling water and simmer gently until all the liquid has been absorbed, about 12 minutes.

Remove vegetables from oven and add to quinoa with spinach and seasoning.  Add dressing and mix well.  Place in a bowl with grilled haloumi on top as a garnish and serve.

Vinaigrette

Makes 400ml

½ tablespoon smooth Dijon mustard

50ml red wine vinegar

50ml balsamic vinegar

100ml hazelnut oil

100ml avocado oil

100ml olive oil

½ teaspoon salt

6 turns white pepper

1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed

Method

Place all the ingredients into a blender and blitz for 60 seconds.  Strain through a fine sieve.

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Wow, thats the Olympic marathon over, in both senses of the word. Can’t believe that it will be four more years until Rio.

Have to admit that I was one of those ex-pats that wondered if London could pull it off, They not only pulled it off but excelled and even managed to make this old cynic proud of the country of my birth. Watching the faces of my children as their heroes achieved the impossible was an awesome experience. I guess the real legacy of the Olympics is the inspiration in the kids, the belief that they could one day be there.

So, enough prattling on about the olympics. What about food? I guess you could describe us as a meat eating family and its a conscious effort to add fish in a couple of times a week. This is some simple Pan Seared Tuna with Risotto and Rocket. So easy and quick to make, and with a good bit of crusty bread an absolute winner.

Easy Risotto

The main point to remember when making risotto is that any liquid that you use, whether it is stock, wine or cream, should be boiling hot before you add it to the rice.  This will stop your risotto from “clumping”.

For 2 – 3 main servings:

1 cup Aborio or risotto rice

2½ cups stock, boiling

½ onion or 2 shallots, chopped

1 – 2 cloves garlic, chopped

Extra virgin olive oil

100 ml white wine

Salt and pepper

Parmesan, grated

Extra hot stock, olive oil or butter

Method

Heat the wine gently (and saffron, if using.)  In another large pan, heat a little olive oil and sweat the “soffrito” slowly – garlic, onion and any other root vegetable being used (e.g. carrot, leek).  Add the rice and heat through for 1 – 2 minutes (called toasting).  Add hot wine and allow to reduce.  Add the boiling stock all at once, bring back to the boil and add seasoning.  Cover and simmer for 15 – 18 minutes.

Add flavourings, rest for a few minutes and then stir through parmesan, a little extra stock, gently heated cream, extra virgin olive oil or butter – the amount depends on how ‘allonde,’ or creamy, you like your risotto.

Suggested additions:

  • Ø Porcini: Soak 15g dried porcini in 250ml warm water for at least 20 minutes.  Strain and use some of the stock in risotto.  Add sliced porcini at halfway point.  Add heated cream at the end, along with parmigiano and chopped Italian parsley.  Drizzle with Truffle oil.
  • Ø Smoked Mushrooms: As above, but use Aromatics Smoked Mushrooms instead of porcini.
  • Ø Smoked Salmon: Add chopped leek to the initial ‘soffrito’.  Before adding Parmesan, add chopped, cooked Smoked Salmon.
  • Ø Chorizo & Saffron: Add a pinch of crushed saffron to the wine/stock and, before you add the Parmesan at the end, fold through 2 cooked, chopped chorizo sausages.
  • Ø Pumpkin: Cook cubed pumpkin slowly in EVO with garlic and some red wine and add with the Parmesan.
  • Ø Lamb, Feta & Capers: Add 1 – 2 seared lamb fillets, marinated in Balsamic Vinegar and Infused Olive Oil (Lemon or Porcini) plus 2 tablespoon salted capers, soaked and rinsed and 100g cubed Creamy Feta.

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I’ve just spent the weekend as the private chef to a group from Australia who are now heading back home believing that the Bay of Plenty is the wettest place on earth. Thankfully they were staying at The French Country House, so were thoroughly cosseted from the elements raging outside.

Cooking to a captive audience is always fun, and in this case educating a few of our Australian cousins in the history of food was a blast.

This recipe is over five hundred years old and, as you’ll notice, has only three ingredients. In cooking, simplicity is probably the hardest thing to achieve as it takes restraint to not just keep adding things. The flavour is astonishingly lemony and the texture can only be described as velvety.

Lemon Posset is a very English dessert dating all the way back to the middle ages when access to lemons was a sign of wealth and power, so celebrating the lemon was the idea. These days it’s a little different, with most of us having access to a lemon tree, so give it a go and enjoy the lemon.

Lemon Posset

Serves 6

900ml cream

250g caster sugar

Juice of 3 Ben Meyer lemons

Method

Boil the cream and sugar together in a pan and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.  Add the lemon juice, off the heat, and mix in well.  Leave to cool slightly then pour into six glasses and leave to set in the fridge for at least 2 to 3 hours.  Serve.

Some Ice cold Lemoncello, from Dystillerie Deinlein at the top of the Minden, is the perfect way of keeping the lemon theme going.

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