Kauri Cliffs

LW's Lovely Mum is staying with us from Scotland. Last time she was here, we took her to Kauri Cliffs, a beautiful and luxurious hotel and golf course on the coast near Matauri Bay, which has a restaurant that's rightly famous for its fare. The food was superb, but the weather was so appalling that we couldn't see out of the windows, so fierce was the driving rain.

So, yesterday we decided to go back. I'd met the executive chef, Barry, before, and he's a really good guy, and he's agreed to put on something special for us.

The weather was spectacular. The sky could not have been bluer (unless you live in Rio, apparently), and we arrived at the front door to be greeted with a glass of champagne to sip on the deck, looking out, over the golf course to the sea.

We were then presented with a tasting menu that Barry had devised, and off we went, with 5 courses of really amazing food.

"I'll have the scallop, please"

"and then the salmon?"

"followed by the beef- medium rare"

"and then the lemon tart and the sorbet?"

The service was impeccable, the food light, fresh, and delightful, we had a couple of excellent wines, and hours to eat, chat, and relax. Even so, I was amazed that, at the end of the meal, when Barry came and said hello, and I had a quick wander around the kitchen (really amazing setup) I realized it was 4 hours later!

I won't do a breakdown of the various courses; they were all good, well balanced, beautifully presented and absolutely delicious. (At this point I may as well announce my aversion to the word "flavorful", along with "healthful" it is one of the most nauseating words to have been made up in the last few years. There. I've got that off my chest. Sigh.)

Suffice to say, we had a brilliant meal, and will happily go back another time to do that again. Thank you Lovely Mother in Law (she paid the bill!) and thank you Kauri Cliffs!

the pizza oven awakes...

No rain: check. Light winds: check. Good visibility: check. Looks like the gods are with us and, at last, it's time to light the pizza oven.

starting to heat up, run away, you ducks!

When we cook pizza in the kitchen, we put the oven up to max; about 240 degC, so, knowing we would be eating at about 6.30, we lit the oven at about 4.30. By 5 it had already got to 250 degC and was heating up fast. We put the pizza stone bases in the oven to warm up, and waited.

Our friends, N&S came round at 6ish for drinks and, by then, the oven had reached 350 degC. Amazing! I took one of the stones out, and nearly burnt myself as the oven gloves (LW's prize Cath Kidston mitts!) became blackened and singed.

The dough was risen, the passata had been reduced and the tomato and mozzarella had been sliced, so here goes with our first attempt:

d'ough!

The pizza stone came out of the oven, the dough put onto it, and, before we could even get the ingredients onto the dough, it had started to burn! So the first pizza was a failure; beautifully cooked top, perfectly cremated base.

perfectly cooked top...

...perfectly cremated base lends anonymity to celebrity pizza-eater

So the next pizza required a cooler stone. We loaded it up cool, (added a few slices of chorizo too) and I sprayed a little olive oil on the top as well. Then placed it in the furnace of hades, currently running at a cool 300 degC and, voila! 7 minutes later it was done. This time no charring, but the top was just slightly undercooked. A 3rd and final run (we were starting to get full) and 8 minutes in the oven, and this one was just right! Oh how we laughed. Hahaha!

beautiful!

Now twilight was upon us (not the books, thankfully) and we retired indoors for the dessert, apple and rhubarb crumble cooked in the slowly cooling oven. It still took a scant 20 min and the top was staring to carbonise!

As an accompaniment to the pizza I made a caesar salad: I stole an idea from Masterchef Australia and roasted some bacon drenched in Maple syrup. It was superb! To this I tossed some freshly picked cos leaves, croutons that had just cooled and a dressing with anchovy & garlic that had been battered to a paste, olive oil vinegar and seasoning, thickened with finely-grated parmesan. Yum.

In the end, the pizza oven is a roaring success; not only a really useful 2nd oven and outdoor heater, but, because it imparts some smokiness into the flavour of the food, a really lovely way to cook all manner of roasts and things over the summer. I will keep roasting and posting...

salt and pepper chicken

This was one of my favourite takeaway meals when I lived in Glasgow, and I have no way of knowing if it's going to turn out anywhere like my memory of it, because I'm writing this as the deep fat fryer heats up. But I will finish this entry after we have eaten it, and then you'll know. It should be crunchy, frispy and light, and I like to serve it with some fried rice.

Here's what I've done so far:

Marinated some lean chicken pieces (LW prefers breast meat to thigh, so that's what we've gone with. Needless to say, it's free-range & organic) in soy sauce (light and dark), rice wine, oyster sauce, chinese 5-spice, salt, white pepper and an egg yolk. I left the chicken in the mixture for about 2 hours, and then drained it, and coated the pieces in flour. I've kept the marinade, because it might be useful to flavour the fried rice. We shall see...

Meanwhile I cooked some rice, and fried up and egg, softened some finely-chopped onion, and defrosted some frozen peas. I also finely chopped some coriander.

Next up is the frying of the chicken: in the deep fat fryer until perfectly cooked at about 180degC (about 6 minutes) It then goes in a dish I've warmed and covered with kitchen paper in the oven whilst I do the fried rice:

The cooked rice goes in 1st and cooks until the grains start to go translucent. Then I add the other ingredients except the coriander and fry them all up until it's all hot.

Then the coriander goes in at the last minute, the rice is put on a plate and the chicken on top. I added a wee sprinkle of crispy fried onion to complete.

So. How did it compare to my memory from Glasgow?

Well. It didn't taste the same, but it was delicious. I think the Glesga version had a batter around it, and some chilli within, but I shall keep trying. The rice was lovely, and not at all greasy.

One more thing: I really apologise for the poor quality of the photos. I must try to get to grips with the "hipstamatic" app for my camera/phone. Improvements will be in order.

heated-up leftovers

Some of my favourite meals are made from the leftovers from the previous day.

Isn't it enough that you know that? You wanted an example?

OK. Here's what we had last night:

Roast chicken, skirlie, cauliflower cheese. All quite delicious, and plenty left (except for the skirlie; that went very fast).

So, tonight, we ate the re-baked cauliflower cheese:

twice-baked cauliflower cheese

A pan of new potatoes, crushed in butter and parsley:

And pieces of roast chicken given a second life by coating them in panko breadcrumbs and frying them until crispy.

mmm, frispy

We thoroughly enjoyed it, until the cows came home. By which I mean the next door neighbour rushed round to say that one of our steers was in her garden. And we've only just had the fences fixed. An hour later we had returned the farm to peace and calm. And the food had gone cold. And LW had lost her appetite. But the dogs didn't mind a bit.

a bit of a dog's dinner (lucky dog)

chinese soup & sandwiches

'Twas the last Soup and sandwiches of the season. Usually we 4 stop the S&S tradition once daylight saving kicks in, but I had one more meal up my sleeve, and unleashed it last night.

Chicken and sweetcorn soup: one of the simplest of all soups, and anyone who enjoyed meals from Chinese restaurants in the UK (and probably elsewhere) from childhood will be familiar with this soup. Here's what I did:
Poach a chicken breast in a litre (or, if you are in the USA, a fifth of a gallon) of chicken stock until cooked through. Take out the chicken and add a tsp (or 1 seventeeth of a cup) of sesame oil, a couple of tsps (yes, yes) of light soy, grate a chunk of ginger and add it, and also a couple of sprigs of spring onion. Simmer and add a can of creamed sweetcorn. Mix up 2 tsps of cornflour and some of the stock to make a paste and add it back to the stock to thicken slightly, and beat 2 eggs and drizzle them into the stirred stock to make fine ribbons of egg. Shred (not chop) the chicken and put it back in the hot stock and serve. This will bring back memories even better than rosemary.

a bowl of soup (reuters library footage)

The main course (the "sandwich") was crispy chinese spiced duck as seen here about which no more needs to be said except that we had 2 ducks for 4 people, and really ate too much. 1.5 ducks would be enough. But that would be unfair to the ducks.

that's not our duck. But it looks similar. Stolen image. Thanks, internet.

cheesy goodness!

Here's a very quick post for a quick feast:

Take a good soft cheese, such as camembert (but ideally one of the alpine cheeses that come in a wooden box), and unwrap it, and then re-wrap it in foil with a bit of a high lip around it. Make a few holes in the top and poke in shards of garlic. Pour some red wine on top to let it soak through the holes.

Then bake the whole thing at 180 deg C for about 25 min, checking regularly to ensure that the molten cheese is not collapsing and creating another oven cleaning disaster tomorrow.

Camembert on the left, blue on the right

Serve with crusty bread that is dipped through the rind into the cheese in a confident, but not aggressive fashion.

Enjoy! We did; and experimented with a Mainland reserve double creamy Camembert and a creamy blue (that was less of a success because the taste was just too concentrated by the baking.) The Camembert was superb and we will do this again!

Insalata Caprese!

This post is backwards. It starts with a lovely salad of Tomato, Basil leaves and the best Mozzarella we can lay our hands on. And a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

 the finished salad

It takes seconds to prepare it all, toast some good, crusty bread, and eat. But, in reality, this one took over 8 hours to make.

  

with all the trimmings...

In fact, the Mozzarella was very nice, tasted good, but the texture of it was a little rubbery, more akin to the blocks of mass-produced cheese you find in the section of the supermarket where all cheese is vacuum-packed, than the fibrous, soft and delicate balls of mozzarella in the delicatessen, flown straight from the buffaloes of Italy to the mouths of us mere mortals. But then again, the manufacturers of our Mozzarella were amateurs, and I know this because those makers were LW and I!

Jean Mansfield runs cheese-making courses, and, yesterday, we attended one at the Kerikeri Culinary Institute

which was excellent. It was an all-day affair, and in the space of only a few hours, we learned to make Mozzarella, Feta and Ricotta. At $195 each, I thought that it was going to be poor value for the day, but I was wrong, not least because the delightful Jean and her husband (who is a Dairy farmer) made the day really good fun, as well as teaching us well, and supplying excellent quality equipment, facilities and lovely, raw Jersey milk! And we came home with about a kilo of feta (which is currently sitting in some brine and will be ready to eat in about 3 weeks), a bagful of ricotta, which I will use for something... I'm not sure what yet, and 6 good sized balls of the Mozzarella, half of which is now sitting in some weak brine so that we can see if it softens as it get a little older... We also had a very good lunch of wine, cheeses, ham, chicken, olives and fresh fruit. By the end of the day we were tired, enthused, and keen to sign up to the next course which will involve making Blue Gouda, Camembert and Marscapone. We can't wait!

some milk. Waiting to become Mozzarella

 

on it's way.

 closer...

closer still... 

and now the stretching...

 

and the final result!

I was wondering why our Mozzarella is so dense compared to the ideal; after all, it stretched beautifully, but I think the reason is that we didn't stretch it enough, and, in the process include more air and fibres of stretched cheese into the final product. We will know next time.

Having said that, the salad was really good, more so because it was our own home-made cheese that we were eating. I think we'll fire up the pizza oven and make some pizzas to do justice to the other half of the cheese.