Cooking & writing all things delicious
Ingredients Method About this recipe You know those grey rainy Sunday days in winter that feel a bit blah and uninspiring? Yes, me too. Perhaps today is even one of them. This chickpea concoction can help somewhat with zippy lemon and warm spices. It fits …
Ingredients: Method: About this recipe I know gluten free baking can seem like a faff but honestly, if you can bear to fork out for some gluten-free flour then you have a lot of options without much effort. Many ingredients that are simply superb in …
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‘Carrot’ might not be first up when you think ‘I fancy something sweet’ but they are undeniably delicious and we have their sweetness to thank for carrot cake. Carrot cake in some form or other has been enjoyed for quite some time, including the Middle Ages and apparently George Washington’s table. It was Second World War rationing, with carrots replacing a lot of sugar, that really helped to firm up its position in our modern palettes.
This one featured here had been knocking around in my imagination for quite some time, with many weeks of my thinking ‘I fancy something carrot-cakey.’ And, if I must be perfectly honest, that imagining was completed by the vision of said cake slathered with a generous amount of cream cheese icing.
Carrot cakes can be a bit of a hassle to make, what with all of that grating of carrots (fingers, ouch!) but I have worked on this recipe to at least minimise the amount of bowls and therefore dishwashing. It is worth it too, as I find this one always disappears quickly – I hope you find it’s worth it too!
Ingredients Method: About this recipe Oh the lovely leek! Truly one of my favourite vegetables this time of year, when the shadows are a little longer and there’s a bite in the air. Leeks are allium family members, related to onions and garlic, but a …
Ingredients: Plum and apple mixture: Crumble topping: Method: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Place the apples, plums, cinnamon vanilla and 2 tablespoons of water into a pot – the water should be covering the base of the pan. Depending on how juicy the …
Ingredients
Method
Heat oven to 180 degrees celsius and line two 20 x 30cm baking trays with baking paper
In a medium bowl, mix together masa flour, seeds and the teaspoon of sea salt.
Add the olive oil and boiling water. Mix together until all dry ingredients are incorporated.
Turn out the mixture onto the baking trays. Using wet hands and/or a spatula, press out the mixture to be as thin as you can make it across the trays. Scatter a pinch of sea salt flakes over the top.
Bake in the oven for 35 minutes or until golden brown around the corners. Remove and allow to cool, then break into cracker-sized pieces. Store in an air tight container if not using straight away.
About this recipe
It took me some time to give home made crackers a go because I always worried they would be fiddly and difficult. I imagined rolling and kneading with bits of dough sticking to the rolling pin and myself becoming more flustered and sweary. No doubt you can make this variety of cracker and I bet it’s delicious, but if you don’t care too much about your crackers looking perfect then I say, give this recipe a try.
It’s very simple – only one bowl to clean at the end! – and the seed-flecked crackers look pretty on any cheese board or nibbles tray. They are made with masa harina, a corn-based flour that forms the basis of much Latin American cuisine, including tamales, tacos and tostadas. Masa marina is the secret weapon that ensures these crackers are a cinch to make – it becomes pliable on the addition of boiling water and provides a robust, grainy texture and no faffing about with rolling pins is required. It’s even gluten-free!
Ingredients Method Place all ingredients into a food processor or a blender. Process on high speed until it forms a wet, loose texture. If it is dry and clumpy, add a little more olive oil and process again. Taste and add a little more salt …
Ingredients Method About this recipe Comparing apples with oranges was the name of the game for my fruit bowl for a while there, thanks to Wonky Box. It got me thinking – oranges are lovely in baking, but I haven’t come across many recipes where …
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I’ve recently subscribed to Wonky Box – what a delight! It gives me a nice little pick-me-up throughout my week – make no mistake, I am exactly the kind of geek who finds vegetable-related updates exciting. Tuesday’s announcement of which goodies to expect in that week’s delivery, Thursday’s emailed invitation to track my Wonky delivery and finally, courier updates on Friday on my Wonky Box’s location, creeping tantalizingly closer to my front door and finally landing there on Friday afternoon. I’m loving the challenge of finding ways to use the different fruit and vegetables; the flavour is always excellent even if the shape is a little less-than-perfect.
A few recent boxes have included mandarins and I wanted to do something a little bolder than just skinning and eating ’em – which I must clarify, I do consider perfectly acceptable. They’re also quite lovely peeled, sliced vertically and added to salad (if you’re lucky I will post my favourite mandarin salad another time). But for some recent Wonky mandarins, I was hankering to go a little further.
I always put my hand up for bringing dessert to get-togethers because I love making sweet treats but I prefer a bigger audience for them than just my husband and me. Although we could happily polish off a whole cake between just the two of us, it’s probably better that we don’t do this on the regular. Family dinner a few weeks back called for a cake and I had a small pile of Wonky mandarins practically begging for attention from my fruit bowl.
I’ve blitzed oranges and lemons for cakes and other puddings in the past, but doing so with mandarins was new to me – I’m happy to report it worked well. Pulverising the mandarins with the skin on delivers delightful little bursts of sharpness in the cake, which is otherwise sweet and slightly crumbly. I topped this with a butter and icing sugar-based icing to keep it sweet for the smaller members of my family, however a dusting of icing sugar would also go nicely.
I am just back from a truly fabulous trip away overseas, so please do forgive my gap in posting. While I recover from jet lag and make my way through a substantial stack of dirty socks and other clothing (why does one half of a …
Ingredients: Method: About this recipe My peach and almond upside down cake is dense and hearty with a buttery topping of sweet sliced fruit. Inspired by the retro delight of a pineapple upside down cake, this version is comforting and appropriate for winter, with a …
Oh my, when I spotted this beautiful red fruit at the shops I simply could not leave it there – such a gorgeous colour, and somehow I have never sampled one before.
This little beauty is a Piqa Boo pear – yes, I agree, what a cute name, particularly as it sounds like Pikachu. Piqa Boo pears were first cultivated in New Zealand in the 1980s – so I don’t know quite why it took me so long to eat one – and they are bred from European, Chinese and Japanese pear breeds. This pear was absolutely delicious – crisp, juicy and not unlike a Nashi pear in taste. Some googling on the topic leads me this recipe for sautéed Piqa Boo pear piled on top of baked brie – not something I have tried for this post, but my mouth waters at the mere thought and I forsee this in my future.
To balance out the healthful eating of red pears, I have had some hearty wintery delights recently as well, including a helping of these duck fat roasted potatoes, and this very cheesy and delicious toastie at the beautiful Dough café. It has reached that point of Winter where it feels like it is never going to end and everyone has some kind of virus, so bright fruits and stodgy meals are helping me along. I hope this finds you all well – keep warm and healthy x
Ingredients Method About I had such a great weekend visiting Whanganui a couple of weeks ago. The highlight was of course seeing our dear friends who have made their home there. One of the many bonuses of staying with them was discovering the Feijoabulous recipe …
Ingredients Method About this recipe Struggling to come up with vegan and gluten free baking ideas? Then let cashew butter be your friend. My lovely Fix and Fogg jar of cashew butter was a gift and gosh I love it. It’s creamy and rich and …
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We’re really in Autumn here now and I’m enjoying the mellow days and slight cooling in the air. I enjoy Autumnal eating – warming soups and stews, sauces and pickles made from the last of the summer tomatoes, feijoas. I was lucky to be gifted a bounty of cooking apples and although chutney flittered across my mind (because yum, a lick of chutney on some hearty bread), I settled on jelly because I fancied the idea of an over-nighter of a recipe. My Dad grew up in Bannockburn, Otago and home made jelly was a regular fact of life, along with a lot of other goodies given the remoteness of Bannockburn in the 1950s. He talks about the apples being bound up in muslin and tied to the bath taps to drip into a bowl overnight – no squeezing allowed! I’m not quite that adventurous nor in possession of enough apples to consider tying them over the bath, but it was still a pleasing feeling to get up in the morning to a lovely bowlful of juice. It was very pretty and I almost regretted boiling it up for jelly – but not quite, because the jelly is proving to be quite delicious on toast. And even better with some sharp cheese if, like me, you subscribe to the cheese-and-jam school of thought.
Ingredients: Method: Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees celsius. Cut the tomatoes, eggplants and garlic in half lengthways. Spray a large roasting tin with olive oil spray, or drizzle with olive oil. Place the tomatoes and eggplants in a single layer in the tin. Place the …
Ingredients: Method: In a large pot, heat the oil. Add the ginger, garlic and all the spices. Keep stirring to prevent anything burning. Once the coriander and mustard seeds start to pop (2-3 minutes), add the lentils, rice and carrots. Stir to coat in the …
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I’ve been playing around with this recipe since Christmas. I treated myself to a jar of Roses strawberry conserve to go with festive croissants and needed something to do with the leftovers that wasn’t simply jam on toast. Nothing wrong with jam on toast of course, but this Roses stuff is a truly lip smacking strawberry jam and needs a fitting treatment.
The new Whittakers Blondie chocolate popping up on the shop shelves sparked my blondies idea (although I use just plain old white chocolate for this one; the Whittakers Blondie Chocolate deserves to be eaten alone in its own right). Blondies are mysterious – nobody seems to know exactly where they came from, potentially the socialite Bertha Palmer, perhaps even the original Brownie – but we know for sure they are American, and probably invented when molasses was more available than chocolate.
I’ve found this recipe knocks up a tasty little set of treats that have been reviewed as ‘really delicious’ (my nephew, age 9) – they are lovely warm but also set well into bars that are very moreish when cold. The strawberry jam can be subbed for something a bit shaper like plum or raspberry to tone down the sweetness. Hope you enjoy x
You might have many reasons for choosing a mocktail – driving, dehydrated, just feel like something lighter – and this festive season I decided to give making some a go. I’m new to mixing cocktails and mocktails so do not have my own recipes ready …
This is truly a store cupboard staple as it requires things I bet you already have to hand. Even better, it’s a delight for chilly Winter days – it’s warming and filling with a healthy dose of things that will keep you well, including vitamin …
I come from a reasonably large family of four kids and I believe this is why I always cook too many potatoes. Potato-duty for family meals was a large scale operation and the mission was successful upon delivery of a large pot or roasting pan full to the brim of peeled spuds. Anything less than this feels dangerously close to running out.
I am gradually un-learning this habit. Luckily alongside this I have learned an excellent way to use up surplus cooked potato: the delicacy that is potato bread. It’s delightfully simple – mashed potato, flour, butter and a pan + heat source is all you need. It’s also delicious.
I met potato bread when visiting my husband’s family in Ireland, where potato bread is an essential part of any cooked breakfast or ‘fry.’ And in fact a definitive part, as there are many regional variations on the cooked breakfast and potato bread, along with soda bread, is what marks out a cooked breakfast as Irish. As it was my husband’s birthday last week, I treated him to a proper Irish-style cooked breakfast with potato bread. Frankly this was a treat for me too. I use this recipe (my finished product does not look as tidy); the only addition I recommend to the method is cooking the potato bread twice. Once to make sure it is formed, and the second time in butter just before serving.
The only other rule to follow is the sauce – it must be topped with ‘red sauce’ (tomato sauce), and not under any circumstances ‘brown sauce’ (HP sauce) as this belongs with the bacon and sausages. And as with all meals in Ireland, served with a large cup of tea.
You can happily enjoy Easter without being carnivorous, what with some of the best things about Easter being non-meaty (chocolate and hot cross buns, loaded with butter obviously). But if you fancy Easter roast lamb, then let me convince you that making your own mint …
I think we all need a little sweetness at the moment. Summer holidays, and the little dash of optimism and refreshment they deliver, feel like a long time ago indeed. Luckily, I have this spiced plum shortcake recipe stored up from my own summer holiday, …
Happy New Year! I was lucky to have a pretty decent 2021, and I know I am in the minority here. It was a shocker for many of my favourite people. Wherever January 2022 finds you (ideally somewhere relaxing and on holiday with many tasty beverages), I hope that a better year is ahead for you.
When I look back over the year that was, the Delta outbreak is the main stand-out memory. I’m positive I am not alone in this. Cooking has played a significant part in my lockdown experiences, both because I am a greedy-guts in general, but also because it is very comforting. I know people may expect themselves to have cooked a range of intricate and gourmet dishes with all of the extra spare time available when locked down, but for me I found that living in a pandemic is quite enough mental load all on its own, thank you very much. It’s a time for tried-and-true comfort. In our house, I put aside any expectations and we pulled out the old favourites that feel like a pair of well-worn slippers.
I love Nigel Slater an awful lot. I like to call him Uncle Nige, because honestly, how great would it be to have him as your uncle? Since discovering his roast chicken recipe from his Appetite cookbook, I have never followed another roast chicken again. He calls it “Unmucked about chicken” and I heartily recommend it. We ate this more than once – photos below.
I love making stock with leftover bones. I think it makes me feel good about myself. So, following many roast chickens, there were many bowls of my noodle soup with the stock.
Leftover roast vegetables lend themselves very nicely to a lunchtime frittata.
Ham and cheese sandwiches are generally pretty great. My husband got excited about ham and cheese about halfway through our lockdown and tried out BBC Good Food’s Croque Monsieur. It involves a lot of butter and cheese. It was good.
The other stand-out cooking memory for me is that 2021 is the year I finally put on my big-girl pants and braved making a bundt cake. I was gifted the beautiful bundt tin pictured below about four Christmases ago and I was always too scared to use it. Despite writing Lick Your Plate, I am not an overly skilled baker and a lot of stuff I bake winds up stuck to the tin. It was too upsetting, picturing half a bundt cake slopping out onto a plate with the rest remaining stubbornly welded to the intricate mouldings. Well, I felt the fear and did it anyway…and was really happy with the results. I used the lemon bundt recipe from the Chelsea sugar website. I recommend it – the cake was very light and lemony and came out of the bundt tin perfectly.
I’m looking forward to another year of cooking and writing about it – it’s a very enjoyable creative outlet for me, and one I want to indulge more often. My goals are to pick up the Edmonds cookbook again (still in the A section of the index, sigh), to write up more pudding and cake recipes and to include some quick-and-easy meals I make a lot.
Happy new year again and take care wherever you are x
My parents are amazing gardeners and I couldn’t resist this little scallopini left over from their crop. Mainly because, what a cute vegetable, everyone! How could you not want to take it home? Little and frilly and kind of like a flying saucer. I’ve eaten …
Butternut is such a sweet little name that, even if I didn’t much fancy the taste, I would still have to create a recipe or two in its honour. So, luckily I find it delicious as well as cutely named. Butternut is lighter, softer and …
It was a pretty crappy Summer season in my garden overall, with the grand total of 12 manky-looking tomatoes and two cucumbers (there were three cucumbers, but something ate one of them). The outlier here has been my herb collection. These little guys have gone gang-busters. Verdant is not a word I use often, but it’s wholly appropriate in this case.
My oregano has been particularly enthusiastic and we were unable to eat or give away all of it. Seeing as I hate to let anything go to waste (just ask my husband about my left-over wrapping paper collection), I’ve had a go at drying it so I can enjoy it in warming, hearty dishes as we slip into Autumn.
I began this little exercise five weeks ago as this is the recommended length of time for drying out herbs, according to far better gardeners than I online (how lush and gorgeous do the herbs in these photos look? Definitely a candidate for ‘verdant’). Harvesting several bunches of my oregano provided a thoroughly gratifying and pastoral afternoon down in my little courtyard. The bees were all over the oregano flowers which made me feel happy, thinking that somewhere out there, someone could be in line for some honey assisted by my oregano crop.
The method is pretty simple. Cut stems of oregano and tie into bunches, with 2-3 stems per bunch. When knotting the string or whatever you are using to tie the stems together, leaving 5-10 centimetres of string before cutting. Suspend the bunch or bunches upside down from a rail or ceiling, using the extra length of string from the knot. I suspended mine from a curtain rail, over some sheets of paper to catch any early-falling leaves. Check after 4 weeks and leave until thoroughly dry (mine took 5 weeks). Once dry, harvest by holding each branch over a piece of paper or cloth and brushing downwards to remove the leaves from the branches. Rub the leaves with your fingers to break up into smaller fragments and store in an airtight container. Use in cooking or as a garnish.
For the second recipe in my ground-breaking series on the humble carrot I bring you…honey and balsamic roasted carrots. This recipe is especially useful if you have a number of the little orange critters languishing in your vegetable drawer and they’re getting on the soft …
Happy New Year! Munching on carrot sticks, brimming with enthusiasm for a year of healthful habits? Nope, me neither. And I need to tell you right now that if that’s what you’re after, you’re probably reading the wrong blog. But, I am enjoying some carrot …
I invented these bad guys because I really dislike making traditional pancakes. Delicate thin batter getting stuck to the pan, wedging itself into odd shapes, lumps, burnt bits. The whole experience makes me hot, sweaty and angry. Especially as I am usually over-caffeinated, flapping around in my dressing-gown and burn myself on the fry pan at least once. It’s not a relaxing start to the day in my book, and unless I include something filling alongisde or on top, I find I have had a sugar crash by mid-morning and need something else to eat.
So, welcome to these guys, which I find give me the pleasure of something hot and cakey at breakfast time but without the angst. The batter is much thicker and chunkier than a traditional pancake or crepe mixture which makes them a lot more predictable in the frypan and has greatly reduced my burning incidents. And another bonus – all of those oats and fruit keep me feeling well-fed until lunch. If all of this seems too healthy to you, you can certainly top them with cream or Nutella or a whole lot of syrup, and accompany them with some crispy fried bacon or vegetarian-friendly protein. Indeed, these examples in the pictures have a healthy dollop of old-school golden syrup on top of the Greek yoghurt.
This recipe makes four hotcakes, so enough for one by themselves or for two with some sides.
Ingredients: 1 mashed banana; 1 lightly beaten egg, 1 cup of rolled oats; 1 teaspoon of baking powder. You will also need oil spray or a little fat for the frypan.
Heat a non-stick frypan to medium hot and spray will oil spray or lightly grease.
Combine the egg and banana. Whisk in the baking powder and finally add the oats. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated.
Once the pan is hot, place dollops of the mixture into the pan and spread out with the back of a spoon. I usually get four cakes into the pan. The mixture is not runny, so they will not spread out but you will need to flatten them a little so they cook through evening.
Once you see some bubbles in the cakes, flip them over and cook until brown.
Hey friends, how are you all hanging in there? Okay I do hope. We are trucking along well Ngaio. The cats remain delighted with having their humans on tap. The husband remains delighted with our hard-working craft beer industry and its willingness to home-deliver. And …
Sometimes, despite the best of intentions, fruit can go a little south in the fruit bowl. Things in general feel like they have gone a little south lately. This time a year ago our current COVID circumstances would have been unimaginable to pretty much all …
Last year’s multiple hospital trips were more significant than I realised last time I wrote. It turns out that, in the long-running battle between me and infertility, infertility was winning. Well ahead, in fact.
In hospital, the charge nurse stroked my needle-studded hand protectively. You have to know, she said to the young, overworked house surgeon who was trying to work out my next hormone dosage, that this young lady doesn’t react like other ones. We do something expecting one result and exactly the opposite happens.
I’m sorry, said my kind, optimistic specialist. Thousands of women and I haven’t seen anything like this, it’s about the worst. I cried. He did too, a little bit.
I had a full hysterectomy last October. In the waiting room before the procedure I hunched over, overwhelmed, gasping with nerves and pain and shock. It was the only thing left that we could do.
The inevitable sunk in slowly, lapping at my toes, because realising all at once would have been an intolerable tsunami of grief. I’ve learned to say when people ask, ‘No, I don’t have children. I can’t.’
And now? I’m sad, but also free. We are no longer stuck in a tunnel of grief and what-ifs and the interminable waiting. No more lying waiting in cold hospital beds, desperately hoping. Trying to be brave. I can be someone who makes plans again. My body is my own and it works now.
I love the little things, because actually they are the best and biggest of things. My cat snoring, cute and snuffly. My niece’s silky hair and the fact that she lets me stroke it. Rain. Laughing. Writing.
My husband, because he is still here. For telling me that he wouldn’t want to have gone through the last seven years with anyone else.
So on Valentine’s Day this year I started cooking again in earnest. For love, for happiness, for full tummies, see below for my home-made chicken and chorizo pot pies.
I’ll write again soon. Lots of love to all members of my support crew.
Chicken and chorizo pot pies (makes 2 in 250ml capacity ramekins)
First make the pastry by mixing together 80g flour, 60g very cold butter and 2 tablespoons of cold water. Use your hands to rub the butter into the flour and mix it together into a ball. Refrigerate this for at least half an hour before you intend to start making the filling.
For the filling you will need:
2 x 250ml capacity ramekins, greased
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 skinless and boneless chicken thigh, diced
100 grams of chopped chorizo
2 tablespoons of sherry
3 tablespoons of milk mixed with 2 teaspoons of cornflour
Set the oven to 190 degrees Celsius. To make the filling, warm the olive oil over a medium heat and add the chorizo. Cook it until its lovely orange juices run. Add the sherry, let it bubble up, and then add the chicken. Once the chicken is sealed, turn the heat down to low and simmer for ten minutes.
Meanwhile, remove the pastry from the fridge, roll out and use one of the ramekins upside down as a cookie cutter to make two circles.
Divide the chicken and chorizo mixture between the ramekins.
Top each one with a circle of pastry and brush with a little milk. Crack some fresh pepper over if you like.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.
Serve with something fresh and green.
Wheewwww so another nearly two months since my last post with some more drama in between. Two further hospital admissions, including one particularly gripping visit to the emergency room with nurses running, grabbing wheelchairs and shouting ‘code two, code two’ into the PA system, three …
WOAH. That was a month and a half. The first section was pretty damn fine. My husband and I treated ourselves to a week in Rarotonga to celebrate getting through some rather rubbish stuff over the last wee while, and gosh it was bliss. Rarotonga …
Do you get to feeling nibbly late afternoon? Does your mouth start watering as you fantasise about stuffing large handfuls of salt and vinegar chips into your mouth alongside stacks of delicious lovely cheese? Well, friends, have I got a deal for you. Because while my brain would like to cram in a whole lot of fat and salt at 4pm on the dot, my body would not thank me.
These bites will trick your mouth into thinking it’s had a whole lot more salt and fat that you’ve provided. They are pretty generously spiced with the merest smidgen of sharp cheese to ensure you get a flavour hit. There’s a reasonable about of healthy, non-animal based oil as I find it not only helps with satiety but also gives these a lovely, crumbly and slightly luxurious texture. Finally, the sunflower seeds toast up beautifully during baking to give a little crunch.
The secret it to keep them bite-sized. You just want one to pop into your mouth for a savoury pick-me-up, and they get in unmanageably crumbly if much bigger than a teaspoonful.
Ingredients
1 c oats
1 c plain flour, sifted
1 t each of chilli flakes and ground black pepper
1/4 t cayenne pepper
Pinch salt
1/2 c sunflower seeds
1/4 c sharp cheese, grated
1/2 c rapeseed oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
Method
Set the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Line two baking trays with grease proof paper.
Mix together oats, flour, spices and seasoning in a large bowl.
Add the seeds and cheese and stir to combine.
Add the egg and oil. Mix and form into a stiff ball of dough, using your hands to shape and mould the dough.
Place teaspoonfuls of dough onto baking trays, using your hands to squeeze together loose crumbs.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Cool on a baking wrack.
I am busy looking after my garden, or is it looking after me? It’s working hard, growing many of my favourite treats, including raspberries, zucchinis and cucumbers. My rangy, imperfect little beginner’s garden is very restorative. I can nurture my plants and enjoy some success, …
Cheese is pretty much my number one indulgence when it comes to Christmas. I don’t say indulgence with the purpose of getting all judgmental about food (far from it – one of my main approaches in my blog is to enjoy all food without fads …
What I am about to share with you is deeply unorthodox. It’s my own recipe for guacamole, cultivated over the past two decades as I have developed a fully-fledged love of avocados.
I always thought the way I made guacamole was pretty standard. You know, salt, a bit of lemon, avocado of course, and a few other things. But stumbling across a recipe like this one about a decade ago, which infers that much modern guacamole is pretty much a disgraceful mix of inappropriate flavours, I felt both a little shame and a little pride. So maybe I am not strictly orthodox, perhaps it is indeed a little gauche to sprinkle a touch of sugar into your guacamole. On the other hand, if it makes it even more delicious, then what’s wrong with being a little bit of a culinary rebel?
I am particularly delighted to bring my recipe for guacamole to you as it results from kindness and generosity. I happen to have a bounty of avocados in my life right now. I have a regular subscription to the delightful Avo Tree (a little luxury that gets me through some long months of drug treatment which requires me to be alcohol and caffeine- ie all my favourite treats -free). And then, as my most recent Avo Tree subscription sat ripening on the windowsill, imagine my delight when a workmate presented me with a bag from her mum’s avocado tree in Golden Bay! Despite being a long-term lover of the avocado, I had no idea they grew on long skinny stalks in bunches and have to be harvested while still green. Fascinating!
While I have photographed this batch of my uncouth guacamole with healthy peppers and carrot sticks, it really is most delicious and decadent with some tasty salted corn chips. Enjoy.
Ingredients:
Flesh of 2-3 ripe or over-ripe avocados (ha! Like they ever have a chance to get over- ripe when I’m around)
1-2 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped finely
1 t salt
1/2 t ground pepper
1 t caster sugar (uncouth)
1/4 t nutmeg (even more uncouth)
1 t chilli flakes
Juice of 1 to 1 1/2 lemons
1 T balsamic or red wine vinegar
Tabasco sauce
Cayenne pepper
Method
Well it’s pretty easy. Put all the above in a large bowl.
The next bit depends on your preferences and available kitchen tools. I prefer my guacamole smooth so I use a stick mixer to blend the lot, but mashing with a fork is perfectly fine too.
Taste after seasoning – I often find I need a little more salt and lemon for my tastes.
