I’m in excellent company – Wallace, Gromit and I all love Wensleydale cheese. Crumbly, dense and savoury, Wensleydale originates from Wensleydale, Yorkshire, where it began life as a ewes milk cheese made by French Cistercian monks. It’s now made across the UK from cow’s milk, …
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.
Sometimes you just need some gently savoury food in your life, for comfort’s sake. I have felt this way recently. Freshly-baked bread, cheese scones, pulses and hot drinks are the order of the day. Infused oils are an excellent way to pep up most of …
I truly love posting about dessert. I am a huge fan of baking – we have a rich and rightly-celebrated baking culture in our little country and I am happy to leap in, butter, cream and all. It feels particularly necessary right now, as Winter …
Apples apples apples everywhere I look right now. So it’s a good thing I like them so much and an even better thing that I am still resolutely in the apple recipe section of the Edmonds Cook Book. Today I bring to you Edmond’s Apple Shortcake Squares.
What’s special about shortcake as opposed to just regular cake then? I didn’t know either but fortunately trusty Wikipedia was onto it again. Shortcake goes back to at least 1602! And we know this because the great bard himself wrote the character Alice Shortcake in the Merry Wives of Windsor. The short part of things is because the cake ingredients form a shortened crumbly dough, like a shortbread, and it’s baked to set into a cake at a reasonably high temperature.
Strawberry shortcake is the most famous example, first appearing in England where it was served hot with butter and cream. Yes, the idea of all that melty sweet goodness makes my mouth water too. But for true appreciation of strawberry shortcake we need to head to the States, where 14th June is National Strawberry Shortcake Day, the official day of celebration for this delicious treat. It stems from the tradition of celebrating the Summer fruit harvest with strawberry shortcakes. A great tradition indeed as far as I’m concerned.
Back here in Aotearoa I’m supposing apples were more plentiful than strawberries, and hence the good writers of Edmonds made sure the New Zealand home cook could still have a trusty fruit-based shortcake in their repertoire. It’s a good thing they did too, I found this very tasty and also very easy to make. If the shortcake sounds suspiciously like making pastry to you, don’t be put off. It is truly a minimal faff recipe, which is my main criteria for baking, frankly. And with our lovely apples being all seasonal and delicious right now, I promise this will prove popular if you need to bring a plate.
Edmond’s apple shortcake squares
Ingredients:
For the shortcake:
Method:
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcsius and grease and line a 22cm baking tin so that the baking paper comes over the top of the sides of the tin (you’ll need it later to hoist out the shortcake).
Simmer the apples with the water, lemon and cinnamon in a saucepan over a low heat until cooked and set aside. While the apples are cooking, make the shortcake.
Sift the flour and baking soda. Cut in the butter and rub it around with your fingers until it looks like clumpy breadcrumbs. Add the water, milk and egg and mix quickly until it comes together into a ball.
Divide this in half. Roll out one half of the dough with a rolling pin until and into the baking tin so it lines the base and sides. Place the apples on top.
Roll the other half of the dough out on a floured board with a rolling pin, until it as long and wide as the baking tin. Place it over the apples and pinch it together with the first piece of dough, so it encases the apples. Brush the top with water and sprinkle on the caster sugar.
Bake for 25 minutes until the top is golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool, then removing the shortcake from the tin, lifting it out by the extra baking paper peeking over the sides of the tin. Dust with icing sugar and cut into squares.
One of the delightful things about days off, along with gleefully sitting around in your pants for as long as you fancy and not removing your slippers EVER, is ample amounts of time to whip up special treats for favourite people. My lovely Mum’s …
Some things are meant to be. I’ve been thinking about Kahawai for a while now. Common in our waters, it seems to me – and correct me if I’m wrong – that people can get a little sniffy about them. Kind of like they’re …
Well hello there. Tomato glut? Yeah, me too. Much of it not my own harvest on account of abdominal surgery recovery and whatnot, so I am doubly grateful for all of the tasty goodness that has been kindly coming my way of late. All gifts of excess produce gratefully received chez nous (yes, that is a hint).
Cherokee Purples are on high rotation in my kitchen at the moment. They are gorgeous beauties – heirloom tomatoes, which means they are cultivated from seeds passed down through families, rather than seeds developed for the commercial market. One of the things I love most about Cherokee Purples are their imperfections compared to a standard tomato – all lumps and patchy colours. It makes me think about how many of the fruits and vegetables we enjoy today look so different from their ancestors.
Shuffling around the house in my pyjamas has necessitated some easy meals. This recipe is cheesy and hearty and perfect if you have tomatoes needing using. Cherokee Purples, if you are lucky enough to get your hands on some, are perfect for this as they are so big and juicy and meaty.  Don’t be discouraged if you can’t – the cheesy, eggy combination means any tomato is just the icing on the cake.
Ingredients (for one, or two if you serve with toast):
1 t olive oil
1 cup chopped fresh tomato
2 eggs
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese (such as the ubiquitous Tasty, if you are in New Zealand)
1/2 cup milk
Salt and pepper to taste
Pre-heat your oven grill.
Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat. After a minute, add the tomato. Stir to release some of the tomato juices and let it cook until it softens slightly – about two minutes.
Whisk the eggs, cheese, milk and salt and pepper together in a bowl. Give it a good, hearty whisking – this will help the final product be nice and puffy.
Using the back of a wooden spoon, spread the tomato evenly throughout the pan.
Pour the egg mixture over the tomato. Let it bubble and, when you can see the egg mixture is just starting to set, put the pan under the grill.
Grill until the top is golden-brown and the egg is puffing up. Use a fish slice to scoop it out of the pan – sometimes I manage to get it out so it stays whole, and sometimes it winds up being a pile of cheese, egg and tomato on my plate! This doesn’t effect the taste, promise.
Now here’s the thing….I am at home recovering from abdominal surgery. It’s good news – I am doing fine and the surgery will improve my quality of life.  I have had lots of surgery in my life and have always come through it like a …