We all love Thai food and on the whole it is easy to make. Having the right ingredients on hand can sometimes trip us up, it is essentially having a well stocked pantry and also knowing what we can and … Read more
The moment Leanne Kitchen tells me that she has been roasting cauliflower since the early 80s she has my respect. At the time I am sure many of were still over cooking our cauli in a pot of boiling … Read more
The texture of fried barley is fantastic and the flavour somewhere between popcorn and nuts. Read more
After a few weeks of travelling Vietname enjoying light and crispy Banh Xeo (Vietnamese Pancakes) stuffed with masses of herbs, salad leaves, sprouts, prawns, crisp dried onions, a dash of fish and hot chilli sauces, my meals at home don’t have … Read more
Bringing home some of the delicious flavours of far away shores can be a huge temptation but the fear of having it flung into a bin by NZ MPI staff is a very real deterrent. Here in New Zealand we have strict … Read more
For years I have been making soups that seem to be missing something in their flavour component but it is something hard to define. While the soups are no doubt nourishing unless I add lots of spices and feisty herbs, … Read more
One of the culinary highlights on my recent cycling trip of Cambodia was a visit to a pepper farm in Kampot. I must admit that before I visited Kampot I had never bothered to think about variances in the … Read more
Making your own vanilla extract is ridiculously easy. It needs just two ingredients – alcohol and vanilla. Generally vanilla extract is made with vodka due to its neutral flavour but it can also be made with other alcohol such … Read more
Sometimes in life, and not very often, you get to taste something that is so perfect that the moment stays with you forever and maybe you will never be able to replicate it again. Most recently for me it was … Read more
Verjuice or verjus if you like, has loads of uses in the kitchen and it really is a case of the more you use it the more you will. The juice of unripe grapes, verjuice is produced on a small … Read more
Just in time for summer cooking and perhaps some Christmas gift making, Rowan Bishop has released her delightful book Relish, Fine Chutneys, Pickles & More. With the rise in temperatures and longer daylight hours, barbecues and summer don’t seem … Read more
Years ago, long before our supermarket chillers were packed with processed dips and at a time when my favourite cookbooks were Moosewood and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, I started a love affair with hummus.
So much more than a cookbook, Lauraine Jacobs Everlasting Feast is her story but also our story of food through the years in NZ. Remember back to spiders as children, homemade trifle and really good bacon and egg pie? Lauraine’s … Read more
Many families dedicate a night each week to burgers and not the kind you pick up from a fast food joint but a genuine quality hamburger, made at home.
