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Author Archives: Helen Jackson
Easy Eggs Benedict
Making hollandaise sauce in the blender is so easy, just make sure your eggs are at room temperature and your blender warmish.
It is best to make your hollandaise as you need it but you can keep it for a short while by pouring it into a bowl, covering and placing over a saucepan of warm- hot (not boiling) water.
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Serves 4.
September
A week in the south last week reminded me of the beauty of NZ. We travelled from Christchurch to Wanaka with some play time in Tekapo which included Alpine Springs ice skating and hot pools.
Cardrona continue to do fabulous cafe food and Federal Diner in town do gorgeous cheese scones, great coffee and pretty fine ginger crunch as well. I think it is possibly the Takaka Oaty Ginger Crunch recipe. Always a good one.
Now it is back to work and back into recipe writing!
Happy Cooking!
Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Fisher & Paykel, Terms and conditions
Who can enter:
- This promotion is only open to New Zealand residents over 18 years of age. Employees (and their immediate families) of the Promoter, participating retailers and agencies associated with this promotion are ineligible to enter.
- This promotion is not open to trade (commercial) or wholesale customers.
How to enter:
- No purchase is necessary.
- Enter your name and address details on the previous page
- The winners will be the first valid entry drawn at random..
- If the winner cannot be contacted within 48 hours the Promoter reserves the right to reallocate the prize to the next valid entry drawn at random.
- The prize is 1 x Fisher & Paykel ActiveSmart™ Fridge – 635mm Bottom Freezer Ice & Water 403L
- The Promoter accepts no responsibility for any costs not specifically included in the prize. For example installation, building work or any other additional charges are the responsibility of the winner.
General:
- Winners take the prizes at entirely their own risk and indemnify the Promoter, Fisher & Paykel, and any retailers and suppliers associated with this promotion in respect of any claim for accident, injury, property damage or loss they may incur in connection with the prizes.
- The Promoter will not be liable for any prizes that are lost, stolen, misdirected or damaged and will not replace them.
- The Promoter reserves the right to vary these terms and conditions without notice, to modify, reschedule or terminate the promotion and to substitute any of the prizes for a similar prize of similar value, in its sole discretion.
- The Promoter reserves the right, at any time, to verify the validity of entries and entrants (including an entrant’s identity, age and place of residence) and to disqualify any person who submits an entry that is not in accordance with these Terms and Conditions or who tampers with the entry process.
- The Promoter’s decision is final on all matters related to this promotion and no correspondence will be entered into.
- Failure by the Promoter to enforce any of its rights at any stage does not constitute a waiver of those rights.
- The Promoter accepts no responsibility for lost, delayed, misdirected or illegible entries. Incomplete, illegible or indecipherable entry forms will be deemed invalid.
- If any part of the prize is unavailable, the Promoter, in its discretion, reserves the right to substitute the prize with a prize to the equal value.
- No part of the prize is transferable or exchangeable and cannot be taken as cash.
- If this promotion is interfered with in any way or is not capable of being conducted as reasonably anticipated due to any reason beyond the reasonable control of the Promoter, the Promoter reserves the right to disqualify any entrant; or to modify, suspend, terminate or cancel the promotion.
- Except for any liability that cannot be excluded by law, the Promoter (including its officers, employees, agents and Fisher & Paykel) excludes all liability (including for negligence), for any personal injury; or any loss or damage (including loss of opportunity); whether direct, indirect, special or consequential, arising in any way out of the Promotion, including, but not limited to, where arising out of the following: (a) any technical difficulties or equipment malfunction (whether or not under the Promoter’s control); (b) any theft, unauthorised access or third party interference; (c) any entry that is late, lost, altered, damaged or misdirected (whether or not after receipt by the Promoter); (d) any variation in prize value; (e) any tax liability incurred by a entrant; or (f) participation in the promotion or use of a prize.
- By entering the promotion, the winner consents to take part in any publicity accompanying or resulting from this promotion, and for his/her name and image to be used for publicity purposes by the Promoter in printed and/or online formats without the need for further approval or compensation and for an unlimited period of time.
- The Promoter collects personal information in order to conduct the Promotion and may, for this purpose, disclose such information to third parties, including, but not limited to, suppliers. The Promoter may, for an indefinite period unless otherwise advised, use the information for promotional, marketing and publicity purposes including sending electronic messages or telephoning the entrant. Entrants should direct any request to access, update or correct information to the Promoter. All entries become the property of the Promoter.
- These Terms and Conditions are governed by the laws of New Zealand.
- The Promoter is Foodlovers PO Box 128-215 Remuera 1050
Chocolate Coffee Cake – Food Opera
Vanessa and Ingrid Opera are the sisters behind kiwi food blog, FoodOpera. They are usually cooking off against each other each week but this Wednesday night they will appear with Mike Van de Elzen (The Food Truck) in his new series Family Recipes. They teach Mike how to cook their Dad’s ‘famous in their family’ pasta sauce, and then they head to his restaurant to be taught Mike’s version. The whole family take part in a blind taste testing of both sauces. To read and see more about their experience check out the behind the scenes.
FAMILY RECIPES | Wednesday | September 11 | TV ONE | 8P.M
Chocolate coffee cake with cocoa dust by FoodOpera
What you need
2 cups of flour
2 cups of brown sugar
1 cup cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup black coffee
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
250g chocolate buttons
2 chocolate flake bars
How to make
Preheat oven to 180°C. Mix ingredients together, except chocolate buttons, until smooth. Stir in buttons. Pour into a greased 20cm cake tin and bake for approx 45mins. Test with skewer, cake is ready when it is clean. When cooled dust with cocoa powder and crumble with chocolate flake bars
Allsorts Slice
General Food and Drink Trivia Quiz
This weeks quiz is general food and drink with no particular theme.
Test your food trivia knowledge! Continue reading
How to cook a Standing Rib Roast of Beef
Middle Eastern-Inspired Oven Roasted Salmon Parcels
Nici Wickes
Wine match: Selaks Reserve Hawkes Bay Chardonnay
By wrapping salmon fillets in baking paper before roasting them, you ensure that the fish is moist and flavoursome when cooked. The combination of salmon with the sweet-tart flavour of currants, the creaminess of pine nuts and a hit of lemon zest is truly delicious.
YOU WILL NEED:
4 x 200g salmon fillets, skin on or off, bones removed
4 Tbs currants
4 Tbs pine nuts
Zest of one lemon
2 Tbs fresh parsley, finely chopped
Olive oil for drizzling
Sea salt
Nut Tart
Asparagus, Bacon and Hollandaise on Toast
Hollandaise sauce made in the blender is quick and easy, the only draw back is that generally you do need to make quite a bit as you need 2 egg yolks as your base to create enough movement in the blender – make sense?
Make sure your egg yolks are at room temperature and often I wash the blender in hot water first to make sure that is warm as well.
Hollandaise doesn’t keep well but you can pour it into a bowl, cover it and sit over a saucepan of just hot (not simmering or boiling) water until you need it.
Spring in the Kitchen
Over the last month I had the opportunity to cook (in front of a camera) in the most fabulous kitchen that has now left me with serious kitchen envy. We were shooting some new videos for foodlovers tv – watch this space, they will be popping up over the next few months with the first one being this standing rib roast of beef.
The kitchen has enough bench space to host a party and the appliances are all the latest releases from the F&P stable.
The double door French style fridge that makes, water, ice, instantly chills wine etc… has been on my wish list for some years but now the New Generation 2 oven has joined it. Cooking functions include removing steam from the oven (great for pavs and meringues) and also a roast function, where steam is added, ensuring beautiful moist meat.
There are many more functions of course such as self clean and the fact that they are black sleek glass that aesthetically blends in with the rest of the F&P family.
Onto cooking, spring is here and it is so exciting to see asparagus appearing in stores and my broad beans going from strength to strength in the garden.
My strawberries are all in fruit (despite the fact that I broke the rules and didn’t pull them up at the end of last season).
The mint that takes over in summer and disappears in winter is adding a lovely burst of freshness to many dishes and gradually the rest of the herb garden is waking up.
This spring my recipes are using a lot more mint, it is one of those herbs that is easy to look over yet it is indispensible in raw energy salad, courgete fritters,
The whitebait season has opened and I look forward to fat puffy patties sandwiched in Artisan white bread with a spread of good butter and a squeeze of lemon.
The highlight though of spring must belong to asparagus, I am sure I am not alone in my pacing of the greengrocer store, waiting for the price to become realistic so we can start throwing asparagus into just about everything. This pizza of asparagus, lemon, courgette and goats’ cheese is probably a month away from being the right price but I made it anyway – in the name of photography and recipe testing!
Another new favourite for this spring is asparagus, broad bean and farro risotto. Farro is such an interesting grain that gives great texture and flavour to risottos, salads and soups. The broad beans are not quite out of my garden yet but in a month or so I will be feeling very virtuous with lovely pods of spray free fresh beans,
And for something a little more decadent then asparagus with bacon and hollandaise sauce is a delicious brunch treat.
Of course it is not all just about vegetables and this spring for me is going to be more fabulously well slow roasted legs of lamb and of the standing rib roast of beef. Arm yourself with meat thermometer for the beef, follow our video instructions and make sure your cook your lamb long and slow. It always surprises me how complicated some people can try and make a roasted leg of lamb, I don’t brown or do anything special yet it comes out perfect time after time.
While the strawberries are not yet in huge supply, lemons are everywhere, so for now my dessert pick is an elegant slice of lemon tart.
I leave you now to go and measure up my kitchen to check the possibility of housing a F&P refrigerator drawer that has settings for everything. It can chill enough to keep frozen solid, look after meat or be mild enough to keep those summer strawberries looking perfect – love it!
See our exciting new prize on offer from F&P here – anyone need a new fridge?
Sugars and Sweeteners Food Trivia Quiz
This week’s quiz is all sweet. From music to temperatures, how well do you know your sugar?
