A decadent Pasta that is deceptively simple to prepare
Preparation Time 10min | Cooking Time 15min
Serves 4
• 500 g penne pasta
• 2 tsp olive oil or cooking spray
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 can CARNATION Light & Creamy Evaporated Milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tsp cornflour
• 1/3 cup sliced sun-dried tomatoes
• 6 slices salami, sliced
• Ground black pepper
• 1 tsp MAGGI Seasoning
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
The latest concept from New Zealand’s most innovative travel company Mondo is the opening of its own pop-up restaurant headed up by MasterChef’s Brett McGregor, to give Kiwis a taste of cuisine from some of the world’s most popular destination experiences. Continue reading
The price of milk plummets today with Nosh Food Market lowering the cost of its Cow & Gate Milk two litre bottle by more than half to $2.
Spiralling milk prices have seen the cost to households rise by 41 per cent since 2007 and it now costs relatively more inNew Zealandthan inSouth Africa, the UK and US.
As a result, Nosh says, people are drinking less milk and in many cases substituting it for cheaper, less healthy options.
“Milk is a basic household commodity and should be available to all New Zealand consumers, not just those who can afford it,” says Nosh DirectorClinton Beuvink.
A parent of school-age children and successful food retailer, Mr Beuvink sees the harm that high prices can do to financially-stressed families.
“People who know I am in food retailing often ask why something we make for the world is so expensive to buy at home? I struggle to answer the question”.
“Milk is good for growing families and it’s a shame it costs more than soft drinks and other less healthy beverages that have little redeeming value and are often chock-full of sugar,” says Mr Beuvink.
“The margins on well-known soft drinks are around 10 per cent and yet retail margins can be three times that for milk.”
Nosh hopes its dramatic move will be a catalyst for permanently driving down the price of milk – with major supermarket chains and other interested parties doing their part in making milk more affordable.
Nosh is reducing the price of the Cow & Gate brand milk to $2 per two litres – a 55 per cent* reduction from the normal retail price at Nosh store. The price will be fixed in all six Nosh stores (Auckland, Matakana and Hamilton locations) until the end of February.
Mr Beuvink admits it is a token gesture but says someone has to draw attention to the inequities involved and get the ball rolling.
“When retail mark-ups for a healthy product are three times that of a product that frankly does the drinker little or no good at all, then something has to be done. I have no doubt that affordable milk means more people will consume it – which is good for everyone, especially the health of our youngest citizens.”
Nosh prides itself on delivering the highest quality local and international food products to kiwi shoppers.
“We simply do not have the grunt of the big grocery chains in New Zealandbut that doesn’t mean we can’t make a stand on something we believe in. I urge the major chains take up the challenge.”
Australian supermarket giant Coles last year dropped the price of its home-brand milk and spurred the other major chains to lower milk prices – and competition has ensured the lower prices have endured.
“Why can’t that happen here?” Mr Beuvink asks.
Cow & Gate milk (two litre bottles only) will be available at all Nosh locations until 29 February 2012 at the fixed price of $1 a litre ($2 per 2 litre bottle).
For store locations visit www.noshfoodmarket.com
*55% reduction based on the standard retail price of Cow & Gate 2l lite blue variety moving from $4.49 to $2.
NOTE: The February 2011 average price of milk is the highest recorded in ‘nominal’ terms. However, in ‘real’ terms prices have at times been higher in the past. For example, the average price of $3.20 in January 2002 is equivalent to $4.18 in February 2011, after allowing for food price inflation
Four past gold medal winners at the Ellerslie International Flower Show return to this year’s show to create an inner city courtyard or rooftop garden for Christchurch of the future. Continue reading
Event: Monteith’s CheeseFest
Where: The Langham, 83 Symonds Street, Auckland
When: Wednesday 29 February, 5-9pm
Cost: $30 or $35 at the door. Tickets at www.eventfinder.co.nz
Irene Field
Another week and we enter the third chapter of my great recipe challenge. Which just happened to coincide with Chinese New Year. I have seen people use both spellings for Chinese New Year ie Gung Hei Fat Choi or Kung Hei Fat Choi. Research on the Wonderful Wicked Web shed no light on which is correct, and so to placate the purists I will use both.
However, I digress. This blog is supposed to be about my recipe challenge and not the semantics of which phrase to use. Lurking in my book case for some years (try 20 plus) has been Charmaine Solomon’s book “The Complete Asian Cookbook’, first published in 1976.
Confession time from yours truly. Do you know the only ‘recipe’ I have used from this book as such, is a method popular in Asian restaurants to tenderize tough cuts of meat? Therefore in honour of Chinese New Year and to satisfy my recipe challenge to try one new recipe a week, Charmaine’s book was a given.
To the Chinese section I meandered, eyes shut and my finger landed on a wonderful looking picture which was to be my recipe selection. Drum roll please for ‘Ho Lan Dau Chow Ngau Yook’ – try saying that as you wield a pair of chopsticks.
That extremely impressive name translates to ‘Beef with Snow Peas’ As I have stated before, beef really doesn’t roll my rolling pins, but fate had decreed that ‘Ho Lan Dau Chow Ngau Yook’ was meant to be.
Out with the trusty wok – which is actually my ‘double boiler’ when heating milk up for cheesemaking. Snow Peas? Of course I am aware of what snow peas are, but having never purchased them before I had no idea if they were purchased fresh or frozen. Fortunately here in the confines of the Waikato we have a wonderful Chinese supermarket. Guess what I spied with my little eye – fresh snow peas. The other ingredient was dried Chinese mushrooms. I have used dried shiitake mushrooms before, so decided as they were able to be located in the Chinese supermarket, they would be my dried mushrooms of choice.
The recipe involves marinating beef in soy and salt. Followed by soaking the dried mushrooms for 30 minutes and stringing the snow peas and blanching for two minutes. So far so good.
The actual cooking is where Chinese recipes come into their own. Everything has to be prepared and you have to move it. No stopping to stare out the kitchen window, no lifting of a delectable red to your lips and savoring the bouquet of a fine wine. It is all hands, legs and all five senses on deck, when cooking Chinese.
Simply the instructions are to stir fry the beef and remove from the wok . Then stir fry mushrooms and spring onions. Add Chinese wine or sherry, sugar and beef stock. Boil, add cornflour mixed in water, and quickly wipe the brow whilst this thickens. One must never, never stop stirring. Then return your beef and snow peas to the wok, and serve immediately. Well not that immediate. At this point in time you take a large gulp of your wine in appreciation of all of that fast action.
The verdict? The Shiitake (which I have had before) gave the recipe a weird taste. Do dried mushrooms age or go off? If the mushrooms were not there, it would have been a lovely recipe. If I make this again (note the reference to if) I will use standard mushrooms or leave them out.
Moving on. Watch this space for my next adventure. Will it be edible? Will it be Beef (I certainly hope not)? I will keep you informed.
Everyone has a different image in their mind’s eye when it comes to the most romantic hideaway on the planet, and an exotic escape to a secluded spot where the climate is warm, the sea tepid and spa treatments are ever beckoning is likely to satiate most dreams and desires. Continue reading
With many Kiwis feeling cheated out of a summer holiday due to the recent bad weather, Harvey World Travel has been experiencing a rush in overseas holiday bookings.
Harvey World Travel General Manager Marketing Jodie Burnard says, “Many Kiwis are opting for an overseas holiday, especially somewhere in the sun after the dismal wet weather over the Christmas and New Year break.
“This has shown through during our recent New Year sale which saw most enquiries and bookings about the South Pacific and Australia – nice and close destinations in the sun.
“With reports that the inclement weather may last through until March many Kiwis are nervous that they may miss out on summer all together so they are looking off-shore for their dose of sunshine.”
Harvey World Travel shops throughout the country are expecting a further rush of holidaymakers to their upcoming in-store travel expo that will offer a range of deals for holiday destinations around the world. Miss Burnard is again expecting high interest in the South Pacific and Australia.
The annual expo is being held on Saturday, February 11, from 10am-3pm, and is a one-day, in-store offer only. “The beauty of the in-store expo is that customers can talk face-to-face with their local Harvey World Travel agent about their holiday and they don’t have to wait in long queues,” Miss Burnard says. “I don’t think Kiwis will take much encouragement to snap up the great holiday deals, especially those in the sun.”
Harvey World Travel has 51 stores throughout the country, stretching from Whangarei in the north to Timaru in the south.
Sophie Killpack
The promise of ‘you’ll love this: it’s foodie heaven’ was enough to draw me eagerly to
La Cigale. With high expectations and a rumbling tummy I arrived one soaking Sunday morning, hoping that this French city market would satiate my hunger and fill the shelves of my empty fridge.
Tucked away in the backstreets of Parnell, nestled amongst pretty suburbs and rolling parks lies this not-so-hidden treasure, a culinary gem worlds away from the busy docks and industrial feel of Auckland itself. After tasting my way through the bustling stalls I head right into the heart of the place, towards an island laden with ripe cheeses, fresh breads, patisserie goods and a wonderfully-smelling coffee station. More extensive sampling later and I’m ready for a coffee myself. The bistro is tucked away in one corner of the market and has the feel of a side street Parisian brasserie, all easy chatter over long a long lunch and a flat white. As I soon find out, it is this particularly French way of eating, drinking and socialising that initially inspired the concept behind La Cigale.
Elizabeth Lind and her now husband Mike first travelled to France in the 1980s, looking for artists to collaborate with in creating designs for their thriving fabric business. The couple’s journeys took them around the world searching for fashions and foods which would capture their imaginations. Having visited eateries in many different countries and sampled the foods from a host of cultures, it was the French cuisine the two really fell in love with and were inspired to bring home to their native New Zealand. And so the seed of an idea was sewn: a creative, collective space where classic French delicacies and traditional ways of creating dishes could work in harmony with the kiwi attitude towards eating – the freshest ingredients, cooked and eaten al fresco in the company of friends.
They began small, with only a handful of dedicated producers sourced from the local area, but the seed continued to grow as the market took over more and more spaces, gradually expanding as word spread and people began to relish the great produce for which this country is famed. La Cigale has slowly evolved into a thriving lifestyle emporium, a place to experience new foods, celebrate passionate growers, makers and sellers, pick up the coming week’s veggies and enjoy a gentle, easy weekend ambience.
Fresh fruit and vegetables are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to choosing the foods to fill our pantries and picnic baskets. Only stall holders with the best quality goods are invited to sell at La Cigale, with Elizabeth, Mike and their passionate team of chefs tasting everything you see before it goes on offer. Wooden tables groan under the weight of stacks of jewel-coloured preserves; mounds of fat speckled sausages; pots of snowy-white cream cheese; piles of roots, herbs, leaves and bulbs jumbled into truggs and crates. Smoke hanging in the air is heavy with the smell of grilled meat and awash with the calls of the women selling whitebait fritters, enticing us to opt for a hot patty strewn New Zealand’s most prized seafood. But the thing that really sets this market apart is the way it thrives upon a slow-paced, leisurely way of eating, inspired by both its French and Kiwi influences. Whether we choose to eat under the coloured canopies, in our fingers, with sauce dripping down our chins; on a bench with a cup of steaming coffee and a rustling paper bag containing a warm flaky pastry; at a table with a plate of delectable brunch and the morning paper: it doesn’t matter. La Cigale is about appreciating food in all its glory and embracing a relaxed way of shopping for, learning about and devouring it.
