Not A Cooks Blog... living the great New Zealand cookbook

Otane is a quaint rural settlement just up the road from where we live in Pukehou. Sir Des Britten was born there back in 1939. In the seventies, Sir Des became a New Zealand icon presenting two television cooking shows as well as running a restaurant in Wellington and being a radio presenter. His knighthood was received later in life for the work he did as an Anglican minister and heading the Wellington City Mission for over twenty years. Quite rightly Sir Des features in The Great NZ Cookbook contributing "Fail Safe Asian Salmon with Smashed Potatoes and Slow-Roasted Tomatoes". With the disaster from last week, I was quite keen on the "fail-safe" guarantee and I wanted something special as the extended whanau were coming for dinner. Seven fillets of salmon at the ready daughter informed me why I was not removing the bones ... as seen on master chef. Ahh... missed that programme and I really couldn't get the little blitters out with my fingers. Of course, whe...

I should have learnt from my locked in a toilet restaurant experience, that even though I may not understand the instructions does not mean I should ignore them. I was in my twenties and some youthful arrogance might have been in play, but I distinctly remember that I did not what to follow the "don't lock the toilet door" sign and possibly be interrupted by another person when attending to nature's business. So lock I did. This ended badly with myself not able to get out of the toilet cubicle and the restaurant owner having to come and rescue me - in which he popped his head over the wall exclaiming something about don't I read instructions! So fast forward 20 odd years or so, when I read the cheesecake instructions that stated after baking the biscuit base to "set aside to cool"   - not understanding why I continued on pouring on the filling. I  complained to daughter that I hate when there are instructions I don't understand the rationale for. O...

Numerous friends over the years had referred to it... but it was only this weekend where I had the opportunity to experience it myself... the Vigor Brown Street Wild Foods Festival. It is a backyard private party potluck dinner on a public scale. The host's challenge to guests, if you were game, was the requirement to bring a dish that was arguably wild... and one that you would be prepared to eat. Gladly taking up on the mission, I of course went and referenced the Great NZ Cookbook for inspiration. There was one stand out "Wild Food Salad" contributed by Peter Peeti - known for his "Kai time on the road" television series. The Wild Food Salad looked delicious, however, a key ingredient was piko piko, a fern shoot. With there being over 300 hundred varieties of fern shoots in NZ bush and some of them being carcinogenic, you really need to know the correct type to pick. Not having a ready safe source on hand, I had to abandon this dish but totally resolved to co...

It was a labour focused theme all round with the new Labour government of NZ being announced, labour day commemorations for the eight-hour working day and labour in the house and garden. With a four day weekend, there was ample opportunity to fit in some cooking. With the recent home kill, there was a rolled leg of lamb waiting to be cooked. For the weekend roast, I was guided by one of the feature chef's in the NZ Great Cookbook, Martin Bosley from Oriental Bay, Wellington. Mr Bosley provides the recipe for a slow roast spiced leg of lamb with pan gravy, accompanied with roast vegetables and cauliflower cheese. This was a good hearty dish to feed the workers. I went further south to St Clair, Dunedin, to Michael Coughlin at Pier 24 for the dessert - Apricot Creme Brulee and accompanying Pistachio Biscotti. I vividly remember the first time I heard about Biscotti. It was back in the day when Brian Edwards use to have a regular cooking slot in his "Top of the Morning" Rad...

Nici Wickes obviously travelled to Asia, although not explicitly stating the fact. Rather than getting out the photo's she would rather share her travels with her friends by replicating meals that she had experienced on her journey. For the Great New Zealand Cookbook, Nici shares a "Fragrant ginger and chicken Balinese curry" and a "Sago Gula Melaka". I single handily attacked the pantry in search for the sago. I knew it was in there somewhere, spotting it some time ago and wondering why we had it at all. After reshuffling shelves, towering tins to enable some space for shifting items I found it. I had the purchased the coconut milk at the supermarket but had totally neglected to get the palm sugar. This was a disappointment as I also needed it for the curry. Palm sugar is made from the sap of various palm trees which is boiled and set into hard cakes. It tends to be caramel flavoured. You can substitute it with soft light brown sugar but as my google search in...

Gisborne... east coast town, famous for its chardonnay, oranges and the home of USSCO Bar and Bistro, as featured in "The Great NZ Cookbook". Thomas Boyce was born and bred in Gizzy (as Gisborne is affectionately referred to) and provides recipes for two dishes. Sesame beef dumplings were inspired by a family trip to Japan and includes the addition of seaweed gathered from the local beaches. The stuffed chicken roll and roasted kumara and pan-fried haloumi looked delicious in the photo. Unfortunately, neither dishes featured on the menu the night we visited on our Gisborne holiday nor was Mr Boyce present in the kitchen. The menu presented was seasonal and our waitress informed us that they had recently limited the selection. A quick review from the daughters rated this as highly expensive and with nothing that looked appealing to them. So rather than suffer through we made the collective decision for a quick exit for the girls whilst Jamie and I carried on w...