Cooking to Combat Cancer 2 - Sweet Potato, Pasta and Leek Soup

Chris from Mele Cotte is hosting Cooking to Combat Cancer 2 to promote awareness and prevention of cancer. She is seeking healthy recipes utilising ingredients that combat cancer.

I admit that I had to do some research for this event. I had heard of anti-oxidants and "super foods", but wasn't entirely sure what foods fell into this category and what you could make with them.

After some reading, I learned that orange and yellow foods help to combat cancer. After searching through my recipe books, I found a great recipe for Sweet Potato, Pasta and Leek Soup in the Australian Heart Foundation's Deliciously Healthy. The key ingredient in this hearty soup is sweet potato (kumara), an orange food, which helps to combat cancer because it contains anti-oxidants - namely, beta-carotene and Vitamin C. Anti-oxidants work by neutralising free radicals in the body, which damage cells and cell membranes, in turn triggering cells to become cancerous.

The soup contains saffron. I was in luck, because my wonderful friend Ivy from Kopiaste recently sent me a parcel all the way from Greece which contained ouzo, gum mastic and Greek red saffron. I therefore was able to use some of Ivy's saffron in this soup - thanks Ivy!

To make this soup, you will need:

2 teaspoons canola oil

2 thinly sliced leeks

a pinch of saffron

1kg peeled and chopped orange sweet potato

1 litre chicken stock

a cinnamon stick

1 bouquet garni

100g macaroni, cooked

chopped fresh chives, to garnish

Cook the leeks in the oil in a large saucepan until soft. Next, add the sweet potato and saffron to the pot and cook for around 5 minutes. Add the stock, cinnamon and bouquet garni, bring to the boil and then turn down the heat and simmer for half an hour. Discard the cinnamon stick and bouquet garni, and puree the mixture in small batches until smooth. Place the puree back in the saucepan with the cooked pasta and reheat the mixture. Add water to the soup if it is too thick (I needed to add about a cup of water). Serve the soup garnished with a dollop of yoghurt and some chopped chives.

Thanks to Chris for hosting this event, and do check Chris's site for the roundup here.

Tried, Tested and True - Hotch Potch

Giz and Psychgrad from Equal Opportunity Kitchen are hosting a blogging event with a theme of Tried, Tested and True. As the name suggests, this event features a roundup of recipes from around the blogosphere which are "tried, tested and true", and always get good results.

For my entry, I am contributing my mother's stew recipe, which she calls "Hotch Potch". Basically, it is one of those great dishes where you can toss in almost any type of vegetables, sauces and flavourings that you have on hand in with some diced beef, stew for a couple of hours and hey presto - you get a thick, rich, satisfying stew.

My mother often made this dish when I was a child, and I adored it - still do. My brother, on the other hand, is a perennial picky eater, so Mum would have to cook his beef separately from everyone else's as he doesn't like the hearty sauciness of hotch potch. This stew is great served with thick, crusty bread to mop up the gravy.

Mum always makes this stew better than me, because her sauce is always richer and thicker than mine. She is also not the world's most patient person, so she has never given me an exact recipe for this (even though it is definitely tried, tested and true). However, my approximation of a "recipe" for hotch potch is as follows:

500g diced stewing steak
2 tablespoons plain flour + 1 beef stock cube dissolved in 1/2 cup boiling water
mixed peeled and diced vegetables (eg potatoes, carrots, peas)
1 tablespoon promite or vegemite
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
cold water

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Place all the ingredients other than the cold water in a casserole dish, then fill the dish with just enough cold water to cover the meat and vegetables. Put the lid on the casserole dish and cook in the oven for around 2 hours.

This stew is brilliant on a frosty night, as it warms you inside and out.

Thanks to Giz and Psychgrad for hosting this event, and I look forward to the roundup.

Treasure from the sea - more ways with oysters

I have previously posted about ways to serve oysters, but given how good these salty little ocean treasures are, I am revisiting this topic with two new ways of serving oysters that I learned from Jo Seagar's great book, You Shouldn't Have Gone to So Much Trouble Darling. (Jo is a New Zealand food personality whose work I recently discovered.)

The first way to serve oysters suggested by Jo is serving oysters hot with lemon pepper crumbs:

To do this for my 4 oysters, I "blitzed" 2 slices of stale bread in the food processor to create breadcrumbs. I then mixed those breadcrumbs with a dessertspoon of melted butter, a teaspoon of lemon pepper and 1/2 teaspoon of paprika, and baked the mixture on a foil lined tray at 180 degrees for 15 minutes. Take 4 oysters, squeeze a twist of lemon on each, sprinkle each liberally with the baked bread crumb mixture, then bake in the oven for about 5 minutes. Serve!

The second way with oysters suggested by Jo is to serve them cold with an oriental dressing. To make the dressing for 4 oysters, combine one quarter of a cup of rice wine vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon minced ginger, 1 teaspoon lemon zest, 1 teaspoon soy sauce and a minced clove of garlic (or in Jo's case, some chopped spring onion) in a bowl, then spoon over the oysters, and presto:

In the top photograph, the bottom row of oysters is once again au naturel with a twist of lemon, which is still my favourite way of serving oysters. However, I enjoyed both of Jo's suggestions, even though I found that the lemon pepper breadcrumbs tended to overshadow the taste of the oysters themselves. This is a matter of personal preference only, and all methods tasted delightful. I hope that this provides you with some inspiration for the next time that you take some oysters home from the market.

Before I go, I want to send a big thank you to Joy of Joy of Desserts, who has nominated me for an Excellence Award. Thanks Joy! Check out Joy's recent post about banana jam waffles - it will set your mouth watering.

Belgian slice

Not so long ago, Tammy from Wee Treats by Tammy posted about her family recipe for Belgian slice. This slice is very popular in New Zealand, although my research suggests that its origin is British (how about that for an identity crisis?). I had bought a piece of Belgian slice, and did not think that much of it, but Tammy's slice looked so good that I decided to give it another chance and make it myself.

This week, I used Tammy's recipe to make Belgian slice for work. And the verdict? This slice in its home-made incarnation is delicious! It is rather sweet, but not at all dry like the bought equivalent. I cut my slice into small pieces so that it was just enough sugar-hit to make you feel satisfied. It was a hit at work (yay!), and I sent the link to the recipe to someone.

If you decide to make this slice, just one word of warning to protect the innocent - the pastry is very soft, but when Tammy says roll it out, please roll it out! I thought that it would save me a lot of palaver just to press the pastry into the slice tin, and this worked a treat for the bottom layer of the slice. However, the pastry is not soft enough to press nicely over the top of the jam, so I ended up with a sticky amalgam of pastry and jam when I tried to press the top layer of pastry over the jam. Most of you probably worked this out without me having to tell you, but I did it (and binned the result), so I thought it was worth mentioning.

This slice is perfect for an elegant ladies afternoon tea party - I could see it on a pretty cake stand with scones and cucumber sandwiches at a British hotel for high tea. If you love sweet, cinnamon-flavoured treats, this slice is for you.

Orange and ginger muffins

A little while ago, Susan at Foodblogga made Honeyed Orange Ginger Muffins. I thought that these looked and sounded devine, so I filed the recipe away to make for myself.

I finally got around to making these muffins this week, and boy are they good! I used sultanas instead of raisins and forgot the honey (because my head is sometimes not screwed on straight when I am baking), but they tasted really good, all the same. If you love citrus and ginger flavours, and don't object to raisins in your baked goods (some people have an aversion to this!), then give these muffins a go - they are delicious.

(PS - Don't you love my lady on a reindeer in the first photo? She is so cute that I thought she deserved her moment in the sun.)

Silverbeet, chickpea and eggplant curry

After reading Ghetti's post about Wild Garlic, Gooseberries and Me by Denis Cotter, I decided that I had to have this book. It sounded really interesting, as it is an entirely vegetarian cookbook, and as I only have limited experience in cooking with vegetables, I could use some pointers on how to cook them in a creative and flavoursome manner. (I sometimes "nuke" frozen vegetables to have with dinner - a sin for a foodie!)

The first dish which I tried out of Wild Garlic ... is a spinach, chickpea and eggplant curry. As ever, I made some minor modifications to the original recipe depending on taste and what ingredients I had available.

I have to say that I was at first repulsed by the finished result because it was well - so green! I don't know what I expected given that the recipe calls for a kilo of spinach, but its greenness still took me aback. However, one mouthful and I was able to overcome the visual repulsion that I felt for this dish. It actually tastes very good, and I have been taking it to work for lunch this week. An unfortunate side effect of eating this curry is that little specs of green sometimes rest on your teeth, giving you a not-so-perfect smile, so I recommend brushing your teeth or sluicing your mouth with a drink after eating it so you can ensure that you retain a Macleans smile.

My version of this dish is as follows:

1kg silverbeet (I couldn't buy spinach)
1 diced brown onion
400g tin chickpeas
2 chopped cloves of garlic
1 chopped green chilli
1 tablespoon ground fennel seeds (you are supposed to use coriander seeds)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
200g diced eggplant
400g tin diced tomatoes
salt

Boil the silverbeet for 2 minutes, then run it under cold water to cool. Squeeze out as much liquid as possible, then puree the silverbeet.

Cook the onion, chickpeas, garlic, fennel seeds and cumin for roughly 5 minutes in a frypan containing 2 tablespoons of heated cooking oil. Add two more tablespoons of cooking oil and the diced eggplant, and cook for about 10 minutes. Finally, pour in the tomatoes and season to taste, and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the silverbeet puree and combine well. Simple!

Don't be put off by my photographs - if you like spinach (or silverbeet!), this dish tastes good. I was surprised by how much I like this curry, especially given I was a child who hated vegetables (hence my initial psychological barriers related to the greenness of this curry).

More delicious dining - The French Cafe

My second fine dining experience while on holidays in New Zealand's North Island was at The French Cafe, situated at 210 Symonds Street in Auckland. This restaurant was the runner-up in the Best Fine Dining Category of Cuisine magazine's New Zealand Restaurant of the Year awards. I discovered The French Cafe through Tammy's post about her birthday dinner. (If you like sweets of any variety, I highly recommend a visit to Tammy's terrific blog, Wee Treats by Tammy.)

The atmosphere at The French Cafe has a dark, mysterious and formal feel, with dark wood panelling throughout. Diners are greeted at the door by an usher, and just inside, there is a waiting area with a couch to relax with a drink before being shown to your table, if you wish:

At my choice, I started with a drink at the well stocked bar, as I arrived twenty minutes early after overestimating how long it would take to get there from my inner city hotel.

Even before I arrived at The French Cafe, the service was remarkable. I left some very garbled telephone messages to arrange my booking both from Australia and while in New Zealand, and the staff on each occasion promptly and courteously returned my calls. There are not many restaurants that will return an overseas phone call to confirm a booking. Throughout the meal, the service was also impeccable. My waitress was friendly, attentive and helpful, and my water glass was regularly topped up by another smiling waitress.

At The French Cafe, you have a choice of two tasting menus or you may dine a la carte. The tasting menus were popular on the night of my visit, but I knew that I would not be able to handle these (with 6 and 11 courses respectively), so I chose the a la carte menu. On this occasion, I selected an entree and a main meal, resisting my beloved dessert course.

To start, I was served an amuse bouche of warm carrot and ginger soup with coconut foam. If you had asked me whether I liked carrot soup previously, I would have said no, but this soup was delicious. I am also a ginger lover, so the flavour combination was very appealing to me.

For entree, I selected the roasted french goats cheese with caramelised onion, beetroot and fig tart, serve with a rocket salad on the side, which I had coveted since reading about it on Tammy's blog:

This tart was exquisite in both appearance and taste, and was surprisingly light, making it a perfect starter. The tart base was crispy, puffed pastry, which served as a vehicle for the delicious flavours of the topping without overshadowing them. The delicate violet atop the goat's cheese crown of the tart set off the regal purple beauty of this dish.

New Zealand is famed for its lamb, so for my main course, I selected the pink roasted lamb served with roasted tomatoes, marjoram, green peas, Persian feta, pancetta and white bean puree:

The lamb was tender and delicate in flavour, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the white bean puree, a vegetable dish that I would not be automatically drawn to had it not been part of the meal.

If you have a very hearty appetite, there is also a wide selection of side dishes available, and a lovely dessert menu. Alas, I could not eat another thing. I accompanied my meal with two glasses of the Lamont 2006 Riesling from Central Otago and completed the experience with a flat white coffee.

This was another enjoyable dining experience, although it was very different in atmosphere and style to the equally excellent Martin Bosley's Yacht Club Restaurant. If you are lucky enough to visit Auckland and Wellington, I highly recommend both establishments. Each provides a gastronomic experience which is as memorable and enjoyable as the many natural wonders that New Zealand has to offer.

Postscript: If you are interested in my general travels around the North Island of New Zealand, I will post about these on my travel blog shortly and link to them from this post.

PSS: But I still haven't done that post more than 12 years later!