30 mai 2006
Today's pick
Sunshine in a jar - Hand picked olives in olive oil
These are the delightful olives I picked on Barbara’s olive trees. I
cannot thank her enough. Being able to cure my own olives is such an exciting
journey. I divided the olives in 2 batches: I used Barbara’s method to cure the
1st batch and I crushed the second batch with a brick. What a good
way to get rid of your stress! Take a handful of olives and bang! Hit them hard
with a brick wrapped in cloth.
Crushing olives, breaks down the flesh and helps getting of bitter
juices faster. The above olives have been crushed 3 weeks ago and are now
bathing in olive oil and rosemary as per Barbara’s method. I have another lot
in a brine made of vinegar, water and salt. I bought Maille red wine vinegar
for the occasion. It is a French vinegar that has been aged in oak barrels.
It is too early to tell if they are any good yet.
What to do, what to do?
24 mai 2006
Mind blowing
New Zealand
My camera
has been malfunctioning for a few weeks and I was waiting to have the problem
fixed to start posting again. But today I really need to tell about my yesterday's mind blowing
experience.
My boss gave
me a lamb rack yesterday. - Some companies reward their employees with stock
options and sport cars…. I got a whole rack of lamb - . I was both delighted
and puzzled. Lamb racks are quite in fashion here in New Zealandbut I never had a
chance to cook one myself. So, how to cook it?
From what I
read, crusts seem to be the way to go: blend nuts and herbs, coat the meat and
oven bake it. It sounds easy enough, however, crusts do not flavour the meat. They
just sit on top and add texture.
I came up
with an experimental plan: create a marinade that would be thick enough to coat
the meat and stick to it in the over.
Back in my
kitchen, I blended fresh rosemary (thank you so much Barbara), fresh mint, a
pinch of salt, olive oil, a few cloves of garlic and toasted pine nuts to
texturise. The paste was thick and delightfully fragrant. I knew I was on the
right track.
The meat was
slightly pink and tender. The marinade tasted just as heavenly as I smelt. It
was delightful. Every single mouthful was a fireworks of flavour, the meat was
soft and melting. I even woke up in the middle of the night thinking about lamb
racks. A new food obsession is born.
02 mai 2006
Hummus – Take 2
Adzuki bean hummus
When reading about macrobiotic food, I learnt a lot about Adzuki beans,
an ingredient I only associated with moon buns and anko so far. They’re said to be yang
(Good for your skin apparently).They are a good source a protein and are
considered to have a positive action on kidneys.
Having said that I rarely came across a savoury recipe for Adzuki beans.
Apart from the boring “boiled adzuki and rice” or “Adzuki soups”. Such a
wonderful ingredient deserves to be used in more exciting ways.
Time to be creative. I thought their nutty flavour would suit a hummus. It
sounds rather crazy, I don’t know how the idea occurred to me.
To have a full on bizarre recipe, I also made black sesame tahini. Black
sesame is a bit sweet and it is a yin ingredient (which balances the yang beans).
Black sesame seeds are a source of phosphorous, magnesium, iron and calcium.
I followed the same recipe I previously used for hummus and tahini.
Adzuki hummus is rather thick and floury. It is maybe too thick for dips but I
works wonderfully spread on pitta bread with vegetable.
I was rather pleased with my recipe. Very delicious and so healthy!