First of all, sorry for not posting more often.

I finally managed to make a salmon roulade this week end, a recipe I was meant to try ages ago. Layers of creamy salmon and fluffy spinach "sponge cake". A combination made in heaven

Layered salmon and spinach

Ingredients:

-200 fresh salmon, steamed and flaked (Skinned and boned)
-250 fresh spinach, blanched, chopped and drained
-4 egg whites - 1 yolk
-200 gr low fat cream cheese
-Milk
-A bunch of fresh dill

Preheat oven at 190 degrees C.
Combine egg yolk to the finely chopped spinach. Whisk the egg white untill stiff and fold in spinach mixture. Pour in a greave oven proof dish and bake for 11 minutes. Allow to cool
Soften cream cheese with a fork and add a little bit of milk. Add chopped fresh dill and salmon flakes.

There are 2 methods to assemble the roulade
1-When the sipnach sponge is cool, spread the salmon mixture evenly on top and roll. Cover and chill until ready to serve

2-Cut rounds in the sponge with a cookie cutter. In a ramequin, assemble layers of sponge and layers of salmon spread. Keep in the fridge to set and unmold before serving

Wordless pancake recipe

Click here for original size

More wordless recipes here, they are all so great!

Seriously, I might sound like a grumpy mole again but I just cannot understand all that fuss around Wagamama.
In a rather uncomfortable and noisy room, this noodle bar serves Asian inspired over priced and bland dishes. "Wagamama" means Naughty Kid in Japanese and this eater unfriendly environment is indeed very reminiscant of school canteen. Are my taste buds numb or what? Why is everyone raving about this place??

Happy New Year to everyone!

Mouelleux au chocolat

After 2 sunny weeks away in Central North Island, I am unfortunately back to work this week. Just before going away I baked - yes baked! - little yummy Xmas chocolate pudding.

Do not trust its colourful look because it is as fatening  as it is delicious , you have been warned!

The below recipe has been adapted from an "All Chocolate" French cookbook I received for Christmas last year:

225 g bitter chocolate,
240 g butter,
180 g sugar,
6 eggs,
120 g flour
A dash of liquor, eg rum or Sherry is also very welcome

Combine eggs sugar and sifted flour in a large bowl. Melt chocolate and butter over low heat, mix energically to the egg/flour mixture. Gently oil 4 ramequins and fille them in with the batter. Bake at 180 degrees C for 11 minutes.

Let the cake cool and sprinkle with funky toppings. I used chocolate ganache and marshmallows.

Enjoy!

A Devon man who hoped to set a world record by eating the most Brussel sprouts in a minute has failed.

Brussel sprouts, ewwww!

Richard Townsend, 24, of Exeter, fell seven short of the target of 43, which was set in December 2003.

Mr Townsend, who had eaten a plate of sprouts every day for the last six months, said he just "lost it".

After cramming the sprouts into his mouth with a toothpick, he said: "I do not think I could face another sprout for a few days."

But then, after he popped one of the remaining vegetables into his mouth, he said:  "It's a shame to waste them."

Raised £250

The accounts administrator explained his failure, saying a couple of the vegetables "slid off the plate" meaning he could not eat them quickly enough.

He had peeled then cooked the sprouts for four minutes in order to ensure they were exactly one inch in diameter.

But the record set by Dave Mynard, from London, still stands.

Mr Townsend's record bid raised £250 in sponsorship for the Mencap charity, which will be matched by his employer EDF.

Mr Townsend decided to try and break the record as part of his mission to replace his New Year resolutions with five challenges which have to be completed before the end of the year.

He has so far achieved three of them as he has appeared on TV, met someone who has starred in a computer game and has started a celebrity-signed collection of teabags.

His final challenge is to fly in a helicopter before the end of the year.                    

Buttermilk is not an ingredient I am familiar with. I actually never used it in my cooking before. Some people say there is nothing like it to keep chicken moist but when I found myself with some leftover after making quark I didn't feel too adventurous and used very conventionally to make pancakes.

1 cup buttermilk
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
10g brown sugar
1 pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients. I used cookies cutters to make sure they would have a round shape and served with raspberry coulis. Delicious!

Homemade quark

About two weeks ago I bought a tub of quark from Nosh, nice farmstyle curd. It was good but so compact it was impossible to eat it by itself. As a kid in France, I grew up on "petits Suisses", very small portions of quark wrapped in paper. Here in New Zealand I didn't manage to find quite the right consistency, it's either too firm or too runny. I therefore decided to make my own!
Making quark is not difficult it just takes a little bit of take because the mixture has to stand to allow curd and whey to separate.

I used a recipe from a French recipe book I have at home using both milk and buttermilk. Some recipes call for buttermilk only and I will try them too, to find out if there is a difference in texture.

-1 litre whole milk
-1 litre cultured buttermilk

Combine both in an oven proof dish and let stand 48 hours at room temperature.

It looks quite revolting in its early stage

Place into a cool oven - 50 degrees max - for 90 minutes. You will see the green whey separate from the curd.
Sterilise a cheese cloth in hot water and use it to line a sieve. Pour the curd, tie the cheesecloth and leave to hang for a good hour, the more it drains, the firmer the quark will be.
I got completely off tracked on Saturday afternoon and forgot about my quark. It drained for far too long so it was super compact when I came back. The good thing about it is that you can stir in a little whey to make it smoother again.

On a bright and warm Saturday afternoon, there it was, my NZ Blogging by mail parcel. The mystery sender was Nigel, the lamb tail eater, new blogger from Hawkes Bay. THANK YOU SO MUCH NIGEL!

Opening the parcel was like opening a Christmas present. I had time to take a few photos before devouring the contents - especially the chocolates. In his wisdom, he also included goodies I can keep and cook with.

This delicious parcel, which is nothing short of a Christmas hamper contains:
-1 bottle of absolutely mind blowing olive oil from Hawkes Bay
-1 box of hand made chocolates
-1 bottle of verjuice, a versatile unfermented green grape juice. It can be used for vinaigrettes or poaching and Nigel also added it can be use in Martinis!
-1 bottle of lime and lemongrass drizzle, which I used to marinate chicken breasts before bbq them.
-1 bottle of olive sauce with horopito, delish'
-1 bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from Hawkes Bay
1 punnet of gorgeous cherries  and strawberries, both locally grown in Hawkes Bay

Thank you again Santa!!! And of course thank you Emma for organising!

I told you about NZ blogging by mail and my attempt at making brownies for the occassin. My fear of failing again was overwhelming!

I got a recipe from an all chocolate cookbook and followed meticulously, I really gave it my best shot.  All that to end up with a compact layer of fudgy chocolate flan. Nothing like a brownie at all, I don't know where I went wrong. So I apologise in advance to the person who will get the parcel, not many homemades goodies.

Let's face it, I just don't have THE gift. I have decided to give up baking totally and FOREVER... which is quite a big call since my biggest dream was to be able to make a "Cerise sur le Gateau" just like Pierre Hermé.

Anyway I surrendered, made myself a cheerful cocktail and raised my glass to my lost dreams of being a wonderful pastry chef.

Ingredients:
-Pomagranate
-250g fresh, sun ripened strawberries
-Raspberry vodka to taste
-20g brown sugar

-Slice the strawberries and toss in sugar. Leave for a few minutes until it combines and forms a nice syrup.
-Halve the pomagranate and remove the seeds but turning the fruit face down on to a bowl and beat the top with a wooden spoon.

Blend Strawberries, pomagranate seeds and vodka in a blender with a cube of ice. Push through a sieve and serve chilled

Isn't it wonderful?

Looks like I am back AGAIN!!!!  Back for a GOOD time and a long time.
After spending all winter fiesting on -unblogable -triple cream/cheese/bacon & pasta bakes as well as bagfuls of lollies, I increasingly started thinking about this dear food blog that I so shamefully dropped out too many months ago. Flicking through my favourite food blogs and going out to dinner parties, I felt it would be so nice to start cooking properly again and more importantly resume blogging.
So here I am.

A lot happened during that period of time and Auckland food scene is as radiant as ever, shinning with all the glorious products summer brings. These past fews months have also seen the rise - and fall - of what citymix calls "Super Delis". While Newmarket Fresh is sadly closing down, Nosh seems to be here to stay, although they advertise but still  do not sell macarons.

Another event that brought me back here is the 1st ever NZ blogging by mail, thank you Emma for the great initiative. I'll send the parcel tomorrow but it will not contain the lovely pecan and choc chip cookies I thought I'd include. Not because they were so delicious I had to eat them all but because, much to my dismay, I am a VERY mediocre baker. Although edible, the so-called cookies tasted more like madeleines - compact and burnt madeleines that is to say.
I will give brownies a try tonight and if they turn up burnt, flat and oily, I promise to give up baking FOREVER!!