Bite-size

Picture this: Almost-Summer Pasta Salad

Cupcakes - New Zealand style

10 minute Spring Chicken Pasta

350gm skinned chicken breast - cut into strips like you would for stir fry

Garlic olive oil

Dried oregano (or basil)

Fresh parsley and grated parmesan

1 pack fresh tagliatelle pasta

Single cream - small pottle

Pesto if you have it, or pine nuts blitzed with fresh basil leaves torn off a supermarket plant. (Or forego entirely if you don’t have anything like it in the house)

1 pack green beans (french/dwarf) Topped, not tailed.

In a non-stick pan, stir fry the strips of chicken in a drizzle of garlic olive oil.

Put water on to boil.

When the chicken is browned, sprinkle over a heaped teaspoon of dried oregano and season. Lower the heat.

Boil the green beans for 1 minute then put in your tagliatelle and cook per instructions - usually 3 mins then drain (try to keep a couple of spoonfuls of the cooking liquid in the pan)

Once the pasta is on, pour in your cream, as much parmesan as you like and pesto if you have it. Season with black pepper and stir over a low heat to warm the cream through. Alternatively you could just use the pesto.

Toss the sauce through the drained pasta and add a big handful of chopped parsley.

Serve with extra parmesan on top and stir through cherry tomatoes and baby spinach too for freshness.

Easter Lamb

Here’s my Easter cheat, we had a half leg of lamb (NZ of course), and it weighed just under 1kg. I slashed the skin to make two big gashes and filled them with a paste made from chopped fresh rosemary, olive oil, garlic and salt and pepper. Then we remembered we had a jar of Waitrose Puttanesca in the fridge, which has anchovies, capers and olives.. so we added that too. I placed the lamb with peeled butternut squash, parnsip and just quartered potatoes in the same roasting tin and cooked it all for 1 hour in a fan oven at 200 celcius.

I made a simple gravy, just addding flour to the juices in the pan, on the hob over a low heat, then adding a little bit of water, stirring in the flour, then more water, salt and pepper before simmering for 3-4 minutes.

Christmas Cocktails

I am such a Nigella copy cat but she's on the mark, even No. 10 were serving her sticky cocktail sausages at Christmas, but back to cocktails. This is the one to drink while it's still gail force outside..

All you need is 1 shot of Advocat mixed with 1/2 shot of lime juice, shaken then poured over ice and topped up with chilled Schweppes lemonade.

Tip - If you're going hot with mulled wine instead, try adding a splash of Rock's Organic Fruit Punch cordial to your wine and mulled wine syrup

Eat this! Chocolate Cheesecake Mousse

You heard me, it's got chocolate, the tang of a proper baked cheesecake and it's easy to make.

This is the pudding of two nights. The first night, you melt 150ml double cream with 150gm dark chocolate and a spoonful of golden syrup. These are rough quantities - if you have more or less of any, you should still be fine.
As the mixture melts over a low to medium heat, stir until you've got a thickened glossy chocolate cream. Pour the hot sauce over ice cream tonight and the rest into an airtight container and store in the fridge. You can also use this ganache to ice cakes, just pour over the cake and leave to thicken into a fudgy icing as it cools.

You can keep the ganache in the fridge for 2-3 days. When you're ready to make the mousse, put one large desert spoon (per person) of your chilled ganache and another desert spoonful of cold cream cheese, I use Philadelphia, into a mixing bowl. Either by hand, or with an electric whisk, mix the two to combine and voila! you've got fluffy chocolate cheesecake mousse.

This rich mousse is delicious with fruit or in brandy baskets or just on its own in a little ramekin. You could even try rolling balls of the mixture in cocoa to make the best truffles ever or spread it onto a bought sponge to make a gateau!

What's for dinner?

Need inspiration? This is what I've been cooking in November:

Last Saturday I ruined the potato gratin I was cooking on the hob, I must have had the heat too high, so I drained off the milk and cream and whipped it into a mash, which tasted exactly like dauphinoise potatoes. I wouldn't recommend it, but if you do as I do, and get impatient and cook things on a hob too high, don't forget to try and salvage!
Weekend - Roasted free range chicken stuffed with bacon, onion, brown breadcrumbs, dried tarragon, dried apricots and pinenuts. Roast potato, kumara & buttercup squash plus cauliflower, broccoli and carrots with homemade cheesesauce. And gravy. Dessert? The Roses chocolates our neighbours gave us for looking after their cat, Suki.
Lamb steaks, baked with oregano and garlic olive oil and couscous, sweet red pepper, parsley and crisp cos lettuce
Beef stroganoff with basmati rice and green beans using organic rump steak, paprika, sour cream and button mushrooms
Cod fillet, dusted in flour then fried with lemon juice plus salad, crisp with dijon dressing, dinner in 10 minutes!
Beef meatballs & Tagliatelli with Tomato sauce plus Pea, mint and avacado salad without the avacado, and curly parsley
Chicken curry - our most frequent flyer, I've been making this for years and we still love it - the recipe will feature in December
Butternut macaroni cheese - a reworking of a Jamie Oliver classic
Stew - organic beef or lamb already diced with kumara, parsnip, onion & celery, carrot, potato, red wine, chicken stock, bay leaves and more - I scarcely brown the meat then bung everything in and simmer for two hours. Perfect to make the night before, too.

Pork with Fennel - midweek version of Jamie's roast

Leilani, here is Jamie Oliver's recipe and below is exactly how I made it this summer.
For a large group of people use pork belly, for a couple of adults, two large pork chops.

Crush fennel seeds (1 teaspoon for two chops, 2tBsp for a roast) with fresh rosemary, a garlic clove, pepper and salt
Add a little olive oil and rub into the meat (do not rub onto the skin, that should be kept dry to get crisp on baking).
Ideally, you should leave this to marinate, I tend not to!
Place the pork in a hot oven, 200 degrees, 30 mins for the chops, roughly 1 hour for belly pork.

To go with the pork

Parsnips - peel and quarter parnsip and carrot, roughly chop red onion. Mix with olive oil, orange zest, maple syrup and fennel seeds in a roasting dish. Place the pork on top of the parsnip and roast as above.
Potatoes - Use little new potatoes, or parboil quartered potatoes for 10 minutes, then in a roasting dish, with peeled wedges of red onions, pour in a third of a bottle of basic Balsamic Vinegar, salt, pepper and a bnit of olive oil. These cook in about 40 minutes, less if you parboil the potatoes and heat the pan up on the hob for a few minutes before roasting.
Green Beans - top the beans (leave the tails) and boil in salted water for 4-6 minutes. Drain and in a bowl, add a knob of butter, lots of lemon juice, freshly ground black pepper and sea salt. Let the butter melt in the residual heat, then toss the beans so they're evenly coated!

Breaded chicken

At least 300g of free range or organic chicken breasts (no skin needed) for 2 people
200g Breadcrumbs, either make your own by whizzing up some stale bread, or use bought natural looking ones
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Oregano
1 free range egg
1 clove of garlic
Sea salt and pepper
Mild/light olive oil or sunflower oil

Crush the garlic into the egg and whisk together, sprinkle in some sea salt
I like to use a tupperware container to coat the chicken, so into a container with a lid add your breadcrumbs, paprika, oregano and freshly ground black pepper. Mix together.

Cut your chicken breast into two flat portions, down the middle. Some people like to put some cling film over the portion and whack it with a rolling pin to flatten it further - I don't bother but be mindful that the bigger the portion is the longer it will take to cook (it will also be a juicier portion though)!

Place your frying pan on a medium heat - you need it hot enough to cook quickly, but not too hot or you'll really char the breadcrumbs.

Put a couple of chicken pieces in your egg mixture and coat either side.
Now place in with the breadcrumbs, put the lid on and shake the container around vigorously.
Put the oil in the pan to warm up.
Open your container and place your coated chicken piece in the pan! Repeat until your chicken portions are cooking.
I like to cook these for 15-20 minutes and always cut open one of the portions at the widest point to ensure there is no pink flesh in the middle. If your chicken isn't fully cooked, return to the pan. If you're worried that the crumb mixture is browning too much, turn the heat down slightly.

I like to serve this chicken with mashed potatoe or minted new potatoes, peas or fresh salad - my husband has to eat his with mayo on the side!

Note - Ever since I did a project when I was 16 on battery farming I've been an advocate of free range eggs and meat. I stopped eating pork and chicken for a while but couldn't keep it up! I think it's our duty to treat animals with respect though and don't touch ready meals or sandwiches that could have been made with chicken meat or bacon that's not free range. I know a lot of people are concerned about paying extra, but I find it easy to buy cheaper cuts like chicken legs and drumsticks, outdoor reared pork loin steaks and organic beef mince to lower the cost. So where meat or eggs are in my recipes I prefer free range as I think that's the best quality and best for animal welfare.

The one that cooks

That's me in our house. I love cooking and could never eat beans on toast. My favourite cook books are Feast by Nigella Lawson and Everyday Epicurean by Catherine Bell.

Family
My mum has always been an adventurous cook - I'd say some of the best meals I've had have been at home, not restaurants. The trouble is, each dish is an adventure without a journal. She has a inate cooking gene and never follows recipes, or remembers exactly how the meal we're eating came together. I cooked meals for us both when I was a teenager and dispite a disastrous my first roast chicken cooked with the 'goblets' still inside the cavity in their hot little plastic bag, I've always enjoyed cooking too and really enjoy making every meal special. I don't go in for complicated recipes, they take too long and unless you're trying to impress someone with your culinary skill, what's the point? My Dad is good at making scones and cooking too!

Kiwi food
I grew up in New Zealand and Australia and here's what I miss... might as well get it out of my system!
Cafes that don't just sell sandwiches - why not quiche, frittata, interesting salads, savouries, scones and homemade cakes?
Chips - as in Fish & Chips that aren't soggy. Sorry, but it's just wrong. Also why wrap it all up so that it sweats and gets even soggier?
Sausage hot dogs on a stick - don't laugh.
NZ Fish - fresh Snapper and Terakihi is more delicate than cod
Hokey Pokey & Goody goody gum drops icecream - infact all NZ icecream
Steak & Cheese pies
L & P (Lemon & Paeroa soft drink)
Orange & Mango juice
Scones that are huge and not in crinkle cut shapes - Southern Hemisphere scones are cut into shapes with a knife and are massive rather than dainty.
Texas Muffins that have real blueberries in them - none of these blueberry pieces, you need real purple splotched muffins that have to be eaten, not kept in plastic with preservatives to last another 6 weeks - don't eat these!
Sour cream with jacked potatoes or potato wedges - with cress!
Sundried tomato hummus
Garlic pitta bread chips
Pepperoni Rosette Salami - dry and spicy
Pastrami that tastes good, again drier and peppery
Big bags of normal (ie crinkle cut crisps) chips.
Appletise. Why is it called Appletiser in the UK
The Junk food!
Paddle pop iceblocks (that's ice lollies for the English reader, that are like chocolate milk ice lollies), Black Forest Cadbury bars, Squiggle Top biscuits, K bars, Peanut slab, Jet Planes, Jaffas, Snifters, Minties, Raro powdered drink.

Lastly, baking. Why is it so rare for English people to bake cakes? Why do you accept muffins and cake slices that are best before 2015? What's in them that makes them last? It's not in the spirit of baking.

Imports that I love!!!
Vogels bread, Kumara sweet potatoes, Braeurn apples, Anchor cheese and butter

But it's certainly not all bad - England excels at .. Ready to eat poppadums. Kettle crisps. UK Organic and Free range produce.
Ale. Sausages. Cranks bread.

Of course this isn't an objective list, it's purely my list of pet peeves or missing items from my trolley..