Eats by Anna

Jun 17 2013

My Kitchen

Venison Laab

In this stunning version of laab, I’ve played around with some of the traditional elements: rather than hand-chopping the meat into a mince and then braising it, I’ve worked with venison’s love of a quick, hot sear to keep the meat meltingly tender, and I’ve used Thai basil – usually more of a feature in curries – rather than coriander, because it’s anise flavor works brilliantly with venison. I’ve discovered that venison goes down a treat with my young children and I think partly this is because it’s so tender, none of the chewy, sinewy-ness that they find challenging. This recipe serves four.

2 long shallots, or pink Thai shallots if you can get them

2 spring onions

1/2 cup mint leaves, washed, stems removed

1/2 cup Thai basil leaves, washed, stems removed

1/3 cup toasted ground rice*

1 tsp dried chilli flakes

1 hot green chilli, finely chopped

400g venison medallions (I used Silver Fern Farms vacuum packed medallions)

2 tsp soy sauce

Dressing:

2 Tbsp fish sauce

Juice 2 limes

2 tsp grated palm sugar

Slice the shallots into thin circles and the spring onions into rings, using both green and white parts. If the herbs are large of leaf, you might like to roughly chop them – but I like to use baby leaves and leave them whole.

Blot any excess blood from vension medallions with a paper towel. Lightly season on each side with salt and white pepper. Heat a little grapeseed oil (or other oil with a light, clean flavor) in a heavy frying pan. Place the vension in the hot pan and cook for around 2 minutes on each side. At the end of cooking add the soy sauce to the pan and turn the vension so it gets coated with a bit of soy. Remove venison from the hot pan and leave to rest for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, make the dressing by whisking the fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar.

Slice the rested venison into thin strips. It will still be fairly crimson at the centre – this is good. The dressing will actually cook it little more.

In a large bowl, mix together the venison (along with any juices from pan or chopping board), shallots, herbs, toasted ground rice, dried chilli and fresh chilli. Pour over the dressing and toss through. Spoon onto a serving dish. I like to serve laab with both sticky rice, to mop up the delicious juices, and lettuce cups to wrap it all up in - baby cos works well.

*To make toasted ground rice, toast raw grains of jasmine rice in a hot dry pan until golden and fragrant, then grind to a coarse powder. You can use a large mortar and pestle to do this, or a spice grinder.

Tagged cervena, healthy dinner ideas, healthy Thai, iron-rich, thai venison, venison laab, venison larb

Jun 15 2013

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My Kitchen

Salad bar none

The other day I Insta-faced a photo of my lunchtime salad, and got such a good response I thought I’d post not only that recipe, but a few more easy, seasonal salad ideas from photos I’ve taken over the past month or so. As a knee-jerk reaction to this wintery weather around us, I seem to be craving crunchy, textural things – the greener the better. If you were hoping you might get a break from my current obsession with kale, you’re out of luck. I just can’t help it – it tastes so good at this time of year and is so good for you that I sneak it into almost everything.

I don’t really measure ingredients out when making salads – just use however much you think looks right, and if you end up with lots left over, all the better!

Sprouting Goodness Salad

Tear kale leaves from stems. Discard stems and rip kale into small pieces. Rinse and dry, then massage kale with some good-quality evoo. Be firm – you need to break down some of the texture of the leaves which will render them infinitely more edible. In a large bowl place prepared kale, mung bean sprouts, thinly sliced shallot, spouted peas or beans, sesame seeds and, if you like, some nice feta (I’ve been buying sheep’s feta lately – $5 for a 200g pack of Fratelli Fresh feta from Shefco on Dominion Rd). Dress with an emulsion of evoo, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, grainy mustard, garlic, salt and pepper.

Textural Tornado

Cook and drain brown rice (or use wild, red or black rice). Allow to cool then place in a large bowl. Add a can of lentils, drained, a very thinly sliced green pepper (season ending now – try fennel instead), some washed rocket leaves and almond flakes and toss together. Dress with an emulsion of evoo, fresh ginger and garlic (use a microplane), a little sesame oil, white wine vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Scatter over some more almond flakes, and some LSA, to serve.

Rainbow Slaw

Thinly slice red cabbage, carrot, apple, spring onion (fennel is good here too) and place in a large bowl. Add whichever chopped herbs you fancy (I used coriander here). Dress with your favourite dressing. I like either evoo, grainy mustard, garlic, white wine and malt vinegars, salt and pepper OR sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, ginger, garlic, salt and white pepper.

Beetroot, Lentil and Blue Cheese

Toss a drained can of lentils with cubes of slow-roasted beetroot, roasted cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced red onion, crumbled blue cheese, plenty of herbs such as coriander or mint. Dress with your favourite dressing – I like evoo, a smidgeon of grainy mustard, honey, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Tagged best salads, eating seasonally, vegetarian, winter salads

Jun 10 2013

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Other People's Kitchens

Fresh find

A couple of months ago I was scoping out Seamart in Mt Albert for my monthly column in Metro, Food Neighbourhoods. Overhearing ‘Metro’ and writer’ a nearby customer piped up, “Ah – you write for Metro? You must come to my fish and chip shop in Epsom! You must come and judge it for best in Auckland!”

This chap, Thomas, had done his research – I did indeed help judge the best fish and chips, and the best burgers in this city back in 2011, in a frenzied week of gluttony. But Metro hasn’t run that particular ‘best of’ since. I assured the very eager chip-man that I would come and visit his shop and see for myself whether I should keep it mind the question arise once again of who makes this city’s best fish and chips.

I’ve now visited Thomas’s fish and chip shop, Greenwoods Fresh Catch, twice, and can happily agree with Thomas, that he may very well be in charge of a best in show. He and his wife Lillian, Singaporeans who moved out here half a century ago or more, owned an award-winning fish and chip shop in South Auckland before opening up in the small but increasingly interesting Greenwoods Corner shops in Epsom last year.

As evidenced by my bumping into him at Seamart, Thomas treks out there each day to get his fresh fish. He buys tarakihi, snapper and hoki, and offers them either battered (crisp and light) or crumbed (though not the hoki as it won’t hold together for crumbing). The rest of the menu is brief – it’s mostly about the fish and chips here, and getting them right. But you can order burgers, and crumbed squid or prawns, which are all very good, too.

It’s not the closest fish and chips to where I live – we have one just two minutes walk down the road, but that’s nothing to rave about. And equal distance from me is the winner of that 2011 Metro best fish and chips title, The Mt Eden Village Fish Shop. And while I do like the beer-battered fish and chips from the village, I have to say they’re heavier and more oily than at Greenwoods. And for a friendly welcome, Thomas and Lillian cannot be beaten; they’ll send you off not just with a hot, expertly packed parcel of goodness, but with a smile on your face to boot.

Greenwoods Fresh Catch, 1 Pah Rad, Greenwoods Corner, Epsom. Phone 631 1011.

Tagged best fish and chips auckland, epsom takeaways, fish & chips

Jun 07 2013

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Best In Season, Uncategorized

An Angle on Galangal

Pretty, highly perfumed flowers crowning my galangal plants in the garden. A friend brought the rhizomes over from her garden on Great Barrier last year and I felt despondent when they seemed to die soon after I planted them – but last spring they sprang, and kept springing, so I know have two patches of them in a very sunny, dry spot. I haven’t dug up any of the rhizomes yet to cook with, but when I do I’ll try them in fragrant Malaysian and Vietnamese curries, laksa and tom yam. Galangal has an elusive flavor I think – it’s at once resinous and piney, soapy, warm and fiery. It’s the complicated sister of ginger.

Tagged galangal nz, growing galangal

Jun 07 2013

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My Kitchen, Uncategorized

Mussel In

Here’s one of the easiest ways I know to cook an serve a load of fresh mussels. We’re lucky to sometimes get mussels from our friends on Great Barrier who farm them – those are the fattest, tastiest and freshest mussels in the whole wide world, but even mussels from the supermarket are generally pretty okay. Just avoid any that don’t close when tapped, or that don’t open when cooked.

To feed two adults and two children, I’d buy about 1.5 kilos of mussels. That’s about $5 something – mussels are really so cheap, and they’re a great source of iron and other nutrients as well as being super tasty in a deeply satisfying umami way. My four year-old daughter has been eating mussels since we first took her to the Barrier at 9 months old and the local shellfish we an instant hit her. I used to chop them into bite size pieces but these days she happily hoes into them whole, slurping up the juices with the shells.

Firstly, in a small heavy frying pan, sauté some onion and garlic in butter until soft, about 10 minutes.

While that’s sautéing, put the whole mussels into the kitchen sink and cover with a little lukewarm water. This should encourage them to open just a little, so you can get in there and tear their beards out, while at the same time scrubbing the shells and rinsing with clean water. As you go, place the cleaned mussels into the cooking pot. I bought a nice blue enamel mussel pot with lid (both the pot and lid have handles) from the Wesley Community markets last year; it’s been great as you can pile the empty shells in the lid at the table.

When you’ve cleaned all the mussels and placed in the cooking pot, pop the pot on the stovetop and add just a splash of water – maybe 1/2 cup. Don’t add any salt; the mussels have enough sea salt in them to make this dish salty enough. Turn the heat on and put the lid on, let the mussels steam for 4-5 minutes until they’re just cooked through. You might like to move them round using tongs once, to make sure all the mussels get cooked. Take the lid off and crumble about 3/4 of a 125g piece of blue cheese into the pot, stirring the small bits of cheese through the pot to distribute and melt. Pour in 1/4 cup white wine and the softened onion and garlic. Stir it all well and once the cheese has melted down, turn off the heat and serve garnished with freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley and lemon wedges to squeeze over.

Tagged belgian mussel pot, greenshell mussels, mussels in blue cheese

May 30 2013

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My Kitchen

Pimp my laab

For a zingy, spicy flavor bomb you can’t get much better than a freshly made laab classic Isaan dish of hand-chopped meat or fish braised and mixed with loads of chopped up shallots, herbs, ground jasmine rice and a tangy dressing. Lately I’ve been warding off winter sniffles by adding extra greens to just about everything, and I found this worked well with a chicken laab I made the other night. I’ve been buying organic curly leaf kale from the New World in Victoria Park; $3.99 gets you a huge bag of the stuff and it’s always fresh, healthy looking and not as thick and rubbery as kale can sometimes be. Here’s a quick recipe for a laab pimped up with extra greens. Here I also used fried shallots, rather than ground rice, for the textural element. This will serve four adults for a lightish meal – we like to spoon the laab into lettuce cups, you can also add rice if you want a more substantial meal.

Using two cleavers or large sharp knives, chop 500g boneless, skinless chicken thigh meat into small pieces, almost like a mince. Hand-chopping the meat rather than starting with minced meat means you get a more tender result – mince tends to go a bit rubbery.

Take about 150g kale and strip the leaves, ripping them into small pieces. Wash and dry well and place in a large bowl.

Prepare your herbs and greens and set aside on a large platter for adding in quickly at the end of cooking: Slice three long shallots (or Thai shallots if you can find them) thinly. Roughly chop one bunch of coriander, including some stems. Slice a few lengths of spring onion. Cut one medium zucchini into very small dice, mirepoix size.

In a small bowl mix up dressing: Juice 2 limes, 2 Tbsp fish sauce. Now rub a little of this dressing into the prepared kale leaves – massage it in to break down some of the fibre of the kale and soften it. The leaves will darken, that’s fine.

In a wok, bring 1/2 cup good unsalted chicken stock to a boil then turn down to a fast simmer and add the chopped chicken meat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through – about 8 minutes will be enough. Turn off heat. Drain any excess stock out of the pan, reserving just a little of the liquid. Sprinkle over 2 tsp (or more, to taste) dry chilli flakes and stir through. Throw in the prepared shallots, greens and herbs, including the kale, and stir through. Add the lime and fish sauce dressing and stir through, then tip the laab out into the serving dish. Top with crisp fried shallots (available ready-made at Asian grocers’).

Tagged chicken laab, healthy Thai, Isaan, kale laab, larb

May 30 2013

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Rich Pickings

Pining for flavour

Sick of paying $70 to $100/kilo for stubby little Korean pine nuts that already taste a bit rancid? I am. The past few years I’ve been stocking up on them at the Sandringham Food Market shops where they sometimes have them going for as cheap as $30/kilo, so I can throw them generously into dishes – but there’s no pretending they’re anywhere near as good as the locally grown Pinoli pine nuts, which are deliciously fresh, long and sweet, with a rich price to match.

Palpitations for me today then, when I discovered an Afghani grocer’s in Avondale that stocks these amazing pine nuts in the shell, imported from Afghanistan. Food miles what? I’m supporting the rebuild of the Afghan economy. They’re purportedly organic, and the same goes for quite a good deal of the nuts and dried fruits available in bulk at this wee gem of a store, Quandahari Bazaar. Here you will find shelled pistachios boasting pretty pink/purple/green skins, dried mulberries, 4 or 5 different grades of medjool dates, Bulgarian goat/sheep/cow feta, pure pomegranate juice, huge sacks of top-grade basmati, spices galore, and much more. The current owners bought the shop six months or so ago and have overhauled the stock so they now boast a really quite impressive bazaar. It’s just near the roundabout at the bottom of St Jude St and you should go there.

And the pine nuts taste – funnily enough – a little bit like Christmas. They have a distinct resinous pine note, but a sweetness that balances that. Delicious. You use your thumb nail, or our teeth, to crack the wider, rounder end open, then slip out the kernel. At $39.99/kilo, they’re incredible value.

Quandahari Bazaar

1 St Jude St, Avondale

Tagged avondale shops, cheap bulk foods auckland, middle eastern groceries auckland, pine nuts auckland prices

May 16 2013

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My Kitchen

Pampered greens

Here’s the easiest, yummiest thing you can do with fresh kale: wash and dry the leaves and strip them from their stems (discard stems), tearing leaves into smallish pieces. In a large bowl, whisk a good of evoo, juice of half a lemon, a little flaky sea salt and black pepper. Add the kale into the bowl and massage the dressing into the leaves. No namby pambying, you want to bruise the leaves, darkening them a little and breaking down the toughness. The result? The kale is still crisp but not at all thick and rubbery, and the simple flavours of the dressing are nicely embedded in each piece of kale. When I get some cavalo nero coming up in my garden this season I’ll try this technique with that, too.

This kale salad is a great refresher to serve with roast meats this winter, or of course you could add myriad other seasonal, crunchy things to make a salad that’s a meal of its own.

Where to buy kale? Produce and farmer’s markets, Nosh and Farro, and organics stores are your best bet. NZ supermarkets don’t often seem to stock kale, but this may change as the leafy green continues its rise to superfood stardom. New World Victoria Park, whose range is way posher than most supermarkets, stocks a really good organic kale, $3.99 for a big bag.

Tagged cavalo nero salad, kale salad, massaged kale

May 15 2013

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My Kitchen

Friday snack shack

I’m potato chip (crisp, whatever you want to call it) addict, so I love anything that equals or even trumps the savoury hit that chips offer, but without all the crappy additives and preservatives. Having said that – check out the wildly different ingredients lists on a bag of ready salted chips compared to anything flavoured (roast lamb in a chip, anyone? And I’ll bet there’s nothing remotely related to lamb in there). While I could never admit that salt and vinegar is anything but the king of chips, ready salted can stand proud with its mere three or so ingredients.

I digress. I’m here to tell you about a delicious little snack I’ve been making. All you do is toast whatever nuts and seeds you like, in a hot heavy pan, with a little olive oil and paprika – I use both smoked and sweet. When everything’s nicely golden, take off the heat, sprinkle over some flaky sea salt and devour. Well, wait a wee bit or you’ll burn your tongue into numbness. In the pic above I used blanched almonds and sunflower seeds, which, combined with the paprika, had me feeling all Spanish. Perfect with a crisp cerveza.

I also like to toast seeds (a good mix is sunflower, sesame, pumpkin, linseed) with a little soy sauce, and once cool, store in a jar either for snacking on or throwing into salads.

Best place to buy nuts and seeds? Bulk Savings in Eden Valley has a great range with a lot of organic options, and you can’t beat the several Indian grocers’ in Sandrigham for price.

Tagged paprika nuts, savoury snack, toasted seeds

May 15 2013

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My Kitchen

Cauliflower ‘couscous’

I’m a sucker for carbolicious staples like rice, pasta, bread, couscous. If it’s going to peak your insulin, I’ll have it, thanks. For me a lot of the attraction, I’ve come to realise, is the relative blandness, and the texture. The way these things soak up sauces and dressings and provide some ‘space’ in between rich flavours. Using cauliflower as an alternative to a starchy carb has become one of my new pleasures. I’d use it anywhere I might use rice, couscous (whatever ethnicity…), freekeh, millet, orzo.

Here’s how I make mine:

Take one large head of cauliflower and remove the thick stem as well as any thick stalky bits, placing all the florets into the bowl of a large food processor. It goes without saying that you’d want to cut off any browned bits first, too.

Pulse the florets until you reach the consistency of couscous. One cauli makes a whole heap of couscous, so if you’re cooking for two adults, you’ll probably want to freeze half of this for another meal.

In a large frypan, sauté onion and garlic until nicely soft. Add preferred spices. This will depend on what you’re serving with the couscous. For the meal above I added some cumin, nutmeg and sweet paprika, and a little salt and pepper. Stir until fragrant, then add the cauli couscous. (here I added some chopped spring onions, too). Stir continuously for about 5 mins, until the cauli has softened but still retains texture. Serve as a base for whatever you like.

Here I topped my cauli couscous with a kind of Greek-inspired salad: first with a layer of rocket leaves, then diced tomatoes, chopped black kalamata olives, and crumbled goat’s feta. I sprinkled over some toasted flaked almonds and poured over a dressing of olive oil, white wine vinegar, a little mustard and honey, salt and pepper.

My kids quite liked it – well, one ate a fair bit, and really liked it, as you can see (salad makes her strong, she tells me).

Tagged carb-free meals, cauli rice, cauliflower rice, greek salad, no carbs dinner

Eats by Anna

confessions of a kitchen magpie

Venison Laab

Salad bar none

Fresh find

An Angle on Galangal

Mussel In

Pimp my laab

Pining for flavour

Pampered greens

Friday snack shack

Cauliflower ‘couscous’

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