It’s been a long time since I’ve mentioned anything about food, which is a shame given that I’m living with an awesome cook. We work well together and have come up with some great stuff. This is something simple for summer.

I very rarely use capers, but when they come out, they’ll get finished quickly. It’s a very unfortunate love-and-leave relationship. They are the workhorse in this combination. Not only do they reroute the taste, they also offset the colour.

1 large tomato, seeded and chopped
1 tbsp capers, lightly smushed
1/2 red onion, chopped finely
olive oil for cooking
pepper to taste

Fry the onion at a medium-hot temperature before adding the capers.  Allow for the capers to season the oil before adding the tomato.  Cook until tomato is somewhat pulpy.  Season with pepper.

I used this as a topping for steamed salmon, served hot. However, it can be used as a appetiser, served at room temperature.

I was baking on the weekend – a banana cake that I’ve made hundreds of times before, some of which have been at this house. It didn’t bake through in the normal time (at 180C), nor with an extra hour (at 140C, to keep the top from burning). This follows up a baked cheesecake from the weekend before, which took nearly 2 hours to stop jiggling in the middle.

I think it’s time for some temperature verification. Now that the trust has been questioned, a solid relationship needs to be rebuilt. Or the oven needs to be fixed. Either way.

I had a friend visiting over the weekend who has a particular set of dietary restrictions: she cannot have gluten or dairy. Prior to her arrival in Wellington, I had time to do a bit of research into the challenge du jour. Basing my experimentation on this dairy-free cheesecake, I was able to come up with a lime-flavoured cheesecake that tasted great. The alternative ingredients were sourced from Commonsense Organics, who were as helpful and informative as possible. I found a soy-based cream cheese and a coconut-flavoured biscuit for the base. Eggs were used, however, meaning that this was not a vegan dish. Interestingly, it tasted a lot better the second day. I don’t know if this was for having been refrigerated or if it just gets better with age.

   Base:
   3/4 cup crushed biscuit
   1 tbsp  margarine
   Blend and press into the bottom of a pie-plate.
   Bake at 180C for 10 minutes

   Filling:
   3/4 cup white sugar
   1 tbsp  chickpea flour
   1 tsp   vanilla essence
   3       eggs
   1       lime, juice of
   500 g   soy-based cream cheese
   Blend well and pour into pie-plate.
   Bake at 180°C for 10 minutes and lower to 160°C for 30 minutes

Looking for dinner on Friday night, we stopped of at Vivo. It’s been on my list of places to try since the beginning of the year and I’m happy to say that it’s paid off. The food was good, the atmosphere was great and I ended up walking away with a developing idea for a salad dish. The Insalata Caprese planted the buffalo mozzarella into my mind; it was just a matter of finding something to complement the subtle taste. I ended up going with mandarin, a combination which I think worked out. The unusual part of this is to saute the mandarin wedges. It warms them, but doesn’t change the character too much. However, the warm bits were great against the cold cheese and the avocado.

   rocket
   orange capsicum
   red onion
   avocado, chopped
   buffalo mozzarella, chopped
   mandarin wedges, lightly sauteed
   olive oil
   cracked pepper to taste

This might read as something silly. This might be something silly. But it’s something I believe strongly in.

Muffins should be sweet, not savoury.

I generally don’t believe in strict rules for cooking or baking, unless safety is involved, but I don’t ever want to be presented with a savoury muffin. They’re truly an abomination of nature’s cookbook. On the scale of things I truly detest, they fall in between “Wasps on the patio of a pub in summer” and “Ant infestation in the house”¹.

Now I just need to rewrite this on a comment card for the cafeteria at work.

¹ This means that they don’t incite direct violence, but streams of vulgar language can likely be expected.

I’m really unsure about this one. It’s good, but only sometimes.

I grabbed a bunch of things to throw into an impromptu salad for lunch today: apple, green bell pepper, carrot, cucumber, walnuts, almonds, dates, raisins, garlic flakes and feta. The result varies from moment to moment. I think it’s good until there are raisins in the way. The sweetness doesn’t seem to be friendly towards the garlic/feta combination.

Or maybe it’s possible that the balance between the two must be favourable towards the feta. Too much garlic can start to overpower. Such is the tendancy of garlic, I think.

I was speaking to a friend about all sorts of silliness, and the subject of caffeinated bananas came up. He said he couldn't find a reference on google, but I think he just can't spell. I don't know if it would be a good idea to mix coffee and bananas, but it might be worth trying at least once.

I've never made pumpkin soup before. It've had it made for me, and I've had it out of a can, but I wasn't entirely sure where to begin. As is my personality, I didn't let a lack of knowledge hinder my desire to experiment. The final result is quite pleasing, so I'm hoping I am able to capture it from memory.

I do remember seeing Jimmy making it when I still lived with him in Christchurch, but I don't think I've ever seen a recipe. What I recalled was simply roasting vegetables for a while and blending them after they'd cooled again. With that knowlegde, I chopped my veggies, roasted them with olive oil and seasoning and improvised the rest.

   1/2 pumpkin
   2 carrots
   2 red onions
   5 cloves garlic
   1 small fennel bulb
   4 red chillies, seeded
   1/2 can condensed milk
   1 cup water
   1 tbsp cayenne pepper
   1 tbsp chilli powder
   1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
   1/2 cup olive oil

   Begin by chopping all the vegetables to reasonable sizes
   for roasting.  Cubes, a few centimeters large should be
   fine.  Spread the vegetables on a baking sheet and season
   with spices and drizzle with olive oil.  Stir lightly to
   distribute the oil before roasting at 150°.  Roast for
   approximately 30 minutes, stirring half way through.

   Allow vegetables to cool before adding to a blender to
   purée.  Add milk and water to mixture and transfer
   mixture to a sauce pan over light heat, stirring regularly.
   Add vinegar and season to taste.

I'm not sure what brings the sweetness to the taste, but it is not a disappointment. As a result, it goes well with the Kim Crawford Savingon Blanc that I had alongside the soup.

The final result is a bit spicy, after a sweet start. I like the contrast in tastes, but it's probably not for everyone. The level of spice should be controlled right from the start for a good blend, so cut back then if at all.

I ran across a few things that I want to try to play with. The first is something that has already started to evolve into my normal repetoire. It is a simple cheese sauce that works wonderfully with any flat pasta.

   200g mascarpone cheese
   1 tbsp honey
   1 tbsp garum masala
   1/4 cup fresh basil leaves

   Mix cheese, honey and masala.  Melt directly over cooked
   pasta.  Garnish with basil.

The other idea happened today when I was messing around with dinner. I haven't tried to make anything yet. I was only caught with the taste combination at dinner. It's a simple combination of basil and black olives. I think there is potential for a nice mezze-style dish.

I remember being asked what Canadian food is. I don't know. I still can't answer that question, but I did start thinking about it again today. I realised that, for the most part, the cooking I grew up with was relatively weak tasting. (No offense, Mom) I don't know if this is true of all Canadian households, but it certainly was true of mine.

I was raised on a meat and potatoes diet. There was nothing spicy about it. Herbs, sure, but that's about as far as it was allowed to go. I eventually was introduced to other types of food after leaving for university. My education was far from instant, and is still far from complete, but I can now try food with an open mind.

I didn't really think about this until I found myself buying a loaf of rye bread. I got home and realised that I remember not liking rye. I don't remember why, though. I just didn't like it. Now I'm experimenting with it. As it turns out, I like a slice of rye with honey and mascarpone spread over it. It's a stronger taste, but one that I am comfortable with. I'm sure that I couldn't have come to that conclusion 10 years ago.

Brooke was over for dinner again on Tuesday. Dinner was good, but not quite perfect. Imam Bayaldi, which is a turkish stuffed eggplant. I think that the eggplant that I used was a little old, or I didn't seep all of the bitterness out of the shell. The filling was great, however, and the couscous worked well with it.

   1 large eggplant
   4 large tomatoes, sliced
   1 red pepper, sliced
   2 small red onions, sliced
   4 cloves garlic, crushed
   1/4c chopped parsley
   1 tsp brown sugar
   1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
   1/4c olive oil

   Slice the eggplant in half and hollow out, so that the
   shell is about 1cm thick.  Slice remaining eggplant, add
   to a strainer with salt and allow to drain for 30
   minutes.  In a deep pan, heat olive oil and saute onion
   and garlic until softened.  Add tomatoes, red pepper and
   parsley.  Allow to simmer.  Add sugar and vinegar.  Heat
   oven to 180°C.  Continue to simmer for approximately 20
   minutes.  Fill shells with sauce and bake for 40 minutes.
   Serve hot.

   1/2c dry couscous
   1c vegetable stock
   1/4c black olives, sliced
   200g feta, sliced
   2 tbsp sundried tomatoe, sliced
   1/4 olive oil

   In a saucepan, heat oil.  Add dry couscous, and stir for
   30 seconds before adding vegetable stock.  Cover pan, but
   stir frequently.  If couscous is still sticky, place pan
   in a hot oven for a few minutes, stirring frequently.
   Mix in olives, feta and sundried tomatoes before serving.

The accident portion, however, was dessert. I ran across a recipe in the February newsletter from the Alliance Française for passionfruit squares. I couldn't find any passionfruit juice, or whole passionfruit, so I went with apricot juice instead. No problems there. The problem was that the sugar and flour measurements were by mass, not by volume. I don't have any scales. Needless to say, the squares didn't set properly, and the whole thing was a tasty mess. After spending the night in the freezer, however, it turned into something that resembled an ice cream of sorts.

   250g ricotta
   250g cottage cheese
   1/2c sugar
   1/4c flour
   3    eggs

   Preheat oven to 140°C.  In an ovenproof bowl, mix dry
   ingredients roughly before adding wet ingredients.  Blend
   thoroughly.  Bake for 40 minutes.  Allow to cool before
   putting bowl into the freezer.  (Although I didn't do
   this, it will help the texture,) Every 30 minutes, stir
   mixture to allow it to freeze evenly.  Continue for a few
   hours before letting sit overnight in the freezer.

Given the state of dessert, I knew that Brooke wouldn't be completely happy with the meal, and she wasn't. But it gives me room to improve for next time. I learned a bit more about her tastes, and I discovered something new. And this time, it might not just be something new to me.