WHITE TIE WINTER BISTRO – Eggplant spagaloni

I’m still buzzing from our fabulous White Tie Winter Bistro – we had our first one for this year on Thursday 3 June – and it was just wonderful!













We held the event at C4, our favourite roasters of coffee in Christchurch. The roastery is housed in a funky warehouse style building in Lichfield Street with exposed brick, wood floors and industrial strength iron girders in the ceiling. They have a great display of coffee machines, stove top espresso pots, and the world’s best Barbie record player!

Our 80 guests chose from a wine list showcasing Canterbury’s finest on offer – pinot noir from Black Estate, Pegasus Bay’s Semillon and a Crater Rim Late Harvest Pinot Gris to name a few…

Entrees included green olive and anchovy beignets, Malouf’s mushrooms on traditional fried bread and our homemade ciabatta grilled with chopped tomato salad, prosciutto and the award-winning Clevedon buffalo mozzarella.

The mains proved there’s just something about hearty bistro fare breaking through the winter cold, slow braised veal, old fashioned roast lamb, parsnip and carrot mash the way your Nana made it and a sell out crispy skinned groper with a fine ratatouille and gruyere potato croquettes.

And if you thought making decisions was hard, then you really would have been in trouble come dessert time; lemon curd pavlova roulade, a C4 coffee tasting plate including an outstanding brown sugar espresso pannacotta, spiced chocolate bread and butter pudding and rice pudding to end all rice puddings…we had a ball!

Everyone was in party spirits and the noise level was heart warming. The C4 crew jumped up from their table to make coffees on demand while guests from all over the city table hopped to catch up with new friends made at last year’s bistros...

This was an initiative that started last year and it was so successful – it’s given us the opportunity to be our own client, to create a range of contemporary bistro dishes we don’t often have the opportunity to do through White Tie’s events. We create a restaurant for one night in a secret venue, only texting guests 24 hours in advance to let them in on the secret. People are clamouring for seats at the bistros on 8 July, 12 August and 16 September… if you would like to come along and celebrate hearty winter food with friends then give White Tie Catering a call on (03) 365 2837 to book your seat!

One of the dishes we offered was a White Tie twist on pasta – Spagaloni (half spaghetti, kind of half cannelloni!) – a special treat for our vegetarian friends and even a few meat eaters who saw it on its way to other tables. This is a wonderful warming family dish for Winter, extremely cost effective and the leftovers make the best lunch the next day. Cook it & Love it.


WINTER BISTRO EGGPLANT SPAGALONI

Serves 6

2 large fat eggplant
olive oil
thyme, finely chopped
oregano, finely chopped
1/3 packet spaghetti noodles
100g Parmesan cheese, grated
½ cup cream
¼ cup torn, fresh basil
1 x 400g tins seasoned Italian tomatoes, chopped
extra grated cheese and parmesan

Slice eggplant lengthwise ¼ inch thick and brush with oil and herbs. Chargrill both sides and allow to cool.

Cook spaghetti in boiling water, drain and while still hot stir through parmesan cheese, cream and basil. Add a heaped tablespoon of spaghetti to each eggplant strip and roll.

Pour a third of the tomatoes over the base of dish and place rolled eggplant on top. Spoon rest of tomatoes over eggplant rolls and sprinkle with extra cheeses. Bake in hot oven for 15 – 20 minutes until top is browned and bubbling.

NO NEED TO KNEAD - No knead ciabatta

There is no smell quite like the aroma of baking bread filling your home. That sweet, yeasty fragrance of unadulterated carbo loading potential, warm and crusty with New Zealand’s golden butter just melting into it. I cannot begin to describe what a weakness this is for me.

I know the idea of bread baking can terrify people, handling yeast, rising it just enough, kneading it properly. It can be a fine art and for those among us who bake bread truly skillfully, collecting natural yeasts from the air or experimenting with different flours, it can be a serious passion.

Winter is a great time for bread baking, a big pot of soup sitting on the stovetop with a loaf of homemade bread happily feeds a family for several nights in a row. It’s a wonderful addition to brunch with friends, or with a cheese platter. I serve slices of homemade ciabatta on an entrée plate with fresh sliced prosciutto, goats cheese and lemon oil.

If you’re ever in Christchurch and get in early enough, a wonderful treat is a quick lunch at The Canterbury Cheesemongers. Fresh ciabatta rolls still warm from the oven, a slab of the cheese of your choice and a fantastic local roast flat white. It’s heaven.

At White Tie Catering however we often need to bake enough bread for 500 people in one weekend and because we’re also preparing everything else on the menu, we simply don’t have the luxury of time for a long bread baking process. One of our event supervisors, Karyn Bird gave us a recipe of hers that has since become a serious staple in the White Tie kitchen. It’s a no-knead ciabatta that is as good as any ciabatta we can buy, and because we bake it, we can serve it fresh from the oven, warm and still bursting with fragrance at the table.

This bread is easy, manageable and the results are simply outstanding. It’s not technical nor do you need the gift of the pastry hand to pull it off. Bake it once and you’ll be a convert. Best of all, it will literally cost you about a quarter of the price of a loaf of bread. It’s fresh, without preservatives or additives so by the second day it is quite rightly, stale. It’s really very good toast as well….
Cook it & Love it.



















NO KNEAD CIABATTA
Makes 4 loaves

7 cups high grade flour
1 tablespoon dry yeast
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
4 cups warm water

Mix yeast with warm water and leave for 10 minutes. Add salt, sugar and 3 cups of the flour. Combine, cover and leave overnight.

Mix in remaining 4 cups of flour, cover and leave for a further 2 – 3 hours. Preheat over to 230°C. Dump dough onto very well floured board and cut into 4 portions. Stretch out onto baking tray into flat ciabatta loaves. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes.

MARKET LUNCH - Mike's chicken terrine

I have finally greeted my new grandson after what seemed like a very long wait, however, the waiting time was not lost as I was able to immerse myself in recipe books and retreat to the kitchen.

Of course, one of the bonuses of staying in Whangarei for a while is a visit to the Farmers’ Market. It’s a real case of the early bird catches the worm but this is a market worth getting up early for. So, last Saturday morning I was up with the larks and with shopping bags in hand I was off to explore. The Whangarei Farmers’ Market is the oldest in Australasia, opening in 1997 – long before we all thought about farmers’ markets. So it’s well established, well patronised and a serious foodies delight.

Huge bunches of fresh herbs for a dollar. Enormous heads of broccoli for two dollars. I could go on and on, but home I went with roasted macadamia nuts, pohutukawa honey, coriander, basil, rocket, bunches of baby beetroot, aged Gouda, fresh flowers, olive oil, oranges and avocados and a small box of perfectly ripe fresh sweet figs.

I hardly needed much inspiration to turn that into a celebratory lunch for friends on Sunday, however, that’s when I remembered Mike’s Chicken Terrine – the perfect accompaniment to my purchases.

It’s important sometimes to think back and remember some of the ‘oldie but goodie’ recipes that lurk in the depths of our recipe folders often scribbled on scraps of paper and fading with time! I must remember to reorganise my recipes next time I have a minute!

Mike was a friend and former employee who sadly passed away last year but his chicken terrine was a real winner and will always be Mike’s Terrine from now on.

All that was left for me to do was make a couple of loaves of my easy no knead ciabatta but that’s another story! Cook it & Love it.

MIKE'S CHICKE TERRINE
Makes 1 terrine

200g sliced belly bacon
1/2 onion, diced
10g butter
250g chicken breast, skin on
500g chicken mince
100g dried apricots, chopped
50g pitted prunes, chopped
50g pistachio nuts
1/2 teaspoon each of salt and freshly ground black pepper
50g diced belly bacon, extra

Preheat oven to 180ºC.

Line 1 terrine tin or loaf tin with bacon slices. Melt butter in a saucepan and sauté onions until transparent. Remove skins from chicken breasts and reserve. Roughly chop chicken into large chunks. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except chicken skin and diced bacon and combine thoroughly. Pack into lined tin and cover with bacon followed by reserved chicken skin.

Bake at 180ºC for 1- 1½hours or until juices run clear. Remove from oven and cool. Drain off excess liquid and remove and discard chicken skin. Weight down with something heavy and refrigerate until chilled or overnight.

Remove from tin and wrap in foil. Serve sliced with pickles and salad.

SPICE IS THE VARIETY OF LIFE - Vipin's chicken curry

I am at times an impatient woman so sitting as I am in Whangarei waiting for the birth of my second grandchild is hard work on my nerves. You can imagine how my daughter feels perched on the edge of the couch already over her due date. Mowing the lawns didn’t help so now we turn to curry every night....

Whether or not curry actually works to bring on labour remains open to debate, I’m not sure if any great research has been done on the subject. It does however give us great cause here on the farm in Whangarei, for a curry week. My daughter is an avid fan of South East Asian cuisine, turning her Spirit House cookbook into her kitchen bible. She loves to cook with chilli, lime, coriander and palm sugar. Fish sauce is the new Wattie’s Tomato Sauce in this house and her 18 month old son has been raised on her homemade steamed dumplings.

It was quite a different story for me growing up in New Zealand in the 60s - it didn’t especially lend itself to international cuisine. I made up for it in spades however when I first went overseas. My sister and I travelled to London together and found board with an Indian woman, not long in the UK herself. For the girls from Weedons, Canterbury the complexity of Maya Shahaney’s cooking was phenomenal.

The first thing Maya ever made me was an omelette full of chopped fresh green chilli. I’d never eaten chilli in my life, which was obvious at the time with the water streaming from my eyes. But it was the beginning of a great love affair. Maya taught me how to make chapatti, how to cook basmati rice (she used the absorption method after washing the rice over and over again until the water was clear). Maya cooked religiously with garlic and chilli which I’m sure was the reason I was never once sick while living with her, despite the London winter. She always made her own garam masala, the pungent spice mix at the base of all her curries. Garam masala differs regionally but is usually a blend of spices such as chilli, cumin, turmeric, coriander, cardamom and so on.

We all have a great reliable Indian takeaway down the road but the understanding of spice, the use of them in different regions and the sheer complexity of the cuisine make it a must for foodies to get a handle on. Little is more gratifying than balancing an array of spices to create one perfectly rounded dish.

So, here I am in Whangarei working on a garam (hot) masala (mixture) to coax my grandchild into the world. One of our White Tie chefs, Vipin, who is our resident curry and spice expert has graciously agreed to share one of his recipes. Raised in Bombay and cooking his way around the world, Vipin’s curries are a staff lunch favourite and are sure to become a favourite of yours. His tip for this recipe; you must have patience. Vipin says each sequence is equally important in Indian cuisine, each ingredient must be cooked properly before the next layer of flavour is added, all the aromas must be released. And that’s when you get a curry so good, it brings on labour! Cook it & Love it.

VIPIN’S CHICKEN CURRY
Serves 3 - 4

CHICKEN MARINADE
250g boneless chicken
20ml lemon juice
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp turmeric
½ tsp chilli powder
2 T oil
½ tsp mixed spice

PASTE
Oil
50g ginger
60g garlic
4 green chillies, chopped (with seeds for hot curry)
3 red onions, sliced
5 tomatoes

SPICES
Oil
10g cumin seeds
4 cardamom pods
2 cinnamon sticks, broken
2 star anise

Chicken stock
Extra lemon juice

Dice the chicken and toss with oil, lemon juice and spices and refrigerate overnight if possible.

Heat oil in a pan and add ginger, garlic and chilli and cook until the raw flavour of the garlic is completely gone. Add the sliced red onion and cook well until caramelised. Finally, add the chopped tomatoes and fry until very tender. Allow mixture to cool before blending in a food processor to make a smooth silky paste.

Heat oil in a pan and add cumin, cardamom, cinnamon and star anise, allowing the spices to crackle in the heat until they release the aromatic oils. Add the paste and fry together well, until the paste leaves the sides of the pan.

Add the marinated boneless chicken cubes and fry them along with the spices and paste. Add a little chicken stock and bring the curry to the boil before simmering for 20 minutes.

Spoon over basmati rice and finish with finely chopped coriander leaves, a sprinkle of garam masala and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

I SAY TOMATO - Middle Eastern Summer Tomato Jam

I’ve just picked my first tomato, and yes I’m feeling quite proud about it. I walked into the house beaming from ear to ear and everyone thought I’d won Lotto. Instead, I’d hit the growers’ jackpot – three little cherry tomatoes. Reaping the rewards of your own efforts in the vegetable garden gives a wonderful sense of achievement but particularly so with a tomato. It’s watching it flower then fruit, the slow turn from green to red and if you’ve done everything well and it has drunk its fill of the sun, then the result can be spectacular. Sweet and juicy, a little tart and incredibly versatile.

My husband treats tomatoes literally as fruit, eating it like an apple, usually leaning over the sink with juice dripping all over my nice clean kitchen bench. My first cherry tomatoes didn’t get any special treatment, I ate them, just popped them in my mouth and it was glorious. And that was my reward for the hard yards, every Saturday I fed it tomato fertiliser, I staked it and picked off leaves to let the sun shine on the bunches of fruit. I nurtured it and it in turn, is now nurturing me. Delicious!

Recently on a research trip to Sydney (it’s a necessary part of food development...) I experienced a dish that took tomatoes to a whole new level – an heirloom tomato salad at Becasse. Becasse is Justin North’s restaurant, the Blenheim born chef who won last year’s Sydney Morning Herald Chef of the Year. North has an intensely romantic relationship with food, he is full of respect and awe for the simplest of ingredient and his menu reflects that. Working with boutique suppliers and markets, he selects the finest examples and then works to enhance natural flavours. And thus, it is Justin North who has ruined me for every tomato salad.














JUSTIN NORTH'S HEIRLOOM TOMATO SALAD AT BECASSE, SYDNEY

Heirloom tomatoes are growing in popularity; traditionally naturally cultivated they are not the stuff of commercial growers. North’s tomatoes were bright red and yellow, green striped, deep plum, there was olive oil sorbet and the most intensely flavoured basil pebbles (a touch of molecular gastronomy). It was simply spectacular and as you can see, exceptionally beautiful.

We all have tins of chopped tomatoes in our pantries because it’s a meal in a can – soups, pastas, slow braises, a quick Spanish chicken or an Italian inspired fish casserole. But if you’re growing them, or buying them cheaply at this time of the year when they are most abundant, you can preserve them yourself to enjoy them all year long.

I’m giving you a Middle Eastern inspired summer tomato jam recipe because it goes spectacularly well with so many things, and is as valuable in my kitchen as tinned tomatoes. Spoon it over grilled or roasted chicken, fish or lamb. Pour it over browned chicken thighs and bake for a great casserole. Pile on top of hot grilled garlicky ciabatta with your own beef burger and haloumi for a stunning Sunday night open sandwich. Heat the tomato through slightly and dollop it on toast with poached eggs and toasted cumin for a seriously good brunch (accompanied by a bloody Mary.) I’m getting hungry just thinking about it...so I’m off out the back garden to the tomato vine. Bottle this jam and seal it, it keeps for at least 6 months. Cook it & Love it.

SUMMER TOMATO JAM

2 tablespoons oil
1 onions, finely chopped
1 tablespoons turmeric
1 tablespoons ground ginger
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1.5 kg tomato, peeled and chopped
4 tablespoons honey
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
freshly ground white pepper
salt


Place the onion, turmeric, ginger and cinnamon in a pot with the oil and cook for 5 minutes. Add all the remaining ingredients and slowly bring to a simmer, reduce for about 30 minutes and check seasoning.

The amount of cayenne, salt and pepper is entirely personal.

The jam is ready once it has thickened.

SOMETHING TO WINE ABOUT - Slow braise of duck with pinot noir

We just catered for a stunning wedding in Wanaka over the weekend and I’m reminded how truly wonderful that part of New Zealand is. Otago gets me every time, I simply never tire of its incredible landscapes, bright yellows and oranges, lakes and poplars. And hey, let’s be completely honest here, I certainly never tire of its pinot noirs.

The wedding was held at Rippon Vineyard, the marquee positioned between vines and facing straight out to Mt Aspiring, the lake, Wanaka township and around to Treble Cone. Breathtaking doesn’t even begin to describe it. At dessert service not a guest was to be found in the marquee, all standing out the front jaws on the ground watching a spectacular sunset over the mountains. With a Rippon Pinot Noir in their hands...

See? Try as I might to talk about the scenery et al, I cannot help but return to the nectar of Otago – its pinot noir. New Zealand is becoming as well known for its pinots as Australia is for its shiraz. Increasingly at events our clients are happy to serve just one red and when once it was a blend, now it’s a pinot.

And thus, we cook with it. Pinot noir is a great wine to add depth to your cooking where appropriate particularly if you’re making a special effort to match the food. We use it in our reductions over rich Canterbury red meats or we make pinot syrup lightly lifted with cinnamon and orange zest for poaching rhubarb, delicious with a nutty crumble simply sprinkled over the top.

As always when cooking with wine, the better the quality; the better the final product. Obviously that also means it’s more drinkable and while I’m a repeat offender of the drinking while cooking, remember the less you drink; the better the final product.

Today I’m giving you a slow braise of duck with pinot noir. I make mine with an Otago drop in honour of all things glorious about that region. To keep it summery, serve it with a spinach salad, with fava beans, lardons and pearl onions tossed through. In winter, heap it on top of a great olive oil mash and sticky shallots reduced in a little of the braising juices. You will note the recipe uses 2 cups of wine for the duck which means and an extra 1 for the cook. Cook it & Love it.

SLOW BRAISE OF DUCK WITH PINOT NOIR
Serves 6

6 duck legs
duck fat
2 onions
1 dessertspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
juice and zest of an orange
2 cups of pinot noir
2 tablespoons maple syrup
salt and pepper

In a sauté pan, brown duck in duck fat until golden. Transfer to an ovenproof dish. Sauté onions in fat and remove with slotted spoon and spoon over duck. Combine remaining ingredients in a jug and pour over. Season with salt and pepper, cover and place in 180°C oven and slowly braise until tender for 1 – 1 ½ hours.

Carefully remove the duck from the sauce with a slotted spoon and place in a serving dish. Skim fat from sauce and thicken the sauce with beurre manié and pour over duck and serve.

MAKE MINE A RASPBERRY - Frozen raspberry and nut crumb pudding

I simply adore this time of year and the berries that come with it – sometimes I’m surprised to end a summer intact instead of a mixed berry version of Violet Beauregarde being hauled off by the Ooompa Loompas after berry overload. I am a serious raspberry girl, plop me down in front of a movie with a punnet of raspberries and I am one happy camper. (The luxury of a house kind of happy camper, not in a tent).

We’re especially lucky here in Christchurch with some sensational berry farms. The great thing of course is the simplicity of dessert, a bowl of mixed berries and a good dousing of icing sugar is the sublime end to a shared dinner.

However my children lead me to believe that you can have too much of the simple berry dessert and encourage me to incorporate them in other ways. Summer pudding is an obvious one for starters and is a popular wedding dessert in this season at White Tie. We often make a Summer pud in a terrine then pour over a champagne jelly to set it. It looks beautiful when sliced and the champagne jelly just helps round off the intensity of the berries.

Eton Mess is still a fantastic dessert, we used some leftovers to make it as a quick treat at family dinner on Sunday night – berries, whipped cream and broken meringues mixed together and served in a glass. Or you could soften a tub (homemade if you prefer) of vanilla ice cream and stir through raspberries before freezing it through a little to make an easy semi freddo – add praline or nuts for another layer of texture.

But there is one supreme category winner in our house – a frozen raspberry dessert introduced to the family by my sister in law Adele Ryan. Dellie’s Raspberry and Nut Crumb pudding is so delicious it was our Christmas dinner dessert this year. The recipe also makes two, so you serve one and then have another stashed away in the freezer, utter brilliance.

It’s also wonderfully versatile, it makes two large pudding bowls or you can make little individual puddings, or a terrine tin. I’ve made individual puds using small cups lined with cling film, turned them out and covered them in Italian meringue and browned them with a blow torch for a great version of a Baked Alaska. Or you could even stir the crumb through the raspberry mixture half way through freezing for a softer spooned dessert.

Anyway, I’m sure Dellie won’t mind if I share this with you. Cook it & Love it.

FROZEN RASPBERRY AND NUT CRUMB PUDDING

BISCUIT CRUMB

150g plain flour

50g each walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds

75g brown sugar

100g melted butter

Preheat oven to 180°C. Sift flour into a bowl and add remaining ingredients. Mix well to thoroughly combine and spread evenly over the base of a baking paper lined sponge roll tin. Bake 20 minutes, remove from oven and cool. Break into crumbs with fingers.

RASPBERRY MERINGUE

2 egg whites

2 tablespoons lemon juice

450g fresh raspberries (or frozen, thaw but don’t drain, use juice and all)

225g caster sugar

300ml cream

Combine egg whites, juice and most of the raspberries in mixer bowl. Begin whisking and gradually whisk in sugar. Beat at high speed for 10 minutes until mixture forms stiff peaks. Beat cream until stiff and fold into raspberry meringue with remaining raspberries. Beginning and ending with raspberry mixture, layer in a pudding bowl with the biscuit crumbs. Freeze.