Edible Gifts Ahoy

Christmas time, apparently. At our place we've decided no presents, which is fine with me. So I'm reminiscing about previous food presents and thought I would share some possibilities for you.

I've also been planning our Christmas day menu. Food being the reason for the season (the season of berries, jersey bennes, asparagus, stone fruit, outdoor eating and mosquitoes). We're starting with the Riverstone Kitchens' port rillettes, the recipe for which was in the November Cuisine magazine. It's essentially slowish cooked tasty pork, shredded and mixed with baby gherkins, parsley, capers, red onions and then preserved in its own cooking juices and fat. A big tub for Christmas nibbles are now sitting in my fridge and in a happy combo I was able to turn the remainder into gifts - two jars were presented last night to some lucky (I hope!) recipients.

Picture here:

Pork rillettes, packaged for giving

A few years ago we made flavoured vodka as gifts. Simply infuse vodka with fruit of your choice – we did some with lemon peel (don't include any white pith) and some with cherries (we were in Otago at the time). Infuse for a week or so, then strain and pour the now-infused and probably prettily-coloured vodka into a clean bottle. I've heard this works with chillis and I bet it works really well with mandarin. Wrap a nice ribbon around the bottle and deliver to a friend in need of alcoholic cheer.

Chutneys of various sorts are always popular. My grandmother used to make marmalade for everyone she'd ever met, which is a pretty good policy when you think about it.

Make homemade peanut or walnut or almond or almost-any-nut butter. Simply blend freshly roasted nuts (roast skinless nuts for about 14 minutes depending on size at 180C, watching them carefully as they burn quickly – and remember they will continue to cook after you take them out as they're high in oil) in a blender with some oil if required. Usually you need oil, but sometimes you don't. Salt to taste. If you can't get oil to match the particular nut, use peanut oil as it's virtually tasteless and goes with everything. I use approximately 1 and a half cup of nuts to about 1 tablespoon of oil, but add it cautiously in case you don't need all of it. Blend to your preferred consistency. If you want it crunchy, fish out some chunky chopped bits before continuing to blend smoother and stir those reserved pieces back in towards the end.

Deliver to a friend without allergies!

Biscuits are always popular. I like to make them to fit in a repurposed Pringles can (see picture). Today it was brandy snaps:

Melt 3T golden syrup, 85g butter and 1/3 c sugar and stir in ½ c flour and 1T ginger. Bake teaspoon measurements of the batter at 130C for about 15 minutes (or a bit more, but watch carefully) on a non-stick baking tray. Small teaspoon measurements come out about the right size to stack in a Pringles tin as a gift. You can also shape baskets around the bottom of an espresso cup while the snaps are warm or, if you make them bigger, around a large wooden spoon handle or similar to make the traditional tubes. Serve the baskets filled with fruit and cream if you're not giving them away. 

My chocolate puddle biscuits here work well at this (make sure they are really cool before stacking them). 

The other thing that would make a good present if I could bear to part with it is my newest fun find: Hakanoa Ginger Syrup.  Their site is here.  We've been making cold drinks with it with lime juice and soda water. It's also great in a cider cocktail, again with lime juice and ice and mint leaves. This is likely to be our Christmas day opener! It's also a lovely marinade for fish = equal parts ginger syrup, sake/mirin/sherry and light soy. Beautiful.

(note both half finished!)

We've been using Crooked Cider for those ginger cocktails, but also drinking it straight of an afternoon. It's a lovely, old fashioned, crisp, cloudy cider made with real cider apples in the Wairarapa and we're big fans. See here for contact details.  They've also made a pear cider, which is equally delicious.   Both are available in Wellington at Moore Wilson's, Glengarry's, Regional Wines and other places no doubt. Lars is often at the City Market in the Herd St building on Sunday mornings doing tastings and sales. Go see him, he's lovely.

Both the ginger syrup and the ciders would make great presents. If you're lucky, your giftee will share them with you!

Have a merry and safe summer silly season. Please eat fresh, local, seasonal ingredients and be careful on the roads, for my sake and yours. We're off to Oamaru and Moeraki for eating, so I'll report back once I've rolled back into town.

Round the corner, out of sight = heavenly ribs

It's basically compulsory when traveling with me to seek out the local dish made by the local people in a tiny shop hidden out the back of a residential tower block.  Love it.  Luckily when we were in Tianjin, China recently, Banker Man was able to take us to just such a place.  He's a Kiwi who has lived in Tianjin, so knew the place well.  I promise this wasn't my idea, but it all turned out spiffingly anyway!  Twenty odd of us piled into this tiny establishment and ate whatever was placed in front of us.

The restaurant is called the Li Family Restaurant.  Here's the map so you can go there too:

 They Li family are famous amongst those who know for their pork ribs.  They are astonishing.  Ribs is probably the wrong word for Westerners as that would make us think of those spare ribs you have to gnaw at to get the meat off.  These are more like chops, cut about 2 inches (in old money) thick and meaty with it. 

The meat on these ribs was so soft that you could pull it off them with an elegant "grab and twist" chopstick movement.  The Li Family won't tell you how they make them – why would they?  But I'm guessing they're marinaded for a good day or so in a very sweet (brown sugar and molasses or treacle is my guess), lightly spiced (but not chilli or pepper, more like aniseed and coriander seeds, though it's really hard to tell!) mix. Then I'm surmising that they're cooking (with smoke?) over indirect heat in a moist environment in a barbeque equivalent for 6-12hours at a really low temperature (maybe around 100C?).  Basting every few hours.

Here's the kitchen!

No sign of the ribs here, unfortunately. 

I'm probably completely wrong about this method of this, of course.  But I'm still going to have a go at recreating it.  I've never seen anything like these ribs in NZ, but I would think that the southern Americans famous for their barbeque (Memphis, St Louis etc) might have.  I guess that the sweetness of the Li family's recipe would appeal to those Southerners – from what I've seen of their recipes with all the molasses and sugar and treacle and apple juice.  They go for moist, long, low cooking, often adjusting the temperature throughout the cooking to achieve their desired outcomes. 

Another pic, from a different angle (and a strangely romantic filter effect!):

Southern barbeque is where I'm going to start hunting for ways to replicate the dish.  I'll wait until after Pav's back, just in case I make so much I can't hide the disasters by myself!  My traveling colleague reckons they were so good he can still conjure up the taste, so he'll have to be a taste tester as well.  I'll let you know how I get on.  If it's any good. 

Photo credit: 2 photos courtesy Brett Tompkins

An Ace, a Duke, a Sow and a Camembert

It was time to catch up with Ace who has been a big support to me over the years that we've worked together, so off to Duke Carvell's for 2 for 1 on a Monday night. Now, I've had at least one bad experience at the Duke's before = basically every dish was luke warm when it should have been hot. A sure sign of a busy kitchen cutting corners. But let's give it another shot.

Ace thinks they've changed staff; I'm not sure, but they were certainly graceful hosts. We are both usually such wholesome eaters that we decided to give veges a miss for the night and go for the Pork Board and the Baked Camembert. There were actually some veges in the form of chillis (do they count?), gherkins and some fibre in the form of bread and pistachio nuts, so don't worry for us.

The Pork Board consists of 'House made charcuterie' and pork on a board is a fair description. A terrine/pate, some deep fried crumbed cheeks, crackling (!), glazed ham 'French' salami and then some. An enticing selection which we happily demolished, chillis, pistachios and all. (Before and after photographic evidence supplied)

The Baked Camembert is just that – Camembert de Normandie (au lait cru – raw milk, so not one for the pregnant or immune deficient, so we're in!) studded with slivers of garlic, allegedly splashed with wine and baked in its own box. (Now, you can do this at home, and you should. If you, do make sure the box is wooden and held together with metal not sticky tape!). More of the same salami (no complaints from us), incy wincy gherkins and long bruschetta-like bread to smear the cheese on.

There are healthier ways to eat, but not many nicer ones.

I would have liked the cheese a bit longer baked than it was, but that's a personal preference. And we certainly didn't leave any behind. (Photographic evidence once more!)

Lasting impressions:

food/menu – tasty new menu and it looks good, those that we had certainly hit the spot. Plenty of small plates for sharing, but other options too. And ours were not small at all.

service – smooth operators

noise – noisy, but that's all fine here

kids – safe adults-only zone at night, not sure about during the day

parking – there's a carpark out the front and out the back, but you should walk or take the bus so you can eat the pork!

deals – two for one food on Mondays

Redeemed!
Oh, and I used to go to drama classes upstairs back in the day!

Duke Carvell's – Swan Lane Emporium

Swan Lane

Wellington City

04 385 2240