Basil Pesto

I was recently in the enviable position - and fairly uncommon for an amateur city gardener, in my experience - of having a fairly bushy basil plant that was starting to go to seed. Basil needs a really sunny spot - and fortunately my wee garden bed gets lots of it - but only a few months ago, my basil was a forlorn little thing and had mostly been eaten up by bugs. I was on the verge of pulling it out and planting another one when suddenly it rescued itself and took off! Miracle basil! And of course when I thought about what I could do with all my basil, I immediately thought pesto. This is a super easy recipe by the free range cook herself, Annabel Langbein. Her recipe apparently makes a lot more than I ended up with but by the time I got all the basil leaves off my plant, I didn't have quite as much as I'd originally thought.

Basil Pesto

2 packed cups basil leaves - I had 1 cup
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
3/4 cup good quality olive oil - I used about 1/4 cup
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/2 teaspoon of salt
ground black pepper
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts of walnuts (optional) - I used a mix of toasted pine nuts and cashew nuts


This recipe is so simple as all you really need to do is whizz it all up in the food processor.
I used a mix of cashew and pine nuts because pine nuts are pretty expensive and cashews have just as nice a flavour. I toasted them lightly in a dry pan first. Even though I had half the amount of basil leaves, I still used the same amount of everything else, but only 1/4 cup of olive oil. I put everything except the olive oil into the food processor, blitzed it, and the added a bit of olive oil at a time while I blended it a bit slower until I was happy with the consistency - I prefer a little less oil, but you might like a bit more. Good quality olive oil is very important, to get a really nice flavour. My aunt and her partner live in Martinborough and grow their own olives which they press at the village press and I was lucky enough to be given a bottle last Christmas, so I used that.

You can store the pesto in the fridge for two weeks, or freeze it in small containers, according to Annabel. Mine only made one small container though, so I ate it over the next week on crackers, on toast, and stirred through spaghetti with some lightly friend broccoli, kale, spinach, chilli and lemon. Yum!

Huevos Rancheros

We invited my parents came over for brunch over the Easter weekend. They wanted to come visit mostly because they wanted to check out the new-ish couch we got and see our kitten, who's fast becoming a cat....oh and us. I wanted to make something for brunch, that would be filling, but wouldn't mean I had to spend too much time in the kitchen while they were here. I also had a beautiful red chilli that was ripe and ready to be picked from my garden, so huevos rancheros was where it was at.

This recipe is a Jamie Oliver one. I am a bit on-the-fence about the purveyor of pukka tukka. Some of his recipes are great and I use them over and over, others are too involved (30 minutes my arse) or have too many ingredients, some of which can be hard to find. I do have a good vegetarian rogan josh recipe of his that I've used millions of times that I'll blog about at some point. Anyway - this recipe falls into the good category - nice and simple and not a single crazy ingredient.

Huevos Rancheros - or as Jamie likes to call it Mexican Breakfast (how British)

olive oil

1 onion, peeled and finely sliced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
2 red peppers, deseeded and finely sliced
2 fresh red or orange chillis, deseeded and finely sliced
1 large dried chilli
3 fresh bay leaves
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
2 large tomatoes, sliced
6 large eggs
6 tortillas
150g cheddar cheese, to serve

My mum is not a big fan of really spicy food, so I only used one fresh chilli and instead of a large dried chilli, I used some dried chilli flakes. I also used dried bay leaves, and instead of tortillas, I served it with some fresh, sliced bread that I drizzled with olive oil and put under the grill for a couple of minutes each side. I don't think this recipe would really serve 6 people if you followed it to the letter - I used 1 and 3/4 tins of tomatoes, 3/4 of one red pepper and 4 eggs and it served 4 of us, but with no leftovers. I think you'd need another half tin of tomatoes at least to stretch it to 6 people, unless you weren't very hungry.

I started by doing the sauce before the parentals arrived, so all I had to do was add the eggs and grill the bread when they got here. Heat the oil on a high heat, add the onion, garlic, peppers, fresh and dried chillis, bay leaves and salt and pepper. Stir and cook for 15 minutes to soften and caramelize everything. I turned the heat down to medium and stirred it pretty consistently so it didn't burn or stick. Add the tinned tomatoes and break them up a bit if necessary. Bring to the boil and turn down to a medium heat and cook it until it begins to reduce down to a thick stew-like consistency. Add more salt and pepper if you need to. I took it off the heat at this point and waited for the 'rents to arrive. When we were ready to eat, I sliced one tomato (because I don't really like fresh tomato, ok) on the top and made wells in the tomato stew and cracked the eggs in. Season from a height (not too sure what the height adds to it), put the lid on and let the eggs poach for about 3-4 minutes - you should be able to see when they're set, or just give them a poke. Grill the bread or warm the tortillas while the eggs are cooking. I sprinkled some fresh parsley from my garden onto the top, took the frying pan right to the table and served the grated cheese and bread on the side so everyone could do their own.

Sometimes when I make this I also add beans (cannellini beans are my favourites), to make it a bit more substantial. Next time I'll add some chopped up chorizo when I'm cooking the onion and red pepper at the beginning - the garlicy, spiciness would go really well in this dish I think,

Indian Potato and Chickpea Wraps

I'm always on the look out for quick, healthy and tasty recipe ideas. I must admit that I don't often have the patience for food that takes a long time to prepare, especially during the week - by the time I get home from work, I am ready to eat, so anything that can go from fridge to plate in under an hour is my go-to.

I've had a subscription to Healthy Food Guide for the last couple of years, so not surprisingly, a lot of my inspiration comes from these monthly magazines. There are also heaps of recipes on their website, so if I'm looking for seasonal recipes or a healthy variation on something, that's often where I look first.

I also like to try and eat a fair bit of vegetarian food. Not only because it's tasty, I enjoy it and it's cheaper, but it's a good way to get a veggie boost and it's more environmentally friendly - we don't necessarily do Meat Free Monday, but we do try to have at least one or two dinners a week with no meat.

This is one of the latest I've made - it's really filling and super tasty.

Indian potato and chickpea wraps (from the April 2015 issue of Healthy Food Guide)

3 large potatoes
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon of oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon garam masala (I used some daal masala my sister sent me when she travelled to India)
400g can chickpeas, drained
2 tablespoons of liquid honey
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon black sesame seeds (I used regular sesame seeds)
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup fresh coriander, chopped
6-8 tortillas

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Cook the potato in boiling water until soft (about 10-15 minutes). When the potatoes are almost cooked, fry the onion in the oil until clear. Add the spices and cook for about a minute, stirring regularly. Remove from the heat. Drain and roughly mash the potatoes and add them to the onions and spices, along with the chickpeas, honey, salt, peas, cumin seeds, sesame seeds and coriander (but leave some of the last three to use as a garnish at the end) and stir to combine. I placed about a 1/2 cup of mixture into the middle of the tortilla and bring the sides in to wrap it - you can use more filling if you're making less, or you have large tortillas - I made 8 medium size ones, so we could take leftovers for lunch. Secure the wrap with a toothpick if you need to. Put them into an oven proof dish, spray or brush with a little oil, sprinkle over the leftover cumin and sesame seeds and bake for 10 minutes until wraps are crispy. Top with the remainder of the fresh coriander and serve.

The only addition I made to this recipe was a yoghurt dipping sauce I made up to go with it:

1 cup plain, natural yoghurt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon of honey
Splash of lemon juice
Fresh chopped coriander
Freshly ground pepper

I found these really filling and the spices just make it so delicious. The dipping sauce added a little spicy sweetness to it too. Next time I'd probably add some additional veggies, like spinach or even substituting some of the potato for cauliflower would work a treat too.

Review: Muse on Allen

Muse on Allen is an award winning, sort-of fine dining restaurant. I don't know if it necessarily defines itself as fine dining, but it has the sort of refined presentation and flavours I associate with fine dining. Plus, at one point we had eight glasses on our table - if that's not fancy, I don't know what is.

My boyfriend treated me to a meal to say thanks for helping him out with his recent event, A Vinyl Affair, which was pretty lovely of him. We went early on a Friday evening, at 6pm, as we were off to see a Fringe play at 7.30pm. We were seated on the mezzanine floor, at a table by the window, which would've been nicer if there wasn't a whole lot of scaffolding on the outside of the building, but hey, I won't hold it against them.

I started with a glass of crisp Bortolomiol Prosecco Superiore NV and then an entrée of seared large Atlantic sea scallops, ham hock risotto, confit squid, parmesan and parsley. The scallops were perfectly cooked and the creamy risotto wasn't too heavy - I'm not a huge risotto fan - and the saltiness of the ham with the nutty parmesan was delicious. The serving was bigger than expected too, which is always a bonus. My boyfriend had the free range chicken liver pate, port jelly, onion and balsamic and mini brioche, which I of course had a try of. It was rich but very moreish. He can't eat shellfish, so he didn't get to sample mine - not fair, I know. I also forgot to take a photo of my entrée, mostly because I was pretty hungry.

I ordered a glass of Gladstone 2012 Martinborough Sauvignon Blanc, which was very nice. I'm usually a Marlborough-all-the-way kind of Sauvignon Blanc gal, so I'll remember this excellent selection when I'm looking for a bit of a spesh bottle. This was quickly followed by my main, the pan fried market fish - gurnard - chorizo and crab ravioli, carrot and sage. This was really fantastic, particularly the ravioli which was potentially the best ravioli I've ever had - crab and chorizo is an inspired combination. The dish had sage foam which was very Masterchef. My boyfriend chose crispy skin chicken breast, polenta, corn, smoked pistachio and chicken jus, which was also pretty tasty but to be honest, I was too busy obsessing over the ravioli to take much notice of what he was having. We also had some truffled potato roasties on the side, which were probably unnecessary as the portion sizes were fine, and roasted potatoes were a bit heavy.

For dessert we shared the Whittaker's chocolate marquise, kaffir lime, pineapple, coconut ice-cream and chilli. The marquise was a bit like a cross between a rich chocolate cake and a mousse and it was decadent and amazing. The little blobs of the tart lime gel and the chewiness of the dried pineapple were perfect with the richness of the chocolate, and the coconut ice-cream tied it all together really well.

Throughout our meal, the service was attentive but not too intrusive, the courses were well timed and the waitress reminded us what was in each dish as when she brought it to the table. The atmosphere was quiet and cosy and there were mostly other couples dining,

I would definitely recommend Muse if you want to treat yourself to a beautiful dining experience but not pay super crazy prices - entrées are $19-$22, mains are $36-38 and desserts are $18-$20, which I think is pretty reasonable for the quality of food. I'll let you in on a little secret too - it's in the Entertainment Book too! Which is great if going out for a super fancy dinner isn't usually in your budget.

They've just changed the menu too - but don't worry, the ravioli and the marquise are still on there - whew!

Muse on Allen
16 Allen Street
Wellington, New Zealand

Pork Gyoza

Some girlfriends and I have been doing somewhat-regular themed pot luck dinners for a little while - and by somewhat regular I mean three in about a year. The first one we did was Spanish theme, the second Turkish and the latest one was Japenese. I'm pretty lucky to know a bunch of awesome cooks and everyone puts in a lot of effort for these sort of evenings to make something original and delicious, that everyone will enjoy. We always have way too much food. And probably way too much wine, but that's another story,

I chose to make gyoza (Japanese dumplings) and a cucumber salad. I've never made gyoza before, but I love to eat them when I eat at Japanese restaurants.

What I like about this recipe is that it's easy to find all the ingredients - you do need to get the gow gee wrappers, but I just went to an Asian supermarket and asked for dumpling wrappers. I still have no idea what gow gee wrappers are and whether that's what I got or not.

Pork Gyoza

400g lean pork mince
1 cup finely shredded cabbage
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
3cm piece ginger, peeled and grated
2 garlic cloves, crushed
30 gow gee wrappers
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
sliced spring onions to serve

For the dipping sauce:

1/3 cup teriyaki sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Put the mince, cabbage (I shredded mine using the food processor to get it really fine), sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger and garlic in a bowl and combine, I found it was easiest to just use my hands. I didn't do it this time, but I think the addition of some fresh herbs, like coriander, chives or parsley would be really good. Lay out a few wrappers on the bench about put about 1 heaped teaspoon of mince mixture in the middle of each wrapper. Brush the edges with a some water and folded them over and pressed the edges together. Super easy!

I cooked them when I got to the dinner venue, so they'd be nice and fresh. Heat half the vegetable oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. I turned the heat down to medium and fry as many as you can fit in the pan for a couple of minutes until the bottoms are nice and crispy. Then add half a cup of hot water and put a lid on and let the dumplings cook for about 4-5 minutes. Add more water if you need to, but I found it was pretty much the right amount and had almost completely evaporated by the time they were cooked. When they're ready, just scoop them out and pop them on a plate.

For the dipping sauce, combine the teriyaki sauce with the sesame oil and give it a stir, and then slice the spring onion over the top and you're ready for delicious Japanese noms.

The gyoza together, The more yellowy ones are the prawn gyoza
my friend made ingeniously with wonton wrappers when she couldn't
get dumpling wrappers

The cucumber salad never eventuated because I forgot - I took all the ingredients with me but didn't put it together - whoops.

In case you were interested, also at the dinner (there were 7 of us) we had sushi, prawn gyoza, a crunchy salad with beef, salmon fillets with a wasabi mayonnaise, karaage (basically deep fried chicken) and a really amazing green tea cheesecake. Everything was so delicious and I'm already looking forward to the next time. Any suggestions on a theme?