Kiwisizzler

Potato Roesti with Hot-Smoked Salmon & Wild Mushroom Relish

Rare Beef, Salsa Verde, Ciabatta Toast

The Dining Room

Thai Asparagus & Feta Risotto

Beautiful Ceiling!

Smoked Mackerel & Sour Cream Mousse and Basil Crisp

Baby Asparagus Wrapped in Prosciutto Crudo with Saffron Mayonnaise

Pickled Wild Mushrooms, Quail Egg, Watercress Caviar

My team and I recently catered a VIP canape function for our CEO at the Queen Mother’s former residence. What an amazing opportunity! The building is as pristine as if she had departed us only yesterday. It is full of amazing artwork, wall and ceiling decorations and paintings and is kept beautifully.

Our spec was that the canapes were for VIPS including the grandson of Winston Churchill and that they had to be perfect. Needless to say, they went down to a fantastic response and we loved every minute of it.

Salsify is also known as scorzonera, black root, vegetable oyster or goats’ beard and is a member of the dandelion family. Both the leaves and root are edible with the root having a black skin and creamy white flesh, similar to parsnip but much longer in length.

It is thought that salsify originated from Spain and it is common throughout southern Europe. It is delicious served steamed, roasted or boiled and has a mild oystery flavour.

To prepare salsify, wash and then peel. To prevent oxidisation the peeled root should be immersed in acidulated water – that is water with a little lemon juice or vinegar added.

Singaporean Architecture

Singapore. Beautiful tree-lined boulevards. Fancy cars. Perfectly clean streets. Rules, rules and more rules. A perfect blend of culture and food from all over Asia.

Jakarta. Concentrated. Busy. Traffic. Smelly. The extremely poor co-existing with the affluent. Strong flavours and tradition running through its veins.

These two neighbours are, on the surface, like chalk and cheese.

Singapore is the ultra-modern city of the future…led by rules but constantly evolving, both in architecture and in culture. It is a city that truly never sleeps. Even some of its massive shopping malls are open 24 hours and you can always find a great meal any time of day or night by visiting one of its distinct districts such as Little India or Chinatown. If you think of any aspect of Asian food you will find it in Singapore. From nasi lemak to fish head curry, Singapore has it all.

Baby Mandarins

Jakarta, on the other hand, seems to be trying to be an alternative to Singapore. It has all the beautiful architecture of Singapore but concentrated in the business districts or around some of the more posh suburbs where there are huge apartment blocks sitting on foundations of massive mega-malls. However, if you find yourself travelling between the rich areas you will inevitably find yourself snarled up in a traffic-jam on a motorway or boxed in pot-holed carnage in the slums. Food-wise there is no major difference between the different classes. For one who was brought up on predominantly western food, Indonesian food is like taking a bungy jump blindfolded. You just say yes and hope for an amazing experience!

Temple Silhouette

The cuisine is what brings these two prime foodie destinations together. While on a fleeting visit recently I made a point of not saying ‘no’ without good reason and letting everyone else choose what I should eat. I am most-fortunate in having a wife whose family comes from Indonesia which means I now have relatives in Jakarta. They treated me like a star!

Kopi Luwak, as served

The food itinerary began with samples of jackfruit icecream and durian icecream. For those of you not familiar with durian, it is a large, thorn-covered fruit the size of a watermelon. It has a very distinct and pungent aroma and taste – like the marmite of fruit…either you hate it or love it. We then took the opportunity to try some surprisingly pleasant avocado smoothie and some ‘Kopi Luwak‘. At the equivalent of £7 a cup this stuff doesn’t come cheap; but as the most rare coffee in the world it has to be justified. To sum it up, the ‘luwak’ is an animal that likes to eat the red berries surrounding coffee beans. As it cannot digest the bean itself, the bean is fermented in the luwak’s stomach and excreted. It is then collected from the forest floor and processed in the usual manner. Yummy!

To accompany the coffee we had a selection of sweets and savouries including croquettes (reflecting the Dutch history in Indonesia), and puff pastry balls similar to choux buns filled with banana and cream with chocolate drizzle. After meeting with more of the family I was treated to a fine silk ‘batik‘ shirt. These shirts are very traditional and are worn to state banquets and other important events. Speaking of banquets, we headed to a traditional Indonesian restaurant where it was all laid on for us. We were joined by the rest of the family so it was a great chance for me to meet everyone and for Caroline to get reacquainted.

The Family & The Feast

Among some of the fine dishes we sampled were chilled coconut drinks sweetened with fruit syrups, a crazy-looking fried fish dish, crispy calamari, oxtail soup, prawns, chicken satays and lots of rice. While these may not seem to be too exotic it was the particular spices and sambals that gave the dishes their distinctive and special flavours and aromas.

The following day we visited a food court (food court = clean food!) for some more traditional eats. We enjoyed beef rendang, rujak juki (vegetables in peanut sauce, similar to gado gado), pempek (charred fish cake), longtong sayur (vegetable curry), Gong Xi Fa Cai cake (New Year’s cake) and kacang medan (crisp peanuts coated with tapioca flour, eggs and spices).

Snakeskinfruit

Dinner consisted of a visit to a Chinese noodle restaurant where we ate some superb handmade dumplings and succulents noodle broths. For a delicious, refreshing dessert that night we were made some teler – a sweet, wet, soup-like dessert of coconut, palm sugar, jackfruit, avocado and kolang kaling, a delicious fruit made into a sweet jelly-like candy. We ate this with some fresh snakeskin fruit and golden passionfruit.

Teler

Following our short excursion to Jakarta we headed to Singapore…the city of perfection. Staying with friends of the family we were treated to some absolutely succulent baby mandarins, rambutan, Chinese peanut biscuits, krupuk (Indonesian prawn crackers), not-so-traditional cheesecake and a delicious western-style fruitcake. For dinner we headed out to Little India and indulged in the obligatory fish head curry, complete with eyes (Mmmmmmm…….fish eyes) served on a banana leaf with plenty of rice, vegetable curries and a deliciously light and fluffy garlic naan. The following afternoon we indulged in a sitting of Chinese dim sum, those tasty morsels which came in the form of yet more dumplings, glutenous rice, abalone and pork rolls and my personal favourite – char siu bau…steamed roast pork buns.

For dinner that night we joined two of my wife’s cousins and one of their daughters for a special meal at Din Tai Fung, voted by the New York Times as one of the world’s top ten restaurants. While this is not a fine dining restaurant, they do amazing noodles and dumplings which are all made by hand and to order. Yet another great experience. We complimented the meal with a trip upstairs to the food hall where we had some moreish steamed coconut and palm sugar buns and a sweet coconut ice with jelly. This meal topped off a fantastic few days of sensory awakenings which centered around new experiences and distinct flavours. For anyone who is after a truly memorable culinary adventure, visit Singapore for a bit of everything or dive into Indonesia where there is something new around every corner!

I love tomatoes. They are one of the things I look forward to most in summer and I always grow half a dozen varieties each year. This year I grew around 25-30 plants with varieties such as Money Makers, Golden Sunrise, Tigerella, Strawberry tomatoes and Cherry tomatoes all doing very well. Last week I was picking 500g+ each night after work…very satisfying.

One of my foodie childhood memories is making tomato relish with Mum so I’ve decided to have a bash and share my recipe.

Enjoy!

1.5kg tomatoes – quartered and ‘eyes’ removed

3 large onions – chopped

1.5 cups malt vinegar

1.5 cups demerara sugar

1.5 Tbsp mustard powder

1 Tbsp hot curry powder

½ tsp chilli powder

2 tsp salt

1½ Tbsp cornflour

1. In a large, heavy-based saucepan simmer the tomatoes and onions over a low-medium heat until they have released their liquid and reduced by around half. Stir frequently. This will likely take around 1-1½ hours.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and lower the temperature to a very gentle simmer.
3. Continue cooking for around 2 hours until the relish has reduced by around 1/3 and thickened slightly.
4. Mix the cornflour with a little water and add to the relish.
5. Simmer a further 5 minutes.
6. Store in sterilized glass jars until needed. For best results leave the relish to develop and integrate its flavours for a few weeks before consumption.

How can anyone look at a spear of asparagus  and not get excited? A flacid, wrinkled, out of season spear imported from South America doesn’t do it for me but with May being the start of the British asparagus season, I can’t help but feel enlivened!

My early memories of asparagus take me back to 1980′s New Zealand when, at church morning teas, there was always a plate of the innocous tinned asparagus wrapped in a strip of plain white bread. Not something to write home about! Thankfully I joined the New Zealand Chefs’ Association once I embarked on my career and was invited to an award luncheon. While I was not in line for a gong, spoon or paper weight, I was to experience a shift of perception regarding stinky-pee ‘sparrow’s guts’. This came in the form of  seven perfectly steamed spears of bright green goodness, wrapped in crisp pancetta and draped in a velvet curtain of hollandaise sauce.

What a revelation! It was sweet, flavoursome and crunchy with the saltiness of the pancetta seasoning to perfection, to be cut by the gentle acid of the hollandaise. From then on it has become a love affair with this ultimate seasonal vegetable. Asparagus, both green and white, finds its way onto nearly all my Summer menus and it has proved a fail-safe dish that sells more consistently than practically any other vegetable.

Benefits

Did you know that asparagus is regarded as a ‘super food’?

Aside from having amongst the highest levels of folic acid of all vegetables, asparagus also rates as a heavy-weight fighter of heart disease and cancer, as well as boosting your immune system. It is also a good source of potassium, dietary fibre and rutin, an antioxidant that helps to prevent free-radicals forming.  Amongst other benefits, asparagus may also boost your sex drive, is a source of vitamin C, is a mild diuretic helping to detoxify the body and is great for weight loss with less than four calories per spear.

What do I do with it?

The preparation of asparagus dates from Greek, Roman and Egyptian times where it was bolied when in season and dried for the off-season. Nowadays it is available all year round through importing in the off-season but is infinitely better when freshly picked in it’s prime. To check for freshness, the tips of the spears should be pointed, firm and not at all mushy. The bottoms should not be too woody – this mainly happens late in the season. Grip the tip and bottom of the spear and gently bend until it snaps naturally. Discard the bottom (or use for asparagus stock for a risotto or soup) and steam the tip for 2-3 minutes or until tender but with a satsfying crunch. If using for a salad, plunge the cooked spears into iced water immediately after cooking, otherwise serve immediately.

Steamed asparagus is perfect with a little sea salt and fresh garlic; blanketed under hollandaise sauce; dressed in olive oil with shaved parmigianno reggiano or in a risotto or soup. It is also fantastic chargrilled, served in a salad or wrapped in pancetta or bresaola.

When recently asked to write an antipodean canape menu to match with a selection of fine Kiwi and Aussie wines, I couldn’t resist putting ‘Asparagus in Bread’ on it, albeit with a twist. Here’s my version:

Asparagus & Aioli Rolls – serves 4

8 spears of asparagus

4 slices medium white bread

100ml aioli

1. Trim the asparagus slightly longer than the diagonal width of the bread. Steam 2-3 minutes and refresh immediately in a bowl of iced water. Allow to cool and drain well, patting dry on a paper towel.

2. Lightly spread the aioli on the bread, right to the edges. Remove the crusts of the bread.

3. Place the asparagus in the bread on the diagonal and roll up.

4. Leave the rolls on a tray with the loose flap of bread on the bottom. Cover with a damp tea towel until ready to serve.

5. Cut the rolls in half and serve.