19 December 2010

DARINA ALLEN VISITS NEW ZEALAND

I have just spent three days hosting Darina Allen, one of the world’s true good food gurus. Darina probably needs no introduction as she’s on TV on the food channel, in our bookshops with a long list of super books, is a hard working ambassador and champion of Irish food, a dedicated leader of Slow Food and Terra Madre, and principal of the Ballymaloe Cookery School which she runs with her husband Tim in Shanagarry, County Cork. She’s also a concerned and loving mother to four adult children who are all married and all live within 15 minutes of her home, and who have so far provided Tim and Darina with seven grandchildren (the next is on the way.)

We had visited the Allens at Ballymaloe in September this year, and so had a privileged insight into their life’s work which is truly commendable (see my previous blog about our experience there, posted on 19 October.) But it was an equally good experience to move about Auckland and see the city’s food scene through Darina’s eyes. ‘Passionate’ is an overworked word, but this Irish cook is utterly passionate about organically raised food, about artisan farmers’ products, farmers markets and traditional cookery.

Her most recent book is “Forgotten Skills of Cooking; the Time-Honoured Ways are Best – over 700 Recipes Show You Why” and that title tells it all. Everything is in there that a cook should know, from traditional rice pudding, roasts and cured meats to recipes with modern twists such as crispy chicken livers with lime that I am going to have for supper tonight. But it’s the amazing extent of very helpful notes and explanations that make this book stand out above everything else I have read recently.

Darina spoke about her book, her passions and her life at Ponsonby cookbook store, Cook the Books on Thursday night and it was sad for the 30 or so people who were on the waiting list who missed out. About 60 fans (one had even driven from Whanganui) and cooks crammed into the store, sipped on Vidals wine and enjoyed treats prepared from Darina’s recipes by store owner Felicity O’Driscoll. Everyone fell in love with Darina and her passion for good food, and the store sold out of her Forgotten Skills book and several others.

I took Darina to our local New World supermarket and was impressed how quickly she managed to drill into the shelves, spotting and commenting on the many artisan products there. (Thank goodness New World Remuera ’s owner, Adrian Barkla stocks such a diverse range.) By the time we got to the check out, a simple trip to buy milk, lamb and sausages had turned into a major shopping expedition and we had local cheeses, three sorts of local organic yogurt, plenty of fruit including fresh seasonal apricots, butter and more. But all were products I was proud to see she’d spotted as good local high quality food.

We also visited two markets; the Parnell Trust farmers’ market in Parnell Rd, and the La Cigale French market. It’s slow going with Darina, as she stops and talks to all the farmers, tastes their products and makes notes everywhere. She loved everything, especially the Cathedral Cove macadamias and was delighted to meet Sue Pilkington, the leader of the local Slow Food convivium who with her son Hamish sells these Coromandel grown nuts at La Cigale. Once again we returned with bulging bags of produce Darina could not resist, despite the Allens leaving after our lunch later that day for their holiday trip around New Zealand.

We ate several meals at home, and Darina willingly helped with the preparation. She stewed apricots, adding masses and masses of sugar until they became almost jammy. She and Tim both loved the moist chewy Bavarian style rye bread we buy from Diehls bakery on Auckland’s North Shore, lovingly slathering every slice thickly with New Zealand butter. We enjoyed tiny spring lamb chops cooked on the barbecue one evening with friends (I was going to buy racks of lamb, but Darina insisted we choose the mid-loin chops with their even coating of fat – she was right, they were delicious.) And she found cream in the fridge and was quite amazed when I handed her my trusty old Swift Whip rotary beater to make whipped cream to pile onto dessert, in an eighth of the time it would have taken with the whisk she had reached for.

And as she set the table for our meals, she insisted on sea salt to sprinkle on everything. (She’d brought Maldon salt in her luggage but loved the New Zealand flaky salt from Marlborough.) The next two weeks will see Darina and Tim travelling around Central Otago (and hopefully visiting Milford weather permitting), Mt Cook, Christchurch, Hawkes Bay for the Farmers' market on Boxing Day and then travelling in a campervan through Northland which will include a return to Matakana Farmers’ Market which Darina was so impressed with on a visit four years ago that she vowed to return to again.

My husband, Murray was more than impressed with her energy and passion and told me last night he knows the secret of Darina’s success in the culinary world. “What’s that?” I asked. “Salt, sugar and butter,” he replied. He’s right about that of course, and it occurred to me that those ingredients are part of the forgotten skills of cookery in this modern age where fast and furious has tended to dominate the slow, the tasty and the seasonal food that should be at the heart of the food we all prepare. Enjoy New Zealand Darina, as we enjoy your fabulous passion!

Pic; Darina Allen at the Cook the Books store.