Lauraine’s blog
24 July 2014
A well-designed modern facility in the maze of roads surrounding Auckland airport stands out from the other industrial sheds. It is the Foodbowl, a state of the art resource where our people are leading with some of the world’s food innovation and development projects. With gleaming stainless steel benches, modern high tech equipment, a highly developed security system and access to experts and food scientists, it provides a national web of science and technology resources created to support the growth of food and beverage businesses.
We all hear mutterings of new foods, but the New Zealand Food Innovation Network is forging ahead helping small producers with great ideas to get some clever products into the international and local markets. As Angus Brown, manager of the Foodbowl explained, New Zealand can’t feed the world from our tiny islands, but we can provide premium products that will earn more export dollars than simply exporting the raw materials we grow so well. It is all about adding value and providing the food solutions the world seeks.
Products like the healthful beverages of the Homegrown Juice Company which are raw-cold pasteurised so that taste and nutrition are not diminished and the natural flavours seem to leap from the bottle, or Genevieve Knight’s smooth gourmet pâtés and her latest creamy Mahurangi oyster mousse, Henry McKenzie’s IAMSAUCE, a tasty seasoning sauce relatively low in salt with no additives, preservatives or added sugar and a two year best by date, and the superb Fresh As range of freeze dried fruits have all been developed here. And a host of others as both large and start-up food companies take advantage of the facilities during the development stage of their new and exciting food products.
Additionally there are experts to assist and advise with food safety requirements, documentation, packaging and export marketing. Most importantly confidentiality is guaranteed so that no-one else can gain from the intellectual property that is the result of the development process.
Food Innovation Network, funded by regional councils, central government and Callaghan Innovation, is the umbrella for work being carried out at Food Waikato, Food Hawkes Bay, the Food Pilot at Massey University and the associated Riddet Institute, and Food South Island. Each of the territories and four regional food product development centres has a different focus depending on the needs, maturity, strengths and capabilities of local businesses. Between them, they offer a complementary suite of services. The Innovation Network also works alongside Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to get our value added foods into overseas market - proudly supporting New Zealand grown and made.
1 July 2014
The Great New Zealand Cookbook, published this month, celebrates the emerging diversity in our cuisine. Leafing through the pages you will not blanch at the variety displayed in the range of recipes from 80 of our best cooks, chefs and bakers. That’s our food!
Vibrant cuisines of immigrants and travelled chefs have stamped bold influences on the way we eat. Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, Greek, Italian, Thai and Polynesian recipes inspire the fare we savour and devour every day.
I am honoured to be part of this book; it is an amazing slice and insight into the contemporary food scene of New Zealand. That's my page and there's no prize for guessing what season my recipes represent.
The team that pout this together are amazing and were such fun to work with. thanks Murray Thom Music for including me!
On sale everywhere now but please buy your copy at your local New World as they have been so generous in support of this terrific project.
1 July 2014
It was far too long since I had been to Merediths. But the thought of a special night with a special cause was a no brainer.
Michael Meredith is one hugely talented chef. His food is often quirky and always carefully thought through and delicious. His insistence on the degustation menu was our stumbling block as six or eight courses at night is quite tough when we usually only have one or two courses.
But for now on Tuesday nights, Merediths Restaurant will be supporting the Fred Hollows Foundations through "Dine by Donation" by offering a Four Course Degustation menu (cost by donation
only, beverages additional).
So we went to this stunning restaurant last week and had four 'experimental' courses of delicious food. Standouts were the clever play on a Caesar salad and the terrific duck dish pictured above.
The restaurant itself has been refined and I loved the plants, the decoration and the intimacy. A superb evening. Don't miss this opportunity to eat well and support a great cause.
to make a donation: givealittle.co.nz/cause/365eyes
Merediths, 365 Dominion Rd T 09 623 3140
15 May 2014
“Here’s a recipe that will change your life.” When I read something like that from Amanda Hesser, I take notice. The former NY Times writer (did you see her playing herself in Julie and Julia?) has a website, FOOD52, which is a treasure trove of recipes, food stuff, competitions and really knows how to connect with keen cooks.
The recipe turned out to be, wait for it: Peanut Butter Pavlova. As a New Zealander I was outraged at such a travesty. The pavlova was invented here, and I have previously published the definitive recipe in my Listener food column. Baked often by my mother, it was passed to her by my grandmother who actually baked it for the young Queen Elizabeth when she was on her 1952 tour of the South Pacific (my grandfather grew the strawberries specially.) Peanut butter in this lovely meringue concoction? Poof!
But then I noticed the recipe had been created by Alice Medrich. I love her. I met her at an El Rey chocolate dinner in San Francisco many years ago. She is the queen of chocolate cookery and a great baker. After reading my tweet that expressed such indignation, Alice contacted me. I agreed to bake her recipe before squawking anymore.
But here’s the catch. America, the land of innovation that led the world in techie stuff, and is the mother of most inventions has yet to discover metric measurement. So cooking any American recipe is fraught with difficulties. My oven does not register Fahrenheit, my scales only measure in grams, nobody knows what an inch is any longer and what the hell is a cup? Added to that my own experience tells me that cornstarch is cornflour, superfine sugar is caster sugar, parchment is baking paper, and heavy cream is probably cream. Does everyone know that?
As for peanut butter, Alice told me in a message to use smooth peanut butter, not the sweetened type. Sweeten peanut butter? Yikes! Why? Only in America. I have no idea just how our peanut butter differs from the American stuff, and I was not sure how to measure half a cup, but I boxed on.
I followed Alice’s instructions as well as I could. And they were very clear and precise. But my peanut butter pavlova looked nothing like Alice’s. It crumbled around the edges. I suspect I overmixed the peanut butter into the meringue. I may have baked it at too high a temperature. Perhaps Pic’s peanut butter, made in New Zealand with organically grown Australian peanuts is nothing like American peanut butter? Maybe recipes really do get lost in translation?
But here’s the thing. I took the peanut butter pavolva, topped with cream and persimmon slices in place of strawberries which are no longer in season, to my 91 year old mother. She adored it! She really did. The proof is always in the eating. Go Alice and Amanda!
The peanut butter recipe can be found on the FOOD52 website.
15 May 2014
For lovers of good wine, I am going to share a secret.
Last night my husband booked us to a Chablis tasting at Maison Vauron in McColl St in Newmarket. For those who don’t know this culinary destination in the back streets, this may be the fastest way to get to France without buying an airplane ticket. Jean Christophe and Scotty run a little café/wine warehouse where downstairs you can have a coffee, buy French inspired snacks, experience the most amazing selection of French cheeses and feel very Parisien. Upstairs the warehouse is stacked with a huge array of everything good that comes out of a bottle in France – wine! But not the expensive snobby stuff that is waxed on about by Robert Parker. No.
Jean Christophe and Scotty go to France several times a year and find absolute treasures from small producers in a range of prices to suit every good palate without breaking the bank. And they are such neat guys. Every so often they organise tastings like our Chablis tasting.
We worked our way through nine wines. And we learned so much about Chablis. JC is so funny, almost without knowing it. He told us Chablis is the Sacre Coeur of Burgundy – the star that shines above all else just like the famous church does over Paris. We tasted one ‘Petit Chablis’, two ‘Chablis’ three ‘Premier Cru Chablis’ and three magnificent ‘Grand Cru Chablis’ wines. They are priced from $31 to $80 and my favourite was the Denis Race Chablis Grand Cru Blanchots 2011 - a wine I could have happily sipped away on forever.
But there was more! We were served Clevedon Coast oysters in the shell to start, then one warm oyster Florentine topped with champagne sabayon. With the second flight of wines, a very generous portion of flaky ocean fresh hapuku with vegetable julienne. The third flight were the Grand Cru wines, accompanied by fabulous cheese. Oozy Chaource from Burgundy and the wonderfully savoury Comte from the Savoie.
An amazing evening. Get on Maison Vauron’s mailing list for future wine tastings, and in the meantime go visit this little corner of France at 5 McColl St, Newmarket 1023, T 09-529 0157
19 April 2014
As a food writer and food lover I get to eat a lot, and often. There are some occasions, some dinners that I wouldn’t miss for the world. The most recent was an evening filled with fun, deliciousness and some fine wine. It was a collaboration between two fine chefs; Makato Tokuyama, originally from Japan and now chef at Cocoro in Ponsonby, Auckland and Daniel Wilson, originally from New Zealand and now owner chef at Huxtable in Fitzroy, Melbourne. Daniel invited Makato into his kitchen during the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival to cook an omotenashi dinner.
Perched at the bar, I could see the chefs hard at work. Huxtable, in an area that has fast become trendy since Daniel opened his doors (he has Huxtaburger across the road, one of five sites for his excellent and ever growing custom burger bars) is cosy and small with about 30 seats. The kitchen and bar take up almost half the area and it was incredible to watch the precision and speed of the two chefs, a couple of assistants and skilled front of house staff as they plated and served seven complex, intricate and detailed courses.
First up, an Aussie tiger prawn wrapped in crisp filo, and then an intricate platter of sashimi that included scampi, octopus, trevally, oyster, paua and tuna – wow! so fresh! Next the course in a Japanese dinner that is pure comfort and one of my favourites – the savoury chawanmushi custard that was silken and smooth, with spanner crab and scallop. Following that some Ora King salmon with delicate vegetables and the surprising note of cinnamon.
Then a lovely dashi stock that was a play on spaghetti vongole, crammed with clam and diamond shell clams and the fabulous flavours of nori and shiso. The final savoury course was grilled antarctic toothfish with fabulous veggies and zesty yuzu foam. To end: soy sauce icecream and panna cotta with strawberry, chocolate, praline and some delightful lemon balm cress.
Each course was accompanied by a specially selected sake or wine (loved the Greywacke sauvignon blanc.) It was a seamless performance with such detail on each and every plate. I would love to have the evening all over again. At the very least I know I will dine at Huxtable if I return to Melbourne, and can eat Chef Makato’s food in Ponsonby regularly.
Huxtable: 131 Smith St, Fitzroy VIC, ph 03 9419 5101
Cocoro; 56A Brown St, Ponsonby, ph 09 360 0927
17 April 2014
Three weeks after our dinner at Attica, Melbourne one of the friends we had shared the meal with commented that he was still awestruck by every aspect of the experience. Attica owner/chef, Ben Shewry, the boy from Taranaki, has become one of the world’s best known chefs amongst those-who-know. He’s respected by the leading names around the globe and was championed by none less than the famous Rene Redzepi of Noma restaurant in Copenhagen. Rightly so!
I hadn’t been to Attica since I organised a dinner there during the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival about six years ago. That had been a great occasion as at the time I was a food editor at Cuisine and I persuaded Martin Bosley to cook alongside Ben. We arranged Cloudy Bay wines, the two chefs each cooked three courses of their own and some Cuisine readers even drove from NSW for that occasion. It was a fun night and the standout was Ben’s seashore dish – briny and brilliant.
This time every single detail seemed brilliant, and the restaurant seemed to have really grown up to become almost a temple of sophistication without any pretension. After a welcome glass of Champagne, we chose to go with the Eight Course Menu with Matched Wines ($305 per person.) Does eight courses sound over the top? Well it wasn’t, as we actually had about sixteen different dishes, plus a smart little pie and an exquisite ice cream, from a cart in the herb garden, served about three fourths of the way through the meal. And that herb garden at the back of the restaurant is devoted to basil – 13 varieties. I’d love to see the full chef’s garden nearby at Ripponlea.
I’m not going to go through a bite by bite account of the meal. We started with seven tiny amuse gueules, each a bite of deliciousness.
We then moved onto the “Eight Courses” and were wowed by the tastes, the textures and the loving care of each and every course. The kitchen at Attica does not torture nor transform food. The chefs get involved in growing the food in that garden, and sourcing the very best seasonal ingredients. Everything is delicate, beautifully conceived and complete with gorgeous herbs.
My favourite courses were the ‘Ten Flavours of St John’s Wort’ – five tiny tomatoes, peeled, slightly cooked and bathed in the most delicious dressing with herbs tips to garnish, ‘Cucumbers, Holy Flax, Sauce of Burnet’ which was the most perfect cucumber salad imaginable, and ‘King George Whiting in Paperbark’ where the delicate fresh fish had been topped with crab and citrus and baked in rolled up tree bark.
Service is seamless and relaxed, everything is utterly professional and there’s almost a hushed tone in the dining room as everyone seems bowled over by the occasion. The only thing I would do differently is to order a bottle of wine I loved and was familiar with, rather than go for the matched wines. They were a fairly esoteric collection, well chosen of course, but I was there for the food and that’s what I really wanted to concentrate on.
And a word of advice. Make your reservation at the restaurant for this sensational dinner well before you book your flights. Tables, especially at the weekend are pretty well booked ahead for 2-3 months!
ATTICA 74 Glen Eira Rd, Ripponlea, VIC. Phone +61 3 9530 0111
PS. That salad in the pic accompanied my beef with cherries course. Detail, detail, detail!
20 March 2014
- 2 duck breasts
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- Salt and pepper
- 2 cups baby rocket leaves
- 6 fresh ripe figs
- 50g creamy blue cheese
- 4-5 baby yellow tomatoes
- 1 lemon, zest and juice
- 3 tbsps grape seed oil
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
(or 4 tbsp Taihiki Orchards fresh fig vinaigrette)
- Small bunch of fresh mint, thinly sliced
Trim and excess fat from the duck breasts, and score the skin in a small diagonal pattern. Scatter the surface of the duck with the fennel seeds, and some salt and black pepper. Place the duck breasts, skin side down in a cold frying pan and place over a heated element. Allow the pan to come to a medium temperature and the duck will slowly render down a lot of the fat. Fry gently on the skin side for about 10-12 minutes until the skin is crisp and golden brown. Flip the breasts over and cook on the meaty side for 2-3 minutes. Remove and allow the duck to rest on paper towels. It can be served warm or at room temperature.
Meanwhile prepare the salad. Wash and dry the rocket leaves. Cut the figs in half. Cut each tomato into quarters. Crumble the blue cheese and grate the lemon zest onto a small plate.
Make the dressing by blending the juice of the lemon, oil and mustard, seasoning with salt and pepper to make it tangy.
To assemble the salad, arrange the rocket leaves on a serving platter. Slice the duck breasts thinly and arrange with the figs and tomatoes on the leaves. Scatter over the blue cheese and tip the dressing over the salad sparingly. Finally top the dish with the sliced mint and lemon zest.
Serves 4
20 March 2014
- 4 duck legs
- 2 tsps cumin
- 1 tbsp flour
- 2 tbsps olive oil
- 1 small red onion, finely sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 12 baby potatoes (perlas), cut in half
- 6 dried or fresh figs, cut in half
- 400g can crushed tomatoes in tomato juice
- 500 mls chicken stock
- 2 tbsp pitted olives
- Several sprigs fresh thyme
- Handful of fresh rocket leaves
- 1 orange, zest and juice
Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Trim all the visible fat from the duck legs and dust with the cumin and flour. Heat the oil in a heavy-lidded casserole and the brown the duck legs, 2 at a time. Remove, keep aside and add onion and garlic to the casserole. Brown very gently for 10 minutes and then add the potatoes and figs (if using dried). Sizzle for 30 seconds and add the tomatoes, chicken stock, olives, thyme, salt and pepper to taste with the duck legs, and bring to a simmer. Cover and place in the oven and cook for one hour. You can prepare the casserole to this point if you wish.
Take the casserole from the oven, remove the duck legs to a covered plate and reduce the liquid until it is thick and syrupy and there is about a cup remaining. Return the legs to the dish, add the rocket leaves with orange zest and juice (and fresh figs if using) and simmer for a further 3-5 minutes.
Serves 4
6 March 2014
Choosing to eat fresh, locally grown food that’s in season is the incontestable mantra of every thoughtful food lover. Fresh fruit and vegetables are at their most nutritious when harvested, while our local artisan food producers need every bit of recognition they can attract if they are to develop into viable profitable ventures. We’re a nation of small businesses that need local support.
But we’re also a nation where the food and beverage producers are responsible for well over 50% of our international export earnings. Australia, too, exports more than 50% of the food it produces and no doubt while not quite as reliant on that for their economy to work, it makes a significant contribution. So the brouhaha that has erupted when the two supermarket chains across the ditch (one of which, Woolworths, owns the subsidiary Progressive enterprises here) decided to start a campaign over stocking local produce and only purchasing using local foods for their home brands has had a much further reaching result than they ever imagined. A literal can of worms has been opened, many Kiwis are boycotting their supermarkets here and we’re learning far more about supermarketing practices than we ever dreamed of - things the chains probably never envisaged.
While it is easy to preach ‘buy local,’ we need to take a step back and think about the long term consequences of that. Neither New Zealand or Australia can be completely dogmatic about ignoring imported food as that is a hypocritical reaction. We should never forget the backbone of our country’s economy is the dairy industry, and our sheep and beef farmers are significant contributors too. But we live in a world where the global economy has long dictated international food production and distribution. We all enjoy internationally grown treats such as coffee, chocolate, and a host of other imported foods. We’d be devastated, and probably hungry, if we were limited to a diet solely composed of local food. Continue to eat the seasonal, fresh, locally produced food as the first choice for the household but do spare a thought for the farmers of other countries who rely on our support too.
The Australian rice industry is a fine example. Their brand SunRice has grown to be a major player on the international market, supplying rice to more than 60 countries. Apart from products available through a few small specialist rice importers, almost all the rice found on our supermarket shelves is grown in Australia. Following the ten year drought of the last decade, the rice growers are now in full production with 11 varieties of rice planted and harvested each year. Most of us are familiar with long grain and short grain white and brown rice, but red, black and Japanese rice varieties make an interesting and tasty alternative.
I will post two exciting recipes in the RECIPE section.