S S M T And Wednesday.

Slack much? In all fairness though I have been wildly productive. I've eaten real food, baked lots, travelled many a kilometer, packed multiple bags, wrapped birthday presents, made a birthday card and still managed to make sure I had all of my knickers washed.

Last weekend I flew to chch (surprise surprise), made some delicious curry, ate some terrible Chinese food (so so so bad), had beyond delicious brunch, visited memory lane with a Sally Lunn and went for a micro tramp and made some tea in the great outdoors.

Potato hash and pulled corn beef at Supreme Supreme ❤️ 

I threw a roast joint in a slow cooker with all the ingredients required for a massaman curry. Served with delicious flaky paratha it was a dream. Oh and the samosas we got from the Indian store... Sweet baby Jesus they were good. 

After stealing Mum's excellent butter chicken on Monday I set out to make myself a big steaming pot of laksa for the next few days. Boy was it delicious. Although briskly walking to the supermarket this evening when I burped and some spicy laksa and mushy brocolli came back up and I had no choice but to swallow it again because I was in public. Bleughh. I pretty much made up the recipe as I went (not wanting to brag or anything). I added brocolli and frozen spinach in at the end for some green in my diet. Also I was cutting up my wedge of pumpkin when I realized I had too much so I continued to cube it all up then put half in a freezer bag and froze it. I can use it for the next time I need a few cubes of pumpkin but can't be arsed negotiating one and risking appendages in the name of laksa.

The brown bits on top are fried delicious.. Not very attractive but so so delicious. 

And well tonight consisted of me making a caramel slice, coconut shortbread and two layers of a ginger and date cake. All to take with me this weekend :/ flip. Because guess who I am going to go visit.. Haha. Much excite.

Thursday. I was in a food coma that I didn't wake up from until Friday.

The food highlight of Thursday was definitely a food coma date with my brother. Even though it wasn't hard to out rank the porridge or the defrosted, soggy Japanese curry, Malaysian with Jack was excellent. We used to always go out for food together then I guess we got out of the swing of things when he went on an exchange and we just never got back into the habit of it. Until now. 

We went to Selera in Newmarket and gorged ourselves in chicken curry, noodles and roti. Sah good.  

Anyway I guess the moral of this story is to hang out with your siblings more because they are secretly great. Although share plates get wolfed down rather quickly if you're in the least bit competitive.. 

Thats really all I have to say about Thursday. Oh I made some coconut shortbread so if the reviews come back good (aka if Dad, the shortbread connoisseur, gives it the thumbs up) I'll give it a blog. 

Sah much food

Thursday. I was in a food coma that I didn't wake up from until Friday.

The food highlight of Thursday was definitely a food coma date with my brother. Even though it wasn't hard to out rank the porridge or the defrosted, soggy Japanese curry, Malaysian with Jack was excellent. We used to always go out for food together then I guess we got out of the swing of things when he went on an exchange and we just never got back into the habit of it. Until now. 

We went to Selera in Newmarket and gorged ourselves in chicken curry, noodles and roti. Sah good.  

Anyway I guess the moral of this story is to hang out with your siblings more because they are secretly great. Although share plates get wolfed down rather quickly if you're in the least bit competitive.. 

Thats really all I have to say about Thursday. Oh I made some coconut shortbread so if the reviews come back good (aka if Dad, the shortbread connoisseur, gives it the thumbs up) I'll give it a blog. 

Sah much food

The Queen should have more birthdays

Recipe for the best ever weekend: one reasonably attractive young man, the cooking of laborious soul food with multiple bottles of wine, all mixed together in one of the most beautiful locations this country has to offer. Ok make that one very attractive young man. 

Dylan had the excellent idea to rent a 'rumpty' (his words) wee place on Air BnB in Hamner Springs for Queens Birthday Weekend. Three days holed up with no screens, no work, zero life admin, a roaring fireplace and only a single pot stove element and endless pretty scenery to keep us entertained. Oh and each other. For the first time ever I found myself attempting to do the Sunday Star Times Crossword albeit with limited success. 

Mr Dylan loves cooking as much as I do. I actually think he is better than me. What we love more than cooking for each other is cooking with each other. We made a fragrant yellow fish curry, had bratwurst with red sauerkraut in butter toasted sour dough, whipped up a delicious chicken laksa, but what really stole the show was the slow braised beef shin and mushroom tortellini made with handmade fresh pasta then tossed in browned butter then finished with Parmesan and pecorino. Holy mother of all things great. It took roughly eight hours from start to finish and it was demolished in mere minutes.

What I love most about this dish is that there was no recipe. We didn't measure anything except maybe flour for the pasta. We bought our beef shins from a proper old butchery back in Christchurch (think meat bundled up for you in newsprint). Dylan cranked up the barbecue outside and braved the cold to sear the shins. The flavour released from the surface of the meat was unbelievable. We found a slow cooker hidden in one of the cupboards and braised the meat with shallots, a carrot, thyme, red wine and stock for a few hours until it melted in the mouth. We finely chopped a big bag of mushrooms and sautéed them slowly with plenty of butter and a sprinkling of more thyme. The meat was drained and combined with the mushrooms and left in the laundry to chill - it was colder than inside the fridge out there. Dylan started mixing up the dough for the pasta and we drank wine in the lounge in front of the fire while it rested. Butter was cautiously browned and many fingers were dipped into it. Together we rolled out the pasta dough using the hand-cranked machine we packed with us and large circles were cut our using the lid of a large jar we found. We sat there at the kitchen table assembling our tortellini, Dylan making two perfect morsels for every runt one I produced. The tortellini were tossed into a pot of boiling water where they stayed until they floated to the surface. Drained and tossed in the browned butter, they were then dished out onto our two plates with shavings of parmesan and pecorino dusting the tops. 

We have made many a dinner together but I think this by far has been my favourite. Not only for it's taste and texture but for the long and relaxing process we went through to get there. The wonderful thing about Italian food is that contrary to popular belief, there are no rules. Soul food has no rules or guidelines. If you take the time and the care it will always be wonderful.