Chickpea Falafel

Falafel is easy. These ones are a can of chickpeas, a couple spring onions, a chili, couple cloves garlic, a big handful of parsley/coriander, salt, cumin, coriander seed and paprika to taste, blended with olive oil (about a tablespoon) until smooth in a food processor. Shaped into balls like you were making cookies, and flattened on a baking tray, then baked at 180c for about 20 minutes. Simple.

 

Some roast beetroot alongside it, a babaganoush, and some tzatziki.

Oh, and we had some cheese which needed eating, so why not?

Eat Burger

M and I hit up Eat Burger a little while back. It is always nice to see people doing burgers well.  Their fries are thick cut and tasty, the truffled aioli that comes with is well made and suits them, and their burgers are pretty damn nice.

Oh, and despite failing to take a photo of it, they do Milkshakes using Lewis Rd Creamery milk, which are damn good. Nice flavours too, if perhaps a little too on trend.

The burger above is their  'Kansas' - onion rings, mustard. Pretty good. Very nice bun. $12.50

This one is the bean burger. Looks good, tastes good, falls to bits as you eat it. Also perhaps a little too soggy for the bun, which was having structural integrity issues. $12

The sizing on these is way more reasonable than the standard size at somewhere like Goneburger. I don't think the burgers themselves are quite as good (not far off, but not quite), but I so seldom want to eat as much food as Goneburger gives you, that this would often be better.

Quinoa Salad

Quinoa is delicious. Here I just cooked a cup of it in a light stock, tossed it with feta, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, chili and herbs, and mixed it through with a bunch of fresh green beans, lightly steamed. Perfect for a warm evening.

Speakeasy - Baby Daddy Session IPA

Its watching me!

And it is delicious.

Ugly Food: Moussaka

Ugly? Yes, but damn, it tastes good.

Butter-corn Ramen

M has been wanting this for a while, but it has been annoyingly hot. We finally got sick of waiting for the weather to cool down and ate it anyway.  Shiitake mushroom broth, lots of veges, some hotpot beef in nice thin slices, and general amazingness. Oh yes.

Lamb Ribs, Anova style

Nice and spicy with a habanero dry rub, cooked for 24 hours at 57c.  Works a treat.

Coffee Cupping

Hosted by the fancy and forthcoming mechacoffee.co.nz

He has his roasts down. Looking forward to more new coffee in the Tron.

Fried Cheese! Corn Salsa!

Corn salsa, fried cheese and home-grown cherry tomatoes. Tastes like summer.

Anova Precision Cooker: Topside Steak, sous-vide style

...aka my new favourite toy. You vacuum seal your food (or zip-lock it, if you are cooking for a relatively short time & low temperature, say less than 4 hours and under 85c),

drop it into a water bath, and the marvellous machine keeps both water and food at a constant temperature for as long as you desire.

You can cook eggs to exactly the level you want. You can make sure your steaks are exactly medium-rare, without worrying about edges being overdone, or center being underdone... You can infuse spirits, make amazing scrambled eggs... It is a fun toy indeed.

 Today though, steak. Topside roast, 57c, 10 hours...

I cut the initial chunk into 2 500gm pieces for the vacuum seal and water bath. I cut one of those in half again to sear it to finish in a very hot cast iron pan.

And then, finely sliced to finish, with a corn salsa and a grilled eggplant/zucchini salad.

Yeastie Boys: Golden Age of Bloodshed

This one is a golden ale, a "Beetrooted Belgian Strong Golden Ale", according to the blurb from the Boys themselves.  The beetroot adds perhaps a bit of sweetness, but not much, and aside from that, the main thing it does is produce an exceptional colour.  The beer is nice, smooth, and a proper Golden Belgian.

Daring Bakers, June 2013: Pie!

Rachael from pizzarossa was our lovely June 2013 Daring Bakers’ host and she had us whipping up delicious pies in our kitchens.  I went for the charmingly named 'Crack Pie', an oat-crust, gooey centred beast of a thing.

Ingredients

Crust
125g unsalted butter, room temperature, divided 85gm & 40gm
5 1/2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar, divided 4 & 1½ tbsp
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 tablespoon dry milk powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (115gm) unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly
100ml cream
4 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar for dusting

For the crust: Preheat oven to 180c.

Combine larger portion of butter, larger part of the brown sugar, and the white sugar until well beaten. 

Add egg, beat that in until pale, fluffy.

Add oats, flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda. Stir to combine

Spread mixture on baking paper on tray.  Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.  Let cool completely on wire tray (about an hour)

Crumble the cookie into fine pieces.  Add remainder of butter, brown sugar, and combine

Spread into pie tray, pressing down, and building up an edge.

For the filling:  Preheat oven to 180c.

Whisk together sugars, salt and milk powder in a bowl.  Add melted butter, whisk to combine.

Add cream...

... Egg yolks and vanilla essence.  Whisk again to combine.

Pour into crust.  Bake at 180c for 30 minutes.  Drop temp to 160c, cook 20 minutes longer.

Take delicious looking pie out of oven. Let it cool

Cut slice of delicious looking pie.  Discover that it is also delicious tasting.