December / January: Magazine Recipes

While most of New Zealand enjoyed their long summer break I was toiling away on assignments (due late December and mid-January) for my second Le Cordon Bleu Master of Gastronomic Tourism paper, catching up with overseas visitors and flat tack with my day job so decided the Blog needed a holiday too.

But that didn’t mean cooking from favourite magazines or experimenting with new ideas and flavour combinations took a back seat.  Here’s a round-up of some of the magazine recipes used over the holiday season.

Christmas Day

Planning food for Christmas Day is something I thoroughly enjoy.  My family have got used to be allocated tasks or acting as sous chefs on the day.  This year we kept the menu simple:

• BBQ beef with Annabel Langbein: The Free Range Cook's spicy rub

Fragrant spicy rub

• Whole BBQ snapper stuffed with fresh thyme, garlic and limes and served with a sauce verte (Cuisine Magazine November 2015 #173)

Fresh snapper

Sauce verte

• Raw Zucchini, Asparagus and Apple Salad with Shredded Mozzarella and Israeli Couscous, an adaptation of a salad from Dish #57
• Beetroot & pumpkin salad with sumac yoghurt & pomegranate dressing from Taste Magazine #112

• And by special request from my Dad Lemon Pavlova from ‘Simply Nigella’, he had spotted in Canvas magazine, December 2015

Lemon pavlova from Simply Nigella

Comfort Food

It’s not very often that you’ll find me whipping up a beef and mushroom stew, let alone in the height of summer but with a friend just out of hospital requesting some comfort food (her partner is vegetarian) I turned to a winter issue #61 of Dish magazine for inspiration. Loosely based on a beef, mushroom and oyster dish, I omitted the oysters, doubled the amount of portobello mushrooms then late in the cooking added a can of cannellini beans to make it a complete meal, ready to reheat and eat.  And it was freezer friendly too.

Beef and mushroom stew

Milestone Birthday Celebration

Towards the end January we celebrated a very dear family friend’s 97th birthday with Rhubarb and Poppy Seed Cake from Dish Magazine #50 (recipe here).  Using the freshest rhubarb, picked straight from the garden, the lightly spiced rhubarb syrup drizzled over the cake before serving makes the citrus and poppy seed cake beautifully moist, with the yogurt and sour cream layers a welcome change from whipped cream.

Rhubarb Poppy Seed Cake with yoghurt and sour cream

Fish Tacos: Favourite Summer Dish So Far

Sticky and humid summer evenings in Auckland call for less time in the kitchen and time spent outside searching for that elusive breeze.  Here’s my take on fish tacos. Wrap the soft tacos in foil and warm in a slow oven.  Finely slice red cabbage and carrots. Pan fry snapper fillets, lightly seasoned with cumin and lemon.  Place on a bed of raw cabbage and carrots on each taco. Top with a punchy and fragrant coriander, lime and chilli mango salsa (recipe on instagram) and slices of ripe avocado.  Tightly wrap up your taco – dinner prepped, cooked and ready to eat in under 30 minutes.  Perfect for long summer evenings.

Coriander, lime and chilli mango salsa

Spicy fish tacos

Looking forward to Waitangi Weekend and cooking up a storm.

Michelle