Garlic salted baked potatoes, American style fishcakes, silverbeet and cabbage.  For pudding we have apple and quince crumble with a generous helping of whisky cream or maybe a slice of my grape and almond cake?

As usual we are going to have a great day at the market and I have so much lovely food to cook and share.  Have a great weekend.

 

AMERICAN STYLE FISH CAKES

These fish cakes remind me of my travels through the states.  You can add any type of fish, shellfish and they go great with a tangy tomato salad.

Serves 4

Ingredients

100g butter 1 medium onion, finely diced 1 stick celery, finely diced 500g skinless monkfish, red cod, gurnard ⅓ cup cream 1½ cups dried bread crumbs, or gluten free crumbs 3 Tbsp mayonnaise 2 Tbsp dill, finely chopped 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice 1 Tbsp capers, roughly chopped 1 tsp lemon zest ½ tsp Kakanui chilli sauce 1 egg salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste ½ cup cornmeal

Method

Heat 3 tablespoons butter in medium sized pot, add onions and celery and cook, stirring, until soft, 5–6 minutes. Add fish and cream and bring cook over medium-high heat until fish is cooked through, 6–8 minutes. Let mixture cool for 15 minutes.

Flake fish in the skillet with a fork, then transfer mixture to a large bowl. Add bread crumbs, mayonnaise, dill, mustard, lemon juice, zest, chilli sauce, egg, and salt and pepper. Toss mixture together until well combined. Shape fish mixture into 12 even sized cakes. Dredge each patty in cornmeal; set aside in refrigerator for 30 minutes on grease proof paper–lined baking sheet.

Heat 3 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon oil in a large fry pan, over medium heat; add 6 fish cakes and cook, turning once, until golden, 8–10 minutes. Keep warm in oven and repeat with remaining butter and oil if necessary.  Add fish cakes.

QUINCE AND APPLE CRUMBLE WITH WHISKY CREAM

This dish was brought together whilst admiring the magnificent quince and apples available at the market and by sampling whisky and thinking that this would be a fantastic dessert for any night.

Serves 4-6

ingredients

4 Quince, peeled and cut into chunks

4 apples, peeled and cut into chunks

1 star anise

1 cinnamon stick, snapped

75 g  sugar

For the crumble topping

225 g  plain flour

115 g  butter

100 g  sugar

a pinch of ground cinnamon

Cream

300ml fresh whipping cream

50 ml (or more) The New Zealand Whisky Collection (Cyrils singlewood)

1 Tbsp icing sugar (optional)

Method

Place the quince and spices in a heavy-based saucepan. Add just enough water to cover the quinces. Bring to the boil, then mix in the sugar. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Uncover and increase the heat. Simmer the quince uncovered until the liquid thickens into a syrup, around 10 minutes, add the apple and cook for a further 10 minutes or until all the fruit is tender. Transfer the cooked fruit to a buttered ovenproof dish, discarding any cloves and cinnamon sticks. Add a couple of spoonfuls of the syrup.

Preheat the oven to 190°C

To make the topping, place the flour in a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles crumbs. Mix in 75g of sugar. Spread the topping mixture over the cooked fruit. Mix together the remaining sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the crumble. Bake the crumble for 30 minutes until golden brown.

Whisk the cream with the icing sugar until softly whipped.  Fold in the whisky or drizzle a little over the cream once it has been spooned over your warm crumble.

 

SILVERBEET BRUSCHETTA

 

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

400g Swiss chard (silverbeet)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, 1 sliced thinly, 1 cut in half

Salt and freshly ground pepper

4 thick slices good quality bread

Lemon wedges for serving

Method

Stem the chard, and wash the leaves, drain well. Cut the stems in small slices and blanch. Blanch the stalks in salted boiling water for one to two minutes until tender, add the leaves and cook for a further 1-2 minutes. Drain the chard and cool down on a tray lined with a clean cloth.  Once cool squeeze out excess water.

Heat up a fry pan and add a drizzle of olive oil, add the thinly sliced garlic and cook gently until it goes a light golden brown and gives off a nutty aroma (about 30 seconds). Add the cooked chard (stalks and leaves), and toss together for about a minute. Remove from the heat, season lightly with sea salt flakes and cracked pepper.

Lightly toast the bread, and rub with the cut garlic. Toss the chard with the lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. Spread over toast and if desired add a little left over roasted salmon and a wedge of lemon!

 

GRAPE AND ALMOND CAKE

This is pretty much my friand recipe but when made into a cake it adds a wonderful moist texture.  It is wine harvesting so any petite wine grapes will burst with flavour into this cake.

Serves 10

Ingredients

150g butter, melted

2 cups sugar

¾ cup ground almonds

½ cup gluten free flour or plain white flour

Pinch salt

5 egg whites, at room temperature

1 cup grapes, muscat or pinot are delicious

2 Tbsp sugar for dusting of cake

Method

Preheat oven to 170C

Grease a 20cm removable bottom tin well with butter.

Begin by melting butter on the stove over moderate heat until the butter starts to foam and go a light brown colour with a nutty aroma. Set aside

In a large bowl add sugar, almonds, flour and salt and mix together. Add the egg whites and mix lightly to combine.  Stirring constantly gently pour in the melted butter and continue mixing until well incorporated.

If possible let the batter sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour (this will allow the batter to thicken). Pour into prepared tin and sprinkle over the grapes, finally sprinkle over the 2 Tbsp sugar and bake for 35 minutes or until the middle has firmed up and the surface has a crust.

Remove and cool completely before cutting.

This cake will keep for up to 3 days and the batter will keep between 5-7 days.

 

GARLIC SALTED POTATOES

Cooking in salt not only imparts flavour it assists with encrusting the potatoes and almost cooking them in a steam/bake method. You will be surprised with their moist results.

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

400g coarse salt

50g garlic salt

4 cloves garlic

2 sprigs fresh rosemary, thyme or bayleaves

500g baby potatoes

Method

Preheat your oven to 200C

Scrub the baby potatoes. If you like, you can cut some of them in half, so that you have roughly even-sized pieces. Dry the potatoes well.

Scatter your ovenproof dish with a thin layer of salt. Lay the potatoes on the salt layer, cut side down for any that have been cut in half, and allowing a bit of room between each spud. Switch to a larger dish if your potatoes are squashed up against each other.

Cover the potatoes with enough salt to cover them completely and bake for around 45 minutes to an hour or until the flesh is soft throughout. To test, just poke a small knife through the salt crust and into one of the spuds, it should slip through easily.

Dig the little potatoes out from their salt bed, dust off any excess salt and enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alison would like to thank the following vendors for their outstanding produce

ETTRICK GARDENS – silverbeet

THE NEW ZEALAND WHISKY COLLECTION – Cyrills singlewood masterblend whisky

GILBERTS FINE FOODS – fresh baked goods

ROSEDALE ORCHARDS – apples and quince

HARBOUR FISH – fresh white fish

KUTASH ORGANICS – garlic products (salt)

JANE FIELD HYDROPONICS AND PEONIES – fresh dill

HARWARDEN ORGANICS - grapes