THURSDAY: Food Memories

Growing up, seafood was a rarity in our house. We lived right inland, over an hour to any beach, Dad wasn't the fishing type and lets face it, feeding seafood to a family of six would be a very expensive exercise! On the rare occassion we were given some fish, I remember Mum making this delicious and simple fish dish, always accompanied by rice. Its probably been 10 years since i've had it and it has stuck in my mind. I've asked Mum for the recipe a few times, but always forgotten to follow her up. Last night, knowing I had fish to cook, but not wanting the frequented potato to accompany, I thought, "stuff the recipe" i'll just work from memory. And so came 'Mums Fish' with rice and salad.




And heres the recipe:

400g terakihi fillets (or other firm fish)
1 red onion, sliced
1 Tbsp wholegrain mustard
juice of 2 lemons
1 cup cream (or evaporated milk with 1 tsp cornflour)
salt & pepper
Cut fish into large chunks and put in a bowl. Add onion, mustard and lemon juice. Mix together well and leave to marinate for about 2 hours.
Heat a little oil in a hot pan and add fish & marinade. Cook for a few minutes, then add the cream. Simmer for 5 minutes or until cream has thickened. Season well and serve on a bed of basmati rice, with salad to accompany.

Have a wicked weekend everyone.
Tamara xx

TUESDAY: Garfield's Favourite Meal

Yup, thats right, tonights dinner was Lasange.




Sheets of lasange, layered with beef ragu and vegetables, topped of with a cheese (bechamel) sauce and accompanied by fresh salad.

A time consuming meal to make, but well worth the effort.
Tamara xx

MONDAY: Dreaming of Summer Days

Our lovely warm spring days seem to have disappeared, leaving us with rain, wind and bitter cold. :( With summer coming within reach so fast, I decided to ignore the reversal of weather last night, so instead of returning to winter comfort food, I tempted summer with a light chicken pasta full of chilli & citrus flavours, accompanied by good, crusty bread.




My Chilli Citrus Chicken Pasta is a favourite in our house. You can find the delicious recipe here. Tonight I added lots of baby spinach to add some 5+ A Day.

Can't wait for summer.
Tamara xx

SUNDAY: 'Ave an Avocado

Yay its avocado season again. No more ridiculously expensive prices and more creamy, green Avocado. To celebrate I dined on Tomato & Avocado Toast for Sunday lunch. Mmm




One of my fave thing to do with avocado is make a salad of just avocado and feta. So good!
Tamara xx

FRIDAY: Spring Has Arrived :)

Clear blue skies, warming air, windows down, sunnies on, clear, calm blue ocean. These are the wonderful things that made my day yesterday. A trip round all my fave "foodie" places reminded me of how much I love Wellington. Then with my grocery bags full of delish kai, I headed home for a beer (Corona) and a BBQ, surf and turf style.




Premium Rump Steak, Big Aussie Prawns (marinated in garlic & lemon juice), new season scallops with new potatoes, and spring Asparagus.

Oh how I love Spring.
Tamara xx

THURSDAY: Dinner Out of a Packet??

At Moore Wilsons the other day, Shaun came across some packages ready made risottos and soups that looked rather tasty, especially for ready made meals. On the search for tasty lunch ideas that don't involve driving to McDonalds, or consuming curry five times a week, he decided to get one and see how it tasted. So last night we trialled it for dinner. Lemon, Pea & Cream Risotto.

The Results: Damn tasty, actually.



The Brand: Naked Organics. All ingredients 100% Organic and 100% Tasty
Tamara xx

WEDNESDAY: An old favourite on a new continent

In this house, we love homemade burgers, but they can be a bit repetitive. So with my latest middle eastern food craze and some inspiration from Jane Lawsons new book, Grub, last night we dined on these:




Middle Eastern Lamb Burgers
A tasty lamb mince pattie filled with cumin, cinnamon and paprika, salad and mint infused cucumber with beetroot chutney and tahini cream all upon a Turkish Pide.

And damn it was go-od!
Tamara xx

TUESDAY: Shank 'Em

100% Pure Kiwi Comfort Food




Slow roasted lamb shanks served atop Potato Mash with Petit Pois and Onion and Rosemary Gravy. Delish!

Tamara xx

MONDAY: A meal Jamie would be proud of

Jamie Oliver that is, one of my favourite celebrity chefs.



From his 'Happy Days' cookbook, I was inspired to make Penne Cabonara, with a few changes of course. No penne in the house, so lets swap spaghetti and to boost up the flavour lets add some tender, sweated onions and fried, chopped mushroom. Mmm.

To counteract the richness of the meal, I served a green salad, dressed with a sharp vinaigrette, mixed together in Jamies 'fairy fingers' method.

Now thats some pukka tukker!
Tamara xx

SUNDAY: A Bowl of Warming Soup

After an 'fun' afternoon of severe stomach cramps and a trip to the busy Accident & Emergency, cooking up a scrummy dinner was not on the list of priority for me. Instead with still mild cramping, a headache and tiredness, all I wanted was a quick, healthy dinner that didn't need me to cook it and then to crawl into bed.




Luckily the day before, I had whipped up a big pot of Pumpkin Soup for lunches the coming week. So my darling fiancee heated me a bowl, dolloped it with greek yoghurt and served it to me with toast soldiers.

Great food for when you are down!
Tamara xx

SATURDAY: A Picnic in the Park

Spring is my favourite time to visit Wellington Botanic Gardens. Tulips in bloom, Magnolias adorning the otherwise bare trees, the air warming up. So what better way to spend a sunny, but still crisp, Saturday afternoon, than enjoying a picnic in beautiful garden surrounds?

Baguette served with chicken, salad leaves, tomato, camembert (from Kapiti Cheese), fruit and choc chip cookies.

Some pics of the gorgeous gardens:

Ciao for now...

Tamara xx

FRIDAY: Morrocan Fish 'n' Couscous

Wow today went by fast, as is the way when your not at work. I looked up and suddenly it was 7pm and there was two hungry bellies to fill. Looking through my newly reorganized cupboard, I settled on couscous, but what protein to include? Not enough time for beans to soak and cook, lamb was planned for dinner tomorrow night, not a lot of quick cook meat in the freezer. So I decided on fish. And came up with Fish 'n' Couscous, a Morrocan take on fish n chips! (Morrocan and Middle Easter are my latest culinary phases).




Garlic flavoured couscous 'jewelled' with semi-dried tomatoes, courgette, red onion, olives and parsley. Morrocan spice coated fish, folded through.

Unfortunately my preserved lemons are not quite ready, so I was unable to add them :(

A quick, tasty meal thats a little different. And it sure filled the spot!
Tamara xx

THURSDAY: Organic State

Today I faced the massive task of cleaning and sorting my pantry. With way to many half used packets of thing I forgot that I even had, it was high time that I organised my pantry in a way that I could easily see what was avaliable, and what was running low. It was also the perfect time to ditch those ingredients that had been a sitting for just that bit too long. The task actually turned out to be incredibly fun and I found so many interesting ingredients that will liven up my cooking, now that they are on display every day, but what surprised me the most, was just how many of my ingredients were actually organic. And that got me thinking about the state of organics in NZ. Many people lament that the selection is to small and that the price is way to high, but as far as I can see, these are all just excuses! While we many not have the huge Wild Oats and Wholefoods organic stores of the UK & the US, we actually do have an amazing range of organics avaliable to us. In certain productr ranges, the ammount on offer in organics is often far larger than what you could ever find in a chain supermarket! And as for the price, as of late I have found so many organic products that have prices the same, or often lower, than those items produced in a non-organic way. So for now, i'm sick of hearing people complain that organic is only for the rich! Its not!



My new, amazinly organized, mostly organic pantry!

A few notes:
I based my cupboard reorganize on an article in the July issue of HFG which can be found here.
My Organic shop of choice is Commonsense Organics, which have a number of stores around Wellington, NZ.
The containers I used to sort (other than the few Tupperware pieces) are just the plastic containers your are often given at Chinese and Indian takeaway places. I purchased these in bulk (50 containers for around $8.00) at Moore Wilsons. Alternatively, Gladware, would do well.

So if your cupboard is in dire need of an overhaul, set 1 day aside and you'll find its actually quite fun!
Tamara xx

WEDNESDAY: Takeaway Treats @ Home

Shaun and I both love kebabs, my favourite has always been Falafel, as has Shauns in more recent times. But realising our 'healthy' takeaway treat is in fact deep fried (the falafel that is), prompted us to make our own healthier version at home, which after all is really quite easy, with all the neccesary ingredients (including sauces) staple items in our household. So here is our homemade version of Falafel Kebabs:



(Not the best pic, sorry)

Falafel (dry fried in a pan) with lettuce, onion, carrots, sauced up with tahini, garlic yoghurt and sweet chilli, all wrapped up in a gourmet sundried tomato and basil wrap.

Thats a wrap.
Tamara xx

TUESDAY: Apologies

Sorry for the lack of updates of late. To celebrate our 3 year anniversary, Shaun & I popped up to Taupo for a lovely break, and then on our return spent a night with my family, who has just returned from 9 months in Europe. Between that and the fact that our computers been on the blink, I just haven't had the chance to post. But now i'm going to catch up with postings of some of the meals we ate during my time away from my precious computer!

First up, a lovely breakfast in Taupo at the Replete Food Company. I had the 'Complete Replete Breakfast' of Roasted Field Mushrooms, Poached Eggs, Grilled Foccacia, Honey Cured Bacon & Tomato Relish (pictured below) whilst my carnivourous (and mushroom-hating) fiancee indulged in the 'Big Breakfast' of Honey Cured Bacon, Sausages, Hash Browns, Poached Eggs, Grilled Foccacia & Tomato Relish.





The food was definately lovely, but the coffee was, in my humble opinion, terrible.....and the fact that the coffee didn't arrive until we had nearly finished our meal was what I would call downright bad service. Next time i'd just order a juice. (Oh and carnivourous male complained not enough bacon, but he loved their sausages!)

What is your favourite breakfast treat (mine? Eggs Bene with Spinach for sure)
Tamara xx

MONDAY: A Light Dinner

Shaun and I are both off work this day, just taking some time out to spend together and celebrate our 3 year anniversary, so we'll be a wee bit naughty this week, indulging in cooked breakfasts, and lunch and dinners out. Today to start off we had a bacon, mushroom and spinach omlette, followed by BK lunch (so naughty) and to fufill Shauns fatty craving, sausage rolls for afternoon tea. After all those calories, dinner needed to be a lighter affair with fresh tastes and some veges. Along comes Linguini Primavera.




I'm not sure how traditional this is, but I wanted a simple pasta dish to show off the new season spring produce.....and the very first of the ASPARAGUS! It is snow peas, courgette, asparagus with linguini, parmesan and pine nuts, drizzled with garlic infused oil.

A perfect meal for the beginning of spring, hurah!
Tamara xx

SATURDAY: A True Kiwi Dinner

A Roast followed by the Great NZ Institution, the Pavlova.

I once again forget to take pics of dinner (were at the in-laws) but we had a delicious roast pork with roast potato and kumara, cauli, crakling, gravy and apple sauce.

Dessert was a lovely crunchy-outside, marshmallowy-inside pavlova, topped with whipped cream that had frozen raspberries folded through and topped off with a crumbled flake.



So damn good.......
Tamara xx

FRIDAY: Takeaway Night

After my late night out on Thursday, I was just a wee bit tired, which made my day at work drag on and on. So when Shaun suggested his favourite, Chinese Takeaways for dinner, I jumped at the idea of just relaxing and not having to cook.




Our favourites for chinese are always Sweet & Sour Pork, Combination Fried Rice and Wontons. Especially Wontons!

The only place we buy our chinese from is Golden Key Takeaways in Maungaraki. Its a 20 minute drive from home but well worth it, and luckily our in-laws live in Maungaraki, so we just chow down at their house.

Tamara xx

THURSDAY: A night at the Ballet

I had a lovely night last night, going to see the Ballet (Cinderella) with my Mum who has just got back from Europe. Beforehand we went out for Dinner to Zico, and italian restaurant in Wellington. I had the Quail on Truffled Tagliatelle while Mum had Lamb Cutlets on Parmesan Risotto. Our meals were nice, but nothing to wow about. Maybe we've both just become to fussy after dining with the real Italians in Rome. And also service in NZ in general is shocking compared to what you recieve in Europe, it can really ruin a good night out.

Anyway, apologies are due as I forgot to take my camera with me last night, so alas, no photos.

However to keep you going, here was my simple, yet delish lunch:



Toastie Sandwhich of Semi-dried tomato, courgette, baby spinach, mushroom, pesto & cheese.

And thats it for me,
Tamara xx

WEDNESDAY: More Mexican

Believe it or not, we don't actually eat mexican that often. Its just that lately i've come to recognise how useful it is for quick nutritious meals, and with life being somewhat hectic recently, i've really needed those quick meals.


Tonight was Vegetarian Nachoes





Chilli beans, nacho chips, sour cream and cheese.

Hopefully no more mexican for a while though, i'm kinda mexed out!
Tamara xx

TUESDAY: It Makes Me Human

Yes it is kind of embarrassing for a food blogger to admit that they had KFC for dinner last night. But I felt yucky, Tuesday night for me is renowned to be lack of cooking inspiration night, and to be honest, sometimes I really, really love good ol' Kentucky Fried.




My meal of choice, an Extreme Burger meal: Zinger Burger, Chips to dip in my Potato and Gravy, a piece of finger lickin good chicken and a pepsi!

While on the topic of KFC, being an international takeaway chain, you would think it would taste the same everywhere, Right? Well, wrong! When in Britain we had KFC and there were a few complaints: a, the chicken was lacking quite a few of the essential "11 secret herbs and spices" and b, there was no potato and gravy, instead it was baked beans. Who eats baked beans with KFC?

Back in the kitchen tonight, I promise.
Tamara xx

MONDAY: At your request, Honey

Crumbed Schnitzel would probably be my fiancees most favouritest meal in the whole wide world. I quite enjoy it too, though it certainly wouldn't be my choice if it was my last meal ever. But because I love him, and because I haven't made it for months, last night I promised him schnitzel. And thats what I delivered!




In our house schnitzel is only eaten 1 way, smothered in lemon juice and served with a pile of mash taties and peas. I've found the best schnitzel is that you make yourself, i.e buy steak, smash it out into thin schnitzels and crumb it yourself. That way theres no grissle and the like as in those plastic pre-crumbed pieces you buy. And flavour your crumbs too, last night it was lemon pepper crumbs and cooked in chilli oil. Mmm.

Tamara xx

SUNDAY: Quick and Easy, the Mexican Way

Until recently I never realised how great Mexican was for quick, tasty and nutritious meals. With a tin of kidney beans, some tortillas, sour cream, cheese, lettuce and some tasty herbs and spices, you've got a meal that can be whipped up in 10 minutes flat. Whats better, is that I ALWAYS have all those ingredients in my cupboard (and fridge).


So after a Brunch with the in-laws and the rest of the day at the beach, there wasn't much energy left for whipping up a culinary storm. And thats where the Bean Fajitas come in:




Before the wrap:







And there you have it. Have a relaxing Sunday night everyone.
Tamara xx

SATURDAY: A Meaty Meal

All week my carnivorous fiancee has been asking for a "normal" meal. In colonial NZ, a normal meal is considered to be red meat, potato and 2 vege. Not my idea of the perfect meal, but since I love him, this is what I indulged him in last night...

Lamb Racks with Roast Potatoes accompanied by sauteed ruby chard and borlotti beans.

The chard and beans were dressed with garlic oil and lemon juice.

A red wine jus was supposed to accompany our meal, but I accidently turned my back while it was reducing and the jus was no more :(

And that was Saturday dinner.

Tamara xx