a table of contents

If On A Winter's Night

2012-01-22T16:33:00.000-08:00

Finally snow, enough for winter activities. Last year was a record breaker, we had so much of the white stuff it was like Aspen-by-the-sea and the temperatures were so very frigid that all the wee ponds were frozen solid, we had ourselves a jolly old time slipping and sliding about in the hamlet. Montauk winters are magical, we have so many trails to explore and pristine (empty) beaches to walk and as long as you are thermally insulated you can stay out for hours on end. After an energetic hike it's delicious to come home with rosy cheeks and hunker down for the night with a big bowl of stew by the fire, preferably one you prepared earlier.

Some grumble about the winters here but for me all the seasons are good, each comes with its own distinct personality. Growing up in England (a temperate climate) one grey day seemed to fade into the other.....I do recall just the one severe winter, of course everything came to a complete standstill, British Rail to a grinding halt, no buses, no school, and maybe we had about four inches in total. And the summers were grey and foggy, we spent our annual two week summer holidays camping in either Cornwall, Scotland or the Norfolk Broads, I remember rain and wet clothes mostly, but us Brits we're good at making the most out of bad weather! We had Scrabble, Enid Blyton, paper and crayons and more importantly our own weird and wonderful imaginations.......strange universes and peculiar beings were created in that leaky caravan.

Here in Montauk we have monumental snow drifts and sometimes cannot leave the house for days, it happens every year, we know it's coming and everyone is ready for it. It's a season of extremes but played out in slow motion - the evenings begin at 5pm, there's more time to cook, slowly and quietly, as the pot simmers we allow ourselves to turn inwards and become more contemplative.

I embrace this time of year, the chilly days and nights give us a wonderful opportunity to go back to a simpler way of life. A crackling fire, a glass of wine and a bowl of stew, who could ask for more.

A Simple Stew

1 pound beef stewing meat cut into 1 inch cubes
¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons Spanish smoked paprika (pimenton de la vera is the best if you can get it, Wholefoods and Kalustyan's in New York City carry it)
1 16 ounce tin tomatoes
1 glass red wine
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 stick celery, sliced
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 large baking potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350° F. Roll cubes of beef in flour that has been mixed with the paprika, put beef into an ovenproof cast iron casserole for which you have a lid - a friend gave me a Le Creuset Doufeu pot (see pic above) this little fella is perfect for one pot meals and stews. Add all the other ingredients to the casserole and stir. Cover and cook in oven for about 2 hours. Taste for seasoning.

Serves 4-6

Better Late Than Never

2012-01-08T09:45:00.000-08:00

Hoo Hoo

2011-10-30T14:14:00.000-07:00

Cross Dressing

2011-09-07T16:29:00.000-07:00

The weather always seems to change dramatically the day after Labor Day, right on cue; wind and drizzle and an absence of sun, it's also the day the 'summer people' leave except for a few stragglers. After the hustle and bustle of summer Tumbleweed Tuesday marks the beginning of quieter days and a blanketing calm throughout our hamlet, but for me there's a hint of sadness too, especially as I rummage through the sock drawer to find that forgotten garment, once you put the socks on there's no turning back, it's the same with the heating. Maybe the summer days are really behind us? Did we have our 'last swim' in the bay? Did we drink our last glass of summer rose? As much as I love everything about the fall and winter months here in Montauk, it's a very long, teary farewell to summer.

Most of our meals have been cooked outside for the past few months and more often than not the grilled component has been accompanied by a fresh tomato salad and a big pile of arugula. But there is a change in the air and I am drawn to the coziness of our kitchen. I have kale that I picked from the Montauk Community Garden, the kale in my own garden is a long way off picking.....that's if it manages to survive all the bunny-munching that appears to be going on.

The earthiness of kale and mushrooms along with roasted red peppers and buttery arborio rice makes this risotto the perfect match with our Stonecrop Pinot Noir (which by the way we have been drinking all summer long with grilled salmon, caramelized scallops.....the list is long). This is a dish to gently introduce the changing season; a combination of summer and fall; an elegantly comforting dish and if you really want to knock your socks off add Colatura di Alici - this golden syrup (essence of anchovy) can be used to add flavor (just a sprinkle will do) to pasta, it's exceptionally good with kale and gave my risotto a delicious richness.

I chose light cotton dress-socks from Erica Tanov rather than the full-on fluffy possum/merino mix from NZ, it's too soon to be donning woollies!

Eating Flowers And Leaves

2011-08-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

Another summer of shiso; I am giving away big bundles to friends and sushi joints in Montauk and swapping recipes with my shiso-loving pals. Even though we were having inferno like temperatures a few weeks ago we fired up the bbq, the most I could muster in the kitchen was a pot of boiling water for some noodles. I chopped some parsley and cilantro from the garden and in my own particular slap dash fashion made a 'made up in the heat of the moment' dressing of mirin, rice vinegar, plum vinegar, soy sauce, a little bit of brown sugar, sesame oil and olive oil, of course I didn't measure, but my rule of thumb is to use about the same quantity of oil (sesame and olive combined) and mirin and about a tablespoon for the rest of the ingredients but of course you can adjust the amount of each to your own liking. The addition of shiso leaves made this noodle dish extra exuberant; cut the leaves into fine long strips chiffonade and toss with the noodles, dressing and the other herbs. I used udon noodles but any will work, even spaghetti or linguine and as an alternative omit the dressing and just simply use lemon juice and olive oil with the shiso.
We had chilled chunks of iceberg with the same dressing drizzled over and of course striped bass caught by the NZ'er.

Plums and shiso go together so well (umeshiso is a japanese paste made from pickled plums and shiso leaves). A salad was concocted; I did have some plums which I had intended to use for for frozen plum souffles but that would have required more of my time not to mention my concentration on such a steamy Montauk evening. The black plums were thinly sliced and then I fried the shiso in olive oil until crispy and sprinkled some mirin, rice vinegar and soy to finish.

The Harvest restaurant here in Montauk makes a special appetizer much loved by locals of bay scallops served on a bed of deep fried spinach and come Fall I will be craving this seductive dish, but I am also going to try my own version of deep fried shiso with our delicious local bay scallops. Public restaurant in NYC has deep fried oysters wrapped in a shiso leaf, I had them (again) just the other night with a glass of champagne; heavenly.

Rose geranium leaves are wonderful for flavoring sugar which can then be used in cakes and biscuits or they can be used to flavor syrups and to make jellies. I also like to place them on napkins at the table, it's fun to watch folks rub them between their fingers and enjoy the fragrance of the subtle but intoxicating scented pelargonium.

I used borage flowers and rose geranium leaves to decorate a trifle, actually it was more like whim wham as there was no custard and I made a simple cake using ground almonds in place of the usual sponge fingers and of course I used loads of booze; splashes of cassis and limoncello on the cake and a splash of chardonnay in the whipped cream. Rose geranium leaves are used just for flavoring but borage flowers are edible and I usually put them in salads, they have a vague hint of oysters which is a little bit disconcerting with cream and cake, but oh so pretty.

Rhubarb, Rhubarb

2011-06-02T13:57:00.000-07:00

Spring is making its mad dash, the garden is rapidly unfurling and it's a wonderful symphony of mostly green with enthusiastic bursts of magenta and yellow. The noisy unwrapping of spring is exciting after a long period of dormancy and I am keeping a close eye on the usual perennials as well as some new emerging faces. My rhubarb makes a dramatic entrance every year and this year was no exception. I have already harvested some of the fat pink stalks and stewed them up with ginger and sugar. I really need another plant as I am less than generous with my crop; I made a clafoutis for Memorial Day and whilst it had ample blueberries the rhubarb was scant.

A vernal landscape and the fresh, youthful breeze of June brings forth the desire for lamb. We know all about lamb in our house and chops are champs. The NZ'er barbecues them after they have overnighted in a rosemary bath and we have many tasty side dishes to accompany them; puttanesca is a favorite - tomatoes, anchovies and capers love lamb, sometimes I'll throw in some kalamata olives and vibrant red peppers and of course parsley, I often omit the pasta, this is one of those you dishes you can play around with and at a pinch you can put it together with stuff from the pantry which is great for last minute. Pasta alla puttanesca 'whores pasta' a dish made by girls with busy schedules on the Island of Ischia....so the story goes, in any case we all find ourselves not able to get fresh produce at some point and we are not breaking any rules by using things in tins. I do however use parsley from my garden and if my tomatoes are ripe, they will be put to good use in this easy but vibrant looking dish with a salty punch.

Another springtime favorite is a minty pea puree, our 'house' dish is made with peas (fresh when I can get them) and frozen fava beans, leeks from the garden and my secret ingredient is maple syrup. This is very popular with our pals and it's perfect with the lamb.

The bowl of pink tarty fruit is sitting in my fridge waiting to become either chutney or friands. Friands (also known as financiers) are very popular in New Zealand and Australia, they're made with almond flour, egg whites and a truck load of butter and finished off with some fruit on the top, I like to make them with the tart rhubarb. Here is a simple poached rhubarb recipe, which can be used for making friands, clafoutis or as a base for chutneys and jam, or you can just eat it like this with ice cream.

Poached rhubarb with ginger
Adapted from Stephanie Alexander's recipe - The Cook's Companion

Only use young pink rhubarb stalks, avoid green and thick stems which will taste coarse. Rhubarb has so much moisture it requires hardly any water when poaching. Remove all the leaves as they are poisonous, remove the flat brown part from the bottom of the stalk and cut into 1 inch lengths.

Put the prepared rhubarb into a heavy saucepan with with a generous quantity of sugar and two slightly smashed slices of ginger plus a couple of spoonfuls of water. Simmer for about 5 minutes, or until tender when tested with a knife.

Caravan Jam

2011-04-15T15:44:00.000-07:00

We parked the 'Anglo' in between the Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir rows near the shed. It was quite a roomy caravan even had a wee stove but the fridge was non-refridgerating, that was alright because for most of our two week stay at the vineyard it was cold enough at night to keep the butter and feijoa juice quite cool, not to mention our extremities. Good for the grapes though; cool nights and hot dry days, well for the most part it was dry but we did have rain which had many Martinborough vintners nervously watching grey clouds with patches of blue turn to dark steely grey and then just plain old fog-grey. We had a couple of sleepless nights in the caravan listening to the rain on the roof which sounded like ball bearings falling from the sky, then it would fade out to a tinkle and just as we began to nod off it would start pounding steel balls again, not sure I will be able to recapture the soothing sense of calm I felt as a child on holiday in Scotland with the rain tap, tap, tapping on the roof of our caravan at night, all tucked up and cozy in my sleeping bag with a torch and an Enid Blyton novel. Romance and rain are for people without vineyards.

Our caravan days at the vineyard began with feijoa juice, a fry up of Parkvale mushrooms and Wairarapa eggs followed by Vogel's toast; a hearty breakfast before a day in the vines. At the end of a day's picking I gathered some pinot bunches that were left dangling and made some jam in the caravan, not quite the jam I expected; a little runny but really good flavors, best part was the making of it standing at my teeny station in socks and flip flops (jandles) stirring the bubbling purple pot; pinot aromas wafting through the mustard/orange interior with all the windows steamed-up. As I looked down at the (60's/70's hard to say for sure) linoleum flooring I saw it in a new light; it was almost 'Moorish'.

Jam made in a caravan with
Stonecrop Pinot Noir grapes

a quantity of pinot noir grapes
one meyer lemon from my father-in-law's garden
some water
some sugar
be sure to wear flip flops (jandles) when you make it
socks optional

Sitting around the brazier enjoying the last rays of the day we barbecued green-lipped mussels and kumara, one evening we had a special treat; bluff oysters which were even more delicious (is that even possible?) with our 2010 Sauvignon Blanc. When the evenings became too chilly to sit outside and dine beside our glamorous mobile abode we took off in the ute down the Dry River Road to the Martinborough Hotel a local pub with a good pubby vibe, great food and fire that's always stoked.

Back in Montauk everything looks the same except for a few splashes of yellow on the landscape, each year when I am away picking grapes on the other side of the world I think I will 'miss' some monumental happening in the garden. There are weeds, I see them everywhere, soon I'll be cursing and breaking my back to tame them. Just around the corner (well more like just down the road and around the corner) is summer......sushi and a glass of Stonecrop at the bar anyone?

Picked and sorted and purple fingernails; another great Harvest at Stonecrop, same time, same place next year. I do miss those rolling Wairarapa hills and the magpies in the morning and whitebait fritters.

New Zealand 2011

2011-03-30T20:10:00.000-07:00

The wind still had a mighty bite the day I left Montauk for NZ, I wore possum socks and boots and a coat. When I arrived the possum socks were immediately relegated to the bottom of the suitcase and the flip flops were retrieved. It's that time of year again; Harvest at Stonecrop and fingers crossed so far the weather has cooperated, decisions about picking the grapes will all depend on rain (or not) but the bunches look healthy and the fruit is tasting great. On the way back to my Father-in-Law's house from the airport we stopped to pick up groceries; such a plethora of vegetables and fruit to be found especially at this time of the year and just stuff that is out-of-the-ordinary for us, such as feijoa juice which me and the NZ'er guzzle by the gallon and I always load up on green-lipped mussels, they can be found in nearly every supermarket and are inexpensive, same with cockles. We throw them on the barbecue, they make a tasty little appetizer before the often more meaty main course.

We had some Montauk friends come visit us in Martinborough, we showed them around the vineyard, the kids rode in the tractor, we barbecued and drank wine on a big porch surrounded by olive groves, a good time was had by all. It's a blast to be able to share the Stonecrop/Martinborough experience with our Montauk friends, these guys will miss the harvest but we may have convinced them to come back next year and help pick. It just so happened that the weekend they were in Martinborough it was the Run Around the Vines half marathon, a course that crosses normally inaccessible vineyards with stunning views of the surrounding countryside, me and my friend Sue did the walk with the kids in the stroller, what a fun event; lots of folks in fancy dress, live music, big piles of cold watermelon, a favorite with the kids, our friend Jan from Providore makes a mean (and popular) venison burger, there were fish vans and fresh fruit and veggies stands and of course wine. Ed came third in the race and Caroline came fifth, these guys don't mess around.

P.S. We bottled our 2010 Pinot Noir on Monday - Today we picked some of the Pinot (dijon clone 115) tomorrow we pick dijon clone 777 - busy time at the vineyard. We opted for budget accommodation this year; a classic New Zealand caravan, photos to follow.....

Gong Hey Fat Choy

2011-02-06T19:49:00.000-08:00

Long time no post........my blog has become smog; a sleeping log; a hibernating blob. Time to get get off the couch of inactivity and get back to my table of contents with gusto! Excuses? I have a few: Christmas; seasonal sickness; Stonecrop Wines; milestone birthday to consider.......however the Winter has kept me (and my fellow Montaukers) housebound for weeks on end and add to that a shin splint......the ideal conditions for writing a post or two, you would think.

So here goes with the first of 2011. I was fortunate enough to celebrate Chinese New Year with friends at Ping's Seafood Restaurant in Chinatown, the entire menu was selected by Kev and Viv and we were seated at two huge round tables with about 12 people at each. Plate after plate of delectable dishes kept on coming, it was noisy and busy and it was a wonderful feast! I had the privilege of sitting next to one of the menu makers which made the evening's dining even more special.

My family has a long tradition of celebrating Chinese New Year sometimes at restaurants in London but more often it would be spectacular banquets at my friend Cheng's house in Wivenhoe. Major birthdays were also celebrated at Chinese restaurants such as my 18th when I choked on a mouthful of Blue Nun, in those days it was the only wine you could find in a Chinese restaurant. Going to see a film (we never said movie) at the Odeon in Colchester followed by a meal at the Lotus House just down the hill was an exciting night out for two young gals from Wivenhoe, we always had the sweet and sour pork balls, shrimp toasts, beef chow mein and a shrimp chop suey. I learned how to use chopsticks at the Lotus House at age thirteen, the music was exotic and the wallpaper flocked, the waiters always outnumbered the diners and wore ill-fitting suits, I don't believe it's there now but I can still hear us (me and my childhood friend Jackie) laughing and crunching on prawn crackers. Then there was the run up the hill to get the last bus home.

When I lived in London we (me and NZ'er) used to go to Wong Kei (we naughtily called it the Wonkey) for the best wonton noodle soup and a heavy helping of abuse from the waiters, for a romantic dinner we would go to Cheng Du in Camden but one of my favorites was a tiny place on Lisle Street (one of the most deliciously curvy streets in London) it was the most uninviting looking restaurant; spartan with hostile lighting and awkwardly arranged tables, there was always much screeching of chairs as people would try and 'fit' in, but the food was excellent and I swear every time I went there to dine David Yip (The Chinese Detective) was also there (a very good series by the way) I cannot remember the name of this place with the harsh lights and the orange slices at the end of the meal, but I fear a gastropub may have taken its place.

Chinatown New York; I love it, I get my bok choy and choy sum at the very end of Elizabeth Street and when they have pea shoots (dou miao) I rather greedily load up on them. Then I head to Dynasty to get my udon noodles and whatever else grabs my fancy, sometimes I can linger/loiter for too long in the spice section.......the privet berries have me thinking.

Run rabbit run!

Pinot Noir Pairs

2010-12-13T14:14:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is but a distant memory now, a pleasant one mind, who wouldn't enjoy spending that special holiday with good friends sitting around a big oak table (heavenly chandelier above) and a view of the Atlantic. Our hostess has a very attractive quality; she's a great cook but she is also completely unflappable, she casually prepares tasty canapes, makes the gravy, mashes the potatoes and fries her delicious artichokes with a kitchen full of rowdy guests with not so much as a furrowed brow. This year she also made roasted kale, we devoured the earthy, crispy treat in between sips of champagne.

So I have been on a kale quest lately, surprisingly it is sold in our local supermarket (produce not its strong point, but I won't hear a bad word against our funny little IGA!) I have also been experimenting with dishes that go well with our Pinot Noir; recently I made a turkey risotto with mushrooms and sage (still going strong in the garden) and back in October when I picked my cranberries in the dunes I made a spicy ginger, cranberry and Pinot Noir sauce, and added a little dollop to the risotto, all the elements worked well with the Pinot; creamy, earthy and tangy with a hint of perfume from the sage. Cranberries go surprisingly well with Pinot because of the tartness, (a very sweet fruit sauce would not be such a happy union) a great way to get a sauce to pair well with Pinot is to well........add some Pinot.

Pinot Noir is a very versatile food wine, it is capable of handling a wide range of flavors, you can drink it with your turkey and your grilled fish and of course lamb, duck is a winner. Kale has an earthy, velvety quality, add the smokiness of the bacon and you have a good Pinot pairing. I served the kale dish with steak, some would say a heavier wine is required for beef, but hey, it all tasted pretty darn good, I think we should eat the foods we like and drink the wines we like and not be too dogmatic about such matters, most of us are too busy to worry about getting that perfect match, but, there are of course some spectacular pairings..........

I am a huge mushroom fan, it's a 'meaty' vegetable (good for the vegetarians at the table) and when paired with Pinot it's a magical match made in heaven; earthy and luscious; a sensual affair. As this will be a regular feature (Pinot Noir Pairs) expect to see some sexy fungi dishes from my repertoire.

Maples And Plums

2010-11-17T14:34:00.000-08:00

The two maples in the garden are about to enter a restful period after putting on a spectacular grand finale, last week the Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku' was shimmering the cleanest, purest, yellow, its brilliance made me smile as I caught flashes of it through the mullions, a reminder of how much I love this season of exuberance and decay, now it is receding to hues of burnt gold, singed umber and sepia on the edges, soon its pretty frock will lie crumpled and faded on the garden floor, but wait! this tree has a glorious resurrection and will reveal its striking naked red frame to the frigid air and will maintain a festive complexion throughout the winter. The other maple, Acer palmatum 'atropurpureum' is living up to its name but there are also ruby reds and glowing ambers all fired up for the final flourish.

Deep purple plums (figs are good too) nestled in a sweet golden batter, a dessert for fall if ever I saw one. I make a lot of clafoutis, it's my reliable dessert, the one I make confidently and the one that can be made with any fruit (savory ones are good too) that happens to be in season. After a dinner of roasted lamb chops, Jansonn's temptation, green beans with hazelnut oil and roasted red peppers, we sat beside the roaring fire with our friends and ate slices of clafoutis with cardamom cream, the NZ'er makes a good fire; there's a lot of preparation, but I like to add the occasional carefully selected log and do a bit of prodding while daydreaming about gypsies and fires. Ahhhh, another evening in Montauk replete with stories and good cheer and the warmth and magic of the fire.

Plum Clafoutis
Adapted from a recipe - Potager by Georganne Brennan

about 8-10 medium sized plums
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup marsala wine (I have also used maraschino)
2 tablespoons water

batter
1 cup milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup all purpose flour

Halve plums and in a saucepan bring brown sugar, marsala and water to a boil until a medium thick, brown syrup forms, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add the plums, let them soak for about 30 minutes, turning them over once. Preheat oven to 350f, butter a round baking dish that is at least 1 1/2 inches deep and 12 inches diameter. Make batter by combining all ingredients in electric mixer and beat for about 5 minutes or until mixture is frothy. Lift figs from syrup with a slotted spoon and place in baking dish, pour batter over figs and bake in oven until puffed and brown and a knife inserted comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes.

Turn The Beet Around

2010-10-27T07:57:00.000-07:00

Now is the time for the comfort of old-fashioned food, fires in the evening and serious games of Scrabble; a time for hunkering down and settling into the slow change from fall to winter. A chilly snap last week had me baking up a storm; cauliflower soup, pear and cranberry bread pudding, a toffee apple sauce, apple and lemon verbena jam, slow roasted beets and local roasted spuds with sage. I embrace the quietness of the cooler months, walks with friends, hats and gloves and a big pot of soup bubbling away on the stove. Potato dishes such as Jansson's temptation will be made with great regularity providing us with the starchy sustenance that we need and desire as the nights draw in.

The trees are doing their brilliant kaleidoscopic fall presentation and my cimicifuga is flowering at the bottom of the garden, it's looks a little bit spooky at night, the white flowers shifting about behind a birch tree, but during the daytime they take on a comical pipe cleaning brush quality, anyway when they flower I know that Halloween and Thanksgiving are just around the corner.

But it feels like spring out there, it's positively balmy, the heat has us all a bit confused; one feels like getting the flip flops out again along with that chilled bottle of rosé, but to be truthful I really can't get quite as enthusiastic as my fellow Montaukians about an Indian summer in October; I have replaced floppy hats with furry ones and light cotton fabrics with wool (and possum) all the summer clothes have been packed up along with the idea of that 'last swim' and I am ready for cold temperatures and piping hot food.

The hearty beet is perfect for roasting, the addition of these spices not only fills the kitchen with wonderful exotic aromas but adds a festive touch to this often neglected root vegetable, the skin falls away easily revealing the crimson jewel-like flesh, a feast for the eyes and the belly. We had ours with lamb chops, a creamy potato gratin, mushrooms cooked with anchovies and sherry and of course a few glasses of our 2008 Stonecrop Pinot Noir.

Roasted Beets with Spices

4 medium beets, quartered
spices - I used cloves, cardamom, cumin, allspice and turmeric
(nutmeg, chilli pepper coriander can also be used)
olive oil, maldon sea salt, freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 400f, put the beets in foil (double layer) sprinkle on the spices, salt and pepper and olive oil, close foil at edges and roast for about 45 minutes or until tender. The skin peels off easily but wear gloves unless you desire cerise fingers for Halloween.

Note to NZ'er - there is no such word as looky.

Season Of Plenty

2010-10-08T06:35:00.000-07:00

The land and sea have been generous; cranberries were picked in the dunes, pears were gathered roadside, bluefish were caught and smoked, the NZ'er caught a big striper surfcasting down at the Point, we have been harvesting bowls of big beef tomatoes and there's no shortage of herbs especially sage which I was able to supply to a friend with a restaurant who needed it desperately for her gnocchi.

There have been some surprises in my garden; in the Spring I divided one sanguisorba and rather haphazardly planted it in various locations, now in October the garden is dotted with the beautiful droplets of blood-red flowers. A pale lemon pineland hibiscus with a deep burgundy center volunteered itself in my herb garden, what a special treat to discover it growing between the shiso. The Rosa glauca (love those hips) appeared after a two year absence, in a different spot. The lemon verbena is positively tree-like and I have been making tea with its deeply fragrant leaves. The toad lily (tricyrtis hirta) has been blooming for months it seems, as has the erigeron in the cracks of the stone path, but the longest bloomer in the garden has been the gaura, I love this little gem of a plant, it gently waves its fairy wand in the cooling Montauk breeze and mischievously continues to twinkle as others are fading and leaves are falling. As dusk approaches the tiny flowers magically light up the garden, I desire a meadow of it.

A friend told me about a pear tree in a Montauk garden, it sits on the edge of the property and right now the pears are falling, they conveniently fall on to the footpath (and not so conveniently on the road) the owners of the tree do not seem too concerned about harvesting the fruit, I hate to see good fruit go to waste or even worse become fruity roadkill on route 27, so I took a bucket and got me a hefty load of local pears.

Pear and Cranberry Chutney
Pears from Montauk - Cranberries from Napeague

about a cup of cranberries
4 pears peeled and chopped
grated fresh ginger (I used about a 1/4 cup)
1 cup water
1/4 cup brown sugar
my choice of spices - a pinch or two of ground star anise and a pinch of five spice powder, you can use cinnamon or cloves, for a more traditional taste.

Put everything in a large saucepan, bring to boil then reduce to a simmer for about 30 minutes, or until pears and cranberries are soft.

You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin, and even vagueness - ignorance, credulity - helps your enjoyment of these things.
Walt Whitman

New Zealand Egg Burger

2010-09-11T08:48:00.000-07:00

Back in the late 70's when the NZ'er was at uni (university) he used to frequent Gibb's Burger Bar in Palmy (Palmerston North) he would play Space Invaders with the Aggie's (Agricultural students) grab an egg burger and then head off in the ute (utility vehicle) to a party. Every single word is abbreviated in New Zealand - I have a theory, it's a way of speaking without a hint of seriousness, a way to keep things light and easy........anyway back to the egg burger.

Montauk is all about seafood but sometimes a burger really hits the spot and this summer I sampled some good ones; the Navy Beach burger has a delicious bacon 'marmalade' and The Gig Shack on Main Street makes a mighty juicy bison burger, these are very fine burgers indeed, but for me nothing quite beats the strange combination of a fried egg on top of beets and meat; the New Zealand egg burger. It works best if the beets are tinned and in my opinion the egg should be only slightly sunny-sided over, of course many sauces can be added, in the absence of ketchup (on Labor day) we used my homemade brown sauce and mayonnaise, we also shoved in a slice of homegrown tomato and a piece of crisp lettuce. It's a mammoth of a burger with a riot of flavors and one that requires a lion's roar for that first bite - not for the dainty eater.

I cheated and bought my burgers from Gosman's Market, my favorite place to shop for groceries in the summer, they have the freshest flipping fish, top quality cuts of meat and the cheese selection is fantastic (Humboldt Fog) it's our own little slice of gourmet heaven down at the docks.

New Zealand Egg Burger

hamburgers
buns
tinned beets
mayonnaise/ketchup/brown sauce
fried egg
lettuce
tomato

If making the burgers from scratch use good quality ground meat such as Angus beef and be sure to add Worcestershire sauce to the mix. I used brioche rolls from Gosman's, they are oversized and accommodate all the fillings, they are even better when slightly toasted on the grill, kaiser rolls or ciabatta would work just as well. The all important egg; fry it to your liking but make sure you know your dinner guests well if you're going for the runny version!

The Stacking Order
Put mayonnaise on the bottom bun followed by lettuce, then the burger followed by tomatoes then the beets followed by the egg, then your choice of ketchup/brown sauce, put the other bun on top of the stack and open wide. Choice.

A Sad Journey To A Beautiful Winter

2010-09-07T08:57:00.000-07:00

I left Montauk on a 90 degree day, it was one of many this Summer, good for the hamlet and good for the tomatoes, a day later I arrived in New Zealand to a cooler temperature and much sadness. My Mother-in-Law died suddenly on July 12th, she was a vibrant 77 year old and I don't think she ever had an idle moment in her life. There would be no Stonecrop without her (and her husband Denis), she weeded, moved rocks, planted trees, kept the books, made the lunch, attended every important event at the vineyard, harvest time, meetings about irrigation, the list is endless and she did all of this in addition to taking care of grandchildren, visiting friends and family in need, volunteering for various groups in her community, she never forgot a birthday or anniversary..... and there were many, each year many cards and letters were thoughtfully and beautifully written and posted to various destinations around the world.

Margaret lived on the Parewanui Road just outside of Bulls and it is here she created a magnificent garden which she lovingly tended to for over 37 years, it is lush with native New Zealand trees and shrubs, she loved her rose garden and she had special roses that came from her father's garden.

She had lemon trees, tangerine trees, a feijoa bush that my husband planted in 1981 and a huge fig tree.

Margaret made an assortment of delectable goodies with the bounty from her garden; jams and chutneys, damson gin, stewed Washington apples and she made the most memorable and exquisite cakes.

People in New Zealand are very generous with food and this generous spirit is overflowing after a terrible loss, after the funeral family and friends gathered back at Parewanui Road, there were hearty pumpkin soups, pies and date loaves, meals were put in the freezer in the garage; chicken casseroles, lamb and potatoes, pikelets, egg and bacon pie, this was all done quietly without any fuss or anyone wanted to take credit, just with kindness.

It was Winter but there were flowers blooming in her garden; stunning camellias, large pink ones and dramatic reds, erigeron was sitting pretty at the front of the border, there were lemons and tangerines on the trees. Gardening continues in New Zealand during the Winter unlike here where we shut up shop, it can be a bit chilly but not 'hats and gloves' chilly. Early morning after a frost is particularly beautiful; looking out of the kitchen window - a diamond dusting over the hinoki tree and the lawn leading out to the paddock past the pohutukawa tree.

I have long been excited about gardening in New Zealand and especially with native plants; muehlenbeckia, corokia cotoneaster, (New Zealand has more divaricating plants than any other country) Marlborough daisy, Chatham Island forget-me-nots, puka, rengarenga, hebes, coprosma, and then there are the magnificent trees; totara, rimu, kauri, kowhai, karo, pohutukawa, rata, manuka, lancewood, coprosma, puriri, to name a few. These are the ones I have become familiar with over the years, from visiting gardens like Otari in Wellington, my friend Wendy's stunning garden in Blenheim and our own native garden that Margaret and Denis started for us at the vineyard.

For many of us who love to garden it's a place to find peace and solace, it's also a special place to be close to our loved ones who spent years digging in the dirt, moving this plant 'here' and that plant 'there' watching a seedling become a mighty tree, anticipating the blooms on a favorite shrub, scratching that persistent itch - the joy of gardening.

Before I left to return to Montauk we spotted two Tui's in the puriri tree, Denis told me 'they pair for life'.

See you in the garden Margaret.

A Tarty Grosart

2010-08-19T08:59:00.000-07:00

I planted a gooseberry bush about six years ago, waited patiently and just observed the little hairy berries each year, this year I had enough for jam. The gooseberry has always been popular in England for fools and pies and as a sauce to accompany oily fish such as mackerel (the French call it groseille a maquereau, the mackerel currant) the Scots favor it too and apparently it grows in abundance in the Shetland islands and the Orkneys. I am awfully fond of the sharp green berry, we had bushes in our garden in England and so did my Grandparents, I still remember picking them through the thorns as they'd bobble about on the straggly branches, there was something a little bit spooky about them; the tiny hairs, the transparent flesh revealing the insides, then came the popping in the mouth, the crunch, the shocking release of tartness!

Gooseberries are high in pectin so they are perfect for jam and green ones make the best. As you can tell from the photo I left mine on the branches too long but the jam was good, not as tart, maybe a bit more plummy, but still tasty and a pretty pink color too. The following recipe will also appear in Edible East End Magazine in the September issue along with a lovely picture of the jam taken by my friend, the photographer Ellen Watson.

I think I have the only gooseberry bush in Montauk, some were spotted at a farm stand in Sagaponack, I'll have to start recruiting fool lovers in Montauk. They grown so well here, gooseberries, I mean.

Montauk Gooseberry Jam

a quantity of gooseberries

the same quantity of sugar

water

Wash and top and tail the gooseberries, put in a heavy based saucepan with water not quite covering, simmer for 15 minutes until fruit becomes soft but still holding shape, add sugar and stir until dissolved, bring to a boil for about 10 minutes, then test for setting; put a small amount of the mixture on a saucer that has been chilled in the freezer; allow to cool; the mixture should be thick and jammy and with a skin when pushed with the finger; continue boiling if it's not thick enough and repeat setting test.

Cool and transfer to sterilized jars and refrigerate.

You sit on the veranda drinking tea and your ducklings swim on the pond, and everything smells good. . . and there are gooseberries.' Anton Chekhov

A Rosy Outlook

2010-07-06T08:39:00.000-07:00

Watermelon is the ultimate summer fruit, nothing quenches the thirst quite like a chilled slice of the sweet, crunchy, watery (85%) fruit. About a month ago I was chopping the rind off a watermelon for a watermelon, feta and black olive salad (see below) and remembered seeing a pickled watermelon rind recipe in one of my books (Stephanie Alexander) so I got pickling, the process is a bit fiddly, but I love the idea of being able to use the entire fruit. After a month of pickling in a sugary clovey bath the white fleshy rind along with the pickled lemons were finely chopped and added to the following recipe, which would also work just as well without the 'pickled' element; there was something just a little bit too christmassy about the taste, (for a 90 degree day) it must have been the cloves, nonetheless it was tasty and zesty.

watermelon salsa

Red, white and blue - watermelon, cucumber and borage flowers, add a splash of white balsamic vinegar, some mint and you have yourself a refreshing little Independence Day salsa!

July 4th was a scorcher of a day here in Montauk and it looks as though the heat will be sticking around for a while. Here are a few other simple but refreshing and cooling watermelon dishes for hot summer days.

watermelon gazpacho

combine chunks of cucumber, red pepper, watermelon, add parsley and basil, a splash of red wine vinegar, some sea salt and extra virgin olive, serve very chilled.

watermelon with feta cheese and black olives
cut the watermelon into bite size pieces and assemble on the plate with cubes of feta and black (I prefer kalamata) olives. These flavors work so well together; the cooling sweetness of the watermelon, the saltiness of the cheese and the fruitiness of the olives.
It can be served as a salad or as a dramatic pre-dinner snack.

watermelon with feta cheese and lemon zest olive oil
cut watermelon into small wedges and top with feta, squish the cheese with a knife so that it's firmly in place then top with a tiny drizzle of olive oil and lemon zest.

watermelon and ginger beer
add ginger beer to pureed watermelon for a refreshing summer drink.

First Of The Season

2010-06-21T18:44:00.000-07:00

Long time no post - weeding, sowing, planting, edging, mowing, hence the dirty fingernails, dodgy back and the large gap between posts. Other things have been neglected too - there is wood to carve and let's not forget the business to run - getting up early helps. I am trying to get into a routine of doing the gardening chores early in the morning and early in the evening in an effort to free up the rest of the day for more pressing activities. The dog has to be content with playing ball in the back yard as getting to the beach doesn't seem to happen as frequently in summer as it does in winter, she does have her own pool though; a cast-iron tub, perfect for cooling off after hours of lounging......I need to teach that dog more tricks, like how to use a hoe.

Last night we had striped bass, it was the first catch of the season for the NZ'er and hopefully not the last, it was as usual delicious, we also pulled the first of the salad greens. It really did feel like summer in Montauk - we were sitting outside without long sleeves, the stone patio dotted with an array of sandy flip flops was still warm from the day's rays and as we dined we listened to the strangely comforting sound of 'Mustang Sally' coming in waves from Nick's bar in town. We did 'cheers' to our meal of 'firsts'.

'Oysters' I exclaimed to my husband, he agreed (it's a rarity) I have eaten many borage flowers in my time and I recall more of a celery flavor, but the flowers I put in our salad last night tasted of the sea, what a strange delight! We ate some more to be sure.... yup, 'oysters' - This surprise taste got me thinking; a small plate of borage served with a glass of Muscadet, wouldn't that be an interesting summer appetizer? especially for people who don't/won't/can't eat oysters....I can't imagine. Or a borage fritter? The possibilities seem endless.
I do like the borage flower in the vegetable garden, it's one of those special delicate sapphire blues, comfrey is the same, but they both have a thuggish habit, they need a lot of room.

I was asked to write a piece about my garden and fishing and cooking by the publisher of 'On Montauk' a little gem of a booklet for folks taking a break in Montauk, it's in the latest issue, another first....published author! Apparently I am overly generous with the comma, the truth is I am not a writer, I am a sculptor, a gardener, vineyard owner, probably some other things too, but I do like to write, I really do even though I am not sure about when to use a colon or a semicolon: but I am learning.

Stay tuned for tomatoes and gooseberries.

Summer And Stonecrop

2010-05-24T12:26:00.000-07:00

We have fired up the barbie and put the umbrella up, summer is almost here and soon we'll be eating the delicious Montauk striped bass, perfect timing as our 2009 Sauvignon Blanc is now on the shelves. After a winter of cooking hearty soups and stews I am ready for crisp, clean and zesty food and a much repeated simple summer dinner in our house is pan-fried striped bass served with fat slices of tomatoes and mesclun from the garden, no frills, no fuss. Tomatoes dominate our vegetable garden - we do fuss over them because we have had some spectacular failures, last year I harvested about three, but 2009 wasn't a good year for tomatoes, it was however a great year for our grapes.

This year's Stonecrop harvest was a happy event, the rain held off and we had exceptional fruit; both the sauvignon blanc and the pinot noir and a very good picking crew, even the loading of bins occurred without incident - oh, the stories we could tell.

Having a foot in both hemispheres we are constantly connected to the changing and opposite seasons, we monitor wind and rain, the heat and the frosts. In the summertime when we are picking tomatoes, cutting herbs and pulling mesclun from our Montauk garden, thousands of miles away in Martinborough on Dry River road at our Stonecrop vineyard, the vines will be pruned and then all will be quiet for a while during the winter months. Then when it's bakery hot here in August there's a chilly wind blowing through Martinborough coming from the cold southerly Tasman sea and when we are blanketed in snow here in Montauk the grapes are ripening and glistening in the late New Zealand autumn sun.

Summer in Montauk for us is about fishing, barbequing, tomatoes, salad greens, flowers and herbs - going to the beach early in the morning before the crowds, although one can always find a beautiful deserted beach in Montauk in the middle of summer in the middle of the day, it just requires a bit of a hike. Most of all summer for us is about sharing fresh food and our wine with friends; Montauk friends, city friends, faraway friends.

And the stories - it's all in the bottle - the handpicked grapes, the seasons, the blood, sweat and tears and the love of the land.

Note: The picture of the tomatoes was taken in 2007 - it was a good year for tomatoes.

Blooming Good Time

2010-05-01T15:10:00.000-07:00

The shads are flowering early this year, last week the one in my backyard was a bare-naked winter tree and now it is donning a pretty white bonnet. To see the landscape packed with shads is breathtaking - gentle clouds of white and restful hues of green, a beautiful spring tapestry quietly rolling over the hamlet. A friend has a party every year to celebrate the blooming shads and the view from her deck is spectacular; high up on the hill, shads as far as the eye can see, all the way down to the water. Celebrations for blooms, for seasons, for the harvest......my kind of party, my dad used to have a potato party - the potato barrels were emptied in front of an enthusiastic and rowdy crowd, sometimes there was a glut but more often just a few measly spuds were unearthed (much applause and cheers) anyway it was always a good party, and potatoes seemed like a good enough reason for a knees-up.

I made deviled eggs for the shad party, I wanted to make something jolly looking and spring-like, my fellow shad lookers approved.

This is a beautiful piece about the shads in Montauk written by Hilary Ostlere.

Deviled Eggs

10 hard boiled eggs
2/3 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
a couple of splashes of lea and perrins
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
a splash of fish sauce
salt and black pepper
cut chives
smoked paprika

Cut the eggs in half and gently remove the yolks into a bowl, mix in the remaining ingredients, (except the chives and paprika) until you have a smooth and creamy paste, spoon mixture back into the hollowed egg whites, add the chopped chives and sprinkle with smoked paprika.

A note about smoked paprika - I am going to sound like Simon and Minty on 'Posh Nosh' (love them!) but.....I used hot smoked paprika from Le Vera region of Spain, it really is exceptional, oaky and smokey without knocking your socks off - Kalystan's in New York have a vast selection of smoked paprika.

These little devils are divine with champagne and pretty good with Stonecrop 2009 Sauvignon Blanc too - more about the new vintage in the next post.

A Sunny Disposition

2010-04-23T06:22:00.000-07:00

Everywhere there are spangles of daffodils and electric explosions of forsythia, and golden flames of spirea. April in the garden is mostly about yellow, but many people are not fond of this primary color with its negative associations: when something 'yellows' like old paper, or teeth, and of course jaundice and cowardice, some associate it with madness. I happen to like it, all hues and shades, egg yolks, chicks, butter and cream, old-fashioned primulas. I probably wouldn't wear a yellow dress or sweater, yellow's a difficult color for most people to wear close to the face, but a pair of pants, or shoes or boots, ooooh, yes. I have a pale primrose bag which comes out of the closet at the first sign of spring, along with a canary yellow pair of cordouroys (not worn at the same time though).

The witch hazel flowered in January and is still blooming in April, it sighs into spring with its spidery blooms and whispers that warmer days are ahead and then the forsythia positivley yells that Summer is coming! I must admit that the screaming yellow of forsythia for me, has to be at a distance in the garden, I don't want it standing too close to me whilst talking loudly. I like forcing some branches to have inside, it is more elegantly restrained in a vase. I do like what my neighbor does with his; they are trimmed into perfectly round balls and sit on the lawn like gigantic pom poms about to roll off down the hill. Then there are the daffodils, giggling, gaggles, of them nodding their little bonnets, still looking cheery when the wind howls, and bites your face.

Note: When I wrote this just the 'yellows' were out in the garden - before I was able to post this my computer was stolen - I purchased another computer (groan) a week has passed, or more, and there is much more activity in the garden......the beautiful delicate green chenille catkins of Harry Lauder's walking stick, and the epimediums I adore the tiny flowers on this spring flowering perennial, they are the faeries at the bottom of the garden. Spring is such an exciting time in the garden, some things are eager to push through the dirt, others take a more leisurely approach, as a gardener I am watching everything and wondering if 'this or that' made it through - my obsession this spring? my beautiful apricot foxgloves, I spy one making it's return, but I had hoped for a big gathering.....early days yet.

Another note: People can steal your 'things' from you but they cannot take the things that you love; the stuff that 'floats your boat' - to plant a seed, to dig in the dirt, to plant a tree, to nurture and watch plants grow, just to be in the garden, to sniff the delicate perfume of a flower, to eat a tomato from your garden. The thieves who stole my computer I doubt know little about such stuff.....I suspect they live in a dark alley, or somewhere dark, where there is nothing growing.....where the heart is closed.

Homemade Brown Sauce

2010-04-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

As I was flicking through my cookbooks on a Saturday evening (just by way of a change) I came across a recipe in Fleur's cookbook, Fleur's Place is an internationally renowned restaurant on the north Otago coast of NZ - it was cod with a homemade brown sauce - I had some cod, store bought this time, but Montauk fresh, and I was excited about making the tangy sauce, I love making sauces and this is a great one to have on hand, it's similar to the much loved breakfast sauce from across the across the pond, the one with the Houses of Parliament on the label. We had it with soft-boiled eggs for breakfast the next day before a hard days work in the garden.

There was a great deal of pruning, some light, but some seriously heavy lopping off of old privet limbs, which I have recycled and used as a rustic sculptural tomato frame, it does have a use - the ubiquitous privet. Much attention was given to the tomato bed; last year was such a wash-out I think I harvested three tomatoes. We prepared and manured, I intend to have an abundance this summer, a bunch of ruby red, big, bursting, big girl, super boy, super steaky, beefy mortgage lifting tomatoes at the table every night! (actually we prefer big beef) oooooh those tomatoes, they make me fuss and worry in that corner of the garden all summer long!

I soaked the label off an empty HP bottle and funneled my sauce into it, such an elegant bottle, I am sure it's the same design they've been using since 1896. The bottle takes me back to a gritty Brick Lane (before gentrification) sitting in a really smokey caff with the barrow boys, early in the morning, having taken the short ride on the tube from Hackney to go to the flea market, eating baked beans, fried bread, fried eggs (there was no 'how do you want your eggs' they were just cooked according the to the way the cook cooked them) drinking tea in heavy off-white chipped mugs, only tea, if you asked for coffee they gave you a 'look'. I'm not sure if I did ever shake, shake, shake some more, some of the sauce on my deeply fried breakfast, I was always a bit wary of sauces in caffs, but I do remember the good times in the East End of London, and somehow that bottle reminds me of a certain time and place. I doubt if the greasy spoon caffs are still there, probably been replaced by Costa Coffee or Starbucks. I wonder if there is anything 'Dickensian' left in London anymore, and do the kids know what we mean when we say that?

Homemade Brown Sauce
Adapted from Fleur's recipe
Makes about a cup and a half

2 cups tomatoes chopped
half a cup of cider vinegar
half a cup of malt vinegar
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 cup brown sugar
half a cup of sultanas
1 cup peeled and chopped apples
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 bay leaves
1 large chopped onion
3 teaspoons mustard powder
1 teaspoon five spice powder
1 cup of prunes pitted
3 tablespoons molasses

In a large pan place all the ingredients and bring to the boil while stirring.
Simmer gently for about 1 - 1 1/2 hours until think, adding a little water if needed.

Fleur's recipe instructs you to pass the mixture through a moulis, I put mine in the blender, which worked out just fine.

This sauce is great with fish, eggs of course, sausages are bereft without it, and it goes wonderfully with preceding recipe too.

Bubble and Squeak

2010-03-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

Most Brits are familiar with this breakfast dish, it's basically the use of leftovers from a roast dinner, traditionally cabbage and potatoes, shallow-fried in butter to create a pattie-pancake form, eaten with bacon, sausages and fried eggs, but it's also good with cold ham and pickles, especially piccalilli which this Essex girl is particularly fond of!

It's a dish that was born out of rationing and the Brits were very good at making meals stretch during those lean times, my mother tells of eating bread and dripping, dripping is the fat from the roasted meat. As a result of rationing, a thrifty attitude towards cooking has always been a part of the british culture, I would hear this phrase a lot at meal times 'waste not want not' food was never thrown away if one could make something of it the next day. I am glad I grew up in a time and place where meals were cooked at home and people sat around the table to eat.....with a knife and fork. Of course by the time I went off to college there were a smattering of Wimpy Burger Bars and Pizzalands, which were mildly appealing, but they were lightweight fast food joints and not a major presence on 'Main Street'. Today? well that's another big fat story.

As I mentioned in the previous post I made bubble and squeak to go with roasted cod, (thankfully we have friends here in Montauk eager to get up at the crack of dawn and go fishing....in March). The last time I made B+S was probably during my bedsit days in London, and believe me there was no fresh cod sitting atop! HP sauce more likely, served with some beans of the 57 variety, cooked on a stove operated on a meter which would always run out of money when the beans were still can-cold......we ate a lot of beans back then. Then there was the landlady with the liberally applied magenta lipstick, peering through a crack in the door.......spooky, but it was all good character building stuff - bedsit land on the Finchley road in the 80's!

Now the thrifty dishes from my homeland have been showing up in New York City with the arrival of the gastropub. The bubble and squeak served with cod idea came from a restaurant in the West Village - Highlands - a charming, cosy restaurant with a Scottish flavor, I am a huge Scotophile and I loved everything on the menu especially the pound of cockles served in a delicious broth. They serve beer in old pint glasses, which had me and my mancunian mate taking a hike down memory lane.

Bubble and Squeak
More than just a breakfast dish, it's great with fish or ham, we had sunday supper with leftovers from the leftovers and chicken sausages, a green salad and grainy mustard, good simple fare. Any leftover vegetables can be used in this dish, but I think the brussel sprouts are a must.

1 large onion peeled and finely chopped
leftover cold cabbage
leftover cold potatoes
leftover cold brussel sprouts
butter and olive oil
salt and pepper.
Heat oil and butter in a frying pan, add chopped onion and cook gently for 3-4 minutes until softened. Mix in the cabbage, potatoes and brussel sprouts and stir over a high heat, make a thick pancake form, mashing the vegetables together and heat through, scraping up any crispy bits from the bottom of the pan.

My mother was a young girl living in Norwich during the Second World War, I asked her what dishes/food she remembered eating during rationing and what she missed the most, this was her response - Well now, rabbit ....pies..stewed..roast. We kept rabbits, that was the norm. Steamed meat suet puddings, beef if it was available (suet you could get from butcher in a lump, not shredded like today) Bread and dripping. A winter dish was boiled onions in white sauce (something I still do occasionally) Fish and chips once a week. All vegetables from the garden...veg soup, bubble and squeak.

I missed cakes the most and bread and butter pudding. Butter, sugar cheese and dried fruit were almost non existent. Tea time consisted of sandwiches, jam when it was available, toast and paste. Sunday tea we would have bread and shrimps. Ice cream was a once a year treat. We were lucky to have fresh peaches. Poppy grew a peach tree which kept us supplied, apart from that, fruit was rare unless you were lucky to have apple trees and we didn't.

I suppose the one thing I remember well, was making our own cheese and butter. The cream taken off the milk and put in kilner jar till about 3/4 full, then shaken for days to make butter, sour milk was put in muslin to hang until it was consistent enough for cheese. So at the end of the day, as I said earlier cakes I missed most. Sweets, well....... what were they!

Wild Deer - Cooked Slowly

2010-03-09T17:42:00.000-08:00

Vegetarian and vegan friends....read no further! I was given some wild deer the other day, enough to make a stew for six, and two pies. It was given to me by a friend who has a hunter husband, the deer came from upstate New York, which is funny because we have plenty of deer right here in Montauk, I often think about how we could feed some folks in the hamlet, through the winter, on local venison sausages, burgers, and pies. If you have the permits you can go-a-hunting, but during hunting season it seems as though most of the hunters are from out of town, and they often do not behave so well in our woods. The NZ'er has fantasized about buying a bow and arrow, but for now he just grumbles about the deer and mutters on about installing electric fences and cattle stops.

A word about friends sharing food; last week a friend gave us littlenecks and steamers, he has the best in town, my secret supplier......it's all about the hanging, and another friend had a very successful day cod fishing, so we had roasted cod on a bed of bubble and squeak for dinner. Come summer there will be the swapping of mesclun, tomatoes, celeriac, and herbs, and more sharing of fish and shellfish, I love this town! More about bubble and squeak later.

The reason we are not so fond of the deer is because they eat everything in the garden, they eat holly leaves for goodness sake, and their favorite snack of all time is Yew.....mine are protected and very tall, ha, ha! they are a huge nuisance on the roads too, especially at dusk. I don't mean to imply that because they eat my garden I want to eat them! in fact I had never cooked venison and only eaten it once, and I was a little squeamish about it, maybe it's because I see so much of bambi, but the hunter husband made it easy for me, giving me prime cuts, all beautifully trimmed. The meat is very dark, but this is a good thing, due to the high iron content, and according to my mate Stephanie Alexander wild venison benefits from an overnight bathe in a wine marinade and also slow cooking. I used some of our 2008 Stonecrop Pinot for the marinade, seemed a bit decadent, and maybe not the red to use for this purpose, but there was an absence of red wine in the house, just good old Stonecrop........ #2! Ok, time to move on.

The meat was so tender, really tender, with a wonderful flavor of juniper berries, the orange peel tasted so good too, next time I will put a few more strips in the stew, it tasted more like an exotic fruit rather than orange zest. I used the leftovers of the stew to make two pies, one for us and one for the little boy who lives down the road (not so little, big, strapping, athletic Australian, he needs his iron).

Daube Of Venison
Stephanie Alexander The Cook's Companion
Serves 6

2 1/2 lb boned venison
salt
3 tablespoons plain flour
2 rashers smoked streaky bacon
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion diced
2 carrots diced
4 garlic cloves peeled
3 cups veal stock
1 bouquet garni
3 juniper berries
2 tablespoons port, muscat or tokay
1 strip of orange zest
1 tablespoon of treacle (I didn't have treacle so I used golden syrup)
marinade
1 onion, chopped
1 stick celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bouquet garni
3 juniper berries
10 black peppercorns
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 1/2 cups red wine

To make the marinade combine all ingredients in a large glass or ceramic dish large enough to take the marinade and the venison. Cut venison into 1 1/2 inch cubes and turn in marinade. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Next day preheat oven to 300f. Remove venison from marinade and dry with kitchen paper, roll in seasoned flour. Strain marinade and reserve. Cut bacon into thin strips and heat oil in a large enamelled cast-iron casserole, saute bacon until it starts to crisp. Add onion, carrot and garlic and saute, stirring until onion has softened. Tip in venison and stir. Pour in strained marinade and enough stock to just cover meat. Add bouquet garni, juniper berries, port, orange zest and treacle. Grind on pepper, then cover tightly with foil, or if you have a lid, even better. Put into oven and cook for 4 hours.

Remove casserole from oven and check - the meat should be very tender and the juices should have a sauce-like consistency. If juices are too thin, remove meat and vegetables to a warm baking dish with a slotted spoon, then boil juices on stove top to reduce. Taste for seasoning. Return meat and vegetables to casserole.

Take the casserole straight to the table and serve with mashed potatoes.

Stonecrop Pinot Noir 2008

2010-02-22T12:25:00.000-08:00

We have been in a jubilant mood over the last few days as our Stonecrop Martinborough Pinot Noir was rated No. 2 in a blind tasting of twenty New Zealand Pinot Noirs by Eric Asimov of The New York Times.

I called my in-laws in New Zealand to share the news, the tenacious duo who have worked so hard over the years down at Dry River Road, moving rocks, digging, planting, driving tractors.......the list is long, it would take reams of rimu to list. As a family, this recognition means so much to us, we are passionate about our small 20 acre vineyard and our estate grown wines, we thought our 2008 Pinot Noir was special, but it really is a thrill to discover that 'they' like it too.

Florence Fabricant is The New York Times food critic, she was also on the wine panel with Eric Asimov, along with Scott Mayger, the general manager of Telepan and Byron Bates a sommelier and wine consultant, she suggested a Hefty Borscht to pair with New Zealand pinot noirs, we are going to make it as a celebratory dinner with a bottle of Stonecrop, it sounds delicious with the combination of short ribs, beets and red cabbage.

Friends invited us over for homemade pizza, we took a bottle of our pinot, I was thinking can you drink pinot with pizza? you bet you can, and on cloud nine too!

Hot Sticky Toffee Pudding

2010-02-13T07:28:00.000-08:00

This is a Peter Gordon recipe from his Sugar Club Cookbook, which made its debut way back in 1997 with his inspirational Pacific rim cuisine. I have been making some of his dishes for years, and regularly, like Molly's lemon roast chicken, a combination of chicken drumsticks with lemon and kumera (we make it with our sweet potato, not quite the same but still a great combo with the chicken), and the very versatile spicy red lentil soup with chicken dumplings, but our all time favorite is the scallops with sweet chili sauce, a thrilling treat for the taste buds, it's one of Peter Gordon's signature dishes and is served at Public in New York, in fact there are many tasty delights dished up by the very talented chef Brad Farmerie, it's the only place in New York City to get Hokey Pokey ice cream!

This was my first foray into the world of sticky toffee pudding, hard to imagine really, as I come from a land of hot steamy wintry puds like spotted dick and bread and butter pudding, and of course toffee, cavities anyone? It was a fun pudding to make, adding the fruit mixture to the batter produced a wonderful, unctuous lava-like mixture. I only fiddled with the recipe a little bit; I added dried figs; black mission figs, they are very moist and gave the pudding a delicious texture. I say hot because it tastes so much better when warm, especially with a caramel sauce on top or ice cream....hokey pokey!

It must have been an aberration as I had an overwhelming desire to pour a hot chocolate sauce over my pudding.....I rarely eat anything chocolate, my friend Kevin on the other hand can't get enough of the stuff.

Hot Sticky Toffee Pudding

For Six
3/4 cup demerara sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/3 cups water
7 ounces pitted whole dried dates
about 6 dried black mission figs
3 tablespoons dried currants
3 tablespoons golden raisins
1 cup walnut pieces
1 tablespoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350f and lightly oil a deep 10 inch cake pan, this is how I made it but you could also do as PG does and use six ramekins. Cream the sugar and butter, then add the vanilla and egg and beat again for a minute. Sift the flour and baking powder, mix in and set the batter aside in a warm place.

Put the water, fruit and nuts in a pan and bring to a boil, then remove from heat and stir in the baking soda (don't worry about frothing). Stir into the batter and mix well (think Etna or Ruapehu!) Spoon into the cake pan or ramekins until three-quarters full, place on a baking sheet and put in oven. Test after 25 minutes by inserting skewer; it should come out clean, although if a little fruit sticks that's fine. Once cooked, let the pudding sit in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out.

Stargazy Pie

2010-02-01T18:38:00.000-08:00

This past weekend friends came out to celebrate my birthday, we are generally pretty enthusiastic party givers for birthdays etc., but this year I wanted a quiet affair. Winter birthdays are good for ice skating, walks in the woods, fires and fish pie. My father would make a Stargazy pie for special occasions, it's one of those dishes that has become legend in the food/memory part of my brain, so when the NZ'er asked 'what shall we cook for your birthday?' my response was 'dad's pie and sticky toffee pudding'. I did go for a walk in the woods and I played Scrabble by the fire with two very competitive Geminians and one Lovely lady. The ponds aren't frozen enough, yet.

My father loved to entertain, the kitchen was always a hive of activity, on the weekends there was a constant stream of villagers. The house was a cozy two up two down, the dining room had an assortment of watercolors, paintings and driftwood sculptures by local artists on the walls, along with my art school creations hanging next to some rather more well known artists. The fishing trophies were in one corner and the gigantic money tree plant in the other. My dad and my step mum cooked up a storm for their friends; the professor, the postman, the hairdresser, the fisherman, the builder of bridges and the artists, they could all be found sitting at my dad's table.

He was a larger-than-life character but he will always be remembered for the contributions he made to the community he loved, one of his famous phrases was 'there's room for everyone in this village' it's become my motto too, and I like to share it with the folks I meet on my travels!

I share his love of food, hands in the dirt, growing vegetables, cooking for friends and fishing (not too much deep sea tho'). He was a far better cook than me, didn't take short cuts, but his Stargazy pie wasn't the real Stargazy pie, that has pilchard heads peering out of pastry, he made a traditional fish pie and placed jumbo prawn tails around the outside edges of the dish, it was pretty and it was a dish with a fanfare.

You will see from the photo that we went with a more whimsical design......when my back was turned the NZ'er took it upon himself to make a departure from the tails around the edge decoration, and went with a random pattern, it seemed too controlling to remove the crustaceans from their potato burrows and reposition them, even for a birthday girl.

He was an Aquarian too, so it was fitting to make my father's signature fish dish on my birthday, a dish that originated in Cornwall, and that's where I was conceived!

Stargazy Pie

1 small onion peeled and thinly sliced
8 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
2 parsley sprigs
12 oz cod fillet
8 oz smoked haddock (finnan haddie) see note.
3/4 pint milk
12 oz tail end of salmon
2 slices lemon
2 1/2 lb potatoes, peeled and quartered
3 oz butter
1 oz flour
freshly grated nutmeg
salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons lemon juice
7 oz cooked shrimp
6-8 tablespoons milk
large shrimp tails, about 18 (save the heads for stock)
1 egg beaten

Put half the onion slices, four peppercorns, one bay leaf and one parsley sprig into a large frying pan, and add the same into a saucepan. Add the cod and the haddock to the the frying pan and pour in the milk. Put the salmon into the saucepan and barely cover with water, add the lemon slices. Bring both pans to the boil, remove from heat cover and leave to stand for 10 minutes.

Cook potatoes in boiling water for 20-25 minutes, drain and mash well, beat in 2 oz butter and enough milk to make a smooth creamy mixture, but you still want to keep it fairly firm, season with salt and pepper.

Strain the milk from the cod and haddock into a jug, there should be about 3/4 pint. Remove salmon from saucepan and discard cooking water, and also remove the flavorings from both pans. Break all of the fish into large flakes discarding the skin and any bones, set aside.

Melt 1 oz of butter in a large pan stir in the flour and cook over a low heat for about a minute, gradually stir in the strained milk, stirring continuously, bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for about 2 minutes, remove from heat and season with black pepper, stir in the lemon juice, parsley and grated nutmeg and gently mix in the flaked fish and the prawns, pour into a large shallow ovenproof dish. Spoon the potato mixture evenly over the filling, place the large shrimp tails around the side of the dish.....the tails should bend outwards. Brush the potatoes with the egg and cook in oven for a bout 35 minutes or until golden brown and heated through.

*A note about smoked haddock, (finnan haddie) it's very hard to find out here or even in New York, I found Stonington Seafood via Chowhound, they have a great selection of smoked products, I will definitely be going back for kippers.

It May Be Winter Outside

2010-01-20T07:52:00.000-08:00

But I have cumquats inside. I still don't have enough for marmalade, in October I had eight diminutive ripe orange balls, it's now January and I still have just the eight, I have many miniscule green balls but they are taking so long to ripen, marmalade's on hold. I'm not really a fan of 'indoor' plants, they always seem to require too much attention and get mold and mealy bugs etc, this has been my experience anyway.....the needy 'indoor' plant, maybe it's the memory of spider plants hanging in baskets, and the maudlin mother-in-laws tongue in hallways, and let's not forget the dreaded Ficus sitting glumly in a foyer.

I prefer to have my plants outside in the garden doing what comes naturally, and if they don't make it through a Montauk winter, well too bad, they probably shouldn't have been there in the first place. But such is the nature of a gardener (this one, at least) to desire plants that don't really belong. Euphorbia characias 'Wulfenii' grows abundantly in my riverside hometown in England, it is bold and majestic, big clumps of blue-green foliage and chartreuse blooms that look like hundreds of tiny trumpets. It has never made it through the winter here, I have given up planting it and try to be content with its more subdued relatives.

Then there's the lavender and the rosemary which always struggle, one year a sad sprig did survive on a rosemary plant that had been frozen and battered by frigid Montauk winds, it made it through to summer but we didn't dare take anything off the poor wretched plant. Last fall I dug up the two plants I had in the herb garden and potted them, they now have a comfy spot in the kitchen window, but are starting to look leggy.

My friend Ms J in Wellington has a rosemary bush that is as brazenly tall as her house, when we are there we hack off large limbs to stuff the lamb, I have serious herb envy when I am in NZ, no, make that herb, fruit tree and vegetable envy, my friend Ms W has a lemon tree an orange tree and a fig tree. A fig tree in the garden would be my idea of paradise.

There are other plants that need to be brought in from the cold; A Tasmanian tree fern which takes up residence in our bedroom for the winter, sometimes we forget that the giant hairy Dicksonia antartica is in the room with us.........there have been some interesting journeys made in the middle of the night. There's the two Feijoa trees, and the Rose Geranium and the Lemongrass. We seem to have accumulated quite a collection of needy potted friends.

I embrace our winters and I adore winter gardens, especially with a glittery blanket of snow, and luckily every winter we get heaps of it. There's a section of our garden that would be perfect with some large red-berried trees, and plush velvety evergreens, (yews grow well here but they are like fast food for deer) and dramatic winter barks. I have started planning for the spring, it's going to be a 'native' winter garden, everything will be at home out there braving the elements, only the robust and the hardy.

But those little orange cumquats on a cold January day, do bring a smile to a wind-chapped face.

Spongy Gingerbread

2010-01-08T12:46:00.000-08:00

My gingerbread is spongy and pudding like, and spicy, maybe too spicy for someone with a sweet tooth, but you can do what the NZ'er does and put multiple dollops of ice-cream, or cardamom cream on top. We like to serve it with poached fruit too. I have mentioned on many occasions my preference for savory foods, here is another example where I have made a dessert, well, savory.

It's fun to make and exciting for the olfactory system as well as the gustatory, and mixing the wet ingredients with the dry is a very delicious stirring experience, hubble, bubble, toil and trouble...............

Dry ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon expresso coffee
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
a pinch of ground cloves
a pinch of five spice powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons crystallized ginger, minced

Wet ingredients
1 cup molasses
1/2 cup applesauce
8 ounces plain nonfat yogurt
1/3 cup of olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons grated ginger

Preheat oven to 325f, line the bottom of a 2 inch deep x 9 inch square baking pan (you can also make it in a regular loaf pan) with parchment paper and spray it with non stick cooking spray, and lightly flour it.

Combine all of the dry ingredients in a bowl.

Whisk together the wet ingredients until smooth, add this mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until blended.

Pour the batter in to the prepared pan and bake for 60 to 70 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

Brunch Two Oh One Oh

2010-01-04T16:47:00.000-08:00

A relaxed Sunday brunch was a great way to kick off the New Year and to catch up with the friends that we didn't get to see over the hols. After reading the latest issue of Cuisine magazine I was as always inspired and made the Christmas caponata with red peppers, zucchini and caper berries to accompany my ham, each year I make this ham with some tweeks to the recipe, this time I used cardamom and mustard. Our antipodean guests made an outstanding bacon and egg pie, it arrived still warm from their oven and we devoured it along with clams (local) casino, I used a recipe from the Long Island Seafood Cook Book a little gem of a book.

When a new Cuisine arrives in the mail I rip off the plastic cover and do a quick flipping, the serious reading is reserved for a Saturday or Sunday morning in bed with tea. As a child I experienced the same excitement eagerly waiting for my Jackie and Beano to come flying through the letter box on a Saturday morning and plopping on to the cold, hard 70's black and white vinyl flooring. I have some very old dog-eared Cuisine magazines and I still use them, there's a large pile in the kitchen and I have a simple system, at the start of our fall/winter I put all of the spring/summer issues to the top of the pile so I am seasonally in sync, and then come our spring/summer......well you get the picture.

It was all white and blustery outside, but we were all nice and toasty inside, with apples and spices and hot ham and potatoes, and New Zealand Pinot Noir. I made a variation on my favorite - Jansson's Temptation adding apple and celeriac, and I made a spicy applejack sauce to go with the ham. We had gingerbread for dessert with a rhubarb and ginger compote. I am very fond of gingerbread as my mother used to make it, and she would always win first prize at the local village fair. One time we were late for the fair, my mother was driving really fast, she made a screechy turn and the spongy, dark, molasses loaded loaf bounced off the car seat on to the floor, we giggled as we tried to dust off dried leaves and unknown car floor fibers, and we giggled even more when she won first place, again.

My gingerbread recipe has a long list of ingredients, but it's so easy to make and most of the stuff can usually be found lurking in the cupboards. I have been making it for so long now that I don't recall the original source of the recipe, there's definitely some Martha in there, and more than a dolloping of my mother. Gingerbread recipe to appear in next post......it really needs that much room! and this feels like a lengthy post.

We had a rather special dessert wine, the bottle had no label, but our grapes were in there, in 2008 we gave our botrytised grapes to a neighboring vineyard in Martinborough and they made an exceptionally fine wine, and it was wonderful to be able to share it with our friends, who brought a generous helping of stories and good cheer to the brunch table. Happy New Year!

Whorled And Warty

2009-12-22T05:27:00.000-08:00

The other day my friend dropped off a bag of celeriac freshly dug from her vegetable garden, what a treat! Normally the only way to get our hands on the gnarly root vegetable is to drive across the stretch, and sometimes further. The knobbly orb seems to be more popular in the UK than here, I remember going to a party with my parents in the 70's and having celeriac remoulade for the first time, and fresh olives and paper thin ham wrapped around figs, and not a cheese and pineapple on a stick in sight! The partygoers seemed so exotic to me, the men were in brightly colored shirts, the women adorned with Indian jewelry and heavily embellished frocks, or were they smocks?

I grew up in a village which had a good helping of artists and those artists knew how to throw a party, usually the children had to be content with a packet of salt and vinegar crisps and a coca cola, during the shindigs. There was a shift in eating patterns in the 70's, in my village at least, at parties the vol au vent was being replaced by a big chunk of cheese and some crusty bread, it was all so wonderfully Elizabeth David, with copper pots hanging over the stove, and orange oven wear from France, and kilims hanging on the walls.....this is the stuff childhood memories are made of!

This is what we did with our celeriac - pan fried some chopped onion with chopped garlic and bay leaf for about a minute, added cubed celeriac and some salt, poured in some chicken stock and cooked until liquid was absorbed, about 20 minutes, we had mashed potatoes from the night before, so we poured our celeriac on top of the warmed mashed spuds and then a sprinkling of walnut oil and sherry vinegar, this was a delicious surprise.......thank you Stephanie Alexander (again) and thank you my friend on the lake for giving me the whorled and warty delight, and for inspiring me to grow more!

Supper After Carols

2009-12-10T11:40:00.000-08:00

Some potatoes, half a savoy cabbage, a chunk of brie, garlic cloves and a jug of milk.....I wanted to create a dish that I could leave in the oven while we trundled off to our local carol service, and these were the ingredients I had available to me on a cold sunday night and luckily I had a craving for rustic mountain food.

I didn't have the Reblochon (ha, trying getting that at the IGA) which is an essential ingredient for tartiflette, but as I started doing my recipe search I realized that Reblochon has only been around since the 1980's and the dish was created to promote Reblochon! Well in any case it's a delicious cheese and when I was in Saint Gervais a couple of years ago I contributed mightily to that cheese company and to my cholesterol level, hmmmm but there was the raclette, and the ham too......but really how can you go wrong with any combination of potato and cheese? That Christmas holiday spent in the Savoie region was one of the most memorable gastronomic experiences. I really would eat those dishes every night if it just wasn't so dangerous.

This was my gratin: I layered sliced potatoes and ribbons of savoy cabbage, the brie slices were in the middle of the layers, salt and pepper of course on each layer, I still have a lot of herbs in the veggie garden, so generous amounts of thyme, sage and parsley were sprinkled on each layer (very confused about parsley, have never had such a massive crop, and it's still going strong) I then covered my creation with milk and covered the dish with foil and put it in the oven on a low temp.

Our friend sang a solo, she made us cry, the NZ'er was wiping his tears away with the sleeve of his manly motorbike jacket. The lass has a voice that is so powerful, but she doesn't belt, and it's not sweet, but it is achingly beautiful and for about five minutes the audience was in raptures, at the end of the performance I woooohooooooed! I'm not much of a churchgoer but I do like a good carol.

We returned home to comforting aromas, the rustic mountain dish turned out pretty nice, the NZ'er really liked it with the chicken sausages and the festive looking cherry tomatoes and after a few mouthfuls he asked 'are there clams in this?' I think that's a good thing.

Made At Home

2009-11-30T17:40:00.000-08:00

Christmas is only a few weeks away and I am thinking about the gifts that I am going to make and how much time I need. Last year I made a John Derian style plate for a friend, it took weeks to put the layers and layers of varnish on top of my decoupage, but it was so much fun to make a personalized plate and it did look rather beautiful, and my red headed friend from the Emerald Isle was tickled pink with her gift. The NZ'er has quite a collection of handmade gifts; a red and green tea cosy, an assortment of knitted scarfs, a quilt made out of his old t-shirts, many photo albums, and our favorite; a draft excluder that I made to look like our dog.

I spent long holidays with my Grandparents, I called them Nanny and Poppy, they lived the ultimate self sufficient life, everything was made at home, Poppy had a large allotment where he grew all of their fruit and vegetables, he spent all day tending to his plot, Nanny would ring a big bell out of the window to get him in for mealtimes. Bread and cakes were baked, jam was made, vegetables were pickled, when they went food shopping the list was simple, flour, eggs, milk and butter. They recylced everything, old rags and shirts were made into tea cosies and draft excluders, and there were many draught excluders......no central heating and very draughty!

Evenings were spent mending stuff, socks were darned, can you imagine anyone darning a sock these days? actually I do darn my favorites from Erica Tanov, they have the best socks and I want to keep them for a long time but I have very pointy feet and I make holes easily. Poppy had been a cobbler so he would fix up all of their old shoes, I think Nanny had the same pair of navy shoes for decades. They knitted and crocheted and sewed together, I will always remember the lovely crocheted milk jug covers with beads. They were resourceful because they had to be, they never went out to a restaurant, maybe once, with my family, I remember........they were a bit uncomfortable, picnics were more their style of 'eating out'. They had a huge influence on me and the way I live my life, I may not have appreciated it at the time especially the teen years, when my focus was on platform shoes, flares and disco, but the desire to 'make things' has always stayed with me and they taught me that those quiet times when you are so fully engrossed in the process of making stuff are the best times......the simple pleasures.
My book (tee hee) is going to be called 'Living Like Nanny and Poppy'.

This is another draught excluder I made for friends last Christmas, I owe them a tail!

A Feast With Friends

2009-11-24T18:51:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, I haven't missed one in eighteen years, I enjoy this special time of the year when we celebrate the gift of food, warmth and good company. This year, as with most years, we are going to be celebrating with good friends, we will have a spectacular view of the ocean and our hosts will serve up a veritable feast, and then we will sing and dance. One year I decided I would treat everyone to a performance of Pokarekare Ana, unfortunately I only know the music, and not the words, so I did a terrible thing and made up Maori, nobody was any the wiser and I got a standing ovation, meanwhile the NZ'er just stared at me in horror.

Everyone brings a dish, haven't decided on mine yet, I am thinking maybe an apple and cauliflower puree (Dish magazine NZ) or a mushroom stew, I made the stew last year when we had TG at our house and everyone seemed to like it, that was the year I also served up Chinese dumplings as an appetizer, they weren't so popular, but I did make a spicy cranberry (hand picked) sauce to go with them, I thought it was a creative use of the ubiquitous cranberry sauce, come to think of it I still have some in the freezer, hmmm a little bit of chilli and a pinch of five spice powder.

I am going to attempt to go cranberry picking tomorrow in the dunes, it may be a futile hunt, it's getting kind of late in the season, the pesky deer have probably scoffed bog loads, and I heard that someone is doing tours of the walking dunes and showing people where to pick cranberries! Our secret places revealed! Ooh, now I am starting to sound like a Montauk surfer.

There's nothing quite like a day out groveling on your knees in the bogs, returning home with a bulging red bag of berries. My dear friend Hilary Ostlere took me on my first cranberry picking expedition about three years ago, she knew the spots, and she made a great cranberry pie, it was an old New England recipe, I must it dig it out again. Hilary was a Brit too and had lived here since 1961, she embraced every season out here at the very end of Long Island, and she would walk the beach at Ditch in all kinds of weather, I can see her now, sun behind her down by the cliffs; a confident dancers' stride and always a swing in her step.......we will go to Ditch on Thanksgiving day, a brisk walk is always good before the feast, and we'll remember the good friends that are no longer with us.....some of them brought so much to the party.

A fishing trip normally takes place on Thanksgiving day if weather allows, it can be chilly out there but once you start hooking up a bunch of herring on the sabiki rig things start to get exciting and with any luck there's a Striper for dinner, ahhhhh glorious Montauk, wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

Got no check books, got no banks. Still I'd like to express my thanks - I got the sun in the morning and the moon at night. ~Irving Berlin

Fire Power

2009-11-09T17:07:00.000-08:00

When it starts to get chilly out we pull out the woks along with the socks......couldn't resist, (we have a restaurant here called wok and roll......need I say more) Wok cooking brings a lot excitement to the kitchen; there's fire and steam and loud sizzling, heat is the key to good stir fries, we have two woks, one strictly for stir fries and one for more soupy dishes, I seasoned my woks with Chinese chives following the instructions from our favorite Chinese cookbook - The Breath of a Wok, written by Grace Young. I feel vey connected to my woks after preparing them for cooking using this ancient secret recipe, the subtitle of the book is 'unlocking the spirit of Chinese wok cooking through recipes and lore' and the book is so much more than a cookbook, Grace Young will take you on a captivating journey, I had the privilege of meeting her in New York, she is an expert and passionate guide.

Chinatown is one of my favorite spots to hit when I am in the city, I load up on bok choy and choy sum and the delicate Shanghai bok choy, and if I am lucky pea shoots ( dou miao ) from my secret stall. The curly tendrils are delicious stir fried with ginger and garlic, but they have such a fresh pea like flavor that I also like to serve them as a salad, just slightly wilted. They are considered a delicacy in Chinese cooking, and are often not listed on the English menus in Chinatown, you have to ask if they have 'dough meow'.

The dish in the pic is an adaptation (honestly there is something wrong when a person can't follow the recipe exactly!) of Mary Chau's Shanghai-style Snow Cabbage and Edamame, (from Breath of a Wok) my version was heavy on the five spice tofu. If you know someone who likes to cook Chinese food this would be a fabulous Christmas gift, I would have been over the moon if I had been given this book, (or anything by Madhur Jaffrey, hint, hint).

There are so many great restaurants to chose from in the bustling, strangely exotic and sometimes smelly corner of downtown, I have a feeling we might be hearing about Cobocan soon, I really hope not. One place I haven't tried but will next time I am city bound is Amazing 66 which I read about on serious eats. When I lived in London we used to go to Wong Kei (we called it the wonkey, I'm ashamed to admit) for the best wonton noodle soup, the waiters were so exceptionally rude it was part of the experience of dining there.

A great place in Nolita with wok action is - Lovely Day - on Elizabeth Street, serving very fresh and flavorful food, AND it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. It's fun to sit in the red booths listening to the clatter and chatter and the occasional fiery burst from the kitchen. Ironically Lovely Day has been closed for over a year due to a fire in an apartment in the building, the regulars have been bereft without their 'Lovely' (including the NZ'er) but it's now open again, and they can take their places at the bar once more and enjoy the tasty delights.

And another thing....if you're looking for good provisions and a one stop shop go to Dynasty Supermarket (I had a friend living on the Bowery, she called it Dienasty) I love this place, I get my black and white sesame seeds for my bread, and udon noodles (that are made in Australia..huh?) and a whole bunch of other weird and wonderful stuff that I bring home to my Montauk kitchen.

Snap! Crackle! Pop!

2009-11-03T16:13:00.000-08:00

These strange but delicious squares are great served with champagne at a festive party, I like to make them for Thanksgiving; cranberries are such a big part of the celebration, and I like the addition of the dried bog berry in this recipe. Actually last year for Thanksgiving I made chinese dumplings as an hors d'oeuvres, it didn't go down well with some of my more traditional guests, I thought it was a creative use of the ubiquitous cranberry sauce, I spiced it up a bit with some five spice powder and ginger, AND I picked the cranberries. Hmmmm now I think about it though, dim sum was rather a strange choice, and we had Pavlova for dessert.

The other thing I like about these sticky treats is the sweet and savory element, I think I may have mentioned on numerous occasions that I am more savorily (is that a word? spellcheck thinks so) inclined, but when I make these I cannot stop scoffing them, I am not much of a snacker either, but I am like a crazy addicted fiend when these are in the house, it must be the combination of the sugar and the spice, the crunchy and chewy texture, the seed and the berry.

Curry Rice Krispie Squares

3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp curry powder
10oz package of marshmallows
6 cups puffed rice cereal
2 cups toasted, salted sunflower seeds
1 cup of dried cranberries

In a saucepan, melt butter. Add curry powder. Stir over low heat until fragrant. On medium heat melt in marshmallows. Slowly pour rice cereal and sunflower seeds into saucepan while stirring. Gently fold mixture with spatula unti rice cereal is coated. Pour directly into a buttered baking dish. Cut when cool.

Serves 20

This recipe was adapted from a recipe by Justin Large of The Violet Hour in Chicago,

I added the cranberries, and I've also been thinking about other versions with chopped dried apricots and almonds.

They really are exceptionally good with champagne, so get cracking and pop that cork!

Primary Colors

2009-10-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

My garden is looking shabby, especially the vegetable garden; wilted tomato vines, shiso gone to seed, brown stalks where there used to be summer savory, a very unkempt plot of land, I am behind in my Fall clean-up - all those straggly, sticky, stalks, the untidiness is unbearable, there's no order out there anymore, it's a garden gone wild, a feral child with long thick, matted hair! Well, OK, I just need to get out there in my wellies and get 'stuck in' instead of just staring at the sloppy display.

Pockets of colorful life do exist in other corners of my garden; the Nicotiana (I stole the seeds from The Getty Museum) is still flowering a lovely chartreuse and my Emilia Javanica (NYBG) is still offering up a tiny orange firework display. I am not in the habit of sneeking seeds out of gardens, but I had been looking for Nicotiana Langsdorfii for the longest time and the Tassle Flower for longer......the first time I set eyes on the diminutive tassle was at Longwood Gardens, we lived for a few years in a 1920's house built for the orchid gardener at Longwood, right off Route 1, just before Kennet Square, a beautiful development of about 10 houses, just a few yards from the gardens. This is where I had my first American garden, my gardening experience at that point had been in temperate England, and now I had extreme temperatures, I learned a lot about gardening in my new and barren garden (the orchid gardener clearly didn't bring his work home) by visiting Longwood on a regular basis. I saw fireflies for the first time while living in Pennsylvania, a memorable balmy night sitting on our porch, the sound of ice chinking in our gin and tonics as we gazed across the fields and watched the magic show.

There's a duo in my garden right now making an outstandingly eye catching performance; Cerastotigma Plumbaginoides (leadwort) and Imperata (japanese blood grass), red and blue, one of my favoroite color combinations (header for blog) my NZ friend also loves it, she says that for her the two colors represent the Pohutukawa and the Pacific Ocean, for me it's the memory of a blue dress and shiny patent red shoes (yum) and the fish and chip shop sign, or was it those patriotic roundabout flower beds?

Kedgeree

2009-10-19T16:34:00.000-07:00

The smoker has been smoking overtime lately, bluefish mainly, now we are excited when we catch one, we used to be mildly despondent.... "oh no, another bluefish", but the greedy fighting fish smokes perfectly, and I discovered it works very well in one of my all time favorite breakfast dishes; kedgeree. The dish apparently originated in Scotland when the Scottish troops took their hearty breakfast with them to India during the British Raj, there it was made more exotic with the help of some curry powder, it then became a wildly popular breakfast dish in the United Kingdom during the Vicorian era.
Back in the 70's at my secondary school in England the domestic science class was not one of my favorites, it was the science part, all that exact measuring, also there was too much icing involved, and the making of sponges, like the victoria sandwich....not a happy day for me in the classroom; a ghastly creation of untidy jam and cream oozing out of overcooked sponges. But I was very proud of my kedgeree and was very excited to show my fish loving not fond of sweets and puddings either parents, but I tripped on the stairs on my way to the school bus, much laughter from pubescent children as I attempted to gather my rice and fish from the stairs that were mopped daily with disinfectant, that unforgettable school perfume. I do have happier memories of kedgeree; holidays in Scotland, old fashioned cosy hotels.....big old sideboards groaning under the weight of porridge, scotch pancakes, crumpets, homemade thick cut marmalade, Arbroath smokies and kedgeree, (I feel a very Scottish post brewing). Finnan Haddie (smoked haddock), is traditionally used but my bluefish was just grand, and you can use smoked salmon, you can probably use just about any smoked fish.
I have many kedgeree recipes including one from The Cook's Scrapbook a delightfully old-fashioned cookbook that my mother gave me, it has recipes like pickled samphire, hedgerow pie, grilled mackerel with gooseberry sauce........eyes are watering, sniff, now these are the things that make me feel homesick, well to be honest, Inspector Lewis and Rosemary and Thyme and Christmas Carols can do it too. This book is out of print now, if you ever spot one in a thrift store, grab it, it will warm the cockles of your heart.
I like this recipe, it's simple, and it represents all of my recipes combined, but I am always (the contrary cook) experimenting, sometimes adding tomatoes, celery, using brown rice or basmati, sometimes curry powder sometimes garam masala.
Not many folks here in the US have heard of kedgeree, unless you're an expat of course, although there are gastro-pubs cropping up all over New York, I suspect it's on some of their menus, which reminds me; must go to the Spotted Pig next trip, I hope they are still doing a pint of cockles. I used to sit on the quay during the summer months in my quaint river-side town, with my father and eat cockles, sometimes whelks (only the brave) out of a paper cone, lots of vinegar and pepper to season, now I am weeping.

Twice Picked

2009-10-11T15:33:00.000-07:00

We went looking for concord grapes near the lighthouse, and after some traipsing around we found bunches hanging high up on the vines, the deer must have eaten them or else some other picker got there before us, thankfully my long limbed picking companion could reach the very top bunches, if not for her my harvest would've been paltry. It was my second time this year picking grapes, the first time was in New Zealand in April, harvest time at our vineyard in Martinborough. Picking grapes on the vineyard is back breaking stuff, hunched over for hours on end, making sure that the tips of your fingers aren't part of the harvest, the snips (secateurs) are very sharp, but after a few hours I find I get into the 'picking zone' filling up the bins with those perfect bunches, glistening in the late autumn New Zealand sun.

We have 20 acres, it's small, we make Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. In 2003 we planted the vines on what used to be farmland, on the edge of an old river bed, and in 2006 our first vintage was produced. The most frequently asked question is 'how can you run a vineyard in New Zealand, from Montauk?' There's surprisingly quite a lot we can do; weather can be monitored constantly, we can check the level of the water pump daily, and of course there are many phone calls on a regular basis at strange hours. We couldn't have embarked on this adventure without the help of two very tenacious parents who should've been relaxing with their feet up watching the telly (there's no such thing as a retired farmer). Over the past 7 years they have endured all the trials and tribulations that come with managing a vineyard, their story is an epic one, in a Robert Redford, river kind of way.

A passion for New Zealand, Martinborough, food and wine led us down this Dry River road, if we knew then....what we know now, but oh, what a thrill to be sitting in a New York restaurant and to see a bottle of our wine on the table......if they only knew about the frosts, the rain, the bottles that went missing on bottling day, the sheep that got in the vineyard. When we do our 'tastings' in the stores that carry our wine, people really do want to know the story behind that bottle of wine, and so, for example, my father-in-law at age 83 still drives the tractor up and down the vines, and my mother-in-law single handedly moved tons of rocks (greywacke) to create a spectacular entrance to the vineyard. Our vineyard is a real family vineyard, each family member plays a role, we don't have a rep, we make the sales calls, it really does qualify as 'boutique', wait, somebody pass me the soapbox....I read this somewhere 'a boutique wine is a quality wine made in limited quantity, under 5,000 cases a year' (we produce 2,000 cases) ok you can take the soapbox away (for the moment). We are proud of our wine and we are deeply connected to the land where our grapes grow, we intend to stay small and intensely focused on quality not quantity.

Anyway back here in Montauk, my jam is delicious, I used a simple recipe of sugar and grapes and lemon juice, sorry, didn't measure anything, just did it by taste, and then put the mixture through a sieve, wow, what an extraordinary flavor, I get......mmmmm, candy, bubblegum, strawberry, mmmmmmm, musty, barnyard, ok that's enough.

Two harvests in one year, does seem a bit greedy doesn't it?

Ladies, A Plate

2009-10-04T18:41:00.000-07:00

I have never met a New Zealander who didn't have a sweet tooth, and my mate is no exception; jam and honey plastered on toast, afternoon tea with biscuits, a must, tarts and pies with lashings of cream. I don't have a sweet tooth, and I don't really enjoy the making of desserts as much as I enjoy creating the savory part of the meal. A hot steamy pudding though.....hmmm, yes, I do like to make a good pudding, bread and butter, rhubarb and ginger, plum and cardamom, cold climate puddings. In New Zealand the meal is not complete without a dessert, and when we visit friends, there is always something baking in the oven, there is nothing more welcoming than a home cooked biscuit or cake straight out of the oven and a cup of tea, made in a teapot, more often than not the teapot has a handmade tea cosy. Everyone bakes; our friends, our friends' children, and their children, (ooh that's scary) it's a nation of bakers, thank goodness somewhere in the world children are spending 'quality' time in the kitchen, baking the same sugary delights as their grandmothers before them. We brought Ladies, A Plate back with us from NZ (thanks again to the wonderful Miss W) and have been working our way through it. It is a collection of traditional NZ home baking recipes; Lamingtons, Afghans, Neenish Tarts......and so on. The NZ'er has done most of the baking, so far he has made; Bacon and Egg Pie, Gingernuts, Ginger Kisses, (the photo at top of page) Pikelets, and Apricot Shortcake, (Photo below) lucky for me eh? to have such a sweet natured partner in the kitchen, he makes a mean Pavlova too, which of course we all know was created in New Zealand.

Tender

2009-10-02T17:12:00.000-07:00

I want to show that I am a blogger of my word.....the pork tenderloin? I said I was going to make it, well I did and twice in one week! I made a marinade of olive oil, sage and garlic and after about 4 hours it was grilled on the BBQ and served with the plum sauce, mashed yams and chunks of iceberg with a grainy mustard and sherry vinegar dressing. When I start cooking with sage it really feels as though fall has arrived and we should start collecting kindling in the yard and load up the wood pile, I will be using the robust herb until the frost takes it, but thankfully it is one of the last to go. I have quite a few sage bushes in the garden, too many really, sage has such an intense flavor that a light hand is required for most dishes, however with the tenderloin I almost wrap it in a coat of sage. This summer a lone tassle flower popped up in between the silvery foliage and made a striking orange display, I plan to plant more emilia javanica with the salvia officinalis, it was one of the most exciting color combinations in my garden this summer.
The other night I made dinner for a lovely bunch of friends and made the pork tenderloin again, in the same way, but this time the menu looked like this;
grilled pork tenderloin with sage and garlic
cauliflower and apple mash
a medley of mushrooms (cooked with thyme, garlic and marsala) with orzo and parmiggiano
green beans with lemon zest
pan fried scallops with a tomato, celery, red pepper sauce (sort of like a provencal)
a plum clafoutis with cardamom cream
There are no photos of this dinner, I was really itching to take some, but while I think it's OK to make the NZ'er sit around, hungry, food getting cold, as I stand on stools and fiddle about with lamps, I just couldn't do it to my pals, so you'll have to take me at my word.
I have a very good stimulating tonic recipe made with sage leaves.......after an enjoyable dinner with great friends and wine, this comes in handy (for some of us) the next morning.
bunch of sage leaves
lemon juice
honey
hot water
The latin name for sage, salvia, means "to heal".

Plummy Scallops

2009-09-24T10:24:00.000-07:00

I am still going to cook the pork tenderloin as mentioned in the previous post. The NZ'er loves pork, pork belly, pork chops, ribs, trotters, knuckle, head, (I can't say for sure about the head, but it wouldn't surprise me, he does eat the heads of fish). He once had a ten course pork dinner in the French Alps, and surprisingly has no signs of gout, yet. Anyway, I am still harping on about plums I used the excess juice from the sauce I made the other day, heated it up and sat my local, Long Island scallops atop, what a saucy surprise! a titillating union; plums and scallops, the words alone conjure up an image of a buxom, port town barmaid, skirt too short, lipstick too bright, yelling "last orders!" (childhood memories). My plummy scallops were dished up with green tea noodles, mingled with miso and wakame. Plump and juicy, sweet and salty, all of the flavors worked so well together I thought I had created a new umami (yummy in japanese), but plums and scallops have been keeping company for sometime, after making this dish I googled the pair, there's no shortage of recipes, I wished I had thought about using the shiso, I have a plentiful supply in my garden.

scallops with umeboshi and shiso

scallops and plum sauce

greek grilled scallop sandwiches

No Prunus Maritima

2009-09-22T09:01:00.000-07:00

We went in search of the dainty beach plum, in the dunes, on a perfect September morning, all bright and cheery, and returned home plumless. Probably a bit too late in the season to be looking for them and there wasn't enough sun early in the season to ripen the fruit, but we didn't spy one, not one! I have since learned of some secret spots (we weren't anywhere near them) so I will have to wait until next year to make beach plum jelly. Me and my foraging friend did, however see carpets, upon carpets of cranberries, so we'll be tramping back over those dunes in a few weeks. I am going to make a savory plum sauce (as I write) with these plums from the North Fork, it was a toss up between the sauce or a clafoutis, and as I am more savory in nature, the sauce won, but I do love a clafoutis and make sweet and savory versions. This recipe is a combination of Peter Gordon's Pickled Plums and Jane Grigson's Chinese Plum Sauce.
a dozen plums cut in half and pitted
1/2 cup of water
2/3 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of cider vinegar
1 cinnamon stick
4 star anise
1/2 red chili
1/4 cup of grated peeled ginger
Put everything in the pot and simmer for 3/4 hour, and as Jane Grigson instructs Taste and consider your sauce. If it is very thick, add a little water. If unbearably tart, add a little sugar.
My plum sauce is going to accompany grilled pork tenderloin, roasted sweet potatoes with lemon (a Peter Gordon recipe, he is another constant companion in my kitchen) and the last of the mesclun.

Brown Rice Risotto

2009-09-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

I made a brown rice risotto with mushrooms, zucchini, celery and the ten fava beans, oooh if you look really closely you can see the wee fabaceae. I love fava beans, (broad beans in the UK) and try to grow them every year, with little success, and this year was no exception, but I will persevere, I am due for a glut. Risotto is another favorite, I love to cook it, I enjoy the fact that it needs my undivided attention and find it a very calming and meditative experience, the constant stirring and pouring of broth....hubble, bubble, toil and trouble, maybe it's the witch in me that finds it so appealing. One of the best risottos I ever had was at a friend of a friend's house in Eastbourne, (I know, hard to imagine) she was Italian, which made all the difference, it was a simple dish of broad beans, pecorino and lemon, unforgettable. I make a quick risotto, or pilaf on a regular basis using brown rice, I cook the rice until it is almost done and then add it to whatever mix I have with a little broth and finish cooking. I make it with spices such as cloves, cardamom and turmeric and toasted almonds, or with tomato and saffron, more like a paella, and other times with mushrooms and peas and a sprinkling of mint, the list is endless, rice dishes are so wonderfully adaptable. The truth is I would eat the starchy, creamy arborio ALL the time, with mountains of pecorino if my cholesterol would allow, but my brown rice version offers up a lovely nutty, wholesome alternative, and there is still a bit of stirring involved. We sliced the pears and ate them with ginger ice-cream.

Two Pears And Ten Fava Beans

2009-09-17T17:28:00.000-07:00

Picked today......not sure what I am going to do with my bumper crop, nothing springs to mind using pears and fava beans together, a salad maybe, but there's a bit of a nip in the air tonight and I want something that has been cooked in a pot.

Ha! I made a separate 'About Me' page

2009-09-16T16:59:00.000-07:00

But it's not quite right.....there's all that other stuff on it, oh, hells bells, looks like a dogs breakfast.

Good Company

2009-09-16T12:37:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in the last post, The Cook's Companion is a very trusty friend in my kitchen, it is very thorough, and extremely readable (thanks to my dear friend W in NZ for introducing me to it). Stephanie Alexander describes each ingredient in detail, the margins are crammed with recipes, with hints and tips on each page, this is my favorite part of the book....say for example you have a bowl full of plums, and you want to include them in a dinner, you go to the plum section and it gives you a long list of other ingredients that go well with plums, this feature encourages experimenting with ingredients.

I love the alphabetical listing on the contents page - apples, bugs, chervil, duck, eggs, figs, ginger, jerusalem artichokes, kangaroo, you get the idea, and even though the subtitle of the book is 'The complete book of ingredients for the Australian kitchen' I refer to it all the time here in the northern hemisphere at the very end of Long Island, most of the ingredients are universal, well maybe with the exception of kangaroo and wallaby (until quite recently one could get a plate of kangaroo tail at Public on Elizabeth Street in New York). Every recipe in the index is meticulously cross referenced, I love that, no, I really love that, I have a borderline obsession with recipe indexes, they are my preferred bedtime reading, ok maybe not borderline.

There are recipes in this book that have become part of my everyday cooking, like the cabbage salad with anchovy sauce, this is a fantastic dish that I cooked all summer long served hot and cold, with grilled lamb, chicken and fish. Stay tuned for cumquat marmalade, well yes, that is one of the more southern hemisphere recipes, but I do actually have a cumquat tree, have to bring it inside in the winter of course, and it's really quite tiny, but we still get to enjoy the highly perfumed blossom, I counted 8 dangling cumquats and it's just starting to flower again.

I lose myself in this book, I start with cabbage and before I know it I am in the walnut section, followed by the duck section, mmm roasted duck legs with eggplant (Long Island duck of course). Jam-packed with recipes, preparations and techniques, this book is so generous, it answers a million questions, it is precise, authoritative and friendly, a dear companion indeed.

Tumbleweed Tuesday Soup

2009-09-11T11:42:00.000-07:00

It really does happen, every year, they leave, the people who come to our resort town for the summer and fill the restaurants, bars and beaches. Tumbleweed Tuesday marked the beginning of calmer days, and cooler nights and the bitter sweet realization that summer is over. The sweet thing is, the people leave and the fish arrive! Fall is fast approaching and the serious fishing will begin soon, time to get the old Aladdin Stanley flask out. I have been looking forward to making big hearty soups and stews again, and have even welcomed the idea of wearing socks. My Tumbleweed Tuesday soup was made with the leftovers of the 'end of summer potatoes' and as I was witchily, yes that's right witchily, stirring my bubbling brew, I looked out the kitchen window, the wind whipped up, the sky darkened, brrrrrrrrrrr, I closed some windows, and wondered when I might be tempted to put the heating on again.

The recipe I used was adapted from The Cooks' Companion by Stephanie Alexander this book has become my cooking companion, I refer to it every time I cook, it doesn't sit on a shelf, it's always on the table.
sweat a chopped onion with some garlic and 3 large diced potatoes in olive oil then cover with water, add a bay leaf and simmer until potato is tender (I used cooked potatoes) drop in a bunch of washed and stemmed spinach and simmer for 5 minutes, blend in a food processor, then season with salt, pepper and a pinch of roasted ground cumin, I added some wholewheat cheese quesadillas

End of Summer Potatoes and Little Fishes

2009-09-10T11:39:00.000-07:00

Labor Day Monday we took the homemade net down to the bay and went 'whitebaiting' and got a bucket full of spearing, we deep fried them and they were ok, a bit of a weird gut taste, we did it earlier in the year and they were great, but not quite like the experience of eating New Zealand whitebait, a delicacy, a short lived affair in NZ, delicious in a fritter, I would choose it as my last meal. Here on the beautiful Long Island Sound the NZ'er goes out to shoulder height in the water, and I stand ankle deep by the shore, keeping the pole angled....much shouting from NZ'er, keep it down, keep it down! much heaving reveals jumping bright silver little fish. Our fishing friends think we are a bit strange to be eating 'bait fish' but we enjoy the wading, the haul, and the crunchy reward. I am reminded of eating deep fried sprats for teatime on the east coast of Old Blighty, in a relative's smoky kitchen, condensation on the windows, the NZ'er of whitebait fritters cooked in copious amounts of butter sandwiched between white bread also plastered with copious amounts of butter, and getting seriously sunburned.

Summer savory was the other star of my garden this year, I planted it as a border around the mesclun and tomatoes, it was also the prettiest herb in the garden, with its lovely diminutive pale lavender blue flower and frothy habit. It goes well with tomatoes (lucky you, if you have some) fish, chicken and mushrooms. I started my plants from seed, for some reason nurseries don't seem to stock it, it's just not the most popular herb on the plot, but it hasn't always had such a low profile, the Romans loved its strong flavor and believed it to be an aphrodisiac, it is a traditional ingredient in 'herbes de Provence' this summer I made my own mix, savory, oregano, lavender, marjoram, thyme and rosemary, rubbed on fish and chicken, a great marinade for grilling. Summer savory is the perfect herb for roasting potatoes, I picked big rustic handfuls and sat the spuds on top, sprinkled with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted for about 40 minutes, we were very greedy little piglets and scoffed them right out of the dish, alternating, potato, fish, potato, fish, Moose (the dog) also got some fish. The next day, tumbleweed tuesday, I made soup with the leftovers and the house was once again filled with a pleasant and lingering aroma. When the summer savory disappears, oooh hopefully not for a while, winter savory will appear, just in time for the stewpot.

White Spaces

2009-09-09T16:44:00.000-07:00

How do I get rid of those annoying gaps in my blog? Blogging is not a piece of cake, or easy peasy, all day I've been trying to figure out how to make a separate 'About Me' page.....you know that saying about two short planks?

Sally Grows Shiso By The Seashore

2009-09-07T13:24:00.000-07:00

I want to get my shiso post in before summer is over! isn't that today? hopefully September will be balmy. There are so many summery things to with this exotic and striking herb, a little bit minty and a tad spicy. I put some plants in the vegetable garden 3 years ago, each spring they come back, and this year with a vengeance, I have been giving away plants like nobody's business, it's vigorous and plentiful, which sort of makes up for the poor performance of tomatoes this summer....dreaded blight. You can find shiso (aka perilla and aoshiso) in Asian markets, when I lived in the city I would by it from Sunrise Mart on Broome Street, a great japanese grocery store. Shiso is an interesting addition to the vegetable garden, a no fuss plant and the deer don't like it, hurrah!

Easy things to do with shiso

throw some littlenecks on the barbie and make a dipping sauce of chopped shiso, soy sauce sesame oil and mirin

grill some pork tenderloin, slice it into bite size pieces and wrap in shiso leaves

add chopped shiso to miso udon noodles

make a nectarine and tomato salsa with chopped shiso and olive oil

add a shiso leaf to a gin and tonic, or any cocktail, my favorite non-alcoholic drink this summer - in a jug put ruby grapefruit juice with tonic water add a bunch of shiso leaves and steep to release flavors, a refreshing change from iced tea

toss angel hair pasta with olive oil and chopped shiso

shiso summer roll

nectarine, tomato, cooked shrimp, chopped shiso, spring roll wrappers (rice paper rounds) cooked vermicelli noodles, ( I used green tea noodles, that was all I had, they turned out to be very tasty, and looked pretty too )

dipping sauce
1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup of fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons sweet chilli sauce
2 teaspoons soy sauce

I have also made a sweet version of the summer roll, using grilled nectarines and slivers of shiso, served with ginger ice cream.

Use shiso as you would basil and mint with fresh raw foods or added at the end of cooking, too much heat will destroy the fragrant aromas. I think that's it for the lovely shiso, until next summer anyway.......

Smoked Blues

2009-09-02T15:39:00.000-07:00

The smoker that we purchased from a yard sale for 10 bucks was put to good use this past weekend, a bluefish was caught by the husband who loves to fish, of course he was really after a Striper, but he was having a blue day, although some nice chap gave him two huge bass heads, we had two dinners from those heads and very tasty they were too, nothing quite like a bit of pan fried cheek and jowl. After smoking, the bluefish was destined for pate, next time I must use the food processor to make it and not the blender gwenda...just wasn't enough liquid to get it going, strange smell in kitchen of smoked fish and smoking blender. Smoking the fish made me feel very connected to my salty seafaring ancestors, and to the fishing village in England where I grew up on winkle sandwiches, pints of cockles, pints of whelks, and Colchester oysters, they tasted so much better when shared with my dad who was the biggest saltiest sea dog of all. There are smokehouses dotted all over the East Anglian coast, trout, mackerel and eel are the most popular for smoking.

smoked bluefish pate

1 pound of smoked bluefish, skinless and boneless

60z cream cheese softened

1/2 teaspoon worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

2 tablespoons lemon juice

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

pepper

a splash of cognac

mix all together in a food processor

Have been eating this for breakfast, (very good on the divine bread, toasted) lunch and dinner.

A Simple Ceremony

2009-09-02T12:05:00.000-07:00

I made this bread for the first time in April and have been making it every week ever since. For those of you who know Vogel's bread from New Zealand, this is the most Vogelly homemade bread there is, the recipe came from a baking friend in New Zealand and it's wonderfully simple to make. I had never made bread before thinking it took way too long and was too much of a fiddly process, therefore I have spent decades buying expensive loaves from gourmet stores, but that's ok, we do love our bread, and it was money well spent, but this bread has changed our lives! two loaves are baked each Thursday morning without fail, one loaf is devoured over the weekend, and the other gets us through the week, it's a joyful ritual and divine eating.

3 cups high grade white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup seed mix, sesame, sunflower, flax

2 teaspoons sea salt

1/2 teaspoon of dried yeast, the stuff they use in bread making machines

2+ cups cold water...start with 2 and add a little more if needed

mix all this together, you want the dough to be really quite sticky and sloppy

cover and leave 15 - 20 hours, doesn't need to be in a hot place

pour the sticky bubbly mess into a 9 inch greased loaf tin (I use a spray cooking oil)

let settle about 30 mins while oven heats to 400f

cover with a little tent of foil that is sealed all around the top of the tin so loaf can rise in oven in its own little micro-environment (I also use the spray cooking oil on the foil as the bread can sometimes rise quite a bit)

bake 30 mins with tent in place, take off tent and bake for a further 25 mins to brown top

It takes all of a few minutes to throw together

About Me

2007-07-15T11:08:00.000-07:00

I am a Brit married to a New Zealander living in Montauk. Many hours are spent in the kitchen - we sit at the table at breakfast time and plan for dinner time. Countless hours are spent on the beautiful briny; the New Zealander is a very enthusiastic fisherman, he likes to hang out in the rips off Montauk Point in hot pursuit of stripers.

We are passionate about our garden and our small vegetable patch provides us with salad greens, shiso, tomatoes, and herbs all summer long, two pear trees and a white peach tree do a good job at providing dessert in the summer months.We fiercely guard our perennials and shrubs from the marauding deer, offensive smelling concoctions are deployed and tall fences are erected.

Big pots of bubbling soups and stews, served with slabs of my weekly homemade bread are made during the winter. We rejoice in spring when a tender plant has made it through the longest, coldest season.

I like seasonally fresh simple meals, but I’m not a stickler - recipes are followed, borrowed, not followed, fiddled with and shared. Meals are often made from scratch, but I frequently take shortcuts, I make do, and I indulge, I often don’t measure, I experiment and I always roast a chicken on Thursday.