Browsing tag: food

First up: Chocolate peanut butter cheesecake

I’ve actually made this twice. The first time I completely forgot about the icing. T wasn’t a fan of the rolled oats in the base, either (possibly because a few noticeable flakes escaped the punishing blades of the food processor) and thought it needed “something else”, namely the glaze. I thought it was delicious, personally. But I’m not picky.

Take 1

The second time I skipped the flour and oats, and substituted vanilla wine biscuits (the best kind). I did forget to swirl the layers together (there’s always something!) but I made the icing. I wasn’t a fan of the sour cream plus chocolate, so added some icing sugar and cream cheese into the fun.

Take 2

I won’t lie; it’s a little pricey. It’s about $10 alone for the creams and chocolate, plus all the other stuff, but hopefully you’ll have those ingredients on hand. BUT SO WORTH IT.

Original recipe found here. (Sorry about the crappy late night photos!)

Base: ¼ cup caster sugar; ¼ cup firmly packed brown sugar; 50g butter, softened; 2 heaped tbsp smooth peanut butter; 1 egg, lightly beaten; ½ cup plain flour, sifted; 2 tbsp cocoa, sifted; ½ cup rolled oats; ¼ tsp baking powder; pinch sea salt

Cheesecake: 500g cream cheese; 3 eggs; 3 egg yolks; 200g caster sugar; 125ml sour cream; 250g smooth peanut butter; 100g dark chocolate

Chocolate Glaze: 250ml sour cream; 100g dark chocolate

METHOD

Heat oven to 160°C. Line 23cm round springform tin with baking paper.

Base: Place all the ingredients for the biscuit base in the bowl of a food processor and blitz until the mixture comes together in a ball. Line base of prepared tin and bake for 15 mins. Refrigerate for a few minutes to set the base.

Cheesecake: Mix all ingredients except peanut butter and chocolate in the bowl of a food processor and blend until uber smooth. Divide mixture equally between three bowls. Mix peanut butter into one bowl until smooth. Mix melted chocolate into a second bowl of mixture.

Pour half of the remaining plain cheesecake mixture onto biscuit base. Top with peanut butter cheesecake and chocolate cheesecake. Use a bamboo skewer or small spoon to swirl the mixture through. Top with remaining plain cheesecake mixture and smooth the top.

Bake for one hour until the top of the cheesecake is just set.

Glaze: Melt cream and chocolate together and gently – very gently – pour over the cooked cheesecake and smooth it out with a palate knife or spatula. Return to oven and bake for a further 5-10 minutes.

OH SO GOOD!

Frugal factor: low. See ingredient list.

Also: no-bake chocolate peanut butter cake

This is seriously the easiest thing ever. It’s also very rich – small servings will last you a few days.

Original recipe here.

200g (7oz) whipping cream
400g (14oz) good quality chocolate (milk or dark)
200g shortbread biscuits (I actually didn’t measure this or the peanut butter – I used what looked like suitable amounts)
150g  peanut butter

METHOD

Bring cream to the boil in a small saucepan.

Line a loaf pan with baking paper, cling wrap or foil.

Bash or chop chocolate into small chunks and place in a bowl or jug. Add hot cream and stand for 5 minutes.

Stir cream and chocolate until smooth and well combined. Pour enough melted chocolate into the base of the cake to cover the bottom.

Place a layer of shortbread on top. Cover with peanut butter. Add another shortbread layer then drizzle the last of the chocolate over.

Refrigerate overnight.

The cream and dark chocolate mix is out of this world. It’s not too sweet and not too heavy – a divine blend of thick, rich dairy.

Frugal factor: middling. Some stuff you’ll probably need to buy.

Have I said this before? I could live off potatoes. So filling, so versatile, so cheap.

While most of you are enjoying the yield to warmer weather, things are cooling down here.

So Cate’s leek soup was calling my name, and with the addition of some leftover bacon and bacon bones and some other tweaks, it blew my mind.

Ingredients for my version:
One leek
Two potatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp unsalted butter (can omit for a vegan soup)
3 cups stock
Freshly-ground black pepper
1/4 cup heavy cream (can omit for a vegan soup)

Directions:
Slice leeks into rings and dice potatoes finely.

Heat the olive oil and butter in a large pot and cook leeks over medium heat until they are soft.

Add the potatoes and stock. Simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Stir in the cream before serving and season as needed. If you’re making this with the bacon, I doubt you’ll need salt; but if you’re skipping it, then sea salt to your heart’s content. Serves two.

Frugal factor: high. I included a bit of bacon, which would be the priciest part of the equation.

Need an easy, hearty comfort dinner? This will hit the spot.

The original recipe is a little fancier – using baby red potatoes. Those are crazy expensive so we only had dirty old potatoes from the ground I peeled and cut up.

I used roughly:

Two cups pasta
One large potato, sliced up into thin, kind of rectangular pieces
About a quarter of a large cabbage
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
A splash of EVOO
A chunk of butter – maybe 25 grams’ worth
1/2 cup grated cheese
salt and pepper

Cook the pasta, and when half done, add the potatoes, until cooked through.

Meanwhile, get the garlic going in the olive oil in a pan. Add cabbage and season. Cook until done to your liking (we like it fairly soggy). Add the potatoes and pasta to the pan, mix through butter and cheese, and add more salt/pepper as needed. (The recipe also suggested adding half the starchy cooking water, which we skipped, but probably made up for with the butter.) Commence chowdown.

Frugal factor: high. Cholesterol level: let’s not go there.

This is vegan – and delicious!

From the original recipe:

“Although ‘spiced’ this dish is not particularly spicy – even with the added chili and paprika. The spice is very mild and subtle but absolutely essential in aiding the soup to be bursting with the incredible flavor it possesses. Sheer aromatic excellence if you ask me.”

Couldn’t agree more. It’s excellent.

Granted, mine wasn’t vegan as I only had chicken stock on hand. I also didn’t have fresh ginger or chili or lime, and used normal salt, not Himalayan (what the heck is that?!)

It was still awesome, though.

Ingredients:

Fruit salad

Ingredients

• watermelon
• oranges
• apples
  (all in equal amounts)
• yoghurt
• mint
• French vanilla ice cream

Cut up into roughly equal chunks and mix in a bowl. Drizzle yoghurt (we sweetened ours with a pinch of icing sugar) over, then garnish with mint. Serve with scoop/s of ice cream. Devour.

Roast veggie salad with yoghurt dressing

Here’s a stripped down version of a recipe from Dish magazine.

Ingredients

• half an eggplant
• a roughly equal amount of courgettes
• half an onion (ideally red but I went with white)
• yoghurt
• a dash of lemon juice
• coriander
• minced garlic

Roast veggies until soft. Blend some yoghurt with a dash of lemon juice, minced garlic and coriander, adjusting to taste. Serve over the veggies!

Tuna, egg and veggie salad

And another Dish-inspired one. Super easy my way!

Ingredients

• can of tuna
• two eggs
• a couple of tomatoes
• a small courgette
• some coriander
• a dash of red wine vinegar
• a dash of olive oil
• garlic salt
• pepper

Grill tomatoes and courgettes (I chunked the tomato but went for long slices of courgette). Then toss everything together. Done!

Bacon and avocado salad

Ingredients

• one avocado
• two bacon slices
• a couple of tomatoes
• a handful of lettuce
• some cucumber slices
• garlic salt
• pepper

Grill bacon. Cut everything else up and toss together!

Chickpea salad

Ingredients

• can of chickpeas
• a couple of tomatoes
• one spring onion
• a quarter of a cucumber
• garlic salt
• olive oil
• lemon juice

Dice and mix all the veggies. Drizzle over a squeeze of lemon juice and olive oil. Yum.

Sal Rose is a bit of a suburban secret. It’s a veritable institution in the leafy streets of Mt Albert, just across from Rocket Park, next to Pyrenees and the Four Square (possibly the last one left in Auckland?) and down the road from the school and wave pools.

The wait staff are young, but the clientele is old. We were by far the most youthful customers – the others were all elderly women and families who settled into the booths for an evening of it.

It’s all very rustic. Roll up into the car park and you’re greeted by some barrels and chairs outside. Step over the threshold and the interior is all dark wood and comfortably solid. There’s almost a sense that time slows down; the atmosphere is very leisurely and decidedly classy, without being intimidating.

Mains seem to hover around a median price of $25-30, with plenty of pizzas and pastas in a range of wickedly delectable flavours. Prawns, artichokes, and mushrooms feature predominantly. Spag bol comes as a side option – you can nab a bowl for about $7. Or for the die-hard meateaters, there’s always the Angus beef.

We went for the crab ravioli, which thankfully was stuffed with real crab meat, in a rich golden sauce with a subtle hint of olive oil and wine. Beautifully presented, if not in especially notable quantities.

The pizza was the star of the meal, however – a delightfully pliable, airy crust, topped with generous amounts of cheese and vegetables. I can tell you now that I’ll never achieve such a dough at home; I’m not even going to attempt to crack the secret of recreating it.

Sal Rose

Alberton Ave, Mt Albert

Five places I’m loving right now around Auckland:

Swiss Konditorei

European baked noms. Their eclairs are out of this world.

Jai Jalaram Khaman

South Indian food in bite-sized pieces. Think the Indian version of yum-cha, on platters. And vegetarian, to my best recall. The owner is more than happy to recommend stuff, too, so don’t be afraid.

Pyrenees

Pastries! Cakes! Delights! Plus a bona-fide deli for all your other needs!

The Parnell French market at La Cigale

The place to go for baklava and tartiflette. Other stalls include all kinds of artisan produce, baked goods, seafood and more, right next to La Cigale itself.

Giapo

So I’m not a huge gelato fan, but the innovative flavours at Giapo are almost enough to convert me. Go.

Image via Wikipedia

Bubble tea/ Milk tea / Pearl tea / Whatever the hell you call it

I know, I know. I’m Asian. Blasphemy, right? But there’s nothing good in my books about this stuff. The creepy, rubbery balls. Tea itself (I prefer tea to coffee but that’s not saying much). The weird flavour combinations. Give me a milk shake any day.

Oysters.

Ick. This is the only seafood I can think of that I turn my nose up at. It’s like the tofu of the ocean. The smell! The texture! And think of the poor baby oysters from Alice in Wonderland!

Any candy that’s not straight chocolate

Now look, nobody would ever deny that I have a sweet tooth. Health aside, I could easily exist on the two food groups of carbs and dessert. But I’ve never liked lollies. Kids would scramble to the corner dairy after getting their allowance to buy up packets of jet planes and milk bottles after school. I never did (plus, I only got an allowance for a few months). I like my food to look edible, not processed, plastic lollies. And who came up with the concept of fruit rollups?

What foods are overhyped in your book?