Whitebait Fritters

Bushmans Whitebait - A guest entry by Luke Burnet!

New Zealand whitebait are the juvenile form of five species of Galaxias fish. After spending their first five or six months of life at sea, they migrate into estuaries in early spring. This is the time when whitebaiters set their nets. The tiny fish are eaten whole – head, guts and all – usually in a fritter. A delicate touch is required when cooking whitebait. Some cooks decry the addition of flour or egg yolks, and just coat the little bodies in whipped egg white before dropping them onto a pan of sizzling butter. Within 60 seconds they turn milky white and are ready to eat.

Normally made with hens eggs, but I use Duck eggs to add that "wild food" feel.

1. Heat pan with butter until hot

2. Beat one egg in a bowl with a handful of whitebait thrown in (I add as much whitebait as the size of the egg)

3. Sprinkle in the Kawakawa seasoning and salt to taste.

4. Pour bowl contents into the hot pan and leave for one minute or until you can get the spatula under the fritter - then flip and leave for another minute.

Then serve with a Monteiths Original Ale!

"Brewed to the same Monteith family recipe since 1868, Monteith's Original Ale is considered a pale ale in the heritage of beers brewed last century.

MONTEITH'S RICHLY HOPPED ORIGINAL ALE delivers a full, round and complete beer flavour. It's the hops that dominate aroma and taste. However, on closer inspection, there's a subtle blackberry aroma which originates from the female flowers of the Pacific Gem Hops."

Fiesta Salad

This is based off a salad from a Mexican restaurant in Seattle called 'Rositas'.  My version is vegetarian but you could certainly add some chunks of chicken breast if you like. The secret is the dressing. As it turns out, the pebre I'd made earlier is the perfect base for this dressing!

Ingredients:

• Romaine lettuce chopped into bite-sized pieces (um, ignore my lettuce in the pic!)
• Black olives (not kalamata, just regular - sliced or whole)
• Red onion
• Red pepper
• Frozen corn, thawed but not cooked
• Shredded cheese (mozzarella is fine, but I used feta cuz I had some lying around)
• Avocado
• Pebre sauce
• Juice from one orange

So, it's a salad, yeah? So you mix it all up in the quantities you desire. I used about 1/4 cup of the pebre sauce (note: mine was very very mild. If you made full-strength pebre you'd have a super hot salad), about two cups of frozen corn,  one red pepper, one avocado, etc... But you can adjust to suit your preferences.

This is an awesome salad to serve during summer. As a side dish warm some corn tortillas, then butter them and roll them up. Yum.

Kebabs w/home made pita bread

Tonight's dinner featured the hummus and falafel I made earlier, plus beautiful, pillowy pita bread I made using this recipe. 

I split open a pita, stuffed it with hummus, falafel, shredded cabbage, grated carrots, onion, parsley and yogurt.  Yum. And save for the yogurt and carrot, I had everything else handy. Goes to show the benefit of a well-stocked pantry!

Falafel

Cost: Didn't spend a dime as these were all pantry ingredients

Yield: Varries

Sorry, this is not a very exact recipe!

Ingredients:

• Cooked chickpeas - quantity of your choice!
  
• Onions
• Garlic
• Cumin
• Parsley
• Cilantro
• Salt

Method:

Season your chickpeas to taste. I like my falafel sort of cumin and cilantro-heavy. Chop up onions and garlic. Quickly blend all ingredients 'til desired consistency. If needed, add a bit of flour to bind.

Roll into desired size (mine were golfball sized), smash lightly and fry in a bit of oil until golden brown. Or bake in a 350f/180c oven.

Hummus

When I make hummus I always use dried chickpeas rather than canned. I find they have a much nicer flavour and texture. I soak them overnight with a tablespoon of baking soda, then cook for about an hour the next day.

Quantities here varry to suit your taste. I basically take some cooked chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, tahini and water and blend until creamy with the right bite of garlic and tang of lemon.  Hummus is very forgiving and adaptable. Don't like tahini? Don't use it! Some may say it's not propper hummus, but if it's what rocks your world, go for it!

Beans and Tomatos with Pebre Sauce

Wow, that picture came out weird. Anyway, all I did here was steam my left over green beans while I grilled some sweet, on the vine tomatoes under the broiler. Sea salt on the beans, pebre sauce on the toms, and a little pan amassado to soak up the lovely tomato juice. Yum!