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!

Chacarero

Pebre (Chilean hot sauce)

I made this sauce using this recipe. SO delicious. Yum yum yum!
 

Wholemeal Cheese and Herb Damper

A damper is somewhat like a scone. Truth be told, I'm not sure what the difference is. It's a rustic quick bread that was probably cooked over the campfire or something romantic like that. Mine was cooked in an oven. The recipe is from a 'MasterFoods Outdoor Cookbook' I got at the second-hand place next to the dump. I've changed a few things, but not much. SO yum.

Cost: Nuffin for me - I had all the ingredients in the pantry

Makes: 6 pieces

Ingredients:

• 1 C white flour
• 1 C whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 t baking powder
• pince or two of salt
• 40g of butter (I used light olive oil spread)
• 3/4 milk (I used non-fat)
• 1 C shredded chese (I used colby cuz it's what I had)
• 2 T white vinegar (I used rice wine cuz that's all I had)
• 2 T mixed herbs your choice - I used oregano, chives, and kawakawa (aka bush basil)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 190C/380F (I'm guessing on this one, look it up!)
• Sift dry ingredients, including spices
• Add butter and mix til you've got a fine, breadcrumby type texture
• Mix in cheese
• Dump vinegar in milk
• Add enough milk mixture to make a easy to handle dough
• Place on lightly greased baking sheet and pat into a nice round shape, 2cm tall
• Score into as many pieces as you'd like (I did six)
• Pop in oven and cook for 25 min or until damper sounds a bit hollow when you tap it

Note: this doesn't really require any additional butter when you serve it. It was perfect just as it came out of the oven. Also, if you've never cooked with kawakawa before, be warned that it does leave your tongue a little numb. Not unpleasantly so. But just don't freak out if your mouth feels a little curious after using this fantastic native New Zealand leaf!

Pumpkin Curry in a Pumpkin!

This was one of those recipes the grocery store has by the front door. I, of course, modified it a bit. SO yum. And eeeeeasy. 

Cost: around $10.00

Yield: hhhhhhhhheaps!

Ingredients:

• 1 smallish round pumpkin (4lbs or so)
• 1 cup broccoli florets
• 1 cub cubed firm tofu
• 1 small onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• curry sauce (make your own, or cheat like me and use a 410g can of pre-made. Lazy!)
• fresh garlic & nutmeg to taste
• salt, pepper and cilantro to season  (if desired)

Method:

• Cut lid off pumpkin and scoop out seeds
• Pierce outer skin of pumpkin and set in pre-heated 180c/350f oven for 10 min
• While pumpkin cooks,, saute onion and garlic until soft. Then add tofu and broccoli for a few min. Then add your curry paste/sauce/spices. Note: I used a can of Korma sauce. Mmm. You use whatever rocks your boat. If you make your own sauce you want enough to fill a standard soup can, and it should have a thick-ish consistency.
• Take the pumpkin out of the oven and stuff with filling. Put lid on and pop back in oven for 45-60min or until pumpkin is soft enough to pierce with  fork. 

To serve:

• Remove from oven and let stand 5 min.
• Slice pumpkin like you're slicing a cake.
• Put one slice of pumpkin on plate and surround with filling.
• Season with salt and pepper and garnish with cilantro.
• Note: I served this over coconut rice (basmati rice cooked with 1/2C shredded coconut. Yum!)

Soo good. And as you can imagine, it's ripe for experimentation. The idea to add tofu was at the suggestion of the other Jack to give this dish a protein boost.

Pasta Al-fake-o

I was craving a creamy pasta without all the fat of alfredo. I also had some left over vegetables from the vegetable tofu stack I made the other night. So, I decided to whip up a cheap, quick pasta dish for dinner.

Cost: $5.00 (all I bought was sour cream, mushrooms and pasta - otherwise I used leftovers)

Yield: Serves 2-4 depending on how many veggies you have

Ingredients:

• Pene pasta
• mushrooms gallore
• roast red pepper, cooked squash & carmelised onions 
• two tomatoes
• low-fat sour cream
• parmesean cheese (I had some lying around)
• fresh basil
• extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:

• Cook pasta according to package instructions
• Meanwhile, saute garlic in olive oil, then add sliced mushrooms
• Then add other veggies and saute 'til cooked through. Season with salt to taste.
• Mix sour cream with finely chopped basil. Season with a little salt and sugar to taste. Note: this is sort of an acquired tatste. You may just want to use regular alfredo sauce
• Drain pasta and toss with a little olive oil and the parmesan cheese

Assembly

• Put a genrous serving of pasta on each plate
• Top with vegetable mixture
• Drizzle sour cream mix on top
• Garnish with fresh basil and more freshly grated parmesean cheese

Tony's Pizza

I keep telling my friend Tony I'll give him my amazing pizza crust recipe.  It's truly the best one I've ever used.  Note, I use high-grade flour for this crust and it really makes a difference. Use the best you can get for optimal results!

Cost: Not much. This uses ingredients I always have in my pantry.

Yield: Two large pizza crusts

Crust Ingredients

• 2 1/4 tsp yeast
  
• 1 1/3C warm water (hot from the tap)
  
• 1 tsp sugar
  
• 3 1/2C high-grade flour
  
• pinch of salt
  
• 2 T olive oil
  

Method

• place yeast and sugar in large bowl with warm water. Let sit in a warm place until happy and frothy.
• Then add olive oil and salt to yeast mixture.
• Slowly add flour, stirring well until you can't stir any longer, then dump out on lightly floured counter-top and knead until smooth and elastic.
• Place in warm place until double.  If you've got time, punch down and let rise again. This is optional.
• Divide dough into two equal portions.

Pizza Assembly

• Pre-heat fan-forced oven to 220/400f (you may need to adjust for your oven)
• Shape crust to desired size/thickness.
• I sprinkle cornmeal on a pizza stone for baking and love the results.
• Top with desired toppings and bake 'til cheese is bubbly and crust is golden brown.

I'm currently addicted to pizza Margerita. Good quality tomato sauce (not paste - I make my own with tomato sauce, garlic, basil, sugar, salt and olive oil to taste), cubes of buffalo mozzarella and a handful of fresh basil. The pizza in the picture also has some olive tapenade I had lying around. 

Yum! Note: this dough gets lovely and elastic and probably would be thrown/twirled quite well. I'm just not brave enough to try so I role/shape the crusts by hand!

Vegetable & Tofu Stack

Tonight I was craving vegetables. I also had a limited budget but had been drooling over menu offerings of a couple of fine dining establishments around the world. So I took inspiration from something I saw and made my own version. Ta-da, I call it the 'Jack Stack!'

It was wonderful. Very filling and satisfying. I ended up with extra vegetables that I'll use up tomorrow in a salad for lunch. And the bonus was it only cost $12 to buy the ingredients. Though, it helped that I already had a bit of feta begging to be used up. And, of course, a well-stocked pantry!

Ingredients: 

• Extra-firm tofu
• 2 Potatoes
• 1 yellow onion
• Pre-cooked squash/pumpkin (I used 1/2 a butternut) 
• Large red bell pepper (capsicum)
• Feta cheese
• 2 Portabello mushrooms
• A ripe avocado
• One tomato
• Extra virgin olive oil, aged balsamic vinegar
• Sea salt & black pepper
• Fresh basil & salad greens for garnish

Method (as best I remember)

• Roast red pepper & let "sweat" in ziplock bag 'til skin peels off easy (or you could buy pre-roasted red peppers but what's the fun in that?)
• Cut vegetables/tofu/feta into pieces of similar size and/or thickness
• Lightly parboil spuds
• Grill tofu in olive oil for a few min on each sides 'til golden brown
• Place tofu, mushrooms, onions, and squash in a pan, drizzle with olive oil and bake in 180c/350f oven 'til warmed through and onions are soft

Assembly

I put a generous handful of salad leaves on each plate, then alternated layers of veggies and tofu. To make serving easier, use a bamboo skewer to hold the stack together. 

Garnish with a little more olive oil, some chopped tomato, a few hunks of fresh avocado, fresh basil, salt and pepper and a generous drizzling of a balsamic reduction. I made this by lightly simmering some balsamic vinegar until it got nice and thick. 

This is a very forgiving recipe. Use whatever veggies you have handy and experiment with seasonings. You could also use fresh mozzarella cheese or even grilled halloumi. 

Serves 2 as a main meal, or probably 4 as a first course if you made them smaller. 

Enjoy! 

Welcome!

The decision to create this site came after a long, meandering conversation about food with someone who calls himself Jack. Jack knows a thing or two about the appreciation of good food (and good food conversations). By a curious coincidence, my name is also Jack. Sort of. I too know a thing or two about the appreciation of good food (and good food conversations) and seem to be having more of these lately. Viola, yet another internet food blog is born!

I'm trying to live much healthier and more frugally at the same time. This has required some creativity in the kitchen. I'll be posting recipies for healthy and cheap (and delicious) meals as I come across them.  Whenever possible I'll indicate how much the ingredients cost me. Note: when I do this I'm going to assume you have a well stocked pantry with all the "basics". More on that later.

Of course, things won't always be cheap (or healthy) but hopefully they'll always be delicious. I'll post pictures as often as possible, and use labels that'll hopefully make the site easy to navigate. 

So from one "Jack" to another, thanks for the inspiration to do what I've been meaning to do for a while. Now, there's dinner to prepare!