Perfect Flavours for the Quick Brown Fox

To step outside your comfort zone in the kitchen may mean stepping away from the recipe books and creating food using your instinct and experience. Last month at the Otago Farmers Market, Quick Brown Fox creator Arjun Haszard challenged me to come up with a recipe to complement his "organic-coffee liqueur with a clever hint of cinnamon in its tail". 

 Find out more about QBF and the Lazy Dog Liqueur on www.quickbrownfox.co.nzI

If I hadn't been reading "The Flavour Thesaurus" by Niki Segnit, I may have steered away from such a challenge.

A review from Observer Food Monthly I feel sums up Niki Segnit's "The Flavour Thesaurus", "Something different for your pal with a fridge-full of cookbooks.  A forensic yet fund exploration of flavour combinations and why they work, from the usual (lamb and min) to the unlikely (watermelon and oyster).

Niki describes herself as a confident home cook.  She discovered she would always rely on recipe books rather than cooking by instinct as her grandmother or mother could do.  Today we do have a far greater variety of food ingredients to choose from than our mothers had, but has this caused us to rely on recipes rather than go by traditional knowledge and instinct?

After a massive amount of research Niki has come up with a unique guide on flavour combinations shaped into a colour wheel of flavours. She limited herself to 99 foods and the wheel is made up of 16 flavour categories: Fresh Fruity, Bramble and Hedge, Marine, Brine and Salt, Green and Grassy, Earthy, Floral Fruity, Citrussy, Creamy Fruity, Roasted, Meaty, Cheesy, Mustardy, Sulphurous,Woodland, and Spicy.

If you want to begin to experiment more in the kitchen then this is an excellent book to have at your side.

The Quick Brown Fox Blackcurrant Sorbet 

Coffee and Blackcurrant:  Niki Segnet writes on Coffee and Blackcurrant: "A mysteriously good pairing that often crops up in wine tasting notes".

That gave me an idea... I would use this signature fruit of the south to create a sorbet flavoured with the QBF liqueur.  Making sorbet has become a bit of a passion with me - no fruit is safe from an experimental sorbet.

Usually I have a giant bag of blackcurrants in my freezer from the summer harvest but now living in Auckland I have to buy them.   I couldn't go with 100% blackcurrants as a 350g bag cost me around $7. Step up the apple... the great flavour extender to make up the bulk I needed and the bonus of added natural sweetness.

Cinnamon Stick was called the "Pudding Stick" in England
because it was used to flavour many puddings.

I first make a sugar syrup for 1 kg of fruit - 350g of sugar to 500ml of water adding a cinnamon stick.  I add the apple first as it takes longer to cook, then the blackcurrants.  I peel the apples to make the sieving process easier and cook it until the fruit is soft and can be easily pureed.

As I have peeled the apples I could  just put it all in the kitchen whizz to puree instead of sieving.
If I was using my home picked blackcurrants with stalks included I would sieve rather than puree.

To the resulting puree add 3 Tbsp of QBF liqueur - always add the liqueur a little at a time and taste.  You want to get the flavour of the coffee but not overpower the fruit of the blackcurrant.

The liqueur  ensures the sorbet will remain soft and not ice up.

Pour this puree into a plastic container and freeze.  The next morning get it out and whizz it up with a food processor or a stick blender.  I have found the stick you use to puree soups is the best for breaking up and creaming the sorbet.  Put back in the freezer and it's ready to eat that night or the next evening.

The speckles on the plate are freeze dried
blackcurrant crumbs.

You can serve the sorbet on it's own as a palate refresher in between main and dessert, or add creme fraiche or vanilla ice cream with a touch of QBF liquor and a shot of the liquor as a dessert offering.

The blackcurrant crumbs I sprinkled over the top of sorbet to give extra bite. They are freeze dried blackcurrants crushed with a mortar and pestle.  These amazing taste explosions are produced by an enterprising couple from Pleasant Point in South Canterbury and I used their frozen blackcurrants for the sorbet  (there are no stalks in their frozen blackcurrants).

Grown by farmers Tony and Afsaneh Howey,
Viberi Organic Blackcurrants are New Zealand's
 first commercially grown organic blackcurrants.

Whole Pears Poached in QBF Liqueur

I decided to offer a recipe from fruit in season right now.  I had some beautiful pears I purchased at the market and felt they would be great candidates for poaching in  make something that is in season now using QBF liqueur.

I first made up a heavy sugar syrup of 3 cups of water to 1.5 cups of sugar and added a cinnamon stick.  You can use less sugar but I wanted to make these pears syrupy and rich to contrast with the bite of the blackcurrant sorbet.   I usually poach them in a lighter syrup of 3:1 or 4:1 depending on the natural sweetness of the fruit.

Bring to the boil and then place the whole pears peeled into the pot.

The problem with poaching whole fruit is that they tend to bob up to the top. I learnt a trick from Australian chef Stephanie Alexander.

Place a piece of baking paper over the top of the pears in the cooking pot, and put a plate on top to keep their heads under water. They don't go brown like those that are cooked exposed to the air. Keep a watch on the fruit - it may only take about 8 minutes for the pears to cook and you want them soft but not mushy. Test with a fine scewer to see if they are cooked all the way through.

Try to keep the stalks on the pears as they add
to the presentaton.

Take out the pears carefully and reduce the cooking liquid until it thickens to give that lovely rich syrupy feel.  Once reduced add the liqueur.  I just put in a shot, but once again test and if you feel it needs more then add more. Pour  the thickened syrup over the pears and let them sit and soak in those QBF flavours of coffee and cinnamon.

I presented the sorbet and the pears with something creamy
which could be cream or ice cream and you have a spectacular QBF dessert,

Or you can just enjoy the coffee liqueur with a selection of flavours from the kitchen pantry.

I also matched QBF liqueur with Ginger, sneeking one of Beau's gingerbread men along with crystallised
ginger.  Dark chocolate is the perfect match for coffee and for freshness a touch of citrus...a perfect ad lib dessert.

To create something without a recipe book is a little like driving around Auckland without GPS. It can mean some errors in the beginning, but the end result will be increased confidence based on decisions you have made by observation, rather than just being told what to do.

This confidence will allow you to open your fridge and make a meal with what is available.
You do have to have a basic knowledge of cooking and I started experimenting by simply replacing ingredients in recipes with a vegetable or fruit that I had a plentiful supply of.

Niki Segnit's book has given me further understanding of food flavours and the confidence to take on the challenge that Arjun gave me that morning at the Otago Farmers Market.

Southern Flavours: Smoked Sausage, Oysters and Coffee Liqueur

"Lovely flavours" our friend Ken would exclaim.  I'm sure Ken doesn't realise that his compliments to the cook has encouraged me to seek, understand and experiment with flavours.

Returning to Dunedin last weekend I was looking forward to some good southern hospitality and an opportunity to bring a taste of the south back to Auckland.

Havoc Pork from South Canterbury has been raised
free range with a healthy diet of locally grown grain and added
goodies such as garlic and cider vinegar to keep the pigs happy and healthy.

A visit to the Otago Farmer's Market on Saturday gave me just too many choices. This market is one of the best in the country not only for the range of produce on sale but for the southern warmth and openess of the stall holders. I enjoy taking time to talk to those growing or making the products because it's an opportunity to learn something new.

I had to be sensible. I couldn't take my usual market haul back home on the plane but the Southern Sausage from Havoc Pork was a "must have".  This delicious spicy smoked sausage is more like a salami than a sausage. I have been known to allow it to take part in four different meals so it's really good value for money.

This hard necked garlic is grown by Wairuna Organics and travel up to
Dunedin from South Otago (nearly in Southland)

"Hard necked garlic" is reputed to be the original garlic.  Through the process of selection the thick stem was replaced with the more popular soft stem variety that can be plaited and better suited to warmer climates. Wairuna Organics say this garlic has a stronger flavour than other varieties.  It has fewer but larger and more even sized cloves. I am keen to try growing it up in Auckland to see how it dries up here where humidity reins.

I am always on the lookout for a different variety of apple or pear to try.  My favourite organic fruit supplier will take the time to talk flavours of the fruit he sells.  He told us that the above pears were grown on pear stock and that most pears are grown on quince stock.  Why?  Because pears take longer to grow than a quince... so I couldn't resist a small bag of what he calls Choral Pears.

I regret that I did not bring back a swede.  It would have been guaranteed a southern frost to make it sweet. I feared the swede may have tipped the scales at Air New Zealand so alas it didn't come north.

Cabbage Galette with Southern Sausage

Market Chef, Alison Lambert, demonstrates how to create delicious, no fuss ways of using the produce at the market.  Alison has amazing energy and passion about regional and fresh food. I managed to have a brief exchange with her and sampled a delicious way of using cabbage in a novel way - inside a galette.

Galette is a French word that means "a flat freeform crusty cake" 

The crust is made by a batter similar to a Yorkshire pudding.  It has all the comfort of a pie, with less effort and no butter or oil - just a little cheese.  I took Alison's recipe and added my own touches to the filling to show how easy it is to use whatever you have in your fridge.  If you want to see the original recipe go the Otago Farmers Market website.

To achieve the best results you really need a caste iron pan that can go into a hot oven. I don't have my  iron pans up here but I do have an excellent thick steel pan about 23cm so I slightly modified the recipe to deal with this. You can use ceramic or metal dishes but to get an excellent crust you really need the heat retention that caste iron delivers.

First of all turn on the oven to 180 to 200C and place your pan in the oven to heat up. Then start preparing the greens. I saute or sweat an onion and/or a leek until soft but don't allow to colour.

Add sliced up cabbage, kale, brussel sprouts, silverbeet or any other green vegetable like broccoli or beans. I added a fennel bulb from my garden and I used some of the feathery greenery as added flavouring.  I had half a dozen small mushrooms left over and I could have added some celery. I found some fresh tumeric the other day so grated about a teaspoon of tumeric into the cabbage mix which adds colour and its unique health properties.  You need 4-5 cups of cooked greens and Alison suggests 400-500g of savoy cabbage.  Cook until softened.  This only takes a couple of minutes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

You can enjoy this as a vegetarian dish but I took the opportunity to add some of my Havoc Southern Sausage.  Alternatively add some curd cheese (sold at the market by Evansdale Cheese) or feta cheese.

Now its time to prepare the batter. Beat 3 eggs, add 300 ml of milk and 2 cups of plain flour.
Beat until smooth.  Add a generous handful of chopped parsley,  3 cloves of garlic finely chopped and 50g of grated cheddar or parmesan cheese.  Salt and pepper to taste.

If the mix is too thick add a little more milk.  It needs to be
the consistency of pancakes - thin enough to spread but thick enough
to stick to the cabbage.

Take out your very hot pan, spray with oil and pour half the mix to cover the base of the pan.  The steel pan I was using would quickly lose heat so I placed the pan on a low gas flame while preparing the galette.

See the small bubbles appearing like it does for a pancake.

Pile the cabbage filling on top of the batter base and then pour over the other half of the batter to cover the cabbage.  

This stage looks most unattractive but magic happens over the next 30 minutes.

Return to the hot oven for about 30 minutes or until the surface is firm and a golden brown.

I served this simply with halved beefsteak tomatoes baked in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.  They are perfect flavour companions.

Talking of cabbage... Peta who is looking after our garden at Broad Bay asked me what this giant brassica was. I had no idea where it came from. It could be a cross between a cabbage and a brussel sprout from the neighbours.  She is keen to let it flower and gather the seeds as it would be a great forage plant for her hens.

This rogue cabbage would be nearly my height - if it wasn't on a
lean from  recent storms..it  tastes just like green cabbage.

While a lot of the trees in Dunedin at midwinter are bare, my sister Kerry adds a little culinary colour to brighten her small trees in pots.

I was lucky enough to spend a couple of nights with Kerry.  We decided dinner had to be simple as we didn't want to waste any talking time.  She had a good selection of winter vegies in the fridge and some lamb chops from our brother's farm in Southland.  We decided on oven roasted vegetables and grilled lamb.

The enamel baking dish was our Mum's and
these enamel dishes are once again trendy. It's best
to find one of these old originals as they are twice the weight of
the new ones (but avoid enamel that is chipped)

I put the enamel baking dish into a hot oven 180-200 to heat while I cut up potatoes in wedges, a parsnip cut in finger sized batons as it would take the longest to cook, an onion cut into wedges, and a wedge of pumpkin cut into chunks.  The prepared vegetables went into a bowl and mixed through by hand with a slurp of oil, salt, pepper and some rosemary (about 2 tsp) chopped up to release the oils.  I then spread out the vegetables onto the sizzling hot oven dish and put back in the oven as quickly as possible.   Heating the dish allows the vegetables to cook quickly and ensures the potatoes have a crispy skin.  Oiling the food rather than the dish avoids the oil burning. Cook for 20-30 minutes.  Kerry gave our vegies an Italian touch by adding halved tomatoes and olives in the last 10 minutes and sprinkling chopped basil before they were brought to the table.

The lamb chops were put under the grill at a high temperature and turned over as soon as they browned.  This allows them to remain pink in the middle but crispy brown on the outside.
Simple but oh so delicious!

 We travelled to Dunedin for two launch events of Peter and Rod's book "An Extraordinary Land"  The first event took place in Portobello Hall where the classic giant teapots were put into action for  supper.

I roped our niece Lauren and friend Alan to help
with serving the tea

It's difficult to get the tea just right in such massive teapots.  Too few or too many tea bags can mean the difference between a good cup of tea and an unsatisfactory one.  I just couldn't resist this photo opportunity.

It's not often you see the males of our family taking over the kitchen, except when there is the promise of Bluff oysters.  I loved that moment of concentration I caught on camera.

Far Right: My brother Jamie dipping the oysters in egg and then breadcrumbs, Centre nephew Nick was
put in charge of cooking them, and Peter stepped up to make sure he wasn't overcooking them

Perfectly "just" cooked oysters served with a squeese of lemon juice

Bluff oysters must be the ultimate and perhaps best known flavour of the south.

A new flavour has appeared at the Farmer's market though.  Creator of Quick Brown Fox, Arjun Haszard, can be found there most Saturday's giving out taste samples of his Coffee Liqueurs. It's the most devine tipple for those of us who love coffee and cinnamon...even at 10 in the morning!  We admired the artwork on the bottles and Arjun told us he opted to employ an artist rather than a graphic designer to do his labels. 

I first heard about Quick Brown Fox and Arjun through a video made as part of Insiders Dunedin.  It's a beautifully crafted short film that will show you Arjun at work and talking about how he likes to do business.  

Arjun has set me a challenge - to come up with a recipe using QBF.  If he likes it he will add it to his blog. So armed with my latest favourite book "The Flavour Thesaurus" by Niki Segnit, I am going to create something special using local foods to complement that deep rich coffee and cinnamon flavour.

And while experimenting I will be thinking "What would Ken think of this flavour?.  I hope you too have had a Ken in your life encouraging you to be creative with food.