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Playing with fire...

15/6/2015

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In our Backyard Bliss feature in the latest issue of Glory Days, we were lucky enough to work with award winning chefs Ben Milgate and Elvis Abrahanowicz from legendary Sydney restaurant Bodega, to bring you a few of their barbecue food favourites. 

To get their top secret recipe for Smoked Wagyu Brisket you will have to buy a copy of our latest issue, but to accompany this delicious meaty goodness we have the perfect Jack Daniels BBQ sauce and slaw to accompany. 

But first a few words from the boys on their love of barbecue...
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"We love everything about BBQing.  The flavour, the texture, the result and the process are so much better than cooking with gas, Sous-vide or anything else.  Over the years the old man (Elvis’s dad, Adan) has taught us all sorts of tricks and techniques but in the end if you have the heat right, some great produce and some beers to drink while the food is cooking you’re going to have a great feed!"

Jack Daniels BBQ Sauce
250 ml Beef Stock
45 ml Jack Daniels
4 tablespoons tomato Sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Sriracha chilli sauce
Freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
1 tablespoon molasses
1 tablespoon potato starch
1 tablespoon water
  • Combine all of the ingredients, except for the potato starch and water, in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat
  • Mix in the potato starch and water together in a small bowl until the mixture becomes a thick slurry
  • Whisk that slurry into the boiling sauce then strain, and serve warm
  • Makes about 250 ml, and any left overs can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 weeks


Slaw
200 grams shredded cabbage
100 grams shredded carrot
3 tablespoons whole egg mayonnaise 
  • Combine cabbage and carrot in a bowl and toss together.  
  • Add mayonnaise and mix through until well combined.
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Sadly we can't fly them over for our mid-winter barbecue that we are hosting on the 5th July, but if you find yourself in Sydney, you can visit their stellar establishment Bodega and try their food first hand. 

For those you wanting more inspiration and culinary guidance from the convenience of your own home, we have a copy of the boys book, Recipes for a Good Time, to give away to one lucky Glory Days reader. To enter visit our Facebook page for all the details!
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Baby it's cold outside...

17/4/2015

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As the weather starts to turn nasty, Miss Pin-Up New Zealand 2015 runner up, Miss Charlotte Cake shares her recipe for the perfect pasta sauce.
I grew up in a household full of girls (Mum took the role of both parents) so when it came to helping around the house, we had a “get stuck in” mentality from an early age. 

Making dinner was always one of my favourite jobs. I can remember cooking spaghetti bolognaise with my own homemade tomato sauce when I was 11 or 12. We always had a vegetable garden so we would wander down and grab herbs and veges like parsley and spinach then pop them straight into whatever we were making. 

Knowing how to prepare food and where it comes from has always been important to me. That’s why I love homemade baking. I know exactly what’s gone into the mixture, it helps curb my sweet tooth, plus it’s so nice to cut into a freshly baked cake and share it among friends with a good ol’ cup of English breakfast tea. What more could you ask for? 

Rather than a cake recipe, which can be found in abundance on my website misscharlottecake.com, I’ve decided to pass on my super-easy, delicious and nutritious tomato sauce, which is fabulous with pasta dishes. You can buy tomatoes in bulk cheaply when they are in season from your local market, and spend a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon simmering this recipe. 

Use washed recycled jars if you don’t want to buy new ones, and as long as you’ve sterilised them properly, you’ll always have a fresh batch of sauce on hand.   

The method I use to preserve fruit and vegetables has been around for thousands of years. It was a way to make sure there was always enough food throughout the year. Not only is it humbling to know you have a pantry full of homemade preserves, but they are a real treat to make for gifts too. Simply tie some cute ribbon around the top and buy (or make, if you’re crafty) some nice labels so you can write down the flavour and the date it was made. 

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Miss Charlotte Cake wears The Charlotte Cake Apron from Devel Branded Clothing. Click on Charlotte's picture to find out more about how to get one of your own.
Charlotte's Perfect Pasta Sauce 

  • 2 kilograms fresh tomatoes
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1 onion
  • 4 tbsps lemon juice
  • ½  cup pure olive oil (the greener the better)
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2–3 500ml glass jars with seals/lids (you may need more or less jars depending on how big the tomatoes are). 

Method 

  1. Finely chop onions and garlic and sauté lightly with a little olive oil in a medium-sized pot until the onions turn clear.
  2. Finely chop the tomatoes, add to the pot with the remaining ingredients and lower the temperature. 
  3. Lightly simmer your sauce until the tomatoes have completely softened and broken up. This can take up to 45 minutes.
  4. While the sauce is simmering, prepare your jars. Thoroughly wash in hot soapy water, rinse and pop them into the oven at 100 degrees for 10 minutes.
  5. Once your mixture resembles a slightly chunky sauce, remove from the heat and carefully pour into your clean, sterile jars right to the top, to push out air from the jar. Put the lids on and let the jars cool. I like to store mine at the bottom of the fridge.
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The Convivialist, just gin time...

8/3/2015

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'Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.'

A suitable opener from Casablanca, one of Hollywood's finest Golden Age films to kick off a little discussion about gin and things that go with gin. Suitable also because we are marking the second anniversary of Glory Days with our Hollywood Issue. But it is perhaps most suitable as an introduction to The Convivialist, our resident bon viveur, who will be writing for us now and then. Here he introduces us to one of his favourite gins, finds a surprising number of foods that pair with said drink, and then makes you an offer he expects you'll find difficult to refuse.

Following on from last week's piece about the Cucumber Cinema in which mention was made of a hamper filled with food that paired well with gin, I thought it would be a good idea, before we went any further, to reveal myself as the curator of that hamper and to describe the feast I had to endure in the course of its preparation.

I started, as many would, with the assumption that gin is a stand alone drink, best enjoyed as part of a cocktail or  with tonic which, though lovely, are hardly members of any recognised food group. That assumption has been challenged however, and in the course of preparing the hamper, I have become convinced that while gin is wonderful on its own, it is also startlingly good with food.

But before we get to the food, let's open the bottle. And for this particular experience, I chose Hendrick's, which is certainly a most unusual gin. With a powerful cucumber profile and infusions of rose petals, its eccentric nature cries out for exciting food pairings and I sought locally produced artisanal accompaniments. These I found easily enough and started eating.

1) Smoked salmon - This one is almost too obvious and perhaps why it appears at the head of my list but the  richness of the gin combines perfectly with the smokiness of the salmon from Aoraki Smokehouse. If you want to add a little something, I'd recommend a marinade including dill and pepper as accompaniment.

2) Rilette - Given that juniper is not only one of the spirit's principle ingredients but also one of the ingredients of this delicacy from Big Bad Wolf it makes sense that they would work together. When spread on crisp crackers of the kind you might find from Mash Tun the combination has great bite. 

3) Goats cheese -The clean bitterness of the gin works well with salty foods and I love it when served with warmed goat's cheese. My favourite at the moment is from Over The Moon Dairy and should you have any of those crackers left after sampling the rillette, they will create a superbly edible plate for this great cheese.

4) Bread & butter pickle - Given that the key ingredient of this pickle from Maison Therese is cucumber, adding this treat to your warmed goats cheese on crackers makes complete sense. The sweet and sour nature of the pickle works perfectly with the gin and the three way combination will give your taste buds a real lift.

5) Cucumber sandwiches - Pairing these with gin and tonic is almost as English as putting Pimms & lemonade with strawberries while Wimbledon's on, but I prefer this combination and we can discuss the benefits or otherwise of Pimms another day.

6) Dark chocolate -  I like chocolate, dark chocolate particularly, and until recently ate it without thinking about eating it with gin. Should you wish, you can get all gastronomic and mix wasabi and cucumber with chilli chocolate or you can keep it simple and pair something like a Dominican Republic dark chocolate from Wellington Chocolate Factory with Hendricks and finish the meal without coffee.

7) Coffee - That said, a cup of hot coffee would be a perfect end to such a meal but, if you feel like pushing the boat out, there is a cocktail that might be better. Enjoying it is as simple as mixing half gin and half coffee, perhaps a blend from Havana, in a shaker and shaking the contents. Known as a Midnight Espresso, this treat is guaranteed to speed you up rather than slow you down but in the right circumstance, there's no harm in that.

And that about wraps it up. But I wouldn't be much of a host if I didn't share with you some of what I've enjoyed while conducting the above matching exercise. To whit, I've persuaded the lovely folk at Glory Days to partner again with Hendricks and the artisans named above to curate a number of hampers of similar foodstuffs and offer you the chance to win one of them in the coming weeks. Keep an eye on the Glory Days Facebook page for more details.
Until next time...
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  • Welcome
  • My Home Town
    • About My Home Town
    • My Home Town App
    • Visit Whanganui >
      • Whanganui Featured Listings
    • Buy Your Guides
    • Local Knowledge >
      • Two Lippy Ladies
      • Painted Bird
      • Kerry Trent Ranginui
  • Collectors Anonymous