Paparazzo

Snaps and casual photos around  interesting cuisine tourism venues.

This month - Our dining history revealed, Dynamic duo, Sri Lankan tastings, Nederland in Auckland, Holmes’ tasty side, Licking good, Cuisine history in print, Australasian-Euro cuisine, Taste of Waiheke’s best.

Salmon - souse me gently again

In the second part of our salmon sousing project (see autumn 2010 issue for the first part) we present two more delicious recipes – beetroot, and honey/mustard.

Sousing (curing) salmon with a flavoured mixture of salt and sugar is a very old method of preserving fish and probably best known in this country as gravad lax (gravet laks). It is a method with many names including ‘lox’ in the US and is the same method used in the commercial fish processing industry to ‘dry’-cure salmon before it is cold-smoked. The finished product is much like smoked salmon without the smoke, leaving the delectable texture and flavour of the natural salmon.

A cold beer with Brendon Coffey

New Zealander Brendon Coffey, as executive chef, is the where the accolades and criticism stop cuisine-wise at the Sofitel Fiji Resort & Spa on Denarau Island.  And when you are responsible for feeding guests on resort-studded Denarau Island in Fiji, then you had better be good at it, because it’s only a short jandal flop to the next restaurant. 

Coffey started as assistant executive chef in 2006 when the Sofitel was the first of a whole bunch of new resorts on Denarau Island, and quickly took over the top job. He is now in charge of up to 60 kitchen staff and responsible for all the cuisine at this five-star resort. 

A stew by any other name

During my travel writing days in the early 1990s, when Northern Ireland was coming out of its ‘troubles’ and its tourism board was anticipating an increase in visitors not looking for trouble, I looked down into a familiar bowl of Irish stew.

It was in a pub restaurant in Belfast with ‘me-self’ and what appeared to be the entire office of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board viewing my sponsored lunch on the itinerary as an opportunity to make the best of a Friday luncheon.  

Cook me slowly, very slowly

It first appeared as the trademark electric Crock-Pot exactly 40 years ago and then re-appeared in as the ‘slow cooker’, and is arguably the best home kitchen contraption since the arrival of the food processor.

The cooking method is so flexible; any food fool can use it and, as it loves tough cheap cuts of meat, is kind to your shopping budget. Nor does the slow cooker demand a lot of attention during the cooking process. 

Every cuisine around the globe has its stew-like, ragout-like, casserole-like, liquid recipes made up of inexpensive, seasoned meats and vegetables that are rendered soft and delicious by slow, low-heat cooking. The only difference between a stew and a casserole is that one is cooked in a pot on top of the stove and the other in a covered dish inside the oven.

 
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The pudding wizard

In December 2009 Aussie TV show A Current Affair went in search of the best Christmas pudding offered in Australia. Eight independent judges picked a product sold under the Cole’s brand for a cent-pinching A$5.99 as their ‘best value’ seasonal pud.

Behind the culinary design of that pudding was a bright young Kiwi food technologist, Emma Shannon, who works for the Auckland-based Hansells Food Group, which used to be the Old Fashioned Foods.

Licking the best

Kohu Road sets a standard of ice cream that few other commercial makers match in a country that produces over 100 million litres of the stuff a year and imports another three million litres.
 
Since the first hand-cranked ice cream freezer was patented in the US in 1843, the most popular commercial flavours the world over are (in order); vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. Among the world’s fastest and thirstiest ice cream lickers, Kiwis place hokey pokey second to vanilla. 

Lamb rack with blue cheese risotto

This is a succulent and tasty winter dish of lamp chops with blue cheese-flavoured risotto  that can be served up with a hearty red wine..

 To reiterate our risotto article in the Autumn 2010 issue, don’t get your tea-towel in a twist over making a risotto. Stick to the formula of 1 cup of rice to 3-4 of stock, and keep tasting your rice until common sense tells you it is ready  – but serve it quickly, risotto left to sit too long will turn into a gluey mess

A glass or two at Neudorf

Cuisine-wise, the Nelson region packs a tummy punch way above its weight and gets my vote as the country’s ‘most delicious province’. By Alan Titchall.

Maybe it’s the benign climate, the wealth of prosperous-looking locals, or the southern drift of urbane refugees escaping the intensities of larger northern cities, but the Nelson region attracts a big slice of the country’s epicurean lifestylers.