Kawakawa Berries With Apricot~ Desserts

It's quite fun having our own unique native foods that are also medicines here in New Zealand.

Most people are family with Kawakawa, Piper excelsum that can be found in most parts of the country in our native bush & other spots. A member of the pepper family, the leaves are useful as a rongoa medicine plant but are also edible themselves. The female fruits that ripen around Christmas time are also excellent dried & ground as pepper . The ripe fruits are also fascinatingly delicious with a mango flavour but also spicy seeds. Since there are not many recipes out there for using the ripe berries I have been experimenting with them to see what works & what doesn't. My first post you can find just here. 

Now that there is only two of us & Rob works a lot of afternoon shifts we don't always get through the fruit that I buy, harvest so when I spotted a bowl of ripe apricots sitting there uneaten I decided to make a dessert with them & tried pairing them with kawakawa.

I love the result!

I'm not very good with exact recipes because I am mostly winging it as I go.

I cooked my 8 apricots over low heat & the lid on, without any added water.

When cool I added the same number of ripe berries- just slide them off the little stem.

Add 1/2 cup of honey & blended with a sticker blender until smooth.

I then added a cup of thick plain Greek yoghurt.

Then I beat 1/2 cup of cream to soft peaks adding a little vanilla & folding through half the apricot mixture.

Put in to a bowl & chill.

The other option for the other half was to add 1 dsp of  gelatine in a little water. Sit to bloom, then heat to dissolve. Mix in to the apricot puree & pour over your favourite cheesecake base.

Mine is always walnuts, coconut dates & coconut oil with a pinch of salt.

 1/3 cup each of broken cashews, walnut pieces (toast these first if you like) and coconut, 

add 4 or 5 soft dates (remove the stones first) 

Add a tbsp of melted coconut oil and briefly combine in a food processor until mixed to a fine crumb.

I used a little loaf tin for one of the "cheesecakes". Line with baking paper or glad wrap.

In the little green jug is s a simple yoghurt dressing with more Kawakawa fruits, olive oil, sea salt, orange juice & a little honey. Add some seedy mustard too if you like & even a pinch of turmeric. A yummy summer salad dressing- great with seafood.

Catherine X

Maya's Favourite- Potato Salad

 Maya is our dear Czech/Vietnamese friend who we serendipitously met when we walked to Bell Rock on Labour day this year. In spending time with this delightful young woman I learnt that her favourite celebration food is potato salad. When we talked about how they make potato salad at "home" we were amazed at how most of the ingredients were just the same as we might include here.

When Maya came to stay a few weeks ago I made this potato salad for us to share together. And it's true, it made it feel like Christmas.

My recipe is really just a list of ingredients, but you can easily add or leave out anything that takes your fancy. 

The first step is choosing good potatoes- not a variety that says great for mashing for instance- a white waxy kind is best. Peeled is fairly important. Potato salad has a strange texture if you leave the skins on. Even chopping is also useful so that the pieces cook uniformly. Just cover with water in a pot and bring to the boil then simmer until just tender. Strain and leave in the pot with the lid off to cool.

When the potatoes are warm sprinkle over some sea salt & ground black pepper.

Then 1/3 cup of honey mustard vinaigrette. adding the seasonings and dressing while the potatoes are still warm helps the flavours to soak in to the potatoes best.

I then added:

Lightly cooked asparagus pieces, finely sliced red pepper, lots of fresh herbs finely snipped up with scissors- lemon thyme, parsley, mint, coriander, onion weed are all good options depending on your own preference and what's in the garden or the fridge.

Spring onions are an important flavour here, or wild onion weed- so add a few of them finely chopped up.

1/2 a dozen boiled eggs, shelled and chopped.

Some diced ham or cook some bacon if you like.

A couple of tbsps of capers is great and several diced gherkins or other pickles. I like to add 3 or 4 Pepperdews- sweet/sour wee peppers in a jar from the supermarket.

You could also add olives, panfried courgettes or artichoke hearts- I buy those in large jars from Bin Inn.

The balance of flavours is in all the various components.  

Gently mix everything together with your hands or a large spoon making sure not to mush the

potatoes too much.

Last thing is the creamy dressing which could be your favourite mayonnaise or this yogurty one that works well too:

A good creamy Greek yoghurt is great. We like the Cyclops brand.

So perhaps put 1 1/2 cups of yoghurt in to a small bowl

Add: sea salt, ground black pepper,

1 dsp wholegrain mustard, 1 dsp runny honey, some chilli of some sort if you like.

Add the juice of half a lemon and 1 tbsp of olive oil.

Stir and taste and adjust the flavours until you're happy with it and that's it. Keeps well in the fridge.

Let me know if I've left anything out.

Have fun making up your own potato salad as you go along.

Catherine X

Kawakawa Berries- what can I do with them?

 Kawakawa berries are a unique little fruit that taste a little like rockmelon with a hit of spicy seeds.

You don't really think about Kawkawa berries being Christmasy, but they are. Along with the flowering of the Pohutukawa trees, the sweet abundance of the Linden's, Kawakawa berries also serenade the years' end. I have one little local spot that is easy to access every few days. As long as the fruit is plump you can harvest them while they are still green and they will ripen over the next few days. If you click on the photo below you'll see the progression of the fruit ripening over 48 hours.

I have tried them in all kinds of ways now - in dressings, infused in honey, in various desserts & mixed through strawberries, but this year I have decided that I like them best just as they are.

There are some lovely peaches at our Farmer's market just now- this combo was amazing: Hohepa (local) mozzarella, local honey, good salt, fresh peaches & perfectly ripe Kawakawa berries. Brilliantly balanced & the Kawakawa flavours just shone. Baked peaches with a little maple syrup are also delicious with them.

Dressing with Kawakawa berries, orange or lemon juice, lemon zest, thick natural yoghurt yoghurt, olive oil, honey, salt, pepper.

Add a teaspoon of tomato paste to go with a seafood salad.

Thick natural yoghurt, Mango chutney and plenty of ripe Kawakawa berries, especially if you chew well and get the hit of all the spicy seeds. So good with a curry.

Fairy cheesecakes

All mixed in with Mascarpone.

Kawkawa berries are lovely with chocolate too. They can even be dipped in chocolate if you like.

Katie X

Wild Rice, Quinoa and Cherry Salad

When we were planning what we would take down to Wai Ora at the beginning of of December for our wedding anniversary, I got it in my head that a wild rice & cherry salad might be good. I couldn't find a recipe, so I made one up. Not hard when it's a salad.

I cooked equal quantities of wild rice and three coloured quinoa (or just white or red or brown).

Or just use rice if you prefer.

Make sure the rice is well cooked- this lot was just a tad under down.

I stoned cherries and halved them

Added dried cranberries, pomegranate seeds, chopped pistachio nuts, chopped onion weed bulbs or spring onions. I also added a good amount of finely chopped mint, parsley and coriander.

Salt and ground black pepper.

The nuts could also be pinenuts, walnuts or hazelnuts.

The dressing makes all the difference:

4 tbsps olive oil

2 tbsp tamarind puree- either ready made or soak the caked tamarind version in water to soften, then push through a sieve.

2 tbsp maple syrup

2 tbsp lime juice

2 cloves of garlic or onion weed bulbs crushed

1/2 tsp fennel seeds lightly toasted & crushed- mortar & pestle or a spice grinder.

A pinch of chilli flakes

The salad went nicely with salmon that we cooked with a pomegranate molasses glaze on the little barbecue. 

Variation

Here we are at the beginning of February and some of the cherries from this season have hung on in the fridge. So I cooked some little Beluga lentils until tender and added them to the wild rice instead of quinoa. 

The other additions are: red shiso, variegated apple mint, wee unsprayed begonia flowers, nasturtium leaves, purple kumara and a dressing made with slow baked Black Doris plums, honey, yoghurt, salt & pepper, 1/2 tsp Garam marsala, olive oil & thick natural yoghurt.

Slow baking fruit is amazing! It concentrates the flavours and makes the fruit even more delicious and digestible. A sprinkling of good sugar and in to the oven at 150C for 1/2 an hour. 

Katie X

Strawberry Coconut Shortcake

When I lived i Wellington 42 years ago, I fell in love with this strawberry shortcake from a little organic cafe I found upstairs in Cuba street. I eventually figured out how to make it and all this time later I am still reinventing it. I don't generally do dessert, for pudding's sake, but I sometimes work it in to being part of a meal. This take on the classic strawberry shortcake is made with a base of wholemeal, coconut and almond flours, the topping a mix fresh strawberries, coconut & brown sugar. 

This is the most brilliant recipe because it can be made with almost any fruit. Apricot and coconut are delicious together too. A great way to use up fruit that might otherwise be wasted.

Base: cream 100 gms of softened butter with 1/3 cup of brown sugar

Add an egg and beat again

Fold in 2 cups (total) of an even mix of coconut flour, spelt flour and ground almonds

And a tsp of baking powder 

Press mix in to a greased baking paper lined tin

Pop in to the fridge while you're preparing the topping.

Topping: slice up a large punnet (which I guess is a kilo) of washed strawberries in to a large bowl

Add 1 cup of fine coconut & 1 cup of shredded coconut (or whatever you have on hand)

And 1/2 cup of brown sugar

Lastly a splash of rosewater.

Add a tbsp of cornflour & a tbsp of almond flour if the fruit seems quite moist. 

Mix together 

Spoon the strawberry coconut mix over the base and smooth out

Bake for 40 minutes in a moderate oven until firm

Keeps really well in the fridge 

In the last photo the shortcake is topped with coconut chia pudding made with coconut cream chia seeds, rosewater and honey, red and gold raspberries, white alpine strawberries and pansies from the garden.

So good!

The next version I made was apricot.

 With juicy fruit it's a good idea to turn down the heat and cook for another 5 or 10 minutes until the fruit topping has firmed well and set.

I am thinking that Black Boy peach would be amazing and also pineapple and passionfruit.

Katie X

Strawberry Yoghurt Cheesecake

Sometimes it's nice to follow a recipe & go out & buy the ingredients especially & other times, it's fine just to use what you have & make it up as you go along. This, around Christmas time "cheesecake" was one of those make it up jobs & it was so delicious.

I have decided that the only base worth making for an uncooked cheesecake is this one. It is so good.

 1/3 cup each of broken cashews, walnut pieces (toast these first if you like) and coconut, 

add 4 or 5 soft dates (remove the stones first) 

Add a tbsp of melted coconut oil and briefly combine in a food processor until mixed to a fine crumb. Press in to a greased springform tin. 

The middle part is super easy- I had a kilo of strawberry Greek yoghurt in the fridge that I bought from Reduced to Clear for $2.50!

In a small saucepan soak a large rounded dsp of gelatine in a little juice, or water.

Let stand for 5 minutes & then stir over low heat until the gelatine is dissolved. 

Stir in a large dsp of honey.

Once cooled, stir in 1/2 cup or so of the yoghurt & stir again.

Now pour the gelatine in to the yoghurt & stir through thoroughly.

Pour over the base. Pop in to the fridge.

The topping is so flavoursome & a great way to make use of an abundance of gorgeous strawberries at this time of the year. I had a large punnet of juicy fat strawberries (seconds are brilliant for this) in the fridge that I washed & sliced & spread out in a roasting pan. Sprinkle a dsp of raw sugar over the fruit (actually I did this part the night before). Cook at around 130o until well roasted & syrupy, but not dry.

The process is the same again- 1 large rounded tsp of powdered gelatine soaked in the liquid of the roasted strawberries, once bloomed, gentle heat to dissolve. Stir through the strawberries add a splash of rose water & once the yoghurt part has started to set, gently pour over the cheesecake. 

Cover & refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight.

Back in the day, when no one even knew what they were, my grandmother Edna would serve bowls of whole strawberries & tinned lychees for dessert. These Japanese wineberries are ready in our garden over summertime & are equally as good with lychees & especially this strawberry cheesecake.

A cheesecake that is light & still nourishing yet feels like a celebration food. It also lasts well in the fridge.

Katie X

Summertime Wraps

We love colourful food & we love beetroot. We eat beetroots in all their glorious colours almost all year round as there are some fabulous beetroot growers at our Farmers' Market.
This dip is just amazing & so handy to have in the fridge for adding extra pizzazz to almost any meal. It is also an excellent ingredient to add in to summertime beetroot wraps.

 The wraps themselves we get at New World- they are Farrah's Superbeet Wraps & such a cool colour & not at all stodgy.

 Here's one version that we made last summer.

And here's the pictorial inspiration- just so we remember what to do next time round.

This beetroot dip was made with mostly yellow beets with one red one. 

The first addition to this particular creation is some homemade pickled ginger.

Cucumber is always delicious however you want to use it- sliced, grated, shredded- even sticks.

 The egg salad is also a great thing to have on hand in the fridge in summer- just boiled eggs, shelled, seasoned, mashed with the addition of some whole seed mustard & some good mayonnaise.

 The carrot salad is just grated carrot, corn cooked & cut off the cob, salt & pepper, lemon juice & parsley, coriander or finely chopped mint.

 Nasturtium leaves are a great addition- just a little spicy. And Red Shiso is one of our favourite summer herbs. Heirloom meaty tomatoes can be sliced very thinly- then sprinkled with salt & pepper.

 Radicchio is so cool & perfect to add in to a wrap, as it's slightly bitter & nicely digestive, or use other lettuce or salad greens.

 And then there's avocado or anything else that takes your fancy.
Wrap in natural greaseproof paper to take on picnics & make sure you have some serviettes to mop up the juicy, delicious mess.

Katie X