Jalapeno poppers

The day had come. The day we had dreamed of. We had jalapenos big enough. We had cheese in the fridge. We had tummies to fill and we had a grotty Waitangi Day indoors.

The day saw a flurry of activity in the Dally/Brooks household with me whipping up a number of things in the kitchen and Elliot tinkering away with plant cloning, seed propagating and hydroponic system tendering.

Our new hydroponic system.
Blog on this coming soon...

The popper process started last weekend when Elliot and I had jalapeno poppers at Hallertau (the only place in Auckland I have found them) and the next day decided it was finally time to make our own so that we didn't have to make the half hour trip and spend $14 just to a get a taste of these again.

The Hallertau poppers were still slightly crunchy but definitely not as much as a raw jalapeno so we thought we should pickle the jalapenos slightly before using them for poppers. Raw jalapenos are also fairly bitter so really think they need pickling or maybe blanching first before being able to eat them.

We already had a jar of jalapenos pickling so decided we could just hollow some freshly picked ones out and chuck them in the jar for a couple of days ready to fill n fry.

So we cut the tops off six medium sized jalapenos and hollowed out the placenta and seeds and plopped them into the pickling jar.

Four days later they were the perfect firmness and didn't have the bitter taste of raw ones so we were good to go. They were drained on paper towels to remove the excess pickling liquid while the rest of the ingredients were prepped.

2 Tb cream cheese
2 Tb grated cheddar cheese
1 egg
2 Tb milk
A bit of flour
Some panko breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper

Mix the cream cheese and cheddar cheese together. Add the salt and pepper to taste. Put the egg and milk whisked together in one shallow bowl, the flour in another and the breadcrumbs in another - forming a production line.

Fill the jalapenos the best way you know how - there was no way we were getting this in with a spoon so I put it in a small sandwich bag and cut a corner off to make a piping bag.

Dredge the filled jalapenos firstly in egg, then into the flour then into the egg again and lastly into the breadcrumbs.

While doing that heat about 1cm of vegetable oil in a saucepan (or use a deep fryer or frying pan) until very hot. I'm not one for all those fancy thermometers and what not, so when the oil looks nice and shiny chuck a few breadcrumbs in and if they fry quickly and turn brown the oil is ready.

Very carefully place the jalapenos in the oil (we did three at a time so not to overcrowd the pan) and flip over after they turn golden brown on the bottom. Make sure all sides are nice and brown (including the top) and remove and drain on paper towels. Note the whole frying process took about two minutes - they do not need long at all.

Eat immediately with chipotle mayo (chipotle sauce and mayo mixed together - if you have read this blog before you will we always have some on hand).

Words cannot express how amazing these are. They were hot and crunchy and spicy and salty and just incredible. The coating was a lot better and crispier than the Hallertau ones and the mixture was awesome and creamy and cheesy and they are incredibly moreish.

Thank goodness we have more jalapenos on the way. I'm in love.

The glory that is prawns

And canned smoked fish. Not together, but in three recipes which are easy, can be made not too spicy and are great for main meals, lunches, appetisers, dinner parties or just a Sunday afternoon as the case may be.

I have extremely fond memories associated with the prawn and kumara Thai fritters I made a couple of weeks ago. In Wellington in 2008 I lived with some very good friends in a house named Harry and my dear flatmate, affectionately known as Chopper, introduced me to these amazing morsels.

A couple of weeks ago something, somehow, somewhere made me think of these fritters which I have not eaten in years and a text message later I had the recipe (which I believe is an Annabel Langbein creation) and could barely wait to whip them up.

These are great in any shape or form, any time of the day, hot or cold. They are simply delicious and I urge you to make them now.

• 1/2 c each self raising flour and rice flour
• 1 c coconut cream
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 Tb minced fresh ginger
• 2 Tb sweet chilli sauce
• Greens of 1 spring onion, finely chopped
• Small handful of coriander, finely chopped
• 1 medium-large kumara, peeled and grated
• 300g raw de-shelled prawns, cut in quarters
• Salt and pepper
• Vegetable oil

In a bowl combine the flours, coconut cream, egg white, salt and pepper, turmeric, ginger, chilli sauce, spring onion and coriander. Mix to a smooth batter.

Add grated kumara and prawns and mix. Rest for at least 15 minutes before cooking.

Heat oil in a frying pan and cook spoonfuls over a medium heat for a couple of minutes on each side until golden brown.

Drain on paper towels and serve with sweet chilli dipping sauce (I found one I like!)

I did quite big fritters as they were for dinner but these would be fab as mini fritters for an appetiser or canapes. If you need to do them in batches you can keep the cooked ones warm in an oven on a low heat. They are also extremely yummy cold.

I am so full right now but I still really want to eat them.

I served them with an Asian slaw which is just finely chopped lettuce (or cabbage), grated carrot, chopped spring onions and coriander, some chopped toasted peanuts and sesame seeds with a dressing of lime juice, fish sauce, red chillies and brown sugar.

Perfection.

The other two dishes comprised the lunch I have just stuffed my face with. Taking advantage of a non-hungover weekend day I felt like cooking lunch so made Peri Peri prawns and Thai fish cakes with aioli and tomato chilli dip.

The prawn recipe came from my Red Hot! book and is extremely easy. The recipe takes its name from the Piri Piri chillies that the recipe originally used. I used our Takanotsumes which worked well.

The effort involved in de-shelling and cleaning the prawns is totally worth it.

• 2 fresh red chillies, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• Juice of 1/2 a lime
• 2 Tb olive oil
• 20 prawns (but you will want so many more)
• Salt and pepper

De-shell and de-vein the prawns, leaving the tails on.

Make the marinade by combining the chilli, paprika, coriander, garlic, lime juice and olive oil in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

Pour over the prawns and coat well. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes (mixing a couple of times).

Fry the prawns for a couple of minutes until just cooked. Alternatively, skewer them and do them on the barbie.

Serve with an aioli - the cheat's method being: mix a couple of tablespoons of good mayo, half a teaspoon of Dijon mustard and a small clove of crushed garlic. Voilà.

The Thai fishcakes are a recipe I made up. I have seen enough episodes of Come Dine With Me to know what people generally put in them (and to last me a lifetime) so I threw a few things together. Although taking cooking advice from that show is any interesting notion - there is always at least one of the whinging poms that dislikes everything. Luckily for me, the whinging pom in this house loved these.

They were actually initially going to be crab cakes but apparently PAK'nSAVE (who knew the correct spelling had so many capital letters - seems to match their ads that yell at you) doesn't believe in stocking crab in any form so smoked fish it was.

You could use any type of fish - and could use raw, however I love smoked fish and knew the canned stuff was very tasty and so easy. It also means the cakes won't take long to cook as you don't have to worry about cooking raw fish - and you can taste test the mixture before cooking it if you are squeamish about eating raw fish (which, if you know me and my love of eating raw mince and bacon, know that would not be a problem).

• 300g canned smoked fish (the big Sealord can is the best - 300g is about 2/3 of the can)
• 3/4 c panko breadcrumbs
• 1 egg
• 2 fresh red chillies, finely chopped
• 2 fresh green chillies, finely chopped
• 1 Tb fresh minced ginger
• Handful of coriander, finely chopped
• 1 spring onion, finely chopped
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 Tb fish sauce 
• 2 Tb mayonnaise
• Salt and pepper to taste

Combine everything in a bowl and put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Shape into small cakes and fry on a medium high heat for a couple of minutes on each side. A lot of people roll the cakes in either breadcrumbs or flour before frying but I prefer them just as they are.

Once golden brown drain on paper towels and serve with tomato chilli dip and garnish with spring onion greens.

To make the dip you need:

• 2 tsp butter
• 1/4 brown onion, finely chopped
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 1 small garlic clove, crushed
• 1/3 c water
• 1 tsp malt vinegar
• 1 Tb chopped coriander
• 2 fresh red chillies, finely chopped
• 1 Tb lime juice
• 1 Tb fish sauce
• Salt and pepper to season

Melt the butter in a saucepan and sauté the onion, garlic and tomatoes for about 5 minutes until the onion is tender.

Add the water, vinegar, coriander, chillies, lime juice and fish sauce and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 15 minutes and add salt and pepper to taste.

Blend with a stick blender and serve hot or cold.

So Sunday lunch turned out to be pretty awesome. Just for good measure, I also flash fried some whole green chillies in olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt. Mams did this for me once as she loved them in Spain which is how they serve them and they make a great accompaniment to a meal or tapas dish.

Fry on a high heat for about 2 minutes
The skins will blister and pop - beware!

The perfect accompaniment would be a large cold glass of Pinot Gris.

Christmas Huevos Rancheros

Knowing the other eight or so meals we would be eating on Christmas Day would be classic Kiwi Christmas BBQ fare, I decided our breakfast at home would be something a little different.

In fact this breakfast was not just not-Kiwi but was kinda a round the globe mash-up. This certainly was not a traditional Mexican Huevos Rancheros, but more of what it has now become - baked eggs in a tomato sauce which turned into more of an Italian sauce which I ended up serving with Turkish bread.

My loathing of crowds and Christmas grocery shopping saw me at the supermarket at 8.00am on the 22nd to get everything I needed. Thankfully nothing too fresh was needed for this meal but it meant I had to get bread that could be heated on the day and was not bakery fresh and that left me with some Turkish bread that you keep in the fridge and heat for 10 minutes before serving and it worked a treat.

This is an extremely easy brunch to make as you can make the sauce in advance and then just add and cook the eggs when you need to. You can also make it as mild or spicy as you like and add anything you want - meat (or not), onions, garlic and whatever herbs and spices you have at home.

Our Christmas breakfast compagno Jo is not too keen on anything too spicy so this is just a nice medium heat - enough that you can definitely taste it but not too hot that you need to rush for the milk - which was lucky considering mimosas were the drink of the morning.

I was up bright and early checking if Santa had been (he had not) so got the sauce on early so that it could cook for about an hour and a half to really get some good flavour going.

The recipe serves four (which was perfect for Christmas breakfast for three plus my Boxing Day leftover breakfast).

2 cloves garlic, chopped very finely
Half a red onion, sliced thinly
Half a yellow capsicum, diced
4 rashers middle bacon, chopped
3 spicy sausages, sliced
2 cans tomatoes (I used chopped in puree)
Hot sauce to taste (I used about a couple of teaspoons of our Habanero hot sauce)
1 cup chicken stock
Punnet of cherry/grape tomatoes, cut in half
1 Tb smoked paprika
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried rosemary
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Fry the onion and garlic in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil for a couple of minutes, being careful not to brown them too much.

Add the capsicum and bacon and stir for a couple of minutes.

Add the sliced sausages (which I had precooked and let cool before slicing) and cherry tomatoes and fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the canned tomatoes, paprika, herbs, some hot sauce if required and some salt and pepper.

Simmer at a very low heat for about an hour and a half. When it is almost done preheat the oven to 200°C.

Towards the end of the cooking I realised the sauce needed some more liquid so added half a cup of chicken stock and let it simmer down and then added the other half and simmered for the last 20 minutes or so with the frying pan lid on to keep the liquid in.

Once you are happy with the texture, flavour and seasoning of the sauce, transfer it to an oven proof serving dish.

Make six wells for the eggs. Carefully break the eggs into the wells and place in the oven for about 10 minutes until the eggs are cooked.

I also heated the bread for those 10 minutes in the bottom of the oven.

Served the eggs with a sprinkling of fresh coriander and the warm bread and butter.

The sauce was herby, a bit spicy, meaty and extremely tasty and made a great start to a very merry Christmas filled with family, food, friends and a wine or two!

The sauce is also amazing as leftovers. I just fried an egg the next day and plonked it on top of the warmed sauce, some more fresh coriander and leftover bread. Heavenly.

Jalapeno, olive and sundried tomato pide

With the takeaway tally mounting in the Dally/Brooks household over the last few weeks, last weekend was time to get back in the kitchen, and I could think of no better way to be domestic than bake bread.

And this first time bread maker was for one stoked with the results - well the second batch anyway. Apparently expired yeast does not work.

When I went searching for a bread recipe I knew bread was quite labour intensive, but did not realise the time involved. Thankfully a rainy afternoon is quite conducive to mixing/kneading/proofing/checking/halving/re-kneading/re-proofing/stretching/chopping/arranging... and finally baking.

I wanted something to put toppings on as had a jalapeno craving, so decided on a pide (pee-day) - a Turkish flat bread.

I found the recipe at http://www.taste.com.au/ and followed it to the letter.

• 3 1/3 c plain flour
• 1 tsp dried yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 c warm water
• 1 Tb olive oil plus extra olive oil to grease
• 1 egg yolk

The recipe tops the bread with sesame and nigella seeds which looked amazing to someone who LOVES sesame seeds and will put them on anything I can, but I went for alternative toppings this time.

• Combine flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a bowl. Make a well in the centre, then add water. Use a wooden spoon to stir until combined, then use hands to bring the dough together in the bowl.

• Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 15 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Brush a bowl with oil to grease. Place dough in the bowl and lightly coat with oil. Cover with a damp tea towel. Set aside in a warm, draught-free place for 1-1 1/2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.

• Place a baking tray on the middle shelf of the oven. Preheat oven to 230°C. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and cut in half. Flatten slightly with hands. Place each half on separate pieces of floured, non-stick baking paper. Cover with a damp tea towel and set aside in a warm, draught-free place for 15 minutes.

• With floured hands, stretch each piece of dough into an 18 x 40 cm rectangle (a tad more difficult than expected - thought it would be hard to stretch them but not stretching them too much was the challenge and I got a tad out of control). Leave on non-stick baking paper. Cover with a damp tea towel and set aside in a warm, draught-free place for 10 minutes. 

• Whisk egg yolk and oil in a bowl. Brush the top of each pide with egg mixture. Use floured fingers to make indentations on top and sprinkle with toppings*. Remove tray from oven and slide 1 pide onto tray. Cook for about 10 minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack. Repeat with second pide.

*The first one I topped with black olives, red jalapenos (which I re-hydrated from our many dried ones), and sundried tomatoes.
The second one I simply topped with finely chopped fresh rosemary and rock salt. 

I probably stretched them a tad thin in the middle but they rose well and were extremely tasty - especially the rosemary and salt one!

I also whipped up a batch of chilli chocolate cookies that weekend so felt rather virtuous. Long may it continue (sadly not for the Asian food court down the road who will miss my face every night).