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).

Diddly dee potatoes

Do not be alarmed. Chillies are still growing, fish are still alive, spicy food is still being eaten, but a hectic few weeks, coupled with the winter months not being conducive to a blog written about things that grow in the heat of summer, have made this blogger a tad MIA.

With spring fast approaching however, things are ramping up, chillies are growing quickly and I have been back in my neglected kitchen this weekend.

One of the best things we grew last year was potatoes, so when Elliot had some time off work recently, gardening centres were inevitably visited and seed potatoes were bought and left to eye up in the cupboard.

Varieties are Jersey Bennies and Maris Anchors

They were ready to be put into tubs today so all of the eyes except the biggest one were cut off and five potatoes were planted in each of the three 40 litre tubs (remember to put holes in the bottom BEFORE putting the kilos and kilos of potting mix in...)

The potatoes were placed on top of some compost and covered with potting mix.

Yep, they are that easy and you only need to tend to them with they sprout leaves out the top. At that point they get heaped over with more potting mix and repeated until the soil gets to the top.

The maturity time is about three months so we will have some lovely new potatoes just before summer.

I think this is the perfect thing to do with kiddies if you want to get them into gardening or just outdoors - you can do it in tubs so they don't take up much room, they are super easy to do and they are so rewarding after a few months as you can get your hands in the tubs and dig out the potato treasure.

One of my fondest childhood memories is doing this in Grandpa's garden in Picton and Nana would get fresh potatoes every night to cook up over the Christmas period - a bit of butter (which we were NEVER allowed at home) and a bit of salt - heavenly.

The rest of our garden is looking green and fantastic. Our carrots have been pulled - they are awesome and funky and tasty and about as big as they are going to get growing fairly crowdedly in tubs.

Plus the tops are yummy in salads.

We continue to plant and eat and plant and eat our cos lettuces and herbs and have re-planted some spring onions.

The shallots are growing very well and have been in there for a few months now so they shouldn't be too far away now - bring on the Thai chilli pastes.

The chilli season is definitely upon us with Elliot looking after the seeds and plants well (some may say obsessively). Seeds continue to germinate in the propagator and then get transferred to the light box and potted up when big enough. Some have even had a little outside time.

Updates and photos to come, as well as some recipes (fingers crossed the bread rises this time).

Chilli & Hop Festival 2013

The fact that I was meant to write this post on Sunday but did not budge from the couch the entire day except to make hash browns, I think indicates a rather good time was had.

The Chilli & Hop Festival 2013 was filled with a lot of spicy food, some fantastic beer, some pretty alright company and only a little rain.

If you haven't been to Hallertau Brewbar and Restaurant make it your next port of call. The food and beer on any given day is amazing which is why I knew I had to go to their Chilli & Hop Festival. In its second year, it was bigger and better than last year and hosted the final of the NZ Chilli Eating Champs.

Some of the chillies in preparation for the comp

A $20 ticket got you a free glass (I use that term very loosely, well not loosely, rather not at all, as it was made of plastic) and a beer. My first try of the beverages produced by Liberty Brewing Company that were on offer was the “Dragons Whaia” Strong Golden Chilli Infused Ale which was delicious, but it was the Bhuty Chocolate Stout that was irresistible. With beer not being my normal drink of choice, before we arrived I wasn't sure how long it would be until I turned to me ol' pal chardonnay, but I didn't even need to look at a wine list. I was hooked.

Dragons Whaia

The chilli was definitely present in both the beers I tried and the stout was super tasty and warming on what turned into a pretty chilly (yes, I see what I did there, it's almost as bad as talking about the "heats" of the Chilli Eating Champs) evening.

Bhuty Chocolate Stout

Just as enjoyable as the tasty (not to mention 9%) beer, was the super hot and delicious food. To kick the day off we headed to the Fire Dragon Chillies tent to taste their latest hot sauces and chilli chocolate, and to pick up a bottle of SH!THOT chipotle sauce (SH!THOT by name...)

We then headed next door to the Beer Belly Jellies tent (yes, that is correct), for some ale jelly type concoction on cheese and crackers. Yummo.

We also got to try Hakanoa Lime & Chilli Ginger Beer. This is the best ginger beer I have ever had. I was gutted when we went to buy some and they were sold out. I later went on to acquire a bottle from the lovely guy at Fire Dragon Chillies, however as the night progressed, it ended up in the wrong hands. I shall leave the saga at that. You know who you are.

Kelly then pointed us towards the Lucky Taco truck (she had spied them on the way in and couldn't wait to get over there) where she inhaled a chipotle prawn taco and Elliot and I had the spicy fish option.

Doused with a bit of chipotle sauce from one of the many hot condiments they had on offer, the taco was divine. Spicy and fresh and crunchy, with perfectly cooked fish and a squeeze of lime.

I am told (and read) that Kel's taco was equally as tasty and I too will be looking out for Otis and Sarah Frizzel’s Lucky Taco truck again.

One or two more beers later, the pizza purporting to be "NZ's hottest" had to be tried.

Now, I have not had every pizza on offer in this fair land, by I think it would be safe to say this puppy is the hottest. Fire Dragon Chillies sauce was used in the base sauce and then it was topped with huge chunks of jalapenos, salami, cheese, mushrooms and then topped with what I thought was a lovely chipotle mayo. Well, looks were deceiving and I think the mayo was a habanero one - and it was bloody spicy.

The whole thing, however, was insanely yummy - you could still taste the meat and cheese through the burning and sweat the chillies produced. A pizza very much not for the faint hearted.

Next on the list - once the taste buds returned - was the chilli dog. With some delicious looking sausages from what I'm told is an award winning butchery in Grey Lynn, the hotdog looked harmless enough.

Needless to say, that was not the case. One dog was shared between three and that was quite enough. The habanero mayo was tucked away inside as well as another freakishly hot sauce.

I talked to a woman outside who looked like she was about to faint and through gasps was trying to pawn the rest of it off to her husband while trying not to touch her baby with her hotdog-tainted hand.

In saying that, it was delicious.

Both of these were not conducive to the beer going down slowly. This was obviously their master plan.

To end the glory that was the food that evening, we endulged in some jalapeno poppers. Yes, béchamel sauce-filled, deep fried jalapenos with a side of chilli aioli. All I can say is heaven. And I really should not write about these when I am hungry.

I think Hallertau have them on their usual menu so I will definitely be back for more.

The beer continued to flow, and in doing so we missed three quarters of the chilli comp. However, the gist from the crowd reaction (cheers, sighs, screams of encouragement, admiration and mumblings about sheer stupidity) told me it was the same chilli chewing, tequila chilli drinking madness we had seen in the round we attended.

We got a sneak peak at the round sheet

I got through the sizeable crowd to the front when they were down to about six competitors - a young guy the crowd had affectionately called "Bieber" (they saw it as affectionate; he did not), the British guy on the end who looked pretty solid, the guy in sunglasses (which weren't fooling anyone), the reigning champ, and the two winners from Wellington - one of whom was the only female, Rachel.

Bieber and the Brit went out next after getting up fairly quickly with their litre of full fat milk in hand.

I think Sunglasses went next.

Then came the Carolina Reaper - the hottest chilli on Earth. And just for fun, why not have it both dried and fresh? This took out Rachel, as she ever so calmly and ladylike got up and headed for the bathrooms, milk also in hand (later on that evening the chatting and musing of random girls in the bathroom which tends to happen led to the consensus that we were thankful we only had one competitor using our bathroom, and would not like to be anywhere near the men's bathroom).

The final two 

The last round was the pizza and it was a speed test. The reigning champ was very composed and confident but 30 seconds later victory went to the other Wellington champ - who I read is Simon "Hellfire" Smith (pictured right above). A well deserved victory - although not sure how soon he will be using his prize - a basket full of hot sauces!

All in all, a great night, made ever more bearable with the fantastic pizza oven which turned into our outdoor heater when the night got on.

I left the event with five new plastic glasses, some ridiculously hot chipotle sauce, some excellent food memories, a lime and chilli ginger beer (yes, I did leave with it...) and what was to be one hell of a hangover.

Oodles of noodles

I'm not usually one for noodles (not quite sure the raw two minute noodles I used to eat crushed up in the packet as a kid count).

You won't find me ordering the chicken chow mein or udon soup at a restaurant, but pages 326 and 327 of the new cookbook spoke to me.

One brimming with meat; one vegetarian. One dried egg noodles; one fresh Singapore noodles. One spicy; one not. Two exceptionally delicious dishes.

Both recipes serve two and include my adjustments (read: you may want to tone down the chilli content of the first one).

Chinese Chilli Noodles

• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/2 onion, finely sliced
• 2 red chillies, seeded and finely chopped
• 1 Tb soy sauce
• 1 cooked potato, cut into small cubes
• 1/2 block firm tofu, cut into squares and lightly fried 
• 2 c mung beans
• Handful of green beans
• 175g Singapore noodles
• Sliced spring onions

Beat the eggs and season lightly. Pour into a pan with a little oil to make a thin omelette. Once cooked, remove from the pan, cut into strips and set aside.

Mix together the chilli powder and turmeric with a little water to form a paste.

Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry the onions until soft. Reduce the heat and stir in the chilli paste, chillies and soy sauce. Fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the potato and fry for a further two minutes, mixing well.

Add the tofu, mung beans, green beans and noodles.

Gently stir-fry until the noodles are coated and heated through. Be careful not to break the potatoes or tofu. Season with more soy sauce or salt and pepper if needed.

Serve hot with the egg strips, sliced spring onion and sesame seeds on top.

Meat was definitely not needed in this loaded noodle dish and I of course amped up the chilli content so it was nice and spicy - that might have distracted Elliot from all the tofu which he gobbled up.

Traditional Indonesian Noodles

• 150g dried egg noodles
• 1/2 chicken breast
• 75-100g lean pork fillet
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp butter
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1/2 c cooked prawns or shrimps
• Handful of baby spinach leaves
• Handful of mung beans (just cos I had some)
• 1 spring onion, chopped (keep some of the green tops for garnish)
• 50 ml chicken stock (approx.)
• Soy sauce (some dark and some light if you have it)
• Fried shallots (come in packets or jars and are easily sourced from Asian supermarkets)

Cook the noodles in salted boiling water according to the packet (minus a minute or two as they will finish cooking when stir-fried). Drain and rinse under cold water, drain again.

I cooked far too many noodles as the recipe was a tad generous,
so have adjusted the quantity in the ingredients above

Season the egg. Heat a small amount of oil in a pan with the butter and stir in the egg and keep stirring until scrambled.

Slice the chicken and pork. 

Heat oil in a frying pan or wok and cook the garlic with the chicken and pork for 2-3 minutes. Add the prawns or shrimps, spinach and spring onion and toss well.

Add the noodles and mung beans and toss well until combined well.

Add enough stock to moisten and some of each type of soy sauce until seasoned to your taste. Lastly, stir in the scrambled egg.

Serve hot with ribbons of spring onions greens and fried shallots.

This recipe makes two but next time I will be doubling it to extend the joy by having leftovers for lunch.

I love the scrambled eggs mixed through and am a sucker for anything that has soy sauce or three types of meat in it (feel free to add the calf's liver to make it four), so this was a win. For the first time in my life, Indonesia seemed slightly appealing as a place to visit.

This is what to look for in Asian supermarkets -
they are salty and sweet and crunchy and goooooood

On the seed/chilli/garden front, our herbs and lettuces are doing extremely well and surviving the cold. I still use the lettuces almost everyday and the herbs to add to slow cooker meals, sauces and gravies.

The shallots and carrots are growing extremely well and the lemon and lime trees are still alive. So far, so good.

It has been three and a half weeks since the new season chilli seeds were planted and we have two Bhut Jolokia sprouts which are now in the light box. They join the two pumpkin plants that are getting quite big. Oh, pumpkin plants you say? You have room to grow pumpkins? Where will they be planted? Exactly.

I was cutting up a pumpkin for a roast a month or so ago, and Elliot in his infinite curiosity mused "I wonder if these pumpkin seeds would germinate." They was bunged in some soil and, well...

I guess the answer is yes.

Before anyone offers to take them off our hands, I suggest Googling images of "pumpkin plant" first.