Veal Involtini

Involtini means 'little bundles' and if you travel around Italy you will find this recipe in many guises. You can use a number of meats, fish or chicken. What I particularly wanted to do was cook something with the in-season asparagus.

Last night's recipe was from an Italian cookbook called 'The food of Italy'. This is a beautiful cookbook, almost a coffee table book with its beautiful pictures.

So, I decided to make a trip to Farro Fresh, in Mt Wellington, to see if I could get the ingredients. Firstly, veal escalopes (steaks?) were not available, mortadella (like luncheon with pistachios) not available also, the cheese was a Bel Paese (never heard of it!) once again not available. So just like me, I improvised, and went with prosciutto, and a beautiful French cheese called Raclette, famous for melting beautifully, and a wonderful experience if you have ever been to a restaurant of the same name. I stopped in at the famous Elerslie Butcher on the way home for the veal.

Since the Italians use a variety of different ingredients, you can definitely improvise as they turned out delicious. (bacon, tasty cheese... these also keep the price down)

Ingredients - (I was cooking for 2, so double for four).
2 x veal steaks, pounded with a meat mallet until thin
4 x slices of raclette cheese
4 x slices prosciutto
8 x asparagus spears
plain flour seasoned with salt and pepper
2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
kitchen string

Method
1 Remove woody ends of asparagus and blanch in boiling water for 3 mins. Drain and set aside.
2 I didn't have a meat mallet so ended up using the potato masher (great innovation there) to get the veal quite thin. I decided to make 4 smaller parcels, so you decide how big you want them, the recipe suggests 12 x 18cm rectangles.
3 Cover each piece of veal with a slice of the prosciutto and then the cheese. Top with two asparagus spears each facing the opposite end. Roll each veal slice up tightly and tie in place at each end with kitchen string.
4 Heat 2 Tbsp butter with the olive oil in a frying pan. Fry the rolls over low heat for about 10 minutes, turning frequently, until golden.

Now, you can serve just like this, or you can add a Marsala sauce to it. This would be a good idea during the winter, as it will be like a gravy. Add 3 Tbsp Marsala, 1 Tbsp butter, and 3 Tbsp of the water you cooked the asparagus in to the frypan. Simmer for 3-4 mins, scraping up the bits from the bottom of the pan. Taste for seasoning and then spoon over the rolls.

In winter these could be served with mashed potato, but we just had it with a fresh salad and a piece of the new season corn. Easy!

Gnocchi with spinach, bacon and tomato

I always try to cook at least one dish out of every monthly issue of Taste magazine and one of my recent favourite dishes comes from the October 2009 issue. I have changed it slightly by replacing the prosciutto with bacon (cheaper and easier) and halved the amount of mascarpone they suggest (thinking of our waistlines). I have had loads of compliments for this dish, so try it as the carb component of your meal. It works well with a BBQ.

Ingredients:
1 x packet of Gnocchi (once again, you don't need to make this yourself. A good alternative can be found at Nosh, in the dry pasta section - it is much better than the supermarket kind, but use whatever you like).
half a packet of Mascarpone - about 125g (this is a soft cream cheese)
200g of bacon, cut into small pieces
half a bag of spinach (use more than you think it needs as once it cooks it disappears)
1 punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved
Parmesan grated for the top

Method
1 Preheat your oven - fanbake on 200 Celsius
2 Pre-cook bacon so it is crispy
3 Cook gnocchi according to packet instructions - usually only for a couple of minutes, or until it floats to the top.
4 In an oven-proof dish toss all of the ingredients together.
5 Top with Parmesan
6 Place in oven for about 15 minutes and grill the top if it needs it.

Don't expect any leftovers as there never are any in our house!

Gourmet Lifesyle NZ - shop online

While in the Hawkes Bay, we stumbled across a little cookware store run out of the garage of Val Beattie's home. She is a food lover herself and we were privileged to get a tour of her fabulous garden and try some of her home cooking. But more importantly, she has a fabulous little shop full of beautiful cookware and at very competitive prices.

Val has a website also, where you can purchase goods, but if you live in the Hawkes Bay, you have the opportunity to see her in action by having a Gourmet Party - run on the same lines as Tupperware I think.

Her shop is definitely worth checking out on line at Gourmet Lifestyle

Raspberry and White Chocolate Profiteroles

Here is a delicious recipe that I have now made for the past two Christmas's when the raspberry season is in full swing. I'm sure you could use frozen berries, but I prefer to use in-season fruit and veg as much as possible. Credit needs to go to the December 2008 issue of Taste magazine as this is where this idea has come from. The magazine has a much more spectacular idea, but if you just want dessert for 4-6, this is ideal. Of course, when time, you can make your own profiteroles, but for a quick and easy dessert buy them from the supermarket.

Ingredients:
1 x small bottle of fresh cream
1 x punnet of raspberries
1 x packet of profiteroles from the supermarket (box of 14)
1 x large block of white chocolate (actually you only need half - but someone is sure to want to eat the rest)

Method:
1 Beat the cream until stiff. In a separate bowl, use a fork to swash the raspberries until they are almost liquid. Fold the raspberries into the cream.
2 Cut the profiteroles in half, ready for the cream.
3 Melt the chocolate on a low heat in a bain-marie (that means in a pot of water with the bowl on top). Make sure you stir, as if it gets too hot the chocolate will crumble and not spread well onto the profiteroles. Once melted, let cool a little, but don't let set.
4 Fill the profiteroles with cream and put on the platter for serving. Using a spoon, carefully drizzle the chocolate over the top of each profiterole. Place place in fridge for setting.
5 They are ready to eat as soon as the chocolate is set, but can also be prepared a couple of hours ahead.
6 Before serving, sprinkle some icing sugar over the top and add a few extra raspberries for decoration.

What's cooking tonight?

This section is going to have some of my favourite recipes that have been tried and tested. I am no gourmet chef, but I do love to cook delicious food with as little effort as possible.

When I'm on holiday I always get a bit more adventurous, but generally during the working week, it is all about getting good food on the table as quickly as possible!

I will try to be as accurate as possible, will try to add photos, and will always reference my recipes from their source. (However, I am known to not follow the recipe very often). My mother will vouch for that, especially as a teenager learning to cook!

Please feel free to email me recipes yourself and I will add them. Give yourself an alias, or your name if you prefer and I will credit you with the blog entry, but most importantly make sure it is tried and tested, and that there is not too much skill required! We can then all comment on how good it is when we try it ourselves.

Happy cooking....

Mission Estate Winery

Overall Rating: 5 Price: $$$ Cuisine: Contemporary
Food: 8.5 Drinks: 9 Ambiance: 9 Service: 10

On another gorgeous day in the Bay we visited the famous Mission Estate for lunch out on the terrace of an elegantly restored historic seminary building.

The history of the place goes back as far as 1851 when it was established as NZ's first winemaker. But today, we were not there for the wine, more the food and a birthday celebration.

The Mission's lunch menu has some very tempting entrees, but our party of 5 decided to settle for a main and dessert. Mains ranged from $24-32 and were all individually prices so there was no confusion! The mains we chose were the Moroccan spiced short loin of lamb, which was served on a bed of a poor attempt at babaganosh, but was otherwise quite nice; fish of the day(bluenose), and fish and chips.

I think the highlight of today's meal were the desserts. Mine, the butterscotch creme brulee was fabulous, the Tiramisu looked and tasted divine (see photo) and the pannacotta with peach sorbet was also delectable.

There had been one mention of a birthday when our orders for mains were taken and so it was a surprise to see 'happy birthday' written in chocolate on the birthday girl's dessert plate. Brownie points go to the waitress who subtly took note of this. All staff were extremely friendly and the service could not be faulted. Wines were obviously from the estate, and there were beer and softer options available. The setting is also a beautiful spot, with grapevines overhead and a beautiful view.

This well established restaurant obviously prides itself on excellent food and service and is legendary amongst the locals. It is definitely a place not worth missing on our next visit to the Hawkes Bay.

Craggy Range Winery

Terrior Restaurant

overall rating 3 stars Price: $$$$

Food: 9 Drinks: 7 Ambiance: 9 Service: 5

Craggy Range winery is set beneath a stunning outcrop of rock and really is a sight to be seen. The restaurant is aesthetically pleasing with the outdoor tables set next to grapevines and beautiful views abound.

This is an upmarket establishment and with lunch main prices over $30 you expect good service. We had a wonderful French waiter and the timing and food could not really be faulted - as you can see from the photo, my beef with potato and truffle gratin, with Bearnaise sauce and Craggy Range merlot jus. Other mains we enjoyed were the very well cooked salmon sitting on a bed of caperberries, olives, mandarin slices and watercress; and the organic chicken breast with a fabulous combination of babaganosh, lentils and preserved lemon.

However, our experience at this restaurant is an example of why I write restaurant reviews. Between the 5 of us we had two different versions of the menu, with different prices particularly for the mains. We asked for clarification from our waiter and were told all mains were $32.50 except for the fish of the day $36.50. The fish was actually not available when we arrived. When we received the bill the mains were $32.50, $34.50 and $36.50, making it not match either of the menus we had seen. With the total bill coming to $287 we were hardly going to argue over $6-8, but we all felt that something should be said. We politely told the Maitre d' as we were about to pay. Unexpectedly, the response we got could not have been worse. He was rude and bordered on aggressive. There was absolutely no need for quite the response we received and it really ruined the lunch for everyone.

We were not all visitors to the region and the snobbery and arrogance shown to us will not earn them any recommendations.