Well, it's been another busy year, I have neglected my blog :-( but still busy cooking and baking and writing.
I was asked again by NZ House & Garden to write another food feature for an issue early next year, so thrilled to be able to do this.
The photo shoot was a couple of weeks ago, and I headed off to Matakana where I met Bernadette Hogg, one of the food writer/ stylist whose work I have admired for many years. It was great to finally meet her, and see her collection of eclectic dishes, platters and props for the various food shoots she has worked on.
I was excited to be involved in the process, the photography was done by Manja Wachsmuth, who did an amazing job, again. We were thrilled with the result, which will be published in the April issue 2015. So watch out for it.
Christmas has been and gone and the run up to it has been busy, as usual, as we prepare for the end of the year and summer holidays. I decided again to do some baked gifts for the children's teachers and some friends.
A lovely shortbread which is so easy to bake, and so traditionally Christmassy. It's one that my mother in law makes, simple with a bit of Christmas sparkle.
One evening last week, I was struggling with time ( story of my life!) and wanted a quick simple dish, with ingredients in my fridge/freezer.
I had been in a dr's waiting room and saw this recipe in a women's magazine, a quick and simple weekday meal, you can substitute with other vegetables if you want.
This very simple, gorgeous recipe was given to me by a friend in the UK, you can bake it in a 20 cm tin like I did or alternatively you can divide it into smaller tins (they have to have upright sides) and they ill take less time in the oven 12-15 min, make sure they spring back when touched and the skewer comes out clean.
Well another year has passed, it's been another busy one. As always, deciding to make yet another birthday cake, more challenging as they get older, but this time with help from Adam.
He chose the colour and designed the cake.
I started with making my no fail chocolate cake, works every time, it's moist and keeps well. I made two 23cm cakes.
I then made butter cream to sandwich and crumb coat the two cakes. I usually ice with buttercream but this time Adam wanted fondant. ( He has a bit of a sweet tooth!)
He chose the colour, but I couldn't find it in any of the cake shops, so I ended up using white fondant and colouring it with gel colour. It was perfect. We then cut out strips and spots out of black fondant and using edible glue stuck them on the cake.
The result was great!
Enjoy!
Till next time, hopefully sooner than this post.
Ashia
It has been a long winter, I have found that people hibernate in New Zealand, so you don't entertain or see friends very much. Kiwis are very 'outdoor' people and I don't just mean that in the sporting sense, but also entertaining and eating outside. Its so easy to fire up the barbie and throw a salad together, and enjoy dinner al fresco. However, in the colder months everyone stays indoorsand I think this recipe is perfect for the cold weather, comforting and wholesome, with a little spice to warm you up!
An easy, mild Lamb curry, this is a superb dish for those in the family that don't or cant eat hot and spicy food. My children don't really like the hot stuff! So this is ideal, they are not great meat eaters either, so this curry is lovely as the meat is quite tender (depending on which method you use to cook it). I cooked this in a slow cooker but you can use the oven or on the stove top.
This is a gorgeous version of rice pudding, I have memories of eating this when I was growing up, we had it mainly at religious festivals, or in the month of Ramadan.
When I crave something sweet that reminds me of home, this is my go to reciepe, it is easy and tastes divine with little hot puris.
These savoury treats are great for any gathering. We tend to make them more during the month of Ramadan ( which is now) to eat as a starter before the main meal. This is tradition, every family has its own way of doing things. But savoury treats are more common in Muslim families during Ramadan. After a day of fasting, you have some delicious treats to look forward to.
This is a gorgeous easy sponge recipe that a friend gave me and it takes minutes to make. I baked this over the long weekend to take to a friend we were visiting who has just had a new baby. I am in baking mode at the moment so bear with me, the next few posts will be some quick and easy Indian savoury bites, onion bhajis and the like, so watch this space.
I am so excited about having another food feature published! This time in Taste magazine, the June issue is out now in the shops.
It's so great to see my family recipes in print, my parents are so proud to see them as well, and I am sending a couple of copies home to the UK for them to have.
Wouldn't it be great to get my book published? I have so many family recipes handed down to me that I would include in my book, so that everyone can enjoy them, and I can have them in print for my children to cherish and cook when they get older.
Watch this space, but for now I am thrilled to have been a part of Taste.
Enjoy reading it!
Till next time
Ashia
One of my friends asked me if I would bake a cake for her daughter's 18th birthday. Initially I was a little hesitant as, although I love baking (& cooking) I really hadn't delved into baking and decorating celebration cakes for other people.
She had a design in mind and wanted a vanilla sponge cake. So I started by baking 3 vanilla sponges, a lovely fool proof sponge that is also the one I used, for my next blog entry of a classic Victoria sponge.
Its been a busy few weeks, hence the lack of posts. I have been working away in the background, just finished the writing and photography for the article to be published in June for Taste magazine so look out for that in the shops soon!
With the children back at school this week, I get few minutes of breathing space.... I loveschool holidays with my children, but they are all encompassing, and life revolves around them, so writing or doing anything for myself is put on the back burner.
Having just finished writing my blurb for the article, it got me thinking to my days growing up in Malawi. We used to be picked up from school at lunchtime and brought home for a hot tasty lunch, and then dropped off for the afternoon session.
Lunches would be light, but always cooked, and served with roti. I cant ever remember eating a sandwich for lunch until we moved to the UK!
This is one of those simple lunches we used to have. Perfect for an easy evening meal during the week.
So last night was one of those evenings, when, my husband was working late, and eating out, the children had to be fed early as Adam had a basketball game at 7pm. I didn't want to eat burgers, which is what I had made for them.
I fancied a vegetarian curry, so this lovely off the cuff recipe came about, it looks and tastes divine. I make this okra curry that my mum always cooks, but I wanted to add something to it for a different, texture and flavour, okra can be a little bitter.
I bought Rick Stein's India (cookbook) when I was in the UK visiting family in July last year. (12 quid from Tescos!!) And I have been drooling over his series on TV, he showed a simple egg curry, so I got inspired and decided to create this dish.
I made these gorgeous easy chicken cakes, one day last week, when I was pressed for time ( running around for after school activities with the children) it had been a particularly busy day, and I always like to plan ahead. I usually take some sort of meat out of the freezer, either that morning or the night before and then decide what I will be cooking, or think about it during the day, and get stuck in when we get home. Usually with my daughter at the dining table doing her homework.
I had some chicken mince out, and decided to make these delicious, juicy little patties. I served this with a green salad and a tomato and avocado salad and some skin on chunky home made chips.
My daughter's primary school had an International Food Festival a week or so ago. They had tried it has a fund raiser last year and it was a real success, so this year I decided to be a part of it.
I was involved in the Indian family stall. I made two large vegetarian curries, Peas and Paneer and my dad's basmati rice. There was also a Pea and Potato curry, a chicken curry from Fiji and a Lamb curry. And we were giving roti and samosas, on the plate as an extra.
These are the BEST spicy prawns this side of the Pacific! My mum's recipe, which is a firm favourite with everyone. We grew up eating this in Malawi, made with tiger prawns as big as your hand. Gorgeous! And so simple too, I served these when we had friends over for dinner over the weekend, along with my roast vegetables & hallomi, a couple of gorgeous home made focaccia breads and a lentil salad, it went down a treat!
This post is dedicated to my lovely mother-in-law, Wendy Singer. She is turning a grand age of 80 and we are off down south to celebrate her birthday. Lots of family and friends and plenty of memories to be made. Before we do that we are spending 6 days at Lake Rotoiti with Graham's brothers and their families, so lots of fun and food.
I was really inspired by Kim Evan's blueberry and poppy seed loaf that I decided to bake Wendy's Lemon cake and incorporate the poppy seeds and blueberries.
The result was a gorgeous moist cake, with an amazingly simple icing.
This is one of my favourite things to eat, a real treat, and one that brings back so many lovely childhood memories from Malawi, where I grew up. Cassava is a root vegetable similar to yams. It is native to Central and South America. And is also a staple food in Africa and Asia. You can use it like potatoes, boil, bake, fry and mash. Although I either fry it or use it as a base for my mum's chicken and cassava casserole.
You can buy it frozen in any Asian/Indian food store. It usually comes in a large 1 kg bag and you boil it from frozen.
This is a simple stir fry dish, that hardly takes any effort. Perfect for a mid week meal that doesn't take any time to put together. This recipe is enough for 2 adults and 2 children, you can always add more for a larger number of people
I had this yummy salad at a friends the other day for lunch, it tasted divine! It was quick and easy, so I thought I would share my version.
