Christmas Terrine

Food traditions have strong emotional roots in most families, and Christmas food traditions would have to be some of the most important in mine. Food defines the way we celebrate in my family, and the more special the occasion, the more effort we put into the food we make for it.

Birthdays are also important food days, when you might get to have your favourite meal made for you, or go to your favourite restaurant. Food helps us feel special, and cooking food for others is a cook's way of sharing how they feel about family and friends. I like to cook for love. The food always tastes better when you do.

This is a recipe I've been making for several years now, usually around Christmas time as it's a perfect Summer food - great for sharing and handy to have in the fridge if people pop over - with Christmas colours and a hint of Christmas spice to make it beautiful.

Makes 2 so you can share it with everyone!

You'll need 2 bread loaf tins, or terrine molds if you're lucky enough to have such things.

Enough streaky bacon to line them both - bottom, sides and top - rind removed.

Bacon (see above)

1-2 chicken breast fillets

500g pork mince

300g veal mince

1 cup shelled pistachios

1 Tab pickled green peppercorns

2/3 cup dried cranberries

1 green apple, peeled & cut into small pieces

1 egg

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

2 cloves crushed garlic

salt & pepper

brandy/cointreau/sherry

Start by cutting the chicken breast lengthwise into long strips, about 1cm x 1cm. Place the strips in a bowl and pour over brandy or other liqueur to about half cover. Turn strips over a few times to coat, then cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 2-12 hours.

Next, prepare your other ingredients. If you have an electric mixer, use it, otherwise just use a large bowl and a wooden spoon.

Place minces, nuts, peppercorns, berries, apple, egg, spices, garlic and salt and pepper in a bowl and mix until well combined. Drain excess liquor off chicken strips and add this to the mince as well. The more you mix the filling, the smoother the terrine will be, but don't mix so much that the nuts and fruit begin to disintegrate.

Now you can begin to assemble the terrines. Take your loaf tins or terrine dishes and line the bottom, ends and sides with bacon. If you have long pieces you can let them hang over the sides and they can be used to cover the top. Once lined, begin to place spoonfuls of the mince into the terrine molds. Fill to about a third, then place strips of the marinated chicken length wise on the mince. Top up with more mince to about 1-2cm from the top of the tin, and gently press to even the top. Cover with more bacon. Place a piece of baking paper over the top, and then wrap the entire thing in aluminium foil. Repeat process for the second tin.

Once prepared, place tins in a baking dish, and pour boiling water into the bottom of the dish (not over the terrines) to make a shallow water bath. Place in a low to moderate oven (about 150C) for 1 hour and 20 minutes. To test if done, gently press on the terrine. If the juices run clear, it's ready. It they are still very pink, it may need a bit longer. Depends on the size of the terrine dish/loaf tin.

Once cooked, remove from oven but keep in the baking dish. Place weights on the terrines - such as 400g tins of tomatoes - for about 1/2 an hour. Drain some of the excess liquid off, but not all of it as the terrines can become dry. Remove from tins (hopefully in one piece!), wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge.

The terrines will last up to one week in the fridge. To serve, slice thinly (3-5mm), and serve at room temperature with slices of toasted French bread, gherkins and plum chutney.

Apple and Almond Crown

a>I recently bought a wonderful book called "A Piece of Cake" by Leila Lindholm. It's full of really decadent cakes, breads and pastries, but the ones that caught my eye first were the yeast-based cakes. She gives a basic recipe for the dough, and then several variations of flavours and fillings. I chose to make one with apple and almond, and I loved the whole process of making the dough, then the almond paste, then finally bringing them together in this delicious cake!

I recommend buying the book, but in the mean time I will share a little taste of it below.

Apple and Almond Crown (makes two)

For the dough:

1 T cardamom pods, ground finely (or buy ready ground)

300ml milk

50g yeast

135g caster sugar

1/2 t salt

150g butter

1 egg

660-720g flour

Warm the milk with the cardamom powder until tepid (38C). Sprinkle over yeast, then add sugar, salt, butter and egg. Gradually add flour to make a silky dough (I use a kenwood mixer with a dough hook, you can just use a spoon then knead by hand). Knead gently, then cover and leave to rise for an hour.

For the Almond paste:

250g almonds

225g castor sugar

Blanch the almonds (by pouring boiling water over them, leaving the to soak and then slipping the skins off. VERY time consuming, so buy blanched or ground almonds if you're in a hurry!).

Process almonds in a food processor to a fine powder, add the sugar and process a further 5-7 minutes to make a smooth paste.

For the crowns:

1 egg, handful of slivered almonds, 200g unsalted butter, 1tsp ground cinnamon, 90g brown sugar, 200g almond paste, 2 apples.

Once dough has risen, divide in half and roll each portion on a lightly floured surface to a 20x30cm rectangle.

Mix butter, sugar, cinnamon and almond paste together until creamy. Divide filling and spread over each dough rectangle. Grate an apple over each rectangle, then roll them up like a sponge roll. You can either cook these cakes on a flat tray or in a cake tin (see photo).

Place the roll in a loop on a greased tray or cake tin. Leave to prove for 1 hour. Brush with beaten egg, then sprinkle with slivered almonds. Bake at 175C for about 20-30 minutes until golden. YUMMO!!!

Quince and Ricotta Tart

This is a delicate tart that I learnt to make when I worked at Noel's Gallery in Red Hill. Great for Autumn.

First, poach your quinces. I usually use a sugar syrup of about 1 litre of water to 1 cup of sugar, with a cinnamon stick/vanilla pod/star anise thrown in for extra flavour. Quarter quinces (don't bother to peel or core until they're cooked) put into an oven proof dish (eg: le cruset casserole with lid) and pour over enough syrup to cover. Pop a lid on the dish and place in the oven at about 180C for 2-3 hours, until colour has just turned pink. The tart recipe calls for two quinces, but if you cook several you can freeze what you don't use and make them into something else. The left over syrup is also delicious and can be used as a cordial, the base of a sweet sauce or jelly, or anything else you can think of that needs a nice quince flavour.

For the sweetcrust pastry.

In a food processor, combine 100g SR flour, 50g cornflour, 80g sugar, 80g butter and a small egg. Pulse until crumbly then tip onto cling wrap and press into a ball. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes. Once cooled, roll pastry to fit a 25cm flan tin. Line the tin with baking paper and place pastry into it (it's a bit fragile, so be careful). Prick with a fork and rest for a further 1/2 an hour (a lot of waiting, I know!).

For the Filling.

250g ricotta, 1/2c sugar, 3 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 c cream cheese, 2T flour, zest of one lemon, 40ml lemon juice. Mix together well.

Once pastry has rested, blind bake in a 180C oven for 15 minutes, then a further 5 minutes uncovered. (Blind baking means lining the pastry with more baking paper, then filling the paper with dried beans to weigh it down and baking like this to begin cooking the pastry without letting it bubble up).

After pastry has been pre-cooked, place slices of peeled, cored quince onto the base, overlapping slightly. Pour over ricotta mixture, then sprinkle the top with ground cinnamon. Bake at 180C for approx 40 minutes, until it is firm in the middle. "Voila!"

My favourite meal

Of all the food in all the world, my favourite dish that I always come back to and often crave like a lost moment from childhood, is plain old spaghetti with raw garlic and olive oil.

More than ripe mangoes, or raspberries and chocolate, or goat's cheese, or olives, or a home-grown tomato.

Maybe I'll add a little parsley, some salt and pepper; occasionally some fresh diced tomato and even a splash of balsamic, but in it's most pure and nostalgic form, the garlic and the oil are enough.

I think we must have eaten this a few times when I was growing up. It reminds me of late summer and Rimu Road.

It's also a meal that is closely related in my mind to poverty and necessity, but like many of the so-called 'peasant foods' it is an elegant example of how a simple meal, honestly prepared, can be so much better than something that has been over-worked, over thought and over priced in the name of 'great' food.

What is your favourite meal, and why?

What to do with too much fruit

I learned this trick from a friend, who makes trays and trays of this fruit leather during the Summer months.

It's so easy and I love the fact that it doesn't require any cooking or added sugar. Just the power of sunshine!

The method is simply to take fruit (such as berries, plums, apricots, pears) that you have a surplus of, remove stones, pips or inedible bits, puree it to a pulp (I used a stick blender as it's quick and you can do a large quantity in one go) then spread it out on anything flat that can be cleaned and left in the sun.

The best things to use are metal baking trays, flat pieces of steel or glass window panes. I lightly greased my trays with vegetable oil first (you'll never get the fruit off otherwise!), then poured the pulp straight onto the flat surface, spreading it out to the edges so it covered the tray by about 4mm.

Then it's just a matter of making sure the sun can shine directly on the trays for one to two days - depending on how hot it is. You do need pretty hot days to do this effectively. And the fruit needs to be really dry if you want to store it for any length of time (although you could probably finish them off in a slow oven if it turns overcast).

You know it's ready when you can peel the leather off without it being mushy or wet. I found it easier to score the leather into 5cm strips, then I peeled each strip off one at a time. You can then roll the strips up into 'snails' to make them easy to store, and trick the kids into believing they are just like the roll-ups that you buy at the supermarket.

The trays in the photo have plum pulp drying on them, which makes a delicious fruit leather, but a bit tart. My kids don't mind this, but it may be an acquired taste. I'm struggling to make our supplies last more than a few months, as they're a great lunch box food and general snack, but I think they would last up to 12 months if you stored them in an air tight container in the pantry, providing the leather is properly dried.

Home Made Chicken Dumplings

I was craving something chicken-soupy and soul-warming but not too heavy, so I decided to give these Asian style chicken dumplings in broth a go and this was the result.

I think I'll need a bit more practice to get the wrappers done up perfectly - some of them were a bit top heavy - but the flavours and textures were exactly what I was after.

Getting Wren to help make the dumplings ensured that she would eat them, and we all ended up slurping our way to the bottom of our bowls without any complaints. A miracle in our house!

I'd love to make them again soon. I had my own chicken stock in the freezer and I don't think I'd want to substitute with powdered stock or stock cubes. Maybe a store bought liquid soup at a stretch, but I think I'll wait till we have another roast chook and make a batch of stock from the bones like I usually do.

I can't claim to have invented the recipe this time, but what I can do is direct you to the website that I found it on:

http://www.kidspot.com.au/best-recipes/Chicken+24/Chicken-dumpling-soup-recipe+2260.htm