Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

With the arrival of cooler weather, I decided to make soup the other night. I wanted to make a soup in the crockpot and chose this recipe for carrot and lentil soup from Joan bishop’s New Zealand Crockpot and Slow Cooker Cookbook.

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped into dice

3 cloves crushed garlic

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 Tablespoon grated fresh ginger

2 large carrots

7 cups of vegetable or chicken stock

300g split red lentils (about one cup)

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

salt

Instructions:

1. Preheat the crockpot.

2. Combine all the ingredients apart from the lemon juice and the salt in the crockpot.

3. Cover with lid and cook on high for five to six hours.

4. Add the lemon juice and salt to taste.

5. Cool a little then puree either in a food processor or with a blender. Return to the crockpot and reheat.

6. Serve with a spoonful of Greek yoghurt swirled in the top and fresh bread or pita bread.

Shelley’s Notes:

1. I added some chopped leeks to my soup since I had some in the fridge.

2. This soup was really easy since I dumped everything in the crockpot and left it to cook. The final product was delicious. I’d definitely make this soup again.

What is your favorite soup to eat/make?

Pumpkin Salad

Ingredients

· pumpkin, diced in bite-size cubes

· cumin seeds

· cooking oil

· feta cheese

· chopped red onion

· olives, black or green

· can of cooked chickpeas

· green beans, sliced

· vinaigrette dressing [balsamic is really good]

Directions

1. Sprinkle the cumin seeds and oil on the pumpkin and roast in the oven until browned and cooked. Place cooked pumpkin in a large bowl.

2. Slice the onion and add to the pumpkin.

3. Add the drained chickpeas and olives to the pumpkin.

4. Boil the green beans until cooked and add to the pumpkin.

5. Cube feta and add.

6. Dress with vinaigrette, toss lightly and serve either hot or cold.

7. Vary the quantities of each ingredient above to suit the number of diners. Use lemon juice as an alternative to vinaigrette. Balsamic vinaigrette works nicely with this salad. Serve as either a salad or a side dish.

Shelley’s notes:

1. Substitute some of the pumpkin for potato or kumara (sweet potato). Sometimes I also bake small onions and cloves of garlic as well, which is very tasty.

2. This is a great dish for vegetarians or it can be used as a salad or side dish for meat-eaters.

Today I’m taking Sorrel Thyme, the heroine from Biding His Thyme, and setting off on a road trip to visit Rachel Firasek. We’re talking a little about herbs and spices since that’s Sorrel’s occupation, and we have an easy recipe to make Chocolate Bath Salts.

In other news, I’ve received a gorgeous cover for Past Regrets, my upcoming release from Samhain Publishing. I’ll share it with you next week.

I’m currently working on two projects: a follow-up story to Past Regrets and I’m doing a read through of a historical story that I hope to sub in a few weeks.

What are you up to at present?

I saw this recipe to make granola and thought I’d try it out. The end result was delicious, and I will definitely make it again.

Homemade Granola

3 cups rolled oats

1 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)

1/4 cup wheatgerm

1 cup of your favorite nuts, roughly chopped (I used walnuts, pecan and almonds)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup maple syrup

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 large egg whites

1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

Method:

1. Preheat the oven 150C/300F

2. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl (apart from the cranberries)

3. Add the maple syrup and the olive oil and mix thoroughly

4. Whisk the egg whites until frothy

5. Stir the egg whites into the granola and combine well

6. Place the granola on a lined tray and spread it evenly

7. Bake for 45 – 55 minutes until the granola is golden brown and it’s dry to the touch

8. Cool then break the granola into clusters

9. Add the cranberries and combine carefully

Shelley’s comments

1. Don’t chop the nuts too small because they might burn.

2. I didn’t add as much salt as the recipe said.

3. If you don’t like cranberries, replace with the dried fruit of your choice.

4. Watch your granola carefully because you want it golden brown, not burnt!

5. I like my granola with yoghurt and sometimes make a yoghurt parfait, which is delicious.

In this parfait, I’ve layered thick Greek yoghurt with raspberry coulis and topped with a sprinkling of granola. Perfect for a weekend breakfast or brunch.

What is your favorite thing to eat for a lazy weekend breakfast?

In the past I used to buy my vegetable stock from the supermarket, but this month I happened upon a blog post about making vegetable stock. It looked so easy, I was astounded. Much cheaper than purchased stock too. Right, I thought. Time to try this stock thing.

Ingredients:

I used ingredients from the garden and fridge.

3 Carrots (they were from the garden and quite small)

2 stalks of celery (I used the leaves as well as the stalks)

1 onion – sliced

1 clove garlic – sliced

6 mushrooms

4 tomatoes from the garden – chopped into smaller pieces (a mixture of sizes, cherry to regular)

6 cups of water

8 spinach leaves – chopped (from garden)

1 bay leaf

10 peppercorns

Method:

1. Dice the vegetables.

2. Heat some olive oil (2 tablespoons) into a good sized pot.

3. Add the onions, garlic, carrot, celery to the oil. Cook until the vegetables start to caramelize.

4. Add the remaining ingredients plus the water to the pot.

5. Bring to a simmer and cook for around 45 minutes.

6. Strain the stock and discard the vegetables.

7. Once stock is cool, refrigerate or you can freeze.

Shelley’s tips:

1. I read quite a few different recipes before I started and soaked up several tips.

2. Chop the vegetables small because you’ll get maximum flavor this way.

3. Brown veges at the start. This will add more flavor.

4. Use cold water rather than warm. The gradual heating of the water allows maximum flavor.

5. Simmer rather than boil your stock.

6. As you can see, everything with stock is about flavor. Follow these guidelines and you should end up with a great stock.

Have you tried making your own stock? If so, how do you use your stock in cooking?

This is a recipe I discovered in an Australian cookbook titled Country Women’s Association, Biscuits and Slices. I’m such a fan of ginger and simply had to try making the slice. The results were excellent, and it’s one that I’ll make again in the future. The scent of the different spices as the slice cooks is gorgeous.

Ginger Slice

1 cup white sugar

2 tablespoons golden syrup

125 g butter/half cup butter

pinch of salt

1 dessertspoon ground cinnamon

1 dessertspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1 egg, well-beaten

1 cup sour milk (make this by adding a squeeze of lemon juice to a cup of fresh milk)

2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup chopped raisins

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F

2. Combine the sugar, golden syrup, butter, salt and all spices into a large saucepan and heat until the ingredients are melted and combined together.

3. Add the beaten egg and the sour mix. Combine well.

4. Sift the flour and soda and stir into mixture.

5. Add the raisins.

6. Place in a paper lined slice tin.

7. Bake for 30 minutes.

Shelley’s notes:

1. My oven cooks quickly, and I cooked my slice for 25 minutes.

2. The combination of raisins didn’t work for me, so I left them out.

3. Slice into squares and serve for afternoon tea or serve warm for dessert with whipped cream, creme fraiche, or custard.

I mentioned yesterday that Strawberry Shortcake Muffins rank among one of my favorites. The recipe came from the Baking Makes Things Better blog, which I highly recommend if you enjoy baking.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour 
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ cup sugar
½ cup butter, (113 grams) cold from fridge and cut into cubes
1 egg
1 cup cream
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 – 1 ½ cups strawberries, diced

Method:

1. Mix the flour, baking powder and sugar in a large bowl. Add the butter and rub into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

2. Mix the beaten egg, cream and vanilla together in another bowl. Add these wet ingredients to the dry. Combine until just incorporated.

3. Mix in the diced strawberries, combining carefully.

4. Spoon into 12 muffin cases.

5. Bake in a 180C oven for around 20 minutes or until they are golden brown.

Shelley’s notes:

The original recipe called for a topping of diced strawberries and whipped cream or a dusting of icing sugar. I ate the muffins plain, still warm from the oven, and they were delicious. I also froze some and that worked well too. As mentioned, they were delicious. A real taste of summer in a muffin.

One great thing about traveling is trying the local food. During our visit to Athens in Greece last year we were wandering through the Plaka area and came across Scholarhio Ouzeri Kouklis, a small traditional family restaurant. While perusing the menu we saw that chef Rick Stein recommended the restaurant and that sealed it for me. Rick Stein is one of my favorite celebrity chefs, and we decided to follow in his footsteps.

This is one of the restaurant owners. He brought out a tray of all their offerings, and we were able to choose five different dishes. Our meal also came with a glass of wine or beer, bread, mineral water and a dessert.

Hubby went into the kitchen and took a close up of all the dishes.

I loved the food. If I concentrate I can recall the intense flavors and textures. It was one of the most memorable meals we’ve had recently. See my frown of concentration? My brain is saying, Yummy food! Yummy food!

One of the dishes we selected was Tsatsiki, a yoghurt dip that some of you have probably eaten. We’ve made it before at home, but it never tasted like this—thick and creamy and full of flavor.

When we arrived home we decided we’d try again to make some in the hope of duplicating the dish we had in the Plaka. After discussion we decided we’d amend our recipe to make our Tsatsiki thicker.

Recipe for Tsatsiki

Ingredients

1 cucumber

salt

ground black pepper

one large tub of natural yoghurt, preferably Greek

4 Tablespoons chopped mint

1 garlic clove, crushed.

Method

1. Our Greek yoghurt isn’t as thick as it is in Greece, so the first thing we do is to drain some of the liquid out of the yoghurt. We use a coffee filter and a funnel and sit it in a beer mug until some of the liquid drains out. About 1 – 2 hours should do it.

2. Deseed the cucumber and discard the seeds. Cube the cucumber flesh.

3. Mix the cucumber with the drained yoghurt. Add chopped mint leaves and crushed garlic and salt and pepper to taste.

4. Place in a shallow dish and serve with chunks of fresh bread. Perfect with drinks on a hot day.

Do you have memories of a particularly delicious meal?

Author Maria Zannini has written a book on self-publishing and killer promo ideas. If you’d like a free copy of Self Publisher’s Punch List jump over to Maria’s blog and request one. While you’re there check out the rest of Maria’s post. She’s teaming up with author Gwen Gardner to hold a Facebook party for authors called Indies 4 Hire. It’s an online conference about self-publishing and lots more. See you there!

Recipes and books—in my mind they’re a great combo. If you love cooking or reading or both check out Romance Cooks. Authors, feel free to contact the site if you’d like to visit. All you need to do is follow the instructions under the FAQ tab.

Do you have any freebie/promo opportunities to add?

Our lemon tree produced a bumper crop this year, so I decided to try out this recipe for Lemon Slice. It’s very like a Key Lime Pie in that the ingredients are similar, but the taste and texture is quite different.

Recipe:

Base

1 1/2 cups of plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup brown sugar

125 grams melted butter (1/2 cup)

1. Combine the dry ingredients with the melted butter and mix well

2. Press mixture into a tin lined with baking paper. The recipe suggests a 27cm x 18cm x 3 cm. I just grabbed a tin out of the cupboard.

3. Bake the crust in a preheated oven for 10 minutes (180C – 160C if fan forced – 350F)

Topping

400g can condensed milk

3 eggs

1 Tablespoon grated lemon zest

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 Tablespoons plain flour

1. Place the condensed milk in a bowl and beat in the eggs. About one minute.

2. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice and flour and beat until combined.

3. Pour over the base.

4. Return to the oven and bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until topping is set.

5. Cool and dust with icing sugar (powdered sugar/confectioner’s sugar) before serving.

Shelley’s notes

1. I cooked my slice for exactly 20 minutes. Next time I make this recipe I’ll check it at 15 minutes. I think my slice was slightly overcooked, but it still tasted good.

Are you a fan of lemons? What is your favorite lemon recipe?