Watermelon, Feta, Caramelised Onion Salad

If this blog was a pot plant it would be withered up and dead by now, so lucky it's a blog!I know, I've been very slack but I've been working a lot and more importantly, had my gorgeous sister and brother in law in town for two weeks. When your closest member of your family who normally lives ten thousand miles away is here for fourteen days only and only a short train ride away, well, I'm going to hang with her. We went shopping, went to the theater (for those of you in New York if you haven't seen God Of Carnage on Broadway, go and see it - an outstanding play), had breakfast at Balthazzar, and talked our little hearts out - it was brilliant. And now I miss her like crazy not least of all because the next time I see her she will be a Mother! Wow!

However, as usual the cooking saved me from falling into a miserable heap. We were a very full house last week and a dinner party for forty five on Friday night for July fourth. It was brilliant fun, a lot of work, but great fun. My friend Casey who is the chef side of Sunday Suppers partnership, came out and helped me. If you like food photography, this site will blow your mind, it is exquisite, here's the link. http://sunday-suppers.blogspot.com/
This was one of the many things we prepared:

Salad of Watermelon, Feta, Caramelised Onion and Aged Balsamic:

For Six:
One quarter of a whole seedless watermelon, cut into cubes
Half Pound of Bulgarian Feta crumbled
One bunch of Basil
Handful of Arugula
Caramelised Onions (see below)
Aged Balsamic
Black Pepper

Take the watermelon, feta, arugula, basil, feta and caramelised onions and place in a large bowl. Give a few really good grinds of fresh black pepper. Turn out onto a serving platter or plates. Drizzle with best quality Aged Balsamic Vinegar.



Caramelized Onions
3 Red onion, peeled and sliced finely
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon dark brown soft sugar

Put the oil in a small pot, add onions on low heat and allow to caramelise. When the onions are soft add the red wine vinegar and sugar. Cook on low for about ten minutes. Season with sea salt and black pepper.

Chilled Cucumber and Dill Soup with Smoked Trout

It's been busy, great and busy! The Hamptons are lovely, the kitchen I cook in, even lovelier. There's been lots of parties, dinners and lunches and it's great. The farmer's markets out here are gorgeous, there is a fabulous new Citarella (gourmet supermarket) opened near the house as well.

I have definitely been neglecting the blog. But I made this as the first part of a business lunch on Saturday and everyone loved it. And I love it because it's quick and simple and I got to take the dill straight out of the herb garden.

One of life's greatest pleasures is to pick herbs straight from the garden and cook with them. My Dad had a brilliant herb garden at their house in Australia, I'm not sure what their herb garden is like in New Zealand, is it as good Dad?

I LOVE trout. I love smoking it but this one I bought ready smoked. It is an excellent and often much cheaper alternative to smoked salmon. I looked after Lady Bowes-Lyons in England many years ago. She was the cousin of the Queen Mother. She lived in Northumberland. John was the man who looked after the gardens and drove her when necessary. He had the thickest Geordie accent, he would talk to me and I would not understand a word he said half the time. Just used to say "oh really," and laugh when he laughed.But we both loved trout, that much we established. And he'd come past the kitchen on his way back from the river and give me a freshly caught trout. Heaven.

Here's the recipe:

Chilled cucumber and dill soup with smoked trout





Serves 4

Cooking Time Prep time 10 mins, cook 3 mins


1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tsp fennel seeds
6 Lebanese cucumbers, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 cup thick natural yoghurt
1 cup dill sprigs (loosely packed)
1 pound smoked trout fillets, flaked

Creme fraiche
Lemon zest

Pickled radish salad
4 radishes, thinly sliced
¼ cup (loosely packed) dill sprigs
1 tbsp verjuice
1 tsp white sugar

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, add garlic, onion and fennel seeds and cook for 3 minutes or until onion softens. Transfer onion mixture to a food processor, add cucumber, yoghurt and dill, process until smooth, season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, then refrigerate.

For the salad, combine ingredients and 2 tsp sea salt in a bowl, toss to combine, stand for 10 minutes, then drain.

To serve, ladle soup into bowls, top with salad and trout and creme fraiche with a fresh grating of lemon zest.

The Interview

Drum roll please ladies and gentlemen. I've got a job! Yep, this lady of leisure is very soon going to be cooking for a family out in the Hamptons for the Summer and occasionally in their West Village apartment in Manhattan. The interview process was extensive but great. Why was it extensive, well, it is only the second time in my cooking life I have been asked to cook for someone as part of the interview process.

The first time being for a yacht chef agency run by the brilliant Beverley Grant, owner and director of Culinary Fusion in Miami. That time I had to cook a three course meal for four guests and Beverley threw a curve ball by announcing five minutes before I started cooking that she wasn't able to get everything on my list - a very common reality when cooking on yachts in remote locations.

This time, it was again a three course meal for four, sans the curve balls. Instructions were as follows: a salad, followed by a protein, followed by a light dessert. That was the long and the short of it all. This is what I prepared:

Baby Vegetable Salad with Persian Feta, Shimeji Mushrooms and Hazelnut Dressing
Red Braised Lamb Shank with Roast Tomatoes and Garlic
Rolled Pavlova with Fresh Raspberries and Pistachio Praline

I start this Saturday and I can't wait! I'll keep you updated with all the lovely things I will cook. I've never been to the Hamptons and if their kitchen in Manhattan is anything to go by, I am going to be in kitchen heaven and there's also the beach!

Here's the recipe for the lamb shanks. It is adapted from the brilliant Kylie Kwong "Heart and Soul" cookbook. I love lamb shanks. My Dad's Mum who was an extraordinary cook used to make the best lamb shanks. She told me once that when she was a little girl, she grew up on a sheep station in South Western Queensland they used to throw the lamb shanks to the dogs. I'm mighty glad things have changed. This is a true marriage of East and West. You will often see the red braising stock referred to as a master stock in other cook books.

2 lb (1kg) lamb shank
1 quantity of red braising stock
3 garlic bulbs, unpeeled
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
12 campari vine ripened tomatoes
1/4 bunch basil
1 teaspoon ea slat
pinch of cracked pepper
2 tablespoons of sherry vinegar

Red Braising Stock
6 quarts cold water
3 cups Shao hsing (Chinese cooking wine)
2 cups dark soy sauce
1 cup light soy sauce
1 cup soft dark brown sugar
12 garlic cloves, crushed
1 cup sliced ginger
8 scallion (spring onion) stems, trimmed
10 whole star anise
4 cinnamon quills
1 piece of dried orange peel

Place all the ingredients for the red braising stock and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes to allow the flavors to infuse.


Skim any impurities like you see here from the stock with a ladle.

The stock is now ready to used, or can be set aside to cool and then refrigerated for up to 3 days. It lasts in the freezer for about 2-3 months.

Trim the lamb shanks of fat if necessary. Place the shanks in the already simmering red braising stock. Make sure they are all submerged, cover and let simmer for 2-3 hours until they are soft and almost falling from the bone. Allow them to cool in the stock, this gives them a beautiful deep red color.

Set your oven to 300 F or 150 C. In two separate roasting tins place the garlic bulbs drizzled with olive oil and cover with foil. Place the tomatoes in another drizzle with oil and basil, salt and pepper and roast both for about an hour.



The tomatoes will collapse and be soft and the garlic, soft and caramelized.



Cut the garlic in half cross ways and squeeze out the pulp into the bowl. Add 2 teaspoons of the red braising stock.

Take the pan juices from the tomatoes and add to the vinegar.

I served this with a shallot and celeriac root puree.

To serve:
A good helping of the shallot and celeriac root puree, with one lamb shank topped with a tomato and spoonful of roasted garlic with a drizzle of the vinegar dressing. I also ladled a little braising liquid around the bowl.

It's Not An Emergency

Yesterday afternoon a friend of mine texted and said this, "It's not an emergency but could you come and help me tonight. I have a buffet dinner for seventeen on the upper east side."

How do I know Casey? It's a little like, Simone in Ferris Beuller, "My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl ..."

Well, I have a husband called James, who has a piano teacher named Joe who with his wife have a daughter named Casey and we were introduced due to our shared loved of food.




Casey was formerly a wedding planner and now chef. She is my favorite kind of chef, self taught and just oozing passion for food and flavor. Her enthusiasm is infectious and I wish I could eat what she cooked last night, right now. You will want it too. This is what she served:

Soft herb salad with edible flowers and a mustard vinaigrette
Leek, fennel, thyme, shallot baked fillet of salmon in parchment
Green beans with lemon beurre noisette (lemon nut butter)
Cous cous of toasted almonds, olives and golden raisins.

Dessert was a gorgeous bowl full of roasted summer berries with a red wine, vanilla and cinnamon reduction accompanied by honey fromage blanc and apricot and cardamon cookies. It was a home run.

I've included the recipe for the salmon, quantities are for four.

4 x 6 oz salmon pieces skin on
1 leek sliced (white part only)
1/2 fennel shaved
2 golden shallots finely diced
a good handful of cherry tomatoes
fresh thyme
olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Set the oven to 350 F/180 C.
Cut all ingredients apart from salmon and combine with olive oil, salt and pepper.
Season your fish. Place each piece on alumunium foil, put a good handful of vegetable mix over the salmon, give a good grind of black pepper and wrap loosely.

Bake for about 8 minutes.

I like my fish cooked all the way through, reduce to six minutes, if you like it rare. Be aware that this will continue to cook in the foil after you take if from the oven.

Butter instead of blood

I ate so many of the Chocolate, Orange and Coconut Cookies and so much of the Asparagus Tart that if I fell over and scraped my knee, there's fair chance butter would pour out instead of blood.

So I'm making a simple salad. Not even. I'm having lettuce with a vinaigrette. Obviously, that's not all I'm eating today (I've already eaten a poached egg on toast and four, yes four Chocolate, Orange and Coconut Cookies - either the cookies are THAT good or I have no self control. A little from column A and a little from column B and you're pretty close to the truth. )





Romaine Hearts with French Vinaigrette

You will need:
Romaine Hearts (what, not spinach?)

For the French Vinaigrette
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 small clove garlic, crushed
1 3/4 oz (50 ml) Champagne vinegar
7 fl oz (200 ml) olive oil
1 tablespoon parsley chopped
sea salt
freshly ground pepper

I used seeded Dijon because I still haven't replaced it from when I dropped it, but you can and most do use smooth Dijon mustard. It is a little less aggressive I find in taste.

Put everything together and whisk. Check for seasoning. This will last in the refrigerator for about a month or so.

Wash your lettuce, arrange on your plate and pour over the vinaigrette.

The note

A man died. I'm not sure who, well I do know the name but I don't know anything about him as a person. The only reason I know that he died is that when I came back from a run yesterday afternoon there was this note posted on the entrance door to the apartment building.




Our neighbor Nancy must know, she was holding court early this morning on the stoop talking to everyone about it, really loudly. It's not her fault, Nancy just can't talk without shouting.

Rochelle, had another neighbor also joined her on the stoop. Now, Rochelle always makes me feel like I'm a young girl again. Not in that carefree, spirited way but in that "RUN for your life, they're coming!!!" kind of way."

When I grew up there were these kids in our neighborhood called the Mean Boy and Girl, a brother and sister duo. I never knew their names, everyone, even the parents just called them the Mean Boy and Girl. I know, it sounds like a children's book. I would know the Mean Boy and Girl were approaching without even seeing. It would suddenly go dark as their huge menacing frames blocked the sun momentarily. (Well, that's how it was in my seven year old brain) and I, we, all of us would just take off running until we got to safety.

They never caught us.

But as I valued my life, I never too the chance. To get to my friend Louise's house when coming from the lane way the direct route would take you past their house. I went this one once or twice, breaking the land speed record both times, but usually I just walked the long way in safety.

Rochelle kind of elicits the same response from me. I know her by reputation and from what I hear. I'ts impossible not to hear her, her voice is like a foghorn. She's a big woman with an even bigger mouth and a tongue that can cut people to shreds. In fairness, this depends on how much booze is in her blood at the time.

She's either all sugar or nesting python. There ain't no middle ground. It's either a "Hey baby," or a torrent of abuse that would have any self respecting cursing sailor reeling. I have a certain amount of respect for people who can curse really well, I can let fly myself when necessary, but Rochelle, she takes it to a whole new level and trust me, it's not pretty.

It happens every now and again and from the sound of it, today is her day. She's already started on the bottle this morning, I could tell that from her voice. But I had to go downstairs to leave a note on the door for the UPS man to call when making a delivery for me as the buzzer is broken.

I opened the front door and saw that she was smoking a cigarette and sitting right in the middle of the stairs. She could be there for five minutes or an hour. I'd wait. Then I heard Nancy, my saviour. So I bolted downstairs and got to Nancy and Rochelle at the same time. I gave Nancy a big hello.

Then Rochelle started, "Hey, someone been coming round here taking five dollars....." Nancy jumps straight in, "she ain't Mexican, she's a happily married woman, she's Russian or something, she don't know nothing about that, so don't go starting in on her with that stuff."

Russian, Thai, Ukranian, Vietnamese, Indian - who cares, as long as Rochelle didn't start. I posted my note for the UPS man and then had to sidle past her again as she finished her cigarette. I didn't run, last time I did that she cursed me out for running away from her and then started yelling at the top of her voice she was going to burn the building down and didn't care if she went to jail for "arsonry."

Don't be alarmed, she's not serious when she does this, just horribly drunk. However, I still didn't think it was going to be my finest moment to stick my head out the door and offer, "Excuse me Rochelle, before you burn the building down it's arson, not arsonry."

Well, it's all quiet now, so Rochelle must be upstairs sleeping like a little lamb. One thing's for sure, life in Harlem, hell, life with this many people in such close proximity anywhere, can never be dull.

One way to beat the recession

This is a new addition to our street, not the lady, the graffiti.




After I took this shot, I met Mr Davis who lives downstairs with Mrs Davis. He pointed at the new graffiti with his walking stick, "I wouldn't eat mine," he said, "but I might eat somebody else's." I see his point, he's in his eighties, so his kids are probably pretty big.

Just thought I'd share that with you, a little Harlem update streetside, and now to the kitchen. Well, not "the" kitchen, but my kitchen at least.

James often comes up with really cool ideas for dishes, the other day he says to me, "what about, orange, chocolate and coconut cookies?" That along with Indian Lamb Pie have been his best.

So after a couple of attempts, here's my best shot.


Chocolate, Orange and Coconut Cookies



41/2 oz (125 g) unsalted butter at room temperature
53/4 oz (165 g) soft dark brown sugar
1 medium egg lightly beaten
1 tsp orange extract
zest of 1 orange
2 tablespoons coconut cream
61/2 oz (185 g) plain flour
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons cocoa
4 oz (120 g) dark chocolate chips
3/4 cup toasted coconut
Extra shredded coconut for top of cookies)

Set oven to 350 F/180 C/Gas Mark 4

Cream together the butter and brown sugar.



Add the egg, coconut cream, orange extract, zest and combine. Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cocoa and fold through the mixture. Add the chocolate chips and shredded coconut. Use a tablespoon to scoop out the mix on to a baking sheet (tray) lined with baking parchment.

Bake for about 10-12 minutes in the center of the oven until golden brown and slightly puffed. Remove and leave to cool on a wire rack.