Dancing on My Table

Scallop lovers you gotta be here – it’s the 10-year anniversary of this amazing festival!
I’ll be there demonstrating fabulous scallop recipes (10.30am and again at 12.15pm) along with terrifically talented Josh Emmet and Ray McVinnie.
Come along and say hi, grove to the music and happy vibe, and scoff up scallops every which way.

Tickets still available but going faster than hot scallops.

www.scallopfestival.co.nz

The Great New Zealand Cookbook just launched.

80 of New Zealand’s greatest chefs, food writers and food producers share their favourite recipes along with insights into their culinary DNA.

Read their stories: how and why they got started in food and why they are still so passionate about what they do; how food has held families together through the tough times and drawn them closer in the good times; how everlasting friendships have been forged through food and cooking together; and how all of this has created precious memories of times shared in the kitchen and around the table.

A unique concept for a book, with plenty to read, plenty to salivate over, and plenty of reasons to motivate you to get in the kitchen and cook!

Yippee I’m off to Beijing. Got the fastest ticket there with Singapore Airlines. My only regret is that I won’t have time to sample the many, and varied, gorgeous dishes in the Singapore Air lounge at Singapore airport – best ever lounge food by a long shot – because I’ve got such a short stopover! I’ll be in China before I know it and hobnobbing with all the Gourmand World Cookbook award people. Fingers crossed, the awards are announced Wednesday evening!!!

Ingredients

• 2 kg red-fleshed plums such as Omega
• 50ml water
• 1.8kg granulated sugar

Method

1. Wash plums, cut in half and remove stones. Put chopped plums in a preserving pan with water (the water stops the fruit sticking until it oozes juice). Set pan over a medium heat and slowly bring fruit to a bubble. Lower heat and cook at a gentle bubble for 30-40 minutes, stirring often, until fruit has broken down and liquid content has reduced by about one-third.
2. Preheat oven to 50°C. Tip sugar into a large clean roasting tin and place in oven to warm. When fruit is ready, tip in sugar, and stir with a long-handled wooden spoon until dissolved. Warm a sugar thermometer in a jug of hottish water, shake dry and insert into jam. Let jam bubble away for about 10 minutes, or until it reaches 104°C – the setting point for jam; don’t stir during this process. Immediately turn off the heat and quickly skim off any bubbly scum from the top.
3. Have warm sterilised jars ready either on a wooden board or double thickness of newspaper. Pour jam into jars – this is easily done using a jam jar funnel. Wipe rims of jars with a clean hot cloth, put lids on jars and leave jam to cool. When jars are cool, wipe clean with a damp cloth, then polish with a dry cloth and adhere labels.

View the recipe here.