Dancing on My Table

I know heaps of people who love artichokes but who don’t have a handle on preparing them. The thing is, they look scary and difficult to prepare, and there are many ways to prepare and serve them. Which method to choose? How to start? Which bits do you eat?

For all their beauty and mystique, once you understand what has to be scrapped or salvaged, they’re reasonably easy to prepare. The trick is to be absolutely ruthless. Chop off and discard anything that is inedible – that means peeling the outer layer of the stalk (the outside is fibrous but the inner stalk will become nice and tender once cooked), and discarding the spiky leaf tips and a good percentage of the outer leaves because, no matter how long these are cooked, they will never become tender. The edible part is located in the centre of the vegetable.

The artichoke has a collection of furry fibre called the choke which forms in the centre of the artichoke. It cannot be eaten. Most of the outer leaves are too tough to eat as well, although each leaf has a succulent morsel at the base where it is attached to the artichoke which you can prize off with your teeth. The classic way of presenting a whole cooked artichoke (the choke is generally scraped out before or after cooking) is with the leaves intact. You then break off each leaf and dunk the succulent end in a dressing or sauce and nibble it, then discard the leaf in a separate bowl. Once all the leaves have been eaten in this way, you are left with the best bit, the heart, base or fond (it has various names). This you eat with a knife and fork. A lot of work for a few mouthfuls? Maybe, but once you get a taste for artichokes it’s hard to resist them.

Fill a bowl with water and squeeze in the juice of a lemon. As the artichokes are prepared, put them in the water; the lemon will help prevent them discolouring. Cut off the top third of the artichoke (the leaf tips – they’re inedible) and discard. Then spread the leaves apart, opening and loosening the artichoke. Remove the mauve or pale yellow leaves in the centre, then press the soft, yellowish leaves away from the centre until a cavity is formed and the choke is revealed. The choke is a collection of fibrous hairs, which should be totally scraped out as it is inedible, even after cooking. Use a pointed teaspoon to remove it, but take care to remove only the hairy fibre, because directly below this is the meaty base of the artichoke (referred to as the fond or heart). The artichoke is then ready for seasoning or stuffing. If cooking artichokes Alla Romana prepare as above but leave stalk attached, trim the end and peel off outside fibre. Alternatively, the artichoke can be boiled whole and the tough leaves can be discarded after cooking and the choke scooped out with a teaspoon. The artichoke can then be served with melted butter, vinaigrette or a hollandaise sauce. All the leaves can be peeled away and discarded, leaving the heart, which can be used cold in salads, added to pasta dishes or risotto, or sliced and fried.

Trim off the top third of the leaves, remove outer leaves stopping once the leaves are pale in colour and tender. Scoop out choke. Slice thinly or cut into wedges for frying.

Alternatively, slice whole artichokes in half, remove choke and boil gently in acidulated water until tender. Stuff and bake, or remove outer leaves and any tough fibre and serve with a dressing or sauce.

RECIPES:

Carciofi alla Romana (Artichokes Roman-style)

Artichoke Frittata
Serve frittata with salad and crusty bread, or cut into cubes and serve as finger food.

The globe artichoke is a type of thistle, but we eat the buds of the plant before the flowers bloom. The flower buds are edible at various stages of their growth, but are better picked and eaten while they are young.
If artichoke buds are left on the plant to mature, the thistles develop and burst open into a striking flower. They can be dried and used in flower arrangements.

Young and Tender
If you grow your own artichokes, and three or four plants should do the trick, you’re in for a treat. Pick the buds before the chokes have had a chance to form. Wash and trim them, slice wafer thin, arrange on a plate and dress with a trickle of the finest extra virgin olive oil you can find, a squeeze of lemon and a little freshly milled pepper. They’re incredibly nutty-tasting and wonderfully crunchy…and totally addictive.
A Spanish oil with hints of artichokes, such as Pons, or an Italian oil with hints of almonds such as Salvagno, are both exquisite with young artichokes served this way.

Alternatively, trim and halve young artichoke buds, douse in olive oil and grill lightly. Serve with shavings of prosciutto and a few curls of Parmesan cheese (use a vegetable peeler to peel the cheese).

Top Tips
Watch out for sharp pointy parts on artichokes, and prickles, usually found on the tips of the outer leaves, sometimes on the inner leaves around the choke, and on the stems.
If you lick your fingers after touching artichokes you’ll be amazed at the incredibly bitter taste. To minimize this, and to protect against staining, wear food preparation gloves when preparing artichokes.
Lemon helps prevent artichokes from discolouring. Add some juice to the water they are soaked in, or rub cut surfaces with a piece of cut lemon.
And don’t throw away the stems – they’re edible, too, although they have an earthier taste than the leaves.

RECIPES:

Carciofi alla Romana (Artichokes Roman-style)

Artichoke Frittata
Serve frittata with salad and crusty bread, or cut into cubes and serve as finger food.

I’ve just had a gorgeous spring weekend in Queenstown. It used to be the place to go for extended skiing weekends, or, late summer for a wine crawl, but it most definitely now stands alone as a great food destination, too, – it’s HOT! Taste magazine held a reader’s dinner at Lake Hayes’ Amisfield Winery, about 10 minutes’ drive out of Queenstown. After salmon nibbles and bubbles we were seated indoors with a fire roaring away, but the days are getting warmer, and the outdoor elongated dining courtyard set around a water feature is the place to be in fine weather. The high altitude, cool climate and long summers of Amisfield’s vineyards help winemaker Jeff Sinnott produce a classy Pinot Noir. The 2006 vintage teamed with a superbly cooked roast of highland beef on a creamy mash of white beans and chard executed by Exec Chef Jason Innes went down a treat. This was preceded by a carpaccio of crayfish with NZ grapefruit, tiny asparagus points and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil – light, spring-like and divine matched with Arcadia Brut NV. The award-wining food at Amisfield centres on locally grown food, much of which is organically grown. Flavours are fresh and uncomplicated. Remember to book, and, be aware that the restaurant is only open for lunch or early evening dining.

Lucky old me, I stayed in luxury accommodation: Alta Vista, a 3-bedroom serviced apartment managed by Touch of Spice. Situated high above Queenstown, with to-die-for views looking out over sparkling Lake Wakatipu framed by majestic snow-capped mountains, it’s a brisk steep walk to the centre, but just a 3-minute car ride back up the hill! It is, I decided, good for the soul to stay in such a place, the air as crisp as an apple, the food a treasure-chest of irresistible goodies, and the wine imminently drinkable.

Touch of Spice is a relatively new company specializing in personal concierge services available at 14 stunning homes they manage in the Queenstown area. A personal chef is available to come and cook for you, or you can be left to your own devices. Guess what I chose? Yep, that’s right, a personal chef – for one night anyway! Along with Taste magazine’s editor Suzanne Dale and husband Dennis, we supped on a truly memorable dish of scampi which had been split and grilled, followed by lightly cooked venison washed down with local wines. All we had to do after dinner was toddle off to bed – no dishes, no driving. Bliss.

But you couldn’t keep us out of the heart of Queenstown for long – we were headed to the newly opened Botswana Butchery to taste the fare of chef Leungo Lippe. Located in the historic Archers Cottage at 17 Marine Parade just metres from the shores of Lake Wakatipu, the restaurant is cuter than cute, with an assortment of tables and seating, leather couches and cosy nooks, including grand dining chairs in plush fabrics, and colours of hot red, lime green and warm gold. Don’t worry – it’s harmonious, but interesting and stimulating. Cleavers seem to be the thing, embedded in the main door as a handle, arranged as an art installation on the wall and shaped into tuille biscuits served atop small squares of layered cake. The menu. Here’s the thing. My heartbeat rose at first glance – I could have chosen any one of the eight starters, and likewise of the 8 main courses. I settled on Westcoast crayfish springroll with coriander, tamarind aioli and petit salad, followed by roasted duck confit of duck leg, puy lentil and shiitake mushrooms, buttered spinach and thyme jus. I could just as easily have chosen tart tatin of celeriac, leek and potato, marinated Mediterranean vegetables, lime and herb mascarpone and celery pesto – a great vegetarian option. How we managed dessert is a mystery. I think the excellent Pinot Noir must have helped the digestion!

As is my tradition, we made a stop next morning at Joe’s Garage for a late breakfast. If Botswana Butchery is exceptional and classy dining, Joe’s Garage then is homely, slightly grungy, but with just the right smells of freshly ground and brewed coffee, fried bacon, sizzling tomatoes and toast. It draws in the punters time and time again.

Queenstown is an ever-changing hub of gastronomy and viticulture. I leave all those bungey-jumping and white water rafting adventures to the tourists and those snow-capped mountains and ski-fields to the fleet of foot. My pursuit is…well, you already know, great food and wine, and there’s no shortage here.

For further information on Queenstown – www.queenstown-nz.co.nz

Botswana Butchery

Amisfield Winery

Touch of Spice

Hey you lucky people in the northern hemisphere… it’s tomato time! While we are squelching around in our gumboots (it’s rained nearly every day for a month in Auckland!) you are coming into the best part of summer when tomatoes have had enough sun to really taste of something – they’ll be sweet, juicy and fruity. I’m a tomato addict – I once wrote a book about them Take A Vine-ripened Tomato– and one of my favorite lunch-time snacks is a simple plate of sliced
vine tomatoes on crunchy bread drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and a squeeze of lemon, a little sea salt and pepper. Lemon seems to bring out the fruity freshness of a ripe tomato – they have an affinity – and make the tomato seem sweeter. Yum! Tomatoes are easy to grow, but if you don’t have a garden you can still grow cherry tomatoes in a terracotta pot in a sunny spot – just remember to water them daily in hot weather.

An absolutely gorgeous recipe for little tomato tarts using cherry tomatoes comes from my book Take A Vine-ripened Tomato. The Tomato Tarts are made with puff pastry rounds spread with pesto, then halved cherry tomatoes. They’re baked on a high temperature until the pastry is golden and flaky and the tomatoes slightly singed. They’re dead easy to make and are simply delicious to eat.

If you have a stack of tomatoes you might like to oven-bake them. I prefer semi-dried (oven-baked) tomatoes to sun-dried tomatoes, which I find too jammy and too tough. Semi-dried tomatoes still have a lot of moisture in them and are juicy and sweet. Of course they won’t keep as long as sun-dried tomatoes, but that’s just the excuse you need to gobble them up in salads (try them with avocado and smoked fish), pasta dishes (mix them with oil, garlic, chilli, pitted olives and rocket /arugula) and sandwiches (put them in a BLT for a juicy surprise).

Top tomato tips

When picking tomatoes, keep the calyx on each one because it helps them to keep.

The only edible part of the tomato plant is the fruit (the tomato); wash your hands well after a stint in the garden staking tomatoes.

If buying tomatoes, remove them from any plastic packaging and store them in a shallow bowl.

Keep tomatoes at room temperature, not in the fridge; chilling them ruins their texture and taste.

Salt draws the juice out of tomatoes, making them watery, and this can dilute dressings, so salt them just before serving. If making a mixed salad with tomatoes, add tomatoes to the salad at the last moment.

If using fresh tomatoes in a soup, sauce or casserole sort of thing, skin them first, because the skins separate from the flesh during cooking and will float to the top.

Lemon has an affinity with tomatoes and makes them taste fruitier and sweeter than vinegar. Extra virgin olive oil with a few squirts of lemon juice and a little sea salt makes one of the simplest but most delicious tomato salads. Or try lemon-infused extra virgin olive oil for a more intense flavour.

Apple glaze or apple syrup are both equally delicious sprinkled over sliced tomatoes – giving them a fruity tang and making them taste even more tomatoey!

Tomatoes contain loads of vitamin C, as well as other vitamins, and lycopene, an antioxidant phytochemical, which is effective in preventing cancers and heart disease. Canned and cooked tomato products contain more lycopene than fresh tomatoes, so include them in your diet on a regular basis along with fresh tomatoes.

Skinning tomatoes

Everyone has their own method, and here’s mine. Bring a small saucepan of water to the boil. Have a bowl of chilled water ready to receive the scalded tomatoes. Lower tomatoes carefully into the pan of gently boiling water and count to 10 for ripe tomatoes and up to 20 for firmer tomatoes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the tomatoes to the bowl of chilled water. Try peeling them. If they peel easily, carry on scalding any extra tomatoes, but if they’re difficult, put them back in the pan for 10 seconds more. I find this method absolutely reliable because you can adjust it to the ripeness of the tomatoes.

One of the hardest things about having friends over for a meal is coming up with a selection of dishes which will form a menu, food that eats well together. Finding a combination of dishes that are appropriate for the occasion, that will please all guests, that won’t cost an arm and a leg, won’t take days to prepare and will leave everyone replete and satisfied, not stuffed to the gills, is a tough call, even for experienced cooks. It’s easy enough to find one dish you feel like cooking and sometimes it forms the heart of the menu, but other times hanging on to that one dish can cause all manner of problems and you just have to file it away for another time. My advice is, if the menu isn’t coming together, abandon what you have selected and start again.

On Saturday night I had 30 people for dinner, a semi-formal occasion with platters of nibbles, then a buffet which I partially served. I desperately wanted to serve crab cakes, mainly because I love them and wanted to eat them, and I fancied salmon and avocado in rice paper wraps but every time I looked at the menu these two dishes stood out. I just couldn’t get the menu to gel until it hit me (should have been obvious!) that they were the only Asian-flavourings on the menu, and the only seafood items, and strongly flavoured. In the end I had to let them go, and married up the flavours of the other dishes with a more cohesive Mediterranean theme. The decision was made just 24 hours before the party but I was glad I made it!

I generally choose the main course first, although there are no rules, as sometimes the first course can be so special that it becomes the star. Preplanning certainly takes the pressure off an organized meal, and I usually make lists of jobs, serving dishes, and cooking times and oven temperatures for the dishes.

Summer entertaining is easier as more cold food can be served, but even in winter, three hot courses are not necessary. When planning a three-course meal, I choose one dish that can be completely prepared in advance, and I generally opt for dessert because it is easy to find recipes that can be made ahead, so that once the main course is served, I know it’s all plain sailing and I can relax and enjoy the occasion.

Here’s a delicious and easy dish to serve as a starter for a winter meal – Mushroom crostini with mustard and thyme. You could serve a little rocket (arugula) salad alongside. I’d follow it with a roast beef and seasonal vegetables, and maybe a fruit crumble to finish. Fresh, seasonal, scrumptious homecooking! So invite your friends over, light the candles, choose music you’ll all enjoy and tuck into a winter feast!