Fail-proof rice.

I probably mentioned that Four is allergic to everything.

What do you eat when you are allergic to everything? Rice. A lot of rice. And probably white rice. (The child's skin does better with white rice.)

I could make risotto. But regular rice just seemed too complicated. (By this, I mean I didn't know how to make rice. Adam had to make it.)

So, Adam taught me how to make rice. Or Alison Holst did. (I think it was both of them.)

Long grain (white) rice
Boil 2 cups of water. (This is when an electric kettle comes in handy. Electric kettles are awesome.)

Put a medium-sized (not too big) pan on low heat. Add 1 Tablespoon of oil. (I like to use canola oil.)

Add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 cup of basmati or jasmine rice. (I don’t bother to rinse it first, but if you want to, go right ahead.) Stir until the rice is coated.

Let the rice mixture heat for about a minute. (Not too long, or you will scorch the rice and have to start over.)

Add your boiling water to the rice mixture. Put a lid on the pot, and leave it on low heat for about 18 minutes. You can check to make sure all the water has been absorbed.

Take the pan off the heat and leave it covered until you are ready to serve. Fluff rice with a fork.

My husband hates eating out. At least he's a good cook.

We live in the boonies (American for rural area). There aren’t many options for eating out, or for takeaways (Kiwi for take-out).

Besides, making our own food (from scratch) is almost as easy as buying packaged, processed foods. Especially if my husband is doing the cooking. It is definitely cheaper.

And since I’m a control freak, I like to know what exactly is in my food. If I don’t know what an ingredient on the label is (more or less), then I probably won’t buy it. I like whole foods.

It helps to have a few time-saving kitchen appliances. Obviously, the microwave and the toaster. Here are my other must-haves:

1. The jug (Kiwi for electric kettle)
   The electric kettle is CRITICAL to our daily operations at Wellington Road (eg, for the coffee plunger). I might have mentioned it before. Can't. Live. Without. It.
   
   
2. The slow cooker
   And I love my slow cooker. You can throw dinner in it and forget about it. It's a good thing.
   
   
3. The sandwich maker
   For toasties (Kiwi for grilled cheese sandwiches). A cast-iron skillet is nice, but the sandwich maker doesn’t require such close monitoring.
   
   
4. The blender
   To puree soups. Or make hummus or pesto or smoothies. I really like the food processor too.
   
   
5. The juicer
   I could probably live without the juicer. But with an organic fruit and veggie shop in the village, why would I want to?

Dairy-free, egg-free pancakes.

These pancakes are often on the weekend menu at Wellington Road. Maple syrup is my favourite topping, but in NZ, it is incredibly expensive.

1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 ¼ cups rice milk
1 tsp salt
1-2 bananas, mashed
2 Tbsp dairy-free margarine, melted
½ cup frozen blueberries, optional

Mix all the ingredients together, except the margarine and the blueberries. Then add the margarine and then the blueberries. Grease your favourite skillet and cook a ladle of batter at a time over medium heat. Flip when cooked on one side. Makes four large pancakes, or lots of small pancakes for the child.

The child eats the blueberries first.

Roasted pumpkin soup.

My first cup of pumpkin soup was made from a packet, in a household that had never seen a fresh vegetable.

Making pumpkin soup from fresh vegetables makes all the difference. My husband cuts up the pumpkin for me. However, I believe that my experience with carving jack-o-lanterns will probably come in handy, if it's ever put to the test.

Roasted pumpkin soup
1 small pumpkin, cut in chunks and peeled
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger
½ tsp ground turmeric
3 cups chicken stock, heated
½ cup coconut cream
1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
1 tsp grated lemon zest

Heat oven to 200 C. Place pumpkin in oven pan and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes until soft.

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over low heat and add onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric. Cook until soft (5-10 minutes). Add pumpkin and stock and bring to boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.

Blend soup until smooth. Return to saucepan and reheat. Stir in coconut cream, sweet chilli sauce and lemon zest. Season to taste.

Not a complete failure. The child did eat the roasted pumpkin.

Some of the best caffeine in the world.

In the Dom Post’s Saturday magazine (sorry, I couldn’t find a link), London cafe owner and former Wellingtonian Matthew Clark was quoted as saying, “It’s universally acknowledged that New Zealand has some of the best caffeine in the world.”

Um, really?

Well, I suppose New Zealand’s coffee has improved. When I first arrived in New Zealand, the Kiwis that I met drank instant coffee at home. Once, as a special treat, my husband made coffee in a percolator.

Now that I have been living in New Zealand for a few years, I can see the appeal of instant coffee powder. Like if I was tramping (hiking) in a remote area. Although in that situation, I just might prefer tea.

In fact, I was expecting a nation of tea drinkers, and without a doubt, the tea drinkers are a very prevalent group. Coffee drinkers are simply a different breed.

Kiwis drink their tea and coffee white (with milk), at any time of the day or night. If you want to get strange looks at the cafe, order an espresso. Otherwise, the flat white is a nice concoction. It’s sort of like a latte, but with less milk and less froth.

The popularity of coffee in NZ has been a welcome surprise. And at home, I have grown to love my coffee plunger. I never thought I would admit this, but it is completely superior to my American drip coffee maker.

Sausages in beer.

It is comforting and enticing to smell my dinner cooking in the slow cooker. And it takes so much pressure off the dinner hour, when the child is just getting out of his bath.

Here is another recipe adapted from Joan Bishop’s New Zealand Crockpot and Slow Cooker Cookbook. I love you, Joan.

Lately, I’m having fun with recipes that call for wine or beer. I feel all chef-y and the sauces are great.

Sausages in Beer
6 sausages (I used venison sausages)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
¼ cup tomato paste
1 can beer
1 cup green peas, thawed if frozen

Preheat the cooker for 20 minutes. Don't forget, like I did, or dinner will be a bit late.

Heat a frypan, add some oil and cook the sausages until brown. Remove from pan, let cool, and slice each sausage into four pieces on the diagonal. Put the sausage pieces in the cooker.

Turn down the heat and add the carrot, onion and garlic to the frypan, and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and beer, mix and bring to a simmer. Pour into the slow cooker, stir, and cover with the lid. Cook for 2 ½ hours.

Thirty minutes before serving, add the peas. Served over mashed potatoes.

And the child ate it. Well, some of it. Don't worry, the alcohol cooks off.

Mashed potato, mashed potato.

Mashed potatoes are cheap and easy to make. They are great with sausages or roast chicken.

Mashed potatoes
Peel four large floury potatoes (I like Agria) and cut into quarters. Half fill a medium pan with water and bring to a boil. Boil potatoes for approximately 15 minutes until tender. Drain cooked potatoes, then mash with a nob of butter. Add a little milk at a time and continue mashing potatoes until creamy.

--
Edited to add. At Wellington Road, we make a dairy-free version, with dairy-free margarine and rice milk. Still delicious!

Another easy dinner.

It had been ages since we had had risotto. I don't know why. It is so easy and satisfying.

There is quite a bit of stirring involved, but as usual, the child was happy to help.

Red wine risotto with mushrooms
adapted from Julie Le Clerc

4 cups of very good chicken or vegetable stock
Olive oil
1 red onion, finely diced
1 1/4 cups arborio rice
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup red wine
Salt and pepper
4 large mushrooms (eg, portobello)

In a saucepan, heat stock. Heat another large pan, add 2 tbsp of olive oil and the onion, then cook over low heat for 5 minutes.

Raise the heat and add rice and garlic. Stir for two minutes. Add the wine to the pan and stir over medium heat until reduced. Add a cup of the hot stock and stir until the stock "disappears" and the mixture is nearly dry.

Continue to add stock, a cup at a time, until it is all absorbed, and the rice is tender to the bite, about 15-20 minutes. Season to taste.

At the same time, pan fry mushrooms in a little oil. Season with salt and pepper. Serve mushrooms on top of risotto.

Even the child liked it.

Super easy, quick dinner.

It had been a very long time since we had had Hokkein noodles. You can make this easy dinner in 10 minutes.

1 tbsp oil
400g pork or chicken
stir fry vegetables
400g Hokkien noodles

Stir fry sauce:
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp black bean sauce

Mix together ingredients for stir fry sauce in a bowl and set aside. Heat wok (or your stir fry skillet) and add oil. Add meat and stir-fry until brown. Add stir fry vegetables (I used carrots and celery, sliced on an angle, and spring onions) and stir fry for 3-4 minutes. Add the Hokkien noodles and stir-fry sauce and cook for one more minute.

Slippery Hokkein noodles. So good.

Chicken stock.

When the weather gets cold, for Sunday dinner, we like to roast a chicken. Then I use the carcass to make chicken stock.

Chicken stock is such a staple. Homemade stock makes soups and curries sing with flavour.

And it's so cheap and easy to make. I like to make chicken stock in my slow cooker. I just toss everything in, turn it on, and forget about it.

The child helps chop the vegetables. But not with the big knife.

I have adapted the following recipe from Joan Bishop’s excellent New Zealand Crockpot and Slow Cooker Cookbook.

Chicken Stock
1-2 chicken carcasses
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely sliced
2 tsp salt
Large sprig thyme
2 bay leaves
Boiling water to cover

Pre-heat the cooker for 20 minutes. Put all the ingredients in your crockpot or slow cooker, cover with lid, and cook on High for 5-6 hours. Cool, and strain the stock through a sieve.

Chicken gizzard? Throw it in the pot.

Chicken and chick pea curry.

Tonight is a Big Night Out at the playcentre. We're having a potluck dinner and showing the kids a movie. I'm bringing the child's favourite dinner, and hopefully he will eat it.

Chicken and chick pea curry
400g stir fry chicken
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tbsp curry powder
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground cardamom
1 cup chicken stock, heated
1/2 can coconut cream
2 tsp arrowroot
½ cauliflower
2 zucchinis/courgettes or asparagus
1 can chick peas

Brown chicken. Remove from pan. In same pan add oil and onion and cook for 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add spices and cook for 1-2 minutes. Then add chick peas, chicken and vegetables. Stir until coated with spices. Sprinkle over arrowroot. Then add chicken stock and coconut cream. Then simmer until thickened and vegetables are tender, 20-30 minutes. Serve over basmati or jasmine rice. If you like it hot, like I do, sprinkle chili powder on top, or add some spicy pickle on the side.

The child just eats the chick peas. Oh well.

Allergy-free hummus.

The child is allergic to sesame seeds, so we make our hummus without tahini.

I love to eat hummus as a dip with carrots, celery, or potato chips. I also love it on sausages, and of course with pitas and falafel.

Hummus
1 can chick peas
juice of 1-2 lemons
1 clove garlic, crushed
3/4 tsp to 1 tsp salt
about 3/4 cup olive or canola oil, or a combination of the two

Put chick peas, lemon juice, garlic, salt and about half the oil in a blender. Whiz the mixture until it is smooth. Add the remaining oil slowly, then add extra seasoning if necessary. Refrigerate until needed (up to a week).

The trick is to get the chick peas in the blender before the child eats them all.

I heart the new village deli.

Of course I'm all about convenience and quality speciality items at reasonable prices.

I love the deli's luxurious ham slices and gourmet sausages, local olives, and dolmas and little savoury quiches and sweet slices. Also, amazing Parmesan and Edam and soft goats' cheeses. They have lots of fresh breads and pantry items like pasta and mustards and olive oil.

The deli is such a pleasant little spot. The service is cheerful and accommodating. They have a wood-fired oven to make pizzas. I’ve heard they even will make you a coffee.

Mexican burgers.

New Zealand's grass-fed beef is among the world’s best. And safest. As a lapsed vegetarian, I say, yum.

Lately I love this “Mexican” twist on my old favourite.

Mexican burgers400g premium lean mince
½ onion, finely diced
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp chilli sauce
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
Colby, cheddar or edam cheese slices (optional)
1 tbsp oil

Combine mince with all other ingredients, except oil. Divide into 4 equal portions. Flatten into burger patties.

Prepare selection of salad ingredients, eg lettuce, tomato, pickles.

Toast or grill hamburger buns.

Lightly oil and heat a barbeque plate. Cook burgers until cooked through (these days I don’t like mine as rare as I used to), about 4-5 minutes on each side. In the last minute, if using, melt Colby cheese on top of patties.

Assemble buns and salad ingredients. A quality mayonnaise hits the spot.

Serve with homemade oven fries and fresh fruit salad for dessert.

Much better than it looks in this photo

Dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free Toll House biscuits.

The New Zealand Food Allergy Cookbook has some good recipes. Everyone always raves over the Toll House biscuits.

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp plain flour
Big pinch of salt
½ tsp baking soda
125 g dairy-free margarine
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup castor sugar
½ tsp vanilla essence
2 tsp egg replacer
50 g dark chocolate bits (dairy-free)

Preheat oven to 190°C. Lightly grease baking trays.

Sift flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.

Cream margarine, sugars and essence together until creamy.

Gradually beat in egg replacer and sifted dry ingredients.

Fold chocolate bits through mixture.

Drop teaspoonfuls onto baking sheets. Do not flatten.

Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Loosen from tray and cool.

Makes about 20.

I don't eat beets.

I love a few things on this list of good-for-you foods: turmeric, frozen blueberries, cinnamon, pumpkin seeds and pumpkin.

Cabbage and swiss chard, yes, I could eat these more often.

And my husband loves prunes.

Pomegranate juice sounds nice.

Okay, okay, I'll buy beets. And this time I won't leave them to wilt in the veggie drawer. I'll eat them, and I'll like them. Yes, I can.

Sardines? I've never tried them.

They just sound yuck.

I guess I could buy them for the earthquake.

Maybe I'll love 'em.

Cauliflower Soup.

Every other Sunday my father-in-law gives us a cauliflower. Sometimes we use it to make this simple soup, which even the child will eat.

Cauliflower Soup
inspired by Soup Bible

1 Tbsp butter or oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 large potato, peeled and thinly sliced
1 medium cauliflower, cut into small florets
3 cups vegetable or chicken stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a saucepan melt butter or heat oil, and add onion and garlic. Cook over a gentle heat until soft. Add potato and cauliflower, sauté for a few minutes and then pour in stock. Slowly bring to the boil and cook, covered for 15-20 minutes until vegetables are tender. Remove from heat and cool a little.

Place in a blender or food processor and purée until smooth. Return to the saucepan and gently reheat. Season to taste.

A bit of rice milk (or cream) makes this soup even better. My husband and I like to ladle into bowls and sprinkle with a little blue cheese.

Dairy-free pikelets.

We are still in a holiday mood chez Wellington Road.

As such, today for lunch we had dairy-free pikelets, topped with dairy-free cream cheese and smoked salmon.

Dairy-free pikelets
from The New Zealand Food Allergy Cookbook

1 cup plain flour
1 tsp egg replacer
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda (oops, I used 1 tsp)
1 Tbsp sugar
3/4 cup rice milk
1 Tbsp dairy-free margarine or oil
2 tsp golden syrup

Sift dry ingredients. Stir in milk.

Heat margarine and golden syrup until melted. Add to above and mix in.

Cook in spoonfuls in a greased frying pan.


And I forgot the capers. Still good.

Seafood pizza.

I’m sorry, New Zealand. Fish and chips, you’re best in the world. Hands down. Pizza, not so much.

A few times we ordered pizza from one of the chains, and we thought, “This isn’t too bad.” But our subsequent orders left us feeling disappointed.

Too many toppings. Bad sauces. Lackluster crusts.

Then the child was born. His food allergies turned delivered pizza into a naughty after-bedtime treat. And we were usually let down.

And let's face it, in these recessionary times, it’s expensive.

So I’ve taken matters into my own hands. Literally.

I make my own pizza base from this easy recipe:

Stacey’s quick pizza base

Put into bowl:

1 1/4 cups warm water

2 tbsp sugar

Mix to dissolve.

Sprinkle over 1 tbsp instant yeast and stir in 1 tbsp olive oil. Leave for at least 5 minutes to froth.

Mix 3 cups all purpose flour, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking powder.

Add flour as needed if sticky knead. Knead for a couple minutes. I do it by hand.

Then I rest the dough as long as possible, covered in a warm place.

I roll the dough out with a rolling pin. I make two pizza crusts with this recipe.

Last night with some help from the child, I made dairy-free Seafood Pizza:

2 tbsp tomato paste mixed with 2 tbsp water
1 tbsp each of crushed garlic, chilli sauce and dried oregano
1 large prepared pizza base
About 300g seafood. I splurged and used crab meat.
1 cup grated cheddar cheese. I used soya cheese.
Optional: ½ cup chopped green olives

Mix tomato paste and garlic, chilli sauce and oregano. Spread this tomato paste mixture over pizza base. Arrange seafood on top, then cheese, and olives if using. Bake at 200°C for 12 minutes.

Seafood Pizza. We were not disappointed.