Octopus

 Braised then charred over the charcoal fire outside brushed with chorizo oil.  With cauliflower saffron puree, roasted cauliflower, crispy chorizo, shrimp head oil.  It might not look pretty but it was sooooo delicious.  It tasted almost like a bouillabaisse in a way.  

I love octopus but it does smell during the first cook so Andy throughs the cooking liquid out in the outside drain by the road.  Down the sink, it takes a long long time to clear.  I've tried reducing it before but for us it's too rich and strong in flavour to be a successful sauce or base for a risotto.  

Anyway this combo was a big success.  I would have been happy for it to come my way in a restaurant that's for sure.  The shrimp head oil - definitely worth the hassle.

I'm doing this post as a note to self for the future so I don't forget.  Yum.

A few more pics of NZ

Some photos I lost.  We bought some amazing NZ green lipped muscles.  Dad scrubbed and Joey took over cooking duty.  Muscles are such a hassle to cook but worth every mouthful and Joey was very practical cooking them.  

Their Garden in Whitianga is a year round delight.  The seasons are largely undefined which means beautiful herbs and salad leaves in winter, tick along with Jerusalem artichokes, cauliflowers, cabbages, pumpkins and even guavas.  It seems things grow year round.  

Delicious green lipped muscles with tomato sauce.  You really can't go past NZ green lips.

Joey writes notes in her cookbook on everything I cook.  Her intention is to go and cook it after I've gone.  But I doubt she's ever cooked carbonara sauce!  Cute.

Garden winter salad

Jerusalems.  Yum.

Dad's homemade cheesy bacon roll.  With Joey's beetroot chutney

Joey at work with those muscles.

Silly daddy

Their garden is stunning, even in the winter

My gorgeous parents

Duck on the BBQ

 Saffron and parsnip purée, braised red cabbage, and that wonderful duck.

But I have a wee story to tell about my new microwave.  It is so bloody cute.  I mean if any machine could be cute my microwave is hands down.  It does a "bing' when finished.  Nothing more.  No  buttons, just dials.  So so cute and basic.  

Anyway.  We cooked the duck breast on the BBQ raised high to give it a long slow cook.  I did the parsnip crispy bits in my cute wee microwave on the defrost mode (ping!!!).  The saffron parsnip purée was beautiful... Just a touch of saffron and a silky smooth purée.  Red wine port reduction. Fresh sourdough with propper French butter.  Yum.  

Lauterbrunnen

There is a fantastic car video which Andy took when I was so brave and drove from Andermatt to Lauterbrunnen. I can't download it.  But I did drive this fantastic road. The thing is, we wanted to go to Lauterbrunnen, not realising the drive from Andermatt to Lauterbrunnen would be the highlight of our trip.   The drive was incredible.  I drove there ( very proud) and Andy drove back.  Driving though Interlarken was a slight challenge.  The GPS took me through a bloody bicycle/ walk way. Geezes I was so stressed.  The walkers and cyclers were looking at us like WTF??? On this tiny cycleway.  In Interlarken.  In the bloody Porche with me driving.  I managed to get out via a car park (whew).   We had FUN.  Lunch under under the waterfall in Lauterbrunnen.  It's a very touristy place, but that drive from Andermatt to Lauterbrunnen and  back.  Unforgettable.  And the number of Porsches on that drive was .... well we've never seen so many in a single day even in Germany.  It's a nice drive for a Porche and I drove!

 

Andy's 69th

 
Yep, 69th.  That means 70 next year.  What???  Anyway it was a good enough late afternoon for lamb on the bbq.  We do love our bbqed bone in lamb.  This time shoulder and testing our our amazing bbq tongs and huge spatula from Joey and dad for his birthday pressie.  Andy's devised (as he does) a rack so he can lower and upper depending on the heat.  We love the subtle smoke that charcoal gives (in fact we had a delivery yesterday of bbq brickettes, 9 x 3kg bags on special through amazon so that'll keep us going!). 

Our trick to get the perfect crust is MSG.  Brushing meat, vege etc with a mix of plain oil and MSG gives such an incredible caramelisation.  MSG might be an unpopular ingredient for some, who knows why, it's natural.  Anyway in our house it goes into almost everything savoury and it's absolutely delicious for all sorts of reasons but one being the boost of the Maillard effect when roasted.

Since going to the village 14th July fête and having the most amazing potatoes cooked over fire we've been doing that but this time we did parsnips.  They might look a bit too charred but trust me they tasted divine.  That delicious coconut flavour synonymous with roasted parsnip.  

We've discovered an artisan goats cheese from Fromage du Vernet that comes in a little wooden boat for a reason.  Once you get a spoon into it it liquifies and creates basically a beautiful goat cheese sauce and is utterly sublime served with lamb.  Our little cat is rather fond of it and likes to lick clean the wooden boat.  We served a pearl barley, parsley anchovy confit lemon salad which went so well with the lamb.  Yum.  A great birthday celebration.

Palat du Vernet Lait Cru de Chèvre

Yummy lamb, bloody expensive here.  At least twice the price of NZ

BBQed parsnip, don't knock it until you've tried it.

I think the cat got into every corner!