New Zealand Snapper - grilled and chilled!

When we traveled in Europe and having a vacation on Tenerife, we cooked a lot of Dorada. It's a beautiful fish with a lot of meat and not so much of bones!

In New Zealand, I heard a lot of people talking about snapper - and it reminded me this bony little fish we have in Estonia (a lot of fishermen like to catch it but I personally don't like this little bastardo's - because of bones and lack of meat). And one day digging on the internet and looking up what kind of fish I can catch here in NZ I found out that this bloody snapper is the same fish we used to eat on Tenerife!!! The same Dorada!!! Nonetheless, a plan was made and a couple of them purchased. Pak'nSave shop was very nice and they cleaned the fishes as well - so less work for me :)

It's easy to make, you need these few ingredients:
2 Snappers - cleaned and peachy
4 tbs olive oil
salt
white pepper
1 lemon
dill

Preparation:
Put some salt and white pepper inside and over the fishes. Chop dill and throw inside and over the fishes. Pure olive oil on fishes and lay lemon slices over fishes.

You can cook in an oven at 200C for about 20-25 minutes or on the grill on medium heat for about 20 minutes. If fish will flake then its ready to serve.

Serve with some fresh salad and chilled white wine. It was really delicious!

Bon Appetit!

Marinating the meat how and why?!

The marinade will make your meat tender and add flavor to it.

At first, you need to marinate a meat lets say at least 2-5 hours or overnight if possible (depending on cut and game). Be careful, some meats are more tender and don't need as much of flavor nor long time to marinade (chicken and fish), otherwise, you will kill the taste of the meat. 

For marinade, you need usually 3-4 types of ingredients: 

• salty 
• sour 
• spicy
• sweet

You have to mix these together and make the blend of your own but be careful with sweet part of it (sugar, honey, ready-made BBQ sauces) - because it can start burning on the grill very easy! Also be careful with over-salting, it will ruin the taste and drain the liquid out from meat. Sometimes it's better to NOT put sweet ingredients to your marinade but add it by mopping meat on the grill or add as a sauce to the ready dish. Sourness you need to tender your meat (it helps also spices and taste get into the meat) and I am using for this purpose usually natural yogurt, vinegar, wine, lemon juice or tomato (pasta) sauce. For the flavor, you can add to marinade also mustard, mayonnaise, chopped herbs, onion, and garlic. There are no limits - really! Also, its good to add some olive oil to your marinade - it helps protect meat on the grill, gets easier browned and also it will not stick to your grill so badly. I made a picture of spices and ingredients I have at home for everyday cooking.  

You don't need them all - there are some basic ingredients with what you can cook a lot of different meals. These are salt, black pepper, garlic, onion, "Italian herb mix", thyme, rosemary, meat rub for BBQ, tomato sauce, olive oil, natural yogurt, BBQ sauce.  

Try to use natural tastes and if possible avoid ready mixed spices, but of course, sometimes it makes life much easier :)

The easiest way to make a marinade for pork or lamb or veil:

2 tbs of Mixed spice rub (there are salt and spices already mixed)

2 tbs of tomato sauce or 1/2 of lemon juice

2 tbs of olive oil

1 tsp of mustard or horseradish

1 tsp of BBQ sauce

1/4 of onion chopped

1 garlic clove chopped

The easiest way to make a marinade for chicken:

2 tbs of Mixed spice rub (for example "Peri Peri")

2 tbs of natural yogurt

1 tbs of mayonnaise

2 tbs of olive oil

The easiest way to make a marinade for fish:

1/2 of lemon juice

a handful of chopped dill

4 tbs of olive oil

1 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp of freshly grounded pepper

Marinating and Grilling Lamb Shoulder

We like eating lamb meat!

In Estonia, we had a very poor choice of lamb meat in shops and generally, if you wanted something special or good piece or good price then you had to buy meat from the farmer - we did it also a couple of times and purchased half of the lamb at a time. We made it to portions and packed and freeze for next time to use.

When we came to New Zealand then many of people said that "Sorry we don't have here the good choice of lamb meat because all is going to export". But the next day shopping at "New World" we saw this very meat counter - and it all was a lamb! I even heard angels singing quietly!

Prices were not the cheapest - but we found a good product for us - lamb shoulder chops! They are easy to make, meat is great and it's difficult to screw it up on a grill :)

So, I used for marinade the following:
2 tbs of spice mix for lamb (my own made)
2 tbs of tomato (pasta) sauce
1 tsp of horseradish
1 tsp of English mustard
1 garlic clove chopped
1/4 of onion chopped
1/2 of lemon (juice from it)
1 tbs of BBQ sauce
1/8 cup of olive oil


After mixing it all together I rubbed it into meat, put the meat on the tray, cover with plastic film and let it season in fridge 3-4 hours.

For grilling use direct heat at first - it will close the pores of the meat and make a nice brown look after that put pieces on un-direct heat - cover your grill with lid and cook until ready. Bon Appetit!

Making your own Spice Mix for lamb

Yesterday I had the plan to grill some lamb shoulder but discovered that my spice mix container for lamb was EMPTY.

So I went shopping at "PAK'nSAVE" and got some of the different spices and I made from them my own rub for the lamb.

The recipe is the following:
2 tbs of Himalayan pink salt
1 tbs of rosemary
1 tbs of smoked paprika
1 tbs of paprika
1 tbs of minced onion
1 tbs of garlic powder
1/2 tbs of chilli powder
1 tbs of basil
1 tbs of sage

Put them all together to some container (chose the one you can close with lid) and enjoy your next lamb cooking :)

NB: You can always save some money and buy ready-made rub or spice mix, but if you use different spices for cooking anyway, then better take different ones and make mixes of your owns.

Portobello mushroom's with blue cheese

This one is good to offer at the beginning of the party!

They are very easy to make and no special skills nor time needed.

You need the following ingredients:
4-5 portobello mushrooms - depending on size (if big ones - then two is enough)
Blue cheese (Danish Blue)
Olive oil
salt/fresh black pepper

Preparation and cooking:
You can remove mushroom leg if you want and use it for next morning frittata if you like :). So, put some salt (you can avoid salt because cheese is quite salty as is) and freshly ground black pepper on each mushroom, add crumbled blue cheese and stir over with some olive oil. Now you can cook them in the oven or on the grill. If cooking in the oven then put mushrooms on some baking form.

If you use grill then avoid putting them straight on the coals/flame - it will burn the skin on mushrooms and it will taste bad! If you use gas grill then you can put them on a piece of foil. You need "secondary heat" like on the picture - you need to cover grill with lead (don't open it too often because heat will escape and you have to start all process from the beginning). Probably you will need 10 + 5 minutes.

Mushrooms are ready to serve and eat when cheese is melted and you see the mushrooms are cooked and there is "juice" on the top of the mushroom. Use plate under as it can be runny and cut to pieces as shown. Eat until warm - these are the best and wash them down with nicely chilled Sauvignon Blanc.

Bon Appetit!

Hungry Kiwi Frittata

As the hungry Kiwi doesn't have time to waist - I came up with "the quick one"!

The last couple of days I made a frittata for a quick lunch after some jogging. The recipe itself is very easy and you don't need any special skills in the kitchen (timing, measuring, cutting etc). Also, one positive thing is that you need only eggs and some leftovers from your fridge :)

Like yesterday I was grilling some chorizo sausages and there was one left in the fridge - so, I sacrificed this bad boy for the better cause and the final result was just beautiful.

So basically I collected the following:

3 eggs
1 grilled chorizo sausage
some frozen green beans (put to the bowl and cover with hot water, prior usage)
2 slices of bacon
1/4 of the onion
1/4 of the tomato
a little drop of cooking oil
salt/pepper
fresh: parsley, dill, green onion, basil, etc

Preparation and cooking:

Put a pan on medium heat and add some cooking oil. Cut onion, chorizo, bacon to small pieces and pour on heated pan and stir occasionally until cooked, now cut tomato and strain off the green beans and add them to pan, stir. Same time you can hit the eggs in the bowl and whisk them, add some salt and freshly ground pepper and pour mixture on the pan over the previous mix. Cover pan with the lid and turn heat to low. Cook abt 5 - 7 minutes and then turn the cooker off. Wait for another 2-3 minutes, add some freshly chopped herbs if you like and you are ready to GO.

Bon Appetit!

NB: For Frittata you can use a really wide variety of veggies and meat products and make it as "your own" as you like! 

Chicken liver sandwich

Today I was shopping at "New World" and I found one of the BEST grillings sauce ever - straight from America, "Sweed Baby Ray's" Barbecue sauce. And from that all the shopping began, then I found chicken liver and NZ beef heart and a lot of other good stuff which ended up in my trolly, later-on spending all together abt. 100 NZD. Originally came to pick up only some kiwis. 

Also, I decided to start today living a healthy lifestyle with the combination of healthy eating (that includes a lot of grilling and some occasional beers of course) but I did my first run-walk around our backyard volcano (Mt. Wellington) and felt quite good after that. Chicken liver was still on my mind and I decided to make a couple of healthy sandwiches. It all came out very good, so you are welcome to try and let me know your feedback.

So, basically you need following:

2 slices of bread with seeds (pick which looks healthy)

2 teaspoons of low-calorie mayo or apricot-mango chutney 

200g chicken liver

oil and butter for frying

a handful of fresh salad

parsley

slice of red onion

for dressing:

1 teaspoon of honey

1 teaspoon of olive oil

juice from a slice of lemon

freshly grounded black pepper

salt

chicken spice rub (peri peri seasoning)

Toast the bread, fry liver with oil and butter (don't overcook), cover the bread with chutney and salat add some red onion and cover with ready-cooked slices of liver. Mix together all dressing ingredients and pour over the sandwich. Strew over with fresh parsley. Enjoy