It’s not a party if there’s no honeycrunch!

When I was growing up in the seventies in New Zealand, Rice Krispies seemed to be one foodstuff that every family had in their kitchen.  Whenever a kid had a birthday party, along with little red “cheerio” sausages on sticks and Bluebird chips, there would always be a Rice Krispie offering on the table in the form of honeycrunch bars or chocolate crackles . They fulfilled every desire of the parent and children at that time.  For the parents, they were cheap, quick to make, and could easily be whipped up in large quantities. For the kids, they were sweet, sweet, sweet; which is all a small child needs from a party really.  The hyperactive sugar rush they get from these treats can power them through hours of running around madly and shrieking excitedly. Kids who are served carrot sticks and hummus at parties don’t realize what they’re missing!

A very forgiving recipe

Aside from the non-politically-correct sugar rush honeycrunch gives, they are fun to make with kids as there is not much to making it.  The recipe is very forgiving.  The butter, sugar, and honey mixture should theoretically be boiled until it it changes to an amber colour as you see in the photos below.  If you don’t boil it for long enough, the taste will be a little less caramel-like, and the honeycrunch bars will be a little softer rather than crunchier. No matter how they come out, they will taste good.

The one thing not to do when making honeycrunch

The only thing you should not do is boil the mixture for too long, as it can get a burnt taste, which is the one time when honeycrunch doesn’t actually taste very nice. Oh, there’s one other thing that you should not do: do not eat it all at once, otherwise you’ll turn into an over-excited 5 year old at a birthday party.

And honeycrunch is not just a party food

Actually, it’s not true that we only ate it at parties.  My mother made it often so that it could be popped into our school lunch-boxes as a treat after we’d finished our Marmite sandwiches.  It’s amazing how many kids suddenly want to be your friend when you pull a couple of bars of home-made honeycrunch out of your lunchbox!

Travel photo of the week

This photo is taken on my father’s farm in New Zealand.  The trees on the right are the beginning of a large area of preserved forest (or “bush” as it’s called in NZ). Dad has put up fences all around it to stop cattle and sheep from straying in there, in order to keep it as pristine as possible.  It’s so dense that we were forbidden completely from setting foot in it.  When I was little I imagined that witches and goblins had houses hiding in these trees. In fact, Dad got lost in there himself many years ago.  He ordered his dogs to “Go home” so that he could follow them, and they just slunk around behind him and stayed at his heels.  Mum had all the neighbours out searching for him to no avail, but he found his way out after a night of stumbling around.  Take that as a cautionary tale:  the New Zealand bush is VERY easy to become lost in.  Even people like my Dad, who have a good idea of what they’re doing can lose their way very quickly!

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Honeycrunch from New Zealand

Honeycrunch bars are a sweet treat from New Zealand that can be made quickly with only 4 ingredients!

Course cake, Dessert, party food

Cuisine New Zealand

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Resting time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Servings 16 bars

Ingredients

• 100 g Rice Krispies 4 cups
• 100 g Butter 1/2 cup
• 85 g honey 4 Tbsp
• 50 g sugar 4 Tbsp

Instructions

• Grease a baking tin with sides. I used a 20 x 20 cm tin for this recipe. (That's 8 in x 8 in)
• Heat the butter, sugar, and honey in a medium-sized pot on a medium heat. Let the mixture boil gently, and stir frequently for 5 minutes, until the colour begins to darken slightly.
• Take off the heat and stir in the Rice Krispies.
• Scrape into the prepared tin. Gently spread the mixture out with a spatula or spoon. Do not press down hard.
• Cut into slices while still warm. Leave to set for at least one hour.

By Lisa Watson

Chocolate Crackles: essential New Zealand party food

When I was growing up in New Zealand in the Seventies, every single birthday party I went to would have a plate of chocolate crackles sitting proudly on the party food table, just waiting to be gobbled by sugar-frenzied, over-excited herds of children. The Seventies seem to be coming back into fashion (to the fashion powers that be, please don’t bring back lamé jumpsuits…..), so I decided to resurrect this old childhood favourite.

And why is the coconut there?

Chocolate Crackles are incredibly easy to make and do not need any cooking, except for melting the butter, so could happily be made with just the use of a microwave. They also have very few ingredients in them, which is probably how some beleaguered parent who had to make some sweet treat in a hurry for their child’s birthday party came up with the idea in the first place: by looking in their kitchen cupboard and throwing what was in there into a pot.  It seems that even a Century ago in New Zealand, most kitchens had a steady supply of dried coconut in them, although coconut palms do not actually grow in the country itself.  I’m still not sure why coconut is such a ubiquitous ingredient in cake and cookie recipes in New Zealand.  My guess is that it was something that kept for months without refrigeration back before aeroplanes existed, so it was an easy ingredient to store.

The origin of chocolate crackles

The first known recipe was actually printed in the Australian Women’s Weekly back in 1937, so this is one Antipodean recipe that I will have to let the Australians own (unlike pavlova). Apparently it was used as a marketing tool to sell a product called Copha; a solid fat made of hydrogenated coconut oil. Kellogg’s jumped on the candy-train in the Fifties, as a main ingredient in the recipe for chocolate crackles was one of their cereals, and took ownership of the name “chocolate crackles”.  They tripped and fell flat on their cereal-covered face when they attempted to trademark the recipe a few decades later. Since recipes can’t be owned by any one person or company, their bid failed completely.

You can use butter

As I don’t like the idea of using a vegetable shortening with trans-fats in it, I replaced the Copha with butter.  The crackles came out just fine and the Rice Krispies stuck together nicely, just like I remember them doing with the vegetable shortening that was used in the past.

Travel photo of the week

As I have sadly confessed that this recipe for chocolate crackles is not an original New Zealand recipe, I have decided that Australia should be featured in this week’s travel photo section.  This is a bustling beach in Queensland, Australia called Mission Beach.  We were there in August, which is Winter, but it was warm enough to go swimming, and there were no jellyfish, no cyclones, and no people to be seen anywhere.

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Chocolate Crackles

Easy to make crunchy Chocolate Crackles will be a hit at any child's party and are fun to prepare with kids as well. Find the Antipodean recipe here on Italian Kiwi.

Course Dessert, party food

Cuisine New Zealand

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 minutes minutes

Fridge time 2 hours hours

Total Time 7 minutes minutes

Servings 12 crackles

Ingredients

• 125 g butter 4.4 oz
• 30 g cocoa 1/4 cup
• 70 g icing sugar (powdered sugar) 1/2 cup
• 40 g dried shredded coconut 1/2 cup
• 60 g Rice bubbles (rice crispies) 2 cups

Instructions

• Put paper muffin cases into a muffin pan.
• Melt the butter in a medium-sized pot.
• Turn off the heat.  Add the cocoa and stir until dissolved.
• Add the icing sugar and stir in.
• Add the coconut and mix in.
• Add the rice bubbles and mix gently until they are all coated with the chocolate mixture.
• Spoon the rice bubbles into the paper cases.  Put the muffin pan in the fridge for at least two hours before eating the crackles.

By Lisa Watson

Candy surprise from Down-Under

I had forgotten all about hokey pokey until recently when we went down to visit my family in New Zealand.  Suddenly I saw it everywhere: in ice-cream, in biscuits, in chocolate and even by itself.  It’s New Zealand’s best kept secret (or maybe second best, after the fact that NZ has beaches to rival those in the Caribbean).  I have never seen it outside of the country. As far as I know, they don’t even make it in Australia, which is astonishing as those Australians are always stealing our recipes (look at pavlova, marmite, anzac biscuits…….the list goes on).  Now, for any Australians reading this, don’t worry….you still have your kangaroo meat pies and crocodile steaks all for you. 🙂

I have discovered in my travels that there is a kind of candy called honeycomb in the UK that is similar, but it doesn’t seem to be as ubiquitous as in NZ. There, you find it everywhere : coated in chocolate, in ice-cream, and made at home and in school science labs all over the country.

Fast and fun to make

Hokey pokey takes about five minutes to make and only has three ingredients.  It’s lots of fun to make with kids as it has that “WOW!” factor when you add the baking soda to the sugar syrup.  If the baking soda is fresh, it’ll foam up very impressively.  I remember making it in science class at high school to study the reaction.  Well, I mainly remember eating it, but not much about the explanation behind the reaction. The science lab bit is because of the fantastic foaming reaction between the hot caramel syrup and baking soda that you add at the end to make the holes in the candy. 

Let’s do the Hokey Pokey

Hokey Pokey is also the name of a dance.  One that you probably did on camp, or when you were at school.  Some call it the Hokey Cokey, but I like to think that it’s related to this sweet somehow. Maybe the original makers of hokey pokey, sang the accompanying song, “You put your right foot in. You put your right foot out. In, out, in ,out and wave it all about” while they were waiting for it to cool down.

Very important tips to know

There are only a few important things to remember when making hokey pokey:

1. Stir the sugar when it’s melting, otherwise it will burn.

2. After adding the baking soda, scrape it IMMEDIATELY onto a plate as it sets very quickly.

3. Don’t touch it until it has cooled down, otherwise you will get burned.  It sticks to your skin very easily when its hot.

4. Wash all the tools you use to make it straight away as the caramel sticks to everything otherwise.

The last two points come from personal experience.  I tried it so you don’t have to!

That’s about it.  Once you’ve made it, it will keep for a few days in an airtight container.  You may find though that it will be already eaten after a few minutes!

If you’re looking for other sweet treats from New Zealand don’t hesitate to check out mothballs and russian fudge.

I’m happy to announce that my post for hokey pokey won 2nd prize in a contest on the site Instructables.  It’s a fabulous site for learning how to make any sort of craft you can think of!

Contest Winner

Second Prize in the Sweet Treats Challenge

By Lisa Watson

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Hokey Pokey Candy

A three ingredient candy and a fun science experiment, all rolled into one!

Course Snack

Cuisine New Zealand

Prep Time 2 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 7 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 140 g White Sugar 10 Tbsp
• 50 g Golden Syrup 4 Tbsp
• 2 tsp Baking soda

Instructions

• Grease a plate or pie dish.
• Heat the sugar and golden syrup in a medium-sized pot at a medium-low temperature.  Stir constantly with a wooden spoon or a whisk until the sugar has melted.
  
• Simmer on a medium-low heat for 5 minutes, stirring continuously, until it turns a golden amber colour. If you have a candy thermometer, wait until the temperature gets to 145 - 150 degrees C (293 - 303 degrees F).
  
• Take the pot off the heat and immediately add the baking soda.  Stir madly and watch it foam up (very exciting for the kids!).
  
• Pour it STRAIGHT AWAY on to the greased plate/dish and leave it to become cold and set. DO NOT TOUCH IT WHEN IT'S HOT (it'll stick to your fingers and burn you).
  
• When it has cooled, break it into pieces and eat it!

Strauben: Sugar-dusted swirls from Northern Italy

I came across these delicious fried treats a few years ago when we went to the Dolomite mountains in the North-East of Italy.  There’s nothing better than a crunchy-tender freshly fried pastry dusted with powdered sugar  or lavishly spread with jam (traditionally it’s blueberry jam) to give you a warm fuzzy feeling! These fried pastries are fun to make at home too as you can get the hidden artist in you to come out and make fantastical swirls and curls of batter before it cooks into a solid shape in the oil. Strauben were originally made in February during the Carnevale period where people dress up in costumes, eat and party before having to give everything up for Lent.  Nowadays, you can find strauben at markets and festivals all through the year when you go to the Trentino-Alto Adige area of Italy, or you can use this recipe and just go ahead and make them at home whenever you feel like it.

Creating art with Strauben batter

In fact, the only slightly tricky part of this recipe is making the batter spiral into the hot oil.  To do this, I used a funnel as you can see in the photo below.  It’s a little messy as you get batter on the finger that’s plugging the funnel hole.  You also have to keep cool, calm and collected and start gently making swirls as soon as the batter starts flowing into the oil.  If you are finding that the batter is too runny and is flowing too quickly to make any kind of meaningful swirl, just add flour to the mixture, 2 Tbsp at a time and see how that goes.  After a few tries, you’ll get it down to a fine art and be able to create masterpieces of batter-y art!

This post is part of the monthly Cucina Conversations theme.  This month,  as Carnival is being celebrated all over Italy, the recipes are special for this time of the year.  Strauben are traditionally eaten during Carnaval in the Trentino-Alto Adige region , but are so good that you’ll find them throughout the year and festivals and markets in the area.  So, here’s a tempting list of this month’s recipes written just for you:

Daniela from La Dani Gourmet made a very special risotto with Cuttlefish and Chard

Rosemarie  from Turin Mamma baked some summery Parmigiana di Zucchini

Francesca from Pancakes And Biscotti  made delicious freind balls from Sardinia called Zeppole Sarde

Marialuisa from Marmellata e Cipolli fried up some mouthwatering Doughnuts

Flavia from Flavia’s Flavors tempted us with crunchy Crostoli

Carmen from The Heirloom Chronicles made some sweet Bugie stuffed with apricot jam.

Travel Photo Of The Week

This photo shows you the very typical architecture from the Alto Adige region of Italy.  The buildings look very Swiss, and very unlike buildings I have seen anywhere else in Italy.  This was taken in a tiny village called Versciaco or Verschach, depending on whether you want to call it by its Italian or German name.  All the towns in the area have two names, which can make it very confusing for strangers visiting there.  I wrote a while back about this interesting bilingual area . When you go to speak to someone there, you never know whether they will speak Italian or German.  Often the German-speakers speak poor Italian, even though they are Italians, and the Italian speakers speak poor German, even though they live in a German speaking area.  If that doesn’t confuse you, then nothing will! Anyway, if you do find yourself in this village, and are hungry, I absolutely recommend the Pizzeria and Restaurant Helmhotel, on the main road).  They have great Italian pizzas, and also wonderful South Tyrolean specialties.

By Lisa Watson

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Strauben swirls

Strauben are Italy's answer to American funnel cakes. Find out how to make these delicious treats at home.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 6 Strauben

Ingredients

• 200 g Flour 7 oz/ 1 3/4 cups
• 3 Eggs
• 70 g Melted Butter 2.5 oz/ 5 Tbsp
• 50 g Sugar 1.7 oz/ 1/4 cup
• 1 pinch Salt
• 250 ml Milk 1 cup + 2 Tbsp
• 20 ml Grappa or Rum (optional) 1 1/2 Tbsp
• Vegetable oil

Instructions

• Whisk all the dry ingredients together.
• Melt the butter and leave it to cool slightly while whisking the eggs and milk into the dry ingredients.
• Whisk in the butter and grappa, if using.
• Pour approximately 5 cm (2 in) of oil into a large pot or wok.  Heat the oil.
• Using a funnel, place your finger on the end of it and fill the funnel with batter until it comes about halfway up the funnel.
• Put the funnel above the heated oil and swirl the funnel gently in circles as the batter pours out.
• Leave for a couple of minutes to cook on one side and then flip it carefully and brown on the other side.
• Drain on paper towels, the sprinkle with powdered sugar or spread jam on the strauben before eating.

Notes

The Strauben are best eaten hot, but they can be easily reheated in an un-oiled, non-stick frying pan up to 3 days after making them.

Where you can find pasticciotti custard pies

I first came across pasticciotti a few years ago, when we spent a long weekend  in the Salento region, way down in the “heel” of Italy. These custard-filled pies are typically eaten for breakfast there with a frothy cappuccino.  Of course, there’s nothing stopping you eating pasticciotti at other times of the day! There are a few stories floating around about the origins of this pie.  The thing they have in common is that it was cooked up for the first time in the 1700’s, and that it comes from the region of Puglia.  For the rest, various versions say that the pasticciotti were invented by one chef or the other, all for different reasons.  I’m not sure who to believe, so I’m happy just to eat them and thank that chef who had the great idea to make them back then.

A little name explanation

The word “pasticcio” in Italian means “a mess”, which doesn’t really do the filled pie justice, except for the fact that it can be messy to eat if the crema filling isn’t thick enough. Try wiping up mess of custard filling off your shirt and jeans in a cafe with a small number of flimsy serviettes and no water and you’ll see what I mean (yes, that happened to me). The original dough is made from lard.  I used a butter pastry as I find the lard too heavy for my taste.

Some hints on making pasticciotti

For this recipe, I have given no quantities for the number of pasticciotti it makes as it really depends on the size you end up making them.  they are very rich, so I suggest that you make them no larger than a muffin-tin size, unless you decide to go for a large pie to be cut in pieces. You can make the crema and the dough the day before and keep it in the fridge until you are ready to bake the pies.

Three recipes in one

The most fabulous bit of this recipe for pasticciotti, at least for me, is that I don’t need to write out a lengthy post on how to make the dough or the crema.  The two recipes are already on Italian Kiwi!  The jam tart  I posted as one of the first recipes on this blog uses the pastry dough, and a Summery strawberry tart  I posted a couple of years ago  is filled with the crema pasticciera! So, really, this post is three recipes for the price of one! As you get it for free, I guess that doesn’t mean too much.  This way though, if you have leftover pastry or crema after making the pasticciotti, you have a couple of ideas to use them up by making some other delicious desserts.

It’s the end of the month, which means you get an added bonus of delicious recipes from the group at Cucina Conversations! This month, we’re talking about typical Italian afternoon tea snacks.  I wish every meal could be afternoon tea, or merenda, as it is called in Italy!

Marialuisa from Marmellata di Cipolli baked very interesting Vegetal Charcoal Bread to make sandwiches with,

Rosemarie from Turin Mamma baked some Amaretti Morbidi,

Carmen from The Heirloom Chronicles offered some Pizzette Montanare

Francesca from Pancakes And Biscotti made delicious Pizza Bianca,

Flavia from Flavia’s Flavors put together some little sandwiches typically found all over Italy in cafes called Tramezzini da bar,

Daniela from Le Dani Gourmet will be making Pan Meino

Travel Photo Of The Week

The two photos I have for you this week come from Puglia, where I stuffed my face, I mean first discovered, pasticciotti. These falling-down towers are strung along the coast of Puglia like beads on a necklace.  Once upon a time, they were manned constantly to watch out for attackers approaching from the sea.  Each tower is in sight of one other, so that when the alarm was raised, wither smoke signals, or fires could be used to signal the next tower down the line that danger was imminent. Now-a-days, they make wonderful sites to view the Puglia coastline from.

The stunning white town below, which lies a little bit North of Brindisi, is called Ostuni. I had some incredible orecchiette pasta with turnip greens for lunch here! The architecture is very typical for the Puglia region. You can see the strong influence of past cultures that inhabited the region at different times during its history.  The whitewashing and flat roofs bring back memories of buildings in Northern Africa and on the Greek Islands.

By Lisa Watson

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Pasticciotti: custard-filled pies from Southern Italy

Custrd-filled pies from Puglia in southern Italy can be eaten for breakfast or as a dessert or decadent afternoon tea snack.  Find the recipe here!

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Resting time for dough 1 hour hour

Total Time 2 hours hours

Ingredients

• Pasta Frolla
• Crema Pasticciera

Instructions

• Find the recipe for Pasta Frolla here.
• Find the recipe for  Crema Pasticciera here.
• Heat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF).
• Choose your pie pans.  You can use muffin pans, like I did, or opt of a larger shape.  The form should have high sides. Grease the pan before using.
• Roll out the dough until it is about  a 1/4 cm thick. Cut out a round for the base and a smaller round for the top.  As you can see in the photo in the above post, I used a bowl for the base and a cookie cutter shape for the top.
• Carefully place the larger round in the form and gently press it down.
• Add spoonfuls of the crema until you nearly fill it to the top of the pastry round.
• Put the top on, and squeeze the edges together with your fingers.
• If you like, you can brush the top with beaten egg to make it shine when it is cooked (I didn't do this step).
• Bake for 20 - 25 minutes until the pies have become golden-brown.

What happens during Carnival in Europe?

It’s Carnival time in Europe right now! In France, that means that Nice on the Cote d’Azur has an enormous parade and a flower-throwing battle and the children get to dress up in costumes and throw confetti around (but more about that later).  In Italy, for Carnevale, people also get dressed up in costumes and have parties, but more importantly, there are many dishes eaten especially during this period.  After all, what kind of celebration would it be in Italy if there were no particular foods to be eaten while you’re partying? There are some savoury foods to be had, but many of the looked-forward to delights are deep-fried pastries, such as doughnuts in many forms, crunchy sweet treats dusted in icing sugar, and these crostoli, which are pastries stuffed with chocolate or jam and also deep-fried.

Eat Crostoli at any time of the year

You may be getting the idea now that there’s a frying theme going on during Carnevale, and you would be right. Carnival is all about having fun and eating decadently before moving into the Lent period and denying yourself some of your favourite things until Easter rolls around. I’m not terribly good about denying myself things like Crostoli, so I would eat them at any time of the year! I made these with Nutella in the center of them, but they are equally as good with any kind of jam in them.

A shameful confession

Now, here I should be inserting a photo of the one of the tremendous floats in the parade that happens every February in Nice on the Cote d’Azur. Much to my shame, I have to confess that I haven’t been to the landmark festival as of yet.  Well, I’ve only been here for 12 years.  It’s still early days yet…..right? The Carnival parade in Nice looks like something to rival the Thanksgiving parade in New York (which I haven’t been to either, but I’ve seen in every third movie set in New York), and at the end, they even have a huge fire to burn the king of the Carnival (don’t worry, it’s a statue, not a real person!).  I promise that I’ll try to go next year and then I’ll write about it.  If I don’t, you have to right to scold me.

During Carnival time, the schools in our area also have a party for the kids.  They all get dressed up in costumes, throw confetti all over the place and eat sweets.  For weeks afterwards, I find tiny bits of coloured paper falling out of the kids’ bags and clothes.

This post is part of our lovely monthly Cucina Conversations group.  This month we’re all focusing on recipes that are eaten over the Carnival period in Italy.

Rosemarie from Turin Mamma with Fagioli Grassi

Carmen from The Heirloom Chronicles with Baccala And Crispy Peppers

Flavia from Flavia’s Flavours with Frijole Veneziane

Francesca from Pancakes And Biscotti with Castagnole di Ricotta

Marialuisa from Marmellata e Cipolle with delicious meatballs

Daniela from Le Dani Gourmet with homemade doughnuts.

by Lisa Watson

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Nutella- Stuffed Crostoli

Crostoli di Nutella: Sweet Italian Carnival Pastries recipe. These treats are eaten before Lent during the Carnival period in Italy.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 3 minutes minutes

Resting time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 13 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 450 g All-purpose flour
• 40 g Granulated white sugar
• 1 pinch Salt
• 40 g Butter at room temperature
• 2 Eggs
• Lemon Zest from 1 lemon
• 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
• 300 ml Water
• Light oil vegetable/sunflower
• Nutella
• Icing Sugar Powdered Sugar

Instructions

• Use a standing mixer. Mix the flour, sugar and salt together.
• Add the lemon zest, butter cut into small chunks and eggs.
• Turn the mixer on a low speed and add the water in a steady stream until the dough clumps together.
• Knead the dough for 5 minutes until it is elastic and smooth.
• Cover the bowl with a cloth and leave it to sit for at least one hour.
• Roll out the dough on a floured surface until it is about 1/4 cm thick.
• Cut the dough into rectangles, approximately 10 cm by 7 cm.
• Add 1/2 tsp of Nutella to one half of the rectangle, then fold the other half of the dough on top of it and close the opening  firmly around the edges.
• Add enough oil to a large pot to allow the crostoli to float.  Heat the oil and once hot, drop the crostoli in a few at a time.  Turn them over to allow them to brown on both sides.  The frying will only take a few minutes.
• Take the crostoli out of the oil with a slotted spoon and drain them on kitchen paper.
• Sprinkle the crostoli with icing sugar before serving.

Don’t be deceived by the unappetizing name

Since the holidays season is here, over the next few weeks on Italian Kiwi, I’m going to be sharing recipes for sweet treats and cookies that you can make for this time of the year. Christmas is a great excuse to load yourself up with sugar.  Push the worry about the results of that until January! At Christmas time in New Zealand, my mother always made these Rice Krispie and date balls for us to eat as treats. The name “mothball” comes from their appearance, as they are fluffy with white coconut.  A more apt name for them may be “snowballs”, however in New Zealand, Christmas is in the middle of the Summer, so there is no snow to be found anywhere. Or maybe they’re called mothballs as they look like the nether regions of a moth.  on second thoughts, let’s stop thinking about the origin of the name, as it’s getting kind of stomach-churning!  Let’s just enjoy the fact that they’re easy to make and delicious to eat.

Why dates are used when date palms don’t grow in NZ

Mothballs make great gifts!  They look pretty, taste great and keep for a couple of weeks outside of the fridge. To make them harden quickly, you can put them in the fridge for 2 or 3 hours after they’re made. I find it interesting that in New Zealand, many desserts and cakes have dates in them, although it is actually not warm enough there to grow date palms.  I’m guessing that back before there were fridges and any kind of fast transport, dates must have been used often as you could keep them for a long time.  Coconut is another ingredient that crops up often in New Zealand recipes, like these mothballs, but isn’t grown in NZ.  If you want other NZ recipes with coconut, you can have a look at  cookies like ANZAC biscuits , or slices like Chocolate Caramel Slice. I think it was used for the same reason.

Travel Photo Of The Week

This shot was taken very close to where my lucky brother lives. The surf beach you arrive at when you get to the end of this sandy trail is called Mangawhai Heads, and the island you see off the coast is a wildlife refuge.  It’s part of a group of islands that Captain James Cook dubbed The Hen And Chickens (the big one is “The Hen”) when he sailed past them. The Hen’s Maori name is Taranga, which I like better.  You are not allowed to set foot on the island as there are colonies of very rare native birds there that no longer live anywhere else in New Zealand, thanks to the introduction on the mainland of non-native animals such as stoats and rats that eat the eggs and chicks.  NZ has no native land mammals and no snakes, so the birds did not evolve to protect themselves from hunters.  The introduced animals have (for them) fabulous pickings in New Zealand, as they can easily kill the native flightless birds, or eat the eggs that are laid by birds in nests on the ground. Thank goodness for these outlying islands that can help us to save our natural heritage!

By Lisa Watson

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mothballs from New Zealand

Don't be deceived by the name!  Mothballs are a sweet treat from New Zealand made of dates and coconut.  find the recipe on Italian Kiwi

Course Dessert, Snack, sweet

Cuisine New Zealand

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

fridge time 1 day day

Total Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 20 -25 balls

Ingredients

• 70 g Butter 2.4 oz.
• 200 g White sugar 1 cup/ 7.2 oz.
• 150 g Pitted dates 1 cup
• 45 g Rice bubbles (Rice Krispies) 1 1/2 cups/ 5 oz.
• Dried coconut

Instructions

• Chop the dates roughly.
• Melt the butter in a heavy-based pot on medium-low heat.
• Stir the dates and sugar into the melted butter until the mixture clumps together (about 5 minutes).
• Take the pot off the heat and stir in the Rice Krispies.
• Pour some dried coconut onto a plate.
• Take walnut-sized amounts of the mixture and form them into balls.
• Roll the balls in the coconut.
• Place the mothballs in an airtight container and refrigerate overnight.

Waiting for grapes in the Fall

Fall is fast approaching.  The mornings are cooling off and, at least where I live, the olives are swelling on the trees and the tomato plants are starting to go brown. I love this time of year as all sorts of fruits and vegetables are coming into season.  One of the fruits I wait for each year are the luscious grapes of different types that turn up at the local village market. The stalls were brimming with concorde grapes last week, so I decided to make some grape sorbet (sorbetto all’Uva).

Why you should visit Italy and France in the Fall

And, it’s not only me that’s happily making grape sorbet with the seasonal fruit. All over Europe, in the wine-making areas, the grape harvest is well underway. In Italy, this period of harvesting grapes for making wine is called la Vendemmia. This must be a stressful time for the viniculturists.  The grapes need to be picked when they are just the perfect colour, have the right sugar and acid content for the wine-making process, and the right initial taste so that the resulting wine doesn’t taste awful. In the wine-making parts of Italy, there are festivals to celebrate the harvest, and of course, many recipes that use grapes as one of the ingredients. In fact, it’s a wonderful time to visit Italy as you can go to the festivals and taste the wines, or even work in a vineyard, and help with the harvest. I saw many tempting possibilities when I did a search.  It’d be a great way to experience “real” life in Italy if you are young and travelling around Europe for a while (in fact, I’m now kicking myself that I didn’t do that when I was travelling years ago!).

The grape sorbet is very easy to make and the colour is incredible!  The most labour-intensive part is separating the grapes from the stems.  that’s not so bad though: I found it quite meditative to sort the juicy grapes from those that weren’t quite ready (or were over-ready). If you don’t have an ice-cream maker to churn the grape sorbet, never fear!  Just put it in a dish in the freezer and scrape through it with a fork every hour for a few hours until it is frozen.  The resulting grape sorbet will be more granita-like, but will still taste delicious!

Travel Photo Of The Week

This week’s travel photo has to be of a vineyard, of course! This was taken in a beautiful wine region, just below Turin, called The Langhe.  This area is where they make excellent wines like Barolo, Nebbiolo and Dolcetto.  If you’re ever in the area, make sure you go to the tiny village of Barolo and see the Wine Museum there.  The exhibition is amazing!  The other thing that the Langhe is known for is its incredible food. If you go to a restaurant, make sure you go with a very empty stomach, as you’ll want to eat everything!

By Lisa Watson

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Concorde Grape Sorbet

Make grape sorbet at home with this easy recipe from Italian Kiwi

Course Dessert

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 8 people

Ingredients

• 1 kg Concorde grapes 2.2 lbs
• 2 tbsp Water
• 80 ml White dessert wine (I used Gewürztraminer) 1/3 cup
• 150 g sugar

Instructions

• Wash the grapes, then pick them all off the stems and place them in a medium-sized pot with the water.
• Cook the grapes on medium heat for 10 -15 minutes, stirring frequently, until they become soft and start to break up.
• Add the sugar and cook gently for 2 more minutes.
• Add the wine and leave the grapes to cook for another 2 or 3 minutes until you cannot smell alcohol boiling off anymore.
• Take off the heat and leave to cool.
• When cool, pass the grapes through a mill, or squash them through a colander to remove the skins and seeds.
• Place in the fridge for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight.
• Use an ice-cream maker to churn the mixture into sorbet.

The importance of pears

I was at the greengrocer (does anyone still actually use that word?) the other day and found some pears that I’ve only ever seen in Italian restaurants: small brownish-green pears called the Martin Sec, which are a very old variety of pear. Apparently the pears were first mentioned in an old French text from the 1500s, which is pretty impressive given that back then, it was very laborious to get anything written down, which means that this pear is on the same level of importance as taxes and religion. 🙂

The history behind Martin Sec pears

Martin Sec pears aren’t that good to eat raw as they’re not very juicy, but when they’re cooked, they become fabulous to eat! In Italy, you can find these on all the dessert carts trundling through traditional restaurants; at least in the Piedmont region in the North. The story is that long ago, this pear dessert was typically served at the end of festive meals eaten by farming families in the North-west of Italy as everyone had a pear tree (or could steal some from the neighbour’s tree!) and some old wine lying around the house. I’m not sure who has leftover wine in their houses, but I could believe the bit about them having a pear tree with almost inedible pears that needed something doing to them before they tasted good.

What kind of wine to use

For the red wine, use something relatively “heavy” like a merlot or a syrah.  In Piedmont they use their own wines of course: nebbiolo, barbera or dolcetto, but these may not be easy to get outside of Europe. Even if they are, you may not want to waste them on cooking some pears, when they could have a much more satisfying use of being drunk by you, so use a full-bodied red wine that doesn’t come out of a cardboard box, and the recipe should work well.

Travel Photo of the Week

Since the recipe for pears in red wine comes from Piedmont, I thought that this week the photo should also come from there.  This is one of the largest squares in Turin called Piazza San Carlo. Hidden under the arcades lie two of the most venerable cafés in Turin, where you can sip coffee and eat out-of-this-world pastries under a frescoed ceiling while being served by white-coated, bow-tied waiters.  Just remember that table service in these places will maybe blow your travel budget for the week.  If you order from the bar and drink standing up, the coffee is at a low price set by the government.  After all, good coffee is an inalienable right, like the air you breathe and the water you drink (at least in Italy)!

By Lisa Watson

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Pears in red wine syrup

Pears In Red Wine Syrup: an easy to make, deliciously more-ish dessert from Northern Italy

Course Dessert

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 2 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Servings 4 people

Author Lisa

Ingredients

• 8 Small pears preferable Martin Sec
• 400 ml Red wine 1 2/3 cups
• 180 g White Sugar 3/4 cup
• 6 Cloves
• 1/2 Cinnamon stick

Instructions

• Wash and dry the pears.
• Place them, standing up, in an oven-proof heavy-bottomed pot/casserole dish.
• Add all the other ingredients.
• Simmer uncovered on a medium heat for 35 minutes.
• While the pears are simmering, heat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF).
• Place the uncovered pot in the oven and leave to bake for 30 - 40 minutes, until the pears look soft and slightly shriveled.
• Using a slotted spoon, remove the pears from the liquid and set aside.
• Pour the wine mixture through a fine sieve, then boil the liquid until it becomes syrupy in consistency.  the volume will decrease by about half and will become thicker.
• Pour the wine syrup over the pears.
• The pears can be made a day in advance.  They can be eaten warm or at room temperature. They go wonderfully with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

The international history behind Russian fudge

When I was a kid, my mother used to make fudge often for us.  As we got older, fudge was one of our favourite things to help her cook on a rainy weekend when there was no chance to go outside to slide around in rivers and make mud-balls (actually we also did that when it was raining), run through the fields exploring, go fishing for eels, or make tree-huts in the branches of the huge pine-trees that swayed behind the house.

Why this fudge is called “Russian” is a mystery.  If anyone can figure out why, please let me know! I’m pretty sure that this is a New Zealand recipe, but don’t quote me on that, unless you’re talking to an Australian, then you can argue until you are blue in the face that it’s a pure Kiwi recipe and the Australians stole it. 🙂

Note: Since I wrote this post, I have talked to a French friend who spent many years living in Russia.  She made this recipe for fudge and said after tasting it that it’s exactly what Russians eat as candy all the time and that it really does come from Russia!  Ha!  That’s amazing that it really IS Russian originally!

The photo below shows three stages of the cooking process to help you when you are making the fudge.  The first is just as the butter is melting into the other ingredients, the second is the gentle boiling stage about 5 minutes into the cooking, the third is about the colour it should be when you take it off the heat. Have a look at the recipe instructions below on how to tell when it’s cooked if you don’t have a thermometer

The secret to making the perfect fudge

The secret to making it set properly is to beat it well for at least 5 minutes.  It can be a little tricky to get it right until you’ve tried to make it a few times.

Russian fudge makes a wonderful handmade holiday gift, or can be just an excuse to have a delicious sweet treat at home!

Travel photo of the week

This week’s Travel Photo is of a beach called Hahei Beach in New Zealand. If you look at a map of the North Island, it’s on the little peninsula called The Coromandel, which juts up from the East side of the island, just below the city of Auckland. I used to go camping all the time here with my friends.  It’s fabulous for snorkling in the small bays nearby, body boarding on the waves at this beach and is as good of a place as any to eat lots of fudge!

This is my last post before the New Year rolls around. We going to Italy to go skiing on stones and grass for the week if the weather doesn’t change very soon. All the more reason to sit around drinking cappuccinos and eating pizza! I hope you all have a great holiday season with lots of good things to eat and drink!  See you next year!

By Lisa Watson

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Russian Fudge

A delicious sweet treat that makes a great holiday gift

Course sweet

Cuisine New Zealand

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Cooling time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 700 g Sugar 1 1/2 lbs
• 110 ml Milk 1/2 cup
• 125 g Butter 4 oz
• 200 ml Sweetened Condensed Milk 1/2 can
• 2 pinches Salt
• 1 Tbsp Golden Syrup
• 1 tsp Vanilla Essence

Instructions

• Stir the sugar and milk together in a heavy-bottomed pot, then cover and heat slowly until it starts to boil.
• Add the rest of the ingredients, except for the vanilla extract and stir.Put the lid back on the pot.
• Boil gently at a low setting, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes. The mixture will turn a golden-brown colour.  If you have a cooking thermometer, cook the mixture until it reaches 117°C (242°F). If you don't have a thermometer, after 10 -12 minutes, drop a teaspoon of mixture into a dish of cold water. It should set and the lump should be soft and not hold its round shape when you scoop it out of the water.
• Take the fudge off the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Leave with the lid on to cool until the thermometer reads about 80°C (175°F).  This will take about 15 minutes.
• Beat the fudge with an electric mixer for at least 5 minutes, until it thickens.
• Pour into a greaseproof paper lined baking dish that is about 20cm x 20cm (8 in x 8 in) in size.
• Leave to set. When set, cut into small squares or rectangles.