A post in four courses – dessert

Posted on 1 March 2016 by SJPONeill

A simple dessert, keeping with the green journey theme…

Dairy-free coconut ice cream in a waffle cone…

This is the first ice cream I made ever and I worried that the dairy-free aspects might add undue complication to what appeared – from the reading – to be a complex process…I needn’t have worried: like so many other things the anticipation was way worse than the actual doing…I was so sure that this would end in total disaster that I didn’t bother taking any photos of the making…if I want to see disasters, I can always rerun Titanic…

I made this according to this recipe which I found at The Kitchn There are lots of other ones around but this looked the simplest of those I found in my initial Google and simple is good…

What I used:

2 400ml cans full-fat coconut milk

1/2 cup honey, just ordinary old, common, garden-variety honey, nothing flash.

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons corn flour

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

And this is what you do:

At least 24 hours before you plan to churn the ice cream, put the ice cream machine’s bowl in the freezer to freeze. This was the first time I had used my ice cream maker even though I bought it on the other side of winter…I never realised that the bowl had a liquid filling

Cans of coconut milk separate into a thick, creamy layer and a thin watery layer on the shelf. Before opening them, shake the cans of coconut milk thoroughly to incorporate the layers. If you forget – don’t ask how I know – you’ll need to give the can contents a vigorous stirring.

Measure 1/2 cup and set this aside.

Pour the remaining coconut milk into a saucepan.

Add the honey and salt to the coconut milk..

Warm the coconut milk on the stove over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the sweetener has completely dissolved into the coconut milk.

Measure the cornstarch and add it to the reserved 1/2 cup coconut milk. Whisk thoroughly until the cornstarch is totally dissolved.

Add the cornstarch mixture into the warm coconut milk while whisking gently.

This is your ice cream base. Increase the heat to medium. Stirring occasionally, continue cooking the base until it has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon, 6 to 8 minutes. Do not allow the base come to a boil.

Remove the base from heat and stir in the vanilla.

Pour the base into a shallow container. Let the base cool slightly on the counter so it’s not hot when you put it in the fridge.

Cover the container and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or for up to 3 days.

Remove the base from the fridge. It should be completely chilled and slightly pudding-like in texture. Pour the base into your ice cream machine and begin churning.

Churn the ice cream until it thickens considerably and is roughly the consistency of soft-serve ice cream.

Transfer to freezer container: Scrape the ice cream into your freezer container. I achieved the same by filling to the very topping and placing the lid on. Freeze for at least four hours to harden the ice cream.

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This mix does set quite hard – not icy, just hard. Let it warm a few minutes on the counter before scooping. This is a bit of a balancing act because once it starts to melt is keeps going quickly!! So far it seems to me best to let the ice cream contain sit on the bench for maybe 2-3 minutes and then serving it.

It doesn’t seem to roll quite as well as dairy ice cream and so, especially for cones, I find it is easier to use a dessert spoon to scoop the ice cream out and then pack into into the cone.

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Bottom line

Very nice, especially in a cone…reminiscent of rum and raisins without either actually in the ingredients

Would benefit from some lumpy bits in the mix…nuts, raisins, dried fruit…

Smaller batches would mean greater variety

“Philosophically’ healthy in that it doesn’t use globally unhealthy ingredients but is very sweet so eating this in lieu of ‘normal’ ice cream is unlikely to do anyone’s waist line any favours…

A post in four courses – main

Posted on 29 February 2016 by SJPONeill

For a healthy main, I selected what I call my Lebanese Lasagne…its real name is Lebanese Kibbeh but I call it a lasagne because it has a similar layered construction and it is easier to say in company without a lot of explanations…I got the original recipe from this great little book, from the Paper Plus bargain table about ten years ago…

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The first few times I made it direct from the recipe but found it to be a tad dry so took to adding half a can of diced tomatoes over the filling to add some additional moisture. In all fairness, the original looks quite dry too so this is just me adjusting to fit my only preferences…and it has been so long since I have made this, I forgot the tomatoes…

Here’s what I used for this dinner…

For the base and topping

3/4 cup of bulgar wheat. This seems to hide in different parts of the supermarket, even between branches of the same chain so you may have to hunt for it.

450 grams of quorn…I didn’t know what it was either but found it when I was looking for a vegetarian alternative to meat mince…it was easier to find in the Levin New World than bulgar wheat…it’s not cheap but was worth it for an experiment and I still have a little left over to try in something else…

1 large onion grated.

15 grams butter, melted

salt, pepper to flavour

For the filling

2 tablespoons of chili oil

1 onion finely chopped

1 tomato, finely chopped

250 grams of button mushrooms as an alternative to the mince in the original recipe

1/2 cup of pine nuts

1/2 teaspoon of allspice

For the dressing

200 ml of greek yoghurt

2-3 teaspoons of crushed garlic. I used the store-bought stuff in a jar as it was there and needed to consume it

2 tablespoons of chopped fresh mint. Actually I forgot this as i was too busy chatting to my guest as I was serving up…it’s not like we have a shortage of it here.

Other stuff

1 cup of brown rice. I have oodles of white rice but have been wanting to try brown rice for a while with an eventual intention of switching entirely to it from white rice…just need to find a good (cheap) supplier…

This dish is quick and easy to make, even with the non-meat variations. I made it up the previous day in case prep time on the day was limited due to unforeseen work commitments.

Heat the over to 190 degrees

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I wasn’t sure what I would find on opening the packets of quorn mince. It just looked and felt like cooked mince…a bit of an anti-climax really…here is is mixing in with the bulgar wheat and onion…

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The other main alternative to meat mince was good old button mushrooms…I got the recipe from the Thanks For The Food blog…like the quorn, it was amazingly simple and anticlimatic. As suggested in the recipe, I fried the diced mushroom in chilli oil before following the other steps…

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Once the mushroom was mincified, I added the pine nuts, diced onion and tomato, and the allspice. I added the diced tomato to add to the distinction in flavour and texture between the base and the filling – as above though, it wasn’t enough to offset the natural dryness of the recipe. I also meant to dice and add the remaining peppers from my stuffed pepper experimentation but this was also forgotten in the flow of conversation…

I also added a dash of salt and a goodly amount of ground pepper which gave the filling a nice and occasional tang…

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Add half the base layer to a greased baking dish, before adding the filling evenly over the base. If I had remembered the can of diced tomato, it would have gone over the filling.

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Smooth the remaining base over the filling.

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Baste the melted butter over the top. Next time – if I remember – I’d like to try a final topping of non-dairy herby cheese…

Place in the oven and switch to fan bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown.

It’s now that I drop the rice into the steamer with a little salt. it takes about 40 minutes too as, perfect world, the lasagne and rice will be ready at the same time.

In the meantime, mix the crushed garlic, sour cream and mint together in a small serving dish. Ideally I think this should be done the night before to give the garlic and mint a better opportunity to battle it out with the sour cream flavour…

Slice up the lettuce.

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A cross-section after our two servings were plated…

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Plated ready to go…

A post in four courses – aperitif

Posted on 28 February 2016 by SJPONeill

A friend got onto a course north of here at short notice and said she’d drop in for tea and a catch up on her way home…she’s rather careful with her diet which put a line through some other menu options: a great reason though to explore further along the green journey…

This ‘summer’, up on the Plateau anyway, we seem to have a three to five day cycle of summer(ish) weather followed by two to three days of not-so summerish weather…Wednesday was right on the cusp of the change: I planned on summery for the menu with a less-summery option in my back pocket…

Summer lasted the whole day so the Plan A aperitif was greenlighted…this was an easy one for my as it is what I have most nights when I get home, with something more substantial later in the evening…

Smoothie group photo

The makings are all very simple and flexible: my staples are the ginger, flaxseed and coconut water: the natures of the juice, fruit and green may change depending on what is available at the time:

a tablespoon of flaxseed/linseed. This adds a nice texture to the smoothie and is apparently healthy as well. Bought a big bag for not much at Hardy’s in Taupo – keep it in the fridge.

200 mls of juice. I usually use the Keri Premium Spicy Tomato Juice but the pineapple juicy was on special so I bought a bunch of it – I suspect from the lack of floaties that it is more processed than I like so once it’s ALL gone, it’ll be back to spicy tomato juice until winter when bulk carrots are available. On occasion, I buy cheap fruit, juice it and freeze it until needed – just have to remember to take it out a few hours before smoothie time so it can thaw to a slushie-like consistency.

200 mls of coconut water. In the absence of this, just normal filtered water (no additives in our water) and I’ll also use normal water to top the unprocessed ingredients up to the Max line in the smoothie jar.

Half an apple, cored. I’m not actually sure that it achieves anything taking out the core as there doesn’t seem to be any difference to notice when I forget. It’s probably more important to remember to remove the little sticker from the outside…the same weight of pears, pineapple, or other juicy fruit also go well.

Half an orange, or a similar weight of mandarins, or tangelo. I quarter it, and cut off the peel, squeezing any remaining juice into the smoothie jar – a little peel left on never hurt anyone and I never worry about removing pips: it doesn’t hurt the flavour and the surgery wastes too much juice…

A thumb-size piece of fresh ginger. Dice this up into littler bits…I don’t worry about the skin or knobbly bits: they are get combined in the processor…

A bunch of spinach…or silverbeet, or cabbage, or other greens. I chop off the rooty bit and normally halve the length so it fits better into the jar…

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Almost ready…

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Just about forgot the flaxseed…

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Ready to go and gone…only needs about 30 seconds of processing…

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Ready to drink…although on this occasion, I decanted it out into a couple of glasses over an ice cube base…

Refreshing on a summer afternoon…

Seasons | The Daily Post

Posted on 21 February 2016 by SJPONeill

This week, let’s embrace the season: share an image that embodies the world or the weather where you live.

Source: Seasons | The Daily Post

Every January, the Department of Conservation and Project Tongariro host the local Mahi Aroha Summer Programme, a month-long calendar that encourages people into the outdoors and showcases local conservation projects… DSCF9471 The first activity each year, on New Year’s Day, is the family kite day…
DSCF9481 Even though the first of January is technically in the middle of summer, true summer here often does not kick in until February….
DSCF9486 Pleasant but overcast days like this are common for this period of the season… DSCF9476

…and are no obstacle to everyone getting out and having a good time… DSCF9487

A bonus this New Year’s Day, was the first mistletoe in Whakapapa Village…

AS I SEE IT (19 Feb)

Posted on 20 February 2016 by SJPONeill

By Terry O’Neill.

A Smorgasbord (Swedish) suggests sandwich and table, so we have a mixture today.

Regularly I am privileged to propel myself through the waters of the Waitaki Aquatic Centre, one of the district’s most used sporting facilities.

And we are indebted to Adair and David Rush whose foresight and enthusiasm motivated the fund-raising for the complex. With the rise in drowning statistics and reduction in the number of school swimming pools, mainly due to lower funding, this pool is needed more than ever for basic life skills.

At the other end of the learn-to-swim focus it produces high class young swimmers including a number of qualifiers for the national junior age group championships in Auckland later this month.

Swimming demands discipline. Local competitive swimmers train usually from 6.00a.m to 7.30a.m with many from afar breakfasting at the pool before heading for a full school day, and back for a further training later with coach Narcis Gherca. It is interesting to note that North Otago will supply more swimmers to the coming national age group championships in Auckland than South Canterbury and Dunedin!

Is it time to look at establishing a sports complex to replace the Waitaki Recreation Centre in Orwell street? Its beginnings in the 1980s arose at a joint Oamaru Borough/Waitaki County meeting as an exciting compromise to meet community needs and the requirement for Waitaki Girls’ High School to replace its obsolete gymnasium. The Rec’s seen much better days.

Waitaki Boys’ High School and St Kevin’s College have gymnasia used also by community sports teams. The three schools are major contributors to North Otago’s economy and a new complex would certainly be an added attraction for pupils from outside the region as well as for locals. Maybe it will be thrown “into the too hard basket”, but we are the custodians of our future.

North Otago cricket won the Hawke Cup last weekend defeating Buller. Hearty congratualtions!

This trophy is competed for by the 22 minor cricket associations in New Zealand, and is divided into four zones. Each zone plays a round robin tournament and zone winners may challenge the current holder. North Otago first held the trophy in the 2009/2010 season appropriately 100 years after it was donated by Lord Hawke. Last weekend’s win means North Otago must prepare for its first challenge, from Hawkes Bay, in a week’s time.

Rugby League completes the smorgasbord. The competition begins on March 3rd with the Warriors playing West Tigers at Campbelltown Stadium at 9.30p.m. The “leaguies” also have new rules to interpret this season. There’ll be differential penalties for incorrect play of the balls. The old ploy of forming walls to prevent charge downs on field goal attempts will allow referees to penalise for such obstruction. The “shot clock” will be introduced with teams now having 30 seconds for scrums and 30 seconds for dropouts or the offending team has to concede a penalty.Now that’s something that rugby doesn’t have yet.

ENDS

NNNN

Onwards and upwards methinks.

ENDS

AS I SEE IT(22 /1)

Posted on 3 February 2016 by SJPONeill

liniment

By Terry O’Neill.

There are those who claim that to grow, one must change often.If this is true, the International Rugby Board would appear to have become almost rabid, when compared with its approach to changes in the past.Change for the sake of change has little chance of being accepted and when looking at rule changes to the game one might well ask,why?

Whether it has been the drop in temperature at the beginning of this week or whether the build up of super rugby stories has been some motivation, I feel that the 2016 rugby season is approaching, or maybe its just a throwback to the whiff of liniment used prolifically in my time.Today liniment would have been looked upon as an performance enhancing additive, although it could have quite an impact on tender parts of the anatomy!

The 2016 rugby season will bring law changes although not necessarily across the board. Why introduce law changes at the first class level before club level is a bit of a mystery to me but rugby fans will have to get used to the fact that the beloved “ruck” will no longer be in the rugby vocabulary, replaced by “breakdown”.Hands will not be allowed by the tackler thus negating the skills of Richie McCaw and David Pocock.Get used to the idea that there will be two referees on the paddock and that penalty tries will be worth eight points,a try worth six points and a penalty is reduced to two points.

The new “breakdown” will form as soon as just one attacking player is over the ball on the ground.The old “gate” is gone and as long as players come from their side of the ball they may enter at any angle.At the breakdown it is proposed that the offside line will be a metre back from the hindmost foot of the hindmost player. It is expected that this will encourage defending teams to contest the breakdown more often instead of just creating picket fence defensive lines. It is envisaged that the “lead” referee will look after the breakdown and the second whistle blower will scrutinise the offside line.

The proposed laws have been trialled in domestic competitions in Australia, South Africa and Wales.In Australia it was noticeable that kicks at goal were reduced and there was a lot more kicking for touch but a lot more tries were scored,although on the negative side there were more yellow cards issued as the value of penalties had been reduced.

With the local club rugby set down to kick off on April 2^nd, the Saturday after Easter, the North Otago Rugby Union is waiting for information from the NZRU as to which,when and if the law changes will be invoked.

It appears that the Citizens Shield and other competitions will utilise only the change in points for tries and penalties.One problem that will arise with the two referee suggestion is that with four referees,two assistant referees(line umpires) and the two on field referees, required for each game it may mean that lower grades could suffer.

For those looking further afield the Heartland competition will start a week later on the 22^nd August with the finals set down for 29^th October after Labour weekend.

Childhood Revisited | The Daily Post

Posted on 25 January 2016 by SJPONeill

What is your earliest memory? Describe it in detail, and tell us why you think that experience was the one to stick with you.

Source: Childhood Revisited | The Daily Post

stingray

These guys…

Hiding behind the couch…

Really scary…

Live on a mountain far from the sea…

AS I SEE IT (18Dec)

Posted on 21 December 2015 by SJPONeill

North Otago players celebrate as Bill Pile scores the game-winning try against Australia at the Oamaru Showgrounds in 1962. Photo from ODT files.

By Terry O’Neill.

This year’s North Otago’s sporting prowess is renowned despite the low population of this district . . .

Development of our swimming talent is the success story of 2015. Seventeen local swimmers under coach Narcis Gherca brought home a massive total of 45 medals, set 76 personal best times, and many qualified for the 2016 national age group championships. Take note of swimmers like Micah Hayes, Tandia Gooch, Jasmine Emery, Danny Gilbert, Iessha Mansfield, Tiana Mansfield and Imogen Keeling.

Oamaru rowing club administrator Peter Scott maintains the eighty active rowers on the water this season makes the club in the biggest in its 128th year and comprises School, Club, University and Masters rowers. Most satisfying for him is the great parent support and mingling of all local secondary schools. At last weekend’s regatta Oamaru’s Mark Taylor, Charlie Wallis, Jared Brensell and James Scott were outstanding.

North Otago rugby’s consistency has been the key to significant performances over the last two decades. The playoff systems for initially divisional, and later the Heartland competitions, have been in existencefor nearly two decades.North Otago has made those playoffs on nineteen times since 1997 taking titles on four occasions. 2015 was no exception with Lemi Masoe and Ralph Darling again making the NZ Heartland XV.

The North Otago senior cricket side is currently only one match away from winning the zone four Hawke Cup challenge repeating last season’s effort. This season the team had two outright wins against Otago Country and Southland. And there’s games coming up against South Canterbury (9/10 Jan) in Oamaru and Mid Canterbury(23/24 Jan) in Ashburton.

Winning the Ian Smith Trophy for only the fourth time was the feature of the North Otago mens hockey side this year. On an individual basis Logan Jopson and Jonty Naylor took a further step in their development being selected in the Southern under 18 side. On the club scene Waitaki Boys’ first X1 won the second division South Canterbury title beating Tainui B,3-0 in the final.

Valley Gold won the2015 premier grade netball title beating Waitaki Girls’ Wildfire in a thriller late in August. Wildfire led by four at the end of the first quarter, three at halftime, and two at three-quarter time before Valley Gold stormed back to win 37-35. Jennifer O’Connell was impressive for the Waitaki Girls’. Her ability was further confirmed by her selection for the pathway to podium system developed by Netball New Zealand, one of three from the southern region, and she will play two games for the national development team in the Cook Islands this week.

Football Waitaki caters for over 480 children including teams from Twizel and Omarama. In competition, St Kevin’s U/18 finished second, Waitaki Boys’ U/16, second and Meadowbank U/14s finished fourth. Young players coming through the ranks and heading for senior ranks are Caleb Roberts, Riku Koyama and Tom Prestidge.

The highlight of the basketball season was the performance of the North Otago U/15 team which qualified for the nationals beating Otago in the process. Individually Harry Thorp and Tom Crutchley from Waitaki Boys’ are in Las Vegas with the Mainland Eagles Academy team while Matt Brien of St Kevin’s made the National Secondary Schools A tournament team.

ENDS

Humble Pie | The Daily Post

Posted on 15 December 2015 by SJPONeill

Tell us about a time you found out after the fact that you’d been mistaken and you had to eat a serving of humble pie.

Source: Humble Pie | The Daily Post

Once upon a time…

…I thought that coffee bags were one of the greatest solutions to problems that didn’t exist…

…but I love my coffee…

…and I’m always a sucker for a competition, more so if it doesn’t require much else from me than liking or commenting on a Facebook page…

Imagine my surprise to find myself the proud owner of six boxes of Jed’s #5 “bean bags”…extra strong….mmmmm…. DSCF9025

Comes in a simple biodegradable box… DSCF9402

Tear-open foil bag…not quite so biodegradeable…but that’s the price of sealed-in flavour…there aren’t actually bean inside but fine ground grounds…

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“Bean bag” with a dunky string attached…haven’t broken one so far…the ‘trick’ is apparently to give the bag a little pinch/squeeze once it is saturated to facilitate the transfer of flavour…
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All done…ready to go…

I must humbly admit that having now tried these “bean bags”, they are pretty damn useful…rich, full flavour…plunger coffee without the mess…and handy for on the road…

One my free stash runs out, I’ll be adding Jed’s bean bags to the shopping list…