Edmonds Ginger Crunch

This was one of my favourite biscuits growing up. It is one of 3 that I made on rotation from the cookbook, Edmonds, a staple of any NZ family kitchen. The other two, in case you’re interested, were Afghans and Anzacs. While I still make Afghans regularly and Anzacs at least once a year for Anzac Day, these had fallen off my radar. I decided to revisit Ginger Crunch recently as I thought they’d make a nice festive gift for family and friends. 

The recipe below is has more ginger in it than the original. I remembered adding plenty more ground ginger as a kid and now I am going a step further and adding fresh ginger too. I think it is safe to assume that if you are making ginger biscuits, then you love ginger. I’ve also added an instruction to use salted butter and added some Maldon sea salt flakes to the icing, because who doesn’t like salted caramel? 

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Recipes for lockdown: Thai red duck curry

I know, I know – duck curry is an extravagant dish to be posting in the middle of a global crisis, but in this set of recipes I'm aiming to use things that you can easily procure at the supermarket. As I said in my last blog post, I have had difficulty getting the basics, but more expensive, luxury items are fully stocked.

Coconut milk, like most tinned goods, have often run out at the big supermarkets, but try your local ethnic corner store. We have a Pakistani one near us, which is fully stocked with all sorts of spices, curry pastes and plenty of coconut milk.

I'm also trying to use up odds and ends that you might have in your cupboards. This is my excuse for using store bought red curry paste – I’ve had half a jar of it in the back of the pantry for some time. Since it is old, it has probably lost a bit of flavour, so I added some fresh garlic, ginger and lemongrass to my curry to revitalise it. I’ve marked these as optional in the recipe, since you don’t need them if you have fresh curry paste.

If you want to make your own red curry paste, then I highly recommend David Thompson’s recipe, though some of the ingredients will only be available in a Thai supermarket. If that is difficult, then this recipe by Nagi on Recipe Tin Eats is a great alternative. It is based on Thompson’s recipe, but with a slightly simplified ingredients list, most of which you should be able to get easily. The only thing I haven't often seen in the shops here is galangal, but you can substitute fresh ginger.

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Deb and Wally’s Ginger Spice Cake

This is one of my favourite cake recipes. I like it because it looks so modest; the kind of cake that not even the greediest child would bother picking up at a tea party. More fool them.

I got the original recipe from Kylie Kwong’s cookbook, It Taste’s Better.  I love the addition of white pepper, which I had never seen before in a cake – it gives it a real kick.

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Tomyumpkin soup

“Daa-aa-aad. What’s for dinner?”

I remember pumpkin soup being one of the most disappointing answers to this daily question when I was a kid. It wasn’t that I didn't like it. It's just that my Dad's a chef and in a house full of delicious things pumpkin soup was, well...

"Boring!"

Until recently, I never cooked it for myself. Then my friend, Alex, made me pumpkin soup with tom yum paste in it. It was a revelation.

Adding tom yum paste to pumpkin soup turns it into something special. I now look forward to it and make it often, and I have converted others along the way.

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Diana Henry's Thai sweet chilli sauce

My sister will be surprised when she sees this. I have always berated her love of the shop-bought stuff. But when I read Diana Henry’s introduction I was intrigued:

“So much better than anything you can buy. It doesn’t have that cloying flavour of commercial bottles, but barks at you with biting, fresh taste.”

This led me to the list of ingredients, which looked very promising. And she is right, it is so much better than the shop bought version. Indeed, it might as well be another sauce.

The recipe is from Salt, Sugar, Smoke: How to Preserve Fruit, Vegetables, Meat and Fish, a lovely book full of recipes, tips and techniques for the home preserver. “I am a home cook” writes Henry, “I don’t have masses of special equipment and I don’t do things on a grand scale.” Her style is approachable and encouraging, showing that preserving isn’t just for “elderly ladies in floral pinnies or country-based downsizers with a vehicle big enough to transport several dead animals.”

I made this first to use up some chillies which my flatmate, Jen, had grown on our kitchen windowsill.  I liked it so much I decided to make it for Christmas presents in place of my usual jams or chutneys.

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