FOOD

All's Fare From tempting tipples to tasty treats, life can be ‘fare’ enough, thanks to these new (and recent) additions to shelves.

CURB THOSE CARBS!

Sometimes we can judge our food by its ‘wrapper’! Farrah’s has expanded its range with two new, lowcarb inclusions (perfect when preparing summery meals) to inspire healthy choices from the inside out. While the Keto-friendly wraps contain a mere 2.5 grams of carbohydrates each, the Low Carb tortillas feature just 6gm of carbs apiece. Permanent additions to Farrah’s range, these products (RRP $6 per pack) are available from supermarkets.

BEEF UP FOR SUMMER!

Silver Fern Farms is intending to help usher in a sweet, golden summer with the introduction of its new Honest Beef & Venison Burgers with Rātā Honey. Featuring grass-fed beef and venison as well as smooth, natural honey and no arti cial flavours, llers, or preservatives, these 125-gram meaty morsels are ideal for barbecue season. Silver Fern’s latest additions are available (RRP $14 per pack) from supermarkets nationwide.

FANCY A PICKLE PARTY, CHICKEN?

Free range chicken producers, the Bostock Brothers are no ‘dills’! The brand’s new, juicy, organic butterfly chicken (available at supermarkets) is marinated with pickled dill, lemon and garlic. Produced using the delightfully unusual Pickle Beer (from the brewers at Garage Project), the sour dill flavours of Bostock’s new ‘bird’ are already proving irresistible at summer barbecues.

MAIN ‘SQUEEZE’

Most people would think we can’t improve on Seriously Good. That may be so, but HEINZ can! Why choose between the famed brand’s Seriously Good Mayonnaise or Tomato Ketchup when we can have the best of both? HEINZ SaucySauce (RRP $5.99 per 295ml squeezy bottle, from supermarkets) is ideal for sandwiches, burgers and more.

Eating goodness

Being good to your health, animals and our planet can be ridiculously easy, not to mention crazy-delicious for your tastebuds too, says Buffy Ellen Gill who at the age of 27 was a senior most female research analyst in Goldman Sachs Australasia. At 28, Buffy was diagnosed with Graves’ disease, an autoimmune condition that causes the immune system to attack the thyroid as she was struck by heart palpitations, body sweats, hand tremors, insomnia and anxiety.

A top endocrinologist gave her a choice of conventional medical interventions which she refused to accept. Instead, Bu y’s penchant for research paid o as she explored the idea of food as medicine. She says it was a no- brainer as she switched to a plant-based diet. Eighteen months later, much to the surprise of her specialists, her blood tests came back completely normal.

Bu y spent the next four years completing a Bachelor of Nutrition and Natural Medicine. The book Be Good: Plant-based recipes for everybody by Bu y Ellen Gill, Bateman Books, is a selection of tasty plant-based recipes that can make us healthier and happier in the season of excess.

VIETNAMESE BANH XEO

TAKES 20 MINS | SERVES 4 | GF, NF*, SF, OF*

• 1½ cups brown rice flour • ½ cup tapioca flour • 2 tsp ground turmeric • 1 tsp sea salt • 1½ cups water • ½ cup coconut cream • 1 spring onion, thinly sliced

Vietnamese dressing

• ⅓ cup water • juice of 2 limes • 2 tbsp tamari • 3 dried dates • 1 clove garlic • 1cm fresh ginger, peeled • ¼ tsp sea salt • pinch chilli powder

To serve

• mesclun mung beans • julienned carrots, sliced, red capsicum, sliced, avocado • Golden Turmeric Cashews • fresh chopped coriander & mint

Process crêpe ingredients except spring onion in a blender until smooth. Heat a non-stick frying pan on low heat, then pour in ⅔ cup of the batter, spreading it out into a large circle. Sprinkle with ¼ of the spring onion and cook for a few minutes then flip and cook for a few minutes more. Repeat with the remaining batter.

Meanwhile, blitz dressing ingredients in a small blender. Toss the mesclun, mung beans, carrot and capsicum in a little dressing.

Top each crêpe on one side with dressed veges, avocado, cashews, coriander and mint. Drizzle with more dressing, then fold over. Serve any le over dressing on the side (you’ll want it all!).

This tasty combination of fibre-rich vegetables, brown rice, herbs and spices is one of the kindest things you can do for your gut. Feeding the good bacteria in your gut with fibre can reduce inflammation, improve immunity and even boost your mood. The dressing is insanely delicious and really makes the veges pop.

Notes

• Nut-free (NF): Use toasted sesame or sunflower seeds instead of the cashews. • Oil-free (OF): Use a good non-stick frying pan.

WHITE CHOCOLATE CHRISTMAS CAKE

In New Zealand, our summer Christmases are often spent on the beach, so we don’t always feel like rich, heavy, traditional Christmas desserts. This cake has all the yuletide flavours but is a light, raw dessert sweetened with dried fruit. Cashews are a revelation when it comes to plant-based icing — you’ll never need butter and icing sugar again.

Dry

• 1 cup almonds • ½ cup Brazil nuts • 1½ cup desiccated coconut • 2 tsp ground cinnamon • 1 tsp ground ginger • ½ tsp sea salt • ¼ tsp ground cloves • large pinch ground nutmeg

Wet

• ½ cup dried gs • ½ cup dried apricots • ½ cup dried dates • ½ cup raisins • ½ cup sultanas • the zest, juice and flesh of one orange • 3 tbsp melted coconut oil • 1 tbsp vanilla extract

White chocolate icing

• 1 cup cashews • ⅓ cup water • 4 tbsp melted cacao butter • 2 tbsp liquid sweetener • 1 tbsp vanilla extract pinch sea salt

To top

• fresh berries and mint • Coconut Cashew Chia Cream or plant-based yoghurt

PREP 30 MINS | SET OVERNIGHT | SERVES 12 | GF, NF*, SF*

Blend nuts to a rough flour in a food processor. Add the rest of the dry ingredients, pulse to combine, then set aside.

Roughly chop gs, apricots and dates in the food processor (they’ll be quite sticky), then add the remaining wet ingredients and pulse to combine.

Add the dry ingredient mix to the wet and pulse to combine. You’ll want to keep the dried fruit chunky, so be careful not to overblend. Pour the mix into a 19cm lined cake tin, smoothed evenly with the back of a spoon, and put in the fridge.

Blitz the cashews to a flour in a blender, then add remaining icing ingredients and process until smooth. Pour onto the cake and put in the fridge overnight to set.

Decorate with fresh berries and mint leaves and serve with Coconut Cashew Chia Cream or plant-based yoghurt.

• Nut-free (NF): Use sunflower seeds, oats or buckwheat instead of almonds, pumpkin seeds or hemp seeds instead of Brazils, and hemp seeds in the icing. • Sugar-free (SF): Use date paste for the liquid sweetener. • To make this cake less energy dense, swap 1 cup desiccated coconut for 1 cup rolled oats.

Notes

PISTACHIO & POMEGRANATE HALVA

Buffy Ellen Gill originally made this for a Middle Eastern-inspired plant-based workshop she was hosting. The aim was to emulate a sesame seed halva, without the sugar, and it turned out great! She studded mine with pistachios and pomegranate seeds for extra Middle Eastern vibes, but it also works brilliantly with almonds and raisins.

PREP 10 MINS | SET 1 HOUR | MAKES 10 | GF, NF*, SF, OF*

• ½ cup dried dates • ½ cup hulled tahini • 2 tbsp cacao butter, melted • 1 tsp vanilla extract • 1 tsp miso paste • pinch sea salt • ½ cup shelled pistachios • seeds of ½ pomegranate

Blend dates in a food processor to a fine paste, then add the tahini, cacao butter, vanilla, miso and salt and blend until smooth.

Add pistachios and pulse until lightly chopped, then stir through the pomegranate seeds and press into a lined loaf tin (I use a 23 x 10cm).

Place in the freezer for one hour until fully set, then slice and serve straight from the freezer.

Notes

• Nut-free (NF): Use toasted or activated pumpkin seeds instead of pistachios. • Oil-free (OF): Skip the cacao butter (you’ll just need to keep them in the freezer as they’ll go softer quicker). • To extract the pomegranate seeds, place ½ pomegranate cut side into your palm, and hit it with the back of a wooden spoon. • You can also make this with any nut or seed butter (peanut, almond and sunflower seed all work well). • If you can’t find pomegranate, try it with ⅓ cup goji berries, raisins, chopped dried figs or apricots. For the nuts, almonds, Brazils, walnuts and hazelnuts are all delicious, or toasted/activated pumpkin seeds. Give the bigger nuts a rough chop before pulsing through.

VINTAGE roundup

Hosting a seafood lunch? Wine columnist Dennis Knill gives a food selection paired with sauvignon blanc from one of our leading wineries

If a seafood lunch sounds like a bit of a marathon, the first masterstroke is keep it simple. The second masterstroke is make sure the offerings are easy and quick to prepare and partnered with a marriage of good wine. Well, that was our mission for a pre-Xmas lunch we recently hosted.

Seafood is light and playful and if artfully presented is an entertainer’s best friend. Opting for a culinary journey of small tasting dishes with good drops by the glass, we started with scallops with ginger, garlic, soya sauce and sesame oil matched with Brancott Estate Single Vineyard Letter Series, a handcrafted wine produced from fresh citrus packed with fruity flavours and aromas.

And how could we possibly ignore Clevedon oysters given sharpness by red onion, chives, sweet vinegar paired with Stoneleigh organic, a clean vibrant mouth-filling wine that is crisp and refreshing on the palate.

To pique even more interest, a delicious platter of salmon with lemon and parsley butter enhanced with Church Road Grand Reserve was a picture of balance. This wine with its lively fruity aromas and subtle oak finish is seriously good.

And a bowl of prawns never goes out of style. Steamed and served with aioli and fresh coriander when matched with Stoneleigh Wild Valley is designed to appeal. The ripe and herbaceous aromas and flavours is proof that good food and wine never goes wanting.

But save the applause for last. Nothing is too complicated than pan fried snapper served with pencil leeks, oyster mushrooms, rocket and a perfectly cooked poached egg to strip back the flavours. To step it up even further Brancott Estate Single Vineyard Chose Rows is skilfully crafted and finely balanced with intensely powerful up-front fruit. This is sauvignon blanc at its very best.

• ’21 Brancott Estate Single Vineyard Letter Series RRP$25 • ‘19 Church Road Grand Reserve RRP$34 • ‘19 Stoneleigh Organic RRP$20 • ’21 Stoneleigh Wild Valley RRP$18 • ’15 Brancott Estate Marlborough Single Vineyard Chosen Rows

RRP$70