If cooking with fire is going to be the big thing in 2012, and I have no doubt it will, then Al Brown’s book Stoked is going to be the hot cookbook of the year.
Labelling the barbecue an icon of Kiwi life, the book explores a vast range of cooking outdoors techniques, from grills to smoking, spits, outdoor ovens including tandoor and pizza, and how-tos on smoking and firing up the best barbecued meat. He forages for mushrooms and does whole pigs in underground spits, he does smoked duck. The book is a veritable (smoke)house of new cooking, or old cooking styles brought back in vogue.
There are more than 100 recipes, there’s an emphasis on fast and tasty, and there are recipes for bruschetta, burgers, pizza, fritters, chargrilled seafood, beef, lamb and chicken, ribs, plus slow roasted meats. There’s game including venison, duck and goat, plus salads and classic cake tin slices. How very New Zealand.
My father’s mother, a New Zealander (like my dad), used to make the most gorgeous slices, coconut and jam things I used to adore as a child. And I remember sitting as a toddler on the beach in Auckland, before it was the developed and upmarket place it is now. We’d pick pippies from the sand with our toes, then cook them on an open fire – me wrapped in terry towelling nappies and draped in (New Zealand) wool blankets on the beach, the billowing smoke curling around me. Having my happy sandy-footed family around me, and sucking pippies from shells, is one of my enduring childhood memories. I’m going to bring back family tradition with this book and start cooking open fire again.
There’s a gorgeous video to go with the release of the book, it’s enough to inspire you to hand in your Australian passport and cross over the Tasman for a simpler life. I’d do just about anything to traipse over there right now and do a day’s foraging and food exploring with this guy. My favourite part of the video is the last scene, a gorgeous labrador flop in three parts (sitting, elegant lie-down, and … flop), resigning to the atmosphere, an open fire, and no doubt exhaustion from a day’s outdoor exploring.
The book features stunning photography by Kieran Scott, shot in NZ’s amazing scenery, including the high country above the Wakatipu Basin in Central Otago; the rugged south Wairarapa coastline; hunting and fly fishing at the 8000-acre Ngamatea Station in the Central North Island; wild porcini mushroom gathering in Canterbury; an outdoor tandoor oven with Indian friends in Wellington, and a hangi up the Whanganui River. Buy the book, Bro.
An old recording of when Snoop Dog visited the Martha Stewart show, and they both made brownies. In an amusing turn, Snoop does a rap about making brownies, while Martha, hip hop as she is, joins in to the awkward rap.
Snoop: “Trying to make some brownies, but we’re missing the most important part of the brownies.”
Martha: “Which is, which is, which is …”
Snoop: “No sticks no seeds no stems.”
Martha: “You want green brownies.”
Snoop: “Yes.”
Martha: “He wants green brownies. Brownish green brownies.”
Snoop: “The greener the better!”
Sweet little kicky retro Friday video reminding us that summer will return. And then we can all just jump about on lawns with pastel coloured trinkets, macarons and best friends.
A controversial and swear-ridden viral video featuring Aria chef Matt Moran has been making the rounds. In the iPhone video, on the set of an advertisement, Moran yells at a crew member who throws out some food Moran has plated up. Here it is.
It has been revealed though, that the video was in fact a hoax that aimed to shed light on the incredible wastage of food. Moran is asking us to think twice about throwing away food. He emphasises that billions of dollars of food is thrown away every year. Here’s the full video.
OzHarvest, the food-rescue charity lead by Ronni Kahn, provides a toolkit for regional communities to carry out the OzHarvest mission themselves, to collect excess food and give it to people who need it. Australians throw away $5.2 billion a year of good food, and 3 million tonnes of food is driven to landfill in Australia each year. Two million Australians rely on food relief at some point every year. 60,000 low-income working families in Australia go without meals at least once a day. It makes sense for a charity like OzHarvest to put two and two, or food and mouths, together. This viral campaign sees Moran launch REAP. For more info, click here.
Bit of a professional crush on Brendan Maclean, who can sing and is funny. What’s not to like. He wrote on Twitter recently.. “@macleanbrendan If you watch 127 Hours backwards it’s an uplifting story about a disabled man finding an arm in the desert #moviesbackwards”
The wedding over and the real thing beginning, a friend just returned from her amazing and looong honeymoon to south and central america. Long catch ups over the remnants of summer to do. We used to do backflips into the pool all summer, now it’s more cocktails by the pool, with chaps in tow. Love growing up. This little video is a tribute to her wedding, the sustaining photobooth and friends…
Horray for the weekend. I am bringing it in with these songs, as well as the amazing Fyfe Dangerfield. Forgive the musical onslaught, it will all be made up for in due time with spectacles of food. But in the meantime let’s just have a glass of wine and listen to this. pssst… Spot the beautiful Sydney in the background below. Almost enough to make you patriotic.
Next year I’m going to Spain. Sometimes you need to write these things down. Spain is not just paella, as the very talented foodie Gwyneth Paltrow, whose blog Goop I adore, has pointed out. “There are tons of A-MAZING foods there. And when it’s done properly it’s the best food in the entire world. There [...]
“I like cooking because it’s fun, and you can make the hugest mess you want…” Australia’s most adorable chefs hit televisions last night in the first Junior MasterChef. An international challenge was the first undertaking for the little chefs, who turned out poached chicken Vietnamese salads, Italian ricotta gnocchi, and french-inspired truffled poached eggs on smashed [...]
The Kitchen Inc. blog is written and edited by Kate Gibbs - a journalist, author and cook.
Food, travel, design >> How, when entwined together, these things inspire our daily culinary experiences >> The Kitchen Inc. covers food, kitchen-based inspiration, and workable design as it impacts our dining, eating, cooking lives.
Kate Gibbs writes a weekly column for Good Living in The Sydney Morning Herald on cooking with kids: Kitchen Cadets. She is the restaurant reviewer for Sunday Life magazine in the Sun Herald. She is a regular contributor to the SMH on food and travel.
Kate is a co-author of The Foodies Guide to Sydney 2011 and 2012 and is a contributor to SMH Everyday Eats 2011 and 2012 and Good Cafe Guide 2012. Kate has 10 years' journalism experience and has written for Russh, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Frankie and others. The interest in journalism began at London's The Evening Standard newspaper. Her first cookbook, The Thrifty Kitchen, was published in 2009. Kate's mother Suzanne Gibbs and grandmother Margaret Fulton are also in the food business.
In The Kitchen Inc, Kate writes restaurant, bar and cafe reviews, and shows the most interesting and inspiring places to eat and gastro-explore. Kate reviews new food-relevant design and books, she writes about new trends in cooking, how different ingredients are being used by our top chefs and cooks, and how to use these ideas at home.
