Manfoodmaid whanau

I must say that the Manfoodmaid whanau has been very accepting of the whole Manfood phenomenon. Buddhachu normally escapes early to practise being Dunedin's Bruce Lee. He leaves a pristine kitchen with an orderly arrangement of ingredients and nibbles and returns to lots of empty bottles (our recycling people must love us), remains of pork bellies, many and varied dirty dishes and replete MFM.

Minichu loves the MFM coming over, meaning as it does that the level of testosterone rises exponentially as uncles keep arriving. He's got very good at hearing car doors slam and feet ascending the stairs.

They do get a few items tested out on them, and generally accept these offerings with good grace. I will confess to being a little put out after a tasty Saturday-night dinner of organic cumin and leek sausages accompanied by warm salad of steamed purple potatoes, leeks and garlic sauteed in butter, fresh mint and baby peas and having both of them more excited about Buddhachu's curried mince that was on the menu for Sunday eve... Can't win them all.

Little cabbages

We officially love little cabbages at Manfood, especially when they're sauteed with olive oil and Havoc chorizo, and mixed in with thyme-flavoured winter veges. It was all about seasonality at Manfood on Thursday eve - the sausage was seasonal in that Havoc had just put it out that Saturday...

Dessert was full of in-season lemons, fresh cream from seasonal cows and topped off with a Loupiac syrup, the grapes of which would have been picked during the wine-picking season and hence was seasonal as well. We supported the cocoa bean season in Ecuador (or Guinea or wherever they grew) by consuming bitter chocolate and washed that down with the last of the Pedro Ximenez which wasn't in season and therefore had to be drunk.

We also love French Onion soup with Weka lager and fabulous Whitestone Smoked Cheddar cheese on top. I really had to buy the perfect wee dishes for this, thanks Spotlight for the knock-off Le Creuset.

Manfood is growing and I will soon have business cards with which to pick up random men in shops and bars and at the market. Thanks to all my friends who have to put up with me babbling on about food and men and cooking and men and food. You'll all be treated to a slap-up meal at some stage and look out, as you might all be getting Manfood aprons for Christmas... (the aprons are cute though, am sure your dad will love one for Fathers' Day! Only $30 and frills on request).

I have been trialling a few recipes for upcoming Manfood events: prepare your tastebuds manfoodies as there may be some serious chilli ass-kicking going down. There are definitely spaces in both the Thursday and the new Monday group so bully, cheat, coerce any mates to come along.

There is going to be a Ladyfood on Saturday week (August 7) - Malaysian food. If any of you Dunedin ladies are reading this and want to come along, flick me a txt or email.

Au revoir mes amis!

SE Asia comes to St Clair

Hmm, not quite the tropical beaches of Phuket or the curling breaks of Indonesia...

Last Thursday eve was definitely DIY Manfood. Presented with assorted vegetables including mung beans and daikon radish, the MFM valiantly put their origami skills to the test and created fresh spring rolls that passed the taste test and managed tokeep all the fillings inside as well. Fresh flavours were the main stars; you can't beat the zing of mint and coriander and lemon to give your tastebuds a kick.

I do have to admit that I showed rather less prowess dealing with the vegetables as I managed to score myself rather deeply with the new mandolin I unveiled 2 weeks ago. Fingers remain intact however, and I did manage to keep the blood out of the vermicelli...

Prior to doling out rice paper wrappers, we worked out way through the many varied ingredients for the satay marinade; despite the declaration by one MFM that he was quite prepared to eat the beef raw, it was left to sit for an hour or so. The non-gloopy sauce was also deemed a hit, and showed again how a dash of lemon can heighten a myriad of flavours.

I hope you will all have a go at the crumble at least once this week, it's so easy and not at all sinful - all that fruit must count for something!

I thought I'd include here a list of what I would consider the most essential ingredients for basic Chinese/Malaysian/Thai cooking, things every pantry should have; some of the ingredients can be bought fresh and kept in the freezer. We haven't used all of these yet, but will do so over the next while.

General:

peanut oil

long grain rice

rice noodles (flat, vermicelli)

fresh ginger

fresh garlic

spring onions

whole, fresh chillies

lemons

Chinese:

light soy sauce

dark soy sauce

oyster sauce

rice wine

Guilin chilli sauce

char sui sauce

Thai:

fish sauce

lemongrass

kaffir lime leaves

tom yum paste

curry pastes

coconut cream

Malaysian:

kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)

ground coriander

ground cumin

good curry powder

Next week we'll be doing hearty, quick, simple dishes packed with flavour. Break out the fruity ales and some gutsy reds. See you next week!

Viva Espana!

Well, just in time to see Paul the Octopus' latest football prediction come true, we dined out on Spanish inspired fare on Thursday. As a supporter of Deutschland, maybe I should have done grilled baby octopuses as a tapas dish. They do eat a lot of octopus in Spain, mmmm, all those tentacles....

The MFM got individual ramekins and did a great job of their potato and kumara stacks, with varying levels of artistic flair. Once done and in the oven with the pork, the broad beans were shelled in record time. Yes, broad beans - I hear groans all round but once divested of their starchy, grey skins and cooked ever so briefly with shallots and bacon, and dressed with wine vinegar, they are a sweet and tasty treat! The problem is that you start with a LARGE packet of beans and end up with a small bowl of edible items...

The pork crackled up wonderfully and we collectively ignored the large amounts of fat that had collected in the roasting dish. As a special occasion dish this is hard to beat, incredibly easy to do, and well tasty besides. The potato stacks looked very professional and the broad bean/pea combination was a good foil for the richness of the meat and sauce.

I do believe that I have managed to convert a few of the group to sherry as an aperitif as we used the delectably divine Pedro Ximenez sherry in our quince and orange sauce, triple yum. After dinner we managed a few glasses with bitter chocolate and chilli chocolate: I won't write the phrase I use in not-so-polite-company for this combination of liquid and dark deliciousnesses, suffice to say your tastebuds may not recover for a wee while. Hit the vintage shops for collections of cute sherry glasses; Nana would be proud.

Thanks again to the MFM who make it such a great evening. Next week we are venturing to SE Asia and I will be unveiling the MANFOOD official apron - you know you all want one!!!

Happy eating cherubs,

Manfoodmaid

Noodles

I am back from the land over Cook Strait, couldn't write while away as too busy immersing self in culture with a capital K and eating lots and drinking not too much. Managed to score myself a free bottle of Clearview Semillon at the winery, fabulous and would be amazing with this week's coming recipe. I would share but drank it all sorry cherubs.

Prior to that however, there was a noodlefest at Norfolk St on Thursday eve. Congratulations to all MFM noodle chefs who produced great tasting char koey teow. Keep an eye out for sale wok-like pans at the mighty Briscoes, don't worry about the non-stick coating - after a year of stir-frying it'll turn out that there's none left on the pan and you will obviously have ingested it along with your chicken chow mein. I forgot to talk about wok cleaning too; never scrub your wok, just wipe it out and it will start to develop a patina of seasoning and will end up being more or less non-stick.

I hope you've stocked up on lots of garlic and ginger, the real stuff, not pre-processed if you can help it. Keep in a cool, dark, dry place, definitely not in the fridge as it'll go mouldy. If you haven't yet braved the Chinese grocer's it is certainly worth doing so, maybe we can do a field trip... I can always get some on your behalf if you don't think you can make it down there.

It was great to see you all last week and I'll be texting about this week's menu soon; lots of ideas when away.

Happy manfooding,

Manfoodmaid