south of the border

A package arrived for the SE. “Do not crush” the oversized envelope implored.

Inside was this.



One perfect habanero chilli, home grown by a friend of his in Sydney.

We were told to save the seeds to grow our own little golden bundle of heat and so we have.

It was almost too pretty to eat. What to do with it? In the end, to best appreciate the flavour rather than just the temperature I decided to put it in a salsa. Without the seeds, half a habanero in a sauce for two was enough to enjoy the well-rounded, slightly citrusy tones of the pepper, without being blown away. A whole habanero would have been far more interesting though!

A meal fit for a pepper
(Quantities are for 2 and are just a suggestion)

I based this meal around the salsa. Originally it was to be fish tacos but pure laziness stopped me from diverting from my journey, to buy some shells.

Mexican rice of sorts
vegetable oil
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 cup long grain rice
1 carrot, grated
1 cup vegetable stock, hot
2 tablespoons tomato paste

Heat the oil in the pan, sauté the onion then add the garlic and cook for another minute or two. Toss in the rice and give it a good swirl around til it is well coated with oil. Add the carrot. Lastly add the hot stock with the tomato paste stirred through it. Stir one more time, then place a lid on the pan and sit it on a heat diffuser mat to cook slowly for 25 minutes. Stand for a further 10 minutes with the heat off and lid on.

Salsa
1/2 habanero chilli, deseeded, very finely chopped
4 medium tomatoes, skins removed, finely chopped
small handful, coriander leaves and stalks, chopped
squeeze lime juice
pinch sea alt

Combine in a bowl.

Guacamole
1 large avocado, mashed
juice of 1/2-1 lime
1 clove garlic, crushed
generous dash, Tabasco sauce
pinch of sea salt

Combine the ingredients, adding the lime juice on the avocado immediately so it doesn’t oxidise and loose it’s vibrant colour.

Pan fried fish
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1/2-1 cup cornflour
1 tsp smoky paprika
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 fillets, fish
vegetable oil


Toast the cumin and coriander in a pan for a couple of minutes, shaking frequently, then pound using a mortar and pestle. Combine the spices, flour and salt on a plate, then dredge your fish. Remember to shake off any excess flour. I used gurnard, a delightful, underrated fish in this country but a favourite in New Zealand (and at just over $3 a fillet turned out to be good value). It holds together well in the pan and has a slightly sweet flavour. (As an aside, A. A. Gill once described gurnard as ”the Amy Winehouse of battered fish").

Back to the kitchen. The rice has finished cooking and is doing its ten minutes of rest with the lid on. The salsa and guacamole are made and the table is laid. All you need to do now is fry the fish. This is one time a shallow fry is called for, heat your oil to a decent temperature making sure the fish will sizzle when you put it in the pan. About three minutes a side will do it depending on the thickness of the fish. The average fry pan will cook two decent fillets at a time, don’t be tempted to cram it with more. If cooking for more than two people do it in batches and keep warm in the oven, otherwise your fish will stew rather than fry as the temperature drops in the pan.

Cook, drain on paper towels. Pile rice on the plate; artfully arrange your fried fish on top. Top with salsa and guacamole to taste.


I make no claims of authenticity with these recipes. The rice, I read a few recipes then promptly forgot them. The idea was to add a few vegetables and a little flavour, as a background rather than to compete with the other tastes on the plate. I think most Mexican rice’s are more tomatoey than this but I wanted to showcase the salsa, not the rice. It was a perfect balance.

The coating from the fish was purely from imagination. The paprika gave a barely detectable smoky back note; the spices were subtle but complemented the flavour of the gurnard. I always use cornflour, I like the feeling of its silkiness and when fried is a bit crispier than wheat flour. As a bonus it is gluten-free.

This was a fun meal to make. Despite the four separate components it can be put together in the time it takes to cook the rice. While getting vegetables into people in this house is never an issue, it would be perfect for those who need a little sneaky action to get their “5 a day”.

And the taste? Perfect!

turtle beans and soft floury breads

Beans. They come in all shapes and sizes. Each a powerhouse of complex carbohydrate goodness.

The pantry excavation continues. Like a culinary archaeologist on a dig, every few days a forgotten gem is bought out into the light.

This week’s challenge was turtle beans. Little black beans, that I am sure I had some grand plan for a year or two ago when the kitchen was all sparkly and new. I set them to soak in the morning, having no coherent plan as to how they would transform into dinner by the evening. What turned up on our plates was a pleasant surprise.



Though I have a pressure cooker, while getting to know a new bean I prefer to cook them conventionally to see how long they take to cook. This provides a wonderful excuse to crank up the stereo and settle into some serious Scramble playing on Facebook.

The plan that evolved, between connecting letters to make cunning words, was for refried beans. This is a simple process of combining onion, garlic and cumin with the starchy bean of choice, mashing the bean into the flavours to make a kind of creamy, leguminous mixture. I added a generous pinch of salt and some fresh coriander and stirred them through once cooked.

A large, organic tomato (the last in the bowl) became a simple salsa – diced finely with a fresh red chilli and jazzed up with some coriander green tops and a squeeze of lemon.

There was also a lonely avocado begging to be used. This was eked out into slices. Though if there had been more it may have been transformed into guacamole.

But how to turn these ingredients into a meal? Rice just didn’t seem right. This needed something beadlike – a tortilla or taco, to wrap around the vegetables. Nothing in the house fitted the bill and I was tempted to head to the store. Fortunately the spirit of the challenge stopped me in my tracks and for the next half hour searched the net for tortilla ideas. In my usual style I read the lot and melded them into something that my diet would allow.

Kneading the dough on the cool granite bench top was pure therapy. It made me want to make more, despite the fact I eat so little wheat these days. This batch size is enough for 2 - double or triple as desired.

Simple tortillas

2 cups unbleached flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
10 – 15 grams butter (or oil, vegetable shortening)
1/2 –3/4 cup warm water

extra flour for rolling

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Add the scant amount of butter or shortening and rub it through the flour mixture with your fingers. You can use more if you want. The texture you are aiming for is uniformly sandy with no buttery lumps. Take your time, this process is a kitchen meditation and incredibly soothing if you are in the right mood. Once that stage is complete (a good 5 minutes) slowly pour in some warm water and mix with your hands until a lump of dough is formed.

Turn the dough out onto the bench or a board sprinkled with flour and knead until it feels stretchy and smooth. When completed, cover plastic wrap (or a damp tea towel) and leave in the fridge for half an hour.

When you are ready to eat, heat up your largest, heaviest bottomed frying pan. My cast iron number (the sister to the French pot) was perfect. This amount of dough makes 6 large or 8 smaller (large saucer sized) tortillas. Choose the size and divide the dough into the desired amount of pieces. Roll into balls and roll til thin. One recipe said “1/8th of an inch” but to be honest in my metricized world I could not visualise such a width. I just rolled until it was about 1/2 centimetre or so.

If you have prepared the tortillas ahead of cooking, cover with a damp tea towel so they don’t dry out. Place a round of rolled out dough into the dry, hot pan. In a minute or so a little bubble will start to rise in the dough. Turn it over and cook for another minute. Eat immediately.


The soft, warm floury breads were filled with the refried beans, salsa and avocado and made a very satisfying meal.