First visit home

Well, it is finally upon us - our first visit back to the USA. So many things are going through our minds: Will it feel real? Will we feel like outsiders? Will people think we sound funny or will they pick up on our new lingo? Will it go by too fast?

We are all packed, house cleaned and we are ready. Tomorrow we will plan to go out for a nice brunch since we have gotten all the food out of our house. Our friend Debi has graciously agreed to take us to Christchurch airport.

We are flying Emirates to Sydney and then V Australia to Los Angeles where we will meet Cynthia. The plan is to go pick up some Mexican food as soon as possible. We are really looking forward to it.

We wonder how the flight will be different - less anticipation about what awaits us on the other end of the journey. I guess now, when will we ever have that anticipation again now that we are officially citizens of both hemispheres. Crazy how much 10 months can change you and your perspective and also how quickly it has flown.

Bon Voyage! USA Here we come! :)

Willowbank Wildlife Reserve

This last weekend Jocelyn and I decided to go to Willowbank Wildlife Reserve located on the outskirts of Christchurch. Willowbank is broken up into three main areas; wild, heritage, and natural New Zealand. Upon entering the reserve the first creature that we encountered were the eels. These ugly creatures were black, with blue eyes and about 5 feet long. There were some small kids feeding the eels, which was a sight to see because the eels would stretch about 6 inches out of the water with their mouths wide open trying to get at the food. Another kid was reaching into the water and petting the eels and said they were very slimy. We were not brave enough but will feel a lot less bad now eating them in our sushi since they are so horribly ugly.

We then entered the wild New Zealand section which included animals that have been introduced to New Zealand in the past and others that are found in Australia. These animals included deer, black swans, ostriches, wallabies, pheasants, turtles, and monkeys.

In this section I would have to say the monkeys were our favorite. There were a few baby monkeys hanging on to their mom’s back where they would spend the first few weeks of their lives. I guess even monkeys sometimes have a monkey on their back.

The next section, heritage New Zealand, contained mostly farm animals. They had a few piglets for sale and I think Jocelyn wanted one, but when she saw how ugly the adult pigs were she changed her mind. In this section we also saw donkeys, a Clydesdale horse, peacocks, turkeys, goats, sheep, llamas, and of course an American mini horse. Jocelyn was pretty excited about the mini horse. Figures, we come all the way to New Zealand for her to see an American mini horse. We went through this section fairly quickly since we had seen many of these farm animals before.

The last section we went through was the natural New Zealand, which contained only native animals. Since there are not any large, native animals, this section was mostly birds, fish, and lizards. In the first exhibit we got to walk inside the area where the birds were kept.

One of the birds we saw in this sectional was a Kea, which was very busy digging a hole and throwing rocks onto the pathway.

Next we walked though a small replicated Maori village where later on at night they have a show with traditional Maori traditions. Since it was getting chilly we decided to save the show for another day. The very last part was the Kiwi house. This was the main reason that we came to Willowbank because Jocelyn had not seen a kiwi yet. Since kiwis are nocturnal the kiwi house is dark during the day so they are up running around. When we first entered the darkness we could not find any kiwis, but after our eyes adjusted we then found one pacing back and fourth searching for grubs. Kiwis are truly funny looking animals with their short legs, big butts, and long beaks. Once we found the first kiwi we started to notice more and in the end we saw four of them. We tried taking some pictures in the dark without the flash but those did not work so well so we decided to turn the flash on and scare the kiwis. To my surprise they did not seem to be phased at all by the flash. I figure they are used to people breaking this rule. All in all it was a fun day and if you want to see more pictures click here.

Trey's Birthday Gift - Akaroa Cooking School

As you may remember from an earlier post, Jocelyn’s birthday present to me was a private cooking lesson and meal at The Akaroa Cooking School. Two weekends ago we drove to Akaroa for a lesson and it could not have been better. When we first arrived we were greeted by Lou, our teacher for the day.

We learned that we were the first people to have a private cooking class there ever, which was very exciting. They had a beautiful table set up for us with gorgeous flowers, wine glasses, decorated napkins and cutlery.

We first sat down with Lou and had morning tea with home baked brownies as we went over the plan and recipes for the day. She went over the five dishes we were going to cook as well as the basic and advanced cooking techniques we were going to learn. The greatest part about this cooking lesson was that not only did we learn five great recipes, but we also learned many cooking techniques that we will be able to use for many different dishes we cook in the future. Lou had planned out the time schedule so that each dish would be done at the right time which meant cooking them out of order, but for ease of explanation I will describe each dish in the order we ate them.

The first dish we ate was roasted pumpkin, mascarpone & thyme tartlets. This was made by first starting with ready-made savoury shortcrust pastry which we cut into small circles to line the inside of a mini muffin tin. We then added small pieces of roasted pumpkin, a dollop of mascarpone cheese, a few thyme leaves, and a small piece of feta cheese. Next we prepared a mixture of eggs, cream, salt and pepper that we used to fill each pastry 2/3 of the way. We then placed in the oven to bake for 20 min. The nice thing about this dish is that it is something that you can make ahead of time and pop in the oven to warm it up right before dinner and you can do a million variations on it with different vegetables and herbs.

The second dish that we made was a smoked salmon & horseradish crostini. This dish was by far the most easy to make and involved starting with a skinny baguette that had been thinly sliced, sprayed with olive oil, salt and peppered and toasted. We topped this with a mixture of cream cheese and Mandy’s horseradish sauce. We then added a little rosette of smoked salmon to the top to complete the dish. What really made this dish stand out was Mandy’s horseradish that is hand made in Christchurch. We enjoyed this horseradish so much that we decided to buy a jar. We ate these two canapés together accompanied with a glass of bubbly.

Next we moved on to the appetizer which was roasted aubergine (eggplant) parcels with mozzarella, sundried tomatoes & pesto with a balsamic glaze and micro greens. We started this dish by thinly slicing the aubergines lengthwise and then pan frying them. We then in a mini food process combined basil, olive oil, garlic, salt, roasted pine nuts and freshly grated parmesan. After learning how easy it was to make your own pesto and how much better it tasted than what we buy in the store Jocelyn and I proclaimed that we will only use homemade pesto now on in our cooking. We then took one slice of the grilled aubergine and in the center layered a slice of fresh mozzarella, a dollop of pesto, and a few pieces of sundried tomatoes. We repeated this layering and then added a dash of pepper, folded up the aubergine slice and then added a second slice of aubergine to wrap around fully closing up the parcel. We then topped this with some micro greens. For the plating of this dish we first made a balsamic glaze by reducing a high quality balsamic vinegar. We placed this reduction in a plastic squeeze bottle so that we could drizzle it onto the plate which made it look so professional. The aubergine parcel was then placed on top of it. We loved this dish so much that we made it again at home a few days later!

For the main course we made an herb crusted gunard fillet (white fish) on creamy citrus mash with fresh green beans & lemon infused olive oil. To start we made the lemon infused olive oil. To do this we heated a good quality olive oil in a pan and added large chunks of lemon zest. The trick is to make sure the oil is warm enough but not to hot, you should be able to stick your finger in for a few seconds without getting burned. This is then allowed to cool and is stored with the zest still in it. This is one thing that you can modify depending on your dish to infuse the olive oil with just about any flavor you can imagine. For the mash we boiled peeled Agria potatoes, but any floury potato will do. Once cooked, we strained out the water and added warm cream and butter and mashed them. Next we stirred in lemon juice and added salt and pepper to taste. For the fish we used fresh gurnard filets that were caught just the day before! We then made a bread crumb mixture the consisted of bread, thyme, parsley, butter, lemon zest and the flesh of a preserved lemon. For those of you that have not heard of preserved lemons, they are lemons that are pickled in brine of water, lemon juice, and salt. They have a very strong salty lemon flavor so a little bit goes a long way. This is something that Jocelyn and I had never used before in cooking before and liked so much that we bought a jar of them. Once the bread crumb mixture was prepared we put it on top of each fillet. Next we drizzled a little infused olive oil on the fish and grilled it for a few minutes until the fish is cooked and the crust was golden. For plating we put a large scoop of the citrus mash on the plate topped with cooked green beans and then the fish on top of that. We then drizzled the lemon infused olive oil over the fish. We ate this dish with a nice sauvignon blanc.

The last course was dessert which consisted of crème brulee with rhubarb & orange compote. For the rhubarb and orange compote we cut up the rhubarb. Lou showed us the proper way to use a knife for chopping. We mixed the rhubarb with brown sugar orange juice and zest. We then covered this and popped it in the oven until the rhubarb was tender. For the crème brulee we first heated some cream and vanilla paste until almost boiling in a pot and set aside to cool. Next we whisked together egg yolks and sugar. During this step we learned a good way to separate the egg yolks from the whites is to pour the eggs into your hand and the egg whites will slip right through your fingers with yolks remaining in your hand unbroken. We then slowly added the warm cream mixture to the egg mixture making sure not to add it too fast that it would scramble the eggs. Next we strained the mixture and poured it into ramekins. The ramekins were then placed in a water bath in the oven. This mixture was baked at a low temperature until set with centers slightly wobbly. Making these was relatively simple which was a surprise to us both. Once set the ramekins were allowed to cool and then refrigerated. The next step was to place a small a mount of caster sugar on the top and then caramelize with a blow torch. This proved to be very tricky because the goal is to caramelise the sugar while heating up the mixture as little as possible. I will have to admit that Jocelyn was much better at this than I. With dessert we had a Selaks ice wine that went along very nicely.

All in all we were cooking, eating and learning for about 5 hours but the time seemed to fly by. It was one of my best birthday presents ever.

Everyone at the Akaroa Cooking School was so amazing to us and they really made the day very special and something we will both remember forever.