West Auckland and The Waitakares

Whenever I stay with the Dancing Sister at Titirangi I find it fairly easy  to ignore all family obligations and head out on some food/retail expedition. West Auckland, the Waitakares and the West Coast cannot be explored in a couple of days.  West Auckland Info is an invaluable research tool if you are travelling to Auckland but don't necessarily want to stay in town. The tourist trail can get busy on weekends as you are competing with Auckland residents as well as out of towners.

 The Dancing Sister and I visited the Titirangi Markets one Saturday. Details can be found on the above site. We picked up a good coffee at the mobile coffee cart before venturing indoors to taste and buy some great cheese from the Over the Moon Dairy Company. Isn't that just the best name for a cheese making company! We bought some bread to accompany it from two different stalls. The pumpkin seed one pictured was sensational, as was a ciabatta from another stall.



We did make an attempt to  veer away from the food stalls and I purchased a wooden hanging for the old house at Narooma. I always have a think before purchasing wooden items because of the hassle of taking them back into Australia. This was (according to the gift of the gab guy selling it) a painting on an old piece of Rimu timber from his house in Taranaki which had been damaged in a storm. It did delay me on arrival home as I had declared it but I had no problems once they saw it.

Next pit stop was the cured meats from the Salash Delicatessan stall. I bought some spicy fresh chorizo which ended up at the brother's get together later that night down Huia Road. Just sliced and thrown on his little verandah bbq (and if he had some Pedro Ximenez sherry it would have been splashed on at the end) it made a delicious beginning to the evening meal. The brother had marinated a butterflied leg of lamb overnight and it came up a treat. He is a bit of a bbq afficionado (well, he is by birth Australian)
and just enjoys being out on his deck cooking.

Thanks to my insistence we also shared a paua fritter at the markets. I am not sure it needed the slice of white bread that went with it but the fritter was tasty enough with a squeeze of lemon. I'd go for the mussel fritter next time.

We had a leisurely walk home and then it was over to Mum's to demolish the day's purchases.

Auckland and the Dancing Sister's Tamarillo Pudding

Back from a quick trip across the ditch to see the Dancing Sister, Mum and brother Al. I was only there for 6 days but managed to eat, drink, shop and be merry and even had a moment of cultural edification at a photographic exhibition.

My favourite fruit in the world is the feijoa. I first tried it in Auckland in the 1970s when my parents lived next to a house with a huge feijoa tree. The house belonged to Tom Skinner for those of you old enough to remember that feisty fellow. Thankfully the tree hung over the fence and that meant feijoa heaven from March through to about June. In Australia they have a very short season and most are imported from NZ. I have two young  trees down at Narooma which I am hoping will provide me with more than the 10 I harvested last season. Although there was not a feijoa to be found last week in Auckland it's very best friend and mine, the tamarillo, was easy to find. A plate of peeled and sliced tamarillos alternated with peeled and sliced feijoas is near enough to perfection in my foodie book.

With a dinner date at brother Al's imminent the Dancing Sister offered to bring dessert. Now this dessert has loomed large in her repertoire for some time. I have eaten it in various guises. She just calls it a fruit pudding. Until this week my favourite was always based on feijoas. All sorts of fruit can be used, even canned plums but this time it was fat tamarillos picked up at Fruit World at New Lynn. This recipe has to be one of the fastest and best little desserts I have ever come across. Experiment with different fruit. It seems that tart fruits work best. The Dancing Sister credits two fellows who lived next door years ago with this recipe but I credit her with this version.

Ready for the oven

Ingredients
125 grams butter
125 grams caster sugar

125 grams self raising flour              
2 eggs,well beaten
tamarillos, peeled and thickly sliced
-we used 6 or 7
pinch salt
1 tablespoon caster sugar, extra
icing sugar

Method
Heat the oven to 150-160 C fan forced or 180 C conventional oven.
Butter and flour a 23cm flan dish.

Melt butter and sugar together and allow to cool. Add eggs and sift in flour and salt and whisk to mix well. Pour batter mixture into the flan dish. Lay the fruit slices over the top of the batter and sprinkle with the extra caster sugar. Cook in the oven for about 25 minutes. Test with a skewer and if it needs a little longer, put it back in. Allow the pudding to cool a little and then sprinkle with a little icing sugar. Serve warm or cold with cream, ice cream or yoghurt (or all three).