Chinese pickle – turnip, carrot and cucumber


Sushi has become a very common choice for meals these days, for its multitude of flavours and healthy ingredients (perhaps not so the fried pork cutlet with layers of fat-ladden mayo). Surprisingly, J doesn’t like sushi and I still haven’t figured out exactly why. With her new found love for prawns, I might try a…

Chinese Poached Chicken


This is a dish where most of the cooking is done without spending too much time in front of the stove. You can work on your other dishes while this is cooking. Yes you have a bit of chopping and tearing to do in the end, but to me it is time well spent for…

Blackcurrant macaron with grape jelly and chocolate ganache


We went up to the Matakana Farmers Market last weekend and tried some gorgeous local produce. I was really inspired by the produce and picked up some macadamia meal and grape gelly for my next macaron taste adventure. I made some simple variations to my basic macaron recipe: Macaron shells 90 g almond meal 60…

Dumplings with Pork and chinese chives


I haven’t always made macarons. Believe it or not, I cook more savory dishes than sweet! When I feel stressed and in need to do something to relax, I make dumplings*. It’s quite therapeutic really, mixing ingredients and wrapping the little parcels of joy. I think it is the repetitive nature of the process, that…

Coffee macaron with chocolate coffee ganache


We love Moccona coffee and so I decided to make some macarons with it. I made some simple variations to my basic macaron recipe: Macaron shells 150 g almond meal 140 g icing sugar 58 g egg whites (about 1.5 egg) 1 g meringue powder 150 g caster sugar 38 g water 2-3 drops of…