Monday, September 15, 2008

Wee Birthday Treats


September is a big birthday month at my firm and the first of these was Carol’s birthday last week. I made her these little almond marzipan chocolates. They were quite simple to make, but I think they look quite effective – hopefully they tasted nice too! Essentially they are blanched almonds, lightly toasted, covered in marzipan and then dipped in chocolate. They would make a good Christmas gift (yes, almost time to start thinking about that!)



Yesterday morning I had a successful mission to the Takapuna markets. For $22 I got organic spinach, organic bok choy, organic agria potatoes and kumara, 4 organic red peppers (small ones), silver beet, an eggplant, a big bundle of rosemary and three small heads of broccoli. I thought that this was pretty economical! I then went to the fish shop and got more cheap hoki.

Last night we had the hoki flash roasted again, but this time with chopped rosemary, sliced garlic, dried chilli flakes scattered over and a drizzle of lemon infused olive oil. We had it with cous cous (mixed with 1 tsp ras al hanout – a Moroccan spice blend, the diced flesh of a preserved lemon, fresh chopped mint and toasted sliced almonds), roast pumpkin and cauliflower (blanched and then sautéed with red pepper, garlic and chilli). It was a delicious meal!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

i love fish but never cook it myself but what you did sounded so easy I am going to try it tonight.

Anonymous said...

Those little almond marzipan chocolates look amazing!!

lauren said...

Those little almond marzipan chocolates look amazing!!

Anonymous said...

The cauli dish sounds delicious Tammy,I am always looking for new vegetable recipes.

Deb said...

Mmm, those choccies look divine.

That was a great deal at the market, considering broccoli was $4 a head today at the supermarket! I gulped and passed on by!!

Cakelaw said...

What a great gift idea - definitely one to put n the Christmas "baking" list. BTW, regarding the NQM post about ACP, I agree with Amanda's comments in respect of that post.