Publication 10 April, 2012
‘We have lost our old food. Actually, we’ve tossed it away and pursued the fast, the foreign and the fashionable. We now eat other people’s food in preference to our own; we are tourists at our own dining tables and no-one seems to have noticed. Barbara Keen thinks we should be paying attention.’ Otago Daily Times
Grace & Flavour is a celebration of traditional Anglo-Kiwi food. Presenting 90 classic recipes from vintage New Zealand cookbooks, Barbara Keen takes us on a nostalgic culinary journey, rediscovering the delicious, economical food that our grandmothers and great-grandmothers really used to make.
Presented in both original and easy-to-follow modern versions, these recipes are worth making and worth remembering. We can now be proud of our food heritage.
This stunning compilation will appeal to anyone as an antidote to expensive and complicated modern cuisine. The recipes are simple, and their reliance on seasonal and local New Zealand produce will appeal to those who strive for ‘green’ shopping. As well as being economical and healthy, this cookbook is a fascinating insight into our culinary history.
About the Author
Barbara Keen has been a food and travel writer and a restaurant reviewer for more than 30 years. She has written for numerous New Zealand publications, including Cuisine, Otago Daily Times and The Press.
Since 1999, she’s been writing for Bespoke France and leads the annual ‘Taste France’ guided tour, as part of the travel business she has run with her partner since 1990.
Barbara has always had an interest in food and comes from a long line of cooks, most notably her great-grandmother Alice Baigent, who co-wrote The Golden Bay Red Cross Cookery Book. In 2003, Barbara wrote an article for the Otago Daily Times looking at the near disappearance of traditional Anglo-New Zealand food and discussing the exhibition ‘Lost Food: A Colonial Culinary Past’ which was showing at the Otago Settlers Museum. She has won a Culinary Quill Award for Educational Food Writing and lives in Port Chalmers with her partner and two dogs.
The publishers have kindly allowed me to reproduce the following recipe from the book which I have made and it was very well received.
The publishers have kindly allowed me to reproduce the following recipe from the book which I have made and it was very well received.Kedgeree
A dish from another British colony, India, and once a traditional part of the English country house breakfast, but more commonly eaten at lunch or tea in this part of the world. Hardboiled eggs are standard in kedgeree, but this version also includes a beaten egg stirred into the mixture, which gives it a creamier texture than usual. Curry spices are often added, but not in this one, though ‘seasoning to taste’ could accommodate at least some cumin seeds, cooked in the butter before adding the rice and the fish.
250–350 g smoked fish fillets
1 cup long-grain rice, preferably basmati
2 eggs
40 g butter
2 teaspoons cumin seeds (optional)
salt, white pepper and grated nutmeg
chopped parsley to garnish
Barely cover the fish fillets with water and simmer for 2–3 minutes in a wide shallow pan. Flake the fish, or cut into bite-sized pieces.
Cook the rice according to instructions on the bag, using the fish cooking water.
Boil one of the eggs just hard enough to peel and cut easily.
Melt the butter in a sauté or frying pan large enough for all the ingredients. Add the cumin seeds, if using, and fry gently for a minute or two. Add the rice and stir to coat the grains with butter.
Add the fish, stir it into the rice and heat through.
Beat up the remaining egg with a pinch of salt, stir into the kedgeree and cook gently.
Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. Garnish with quarters of boiled egg, sprinkle with parsley and serve.
Kedgeree
1/2 lb smoked fish 1 cupful rice
2 eggs 11/2 ozs butter
seasoning to taste
Boil one egg hard, cut the white into dice. Boil the rice till tender. Break the fish into flakes. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the rice, fish and cut up white of egg and the other egg well beaten. Make very hot. Season to taste. Dish up in a pyramid shape and sprinkle over the hard-boiled yolk rubbed through a strainer and some chopped parsley.
— Domestic Cookery