Enjoying Summer In a Little Kiwi Paradise
Each year I’m lucky to be invited to a special little piece of Kiwi paradise sometime over the Xmas/New Year break. It’s the girls’ time away while the boys are fishing or working – and a chance to enjoy a time gone by. It’s in a little beach community north of Auckland where there is an array of over 80 baches held by families through several generations, but it’s uniquely designed like a camp. And they have a very social committee that ensures that there is always something organised on or around the central green, whether it is for the kids or adults. Events like the kids races - potato & spoon, sack, & three-legged races; fishing competitions, a disco to dance in the New Year and even a petanque competition, to name just a few. It has such a fabulous family feel to the place and it certainly brings back memories of when I was a kid and all the camping we did as a family.
The tides weren’t great, but it didn’t matter. It’s a chance to catch up with other busy girlfriends and to enjoy the ritual of late breakfast, morning tea, light lunch, before we have nibbles at 4pm along with cocktails and then dinner with our favourite wines. And we get to use the bbq and put together some real “girly” vege dishes to go with our barbecued meats.
Here are a couple of great Vege dishes we enjoyed:
Rajma Vegetable Salad
Cut one red onion into wedges, 2 courgettes, 2 kumara & 2 carrots chunked – then toss in vegetable oil and garlic. Roast @ 180C until tender.
Add a bunch of asparagus and roast for a further 5mins.
Cool then add in : 1 cup cherry tomatoes, 1 tbspn slivered almonds, 1pottle Rajma Dhal (chick pea Indian range) and 1 small pottle plain yoghurt.
Lovely with barbecued meat, chicken or fish and if you’re lucky to have some left over, it’s lovely the next day also.
Bacon, Sausage Vege Dish
Can be hot or cold with an endless possibility - just use what you have!
Egg Plant - cut in approx 1cm segments
1 Red & Yellow Pepper - seeded and sliced into chunky segments
1 Large Onion - chopped into chunks
2 Courgettes & 3 Mushrooms - cut in approx 1cm segments
3 lengths of Streaky bacon - cut approx 5 portions per length of bacon
4 Pumpkin and Onion Sausages
Place all vegetables in a large roasting dish and toss through the raw vegetables, seasoning with rock salt and black ground pepper with a small quantity of olive oil. Place the Pumpkin and Onion Sausages & Streaky Bacon on top of the vegetables and place in a hot oven (200 degrees fan forced) for approx 15 to 20 minutes.
Take the dish out of the oven, cut the cooked sausages into chunks and toss through the vegetables, placing the dish back into the oven for a few more minutes.
Serving Options
Hot, Warm or Cold
Pour 200mls of tomato puree over the vegetables after you have cut up the sausages and return to the oven whilst the puree heats through (season to taste) and serve with your selection of bread.
Happy holidays from Karen Pervan, www.tastesfromaroundnz.co.nz - where you can purchase the gold medal winning Streaky Bacon and the Peter Timbs Pumpkin & Onion Sausages, along with so many other great gourmet New Zealand products.