In Good Taste: Quality versus quantity
Quality wins over quantity, every time! It's true too, that you don't need or want as much of anything when it's at its finest. A beautiful bottle of wine can be consumed and savoured at a much slower rate than a Joe Bloggs standard quaffer. The same goes for quality food. Chocolate is a great example. And if you come across a wedge of divine lemon tart, say, you will automatically slow down, enjoying, tasting, and wanting it never to end, yet feeling perfectly complete when it does.
My husband of course wants to know why we can't have both quality and quantity. The answer is simple: satisfaction lies in the clean taste of quality, instead of that overfull feeling that goes with quantity.
Imagine a wedge of perfectly ripe blue cheese with a slice of fresh walnut bread, and maybe a piece of crisp apple. Now imagine a cheese slice or two, with a leaf of pappy white pre-sliced bread and a piece of fruit that lay inert in the bottom of the fruit bowl. If there is no satisfaction in the taste then we continue eating in the hope that eventually it will come in the form of fullness.
Spring foods are good at awakening our jaded taste buds and a surprise for me came recently in the form of ye olde iceberg lettuce. Purchased from Waitapu Gardens, it reminded me of how lettuces should taste: crisp, crunchy, tasty and textural. Its texture is an exciting contrast to the winter comforts of creamy mash and softer, smoother tastes. Many people find iceberg lettuce lacking in flavour and push it aside in favour of all the new varieties. When it comes to the crunch, though, this lettuce is still number one. Left whole and cut into wedges it looks wonderful lying on its back on a plate with a simple blue cheese and cream dressing or a bright green herb vinaigrette.
This is a recipe I used to make all the time as the colour is vibrant and the taste is punchy. The dominant flavour that shines through is of fresh mint (abundant right now). Best used on the day of making to retain the striking colour.
Keryn's Vinaigrette
Place into a blender the following ingredients:
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
2/3 cup of grape seed oil
1/3 cup of quality wine vinegar
2 crushed cloves garlic
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon of sugar
1/3 cup of cold water
large bunch of green herbs, with more mint than others (Can include sorrel, parsley, chives, mint etc).
Blend together and taste for seasoning. Refrigerate until ready to use.
As with the vinaigrette, the success of this buttery cake lies in the good quality ingredients. Use fresh butter and eggs combined with a few other simple ingredients and you have a beautifully moist, dense cake from the Brittany region of France. It's perfect when served warm, with any lightly poached seasonal fruit (rhubarb is ideal). A dollop of crème fraiche on the side is crucial.
Gateau Breton
11/4 cups of caster sugar
250g softened butter
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla essence
13/4 cups of sifted white flour
6 egg yolks (set aside 1 teaspoon of the yolk for the glaze)
Line a 23cm round cake tin with baking paper. Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC. Place the sugar, butter, vanilla and egg yolks in a mixing bowl and blend together until smooth. Sift in the flour and use a metal spoon to combine.
Transfer the dough to the cake tin and press in, smoothing the top. Brush the surface of the cake with the reserved egg yolk then, using a fork, make a lattice pattern. Bake for about 40 minutes or until golden and firm to the touch. Leave to cool in the tin, then turn out and cut into wedges.
Matures well and is perfect with a cup of tea. Keep in an airtight container.
Fiona Feasey
