Indulge dad this Father’s Day with a handsome feast that features new takes on some vintage favourites
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Menu
Seafood & Saffron Chowder
Savoury Pinwheel Scones with Rosemary Butter
Warm Roast Beef & Horseradish Cream Sandwiches
Kumara & Bacon Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing
Apple & Pecan Spice Cake with Honey Cream Cheese Icing
Chocolate Chunk Peanut Brownies
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Up to 2 weeks ahead: Bake peanut brownie biscuits.
Day before: Make scone filling and rosemary butter. Make chowder base. Prepare beef for roasting. Toss kumara with oil and salt and store in a plastic bag in the fridge; make dressing. Caramelise pecans for cake.
On the day: Bake pinwheel scones. Roast beef. Finish making kumara salad. Bake and ice cake.
Close to serving: Finish making chowder. Assemble beef sandwiches.
Seafood and Saffron Chowder
This impressive soup is really very simple to make. Be sure to use a firm-fleshed fish such as monkfish that will hold together when cooked.
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- 30g butter
- 1 teaspoon each: crushed ginger and garlic
- 1 onion, diced
- ½ leek, finely diced
- 1 carrot, cut into small dice
- 2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
- Good pinch of saffron threads
- ½ cup white wine
- 4 cups fish stock
- 300-400g firm white fish, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 250g raw shelled prawns
- 250g marinara mix
- 300ml cream
- 1 tablespoon cornflour
- To serve: croutons, chives, sour cream
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Heat butter in a large saucepan and briefly sauté ginger and garlic. Add onion, leek, carrot and potatoes and cook 3-4 minutes until fragrant.
Add saffron and wine and cook for 2-3 minutes until the liquid has nearly evaporated. Add fish stock, cover and simmer 15 minutes or until potato is tender. (The chowder can be made ahead to this stage.)
Add fish, prawns and marinara mix to pan and cook 5 minutes.
Combine cream and cornflour and add to soup. Gently heat until thickened and creamy. Season to taste with salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.
Serve chowder garnished with chunky croutons, chopped fresh chives and a small dollop of sour cream. Serves 6
Savoury Pinwheel Scones with Rosemary Butter
Feta, parsley and caraway seeds flavour these scrumptious scones. They are best eaten freshly baked but the filling and rosemary butter can be made ahead to cut down on last-minute work.
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- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- ½ teaspoon caraway seeds
- 100g feta, diced
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- 3 cups flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 50g cold butter
- ½ cup grated tasty cheese
- 1-1½ cups milk
- Rosemary butter:
- 100g butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
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Preheat oven to 210°C. Heat oil in a small saucepan and sauté onion and caraway seeds 5-10 minutes until softened and fragrant. Add feta and parsley and set aside to cool.
Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Grate in butter and rub in with the fingertips to combine. Stir in cheese and enough milk to make a firm, moist dough.
Turn dough out on to a clean surface and pat or roll into a rectangle about 22cm x 30cm. Sprinkle onion and feta mixture over and roll up from the longer side to form a log. Cut into 10 rounds and place cut side down in a circular pattern on a lined baking tray. Bake 10-12 minutes or until risen and golden.
Take scones from oven and cover with a clean tea towel until serving to keep them warm and prevent a hard crust from forming. Serve with combined butter and fresh rosemary. Makes 10
Warm Roast Beef and Horseradish Cream Sandwiches
Roast beef fillet is at its most tender and juicy when cooked only until rare or medium-rare. As a guide to cooking times, allow 25-30 minutes per kilogram for rare; 35-40 minutes for medium-rare. Alternatively, use a meat thermometer, placed in the centre of the fillet before cooking. At 60°C the meat will be rare; at 65-70°C medium-rare.
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Roast beef:
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¼ cup olive oil
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1 teaspoon crushed garlic
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2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
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2 tablespoons soy sauce
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Fresh thyme sprigs
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1 piece beef eye fillet (about 1kg)
For sandwiches:
- Horseradish
- Crème fraiche
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Wholegrain bread
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Watercress |
Beef: Preheat oven to 200°C. Combine oil, garlic, Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce. Trim fillet of any excess fat and silver skin (sinew). Tie with string to make an even shape and tuck in thyme sprigs under string. Place meat in a baking dish and brush generously with oil mixture. (Meat can be prepared ahead to this stage. Bring to room temperature before roasting.)
Roast meat 30-40 minutes, depending on size and preference. Take from oven, cover with foil and set aside to rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing.
To make sandwiches: Stir together horseradish and crème fraiche to taste (we used 1 part horseradish to 3 parts crème fraiche) and chill until required.
Fill sandwiches with generous slices of beef, horseradish cream and fresh watercress and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Apple and Pecan Spice Cake with Honey Cream Cheese Icing
This lovely moist, lightly spiced cake is studded with apple pieces and nuts. The texture is at its best on the day of baking; it becomes heavier on keeping. Caramelised pecans make a delicious decoration.
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- 200g butter, softened
- 250g sugar
- 3 eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 150g sour cream
- 225g flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1½ teaspoons mixed spice
- 2 cups diced peeled apple (2 medium apples)
- 70g pecans (half chopped, half reserved for garnish)
- 1 tablespoon honey (for pecan garnish)
Icing:
- 150g firm-style cream cheese
- 1 tablespoon each: icing sugar, honey, brandy
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Preheat oven to 175°C. Grease and line a 23cm round spring-form baking tin with baking paper.
Cream butter and sugar with an electric beater until pale and creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time then stir in sour cream and vanilla. Sift over flour, baking powder and spice and fold in with chopped apple and pecans.
Spoon mixture into tin and bake 40-45 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool completely before icing.
Icing: Whisk together cream cheese, icing sugar, honey and brandy until combined. Spread over cooled cake.
For pecan garnish, toss remaining pecans in honey in a small pan over moderate heat until caramelised. Lift out on to foil to harden before placing on cake. Cake can be stored in a covered container in the fridge for 1-2 days. Serve slices drizzled with extra honey if desired. Serves 8-10
Chocolate Chunk Peanut Brownies
Peanut brownies are an old cookie tin favourite but adding chunks of dark chocolate to the mix makes them impossible to resist.
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- 125g butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1½ cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon cocoa
- ½ cup coarsely chopped blanched peanuts
- 100g dark chocolate, cut into small chunks
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Preheat oven to 175°C. Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add egg and vanilla and beat well.
Sift over flour, baking powder and cocoa and mix in together with peanuts and chocolate chunks.
Roll mixture into walnut-sized balls, place on lined baking trays and flatten slightly with a fork. Bake 10-15 minutes until lightly coloured.
Leave on trays for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight tin for up to a week. Makes 25-30
Kumara and Bacon Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing
We used red kumara but other varieties will also work well for this salad and if their skins are good they won’t need to be peeled, just scrubbed.
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- 4 large red kumara
- 2 small red onions, cut into wedges
- ¹⁄₃ cup olive oil
- Good grinding of sea salt
- 2 oranges
- 6 rashers streaky bacon, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 2 fennel bulbs, sliced
Dressing:
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons each: white vinegar, orange juice
- 1 tablespoon liquid honey
- 2 teaspoons wholegrain mustard
- Zest from 1 orange
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Preheat oven to 180°C. Peel kumara and cut into smallish chunks. Place kumara and onions in a roasting dish, add oil and sea salt and toss to coat. Roast 20-30 minutes or until kumara is tender.
Finely grate zest from 1 orange and reserve for dressing, then peel both oranges with a knife, removing all pith, and cut into wedges. Place bacon, fennel and orange wedges in a roasting dish.
Combine dressing ingredients and spoon half over the bacon mixture. Roast 15 minutes until fennel is soft and bacon crispy.
Toss roasted kumara with bacon mixture and drizzle over remaining dressing. Serve salad warm or at room temperature. Serves 6
Story: Jo Wilcox
Photographs: Aaron Mclean
Stylist: Food: Jo Wilcox; general: Claudia Kozub
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