Cooking up a storm (+recipes)

Herald on Sunday·

8 Nov, 2014 06:00 PM3 mins to read

Sisters Karena and Kasey Bird.

Busy times call for fast and tasty meals that are easy to prepare

November looks like it will be one of the busiest months of the year for us. There isn't a weekend without an event and all the small details to do with our book must be finalised. We love being busy and with the variety of things we get to do it never gets boring.

We are in Hawke's Bay for the Food and Wine Classic, matching our food to Church Road wine for our land and sea event. We will be guest speakers at our former high school's prizegiving, will be enjoying some delicious food at Taste of Auckland, get to try Euro's new menu at the chef's table with a Herald on Sunday winner and his guests, plus we are designing the entrees for Peter Gordon's charity event, called Dine for a Difference, at the Sugar Club.

We will also be cooking at the opening of the Skyline Restaurant in Rotorua, doing a cooking demo at the Tauranga Garden and Art Festival and even get to judge the Maketu's Got Talent competition at the marae. In between all this we are still working on the cookbook, writing and testing recipes for our columns here and making sure our laundry is done.

When we are back home for the few days amid all of these events we still like to cook dinner for everyone when we finally get some down time. Making sure it's tasty is the most important thing; but these days making sure it's fast and easy is another necessity. This week we are sharing with you three dinners we like to cook when we want something yummy but don't want to be in the kitchen all day.

The first meal is great when there are lots of people for dinner and you want to make something a little fancy. Our miso salmon with bok choy looks impressive but is super easy. We love baking fish when we have lots of guests because you can just place all of the pieces of fish in the oven and cook them all together while you make the accompaniments. Salmon is so wonderful baked, and good for you.

Next up are our pork and apple slaw burgers with oven chips. These are a favourite in our house, especially when our aunty and cousins are up for dinner.

The pork steaks get all sweet and sticky from the honey and the mustard seeds look so beautiful when they are caught on the shiny glaze. The acidity in the apple slaw cuts through the sweetness of the pork, wrap that in a bun and you'll be pretty satisfied.

The trick to making great oven chips is to cut them into quite thick wedges so the outside can get crispy but the inside remains fluffy and light.

In our family, we can't go past a packet of mince on sale. It's so versatile and something we have grown up eating.

We have to admit our mum didn't cook it like this. I guess it's like our version of san choi bao.

We like to add vermicelli noodles to our mince, and some chilli for a bit of a kick. These are even great as little starters if you get into the middle of the lettuce and pick out the smaller leaves.