KEY POINTS:
So there I was in my jimjams on Sunday morning at cousin Lee's pad at Orere Point. We looked at the rain, had a cuppa, looked at the rain and said, "let's do it". She put on her casual Sunday-morning look of white with tasteful eyeshadow and I put on mine - loud frock and slash of lipstick. After a time of rain we tramped into the entirely heartwarming Clevedon Village Farmer's Market.
The moment we walked in, the sun came out in the form of the smiles, welcome and joy of the marketeers. The first person we saw was Sylvia Sanford cooking up a storm.
Sylvia, who grows limes, takes whatever is fab at the market and cooks it for her faithful customers. Then we fell upon the best bread in Auckland, Wild Wheat, quickly followed by the two very important facilities at any farmer's market - coffee and the eftpos machine. "Come and taste our mozzarella," said Helen, who runs the market.
Oooh, but we had just spied the banger department. For years Istvan Muik of Hungarian Delicatessen Smallgoods has been making delicious smoked and fermented salamis, sausages, dried meats and black pudding. What a pleasure to see his son there selling them. I bought a great big csabai kolbasz - pork and beef sausage full of Hungarian paprika and garlic.
"Come and taste our mozzar-ella," called Helen's husband, Richard. Oooh, but we had to get past the smoked eel and fresh fish stand first. Piako Pete sold me two tasty flounder and promised the eels would be there next week. Now the mozzarella is being held up on a plate above the crowd and wobbled for me to see. Oooh, organic lamb. We were getting closer.
Pilgrim's Organic Lamb was the stall right next to guess what? The little boned, rolled rack was the sweet, tender hit of my dinner that night.
Finally we reached the Clevedon Valley Cheese tabernacle wherein lay the precious, first New Zealand genuine buffalo mozzarella and ricotta cheese. If God doesn't exist, how do you explain buffalo mozzarella? The porcelain-white balls were fragrant and pillowy with the thin leaves of the inner structure evident when sliced open.
The ricotta was unbelievably heavenly with that slightly sour, mossy buffalo-milk flavour. So heavenly that it won two top categories at the Champions of Cheese Awards in Auckland earlier this month. Helen and Richard run their own water buffalo herd and are already fantasising about making yoghurt and icecream.
While I'm on cheese, Ross McCallum and associates are making very good Kaimai cheese and sent me some unbearably ripe and perfect examples. In general I think it's terrible to cook with good cheese but as this is a recipe-based column I'll let you pour some chardonnay over your camembert and bake it in the oven.
BAKED CAMEMBERT
250g round of camembert
1 garlic clove, sliced
2 fresh thyme sprigs
2 tbsp chardonnay
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
Preheat the oven to 220C. Remove cheese from wrapping and put in an ovenproof dish, preferably one that is not too much bigger than the cheese. Stud the cheese with the garlic slices and thyme sprigs. Pour the wine over it and then sprinkle with paprika. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve it with toasted ciabatta.
BUFFALO RICOTTA WITH MANUKA HONEY, FIGS AND PROSCIUTTO
Serves 4
250g buffalo ricotta
8 fresh figs
8 slices prosciutto
1 tbsp manuka honey
sliced, toasted sourdough bread
Bring the ricotta out of the fridge an hour before serving so it will reach room temperature.
Halve the figs and put four halves on each plate with two slices of prosciutto for each person. Divide the ricotta between the plates, drizzle with the slightly warmed honey. Serve with the sourdough.
