I'm sitting watching House of Cards. I haven't been out today, I have been plagued by a sinus headache. It seems too late in the year for it to be getting cold (still comparing seasons to Dunedin), but it finally is - my beanie isn't just because of my headache for once. I have been pecking at a baguette all day, slathering it with marinated feta. I don't know what's for dinner, haven't got anything out except a packet of defrosting pita breads which could lead me in one of two directions - pizzas with pita breads as the base, or some chickpea concoction. Some days dessert is easier.

Feijoa and Apple Crumble

adapted from Gordon Ramsay's apple crumble, and utilising Alison Holst's infallible crumble topping. Serves 6.

You will need:

• 3-4 granny smith apples, cut into chunks
• 6 feijoas, skins cut roughly off (peeling is such a tax) and cut into thirds
• 6 tbsp white sugar
• pinch cinnamon
• a scattering of dried cranberries (maybe half a cup)
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 3 cloves
• 1/2 cup water

For the topping:

• 1/2 cup white flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 75g butter, cubed
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• white chocolate buttons

Directions:

1. Place apples, feijoas, sugar, cinnamon, cranberries, lemon zest and juice along with lemon skins, water and cloves in saucepan and cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes.
2. With a slotted spoon, remove apples and feijoas to the dish you will be using to put the pudding into the oven, which you should at this point begin preheating to 180 degrees celsius.
3. Boil the remaining liquid for a couple more minutes then (after removing cloves) pour over the fruit.
4. To make the crumble, measure the dry ingredients except for the rolled oats into a bowl.
5. Rub butter into dry ingredients until incorporated, then mix in oats.
6. Spread crumble topping on top of fruit and stud with white chocolate buttons.
7. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until crumble is golden.

This went down very well with my friends (so much going on - "are there feijoas in here??" "what are the red things?" "is there chocolate in it?"), who I served it to while we watched Game of Thrones. In the interest of complete honesty, I originally tried the crumble topping which was in Gordon Ramsay's recipe in Ultimate Cookery Course which was a total failure of sand like dust. The dish was saved by taking the fruit out of the oven, and putting Alison Holst's crumble on top. Feijoa and apple worked well, and the cranberries added interest. If you don't like tart fruit (granny smiths are my favourite) you might prefer to use a sweeter apple to counteract the also tart feijoas and dried cranberries.

I'm not big on Easter. My family never did egg hunts (I don't even know if they are called egg hunts?) or made coloured eggs or anything like that. I am a fan of hot cross buns, though, if I manage to forget about my time working at a bakery during Easter standing outside the shop yelling "hot cross buns, get your hot cross buns". Having a chocolate hot cross bun, fresh out of the oven, pressed into my hands by a baker for my morning tea was something special though.

This year I decided to try making my own, and who else would I turn to but Nigella?

Nigella Lawson's Hot Cross Buns

from Feast

You will need:

• 150ml milk
• 50g butter
• zest from one orange
• 2 whole cloves
• 400g plain flour
• 1 8g packet instant dry yeast
• 125g mixed dried fruit (including dried cranberries, dried blueberries, and sultanas)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 2 eggs
• 3 tbsp plain flour
• 1/2 tbsp white sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp white sugar
• 1 tbsp boiling water

Directions:

1. heat the milk, butter, zest and cloves in a small saucepan just until the butter melts then turn heat off.
2. measure the 400g flour, yeast, dried fruit and spices into a bowl.
3. by now the butter-milk mixture will have cooled, beat one egg into the saucepan. Remove cloves.
4. pour liquid into bowl of dry ingredients. Mix together with a wooden spoon.
5. knead the dough with your hands until elastic.
6. form into ball and place in a buttered bowl. Cover bowl with gladwrap and refrigerate overnight.
7. the next day, take the dough out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature.
8. punch the dough down, and knead again until smooth and elastic.
9. half the dough so that you have two pieces, then half those pieces so you have four pieces and so on until you get 16 clumps of dough of roughly even size.
10. form the clumps of dough into smooth round balls and place on an oven try lined with baking paper, close to each other but not touching.
11. scour the tops with the back of a kitchen knife to make a cross.
12. cover with a teatowel and leave for 45 minutes.
13. in the meantime, heat the oven to 220 degrees celsius.
14. beat one egg with a small amount of milk and then brush over top of the buns.
15. mix together 3 tbsp plain flour, 1/2 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp water to form a thick paste. Use this to make crosses on top of the buns. I used an icing pen.
16. bake for 15 - 20 mins.
17. mix together 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tbsp boiling water, then brush over hot buns for a glaze.

These are time consuming to make, but the process is oddly satisfying, particularly kneading the dough. It is a very tactile process. I would make them again, or possibly even see about making the dough as some kind of big loaf.

I spent last weekend in Wellington for a conference. I ate at Little Penang on Dixon Street for lunch on Saturday. We had to queue out the door but the food was worth it, very filling and reasonably priced (about $12 for a plate I couldn't finish). Shelby got Mee Goreng, which I tried and preferred to my dish (Mee Siam with chicken). However, mine had a lot of variety in terms of flavours and textures - vermicelli, prawns, roasted peanuts, spicy chutney, coconut milk, potatoes...). A different ordering system would speed up the queues out the door (upon getting to the counter and ordering something off the chalkboard menu you then have to run through a number of options the menu doesn't make you aware of - like I had to choose what kind of chicken I wanted out of about 6 different types, leading to indecision and slow ordering after I had had about 25 minutes to decide what I wanted in the queue). The items in the warmer at the counter weren't labelled/priced, so that also slowed things down as we had to ask the guy behind the counter what things were. However it wasn't hard to find a free table once we had actually ordered.

For dinner we went to the Tasting Room on Courtenay Place. I had chicken breast with mustard mashed potato, brussel sprouts and water chestnuts and Shelby had fish and chips. The mustard mashed potato has inspired me to try mixing wholegrain mustard into my own mashed potato at home. The food was really good, particularly the chips which came with Shelby's meal, which were cooked twice. We then went to Strawberry Fare for dessert. The place itself was a bit shabby, and the service was a bit slack (our meals arrived without us having been given any cutlery), but the desserts were visually impressive and tasty. I had a berry drenched warmed chocolate cake, which the menu described as having a souffle like texture. It was like Nigella's chocohotopots. Shelby had a cranberry white chocolate cheesecake.

The desserts came with slices of feijoa, biscotti and vanilla icecream.

In both my family's homes there was a feijoa tree, the first one good for hiding in due to its nest like branches, the second good for feeding friends with while playing in the treehouse. My primary school also had a feijoa tree, a source of rumour and urban legend. There is a feijoa tree behind our building which drops childhood memories on the concrete which it overhangs. The hard, bruised fruit would waste away if we didn't collect it (and some of the fruit which nature has treated more kindly by dropping onto the grass rather than the concrete). So far none have been ripe enough to eat raw, but the tart sourness of the unripe feijoas makes a good, tangy pudding.

White Chocolate Feijoa Cake Pudding

recipe originally from here

You will need:

• 10 feijoas
• 1 cup water
• 5 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 tsp minced ginger
• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 100 g softened butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• enough white chocolate buttons to cover surface

Directions:

1. peel feijoas by slicing off skins with a knife
2. cut feijoas into 3 or 4 pieces per feijoa, depending on size. You want the pieces about 2cm thick.
3. place cut feijoas in pot with water, tablespoons of sugar and ginger.
4. bring to boil and then simmer for 5 minutes or until softened.
5. remove feijoas from pot with a slotted spoon and place in pie dish/cake tin in a single layer.
6. reduce liquid until you have about 4 tablespoons worth, then pour over feijoas.
7. in a bowl cream butter and sugar.
8. sift flour with baking powder into another bowl.
9. beat egg into butter and sugar.
10. fold dry ingredients into creamed butter and sugar, alternating with milk.
11. spread batter over top of feijoas with a spatula.
12. dot surface of batter with white chocolate buttons.
13. bake at 180 degrees until top is golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean (approximately 25 minutes)