Tongan Odyssey

On a cold winter’s night in 2011, we were tucked up in front of the fire with the Marlborough Farmer and his wife the Marlborough Writer.  Talk turned to possible family holidays that would enable a temporary escape from a New Zealand winter.  After Australian theme parks were mentioned, the Marlborough Farmer expressed extreme reluctance, followed by a wistful, “why can’t we just go sailing”.  Your friendly blogger grabbed the nearest laptop and within 15 minutes we had identified possible locations, flight details and costs.  We all looked at each other, slightly startled, and said “yes, let’s”!

Scroll forward a year, and we meet up in Auckland.  The Marlborough F&W have brought with them a supply of frozen meat from the wonderful Mike at Meaters of Marlborough, Miss 11, Miss 9 and Master 7.  We supply a box of dry goods, Miss 9 and Miss 7.  Duty free provides the wine, a touch of gin and some whiskey.  In Tonga, we pre-order heavy items, and collect fresh food and bread at the Neiafu market.

We start our holiday at the wonderful, relaxing and friendly Tongan Beach Resort.  We relax, shrug off winter, work and school - replacing them with eating, swimming, snorkelling and snoozing.

When we've just about had enough of that (3 nights), it's time to head to the marina to begin our seven days on a 40 foot catamaran, with four adults, five children and Mellony (the melon).

We had designed an approximate itinerary (which bore little relation to the actual itinerary), together with a general menu plan. All of which had to be produced from within the galley, or on an outdoor BBQ.  Here's the galley:

Breakfasts were a mix of cereal, toast, bacon & eggs and pancakes.

Lunches involved Panini, bread rolls, sandwiches and 2 minute noodles (fast refuelling for the smaller team members).

Snacks included cheese & crackers, various snack bars, freshly made bread, wrap toasties (2 wraps sandwiched with relish and cheese, lightly fried), Edmonds chocolate biscuit slice and Betty Crocker cookies.

The oven was marginal, but managed to deliver delicious fresh bread rolls [recipe here].

The Edmonds slice only required cooking on the stove top and chilling, so was much easier:

Dinners involved:

• Pasta with tomato, vege and salami sauce
• Lamb rumps and backstraps, mashed potato and salad

• Beef stir fry with rice
• Dinner out at La Paella Restaurant
• Delicious tapas - this one aubergine and feta:
• Paella cooking:
• 
• Ribeye steak, mashed potato and salad
• Sausages with rice and veges
• Pasta with tomato, vege and bacon sauce

Total failure on the fishing front meant that we had to rely more on our emergency supplies (pasta dishes) than planned, but we still managed to eat very well.

The cooking was nicely shared between all the adults - MOTH and the MF in charge of the BBQ, the MF delivering spectacular bacon and eggs, the MW providing lunches, snacks and dinners, and your friendly blogger pitching in too.  One ingredient of a successful holiday - lots of willing cooks.  Another ingredient was the excellent bar staff!

The sailing was gentle and fun, the weather was perfect, and the water was perfect for swimming at every opportunity.  The snorkelling was great, we saw lots of coral and coral fish, as well as one pod of whales (a very welcome surprise).  Best of all, we didn't make it to Kenutu Island, or Hunga Island, so we will just have to go back!

Another cooking frenzy

So there’s been a small hiatus in blogging while we’ve been sampling the warmth and wonders of the Kingdom of Tonga.  I’ll post an update on our Tongan cooking endeavours soon, but here are a couple of photos to promote the sights that can be found (above and below water) while sailing around the Vava’u islands.

We arrived home to the need for a cooking frenzy – my parents staying, the sister and her family joining us for dinner, and the need to start preparing for lives back at work and school.  Saturday was family dinner night – a perfect excuse for a signature dish – so flattened chooks were scheduled in [recipe here].  Happily, the sister provided one pre-flattened chook and a mountain of peeled potatoes, so we were off to a flying start.  I felt the need to complement the roast with a contrasting light and cool dessert, so an Orange Souffle was whipped into shape as well [recipe here].

The next day, after a slow post-holiday start to the day, the frenzy was back in action – lamb shanks for dinner [recipe to come], beef tagine for the week ahead/freezer [recipe to come], and soup for my lunches at work.  By the end of Sunday, I was done with cooking!

Dinner Party Club Moroccan Menu

Entrée: Kebab Koutbane
This was a delicious dish – a traditional Moroccan entrée, with marinaded beef and beef suet cubes, seared on the barbeque.  The flavour was fantastic! 

Main: Chicken Tagine with Figs and Almonds

A lovely tagine, full of rich flavours and tender chicken legs.  Our consensus was that we couldn’t really taste the saffron in it – is the saffron worth it in such a richly flavoured dish?

Side: Couscous with Orange, Almonds and Cinnamon

A fresh tasting couscous, made with orange juice, that provided a lovely contrast to the richness of the tagine.

Salad: Roasted Capsicum with Feta, Capers and Preserved Lemon

This was a revelation!  The combination of sweet, salty and sour was so fresh alongside the tagine.

Bread: Khobz dyal Zraa

The bread had the typical denseness of Moroccan bread – fantastic for mopping up the tagine.

Dessert: Briwat Bi Loz (Brides’ Fingers)

Lovely mouthfuls of sweet nutty flavour, with each ingredient identifiable, yet providing a harmonious finale.  Buffalo yoghurt with vanilla paste was the perfect accompaniment.

The verdict

This was one of the most successful dinner parties we’ve had.  Every dish was great, the combinations worked well and we all ended the evening wanting to try the dishes again.