Peter Gordon’s Foodie Favourites
What’s your favourite recipe book and why?
“It’s very rare these days that I open a cookbook to be honest. I had a selection of my favourites at Homeland (and have two boxes of my absolute faves – often from the authors – in our lock up) but we haven’t yet laid them out at home. I have a great kitchen but weirdly there isn’t a book shelf in it. This Q&A has inspired me to get them out again!”
What’s your favourite kitchen utensil and why?
“A microplane grater is a wondrous thing. Zesting citrus, grating hard cheeses, garlic and ginger that you need super fine or chocolate to garnish a dessert. I have three different ones – from fine (citrus) to strips (for shaving parmesan). Apart from a knife and a pair of tongs - they’re my go-to!”
What’s your favourite ‘go to’ recipe? The dish that never lets you down
“A stew or curry with plenty of coconut milk, spices, caramelised onions, ginger and garlic – loads of ginger – sometimes with and sometimes without canned chopped tomatoes. It might be chickpeas and pumpkin, or lamb neck fillets, chicken thighs or mussels and chunks of hapuka. Get the sauce right (think cardamom, cinnamon, chillies, cumin and fennel seeds) and cook the ‘hero’ ingredient as required – long and slow for secondary cuts of meat, quick and fast for fish and mussels. It might be best served with toast drizzled with olive oil, or a bowl of rice and quinoa might be a better match.”
What’s your favourite NZ ingredient? Why and how do you use it?
“Purple skinned kūmara. I have many favourite key proteins, like Blue Cod, pāua, kina, lamb… but I have to say that they are often all the better for a kūmara accompaniment. I love roasting kūmara, especially whole baby ones (skin on, of course) but I always steam or boil them before roasting as the moisture opens up the pores and when you roast them they become more lush. Baby kūmara I squash before roasting – splitting the skin open and exposing the flesh, great sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and melted butter before roasting. I love them mashed with miso, rosemary and brown butter. Fry-bread made with the addition of mashed steamed kūmara topped with kina. Kūmara salad tossed with lots of finely grated parmesan, thinly sliced spring onions, lemon zest and juice and EV Olive oil mixed in – and plenty of flaky salt and freshly ground coarse black pepper.”
Share the memory of your most memorable meal.
“The best meal I have ever had was a lunch in Kyoto in April 2008 at Sojiki Nakahigashi. Seasonal (sancho leaves and berries, bamboo shoots, end of Sakura – cherry blossom season), local (chef caught fish and foraged herbs on the river bend close to the restaurant), beautifully seasoned and plated (around 18 different courses served on a mixture of lacquered wood and ceramics). But it wasn’t a tedious meal at all – it just ticked along brilliantly, everything making sense, nothing there to be showy. Mr Nakahigashi and his wife looked after us (we were four – two Japanese friends – both chefs – who he knew well). When we left he gifted me a bag of freeze dried shoyu soy sauce as it was my birthday – amazing. I’ve eaten many amazing things in my travels but as a meal this was perfect.”
One of the dishes from Peter’s lunch in Kyoto in April 2008 at Sojiki Nakahigashi.
One of the dishes from Peter’s 40th birthday lunch at Sojiki Nakahigashi, Kyoto.
Fish caught by chef, Mr Nakahigashi, was one of the 18 courses at Peter’s memorable 40th birthday lunch.