If you have a good cook in your family you are lucky, according to Julie Biuso.
The Auckland-based food writer's mission to get everyone cooking good food from scratch has become stronger over the years.
Her latest book, Julie Biuso at home (New Holland) is bigger than any of her other 15 books and contains a lot of information in a 30-page section at the back about fruits, vegetables, spices and other ingredients as well as numerous recipes, long and short.
Unlike some cookbooks that are great for 12 months then are shelved, she says this was written with longevity rather than the here-and-now in mind.
''I'm always thinking of food that's for a family but that doesn't mean you don't have special occasions or lovely dishes to share that everyone's going to enjoy and will become family favourites.''
In the vegetable section she has given many recipes for less fashionable vegetables such as cabbage, parsnips, swedes, carrots and potatoes. With an Irish heritage she loves potatoes, she says.
''I could have gone more fancy, but I wanted to put those good mashes in. I wanted things you could have as a main course as well, because I think we eat too much meat in this country.
"I love meat too, but I think it's so easy to think: 'Should I have lamb, beef, pork or chicken?' and then put vegetables around it, so it was important to have some really great vegetable dishes.''
Since she started writing about food 30 years ago, the availability of ingredients and people's expectations have changed, she said.
''You don't have to be looking for substitutes or be shy of using so much extra virgin olive oil. Everyone used to throw their hands up in horror, and you tried to explain that's what Italians would do, and try to find a compromise. These days I think we can be really authentic with food.''
Biuso has many culinary influences. The youngest of 10 children, she grew up in a family that grew a lot of their own food, so much so that when she went flatting in Auckland she planted her own vegetable gardens in the various places she lived.
''Roast was my [childhood] Sunday lunch thing, but probably more than anything my mother was a really great baker and those tins were filled twice a week.
"On Tuesdays and Thursdays you'd come home from school and that smell - those nuts, all that butter and sugar and all that glorious stuff, that was something I always saw as making a happy home by baking because everyone wanted some of it.
''In a way everything started because I love that feeling deep inside your heart that you just feel so good when you've made something for someone and they love it. When you cook for yourself sometimes it's not as rewarding as when you cook for other people.''
She studied at the Cordon Bleu school in London learning classic French cooking, but she also went to Italy where she met her future husband.
''My eyes were really opened to what real Italian food was. French food is so different from Italian. Think of French, long, slow-simmered, subtle, and you think of Italian, loud and in your face, just a few ingredients. It was a real contrast for me.''
For a while Italian food overshadowed everything else but then she came back to understanding and loving French food, she said.
However, this book includes many influences, including Spanish, Greek and Indian.
''It's probably how most people cook in New Zealand. I think we've absorbed all these things and travelled: it's a mixing pot really, which I love.''
Curried fish
Serves 4
Here's a good mid-week fish meal. Serve with rice.
Ingredients
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 Tbsp grated peeled ginger
¼ tsp chilli powder
¼ tsp ground turmeric
1 Tbsp coriander seeds, crushed
½ tsp fennel seeds
400g can crushed tomatoes
¼ cup water
salt
750g skinned and boned meaty white fish fillets
Spice topping
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
6 stems curry leaves
2 tiny dried bird's-eye chillies, crushed
½ tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp black mustard seeds
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
Method
1) Put onion in a large frying pan with vegetable oil and set pan over gentle heat. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring once or twice, until tender and just turning pale gold in colour. Add garlic, ginger and spices and cook for 1-2 minutes.
2) Add tomatoes, water and a teaspoon of salt and bring to a gentle bubble. Cook gently for 15 minutes, until pulpy.
3) Run your hands along fish fillets while rinsing under running water, checking for bones and scales, then pat dry with paper towels. Cut fillets into large chunks. Tuck them into the tomato sauce, making sure they are covered in sauce. Cook for several minutes, until fish is just cooked through.
4) Meanwhile, make the spice topping. Heat vegetable oil in a small frying pan and add curry leaves, chillies, cumin and mustard seeds and sizzle for 30 seconds, then stir in garlic. Sizzle for 1 more minute, then pour it over curry. Serve immediately.
Spinach pies from Crete
Makes 20
It's important to use a creamy feta for this recipe because very firm feta can tear the pastry when it is rolled into coils
Ingredients
240g baby spinach leaves, trimmed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Bunch slim spring onions, trimmed and sliced
200g creamy feta cheese, crumbled
1 large (size 7) free-range egg, beaten
1 Tbsp chopped mint
2 Tbsp chopped dill
2 Tbsp pine nuts
200g filo pastry
50-70ml olive oil
Yoghurt for serving
Method
1) Wash spinach and dry as best you can in a clean tea towel or with paper towels. Put spinach in a colander and rub 1½ teaspoons of salt through. Leave to soften for 30-45 minutes, tossing once or twice. Wring out excess moisture, chop finely and transfer to a bowl.
2) Preheat oven to 190degC (fanbake). Line a shallow baking dish with baking paper. Add spring onions, feta, egg, herbs, pine nuts and black pepper to taste to spinach.
3) Cut filo sheets in half vertically, then stack and cover with a clean cloth. Working with one piece of filo at a time, and keeping remainder covered with the cloth, brush filo with oil and fold in half lengthways. Put a small line of filling along length of filo, then roll up and gently shape into a coil. Transfer to prepared baking dish, keeping coils pressed closely together to stop them unravelling during baking. Repeat with remaining ingredients.
4) Brush tops of filo coils with a little oil. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve hot or warm with yoghurt.
Read it
Julie Biuso at home, by Julie Biuso, with photography by Aaron McLean.
