The Little Grocer
311 Richmond Road
Grey Lynn, Auckland
Tel. (09) 962 6711
Yummy yum yum yum.
Today from The Little Grocer we had two cinnamon buns, two lattes, one handmade plum iceblock, two delicious homegrown lemons and a rage against the machine badge that Astrid decided she wanted.
We have been very excited about The Little Grocer ever since we discovered on our return to Auckland. The first day we went was a Sunday before Summer and there was a most delightful table setting just brimming with super sweet deliciousness which we swore we’d return to photograph. One day we will.
But today’s treat, apart from the rage against the machine badge for a dollar, was Astrid’s amazing organic coromandel plum iceblock. Oh! It was a new experience, pulverised perfect plums, frozen. We’ll be back tomorrow for more we will.
And the cinnamon buns were delicious, two shared between the four of us. And the cheapest sweet option at $3.50. Lots of lovely things to look at while we waited for our lattes; little paper masks for a dollar each (but Astrid definitely wanted the rage against the machine badge more than a zebra mask, even more than a tiger mask), a big stack of the Ponsonby News, yummy cinnamon bread and butter pudding (oh!), pesto, a selection of old fashioned sweets, and urns for putting in your predictions, sage pieces of advice, or random scribblings.
The word of the week began with an ‘f’ and was about twenty letters long. I forgot to write my prediction, even though I meant to write, “look under the carpet for the missing DVDs”. Sound advice that is.
Sound, like The Little Grocer. A little piece of magic well and truly. We love you The Little Grocer. Oh yes indeed we do.
Filed in Bakery and Cakes, Cheeses, Fresh produce, Greater Auckland, Organic
Raspberry and Ricotta Muffins
Based on a Donna Hay recipe these swap out spelt flour and ground nuts for the white flour, and ricotta for the sour cream.
Here, therefore, is the new recipe;
Make sure you don’t overwork the mixture – just like scones, these always come out better if you mix only until just combined.
Measure the flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add the sugar and stir to combine. In a separate bowl place the ricotta, eggs, lemon rind and oil and whisk until smooth.
Stir through the flour mixture until just combined. Add the raspberries and stir just once.
Spoon into 12 x ½ cup-capacity (125ml) non-stick muffin tins or silicone cases until ⅔ full.
Bake for 15 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.
Turn muffins out and cool on a wire rack or wooden bread board.
Filed in Recipes
Cherry and ricotta breakfast panacotta
Cream-free ricotta and yoghurt panacotta
The brief: to use up an enormous jar of Bonne Maman Cherry Compote that I’d opened, eaten a bit once for breakfast and then it became the weekdays when I eat breakfast at work and therefore I had to use it up before it went off because chances were I wasn’t going to be eating it for breakfast anytime soon.
Was it going to be a cherry and apple pie? Well, no it wasn’t. Because the nice people at Perfect Italiano had sent us some ricotta and we were going to figure out how to do a ricotta panacotta instead.
Basing our recipe on a Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall one, and a Nigel Slater one we came up with our own version, without cream.
And it set in our only bowl we currently have – a great big one – no ramekins here for now – just one great big panacotta jelly! Edith, our one year old had two little bowls for breakfast and one for dinner.
Recipe for Cherry Ricotta Breakfast Panacotta
Gently heat the milk but do not boil. Add gelatine to hot milk and stir the gelatine in well with a whisk or wooden fork. Once the gelatine has dissolved whisk in the icing sugar until smooth. Keeping a very low heat stir in the yoghurt, ricotta and vanilla essence. Stir for a minute or two until smooth.
Remove from heat and add the cherries. If you wanted a smooth panacotta you could blend the cherries first and also strain the mixture (I didn’t as we don’t have a seive right now and the kids were asleep so I didn’t want to use the food processor either).
Pour into ramekins or jelly moulds – or, do as I did and pour it all into a bowl, cover with cling film and leave overnight in the fridge to set.
This would probably also be amazing frozen.
Filed in Recipes
We Love Pies!
Oh my goodness, do we ever. We love I love pies.
We tried three I love pies pies; Angus Beef Mince and Mozzarella Cheese, Smoked Fish in a Creamy Béchamel Sauce and Free Range Chicken Leek & Mustard.My absolute favourite that was the best ever pie I have ever ever ever eaten was the Chicken and Leek. Oh! It was dusted with semolina and oh so crispy and perfect.We could taste the vegetables, each and every last one.
Kevin’s favourite was of course the Angus Beef Mince. And Astrid was pretty keen on that too. It tasted beautifully handmade, home made, hand crafted. And it really was made with love, not just made up love.
The smoked fish pie froze well and we had that when we came back from Rarotonga. And it tasted very very good. Now that’s saying a lot because we ate fresh mahi mahi every day in Rarotonga and I can’t eat fish now. Except for the Smoked Fish pie. And fresh Rarotongan mahi mahi. So it was excellent fish and it lasted us three meals. And it even had little delicious surprise capers inside. Yum!
Overall we just adored I love Pies. They’re proper quality pies. Proper, real food. Because they are so beautifully made, with all the right ingredients they’re around $18.99. So while we won’t be eating them every day (we probably could if we were still in London), we know they’ll be a very reliable, delicious and welcome treat.
Filed in Bakery and Cakes
J Friend & Co Honey
www.jfriend.co.nz
Mmmmm. These beautiful little jars of honey have been appearing in all sorts of places of late so without hesitation we bought Viper’s Bugloss – a plant we know from France where it’s called Viperine.Gorgeous gorgeous honey, a delightful treat for us and even more so for the children. There’s site’s chock full of information including info on the different honeys, their philosophy, their organic certification and tracing your jar.
Filed in Organic
NZ’s favourite recipe
Entries close this weekend for NZ’s favourite recipe. And there’s 17 days left to vote for your favourite. Sharlene from Forrest Hill’s doing pretty well – she’s got two in the top ten. Go Sharlene!
There are over 2,000 recipes and loads of people have already visited the site and voted.
Have your say today!
Filed in Bakery and Cakes, Recipes
Brown Sugar Kitchen update
267 Ponsonby Rd, Ponsonby, Auckland
Tel. 09-360 0593
They’ve changed their name. Not quite sure why. But now they’re called Sugar Brown’s Bakehouse. Hmm. Well, whatever they’re called, we have discovered a little secret. Go at five to five on a Saturday (and possibly other days too) and cakes are all two for one.
Filed in Bakery and Cakes