With all the wonderful produce on offer at the market it is only natural for us to come up with great recipes for you to try out at home. Every recipe either features a product from a stall at the market or has been a feature of one of the cooking demonstrations.

We would love to hear from you with your favourite recipes using products from the market.

Please send them into us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and will will put some of them onto the website.

Happy Cooking

MARIA’S LENTILS WITH CHORIZO

(LENTEJAS CON CHORIZO)

Recipe by María Olabe -Featured Product from Mariano’s Chorizo, Serves 6

Ingredients

300-400g Mariano’s Chorizo sausage, 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped, 3 spring onions, finely chopped

2 sticks of celery, sliced, 1 carrot, peeled and sliced, 8 baby potatoes, peeled and quartered

500ml porcini or chicken stock heated (preferably porcini broth)

300ml hot water, 400g green lentils, salt and pepper

Method

Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a large pot, add the fresh vegetables and sauté for 2-3 minutes.

Remove the chorizo and crumble the meat into the pot, sauté for another 2-3 minutes.

Add half of the hot broth and the lentils and stir to a gentle simmer, cover and cook for 10 minutes then add the rest of the broth and the hot water, cover and cook for a further 15 minutes. Taste for seasoning. 

Remove the pot from the heat and leave it to rest a few minutes

Serve with a fresh crusty bread to mop up the juices.

NB: Turns this to a delicious soup by increasing the hot water to 500ml.

Featured Product From: Waipara West Winery

500gm strong white flour (high grade),  2 tsp yeast

Sea salt – 2 good pinches,  Caster sugar – small palm full

Warm water 350ml,  Sweet black grapes from Waipara west stall

Place everything apart from the grapes into bowl and mix with wooden spoon, turn out onto floured bench then knead, knead, knead for a good 5 minutes, have some flour on hand if the mixture is still too wet and throw in a small handful at a time until mixture stops sticking to bench.

Really streeeeeetch the dough away from you, fold back on itself, turn 90 degrees and repeat, get into the rhythm and really give a good knead, the more the better. Once it is all soft and springy place into floured bowl, cover and leave in warm place for 30 – 45min

Take out and give a good bash to knock it around, throw in the grapes a handful at a time and slowly knead to ‘hide’ the grapes, repeat until all but a handful of grapes have been incorporated. Place into large oiled baking tray and spread out prodding holes with your finger into the dough, pop in the remaining grapes in the holes, splash a good glug of olive oil all over and sprinkle over extra caster sugar

Bake at 220 for 35 – 45 min until nice & golden and it has a hollow sound to it when knocked on the underside

Devour with nothing but good butter and a glass of your favourite wine, bellisimo!

Feastured during the Westwood Chicken Festival Event

2 tsp cumin seeds           1 chilli

100 ml lemon juice         1 red onion

4 cloves garlic                1 tsp good smoked paprika - available from Mercato

1 tsp black pepper         1 tsp cinnamon

250 ml olive oil               1 handful flat leaf parsley

Good pinch sea salt        1 handful fresh coriander leaves

Note every ingredient is essential, don’t leave anything out or adjust! Simply blend everything together in a food processer, pour over meat, fish etc, and leave for a minimum of 30min (longer the better)