Media Release - 8 May 2014
Vegetable Cookbook by Selwyn’s Quickenberry Guesthouse now in Canterbury bookstores
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Parsnip Pie (recipe below)
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Baked beetroot with puff pastry & feta (recipe below)
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An elegant vegetable cookbook released by Selwyn chef Robert Koller late last year is now available in several bookstores around Canterbury.
The Quickenberry Vegetable Cookbook is full of ways to make vegetables special. It brings a lifetime of cooking experience and Robert’s passion for making vegetables interesting into print.
The cookbook has been named after the guesthouse Robert owns with his wife Christine on the grounds of Terrace Downs Golf Resort in the Lake Coleridge High Country. It is one of several high country tourism businesses that operate in the area just one hour from Christchurch.
“The cookbook is full of recipes and stories about food and some bits about ourselves and Quickenberry,” says Robert.
“It has taken many years to collect the ideas and photos, but I’m very pleased with the final product. It’s hardback with glossy pages and pictures, linen bound and with a dust jacket. It makes a beautiful gift for people who love good food,” he says.
Quickenberry Guesthouse specialises in gourmet evening meals and cooking classes for small groups. Guests savour Robert’s cooking after a day exploring the area’s stunning mountains and lakes by car, foot, horseback, jet boat or ski.
Robert and Christine, who are originally from Switzerland and England respectively, have worked in New Zealand hospitality for over 25 years. Before setting up Quickenberry, they owned two successful restaurants, one in Auckland and another in Canterbury. They have won numerous hospitality awards, including having Quickenberry voted Best Lodge in New Zealand by the New Zealand Travel Industry Awards in 2012.
The cookbook is available in Paper Plus in Merivale and Ashburton; at Scorpio Books in Riccarton and at the Restart Mall; and by contacting Quickenberry Lodge (03 318 6566, www.quickenberry.co.nz). It retails for $65.
Two recipes from the Quickenberry Vegetable Cookbook
Parsnip Pie
Makes a nice side dish for a main course.
Ingredients (serves 4)
300g peeled parsnip
1 egg
100ml cream
1 pinch cayenne pepper
⅓ tsp salt
¼ tsp curry powder to serve
4 ramequin dishes lined with baking paper
Cut the parsnip into small pieces and place in a pot or pressure cooker with hot water. Boil until very tender. When soft, process in a food processor. Add the egg, cream, pepper and salt and process until the puree is very smooth. Pour into the ramequin dishes and bake at 170°C for 20 minutes or until set.
Remove from the oven and when cool enough to handle loosen the pies with a knife and upturn onto a baking sheet. Just before serving, reheat in the oven for about 10 minutes, then place on plates and sprinkle with curry powder.
You can triple the recipe and cook in a large cake tin and then cut into wedges to serve 12.
Baked beetroot with puff pastry & feta cheese
Ideal for a small late-summer entrée and can be prepared and assembled well in advance.
Ingredients (serves 4)
For the beetroot
4 small beetroot
50g butter
Salt & pepper to taste
2 small apples
Bake the unpeeled beetroot without any liquid at 200°C until tender. When cool, peel, then cut into thin slices. Toss the slices in 25g melted butter, salt & pepper.
Cut apples into four wedges and then the wedges into thin slices. Fry in 25g melted butter until caramelised.
For the dressing
Mix and set aside:
8 walnuts, roughly chopped
¼ cup olive oil
1 tbsp verjuice
1 tsp cider vinegar
For the onion marmalade
100g onions
20g butter
20g sugar
2 tbsp cider vinegar
⅓ cup dry white wine
1 tbsp manuka honey
Salt & pepper
Slice onions very thinly and fry in butter until soft and slightly golden. Sprinkle sugar over the onions and lightly caramelise. Add the cider vinegar and simmer until reduced completely. Add the wine and honey, cover and cook over low heat until the onions are very soft, then cook uncovered until all the liquid has evaporated. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
To assemble
1 sheet puff pastry, about 2mm thick
1 egg yolk
200g sheep or goat’s milk feta, preferably a log, sliced.
Cut the puff pastry into eight circles of about 6cm in diameter. Four will be the bottom circles and four the top. Brush the top circles lightly with egg yolk.
Place each bottom pastry circle in a ring mould and spread a layer of onion marmalade on it. Follow with a layer of beetroot, then a layer of apple, then a layer of cheese, then a further layer of beetroot, building the dish to a height of about 6cm. Finally top with the other pastry circle.
Remove the ring moulds and bake in the oven until the pastry is golden brown. Spoon the dressing around the beetroot pastries and serve.
For more information:
About the Quickenberry Vegetable Cookbook
Robert Koller
Tel: (03) 318 6566
Email: [email protected]
About the Lake Coleridge High Country
Lyn Nell
Lake Coleridge Tourism Group Chairperson
Tel: 03 318 6889
The Quickenberry Vegetable Cookbook is full of ways to make vegetables special. It brings a lifetime of cooking experience and Robert’s passion for making vegetables interesting into print.
The cookbook has been named after the guesthouse Robert owns with his wife Christine on the grounds of Terrace Downs Golf Resort in the Lake Coleridge High Country. It is one of several high country tourism businesses that operate in the area just one hour from Christchurch.
“The cookbook is full of recipes and stories about food and some bits about ourselves and Quickenberry,” says Robert.
“It has taken many years to collect the ideas and photos, but I’m very pleased with the final product. It’s hardback with glossy pages and pictures, linen bound and with a dust jacket. It makes a beautiful gift for people who love good food,” he says.
Quickenberry Guesthouse specialises in gourmet evening meals and cooking classes for small groups. Guests savour Robert’s cooking after a day exploring the area’s stunning mountains and lakes by car, foot, horseback, jet boat or ski.
Robert and Christine, who are originally from Switzerland and England respectively, have worked in New Zealand hospitality for over 25 years. Before setting up Quickenberry, they owned two successful restaurants, one in Auckland and another in Canterbury. They have won numerous hospitality awards, including having Quickenberry voted Best Lodge in New Zealand by the New Zealand Travel Industry Awards in 2012.
The cookbook is available in Paper Plus in Merivale and Ashburton; at Scorpio Books in Riccarton and at the Restart Mall; and by contacting Quickenberry Lodge (03 318 6566, www.quickenberry.co.nz). It retails for $65.
Two recipes from the Quickenberry Vegetable Cookbook
Parsnip Pie
Makes a nice side dish for a main course.
Ingredients (serves 4)
300g peeled parsnip
1 egg
100ml cream
1 pinch cayenne pepper
⅓ tsp salt
¼ tsp curry powder to serve
4 ramequin dishes lined with baking paper
Cut the parsnip into small pieces and place in a pot or pressure cooker with hot water. Boil until very tender. When soft, process in a food processor. Add the egg, cream, pepper and salt and process until the puree is very smooth. Pour into the ramequin dishes and bake at 170°C for 20 minutes or until set.
Remove from the oven and when cool enough to handle loosen the pies with a knife and upturn onto a baking sheet. Just before serving, reheat in the oven for about 10 minutes, then place on plates and sprinkle with curry powder.
You can triple the recipe and cook in a large cake tin and then cut into wedges to serve 12.
Baked beetroot with puff pastry & feta cheese
Ideal for a small late-summer entrée and can be prepared and assembled well in advance.
Ingredients (serves 4)
For the beetroot
4 small beetroot
50g butter
Salt & pepper to taste
2 small apples
Bake the unpeeled beetroot without any liquid at 200°C until tender. When cool, peel, then cut into thin slices. Toss the slices in 25g melted butter, salt & pepper.
Cut apples into four wedges and then the wedges into thin slices. Fry in 25g melted butter until caramelised.
For the dressing
Mix and set aside:
8 walnuts, roughly chopped
¼ cup olive oil
1 tbsp verjuice
1 tsp cider vinegar
For the onion marmalade
100g onions
20g butter
20g sugar
2 tbsp cider vinegar
⅓ cup dry white wine
1 tbsp manuka honey
Salt & pepper
Slice onions very thinly and fry in butter until soft and slightly golden. Sprinkle sugar over the onions and lightly caramelise. Add the cider vinegar and simmer until reduced completely. Add the wine and honey, cover and cook over low heat until the onions are very soft, then cook uncovered until all the liquid has evaporated. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
To assemble
1 sheet puff pastry, about 2mm thick
1 egg yolk
200g sheep or goat’s milk feta, preferably a log, sliced.
Cut the puff pastry into eight circles of about 6cm in diameter. Four will be the bottom circles and four the top. Brush the top circles lightly with egg yolk.
Place each bottom pastry circle in a ring mould and spread a layer of onion marmalade on it. Follow with a layer of beetroot, then a layer of apple, then a layer of cheese, then a further layer of beetroot, building the dish to a height of about 6cm. Finally top with the other pastry circle.
Remove the ring moulds and bake in the oven until the pastry is golden brown. Spoon the dressing around the beetroot pastries and serve.
For more information:
About the Quickenberry Vegetable Cookbook
Robert Koller
Tel: (03) 318 6566
Email: [email protected]
About the Lake Coleridge High Country
Lyn Nell
Lake Coleridge Tourism Group Chairperson
Tel: 03 318 6889
