Bring the Good Vibes to your kitchen 😃
My debut cookbook, Good Vibes, and some magic recipes for mandarin season
Kia ora friends,
I’ve got some major news to share this week - I wrote a cookbook!!
As some of you may have seen on instagram, my debut cookbook, Good Vibes: Eat well with feel-good flavours is out in August 2023 and you can pre-order a copy online now!
Good Vibes has been years in the making - to write a fully realised cookbook has been a 10-year dream of mine, ever since the early Scarfie Kitchen days (bit of a throwback, IYKYK) when I first started creating recipes in my university flat. I joined forces with my amazing publisher HarperCollins NZ at the beginning of 2022 and it’s been such an adventure creating this book to share with you all. It’s packed full of positivity, colour, and feel-good recipes, with veg-forward ingredients and exciting flavours to bring deliciousness to your kitchen in a modern and accessible way. I’ve tried to make the recipes adventurous but approachable, and there’s something for everyone, with almost 120 recipes including seasonal vegetarian, vegan + GF options for any eaters (plus some next-level sweet recipes too!).
So why is it called Good Vibes? I wanted a title that captures the essence of what my cooking is all about - celebrating the food and flavours that make us feel good, and developing positive relationships with ourselves, friends and whānau through the cooking and eating of kai. Good Vibes also explores the connection between food, flavour and feeling, and how different flavours can impact our mood. Each chapter of the book focuses on the feeling and intention that your food should bring; the good vibes to channel as you cook.
This book has been such a team effort, from my extraordinary photographer Aaron McLean, to the entire team at HarperCollins NZ (particularly my amazing editor Holly) and the incredible design/cover work by George Saad. A number of NZ ceramicists also contributed their beautiful work for the food photography. Most importantly though, I want to thank all of you for supporting my food writing and endeavours to reach this milestone, whether you’ve been there from day one or only recently started following my cooking escapades. I hope this book brings all the good vibes to your kitchen.
A couple of quick Q+A about the book:
When will the book be available in bookstores?
Good Vibes will be published in New Zealand and Australia on 2nd August, 2023.
Is the book available internationally?
International orders are available online through Mighty Ape for most countries (excluding UK). It will be available in some bookstores in the UK/US/Canada early 2024.
Why should I pre-order?
Pre-orders are important in the book world - it gives the book more visibility and encourages booksellers to buy more copies of the book - so the good vibes can reach everyone!
WIll there be a book tour, can I order a signed copy?
I am currently planning some events for the month of August following publication of the book, in both the North + South Island. More details to come, but I’ll be available to sign copies of the book at these events!
Stay tuned, as there’ll be some more info, and possibly a couple of cheeky recipe previews closer to release. Be sure to share the Good Vibes with your friends and whānau!
We’re coming to the end of May, and I don’t know about you, but I find the autumn fruiting season is almost as exciting as the bounty that summer brings. We’ve come to the last days of feijoas, but late autumn/early winter fruits like tamarillos, limes and persimmons are arriving on the scene, as well as everyone’s favourite, the mandarin! As such, I thought it would be fun this week to celebrate this juicy orange fruit in all its delicious glory with some flavour-packed seasonal mandarin recipes.
We often think of salads as being a staple of summer, but it’s more important than ever in the colder months to try and boost your nutrition with fruits and vegetables to energise and brighten your mood. Mandarins make an excellent addition to your salad game, bringing juicy sweetness, freshness and zing for a party in your mouth. My recipe for Roasted beet, kale + hazelnut salad with mandarin-thyme dressing is winter salad at its best - earthy roasted beetroot and tender massaged kale leaves layered with jewel-like mandarin slices, salty feta (leave out or substitute with vegan cheese to make this recipe vegan), crunchy hazelnuts and a winning mandarin and thyme dressing. Super easy, super good.
This time of year often calls for simplicity in the kitchen. We all need those go-to, quick and easy, one-pot wonder meals to throw together on a busy weeknight. It’s been a while since I’ve shared a meat-based recipe in the newsletter, and this recipe for Mandarin + kaffir lime baked chicken orzo is easy flavour at its best. There’s nothing conventional about it - Italian orzo pasta, lime, coconut and mandarin don't usually hang out together - but it's funky delicious!
That’s enough from me for this fortnight. Stay warm.
Happy cooking,
Alby xx
This week’s MOOD BOOSTER
Sicilian mandarin, pistachio + poppy seed cakes
These individual cakes are made in the style of the traditional Sicilian orange cake, with whole mandarins boiled and blitzed in their entirety to form the base of the more-ish gluten-free delights.
makes 16 muffin-sized cakes or 10 individual mini Bundts (pictured)
Ingredients:
Cake batter
400g seedless mandarins (about 5 mandarins)
150g pistachio kernels
100g ground almonds
100g caster sugar
100g soft brown sugar
30g poppy seeds
4 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cardamom
¼ tsp salt
To decorate
200g mascarpone
finely grated zest of 1 mandarin
1 tbsp freshly squeezed mandarin juice
1 tbsp maple syrup
pistachio kernels, finely chopped
Method:
First prepare the mandarins. Place the mandarins in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover with a lid and simmer for 40 minutes, at which point the skin and flesh will have softened. Drain the water, remove any stems, and set aside to cool a little.
Preheat the oven to 150°C fan-forced (or 170°C conventional). Grease 16 regular muffin tins or 10 mini Bundt tins with oil.
To make the batter, using a food processor, blitz the pistachio kernels until finely ground and transfer to a bowl. To the food processor, add the boiled mandarins and blitz until relatively smooth. Add the ground pistachios and remaining ingredients to the food processor and blitz together until well combined to form a smooth cake batter studded with poppy seeds.
Spoon the batter into the prepared tins, so they are about three-quarters full. Bake for 20-25 minutes if using muffin tins or 25-30 minutes if using mini Bundt tins, until a skewer inserted into the cakes comes out clean. Set aside to cool completely at room temperature before running a knife around the edges to loosen, carefully removing from the tins and turning upside down.
To decorate, in a medium bowl, whisk together the mascarpone, mandarin zest, juice and maple syrup until smooth. Spread or pipe the mascarpone on top of each cake and sprinkle with chopped pistachios.
Best of the season this fortnight (NZ)
Mandarins
Limes
Broccoli
Kale
Apples
Early leeks
Persimmons
Kitchen music of the moment
It’s been hard not to be on a Eurovision music buzz the past couple of weeks, and in light of Sweden’s Loreen becoming the first double-winner, I’ve been jamming out to her original winning song from 2012, Euphoria (it’s great workout music).
Less pop and more Indie vibes, 19-year-old Australian merci, mercy has snuck onto my On Repeat playlist this past week. There’s something particularly soothing about her voice. Her song Something You Like is a current favourite.
Interesting reads
Answers to the mandarin-clementine-tangerine conundrum
Are the origins of ‘mandarin’ actually Chinese?
Try this mandarin Queen of Puddings recipe from Anna Jones
It’s a vibe. How the word gained popularity and meaning in modern culture.
I heard there’s a book coming out that may be life-changing and you should definitely order 😂