Since New Zealand is in the southern hemisphere, their harvest occurs six months earlier than it happens in vineyards in, say, California. So if you’re shopping in September, you may notice that they’re already selling this year’s wines!

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It is very common to find wines from New Zealand sold with screwcaps, also known as Stelvin closures. In fact, about 95% of all New Zealand wine is sealed this way. Why would a producer shy away from cork? The answer is 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, or TCA for short. Often transferred to wine through cork closures, this compound imparts aromas and flavors of wet cardboard and musty basement. Not too appetizing, right? The screw cap closure ensures that winemakers aren’t literally pouring their hard work down the drain. New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc has the classic herbaceousness of the grape—you might taste a little bell pepper and jalapeño—combined with ripe fruit: think passion fruit and pink grapefruit. These wines are also often compared to gooseberries—small, green fruits that have a burst of tartness just like the wine.

I also picked up a container of the blueberry, which, compared to the strawberry-rhubarb, is more about the fruit. I appreciated the visible bits of blueberry in the topping and its authentic berry flavor. Still, given how much I like the yogurt on its own, I found myself wishing that I hadn’t already swirled it all in. Going forward, I’ll seek out the Honey flavor, which I assume is their equivalent of plain.

In short, I found that I do indeed have room in my heart for more yogurt. Especially when that yogurt is totally awesome and blows so many of the new, misguided “Greek yogurts” away. Open your oven door as little as possible. Temperature changes causes the meringue to crack, and letting cold air from outside the oven will do just that. If cracks happen, the meringue will still be tasty, but less pretty.
If the pavlova is starting to brown at all, reduce your oven temperature by 25 degrees. The ideal pavlova is totally pale, which usually means a gooey marshmallow interior.

When you subsequently grind those chickpeas, form them into balls, and dunk them in hot oil, the combination of intense heat from the frying oil and the internal moisture already present in the soaked beans helps the falafel cook through in record time. It only takes about four minutes (which is, coincidentally, just the amount of time you need to get those exteriors crisp).
Because the soaked and ground chickpeas still have plenty of uncooked starch in them, they bind together quite well even without the aid of flour. Still, they can be a little bit crumbly. The trick is to grind them, then let the ground mixture rest for about 15 minutes in order for the excess starch to seep out of it, making it easier to form coherent balls.

After browning the first side, I flip them over and brown them on the second.
As soon as they come out of the fryer, I sprinkle them with salt. (It clings much better to hot foods than foods that have cooled even a little.)

So how do the chickpeas cook if you don’t boil them? you might be thinking. I was thinking that the first several times I made falafel with this method. The trick is to remember that cooking beans is a two-step process. One step is adding water (hydration), while the second step is adding heat (actual cooking). To get tender, cooked chickpeas, you need to complete both steps. But nobody ever said they have to be done at the same time.

Just as I’ve found that pasta can be hydrated and cooked in two distinct steps, so can beans. I weighed batches of chickpeas that I’d soaked in water overnight against those that I’d soaked and then cooked in order to gauge how much additional water gets taken up during the boiling phase. I discovered that by the time the chickpeas have soaked in water overnight, they’ve actually absorbed pretty much all of the liquid they’re ever going to absorb.

10 Bottles to Try
Spy Valley 2014 Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough)
Old Coach Road 2014 Sauvignon Blanc (Nelson)
Palliser Estate 20013 Pinot Noir (Martinborough)
Spy Valley 2012 Pinot Noir (Marlborough)
Siefried 2013 ‘Sweet Agnes’ Riesling (Nelson)
Two Paddocks 2011 Pinot Noir (Central Otago)
Mission Estate Winery 2011 Syrah (Hawke’s Bay)
Kumeu River 2007 Estate Chardonnay (Kumeu, Auckland)
Craggy Range 2011 ‘Te Kahu’ Merlot Blend (Gimblett Gravels, Hawke’s Bay)
Cloudy Bay 2010 ‘Te Koko’ Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough)
Staring at the New Zealand section of your local wine shop, you’re likely to see a lot of Sauvignon Blanc and maybe a few wines over $25—and all of them have screw caps instead of corks. Sauvignon Blanc was a popular premiere, but the New Zealand wine industry has released its sophomore album, and it deserves hit status. Featuring Chardonnay, Pinot, Noir, and more, this small island nation’s wines are ready for you to take notice. Today we’ll introduce you to the area and the different types of wines you’ll find coming from New Zealand.

The New Zealand wine industry is still in its infancy compared to much of the rest of the wine world. While vines have been on the island for over 150 years, for most of that time the industry was stymied by a temperance movement and phylloxera (an insect that devastated vineyards all over the world in the 19th and 20th centuries). But in the last 15 years, New Zealand’s wine scene has exploded. Plantings of Sauvignon Blanc alone have increased almost five and a half times since 2002.

What do New Zealand wines taste like? For me, the common thread is a sense of freshness, whether you’re drinking a crisp Sauvignon Blanc or a powerful Cabernet Sauvignon blend. Most of the vineyards are never too far from the cooling effect of the ocean, preserving acidity in the wines—this brightness leaves you ready for more after each sip.

New Zealand is what what we call a ‘new world’ wine region. Old world wines come from places like France, Italy, Germany, and Spain. When you look at bottles from the Old World, you’re more likely to see a place—a country, a region, or a vineyard—than a grape variety on the label. This practice comes from a long tradition of focusing on place rather than grape—and very strict rules about what you’re allowed to grow where. For example, when we talk about white wine from Sancerre in France, we know it is Sauvignon Blanc without saying it. But in New Zealand, the rules are a little looser, and the grape name will be front and center. When you buy a bottle, you know that at least 85% of the wine is made in the year and from the grape on the label—but that’s about it.

BLACK POWDER SOUP
MATERIALS
BLACK POWDER SOUP
500g Fresh black mulberry
500ml White wine
200g granulated sugar
½ teaspoon Powdered vanilla
30g Butter
30ml Vodka
PREPARATION OF
Put all the ingredients except butter and vodka in a pan and heat over low heat.
Pull it with a hand blender and pass it through a fine strainer.
Add the butter and vodka and mix.
After tanning, sprinkle cinnamon chips on it.
MATERIALS
CINEMA CRUM
2 teaspoons cinnamon powder
100g Flour
100g Butter
100g Almond Powder
100g granulated sugar
PREPARATION OF
Preheat the Grundig oven to 175 degrees.
Pull all the ingredients in the food processor and spread them on the baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.
Bake for 15 minutes in your heated oven.
After removing it from the oven, crumble and cool.
MATERIALS
NOTE: 1 DESSERT SPOON = 5 ML

ALACA SOUP
MATERIALS
50 g Chickpeas
70 g Kavılca bulgur
50 g Malkara lentils
1 Medium onion
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
1 tablespoon of pepper paste
2 tablespoons of dry tarragon
5 dried red bell peppers
1.5 liters of broth
4 tablespoons of olive oil
100 g Strained yogurt
50 g Yoghurt
1/2 lemon peel
1 tablespoon of plain oil
PREPARATION OF
Soak the chickpeas overnight. Boil the bulgur, chickpeas and lentils in separate pots.

Finely dice the onion and fry in a large pot with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the tomato paste and roast for 2 more minutes.

Add boiled legumes and half the bed. Chop the bell peppers into large cubes and add them.

Heat the broth and add it to the pot. Cook on a low heat until the peppers are soft and the pulses absorb the broth, resulting in a thick soup.

Grate the zest of lemon in a bowl. Mix it with yoghurts and set aside.

Heat the ghee with the remaining olive oil and tarragon.

Add 1 spoon of yoghurt mixture and warmed plain oil to the soup you take on the plate.