I’ve spent three weeks on my ‘Good from Scratch’ cookbook for kids tour.

I often ask the kids what’s the first thing you ever cooked? A lot of the time they come back to me with toast, two minute noodles, scrambled eggs, that sort of thing.

But the other day, a young boy said to me the first thing he ever cooked was a trout I had just caught and then covered in strawberry jam and then hot smoked! 

You wouldn't get that in Auckland, would you!

I've been thinking about it a lot since and have created a recipe that all of NZ can enjoy!

Smoked trevally pikelets with a fennel salad (serves heaps!)

1 smoked trevally fillet

1 large kumara, peeled and grated

2 courgette, grated and strained

1 red onions, finely diced

6 eggs, lightly beaten

4 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

½ cup vegetable oil

1 fennel bulb, finely sliced

2 lemons

1 tsp honey

2 tbsp olive oil

seeds from ½ pomegranate

salt

freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 180*C.

Combine the first seven ingredients in a large bowl. Mix to combine. Shallow fry large spoonful’s of the mix in a little oil until crispy and golden, place onto a baking tray. Place into a hot oven for 5 minutes.

Salad

Slice fennel and place into a bowl of water with the juice of a lemon, leave to soak. In a small jar combine olive oil, a little lemon juice and sugar and shake. Drain the fennel slices and mix in a bowl with pomegranate seeds, toasted seeds and vinaigrette.

To serve

Stack up the pikelets and top with the fennel salad and the toasted seed mix.

Seed mix

1 Tbsp white sesame seeds

1 Tbsp black sesame seeds

1 Tbsp whole linseeds

1 Tbsp hulled buckwheat

1 Tbsp chia seeds

 

In a hot frying pan toast all the seeds until fragrant. Remove from frying pan and set-aside until ready to serve.