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Thoughtful food

Recipes to get you through summer

In Ripe Recipes: Thought for Food, page 39 has the kind of interesting salad one is looking for when they have exhausted the tried and trues. The smoked eggplant hummus salad calls for summer staples: tomatoes, cucumber, kalamata olives and fresh parsley (Italian). It asks you to add sliced almonds, sumac, lemon zest and Dijon mustard, and Samantha Thomson’s recipe suggests you serve it with toasted pita bread or Turkish pide bread.

It’s Angela Redfern’s favourite in her newest book of recipes, a fourth cookbook from her Auckland deli Ripe’s heaviest hitters in the 20 years it’s been open. The book was imagined during lockdown, when businesses were forced shut and Redfern was keen to see something good come out of that time – and had recovered sufficiently enough from her previous three cookbooks to conceive of doing another. From ‘‘never again’’ to ‘‘let’s give it another go’’, she says.

Ripe Recipes: Thought for

Food initially dedicates itself to all that is wonderful about summer eating: bottling pickles and preserves and designing those unique salads with fresh, crunchy ingredients. By the time you work through them all it’ll be autumn and you can launch into the ‘‘cooler weather’’ section.

There, you’ll encounter Use It Up Mexican Stew, a recipe in the spirit of the book’s dedication to sustainability, an area which Redfern has steadily been applying herself over the years, culminating in a three-year sustainability plan for the deli.

Redfern writes about this in her foreword, and there are also handy tips about choosing sustainable fish, and avoiding food wastage. For example, using oft-discarded broccoli stalks in a pesto (Broccoli Pesto Pasta, p142), or making alternative suggestions (no buffalo bocconcini in your roasted cherry tomato salad? No problem, try mozzarella or burrata instead). There’s even Veggie Nums Nums which batters and fries stray vegetables like carrot, cabbage and sprouts and then dips them in sauce.

Redfern is keen to praise loyal and longtime staff, including creative director Amy Melchior, and the many of whom crafted the recipes in the book - who she says have been key to Ripe’s success. Ripe Deli was launched in 2001 on Ponsonby’s Richmond Rd, after Redfern noticed a dearth of options for home-style quality takeaway food.

England-raised Redfern

brought with her cooking experience from The Savoy in London. Since then she has opened two other stores. She writes that Ripe has become about more than good food; it’s become about social responsibility.

But Redfern admits her own efforts to break habits and become more thoughtful are still a work in progress. ‘‘I tend to get to the supermarket on autopilot, without much of a plan, or questions about whether I really need that.’’

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2022-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282003266436536

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