‘It's all about getting back to basics, creating simple, tasty fare and thinking about where your food comes from.’ – Angela Redfern

The philosophy of Ripe Recipes is simple: keep it fresh and keep it seasonal. Grey Lynn's Ripe Deli has established a reputation among food lovers for preparing some of the most healthy and flavoursome dishes in town. Now they have put together a collection of their most popular recipes, arranged in seasonal sections, for you to cook at home. Knowing how to cook in season means you will get to feast on the most delicious and economical fare.

Raised in the UK and trained at The Savoy in London, Angela Redfern opened her award-winning Ripe Deli in 2002. Her first book, Ripe Recipes, contains more than 130 of the deli's most popular dishes, arranged by season and with an emphasis on healthy, flavoursome food. From basics like basil pesto through to sticky spare ribs and saucy chocolate pudding, Ripe Recipes offers a unique, contemporary collection of dishes perfect for everyday cooking. Key points: uses fresh, seasonal produce to create the dishes; offers a unique and contemporary range of recipes; features a beautiful blend of illustration and photography complementing the recipes

SAMPLE RECIPES

Smoked Fish and Asparagus Salad (pictured left)
A delicious salad to make with your favourite smoked fish. We use a lot of smoked fish from the Coromandel Smoking Co. Its vacuum packed, a good keeper, and can be bought on-line.

Serve with a big bowl of steaming buttered new potatoes and sweet corn cobs.
Serves 4–6

500g ASPARAGUS SPEARS, trim woody ends and slice in half on an angle
500g of good quality, SMOKED FISH (snapper, trevally, mackerel are good)
½ RED ONION, finely sliced
1 cup (165g) KALAMATA OLIVES
³⁄4 cup of DILL DRESSING (see pg 202)
½ cup of FRESH ITALIAN PARSLEY, roughly chopped
SALT and freshly GROUND BLACK PEPPER
4 EGGS, hard boiled, shelled and quartered
JUICE of 1 LEMON
garnish with FRESH DILL

Bring a saucepan of water to boil and blanch the asparagus for approximately 40 seconds, remove with a slotted spoon and refresh in iced cold water. Drain and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, shred the smoked fish, add the red onion, olives, asparagus, dressing and parsley. Season with salt and pepper and toss gently.

Place on a serving dish and arrange the eggs over the salad. Finish with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and dill to garnish.

Chilli Prawn Spaghetti (pictured left)

This can be served hot or cold. Serve with a fresh salad from The Green Room.
Serves 4

250g dried SPAGHETTI
¼ cup OLIVE OIL
8 cloves GARLIC, peeled and finely sliced
2 fresh RED CHILLIES, finely sliced with seeds removed if a milder taste is preferred, or ½-1 tsp chilli flakes
25g BUTTER
200g FRESH PRAWNS, tail on
1×250g punnet of CHERRY TOMATOES, halved
JUICE and ZEST of 1 LEMON
½ whole PRESERVED LEMON, finely chopped (optional)
SALT and freshly GROUND BLACK PEPPER
1 AVOCADO, skin and stone removed, cut into bite sized wedges
½ cup FRESH ITALIAN PARSLEY, roughly chopped

Cook the spaghetti as per the instructions on the packet and set aside to cool if serving salad cold.

Place the olive oil in a frying pan over a high heat and add the garlic and chilli. Cook for 1 minute taking care not to burn the garlic.

Add the butter and prawns. Cook until they have changed colour. Remove from the heat.

In a large serving bowl place the cooked prawns, spaghetti, cherry tomatoes, lemon juice, lemon zest and preserved lemon. Toss well to combine and season to taste with salt and pepper. dd the avocado wedges, toss through gently. Sprinkle over the parsley and serve.

Ripe Recipes by Angela Redfern-Photography by Sally Greer-Illustrations by Michelle Ineson

About the Author

New Zealand-born Angie Redfern was raised in England. Her career in the hospitality industry blossomed when she earned a work placement at The Savoy in London. She later worked with Tricia Guild at Designers Guild before returning to Auckland and opening the ever-popular Ripe Deli in 2002.

Ripe Recipes is the first cookbook by Angela Redfern – created primarily because her customers kept asking for it! These renowned recipes are based on seasonality because Angie believes that by cooking in season you taste nature’s finest at its best and support local producers at the same time.