Experimental cook: pipis, mussels and ginger slice

Pipi Fritters
You may recall a couple of weeks ago we went pipi picking...and by "we" I mean he. I "watched" the car...and by watched the car,  I mean... did some sun bathing, and avoided the inevitable nail breakage that comes with pipi picking.
Any hoo...the Hubster has developed a very systematic approach to pipi shelling. The pipi sit in a bucket of sea water overnight. And then he steams them open...a small amount at a time... shells them...then steams some more...shells them. It takes a long time. But the result is non rubbery pipi that are just barely cooked.
Good Hubster.

Once they are all shelled...its my turn. I put them in the food processor along with onion, garlic, egg,  fresh parsley, pepper and some lemon zest and juice. I then add little flour to bind right at then end. Spoonfuls are fried in a little vegetable oil in batches until golden brown.

{NZ Pipi fritters with a side salad}

Crumbed NZ Green Lipped Mussels.

I recently read that mussels are really high in Heam Iron content! Like higher than red meat! I found this out here. I've had a bit of iron level trouble so when I read this I was stoked...because when made right...they can be a really yummy dish. Our local New World has them sitting under spraying water and is some what fresh...and on special at $3.50 per kg, it can be quite economical too. The last few times Ive made it, I ve done the white wine creamed recipe, but hubster wanted to try a less mussel tasting dish..so I came up with this. The mussels were cleaned and de-bearded in fresh water. Steamed in a pot until just opened then half shelled. 

In the food processor  blitz a couple of slices of fresh bread, a small onion and parsley to a fine crumb and then add a little olive oil  to moisten. Lay out the mussels on a tray and put spoonfuls on each mussel pressing down slightly to get it to stay on the mussel. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius until crumb  is golden. 

The kids havent quite found the taste for mussels so they had their favourite fish, baked salmon.

{delicious NZ seafood, with a side of bok choy and home made potato chips}

Healthy Ginger Slice.

I was having a friend around for coffee...and I know she loves ginger crunch. I also know she is a dietitian...so I tried to experiment with the recipe to try and healthy it up a little. My go-to site for healthy food (HFG) didn't have a healthy version of it so I tired my own.

The original recipe has a lot of butter in the base, and flour and sugar. So I reduced the flour and butter and added: oats, an egg, and shredded coconut. Instead of white sugar I used brown sugar.
The icing was pretty similar except that my ground ginger was pretty old so I used freshly ground jar ginger.

Overall the base was less "crunchy" and more of a "slice". We all liked it, but I'll tweak it next time to try and make the base a little more crunchy. The dietitian prefers the crunchier ones too but appreciated my efforts to try and make it healthier.

{Ginger Slice}

Any hoo as usual I liked playing around with ingredients to try something new...