In My Kitchen

Posted on February 1, 2012

The lovely Celia who blogs over at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, makes sure each month I share my kitchen with you! It is a great way for me to keep track of just how much I buy

But first, here are green beans from my garden. If it were not for Celia, I would not have planted these. But I got garden envy from all the lovely things she is growing and I decided to stop waiting for the house to be finished and get planting.

Dave moved my LG light oven by putting in a suspended shelf. It is a bit high for me, but the gain in counter top space is worth having to stand on my tippy toes to work the dial.

© lg oven on shelf suspended from ceiling

So now I have moved my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer to under the oven, next to my kettle and toaster (note Celia – we love Breville appliances in our home)

Dave’s espresso machine has been moved to where the Kitchen Aid was giving me a bit more space and, I can easily use the machine as it is at a better level for me.

For my birthday in July I got a blue Le Creuset spoon. As my kitchen is red, I kept it aside until I could get it swapped out.

I love cookie cutters and I use them often for making ravioli. Here are my new heart shaped ones:

in my fridge you will find the unusual ingredient of fresh milk – used to make lots of ice cream over December and January holidays.

I found this lovely proverb which is so apt, as we eat a lot of fish.

Wishing you all an amazing February

Tandy
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Ready Steady Cook

Posted on January 31, 2012

I want to thank all the bloggers who took part in this challenge. I was not going to take part, but Paula was going to have her ingredient list ‘orphaned’ so I decided to participate. I love making food with a random set of ingredients and so this challenge is a pleasure for me. Paula challenged me to use the following 7 ingredients:

fresh spinach
fish – fresh or frozen, freshwater or saltwater
berries – fresh or frozen
cheese – Gruyere or Emmentaler
portabello mushrooms
quinoa
turnips, parsnips or rutabaga – or any combination of the three

Together with the 7 ingredients, I had devised quite an extensive pantry list of ingredients the participants could use – based on the original challenge I did, and I asked each blogger to add an ingredient. These were as follows:

Milk/Cream
Eggs
Flour (or a flour substitute)
Lemons
Garlic
Ginger
Chillies
Fresh Herbs
Dried Herbs
Dried Spices
Sugar (or a sugar substitute)
Butter/margarine
Salt
Pepper
Oil – any of your choice
Vinegar
Pasta / Noodles / Rice
Tinned Tomatoes
Tinned Chickpeas
Chocolate / Cacao
Stock

For starters I decided to do a turnip and spinach soup. This was easy, and perfect for the night I decided to make my ready steady cook meal, as the heatwave had broken and it was raining.

TURNIP AND SPINACH SOUP

ingredients:

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 large turnip cut up into a large dice

1 cup stock

1 cup water

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning

80g baby spinach

method:

heat the oil over a medium heat in a soup pot

add the turnips and stir well, until they are starting to cook

add the stock, the water, the nutmeg and the seasoning

bring to the boil, reduce the heat and cover and simmer for 30 minutes

blend until smooth

add the spinach and bring back to the boil

blend again, adjust the seasoning and serve

TURNIP AND SPINACH SOUP PRINTABLE VERSION

My side dish for the main course was easy to prepare. I chose the biggest portabello mushrooms I could find and I chose a locally manufactured Gruyere cheese. The cheesery is less than 100km’s from us and they make a really nice selection of cheeses. I added the rest of my spinach to these and came up with a really good side dish, which could be served as a starter.

MUSHROOMS WITH SPINACH AND GRUYERE

ingredients:

2 portabello mushrooms, stalks removed

100g baby spinach

2 cloves garlic, crushed

salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning

a pinch of nutmeg

30g Gruyere, grated

10g butter

olive oil for drizzling

method:

preheat the oven to 180° Celsius

wilt the spinach with the garlic and season

set aside to cool

squeeze out the excess liquid and add the nutmeg

chop finely and mix in the cheese

place the butter into a frying pan and cook the top of the mushroom

drizzle the bottom (ribbed side) with olive oil and season

distribute the spinach mix into each mushroom

bake for 10 minutes

MUSHROOMS WITH SPINACH AND GRUYERE PRINTABLE VERSION

For my main course I chose hake – a soft white fish that is fished for off the coast in False Bay. These come directly from the company that fishes for them. I have never used quinoa before and so the night before, I made up some to go with our meal. This is a low GI grain with an unusual taste and texture – and Dave loves it. We are quite addicted to Chopped and so I used the the program for my inspiration here. I took the quinoa and ground it up to ‘bread’ the fish with. It added a great texture to this soft fish, and I am going to do this again.

QUINOA COATED HAKE GOUJONS

ingredients:

¼ cup flour

salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning

1 egg, beaten

¼ cup quinoa

½ teaspoon coriander seeds

½ teaspoon salt

1 hake fillet, sliced into goujons

15g butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

method:

season the flour

grind the quinoa together with the coriander seeds and the ½ teaspoon salt

pat dry your fish

set up a breading station and place the fish first into the flour, then into the egg and finally into the quinoa

heat the butter and the oil in a large frying pan

cook the fish one minute per side, skin side down first

QUINOA COATED HAKE GOUJONS PRINTABLE VERSION

After such a healthy starter and main course, a decadent dessert was in order. I made a Swiss roll that has me thinking about other options with the base. Raspberries and blackberries were on special and so I bought a punnet of each, knowing the colours would be great in contrast to the chocolate base, and whipped cream centre.

CHOCOLATE AND BERRY SWISS ROLL

adapted from James Martin BBC Hands On Workshop

ingredients:

for the Swiss roll:

2 eggs

55g caster sugar – I used fructose

50g self raising flour

5g cacao and more for dusting

for the filling:

125mls cream

24 assorted berries

method:

for the Swiss roll:

preheat the oven to 180° Celsius

line a small Swiss roll tin with baking paper

whisk together the eggs and the sugar until they are light, fluffy and thickened

sieve together the flour and the cacao

fold the flour into the eggs until well combined

pour the batter into the tin and smooth the top with a spatula

bake for 8 – 10 minutes – watch from 8 minutes as you want a skewer to come out clean and you don’t want the surface to crust

place a piece of baking paper on your work surface that is larger than the Swiss roll

dust lightly with cacao

turn the sponge out onto the baking paper and then peel the baking paper gently off the exposed side of the sponge

set aside to cool slightly

whisk the cream until stiff

spread the cream over the sponge, leaving a 2cm gap along one of the long sides

on the long side that has the cream to the bottom, place a row of berries

and then place a second row quite close to the first one

starting at this edge, use the baking paper to roll up the sponge to form the Swiss roll

make sure you press tightly to encase the filling

CHOCOLATE AND BERRY SWISS ROLL PRINTABLE VERSION

Tandy

To see what all the lovely challengers did, click the linky below

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The Versatile Blogger Award – take five

Posted on January 29, 2012

My cup runneth over! Natalie, who blogs at What We Ate Today has awarded me

This is the fifth time I am getting this award and I really am grateful. I love reading Natalie’s blog to see what she had for her meals!

The conditions for this award are:

You must thank the person who awarded you by linking back to their post
You have to list 7 interesting things about yourself
You have to pass the award on to 15 other new or newly discovered blogs

More trivial information about me: (and if I have repeated any, apologies)

My scars include a scratch on my knee from Nursery School when my best friend Roz and I ran away. We got as far as her Dad’s office which was on the same grounds as the school
I have assisted in a laser surgery to fix someone’s sight and it was the most amazing thing to be a part of
I have finally conquered my trepidation of making panna cotta and I am not sure why I waited so long
We are planning our trip to Italy for 2013
I am planning on adding kidneys to the list of ingredients to try this year
I am building a tortoise sanctuary for Stanley who keeps getting attacked by Molly
I want to grow a sustainable garden when the builders are done

For now, I am not passing this along. As I discover new blogs during the year I will do so! But I think the people on my blog roll are all so versatile, so please click the link on my tool bar and pick just one new blog to visit today – tell them Tandy sent you and maybe you will make a new friend

Tandy

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Fresh From The Oven: Tangzhong

Posted on January 28, 2012

The year has started with an interesting challenge for those of us who participate in Fresh from the Oven. This month, Silvia and Ivan from mushitza set the challenge and it was for a bread I have never heard of before. In fact, I am not sure how one even pronounces this? A real challenge indeed. The challenge continued throughout the bread making process. The cooking of the tangzhong took me 45 minutes of stirring and with my sublocated rib, this was a challenge indeed. The next challenge was the issue of room temperature. The Western Cape has been in the throws of a heat wave, and the room temperature in my house has been over 30 Deg Celsius – too hot for anything and not at all what Europeans would consider room temperature. Following that challenge, my tangzhong only weighed in at 85g and I needed 120g for the recipe, plus extra for glazing. I was worried the bread would not work out – but it did, so that challenge was achieved. Then, I did not have a loaf tin – I had forgotten to buy one and made the bread in my cake tin. This worked for the bread, but as the top rose so nicely, it does not cut perfectly. I am off today to get a loaf tin. The recipe below is my adaption of the one we were given.

TANGZHONG BREAD

ingredients:

for the tangzhong:

30g flour

150mls cold water

for the bread:

125mls milk

5g instant yeast

350g bread flour

55g sugar – I used fructose

5g salt

120g tangzhong – or less if that is what yours makes

1 egg

30g butter, melted and cooled

for glazing:
the rest of the tangzhong or milk, if yours does not make more than 120g

method:

for the tangzhong:

whisk together the flour and the cold water until there are no lumps

cook over low heat, stirring all the time, until the temperature reaches 65º Celsius

allow the tangzhong to cool down at room temperature before using it

for the bread:

dissolve the yeast in the milk

combine the flour, sugar and salt

add the milk, tangzhong and the egg

use a stand mixer equipped with the dough hooks to mix all the ingredients into a soft dough

add in the butter

knead in the mixer for 25 minutes

to test if the dough is ready: take a small piece of dough and stretch it to a very thin membrane before it tears

cover the bowl and leave it to prove for one hour

knock the dough back on a lightly floured surface

give it a quick knead just to let the gas escape, then form it as desired

transfer to buttered loaf pan for bread or a lined sheet pan for rolls

cover with cling film and allow to prove for one hour

preheat the oven to 180º Celsius

brush on the rest of the tangzhong or the milk

bake for 25 minutes until nicely golden

remove from the pan and allow to cool completely before slicing

TANGZHONG BREAD PRINTABLE VERSION

Tandy

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Garlic

Posted on January 27, 2012

My plan for this year was to post my herb / spice post on a Wednesday – but this week I was so busy I pushed through a post I had ready to go in my draft folder. Not wanting to miss out a week, here is the post!

Garlic is divided into two groups: softnecks which contain all the common garlic varieties; and hardnecks which contain the remarkable serpent garlic. It produces tall, sinuously looping stems with a head of bulbis mixed with miniature plants. Below ground it forms a bulb of 4 to 14 cloves. Ramsons garlic is an intensely garlic scented species and both the leaves and bulbs are used. Russian garlic develops a large basal bulb comprising several huge cloves. Wild garlic has garlic flavoured foliage, small garlic flavoured bulbs and nodding umbels of attractive starry white flowers. In the area where I live, we have a lot of snakes and I have planted wild garlic to dissuade them from visiting my garden.

photograph sourced from Wikipedia

Garlic requires a well tilled and weed free soil, good drainage and a sunny position. Propagate garlic by by planting cloves vertically, with the pointed tip covered with about 2.5cm of soil. Regular weeding is essential, particularly in the earlier stages of growth. Do not over water and do not use chemicals. Companion plant together with orange marigolds.

Use the foliage fresh. Choose a sunny day to pull the bulbs and then leave them for a few days to dry out. Store in a dry, well ventilated area.

Garlic compliments almost any savoury dish and goes well with most culinary herbs and spices. It is an essential ingredient in many cuisines, especially Asian, Mexican, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Caribbean. Try out this simple pickled garlic recipe. Choose firm bulbs that are not sprouting and that are tightly encased in their husks. Peeled garlic should be creamy white. Remove any areas of discolouration before using, as these will impart a rank taste to the dish. When peeled, then sliced or chopped, the enzymes within a clove of garlic react on exposure to air to produce a strong, lingering, sulphurous aroma. The flavour of garlic is similarly strong and sharp, and gives the impression of heat on the palate. The more finely it is crushed or chopped, the stronger the garlic’s aroma becomes. When cooked properly, the flavour is mellow and sweet. Try baking a whole head in foil and then squeeze out the contents of the cloves. This mellow, creamy paste is delicious spread on bread or cooked meats or stirred through mashed vegetables. Take care when cooking garlic – if it is cooked over too high a heat it will burn, becoming bitter and taste unpleasant. Even a tiny amount of burnt garlic will permeate and spoil a whole dish.

Garlic is used raw in aïoli and tapenade. Crushed garlic mashed into butter is a delicious and simple sauce for cooked meats, or it can be spread on sliced bread, wrapped in foil and baked in a medium hot oven for 10 minutes to make garlic bread. Push slivers of garlic into slits in a joint of lamb or pork or put a few cloves inside the cavity of a chicken before roasting.

information sourced from The Complete Book of Herbs

Tandy

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Star Anise Dusted Venison With Red Grapes

Posted on January 26, 2012

I started blogging in September 2009 and I can see such a huge movement in where my blogging has gone since the beginning. At first, my blog was all about my recipes. I did not even take photographs. All I wanted to do was share my recipes. I was not a writer, just a cook. I then moved along to taking photographs with my cell phone and the next step was to get myself a camera and a tripod. My blog is still all about my recipes, but now along with a list of ingredients and what to do with them, I share my thoughts, musings and memories. I edit my photographs and add my name to them – one because I am proud of how my photographs continue to improve and two because I want to stop other people scraping my photographs as has happened in the past. One of the things I am most proud of is that I have been asked by Woolworths to write blog posts for them, with recipes. In January I wrote about grapes. This recipe was inspired by the fact that Woolworths do such lovely venison. I decided to pair the sweet red grape variety, Flame, with some venison fillet. Given that venison and grapes are complimented by star anise I used this as the flavour base for my dish. This spicy meat will go well with a glass of Shiraz.

STAR ANISE DUSTED VENISON WITH RED GRAPES

ingredients:

1 star anise

¼ teaspoon black peppercorns

1 teaspoon salt

1 venison fillet

15g butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

80mls red wine

100g red grapes, halved

method:

use a spice grinder to grind the star anise, peppercorns and salt into a fine powder

pat dry the venison and rub the spices over the meat

heat the butter and the olive oil in a frying pan

when the pan is hot cook the venison 2 minutes per side

add the red wine and then remove the venison and leave it to rest

add the grapes and allow the sauce to thicken

you do not want to grapes to break down too much

slice the venison and pour the sauce over the venison

STAR ANISE DUSTED VENISON WITH RED GRAPES PRINTABLE VERSION

Tandy
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Green Curry Paste | Kreaung Geng Geng Gwio Warn

Posted on January 25, 2012

If I could categorize my personality by using flavours, then I would be a citrus person. I love all things citrus, whether in fruit, scent or flavour. My favourite citrus is limes – to use with an ice cold margarita or even to clean my fridge with. So, when making a green curry paste I tend to make sure it is ‘heavy’ on lime. This recipe below is exactly that – it has the wonderful lime scent and the strong chilli flavour is complimented by the soft notes the lime brings to the party. This recipe is a combination of the one out of my Curry recipe book, and the one given to me by Alvin Quah. You will never use all of this paste at once, but you can make it and store it in the fridge to use each time you want to make a green curry. Just fry a few teaspoons of the paste before adding it to your chosen ingredients.

GREEN CURRY PASTE | KREAUNG GENG GENG GWIO WARN

ingredients:

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

a few bladed of mace

1 tablespoon dried red chillies

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon white pepper

1 teaspoon ground cumin

3 kaffir lime leaves

1 tablespoon galangal paste

2 lemongrass stalks, white part only, chopped

6 green chillies, deseeded

30g coriander, stalks and leaves

1 tablespoon ginger, chopped

1 shallot, chopped

4 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled

1 teaspoon shrimp paste

4 spring onions, chopped

zest and juice of 2 limes

30mls fish sauce

15mls canola oil

method:

start by dry roasting the coriander seeds and the mace

when you can smell the spices add all the ingredients into a blender

blend to a smooth paste, pushing down the sides a couple of times

GREEN CURRY PASTE PRINTABLE VERSION

Tandy
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Crayfish Ravioli With A Bisque Sauce

Posted on January 24, 2012

Like most countries in the world where commercial fishing exists, the recreational fisherman is the one to suffer from a lack of fish close inshore and from the fact that the commercial fisherman get the majority of what is available in our seas. This is a two sided coin for us as a lot of our friends are commercial fisherman, and they rely on quota’s and the weather for their income. At the same time, we fish for recreational purposes. 30 minutes by sea from Gordons Bay where we live is a bay full of crayfish. The commercial fisherman can go everyday and take out crayfish much smaller than the recreational permit allows. Ten years ago, the season for the recreational catchers was from the 15th of November, everyday until the end of January, and then weekends and public holidays, until the end of April. This year our recreational season opens on the 15th of November and we can go out everyday (weather permitting of course) until the 15th of January, and then we can only go out again over the Easter weekend. We are allowed four crayfish per person on the boat, with a maximum of 5 people per boat. So, we can basically catch 20 crayfish per trip. We are allowed out once per day with time constraints. The license for catching crayfish is extremely cheap (R94 – less than €10) but there are costs involved in going out fishing, which means that even though we have easy access to this luxury, it is not a cheap meal. It is however cheaper than if we were to buy the crayfish that the commercial fisherman catch – and they come back with thousands a day. When the season was longer I used crayfish in my macaroni and cheese but now, I take care to make a special meal with the crayfish. This is one of those meals. You can substitute the crayfish for any shell fish, so use whatever is easily accessible to you.

CRAYFISH RAVIOLI WITH A BISQUE SAUCE

ingredients:

for the pasta:

200g pasta flour

2 eggs

pinch of salt

2 tablespoons tomato purée

for the filling:

meat from 2 crayfish tails

10g parsley, chopped

1 small chilli, seeds removed

1 egg yolk (keep the white for sealing the ravioli)

salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning

for the bisque sauce:

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 shallots, diced

2 celery stalks, sliced

1 carrot, cut in a small dice

2 crayfish tail shells

60mls white wine

125mls stock

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 clove garlic, sliced

½ cup water

1 tablespoon cream

method:

for the pasta:

mix the ingredients to form a dough and knead for 10 minutes

add more flour if too sticky, and water if too dry

roll into a ball, cover with clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for half an hour

roll the dough out to number 6 on a pasta machine

cut out your ravioli shapes ready for the filling

lightly dust with flour

for the filling:

place all the ingredients into a blender and mix into a smooth mousse

to make the ravioli:

place one teaspoon of the mousse in the centre of each disc

lightly beat the egg white and brush along the edge of the disc

place a second disc on top of the disc that has filling on it

seal properly, ensuring you get all the air out

cook in boiling salted water for 3 minutes once you have added the cream to the sauce

for the bisque sauce:

heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the shallots, celery and carrots

allow onions to soften

add the shells to the pan

when the shells change colour add the wine and the stock

leave to simmer until the sauce has reduced by half

allow to cool and blitz the ingredients until they are well blended

put the teaspoon of oil into the pan

soften the garlic and add back the crayfish mix

add the water and bring to the boil

pass the ingredients through a chinois

clean out the pan and add the sauce back

leave to simmer for 5 minutes

add the cream and allow to thicken

I served the dish with grilled courgettes and micro leaves

CRAYFISH RAVIOLI WITH A BISQUE SAUCE PRINTABLE VERSION

I am submitting this recipe to Presto Pasta Nights, which is being hosted this week by Emma of Soupier

Tandy

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Friday’s Food Quiz Number 21

Posted on January 21, 2012

Here is another quiz that I am transferring off my other blog.

1. What is a liqueur?

an alcoholic syrup distilled from wine or brandy and flavoured with fruit, herbs or spices. (my favourite at the moment is Angels Share)

2. What is the difference between bacon, pancetta and prosciutto?

bacon is the fat and lean meat from the side and back of the pig which has been preserved by dry salting and is usually smoked as well. It is sold in thick or thin slices. pancetta is unsmoked bacon from the belly of a pig, cured with spices, salt and pepper. it is sold rolled into a sausage shape and is served thinly sliced. prosciutto is an Italian ham from the hind leg of the pig, usually rubbed with salt and other dry seasonings and matured for 8 to 10 months. it is usually served wafer thin. the best known is Parma ham.

3. What is dragon fruit?

a cactus fruit

4. What is Devonshire cream?

clotted cream which is served with scones and jam – a specialty in Devon and Cornwall. Enjoyed by Dave and I in Widicombe in the Moor

Devon

5. What do you call béchamel sauce to which eggs and Gruyère have been added?

I know that a mornay sauce is with cheese, and a croque madame is a croque monsieur with egg, but not sure what only has eggs and cheese.

6. Are peanuts, nuts?

peanuts are ground nuts and are the edible seed of a legume. they are not nuts

7. From which country does pasta originate?

egg pasta is associated with Northern Italy, pasta with durum wheat flour is from the south of Italy. however, lurking at the back of my head is a fact that China may be where pasta originated.

8. Cumin seeds are actually not really seeds. What are they?

it is the fruit of the plant

9. How should meat be sliced?

parallel to the bone, across the grain

10. What is lavabread?

I’ve been watching the Hairy Bikers – a Welsh bread made from seaweed!

Tandy

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Pork Patties

Posted on January 20, 2012

I realized when I made my lamb burgers that lamb is far too expensive to make patties from for everyday, general consumption. Straight away I had another recipe in mind, but as with most things in my life, time ran away with me. Before I knew it, Dave turned 60 and we had a week long celebration, my sister left for Australia which meant another trip to Johannesburg and the burger patty competition winner was announced. A sirloin burger has won the competition but to me, that is just another meat patty. I kept my recipe in the back of my mind and had actually decided to make sausages out of the meat instead. But, I still have not got sausage casings, and the pork pieces came out of the freezer for eating. I have used pork as my basis for the patty, and as I am all about healthy eating at the moment, I made small patties, and we ate less than we would have if I had made larger ones.