Off To France and Germany

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Tandy

Today, the 20th of April, Dave and I are heading to France to do a barge trip down the Midi Canal. We will be landing in Frankfurt tomorrow morning where we will have breakfast with my aunt and her mom. Tomorrow will be a sad day as it may be the last time I see my stepgran, who has formed a large part of my life and who is loved deeply. After that we fly to Toulouse and I am going to attack the markets with glee. We are spending a week on the barge before flying back to Frankfurt to spend the weekend with my aunt and her husband in Reutlingen.

I wish you all a blessed rest of your Pesach (if you are Jewish), a blessed Easter (if you are Christian) and lovely long weekend breaks for all my South African readers. For those in Europe enjoy the bank holiday weekends

I won’t be reading blogs for the next two weeks and will catch up with all of you when I return to Gordons Bay on the 4th of May.

Tandy

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Hake

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Tandy

Hake in South Africa provides a huge industry for local fisherman. There are numerous fishing companies involved in the trawling industry and if you pop in to your local supermarket you will notice many boxes of frozen hake. Hake is also known as Cape Whiting and is frozen fresh on board the trawler it is caught on. Our hake industry is large enough to provide a sustainable source of income both from local sales, and the export of the product to Europe, Australia and the United States. Hake is considered green on the SASSI list and even though this is not my favourite eating fish, it is important to my ideal of a regional product. Hake fishing vessels dock in Duncan Docks Cape Town and the fish is taken to a local shop close to the airport. This is where I purchase boxes of hake and at under R20 a fillet that feeds the two of us, this is a cheap meal.

HAKE

ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

15g butter

1 clove garlic, sliced

1 whole red chilli

flour for dusting

1 large hake fillet

salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning

1 chorizo sausage, sliced

½ cup frozen peas

2 teaspoons roasted red pepper pesto

method:

heat the oil and the butter in a pan

add the garlic and the chilli and allow to flavour the oil

dust the skin of the hake with flour

season the flesh

cook skin side down until halfway cooked through

turn over and add the chorizo to the pan

remove the chilli and add the peas (turn the heat up slightly)

add the pesto and when the peas are hot and the fish is cooked, serve

Printable Version

Tandy

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Mushroom Pasta with Truffle Oil

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Tandy

Mushrooms are one of the two ingredients I am never without. The other would be tomatoes. Mushrooms go with everything and it is their versatility I embrace. However, they are also very good for you and should form a part of your daily food requirements. They are rich in Vitamin D and will help fight off the common winter cold. This super food is, in my opinion, highly underrated. The common white or button mushroom is widely available and can be eaten raw or cooked, whatever takes your fancy. Do not expose your mushrooms to water when cleaning them and do not crowd your pan full of mushrooms when cooking them. This recipe was inspired after our olive oil tasting at Morgenster and I am going to make much more use of my truffle oil than I have in the past.

MUSHROOM PASTA WITH TRUFFLE OIL

ingredients:

1 tablespoon lemon infused olive oil

125g mushrooms sliced

1 tablespoon cream

freshly ground black pepper and salt for seasoning

15g Parmesan, grated

1 handful flat leaf parsley, chopped

1 teaspoon truffle oil

method:

while your pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan

cook the mushrooms until soft

add the cream and season to taste

add the Parmesan and allow to melt

toss the pasta through the sauce

mix in the parsley and the truffle oil before serving

Printable Version

I am submitting this recipe to Presto Pasta Nights, which is being hosted this week by Three Cookies

Tandy

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Chicken A La King Modernized

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Tandy

I think chicken a la king is comfort food – and a good use of left over roast chicken. But, tinned asparagus and tinned mushrooms, even though the make the dish easy to make, do not make the dish anything special. Don’t get me wrong, I love tinned foods, especially tomatoes which I use a lot. But, nothing beats fresh.

ingredients:

6 mushrooms

2 teaspoons truffle oil

2 chicken breasts

olive oil for drizzling

½ cup cream

1 teaspoon arrow root

fresh asparagus for serving

method

preheat the oven to 180˚ Celsius

put the mushrooms and the truffle oil into a blender and mix until a coarse paste is formed

slit the side of the chicken breast and stuff a third of the mushroom mix into each chicken breast

season the breast and drizzle the skin with olive oil

bake for 40 minutes

add the rest of the mushrooms to a pan and add the cream

season and allow to simmer

thicken with the arrow root

steam your asparagus and serve with the chicken breasts and mushroom sauce

Tandy

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Review: Food Bloggers Indaba 2011: Cook Sister & Life’s A Feast

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Tandy

The one area of my blogging that is sorely in need of attention is my writing. I have lots of words in my head, but when it comes time to typing them up, they don’t come out the same way, or I don’t have the time to get them from head to ‘paper’. I chose to attend the break away workshop hosted by Jamie and Jeanne and it was a fantastic session. These break away sessions allowed the delegates to chose which skills to hone in on, and I am so glad I chose this one. We were given a writing task to do – 150 words written straight off the top of our heads. Below is what I wrote:

Living in a small fishing village. the sea is a vital part of our existence. The southerly wind brings with it a saltiness and the sounds of waves crashing on the rocks. Each summer weekend is taken up with cray fishing and these ugly looking sea creatures transform into a meal best eaten with your fingers. Plainly grilled and with a hint of garlic, the butter will drip off your fingers. What is an ordinary, everyday meal for us was a rare and special treat for our guests. Their pleasure in partaking a simple starter made a week’s worth of preparations more than worthwhile. The evening was off to more than a good start, the smell of wood on the braai,watching the sunset and enjoying wine with good friends, all of this accompanied by fine food, perfection indeed.

Both Jeanne and Jamie made a point about editing, and rereading our blogs (see here for more) and you will see I have one word in red. Had I reread this I would have noticed the use of the same word in two sentences. Jamie also pointed out that I had left out the setting! The heat of the day had to feature somewhere in my writing.

My aim: to have an opening paragraph for each post of at least 150 words. A discipline I am going to make habit.

What was interesting to note was that Jeanne has a visual memory. I have participated in many NLP workshops and I learnt from a young age how to work out memory storage. I have aural memory, so I remember words better than faces and places. Here are the points passed on by Jamie and Jeanne:

write as you talk
set the scene and the mood
think about the adjective/s for your main ingredient and then use this in your story
write with your senses
show with your words
write every day as writing is a skill

Tandy

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Friday’s Food Quiz Number 51

Posted on April 17, 2011 by Tandy

PinkPolkaDot has posted another quiz and you are more than welcome to pop over to her blog and give it a try! Here are my answers:

1. What type of meat is traditionally used in a Cacciatore stew?

Chicken or rabbit

2. What is a Muffaletta?

A bread from Sicily

3. What are Scotch eggs?

Eggs that are hard boiled, wrapped in sausage meat, covered in bread crumbs and then deep fried

4. Sweet peppers don’t produce the chemical responsible for the hot chilli burn. What is this chemical?

Capsaicin

5. What is japonais?

A dish containing Chinese artichokes

6. What is the name of the traditional Greek anise-flavored aperitif?

ouzo

7. What is Schiacciata?

An Italian bread

8. Are Brinjals fruit or vegetables?

fruit

9. Which natural edible product can never spoil?

honey

10. Approximately how many liters of milk are required to make 500g butter?

I would have to have a complete guess here and say 2l of milk! I have only ever made butter from cream

Tandy

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Duck with a Pomegranate and Port Glaze

Posted on April 16, 2011 by Tandy

I have entered my recipes for competitions, and been on the winners block with a few of them. As I write this post, this recipe has been submitted to Taste Magazine. The Taste Bloggers have been asked to submit a recipe which reflects the ethos of the magazine. The recipe is to contain no more than five ingredients and the chosen recipe will be featured in the May edition of the magazine. As May is Mothers Day month in South Africa, I decided that a special meal would be in order. Also, it has to be something simple and the ingredients have to be available from Woolworths. Recipes do not get simpler than this – there are no long procedures involved and nothing complicated to catch out the home cook. I know all these ingredients are available at Woolworths, as I am their poster girl. I do all my shopping at Woolworths and most of the labels of items in my kitchen have the lovely W on them. Woolworths in South Africa is the equivalent of Marks & Spencer in the UK and the high quality of food is what keeps me shopping there. I will be overseas when the May edition comes out, but I am holding thumbs and crossing fingers that my recipe gets chosen.

Duck with a pomegranate and port glaze

Serves 2

ingredients:

2 duck breasts

1 tablespoon pomegranate concentrate

1 tablespoon port

salt for seasoning

freshly ground black pepper for seasoning

1 teaspoon sichuan peppercorns, ground

method:

preheat the oven to 180˚ Celsius

score the fat of the duck breasts

in a small saucepan, heat the pomegranate concentrate and port, over a low heat

salt the fat of the duck breasts and season the flesh with salt and pepper

place into a hot griddle pan skin side down

render the fat until it is almost cooked through

place the duck breasts flesh side down into an ovenproof dish

cover the skin with the pomegranate and port glaze

place into the oven and cook for 8 minutes

when you take the duck out of the oven sprinkle the sezchuan pepper corns over the skin

allow to rest for 4 minutes before serving

Serve with buttery mashed potato

Printable Version

foodmonger Kristy Snell’s recipe has been chosen – heartiest congratulations!

Tandy

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Something Savoury

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Tandy

Usually, on a Friday you would find a challenge – and this week it should be for something savoury. I could pressure myself and post a challenge – but what would be the point in that? We leave for Europe next week Wednesday and between now and then I have a lot to do. So, no more challenges until the first Friday in May. Until then, you can do any of the challenges, and just let me know!

PREVIOUS CHALLENGE ROUND UP

Michael has made the easiest cranberry and pecan cinnamon buns!

Cranberry and Oat Slices

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Tandy

I have a handwritten recipe that I must have copied down when at a friend a long time ago. If it had been done in the past two years I would have made a note from where I copied it, as I do not want to copy other people’s recipes without acknowledging where they are from. However, I have been looking for a perfect before breakfast snack for some time, and I was hoping this was it. Given that I don’t read a recipe until I start the process of actually making it, I expected the slices to be crunchy, but, as the recipe contains eggs, what you get is a cake like slice of pure breakfast delight. I ate two before they had cooled down and if I were to try these again I may just substitute the dried fruit for some dried cherries and even add some nuts. If this recipe is yours, please let me know, so that I can thank you properly on my blog.

CRANBERRY AND OAT SLICES

ingredients:

70mls lightly toasted coconut slivers

500mls rolled oats

250mls brown sugar (I used fructose)

500mls cake flour

20mls ground cinnamon

250mls chopped dried fruit

125mls dried cranberries

300g butter

160mls golden syrup (I used honey)

4 eggs, lightly whisked

method:

preheat the oven to 180° Celsius

grease a baking sheet

mix together the dry ingredients

melt the butter and syrup over a low heat

add the eggs and mix

press the mixture into the baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes

leave to cool slightly and cut into squares before storing

Printable Version

Tandy

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Crayfish Goulash

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Tandy

According to my Larousse, goulash is a Hungarian beef soup named after the keepers of the Magyar oxen (gulyas). The origin of this dish which is now made with onions and paprika and garnished with potatoes, dates back to the 9th Century, before the foundation of the Hungarian state, when nomadic tribes prepared a meal that was in keeping with their way of life. At that time goulash consisted of chunks of meat stewed slowly until the cooking liquid completely boiled away. The meat was dried in the sun to be used later to prepare a stew or a soup by boiling it in water.

Traditionally, goulash is made in a special cauldron (bogracs). There are a number of regional variants of the recipe according to the cut of beef and the cooking fat used, but purists agree that goulash should not include flour or wine, nor should soured cream be added just before serving. Hungarians regard Viennese goulash as a flour-thickened version of genuine goulash soup; in Hungary the latter is sometimes served with potatoes and small quenelles of egg pasta, poached in stock.

I was given a bag of paprika from my friend after their visit to Hungary and knew that I had to use it straight away. We did not have any beef out of the freezer, but as our local ingredient is the crayfish we catch ourselves, I could see no reason why not to substitute the beef for crayfish.