Fish Soup

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Tandy

I do not like the word diet. It conjures up starving yourself, or fads. I like the term healthy eating plan instead. This year we changed our eating plan. We’ve always eaten healthily but this year we made some changes. I can tell you after 4 months that this works for us. We’ve cut out carbohydrates in the form of pasta and potatoes every week night. I’ve not bought potatoes this year, and even though I consider myself a bit of a potato addict, I’ve not missed them. We are eating pasta at the most once a week and each dish is special instead of a boring use of what is in the fridge. I’ve not lost much weight, but I am slimmer. I am training 3 times a week and a lot of the wobbly bits have firmed up. As muscle weighs more than fat I am well pleased. I stopped drinking wine during the week for the first two months of the year to aid the new plan, and now I’m back to enjoying a glass with dinner each night. I have cut out sandwiches during the week which means lunch has to be thought about. I’m enjoying fruit and yoghurt or oats for breakfast and salad and boiled eggs for lunch. All told, I feel great and healthy and to me, that was the ultimate aim. Over the weekends Dave and I have indulged in hotdogs and wraps, but I decided that I could make a hot lunch for us, if the weather called for it. I love being in my kitchen, especially when it is raining. Here is a great rainy day soup recipe.

FISH SOUP

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon canola oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 teaspoon mustard powder

1 teaspoon curry powder

Freshly ground black pepper for seasoning

125mls white wine

500mls vegetable stock

2 carrots, thickly sliced

200g hake fillet, cut into chunks (use more if you have it)

Seasoned flour for dusting

125mls cream

Method:

Heat the butter and the oil in a large pot

Add the onion and the garlic and sauté until soft

Add the mustard powder and the curry powder and a couple of turns of your pepper mill

Cook until you can smell the spices

Add the wine and bring to the boil and boil for 30 seconds

Add the stock and the carrots and simmer until the carrots are soft

Pat your fish dry and dust with the seasoned flour

Add the fish to the stock and bring to the boil

Cook for 5 minutes and reduce the heat and add the cream

Stir in until warmed and serve

I added a teaspoon of coriander pesto for some extra zing

FISH SOUP PRINTABLE VERSION

Tandy

Top of Page

Karha Masala

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Tandy

I wanted to make chai ice cream, but in my search for what actually goes into chai, I discovered that the word chai means tea! Which means that the term chai tea is redundant. In fact, chai is made with a masala – a mix of spices, known as karha masala. I could not find an exact recipe but I did find a long list of ingredients, some vital and others optional and so I decided to make my own masala for this ice cream. This masala uses all the warm spices, and as this was made in time for Christmas, it was just perfect. It has a strong emphasis on ginger so if you are not partial to the heat in ginger, reduce the amount you use. If you want it sweet, add some sugar.

KARHA MASALA

ingredients:

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon green cardamom pods

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 star anise

½ teaspoon fennel seeds

¼ teaspoon black peppercorns

1 teaspoon whole cloves

¼ teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

method:

place all the ingredients into a spice blender and blend until smooth

KARHA MASALA PRINTABLE VERSION

Tandy

Top of Page

Mint Sauce

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Tandy

We were given 4 beautiful lamb chops which came from the Karoo. The Karoo is a desert region of South Africa where lamb are bred. They are supposed to be excellent as the lamb have to walk far and wide to forage for their food. Our friend Alex had been up there for a shooting of a movie and had come back with a freezer full of chops. Dave decided to light a braai (barbecue) and use one of the gifts I gave him for our wedding anniversary. I decided that if Dave was going to braai lamb, I was going to make mint sauce. In my mind, this is one of the easiest sauces to make – and nothing beats home made in my opinion. It will keep, so when your garden mint is abundant do make some and then you will have it in your fridge for the long cold winter, when cooked lamb and mint sauce will go down a treat.

MINT SAUCE

ingredients:

1/3 cup sugar – I used fructose

3 tablespoons water

couple of turns of freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons malt vinegar

½ cup finely chopped mint

method:

place the sugar and the water into a small sauce pan and place on a low heat

stir while the sugar dissolves and then bring to the boil

reduce the heat and simmer for 3 minutes without stirring

grind in the pepper, add the vinegar and stir in the mint

cover and leave for 10 minutes before serving

MINT SAUCE PRINTABLE VERSION

Tandy

Top of Page

Star Anise Dusted Venison With Red Grapes

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Tandy

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
Top of Page

Green Curry Paste | Kreaung Geng Geng Gwio Warn

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Tandy

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
Top of Page

Apple Sauce

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Tandy

I had a friend who said, you are only cheating when you are caught! Now, that is quite a statement but is it correct. And is cheating the same as pregnancy – you either are or you are not, or can one say there are degrees of cheating? In sport there seems to be all sorts of cheating, and the only way people know you are cheating is when you are caught. Sportsmen take drugs – we call them performance enhancing if they are cheating. But what about the rugby player who has a broken foot and is injected with a legal pain killer so that he can play. Is this not performance enhancing? And what of the motor sport team that uses funny fuel – only if it is tested will they be caught out. And then we have the case of the swimmers who use special suits and the cyclists who use other people’s blood. The list is endless. But what of cheating in the food industry. I know of a case where recipe ‘A’ called for figs to be cooked and then drizzled with the sponsors product. Then another person, after seeing this recipe, entered hers. Recipe ‘B’ differed only in that her figs were raw. Turns out, her recipe made it to the finals and recipe ‘A’ did not. Not surprising, the person who entered recipe ‘A’ has never purchased the sponsors product again. Another example is where ordinary food bloggers entered a competition and the person who won was a professional cook and used photography tricks to win! Some food bloggers are now boycotting that magazine. I know of another case of cheating where a recipe book has been published using recipes taken from magazines, with no acknowledgement – surely that is cheating! Or what about me, I cheat when making apple sauce. I could not be bothered with fresh apples and so I make use of tinned pie apples – they are ready for sauce making and cut back on time. So, is this cheating?

APPLE SAUCE

ingredients:

1 385g tin unsweetened pie apples

75mls Brandy

10mls honey

55g butter

1.25mls ground cinnamon

1.25mls whole cloves

twist of freshly ground black pepper

5mls lemon juice

method:

add all the ingredients except the lemon juice into a heavy bottomed sauce pan

cover and cook over a low heat for 1 hour

pass through a chinois

add the lemon juice and store in sterilized glass jars

Printable Version

Tandy

Top of Page

Piccalilli

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Tandy

As I am sucrose intolerant I have a lot of bottles of things in my fridge that I have made from scratch. You will find sweet chilli sauce in there among all the other bottles of lovely goodies, including harissa and pesto and tomato and chilli chutney. What you won’t find is marmalade as for some strange reason fructose does not work the same as sugar at this temperature. I will one day get myself some sugar free jam sugar and have a go at making my own jam. But, in the meantime St. Dalfour do a more than respectable sugar free jam (or six) which I love to slather on my home made bread. Another perfect addition to a bread lunch is piccalilli. These pickled vegetable take on a lovely yellow hue from the turmeric and are easy to make. I keep the crunch in them as I like the texture. Do give it a go, and make sure to set aside enough glass jars to start – this makes 6 small jars, or have one large jar to hand. I like to give my ‘canning experiments’ away as gifts so I always make use of smaller glass jars.

PICCALILLI

ingredients:

1 whole cauliflower, florets only

5 courgettes, thickly sliced

10 small pickling onions, peeled

100g beans, trimmed and cut in half

1 small cucumber, cut in half and thickly sliced

4 large carrots, thickly sliced

coarse salt for sprinkling

300mls cider vinegar

300mls white malt vinegar

250g sugar – I used fructose

1/8 teaspoon curry powder

2 teaspoons mustard powder

25g fresh root ginger, sliced

6 black peppercorns

1 red chilli, cut in half

1 tablespoon mustard seeds

2 cloves garlic, sliced

1 tablespoon vinegar

2 tablespoons flour

6 teaspoons turmeric

method:

layer the vegetables in a glass bowl, and sprinkle each layer with coarse salt

cover and leave overnight

rinse thoroughly and leave to drain in a colander

in a heavy bottomed large pan heat 600mls of vinegar

add the sugar and stir until it has dissolved

add the curry powder, mustard powder, ginger, peppercorns, chilli, mustard seeds and garlic

bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes

make a paste with the 1 tablespoon vinegar, the flour and the turmeric

remove the chilli from the bottling sauce

add the paste and stir well to ensure you have no lumps

add the vegetables

bring to the boil and cook for 5 minutes

add the vegetables to your sterilized glass jars

top with the sauce and seal tightly with the lids

Printable Version

I am submitting this recipe to JamieAnne and Allie’s Canning Posts

Tandy

Top of Page

Marinated Feta Cheese

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Tandy

There was a debate a while ago between journalists and food bloggers as to whom deserves the ‘airspace’ more! Personally, I find it childish and pathetic and wonder why there cannot be space for all of us in the world. In fact, I know some journalists who blog, and some bloggers who contribute to magazines. Then, the next point is made by a food blogger who thinks there is no space for those of us that blog for the love of blogging. She thinks there is some ulterior motivation for people who blog. Frankly my dear, I don’t give a crumb (with thanks to Gone with the Wind). I blog because I love to share my recipes with anyone who wants to read them. I type a story at the start, because I like to share my feelings and thoughts and observations. I do not want to sell advertising on my blog. This is my space to say what I want to about everything and anything. I want to be able to eat at a restaurant and say honestly what I liked and disliked about the place and the food and the service. I want to offer an opinion about a product without someone accusing me of being paid to say the words. I will tell you when I get a freebie, and know this, I have turned down a few offers! I feel that if you blog with honesty and integrity the world is your oyster and I hope that each one of us finds a string of pearls. For the rest of you, who think you are above us because you are famous, or published (oh, I forgot, so am I) or have done some amazing things in the food world, please go and marinade in your own juices!

MARINATED FETA CHEESE

adapted from PRESERVE page 100

ingredients:

250g feta cheese, drained and cut into chunks

1 small bunch thyme, leaves stripped

zest of 1 lemon

4 teaspoons capers, drained

1 teaspoon peppercorns, lightly crushed

1 shallot, thinly sliced

400mls olive oil

method:

put the feta, thyme, zest, capers and peppercorns into a bowl and mix gently

spoon the mixture and the shallots into sterilized glass jars

top with olive oil and make sure the feta sits below the oil

leave to marinade in a cool dark place for 2 weeks before using

you can keep this for 6 months, so don’t forget to date the jars!

to serve remove from the oil and leave to stand at room temperature for an hour

Printable Version

Tandy

Top of Page

Cumin Crusted Pork Fillets

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Tandy

I much prefer to make my own rubs, marinades, curry blends, stocks and sauces than buy premade, salty, full of all sorts of unpronounceable’s! To this end I have a drawer packed full of spices and herbs and often this is my inspiration for a meal. If you are going to make your own rubs etc. you will need a non stick pan for dry frying them, a mortar and pestle for rough grinding, and a spice (read coffee) grinder for fine grinding. Remember, if you use a coffee grinder for your spices do not use it for coffee!

CUMIN CRUSTED PORK FILLETS

ingredients:

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon coarse salt

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

2 pork chops

olive oil for rubbing

method:

dry fry the cumin seeds until you can smell the fragrance coming off them

add them to a mortar and pestle and grind together with the ground cumin, salt and pepper

pat dry your pork chops

rub olive oil over them

rub in the spice rub

cook over a medium heat until done

Printable Version

Tandy

Top of Page

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.