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by Anne Myers

A tart for today!

June 4, 2012 in Vegetables and Vegetarian

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It’s nearly a month ago that I last wrote something on this blog. Busy is not the word, no. Frenetic is more like it. And truth is, amongst my million activities, I did think long and hard about my blogging future. Over the last decade, my career and lifestyle has changed from primarily food to primarily being something sort-of oblique-to-food :-) … Now I am primarily a brand integration specialist and a television producer so the time for cooking (I am also single and live alone) is virtually non-existent. But then last night, it occurred to me that I do NOT need not blog every day. Or even every week! I can do it when and if the urge gets to me and this is such a day.

So, for starters, news: we have produced more recipes and videos. This time, it was for one of our most valued clients, Sasko Flour. For these video clips, I asked Michéle, my daughter, to present. The reason was to give us all a break. Or at least I hoped it would be a break … because of a torrid and highly traumatic experience we had some years ago and here’s the story: a massive, big client insisted that we use a well-known acting icon in their television series. I agreed because we needed the work and I assumed the icon would be a highly-skilled professional. Pah, did I miss the boat …! This icon nearly caused my death and severe trauma to the crew by almost not remembering one full sentence of any script. This resulted  in us shooting an average 16 hours a day, using  an average of 8 hours’ worth of tape a day for a 24-minute episode  (all those ‘takes’) and needless to say, ran many days and much money over the initial budget!  (The one and only time in the 27 years of our business.) Fortunately the client realized their judgment error and did not hold anything against us and approved the extra (read wasted) costs. However.  Since that day, the crew and I dread every shoot where ‘talent’ must remember their words. And I can tell you, since that traumatic series, some talent were diamonds and some were not so good. For us as crew, the worst things on set are bad vibes, bad egos and blaming and shaming anybody else for your mistakes. To this day, incredibly, the icon blames and bad mouths us and the client and of course, especially me for everything and more … Only afterwards did I learn from other producers that this has also caused a recurring nightmare for everybody who has every dared work with this person …

So enters Michéle who literally grew up between a kitchen and a television set. And she did a stunning job, so much so that the crew thanked her afterwards for making life easy for them. For the record, we shot 6 video clips in 6 hours!

More news: Sous Chef is on her way to my kitchen for her Best Bloggers video clips. She is co-inciding it with her attendance at the SA Food Bloggers Indaba and we can’t wait as she will cook a starter, main course and a dessert. Needless to say, that will be the crew lunch as well … Those videos and recipes we will load onto our website I love cooking and post a tag onto her blog that will link directly to her page on the website. Similar to what we did for our bubbly best blogger, Janice Tripepi. These are bloggers we love and we have a long shortlist :-) but hopefully, by the end of the year, we will have at least all of our best bloggers on video for all their fans to see them in action.

Now, DInner Divas: yes it’s all a go and soon we are starting pre-production to shoot the last two weeks of August in Cape Town. If you are intersted in being part of it, please email me your personal email address and contact number. My email is anne@2blonds.co.za and we will then provide you with all you need to know to give your blog (and you!!) the boost like never before.

Right, to today’s recipe. It is for a delicious, easy meatless Monday tart. And the recipe is also below. Apologies for the image … it is a mere JPEG straight off our video camera.  Here is the video first:

Click here:

Video for today’s tart

 Baby Marrow & Feta Tart

  • 700 g baby marrow, grated
  • 250 ml (120 g) Sasko Self Raising Flour
  • 5 extra-large eggs
  • 125 ml olive oil
  • 1 bunch fresh chives, chopped
  • 125 ml fresh mint, chopped
  • 250 ml cheddar cheese, grated
  • 200 g feta cheese, crumbled
  • 10 – 12 cherry tomatoes, halved
  • salt and milled black pepper to taste

Place the baby marrow into a colander and drain, weighed down with a plate for 20 minutes.Now dry extremely well with paper towel and  place in a large mixing bowl. Add the Sasko Self Raising Flour and toss lightly to mix.

Beat together the eggs, olive oil and herbs and add to the baby marrow mixture. Mix well then add the cheese and mix lightly. Season well with salt and pepper and pour the mixture into a large well-greased ovenproof dish. Arrange the cherry tomato halves on top and bake at 180°C for 40 – 50 minutes until cooked through.

Serves 4 – 6

 Chef’s hint: For a hearty, delicious change, use well drained, cooked and chopped spinach instead of the bay marrow, and add garlic and ground nutmeg to taste.

Have a great week ahead!

For more meatless Monday recipes, please visit the Vegetable and Vegetarian section of our delicious website:

 I love cooking.

 

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by Anne Myers

Slow-roasted Tomato Soup

May 7, 2012 in Soup, Vegetarian

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When I decided to stop writing for the delicious I love cooking, I was very keen to share my kind of food with you. This unpretentious, beautiful website (Me bragging? Noooo…. Just sharing personal opinion ;-) ) is geared primarily for the busy working mom with very little time on her hands to get a hearty, delicious and easy dinner on the table.

As I am no longer part of a young family that is always in a hurry, I can now indulge in doing what I wanted to do all those years raising my daughter and son as a single mom: I can cook slow, simple, sensual, beautiful, delicious food. But truth is, mostly I am so involved with work and rushing to make deadlines, that many of my meals consist of cheese and bread! However, once or twice a week, when my domestic worker comes in, we don our aprons and cook – slowly and deliciously. Here is one such a recipe. This is not an original recipe. I cannot credit the originator as nobody knows who developed the first tomato soup recipe. Nor who roasted the tomatoes first. But here is my version and an adaptation of my recipe for this yummy Tomato and Paprika Stew.

As always, this recipe calls for your personal flair. Add as much garlic, salt and sugar as you like and you can obviously add more chilli or garlic. It can also be the basis for a rich tomato stew or bredie, as the recipe for the stew (hyperlinked above) illustrates.

Slow-roasted Tomato Soup

 

  • 1.2 kg ripe plum tomatoes
  • 4 – 6 large garlic cloves, left whole
  • 2 large onions, cut into medium wedges
  • some thyme sprigs to taste
  • 5 ml dried chilli flakes (or to taste)
  • olive oil
  • salt, milled black pepper and sugar
  • 30 ml tomato paste
  • 250 – 500 ml prepared chicken or vegetable stock
  • 45 ml melted butter (optional)
  • 45 ml flour (optional)
  • 45 ml finely chopped parsley
  • 65 ml chopped basil
  • 250 ml cream (optional)
  • To serve: croutons and basil leaves

Place the tomatoes, garlic, onions and thyme sprigs in a large baking dish, sprinkle with the chilli flakes and season to taste (rather liberally then lightly) with salt, pepper and sugar. Drizzle with oil and roast (undisturbed) for 60 minutes or longer at 190 ºC or until lightly browned and sticky from being caramelized by the heat. Remove from oven, fish out the thyme stalks and allow to cool down a bit.

Process the tomatoes with the onion and garlic and pan juices in a processor or with a stick blender in a large bowl until smooth. If you like, you can now push the puree through a sieve.

Place the puree into a saucepan, add the tomato paste and stir in as much stock as you like. Be careful, you do not want to lose the intensity of the roast tomato flavour by thinning it down too much, but on the other hand, you do not want a soup so thick you can stick a spoon in it! At this stage, if you want, you can bind everything together by making a paste (roux) of the melted butter and flour and stirring nuggets of it into the soup until it is to your liking.

Once you are happy with the consistency, stir in the cream (if using) and herbs. Taste and then add more seasoning if you like: salt, pepper and sugar even a fresh addition of chopped herbs, crushed garlic and chilli flakes. Serve topped with croutons, basil leaves and a drizzle of olive oil.

Serves 6

Have a deliciously slow week!

 

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by Anne Myers

Stewing slowly …

May 1, 2012 in Beef

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We are shooting some more I love cooking clips tomorrow and one of the dishes will be a slow beef stew. I love slow foods and winter provides the perfect ambience for this kind of stew. One of the nice things about winter stews is that you can use the cheapest cut of beef and I do! The sinew and fatty bits you find in cheap cuts of meat respond extremely well to slow cooking which all together, ensure a wonderful flavoursome stew.

This recipe makes my favourite beef stew as it is cooked in its own juices, so to speak. I prepare a lavish stock beforehand in which the meat simmers long and slowly. There is something in slow food that spells ‘quality of life’ for me, so you may get many slow recipes on this blog this winter. Here is the first one, with love. Remember though, that cooking is subjective, cooking is an art, cooking is about you so make it yours by increasing or reducing any of the quantities of the ingredients.  Just don’t speed up the cooking. You’d be speeding up life.

Slow Beef Stew

  • 1,6 kg thick beef blade slices
  • olive oil
  • 2 onions, coarsely chopped
  • 150 g streaky bacon, coarsely sliced
  • 2 large carrots, thinly sliced
  • 4 large sticks celery, thinly sliced
  • 250 g large brown mushrooms, coarsely chopped
  • 1 x 35 g sachet of concentrated wet beef stock
  • 30 g tomato paste
  • 250 ml good dry red wine
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 4 large cloves of garlic, chopped coarsely
  • 2 beef stock cubes, crumbled
  • 4 large thyme stalks
  • 250 g baby onions
  • 250 g white button mushrooms
  • 45 ml melted butter
  • 45 ml flour
  • salt and milled black pepper 
  • 90 ml finely chopped parsley or basil
  • whole basil or Italian parsley 

Take your time with the meat. It is worth it. First slice the meat off the bones. Reserve the bones and trim the meat of only the hard bits of sinew and the large bits of fat, but leave some fat as it offers the most flavour. Now cut the meat into rustic chunk about 4 cm. Place the meat in a bowl, cover and place in the fridge until required.

Cover the bottom of a large heavy-bottomed saucepan with oil and heat until smoking hot. Quickly brown the bones of the meat and remove from pan. Add the onions and the bacon. Stir quickly to prevent catching. Add the carrots and celery and sauté until everything is nicely browned. Add the brown mushrooms and stir fry until they have released their juices. Return the bones to the pan and pour in sufficient boiling water to more-than-cover the food in the saucepan. Add the sachet of concentrated stock, the tomato paste, red wine, bay leaves, garlic, stock cubes and thyme. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover. Simmer for an hour. Strain the stock into a clean bowl. Push the vegetable mixture against the strainer to extract as much of the stock as possible. You do not need the vegetable and bones mixture any longer so do what you deem fit with it. Set aside the stock.

In another saucepan, add some olive oil. Brown the meat in batches. Return all the meat to the pan and add the stock. Make sure that the meat is covered with liquid at all times. You really want a saucy stew so if the stock is too little to cover the meat, add more red wine. Bring to a boil, remove any solids or scum that rise to the top, reduce heat, cover and simmer for an hour or more until the meat is tender enough to your liking.

Meanwhile heat some olive oil and brown the baby onions all over. Add the mushrooms and brown as well. Once the meat is tender, add the onions and mushrooms and continue to cook another ten minute or so until the onions are tender.

Finally, mix together the melted butter and flour and add spoons full of this paste to the simmering stew, stirring until the sauce is thickened to your liking. Now taste and adjust reasoning with salt, milled black pepper and even chopped thyme and minced garlic. Stir in the parsley or basil and scatter with the whole herb leaves. Serve with creamy horseradish mashed potato and steamed broccoli.

Serves 6

Chef’s hint: you can use beef shin meat as a superb alternative. It is full of connective tissue and a little marbled fat to ensure moisture, flavour and taste.

For more beefy recipes, click here.

 

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by Anne Myers

Mussel man …

April 19, 2012 in Uncategorized

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The one nice thing about having a bloke in your life is that you have a mate with whom you can dive, snorkel and scavenge for food. And I’m afraid a foraging girlfriend just won’t  do to find certain foods … well, unless she drives a ten ton lorrie and knits Harley Davidsons for a hobby. It’s just that certain foods lurk in dangerous grounds so a big hefty bloke may just come in handy …  

Not that I want to be rude or racist or anything, but I had this cast-in-the-dye Irish boyfriend and I don’t know if it was his nature or if he was nurtured like that, but he could make the Scots go bankrupt in Ireland, he was so mean. I always smile when I read Sous Chef’s reference to her Himself as I get the notion that he Himself may be a little tight with the zipper on that purse. 

Anyway, this Irishman of mine was a forager for food of note. I mean, if he didn’t he’d have to pay for food, didn’t he now? And I can sort-of cook not too badly, so we had a culinary marriage made in heaven. So we’d regularly, almost every weekend in the summer really, rent cheap and cheerful cabins and cottages around the Western Cape coastal villages and then he’d forage a lot. And I’d help. A little. And then I’d cook a lot and he’d help a little. And eventually it ended but my innate scavenger still lurks around and when I can, I am off to get what I can lay my hands on. Lately, on safe waters. Diving for arikreukel (sort-of giant periwinkle) is no longer an option for me. I’ve become too soft and too large.

The season for foraging seafood ends in a week. So, as a trip down memory lane, here I share my best, best kind of foraged food: mussels. It’s a buttery, winy, briny delight with probably far more butter than healthy but what the heck, in a week’s time you’d have to wait until October to get your hands on some more of these babies.

Buttery mussels in wine

Rich, decadent, simple, peasant food all in one and what a mouthful!  In South Africa we have the mussel season from October to end April.  

  • 1 kg live mussels (about 40 mature ones)
  • 125 ml salted butter, cut into pieces
  • 125 ml finely chopped shallots (from Woollies)
  • 20 ml finely chopped garlic
  • 250 ml dry white wine
  • generous pinch sea salt
  • 80 ml mixture of chopped Italian parsley, chervil and chives

Soak the mussels for at least an hour in a bucket of fresh cold water to which you’ve added a cup of oats or maize meal so that they can spit out their dirt. Drain, rinse well and discard the ones that are open; they are dead. Now remove the mussel beards and scrape off any sandy and stony bits from the shells. Rinse well and drain.

Melt a good knob of the butter in a large heavy-bottomed pan and add the shallots. Cook until soft but not browned.  Add the garlic and stir briefly then add the wine. Bring to a boil then add the mussels. Cover and cook until the mussels have just opened, about 5 minutes, shaking the pan a few times.

Drain but reserve the stock. Return the stock to the pan and cook rapidly for a few minutes until reduced a bit to your liking. Then start to add the butter, a few pieces at a time, stirring. When all the butter is in and melted, add the herbs and return the mussels to the pan. Cover and give the pan a good shake and transfer your buttery, briny, winy mussels to a large serving bowl. Discard the ones that did not open.

Serve immediately, passing around a basket of crusty bread, more butter, more wine and a few small baskets or bowls for the shells. And offer small, damp hand towels kept just for this purpose: to eat with your hands.  

Serves 2

Chef’s hint: This is a most economical dish if you picked the mussels yourself. Just remember the season, to pick nice large ones, your daily limit and your licence.

For delicious, easy family reicpes, visit I love cooking.

Have yourself a good weekend!

 

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