Bits of Carey

When I first met J, he was not really into food…but over the years he started taking an interest in cooking, afterall he had to keep up with his foodie girlfriend, now wife!

J makes a mean Bolognaise and a few weeks ago, I thought I’d take pics of him preparing his Famous Lasagna! I asked him to jot down how he makes it. So this is all in his words…(so precious!)

I’ve been told that I make a great bolognaise sauce and I don’t have a set recipe. I usually cook from the heart. No measurements, no extra dishes.

I start with olive and finely chopped onions. I get them nice and sticky by adding some sugar to the mix, then add some mushrooms. Once mushrooms have softened, add the mince. Wait till the mince is nice and brown, then add a tin of chopped tomatoes and a good few squeezes of t sauce. I let it cook on a high heat until the liquid reduces. For a smokey flavour, I added a bit of Heinz BBQ sauce. mmmm nice.

White sauce: I take a nice dollop of butter and to experiment I added some green pepper into the mix. once softened, I took it off the heat and added the same amount a flour, mix. Add some milk and put back onto the stove. Stir for a while until it’s nice and smooth.

Layer the mince, white sauce and lasagna sheets, repeat until you run out of ingredients.

Add some (not alot)cheese – make sure you end off with white sauce.

Garnish with baby tomatoes and basil and bake at 180 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Makes two small lasagnas

And here it is! He puts me to shame I tell you! Even a baby spinach salad on the side with some ciabatta to soak up all th juices! Well done my love, I’m so proud of you!

Food shots in it’s most natural form is one of the the most beauiful things you can ever witness and almost always makes a perfect picture.  I’m ”a less is more” type of stylist. Just me, photographer(who has a clear understanding of what your vision is), the food and most often a wooden chopping board or hessian as the prop and backdrop. The focus should be on the food itself, nothing else.

Isn’t this lemon just mesmerizing. Just sliced and squeezed gently to release some of the juice. I love that little pip, looks like a tear drop! It just screams “Juice me Juice me!”

Beautiful garlic. Nothing like it. So many shapes and textures

Isn’t an egg such a mysterious looking thing?

Ooh! And this luscious granadilla. Sexy burgandy purple with funky yellow, who would of thought nature could be so creative!

So all in all, what I’m trying to get across is – keep it simple and nature will do the rest!

Have a wonderful weekend all! Maybe take a look around your kitchen and get up close and personal with your fruit, veg and a egg or two!

Laters

Cx

 Copyright

Just Carey and Seagram Pearce

Found this pic in my photo shoot archives. This recipe screams yummy autumn goodness! You can eat it as a meal(I did), however, in this specific shoot it accompanied a spicy rolled lamb – comfort food at it’s very best. A great oven to table recipe. The sour cream transforms it into a somewhat more substantial dish. The sweet onions and rocket add a few more dimensions to it.

 BUTTERNUT ROASTED IN SOUR CREAM

Topped with caramelised onions and rocket

                                                                           2     small butternuts, skin on, cut into wedges

                                                                                  cake flour

                                                                 250 ml      sour cream or cream

                                                                   50 ml      olive oil

                                                                           2     cloves garlic, chopped

                                                                   50 ml      chopped fresh parsley

                                                                                  salt and freshly ground black pepper

Caramelised onions:

                                                                   15 ml      olive oil

                                                                   30 ml      butter

                                                                           4     large onions, finely sliced

                                                                   15 ml      brown sugar

-                  Preheat oven to 180°C.

-                  Coat the butternut in flour and place in an ovenware dish.

-                  Mix sour cream, olive oil, garlic, parsley and seasoning to taste and pour over the butternut.

-                  Bake, covered, in preheated oven for 30 minutes.

-                  Remove lid and bake for a further 30 minutes – 45 minutes until golden.

While the butternut is roasting, heat the oil and butter in a small pot, add the onions and sugar and simmer gently until the onions are soft, glossy and caramelised.

Top with caramelised onions and some fresh rocket.

With left overs…

Break into pieces and add to a salad with goats, blue or feta cheese

A special thanks to Seagram, my photographer

 This is one of my favourite weeknight dinners. It is so simple and FULL of flavour!

SERVES 2

All you need is:

 250 g fresh tagliatelle

Olive oil

125 g juicy and sweet rosa tomatoes

juice and zest of 1 lemon

a handful of fresh fresh Basil, torn up

125 ml  grated Parmesan (1/2 a cup)

So this is what you do…

Place pasta in boiling salted water and boil for 2-3 minutes or until al dente.

Pour in a colander, but don’t rinse!

In the same pan, heat some olive oil and saute the tomatoes until they burst slightly.

Add the strained pasta, lemon juice and zest, parmesan, basil and a glug of olive oil. Season with black pepper. Mix until well combined.

Done in 3 maybe 4 minutes!

Ultimate yumminess, a perfect light dinner!

P.s. that is basil from our little garden – yes I’m so proud!

Anyway, have a fantastic long weekend everyone. Looking forward to the conference on Sunday! Yay yay!

Cx

Was so tired, from work yesterday and could not face cooking a full-on meal, so I took out a packet of frozen woolies burger patties.  While they were defrosting, I searched around the kitchen for something to doll these burgers up!

This was the end result.

A Gourmet Burger with Cajun sweet potatoes!

SERVES 2

2 ”heat ‘n eat” Ciabatta rolls

2 burger patties, grilled or fried to your liking

Garlic mayo

4 slices of cucumber

1/2 feta round, crumbled

For Balsamic Rosa Tomatoes and Onions:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

125 g rosa tomatoes

1 small onion, sliced

45 ml balsamic vinegar

a glug of olive oil

10 ml brown sugar

S&P

For Fried Cajun Sweet Potatoes:

1 large sweet potato, sliced and parcooked until tender in turmeric water(to give it that yummy yellow colour!)

olive oil

Ina’s Cajun spice

• Start with par boiling the tatoes
• Mix all balsalmic tomato ingredients together into a small roasting dish and roast for 25 minutes.
• When tomatoes are done, fry your burgers, heat the rolls, and in a separate pan heat some olive oil. Season the potatoes and fry until golden. Drain on kitchen towel.
• Now assemble burger: squirt garlic mayo on both sides of the ciabatta, top with cucumner slices, the burger, tomatoes, onions and feta. Serve sweet tatoes on the side.

I personally prefer using sweet potatoes as it is higher in fibre and has a low GI.

P.s. sorry it was meat, I’ll try next Monday! We still wolved it down though! ha ha!

Being a Southern Suburber, I’m always keen to find quaint little eateries in the area.

I would like to give praise to a fairly new coffee shop, “Cafeen”. It is aesthetically the most beautiful place I’ve seen in a long time. Old, rustic ,vintage decor – where they found all these fantastic objects and furniture, I don’t know…My food stylist eye just sees prop potential left right and centre every time we go there!

Let me just commend them on their flat whites, not cappuccinos – FLAT WHITES, they are heaven in a cup! The second thing I’d like to commend them on is the fact that the owners are ALWAYS there, I feel somewhat more at ease when the owners are around, they run a tight ship. And the staff are efficient and friendly (partly due to the owners being there? Just an assumption).  Thirdly, Cafeen’s menu. They have kept it simple with a trendy breakfast and lunch menu with assorted pastries and cakes to choose from. I must be honest; I love it when a place does not have a huge overcompensating menu. When I see a large menu, I think, wastage, mistakes etc. Also I am the most indecisive person on the planet, so intriguing menus with limited choices are my preference. “Each to their own.”

We were late for breakfast so we chose something from the lunch menu. J had a massive homemade burger with half an avo, bacon and fried onions served with (I’m not exaggerating in the least) 6 -7 extremely large spicy potato wedges(more like roast potatoes).  I had a light and fluffy chicken and mushroom pancake covered with cheesy cheese sauce served with fresh creamy coleslaw (not the KFC kind!) and dressed garden salad. The quality of ingredients is amazing. The portions are very substantial, real value for money. Oh, they make yummy scrambled eggs - creamy, gooey and smooth(had that last time on fresh seed toast). Every time I go there, I feel so inspired! Do you have a little coffee retreat you enjoy going to for your personal time out?

A few of my other favourites are “Jaqui Daya” in Rondebosch and “Starlings” in Claremont area. They also have their own personal touch with a relaxing atmosphere. I don’t do franchise coffee shops – they never seem to be able to make proper coffees even though they are coffee shops!

My exception is Vida e café of course. My weakness.

So, that was my babble about another passion of mine. Coffee shops.

P.s I haven’t had any joy uploading any pics today, so watch this space for my not so meatless Monday’s Cheats Gourmet Hamburger with Cajun Roasted Sweet Potatoes.

C x

Well, on Saturday about 12ish, we decided to have 2 of our close friends over to come see our new place, So since it was a last minute decision, I had to improvise with what we had in the kitchen(especially because it’s mid month…if you know what I mean?) The only things I bought were 2 slices of proscuitto, a tub of chocolate ganache and a bottle of wine(of course) at our local Spar!

So this is what I conjured up…

Starter

Nectarines wrapped in Prociutto

Always a hit! So simple, easy, light and delicious.  Served on a bed of crispy wild rocket dressed with peppery extra virgin olive oil and tart balsamic vinegar. The sweetness of the nectarine balances so well with the saltiness of the prociutto.

Main

Slow Cooked Beef Curry with mango sambal and coriander yoghurt

Brown 600 g stewing beef cubes in a little olive oil. Try browning bits at a time, it tends to boil when you add it all add once!

Remove once browned, and set aside.

In the same pot add a bit more olive oil if need be and add 3 sliced onions, 2 cloves crushed garlic, 1 chopped red chilli, 15 ml medium curry powder, 15 ml garam masala and 10 ml tumeric. Reduce to a medium heat and saute until onions are soft, glossy and golden.

Return meat to the pot together with + – 300 ml of beef stock( I use Ina paarman), 45 ml peach chutney, 25 ml vinegar(any will do). Bring to a simmer and then…

Decanter into a casserole bowl(if you are lucky enough to have a La crueset(stove to oven type pot), I suggest you use that! Add 2- 3 tomatoes, seeds removed and chopped. Cover with the lid and place in a 160 degree oven for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, add 2 peeled and chopped sweet potatoes and loads of fresh coriander.  Mix a tablespoon of cake flour with some water to make a paste and stir into the curry. Cover again. And bake for another 1 1/2 to 2 hours. This long will make the meat so tender, you won’t believe it is beef! This gives you time to do the other goodies and get the house straightened without watching the stove top!

Result! Tender hearty beef curry. (excuse the mess on the dish! Didnt have time to clean it!)

And to serve,  I made a sambal by chopping 1/2 an onion, 1/4 cucumber, handful of coriander and 1/2 a mango, mixed it all together and drizzled with lemon juice.

I also chopped some coriander and added it to 250 ml bulgarian yoghurt together with 5 ml crushed garlic, salt and pepper.

Fried some poppadoms (the men love this) and cooked some Jasmine rice.

Dessert

 Hazelnut and Cocoa dusted truffles

To end the meal off…

I literally made this seconds before they arrived! I bought a tub of ready made chocolate Ganache. I rolled teaspoon fulls in my hand and coated them with cocoa and the others with chopped hazelnuts.  Popped them in the fridge, when it was time for dessert they were nice and firm.

This is freshly brewed mocca java!

So that was my stress free dinner with huge impact!

GRANADILLA ICECREAM WEDGES

Make this easy, delicious and impressive dessert this weekend!

Shot with christof and Di Heirli (photographers) in July 2009 for a newsletter

MAKES 1 L

6 granadillas, pulp removed(keep shells) or 2 small tins of pulp

375 ml icing sugar

250 ml cream

250 ml Greek style yoghurt

• Mix pulp and icing sugar together and allow to stand for 30 minutes
• Whip cream with 25 ml of ice cold water until soft peaks form. Gently fold in the granadilla mixture and yoghurt until thoroughly mixed.
• Pour mixture into each halved granadilla shell. Freeze for 5 hours. Cut in half again to form wedges.
• Pour left overs into a bowl and freeze as well. aloo to stand at room tmepterature for 15 minutes.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone! We are planning on eating copious amounts of sushi and drinking litres of extra chilled Chenin Blanc this weekend! i hope I can get up early enough for the market tomorrow…

C x

Had a photoshoot a few weeks ago, one the items on the itinery was Chilli Chocolate pots.

It was basically melted chilli infused dark lindt chocolate melted with cream with egg yolks whisked into it. Those sticks are Oreo wafer rolls – very yum.

The red tones in the background really bring out the rich colour of the chocolate and dried chilli flakes. I’m really enjoying having my dishes photographed from arial view and still a huge fan of close ups and fading the rest in the backround(that almost always works!).

The phtographer is Seagram Pearce, we work really well together. It’s awesome when a stylist and photographer are on the same wave length!

I love getting props at antique stores, that is my ultimate, browsing around looking for objects I may use in another shoot. It’s addictive!

I don’t know if anyone can relate to me with this….When I see my recipes styled and photographed exactly how I invisioned them, it warms my heart and reminds me why I do what I do!

C x