Dinner Divas

Even though the judges were looking for the best blogger and not the best cook, on the day (we shot Episode 1 with Nina and Kristy), all attention was on the food! From our side, we loved two recipes the most, for various reasons. They were Nina’s Baked Taco Shells and Kristy’s Baby Onion Jus. So here are the recipes as written by them, with love. Also, the glorious images they took themselves, briliant photographers they are! And proper and prissy misses we are, we have their written permssion to publish both recipes and images :-).

Nina’s Baked Taco Shells

• 1½ cup Sasko Cake Flour
• ¼ cup yellow mealie meal (polenta)½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• ¼ cup lard – make sure it is fresh

Place flour, mealie meal, salt and baking powder in the bowl of your food processor and run the machine. While the machine is running, add little bits of the lard and allow the machine to work it into the flour until all the lard is finished.  After the lard is worked in, add a little bit of hot water, just until the dough comes together.  Bring dough together in a ball, cover with a clean cloth and allow to rest for about 15 minutes. Form 12 small balls and roll out with a rolling pin, as thin as you can. Heat a cast iron pan on the stove and once the pan is hot, place a tortilla in the pan and cook until it forms brown spots on both sides. This is to make soft tortillas. To make taco shells, heat some oil in another pan and as the soft tortilla comes out of the pan, fold it in half and fry on both sides until crispy and brown.

Yields 12 tortillas

 If you want more of Nina’s recipes of Episode 1, please click here.

 Kristy’s Baby Onion Jus

• 45 ml butter
• 12 peeled baby onions, cut in half
• 50 g Rhodes Tomato Paste
• 125 ml red wine
• 5 ml sugar
• 3 ml pepper
• 300 ml beef stock

In a heavy-based pan, melt the butter. Add the peeled and halved onions to the pan. On a high heat, fry the onions till brown. Add the Rhodes Tomato Paste and stir until the onions are coated. Add the red wine and cook for about a minute on high until the alcohol has cooked out – you should smell the alcohol evaporating. Add the sugar, pepper and beef stock and bring to the boil. Remove the onions from the heat.

Pour the onions into a small oven-proof dish (around 15cm in diameter – you want the onions to be submerged in the stock). Place the lid on the dish and pop in the oven for an hour and 10 minutes, or until the stock has reduced and the onions are soft. Keep warm until serving.

Note: you can make this sauce in advance and re-heat it just before serving.

If you want any more of Kristy’s Episode 1 recipes, click here.