Tastes & Treats

Being a Granny to a 2 year old has certain duties attached to it… one of them being the making of a birthday cake! I love birthday cakes, especially those that don’t come from some shop but are home-made. So there I was last week with the task to produce a “beach cake”.. as Connor and family live next to the beach it was definitely the way to go. I am fortunate enough to live in Cape Town where we have a shop that just does baking stuff and equipment ! ( Baking Tin in Claremont). Having scoured the shop for anything beachy I started the elimination of my chocolate recipes in the many books lining my shelves and decided on the absolute yummiest one I could find which is David Lebowitz . This recipe comes out of his wonderful book called “The Sweet Life in Paris” and can be bought here from Amazon.com.

For the beach cake:

250 g bittersweet or semisweet chocolate ( I used half & half)

8 tbsp ( 120 g) unsalted butter

1/3 cup ( 65 g) sugar

4 large eggs at room temperature separated

2 tbsp flour

Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Butter a 23 cm loaf pan and line the bottom with a strip of parchment paper.

In a large bowl set over a pan of simmering water, heat the chocolate and butter together until just melted and smooth.

Remove from heat and stir in half the sugar, then the egg yolks and flour.

Whip the egg whites until the start forming little peaks and then add the remaining sugar until the whites are smooth and hold their shape when lifted.

Use a rubber spatula to fold one-third of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, then fold in the rest until there are no white streaks left.

Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 35 minutes, just until the cake feels slightly firm in the centre.

Let the cake stand a bit before removing from the tin.

For the Jelly sea:

For the mould I used a metal cassata loaf pan and lined it tightly with alu foil.

I mixed 3 packets of green jelly powder with a bit of blue food colouring and let this set in loaf pan. ( in the freezer for about 15 minutes) . Once the top was firm to the touch, I scattered a few blue sugar fish (from the baking department of the Spar) and then made another lot of blue jelly to fill up to the top. This lot was then left to harden overnight.

In the meantime I also had to organise a few sailing boats as any good looking sea also needs to have a couple of boats floating about !!!

So…

Take 2 Minolas, half them, scoop out the flesh, fill with red jelly, prop into muffin pans in order to avoid spillage and then wait till jelly is fixed..:)

With a sharp knife (ie the new one from Wuesthof from the FBI11) slice through the middle and then attach paper squares to toothpicks as sails . I copy and pasted a bunch of little photos of Connor into Word tables and cut them to size.

Just one more tip: Prepare the cake mix individually ! It will flop horribly if you multiply the recipe !

Last Saturday was the annual Moonstruck charity event on 4th beach Clifton. What a great event and thank goodness we  went early and found a lekker spot against the rocks as it ended up being 36 000 people on that beach. The concert was organised by Radio 702 and one of the performers was Vivky Samson who finished her her set with her signature song that makes every expat overseas homesick with a dose of “wet eyes” – My African Dream – brings goosebumps every time I hear it. No vino allowed unfortunately but we all brought some nice munchies. One of my friends had Coronation Chicken. I must say it was the first time I ate this really nice way of using up day old chicken as with me having done my apprentiship in a German kitchen,  there was definitely no coronation :):):)…. We had something similar and called it Hawaien Chicken Salad..

So here goes with the South African version of Coronation Chicken:

Ingredients:

2 either freshly cooked or day-old chicken breasts

1 large Tbsp Hellman’s light

1 large Tbsp plain yogurt

1 tsp Tandoori curry mix

1/2 tsp Tamarind paste

1/2 tsp bottled ginger

pinch of smoked bell pepper

pinch of smoked chilli (Smoking Shed)

Shred the chicken meat very finely.

Mix all the dressing ingredients together.

Fold the shredded chicken into the mix.

Serve with some fresh mango and some pecan nuts for crunchiness ( nuts always go well with a chicken salad)

One can obviously adjust the spices to ones own taste…  the way above  just has a slight bite which is nice as you can actually taste all the different ingredients.

My sister lives in Brussels and this is one of her favourite meals for lunch and she kindly passed her recipe on to me. The combination of beef and chorizo works so well and gives the whole meal a bit of a zing which I love. ( I am not too fond of those extreme hot sort of dishes which most South Africans love so much). Having received one of those amazing Smoking Shed hampers last Sunday at the Food Bloggers Indaba, I also added a spoon of smoked bell pepper to the soup part of the dish.. and it made it WOW ..:)J

Make the meatballs first: Combine everything and mix thoroughly.

Form meatballs and roll between your palms (Otherwise, meatballs will fall apart in the soup).

You should make around 20 to 24 meatballs, set aside.

Combine chicken stock, onion, celery, tomatoes and their liquid, cumin, oregano, smoked bell pepper and cilantro leaves in a large pot.

Bring to broil, and reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Drop meatballs in the soup (Make sure the soup is slightly boiling, the meatballs need to be cooked quickly).

Return to simmer and cook another 10 minutes.

Add zucchini and cook 10 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper, to taste.10

Yes I know…  its been 3 months of silence… ! so very sorry !  Now I have moved home back to Hout Bay and am ready to tackle the world of blogging once more in a big way !

Also joined SureSlim again and even better am going 3 times a week to water arobics ! so 2011 will definitely be the year of health and happiness !

So looking forward to Sunday at the food bloggers conference in Monkey Valley which is really just around the corner from me.

Seeing that these coming weeks / months will be more on the skinny food side here is an amazing recipe for a dressing that i found and tried out:

Tapenade Dressing

This super-easy dressing will make even the most boring of lettuces taste amazing, but it would also be great on arugula, spinach, for just about any salad green.  Garnish with toasted pine nuts, tomatoes, and feta cheese or hard boiled eggs ( for the protein)  for a more substantial salad.  Grilled or marinated vegetables would most certainly be a great idea as well..

2 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. tapenade

1 Tbsp. red wine, balsamic, or sherry vinegar or even some rosmary infussed vinegar gives it a nice touch

4 Tbsp. good olive oil

1. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl with a whisk.
2. Drizzle over salad greens of choice and toss before serving.
3. Add pine nuts and feta or eggs….  whatever grabs you at the moment

Makes enough to dress 4-6 salads.  Leftovers will keep several days in an airtight container in the fridge.

There is a new baby in the house !!  no its not a little person, nor a dog or cat ..  but an African Grey !!  and oh  is he gorgeous !!! His name is Harvey and he is all of 2 months old. As I have never had a bird before, this is a whole new learning curve..  so..  say hello Harvey !!