Janice Tripepi

I did a food demo yesterday at  The Food Market in Durban North.  Oh the produce on offer was magnificent!!  The venue was bustling with happy and excited Christmas shoppers.  Cameron from East Coast Radio was on hand to assist and compair with me.  What a great job he did.  All in all, it was yet another fabulous market that owes it’s success to a dynamic and professional team and the proof of the pudding (‘scuse the pun) is that The Food Market is a finalist for the Eat In Outstanding Outlet award in the 2010 Eat In South African Produce Awards!!!  How fantastic is that,  KZN produce DESERVES to be recognised.  I shall be holding thumbs for them!!!

As promised, this is the recipe for Zuccotto.  Traditionally served in summer, I have adapted it a wee bit for our hot South African Christmas.  It’s a quick and very easy recipe that delivers on taste and has all the bells and whistles necessary to make for a smashing Christmas Ice Cream Bomb!!  If you serve this Italian creation at night ……. then you simply must go wild with sparklers!!!!  A fitting substitution for the tradional setting alight or rather flambee-ing of the English equivalent … Christmas Pudding.

INGREDIENTS

1 standard 20cm vanilla sponge (you could use chocolate if you like)

1 bar of dark chocolate melted

500ml of fresh cream beaten to soft peaks

1 cup of icing sugar

1 vanilla bean

60g toasted almonds

60g toasted pistachio nuts

60g dried cranberris

3 Tbs of berry liquore

3 Tbs Brandy

1 Pudding bowl

Spray and Cook

Cling Wrap

(This is the version I demonstrated yesterday – you will notice that the photo has

Hazelnut chocolate instead of the dark chocolate, cointreau liquere instead of the berry liquere,  and

some nougat – which I added to the centre filling – as I say you can vary the additions to this pudding in any number

ways – this could be made with jelly tots for a kiddies version)

Place the dark chocolate into a microwaveable bowl and set your microwave to 20 seconds.

Every 20 seconds stop the microwave and stir the chocolate – it will take about three goes

to get it all melted nicely.  Set aside.

Cut the sponge into 1cm strips – cutting right accross the cake.

Spray your pudding bowl with spray and cook and line the bowl with the strips of sponge.

Combine the brandy and berry liquere and brush this onto the sponge – making sure

to cover all of it.

In a large bowl – use an electric beater to whip the cream together with the icing sugar to soft peaks.

Divide the mixture into two – stir in the vanilla bean into the one bowl.

Stir in the chocolate, almonds, pistachio’s and dried cranberries into the second mixture.

Using a spoon cover the sponge with the white cream and vanilla bean mixture.

Into the middle pour the chocolate, nut and cranberry mixture.

Using the leftover spone – cover the top with the sponge.

Cling wrap the bowl and put in the freezer over night.

About one hour before you wish to serve the Zuccotto – take it out of the freezer, remove

the cling wrap and turn onto a chopping board and leave for about five minutes,

It comes out very easily – remove the bowl and dust the entire bomb with cocoa powder

Nick some lovely shiney red ball off your christmas tree – add a sprig of

holly and …… Walla

A beautiful Ice Cream bomb for Christmas dessert!!!

Isn’t this a beauty!!!!

Buon Natale e Buon Appetito!!!

You can view The Food Markets website at  http://www.thefoodmarket.co.za/

I bet you chaps thought that I had left the country!!  It’s been hectic in Tripepi-land, and as the pace quickens one needs to come up with Christmas Goodies in a flash.  It’s a wonderfully social time isn’t it.   Some lucky people are already on leave or christmas hiatus “lucky lucky people” and some of us are still slogging away at the grind stone whilst shopping, wrapping, mixing cocktails, cooking and mixing more cocktails!!!  These little darlings are literally made in 5 minutes …….  i kid you not!!!!

I was flying around Woolies on the weekend and what did i see …. JORJUS TART CASES …. ready made!!!!!  12 for R24 … is a steal. 

When I was in Cape Town a few weeks ago, I could not leave without a stop on my way to the airport to catch my return flight to Durban – Daniele and I have a tradition of stopping at Giovanni’s in Greenpoint for breakfast and a wee shopping trip.  When I walk into that delicatessen I turn into a true shopping Diva …. generally I have Daniele snapping at my heels instructing me NOT TO TAKE TOO LONG!!!!!  I have a perfect foil for this though,  I install him at the bar with a double espresso and a sandwich with half of the deli inside!!!!!!!!!!  Happy smiley Daniele and happy smiley “peaceful” mum.  

Amongst all the fabulous goodies in that Aladdins cave, I found a tube of Chestnut Spread – sweet, uncuous, chestnutty heaven.   Not really sure what I was going to make with it – into the basket it went.  So here is what became of half of the tube!!! 

INGREDIENTS

1 tube of chestnut paste

1 pack of ready made Woolies tart shells

1/2 cup of fresh cream

1 bar of dark chocolate

decorations – silver or gold balls

Melt the chocolate in the microwave (i can’t be bothered with the whole double boiler thing)

When the chocolate has melted add the 1/2 cup of fresh cream and stir it in until it has mixed well

You can add some booze if you like – perhaps some cointreau if you fancy!

In each tart case – squeeze a blob of the chestnut paste

Cover with the Chocolate Ganache

When the ganach has set – decorate to your heart content with whatever you fancy!!!

When you just DON’T have a whole lot of time to devote to the kitchen … these go down very well with a nice espresso!!!  or a glass of your favourite tipple … after all it IS Christmas.

Buon Appetito!!

Jan is a HAPPY HAPPY MUMMY again, my sons are both at home for Christmas.  This is the first time in three years dear friends, as Max was overseas playing rugby in Italy.  Last Christmas, I could not even muster the enthusiasm to put up our christmas tree – instead I opted for a very modern arrangements of gold and silver branches with fairy lights.  I am extremely grateful to have them both at home – so on Tuesday evening we marked the occassion with a kind of Thanks Giving slash early Christmas meal.  A bottle of our favourite Italian Asti Spumante on ice ready to toast all and sundry.  Max joined me in the kitchen to help out with the chopping, slicing and dicing and taking advantage of the opportunity to learn how to make a chestnut stuffed roast chicken.  Oooooohhh I just love cooking a meal such as this filled with all the tastes and aromas of christmas. 

Pork Sausage Meat, Chestnut, Cranberry, Pine nut, Sage & Onion Stuffing

What a mouthfull!!

I make a lot of stuffing – enough to stuff the chicken or turkey AND bake an extra dish

of it to put on the table – Tripepi’s LOVE stuffing!

500g pork sausage meat

2 onions chopped

8 cloves garlic chopped

1 packet of dried cranberries

1 packet of pine nuts

1 tin of whole chestnuts

a handfull of chopped sage

salt & pepper

two cups of bread crumbs

1 packet of chopped smoked streaky bacon

1 sprig of rosemary

To prepare the oven baked dish of stuffing:

Fry the onions and garlic until lightly browned.  Combine this with the sausage meat, bread crumbs, sage and salt and pepper.

In an ovenproof bowl – using no more than half of the above mixture in total – place one layer of this mixture – then top with a layer of pine nuts, chestnuts and cranberries again, using only half of each of the packets of each and half of the tin of chestnuts- then place a layer of the sausage meat mixture on top – top this with half of the bacon.

Garnish with a sprig of rosemary and cover with tin foil ready to go into the oven with the chicken.

I roasted the dish for about 20 minutes covered – and then 20 minutes uncoverd to allow the top

to brown nicely.

Stuffing the Chicken

With the balance of the sausage meat mixture – mix in the pine nuts, cranberries and chestnuts and use this to stuff

your chicken.

Once you have stuffed the chicken – use toothpicks to close the neck opening and tie the drumsticks and parsons nose closed with some pudding string.  You want to keep the stuffing inside and not have any spillage.

To Prepare the chicken for roasting:

2,5kg free range organic chicken is what i used

Combine some truffle oil or garlic and rosemary with some soft butter and insert this

carefully in the pocket by the breast.  This will keep the breast moist and tasty

during the roasting process.

Cover the outside of the breast (ie. the top of the chicken) with a criss cross

of streaky bacon – again to retain the moisture and add flavour to the chicken.

Once ready – place in a roasting dish on a rack – and add three glasses of dry white wine, a chopped onion, some

rosemary, a chicken stock cube, 5 cloves of garlic and salt and pepper.  The chicken will drip juices into the pan and

enrich this sauce to a lovely tasty gravy to pour over the chicken on the table.

There was plenty of gravy to go around.

I roast this big boy uncovered  at 240degrees for about an hour and a half. 

When you take it out of the oven – cover loosely with some tin foil

and allow to stand for at least 15 minutes before serving.

This allows the chicken to relax nicely and is nice and tender.

Put on a nice big platter – arrange the potatoes around and serve with the potatoes daupinoise, roasted butternut

and cauliflower cheese.  These are a few of the Tripepi boys favourite things – so just make

YOUR families favourite veggies and go for it!!

I served Tiramisu as dessert which I will post tomorrow.

This post is veeeeery long enough I think.

We had a wonderful meal – lots of love and laughter around the table

and much giving of thanks  for the blessing of a lovely

little family all washed down with some fabulous

Asti Spumante.

Buon Natale e Buon Appetito!

About 25 years ago – Oh gawd I sound like i am a hundred years old!!!  My late brother-in-law wrestled some of those crayfish that hubby used to get at Sheffield Beach away from us.  He was an avid and accomplished cook - he used the crayfish to prepare  this dish for us and all I can remember is thinking that he was some kind of magician in the kitchen. 

I was still a novice cook in those days – soaking in all the recipes i could.  You can ask anyone that worked with me then – I would call my sister in law Paola at about 10am most days from Jet International Travel where I worked – the entire office would be ready with pens poised!!!!  Paola would recite the recipe to me in great detail over the phone – and at lunch break there would be a mad dash – by THE WHOLE STAFF, to go and purchase the ingredients needed.  It was always a recipe for well loved and much coveted home cooked Italian Food.  How generous and patient she was – I think I must have driven her insane sometimes.  When I got married – I literally could not cook anything!!! Nada ….. luthu …. bokeroli!!!!!  This would be a good time to say a very public Thank You Paola – for putting up with my culinary ignorance.

Back to Sergio’s Crayfish recipe – we invited Nonna Lilly over for dinner on saturday night so it seemed fitting to haul out the recipe and pay tribute to both a brother and son.  Mum-in-law regailed hubby for a few hours while i put the finishing touches on the dish.  I have the recipe in my file of scribbled down – bits and pieces of paper … we all have one, dog eared and brimming with “special” recipes from family and friends.

This is exactly how I recorded it all those years ago:

Sergio’s Crayfish Cardinale

Lighly fry crayfish in butter and garlic with salt and pepper.  Add some Nederburg Cuvee Brut and simmer.

Add one pot of pre-prepared tomato pasta sauce and fresh cream and parmesan cheese to taste.

Serve on a bed of rice.

Never having made this before – i read the recipe and thought that I had better research the original recipe.  I did this and found quite a few variations, however at the end of the day hubby and I decided to stay true to his brother’s recipe.

Oh joy of joys – it was exactly as I remembered.  Nonna, hubby, Karen and I munched our way through the meal reminiscing about his brother.  What a wonderful dish – I cooked it exactly as he told me – such a simple, yet deeply flavoured dish.

Basic Plain Tomato Pasta Sauce

1 large onion finely chopped

5 cloves garlic finely chopped

2 tins cherry tomatoes

2 tins plum tomatoes

1 chicken stock cube

freshly ground black pepper

olive oil

In a pan – fry the onion, garlic, stock cube and black pepper until nicely browned in half a cup of olive oil.

Add 1 glass of dry white wine and reduce until the alcohol has cooked off.

In a bowl – squash the tomatoes up with your hands and add to the pan and cook until

the oil rises to the top and goes a clear red.

For this recipe – because you are adding cream – cook the tomato sauce down until nice and thick.

Remove the crayfish meat from the tails and chop into bite sized pieces.

Lightly fry them in butter with garlic, salt and pepper – add about one glass of the Nederburg Cuvee Brut,

and simmer until the alcohol has evapouratd.

Add the pot of plain tomato sauce and about 475 ml of fresh cream and parmesan cheese to taste.

Serve on a bed of rice.

(I made my riso alla povera – which i have previously posted)

Buon Appetito!

and Cheers to absent friends!

I just love this time of the year.  Christmas has so many nostalgic flavours and aromas …  roasting turkey, chestnut stuffing and sweet Italian desserts and cakes.  I am going to feature some of my favourite Italian Christmas treats.  Christmas would just not BE Christmas in the Tripepi household without lashings of Zabaglione.  I make the quick and easy version – that doesn’t rely on double boilers etc.  This is the Durban cold version of Zabaglione which is much akin to the well known egg-nog!!! Served in my favourite martini glasses that are now close to 25 years old with ammaretti biscuits on the side.

INGREDIENTS

6 free range farm egg yolks- at room temperature

the zest of one lemon

6 dessert spoons of vanilla castor sugar (if you dont have this just use normal castor sugar and

some vanilla beans or vanilla extract)

Marsala wine – to taste (i use about half a white wine glass)

Ammareti biscuits

In a bowl separate the egg yolks and whites (the whites could be used to make meringues or added to an omlette)

add the sugar and beat using a hand mixer until white and fluffy and doubled in size

add the vanilla and slowly add the marsala wine – about a capfull at a time.

I like mine quite boozy – so generally add about half a white wine glass of marsala to get

the party and guests a rocking and a rolling!!

Pour into martini glasses and decorate with a biscuit and some lemon zest

and serve immediately.

For the hot version of this Italian Christmas classic – place the eggs and sugar in a double

boiler – making sure that the bowl does not touch the simmering water – and

prepare as above.

Many years ago my hubby together with gazillians of Tripepi relatives, all of us with little kiddies and babies, used to pack up the entire house and trek up the North Coast of Durban to Sheffield Beach.  We looked like an Out Of Africa expedition.  Gazebo’s, cooler boxes, portable braai, kids, umbrellas, swing balls, soccer balls, rugby balls, grannies, grandpas and old uncle tom cobbly and balls ……….. all this for a days outing!!  

We were, like most young families, struggling financially so had to find “cheap and cheerful” outings to entertain our children and babies.  A 30 minute drive with equipment literally tied to the rooves of the cars, and then a walk from hell down a steep steep hill to get to this beautiful beach, complete with rock pools like jacuzzi’s and rocks with refreshing waterfalls!!!  It was the “rocks” the Tripepi’s were after, armed with Mussel and Crayfishing licenses our husbands were decked out in old football jersies, steel work safety gloves and weight belts.   We called ourselves the fish wives!!! and we would order the menfolk to follow their primal instincts – beat their chests – bolster their testosterone levels and go forth and be HUNTER GATHERERS!!!!  They were not allowed out of the water until their bags were full and over flowing with seafood. 

With the contents of our cooler bags quickly eaten by the hords – they would be re-filled with mussels and crayfish.  The mussels were enormous – so enormous that we could make mussel shnitzels out of them - coating them in breadcrumbs and deep frying them to be serves with huge lemon wedges.  We made fresh Spaghetti with Fresh Mussel sauces Spaghetti alle Cozze.  Crayfish was prepared in a creamy brandy sauce and served on rounds of toased white bread.  The kiddies downed bowl after bowl of mussel soup!  For people who had no money, we sure managed at least two seafood meals a week!!!!  The late surf reporter and Durban Surfing Legend, Baron Stander used to refer to us as the “Tripepi Rock Robbers!”. 

We would get home, around 4.30pm – all sunburnt and exhausted from the day on the beach – the kiddies would be tired and this quick 5 minute soup recipe – would be ready by the time they all finished bathing and dressing in their jarmies!!!

I bought these beautiful New Zealand (Oi my carbon footprint!!!!) from Woolies yesterday.  They are farmed – so grown on ropes with is a bonus as you dont have to deal with sand and grit!!

Ingredients

1/2 a packet of smoked streaky bacon – chopped

1 Large onion chopped

1/2 punnet of finely chopped garlic

chopped parsley

1 chicken stock cube

2 glasses dry white wine

800ml fresh cream

lots of freshly ground black pepper

a dash of smoked paprika

In a nice large pot – fry the garlic, onion, bacon, paprika, pepper and stock cube unil lightly brown

check over the mussels and remove any beards – add to the pot

with the white wine, cover with a lid and cook on a high heat for 3 minutes

Remove the lid and reduce by 1/3

add the cream – check for seasoning

throw in the finely chopped parsley (a good bunch)

and serve!

You could add in some chilli for a bit of extra heat if you like.

Buon Appetito!

I promised you all some feedback on the breakfast at the Table Bay.  I am a total breakfast lover – i could eat breakfast three times a day!  Hubby and I spent the weekend at that grand dame The Table Bay.  What an elegant hotel she is, with sweeping marble floors, exquisitely potted orchids and comfy inviting couches every where.  Tricky and I have worked incredibly hard this very long and quite stressful year.  This break was a well needed and MUCH appreciated treat. 

The staff are friendly, polite and extremely professional which just makes checking in and indeed the entire stay – smooth and silky – shiny and very velvety.   Kind of like eating Lindt chocolates.  We returned from the premiere of our son’s movie – Look A Tear, to be enthralled by a solo opera performer giving it his all , in the lounge.  Goosebumps I tell you – from head to toe!!  What an awesome idea,  the lounge was brimming with fabulous people sipping their drinks, totally mesmerised by his man’s wonderful performance.  The acoustics were astounding!!

Breakfast was equally elegant and thrilling.  I am convinced that I was a mermaid in a former life – oysters are the epitome of perfection to my pallet – combine this with a glass or two of Moet and  something wonderful happens to me.  It is as if this is the best possible food i can eat - and they don’t even need cooking.  Given that I spent lots of time reading recipe books, dreaming up new food combinations and an awful lot of my spare time – just cooking, perhaps it is this very thing that captures my heart.  Oysters – just don’t require any fussy cooking at all!!! 

Not the best pic – granted, but I could stare at it all day!!!  The oysters were super fresh – the lemon was incredibly juicy – even the tobasco sauce seemed to taste a little better than usual,  the setting was perfect,  outside on the verandah with the splendour of the Waterfront and that awe inspiring mountain for company!!!  Does it get any better??  I think not…..

After my intimate oyster eating experience, I could not resist the Gravadlax and salmon rolls!!!  I could not manage any of the more traditional eggs, bacon etc.  Hubby tucked in with great gusto and was most impressed with his eggs benedict which was prepared fresh for him in the kitchen.   I know I got my meal a bit back to front – but I ended my breakfast with fruit. 

Pears – poached in red wine with bay leaves, star anice and rosemary!!  Oh my giddy aunt, what a wonderful combo.  The rosemary with the pear – devine!!!!  I wouldn’t recommend the apple and spinach juice though …. not my cup of tea at all!!!

I have not even begun to extoll the virtues of the whole spread – there was sushi – cheeses – cold meats – mueslis- fruit of the world – yoghurts and just so much much more.  I watched the many foreign visitors happily munching away.  A full and wonderfully comprehensive spread – with something for absolutely everyone.  I watched a little boy of about 9 years – his face lit up as he tucked into his bowl of coco pops!!!  He too – at such a tender young age seemed wonderfully happy with his bowl of cereal and glass of milk.

Hubby and I sat – ate and thoroughly enjoyed the view, flipped through the papers and drank in the perfection of it all.  I am not silent too often,  but this was a wonderful meal worthy of a little blissful silence!

I traipsed ALL OVER Durban – yesterday!!! All to no avail - i was having a major tuna craving.  Eventually i had to resort to frozen tuna from Woolies.  HARDLY a reasonable substitue, but, in the face of gulishing and craving like a pregnant woman – i just had to make do.  We really don’t get the best fish here, which seems like a travesty because we are on the coast.  Maybe all them foreign trawlers have taken all our fish ………. who knows!!

INGREDIENTS

Tuna Steaks

Chinese Egg Noodles

garlic finely chopped – about 8 cloves

ginger – 1 Thumb finely grated

chilli – 1 finely chopped

onion – 1 large one chopped

One cup of fresh corn

One orange or red pepper chopped

1 punnet of Mange tout peas 

XiaoXhing Rice Wine – or Sherry

Peanut Oil – or sunflower oil

Soy Sauce

2 tsp sugar

Sesame Oil

Garlic Chives – Snip them into the finished dish with a pair of scissors

Golden Mountain Sauce – avb @ Pick n Pay

Chinese Fish Spice

Boil the chinese noodles until tender in salted water.  Drain and sprinkle with

sesame oil to keep them moist.  Set aside.

In a wok – add enough peanut oil to coat the bottom of the wok.  Heat this up to a nice hot temperature,

the oil needs to ripple with heat

add the garlic, ginger, onion and chilli and fry for about 2 minutes

add a good splash of the rice wine with the soy sauce and golden mountain sauce and about 2 tsp of

sugar and fry for one minute

Add the noodles and stir fry coating them nicely with all the veggies and sauce

check for seasoning, cut in the garlic chives and immediatel remove them to a serving dish.

Coat the Tuna Steaks with the chinese spice and flash fry them

in a griddle pan – don’t overcook them.

The tuna should still be pink in the middle – IF YOU DO MANAGE TO FIND FRESH TUNA!!!

Cut the steaks into strips and serve on top of a good helping of the

noodles.

As always taste your food while it is cooking – you may like to add an extra chilli for more heat -

or a dash more of soy sauce.

Buon Appetito!

The Tripepi household is in a complete and utter frenzy.  Iti’s just go bonkers for soccer – i cannot tell you the number of phone calls, heated debates and manic gesticulations that take place EVERY SINGLE TIME there is a soccer match.  It has become sooooooo bad – that i start twitching when i hear the sound of soccer supporters during a game.  Now, when there is a Soccer World Cup – “porca miseria” the hype moves into the DEFCON – 10 Zone.  Last night – all male Tripepi’s, Pizzutti’s and Domiro’s converged on our house to PLOT AND PLAN!!!!  For hours the debates raged on – do we fly or drive – Cape Town – Soccer City – hotels time share ……..hunna hunna hunna YAK YAK YAK!!! 

With this in mind – my silent contribution to the Heated debate was a CURRY NIGHT!!!!!!   hehehehe …..  I see it as my spousal duty to contribute to these situations (hehehe ….)   with this in mind a chilli or two was on the menu!!!!   and my Gucci hanbag did it get them going!!!!!!!!!

About six years ago – Woolies sold Camellia Panjabi’s fantastic cook book “50 GREAT CURRIES of INDIA”.  Every single recipe in this precious book is a winner!  The forward in this book is incredibly comprehensive – with chapters on the Philosophy of Indian Cuisine to The Use of Spices, The Curry Picture and much much more. 

This Chicken Pistachio Korma is a delicately flavoured dish – i cut down the number of chillis used in Camellia’s recipe for our western tastes.  This dish orginated in Old Delhi and was created by a family of wedding caterers near the Jama Masjid mosque.  How romantic!!

Ingredients

6 chicken breasts (i had 8 – but my cat Valentino nicked 2!!!!)

100 shelled pisachio nuts (Woolies)

4 green chillis (she uses 8)

5 tbspns cream

3 tbs full fat yoghurt

2 onions chopped

1 thumb of chopped fresh ginger

6 large cloves of garlic chopped

3/4 tsp garam marsala

1/8 tsp tumeric

2 bay leaves

3/4 tsp white pepper

1 1/4 tsp fennel seeds

1 tomato chopped (i used about 8 cherry tomatoes chopped – nice and sweet!)

2 tbspns chopped coriander leaves

Boil the pistachios in a cup of water for 10 minutes – allow to cool and rub off the skins.  I know this is a bit laborious but it was worth it – they give a nice green colour.

Blend to a paste with 4 green chillis and the cream.

Fry the onions until lightly browned – add the ginger – garlic – garam marsala and tumeric powders – bay leaves white pepper and fennel seeds – add the pistachio mixture and fry for 2 minutes.

Add the chicken and cook gently for 5 minutes – then add the tomato – yoghurt and salt to taste.  If you

want it hot hot – this is when you would add the other 4 chilli’s – !!

Add a little (i used about 1 cup)  chicken stock and cook gently until tender. 

Sprinkle with cardamon powder and coriander leaves before serving!!!

I went a bit wild with the browning of these various ingredients – DON’T – the colour

of the finished dish would have been better had i not done this – i am always seeking

to increase flavours using this browning method but in this case –

it’s better not to.

LAMB ROGAN JOSH

This is a lamb curry that orignated in Kashmir.  The bright red Kashmiri chillies add the characteristic

colour to the dish.  Camellia describes Rogan Josh as “mildly spicy with a ravishing flavour”.

Ravishing – i just love that.

Ingredients

700g stewing lamb of chops – i used leg chops

4 cloves garlic

2 1/2 (two and a half) tsp of kashmiri chilli powder

or

2tsp of chilli powder and 1 tsp paprika

1/2 cup full fat yoghurt

250g chopped shallots

1/4 cup ghee or oil

4 cloves

2 black cardamons

4 green cardamons

2 bay leaves

1 blade of mace

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp fennel powder

1 tsp ginger powder

1/4 tsp tumeric powder

salt to taste

Make a paste of the chilli powder and a little water.  Whisk the yoghurt and set aside.

Fry the shallots in the ghee or oil until browned. 

Add the cloves – cardamons, bay leaves and mace and fry for 1 minute.

Add the coriander, fennel, ginger and tumeric powders, the chilli paste and 2 tbl spoons of water and stir continuously.

After 2 minutes add the meat – Saute for 5 minutes then lower the heat and add the yoghurt

Add salt to taste and 4 cups of water – cook nice and slowly until tender.

This takes a while – the slow cooking so it’s a good idea to prepare this early in the

day if possible.

I served the curries with sticky basmati rice – roti’s

and some lime and mango pickles.

Finally the meal and all the Italian Ego’s were tempered with

a nice platter of fresh Mango – Watermelon, Melon and Pomegranite “jewels”.

Buon Appetito!!!!

After not being able to eat – cook or shop for quite a few days – Daniele, who is as professional as I at the eating thang, was in need of some major comfort food.  Saturday night he placed his order for Sunday breako’s – French Toast Mum!!!! Pleeeeze.   This is another of my left over – stale croissant dishes.  Quick and easy – as comforting as a hot bath on a cold day – post “i am so sick i can’t eat food!!!! 

INGREDIENTS

STALE CROISSANTS OR RAISIN BREAD (sliced)

3 EGGS

3/4 CUP OF MILK (or fresh cream for the super luxurious version)

butter

honey

syrup

cinnamon

Break the eggs into a bowl – beat them and add the milk -

add a tsp of cinnamon

- cut the croissants in half and soak them in the mixture

Melt a good knob of butter in a frying pan and

add the croissant halves

cook them on a medium heat until they have browned nicely

remove and drench them with

either syrup of honey

add another good sprinkling of cinnamon and

serve !!!!

Go for a good 10km run!!!

Buon appetito!!