Janice Tripepi

The Tripepi men have finally managed to raise their downtrodden, depressed, sad little chins off the floor. One or two of them have started eating again!! Hehehe …. They are fine and ranting and raving at the remaining soccer games. I was contemplating removing all the flags and WC paraphernalia before they got back from Jozi – but decided against it. Instead I welcomed them home with a big plate of pasta! That had them smiling in a flash!

I don’t have a whole host of English childhood memories because I was only 10years old when my family came to live in South Africa (HOOOOOOOOOORAY!) but one that I do hold near and dear is that of my Nana Benton making a Sunday lunch – which always included Yorkshire Puddings. She was my Scottish by birth and flew around her tiny little pig farm kitchen, throwing flour, eggs and milk together, muttering in Scottish under her breath, in the most hap hazard way!!! She would shove them into her oven – a muffin tray with the pale yellow creamy looking batter – and 35 minutes later they would come out – transformed!!! They were enormous – looking like muffins on steroids. This was nothing short of alchemy for little old me – Very impressive to me she was – very!

I made a British-inspired finger lunch on Sunday – for the family to munch on as England played football against Germany. Oh my moldy madumbi’s – what a diabolical performance that was. The second English disallowed goal – WAS DEFINITELY a goal. What a pity – but when all is said and done – they (the Brits) didn’t deserve a win.

I made two real English faves to snack on – Fish ‘n Chips with my version of – Toad in the Hole! Toad in the hole is made from Yorkshire pudding batter – and my mum would make a big tray of it dotted with sausages. My version – is mini snack Toad’s dotted with pork sossies wrapped in bacon – roasted rosa tomatoes and baby button mushrooms. The fish – was more like fish gougons easy to dunk in some mayonnaise and eaten by hand. “Real” double fried chips made from potatoes finished it all off!

The World Cup is known historically for it’s upsets and it seems that 2010 is to be no exception. What I am totally delighted about is the way in which South African’s have risen up as a united nation and welcomed the rest of the world “back home”. The fan parks in Durban have been overflowing with revelers. Hubby and I watched ……….. take on ………. At Spiga d’Oro a popular Italian restaurant and bar in Florida Road and it was overflowing with visitors – and they just love love love South Africa. They were having 40 kinds of fun in t-shirts and shorts. They laughed at us locals taking advantage of no humidity and donning a scarf!!! Honestly – two German guys I was chatting to – were “donnering and blitzening” up a storm.

I aplogise in advance – but tonight I am rooting for PORTUGAL – the hottest looking team in the World Cup!!! Which probably means that they will lose!!

Toad in the Hole Batter (Yorkshire Pudding Batter)

1 ½ full cream milk

1 ½ cups flour

3 large free range eggs

1tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

Using an electric beater – beat the eggs until combined – add the milk and then add

The sieved flour, salt and baking powder. Beat this for about 2 minutes until

All the ingredients are well combined.

Cover with cling wrap and set aside for at least 1 hour.

During this time you can prepare your other goodies and heat the muffin pan.

Place 1 tsp of hot beef or duck fat in each compartment of your muffin tin and preheat your oven to 240 degrees.

When you are ready to bake the ‘Toads” – add 1 Tbl of melted beef or butter fat to the batter and beat it for about 1 minute.

Place the muffin tin with the fat – NO BATTER – into the hot oven for about 3 minutes to heat the fat. The fat should be smoking when you take it out of the oven to add the batter.

Using a ladle – half fill each muffin – add your sausages, mushrooms and roasted tomatoes and quickly place it back into the oven to bake for 30 minutes or until brown.

I added pork chipolatas that had been wrapped in bacon and fried.

Roasted rosa tomatoes – simply roasted for an hour the night before I made this dish – olive oil – verlaque balsamic vinegar- red onion – garlic – rosemary – salt & pepper.

Baby button mushrooms – fried in a little butter – garlic- salt & Pepper.

1 sprig of fresh rosemary.

When they have browned nicely remove them from the oven – allow to cool for just a minute or two and remove them to a serving platter. I served these on newspaper for a Brit touch!! They are surprisingly crunchy and filled with all these goodies – they are bursting with loads of flavor.

They are “Pukka” when served with a good dollop of Branston Pickle.

The Fish ‘n Chips

Well – not much to say here other than I used two nice Hake fillets and cut them

Into what I call Fish Fingers here at home. A quick dip in flour – then an egg wash – into nice bread crumbs and into a nice deep frying pan of hot hot oil.

The secret to frying fish is the temperature of the oil – IT MUST BE HOT!!

When you add the fish it must immediately bubble like a french champagne.

Loads of glistening bubbles and you are fine.

If you don’t get your oil hot enough – you will land up with limp (sin of all sins) sad

Floppy bits of fish – dripping in oil.

NO WAY!!!!!

Stick to the rules above and you will have no problems at all.

Serve with a basket of fresh chips – made from potatoes!!

If there is one thing I really don’t like at all – it’s those chips – frozen and made from wallpaper glue ……………. VOM!

Is this theEnglish Makarapa!!!