Janice Tripepi

Last weekend The Sharks, bless their little pink cotton socks, donned black and pink rugby jersies to support the Cansa Assosiation and the fight against breast cancer. I, together with the rest of KZN just love the way in which they get involved in their community. The public perception of Rugger Players is often tainted with mucho-macho prejudice – when, they really ARE thinking, feeling individuals. Having two sons – who have devoted most of their lives and a few limbs to their chosen sport – I can only applaud this philanthropic approach to rugby.

 

Max and his mates were all scurrying around to find pink shirts – that would good and accentuate their hard earned muscles. The Absa Stadium was flushed with a pretty pink blush! Hubby and I didn’t go to the rugby but managed to polish off most of the dessert that I have for you today. My trip to the Essenwood Craft Market early Saturday morning yielded two punnets of plump red strawberries – the perfect decoration for My Marshmallow Mousse which, by virtue of it’s pretty pink colour was chosed to honour The Sharks and Cansa.   Breast cancer has reared its devastating head in both my family – and in my friends and I pay tribute to my sister-in-law Paola and dear friend Lynne – who both courageously drew their swords of positivity and protection and whipped breast Cancer’s A*** .

 

It’s been such a topsy turvy week with all the excitement around the SA Blog Awards! Thank you – to all of you who were kind enough to vote for my blog – I really do appreciate it!! I felt like an Eskimo whipping her sled dogs for most of the competition. Your constant encouragement and feed back was amazing and I hope that your fingers are now out of the splints – free of bandages and plasters and are in good working order again!! My hearty congratulations go to Jeanne of the blog Cooksister and Alida from Simply Delicous.

 

However, the hard work is not over yet – Tandy Sinclair of Lavender and Lime could use our “FINGA-POWA” Sooooo – my bruthas and sistas ….. Ask not what your fingers can do for you – ask rather what your fingers can do for Tandy!!!

 

 

We are with you Sis-T ……… VOTA MANJE – VOTA FOR DA SISTA

 

click here to vote for Tandy in the Project Food Blog Competition

 

‘cos family sticks together!

 

 

 

Marshmallow Mousse!

 

Ingredients

  

40 pink marshmallows

½ cup full cream milk

2 cartons of fresh cream

1 vanilla pod

A good slosh – which probably equals approx 8Tbs of Berry Liquere or your favourite liquere

Fresh Strawberries to garnish

 

This is one of those – COULDN’T BE EASIER desserts.

Prepare it the day before you need it as it needs to set.

 

 

 

 

Heat the milk and marshmallows in a pot – stir constantly until all of the marshmallows have dissolved. This only takes a minute or two so don’t take your eye of the pot. Once the marshmallows have dissolved stir in your berry liquere and set aside for a mintue while you prepare the cream.

 

 

  

 

 

Remove the seeds from your vanilla pod and add it to the cream in a large bowl and

Beat until the cream forms soft peaks.

 

Add the melted marshmallow to the cream and using a whisk – combine the two.

 

Pour into a large bowl – or smaller individual serving bowls – or a mould, whatever you like and cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or until set.

 

 

 

 

When it’s set – remove from the fridge and decorate with sliced strawberries or berries of your choice. I used a glass to make a circle in the centre of my mousse and cut strawberries into slices and arranged them in concentric cirlcles around the guide line and placed my pink ribbon against breast cancer in the centre.

 

 

Serve with a nice glass of Sparkling Wine or Champagne and remember those who have battled the Cancer Dragon courageously.

Wear your pink ribbons to show your support and pay tribute to those who

have succumbed to this awful disease.

 

Gone but NEVER forgotten.

 

 

Xxxx

 

Buon Appetito

 

Xx

jan

 

 

 

I have guests staying with me this week. Carol – my maatjie from Underberg and her niece Catharina from Germany. Despite one corker of a hangover in Thursday, we have taken Catharina around Durban – showing off our brand spanking new FABULOUS beach front, the Jewel in the royal crown of KwaZulu-Natal – the ever elegant and etherial Moses Mabida Stadium and of course, Ushaka Marine World.

 

Catharina hails from Karlruhe in Baden-Wuertemberg Germany and has spent the last month volunteering as a field guide in a small concession next to the Kruger National Park. An organisation in Germany called – Praktikawelten (http://www.praktikawelten.de/) arranges for foreign students to come to South African and work in our beautiful bush.   Once her time in the bush was over she went to her aunt Carol in Underberg. I warn you – this young lady had depleted every single shop, stall and roadside Craft market in the Midlands Meander. It will come as no surprise that she has fallen deeply in love with our country and is already making plans to come back for a whole year next time. I am posting three of her amazing photographs – that would be 3/2500!!!!

 

It has bee wonderful having Catharina here – when you talk to a foreign visitor about your country it only serves to remind one of how extremely priviledged we are to have the sheer joy of observing our wild life living in their natural habitats and just how majestic our landscape is. Yesterday I quizzed her as to what she would like to eat for dinner. Catharina was adamant that she really wanted to taste a traditional South African dish. This gave me the opportunity to try out a recipe from “Cooked in Africa” by Justin Bonello, a gift from Max at Christmas time. Bobotie was her choice and Bobotie we ate.

 

 

African Sunrise : Catharina

 

 

 

 

I will admit that I added in a few ingredients to his recipe – altered the method slightly also – so you will notice that it’s not exactly the same as the one in his book!

 

Sorry Justin – but I am not known for following any recipe to the letter!

 

 

 

Ingredients

 

100g butter

50ml of Olive Oil

3 large onions chopped

1kg minced beef

500g minced pork

10 cloves of crushed garlic

1 small hand of ginger – peeled and grated

3tsp garam masala

1tsp whole coriander

½ tsp of cumin

1 star anice

1 ½ tumeric

8 cloves

Fresh rosemary & thyme – chopped finely

2 handfulls of chopped dried apricots

3 handfulls of flaked almonds

200ml apricot chutney – Mrs Balls of course!!

200ml of tomato sauce – All Gold

½ cup chopped parsley

½ cup of sultanas

6 large free range eggs

250ml fresh cream

A good grating of nutmeg

Salt & Pepper

 

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees

 

 

 

Heat the butter and oil in a pan – add the garlic and onion and sweat down slowly to sweeten the onions

Add the ginger – garam masala – tumeric – coriander – cumin – star anise – cloves – rosemary and thyme to the onions and continue to cook for just a few minutes to roast the spices. Roasting the spices really brings out their natural flavour nicely.

 

Remove from the pan – add the sultanas, chopped apricots, almonds and bay leaves – stir well to combine all the flavours and set the mixture aside.

 

 

Using the same pot – add a touch of olive oil and brown off

Your beef and pork mince.

 

Once it’s nicely browned add the chutney, tomato sauce, chopped parsley and the onion and spice mixture and stir in well.

 

At this point you need to season with salt and pepper – I found that

I needed to add at least 3tsp of flaked salt and a really good grinding of black pepper. – Taste Taste Taste – keep tasting and adjust the seasoning until its right.

 

Place the mixture into an overproof container and pat it down with the back of a wooden spoon to compact the mixture.

 

   

 

In a bowl combine the eggs – fresh cream – salt and pepper and a good grating of nutmeg.

Whisk this all together and pour over the top.

 

 

 

 

Decorate with bay leaves and bake in your pre-heated oven until the custard has set and browned nicely.

 

Walla!!!!

 

Of course Bobotie can ONLY be served with that sunset yellow rice!

 

 

 

Ingredients

 

Olive Oil & A knob of butter

1 chicken stock cube

1tsp tumeric

½ tsp whole coriander seeds

½ tsp cumin seeds

2 sticks of cinnamon

6 cloves

2 star anise

3 Cups of Basmati Rice

½ cup raisins soaked in boiling water

 

 

 

 

In a heavy based pot – fry all of the spices with the chicken stock cube to bring out their flavours.

 

Add in the rice and combine well with the spices.

 

Pour over boiling water – to one inch above the rice.

 

Bring to the boil – then reduce to steam the rice.

 

Once cooked – stir in the raisins and serve with the bobotie.

 

 

 

Catharina gave this dish the nod – she took pics and the recipe and is taking it back

to Germany with her today!

 

 

 

 

Buffalo Eating

 

 

 

An African Sunset!

 

Arrividerci Catharina – we look forward to your return to

our wonderful country.

 

Buon Appetito

jan

xxx

 

Seeing as we are slap bang in the middle of week and its Wacky Wednesday it’s time for me to share a really hilarious recipe with you. This is not one of those 1tsp of love, 2kgs of kindness, twee little lovey dovey recipes. It’s not a fun thing – this is a deadly serious recipe – bullets, hand grenades and all!

 

Think back to all of those Soccer World Cup Snack recipes that I posted – ‘twas a veritable Snackattack!!!!! I was researching snacks to test out and post for the Italy vs. Paraguay match. My recipes were lacking in the sweet department so I was wading through Paraguayan dessert recipes when I came across this recipe for Helado de Pina which is a Paraguayan Baked Custard.  The ingredients listed were as follow:

 

 

  Helado De Pina

 

Ingredients

1 bare fragmentation hand grenade bullet

3/4 cup bullet

1/2 kg milk cream

 

 

I have another classic Italian favourite for you today. Vitello Limone – Veal in Lemon and Cream is one of Maxi’s favourites. Its uber quick and easy and from start to finish – it’s on the table in about 20 minutes. You could replace the veal escalopes with chicken or pork if you like.

 

Vitello Limone

 

Ingredients

 

Veal escalopes – pat them dry

Olive oil

5tbs finely chopped garlic

500g chopped mushrooms

800ml fresh cream

Chopped parsley

Salt and Pepper

1 lemon – the juice of 1 lemon

Dry White wine – about 4 glasses

 

  

  

 

In a nice large frying pan –

 

Add your olive oil and fry the garlic until nicely caramelised

 

Add the mushrooms – salt and pepper and brown them

 

Once they are cooked – remove them from the pan and set aside

 

De-glaze your frying pan with about 2 glasses of dry white wine – and pour the juices over the mushrooms.

 

In the same pan – DON’T WASH IT – because the pan is nicely seasoned.

 

Add some more olive oil and fry your escalopes in batches so as not too overcrowd your pan.

Flash frying is what is required here work quickly – the escalopes are thin so don’t need more than 1 minute on each side because they are going to cook further in the sauce.

 

As each batch of meat is ready remove them to the same dish you have your mushrooms in. Cover the dish with a bit of foil as you don’t want the meat to dry out.

 

Once all the meat is cooked and empty, de-glaze your pan again with another two glasses of wine.

 

If you are not a wine drinker you can use some chicken or vegetable stock to do this. Again – we are aiming at lifting all the caramelisation of the bottom of the pan into your sauce.

 

  

 

 

 

So – add the wine to the pan and cook until all of the alcohol has cooked off – this will take about 1 minute –

 

now add the fresh cream and bring it up to a gentle boil – now add back the mushrooms and meat and give it a good stir.

 

 

Turn off the heat and remove the pan from the stove – stir in the juice of one lemon and adjust the seasoning.

 

Garnish with lots of freshly chopped parsley and serve.

 

 

 

 

I served mine with green beans cooked in tomato – you can find the recipe here.

 

Buon Appetito

 

Xxxxx

 

Jan

 

PS: if you enjoy reading my blog or using my recipes please do

Vote for my blog in the SA Blog awards:

 

The link is:

 

 http://website.sablogawards.com/2010/vote/voteforme/2404

 

 

Saturday was a rainy, dull day here on the East Coast. My Essenwood Market trip gave me a great excuse to wear one of my fabourite pieces of clothing – my red coat. The moment I don that coat I lose about 30years off my life and feel like a little girl. If my mum were still alive I could ask her if I perhaps had a red coat as a little girl which would explain the feeling I get when I wear it. Aaaaanyway – combine my red coat, with a shopping bag and I have one of those regressive moments and feel about 6 again.

 

So um er, strike that 30 years off my life – it’s more like 43 years off my life. Gawd ………. That’s such a long time!!! I was quite happy to walk down the road in the rain on Saturday morning – no umbrella – no scarf – just my red coat. The steamy aroma of the rain coming off the tarred pavement triggered memories of walking home after an early summer storm – barefoot – watched miniature tsunamis waves washing my feet as I walked against the flow in the rain gutters!!!

Steamy summer memories…..

 

Essenwood Market eagerly offered up her booty and I walked away with – awesome Gumbo’s (Giant/Jumbo) Eggs, armfulls of flowers for my breakfast table, fabulous mustard sprouts to garnish the eggs Florentine, 5M of black and white checked ribbon to tie up my napkins with, fresh rosemary and green shiny plump greenbeans. My niece and nephew Monique and Dean were still in town after their uncles’ funeral and seeing as I had not had much time to chat with them at the funeral I invited them and their darling baby Ethan over for a champagne breakfast on Sunday morning.

 

The East Coast blossomed on Saturday morning – the sun shone brightly in a perfect sky – a perfect accompanyment to a Champage Breakfast. They, along with everyone else happily woofed down Ouva Fiorentina – commonly know at my house as “Green Eggs” according to Max. His order went something like this,” Hey Ma – please can I have two muffins – two poached eggs but NO GREEN STUFF!” …………… I give up!!

 

 

 

 

Eggs Florentine

For 8 people

 

It’s rather a good idea to make the spinach and the Hollandaise sauce for eggs Florentine in advance. It’s always a bit of a stretch to get up – set table – sort out flowers, food and face (I need eons to polyfiller my crevices these days!) BEFORE guests start arriving at 8am.

 

  

 Ingredients for the Spinach

 

2 large packets of baby spinach leaves – Woolies

1Tbs of chopped garlic

Olive oil

Salt & Pepper

 

 

 

Wash your spinach leaves well and drain in a colander.

 

In a large pot – heat enough olive oil to cover the bottom of your pot or pan

Fry the garlic until caramelised – add the spinach leaves in two batches.

Do not add any water – the leaves will wilt done in 1 minute. Fry them until the water has gone and season well with salt and pepper.

 

Leave them overnight in a colander – place a saucer on top of the fried spinach

And push down to force out any excess water.

 

 

Just before you are going to assemble the dish

 

 

Chop 1 packet of smoked streaky bacon and

Fry this until browned nicely then add the spinach and fry together

Again – check for seasoning because spinach needs quite a bit

Of salt to bring out it’s natural flavour.

 

 

Ingredients for the Hollandaise Sauce

 

I never make my Hollandaise sauce – a la bain Marie style! I am just too lazy for

All that whisking etc. This is my cheat cheat quicky Hollandaise sauce!

 

8 egg yolks

400g butter – melted in the microwave

3 – 4 tsp hot English mustard

The juice of 1 lemon

½ tsp of cayenne pepper

Salt – approx 1tsp

 

 

 

Place the egg yolks, mustard, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and salt into a blender.

Melt the butter in a jug in the microwave

 

Beat the egg yolks for about 1 minute (to get them to ribbon stage) in the

Blender –

start adding the butter, which must be nice and hot, drop by drop.

Add a drop – blend for about 10 secs

Add another drop – blend again

 

Once you have added about 1/3 of the butter you can add the rest – with the liquidiser running – in a slow steady stream.

 

 

 

Check for seasoning and then remove to a bowl and cover with cling film.

Don’t keep this in the fridge – leave it out – if you attempt to heat the Hollandaise it will cook like scrambled eggs!!! So leave out and use it at room temperature.

 

 

  

 

A Champagne Breakfast is an event worthy of some window dressing.

There are many ways to dress your table that are cost effective and

Pretty – seeing as we are all Springy and Summery here on the East Coast of South Africa – I chose an Italian meets Spring Flowers theme!!

A wee bit of Napkin Magic and the whole look

Of your table is transformed in a flash!

 

 

 

 

NB: Don’t be tempted to crowd your table with unneccesay bits and bobs.

Keep it simple – set the champagne and orange juice table separately – and don’t mix the orange and champagne together – it’s better to place the open bottles in a cooler this allows your guests to choose

What type of champers they wish to drink …. And to mix their own according to personal preference!!!

 

   

 

Now to assemble the Eggs Florentine

 

 

 

Cut your muffins in half and toast the open side in a griddle pan to get some nice

Markings

 

Butter the muffins

 

Spoon on 2 heaped Tbs of the spinach mixture

 

Place your poached egg on top of the spinach

 

Top with 2 Tbs of Hollandaise sauce

 

Sprinkle the top with 1Tsp of grated parmesan cheese

 

Garnish with Mustard sprouts – or similar.

 

 

 

 

Buon Appetito!!!

 

Xxx

jan

 

 

What a day yesterday was! We said our final “Arriverderci’s” to Tricky’s brother Mario. He was highly respected in the community as a leader of GA – Holy Trinity Church was groaning at the seams as she kind of breathed out to let more people in – the church was packed with so many people. What a fitting tribute to a really very special man. Wonderful words of condolences poured in from all over the world.

 

Once the public tea and cake was done and dusted – we all went to his daughter Claudia’s house to celebrate his life. I lost count – we probably numbered in the region of 50 people. We all made food – d five different types of lovingly prepared pasta and wall to wall salads later – the vino buono flowed into the night. Again – we were all comforted, consoled and healed by Pasta Power!

 

I wish to pay tribute to Mario’s wife Clara – her strength, courage and indeed – energy was amazing. She was running around chatting to and consoling everyone there. What a wonderful role model you are for all of us. Your daughters, granddaughters and indeed great granddaughter are truly blessed to have you on their side. I have a special post in mind to honour Clara – an old family recipe that I just know she will be delighted to see surface again.

Spring has me in a head-lock!

 

 

  

  

Today I am sharing my meat rub recipe with you. I bought a butter lettuce at The Essenwood Craft market last Saturday – the veggies I bought from John Hosking’s stall are of still life quality! If only I had the time to paint them! This butter lettuce – surely must have weighed in at around 1,5 kgs – these are organic veggies showered not only with life giving water but showered too with loads of love. John and his wife come all the way from Underberg – around 4.30am every Saturday – to bring us wonderful organic veggies. I bought another lettuce from them – a frilly one – well it too is heavy and looks pretty much like a Spanish dancers skirt! I shall name this salad Essenwood Salad – for the lettuce, carrots, olives, feta and Gumbo Eggs were all purchased there last Saturday!

 

 

 

 

A Quick and Easy Summer Salad that packed with

organic energy giving goodies.  Ideal for a Saturday lunch

around the pool with some friends.

 

Firsty pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees.

 

Ingredients

 

For the Rubadubdub!

 

2tsp coriander seeds

2 tsp yellow mustards seeds

2tsp black musard seeds

2 tsp black pepper corns

2 tsp smoked salt flakes

1 tsp citrus lime salt flakes

1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes

1/2 cumin

3 sprigs of fresh rosemary (remove the leaves from the stem)

 

 

 

 

 

Place all of the spices and rosemary in either your pestil & mortar or a spice mill.

 

Pound the living daylights out of it – you will be wacked between the eyes by the amazing

woody – spicey aromas – it’s just wonderful.

 

Now to prepare your fillet ..

 

Ingredients

 

1 whole fillet

1 onion roughly chopped

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

6 cloves of garlic – whole

 

Heat a grilling pan or frying pan – until it’s smoking

Massage the whole fillet with some olive oil

Seal the whole fillet in the pan – keep your eye on it, don’t let it burn

but you want loads of caramelisation – all over the fillet.

The pan juices are going to be used to creat your sauce so don’t throw them away.

Once the fillet is well coloured - roll the fillet in the rub – push the meat hard into the rub you want

every single inch of it covered in the rub.

 

 

 

 

 

De-glaze your frying pan with 1/3 of a bottle of a good strong red wine such as this

Sauvignon Blanc from Spier -  Once all of the alocohol has

cooked off pour them over

 

1 roughly chopped onion, 6 cloves of garlic and a few

sprigs of rosemary in a roasting pan –

Add about a cup of water to prevent the sauce from drying out in the oven.

 

Place a rack in the roasting pan and put the meat which is covered in the

rub on top of the rack – into the oven it goes for about 20 minutes.

 

 

After 20 – 30 minutes – remove the meat and set it aside to rest

and relax while you assemble your salad and finish off the sauce.

 

I would losely cover the meat with a piece of tin foil to prevent it from drying out !

 

For your salad platter -

 

 

Most of these ingredients came from my market trip!

 

 

1 head of lettuce – here is the beauty I bought at Essenwood Market

Cherry tomatoes, courgettes sliced, cucumber sliced

carrot batons –

red pepper sliced

hard boiled eggs – cut in half (check out the double yolks on these Gumbo’s)

Olives – i used green olives from Essenwood – marinated in honey and mint

black olives – in cherry and sultanas

a good couple of handfulls of sprouted seeds

Cocktail brinjals – from Dino @The Mediterranean Kitchen – Essenwood

Danish Feta – from Jan Bowes at the market

some tinned anchovies – if you like them.

 

Go Wild – the more flavours and textures that you layer in a salad

the better it tastes.

 

Finally Slice your Rubadubdub Fillet and place on top of the salad.

 

Some juices will have leeched from the fillet – add them to the roasting sauces and reduce

the sauce to a nice dark red wine sauce – with a

tsp of either cranberry or redcurrant jelly if you like a slightly sweet sauce – if not

just reduce the juices down and adjust the seasoning and pour over the

meat.

The beauty of a whole fillet cooked this way is that you get both medium and rare pieces of

meat – all you need do is adjust your cooking times if you

like to eat cremated – burnt – dried out meat!

 

 

   

 

 

Dress your salad with your favourite dressing – our house

it’s an Italian – Olive Oil and Vinegar dressing – and

serve with some crusty bread and  more of this fabulous Spier Cabernet Sauvignon!!

 

Buon Appetito

 

xxxx

 

jan

 

 

Jennet Brown is nothing less than Durban’s Doyenne of markets.  I am sure that the Durban Municipality consults with Jennet on all matters “marketeering”. Every Saturday for the last 17 years – Durbanites have thronged to the legendary Essenwood Craft Market. I, myself have had the pleasure of running two stalls (one food and the other a range of home ware) at her land mark, internationally renowned market during this time.

 

 

 

 

My girlfriend Carol and I – would churn out 75L of Thai curries every Friday to sell at the Essenwood market on a Saturday morning. We had so much fun there and only stopped selling our Thai food because her trusty “Ketunda-Wa” (Toyota hilux) was nicked by someone who, after Carol and I performed many many a heinous ritual – must surely be walking around without his manhood.  

 

We had braces of batchelors arrive each Saturday morning to pick up their meals for the week. “Batchelor Bags” contained – two Red Thai Chicken curries – Two Green Vegetarian Curries and two Mussaman beef curries – each one with the pre-requisite fluffy sticky basmati rice portions and a bottle of sweet chili sauce. I must say though –that the public were not too sure about Thai curry back in those days – it was 2002 and Thai food was not as well known as it is today. Oi – the silly questions! OI – we had so much fun!!!

 

 

 

 

 We were very proud and protective of our stall – and one day this man stood staring at our Woks – you would have thought that he was looking at woks bubbling away with green mambas and sheep’s eyes in them ….. “What the hell is this?” he asked with his face all contorted and screwed up. “How the hell do you eat this?” ….. He enquired! BIG MISTAKE – Carol smiled ever so sweetly at the gentleman and offered this explanation. “You see sir this, is Thai Curry – chicken, vegetable and beef Thai curries! And how do you eat it you ask? – well, for R12.50 you get one minute – and during that one minute you may put your face in any one of these three woks – and each as much curry as you can in one minute, sir!.” Hehehe …..

 

 

 

 

 

Essenwood Craft market – is branching into the food world. Of course, they have a wonderful selection of readymade foods on offer – I cannot resist the Avocado on Homemade bread dripping with peppers and feta and pickles – It’s just wonderful. Personally, I am delighted that Essenwood Craft market now has fresh produce on offer! You all know how passionate I am about – Local is lekker. I shopped up a storm and bought magnificent fresh Organic Veggies, Flowers, crusty homemade breads, De-vine …. Olives, Cheese, Dips, and… and… and.

 

 

 

 

 

What could be better than buying fresh produce directly from the producer? The large chain stores can’t possibly stock these gems – available only in small quantities and filled with the love and pride of a small farmer, cook or baker. I really do hope that more and more of these markets pop up all over our wonderful country.

 

Essenwood Craft market could easily cope with many more of these stalls – more meats, more cheeses and more good food products please Jennet. Thank you for having the “cahonies” to move with the times and introduce these special folk to the market – cos, at the end of the day – it’s us, the public that benefit tremendously from being able to buy really fresh wholesome goodies direct from the farm.

 

Here are my picks of the day – Sunday morning I was up bright and early – sooo excited to be making breakfast with my beautiful organic eggs laid in Underberg.   Thank you John Hoskings for getting up in the middle of the night – driving all the way to Durban to bring me my eggs! It just doesn’t get better than this. You simply must get down to the market this Saturday morning – you will not be disappointed.

 

 

Here is Sunday mornings breakfast prepared with John Hosking’s Amazing

Gumbo (a cross between Giant – and Jumbo!)  Eggs!

 

Poached Gumbo’s with Potato & Lentil Croquettes

and Parmesan Wafers!

 

 

The Potato & Lentil Croquettes

 

I had some leftover – lentil mash which was begging to be turned

into Croquettes.

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients

 

6Tbs cold mashed potato

2Tbs flour – to bind the mash

2Tbs grated parmesan cheese

salt & pepper

a small bunch of finely chopped parsley

1 egg

5Tbs flour – to coat the croquettes

5Tbs bread crumbs

 

You will see that i have some grissini in the picture above – unfortunately i had

NO BREADCRUMBS in my pantry – so had to grind these grissini down

in the food processor – thus turning them into breadcrumbs!!

 

Not only boers – but any Mamma worth her salt – can make a plan too!

 

Into the cold mash add the 2Tbs flour – grated parmesan cheese – salt and pepper and chopped parsley.

 

Combine well and divide into 4 equal sized balls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coat each croquette in flour

 

Then dip each one into the beaten egg

 

Then roll each one in the breadcrumbs

 

When you have coated all of the croquettes pop them on a plate – and into the fridge for 20minutes.

 

Fry them in about 1/2 inch of moderately hot oil until nice and golden brown.

 

 

 

 

Look at the size of these Gumbo’s – the brown egg in these pics

are Woolworths free range jumbo eggs!!!

 

Every egg has a double yolk!!!

 

Poor little chicken!!

 

 

Serve with Parma Ham wafers !

 

To make these – spray a baking tray with spray and cook – and lay

4 pieces of parma ham on the tray – put them into your oven at about 180d

for 5 minutes – remove and leave to cool on the tray.

 

They are UBER delicate – so handle carefully!

 

Buon Appetito

 

xxx

 

jan

 

 

 

It’s the most beautiful day here on the East Coast – Spring has Sprung, the air feels like Champagne and it’s the weekend. It’s moments like this I just love – a whole two days lay sprawled at my feet and I am in the mood to cook. I’m off to go and check out some local food stalls at the Essenwood Craft Market.   They seem to be beefing up their veggie, meat, bread etc food outlets which DELIGHTS ME TO NO END!! There is room for everyone in my world – the more markets and outlets for our awesome local produce – the happier I am. Competition IS HEALTHY – and at the end of the day who benefits? – It’s the consumer that benefits and that means YOU and ME!   The more compe tition, the more outlets, the more markets - the better the quality needs to be to attract the buyers’ eye and the keener the prices will be – and the whole world is watching their ronts at the moment!

 

This is a quickie post – with a quickie idea for a quickie Saturday lunch. The beach is calling my name – the faint smell of suntan lotion beckons – the market (I always pop in to buy flowers there – SOOO CHEAP!) awaits – so it’s a quickie and can be cooked on either the braai (YAY IT’S BRAAI TIME AGAIN) or your oven!

 

 I LOVE SOUTH AFRICA!!!

 

 

Veggies Grilled Mediterranean Style with Grilled Sole And an ice cold bottle of Neil Ellis – Sauvignon Blanc with Lunchtime Sunshine!

 

 

 

Ingredients

 

A selection of seasonal veggies – washed and cut into equal density

and cooking time slices.

 

1 cup of Olive Oil – extra virgin chateau ’99! (hehehe..)

2 tsps Rock salt – smoked would be awesome

2 tsp Smoked Paprika

2 tsps Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Minced Garlic – as much as you can handle but at least 1Tbs.

Rosemary – a bunch

1 piece of string

 

 

nb: this is an Italian style basting – you could add flaked chilli, cumin, coriander, thyme, honey, some booze – the combinations are endless.

 

I grilled brinjals, zucchini, red onion, red & yellow peppers. You can grill any vegetable that you like – even potatoes (don’t cut them too thick) grilled are delish – the more the merrier! The colours of this platter both cooked and un-cooked really are dazzling and the braai or grill give the softened veggies a wonderful smokey flavour that just smacks of summer!

 

 

You know that fabulous bottle of oil you have been saving for something special – weather it be olive, chili, almond or even walnut oil – this is it!!

 

 

 

 

Into a jug add the oil, paprika, salt, pepper and garlic and give it a good stir.

 

Tie the bunch of Rosemary with a piece of string to make a basting brush.

Use the brush to baste your veggies and, in this case, the fish on the braai.

Serve up the fish with lemon wedges.

 

 

In the blink of an eye – the veggies and fish are ready – I kid you not – In 5 minutes the food is all cooked, on your plate and you are sipping a glass of vino!

 

La vita e Bella!!

 

 

 I must say that Carey’s recipe for Thyme and Rock Salt Quickie Bread would be awesome

served with this – perfect for mopping up those juices -so pop over to her blog here and get

her fabulous recipe!!! 

 

 

 

Invite your friends and family over – tell them to bring their cozzies, cooler boxes and a great attitude and

Mamma Mia have some Great Simple Food and good old South African Fun!

 

Buon Appetito

Xxxx

 

Jan

 

 

ps: if you enjoy my stories and recipes – please vote for my blog

you can vote once a day!  Just click on this link

 

http://website.sablogawards.com/2010/vote/voteforme/2404

 

or click on the badge in the right hand column!

 

Thanks a Mill

 

xxx

So Jade has invited me to join her “Glitter Girls” club – I point out that I live in Durban and she lives all the way down in Robertson – but that didn’t seem to bother her at all. We agreed that I could send them Milky Lane vouchers and be present in spirit when “The Glitter Girls” convene to chat about fashion etc. – they would toast absent friends (Moi!) with their milk shakes. How cool is that?

   

If any of you have the occasion to go down to the promenade in Sea Point – don’t miss the opportunity to go and see Marieke Prinsloo-Rowe’s “Contemporary Staging’s of the Tableau Vivant”. The eighteen sculptures are set out along the promenade. As you walk from the beginning to the end of the story – you are taken on a journey – you get to “Walk the Road” and in doing so become part of building our new nation. “The Little Girl in my fable-like interpretation thus represents a young South African democracy and the Dragonfly visualises a dream of freedom, equality and hope that we as a nation pursue.” I can only describe both the sculptures and story as enchanting. Marieke has, by using a little girl in her representation, captured the essence of South Africa right now – the innocence and fragility of our fledgling democracy and the child like wonder of our infancy. Go –LOOK-SEE and ENJOY!!!  Read more about Marieke’s outstanding work here.

 

 

   

 

 

Today is the first day of spring – and Mamma Mia has Durban come alive! The beach this morning was teeming with excited surfers and body boarders literally sprinting down to the water’s edge. The male pigeons were busting their best John Travolta moves and tunes – the females pigeons were batting their pretty little eye lids! A young couple were enjoying a sunrise picnic between sweet kisses, snuggles and huggles – Love is IN the air people …….. Everywhere you look around.

 

When I was at the Meerendal Wine estate I purchased a jar of Plum Jam – which is absolutely delicious and packed with loads of plums – so by mutual agreement – Jade and I donned our kitchen clobber and roasted a shoulder of pork in the garnet coloured plum jam. Oh baby – ‘twas delish – and the left over’s were slapped on some Panini with lettuce, tomato, roast red pepper and mayo for lunch the next day. Plum-a-licious baby!!!

 

 

I do have some BREAKING NEWS … I am a finalist – YES – FINALIST in the South African Blog Awards – so I shall be making a right nuisance of myself – by begging mostly and humbly – for your votes!!!  If necessary I am not above bribery ….. hehehe …. See-re-usly, if you enjoy my stories and blog posts – recipes etc.  PLEASE FEEL FREE TO VOTE FOR ME!!!!  It’s easy peasy  – please click on this link and WALLA … my nomination can be found under the Food and Wine Blog Section ……. it’s free – Mahalla – bucksheesh – bokeroli moola ……. 

 

                                                                 http://website.sablogawards.com/2010/

 

  

 

 

Ingredients

Line up the usual suspects for a roast

 

8 whole carrots peeled

2 sticks of celery

2 nice juicy big onions cut into quarters

A head of garlic

Roasting herbs – rosemary, thyme, bay leaves

 

2 chicken stock cubes or 500ml of good chicken stock

Pepper

8 Tbs plum jam

1 bottle of good white wine – in this case I used a Meerendal Chardonnay

 

 

 

I just love roasts, because, although they take a few hours to cook in the oven – once you have flavoured and trussed them up with all the bits and bob in a roasting pan,

it really doesn’t require any further attention.

My dear MIL – used to bang out roast silverside of beef in like 25 minutes with the aid of a pressure cooker.  I am sad that I didn’t get her to show me the ins and outs of that fiesty piece of kitchen equipment that would just huff and puff its way through a recipe in the blink of an eye!

Pre-heat your oven to 240d.

 

 

 

In the bottom of your roasting tin – place the carrots, onion, celery and herbs.

 

In your microwave  heat up 6 of the 8Tbs of jam and pour it over the veggies in the roasting tin.  

As the meat roasts  the juices will combine with the wine and jam and create wonderful rich gravy.

 

Pour over about ¾ of the bottle of wine and season well with pepper and a chicken stock cube.

 

The piece of pork that I roasted was rolled and held together with a net. Because of this – I covered the roast and kept it covered throughout the cooking process. If you want nice crispy crackling – then make sure that the skin on the meat is dry, that it has no net and is well salted and scored when it goes into your oven and don’t cover it at all.

 

Click here for my recipe for Roast Loin of Organic Pork – with Jaw Breaking Crackling!!!

 

Place the pork roast on top of the veggies and place in the oven for about 30 minutes on high – ie 240 degrees – then turn it down to about 100 and let it continue to roast gently and slowly and you will land up with soft – juicy and tender pork.

 

 

 When the meat is cooked, which will take approx an hour – melt the last 2 Tbs of plum jam and brush it over the top of your roast and return it to the oven and grill it until it’s nice and bubbly and browned.  

 

Set the meat aside for a few minutes while you boil the gravy down – reduce it by at least half – keep tasting it – and adjust the seasoning to your liking.  The more you reduce the sauce the more condensed the flavour

will be.  If you reduce it too much – don’t worry, just add some boiling water to thin it out a bit.

 

Carve the meat and Serve with the carrots that you roasted with meat and some veggies.

You could – peel and cut a few potatoes in half and add them to your roasting pan – I made roast potatoes

with my roast pork – but you can cook the potatoes in the pan with the meat at the same time – they

really do taste awesome.  Miss Jade was in the mood for crispy roast potatoes on this particular

night.

 

 

 

 

Of course – an ice cold glass of the Meerendal Chardonnay

to wash it all down – goes without saying!

 

Buon Appetito

 

xx

 

jan

 

 

 

Chef Jade tucking in!