Chef Caro

Hi guys,

I’m not sure if you’ve seen all my shouting about the place about the luscious day out at Simonsberg next Wednesday?

Guys, this is going to be an AMAZING day out and so quick quick! ENTER!

It’s for Cape Town bloggers who love food and wine – YAY.

Go to this page to find out more and enter….

Caro xxx

Hi all,

If you’re planning to do a chicken on the weber at any time this long weekend, i’ve got a coupla tips for you!

FIRST: Do ‘beer chicken’ – open a beer and drink a third to a half of it and then balance the chicken on it. The moisture in the can goes through the chicken and the meat is soo succulent, you’ll never turn back.

I have done it with white and red wine too, wonderful and great for an experiment on flavour!

It also crisps the skin ALL over, and if you’re a crispy skin lover like me, well you’re in luck, just think, crispy, tasty, salty yummy skin… raptures.

Check out these babies …

Tip TWO: For  extra succulent and juicy meat, rub some flavoured butter underneath the skin. I use rosemary and garlic, or maybe  coriander, chilli and lime for an fresh kick. Perhaps try some Moroccan spices for a bit of an exotic twist – delish.

Just mix the butter with the herbs and spices.

Check out the juicy meat…

Give them a try guys and gals and you won’t be dissapointed!

Have a wonderful Loooooooooooooooong weekend!

xxxxxxxxxxxx

The gorgeous gals at Women24.com are doing a ‘love my body’ theme and asked us all to write a love letter to our bodies.

See Meagans one here.

I am ‘eek, ook, ark!’ as I’ve never done something like this before but that’s why it’s a good thing right? Here goes…

Dear bod,

You’ve always been pretty good to me so I want to say a big THANKS for all you’ve done.

Never mind all the hard work you do on a daily basis processing all the stuff I put into you, but you really work hard keeping everything in check and making sure I do all those normal things like breathe and poo.

You mended me when I broke my arm when I was little and stayed strong when I fell out of trees and off the roof.

You’ve always fixed me when I felt sick which is not that often so a huge hug for that.

You helped me push myself to the limit with all the sport at school and when we do the odd marathon and cycle race together.

You let me have a small-ish bum and I’m really thankful for that.

You made me look good enough for my husband to fall in love with and for that I love you so so much.

You carried my little baby and I was proud to have such a huge belly fillled with such a precious bundle. Even though you had a bit of an oopsie and we got gestational diabetes, we learnt how to eat well and ended up being extra healthy.

Thanks for going right back to normal after all that too, that double-chocolate muffin was the most delicious thing I ever ate.

Thanks for making me hungry and for loving food so much so that I can taste and savour all the yummy things we make and think up.

All in all, you’re amazing, my one true soul mate. Stay well bod, lets live long and strong.

Me xxx

Hey that was pretty liberating, I almost squeezed out a tear!

Hi blogstars,

We’ve got these babies growing all of a sudden! They have taken ages and are now healthy plants with lots of flowers on them, and the odd new baba aubergine.

The fruit come from the flowers, so hold thumbs we get loads! Isn’t that pretty?

I recently wrote an article on AUBERGINES – in season now! Check it out… There are some amazing facts that I bet you didn’t know about them.

And the firm, shiny gorgeousness…

Yipee, I intend to brinjal-up to the max as we’ve done with the tomatoes… can you believe we are still picking them almost everyday!

What are your favourite brinjal recipes guys?

Caro xxx

This is how the SOSS told me it’s done… 

Get some chocolate ice cream, lose the manners and ENJOY!

How yummy!

Now let’s deconstruct the whole thing and smoosh it into the table…

And then you take your clothes off and run around like MAD…

Sounds like FUN to me!

Hello all you risotto freaks,

I am one too, in fact, I could eat it everyDAY I adore the stuff so much. Creamy, tasty and so more-ish.

I make a BIG pot, that way you get more for the next day or two plus feed the hungry honey and no dent where I dig in

The SOSS also loves it – not bad for a 20-month old hm? He doesn’t like it too al dente though so I cook it a little longer for him so there is no bite to the rice.

I have done a step-by-step here to help you if you feel daunted by the task of making the wondrous stuff.

IT IS EASY TO MAKE. It just needs a little love and attention and is a great dinner party dish for starter or mains.

What you need: I am making a chicken, asparagus and lemon one here, but you can change the flavours to suit your taste.

1 large onion

100ml white wine

1 T butter

3 chicken breasts

2 cloves garlic

1 packet asparagus (slim)

1 lemon

500ml alborio rice

1 L chicken stock (I used Nomu – it is a GREAT new product)

250ml milk

Parmesan cheese

Cut the onion finely

Saute in a pan with the butter until translucent. See the difference below…

Add in the alborio rice and garlic and saute with the onions

Make the stock. NOW, I used the seriously great new product from NoMu. I am very impressed with it. It’s a liquid concentrate and they have 4 flavours (chicken, veg, beef, lamb). It tastes superb and not filled with all sorts of awful preservatives. Just dilute with water and a teeny bottle makes 6l of stock… amazing. And how easy? LOOK at that colour… that’s the chicken stock.

You can get them in Pick n Pay.

Lovely hey… stock is a very important part of risotto, probably the MOST important so you can’t scrimp on quality and in my opinion this is perfect.

Add the wine to the rice and let the alcohol cook out for a minute or two. Then bit by bit, add the stock (about 100ml at a time)

The rice absorbs the stock and releases it’s starch whilst you stir. It is also important to stir as you don’t want it to stick to the bottom of the pot.

Do not stir too much, you don’t want glue, just stir every so often but don’t go and water the garden or anything, you’ll be in trouble if you do.

Stick around and have some of the wine you opened and enjoy whilst you watch your masterpiece evolve:

After about 30 minutes, add the milk which creates a lovely creamy texture.

Add the chopped chicken and 5 minutes later the asparagus, lemon and don’t forget to season.

This should all take about 40 minutes. Give it a taste and if the rice still has a slight bite to it it’s ready. Some people prefer it to be softer so just cook it for another 10 minutes or so and it will be completely soft.

I serve the parmesan in shavings on the top but some people like to melt it into the risotto.

Served with a lovely side salad. Get your fork and dig in!

Love and stock,

Caro xx

Hi lovely people,

I’m going to share a secret with you… my special crispy nuts.

You can use pretty much any kind of nut for this and I made a YUMMY one on the weekend with pumpkin seeds.

Ingredients

100g flaked almonds

100g butter

2 T castor sugar

Place the butter in a pan and melt it, add the sugar for a minute to dissolve a little nad then add the nuts. Don’t wait too long as you want the nuts to brown as well as the sugar to caramelise. You want it to caramelise onto the nuts.

Let them cool and break them up over whatever you are putting them in – mmmmmmmmmmmm.

It is a kind of fools caramelised nuts and takes 5-10 minutes from start to finish.

Hmmmmm…

They are gorgeous in salads and really bump them up into the fancy stakes.

Beautiful on cheese, think walnuts/pecans/cashews on a little camembert or blue – hmmm.

Deliciously crunchy on and in ice cream.

Great on a curry – almonds or cashews.

As I said you can also use seeds, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame.

Here they are in the fig and almond salad I made recently, but really they go on ANY salad.

I served it with a dressing of half balsamic vinegar, half honey and a dash of lemon juice. Mix well, pour and indulge!

Enjoy!

Caro xx