Sim B

My darling husband spoilt me and bought me a new 32cm Buffet Casserole Le Crueset. I was beside myself with joy. It is flame orange … exactly the same colour as my mom’s large oval casserole that was given to her on her 21st from her sister … and it’s still being used by our family today.

Needless to say, it needed a special recipe and a special occasion to “christen” this new edition to the family. What better than a lovely family brunch to celebrate the Springboks. Sadly the game didn’t go according to plan … but luckily the breakfast did!

A few weeks back mom and I had another fabulous morning at Sprigs (www.sprigs.co.za) picking up some great recipes and tips. I decided to make a few adaptations to their “Lamb Tagine” recipe and served this for breakie.

Basically, it’s a tomato “gravy” with meatballs and eggs. Sounds unusual I know – but trust me when I tell you it was soooooo delicious!

The Sprig’s recipe used lamb mince and lamb stock … I substituted beef mince and chicken stock. The lamb version is tasty … but a bit rich for me. I also adapted the spices to my own taste … and you can do the same.

Serves 6 hungry people.

You need a nice big pot for this – hence my new Le Crueset. Sigh. (32cm buffet casserole … it’s so pretty!)

For the meatballs:
1 Onion (grated)
1 teaspoon Ras El Hanout (Morrocan spice mix)
500g mince

Roll the meat balls fairly small and cook for 10/15 mins in a 180 degree oven. (You just want to make sure they are just cooked through.)

For the gravy/sauce:
2 chopped onions
2 cloves garlic (minced)
2 tins of chopped tomato
500mls stock
1 teaspoon of Ras El Hanout and a small teaspoon of smoked paprika.

6 (or more) eggs (I used 8)

Handful of chopped coriander and parsely
Ciabatta/bread

Sweat down the onions and garlic until translucent and then add the rest of the ingredients and cook on a medium heat for 30 mins … until the gravy is reduced and thickish.

Next add the meat balls and then crack in the eggs while the sauce is still bubbling gently. Takes about 5 mins to “poach” the eggs in the tomato sauce (but best to watch to see when the white’s firm up … it’s best when the yolks are still soft!).

Garnish with the herbs and serve with bread.

It’s so yummy!!!

x sim x

PS. For some reason I can’t seem to attach the photo … will try again later!

I don’t even have the time to list all my excuses relating to my lack of blogging … instead I offer up these delicious cakes as a peace offering. Hopefully they will bring you as much joy as they did me!

My wonderful friend Gen (a fearless and superb cook, baker, mother, friend etc) gave me the most beautiful birthday present. A Nordicware bundt pan. I think this might be the highlight of my year. So needless to say … I’ve been baking bundt cakes. (Drool over their products here: www.nordicware.com … and then try and hold yourself back from searching for them on eBay!!!) The thing about a bundt pan … is that it can take an “ordinary” cake and turn it into a work of art. They’re that good.

The first cake I made, to “christen” the pan, needed to be special. For those of you who have a copy of Nigella’s “Kitchen” … turn to the index and search for the “Maple and Pecan bundt cake“. More drooling.

Ally of Simply Delicious made a beautiful version of this awhile back … and I think she used a normal ring cake tin … which would be the best substitute if you don’t have a bundt pan/tin. Here is her recipe … http://simply-delicious.co.za/2010/11/25/maple-and-pecan-stuffed-coffee-cake-and-a-book-giveaway/. I’d been planning on making the cake ever since I saw her post … and let me just say that it didn’t disappoint. I followed Nigella’s recipe … and it was dreamy. (I’ve lent the book to my mom … but will post the recipe later in the week. In the meantime here are the pics!)

Note: this is a bit fiddly … but worth the effort.

First prepare the filling – gooey maple syrup, pecan nuts and cinnamon. Try not to eat this straight away! (Can you imagine how delicious this would be drizzled over some warm pancakes/crumpets/flapjacks???)

Once you’ve mixed up the cake batter, line the bottom of your pan with some of the mixture (enough to “seal” any gaps) and then create a layer of the nutty-syrup mixture.

Top with the rest of the cake mixture and bake.

Once cooled, dust with icing sugar. Take photo’s … because this baby isn’t going to survive for very long.

Slice through to reveal a hidden center of deliciousness!!!

The source … Nigella’s Kitchen!

So after the success of Nigella’s cake … I turned to the other ”domestic goddess” across the pond, Martha of course, to see what “bundt offerings” see had in store for me. 

I settled on a similar cake … the Almond Bundt … which is basically the almond version of Nigella’s pecan-wonder.

Here is the recipe – which I’m not going to rewrite because I don’t have the time!

(http://www.marthastewart.com/261735/mini-almond-bundt-cakes?czone=food%2Fcake-center%2Ffavorite-cake-recipes)

So, a few points to note. The original recipe is for “MINI” bundt cakes. And I was reading the recipe off my mobile phone … which as you know has a VERY small screen. And so I missed the “not so fine print” at the beginning that said to double the recipe if you’re using a 12 cup bundt pan (ie a standard sized ring tin.)

But here is the thing … I didn’t double the recipe … and it turned out just fine … BUT … this will only serve 4 gluttons and one mini-glutton. Seriously … it was gone by the time Rafa was serving up for the second set.  (I made this on Sunday for tea while we watched the French Open men’s final.)

Here is the other thing. The glaze calls for 2 CUPS of icing sugar (confectioners sugar). TWO CUPS!!! Holymoly … I know the yanks like their sugar … but let me just say that 2 CUPS is madness people.

I used about 1 heaped tablespoon of butter and 3 heaped tablespoons of icing sugar … and enough milk to render the paste into a runny-enough glaze. It was MORE than enough because the inside of the cake is filled with a sugary-nutty-cinnamony mixture. Another point … if you were a patient person … you would wait until the cake was cool before drizzling over the glaze. I am not such a person. My cake was warm … the glaze completely melted into the cake (but served enough purpose to keep the flaked almonds sticking to the outside).

Which brings me to the inner mixture. Brown sugar, chopped almonds, cinnamon and nutmeg. (You see the resemblance to the previous cake.) Again, if you were doubling the mixture I’m not sure you really need to double the filling mixture as well – I think it would just end up being too sweet. But then I think you can adjust this to your own preference.

The glaze – please note the tiny amount I made … it was more than enough.

There are no more photo’s … because the cake was consumed before it was possible to take another snap.

Happy bundting …

x sim x

A few weekends ago I invited some friends over for a casual Friday night get together. We’d all been so busy (hence the lack of blogging) and people had been flitting about all over the globe … so it was high time we sat down around a table to catch up on everyone’s news.

I decided to make the Courgette and herb pasta bake with Sicilian pesto and the Rosemary, cream cheese, honey and nut cake (recipes courtesy of my Sprigs cooking demo that I went on!)  – I think these might just be my new party favourites.

I roped in momsie pie to help me with the pasta prep as I was tight on time - but really, this is a beautifully simple dish to make … but it’s ever so tasty!

For the pasta bake you will need:

500g penne pasta

6 large courgettes (grated)

2 garlic cloves (crushed)

1 onion (diced)

500g creme fraiche

60mls Sicilian pesto (sundried tomato pesto)

50g parmesan (grated) (I actually used more than 50g as I LOVE cheese!)

100g bread (crumbs)

20g basil (a handful)

5ml dried sage (I used 15 fresh sage leaves)

Olive Oil

Lemon olive oil (if you have)

Salt & Pepper

And now for the cooking instructions:

Preheat your oven to 180degrees.

Slightly undercook the pasta in salted boiling water, drain and reserve a ladle of the cooking water. Toss in a little olive oil (to stop it sticking together) and set aside until you’re ready to assemble.

In a food processor, blitz together the sage, nearly all of the basil (reserving a few leaves for serving), bread, half the cheese, salt and to form your delicious crumbly topping.

Fry the grated courgettes, garlic and onion in some oil until most of the liquid is reduced. (I bought a big bag of the smaller sized courgettes, so I ended up using about 10. I think you want a fairly decent amount of courgette as this is really the key ingredient in the bake. So you might have to “guestimate” how many you’ll need depending on their size.)

Stir in 3/4 of the creme fraiche and the remaining cheese into the courgettes and season. Add the pasta and mix well.

Tip the mixtured into an oven proof dish and flatten.

Mix the remaining creme fraiche with the pesto. The lovely sharp taste of the tomato is really brilliant with the creamy courgettes!

Dollop the pesto mix over the top of the pasta and the scatter over the herby crumbs – which will form a deliciously golden crispy topping! Drizzle with lemon olive oil  and bake for 20 mins.

Serve with some torn basil leaves, some crusty bread and a salad.

Right, so that was the pasta bake done, and all I had to do was pop it in the oven for 20 minutes when the guests arrived.  Next I moved along to getting the dessert ready.

This is my kind of pudding, because everything gets chucked into a food processor and whizzed about for a few minutes. And then voila you have the most heavenly dessert.

For the “cheese cakes” you will need (and try not to flich!):

2 sprigs of rosemary

100g of honey (plus 3 tablespoons for glazing)

500g cream cheese

55g castor sugar

5 eggs

200g natural yoghurt

500g mascarpone

1 lemon (zest or 1 capful of lemon extract)

55g flaked almonds

Okay, so it’s not low-fat – but who cares, it’s AMAZING!

If you’re going to make this as a cake – butter the spring form tin and dust with breadcrumbs to stop the cake from sticking. This is how it was cooked at the Sprig’s demo. I decided to try out another variation and I made these as individual puddings in ramekins. I used 8 large ramekins – but actually these were too big (it’s very rich!) (Although I must confess that I polished mine off!!!) I would suggest 10 small ramekins if you are making these as individual puddings.

Cooking instructions:

Preheat your oven to 180degrees.

Combine the rosemary and honey in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Bring to a simmer and set aside to cool.

In a food processor, mix the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, and continue processing. Add the cooled honey, yoghurt, mascarpone and lemon zest. Process until smooth.

Divide into the ramekins (or pour into the spring form tin) and sprinkle with the flaked almonds.  Bake for 60 to 90 minutes, until firm. The ramekins took less time to cook (45 minutes) – but I think with all cheese cake type recipes, this will depend on your oven.

The cheese cake should have firmed up (although it will be slightly wobbly still) and the top will probably be a dark golden colour.

Once cool, glaze the top with some warmed honey.

Well, that’s the theory. And actually, everything was going to plan beautifully. Guests were drinking cold wine and snacking on olives, pasta bake had just gone into the oven, pudding was awaiting it’s turn. And then it happened, as only it could in South Africa, the lights went out. They flickered dramatically first, and then nothing, nada … we were plunged into total darkness. (Apparently the power line outside our house died due to a street light blowing. Although we only found this out at 10:30pm when the technical finally arrived to restore our power.)

Anyway, my lovely friends, in true South African style, made a plan! We piled the food onto trays, drove very carefully to a friends house down the road (and round a few corners!) and just transplanted our party! Poor hubby ended up having to stay home to a)wait for the electrician and b)look after the not-so-sleepy monkey girl. We set a place for him at the table and phoned him to tell him how tasty the food was! (Of course he got plenty of left overs!)

As a result of this unplanned interuption, we ate the cheese cake puddings while they were still hot! So it was more like a souffle – very delicious! But, I must say, if you can wait till they are cooled down they are even more sublime.

x sim x

On Saturday morning my momsie pie and I set off to Sprigs (in Kloof) for a girls day out! Momsie’s bestie, Josette, had given me a voucher for my birthday for a cooking demo at Sprigs.

I may have mislead hubby about the start-time … so we left earlier than we needed to … but I really wanted some time to sit down and enjoy a coffee before the demo!

Sprigs is a gorgeous cafe/food shop … and it’s very difficult to avoid all the tempting treats on offer. So difficult that I ended up ordering a slice of baked cheesecake to accompany our coffee. I’d already eaten breakfast at home and I knew we had a whole Italian feast ahead of us … but I just couldn’t help myself. And for once in my life I’m so relieved that my willpower is non-existent! The cheesecake was life changing. Seriously. It was still warm … the texture was so incredibly light (for a baked cheesecake) it was almost souffle-like … and the perfect balance of tart and sweet. The base was a nutty, crumbly, buttery crust that wasn’t too thick or too thin. Perfection I tell you.

Anyway, after ploughing our way through the cake … we moved to the demonstration kitchen and took up our seats … ready for some serious cooking! Fiona Ras took us through a dazzling selection of Italian inspired recipes:

Caponata with ciabatta (a stunning baked vegetable dish that was probably my favourite!)

Rocket salad with green olives and orange

Asparagus and prosciutto rolls

Lamb, ricotta and pea crespelle with tomato and pecorino (oh so rich and intensly delicious!)

Courgette and herb pasta bake with Sicilian pesto (a perfect week-night meal)

Santa Rosa Plum jam tart (Crostata)

Rosemary, cream cheese, honey and nut cake

I will definitely be trying a few of these at home and will post the recipes when I do! It was such a wonderful morning – Fiona was engaging and happy to chat about all our questions. I can’t wait to go again! Needless to say … we feasted!

For more details about Sprigs cooking demo’s … check out the website:

www.sprigs.co.za

x sim x

My dad went and got himself a mussel-picking license the other day. When the tide is low he heads down to the beach with his bag of tools and scraps away until he’s got his quota.

On Sunday my parents prepared the mussels as a starter – a delicious prelude to a tasty lunch! The thing about freshly picked mussels (or any fresh seafood for that matter) – is that you can practically tasty the sea. It reminds me of when we were children and my parents would take us down to the beach to pick mussels. We would walk along the beach from Umhlanga to Umdloti gathering mussels and seashells as we went. The Kirk’s (our oldest family friends) would pick us up in Umdloti and we would head back to their house, my dad would prepare a big pot of mussels while we would spend the day racing around the garden and swimming in the pool. Those were the days …!!

But back to Sunday’s lunch! The mussels …

Grilled Durban Mussels

Note:  This isn’t a recipe,  but rather an overview of how my mom served them. I think that you could use whatever ingredients you like with the crumbs  – a bit of chilli, ginger, corriander and coconut shavings with a wedge of lime of the side for thai-inspired flavours;  any cheese or herbs you have on hand … the options are endless.

Mom steamed the mussels in some water (discarding those shells that didn’t open fully) and removed the mussels from their shells. After removing the beards (the grissly bits that are attached to the mussel) she gave them a thorough rinsing. She then cleaned the shells and placed them onto a baking tray with the cleaned, steamed mussels back in them.

In a bowl, she mixed together some bread crumbs, grated pecorino cheese, crushed garlic, chopped sage and a grinding of salt and pepper.

She sprinkled this mixture over the mussels and grilled them in a hot oven until the crumbs turned golden.

We polished them off!

We were drinking a very cold bottle of Alan Scott Riesling from Marlborough. Perfect.

x sim x

I love bread – it is probably the staple part of my diet.  I try and limit my in-take … but honestly, is there anything better than fresh bread, warm from the oven … slathered in butter! Be still my beating heart …

I’ll admit, I usually pop down to the shops and pick up those par-cooked breads. None of the labour and all of that

freshly-baked-bread joy!

However, while we were in NZ my family introduced me to a very basic bread recipe … which results in a gorgeous variety of breads! It’s a very simple recipe … admittedly it does take a little more time than the store-bought kind … but there is something very satisfying about sitting down to a meal and eating home-made bread.

My brother-in-law making flatbreads

Basic bread recipe

2 teaspoons dry yeast

2 cups lukewarm water

4 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon olive oil

Add the yeast to the water and allow it to foam up. Then combine the flour, salt, sugar and oil … make a well in the centre and pour the yeasty liquid in. Bringing the flour towards the centre, knead the dough until it’s soft and elastic. (If the dough is a little too dry, add more water and if it’s too sticky add more flour.)

Roll the dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl and leave until it doubles in size.

Punch the dough back and roll back into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use. (Alternatively, you can divide the dough into small portions and pop these into the freezer for later use.)

To make a loaf of bread:

Shape the dough into a loaf or use a greased loaf tin and bake in a preheated oven (220 degrees) for about 45 mins (depending on your oven)

To make pita breads:

On a floured surface, roll out the dough into circles and place in a warm place for an hour. Preheat the oven (230 degrees) and bake the pitas for about 20 mins. Times will depend on your oven and the size and thickness of your pitas – so you’ll need to keep an eye on these and take them out once they start to colour.

To make flat breads:

Using small pieces roll the dough out fairly thinly and shape as desired (make sure you flour your surface to stop the dough from sticking). Bake on a lightly oiled pan (on a medium-high heat) and when bubbles appear flip over to cook the other side.

You can even use the dough as a pizza base – roll out to the desired shape and thickness and top with tomato pasta, cheese and toppings. The basic recipe can also be jazzed up with some other flavours … a sprig of rosemary or some coriander and cumin seeds.

x sim x

There were so many foodie highlights during our holiday … but the truth is I am just too darn jet-lagged to write about any of it. I haven’t slept properly in days … days people! It takes me right back to when monkey-girl was just a baby. Not a happy place.

Anyway … I thought I would share these photos with you in the meantime.

x sim x

Hello lovely people …

After 2 weeks of “radio silence” – I’m back at my pc! Shew … I’ve spent the last 2 weeks on far too many flights and in far too many airports for my liking. We spent a glorious 2 weeks in New Zealand visiting family and friends … and of course eating our way through some seriously good food. Updates to follow … so watch this space! Thankfully we were not in Christchurch at the time of the earthquake … but it definitely left us with some sombre thoughts and made me want to make the most of every day! And to that end I really didn’t hold back when it came to eating

Will have some interesting posts and pics soon!

x sim x

I love Thai Green Curry – it has to be one of my favourite things to eat (the list is long!) I’ve made it on occasion – following Jamie Oliver’s recipe – which turns out a pretty decent version if you ask me. My friend Bex actually went to Thailand and did a cooking course – so she really can claim to cook an authentic version. But Jamie’s version is all I can manage and more often than not, these days I find ways to cheat!

My two biggest sources of joy (on the Thai cookery front) and essential cheats ingredients – purchased from Woolworths.

Thai Seasoning Paste and Palm Sugar.

Firstly if you’ve ever tried to buy Galangal and Kaffir Lime leaves in Durbs you’ll sympathise with my plight. Even fresh lemongrass can be tricky to get hold of.

Anyway, this “thai seasoning paste” is a blend of all of the above. In one lovely little pot. Fabulous!

So this is a little something that I make mid-week … when I’m craving the flavours of a Thai Green Curry … but want to avoid a lengthy cooking ordeal and am trying to stay clear of the take-away menu.

Thai Chicken with Noodles

You will need:

2 heaped tablespoons of Thai Seasoning paste (you could make this yourself with lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaves … but if you can buy the paste it will make your life so much easier!)

1 tablespoon of Palm Sugar (if you can’t find this I would try honey instead)

Coconut milk (1 tin)

Chicken pieces (I use thigh pieces on the bone)

Chilli (fresh or dried)

Maizena  (or thickening agent) – 1 teaspoon

Salt & Pepper

Fresh coriander

Noodles (I use the pad thai kind … but you could use any noodles, even spaghetti)

Lightly fry the thai seasoning paste in a deep pan (with a lid) to release some of the flavours, add the palm sugar, coconut milk, chilli and the chicken. The chicken will poach away in this fragrant broth for about 30 minutes on a gentle simmer.

Remove the chicken and add the maizena to the sauce so that it thickens.

Pop the chicken pieces into a hot griddle (or frying) pan and allow them to blister and colour on each side.

Cook noodles according to the packet instructions.

To serve, pile your plate with some noodles, generously cover with the sauce and top with the chicken pieces. Sprinkle over some fresh coriander. Serve with some lightly steamed veg!

x sim x