Sim B

Last night I dragged some friends along to the Night Market @ The Roastery … and what a cool time we had on a hot summer’s night in Durbs!

I was sporting my enormous shopping bag (from WholeFoods in NY!) with good intentions of filling it to the brim with delicious food treats.

Well, there were plenty of foodie treats … but I couldn’t refrain from eating them there and then. The highlight of the evening for me was the “Austrian Spring Cake” … ok, clearly that’s the English name … and I’ve googled and googled people and I can’t find anything that resembles the delicious confection that we devoured! The spirals of pastry are dipped in either a vanilla sugar, a cinnamon sugar or a pecan nut sugar. We had one of each and they were all equally amazing!!!  

There were oysters, curries, quiche, pastries, coffee, chocolates, olives, meats … the list goes on.

We ended off our feasting with a beautiful frothy cappucino from Colombo. It was super-smooth and a really beautiful coffee! Sadly my extra-large shopping bag was rather empty on the way home. I only had a smokey piece of Chorizo and some Pecorino cheese to show for the evening.

To market to market to buy a plum bun,

Home again home again

market is done!

x sim x

See here for more details on the fabulous Colombo coffee … and to keep updated on when the next Night Market is taking place!

http://colombofinebeverageco.blogspot.com/

I love Marcella Hazan … to me she is the doyenne of Italian cookery. I’ll admit it’s very 1980′s … but classic Italian cookery really has stood the test of time. The recipes are so simple that there isn’t much that needs to be changed. My parents have two of her books and although I’ve searched for new copies since … they seem to be out of print or not stocked. If you find a copy – hang on to it!

One of my favourite pasta dishes is Bolognese (Bolognaise) – but to be precise … a Ragu sauce. I first ate what I’d call a proper Ragu in Florence in 2008. It blew my mind. It was savoury, silky, soft – a completely new taste sensation!

Of course Marcella has a recipe for this and if you follow the instructions to the letter you will also end up with a glorious ragu sauce. I’ve made it on several occasions – it’s every bit as delicious – but somehow it’s even better when you’re actually sitting in a tiny tucked-away osteria in Italy!

Anyway – the thing about making a ragu is that there is nothing rapid about it (unless you follow Nigella’s recipe for “Rapid Ragu” – using lamb mince) – Marcella’s recipe calls for patience – and a cooking time of about 5 hours.  Week-day cooking just doesn’t allow me that kind of time!

So I cheat. And here’s how …

Meat Sauce

You will need:

Left over chicken stock (1 cup) and marrow bones (from the Rich Roast chicken – you can freeze this. Alternatively just use some liquid chicken stock and marrow bones.)

Tin of chopped Italian tomatoes. (I’d say that you must buy Italian tomatoes as I find they’re generally sweeter and less acidic.)

Garlic (1 glove minced)

Mince – Beef (400g – 500g) (use lean or extra-lean because the marrow adds a lot of fat and I don’t want to be responsible for clogging up your arteries!)

1/3 cup of grated carrots (because it’s good to try and sneak in some veg!)

4 tablespoons of milk

Salt and pepper

Water

Now – I’ll be the first to admit – this isn’t a ragu. And nothing beats the really thing – but I found that by adding the stock and marrow it gives the sauce extra depth and meaty richness (aka fat!)

In a casserole dish (with a lid) add the marrow, stock, garlic and tomatoes. Leave on a low heat to simmer away for about 30 minutes. (lid on)

Extract the marrow bones and ensure that all the marrow has been scrapped out and added to the sauce.

Now if you’re cooking a proper ragu, you’d be instructed to lightly fry off the mince and then add the milk. Apparently the milk keeps the meat tender and gives it a sweeter flavour – and somehow the sauce ends up being more creamy.

I don’t have time for that … so I just pop the mince and the carrots into the sauce and let it braise away over a very low heat. You may need to add some water to loosen the sauce if it’s too thick.

It’s just going to sit there on a low heat for another 30 minutes and simmer away (lid off). 

Once it’s bubbled away for half and hour and some of the liquid has evaporated off add the milk.  Season. Serve with your favourite pasta and some parmigiano!

x sim x

PS. You can read more about Marcella Hazan here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcella_Hazan 

or for Nigella’s Rapid Ragu

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/rapid-ragu-67

I love a piece of crispy-skinned roast chicken. All those oily juices mingling with some roasted veg – it just oozes comfort. Last week Durbs was hit with lashings of wet weather and something warming was required. The inspiration for this meal came when I was taking a wander through my local supermarket and I stumbled on a pack of perfectly pink marrow bones. So I came up with this “Rich Roast Chicken” dish. It’s not low-fat. (You’ve been warned.)

You will need:

An assortment of root veg – chopped (butternut/pumpkin, sweet potatoes, potatoes)

Onion – roughly chopped

Garlic – 2 cloves minced

Herbs (dried or fresh) (I used thyme)

Salt

Pepper

Marrow bones

Chicken pieces with skin on

Approx ¾ cup of water (enough so that the water half covers the bottom of the veg.)

Green veg to serve on the side (I used broad and runner beans topped with pesto)

In a large baking dish, layer the root vegetables (Tip: I usually cook these in the microwave for 3 minutes before hand to ensure that they are really soft and tender) onion, garlic and herbs.

Squish the marrow bones into the layer or veg and sit the chicken pieces on top. Pour the water over and season with salt and pepper.

Cook in a hot oven (180 degrees) uncovered for 50 minutes.

The marrow will “melt” into the veggies and create the most savoury and rich gravy (if some of the marrow is still in the bone just push it out with a knife and swirl it into the juices). Drizzle some of the juices over the chicken and vegetables when you serve.

(And then save the remaining juices and the marrow bones for tomorrow’s “Cheats guide to Ragu”.)

x sim x

One of the joys of living on the coast is fresh fish. Hubby is a keen fisherman but it’s rare to catch anything from the shore in our parts. Most often we pick up our fish from our local fishmonger … or if we’re lucky we get given some from our friend Chris who fishes off a a surf-ski. This weekend hubby went out with John (a friends dad) on his boat … it was an early start (4am!) but the weather started off perfect … clear blue skies. I off course stayed happily tucked up and asleep in bed. They managed to catch eight Natal Snoek (on the greenlist for SASSI) between them … and so we got to enjoy the spoils for lunch!

I wisely avoided any of the messy bits … leaving the men to do the gutting and filleting! This fish was so fresh that you hardly needed to do anything to it – it was so perfect and pink.

I decided on a little lemon, garlic, ginger and chilli “rub”. For 5 large fillets I used :

3 crushed cloves of garlic

1 teaspoon of crushed ginger

zest of 2 lemons

salt & ground chilli pepper

drizzle of olive oil

I popped the fillets in the fridge for about an hour –  with some damp wax wrap to cover them – and left them to soak up some of the flavours.

To cook the fish, I dipped the fillets in some polenta, just a light sprinkling really (this gives a lovely crispy golden topping – but you could also use some flour) and then fried them in a very hot pan with some olive oil. Squeeze a little fresh lemon juice over the fish and let it bubble up in the pan and mingle with the juices.

Served with a beetroot pesto (recipe to follow) and a chick-pea salad.

For more info on the SASSI list:

http://www.wwfsassi.co.za/?m=5&s=5&idkey=1110

Happy fishing! x Sim x

Lately I’ve been obsessed with using buttermilk in my baking. It just adds a different dimension to baked goods … but I wanted to know how else I could use it. I wanted to try something savoury … so I flipped through recipe books and googled the web to see what I could find.

I came across several recipes that use buttermilk as a marinade (apparently it works wonders to tenderise chicken) … and then I found a recipe for Buttermilk & Garlic Mash.

I also had some chicken breasts that I needed to use … so I decided to make Buttermilk & Garlic Mash … with Chicken!

You will need …

Potatoes (I used a bag of baby potatoes – and I didn’t bother peeling them because the skins are so thin!)

Buttermilk (as a guide I’d say 250mls … but you might need more or less than this. Basically ensure that the mash is soft, but not too stodgy or too runny.)

Garlic (4 cloves – minced)

Salt & Pepper

Chicken breasts (6)

Grated cheese (parmigiano)

Seasoning (I used smoked paprika)

Olive Oil

First things first … the mash.

Boil the potatoes and once they are cooked and nice and soft, remove the water and add the buttermilk and garlic. Mash away and season with salt & pepper.  The buttermilk will add a slightly tangy flavour to the mash but it’s not nearly as rich as using milk and butter – which of course you could do.

In a baking dish, lay the chicken breasts and sprinkle with a smidge of the paprika (or you could add some fresh thyme or other favourite seasoning). Smooth over the mash potatoes so that it covers the chicken breasts.

Sprinkle over a layer of grated cheese and add another dusting of paprika. Drizzle with some olive oil.

Bake in a hot oven (180deg) for 30 – 35 minutes – until the cheese on top has turned golden and crispy.

Serve with some steamed veg!

x Sim x

You’d be forgiven for wondering if I accidentally left the ”coffee” off the ingredients list below. I didn’t … but when I first examined the recipe I thought the same thing. But then I realised that I was looking at an American website for “coffee cakes” … and not one of the recipes had coffee in it. And then I googled … and Wikipedia filled in the blanks:

“A class of cakes intended to be served with coffee or for similar breaks and snacks. Under this definition, a coffee cake does not need to contain coffee.”

I’d never heard of “coffee cakes” before … but I’m particularly delighted at this new discovery.  This is my kind of cake – that is to say, it’s delicious … but most importantly it’s very quick and easy to make. Ideal when you need to throw something together at a moments notice.

I found this coffee cake recipe which called for “home-canned plums” … which I guessed to mean “tinned” fruit. I didn’t have any plums at hand … but I did have some left-over tinned pears which I needed to use up … so I just adapted the recipe to suit. I guess you could use any tinned fruit.

(I did wonder about using fresh fruit – but you only bake this cake for 20 – 25 minutes … which wouldn’t be long enough to cook “raw” fruit. I think this would work with berries though. I’m going to give it a go with raspberries next.)

Anyway – here is the recipe for …

Buttermilk Pear Cake

Ingredients

1/4 cup of butter

1 cup of sugar (if you are using a particularly tart fruit you might want to add another 1/2 cup of sugar)

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups of plain flour

1/4 teaspoon bicarb (baking soda)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup of buttermilk

Tinned pears (or other fruit)

Brown sugar (or demerera)

Cinnamon

Heat oven to 180 degrees and grease a square cake tin.

Cream the butter and sugar and then the eggs. Add the buttermilk and the dry ingredients and beat together to form a smooth batter.

Pour batter into the tin and layer the tinned fruit on top. I sliced the pears into pieces about 1 inch thick and arranged these to cover the top of the batter. You don’t need to be very exact with this.

Liberally sprinkle the top with the cinnamon and brown sugar. I recommend at least 3 tablespoons of sugar and at least 1 teaspoon of cinnamon … more if you like the flavour!

Bake for 20 – 25 minutes … until the top is puffed up and golden. Your kitchen will smell like heaven!

Enjoy a large slice with a steaming cup of coffee. Sigh.

x Sim x

Have you been watching Gary Rhodes in Italy on BBC?? I’m blaming him for my alarmingly high intake of carbs. Don’t get me wrong – I have always loved pasta (and all things Italian) … but after my little stint with Weigh-Less in 2010 I have tried to curb my nightly portions of pasta/rice/polenta/cous-cous/potato. But hell, sometimes you just have to throw caution to the wind … right? Right!

So this is me falling off the wagon (so to speak) …

My friend Tam has just moved back home after 6 loooooooonnnnng years in London. Hip Hip Hooray! I invited her round for supper last night so that we could have a proper chat over a glass of wine … none of this email/skype/facebook chat stuff. Happily it was a blissfully cool evening last night (after several days of extreme Durban humidity) … and I needed a bowl of pasta for us to slurp on inbetween the red wine!

For some inspiration I paged through a couple of books … settling on my new Nigella “Kitchen” and her recipe for Pasta Puttanesca.

Well, I didn’t cook that (as it turns out) … but I liked the idea … and so this is what transpired.

Welcome Home Spaghetti alla Tam-Tam

You will need:

400g streaky bacon (200g chopped)

1/2 cup of pitted black olives

5 cloves of crushed garlic

1 tin of chopped tomatoes (*)

1/3 cup of wine (white/red)

Chilli (**)

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

Spaghetti

Basil (or Italian parsley)

(*) I found this amazing tin of “Italian chopped tomatoes with herbs” from Woolies. Now, I’m sure this would be just as tasty with any tin of tomatoes … but these were really exceptional. It was actually already a sauce-in-a-tin! The tomotoes were completely broken down and the contents of the tin were thick and rich. I really recommend you try this!

(**) Chilli’s. Ok, I’m afraid of them. I don’t ever buy fresh chilli’s … because I don’t know what I’m getting and while I like a bit of heat … I can’t handle anything searing off the skin of my mouth. So I buy this “Squeeze of chilli” from the Woolies Cooks Essential’s range. And no – I’m not working for Woolworths. But this is ideal for me because it keeps in the fridge and I can just add a teaspoon of the paste to my dish for a nice bit of warmth. I haven’t given any quantities for the recipe as seasoning is such a personal thing. I used 1 teaspoon of paste in this recipe.

Here is what you do:

First things first - preheat your oven to 180deg.

OK – my plan was to grill half of the bacon so that it was nice and crispy – and then I was going to crumble it over the pasta. That was the plan. But then I got distracted by monkey girl’s bathtime. And well … the bacon was left in the oven. And it was crisper than crisp people. So don’t do what I did. Bacon will need about 10 minutes to crisp up – please take it out the oven once it’s done and leave to one side.

In a pan heat up some olive oil and add the garlic and the remainder of the bacon (chopped into cubes) and fry until the bacon is pink. (This should only take about 5 minutes)

Add the tin of tomatoes, chilli and pepper (to taste) – you really don’t need any extra salt as the bacon and olives are salty enough.  Let this warm up to a gentle bubble.

Add the olives and once they’ve warmed through and softened, squish them with whatever cooking implement you’re using so that they crumble into the sauce.

Add the wine and leave the sauce to simmer on a very low heat for about 10/15 minutes.

Cook your pasta and add it to the sauce (you can always add a bit of the pasta cooking water to the sauce if it’s too thick. I usually do this.)

Serve a lovely big heap in a bowl and garnish with some chopped herbs and crumble over the crispy bacon shards.

I think that this is a lovely “welcome home” meal … even if you are only returning home from a day at the office!

Have a beautiful weekend x Sim x

This last weekend we spent Saturday with my cousin (Tash), her hubby (Bruce) and their beautiful baby boy (Zach). Monkey girl L.O.V.E.S “baby Zach” – she is particularly fond of stealing his toys as well. But still,we had a great day.

The previous weekend was Tash’s birthday … so I decided that I’d bake a belated cake that we could have for tea.  Of course my poor planning skills won over my good intentions, and so of course I woke up on saturday morning in a mild panic. But never fear – the easy Yoghurt Cake recipe can easily be adapted. And so I waved my magic wand (or in this case my trusty lemon zester) and turned it into a beautiful pale yellow lemon cake. This really is a great version … just add the zest of one lemon and the juice of half.

(Original blog and recipe here: http://blogs.food24.com/SimoneB/its-a-piece-of-cake)

On Sunday morning I was in the mood for a little experimentation … and I’m pleased with the results. I’m going to call this “Egg in a basket” … and I’m already thinking of all sorts of lovely adaptations. (Like a layer of proscuitto or parma ham or some grated cheese!)

Basically, you want to make a little bread basket for your egg to bake in. Now, I used a standard silicon muffin tray to make these, but I think you could also try using a ramekin. The ramekin would be a bit roomier, which would allow you to add some other ingredients. The one thing that I found with the muffin tray was that it was a tight squeeze!

You will need:

Muffin tray or ramekin

Butter

Slice of bread

Egg

Cut your bread into a circle. I used a large round cookie-cutter that was big enough to get the largest circle possible from my slice of bread. You could just roughly free-cut a circle if you don’t have a cookie-cutter.

Flatten your circle and butter both sides.

Probably best to grease the muffin tray/ramekin with a bit of butter first and then fit the bread circle snuggly into the muffin tray/ramekin so that it forms a little basket.

Crack your egg into the bread basket.

Bake at 180 for 10/15 mins.

Season with salt and pepper.

I think this would be great for a breakfast/brunch if you’re serving a few people as it would be easy to prepare your bread circles before hand.

Anyway, there you have it …  hope you have a lovely week ahead.

x Sim x

Each month my group of gorgeous girlfriends gather together for an evening of tangled conversation, much laughter and wonderful friendship.

There are 11 of us in our “100 Club” and each month one of us will take turns in hosting the others at her house for a meal. I volunteered to take January.  The meal is actually completely secondary to spending time with each other … so I could have served up some frozen pizza and they would have forgiven me!

I don’t know why but I’ve been struggling to really get back into the routine … maybe it’s because Monkey Girl is still on holiday. (Hallelulia … it’s back to school next week!)

So I decided to rustle up something refreshing, summery and tasty. Luckily I could call on my “sous-chefs” (aka mom and dad) to help with some chopping and peeling and prepping, so I managed to whip everything up after work without too much drama. (At one point I realised that I’d forgotten to buy the pears …. so momsie pie shot off down to the shops while dad and I continued with the peeling and chopping and prepping!)

Anyway, last night was wonderfully warm and dry … so I set the table outside so we could enjoy the summer evening.

I served 3 different salads with some nice breads. I’m not giving you any quantities – because I just wing it and I think you can adjust everything to your personal preferences.

(Ps. I was so busy hosting and preparing that I snapped up these photo’s while we were serving up outside – so they don’t do these salads any justice!)

Trio of melon with feta and mint.

You could use any combination of melons – I used some watermelon, spanspek and honeydew melon (at least I think that is the variety names)

Feta

Mint.

Yup – it’s that easy! Toss together, season with some salt, pepper and drizzle with olive oil.

Gorgonzola and Pear salad

Use a combination of watercress, rocket, baby spinach leaves  – basically some nice dark green peppery flavours.

Scatter over slices of pear. Fresh if they are in season, otherwise tinned pears are perfectly fine.

Toss in a few gooseberries.

Crumble in the gorgonzola. (You could use blue cheese if you want.)

Sprinkle over with toasted pecan nuts.

Smoked Chicken and Avo salad

Use any lettuce – I like butter lettuce but I usually just buy the mixed pack of “Italian salad” from Woolies.

Slice smoked chicken breasts into strips and scatter over.

Dice up avo and add.

Scatter some baby rosa or cherry tomatoes.

Sprinkle over some chopped spring onions.

Crumble over croutons. (I didn’t have the time or energy to make my own and happily used the store bought variety!)

I’m not a big salad dressing fan so I just popped some salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar and olive oil onto the table and let the girls dress the salads to their own tastes.

For dessert I’d seen a wonderful idea in the Jan Taste mag … I used my moms beautiful cut crystal bowl and piled it high with a combination of luscious fresh strawberries and mini Italian Kisses!

Needless to say – that it’s the friends around the table that make the meal so special. And I’m so blessed to have such lovely people sitting at my table!

Have a wonderful weekend …

x Sim x

Right, let’s talk about this Durban weather for a moment. Actually, let’s not. It’s so totally depressing. We’ve had rain for … well, I’ve lost count of how many days, but it’s been relentless I tell you. Re-lent-less! In fact my body thinks we’ve gone back into winter … and do you know what it asked for last night … it asked for pudding! Hot, steamy, comforting baked pudding. That’s not normal in summer – but I’m going with it.

I had some over-ripe peaches that were sitting in the fridge and I’d been racking my brain for a way to use them up. Cue the wet weather … and cue the pudding.

Jamie Oliver has this recipe (called Sheila’s pudding – from “Return of the Naked Chef”) which is really just a variant of “Eve’s pudding”. Now, being South African, I’m not familiar with this Eve … or her pudding. But basically it’s a baked sponge pudding with fruit - traditionally apples. (More history here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve’s_pudding).

Anyhoo – Jamie’s pud calls for 6 peaches. I had 3. And I managed to pilfer a nectarine. So that brought the total up to 4. The pudding turned out just fine in fact – but for a more fruity hit I recommend you use 6 peaches (or nectarines).

Now, this pudding isn’t a beauty to behold … it’s rustic. But it’s charm lies entirely in those beautiful mouthfuls of warm comforting sponge, soaked through with peachy juices, bursting with soft cooked fruit … and drenched in cream (of course – or at the very least ice-cream … or custard. You get the point.)

Oh and this is also VERY easy to make. All the hallmarks of a classic pudding then!

You will need:

6 peaches (you could use any fruit!)

4 tablespoons of demerara sugar

vanilla pod (I just used 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence)

125g butter

125g caster sugar

125g self-raising flour

2 eggs

Grease an oven proof bowl/dish. (I used a round pie dish.)

Halve the peaches, or if like mine they’ll a little over ripe, just cut them up in chucks any old how. You’re not aiming for perfection here. The fruit will be covered by the sponge anyway.

Pop the fruit in a pan with the demerara sugar, vanilla and 4 tablespoons of water and let that simmer away for about 5-10 minutes.

Pour the fruit mixture into your dish. (It will be quite liquid-y … don’t be alarmed – it will turn out yummy and jammy!!)

In another bowl beat together the caster sugar, butter and eggs until pale and fluffy and then add the flour. It will form a thick batter.

Smear the batter over the fruit. This was a bit tricky because the batter is so thick and the fruit is sitting in a puddle of juice. But I just did it quite roughly … as you can see … and it turned out fine.

I baked this for 30 minutes at 180degrees – but you may need to bake it for longer depending on your oven … check when the top of the sponge is turning a nice golden colour and that’s your cue!

Serve it straight from the oven with something creamy!

x Sim x