Lifestyle

My parents have let our old family house in Stellenbosch and have moved to Betty’s Bay. They are getting in a new tenant soon so they have decided to spring clean, renovate and also to pack up a lot of our personal family stuff. Before my mother was going to pack up the kitchen stuff I asked if I could quickly pop by and see if there were a few things I could use in my kitchen. Well, my quick pop through ended up being the best part of a very good day.

I arrived to a house under siege – boxes, painters, handy men and chaos but my mother and step dad in with their usual charm showed me around and told me all the plans they had and what was going to be done. They also had a little gift for me from their recent travels of a packet of Beaver Creek, estate reserve 2010 coffee and a piece of sheep’s milk pecorino from Ovis Angelica. Since I had brought with me a jar of Chaloner’s olive and chilli preserve and guava jam, I offered to pop out and get some more cheese and bread for lunch.

My parents then advised me to stop in at Mellisa’s just up the road for some more cheese and then to go to a new bakery they had heard a lot about, called De Oude Bank Bakkerij (fabulous review by Whale Cottage). So I mozied off up Dorp Street on the most heavenly of winters days. I bought two of my old favourite cheese from Dalewood and Klein River as well as some little florentines for dessert.

I struggled to find the bakery but finally, almost by accident, I found it tucked in the back of a set of quaint shops. It was like a little hidden treasure, bustling with people in the know and wafting with the smells of freshly baked bread and the best intentions. I had just come to buy bread but the food on the tables scattered around the café looked so enticing, I was very sad that I had to leave without being able to sit and enjoy this haven. I bought two massive loaves of dark rye and something called rustica (like ciabatta with bigger holes in the dough, as well as four bread sticks filled with chunks of dark chocolate, all wrapped in a butcher paper and tied with red twine. 10 out of 10 for atmosphere, friendliness and presentation.

I rushed home and set up a rustic lunch upstairs on an old wooden kist on the floor as every other table and space was packed up with boxes and clutter. A friend of the family had also spontaneously popped in and the five of us plus our old cat who has suddenly gained about 2kgs (I think all the neighbours have been feeding her independently) sat in a pool of winter sun and enjoyed this simple feast.

The bread was light, crusty and chewy, the cheeses were all the things an excellent gruyere and camembert should be, but the sheep’s milk pecorino was something new for me and therefor special. It was very young and soft so it had a lovely creamy texture whilst still having the strong flavour and acidity which will turn into crystals with age. The cheese paired beautifully with the olive and chilli preserve (which is sweet, savory and spicy all at the same time) and the guava jam (which has something of a likeness to quince paste but is far more fruity and floral in flavour)

The mini florentines and bread sticks with chocolate were sensational. Simple goodness.

It was now time to pillage the kitchen. I left with way more than I had bargained for, but still only a 20^th of what was there… oh my word my mother had collected a lot of kitchen stuff. I am so looking forward to cooking, baking and plating my next meals… where I am going to put everything is another story all together!

Express Butter Chicken

Serves 4

1 Tbsp of oil

1 medium onion, very finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 Tbsp of ginger, minced

2 Tbsp of butter

1 Tsp of ground cumin

1 Tsp of ground coriander

1 Tsp of garum masala

1 Tsp of ground paprika

½ Tsp of chilli powder (or to taste)

½ Tsp of black pepper, finely ground (or to taste)

4 skinless free range chicken breasts, cut into small cubes (replace with paneer if desired)

115g of tomato paste

125ml of cream

125ml of yoghurt

1 Tsp of salt (or to taste)

On medium high heat, fry the onion in the oil until translucent but not browning. Add the spices and the butter and fry for a few minutes. Add the chicken cubes and fry for a few minutes until the chicken is almost cooked through. Add the tomato paste and cream and fry on medium heat for a further few minutes. Once the chicken has just cooked through add the salt and yoghurt and combine well.

Serve with fresh coriander, steamed rice, roti and or sambals. Can keep in the fridge for two days or will freeze beautifully.

Rosemary and red wine sauce

Makes about 300ml of sauce.

½ bottle (375ml) of red wine (the better the wine the better the sauce, but nice cheap and cheerful wine is just fine)

A sprig of fresh rosemary (about 30 large leaves) roughly chopped

1 large clove of garlic, finely chopped (optional)

1 tsp of salt

2 Tbsp of sugar

2 tsp of a good mild mustard

A healthy grind of black pepper

250ml of cream

Poor the wine into a sauce pan and simmer until it has reduce to about a ¼ of it’s original volume, you want it start thickening a little.

While the wine is reducing add the garlic, rosemary, salt, sugar, mustard and black pepper.

When the sauce has thickened slightly and has reduce enough, add the cream.

You can also add your strained meat drippings to the red wine sauce and reduce it a bit further before adding the cream for a delicious savoury twang.

This sauce compliments lamb and beef especially but is also great with chicken, pork or with roast veggies or added to a risotto.

About 6 months ago I experimented for the first time with marinated rare roast lamb. I usually slow roast lamb and felt the need to try it rare. Oh my word! It was so tender and juicy I was sold immediately.

What I have done a few times since then is to rare roast deboned leg of lamb meat either on the braai or in the oven if the weather isn’t great. Then set up a table with pita’s, roast veggies and a yoghurt drizzle and let people fill their own pita’s.

It’s a great twist on a traditional braai and also great for winter when you want the braai vibe but the weather isn’t playing ball.

Mix up the yoghurt, mint, cumin and salt and refrigerate till ready for use.

Pre heat your oven on grill and place the rack in the centre of the oven.

Select the veggies you like to roast and dice them into pieces of about 1cm – 1.5 cm. This is so that they can easily fit into the pitas. Combine the veggies with the oil, salt and rosemary, in a bowl, tossing them until they are covered with oil. Spread them out onto a baking tray and place them in the oven. They should take about 15 minutes to roast. Every 5 minutes or so, check them to see that they are not blackening too much and turn them with a spatula if they are. Remove them from the oven and set aside.

If you are not braai’ing the lamb, get the oven as hot as possible and on grill. Move the rack as close to the element on top but naturally not so that the meat touches it. Remove the meat from the marinade and place on a baking tray in the oven. The meat should need about 7 – 8 minutes per side for a 400g piece of meat if the oven is at the correct temperature i.e. scorching hot. You need to turn the meat so it grills on both sides. The lamb is best served medium rare. Up the cooking time by two minutes per side if you prefer it well done. Remove the meat and let it rest for 5 minutes before slicing. Lightly salt the lamb after slicing.

Toast the pitas in the oven until they puff up. Slice a hole about 1/3 of the way along the edge of the pita and with the knife loosen the inside creating a pocket. Layer roast veggies, yoghurt sauce and lamb evenly in the pita and serve immediately.

Shopping is an activity I can enjoy for about 45 minutes at a stretch tops. After that I become restless, irritable and eventually downright irrational. The idea of online shopping has never appealed to me as I like to pick things up, read the label, feel the cloth, try it on – a full sensory experience which online shopping doesn’t afford you. That was until Annika @anysroad met Martin from Diletto at the Hope Street market where they have a stall. She then passed on their details to me and I went onto their site to check it out – to my delight it is full of the products and suppliers I love and use – no selling needed.

They are an online deli with a personally sourced range of premium products from small scale or premium producers mostly in the Western Cape region. A lot of these products are available at delis, markets and speciality stores but you usually have to venture further than your regular supermarket to find them, especially if you don’t live in the Cape. I live in Obz and am a Pick n Pay girl but sadly my Pick n Pay doesn’t stock a lot of the speciality or premium brands I like and being the lazy bones I am, I’m not likely to mission around to find them.

Problem solved with Diletto. Last week Monday I went online and with ease (I’m not that tech savvy) I ordered some Vanilla Man vanilla extract, Jack Black beer, So!Go caramel fudge sauce (oh my word, have eaten most of it straight from the jar already!), Origin Coffee and Tokara Frontoio Olive Oil. My order was processed and a day later they contacted me to ask me where I would like my parcel delivered. Obz falls into the city bowl area, so my delivery was free! R50 delivery charge to anywhere in South Africa – I think this is fabulous news for my joburg readers!

I promptly baked an Italian vanilla cake, have been waking up to fabulous coffee, enjoyed Adam’s favorite beer with him at home and oh that caramel fudge sauce… an ode should be written for that sauce! All this without leaving the house! I like it!

I will write more about the spring rolls later this week as the rolling method has a few tricks to it and I want to work on some more ‘how to’ material so you don’t have to have as much error in your trials as I did… The beef in black bean sauce however, was such a success and is so easy.

For reasons not that clear to me, I tend not to cook stir fries but I recently had two clients requesting that I train their housekeepers to make stir fries and both recipes were delicious. The one recipe I trained which I found the most appealing was the stir fry with black bean sauce as unlike many other Asian sauces it seems to have more food value and depth of taste.

The Asian supermarket round the corner from me sells two kinds, one with chilli (not that hot and totally delicious) and another with garlic (better suited for kids as it’s not hot). If you buy a pillow pack of pre chopped stir fry veggies this dish should take you no longer the 15 minutes to prepare and tastes fabulous!

Beef in black bean sauce stir fry

Serves 6 – 8

2 cups of basmati rice

6 Tbsp black bean sauce

4 Tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp black pepper

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger

2 Tbsp peanut or olive oil

600g of beef fillet, cut into thin strips along the grain

24 green beans, ends trimmed, cut in half on the diagonal

1 red bell pepper, julienned

1 small head of broccoli, cut into florets

1 onion, each cut into 8 wedges and separated into pieces

1 cup of strong beef stock

1 Tbsp of cornstarch, mixed with 3 Tbsp of water

Bring 3 cups of water to a boil in a medium sized pot. Stir in the rice and keep stirring until the water returns to a boil. Allow the rice to boil until the water reaches the same level as the rice. Cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid and turn off the heat. Allow the rice to steam for 15 minutes. Fluff up the rice with two forks once ready to serve.

While the rice cooks, mix together the black bean sauce, soy sauce, sugar, black pepper, garlic and ginger in a bowl. Heat a wok or large skillet over high heat, add 1 tablespoons of the oil, and stir-fry the beef for 2 minutes, add half the black bean sauce and stir fry for a few more minutes. Remove the beef from the wok and set aside on a plate.

Last night we celebrated a friend’s birthday. Each person brought or prepared a part of the meal. I brought the cake and a potato bake. My dear friend Annika @anysroad made a salad…. (moment of silence) oh my word, what a salad!