Lifestyle
Domestic Goddesses provides a holistic life style management service. We strive to assist you in creating a harmonious well balanced life though healthy eating habits, movements, home management, home décor and refurbishments.
We will consult with you about all your personal health and home needs and set out a program to relieve the stress of the admin responsibilities of creating a home environment that gives you respite from the stresses of living a highly functioning life.
Aromatic Thai inspired fish cakes
Fish cakes have never conjured up much enthusiasm in me. I have always associated them with a seriously boring way of using up left over fish. But over the last decade or so I have seen some fabulous twists being made with the use of herbs spices and top quality fish, to create a main event rather than ‘leftovers surprise’.
I made the below recipe about 2 months ago and was really happy with the result. I then used the same guidelines with left over fish and the result was similarly satisfying, although I used allot more breadcrumbs to extend the mixture and felt it made them a little stodgy.
I told my mom about the recipe and she felt I had really gone into over kill with all the aromatics and pastes but I really do feel it makes something special of what can be a very ordinary dish.
Aromatic Thai inspired fish cakes
Makes about 20 small cakes
500g raw or cooked fish (I used a mixture of haddock, salmon and butterfish)
1 egg
1 Tbsp of flour
½ a cup of fine bread crumbs
¼ of a cup of fresh coriander and dill
1 Tbsp of tahini paste
2 Tbsp of cashew nut paste (peanut should be a good substitute)
1 tsp of thai green curry paste
1 tsp of salt
zest of ¼ of a lemon and juice of half a lemon
1 clove of garlic
1cm of ginger, peeled
Chilli to taste
1 cup of sesame seeds for coating
Combine all the ingredients, except for the sesame seeds, in a blender until smooth. Don’t over blend as a little texture is nice, but all ingredients should be well combined.
Form balls with the paste in your hand (wetting your hands a little helps) and roll them in the sesame seeds, then flatten them a little to form cakes. Allow these to rest in the fridge for an hour to set before shallow frying them in oil over medium heat until cooked through and crispy on the outsdie. I skipped this step and the cakes were still quite loose and tricky to work with.
I served the fish cakes with a dipping sauce of yoghurt and a spicy coriander chutney.
Super quick salmon, sour cream and sweetcorn jacket potato
My blog today has to be super quick too as I have an uber crazy day! I love baked potatoes but when I am in a hurry, I confess, I either par microwave and finish them in the oven, or if I’m really lazy (and it’s just for a quick fix meal) I do just microwave them.
Earlier this week I had a packet of smoked salmon the fridge which was beckoning me, but I was super rushed and didn’t feel like getting into a big cooking and cleaning mission, but I wanted a warm meal, so here is what I did. I poped the spuds in the microwave for about 8 minutes. While I chopped up the salmon, I added a bowl of frozen corn to the potatoes in the microwave about half way through to defrost and warm up. With a stick blender I blitzed up some sour cream and a wedge of feta with a heap of freeze dried dill. I assembled the spud by cutting it halfway through in a cross, squeezed it open, sprinkled in the sweet corn, spooned in loads of the sour cream sauce and topped that with salmon and some dill for garnish. Voila, a 10 minute, super delish meal.
The problem came in after I had finished taking the pictures of the first potato only to find my kitten, Penelope, sitting next the chopping board where the salmon had been, licking her lips contentedly. My dear, Phiwe, had to have her lunch sans salmon! A strict kitten discipline regime has now started in our house!
Mushroom hunting!
When I was child I was a painfully fussy eater! The list of foods I wouldn’t eat was endless. I pray to God that I will not be cursed with a child like I was someday. Mushrooms were pretty high up on the gag list for me back then, however mushroom hunting was still an outing I relished. Ever since I can remember my mother used to take us out on bleak damp autumn days to search for edible forest mushrooms. She taught us which were dangerous, which were lethal, which weren’t worth bothering about and eventually narrowed down the mushrooms we were allowed to pick for eating to three kinds. They are easily recognisable and to those who enjoy mushrooms a seasonal delight, the taste of which is markedly improved by their scarcity and the adventure of the hunt!
Thanks be given to the gods, I now LOVE mushrooms and almost all the things on the list I wouldn’t eat as a child. Mushroom hunting has also become somewhat of a passion as the mystic and excitement of the season, the timing, the searching, the finding and the final cooking and eating takes us back to some primal sense of purpose. It is a truly exhilarating experience for me.
I say all of this with a hint of sadness and promise as I have been on two unsuccessful hunts this autumn already. I am putting it down to not enough rain this season but keep waiting and searching. I have a pine ring and porcini risotto which is waiting to be made!
Oh yes – the three kinds of mushrooms I search for are: Porcini; Pine-rings and Shaggy ink caps.
Porcini (Cep or Bletus Edulis) and Pine-ring (lactarius deliciosus) are found in pine forests (and porcini also around oak trees). They need a lot of rain, a cold spell and then a warm spell. They grow well under a thick layer of pine needles or oak leaves as the case may be. Having grown up in Stellenbsoch I was pretty clued up as to where to look. But this is the first season for me of hunting in the Cape Town area, and I am determined to find the hot spots here too!
The Ink Caps one usually finds growing on lawns. We used to have some which would grow outside our front door under the Bougainvillea every year! My mom found some the other day growing on the side of the road and some on her neighbour’s lawn.
I have pasted some images of porcini and pine rings which I found on the internet. Once I find the suckers in the flesh I will post my own pictures! The Ink cap picture is my own!
If you intend on doing any mushroom hunting, please make sure you buy a book to guide you or go with an experienced picker. There are many poisonous and a few deadly mushrooms!
Porcini Mushrooms
Healthy Greek Pasta Salad a la Woolies
Last week a client asked me to teach her housekeeper how to make (amongst other things) a pasta salad like the Woolies healthy Greek pasta salad, as her kids are crazy about it. Never having eaten it before, I went to their online shopping service and found that a list of the ingredients used in the salad was listed. Naturally, quantities were not included but it’s not really rocket science, is it…?
So, with ingredients at hand, Wedson (the Malawian housekeeper – a man!), and I added them together and decided if it tasted right. It didn’t just taste right, it was damn delicious! Certainly not just a greek pasta salad for the kids. I enjoyed a big plate of it for lunch, quickly took some photos and decided to tell you all about it.
I had initially imagined a simple mayonnaise sauce poured over cold pasta, but it was Greek yogurt with honey, garlic, herbs and mustard, lots of seeded olives, baby rosa tomatoes, fresh oregano… mmm. The perfect healthy greek salad recipe!
It is great for a light lunch and perfect as a side to a braai.
Thank you Woolworths and Annette!
Healthy Greek Pasta Salad Recipe a la Woolies
Makes 6 good portions:
250g Fusilli or penne pasta screws, cooked and drained with lots of cold water
½ a Cucumber, cut into slices and quartered
250g mini rosa tomatoes, quartered
200g Feta cheese, cut into small blocks
15 black olives, deseeded and cut into a few pieces (or more if you love olives)
½ a small onion, peeled, halved and cut into thin slices
Dressing for the Greek Pasta Salad
1 cup of Greek yogurt
2 Tbsp of Honey
2 Tbsp of Olive oil
1 ½ Tbsp of Lemon juice
1 Tbsp of Wholegrain mustard
1 tsp of Salt
1 large clove of Garlic, crushed
½ tsp of Black pepper
1 Tbsp of fresh (or dried) Oregano, chopped
Cook the pasta with lots of salt, drain it and set aside until cooled. Add to this the cucumber, rosa tomatoes, olives, onion, and feta. Mix up the dressing ingredients and combine. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Pin for later!
Destination pizza… Massimo’s Pizza Club
With at least three pizza joints for every kilometre squared, we are pretty spoiled for choice when it comes to this world wide food phenomenon. So it’s not often that people will find a good enough reason to travel very far for a pizza. I have however found a restaurant in Hout Bay where the pizza is 100% worth the drive out there. The pizza selection is different to any I have experienced before (and I’ve eaten a lot of pizza).
I was invited to join a twitter event there a few weeks ago, where we got to taste an extensive selection of pizza and salads and I was thoroughly impressed, already looking forward to visiting them again for a more relaxed and leisurely meal. So when Adam and I were discussing what to do for our anniversary this Sunday, Massimo’s was my first suggestion. We combined the excursion with a bit of mushroom hunting in the Hout Bay forest (with zero success sadly) and arrived at Massimo’s afterwards for a late lunch.
We were seated at a sublime table at a window overlooking a dreamy, hazy Hout Bay. There was sun flooding onto our table and I had a bird’s eye view into the pizza oven. Sadly my camera seems to have gone on the frizz, so the photos are not a patch on the real thing, but they are all I have… (very sad face).
It was a serious struggle to decide on what to order as everything sounds so intriguing and unlike your regular pizzeria fare. I eventually settled on a pizza with no tomato base, which seems to be one of their trademarks, with mozzarella, smoked cheese, garlic butter and pan fried mushrooms. It was a perfect balance of smoky, herby and savoury flavours. The pizza base is also just that bit different. They puff up a bit in places and cause one to get a combination of textures between chewy, crisp and slightly burned (but in a good way).
When you see the owner of the restaurant, Massimo (naturally), personally doing the baking and finishing touches to each pizza, you know that this is more than a restaurant, it is someone’s passion – and pizza made with passion just tastes better!
There is care and authenticity in every part of this restaurant. The staff seem genuinely to care about their guests and they seem excited to be working with Massimo and all he creates.
We ended our meal with an array of little delights from perfectly made espresso, a selection of homemade chocolate liquors served in chocolate cups (YUM!), grappa and these insane orange liquor infused sugar cubes which you light to caramelise them a little and pop into your mouth for a taste explosion.
What a fantastic way to celebrate our special day… we can’t wait to go back again! Next time we want to get a group together to do ‘the pizza feast’ where Massimo will make a selection of his most popular pizzas and feed you until can feed no more! Sounds like heaven!
Slow braised beef goulash, lentil and smoked paprika soup
Yes, I know I blogged about soup yesterday, but it’s really cold and wintry at the moment in Cape Town. I have in fact made four soups this week already and will be off training two more soups later today. So I’ve got soup on the brain.
The soup I made last night is however, more than just a soup, it’s a rich meaty manly hearty spicy soup. I really went a little crazy with the spices but it was just all happening and I couldn’t stop myself. The madness started with a visit to Komati foods… always a dangerous move. I wanted to buy some smoked paprika and tom yum paste and ended up with a shopping basket full of goodies. When I buy clothes I wear each item at the first opportunity I find, and the same thing kind of happened with the soup last night. But I think the end result was pretty worthwhile.
If however you decide to try this, you could probably cut the spice list down by half and still come up with a pretty awesome soup. But I will give you the recipe as I made it yesterday.
PS – I just ate another bowl (the one in the photo) for breakfast and it’s given me all European winter nostalgia, like getting my man ready for the hunt or something medieval like that.
Slow braised beef goulash and lentil soup
Makes about 4 litres
2 Tbsp of olive oil
3 medium onions, peeled and chopped
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 kg of beef goulash pieces
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
100ml of tomato paste
1 litre of strong beef stock
1 tsp of ground black pepper
1 ½ Tbsp of smoked paprika
20g of dried chanterelle mushrooms (porcini or shitake will be good too)
2 tsp of garam masala (optional)
1 tsp of mild curry powder
1 tsp of all spice
3 Tbsp Harissa paste
2 tsp Sumac powder (optional)
250g black lentils (green or brown will be fine too)
2 tsp of salt (or to taste)
Heat the oil in a large pot and add the onions and garlic frying them for a few minutes. Add the beef goulash and brown the meat for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes and beef stock and bring to a simmer. Add all the remaining ingredients and leave on a very low simmer for 3 – 4 hours (or leave in a slow cooker for the whole day or over night).
If the meat is still chunky but tender mash it up a little by rubbing the chunks with the back of spoon against the side of the pot. Add water or stock if you need to thin the soup. Check the seasoning and serve with a dollop of sour cream or yogurt and crusty bread.
Express Chicken Soup
The comforting and healing properties of chicken soup are legendry. My mother told me that this stems from the mild antibiotic properties found in the skin of chicken. Most chicken soup recipes call for boiling a whole chicken for a long time extracting the chicken flavours into the broth and then flaking off the tender chicken meat into the broth afterwards. This is a fabulous way of doing chicken soup, but it takes a loooong time and is pretty fiddly. So if you’re not after the natural antibiotics in the skin and have time constraints then my version of chicken soup is a good one to go with, I think.
The basis of any great soup is usually a good stock or broth. Luckily we have reached a time in South Africa where we have access to (almost) world class insta stocks and fonds. Ina Paarman has a sachet stock which is good and Nomu has a range of fonds which are awe inspiring. If you are partial to making your own stock, this is the best way to start, but if you’re not don’t feel bad, Nomu’s fond range tastes better than most home made stocks I’ve tasted.
I like to add a few aromatics to the stock and then I simply toss in a packet of pre cut veggies (stir fry packs are best for this as they are very thinly sliced) and diced chicken breast. Viola, fresh and tasty home-made chicken soup!
Bellow is the recipe I made for dinner last night. But this soup would change every time I make it according to what veggies I have at home and what aromatics I feel like adding at the time. You truly can experiment here, don’t limit yourself to the below recipe, play a little!
Express Chicken Soup
Makes about 3 litres
1 Tbsp of olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
2 litres of chicken stock, (I used Ina Paarmans sachets – my PnP doesn’t stock Nomu fonds)
1 rib of celery, finely sliced
2 tsp of salt (or to taste)
½ tsp of pepper
½ tsp of mild curry
½ tsp of cumin
½ a cup of pink lentils
1 small sweet potato, peeled and diced
3cm of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
Thinly sliced lemon zest of half a small lemon
Juice of 1 small lemon
1 tin of coconut milk
½ a cup of fresh coriander and tarragon, washed and picked
600g Pillow pack of stir fry veggies
4 chicken breasts, diced
In a large heavy bottomed pot, gently fry the onion and garlic until tender. Add the chicken stock, celery, salt, spices, lentils, sweet potato, ginger, lemon zest and coconut milk. Allow this to simmer for 10 minutes. Check the seasoning and adjust where needed. Add the herbs, veggies and diced chicken and allow to simmer for a further 10 minutes or until the chicken is just cooked (do not overcook as the check will become though). Serve and enjoy. This will last for a few days in the fridge and will freeze well too.
Ratatouille inspired heavenly hot pot
This last month has been rather crazy. I’ve hardly been home and have had very little time to cook at leisure, or to experiment. Consequently, this morning I was feeling uninspired about my blog… what was I going to talk about today? Usually, it’s a process of narrowing down all the stuff I’d like to talk about but today nothing concert was manifesting in my cotton wool brain.
Luckily, while I was downloading the photos from this weekend, I can across the above photo and inspiration came flooding back. This picture was taken shortly before the lid was placed on this ratatouille inspired hot pot. It was part of a sublime meal prepared by my step Dad who is a mean force in the kitchen.
I just rang him up to chat through the dish and this is more or less what he did.
He laid out all the veggies and a few other interesting ingredients he had in the house on the kitchen counter – courgettes, mushrooms, bell peppers, shallots, tomatoes, butternut, sweet potato, nuts, raisins, apples, lemon and ginger.
He got an appropriately sized heavy bottomed pot and large pan out. He started by frying individually in olive oil some of the ingredients which need a longer cooking time. He started with the shallots peeled and whole, once they had browned a little they went into the pot, then he fried smallish cubes of butternut and sweet potato and once they had browned a little, they also went into the pot. While he fried the mushrooms whole in some oil and salt, he roughly chopped up the courgettes, bells peppers and a peeled and sliced apple and added them raw on top of the already fried ingredients.
Into the pot went a handful of raw nuts and raisins, roughly chopped garlic, slivers of ginger and lemon zest. He sprinkled this with Ina Paarmans lemon pepper sprinkle, dried sweet basil, salt, some hot chilli sauce and a glug of olive oil. He placed a large sprig of rosemary on top, then scattered in the fried mushrooms and some chopped raw peeled tomato.
The pot was then gently heated up and when a good steamy sizzle was reached (I would happily add a glug of white wine, stock or water to stead up the steaming and prevent burning here) he put the lid on, left this for a few more minutes and then switched off the heat, leaving the retained heat to cook the dish for a further hour. The lid cannot be opened at this stage as it will release the heat needed to cook the dish.
Once he was nearly ready to serve, he opened the pot up and heated it through, gently moving the ingredients around for the flavours to combine a little.
This was served this with baked potatoes and sour cream. What a heavenly meal!
I eat a lot!
I eat a lot… all the food I blog about is what I am currently eating and then there’s all the food I don’t blog about. I eat a lot. Always have, always will. So, people sometimes ask me why I’m not fat. Firstly, they don’t see me in my birthday suit (eeek!). I certainly could do with a few less meals and few more sessions of exercise.
Aside from the few extra kilo’s I would love to do without, I think I have a pretty awesome metabolism and this I can only ascribe to the fact that I have always eaten a lot and regularly. My body has not had to deal with any starvation shocks (aka diets) and consequently seems not feel the need to hold onto much-stored reserve as it is pretty well assured to be getting it’s next meal soon.
Lastly, I try to keep a mostly healthy diet so that I don’t have to feel guilty when I feed my cravings from time to time. I have blogged about my fruit and veggie juice for breakfast which gives my body the kick start it needs every day and then I also have another passion which has come with me through most of my life. It has the very sophisticated title of ‘Rice Moosh’. This I think can be attributed to it being named when I was much much younger, but the name has stuck in my household.
Rice moosh is pretty straight forward and at its most basic is a combination of steamed rice with chopped up salad goodies like cucumber and tomato and usually some dairy like butter (if the rice is hot), cottage cheese or feta. It has developed over the years and now I usually add lentils or quinoa to the rice and the ‘salad’ ingredients can range from steamed veggies like broccoli, butternut or sweetcorn, to preserved ingredients like sundried tomatoes, capers and pickles along with all manner of raw chopped veggies. I also love adding toasted seeds or nuts too.
I keep a supply of rice with lentils or quinoa in the fridge so I have an easy meal waiting whenever I need it. I also often make that for Adam to take to work for lunch.
It is a well balanced and satisfying meal which leaves my tummy happy and me guilt free, ready to face the next feast I’m planning!
Mothering Sunday
Adam’s Mom is out to visit from Australia and we thought it was a good idea to get our two sets of parents together in Betty’s Bay to celebrate the privilege of having both these wonderful women in our lives!
Adam and I had loosely planned Sunday’s events but I had not really decided on a menu for breakfast. I knew the house would be full of food and wanted to play it by ear according to what was there and what I thought we might all feel like at that point. So on Sunday morning we woke up bright and early put some coffee on and then I nosed around to see what was in the house food wise. Well, suffice it to say that we could survived a nuclear holocaust with the food reserves we had in the house, but we had spent allot of time eating over the weekend, so I wanted to keep the menu light and the portions small. I didn’t keep track of the recipes like I usually do but I will explain the process I followed verbally below.
For a description of the whole morning’s events (i.e. not just my recipes) read my step Dad’s very sweet blog about it on – http://blogsausbetties.wordpress.com/2011/05/08/mothers-day/
Breakfast parfait
In the fruit basket we had bananas perfectly ripe, a big red apple and juicy tangerines. I peeled and chopped the fruit into small bits so that one would get a little of each fruit in every mouth full. I spooned this into the bottom of tumblers, spooned over some Greek yoghurt (which is so rich and creamy there is certainly no need to sweeten it), I sprinkled this with a spoon of muesli, some pumpkin seeds and some salted nuts. The salted nuts happened by accident as I hadn’t noticed they were salted but it added a lovely tanginess and didn’t taste salty at all. I then set these aside until everyone was ready, where I then poured a small amount of strawberry juice into each glass, just to cover the fruit at the bottom and to add a little sweetness. The result was fruity, creamy and crunchy without being too sweet and was a great way to start breakfast.
Breakfast egg bake with slow roast tomatoes
I wasn’t sure what I was doing with the eggy part of breakfast so I just put out all the ingredients which looked good and appropriate and took it from there. First I sliced tomatoes in half, sideways not lengthways, placed them on a baking tray and into the oven at 150C˚. Nothing added to them, just like that, while I left them slowly dehydrating for about an hour while I got on with the rest of the days preparations.
About 15 minutes before I needed them (but they had been in for an hour already) I drizzled them with a dash of olive oil, about a teaspoon of sugar and 1/8 of teaspoon of salt each, turned up the heat to about 220 C˚ and onto grill and let them caramelise a bit. The flavour was super intense, I thought they may have been a bit over powering for the more subtle flavours of the rest of the breakfast but the other diners did not agree.
The eggy part of the breakfast came together differently to what I had I first had in mind but I think the end result was pretty fabulous. I had started sautéing mushrooms the way I always do (see link) and in a heavy bottomed pot I was sweating off some shallots and garlic. My mom had bought some awesome farm eggs (some with double yolks) and I had put together in a bowl a mixture of sour cream, fresh chopped herbs (parsley, dill, rosemary, basil), spring onions, garlic, goats cheese, salt and pepper.
Once the mushrooms had reduced sufficiently I added them to the shallots, to this is added ¾ of the sour cream mixture, heated this until just before boiling point, then scraping holes into the mixture and cracking the eggs into the holes. I popped the lid on the pot and allowed the mixture to heat up a bit before dropping the heat to low, so the eggs could cook but preventing the mixture from burning at the bottom. I left this for about 10 minutes, checked the mixture with a spatula scraping around the eggs to see if the whites had set (this is when you would leave it longer if necessary).
Try not to take the lid off the pot much, if at all, so that the heat can build up and cook the eggs from the top as well. Once the whites where set but the yellows still runny I spooned over the remaining cream sauce and topped this all with loads of fresh chopped herbs and spring onions.
I placed the pot as is onto the table and dished it up from there. By the time the eggs where served the yellows had set a little but still had a little runniness in the centres (just how I like it).
The whole day was such a joy. I’m not sure who enjoyed it most, the mom’s or us ‘kids’?
