Choc-chip Cookies in a Jar

Tomorrow at work we are doing a Secret Santa. The way that it works is that each of us has to bring a gift  and then we each get a number and then, according to number, each person chooses a gift.

If you don't like your gift, you can swap it with those that have chosen something before you. So essentially number one has to stick with what they have unless number two or above wants what they have. The last number is best off because they have the most choice. They can swap with anyone.

I love this idea, but the limit on what we could spend, to make it fair to everyone, was R50. Now there is not a great deal that you can buy for that apart from some shower gel and half a sponge - and really what are you going to do with half a sponge?


As everyone knows, Santa Clause loves cookies, and as part of my Christmas baking, I've been looking up lots and lots of biscuit recipes. But alas, I just haven't had the time to make them. Coming to the end of the year and, along with that, the end of our project, the mere fact of trying to gather all the ingredients, let alone make said cookies just seemed impossible to fit in. If only all of the ingredients were in one place....

Then one morning it dawned on me, a premix would be the perfect gift! If someone doesn't have the time or the inclination to really bake, then this is perfect for them. Show me a person who doesn't think that fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies isn't a nice thing to have in the house over the holidays!

Ha! I thought not!

The instructions are really simple and all the dry ingredients are in one place. One needs only add melted butter, a beaten egg and a teaspoon of vanilla essence.

Voila, there they are for you to put out with a glass of milk for Santa.

Even more fun: Make them with the kids!

Fresh vegetable side with mustard dressing

This is a great little side that I picked up (and adapted slightly) from Mellissa Bushby's book "The Vegetarian Kitchen"

It is delightful as a side to any meat dish, but if you want to have it for lunch and as a vegetarian main or if you haven't made any starches as a side, then I would just suggest adding a few boiled new potatoes which you then cut in half before you spoon on the dressing. I varied the veges that Ms Bushby had used and also omitted the sugar from the dressing - which personally, I don't think it needs.*

Ingredients - for two people as a side
Veges
2 large carrots - cut julienne
1 generous fistful of french green beans -top and tailed
2 courgettes - cut into circles
2-3 baby new potatoes -halved

Dressing
3-4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tsp dijon mustard (try for the grainy kind)

Bring a pot (size dependent on the number you are cooking for) of salted water to the boil.

In the meantime, mix together the dressing ingredients and add salt and black pepper to taste.

Add the potatoes to the boiled water first and then 2-3 mins later add the rest of the veges and boil until al dente (crisp) or just done.

Drain and plate

Spoon the dressing over the veges.

Serve warm, as Mellissa suggests!

If you would like a wine suggestion I suggest a well-cooled dry chenin blanc or pinot grigio.

(*I should add here that where I can I try and avoid adding sugar to anything that can do without it - but that may be because I get my fair share of the heady white powder in the form of macaron mixture. And a girl has to watch her figure - which means that this makes a great meal if you've recently been indulging!)

More Macarons!!!

Just  thought that I'd share a couple more of these beauties from the Hope Street Market with you from my MONBONNE stall :)

Spicy Butternut squash Soup with Yogurt and Coriander Raita

Spicy Butternut Soup with Coriander Raita

Last night we went to see Jersey Boys - which is a show about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons - with all their hits being performed of course! Lots of fun and fantastic 50s costumes.

It was the last show to be performed this season at the Artscape in Cape Town and it was only after much uhm-ing and ah-ing that we finally found ourselves in the Computicket queue in Checkers to purchase tickets. We had missed getting any of the good cheaper seats but such was our commitment to see the show now that we moved up a tier (on the pricing).

When it came round to dinner on Sunday evening, we were on a bit of a budget and besides, having played tennis most of the afternoon, there was no time to get ready and then still to go for dinner before the play. As anyone who has tried to go somewhere for dinner before a movie / play / show / opera / concert, can attest, that if you do not set aside at least 2 hours at any given restaurant, even if you are planning on having the Gazpacho, everything including the bill will take far too long to arrive. There will not be any languid conversation and enjoyment of food. Instead there will be a great deal of anxious looking at watches, stilted conversation as each party thinks about how to interrupt the time-space continuum in order not to miss the first act and gnashing of teeth. After a great deal of forced politeness with the waitress as she offers dessert and coffees and loiters around the waiters station, and then only eventually brings the bill, there will be a mad rush for the door and then the theater.

After show eating is, though, also somewhat a difficult. Agnes Jekyll's "A little dinner before the play", while I dote on her advice on eating in all situations, does have a rather extensive menu planned to eat before going to the theater. A little dinner, in other words is not so little in her books. At least not by modern standards.  One doesn't want to be eating anything too heavy as it will probably be a little on the late side. Yet there is the probability that having had to wait for dinner - if you are sensible you may have sneaked in a quick piece of toast with jam - will make one reasonably hungry. Anything too rich will keep you awake so meat is best avoided.

This is where the humble butternut - that South African squash that only the last ten years has made its gloriously and radiant orange flesh known to the rest of the world - comes in.

But if I may remove one from the world of charted maps and exotic locations, or if my mentioning of the rest of the world too brief and I left you coming out of the theater with your tummy rumbling slightly, I just want to whisk you back to the Computicket queue in the supermarket.

Having dispensed with our shekels on the more expensive tickets I posed this question: "So what budget do we have for dinner?"
"Thirty rand," came the reply, at which I eyed Christopher incredulously.
"Fine," I answered, because I'm the kind of person that likes a challenge.

Now, perhaps I should explain something here. It is still the early days of our relationship. But even if they weren't early days, since I consider myself a gourmand, my pride demands that cooking exquisite meals forms part of establishing my reputation in this relationship. But every urban princess, who would like to present their current beaux with delicious delicacies, when they are not being wined and dined by said beau themselves, have to be practical where there is a budget that has to be respected.

My tour of the supermarket done, I met up with Christopher who can abide any type of shopping except food shopping, and informed him that we would be having butternut soup for dinner.

I knew the look that I would get. It was a skeptical look. Men who are almost 2 metres tall never think that soup is a meal so much as a starter. I'd also been informed of this fact when, much to his credit, Christopher had brought me soup when I was ill for about two weeks running. The conversation went something along the lines of:
HIM: You really like your soup.
ME (with enthusiasm): Yes, soup is delicious and so nutritious!
HIM (without enthusiasm): I didn't like it when my mother made soup. I ate it. But I didn't like it.

So that is how I knew what kind of enthusiasm (or the lack thereof) the dinner plans for that evening would be met. He did manage a "that's great," though. The lack of complaining was noted.

When we got home we fell to making the soup. Since we would only eat it after the show, a three or four hour time lapse did everything to enhance its flavour.

Ingredients
Soup
1 tbsp Sesame seed oil
1tsp coriander seeds
1tsp fennel seeds
1 largish french shallot
1 celery stalk with leaves
1 clove garlic
fresh ginger
1/2 red chili (optional)
600g butternut
1/4 cup port
1 tblsp white wine vinegar
1 L chicken stock
Salt and black pepper to taste

Raita
4 generous tblsp plain white yogurt
1 handful fresh coriander
1/2 lemon zest
juice

A smattering of flaxseed oil for the top of the soup

Fresh white loaf

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, heat a tablespoon of sesame oil. Add a teaspoon of coriander and fennel seeds. Allow them to fry until they pop. Reduce the heat.

Then add a finely chopped banana shallot, a clove of finely chopped garlic, a centimetre thick piece of grated ginger and a stalk and the leaves of celery (also finely chopped). If your tastes tend towards enjoying the very hot, you can add half a red chili - but the ginger will already give it a bit of sting. Saute until the onion is translucent and be careful not to burn the garlic.

Add the butternut (approx 600g) that has been peeled with the seeds removed and diced. Add a good few twists of freshly cracked sea salt and black pepper. Fry over a medium heat for about 3 or 4 minutes. Then increase the heat.

Add a quarter cup of red port and a dessert spoon of white wine vinegar and let it cook off for a minute or two. Then add a litre of chicken stock to cover the butternut. Cover and reduce to a slow heat. In the meantime, peel and core a sweet red apple. Cut into pieces and add to the pot.

Allow to simmer for 20-30 minutes. (If you have the time, allow it to sit for a couple of hours).

Zap with a blender until smooth.

Reheat.

While the soup is reheating, toss a nice, Portuguese white loaf in the oven to crisp up. Also this is a good time to make the raita. In a small bowl, spoon in four tablespoons of white yogurt. Add a decent handful of  fresh coriander that has been washed and chopped up. Add salt and pepper to taste and lastly the zest of half a lemon. Add a few drops of lemon juice if you wish and then mix.

When the soup has been reheated, dish out into bowls and add the raita on top. Serve with the freshly warmed bread.

Some nice wine suggestions would be a nicely chilled Riesling or Viognier. You could go for a creamy Chardonnay if your tastes tend towards something richer for winter. If your tastes tend towards a red, I would suggest a light Pinot Noir or a light red blend that displays the spiceyness of a Shiraz.

Macaron Pictures

I thought that I would share some macaron pics with you, dear followers, because, you know, they are also just lovely to look at! Here are some that I baked for the Hope Street Market in Cape Town and a couple of my table displays.

On Menus and SEO or Some Tasty Titbits for Online

A few days ago, I found myself sitting in yet another meeting trying to explain SEO to the editors who upload content onto their websites.

I've been through all the technicalities before, explaining how a search engine works and why SEO (search engine optimisation) is important and some of the techniques for writing for the web. 

In the end, I sent out this email which explained it in terms I best knew how: In the language of food and dining out.

SEO on the Menu or Some Tasty Titbits for Online

When you are giving your article a title for online think of its searchability like this: If you were looking at a menu in a restaurant, and you saw "gratin dauphinoise" you'd maybe give it a skip because you don't know what that is. What it really is, is potato bake.

In the same way, you have to ask yourself what is it that my readers would search for? If it doesn't come through in the title, then people and search engines are more likely to overlook the article even if the subject matter is EXACTLY the same thing.

Similarly with tags. Think of tags as a list of the ingredients that you would find listed under the menu item. So if you see potatoes, cream, milk and cheese, and that it is baked, this would tell you what you are about to order. (Ordering here is analogous to clicking and opening the article, in case you were wondering)

Lastly, what one has to remember about web, is that it is largely about catering to the nature of the web, so beyond titles and tags, one has to craft an online article to be SEO friendly or Search Engine Optimised - kinda in the same way that a restaurant owner has to make sure that they put items on the menu that his / her patrons are going to order.

This is a particularly difficult aspect of web writing to explain to people who work in print, where one has the leisure to peruse an article, the nature of web and reading on a screen means that one has to keep it short. Think of print as fine dining ; something you would do at your leisure whereas copy on the web is a little more like takeout. But what you want, in the end, is for people to get your takeout!

Easter Creme Caramel

Easter time is a time of eggs. There are two things that I love making with eggs. Macarons are one (which, in their little round shape remind me very much of a sweet version of eggs). But Macarons only use egg whites and I am always at a loss at what to do with the yolks.

I'm a little precious about eggs, so I would never throw the yolks out. And then, there is only so much custard and hollandaise sauce that you can make. But then I happened upon creme caramel!

Oh! What a delightful dessert! It is delicious just plain, but for Easter I decided to try something a little different. Also, I love the fruit and spiceiness of hot cross buns, so I mixed this in with the creme caramel mixture and, hey presto! You have the perfect Easter dessert, decadent and sweet! Serve this with whipped or double thick cream.

If you have the opposite problem and use the egg yolks for this and don't know what to do with the egg whites, you could always keep them in the fridge (for up to a week) and make a pavlova. See the recipe here.

Ingredients

Custard:
1 cup of fruit cake mix
1 tin of condensed milk
100 ml full cream milk
1 tsp all spice
15 ml water
7 egg yolks

Caramel:
175 ml water
100 g sugar
30 g butter


Method

The night before place all the custard ingredients, except the eggs into a bowl and place in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius

Make the caramel. Dissolve the sugar in the water in a pan with the butter. DO NOT STIR!
Wait until the mixture turns a caramel colour. Place at the bottom of the dish.

Whisk the egg yolks into the mixture and then pour that slowly on top of the caramel mixture.

Cover the baking tin with foil and place in a roasting dish that has been filled half-way with water.

Cook in the oven for 1hr - 1 hr 20 mins. Make sure that the custard is solid.

Turn out the creme caramel onto a plate, drizzle the caramel over the top and serve with whipped cream.

ASARA Wine Farm, Stellenbosch

Two weeks ago, just around harvest time, I visited ASARA Wine farm. The farm has always 

produced wonderful wines but now is a stay-over and culinary destination in it's own right. 

At their recent Pure Food festival, held on Human right's day,  the y launched their new Beaujoulais  Nouveau, a French-styled  wine that is meant for everyday drinking and which  is made from the Gamay grapes grown on the estate. It is the only one of it's kind in  South Africa.  

This is a wine that is traditionally released on the 1 November in France and that is well looked forward too by those inhabitants each year. It is an unusual style for South African palates in that it is primarily fruit driven, tasting of cranberries with brambles on the nose. It is meant to be drunk within the first six months and has very light acidity. The grapes were picked at the end of February, pressed and then kept in tanks for only two weeks.

Apart from the usual wine tasting Asara has a delectable deli which sells, not only the best coffee made by bassister Charles (that's a pic of Charles making my coffee below) but a tantalising array of sweet treats.  

Macarons that simply explode with flavour. My favourite were the plumb and litchi. Close on that is the green granny smith apple flavour. A selection of the chocolates, made by passionate pastry chef Karen Roussouw are also a must-have and a bargin at R25 for a selection of four. 

Sansibar cigar and whisky lounge the perfect place to hang out after dinner, especially if you are a hotel guest. In addition to rare cigars and whiskies that are on offer, there are also a fantastic range of wine-based cocktails that are whipped up  by Jasper. This place has quite a buzz in the evening and is frequented by hotel guests and students from Stellenbosch alike. It also has it's own bar menu with the massive burgers and the winemaker's and cheese platters being the favourites.

If you prefer something along the lines of fine dining, then the estate boasts Raphael's.

The menu is diverse and everything on it looks so yummy that it is definitely hard to choose. The lamb shank, which is slow cooked and then pulled off the bone is delicious.

Estate wines are served by the glass and are exceptionally well priced so you can enjoy a white or red with whatever you have chosen with your starter or main.

If you have space for it, their dessert menu is also excellent!

Italian Bread salad with tender stem broccoli, asparagus and sugar peas

This is a really easy and delicious starter to make. It also works well as a side to a meat dish as it includes your greens. If I can say one thing that I really like about this dish, it is the way that textures and flavours combine.

There is the crunchiness of the bread while there is the crispiness of the greens. There is their juicy sweetness that melds with tang of the lemon and the the pungency of the garlic which floats on the mellow pepperiness of the olive oil.

Use a nice olive oil for your dressing, as it really does add to the flavour. I'll share a little secret with you – I have my everyday olive oil and then I have slightly more expensive extra virgin olive oil which I will only ever use unheated and where the flavour of the oil becomes a component of the dish.

Then there is the creaminess and the piquant of the pecorino against the sweet tanginess of the roasted vine tomatoes that just bring the tread of tastes back as they perfectly compliment the clean verdi of your broccoli, sugar snaps and asparagus. Here again you have the colours of the Italian flag - Add a grinding of salt and pepper and what you have is the glory of the Italian flag flying!

The quantities that I have given are enough for two people or four four as a quick little taster.

Ingredients

2 thickish slices of a thin loaf of day-old ciabatta

6 baby tomatoes on the vine

6 tender stems of broccoli

6 Sugar snap peas

6 thin green asparagus (you can use french green beans if asparagus are not in season or - heaven forbid!- you have an aversion to them)

2 tbs good quality olive oil

half a lemon

half a clove of garlic

salt and pepper to taste.

To make

Pop the two slices of ciabatta into the oven on a tray and pop the vine tomatoes on the same tray and drizzle over with a very little olive oil. If you tend to do a million things at once, set the timer so that the bread doesn't burn. At 180 degrees, assuming the oven is hot already and the tray is in the middle of the oven, time for 7 mins. Turn the slices of bread and then set the timer for a further 5 mins.

In the meantime put a saucepan on the stove with a bit of water and a dash of salt. Bring to the boil while you prep your tender stems and your asparagus. By nipping off the bottom ends of the greens and the little stalks of the sugar peas. Pop the asparagus and broccoli into the boiling water and then after you have turned the bread add the peas. The objective is that the greens are just tender but still crisp.

While the greens are being blanched, remove the bread from the oven and rub each side with the half clove of garlic and squash the tomatoes over the bread. Move the squashed tomatoes to the side and then rip or cut the bread into 2 cm strips.

Drain the greens and add one tablespoon of olive oil, add salt and pepper and squeeze over the lemon juice. Toss. Add the bread and the squashed tomatoes and then toss again an dish up immediately.

A little trick for serving

Use tongs to pull out the greens from the bowl and arrange on a plate. Then take a spoon and scoop out the bread and the tomatoes and arrange them on top. It's ok if you get a bit of the bread in between the greens but try to make sure that it is evenly distributed between portions. Then spoon over the dressing at the bottom of the bowl – there shouldn't be too much and then add the last bit of olive oil.

Shave the pecorino over the top and serve.

Wine suggestions

I would definitely go with a white wine for this, one that has quite intense green flavours, in fact (I'd tend to go grass instead of guavas). You could have a Pinot Grigio since it is an easy going and fairly innocuous wine a lot of the time – you'll probably get a little bit of a fruity, maybe lemon tone from this which will compliment the meal. Alternatively a Chenin Blanc would go well – not one that is wooded – as there seemed to be a little trend towards treating the grape in recent times. I think that a little bit of crisp green apple on the palate would be quite nice – especially if you have used a pungent garlic. Also the acidity of this will be mitigated by the cheese but at the same time stand up to the strong flavour of the pecorino.

Exotic mushroom, sage and brown rice risotto

I love a risotto. But it is a lot of work sometimes and in addition to that there is the perception that it is therefore also rather difficult to make.


To a certain degree this is right because if you are not careful, a risotto can easily turn stodgy. The trick of a risotto is to make sure that it is creamy.

What I thought might be nice is to take you  through the risotto step by step with pictures.

 Ingredients:

1 celery stick with leaves
1 small bunch of sage
Olive oil
80g butter (halved)
2 shallots
1 clove garlic
Salt and pepper
Punnet of exotic mushrooms : Portobello and Portobellini Shiitake, Shimeji, enoki  etc- chopped
1 1/2 cups brown rice
150ml vermouth - imparts a fantastic herbiness and sweetness to the dish
250 ml white wine (Chardonnay or a Chardonnay blend - I used a Chardonnay-Viognier from Woolies; I won't wax lyrical about the choice of wine and what it imparts)
1l chicken stock

1. Finely chop up the celery, sage, shallots and garlic. Gently melt half the butter with the olive oil in a pan over a low heat. Add the chopped celery etc and allow them to sauté until the onion and celery is translucent and the garlic and herbs become aromatic. Add a pinch of salt and pepper.

2. Add the chopped mushrooms and turn up the heat a little bit. Sauté until cooked.

3.  Remove and put onto a plate

4. Add the butter to the pan and once it is melted, add the rice and coat in the butter. Then add the vermouth and stir for all you're worth. Sorry, I shouldn't exaggerate, the stirring for all you're worth comes later... just stir.

5. Once the vermouth has evapourated, add a quarter of the chicken stock and stir on a high heat until the liquid has evapourated. Then add half the wine. Stir until the liquid has evapourated. Repeat twice more.

6. Add the mushrooms etc back to the rice and end with the third quarter of chicken stock. These stages give your risotto it's creaminess and YES! it is a lot of stirring. Expect this to take about 30-40 mins on a high heat.

7. But here's the nice thing, brown rice is rather more forgiving than arborio rice and won't get as stodgy so this is where you can cheat. Add the last quarter of chicken stock and allow the rice to cook through. It may be just slightly al dente and that is preferable to entirely soft rice. But only slightly al dente, too much and it will seem undercooked.

All that's left then is for you to serve and enjoy with a lightly dressed green salad.

- bon appetit

Simple and Delicious Recipes from the Heart by Alida Ryder

For my publication, The Waiting Room, I included an extract out of Alida Ryder's cookbook, Simple and Delicious Recipes from the Heart, which had found it's way into our media offices.

I have to say that there is so much about the book that I like. From the size, the soft cover, the matt pages and the beautiful images that are good enough to ... (well you can't eat them) so I'll just have to say that they are good enough to feast your eyes on.

Alida's recipes are true to the title. They are simple and delicious. 

In the book you will find wonderful pasta recipes such as spaghetti and clams as well as other absolutely mouth watering savouries such as burgers with brie and peri-peri prawns which were so good that I had to share them and featured them in the recipe sections of the mag.
There are also some decadent sweet treats for tea times and coffee times and after meal times.

I like that at the beginning of the recipes she adds a little bit of a personal note that makes one feel that you are kind of being welcomed into the home of a friend who is sharing not only a meal with you, but also her passion for good food, people and life.

 Alida also writes a blog on which you can see her latest culinary endeavours which you can find at http://simply-delicious.co.za

Superb Seafood at Sydney Fish Market

 So there we were, my sister and I, bright and early on a December Sydney morning, and about to tackle the Sydney Fish Market. (Which has a wonderful view - see below) It was Christmas eve and the Sydneysiders, or the Australians as a whole, I believe, like to have a prawn on the barbie, by way of traditional Christmas fare.

Well, it is certainly a bit on the warm side for all the English Traditional trimmings. Well we still had a turkey on Christmas eve, which is when we were celebrating.... but really who can pass up a chance at having a turkey - it only happens once a year!

None the less, we were at the market to buy an ocean trout for the following (Christmas day).

As a foodie, I definitely recommend that you go and check out the market. Unfortunately, one of our Christmas party is allergic to seafood so we didn't indulge in all the other wonderful things that were at our disposal to buy. But I took lots of pics to remind me of the inspiration I felt while I was there. The range and quality of seafood and fish that is available is phenomenal.

And the ocean trout that we had the following day was absolutely delicious and done to perfection - on the barbie, of course!