Tiny Oven Adventures

Any Fruit Crumble

2011-09-18T19:21:00.009+02:00

I seemed to have bought a self replicating bag of guavas. This is strange, because there appeared to be a finite amount of fruit in the bag when I got it.

Despite this, self replication appears to be the only explanation, because after two weeks of taking guavas to work every day, there's still a whole bunch of guavas stinking up my fridge (the smell of ripe guavas are amazing, but there's something about the smell of *ripening* guavas in large groups that makes my nostrils shudder).

This situation has forced me to make this dessert on a Sunday afternoon, after a huge lunch and pudding, just to get rid of my seemingly endless supply of fruit. I usually make the recipe with an assortment of different seasonal fruit, but this batch only contained guavas (desperate times...).

The recipe is very forgiving in terms of precise measurements. My usual method involves combining twice as much flour as sugar, then crumbing in butter until the mixture clumps when pressed together in my fist (shown in photo at the bottom of the post). However, in the name of science I have provided ingredient quantities here for the specified dish size (and because I had to type up the recipe for a friend!).

Note: I got the baking dish and the ramekin from Le Creuset at one of their Food Bloggers evenings at Silwood Kitchen, gorgeous aren't they? :)

Any Fruit Crumble
Serves 4

1 cup flour
0.5 cup sugar
0.3(one third) - 0.5 cup butter (depends on how 'cookie-like' you want your crust, I used 0.3 in the photos)
Fruit of your choice to fill a dish with 1.2l capacity (the dish in the photos is 0.6l)

Preheat the oven to 180'C.
Cut your fruit into pieces about 2-3cm big. Put them in a shallow baking dish. If the fruit is very tart, sprinkle some sugar on.
Put the fruit into the oven and bake for about 15 minutes. I do this so the fruit has enough time to soften without me worrying that I'm burning the crumble. The initial baking can be omitted.
Combine the flour and the sugar in a mixing bowl. Rub the butter into the mixture until it resembles fine crumbs.
Remove the fruit from the oven and sprinkle the mixture over. Be sure to move the fruit around a bit so the crumble can get in between the fruit as well.
Put the dish back into the oven and bake until the crumble topping is crisp (takes about 20 minutes in my oven). Depending on how impatient I am, I put on the grill as well to finish it quicker, however I do recommend baking it longer rather that shorter as the fruit caramelises and turns nice and gooey the longer you bake it (as long as it doesn't burn!).

Melkkos

2011-06-12T20:19:00.005+02:00

According to the internet, Melkkos is a "milk-based South African dessert". Pfft. Anyone who has eaten Melkkos knows that this description falls miles short in describing the creamy, milky, comforting, cinnamony (is that even a word?) dish that is Melkkos.

Melkkos is a milk based dish which is either thickened with flour & butter crumbs or or with a dough which has been cut into strips. It is served with a generous helping of cinnamon sugar sprinkled over the top. The version with the dough strips is apparently the traditional way of preparing Melkkos, but the only recipes I've found have been the crumb version. Personally I've never eaten it as a dessert, but rather a light evening meal.

Most people have fond childhood memories of Melkkos, I managed to make it all the way to university without even knowing it exists! I can clearly remember booking my meals for the week at the eetsaal (dining room/cafeteria) one week and seeing this Melkkos thing on the menu and being utterly perplexed. It was love at first bite, after that I never missed a meal where Melkkos would be served, even if the accompanying food was of a more questionable nature... (eetsaal food isn't known for it's outstanding culinary accolades!)

After several years at university, I walked away with lots of life experience, great memories, a degree or two, many huisdans glasses and an eetsaal bowl that accidentally (*cough*) got packed in with the rest of my things. The portions we got were never as generous as in the photographs, and the Melkkos was never as good as a homemade batch, but I still love making Melkkos at home, taking out my borrowed bowl and reminiscing about the cold winter evenings back at res where I was first introduced to Melkkos.

Melkkos
Serves 4

1l Milk
15ml Butter
150ml Flour
Pinch of Salt
Cinnamon Sugar for serving

Rub the butter into the flour and salt until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
Bring milk to a boil in a saucepan.
Once the milk has boiled, add the flour mixture and mix with a whisk. (don't worry about it being lumpy, that's how it's supposed to be!)
Cook the mixture until it has thickened, and remember to stir to prevent the base burning!
Serve immediately with a good sprinkling of cinnamon sugar!

Franschhoek Lions Amazing Race Treasure Hunt

2011-06-05T21:40:00.018+02:00

On Saturday the 29th of May my friends and I participated in the most fun, amazing, entertaining and tasty event in Franschhoek namely the Lions Amazing Race!

The Franschhoek Lions Club organised the event in order to raise money to buy a sorely needed Electrocardiogram (ECG) machine for the Franschhoek community. Twenty-two wine farms in the region participated in the event. The 'Amazing Race' format was used; at each farm we did a wine tasting after which we had to perform a wine related task that was timed. At the end of the day the team with the best time would walk away with the grand prize of 15 cases of wine! Every team also had to have a color scheme and dress accordingly.

At 9:30 we received our first clue and the pink & black team aka The Samurai Pizza Cats was off to My Wyn!

As we drove closer to our first stop, the house at My Wyn appeared out of the thick vegetation and mist high on the mountain slopes. My Wyn is the smallest wine cellar in Franschhoek, Jacoline Haasbroek runs the place and produces all the wines herself using traditional wine making equipment.

Our first task was hand dipping wine bottles in wax in order to seal them. Due to the weather being typical Cape-like it was raining, so the whole operation moved into the cellar. We each sealed one bottle and affixed a label to it. We even got to keep our own bottle!

After successfully completing the sealing we received our second clue which lead us to...Glenwood!

Glenwood is the home of the Blushing Bride Protea, a rare species that was once thought extinct! Apparently the higher in the mountain the flower grows, the darker shade of pink the blossoms are. There is a little folklore attached to the flower:

Historically it is reputed that French Hugenots farmers would approach their girlfriends with a S. florida flower in their lapels when about to ask for their hand in marriage. The common name, Blushing Bride, apart from the obvious inference of the flowers colour, derives from the fact that the suitor’s intention was apparent to all who met him, much to the embarrassment of his bride to be. The deeper the pink colour the more serious the intentions of the suitor.

Source:Haut Espoir Fynbos Friday

At Glenwood our task was to throw boules so that they land within a circle, once that was finished our clue pointed us in the direction of Holden Manz.

Guy Kedian welcomed us at Holden Manz with a lovely platter of cured meats, fresh bread and butternut soup. For the task each of us had to catch a grape in our mouth thrown by the other members of the team who had to stand about 7 meters away. Much hilarity ensued!

The next stop for the day was L'Ormarins where we had to run around looking for answers between the old car exhibits! Each of us drew a random piece of paper with a clue on and I got the task of changing a car's tyre! Afterwards we were directed to La Motte.

We tasted wine in a private tasting room at La Motte at a beautifully set table. Afterward we were taken to the Pierneef à La Motte Restaurant where we were served a truffled white bean soup with goats cheese foam at the Chef's table by the chef, Chris Erasmus, himself!

It was wonderful sitting at the table as you can see right into the kitchen (and I'll refrain from adding 'where the magic happens'... *cough*).

Next we went to the museum to find some elephants (as Franschhoek was first called Olifantshoop) in one of the paintings. Then we set off to Vrede en Lust.

We had to listen carefully during the wine tasting as we were quizzed afterwards (the original plan involved running around the farm to find the answers but the weather wasn't playing along). It was even harder to pay attention as we had been served a cheese platter with 5 different cheeses served with preserves, tempura olives and bread basket in their beautiful tasting room. All the cheeses come from Cotage Fromage, a deli and cheese shop situated on the farm.

Our last stop for the day was at Chamonix where they decided to give us Schnapps shots instead of wine...

Our task at Chamonix was to each down a shot of Schnapps (this is after the initial tasting) and then push another team member in a wheelbarrow around the parking area.

Each team member had to have a turn pushing the wheelbarrow and in turn being the cargo.The Schnapps burning in my stomach fueled my desire to get the running bit over with as soon as possible!

Seven clues, seven wine farms, seven wine tastings and seven timed wine related tasks were done! After admiring the view, we returned to Goederust for the prize giving. Dinner was then served which included the famous Goederust farm bread.

The Lions Club did a fantastic job organising the Amazing Race. Everyone I spoke to had a ball of a time and definitely discovered some new Franschhoek gems! I truly felt like we were treated like royalty at every farm we visited. The Lions Club also raised enough money to be able to buy the much needed ECG machine.
Thank you very much to Lodine Maske for all the hours she put into organising the event as well as all the other members of the Lions Club Franschhoek, you'll definitely be seeing all of us next year!

Smoked Snoek Pate

2011-03-27T17:49:00.010+02:00

I've had a craving for smoked snoek for quite a while now, smoked snoek pate specifically. It took one lazy Saturday afternoon and 15 minutes to make a fresh, creamy, smokey, lemony pate that is great immediately, and even better once it has had time for the flavours to develop.

I bought myself a new camera a few days ago. I've been having so much fun playing with it, and I really enjoyed taking these photos! <3 dSLR :)

Smoked Snoek Pate
Makes about 1 cup

200g Packet of Smoked Snoek
2 Heaped tablespoons Creamed Cottage Cheese
2 Heaped teaspoons Mayonaise
1 Clove of garlic, cut finely
0.25 Onion, grated or cut finely
0.5 Pickle, grated or cut finely
Zest of 1 Lemon
Juice of 0.5 Lemon
0.25 Cup of Dill (cut into small pieces)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Flake the fish and carefully remove all the bones.
Mix all the ingredients together. That is all!

Note: These quantities are only a guideline. I devised the recipe by adding ingredients and tasting until I was happy, I highly recommend you do the same!

Blueberry Macarons

2011-01-30T14:34:00.001+02:00

Blueberry macarons. Tasty tasty blueberry macarons.

If there is one thing that I learned at the 2010 Food Bloggers Conference, it is that you should always start your posts with a sentence relevant to the subject matter. Fortunately I learned more than one thing, and you can too! Colleen aka browniegirl has taken the momentous task upon herself again this year to organize the 2011 Food Bloggers Indaba! Please go check it out if you have a blog, or intend to start one, or if you just want to go have a ball for a day!

Now back another subject matter.

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax,
Of cabbages and kings
And why the sea is boiling hot
And whether pigs have wings."

From The Walrus and the Carpenter - Lewis Carroll

For me, the time has come for many things...

The time for my student days has almost come to an end, only one presentation stands between me and the end of my degree. So instead of working on the presentation I am blogging, hellooooo procrastination!

I kid, the time is long overdue for posting again for me too. I have so many photos that are just sitting patiently on my harddrive just waiting to be published, bad blogger! The time has definitely come for more blogging.

The time has also come for me to change my blog's theme. It's a bit of a work in progress at the moment, so expect more changes in the future!

And now, the time has come for me to share the macaron recipe that I have been using!

Macarons
Source: Daydreamer Desserts
Makes about two baking trays

90 grams egg whites (aged for 2 days)
200g powdered sugar (icing sugar)
110g finely ground almonds
25g granulated sugar

The first and most important step: Weigh out all your ingredients before starting and line two baking trays with baking sheets! (don't use tinfoil, just trust me on that one) Also prepare a pastry bag with a round nozzle (approximately 1cm in diameter). This is just going to make your life much easier later...
Sift the powdered sugar and ground almonds together and set aside. I don't own a sieve so I just use a fork to mix everything together well, making sure there are no lumps in the mixture.
Place your egg whites in the most pristine clean mixing bowl you can find. (*cough* you can trust me on that one as well...) Beat the egg whites until foamy but not yet resembling anything stiff.
Slowly add the granulated sugar while beating and mix until the texture resembles that of shaving cream. (Be careful not to over beat!)
Add all of the powdered sugar/almond mixture to the egg whites in one go. Use a spatula to fold everything together. A good rule of thumb not to over mix is to not use more than 50 strokes to incorporate everything. The end result has been described as having the consistency of "thick pancake batter", I think foamy/runny mousse also describes it well.
Spoon the batter into the pastry bag and pipe round on to the baking trays prepared earlier. I prefer my macarons smaller, so I pipe my round to be about 2cm in diameter.
Now, mac batter has so stand outside a bit before baking in order for the finished product to have nice little feet. Some recipes recommend letting the batter rest for about an hour, but since that depends heavily on how the weather is, I leave mine until the tops aren't sticky to the touch anymore.
After resting, bake the macarons in a preheated oven at 140 degrees C for about 15 minutes. This part is also a bit tricky. I recommend watching your oven temperature like a hawk (mine varies with about 20 degrees within the heating cycle, so lots of opening and closing of the oven door for me). If the oven is too warm the tops of the macs will crack, too cool and they won't rise sufficiently. I'd recommend just getting a chair and sitting in front of the oven while they bake!
Once they are done, leave them to cool a bit before removing them from the baking sheet. Let them cool then sandwich together with the filling of your choice!

Notes

To age the egg whites, place them in a bowl, cover them then either leave them outside for a day or refrigerate for two days. I'm too lazy to do this so I heat the egg whites in the microwave for 10 seconds on medium then mix. I repeat this until white flecks just start appearing in the egg whites. (Be careful, egg whites cook pretty quickly!)
Instead of trying to get exactly 90 grams of egg whites, I break 2 or 3 eggs and weigh the resulting egg whites. I then just adjust the rest of the ingredients according to the egg whites weight.
An accurate scale (digital) is pretty important for this recipe, get one!

Chocolate Ganache

85 grams chocolate, broken into pieces
60ml cream

Heat the cream until just before boiling point. (I do this in the microwave)
Add the chocolate to the hot cream, leave for about 2 minutes until melted.
Stir the mixture until mixed well, put into the refrigerator until set. (about 1 hour)
When cooled, beat the mixture a bit before using.

Notes

For the blueberry filling I used white chocolate and added some cooked, squashed blueberries to the mix.
I like adding a drop of jam in the centre of the macarons, makes for interesting eating!

Macarons, The First Encounter

2010-12-22T21:47:00.000+02:00

Macarons. They are the temperamental diva's of the baking world. Like Everest to mountaineers! Like the Doldrums to sailors! Like sand through the hourglass! No wait, scrap that last one. Macarons are the mythical unicorn of the blogosphere at the moment, fickle little pastries that require the perfect circumstances in order to come out just right.

My first encounter with the macaron was when the boyfriend and I were at the end of our study exchange and we were spending the last few weeks traveling. We were in Paris during a chilly November where we stayed in a youth hostel in Bastille. The room's heater was faulty and was always on full blast, we went from almost freezing outside to sweating madly the moment we stepped into the room. In the mornings we got chewy rolls and jam for breakfast and some coffee to wash it down with. After breakfast on our way to the train station we had to walk past a bakery which is where I had my first taste of macaron. I can't remember what flavours we had, or how much it cost, but I can remember the texture. The shell was just firm enough to hold the macaron together, giving way to a soft interior when bitten into. The filling blended seamlessly with the soft interior filling my mouth with the most wonderful sensation. After that one taste I was hooked. No mediocre macarons would ever appease my taste buds! From then on I required perfection!

This week I was baking Christmas cookies when I suddenly realised that I would have a few leftover egg whites, and that they would be about 2 days old when my cookie baking was over. "Should I try it?", I wondered. With my impending working career looming on the near horizon I threw caution to the wind and decided, the time is now! With the ingredients bought I placed everything that I needed at arms length, ready to be used the instant it was needed. I carefully weighed out all the ingredients in little bowls (and felt very TV chef-esque). As I started beating the egg whites I had a horrible realisation; the very plastic bowl that the egg whites were in was brim-full of cookie dough yesterday, buttery oily cookie dough. My heart sank even further as my egg whites failed to puff up and just lay in a sorry pool in the bottom of the bowl.

Panic mode kicked in, I remembered reading somewhere that egg whites can be aged by microwaving them for about 10 seconds. A quick google search confirmed this and soon enough I was on my way to beating wonderful fluffy egg whites in a meticulously clean glass bowl. The rest of the macaron making process proceeded smoothly with only a minor flaring of tempers when a certain family member of mine started sticking his fingers into my delicate macaron batter (oh the horror!).

Right at this very moment I made my first mistake. With no silicone baking sheet or parchment paper in sight, I piped my macarons on to an ungreased sheet of tinfoil. I know I know, hindsight man, the recklessness of youth, blah blah blah. I've learned from my mistake! After losing almost all my macs' insides I learned!

After piping the batter I left the mac shells to harden a bit, no problem. I heated the oven to 150degreesC, inserted the first batch after resting for 40 minutes and then I waited. I watched that batch like a hawk. After the 16 minutes baking time was up I dutifully removed them and tried to remove one but got only the shell on my hand, the foot was still stuck to the foil. "No problemo", I said (in my head), "I will simply bake them a bit longer". Well I baked them for another minute, then 2 more minutes, then another 2 more minutes upon which I finally declared, "These macs must be ready!" (they weren't ready).

With the one batch out I inserted the next batch, adjusted my kitchen timer for 5 minutes longer than the recipe stated and then I promptly got distracted. Ladies and gentleman, meet mistake number 2. When I smelt the toasty smell of almonds I knew that I was in trouble. When I got to the oven a batch of toasty brown macs greeted me with horribly split tops and no feet. :(
So I had to learn the hard way that my oven's temperature was not as consistant and even as I previously believed. I also learned that macarons should be watched and that I should stay away from the Internet if I do not want to be distracted.

At this moment the story sounds pretty dire, bleak, with a macaronless future. But fear not, all was not lost! While all the insides stayed behind on the foil of one batch, and the other batch turned out toasted and very unmacaron like, they still tasted good! I filled them with chocolate ganache and sandwiched them together and they still turned out pretty tasty! Not very pretty, not like Parisian macarons, but not bad either.

My future definitely holds more forays into the black magic that is making macarons. I have not abandoned hope! I will learn from my mistakes and try again (but this time after a trip to the store to buy a proper baking sheet and perhaps an oven thermometer...)

Post Script: The background color of the images were changed in photoshop for higher visibility and just for the fun. When my macarons are of a higher quality I'll post prettier pictures!

Babyshower Cake and a long overdue post

2010-12-02T11:48:00.000+02:00

As you might have noticed, it's been pretty quiet here on the blog since September. I have been neglecting my blog for the past few months, but I promise that it was for a good reason! Yesterday I finally handed in my Master's thesis! Yay! Unfortunately that means that I have to start job hunting, but I'll just forget about that for a little while while I'm still enjoying this new freedom from thesising...

These photos are of a baby shower cake that Grethe and I made. We made a two-layer sponge cake that was wrapped in fondant and covered with multiple pink fondant flowers.

We made extra cupcakes with the cake.

And coloured the half of each layer pink for a surprise when the mother to be cut into the cake!

As usual the cat's curiosity got the better of her...

So until next time (which should not be 3 months away again *cough*), adieu!

Nectarine Parcels

2010-09-15T23:22:00.000+02:00

Phew, last post, last minute! Thank you LadyRaven for hosting the Ready Steady Cook! challenge, it definitely was a challenge to finish it all on time (due to my laziness...), but it was a learning experience.

This dessert is quick and dirty, no measuring of ingredients, just add to taste..!

Nectarine Parcels

Nectarines, cut into slivers
Butter
Sugar
Cinnamon
Mixed Spice
Lemon Zest
Phyllo Pastry

Melt the butter and sugar in a pan. Add the nectarines and cook for about 10 minutes.
Add the spices and lemon zest, cook for a few minutes more and remove from heat.
Cut phyllo pastry into 10cm wide strips. Place about 5 strips on top of each other.
Place some nectarines on one of the corner areas. Fold the corner over to the opposite side to form a triangle. Keep on folding triangles until you have reached the end of the strip. Brush the edge with butter to seal the triangle.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius until the pastry is golden brown.

Filled Red Pepper with Hollandaise Sauce

2010-09-14T20:47:00.000+02:00

In my mind the 15th of September was on a Friday (I soon realised that it was actually a Wednesday). This date is significant because it is the deadline for entries for the Ready Steady Cook! challenge. Why did I fly into a panic when I realised that the 15th of September was tomorrow? It is because up until that point I had only finished my starter entry. This blog post will probably hold the record for the fastest turnover time between cooking and blogging, there's nothing like a deadline to get me moving!

I had my reservations about how successful this course would be, but the pronounced silence when my boyfriend started eating soon quelled any fears I had! This is the first time that I have made hollandaise sauce, despite my fears of ending up with pieces of lumpy egg it came out great; smooth, creamy, lemony and oh so tasty!

Check out my first post to see what this Ready Steady Cook is all about: Red Pepper Walnut Dip with Naan Bread

Hollandaise Sauce

3 egg yolks
150ml butter
Juice of 1-1.5 lemons
Salt to taste

Place egg yolks, salt and lemon juice in a blender. Blend for 1 minute.
Heat butter until very hot (the butter is going to cook the eggs).
With the blender running very slowly pour in the butter.
Continue blending for about a minute, then it's done!

Couscous and Broccoli filled Red Pepper with Chickpeas
Serves 2

1 Large Red Pepper
3/4 cup Couscous, uncooked
0.5 Broccoli head
0.5 tin Chickpeas, drained
2 teaspoons Cumin

Cut red pepper in half, place on a baking tray and bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius or until soft.
Meanwhile heat a splash of oil in a pan. Add cumin and fry for a minute. Add the couscous and fry for 5 minutes.
Prepare the couscous according to the instructions on the packet.
Steam broccoli until just cooked.
Assemble and serve with the hollandaise sauce!

Red Pepper Walnut Dip with Naan Bread

2010-09-05T16:24:00.001+02:00

This is my starter course for the Ready Steady Cook! challenge hosted by LadyRaven from Add To Taste. How does this challenge work? Each blogger thinks up a list of 7 ingredients for another participating blogger. You have to create a 3 course meal with your ingredients as well as the allowed pantry ingredients. I got assigned the following ingredients from Ayeesha from Taste of Pearl City:

Couscous
Chickpeas
Red Pepper
Broccoli
Walnuts
Filo pastry
Nectarines

So first thing I thought when I saw the chickpeas was "Yay, hummus!", but then I realised that tahini isn't one of the pantry ingredients, boo. "But wait", I thought, "tahini adds a nutty taste and I've got nuts man, walnuts!". So the hummus was back on, although I'll rather go with calling it a dip as it is rapidly straying from traditional hummus territory.

I decided to serve it with naan bread because I've wanted to try my hand at making it for a while now. Alas, another obstacle was in my way, after making the naan and taking photos I realised that I had used *gasp* a disallowed ingredient! Since baking powder isn't one of the pantry ingredients, I made the recipe again with self raising flour instead of bread flour and I am happy to say that it came out just as well. So with a clean conscience I can now present the recipes for Red Pepper Walnut Dip with Naan Bread!

Red Pepper Walnut Dip

1 can of Chickpeas, drained
1 large Red Pepper
50g Walnuts
2-3 Garlic Cloves
Juice of 1 Lemon
Salt, Pepper and Cumin to taste

Cut the red pepper into segments, roast in the oven until soft and cooked.
Roast walnuts under the oven grill for a few minutes.
Put the walnuts in a blender, blend until fine.
Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth. Extra oil can be added if the mixture is too firm.

Naan Bread
Makes about 10 thin breads

3,5 cups Self Raising Flour
1.5 Tablespoon Sugar
2 Teaspoons Salt
1 cup Milk, warmed
60ml Oil
Melted butter for brushing the dough (keep for later)

Note: If using bread flour, add 1 teaspoon baking powder.

Mix the dry ingredients together.
Add the wet ingredients and knead for 10 minutes.
Cover the dough and leave to rise for 1 hour.
Break off golf ball size pieces and roll out very thin into elongated oval shapes (some refer to this as teardrop shaped).
Brush the dough with melted butter and bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for about 2 minutes or until golden brown.

Gingered Turkish Apricot and Camembert Tart

2010-08-05T07:50:00.000+02:00

Fairview has recently launched a competition for food bloggers to create a recipe with Fairview Camembert; this is my entry!

I got a couple of recipe ideas from browsing the Internet but in the end this tart was wholly my brain child. I first tried to make little individual pies but it didn't look (or taste!) as good as this open tart.

The final product was pretty damn tasty if I say so myself. The sweetness of the baked apricots go well with the creaminess of the cheese, the ginger biscuits add a nice spicy crunch while the honey just brings all the flavours together. The tart would make a nice sweet addition to a cheese platter and I am proud to present it for the Fairview Camembert Competition!

If you would like to vote for my recipe, head over to the competition page over here and select number 6 in the poll on the right hand side of the page.

Gingered Turkish Apricot and Camembert Tart
Makes 4 triangles

1 15cm x 15cm sheet of Puff Pastry
10 Turkish Apricots
0.5 Wheel of Camembert
4 Ginger Cookies
Honey
1 egg for brushing the pastry

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius.
Roll out the puff pastry slightly on a floured surface. Put the pastry dough on a tinfoil lined oven pan.
With a knife draw a 1cm border around the pastry (be careful not to cut through!).
Cut the apricot length-wise, pack them so that they overlap slightly on the pastry within the border.
Place about 1cm thick slices of Camembert on top of the apricots.
Brush the pastry border with beaten egg and bake for 25 minutes.
Break the ginger cookies into small pieces and sprinkle over the tart after it has been in the oven for 25 minutes.
Place the tart back into the oven and grill it for a few minutes. (Keep your eyes on the tart in this step, it burns very quickly!)
Generously drizzle honey over the tart, cut into triangles and serve.

My cheese slices in the photos were a bit thin, I corrected it in the recipe.

Sticky Balsamic Reduction Tomato Relish

2010-07-22T13:28:00.000+02:00

The first time I heard of Verlaque was at the South African Food Bloggers Conference earlier this year where I received one of their products in my goody bag. I've posted about using Verlaque products on my blog before(Rasberry Balsamic Roasted Butternut) and I will probably post again, but today is a special post. Verlaque is having a competition to see who can come up with the tastiest original recipe using one of the products from the "Balsamic Reduction" range.

I came up with this tomato relish just a few days before the challenge was posted (just in time). I was having dinner at my mother's house, we planned on making salad but when we got home from the shop the baby tomatoes we bought were so bland and flavourless that they just wouldn't cut it in a salad. And so my recipe was born...

My mother was very sceptical when she saw how much balsamic vinegar I added to the tomatoes but after she tasted it she was an instant fan! She even got all enthusiastic about buying salad stuff for when I made the relish again with the Verlaque Balsamic Reduction!

Enough about my family, by now you must be wondering what flavour I used? Originally I wanted to use the Fynbos/Wild Flower Honey Balsamic Reduction but unfortunately I couldn't find any in the Woolworths stores near my home. Second choice was the Sundried Turkish Figs Balsamic Reduction which I luckily did find in store (but in all honesty, I think you can use any flavour that tickles your fancy). The fig flavour turned out pretty tasty, especially when I served it with blue cheese and glazed figs on some rocket leaves. The tomato relish would also work nicely on some bread, perhaps with some cheese and...let me rather stop there and let your imagination dream up the ideal accompaniment to this tomato concoction!

Sticky Balsamic Reduction Tomato Relish
Serves 2 as a salad topping

17 Baby Tomatoes (more or less)
50ml Balsamic Vinegar
25ml Verlaque Sundried Turkish Figs Balsamic Reduction
25ml Chutney
Salt and Pepper to taste

Cut the tomatoes in half, place cut side down in a pan.
Mix the rest of the ingredients together and pour over the tomatoes.
Simmer on a medium heat. Don't stir the tomatoes while cooking, just move them around from time to time so that they don't stick to your pan and that they stay intact. Your relish is done when the tomatoes are cooked through and the sauce had become nice and sticky.

Meaty Slow Cooker Bean Soup

2010-07-08T21:21:00.001+02:00

I made this bean soup for a challenge at the Kleine Zalze For The Love Of Wine website. The soup is very economical, the beans and the eisbein cost me about R40 and the soup was enough for 8 hungry students!

Meaty Bean Slow cooker Soup
Serves 8 hungry male students

2 Packets Red Speckled Sugar Beans
1 Smoked Eisbein
2 Mutton Stock Cubes

Put the beans in a pot. Add water to the pot until the beans are covered with at least 5cm of water. Soak overnight.
Drain the beans and put them in a slow cooker with the eisbein.
Add enough water to cover the beans and the eisbein.
Put the slow cooker on auto and let it cook for at least 8 hours.
When the beans are soft add the stock cubes and salt to taste. At this stage I like to mash some beans so that the soup becomes a bit thicker.
Remove the eisbein bone from the soup and serve.

Homemade Chive and Peppadew Cheese: JessiKaas!

2010-07-04T21:46:00.000+02:00

Homemade cheese! And it tastes good! I feel so chuffed with myself! Okay, enough exclamation marks already. Making cheese sounds hard, people look at you in awe upon hearing that the tasty cheese is your own creation but really the process is quite simple; all that you need is a little bit of patience and something heavy. (The patience is for waiting while the milk boils and the curds drain and the heavy object is to compress the curds to get all the whey out.) The cheese has the texture of cream cheese, it is tasty spread on bread and a great conversation topic in a crowd!

For the non-Afrikaans readers, "kaas" is Afrikaans for "cheese", and my name is Jessica so I cleverly combined the two to create JessiKaas! (Creative genius am I right? Right? Yes I'm here all week folks. *ba da dum*)

Homemade Chive and Peppadew Cheese aka JessiKaas
Makes about 1 cup of cheese

1 litre Full Cream Milk
250ml Buttermilk
Chopped Chives to taste
Chopped Peppadews to taste
Salt (plain or flavoured) to taste
Cheesecloth

Heat the milk in a saucepan until it just starts boiling.
Remove from the heat and stir in the buttermilk. White clumps should start forming, this is the curds. The liquid is the whey, it should become clearer as more curds form.
Leave for about 10 minutes for the curds and whey to fully separate.
Line a colander with cheesecloth and pour in the curds and whey. Rinse the curds with water for a few minutes to remove all of the whey.
Knot the cheesecloth with the curds and place under a heavy object for an hour. I placed the cheesecloth under a cutting board and weighed it down with a box containing six full wine bottles for this step.
Remove the curds and place in a mixing bowl. Work the curds (knead) with your hands until the texture changes from rubbery to creamy and smooth. This takes about 5 minutes.
Add flavoring to taste, place the cheese in an airtight container and refrigerate.

Sticky Condensed Milk and Vanilla Seed Icing

2010-06-08T08:47:00.000+02:00

In my opinion condensed milk is just about the best thing that comes out of a can. If you need some to disappear I'm the person you should go to... So when Marisa from The Creative Pot tweeted about condensed milk cupcakes the cogs started rolling and I came up with this icing. Let me tell you, if you don't like sweet things you should stay away from this icing, it's sticky and sweet with the creamy taste of condensed milk and the light taste of vanilla to break the hold that the sugar has on you. The icing sets to a beautiful silky matt covering with the vanilla seeds dotted throughout the surface.

I built my own light box last night so that I could take proper photos. It was actually quite easy to make, I found the instructions here, I used tissue paper for the diffusing material instead of fabric. Just need to get myself a stronger light than my bedlamp!

Condensed Milk and Vanilla Seed Icing
Enough for approximately 10 cupcakes

250g Icing Sugar
70g Butter
100ml Condensed Milk
Seeds of one Vanilla Pod

Mix together the butter and condensed milk.
Beat in the icing sugar.
Add the seeds and mix well.

I heated the icing a little bit before piping it on the cupcakes. It spreads quite a bit so there is no making impressive icing towers with this one.

Wedding Cake Decorating Trials

2010-06-01T23:19:00.000+02:00

My friend and I have a thing, a cake baking and decorating thing. We studied engineering together and we both love baking. Every once in a while (usually around birthdays) we give in to our urges and bake themed cakes. We started with decorating cakes with buttercream icing with props and sweets and things on top then moved on to experimenting with fondant cake covering and fondant decorations.

Recently one of our friends that got engaged asked us to make their wedding cake! First thoughts were "Yay, they asked us, wow!", second thoughts were "Oh crap, can we realy make a cake worthy of being called a wedding cake?". A trail run for wedding cake designs was in order. The color scheme for the wedding is white, blue and silver, we tried out a few things but the cake and cupcakes pictured won in the end. We also tried our hand at wrapping a cake with chocolate. The cake came out pretty well, just have to spread the chocolate a bit thinner next time! (the canned fruit was a last minute substitute as we realized we didn't have any fresh fruits...)

So without further ado, gaze upon the cake decorating efforts of Grethe and Jessica!

The photos were taken while everyone was standing around looking at me and waiting for the cakes to be cut, not ideal conditions but oh well!

Home-made Hummus

2010-05-13T03:49:00.000+02:00

At the South African Food Blogging Conference in March Jeanne Horak-Druiff from Cooksister spoke about finding your blogging voice. The point that really stood out for me was that there are two types of food bloggers; a writer that likes to cook or a cook that likes to write. The more I blog the more apparent it is that I am definitely the latter (pfft, not like I didn't know that already..!).

I started blogging in the first place because I wanted all my recipes in one place, blogging made more sense in terms of data security (my laptop can fail or get stolen; blogger.com has backup servers to prevent content loss). Also, if the recipes are on the internet they are easily accessible from almost anywhere.

The second reason why I started blogging is completely unrelated to food or cooking; I am currently busy with a Masters degree which means that thesis writing looms on the immediate horizon. The main focus of Engineering really isn't on stimulating creative writing skills; I've found that a 4 year degree is really effective in undoing a lot of writing experience gained at school. In writing just like any other skill, practice makes perfect. Writing does not come easy to me so the blog is my way of practicing making the words flow easier.

Phew, enough of super long personal exposé! This is what happens when I wake up inexplicably at 1am...

My inspiration for making hummus came from the Beetroot Hummus post by Nina from My-Easy-Cooking. I never realised that it is so easy to make this super tasty spread/dip! Luckily my mom had a pot of tahini paste lying around (that stuff is expensive!); the tahini really plays a large role in the taste of your final product. For those who have never heard of tahini paste (I only found out about it recently), a quick Google search defines it as "a paste of ground sesame seeds and a flavour similar to peanut butter.".

Cooking to me is a very 'free-range' compared to baking; baking requires precision but with cooking I usually stick my fingers in stuff and taste and adjust the food until I am happy with the taste! For the hummus I suggest using my recipe as a guideline, at the end of the day you have to eat it so modify it until you like it.

In the photos I served the hummus on some fresh ciabata with roasted tomatoes marinated in oil that I bought at the Cheese Festival. Very tasty!

Hummus
Makes about 500ml of hummus

1 can of chickpeas, washed and drained
2 tablespoons Tahini paste
Juice of 1 lemon
1 clove of garlic
Plain yoghurt
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional: Cumin seeds

Put the chickpeas, tahini, garlic and half of the lemon juice in a blender and blend until smooth.
Add yoghurt to thin out the mixture (other recipes call for oil here).
Add spices and lemon juice to taste.
No more, it's that easy!

Easy Broccoli Soup

2010-05-06T16:56:00.000+02:00

Winter has arrived in Stellenbosch! The cold weather made me long for soup the whole day, the only question was whether I would make broccoli or butternut soup. Clearly broccoli won, but butternut soup can be made exactly the same way by just substituting the butternut for the broccoli.

Easy Broccoli Soup
Serves a lot, at least 4 ravenous people

2 Broccoli heads, broken into small florets
1 large Onion, chopped
2 Chicken Stock cubes
Milk for thinning

In a large pot fry the onions until soft.
Put the broccoli and stock cubes in the pot, add enough water to cover about half of the broccoli and bring to a simmer.
When the broccoli is soft, put everything in a blender until the mixture is smooth.
Return the mixture to the pot, add milk until the desired consistency is reached.
Cook for a few minutes, add salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!

Rainbow Sponge Cake

2010-04-20T17:52:00.000+02:00

One of my friends recently returned home after living in Germany for 7 months, this event called for special cake! This cake was inspired by photos doing the rounds on the Internet of a rainbow cake that is made with all the colours of the rainbow layered in one batch. The idea is to make the outside of the cake very plain, then when you cut into the cake you are surprised with an explosion of colour!

The very vivid colours are achieved by using gel food colouring that can be found at speciality baking stores. I used a recipe for sponge cake that I found here.

Rainbow Sponge Cake
Recipe for one large square layer or two smaller round layers

3 eggs, separated
15ml Lemon juice
140g White sugar
25ml Warm water
140g Cake flour
5ml Baking powder
Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Beat egg whites until stiff. Beat in the lemon juice and half of the sugar.
Beat the egg yolks and water together. Slowly add the rest of the sugar while beating.
Fold the egg yolks into the egg whites.
Sift together dry ingredients and fold into the egg mixture.
Pour into two greased 23cm diameter cake tins or one 30cm x 30cm square pan.
Bake for 30 minutes.

To make the rainbow layers, divide the egg yolk, egg white and flour mixtures. Colour the two separate egg yolk mixes and then proceeded with the rest of the instructions for each colour. When the batters are finished, spread the one colour in the pan first then carefully spread the second colour on top.

Creamy Simonzola & Mushroom Chicken on Butternut Mash

2010-04-08T22:29:00.000+02:00

Recently I was lucky enough to attend the Simonsberg Day Out at Diemersdal wine estate. We started off by tasting the range of cheese that Simonsberg has to offer then we moved on to the kitchen where chef Nic van Wyk prepared some impressive dishes that incorporated Simonsberg cheese. As a parting gift we received a few cheeses to take home as well as a beautiful apron (which have both been put to good use!).

I must admit that I am not a lover of blue cheese, or rather I wasn't until I tasted Simonzola. This creamy cheese might just be my gateway blue cheese! In this dish I melted the cheese into a white sauce with some mushrooms, the flavours complemented each other very well even if I do say so myself. So without further ado, here is the recipe for my cheesy creation!

Creamy Simonzola & Mushroom Chicken on Butternut Mash
Serves 2 hungry people

30ml Flour
30ml Butter
250ml Milk, warm
30g Simonzola cheese (quarter of the triangle)
125g Button Mushrooms, chopped (half a punnet)
4 Chicken breasts, cooked
1 Purple Onion, cooked
Equal amounts of potato and butternut, cooked
Butter, milk and salt to taste

For the sauce:

Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Add the flour to the melted butter, mix until well incorporated.
Heat the mixture, whisk in the milk slowly and let the sauce thicken.
Add mushrooms and cheese and let the sauce simmer.

For the mash:

Mash together equal amounts of butternut and potato with some butter.
Add milk until a smooth consistency is reached.
Add salt to taste.

Serve the chicken topped with cheese sauce and purple onions on the butternut mash. Enjoy!

Giant Sticky Hot Cross Buns

2010-04-02T22:04:00.000+02:00

It seems like hot cross buns are everywhere; in stores, in tweets, in blogs! In sticking with my current yeast facination I have chosen to make yeasted hot cross buns. I found this lovely recipe on iky200306's blog. Go check out her recipe, her hot cross buns look perfect!

The recipe said the dough should be shaped into 12 balls. Not being one to disregard direct instructions I made 12 balls. What did I get? 12 GIANT HOT CROSS BUNS! The buns turned out so giant that next time I will shape the dough into 24 balls. Those crosses of mine could also do with a bit more practice!

The end product went down well with all my beta testers ("Ten out of ten for the hot cross bunnies produced in tiny oven. :-D"). The only problem I had with these buns were photographing them! Anyone have ideas on how to dress up a hot cross bun? Next time I will experiment with a bit more mixed spice in the dough.

Hot Cross Buns
Makes 12-24

1kg Bread flour
10ml Salt
10g Instant yeast
80ml Sugar
5ml Ground cinnamon
15ml Mixed spice
60g Butter, melted
200ml Warm milk
375ml Warm water
1 Egg
250ml Raisin & sultana mix

Crosses

60ml Cake flour
15ml Oil
Enough water to make a paste

Glaze

100ml Apricot jam
200ml Water
5ml Ground cinnamon
10ml Sugar

Mix all the dry ingredients except the raisins together.
Beat milk, butter and egg together, add to the dry ingredients.
Add water gradually until the dough is soft, not sticky. (water quantity is what I used, you may need more or less depending on your location and weather)
Knead dough for 3 minutes. Add raisins and knead further for 3 minutes.
Place dough in an oiled plastic bag, leave in a warm area to rise until doubled in size (about 40minutes).
Remove dough and knock it down. Shape the dough into balls and place into a well greased dish. (12 balls were too large for me, 16-20 is probably better). Cover and leave to rise for 20 minutes.
Mix ingredients for the crosses. Pipe on to the dough just before baking.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celcius for 30 minutes or until the buns are golden brown.
Boil ingredients for the glaze together until it reaches the consistency of syrup.
While the buns are cooling, brush the tops with the glaze. Glaze the tops another 2 times before digging in!

Rasberry Balsamic Roasted Butternut, Spicy Chicken and Couscous Salad

2010-03-28T11:10:00.000+02:00

Phew, what a mouthful! At the recent South African Food Bloggers Conference I received a bottle of Rasberry Balsamic Vinegar Reduction with Lemon Infused Olive Oil from Verlaque in my goody bag that I was itching to try out.

The salad is pretty much a combination of anything I could find in my fridge at the time. The result was very tasty, the olive oil flavour was subtle but definitely there although in my eyes you can't go wrong with butternut! For a salad you don't really need to be as precise with your ingredient quantities as with baking so the values I list are really only a rough estimate of what I used.

Rasberry Balsamic Roasted Butternut, Spicy Chicken and Couscous Salad
Serves 2

2 cups of Butternut cubed
1 cup of Baby Tomatoes
1 Purple Onion
Handful of well aged cubed Gouda
2 cups of mixed leaves(Watercress, Rocket, Red Chard and Mizuna mix)
0.5 cup of raw couscous prepared according to instructions on packet
4 Cooked Chicken breasts
Verlaque Splash Rasberry Balsamic Vinegar Reduction with Lemon Infused Olive Oil

Toss the butternut and tomatoes in some of the olive oil. Place them in an ovenproof dish and roast at 200 degrees celcius for about 30 minutes.
Cut the onion into rings and fry slowly until soft and sweet.
Toss the leaves in olive oil just before the butternut is done.
Assemble your salad however you like!

Apple Cake

2010-03-13T14:35:00.001+02:00

I am a firm believer that a recipe never needs a much oil/butter as the instructions claim. The original recipe called for 150ml of oil, I reduced it to 100ml and the cake still came out lovely! Win for me! My cake baked for almost an hour before it was ready.

Apple Cake

Topping:

2-3 Apples
3-4 Tablespoons Honey(I used syrup)
1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
3 Tablespoons Sugar

Cake:

4 eggs
200g Sugar
100ml Oil
250g Cake Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt

Chop apples finely, mix with honey, cinnamon and sugar and leave for 30 minutes
Beat sugar and eggs until fluffy.
Add oil, sift in dry ingredients and mix well.
Drain the apples, reduce the liquid to a syrup in a pan.
Pour batter into greased 25x30cm pan. Sprinkle the apples on top of the batter. Lastly drizzle the syrup over the apples.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees celcius for 30 minutes.

The kitchen unfortunately is not a very pretty place for taking pictures, outside is much nicer!

Buttermilk Cluster

2010-03-07T18:10:00.000+02:00

Recently I have become interested in using yeast in recipes. Yeast, the baking ingredient shrouded in mystery, feared by many, used by few. My interest in yeast started when I was in Belgium and found a block of fresh yeast (something I have been told existed in my grandmothers time but sadly I have never seen on local store shelves). In Belgium I tried my hand at cinnamon rolls. They exceeded my expectations and thus my fear of yeast started to subside.

Fast forward back to sunny South Africa where I found a bread recipe that looked idiot proof enough. I had a bit of trouble combining the flour with the wet ingredients, but that was just because my mixing bowl is a bit undersized. The yeast performed well, the dough rose even better than I expected (although the day was exceptionally hot).

The only criticism I have is that the bread was a little bland to my taste. Next time I'll add a bit more salt to the recipe and perhaps more honey. As you can see I didn't have a round dish, the oval one worked just fine though! The egg wash on my bread look a bit spotty because I don't have a proper egg brush either (the life of a student..!).

Buttermilk Clusters

750g Bread flour
0.5 Tablespoon salt
2.5 Teaspoons dry yeast
1 Tablespoon warm water
2 Cups buttermilk
1 Tablespoon honey

Extra: 1 egg for glaze, oats or bran for topping

Combine water and yeast, leave for 10 minutes (bubbles will form).
Combine flour and salt.
Pour yeast mixture, buttermilk and honey into the flour mixture.
Knead dough for 10 minutes.
Cover dough and let it rise until it is double in size, or 90 minutes.
Divide dough in 12-18 pieces, shape then into balls and place into a round 30cm dish close together.
Cover dough and let it rise for 45 minutes.
Brush dough with egg wash and sprinkle with topping
Bake for 30min at 200 degrees celcius. When the bread is done it will sound hollow when knocked on.

The Tiny Oven

2010-03-07T17:54:00.001+02:00

This is the tiny oven that I have to my disposal. It may not be much but it's mine! As I'm living in a student house, this spacious 25l oven is pretty much the best I can do at the moment.