A rather unromantic evening

Hannah decided to spend last weekend with her Granny which gave Kurn and I some time alone. On these rare occasions we usually go out for supper but Friday night we chose to rather veg in front of the TV & watch movies - something Kurn does often but I don't as I'm usually the one doing the mommy/nanny routine.

Our staple diet on Friday's is pizza and as Hannah was out we opted to have something a little more adult so I thought I'd try out a recipe from my latest cookbook Zhoozsh, by Jeremy & Jacqui Mansfield. I doubled up the recipe as, although Jeremy says all his recipes are based on recipes for four, I didn't think it would sate Kurn's appetite. Pity I didn't treble it as Kurn was so disappointed when the soup was all gone after 2 servings! He did call it a winner though.

Ginger Chicken Coco Soup

This is the doubled up version which should serve four as a starter or 2 as a light meal (or in Kurn's case, a snack).

• Bring 2 tins of coconut milk to the boil, add 2 T crushed ginger, 2 T finely chopped lemon grass, 2 t brown sugar, 1 red chilli sliced open. Boil for 5 minutes. Strain and discard what stays behind (I pressed some of the chilli flesh through for extra kick).


• In the same pot, simmer and stir regularly 200g chopped mushrooms (Jeremy suggested oyster or straw but I only had button on hand and it worked well), 400g sliced chicken breast and 4 T each of fish sauce and lemon juice until the chicken changes colour.


• Add the strained sauce and simmer for about 10 minutes.


• Chop the green part of 3 spring onions and divide between soup bowls.


• Ladle in soup and sprinkle chopped coriander on top. (Jeremy suggested mint but I have a penchant for coriander with Asian styled foods).

We ended up eating our soup and watched 2 movies after which we were hungry again so it was back to the kitchen to whip up toasted cheese, onion and sweet chilli sauce sarnies, It was off to bed for me after that and Kurn stayed up all night and watched a further 7 movies - he came to bed at 6.30am as I was getting up to clean the kitchen. So much for a romantic evening! It was relaxing nonetheless.

Real Women

I received this via email from a friend - it's really funny. I love Nigella's cooking but some of her tips are a bit "prissy".

The Real Woman's Way is practical and the best ...

1. Nigella's Way: Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of a sugar cone to prevent ice-cream drips.
The Real Woman's Way: Just suck the ice cream out of the bottom of the cone, for goodness sake. You are probably lying on the couch with your feet up eating it anyway.

2. Nigella's Way: To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with the potatoes.
The Real Woman's Way: Buy Smash and keep it in the cupboard for up to a year.

3. Nigella's Way: When a cake recipe calls for flouring the baking tin, use a bit of the dry cake mix instead and there won't be any white mess on the outside of the cake.
The Real Woman's Way: Spar sells cakes. They even do decorated versions.

4. Nigella's Way: If you accidentally over-salt a dish while it's still cooking, drop in a potato slice.The Real Woman's Way: If you over salt a dish while you are cooking, that's tough! Please recite with me the Real Woman's motto: "I made it and you will eat it and I don't care how it tastes."

5. Nigella's Way: Wrap celery in aluminium foil when putting in the refrigerator and it will keep for weeks.
The Real Woman's Way: It could keep forever. Who eats it?

6. Nigella's Way: Cure for headaches: Take a lime, cut it in half and rub it on your forehead.The throbbing will go away.
The Real Woman's Way: Cure for headaches: Take a lime, cut it in half and drop it into 8 ounces of vodka : Drink the vodka. You might still have the headache, but you won't care!

7. Nigella's Way: If you have a problem opening jars, try using latex dishwashing gloves. They give a non-slip grip that makes opening jars easy.
The Real Woman's Way: Why do I have a man?

8. Nigella's Way: Freeze leftover wine into ice cubes for future use in casseroles.
The Real Woman's Way: Left over wine???? Helllloooo!

Restaurant Rants

SPUR

Hola!

I have never been a huge fan of the spur but children tend to love it so we oblige by taking Hannah there occasionally. Needless to say, she plays more than eats and it gives Kurn and I some alone time to enjoy a few glasses of wine, a chat and a meal together. Unfortunately, it's gotten to the stage where I "whine" more about the food than enjoy the wine and dine!

I am not fond of the steak at the Spur - I think the quality is poor and I'm loathe to order seafood in a steakhouse. I do like Mexican food though and generally order the Enchilada but I have a huge issue with what they call sour cream which is served at most Spurs. I have eaten at 3 Spurs where actual sour cream is served and it's great - unfortunately, these Spurs aren't close to where we stay so to go there each time ends up being quite the drive. The rest of the Spurs serve a concoction of fresh cream that they "sour" themselves by adding lemon juice and lemon rind. It is absolutely hideous and I'm told that they use the same concoction on their baked potatoes - YUK! Funnily enough, Kurn often orders baked potatoes with sour cream but has never been subjected to the "soured" variety - it's always been the real deal.

Another gripe I have is that their menu specifically states that the Mexican dishes are served with rice. We were at the Cahokia Spur at Cape Gate Centre one evening and my Enchilada arrived with chips on the side. I told the waitress that the menu says it's served with rice and she apologised, removed the plate and returned it with rice. The manager came over to apologies and said that the waitress should have asked whether I'd prefer chips or rice!!!! So why does the menu not state that???

I took these matters up with the Spur Customer Service and this is the reply I received:

Dear Bernice
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention and thank you for remaining a loyal Spur customer. We comment as follows:

• Sour Cream: We allow our restaurants to purchase a pre-made sour cream or alternatively they may manufacture their own. Our in house receipts is: 500ml cream , fleshly squeezed lemon juice, salt and pepper, chopped fresh parsley. We use this product for our Mexican dishes, as well as for baked potatoes.
• With regards to chips being served with Mexican dishes , we offer chips, rice or baked potato with our Enchilada's. Our waitrons should always give you the option.

We trust that this will clarify your concerns and once again thank you for taking the time to contact ourselves.

Kind Regards

JUSTIN FORTUNE [REGIONAL OPERATIONS MANAGER] SPUR GROUP (PTY) LTD

I'm sorry but WTF??!! The underlying message here was "thanks for wasting our time and yours now piss off!!" What about their overall standard - why do some Spurs do sour cream and others soured cream. And how about changing the wording on the menus to actually include chips and baked potatoes??

So, here is a list of the Spur's I've eaten at that offer proper sour cream with their Mexican menu:

• Utah Spur - Milnerton
• Mexico Spur - Canal Walk
• Chinook Spur - Plattekloof

And a list of those who don't:

• Cahokia Spur - Cape Gate Centre
• Malibu Spur - Bayside Centre
• Soaring Eagle Spur - Cape Town International
• Silver Dollar Spur - Grand West Casino
• Red Mountain Spur - Paarl Mall

I would love to boycott Spur altogether but our little family takes turns in choosing a restaurant when we decide to go out for supper. And when it's a certain almost 5 year olds turn to choose, needless to say it always ends up being the Spur. So, what does one do - life is all about compromise, I grin and bear it and we usually end up at the Red Mountain Spur as they have the best play area but I stick to wine, Buffalo Wings or Burgers.

Hasta la Vista!

Jo's Birthday Meal Recipes

It was Jo's birthday on 10 March and we invited her to dinner. I didn't tell her that I'd invited Peter, Steph and her friend Janine around too. It was a week night so, as I work, I needed to do something that would be quick and easy with minimal fuss. After searching for what seemed like forever, I came up with the following which I thought worked well - everyone said they enjoyed the meal - let's hope they weren't just being polite ;-)

Sangria

This is such an easy recipe thanks to Ina Paarman. She suggests that this be served without soda water or lemonade but we discovered that it really needed lemonade. 2 sips of this neat & boy, you're about ready to hit the sack! I doubled up the recipe and blended it together in a fish bowl (my punch bowl broke on Xmas eve so the fish bowl is a great alternative - minus the fish of course!).

2 Large juicy oranges, washed, 1 sliced, 1 juiced

1 Large Lemon, washed and juiced

1/4 cup Sugar

60ml Triple Sec

1 Bottle fruity red wine (I used Woolies Juicy Red)

Place orange & lemon slices in a bowl or jug. Add sugar and mash gently (I used a wooden citrus juicer) until sugar is dissolved and juices are released but fruit is not crushed. Stir in juice of orange, Triple Sec and wine. Refrigerate for at least 2 or up to 8 hours.

Before serving, add ice & top up with lemonade to taste. Yummy - just ask Steph!

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Penne all Vodka

Again, quick and easy - you can make the sauce ahead of time and cook the pasta and finish off the dish after your guests have arrived. I got the vodka pasta idea from Nigella & tweaked it along the way.

1 Large onion

Crushed Garlic to taste

Salt

2 x 410g cans chopped Italian Tomatoes

Fresh Basil (if desired)

4 Table spoons cream

1 Packet Penne

175ml Vodka

4 Table spoons Butter

Parmesan for grating over at the table

Chop onion and fry gently in olive oil with a good sprinkling of salt. Add garlic and continue cooking till the onion starts to caramelize. Add the tinned tomatoes and simmer gently for about 20 min. Add some chopped basil if desired. Stop here if making ahead of time.

Cook pasta according to directions until al dente. Drain and return to saucepan. Pour over vodka, add butter and salt to taste. Reheat tomatoes, stir in the cream and combine the pasta and sauce. Toss together until the pasta is covered with sauce and turn out into a bowl. Serve immediately with Parmesan cheese and warm crusty bread and salad of your choice. I chose the following:

Baby Spinach, Avo & Pumpkin Seed Salad

Toast pumpkin seeds in a pan until they begin to brown and pop. Set aside and allow to cool.

Place baby spinach leaves in a bowl. Arrange spoonfuls of avo on top. Squeeze over lemon juice. Add pumpkin seeds, salt and ground black pepper.

Add a touch of spice - omit the black pepper but add a half a teaspoon of chilli powder to the pumpkin seeds when toasting (Mexican Toasted Peppitas).

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Orange Ginger Cheesecake

I applaud people who have loads of time to prepare cheesecake from scratch. My time was limited so I chose to cheat a little by using an Ina Paarman Lemon Cheesecake ready to mix box version which I changed in order to achieve the orange ginger combination. This was made the night before so I didn't need to fuss on the night. For those of you overseas who can't purchase Ina Paarman products, use whatever "box" cheesecake you trust or alter one of your own recipes to include orange and ginger - the combination is great.

Blend cheesecake mix according to instructions but substitute lemon rind and juice with orange rind and juice, Use ginger biscuits instead of Tennis biscuits to obtain a ginger base. Refrigerate overnight. Garnish as desired. I found wonderful preserved ginger pieces covered in dark chocolate at Woolies. I placed individual pieces around the cheesecake so that when cut, each slice will include a chocolate. I also cooked some orange zest in sugar water as part of the garnish.

Welcome

I've been wanting to start a blog for a while now but the usual excuses kept me from persuing this. So, eventually, here it is - let's hope I can keep it up.



I thought that this would be a more intimate way of staying in touch with family and friends who are scattered across the globe for their own personal reasons. Facebook is by no means private - neither is this I'm sure but I'm going to try keep it as intimate as possible - I will only be sharing this site with really close loved one's and I hope you will follow suite by signing up and sharing thoughts and ideas.



I love cooking and enjoy looking for recipes and then tweaking them to make them my "own". I'll be sharing some recipes I've concocted and hope that you will try them too.