Bad behaviour and a Moroccan affair (pea puree with a twist)

There's nothing quite like waking up in the morning and everything is peaceful and calm in the comfort of your bed and then BAM, it hits you. Whatever you thought was a good idea at the time the previous evening comes flooding back to you and all you want to do is rewind to the part when you just opened your eyes to a Friday morning and everything was ok. Mistake number 1) do not accept tequilas offered to you before a meal and mistake number 2) eat the bread that the waitress put on the table. Lastly, 3) realise that 3 sardines and a bit of salad is not going to absorb that tequila you had so you may as well kiss your good judgement and sobriety goodbye.

It was a hard week this week, much pressure from work and previously mentioned 'wall' so I did not hold back when it came to drinks offered on Thursday night and my deadline-packed Friday did not allow me the luxury of indulging my hangover and every time I thought about popping to the pharmacy across the road for some industrial strength painkillers, something came up. I pushed through.

Friday night came and went with the girls and I taking a couple of creatives out for dinner who were up from Cape Town to shoot an ad and they went out after for a night of debauchery. I bailed, climbed on top of my bed in my stilettos and fully glammed regalia and I woke up this morning fully clothed and in the same position. I need a holiday. I have buggered up arrangements, forgot about dinner invitations and cancelled dinner invitations this weekend to just catch my breath. So here I sit on a Saturday night in the same spot I am in day in and day out with a full day of work to look forward to tomorrow.

I'm having a full-blown dinner party on the 20th and have gone through the recesses of my brain as to what I am going to cook. I can't tell you how excited I am. I can spend the entire day cooking without worrying about work and really make it a meal to remember. The theme for the evening will be Moroccan and I will be making a lamb tagine, pea puree with a Moroccan twist, apricot and pomegranate raita (not really Moroccan) and a warm bulgar wheat salad. I am going to give you the recipes in stages and have no doubt I will give details about the evening afterwards which will most probably be my last insert for the year. I am really looking forward to it, the guest list is abundant in humour and talent and great conversation.

Below is a recipe for pea puree which is traditionally served with lamb and usually contains mint but as this is taking on a Moroccan flavour, I am going to amend the traditional combination for a more exotic taste. Should you want to go the classic route, substitute all the herbs and spices other than the garlic for plain old mint. Just an FYI - I have not included turmeric in the recipe as I don't want the yellow of the spice to take away from the bright green of the peas.

Moroccan Pea Puree (Serves 6)

500 gram packet of frozen peas
2 gloves of garlic
1/3 teaspoon ground ginger
1/3 teaspoon ground coriander
1 handfull of chopped coriander
2 chicken stock cubes
Salt and pepper to taste
Paprika for garnishing

Method

Bring a pot of water to the boil and add the stock cubes and garlic and peas. Boil for about 4 minutes

Drain the peas and garlic but keep a cup of the stock for blending

Add the ground ginger, ground coriander and fresh coriander to the peas and throw into a blender with some of the leftover stock for easy blending. You do not want soup but rather a puree so watch how much stock you add

Remove from the blender and add salt and pepper to taste

Decant into a serving dish

Garnish with a smattering of paprika and some chopped coriander

Sorry, is that my ring I just dropped in your cream? Sage butter sauce for ravioli

Oops. I have managed to squander today away and I REALLY should be working seeing I will be cramming 30 days into 15 during December with shop shutting on the 15th. I have well and truly hit a wall. However, as a fellow PR colleague put it 'you can't be expected to be a machine 365 days a year'. And as I have discovered over 14 years of being in PR, I am just a glorified sales woman and I am over it at the moment.

If I were to be completely honest with you, I have not been cooking all that much of late and have been eating out way too often. This being said, I work on my own ALL day unless I have to pop into a publishing stable, a radio or telly interview and seeing people in the evening and getting out of the house is essential for my sanity and general well-being of my clients and their respective portfolios.

As it has been a couple of weeks since I cooked, I am going to take you back to a rather fun dinner party I went to a few Sundays ago. I will gloss over the fact that I dropped R1000 on a beautiful ring called '3rd time lucky' (I had to have it) on this particular evening as I chatted to the jewelry designer who lived in the cottage and get to the point of the story which is of course, food.

As I arrived, my host called me to the kitchen and said he needed my help. He showed me the fresh butternut and sage ravioli he bought and asked if he should add marinated artichokes, asparagus and pesto to the sauce. Ummmm NO!!!! When it comes to delicate flavours like sage with pasta, my motto is simple: KISS (keep it simple, stupid). He was so proud of his freshly bought pesto, bless him, all decanted and looking hand-made in a clay ramekin that I had to dig deep to tell him it wasn't really the right combination. The only sauce for this pasta that is appropriate and fitting is sage and butter, for which you will find the recipe for below.

And then came dessert. I caught Greg whipping cream for strawberries with 2 forks as I walked into the kitchen and thought it rather curious. In my slightly merry state, I told him his technique was all wrong and I would take over. Mistake. As I motioned to remove my ring to whip, I dropped it right into the middle of the bowl of cream. His face was a picture and I was a laughing hysterical mess on the kitchen floor, needless to say that the cream did not get the intended whipping it needed. I suppose you had to be there to fully appreciate the moment but I have not laughed that hard in a very long time.

So Greg, a little later than it should be, this is the sage butter sauce you should grace all over your butternut ravioli.

Sage and Butter Sauce (perfect marriage for butternut ravioli - serves 4)

3 tablespoons of salted butter
2 good handfuls of roughly chopped sage
1/3 teaspoon nutmeg
Salt to taste

Method

Melt the butter on a medium heat till it sizzles

Add the nutmeg and chopped sage and saute until the sage is slightly brown

Pour over the ravioli and add salt to taste

Serve immediately before butter cools

Finish off with parmesan cheese

Voila - couldn't be more simple

Too hot to handle - Aubergine dip

Where to begin with this one . . . another weekend down and I feel as if I haven't had one. It's the end of the year and my inclination for working weekends and evenings is dissipating somewhat. I also feel just a little resentful that people are starting to knock off work earlier and are having fun. Without me.

Although there was much work in terms of events and releases to be done this weekend, it was not all a wash out (if you don't count my flatmate's / close friend's birthday party being rained out on Sunday). Them's the breaks with Joburg summers, much like the UK, you can plan a pretty picnic but you can't predict the weather - thank you OutKast.

So Friday night began with a rather large birthday dinner at Il Giardino at 44 Stanley. It was pretty epic, I don't think that there were less than 20 people there. Overwhelmed by the numbers, we landed in safe groups around the table as we were given military orders to eat up fast as we were going to go for a drink at one of the girl's houses before going out (unbeknown to the birthday girl there was a stripper arriving at 11). Although I contributed to the antics I had an event on Saturday morning and was unable to attend. C'est la vie, I guess. To be honest, I think I would be terrified!

Following my event on Saturday I attended the Joburg Food Wine Design fair at Hyde Park. It was the first of its kind in Jozy and very much like Cape Town's Biscuit Mill. I must concede that there is a greater variety in Cape Town in terms of fashion and decor design so it was great to see all the offerings on show in my home town. The food left me quite surprised as most of the produce was from Cape Town. We have some real gems in Joburg in terms of artisan cheese-makers, a lot of whom have farms in Muldersdrift and sausage makers and so on. I really wanted to see them there as I am desperate to get stuck into some real local produce but I can ill afford the time to take a drive out anywhere at this point. But to be fair, there was some great South African faire on offer such as oysters, game pates, charcuterie and divine wines. I am sure we will see more Joburg producers there next time. I must just give a shout out to Kath who was the project manager for the show, you did a STERLING job, really. What an achievement, the show was slick and sexy and well managed and you looked serene and gorgeous as if you had just organised a dinner for two. I'm bowled over, really.

The rest of the weekend was spent with some pretty awesome people, some familiar folk and some new folk. However I am totally peopled out now and am trying to use this respite to be productive as 2010 draws to a close.

It's hot and I can't really be bothered with big meals, especially as I am working a lot so I am opting for picky bits and I had an overwhelming craving today for crudités and aubergine dip. It's actually really easy to make, yet I find people are terrified of eggplant. Don't be.

Aubergine Dip (serves 4-ish)

4 aubergines
1 large onion (very finely chopped)
3 garlic cloves (very finely chopped)
2 heaped tablespoons of plain greek yoghurt
1 handful of chopped coriander
1 chopped deseeded chili
2 handfuls of toasted pine nuts (toast on a hot oil-free pan - but watch them, they burn VERY fast)
juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
olive oil
salt and pepper

Method

Place your aubergines whole on a baking tray and bake in an oven of 180 degrees until the skin is soft and wrinkly. Remove and cool

Fry off your onion and garlic until soft and brown in a little olive oil

Once the aubergines have cooled, cut them in half and remove all the fleshy bits and place in a sieve or a colander and drain. It's the excess water that can make an eggplant dish taste a little bitter

Add the aubergine to the onion and garlic on the stove and mix in well

Salt well to taste

Add pepper

Add the yoghurt, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, chili and pine nuts and mix in well

Remove from the heat and mix in the coriander

Place all ingredients in a food processor and give it a QUICK blitz (you still want some texture in there)

Serve in a dip bowl and garnish with coriander and toasted pine nuts

A great dip for crisps and vegetables . . . over and out. Weekend where are you?

Having it raw and naked - Celeriac coleslaw

As work has pretty much taken over my life and silly season approaches with it's unrelenting alcohol consumption, I thought it best I get a blog in. I realise my recipes have been slim on the net of late.

I drank myself into a stupour on Friday last week thus Saturday's blog didn't metarialise. Whilst everybody seems to be winding down with work, I am picking up momentum at a rate of knots and all I want to do is rearrange my bathroom cupboard and spend my days swooning over antiques and bits for the flat. As this takes time of which I have none, I thought it a spectacularly brilliant idea to get absolutely obliterated instead.

It was a funny kind of night, the kind where you don't think you're getting drunk and so you smash a few more tequilas down your throat and have a fine old boogie. Meanwhile back at the ranch, you come off the dance floor with wet hair and melting make-up and you hit a wall. A mighty hard brick wall. Take a cab home with some people and realise that your wallet is somewhere in the club or with someone in the club. Luckily, 4 tequilas have taken the edge off EVERYTHING, so you don't really worry and are certain that the wallet fairies will put it on your bedside table whilst you sleep the pain away.

My wallet fairy came in the form of a friend of mine. I woke up the next morning only to receive a text message from him saying he had picked it up off the floor in the bar - awesome. He lives in Joburg CBD - not so awesome but we will deal with that later and the GARMIN fairy will attend to that.

Not feeling so fresh, off we went to join some folk for breakfast at the new Parkhurst outdoor food spot. I threw on a strapless all-in-one number and a pair of Havana flip-flops and I think considering my antics the night before I didn't look half bad. We arrive at the market and God help me, my best friend is wearing the identical outfit and the identical sandals - synchronicity indeed. This is probably what prompted me having to lie down (euphemism maybe?) on the bathroom floor in the shop next door, not the copious amounts of alcohol the night before, of course.

The Super outdoor food market in Parkhurst really is quite lovely. Nestled between Georges on 4th and a clothes store (I think) I was still drunk at the time, it is a refreshing, village-like, food market with a very London feel. The astroturf, bright colours and wooden trestle tables make it the perfect breakfast outing on a Saturday. Kate - I had no idea you were part of this venture, it is spectacular!

Offerings include a juice stand which served watermelon and rose juices and orange to name a few (2 of these saved my life) and wonderful breakfast sandwich variants which were served on fresh crusty bread. However protein and carbohydrates seemed way too an advanced food group for me on this particular Saturday morning. Do check it out, their website address is www.thesuper.co.za.

On Saturday night there was more drinking and on Sunday too - this prompted me to accept that I may need an alcohol-free week and somewhat of a detox which would incorporate much raw food. As it's summer, this is really not too hard a task and there are so many great variations of salads, you'd be hard-pressed to eat the same vegetable in a week.

Raw or naked food is best for vitamin and mineral consumption as nutrients are not lost in the cooking process and natural flavourants mean that food needn't be bland or boring. The recipe below is for a coleslaw salad with a difference; no mayo and not your obligatory cabbage and carrot. Although there is a fair amount of chopping and peeling involved, it's deliciously refreshing and perfect for a snack on the go.

A quick note, celeriac is not all that popular in South Africa but you can find it at speciality fruit and vegetable stores. I found it at Dunkeld Fruit and Flower, they never let me down. I will however start asking them to sponsor this blog if I keep mentioning their shop repeatedly.

Celeriac, carrot and fennel coleslaw with a coriander and fennel seed vinaigrette (serves 5)

1 large peeled celeriac
5 large peeled carrots
5 fennel bulbs
1 red onion
a large head of chopped coriander

For the vinaigrette

4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
juice of 2 lemons
2 teaspoons of wholegrain mustard
1 heaped teaspoon of fennel seeds

Method

Julienne your celeriac, carrots and fennel

Slice your onion into paper thin rounds

Add the coriander

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well

Salt well and add pepper to taste

For the vinaigrette:

Much the same, mix all the ingredients together

Throw the vinaigrette over the coleslaw ingredients and mix well. Place the salad in the fridge for an hour or two so the dressing can really marinade the vegetables and take the sting out of the onion.

Eat guilt free and as much as you like.






www.thesuper.co.za

What do you do with tofu? U2 can make coconut and sesame encrusted smoked tofu.

BUT I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR -U2

I frequently get calls and messages from friends (and occasionally family) asking how something should be cooked or a serving suggestion and I find it pretty flattering. People obviously assume I know what I'm doing which most of the time, in the kitchen I have come to realise I do, or else this blog would be an exercise in futility.

Anyhow, a friend of mine called me a few weeks back and asked what he should do with a block of tofu and he must have caught me at a pretty uninspiring time of day as I don't remember reverting with anything groundbreaking, sorry James (Adey). So to make up for my unenthusiastic response, I gave it a bit of thought and came up with a bloody marvelous recipe.

A lot of people don't don't like tofu and I honestly think that is because they have not given it a fair chance. Not only is it really high in protein and low in fat, but it is mouthwateringly delicious if given a bit of culinary TLC and I wanted to do something a bit different with it as apposed to tossing it into a pasta or similar.

You can buy the blocks of tofu from health shops and they are mostly available in smoked or plain forms. I always go for the smoked option as it has a delicious sweet flavour and can be used as it comes in salads or pastas. However, even vegetarians have special occasions to cook for and this recipe turns tofu into something rather special. It has a distinctly oriental feel to it and is sweet and smokey and crunchy all at once. Serve with a salad of julienned carrots and cucumber, chopped spring onion and coriander and you are sorted (the dressing for this salad is a simple one of 1 teaspoon of soya sauce, 1 tablespoon of sweet chili sauce, juice of 2 limes. This dressing is also a great dip for the tofu).

Coconut and Sesame Encrusted Tofu (Serves 2)

1 packet of smoked tofu
1 packet of desiccated coconut
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds
1 carton of creamed coconut (you can use buttermilk as an alternative if you can't find creamed blocks of coconut)
Sesame oil for frying

Method

Melt your creamed coconut with some boiling water but ensure the consistency is gloopy and thick (not watery) as this will act as the binding agent for your sesame seeds and coconut. Pour the thick creamed coconut mixture onto a plate. Or pour the thick buttermilk onto a plate

Mix the desiccated coconut and the sesame seeds together and place on another plate

Make sure you dry the block of tofu off with some kitchen towel before slicing

Slice the smoked tofu into fingers about 2 cm thick

Set a third plate aside for the tofu once coated. Dip the tofu into the creamed coconut / buttermilk mixture and then dip into the sesame seed and desiccated coconut and place on a plate, ready to fry

Heat a pan on a LOW to MEDIUM heat with sesame oil. Now I say Low to medium as sesame oil has a very high burn point so you are going to have to work fast or you will crisp your coconut batter instead of lightly toasting it

Pour in enough oil to cover the pan. You will hear it sizzle within 30 seconds to a minute

Add your tofu fingers and allow for 15- 20 seconds for each side. Turn the tofu to cook the other side and hopefully your coconut will be lightly toasted and a delicious golden brown when turned. Please watch the pan closely as sesame oil is lethal when it is too hot.

Serve with said salad.

PS: To anyone who's reading this (James, Jack, Kesh) Bono does not suck and you are all secretly jealous of me. But it's ok, nobody is perfect and I will invite you for dinner and we will listen to U2 as I tell you how amazing the concert was, you bunch of haters.

Louise's Halloween Beetroot and Aubergine Curry

God created sex. Priests created marriage - Voltaire

So it has been a while again. Much laughter and wine and a few tears since the last post. Laughter with friends and tears for their losses. I am not going to get into it but pull yourself towards yourself cause you don't know what tomorrow may bring, who will be in your life and who will be taken away. But if you are lucky enough to have someone to share your life with you, love them as if each day was your last, respect them and cherish each day you spend with them. End of.

This recipe should have been blogged about ages ago. It was a surprise party on Halloween for Frances who just completed an art installation with a marriage theme and had been away in Europe for 3 months. Louise, by a sheer stroke of genius came up with the theme 'corpse bride' for the evening. And so it began, in a swirl of veils and tule and fabulous blood made with Maizena, food colouring and water, smeared all over our pretty white dresses.

Before the main event which was a bit of a crazy Halloween house party where I was thrown around the dance floor by a rather lovely young man covered in glitter (WHO MAKES JEWELRY - LOVE HIM!!) , we had a dinner cooked by the fast, nifty and capable hands of Louise. I am not sure if she intended for the curry to look red but it certainly fitted the evening. I thought I worked efficiently, this was the fastest put together curry I have ever seen out of a professional kitchen. Now, as with all my recipes, I am going to amend this one cause it is my blog, (sorry Louise, you were however the inspiration). I can't tell you about the rest of the evening because that would be giving away secrets and to be honest, the wine went straight to my head, very, very fast. Must have been a full moon.

Beetroot and Aubergine curry (serves 6)

1 packet of beetroot (6 large beets peeled and chopped)
2 large chopped aubergines
2 chopped onions
2 cloves of garlic
1 chopped chili
2 heaped teaspoons of green curry paste
1 large chopped head of coriander
2 cups of chicken stock (1 cube per cup)
3 tablespoons of chutney
1 teaspoon of coriander seeds
1 teaspoon of mustard seeds
4 cardamon pods
olive oil for frying
salt and paper to taste

Method

Fry off your cardamon pods, coriander and mustards seeds once toasted set aside and crush with a pestle and mortar

In a pot, fry off chopped onion and garlic till brown

Add beetroot and stir in well

Add curry paste, chopped chili, chutney, cardamon, coriander and mustard seeds and stir

Add chopped aubergine and stir

Add chicken stock and stir

Add salt and pepper to taste

Simmer on a low heat with the lid on for 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes

Once soft, season to taste and serve with chopped coriander and basmati rice.

Keeping it tidy with Thai glass noodle salad and NEVER drinking again

This weekend just passed was EPIC and I mean that to be in capitals. I don't think I have ever spent a weekend with so many different pockets of people, making new friends, laughing, eating and drinking as much as I did in these few days gone. Although now it is all over, I feel a little short on thrills this week.

Let's start with Friday: your best mate's birthday with countless bottles of champagne and no dinner - so far not so good. I did however narrowly manage to avoid the part where they thought it was a good idea to neck champagne and red wine shooters; well done Kesh, you must be so proud. You broke her.

Then came Saturday which was an adventure to say the least, an epic day of eating and drinking all day at "The Big Day of Eating". This was a monumental achievement undertaken by a friend, whereby he prepared breakfast, lunch and dinner for 20 people at his flat and we are talking serious food. Arrival was 9am and unfortunately I missed breakfast but was privy to the masses waxing lyrical. I arrived shortly before lunch and eased into the crowds with a big glass of wine which probably accounted for much of my behaviour for the rest of the day. After lunch which was a pork belly sandwich on ciabatta with homemade roasted red pepper relish, a goats cheese and something bake (shit, I am really sorry I can't remember the rest of the contents of the bake but it was stupendously amazing) and potato wedges, I asked my host if I could go to sleep. And slept I did, with 20 people in the other room in a strange flat. I was then woken up hours later by a kindly stranger telling me that dinner was about to be served.

Dinner was nothing short of perfect; angel hair pasta with prawns in a saffron and tomato sauce and just the right serving size after such a monumental gastronomical day. I was so dazed and confused after my afternoon nap that I left pretty much as the plates were cleared, hardly the life and soul of the party. But what a feat: 60 meals essentially, out of a small kitchen and all dishes single handedly prepared and presented to perfection. Faultless and brave.

And if I had not had enough of food and people by Sunday, I thought it a stroke of genius to host a braai. I was exhausted after the weekend's antics but actually found peace in chopping and preparing the food quietly on my own in the kitchen. After a heavy weekend, I wanted something clean to accompany the meat and chose a glass noodle and mushroom salad. This is probably my favourite meal of all time when served on its own. It is fresh, clean, healthy and fragrant and there are many variations to it, in that you can add prawns, chicken pieces, beef or tofu. Here's how it's done:

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

250 grams of prawns (cooked and peeled)
2 packets shitake mushrooms
I bunch of spring onions
3 carrots julienned
1/2 a medium cucumber peeled, deseeded and julienned **you can use a carrot peeler to shave slivers of carrot and cucumber if you can't be bothered with the finicky art of julienning vegetables
1 packet of mung bean noodles (glass noodles)
1 lemon grass pod, very finely chopped
1 small head of coriander finely chopped
1 large knob of ginger which has been peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 tablespoon of fish sauce
3 tablespoons of sweet chili sauce
juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon of soya sauce

METHOD

Place your mung bean noodles into a big bowl and cover with boiling water. Let them stand for 7 minutes, drain and place back in the bowl.

Roughly chop your shitake mushrooms and fry them off until soft in a little olive oil. Add them to the noodles and mix them in well.

Chop up your spring onions and mix these in with the noodles and mushrooms.

Halve your cooked and peeled prawns and add these to the noodle mixture. Mix in well.

Add your julienned carrots and cucumbers to the noodles and mix well.

Mix the fish sauce, lime juice, soya sauce and sweet chili sauce in a cup and add the chopped ginger, lemon grass and garlic to the dressing. Throw over the noodles and mix well.

Garnish with chopped coriander and I promise you will never look back. It is a party piece.

I feel the beginnings of a cold and will be hitting the hay. Serves me right.