Pearl barley risotto and my spelling errors make me unique

OK, so it's been a while since I blogged (oops, 6 days). BUT I have been ill, and doubly busy because NOBODY wants to hear ANYTHING from a PR unless it is football related. Good lord I am not happy, client expectations need to be reigned in BIG TIME!

So, the World Cup is upon us. Not for a second did I anticipate the electricity in the air that South Africa is currently experiencing.
And I was ill for the start. But I had to hold the tears back during the opening ceremony, I was bowled over. When Miriam Makheba's 'Click' song came on, I was a sodden mess. And so proud. And so sorry for my dad in the UK and my friend (pregnant and emotional) in France and all other ex pats who were unable to be in our beautiful country for this historic event.
And not sorry for my reporter friend who is covering the game for German TV and gets the best seats in the house and fraternises with the German team as she has to report on them. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! But, all is not lost, I will be watching the Italy vs Slovakia game on the 24th. Whoot!

I am also feeling somewhat like a crappy, incompetent writer at the moment. Having met this guy who photographs his own food (his name is Jono) and puts much effort into his writing, I feel like this is a bit of hash job. The reality is, I write all day and this is a bit of respite when it comes to minding my grammar and whotnot. So forgive me if it appears lazy and rushed but I will make the utmost effort in cleaning it up when life has calmed down.

Moving on. I recently picked up a pearl barley and spinach risotto in Woolies. For a ready-made meal it is not bad. In addition, it uses barley instead of rice which I love as I am not the hugest rice fan. It is light, tasty and cheap enough for me to justify buying it for lunch and let me tell you, this is the first and only ready-made meal I will concede or admit to eating. I abhor them and find that there is no excuse for being lazy in the kitchen, but lunchtime I feel is different. In any case, my version is far tastier and healthier and it is really so easy to throw together. This is how it goes:

For the barley:
rinse 2 cups of pearl barley really well under a tap
place in a pot and cover with 6 cups of water
add a generous pinch of salt
2 cubes of vegetable stock
boil gently on a medium heat for 35 mins (keep watching the pot as the barley absorbs a lot of water)
after 35 minutes, taste one of the grains and and see if it is soft enough, if not add a little more water so the top is only just covered and keep watching and testing the barley
like rice, once the water has been boiled away, cover the pot with a cloth to catch the excess steam
put the barley to one side

Ingredients:
2 cloves of garlic
2 grated carrots
2 sticks of finely chopped celery
1 finely chopped onion
1 of shitake mushrooms (sliced coarsely)
1 punnet of chestnut mushrooms (sliced coarsely)
a generous handful of thyme (thrown in whole)
1 stock cube
1/2 cup of good white wine
1/2 cup of milk
Parmesan shavings to garnish (a generous amount)


Method
fry onion and garlic on a low heat till garlic is soft (remember be careful with garlic as it has a low burning point)
add grated carrots and celery
mix well and fry for a further 5 minutes
add sliced mushrooms
dissolve stock cube in the tiniest bit of water and add to the vegetables
add milk and wine and stir gently
add the thyme
cover and simmer on a low heat for 10 minutes
add to the barley and stir the barley and the sauce together
put in an oven proof dish and place into a preheated oven of 140 degrees for 15 minutes
remove from oven
remove thyme
garnish with parmesan

Kedgeree, the sisterhood and not messing with a Scotsman

Holy cow. I am really trying not to swear, but what a week and it is only Wednesday. I know I didn't bother with a post yesterday but with good reason.

I am not going to get into the logistics of yesterday but what I can tell you is that I am fortunate enough to know some pretty amazing people. This group of friends that I only towards the end of last year become familiar and comfortable with are unbelievable. What a group of strong, independent, protective, kind, selfless women, all of them. I don't think that I ever understood the power of the sisterhood until I met these girls. And let me tell you, don't mess with them or anyone they love, it just wouldn't be worth it.

What I can tell you about yesterday is that I came across another cooking blogger. Now I am usually sane of mine and rationale of head (Rory will contest this I am sure) but when I meet another cook, I go a just a leetle bit competitive crazy. And another cook that blogs? ALARM BELLS. Another cook that blogs that photographs his own food? I pity the fool! But on a more serious note, he's a really nice guy and obviously very talented. His blog is very different to this one. He doesn't skimp on calories or worry about dairy or carbs or any of the stuff I generally don't put on this blog. Check it out: http://allyoucaneatforfree.wordpress.com/

Anyhow, onto my blog! Kedgeree is the dish of the day. What the hell is kedgeree you may ask? Well, generally it is a mixture of smoked, flaked fish, rice, curry powder and whatever else you fancy. There are many variations of kedgeree but they all start with those basic ingredients.

Kedgeree is thought to have originated with an Indian rice-and-bean or rice-and-lentil dish traced back to 1340 or earlier. It is widely believed that the dish was brought to the United Kingdom by returning British colonials who had enjoyed it in India and introduced it to the UK as a breakfast dish in Victorian times as part of the then fashionable Anglo-Indian cuisine. It is one of many breakfast dishes that, in the days before refrigeration, converted yesterday's leftovers into hearty and appealing breakfast dishes.

According to some highly disputed sources, the dish originated from Scotland and was taken to India by Scottish troops during the British Raj, where it was adapted and adopted as part of Indian cuisine. According to this theory the dish travelled to India then returned to the wider UK. This is the explanation I am sticking to, because I live with a Scotsman, and you really, really don't want to be arguing with one!

Anyhow, it's healthy (obviously), it's quick and damn tasty. This is my version, but play around with your own tastes by adding capers, tomatoes or change the thyme for coriander as an example. Check it out:

Ingredients:
2 fillets of flaked smoked mackerel
2 boiled eggs (we have been through how to get the perfect egg in May's blog)
1/2 a finely chopped red onion
4 sprigs of thyme (run your fingers up and down the stalk as you only want the leaves in this case, not the stalks)
1 cup of raw brown boiled rice (again refer to May's blog for perfect rice)
2 heaped teaspoons of mild curry powder
1 generous tablespoon of grain mustard
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

Method
Boil your rice. And remember brown rice takes significantly longer than white and absorbs a lot more water. So keep an eye on it
Flake your mackerel and make sure all the bones are removed (I mash mine up with a fork as this makes the bones more visible)
add the flaked fish to the cooked rice
add your finely chopped onion
mash your boiled eggs and add to the rice mixture
add curry powder, mustard and balsamic vinegar
stir all the ingredients well
add thyme leaves and stir well
garnish with thyme and serve with chutney

THIS DISH CAN BE SERVED HOT, WARM OR COLD.
(Any which way it is delicious)

Healthy curry in a hurry

It's late. It has been a long day of everything. By 10am I had organised a mover, sent off my FICA documents (no, I didn't know what those were either), spoke to a lawyer about crazy tenant, picked up my dry cleaning, spoken to my mortgage broker, been to the bank and taken in my torn clothes in for repair.

Rory came home for lunch which was a nice surprise and we had the left over chicken from last night - I love roasts on the second day, and it's great because he likes the dark meat and I like the breast, if you will. So no fighting over pieces.

Following this I went to my financial advisor in Sandton. GET THIS: On the corner of Grayston and West street where the Sandton Gautrain station is being built or is finished or whatever is a very busy intersection, especially during peak time. So the light is green and I am turning right thus in the middle of the intersection and a traffic cop shoots a red light, leaving me stranded in the middle of the road. I could not believe what happened and there was traffic coming at me from every which way. I say no more, I mean seriously!

I then spent two hours growing up fast and taking out life cover and a retirementanuity. Fun times indeed. We only got to the gym at 7:30pm but it was a great work out, the only trouble is that if I gym that late I land up wired when I get home till 1am. With this in mind, we needed a meal in a hurry. And nothing beats a great curry in a hurry in winter.

The problem with curries is that they are generally not healthy and are swimming in butter, oil and cream and are generally very fattening. So, I am going to give you a great curry recipe and again it is a cheat's curry but we will get onto a more complicated curry later on. In addition, you can swap the chicken for vegetables, prawns or beef. For your cheat's curry you will need:

SERVES 2

2 chopped onions
1 clove of chopped garlic
3 chicken breasts that have been cut into strips
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
2 teaspoons of tomato paste
3 cardamom pods (crush these with the back of a knife to let the flavour out)
1 heaped teaspoon of turmeric
1 heaped tablespoon of curry powder (mild, medium or hot, depending on your taste)
1 heaped teaspoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
a generous pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of soya sauce
a small head of broccoli with the stalks trimmed

Method
fry your onions in a little olive oil on a medium heat until soft
add your garlic and fry for a further minute
add your diced chicken breast and fry until the chicken is browned
add the tin of tomatoes and the tomato paste and stir in well
add the turmeric, curry powder, sugar, salt, soya sauce, balsamic vinegar and stir well
add the cardamom pods
throw in the broccoli, stir, cover and let simmer on a medium heat for 15-20 minutes.
Serve with rice (which I have given a fool proof method for in Rory's balsamic chicken recipe in May)

It is 11:20pm. Good night

Moules in an infused tomato reduction or Mussels in tomato sauce!

Sweet Lord. What a bloody hectic weekend. Forget the fact that I have a frightening work load ahead of me and further meetings with lawyers, accountants and mortgage brokers but we just blew 45K (with help from boyfriend and father) on a TV, a TV license, a washing machine, a lounge suite, a TV stand a bed, a headboard, 2 side tables, an iron, a kettle, a toaster and a kick-ass set of pots and pans. The pots and pans were essential, as you can imagine. Although we are yet to own a fork or a knife or a spoon, but slowly slowly. We will get there. It was seriously stressful and from not knowing Fourways from Fiveways, I now know the place like the back of my hand. I don't know if I should be proud, or not.

We ended the shopping spree with a weekly grocery shop. Now, we need to eat what is in our freezer and cupboard for the next few weeks so we don't have to shlep food as well as everything else (freaking out a little as I write). Anyhoo, we bought veggies and a chicken and dum dum dum... some mussel meat. I am cooking an awesome chicken pot roast for tonight which I will post later in the week as you already got your chicken installment on Friday.

The recipe I will give you tonight is a meal I will be cooking for guests on Wednesday. It is made with mussel meat which you can buy from any fishmongers or Pick n Pay. I am not sure about Woolies as I have only seen shelled New Zealand green-lipped mussels there. These are great and huge in size and meaty as you like but damn expensive and I can not under any circumstances justify eating mussels flown in from across the world when our country is surrounded by a coast teaming with wonderful fish and seafood.

They come frozen and are so cheap, I paid R44 for enough to feed 4 or 5 people and they really make a great meal. For some reason though I keep forgetting about this recipe. You can also cook mussels in white wine and cream which is classically referred to as moules marinière but as previously mentioned, cream is really not my bag and I prefer the healthier tomato option. It is so quick and so easy and a hearty meal for a winter's evening. It is also great for guests as it is cheap to prepare and goes so far.

Don't be scared to cook something you have never handled before in terms of meat or fish, especially with mussels as you really, really can't mess it up.

When you do cook this dish, make sure you have defrosted your mussels and have drained them of all excess water. Do not leave out once thawed though as this could be dangerous.

Ingredients:

1 large packet of shelled mussel meat
2 roughly chopped cloves of garlic
2 chopped onions
generous handful of thyme
olive oil
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
2 teaspoons of sugar
1 tablespoon of soya sauce
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
pinch of salt
black pepper

Method:

NB: YOU WILL NEED A LARGE POT FOR THIS

fry your chopped onion in a little olive oil on a medium heat
add garlic and fry for a further 2 minutes
add your mussels
add your tin of tomatoes
add your balsamic vinegar, soya sauce, sugar and salt to taste
stir well
throw in your time as whole sprigs
turn down heat to low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes
remove thyme
put into a serving dish and garnish with black pepper and a sprig of thyme
serve with a green salad and fresh, crusty bread.

Your guests will be beyond impressed. Just don't tell them how easy it was!

coq au vin made simple and healthy.

Now this is one of my facourite recipes. We used to go to this really cheap but good bistro in The Angel in London called Le Mercury. You could get a starter and a main course for under 20 quid which was a bargain in London. It was in a very old rickety Victorian house and was a double story building building. Tables and chairs were so close together that you could smell what the guy at the next table had for lunch. But it all made for part of the charm. The walls were crooked and the floors were creaky, the fire was constantly on the go and the lighting was ambient. The best restaurant in winter, ever! It was here that I first tasted coq au vin.

Coq au vin is French for chicken in wine. I am not the biggest 'cooking your food in wine' fan but dish really is sublime. There are different variations of coq au vin but the staple ingredients always remain the same (unless you are me and you are adapting the dish for 'the healthier eater'), they are chicken, wine, lardons (thick-cut cubed bacon) and garlic. The coq au vin recipe I am giving you has been adjusted for maximum flavour and health. I don't like bacon because it fatty, so in this case I have swapped the bacon for chopped anchovies. I know that sounds mad and there are loads of people who do not like anchovies...but, you can't taste them in the dish and they are a good salty substitute for the bacon. Italians frequently put anchovies in meet dishes to balance the flavour and salt the dish, anchovies work especially well in lamb casseroles. But feel free to use lardons if you like. If you can't find lardons in the store, chop up some thick cut, streaky bacon into cubes.

Another thing to no is that the slower and longer you cook this dish, the better it tastes and the longer it left after it has cooked, the better it tastes. So if you are having people over on Sunday, make it on Saturday and watch your guests polish off the lot! And for those of you who do not know what a bouquet garni is, please refer to the previous blog.

Ingredients

tablesoon of butter butter
150g/5½oz shallots, peeled but left whole (if you can't find shallots, use red onion that has been coarsely chopped)
5 garlic cloves, crushed
6 chopped anchovy fillets or 150g streaky bacon, cut thickly or
bouquet garni (4 sprigs of each herb)
I punnet button mushrooms
4 carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
2 celery sticks which have been chopped
500ml good red wine (REMEMBER: IF YOU WON'T DRINK IT, DON'T COOK WITH IT)
500ml chicken stock (2 cubes)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 free range chicken, cut into 8 serving pieces, on the bone but skin removed
small bunch flatleaf parsley, chopped
salt and crushed black pepper
Preparation method

Heat a thick-bottomed casserole dish on the stove (a medium heat or you'll burn the butter)
Add the shallots. Cook until just browned; then stir in the garlic.
Add carrots and celery and stir everything together.
Add the bacon or anchovies and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Add the mushrooms, turn up the heat and add the red wine, chicken stock and vinegar.
Add the chicken pieces, bring the sauce to the boil and then simmer gently for about 25 minutes or until the chicken is tender and cooked through.
Add your bouquet garni
Put into a preheated oven of 140 degrees and slow cook for 2 hours.
Remove and eat or put in the fridge for 24 hours
Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper
Sprinkle over chopped parsley and serve with a dressed green salad and good bread.
Take your bouquet garni out before serving

How to: A bouquet garni

Hello. It is Friday and I am taking a quick break from work which I am finding very calming today, despite my 2 glasses of red last night. We didn't make it to Wolves in the end but chatted for about 4 hours solidly. I hadn't eaten dinner (should I be telling you this) as I didn't have time to. I did make it though!

Anyhow, fair to say I feel a bit rough today and I decided to work from Lulu's as the walls were swallowing me up at home. It really is interesting to sit here and work and watch. I love eavesdropping on people's conversations. And as Lulu's is near one of the big publishing stables, there are often media people about and I try and listen out for them. It is interesting if you have emailed them and then you sit there figuring out who they are.

City Press were here today as were Die Antwoord's Waddy / Ninja and Yolandi Visser. Both sipping on lattes, very UNZEF!

Anyhow, it's your lucky day today as I am going to post 2 blog installments. This one is about a wonderful, fragrant herb combination called a bouquet garni which is used to infuse stews and soups and stocks. It really is a magic, clever little trick that is great for winter as we tend to eat more soups and stews. Your next installment will be a simple recipe for coq au vin which is a hearty, rustic french dish of chicken and red wine stew. But we will move onto that in the next post.

Bouquet garni directly translates into garnished bouquet. There is no generic recipe for bouquet garni, but most recipes include parsley, thyme and bay leaf. Depending on the recipe, the bouquet garni may include basil, burnet, chervil, rosemary, peppercorns, savory and tarragon. Sometimes vegetables such as carrot, celery (leaves or stem), celeriac, leek, onion and parsley root are also included.

Now it all sounds a bit complicated but it really isn't and the ritual of making one for a dish you're cooking makes you feel very 'chefy' and it is easy as pie and well worth the fiddle.

This is how you prepare your bouquet garni:
(NB: herbs must be fresh)

Step 1: For a classic bouquet garni, gather together a few fresh parsley stalks, thyme sprigs and bay leaves.

Step 2: Use unwaxed kitchen string to tie the bouquet garni, then add the bundle to the pot. This makes it easy to remove after cooking. (I personally have no issue issue using bog-standard string)

Step 3: To stop the herbs from coming apart in the liquid, you can tie them in a piece of muslin or ingeniously you can peel off the outer layer of a leek and tie the bouquet garni and further tie it inside the leek layer. And then place in the pot.

Coq au vin following shortly

A gentle soup for a hard day! Tortellini soup with spring greens or spinach.

Wow. Today I have had to deal with the crazy-lunatic-I-am-on-the-brink tenant who currently resides in my new flat. This lady is a whole new kind of crazy to me. I have bought the flat, she won't let the ABSA Bank conveyancer in to give final approval for the loan nor will she allow me in for 10 minutes on Saturday morning so I can measure up for curtains and get the builder to give me a quote. I have seen this flat for all of 10 minutes and have not been near the flat since and the way she is responding, you'd think I had camped outside her door for the past 2 weeks, constantly knocking to be let it. So we are about to slap her with a lawyers letter. Revenge is best served cold, even though it is expensive and time-consuming in this case.

In addition, the doctors appointment I booked 2 months ago was not running 1 hour late, but 2 (with thanks to an emergency procedure) and add that to the mix of a host of crazy things today and you have the makings of Thursday night being the new Friday. Alas I have 2 days of work to catch up on so it'll be phuza-soda water Thursday for me.

Anyhow, I am (thank the lord) meeting a girlfriend for drinks at The Attic (always a little dangerous) and then off to Wolves for some cool-kid action. I am afraid I feel way too old to even pull off cool - but my rather drop-dead gorgeous friend can with ease, despite being the same age.

So as I work and rush out (and go out I must even though I am swamped but I fear I may go nuts), I thought a quick simple dinner of soup would be a good idea. Now I know this is the third soup recipe ya'll have read but in winter, it truly makes for the healthiest, filling meal option and this one is a particular gem because it is super quick to prepare. And it is a cheat soup, but at no point did I say we would be making everything from scratch. These recipes are to fit in with life which is rushed and never goes according to plan.

For your cheat tortellini and spring green soup you will need:
(serves 2 and can be adapted)

1/2 packet of tortellini with a filling of your choice (fresh pasta is best and spinach and ricotta tortellini is recommended)
2 cups of shredded spring greens / spinach / swiss chard
1 cup of frozen peas
1 bunch of spring onions chopped
2 vegetable stock cubes
1/2 chopped onion
pinch of salt

Method:

Gently fry your chopped onion till soft
Dissolve your stock cubes in 1 cup of boiling water
Pour over onions and gently simmer for 5 minutes
Add peas
Add greens
Add 2 more cups of water
Stir and add your tortellini
Add salt to taste...remember you can put in but you can't take out!
Gently simmer for 5 minutes
Spoon soup into dish and garnish with spring onions

Voila. It looks impressive too!

Hangovers require an easy dinner: Poached hake and french bean ratatouille

So, I didn't blog last night but I have a great excuse as we went out for dinner to celebrate my bond approval. Rory took me to this place in Illovo called Assagi, which was fantastic. It is probably the first truly authentic Italian restaurant I have been to in South Africa. We shared a salad of marinated chili tomatoes, wild rocket and rabiola for starters and I ended off with tuna capaccio and Rory had a baby chicken marinated in Rosemary and lemon. We finished a bottle of Sangiovese wine and got served by the most beautiful, regal Senegalese looking man. He came to the table and we were both like "holy cow", so I gave him my friend's number as she owns a modeling agency. Star models if anyone needs one. So in my drunk state I texted her going 'I just gave a beautiful black man your number'. She is very happily living with her boyfriend. I had to clear that one up this morning - we chuckled!

We then went to The Attic for a nightcap and the last glass of wine tipped me over the edge and I feel rotten today, rotten. Not the best day for a TV interview and a huge press release dissemination drive. I simply can't have more than a glass of wine without feeling like death. So tonight, I need to make an easy meal. I am going to show you how to make the most divine easy fish dish that I serve with a french bean ratatouille which sounds complicated, but it ain't. So here's how you do it:

START PREPARING YOUR BEAN DISH FIRST

For the fish (serves 2)

2 hake / kingklip fillets
a jar of basil pesto (I will post a fab homemade pesto recipe soon, but I am hungover so a jar it is)
garlic
white wine (use decent wine, do not cook with any wine you wouldn't drink)
fresh basil
10 cherry tomatoes

Method

Halve your cherry tomatoes and add a sprinkle of salt
Tear your basil and add to tomatoes and mix in a pull - put this to one side
Fry 2 cloves of chopped garlic in olive oil on a low heat (watch the garlic as it burns easily and contaminates EVERYTHING)
Pour a generous splash of wine in the pan
Add 2 tablespoons of the pesto and mix the wine, the garlic and the pesto together in the pan
Make sure your stove plate is on a low to medium heat as you will be poaching the fish - you want a gentle simmer)
Add your fish into the pesto and wine mix and cover with a lid
Poach for 5 minutes and then carefully turn the fish over, cover and poach again for another 5 minutes)
Remove from pan carefully as the fish will be moist and will break easily
Garnish with cherry tomato and basil mixture

Wickedly simple and truly delicious

French bean ratatouille

1 onion
packet of french beans (topped and tailed - your stringy bits on either end are removed)
tomato paste
tinned tomatoes
2 teaspoons of brown sugar
2 generous pinches of salt
a generous splash of balsamic vinegar

Method

Chop your onion and fry gently on a medium heat till soft in a little olive oil
add your washed top and tailed beans
mix in with onions
add tomato paste and tinned tomatoes and mix well
add sugar, vinegar and salt
mix well
taste the sauce and make sure the salt, sweet and sour balance, if they don't try and identify which needs more added and be sparing when you add the missing ingredient. You can put in but you can't take out.
Once mixed, cover and simmer on a low heat for 15-20 minutes.
Remove and eat!

Enjoy!