Bliksem Biltong Muffins!

Let's face it – the savoury muffin would be no where without cheese. Mature cheddar, Gruyere, Danish blue, Parmesan... whatever your poison, you can't go wrong with the texture and taste of crumbled salty, feta.

Inspired by the Rugby World Cup (and the fact that she was entertaining guests at 8 in the morning for the games, when chips 'n dip didn't seem appropriate), my good friend Narina (of The Crazy Aunt Co) experimented with biltong muffins – a sure-fire, proudly South Africa party pleaser!

• 1 egg
• Approx 3/4 cup milk
• 1 cup cake flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp dry mustard
• 1ml cayenne papper
• 1/2 cup biltong powder (available from a biltong shop, alternatively finely chop the biltong)
• 1 cups mature cheddar cheese, grated
• 1/2 cup feta, crumbled
• Onion sprinkles and chopped chives (optional)

How to make:

Beat the egg lightly in a measuring jug, topping up with milk to the 250ml measure. Sift the dry ingredients together, stir in grated cheese, reserving some to sprinkle on top of the muffins, and the biltong. Mix in the liquid ingredients to create a thick batter. Mix lightly and quickly, and finally stir in the crumbled feta so it doesn't totally disintegrate. Spoon into well-greased muffin tins and sprinkle with onion/chives as desired. Bake at 220C for 10-15 minutes until golden. Game on!

Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes

 

Images by Baby_Birdie
Recipe courtesy of www.foodnetwork.com

• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Preheat oven to 180C. In a small bowl, combine and sieve the flours and set aside. In a large bowl, cream the butter on medium speed until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, stir in the ingredients until incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into a muffin tray filled with cupcake cases, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes in tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

Vanilla Butter Icing

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 6 to 8 cups icing sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add four cups of sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about three to five minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, one cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about two minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. (I didn't, so my icing was a little smoother on top of the cupcakes when it had hardened.) If desired, add a few drops of food colouring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to three days (though I haven't tried!).

Cooking For Kylie: Volume 2

[Alternate header: Why I'm Not Cut Out For Catering]

Last week was a blur of shopping, prepping, chopping, washing, drying, stirring, baking, washing, chopping, packaging, selling, baking, tasting, shopping, prepping, washing... and repeat! Monday's menu involved macaroni & cheese, mildly-curried butternut soup, bran muffins and chocolate brownies. Tuesday night I shopped and prepped, preparing spaghetti and meatballs, minestrone soup, bran & cappuccino muffins and brownies. This was by far the toughest night with every pot we own bubbling on the stove, the meatballs in the oven, the brownies and muffins lined up to be baked and the sink piled to the rafters.

Thursday was a colleague's birthday and I'd agreed to make brownies, chocolate cake and a baked lemon cheesecake. Now my colleagues are like family, so I wasn't sure what to charge and we agreed upon the round figure of R150 – R50 an item. Turns out I severely undercharged – just three ingredients for the cheesecake cost R55. So we settled on vanilla cupcakes. I didn't end up making money, but the birthday was a success and I have two more orders for birthday goodies for office mates. That evening, I made chicken curry and bacon and lentil soup for the following day. We had guests for dinner, and I made chicken pie and enjoyed the temporary respite from "the project".

Friday came & went, and I handed out the last of my meals and counted out my earnings. I most certainly didn't make millions, or recoup enough to cover my time, but I covered costs and made enough for a Kylie ticket. The brownies proved supremely popular and were the easiest to make and manufacture, so I'm going to keep those up. I learnt the cost of my time; became truly aware of the expense of ingredients and my unwavering decision not to cut corners with poor produce; basked in the pleasure of having a project outside of work and the joy I get from cooking; tested my boyfriend's patience (and washing up skills); and let go of a great project not because it failed, but because of the reality of its execution. Along the way, I got some feedback on a few of my recipes. I'll be sharing a few of the most successful ones (like the Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes!).

Cooking For Kylie

I grew up moving to "The Loco-motion", singing "I should be so lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky...", thinking love was Jason & Kylie's "Especially for you", grooving to "Slow" and belting out "Aaalll the Loversss". Well, the pint-sized Princess of Pop responsible for this journey is coming to Cape Town! I'm a firm believer, that in order to get big acts to keep coming to our shores, we have to support them. I'm also a believer, that the likes of pop divas Madonna, Beyonce, Shakira and Gaga - Kylie included - provide the most dazzling, entertaining and fun concerts, even if you're not their biggest fans. 

But alas, the ticket prices for this tiny dynamo are not so petite... and it was with a sparkly tear, that I gave up on my dream of "Spinning Around". But a good friend and colleague of mine, known fondly as The Fashion Pixie, Azeez, suggested we try and make a plan to go together. I love a challenge, and we set about generating dazzling ideas of how we could get to the concert, from selling all the grooming products in our office's storeroom for "charity" obviously, to clearing out our wardrobes and having a garage sale. On the more rational, if a little old-school, suggestion of someone to have a "bake sale", the "Cooking For Kylie" idea was born. 

The premise: we offer soup, comfort food and baked goods to our colleagues. The execution: so as not to be exploiting work premises for our tuckshop, people can order two days in advance and the delicacies will be delivered to their desks. On Monday, I'm bringing in samples: roast butternut soup, macaroni cheese, muffins and chocolate brownies and we'll go from there. (We all know that people like to test the wares before committing to anything.) We already have our first order - a colleague's birthday on Thursday. So you can tell what I'll be doing this weekend! Wish us luck!

Comfort-food Cornbread

I'm taking a cooking course. I go weekly, at least, or whenever I possibly can. I experiment, learn as I go and let food – and cravings – be my guide. The curriculum involves inspiration from fellow bloggers and challenges from cookbooks and food magazines, one in particular being Taste Magazine. The visuals in Taste are always beautiful, the products seasonal and luxurious. And, while I regularly feel intimidated by the sheer craftsmanship of the recipes, the results are consistently delicious. And the more I test and challenge myself, the more accomplished I become.

Mariana Esterhuizen, owner of her self-titled restaurant in Stanford, is one of my teachers. Her columns offer reliable, South African comfort food with a story. Her cornbread in a skillet (Jan/Feb issue 2011) went superbly with a spicy tomato soup – great for the upcoming chilly winter. But I can imagine it will be just as good a side with a summer braai.

Ingredients:

• Butter for greasing
• 1 cup maize meal/polenta
• 1 cup cake flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 cup sweet corn kernels
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup diced green pepper (I used yellow)
• 4 Tsbp chopped coriander (I couldn't find any fresh, so used fresh parsley)
• 3 large, free-range eggs
• 1 cup yoghurt/buttermilk (I used yoghurt)
• 3 Tsbp olive oil

How to make:

Preheat the oven to 180'C. Grease a (large) cast-iron skillet, with an ovenproof handle, very well with the butter. Sift the maize meal/polenta, cake flour, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl. Add the vegetables and coriander and stir into the dry ingredients. Beat the eggs lightly in a jug, then stir in the yoghurt and olive oil. Pour the wet ingredients into the mixing bowl and stir until combined. Pour into the greased skillet and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the top has browned and it feels firm. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before removing straight from the skillet.

Winter Roast Tomato & Spicy Chorizo soup

I have a passion for tomato soup. Roasted (see my simple roast tomato soup recipe), creamed, spicy, as a base to another ingredient, you name it, tomatoes are an incredibly versatile soup complement. I find spicy chourizo, with it's rich, fatty exotic flavour is the perfect partner to a warm tomato soup on a cold winter's day, with a robust glass of red wine.

I'm also very partial to layered textures and flavours. The humble bean is a wonderful carrier for the spiciness of the sausage and the richness of the roast tomato. I chose to add baked beans to this soup, as there's something childishly comforting about the soft, subtle flavour they impart. The sweetness of their sauce also compliments the tomato and spice. The butter beans on the other hand, provide respite in their large neutralness, balancing the more intense flavours. And, in my opinion, on a wintery evening, you want the satisfaction of a home-made soup simmering on the stove, but you also want to be able to reach into the store cupboard for your ingredients. 

Ingredients:

• 10 roma tomatoes, halved and deseeded
• Olive oil
• Pinch of salt & sugar, respectively 
• Dried mixed herbs (if you have fresh, opt for a tspchopped origanum and a tsp chopped thyme)
• 225g courizo sausage
• 1 medium-sized onion, finely chopped
• 1 glass of red wine
• 1 large garlic clove (or two small ones)
• 3 small red chillies, for a medium heat (adjust to suit your palette)
• 3 cups vegetable stock
• 1 tin cream of tomato soup
• 1 tin baked beans
• 1 tin butter beans
• Salt & pepper

Fresh chillies, garlic, an onion and the hero of the soup: the chorizo.
This is sausage-maker Rudi's Portugese Chorizo
that I picked up at the City Bowl Market.

How to make:
Heat the oven to 200˚C. Place the halved, deseeded tomatoes in a roasting pan/plate. Douse with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, the herbs and a little sugar to counter the tomatoes' acidity. Pop in the oven to roast for about half and hour till soft and oozing.

Ripe Roma tomatoes, halved with their seeds removed,

being prepared for roasting in the oven.

In the meantime, brown the chorizo. Lightly coat the base of a pot with olive oil (the chorizo will release its own fat) and fry the sausage on a medium heat.

Frying off the chorizo. When you're browning meat,
it's always best not to overcrowd the pan. 

Brown the chorizo gently and remove, setting aside on a paper towel. Use the oil that's left in the pot to saute the onions. When they begin to stick, deglaze with the red wine.

Onions sweating and reducing in red wine used for deglazing;
browned chorizo resting on a paper towel; and roast tomatoes out of the oven.

When the wine has reduced, add the chopped chilli and garlic. As they become fragrant, stir in the roasted tomatoes along with all their oven juices and the chorizo. Allow the flavours to meld before adding a cup of vegetable stock. Allow to simmer for about 10 minutes.

The roasted Roma tomatoes and chorizo simmering in the onion, red wine, 

chilli, garlic vegetable stock goodness!

Remove the tomatoes from the simmering stock mixture and place in a blender. Some will have disintegrated, which is fine, but try to get all the skins which can become stingy and chewy. Blend with half a tin of tomato soup to a rough texture, until all the skins are combined. Add this tomato "sauce" back to the pot, with the rest of the tomato soup and stock. Simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add the tin of baked beans in its sauce, and the butter beans, rinsed and drained. Stir in the final cup of stock and simmer for 20 minutes. Season to taste, serve and enjoy!

Winter's best: a hearty, spicy, velvety tomato soup.

Phyllo Onion Tartlets

I find translucent onion bathing in a hot pan of butter immediately awakens my senses – and appetite! The smell is incredibly evocative for me. It was the basis of so many delicious comfort foods when I was growing up, from Bubble & Squeak* on the weekends, to a wholesome vegetable soup or savoury mince for bobotie**.

On Saturday's City Bowl Market, I picked up an enormous bag of shallots. Inspired by a delicious-looking onion tart in the Eat-In magazine, I got to work caramelising the finely chopped shallots. When they were almost ready, I made a blue-cheese roux, which I poured over the softened onions in individual Le Creuset ramekins. Topped with a few layers of butter-kissed phyllo and baked until golden in the oven, the results are rich, layered flavours, and a combination of creamy cheese, sweet onion and crackling phyllo.

Ingredients:
Makes 4

• 100g butter
• 2 tsp sunflower oil
• 15 - 20 shallots (depending on size), finely sliced
• Half a glass of white wine
• 1 tbsp thyme
• 2 tbsp sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tbsp flour
• 100g blue cheese
• salt & pepper to taste
• phyllo pastry
   

How to make:
On a medium heat, melt about a tablespoon of butter with the sunflower/canola oil in a pot on the stove. Once it's begun to smoke, add the onions and allow to sweat for about 10 minutes. When the onions begin to stick, pour in the white wine and deglaze, allowing them to simmer and soften in the wine for approximately another 10 to 15 minutes. Once the wine has evaporated, add the sugar, pinch of salt and thyme stirring well. Turn the heat to low, stirring occasionally. The longer the onions cook, the softer and sweeter they become. At this point, turn the oven on to 180ºC.

After the onions have been cooking for about 45 minutes, begin the cheese sauce. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a small pan on medium heat. With a wooden spoon, vigorously stir in the flour to form a paste. Turning the heat down a little, add the milk, little by little, stirring well after each addition to avoid lumps. Crumble the blue cheese in and continue to stir until it's melted. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Grease the the top edges of the ramekins with butter/cooking spray so that the phyllo comes away easily when you're eating the tartlets. Fill the ramekins with the onion mixture and pour the cheese sauce over the top. Unroll two to three sheets of phyllo. Following the instructions on the packaging, keep the phyllo moist so it's manageable as you cut it in half and then quarters. Drape, fold and tuck one of the quarter sheets in each ramekin on top of the onion-sauce mixture. Melt the remaining butter and gently brush each crumpled sheet (it's more like a dabbing action so as not to tear the phyllo), before repeating on the remaining layer(s). Bake in the oven for 15 minutes until the phyllo is golden and crispy.

Serve warm from the oven with a glass of buttery wooded Chardonnay or Pinot Noir to compliment the tartlets' richness.

* Traditionally a British meal made of leftover vegetables, predominantly potatoes so it's a bit like one big rosti.
** A South African, traditionally Cape Malay, dish of curried mince meat baked with an egg-based topping.

Roast Tomato Soup

Something magical happens to ingredients in the oven as you roast them. Take the fiery, overpowering, pungent raw garlic clove that becomes sweet and yielding and caramelised after half an hour at a high heat. I adore how a tart, taught tomato relaxes and oozes when roasted, yielding a rich, full flavour.

This is a simple, rewarding soup that makes use of key flavours, gently roasted and blended, allowing the ingredients to do the work. It's a great basic: add chilli or bacon, lentils or onions.

Ingredients:

• 10-12 ripe tomatoes, halved with the seeds removed
• 1-2 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves (more/less depending on your garlic preference)
• 3 Tbsp thyme
• 1 tsp sugar
• Salt & pepper
• 2 cups stock
  

How to make:

Preheat the oven to 200ºC while you prepare the ingredients. In a roasting dish or pan, place the halved tomatoes and garlic cloves. Coat liberally and toss with the olive oil. Sprinkle the tomatoes with sugar, torn thyme and salt, setting a sprig or two of thyme aside for garnish. Roast for 30 to 40 minutes until soft. Blend briefly if you want some texture, or longer if you prefer a smooth consistency, with a half to a cup of stock to liquify. Heat through with remaining stock on the stove top, adjust the seasoning and serve.

We Love Real Beer

Long weekends are made for afternoon naps, brunch, catching up on reading and friendships, taking in a movie, drinking away the evenings and pretty much doing whatever if it is you feel like... which is exactly what I did this weekend. (Kind of appropriate since the long weekend incorporated a national holiday celebrating human rights.)

On balmy Sunday afternoon, we headed over to The Biscuit Mill for the second annual We Love Real Beer festival. It was an amazing opportunity to try artisinal beers that you don't normally have mainstream access to. Among the list were Napier, Camelthorn, Paulaner, Jack Black, Boston, Brewers & Union, Darling Slow Brew, Mitchell's and Birkenhead, as well as some honey mead. I was not going to pass up savouring the delicious food on offer from Oded's Kitchen to Pete Goffe-Wood's Kitchen Cowboy sirloin sandwiches to the stuffed-pig-on-a-spit Porchetta ciabatta from Jardine Bakery. I left having drained a couple of pints (and claimed a couple of pounds!) completely satisfied. We Love Real Beer is set to grow every year, so watch the blog for the next festival.

And if you're really thirsty, and can't wait till next year, the bottle store Tops (located among some gorgeous shops in the Cape Quarter) stocks craft beers. They make for a cool gift idea. Pick up the We Love Real Beer glasses (for 20 bucks) from &Union. Great excuse to stop by for a beer!
PS Check out photographer Andrew Brauteseth's blog for some images that really capture the atmosphere.

Rotisserie 360

The smell of crispy-skinned roast chicken, thyme and fresh ingredients greets you at Rotisserie 360 – the hole in the wall lunch spot at 160 Bree St (one of my favourite streets in Cape Town). Open till 6pm, find the most tender chicken (and roast sirloin), delicious sandwiches and piadinis (toasted Italian flat bread), salads (see below) and fresh juices (I had watermelon today).

I had the free-range roast lunch plate, which consists of a piece of chicken and four salads. On offer today were: chickpeas with sumac and spinach in a herb yoghurt dressing; crunchy broccoli with toasted garlic and sesame seeds in a lemon dressing; coconut and mango rice with mint, coridander and chilli; greek salad; beetroot, pear, feta and mint in lemon dressing; coleslaw with almonds in our homemade mayo dressing; baby potatoes with dill, lemon and capers. Needless to say, I couldn't fit in a coffee or pastry!

And guess what?! They do a Take-home Dinner Menu! For more, visit the website.

Eat-In Night Market

Looking forward to going to the Eat-In market tomorrow night (Thursday 17 March from 5pm) at the Biscuit Mill and consuming lots of local, tasty produce. See you there!

Baby Birdie's "Nesting" Bowls

I won these gorgeous Joseph & Joseph mixing bowls (called "nesting" bowls) from Yuppiechef (who included a handwritten card – I love that!) in a Decorex competition. Aren't they gorgeous?! I can't wait to start baking with them. The set contains measuring cups, a measuring bowl with pouring spout, a sieve and mixing bowls – all you need.

Easy Home-made Asparagus Soup

I was a very obedient and unfussy eater as a child (which is probably why I fastidiously finish all the food on my plate now). There was nothing that I wouldn't try or wouldn't eat, and my meals were always well balanced. My Mum was great on colour and presentation – making sure there were different colours on the plate (literally choosing carrots instead of peas to offset the green marrows), and occasionally shaping everything into a pattern or face. Despite that, I don't think I had a very adventurous childhood menu.

"Cold meats and salads" was a frequent weekend feature in musky Natal, and tinned asparagus was often on the menu. I loved their neutral, slightly salty taste and melt-in-your-mouth spongy texture, and used to count out the spears onto the plates so we all got a fair number. It wasn't until I was older that I tasted fresh, firm-but-yielding steamed asparagus.

And I'm a big fan. They are, for me, quintessentially foodie produce. Like artichokes. Why? Because they're a meal on their own. Because of their gourmet appearance. Because of their earthy green colour which is begging to be painted. Because of their simple flavour which responds so well to simplicity. Because they're seasonal and look so beautiful in a market basket. Because, maybe, I thought for so long they grew, colourless cream, in tins of brine not in the ground until I tasted a fresh one and toyed with their potential.

So here's an asparagus soup recipe I experimented with recently. (In South Africa, asparagus is officially out of season during our autumn, and back in June - the perfect, chilly time for soup!) I haven't used flour much in soups – I make a lot of tomato-based soups, fill the pot with veg, or purree the ingredients, so the thickness isn't a concern. But I wanted to make a creamy soup quickly and simply, with ingredients I had in my fridge and cupboard and, ideally for a "healthy" weeknight meal, without actual cream!

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp canola/grape seed oil
• 2 bunches/punnets of asparagus
• 1 white onion, finally chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 4 cups stock
• 2 tbsp flour
• 2 tbsp butter
• Approx half a cup of milk
• 1 - 2 heaped tbsp smooth, plain cottage cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan

How to make:

Snap off the woody ends of the asparagus, chop them in half and set aside. Saute and soften the onions in the oil, then add the garlic and, as it gets fragrant, add the asparagus. Allow to sweat for about 10 minutes with the onion and garlic. Add the stock and allow to simmer until asparagus is cooked. Remove from heat.

In the meantime, on a low heat, melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour. It will go dryish, so add a few teaspoons of the stock from the simmering soup and stir vigorously till it becomes a gluey mixture. Pour some milk in slowly (about 2 tbsp) and continue to stir vigorously to keep the mixture smooth and elastic. Stir in the cottage cheese. Alternately add liquid – a little stock, then a little milk - to the roux (white sauce) until you have a creamy consistency. Melt the cheese into the sauce, reserving a little aside for garnish.

Keeping aside a few spear tips for garnish, blend the asparagus and remaining stock in a blender and add to the roux. Stir to combine and allow to simmer together for about 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with fresh ground black pepper, a sprinkle or Parmesan and an asparagus spear floating on top.

Gardner's tip:

Tomatoes and asparagus have amazing synergy - and not just on the plate! The asparagus roots exude a chemical that kills many of the nematodes (round worms) that either feed off tomato roots or carry disease to the plant. And tomatoes repel asparagus beetles, so the one is beneficial to the other.

Earth Fair Market

My expectations of produce markets have been ruined – potentially – by the exquisite open-air market I went to in Paris: every imaginable fruit & vegetable in colourful pyramids so bright I had to keep my sunglasses on; French cheese so ripe you started to salivate; pastries so buttery they would have made Julia Child weep; quaint, aged, aproned stall owners so authentic you wanted to hug them. I walked hand-in-hand with mon amour, a fragrant freshly-baked baguette from Paul bakery poking out of my shopper, and picnicked in the Bois de Boulogne. *big sigh*

I truly appreciate the authenticity, freshness, connection and artisanal quality one gets at a market, which is why I have wished there would be a well-stocked and well-supported inner-city market. I'm pleased to report, the Earth Fair Market, popular for their Wednesday Tokai gatherings, has started a market in St George's mall on Thursdays from 12pm to 6pm. City slickers working in the surrounding area flock to the mall for artisanal sausages and chourizo; freshly-baked breads and pies; fresh juices; olives; honey and organic dried fruit... and so much more. And there's dessert – crepes, cupcakes and fudge... I'll be hanging out there every Thursday!

Food&Wine Bloggers Indaba 2011 Highlights

A week later, and I finally have a chance to revisit last weekend's Food and Wine Bloggers Indaba. Sunday began with virgin fruity cocktails and the excited chatter of bloggers and foodie enthusiasts descending on Monkey Valley in Noordhoek. In its second year, the event is passionately driven, marketed and executed by the humble Colleen, from BrownieGirl Blog (with some help from her lovely husband Donald!).

I couldn't begin to do justice to all the amazing sponsors Colleen got on board (you can check out the Indaba blog for more details), but everyone left with a hefty goodie bag packed with magazines (Eat In, Eat Out, Taste, Fresh Living), recipe books (Food Lover's Market's Love & Food, Bakers' Take a Biscuit, The People's Guide), samples (Primitiv Vodka, Pesto Princess, SAB beers, Verlaque jam & balsamic reduction, Griottines cherries, Lindt chocolate, Wedgewood Nougat), wine (Detleefs & Wine Lover's Collection), olive oil (Saint Sebastian Bay & Filippo Berio) and, generously, a Wusthof classic pairing knife and voucher from Yuppiechef. Impressive, ne?! (Fellow bloggers, please let me know if I've left anything out by mistake - it was obviously gobbled/greedily absorbed into my grocery cupboard before I recorded it!)

An all-too brief summary of my day... Foodie and veteran food blogger Jean of CookSister! blog fame, was the MC of the day and kicked the proceedings off with a valuable talk on best blogging practices, with 10 practical tips. Food writer Jane-Anne Hobbs, of Scrumptious South Africa, followed, sharing her knowledge on recipe inspiration. She began by asking the important question: are your recipes excellent, inspiring and intelligent? And gave great advice from avoiding being a slave to food trends, to freezing herbs and making the most of seasonal fair. Next on our indaba menu, was the inspiring and talented duo of Abigail Donnelly (food editor at Taste) and Phillippa Cheifitz (cookbook author, food writer and consultant food editor at Taste) who discussed how to get published while projecting some beautiful Taste food photography in the background.

Lisa Key from African Relish tempted us with an escape to their beautiful farm in Prince Albert, for a unique food bloggers weekend (I'm saving!), before Michael Olivier guided us to a greater wine vocab with a blind tasting. Lunch gave us a chance to mingle and chat, and I was able to meet gorgeous Ishay of Food and the Fab, dedicated dad, gardner and eco advocate Matt of ImNoJamieOliver, and fellow sub and avid foodie Robyn of Koek!.

In the afternoon, we all got to attend workshops held by the likes of food stylist Sam Linsell (Drizzle & Dip) and food enthusiast Nina Timm (My Easy Cooking); successful food blogger JamieWho; wine editor for Food24 Cathy Marston (see her Cape Times review of her wine & food pairing talk on her blog); Jamie Schler of Life's a Feast who came from France especially, amongst others. I managed to sit in on her and CookSister! Jean's food writing talk and left inspired and encouraged to be pickier about my adjectives! I also enjoyed a delightful, champagne-fuelled workshop with Jane-Anne Hobbs (follow her on Twitter for an amusing, eloquent and humorous take on the world) and walked out feeling challenged to be a better blogger, wanting to explore second-hand bookshops in search of her recommended reading list, and just a little tipsy!

Well, I better get back to the risotto on the stove. Thanks to everyone involved in making the Food & Wine Bloggers Indaba so interesting, interactive, inspiring, encouraging and fun! I feel blessed to have discovered such a warm community. See you next year!

Shhh... My Stir Fry Secret

My secret to a tasty stir fry with tender meat? Marinating the meat – chicken, pork, beef, whatever – in a tangy, sweet, hot sauce. Combine the ingredients below, and leave the meat to marinade while you chop the veg and prepare the rest of the stir fry ingredients. Remove the meat from the marinade and brown it first, setting it aside so you can stir fry the veg, and adding it back towards the end. Then, just before you've finished cooking, pour the marinade over the stir fry and allow to simmer as a delicious sauce. (You can add a little more soy sauce, if needed.)

Ingredients:

• Juice of half an orange
• Juice of half a lime (or lemon if you can't get limes)
• Tbsp fish sauce
• 2–3 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 chilli, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 Tbsp ginger, grated
  

Home-made Healthy burgers

We took advantage of an exquisitely warm, calm evening, by lighting the braai and making some fresh burger patties. Who said your average Wednesday night meal can't be healthy, tasty or romantic?! We traded buns for some potato wedges, tossed in olive oil, salt and some chilli flakes, baked in the oven and patted of excess oil. The patties were made of lean mince; half an onion, finely chopped; a tsp chilli flakes; salt; an egg; 2 tbsp bread crumbs; all mushed together and divided into 4 large patties.

Instead of a bun, we used cos lettuce and stuffed it full of gherkins, tomato, onion and a sprinkle of grated cheese. But what turned out to be the real heros of the meal, were the grilled mushrooms – grilled on one side, turned over and brushed with butter, salt and crushed garlic, left to grill on that side, before turning them over to brown the garlic. Delicious!

We even got to have a toast – Castle Lite has all of the alcohol and half the kiljoules! So one bottle counts as one unit = one for me, two for the Boyfriend. Cheers!

Summery Smoked Angel Fish

A relaxed Friday evening with perfect weather and a delicious dinner – delicate, flavourful smoked angel fish (from a stall at the The Biscuit Mill/Neighbourhood Goods Market), crunchy-skinned baked potatoes, a simple salad (sweet cherry tomatoes, chunks of cucumber, red onion, feta with olive oil and balsamic vinegar) and a chilled glass of buttery La Colombe unwooded chardonnay.

Sweet Bloggers

There are so many bloggers out there creating delicious treats, like this one by Greens n Chocolate. I love brownies, and this Mississippi Mud Brownie looks like heaven. (I look forward to checking out her healthier savoury recipes too – to balance things out!) Thanks to Sweet Like Sugar Cookies and Alli n Son sweet tooth link-ups, scouring the blogosphere and sharing the sweetest recipes. Happy baking!

Red velvet cupcakes hit the supermarket

I received a picture from my sister (mother to the cutest baby ever!), who lives in England, this morning – Red Velvet Cupcakes (see my recipe here) now available at Tescos!