Anchovy butter

The thing about starting at the beginning of all the books is that you end up doing a lot of those initial things - you know, sauces and basics and whatnot.

This book, though, needs an introduction. It's called Ouma's Cookery Book, and is a collection of traditional South African recipes. Many of them terrify me! But the first one is easy and simple and DELICIOUS.

You take 125g butter, softened (in the microwave, if you live in Dunedin), a couple of teaspoons of what we call fish paste (available in the international section of New World, if you're here), a generous pinch of cayenne pepper and a few drops of lemon juice. Mix it together, and serve spread on hot toast.

OMIGOD, YUM.

It is, basically, anchovy toast dressed up fancy. The cayenne bite and the citrus honestly do knock it up a notch though. It's really good. My kid even loved it. :)