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. :)
Showing posts with label easy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label easy. Show all posts
Monday, 26 March 2012
Saturday, 17 December 2011
Mussel and Chorizo Stew
This was a WINNER.
Fried up some onions, garlic and chorizo. Threw in a tin of chopped tomatoes. Added some fresh parsley. Cooked for a bit. Threw in some green lipped mussels for long enough for them to open. Served on a bed of long grain rice.
Oh. My. Gods.
So simple. Deceptively simple. But the flavours married perfectly, and it was mouthwateringly awesome. I expect it would be even better if you could get really good spicy chorizo, which we struggle to find here in Dunedin, but it was truly delicious.
Would totally make again. Plus, ready in the time it takes to cook the rice. About 20 minutes. Awesome.
Ratings:
Me: Enthusiastic thumbs up.
Husband: Enthusiastic thumbs up.
Fried up some onions, garlic and chorizo. Threw in a tin of chopped tomatoes. Added some fresh parsley. Cooked for a bit. Threw in some green lipped mussels for long enough for them to open. Served on a bed of long grain rice.
Oh. My. Gods.
So simple. Deceptively simple. But the flavours married perfectly, and it was mouthwateringly awesome. I expect it would be even better if you could get really good spicy chorizo, which we struggle to find here in Dunedin, but it was truly delicious.
Would totally make again. Plus, ready in the time it takes to cook the rice. About 20 minutes. Awesome.
Ratings:
Me: Enthusiastic thumbs up.
Husband: Enthusiastic thumbs up.
Friday, 2 December 2011
Sauted Apple with Syrup and Mascarpone
This might be one of the more decadent desserts I have made in a long while.
Basically, you make a syrup with butter, castor sugar, Marsala (I used sherry), cream and honey. It's like a sugar and fat party in a saucepan. Then you saute apples (cored, peeled and quartered) in olive oil till they're golden brown. Pour the sauce over them, dollop on some Mascarpone (cause obviously there wasn't enough fat in that syrup), and sprinkle with walnuts.
It is completely bloody beautiful to eat. But I could physically feel the bad-for-me afterwards. But oh, the decadence!!
The syrup is amazing. The first taste just explodes in your mouth. It threatens to be too sweet (and the recipe definitely made too much), but the mascarpone undercuts it, and neutralises some of the sweet. The apples are perfect. The walnuts a mastershot.
If you're looking for something quick and simple that looks really complex and fancy, this is a good option.
Ratings:
Me: Thumbs up, though my pancreas disagrees.
Husband: Thumbs up
Student: Thumbs up
Fussy Teen: Thumbs down. (I guess dessert shouldn't have fruit in it. I dunno.)
Basically, you make a syrup with butter, castor sugar, Marsala (I used sherry), cream and honey. It's like a sugar and fat party in a saucepan. Then you saute apples (cored, peeled and quartered) in olive oil till they're golden brown. Pour the sauce over them, dollop on some Mascarpone (cause obviously there wasn't enough fat in that syrup), and sprinkle with walnuts.
It is completely bloody beautiful to eat. But I could physically feel the bad-for-me afterwards. But oh, the decadence!!
The syrup is amazing. The first taste just explodes in your mouth. It threatens to be too sweet (and the recipe definitely made too much), but the mascarpone undercuts it, and neutralises some of the sweet. The apples are perfect. The walnuts a mastershot.
If you're looking for something quick and simple that looks really complex and fancy, this is a good option.
Ratings:
Me: Thumbs up, though my pancreas disagrees.
Husband: Thumbs up
Student: Thumbs up
Fussy Teen: Thumbs down. (I guess dessert shouldn't have fruit in it. I dunno.)
Sunday, 20 November 2011
Tomato, garlic and basil pasta
We didn't know what to have for lunch today, so I said, "Hey, let's see what the next recipe is and whether it is lunch appropriate." It was!!
Really simple. Roast a head of garlic in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Put some pasta on to cook. The recipe said spaghetti, but we only had fettuccine, so that's what we used. Take the garlic out. Squeeze the edible bits out into a bowl. Mix with some olive oil, some pepper and salt, some tomatoes (I just used canned stuff, cos that's what we had, but I expect it would be awesome with fresh tomatoes too). Mix in the hot pasta, throw in some fresh basil leaves from the plant you're growing in your sunroom. Sprinkle some grated parmesan on top. And voila.
Simple, delicious, easy. Took maybe half an hour to make.
Extra points if, like us, you eat it while watching "The Godfather II". ;)
Ratings:
Me: Thumbs up. Good ingredients combined simply, what's not to like?
Husband: Thumbs up.
Monday, 17 October 2011
Pea soup and Mercian Salad
*dusts off blog*
So, I finally got our cookbooks on a shelf in the kitchen where they belong. I also seem to have found my round tuits, with the help of a little Android App called Astrid which is the electronic to do list I have been searching for for years. /plug.
So, I am going to try and finally do this little cooking project I have been planning on for ages. What it entails is working my way through the books, and cooking everything in them. Starting with the first recipe in the first book, then the first recipe in the second book, and so on, till I get to the end of the shelf and cycle back around.
Yes, I realise this will take me a LONG time. We're aiming for one a week, but some weeks (like this one!) we might just achieve more than that.
The first book on the shelf is a "Best of Floyd", so you can imagine my surprise and disappointment when it didn't have even a smidge of alcohol in it! (I really hope you all know about Floyd, or that will make no sense.)
It's a mint and pea soup. Pretty basic, cream, stock, mint and peas. Some butter, some seasoning. I even made proper real stock from a chicken carcass from the night before, cos I was feeling all culinary. Very easy, very basic recipe.
I'm not sure I've ever actually had pea soup before. I was less than impressed at first. It wasn't as minty as I expected it to be (even though I used FRESH MINT! From the GARDEN! As instructed.), but it grew on me. Kind of delicate. I love peas, so that helps.
We ate the leftovers the following day and it had thickened up a bit and was much nicer. The recipe certainly didn't say "Let it rest for a day", but it seemed to have improved it.
Ratings:
Me: Tentative thumbs up
Husband who loves food: Thumbs up
Incredibly fussy teen: Meh
Occasional hungry student: Thumbs up
The Mercian Salad comes out of a Spanish cookbook, and was actually made by the husband and said occasional student, who was here for dinner. I was otherwise occupied with the baby.
It's basically a salad made of roasted veggies - eggplant, onion, red pepper, garlic. There is about a ton of olive oil involved and some lemon juice, I think.
It was very similar to a Catalan dish that the boys make when we barbeque, except instead of cooking the veg over a fire, they're roasted in the oven. So it wasn't as exotic to us as it might have been. Nevertheless, it is one of my favourite things. Roast veggie salad, eaten cold. NOMNOMNOM. Also, you know, Mediterranean food for the win.
Me: Thumbs up
Husband who loves food: Thumbs up
Incredible fussy teen: Thumbs down
Occasional hungry student: Thumbs up
Next up: Almond and Roquefort Soup with Cheese Profiteroles. Mmmmm.
So, I finally got our cookbooks on a shelf in the kitchen where they belong. I also seem to have found my round tuits, with the help of a little Android App called Astrid which is the electronic to do list I have been searching for for years. /plug.
So, I am going to try and finally do this little cooking project I have been planning on for ages. What it entails is working my way through the books, and cooking everything in them. Starting with the first recipe in the first book, then the first recipe in the second book, and so on, till I get to the end of the shelf and cycle back around.
Yes, I realise this will take me a LONG time. We're aiming for one a week, but some weeks (like this one!) we might just achieve more than that.
The first book on the shelf is a "Best of Floyd", so you can imagine my surprise and disappointment when it didn't have even a smidge of alcohol in it! (I really hope you all know about Floyd, or that will make no sense.)
It's a mint and pea soup. Pretty basic, cream, stock, mint and peas. Some butter, some seasoning. I even made proper real stock from a chicken carcass from the night before, cos I was feeling all culinary. Very easy, very basic recipe.
I'm not sure I've ever actually had pea soup before. I was less than impressed at first. It wasn't as minty as I expected it to be (even though I used FRESH MINT! From the GARDEN! As instructed.), but it grew on me. Kind of delicate. I love peas, so that helps.
We ate the leftovers the following day and it had thickened up a bit and was much nicer. The recipe certainly didn't say "Let it rest for a day", but it seemed to have improved it.
Ratings:
Me: Tentative thumbs up
Husband who loves food: Thumbs up
Incredibly fussy teen: Meh
Occasional hungry student: Thumbs up
The Mercian Salad comes out of a Spanish cookbook, and was actually made by the husband and said occasional student, who was here for dinner. I was otherwise occupied with the baby.
It's basically a salad made of roasted veggies - eggplant, onion, red pepper, garlic. There is about a ton of olive oil involved and some lemon juice, I think.
It was very similar to a Catalan dish that the boys make when we barbeque, except instead of cooking the veg over a fire, they're roasted in the oven. So it wasn't as exotic to us as it might have been. Nevertheless, it is one of my favourite things. Roast veggie salad, eaten cold. NOMNOMNOM. Also, you know, Mediterranean food for the win.
Me: Thumbs up
Husband who loves food: Thumbs up
Incredible fussy teen: Thumbs down
Occasional hungry student: Thumbs up
Next up: Almond and Roquefort Soup with Cheese Profiteroles. Mmmmm.
Wednesday, 5 March 2008
Fail-safe quiche
I am always amazed by how many people seem to be terrified of making quiche. Quiche is what I make when I absolutely have to make something delicious and it has to be easy! I have gathered that it's all about the pastry. Other people make scary pastry that you have to cook in advance and that is all terribly complicated. Good news! That's all over! My quiche has a totally cheat pastry that people actually regularly comment on cos it's delicious and different. Here's how you make my totally fail safe quiche.
First of all, get a quiche dish. Tart dish. Pie dish. Whatever you choose to call it. (I struggled to find them in England because there they are "flan dishes". So now you know.)
In a mixing bowl, mix together about a cup of flour, (yes, I know that with OMG!Pastry you are not supposed to approximate, but I do. And my quiche always works. So there.) some butter or margarine (about 100mls, for those of you who need measurements) and some salt and pepper. This is really all you need, but if you leave it like this it's bland and meh. My secret ingredient is turmeric. A generous dollop of turmeric, and some grated cheese. Preferably cheddar. It will be yellow and munchy and scrumilicious.
Mix it together, and then add water in small amounts until it gets doughy. Then press it down into the pie/quiche/flan/tart dish.
Chop up the stuff you want in it. Honestly, the variations are endless, but here are some of my favourites:
salami, peppers, mushrooms, onion
tuna fish, onion, dill
herbs, mushrooms, peppers, bacon, garlic
chicken, brocolli
But really, you can put just about whatever you want in it. I regularly make leftover quiche with whatever we have floating around the house. If you're putting chicken in, you might want to cook it a little before, but everything else you can just chuck in as is. I sometimes add more grated cheese to the filling, if I am feeling decadent, but it isn't really necessary.
Throw this into the dish, on top of the notably uncooked pastry.
Then mix together about four eggs and some milk. You sort of want the consistency of uncooked scrambled eggs, in terms of the egg:milk ratio. Add some salt and pepper, and mixed herbs, if you are so inclined, mix 'em up good and scrambly, and pour this over the quiche.
Grate some cheese on top of the whole lot. The amount you use and the kind of cheese is up to you and your high or low-fat preference. Obviously the more cheese you put on top the higher the fat content of the quiche as a whole. I tend to use lots because cheese is my weakness, and I use a mixture of mozzarella and cheddar as first choice, though I have also used parmesan. Mostly, I make this on a whim, so I use whatever cheese happens to be in our fridge.
Put it in a preheated oven at 180C or so for about 30-50 minutes. It's done when it stops wobbling. Seriously. People who visit me have heard me get up and say, "I am going to wobble my quiche." This is not some weird euphimism, it is totally literal. When it doesn't wobble, it's done.
Enjoy.
First of all, get a quiche dish. Tart dish. Pie dish. Whatever you choose to call it. (I struggled to find them in England because there they are "flan dishes". So now you know.)
In a mixing bowl, mix together about a cup of flour, (yes, I know that with OMG!Pastry you are not supposed to approximate, but I do. And my quiche always works. So there.) some butter or margarine (about 100mls, for those of you who need measurements) and some salt and pepper. This is really all you need, but if you leave it like this it's bland and meh. My secret ingredient is turmeric. A generous dollop of turmeric, and some grated cheese. Preferably cheddar. It will be yellow and munchy and scrumilicious.
Mix it together, and then add water in small amounts until it gets doughy. Then press it down into the pie/quiche/flan/tart dish.
Chop up the stuff you want in it. Honestly, the variations are endless, but here are some of my favourites:
salami, peppers, mushrooms, onion
tuna fish, onion, dill
herbs, mushrooms, peppers, bacon, garlic
chicken, brocolli
But really, you can put just about whatever you want in it. I regularly make leftover quiche with whatever we have floating around the house. If you're putting chicken in, you might want to cook it a little before, but everything else you can just chuck in as is. I sometimes add more grated cheese to the filling, if I am feeling decadent, but it isn't really necessary.
Throw this into the dish, on top of the notably uncooked pastry.
Then mix together about four eggs and some milk. You sort of want the consistency of uncooked scrambled eggs, in terms of the egg:milk ratio. Add some salt and pepper, and mixed herbs, if you are so inclined, mix 'em up good and scrambly, and pour this over the quiche.
Grate some cheese on top of the whole lot. The amount you use and the kind of cheese is up to you and your high or low-fat preference. Obviously the more cheese you put on top the higher the fat content of the quiche as a whole. I tend to use lots because cheese is my weakness, and I use a mixture of mozzarella and cheddar as first choice, though I have also used parmesan. Mostly, I make this on a whim, so I use whatever cheese happens to be in our fridge.
Put it in a preheated oven at 180C or so for about 30-50 minutes. It's done when it stops wobbling. Seriously. People who visit me have heard me get up and say, "I am going to wobble my quiche." This is not some weird euphimism, it is totally literal. When it doesn't wobble, it's done.
Enjoy.
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