RECIPE: Braaied, buttery Crayfish with garlic and parsley

For me, birthdays are best celebrated with food and friends... starting off the day with a spot of kreefing! You can NEVER beat a freshly caught, buttered braaied Crayfish!

Braaied, buttery Crayfish with garlic and parsley

Boil crayfish in a pot filled with water until it turns pink. Remove, drain and slice in half (lengthways down the middle). Chop up garlic and soften in a pan with butter, add the parsley. Pour the garlic and parsley butter over the Crayfish  and braai flesh facing down for literally1 min. Pull of the braai and enjoy!!!

RECIPE: Traditional Cape Malay bobotie

Bobotie is probably one of my FAVOURITE dishes in the whole wide world! Nothing else tastes quite like it... A sweet symphony of chutney, raisins, lightly spiced curry and a hint of lemon - BEAUTIFUL!

Traditional Cape Malay Babotie
adapted from

Ingredients:
1kg of lamb or beef mince
2 onions
4 slices of bread
250ml milk
2 eggs
1Tbs curry powder
1Tbs sugar
salt and pepper to taste
2tsp ground tumeric
2tsp ground cumin
2tsp ground corriander
juice and zest of 1 lemon
handful of raisins
bay leaves

50ml chutney

a stack of garlic

 

Preheat the  oven to 180C/350F. Fry onions in a pan until lightly coloured. Add the mince and fry until it starts to turn brown. In a bowl, soak the bread in the milk until soggy, press out excess milk and mash the bread. Mix all the ingredients together (except: eggs, 1Tbs milk, lemon and bay leaves). Place mixture into a casserole dish and press in the bay leaves allowing the ends to show. Bake the dish for an hour. Beat the eggs and the remaining milk. Pour over the top of the dish and bake for a further half hour.

I baked mine in little ramikins - change the cooking time to 30min then 15min with the egg mixture.

 

You can serve with yellow rice and chutney, desicated coconut, pickled beetroot, sambals like; banana and yoghurt, chopped tomato and onion... here I have served mine with yellow rice and a fresh beetroot and carrot salad with granadilla dressing.

RECIPE: beetroot and carrot cake with coconut cream chantilly

Carrot cake has never really been my bag, usually it barely comes close to that beautiful natural sweet nutty flavour of carrots and often it's overloaded with sugar. I find myself wondering if there are in fact carrots in there at all! Anyway... I had a ton of beetroot and carrot salad leftovers that could NOT go waste and naturally, carrot cake is the answer. This has certainly changed my opinion!

Beetroot and carrot cake with coconut cream chantilly
adapted from A-Z of Vegetarian Cooking in South Africa

Ingredients:
500ml/2 cup Flour (1 cup wholewheat and 1 cup white flour)
10ml baking powder
bit of cinnamon
bit less nutmeg
pinch of ground allspice
2 eggs, seperated
75ml oil
125ml honey/ 150ml treacle sugar
75ml milk/ water
10ml vanilla essance
rind of 2 grated oranges
500ml grated carrot (or half carrot, half beetroot).

*Nutty Carrotcake: Add 50ml  chopped nuts and 50ml of seedless rasins to the basic batter.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. In a large mixing bowl, combinel the dry ingredients. In a seperate mixing bowl combine all the wet ingredients (except for the egg whites) then add the grated carrot and beetroot. Stir into the dry ingredients and mix well. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold carefully into the batter. Place batter into a well greased baking tin. Bake for 45min - 1hour or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Chantilly ingredients:
half tin of Coconut cream
500ml icing sugar
desicated coconut/ coconut flakes

Whisk the coconut cream and sifted icing sugar until smooth. Place it in the refrigerator or deep-freeze until firm. Then pour over the cake and sprinkle with coconut.

When I made this, I got a little over-excited about eating it... I ended up pouring the chantilly over the cake while it was still warm which immidiately melted it - still tasted AWESOME though!

RECIPE: Garlicy, lemony prawns

When it comes to prawns, I am always on the hunt for that all you can eat sign at the restaurant and could quite literally eat more than a kilo! However, I'm not such a fan of the fried factor - I try to avoid it at all costs! So, here's prawns, the way I LOVE it...

My FAMOUS prawns
Serves 2 or as many as you want on a platter

Marinade 800g of  whole deveined prawns in a ton of garlic, a glug of olive oil, loads of freshly squeezed lemon juice and a shake of Ina Parmans Rosemary and Olive Salt. I like to leave the heads on for flavour and shells on for crunch.

Lay the prawns out on a baking pan, pour the marinade over them and grill in the oven at 180C for 15min (or until pink). Or tip the prawns and marinade into a cast iron pot and cook on full for 5min (or until pink) - if there are too many to fit in the pot, cook half first. You will always hear people talking about floury over-cooked prawns... don't let this happen to you! The moment they start going pink, you've got about 1-2min left. If you are unsure of the cooking time, do one first and taste to discover the way YOU LIKE IT!

Serve with the sticky marinade - grab some baguette to mop up the juice!

RECIPE: Jammy thumbprint biscuits

There is nothing better than tea and biscuits on a Sunday afternoon... and that jammy goodness adds such decadance!  With Christmas coming up, pop them in a glass jar with a ribbon as a  tastey gift! They are so quick and easy to make....

Jammy Thumbprint biscuits
makes about 30

Ingredients:
2 sticks butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup icing sugar
2 cups flour
 jam (I used half lemon marmalade and half rasberrylicious)

First, leave the butter out to soften to room temperature. Preheat oven to 175C/ 350F.
Cream the vanilla into the butter. Then add the icing sugar and cream it in too. Once it is well mixed, add the flour a little at a time and mix in. Stir until the dough has a smooth consistency.

Roll the dough into little balls. Place the balls on an ungreased cookie sheet about two inches apart. Press your thumb into the center of each cookie, squishing it a bit and making a little well in the middle. (Do not press all the way through the ball, though!) Spoon a dab of  jam into each thumbprint.
 
Bake on for 15 minutes, or until just barely starting to brown at the edges. Let cool on the pan for a minute, then transfer to a rack to cool to room temperature. They will keep if you store them in an airtight container.

RECIPE: Marshmallow Cupcakes

When it comes to baking, cupcakes take the cake!

So for my sister's 15th birthday I made mouth-watering marbled marshmallowy cupicakes!

This is my FAVOURITE flop-proof cupcake recipe - the best starter to ANY variation...

Marshmallow Cupcakes

adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery

Makes 12 big ones

Ingredients:

120g/1 cup cake flour

140g/ 3/4 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3 Tbs softened butter

120ml/ 1/2 cup full cream milk

1 large egg

1/4  tsp vanilla extract

12 marshmallows

250g/ 2 cups icing sugar

5 Tbs softened butter 

2 Tbs full cream milk
drop of vanilla extract
12 marshmallows
 

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F. Put flour, sugar, baking powder and butter into a mixing bowl (add 1/4 cup cocoa powder for chocolate cupcakes). Using a handheld electric whisk on slow speed until combined (I used my Kenwood food processor with dough blade attachment). Gradually pour in half the milk and beat until the milk is just incorporated. 

Whisk the egg, vanilla extract and remaining milk together in a seperate bowl, then pour it into the flour mixture and continue to beating until smooth. Place a marshmallow in each cupcake case and then spoon in the mixture until two-thirds full. Bake for 20-25 min or until golden. Leave cupcakes to cool.

For the frosting, beat the sugar and butter in a bowl until mixed well. Add the milk and vanilla extract. Once incorporated, whisk untill light and fluffy. Chop up the marshmallows and mix them in. Spoon the frosting mixture onto the cupcakes and sprinkle with coloured sugar or edible glitter.

RECIPE: Strawberry Pavlova

I absolutely ADORE Pavlova! Crunchy on the outside, chewey towards the middle and then, BAM that lucious cloud-like centre... laden with whipped cream and fresh tart strawberries, nothing comes close to its splendour.  

Strawberry Pavlova

adapted from Mary Berry's Best Desserts

Serves 8

Ingredients:

3 large egg whites

175g/ 3/4 cup caster sugar

1tsp white wine vinegar

1tsp cornflour

800g strawberries 

250ml double/ whipping cream  

 

Turn on the oven to 150C/300F. Cover a large baking tray with greaseproof paper (you may want to grease the paper with the tiniest smudge of oil or butter - mine was a little determined to stay on the tray).

In a large bowl, with electric mixer onfull speed, (I used my Kenwood food processor with whisk attachment) beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually sprinkle in the sugar a tablespoon at a time, allowing it to mix fully before the next addition. In a cup, blend the vinegar with the cornflour and whisk into the egg whites along with the last spoonful of sugar. 

Spread the meringue mixture onto the baking tray in one big circle or 8 little dollops. Try build up the sides a little higher than the centre (I spread 2/3 of the mixture, then piped the remaining 1/3 into little peaks along the edges). Put the tray in the centre of the oven and reduce the heat to 140C/275F. Bake for 1 hour, or 45 min for the small ones. 

Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Once completely cooled, top with whipped cream and freshly sliced strawberries.

This one is definately a WINNER for me! 

It looks like a Million Dollars yet relys on such simple ingredients.

What to do with leftover egg yolks:

Yolks will keep, covered, in the fridge for three days. If unbroken, gently cover the yolk with cold water to prevent the surface of the yolk from coagulating.

You can make:

* Custard

* Zabaglione

* Creme brulee

* Lemon curd

* Mayonaise

i.LOVE.food.

i.LOVE.food. There is no doubt about it... i'm a little bit obssessed!

I love thinking about food | I love writing about food | I love talking about food | I love eating food | I love photographing food | I love creating new recipies | I love following old recipies | I love healthy.free range.organic.happy.GM-free.colourful. interseting.food | I love the Fresh Living, TASTE, and AVOCADO food magazines | I love inspiration of food  | I love trying new foods | I love my utensils for making food | and I pretty much worship food |

On the same note - i.LOVE.camembert cheese!