These are a few of my favourite things


Baking sweet treats is a favourite past time. These are some of my favourite. Email me for futher info or to place orders at info@lightlysalted.co.za



Chocolate cake with cream cheese icing



Chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese icing




Moist dark chocolate cake with chocolate sauce




Chocolate swiss roll with cream and caramel filling with chocolate balls



Swiss roll with caramel filling



Mi cocina

My first real taste of the globe and all things international was when I lived in London a few years ago.  This was the longest I’d ever been away from home and the first time I’d ever had to truly fend for myself. I came into my own and learned some really valuable lessons – like how fat I really could get if I continued to eat and drink as I wished. [I would share some some photos with you but I wouldn't want to put you through that]

Anyway, one of the many highlights of that time was the people I met there. I moved into a house with a South African girl from Cape Town, a Colombian chica and another from Spain. Our time together was interesting – we fought, bonded, drank and ate plenty together. And I have a few of those moments captured in pictures which always bring a smile to my face. Like the time we decided to bake chocolate pudding with chocolate sauce in our little kitchen. Bibi, the Colombian, decided to name our experiment ‘mi cocina’ which means ‘my kitchen’ in Spanish. The pudding was all sugar and butter and tasted just right.

I still make that kind of stuff in mi cocina…

Bibi



Poison in the making

Zana and Bibi

And the final product

O sole mio

O sole mio…I felt like singing this song after my first taste of the Tiramisu from Pomodoro (Morningside shopping centre). This Italian dessert was decadent, balanced in taste and form and oh so sexy…

I don’t know much about cars but I suspect that that’s what it feels like to drive a Ferrari. It must be…



Spud

I watched an episode of Gordon Ramsay’s kitchen nightmare a few weeks ago where he was trying to help resuscitate a restaurant that specializes in potato dishes. It reminded me of my love affair with the root. It’s a little more than serious and has been carrying on for quite some time.

I.LO.V.E. P.O.T.A.T.O.E.S.

I love them fried, baked, mashed, wedged, sliced, stripped [ok I made that one up]. Whatever, however. There. I said it!

So,  I’m gonna share one of my favourite potato recipes.

RECIPE

You’ll need the following:

·         5 large potatoes

·         2 spring onions

·         A handful of freshly chopped parsley

·         250ml of white wine

·         250ml of fresh cream

·         Olive oil

·         3 tbs butter

·         Salt and pepper

METHOD

·         Preheat oven to 180̊  ̊C

·         Peel and slice the potatoes and place in a pot of boiling water – cook until al dente

·         Heat olive oil and butter in a deep frying pan

·         Add spring onions and fry for approximately 3 minutes

·         Add wine, cream and half of the parsley and stir well

·         Drain potatoes and add to the sauce

·         Place cooked potatoes into a baking dish, pour all excess sauce over potatoes and bake in the oven for about 45minutes

·         Sprinkle the rest of the parsley over the potatoes shortly before serving

You can add bacon, chicken or both which will turn this from a side dish into a meal.

This is what mine usually looks like

Chocolate Swiss roll

I had the pleasure of baking for a colleague this past weekend. He just gave me the money and asked me to surprise him. Love it!

I decided to make a Swiss roll with a twist.

RECIPE

You’ll need the following:

·         100g flour

·         3 tbsp cocoa

·         100g castor sugar

·         3 eggs

·         ¼ tsp salt

·         250 ml whipping cream

·         100 ml caramel

·         +- 15 chocolate balls 

·         2 tbsp icing sugar

Method

·         Sift dry ingredients in a mixing bowl

·         Separate eggs and beat egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff

·         Gently fold egg yolks into egg whites

·         Gently fold dry ingredients into the eggs

·         Pour batter into a lined and greased baking tray, ensuring that the mix is evenly spread

·         Bake for 10 minutes at 200  ̊C

·         Once baked, place cake on clean kitchen towel, remove the baking sheet and allow to cool

·         Spread caramel evenly on the cake

·         Whip the cream and icing sugar together and spread evenly on the cake

·         Chop chocolate balls in half (as evenly as you can get them) and place on the cream spread

·         Roll the cake up carefully, slice and enjoy

NOT-SO-FINE PRINT: THIS COULD HAVE SERIOUS IMPLICATIONS FOR THOSE TRYING TO SHED SOME WEIGHT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Christmas in July

My Friday night was spend at Monte casino –at the Christmas in July organised by the Sunday times. We all had to be dressed warmly in something Christmassy with bellies ready to feast. Our 3 courses were served at 3 separate venues in the Monte Casino prescinct. [I honestly didn’t read this part of the brief and was rather upset about all the walking. I wouldn’t have signed up if I knew]

Starters were served at Punchinellos. We had a crab and mussel bisque with red pepper oil. The blobs of red oil in the bisque weren’t too appealing and it had a very pungent fishy smell[someone mentioned that she was highly offended by the smell of Cape town on her plate!] but was rather pleasant and an interesting mix of flavours. I didn’t finish it but enjoyed it nonetheless.

We then proceeded to trek what seemed like 30km through the casino to get to our next venue for our mains. We landed up at a restaurant called Medeo where we had the following:

Honey and five spice roasted turkey, deboned leg of lamb served with balsamic grilled radicchio and Brussels sprouts, caramelised onions and bacon. [And for those who don’t know what radicchio is, check this out.] The leg of lamb and veggies were great but the turkey was a bit of a let down.

Anyway, at the end of this was our next trek…for dessert! This was certainly the highlight of the evening for me. We landed up at Mondo Vino where we had individual molted chocolate pudding and hazelnut praline. I must tell you that I have a serious nut allergy and could die from consuming nuts. I noticed the hazelnts on the plate and had 2 choices – either send back the dessert and live to see another day OR pretent that they didn’t exist so that I could give you all an accurate and full account of the event. I chose the latter, of course, and only because I wanted to do a thorough job at giving you the full details of the courses and event.

The dessert was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. My little chocolate volcano erupted with chocolate sauce spilling gently over my plate as I scooped my first mouthful. It was warm, gooey and sweet - just what the doctor ordered. Oh, it looked pwetty too…



All was well with the world after this. Merry Christmas everyone...

Best of both

I have a friend[name withheld for obvious reasons] who has a very interesting palate. Her habits are sometimes questionable but at best, very interesting. She came to visit me some time ago and had some leftover stew I had made the previous night. I also offered her scones too which, I assumed, she’d have after her stew. She proceeded to put her scones IN THE STEW! She explained that the sweet and savoury combo just worked for her and that’s how she enjoyed her food. Ummm….really?? I have an overly active imagination so my mind started racing – there I was, imagining my sticky toffee pudding and ice cream in the same plate, and spoonful, as my green Thai curry. No. Some things just don’t go.

There are, however, some not-so-conventional combos that do work. Beetroot and cheese on toast is one of my recent discoveries and a new favourite. Beetroot used to be, and still is a staple in my mother’s house. I’ve always disliked the way it discolours anything it comes in contact with on the plate. Now that I’m a grown up myself, I choose NOT to have it on Sundays, or any other day of the week for that matter - except when it’s combined with cheese on toast. It sounds strange but it works, for some reason.

The recipe is quite simple. You need equal amounts of beetroot (premade and grated from the shop will do) and grated cheddar cheese.

·         Mix 2 heaped tablespoons of beetroot and cheese together

·         Add a tablespoon of mayonnaise to the combo and mix well

·         Add a bit of salt and pepper to taste

·         Chop a spring onion (as much as you can stomach) and add to mix

·         Place the filling on your bread of choice (I use ciabatta) and toast