Tis the season to be jolly

A few of my girlfriends and I got together and cooked up a storm recently. We had an amazing and sumptuous 3 course meal fit for a king – and we made it all from scratch! Here are a few of the winning recipes.

STARTERS

Cheese meatballs

Ingredients

·         3 cups finely shredded cheddar cheese

·         1 cup bread crumbs

·         salt

·         black pepper

·         1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

·         1 kg lean beef mince

Method

·         In a large bowl, combine the first five ingredients. Crumble beef over mixture and mix well. Shape into balls. Place meatballs on a greased rack in a shallow baking pan.

·         Bake at 190° for 12-15 minutes or until the meat is no longer pink

Recipe from keyingredient.com

Grilled flat bread

Ingredients

•      1/2 cup warm water

•      1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast

•      1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for bowl and brushing

•      1 1/3 cups white bread flour, plus more for dusting

•      3/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste

Method

·         Heat a grill or grill pan until hot. Place water in a medium bowl, and sprinkle yeast on top; stir to dissolve. Let sit until foamy, about 10 minutes.

·         Add olive oil, flour, and salt; combine. Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, 1 to 2 minutes.

·         Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let stand in a warm place for 30 minutes. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into four equal pieces, and roll out each into a 1/8-inch-thick round.

·         Lightly brush both sides of each portion with olive oil, and place directly on the hot grill. Grill the flatbread until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Remove from grill, and season with salt.

Recipe from keyingredient.com

 

MAIN COURSE

Grilled salmon

Ingredients

·         Salmon steaks

·         Chillies

·         Garlic

·         Fennel

·         Olive oil, salt and pepper

Method

·         Preheat oven to 190°

·         Finely chop the chillies, garlic and fennel and place in bowl

·         Add olive oil and some salt and pepper to taste and mix well

·         Lightly dip the salmon in the olive oil mix and place on a greased oven tray

·         Bake for approximately 15 minutes

DESSERT

Tiramisu

Ingredients

·         1 packet of Lady fingers (approximately 400g)

·         2 eggs

·         500g mascarpone cheese

·         4 cups brewed strong coffee, cooled

·         120g sugar

·         Cocoa powder

·         Coffee liqueur

Method

·         Separate eggs in a medium sized bowl. Mix egg yolks with sugar and beat until smooth. Gently mix yolks with mascarpone cheese until smooth

·          In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. Fold egg whites into cheese

·         Dip Lady fingers in the coffee and line the bottom of a large glass bowl. This needs to be done quickly as they absorb moisture very quickly and become soggy

·         Spoon half of the filling over the lady fingers until completely covered

·         Add another layer of lady fingers on top of that

·         Top up with the rest of the mascarpone cheese filling

·         Dust with cocoa powder and refrigerate for at least 4 hours



             

Gone fishing

The Lightly salted crew is out of town for 2 weeks. We promise to bring more juicy and interesting stories for you soon

Art

Food really is exciting. I feel this way about it every time I get to sample something made a little differently.  I mean, there must be a million and one different ways to cook just about anything you think of.  So much so that I think it’s quite possible to have a new culinary experience with every single meal you have…No repeats. No favourites. Imagine...

Anyway, last week I had the pleasure of experiencing something different.

The chef went from this…

…to this

East African coffee spiced beef fillet medallions with pickled courgettes, edamame beans [immature soybeans in the pod commonly found in Japan, China, and Hawaii. The pods are boiled in water together with condiments such as salt, and served whole.]  with roasted red pepper dressing. The medallions were cooked to perfection and just melted in the mouth. The beans and pepper dressing added a different dimension to the dish – magic. I wanted to clap in appreciation.

I would share the details of the restaurant but it would be pointless as it doesn’t have a name and isn’t open to the public. Unless you’re friends with me and get invited to lunch one fine afternoon…  J

Sooo profound :-)

Berrylicious

It feels like a typical day in London today – wet and cold. Love love love it! The problem though is that this weather always inspires an unhealthy activity in the kitchen.

I’m trying to fit into a bikini in 2 weeks but I just can’t seem to find the will power to stay away from my most favouritest thing in the world – dessert. L Damn you Stefano!

So today, I consulted one of my new acquisitions, flipped a few pages and came across something very sexy – the Cherry Clafoutis. It’s a baked French dessert made with cherries and batter. I didn’t have cherries in the fridge and sure as hell wasn’t going to drive out in the rain to find them so I improvised. I used blueberries and strawberries instead and it turned out just fine…mighty fine, in fact J

The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients

·         ¼ cup melted butter

·         1 cup strawberries

·         ½ cup blueberries

·         ½ cup self raising flour

·         3 eggs

·         Pinch of salt

·         ½ cup sugar

·         1 cup milk

Method

·         Preheat oven to 160 ̊c

·         Grease oven proof dish

·         Arrange berries evenly on the dish

·         In a bowl, sift flour, add sugar, salt, butter, eggs and mix well. Gradually add the milk until mixture is runny and mix well.

·         Gently pour the mixture over the berries and bake for approximately 35 minutes

·         I had mine with double cream Greek yoghurt (yes, healthy, I know) and it tasted like a dream



On a high

My Sunday was spent at Anika’s Deli in Nelson Mandela square with a bunch of really lovely people. It was a very intimate affair as only a handful of people were there. We had high tea [really posh] and I got to meet some really dynamic, powerful, yet down-to-earth individuals. The food was also lovely - salmon and cream topped scones, lovely moist chocolate brownies, quiche, camembert parcels…and more

Many profound things were mentioned but this one stood out the most:

To be valuable and sustainable, you need to add to your complexity. You need to be, know and experience more than just your reality. That’s how one becomes and remains relevant, indispensable and dynamic

                                               

The speaker was sitting in board meetings at age 26 and became one of our country's youngest CEOs at just 29. She clearly lives by these words as she is exactly that. The cherry on top is that she is indeed a warm, real individual with her feet set firmly in the ground.

After speaking to her, I realize that being a shooting star and maintaining that momentum is a daily, conscious effert. You have to want to be that person and really work at it constantly.

I'm working on being that person…

Chopsticks

Some of my girlfriends and I recently got together for dinner in Pretoria and had a fabulous bonding session.  We reminisced and had thigh-slapping giggles about everything – from how we met to the boys we fancied back in the day.

Koi in Lynwood was our meeting place and the food there was fabulous, as usual. We had dim sum for starters and I must say that it was quite comical watching some of them [no names mentioned] tackling their chopsticks. I decided to be very boring that night and had the tried and tested red Thai curry as my main.

Dessert, however, was a little more adventurous – chocolate and banana spring rolls with white chocolate sauce. The first couple of bites were a little strange but I soon grew to like it. Bananas and chocolate aren’t the best combo for me but this really worked well. I shall be trying that in mine own kitchen J

Our evening ended with plenty hugs and see-you-soon’s and as we all parted ways, I couldn’t help but feel grateful – grateful for loving, crazy girlfriends who are always ready to share a good laugh..and meal...

Photos are courtesy of a very talented young lady - Acanda. Her work is show cased here ourredroom.tumblr.com/