Fusion

My food buddy and I spent the past weekend in sunny and humid Durban. We were lucky enough to have spent our nights at a really posh hotel out in Ballito. We arrived there quite late and got the shock of our lives, while trying to check in. There was an extra zero added to the price tag. Shock. Horror. That would've made our stay 10 times more expensive than what we had budgeted. After a few sweaty palms and near-asthma attacks, the hotel staff soon realised that they made the mistake and World War III was soon averted.

Anyway, I made dinner reservations for us at an interesting restaurant in Musgrave called Fusion. The menu has Heston Blumenthal [and all his crazy scientific culinary wizardry] written all over it which got me really excited.

My buddy had the Thai Style Seared "Dishwasher" Beef Fillet that was slow-cooked for 4 hours at 48ºC in a dishwasher, served sliced on crushed potato and seasonal greens with a red wine sauce.

He claimed it was average and had nothing pleasant to say about it besides the well prepared veggies - what a shame.

I had the Fragrant Asian Duck which was a duck breast served on some really amazing red cabbage cooked in red wine vinegar and a duo of 4 hour slow-cooked thigh and leg on a crushed potato, with a plum reduction and a star anise, ginger, honey, orange, soy and sechwan jus - mouthful huh?
The jus, crushed potato, leg and thigh were heavenly. I really really enjoyed them. The breast was a little chunky and too chewy for my liking but edible nonetheless.

Dessert was just as interesting [sadly, I couldn't have any and had to rely on the buddy]. I made him order the Afrox liquid Nitrogen boiled ice cream. :-) What an interesting experience. They brought a metal base filled with liquid Nitrogen and covered it with a glass cup which they filled with liquid ice cream. The ice cream solidified as it hit the cup and bubbled with steam at the table. Fascinating stuff. My buddy says it was sweet tasting but too hard which made it difficult to consume. Perhaps best as an idea rather than an item on the menu. I was impressed regardless of this minor detail.

All in all, our experience was positive, The setting is beautiful, the restaurant was cosy and the staff really friendly. I think I'd go back there again if I was in the neighbourhood...

A novel idea

Source: People of Walmart

I do apologise for the picture quality (not my pic and not my idea). And if you can't figure out what's going on in the pic, some genius is trying to bake chocolate chip cookies in his car.

Best idea ever. It would also work very well in the scorching South African heat. Definitely must try it out. NOT! :-)

Happy's

I was asked to bake for my cousin's baby shower and decided to make vanilla cupcakes with a creamed cottage cheese topping. They really spread a lot of happiness so from here on, they shall be called Happy's :-)


Ingredients

• 2 cups self raising flour
• 1 cup canola oil
• 1 cup milk (I used fat free milk)
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup creamed cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon of red food colouring

Method

• Sift the flour in a bowl. Add to this the sugar and salt
• Add the canola and milk and mix (an electric beater makes life easy)
• Break the eggs into a cup, add vanilla essence to them, mix them and add to the above mix and beat for approximately minutes until batter is smooth
• Fill cupcake cases with the mix and bake for approximately 25 minutes in a preheated oven at 180C (this should yield about 24 cupcakes)
• Once baked, allow to cool for approximately 30 minutes
• In a separate bowl, mix the cottage cheese, icing sugar and cream until smooth (don't beat too hard as the mixture should be slightly runny)
• Add the food colouring and mix until blended and a light pink colour
• Pour a tablespoon of the cream mix onto the top of each cupcake. The mixture may run down the cupcake which is ok
• Top with garnish of your choice

Dinner with Mpho

I caught up with a friend I hadn't spoken to in a while today. We had a long chat about work,  love and everything else in between. While we were chatting I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude. Good friends are hard to come by and I know I don't appreciate them nearly enough as I should. [note to self]
I also came to the realisation that the plethora of social media we're exposed to gives us a false sense of friendship and makes us believe that we're connecting with people when we really aren't. Sad but true...

Anyway, I cooked a hearty meal and even baked for my dear friend. We both enjoyed it thoroughly :-)Dessert, as always, was my highlight and was really easy to prepare


Ingredients

• chocolate cake [see recipe from Chocolate sandwich 7 Feb 2012]
• 1 cup of raspberries
• 1 cup creamed cottage cheese
• 1 cup of cream
• 1 cup icing sugar

Method

• In a martini glass, place a layer of chocolate cake
• Mix the cottage cheese, cream and icing sugar in a bowl - pour a small portion[approximately 3 tablespoons] over the first layer of chocolate cake
• Place a few raspberries on top of the cream mix
• Add another layer of cake, cream mix and top with raspberries

There'll be plenty left over for seconds, thirds...[certainly not for weight watchers] :-)

For ninjas only

My uncle got married yesterday so I spent most of my weekend in Mpumalanga and didn't cook at all. I did, however, rediscover an old childhood favourite - Mayo.
It's name is deceiving and is nothing like mayonnaise. [in fact, ninjas pronouce it Maaah-yo] It's a drinking yoghurt and comes in 3 flavours. I really had forgotten how much I love the stuff and I wanted to buy it in bulk but got reprimanded by my food buddy. He gave a death stare and painfully pointed out its potential effects on my physique. [party pooper]

I've never seen this at my favourite chain food store and also don't know any non-ninjas who know about this delicacy. That leaves me to one conclusion - it's for ninjas only... :-)

Smoked fish and chicken

This is what boredom does to people. Very funny nonetheless :-)

Chocolate sandwich

I went jogging today after a very very VERY long break. So I decided to reward my body for all its hard work today by making the sweetest most decadent chocolate sandwich. Every corner, every crevice, every inch of my body clapped in appreciation :-)

Ingedients

• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons cocoa
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3/4 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup creamed cottage cheese
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1/4 cup butter (softened)
• 1 bar of white and dark chocolate

Method

• Preheat oven to 180C
• Sift the flour and cocoa in a bowl. Then add the sugar, canola oil, eggs and milk and mix well
• Pour mix into a greased baking tray and spread evenly. Bake for approximately 25 minutes
• In a separate bowl, mix the icing sugar, cottage cheese and butter
• Once the cake is baked, allow to cool, remove from baking tray and place onto a flat working surface 
• Cut cake in half, spoon filling onto the one half of the cake
• Top with the other half of the cake and cut into sandwich-sized triangles
• Place onto a plate and garnish with white and dark chocolate shavings
• Enjoy :-)