In the Pink

As you may or may not have guessed, I read a lot of food Blogs. Sometimes they are the only things that keep me sane and sometimes they push me right over the brink into crazy, but they never fail to inspire me. These guys and girls from across the globe use their beautiful pictures, words and ingredients to fill the on-line community with a passion for cooking. Every once in a while it seems that everyone has one thing in mind and every blog you click on has the same theme or main ingredient. For the past few weeks that has been true once more, and it seems like everyone out there is loving rhubarb right now. Bright pink stems are popping out at me from the computer screen in all sorts of dishes and even on a trip down to the shops I'm not safe from the pink assault. So today it seemed there was nothing else for it, I had no choice but to join in.


Armed with several spears of gorgeous forced rhubarb, a dessert book I'd been given as a present months ago (but thus far have not used) and a sense of adventure, I took my kitchen by storm. I wanted to try and make something I've never made before and use something I've never had the guts to use before. I was going big and aiming high, I set me sights on making panna cotta and using leaf gelatin for the first time! After some cream boiling, gelatin soaking, vanilla pod splitting and vodka adding, I put my little filled moulds into the fridge, fingers crossed. It was time to give the rhubarb my full attention. Pulling a jar of vanilla infused caster sugar off the shelf, I chucked the little chunks of pinky goodness into a saucepan and cooked them in a sugar syrup to a pulpy, sticky sauce. Heaven in a mouthful.


The moment of truth came after dinner. Will they slip out of the moulds without a fight, or will I be faced with a sad, collapsed mess? With baited breath and severe (tongue sticking out) concentration, I coaxed the little puddings out of their moulds. I let out a huge sigh of relief as one by one they flopped onto the plates, holding their shape. After drizzling them generously with the pink syrup, there was nothing else for me to do but grab a spoon and tuck in :)

...And Many More!!

Birthdays seem to be surrounding me at the moment. This morning I was singing "Happy Birthday" to my big sister over the Internet, on Saturday my sweet little niece will be turning 2 and tomorrow, together with the Queen, Paul's boss will also be in on the Birthday action. Unfortunately I can't be there to join in on the celebrations with my sister and her daughter on their big days, and no, I didn't get an invitation to the Queen's party either. I can however help to celebrate the Guv'ner's birthday, and as he has the biggest sweet tooth of anyone I know, that always means baking him something special for the day.


For the first time in ages I found myself paging through my countless cook books again, searching for a cake fit for the occasion. As I looked over all of the glossy pictures of beautifully decorated cakes and bakes, I felt that familiar old sense of inspiration tingling in my very veins again. I could hardly wait to get back into my own kitchen and get started. I found my recipe, a fluffy, eggy and moist almond cake, I started rummaged through my cupboards for a suitable cake tin, but instead found a mini muffin silicone mould. Immediately I changed my mind. Why bake one big cake, when I can bake lots of little bite-sized cakes?! I felt almost giddy when I started taking out all of the ingredients, and by the time I took the cakes out of the oven, I was as happy as Larry.


I kept the frosting simple, bitter cocoa powder and icing sugar mixed to a smooth paste with a few drops of warm water. Luckily for me, I made a few too many cakes and could use a couple to make a quick dessert for Paul and me. Topped with a dollop of whipped cream, a slice of strawberry and a sprinkle of chocolate shavings, I had something special to celebrate everyone's birthday.

Saying Good-bye to the best Brownies in Town

Oh my, it has been a while since I posted anything on my blog. I can give you excuses, but I won't bore you with the details. All I'll say for now is that Spring has sprung here in London town, I'll have some free time on my hands and we can all look forward to plenty more posts from now on.

Tomorrow is a big day for me. For just over a year now, I have been an Oompa Loompa, baking great big cookies and scrummy brownies with and for great people, but tomorrow this adventure will come to an end. It has been an amazing, crazy and educational year and an experience I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. I have learnt more than I ever thought possible and can say with certainty that I had baked some of the best brownies in London (just ask anyone that has ever tasted them:) or rush over to Harvey Nics and try them for yourself)



For now I will not be returning to the professional kitchen, but I will still be baking and sharing my crazy creations once again with the blogging world! More to follow soon...

A Veggie Affair

At the moment life is running at full tilt and time is a very precious thing to me. Everyday is flying by me at an alarming rate and there just never seem to be enough hours in a day to do everything I wanted to at the start. This ultimately means that even preparing simple dinners have become something that gets rushed through to purely serve the purpose of filling our tummies.

Realising that not only is this rushed lifestyle not good for me physically, it also is not good for my soul. To put this right I have decided that no matter how crazy and busy my week might be, I will set aside one evening a week to cook us a proper, healthy dinner. This will give us the kick of nourishment and vitamins that we need, but most importantly will also help my mind and body to relax and to just again enjoy cooking.


The changing weather is the biggest influence in my choice of what to cook at the moment and this week I again took my inspiration from the beauty and bounty of Autumn. After a quick visit to my much loved local green grocers, I returned with a bulging bag of amazing veggies to grill to perfection and drape generously over home made, olive oil drenched focaccia and top with sticky, poached quail's eggs. After making the yeasty focaccia dough and waiting for it to raise and proof, I spent a good hour to prepare the vegetables; Peeling and turning the artichokes, revealing the fleshy heart and cooking it in a vinegar solution, snapping, trimming and par-steaming the asparagus, de-seeding and roughly slicing the multi-coloured peppers, peeling and halving the sweet, baby shallots and lastly popping the crimson red plum tomatoes off their vines and rolling them in sea-salt and black pepper grounds. All this went into the roasting tin, drizzled with olive oil and straight under a very hot grill to char and bubble their way to veggie heaven. While this was happening, I formed the bread dough into the rustic focaccia shape, waiting to go into the oven as soon as the vegetables were ready to go to the bottom shelf of a cooler oven.


Minutes before we were ready to tuck in, I cracked the delicate little quail's eggs into boiling water to lightly poach and turn into tiny pillows of perfection. As all my labours of love came together on our plates, and we happily ate our way through it all, I knew that finally I was not just feeding my body, but also my soul :)

Daring to Relax

Another month has flown by and my, what a month it has been. Things at work have gone from being busy to being down right crazy, with orders flowing in from all directions and big department stores queuing up to get our cookies into their foodhalls. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bragging or complaining here. I'm just trying to explain why, when I opened up the Daring Bakers website this month and saw that our challenge this time will be Vol-au-vents, I didn't exactly jump with joy.

I love working with pastry and really wished that this challenge had been set at a less hectic time. I could have spent hours in the kitchen, making all sorts of different shapes and sizes, each batch getting a different delicious and creamy filling to make all of the senses pop. Unfortunately, I was lacking both the time and the energy for this sort of venture, and therefore decided to make only a small portion of the pastry and to use it for large vol-au-vents for one of our mid-week dinners.

After reading through the pages of discussion from the other Daring Bakers, and realising that many of them did not succeed on their first go, I was a bit hesitant on using one of my rare days off to make the pastry. However, I was determined not to let this challenge pass me by and after deciding to just go for it, got my rolling pin out. I was only a few minutes into the process, getting ready to roll the butter into the leaves of the beautiful, soft dough when I realised that I was starting to relax and I could actually feel the stresses of my month rolling away with each turn of the pastry.


By the time the pastry was ready to finally roll out and cut into the required discs, I was so relaxed and happy to be in my own kitchen again, that my head was buzzing with ideas of fillings for the gloriously golden, wonderfully risen cups. After a quick rummage through my fridge, I decided on a delicate and soft, whole grain mustard flecked, cream cheese filling, topped with a wafer thin slice of smoked salmon, a small and piquant peppadew pepper and a bright green sprig of rocket. Needless to say, leftovers were not a problem and I luckily remembered to snap a picture of them before they dissapeared into hungry tummies.

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

Figs and Family

In my life, I have upped roots and relocated more times than I care to remember. When asked were I grew up, I can never give a simple answer, but rather have to list the names of several cities and towns were me and my family had lived. This wasn't always a bad thing though, as each new home brought new friends, new experiences and new regional fresh produce. One of our many moves took us to the affluent suburbs of Pretoria and we lived in a big old house with a long established garden. Although this was by no means my favourite house, I remember this garden very fondly as in it there was a mulberry tree, a plum tree and most amazingly a fig tree. We spent many a Saturday up in the branches of these trees, filling our stomachs to bursting point with all the juicy, purple fruits. Since then we have lived in many more homes and I have even moved half way across the world, but I still miss that fig tree.

Although I decided to move to the UK years ago and it's a choice I have never regretted, living so far away from my family has never gotten any easier. There are however things that make their absence almost bearable, regular calls thanks to the wonder of Skype, quickly typed emails to share a joke, or even eating one of their favourite foods. Here, once again my thoughts turn to figs. Not only are they a reminder of days spent back home with family, but they have also come to be a reminder of wonderful visit here in London with my mum and aunty. The three of us, sitting on the steps in front of St. Paul's cathedral, wrapped up warm against the chilly autumn wind and breaking open our figs' purple skins to reveal the bright red flesh inside. This is why, when these fruits start making their appearance in the green grocers and supermarkets, I cannot leave the store without a few of them in my shopping bag.


They are such amazing fruits, that I usually eat them all, fresh and unadorned before I even have time to think about making anything more from them. However, when I brought home a bag full the other day, I somehow managed to stop myself from eating them all and starting thinking of making a dessert with them. Cut into quarters, drizzled with honey, beautifully arranged on a crisp palmier and served with a generous dollop of Greek yoghurt, this tasted so heavenly that I completely forgot to take a picture of the end result! I did however remember all the good times, spent in the company of the ones I love.

Fishy Business

As I pull open my curtains in the mornings, I am met by yellows, oranges, browns and faded greens, all rustling in the chilly wind as I walk to work. The evenings are drawing to a close earlier each day and once again I find myself searching for meals to warm me from the inside out.

Meaty, rich red burgers with chunky oven crisped chips. Fat, round and glossy brown sausages on a bed of creamy mash smothered in a luxurious onion gravy. Silky smooth and flavourful broad bean and butternut risotto, is to name but a few dishes that regularly make it onto our dinner plates. There is however something that does not make its appearance on our plates often enough and that is fish. I am not the world's greatest lover of fish. Sea-food I simply adore, but when I am faced with a pink, raw piece of salmon or a whole sea bass, I very quickly turn up my nose. This is once again my childhood fussiness making me prejudice to something that is both extremely good for me and actually truly delicious.

Yet again determined to change my own mindset toward another one of my food dislikes, I have tried and tested several ways of cooking all sorts of fish. Obviously, coating a piece of white fish in a bubbly batter and deep frying it, is one of the easiest ways to disguise the taste of the fish, but is by no means a healthy plate of food. Grilling salmon fillets and serving it with lemony veggies is a much healthier option and I will every so often prepare and eat this meal, but it still wasn't the answer. Then, very unexpectedly and thanks to another request from Paul, the answer came to me, fish pie!

The perfect combination of oily, white and smoked fish, all delicately poached in a milky fish stock. Then smothered in a rich and creamy white sauce, dotted with pink prawns and green peas and covered with fluffy mash and strong cheddar gratin. This was exactly what I was looking for, and exactly what I prepared when another chilly evening pushed me into the warmth of the kitchen. Taking the bubbling pie dish from the oven, my mouth was already watering for a bite. Happiness :)