i’ve been meaning to tell you about a local restaurant i visited recently with some friends during the world cup, we went to watch the (heartbreaking) ghana / uruguay match there and it was awesome. amazink eatery is in kayamandi, stellenbosch and they serve yummy braai food such as generous portions of pap & wors (which i had, accompanied by delicious chakalaka and creamed spinach) and other typically south african meals. the place was packed, the vibe was great, the food was tasty, i had too many beers and when it was all over my friends and i were sold. next time you’re in stellenbosch make sure you pay them a visit.
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homemade nutella
wow, so jessica and i finally had the chance to try another little recipe for our food series. this time something sweet – homemade nutella. the pics alone will show you how ridiculously easy this is to make, at a fraction of the price of real nutella … and it’s actually tastier (in my opinion)
you’ll need a bar of your preferred chocolate – obviously the better the chocolate the nicer your nutella is going to be. the slab of beacon served us well, but i can imagine that using lindt would be delectable…
150 grams hazelnuts:
1/2 cup of icing sugar:
1/4 cup of cocoa powder:
a couple of teaspoons of vegetable oil:
that’s all you need! now, roast the hazelnuts in a hot oven. jessica used her pizza oven, but just use a conventional oven, i’d say 180°c / 350°f – and keep an eye on it. when they start browning, take them out.
mmm perfectly roasted hazelnuts…
in the meantime, melt your chocolate using a double boiler or simply a bowl on top of a pot of boiling water – on low heat. the chocolate has to melt slowly to prevent becoming lumpy or grainy.
mmm perfectly melting chocolate…
while the chocolate is melting pop your hazelnuts into a food processor (note: a food processor, not a blender)
grind away until the nuts become a bit buttery but still chunky:
add all the dry ingredients and the completely melted chocolate:
if your food processor is broken, just jimmy it with a knife….
please also notice the incredibly ironic red dot design award sticker on this faulty piece of machinery
so, you’ll want to blend away until the mix is as smooth as possible – this will probably take around 15 minutes. add in a teaspoon or two of the vegetable oil while it’s going…. you won’t get it as smooth as real nutella unless you have an industrial blender.
when you’re satisfied with the smoothness let the mixture set for about an hour (put it in the fridge if you like)
… and serve with a freshly baked croissant or just eat it on it’s own …
mmmm NUTELLA!
buttermilk fried chicken
for the first installment of our food series, jess wanted to try a buttermilk fried chicken recipe that didn’t smack of KFC. this isn’t the usual fare at nook, which is probably one of the reasons it was so appealing to make, plus it was a perfect sunny saturday and we had cold beers in the fridge. what goes best with cold beers? fried chicken. you’ll need:
the brine is in order to prep the chicken. bring all the ingredients to the boil and then let it cool down. soak the chicken overnight (12 hours) and then rinse the pieces under water, otherwise the meat will be too salty. basically the brine just makes the chicken super tender (and boy does it turn out tender…)
now prep your coating – mix all the dry ingredients together (flour, spice, paprika) and divide into two bowls.
pour the buttermilk into another bowl.
from here it’s super simple, dip the chicken into flour bowl 1, then buttermilk, then flour bowl 2…
place the battered pieces on a tray lined with baking paper, thusly:
heat your oil so long, to 160 C / 320 F
when the oil is ready place your first piece of chicken in (sizzle sizzle)
turn the pieces every now and then
you can put a few pieces in at a time, enough to sit comfortably in the pot. frying time is 10-12 minutes…
mmm perfectly crispy fried chicken
let them chill on a cooling tray for a few minutes
garnish with your favourite herbs – jess quick fried some fresh marjoram
nom nom nom!
serve with locally brewed beer, crisp white wine & a simple green salad
perfect…
bon appetito…
ps: this was much much better than KFC, obviously.
cinnabons
just a wee pictorial teaser before i kick off the new food series jessica and i are doing (she cooks, i take photos and we eat). this isn’t a real how to because i wasn’t really paying attention while she was making her famous cinnabons – i was just picking at the pastry and warming myself in front of the oven, really.
she defrosted some sweet dough from the freezer:
roll it out, with vigour:
spread some muscovado sugar:
superette
i finally got round to going to superette and it is as good as i’ve heard. went there on a saturday morning after a night of one too many margaritas, so was dying for a coffee and some runny eggs. i really hate crowded restaurants and was kind of dreading that it would be packed full of the same crowd that goes to the biscuit mill market, but luckily the atmosphere was super mellow and the staff were friendly & attentive.
i opted for the poached eggs and didn’t actually read the small print – so i was surprised by the mound of crispy bacon, four huge asparagus stalks, a baby marrow (with flower, yum), side salad and a generous chunk of bread… not to mention the perfectly cooked poached eggs. A+ guys.
i love coffee
i really liking this new local blog i love coffee
ilovecoffee.co.za is about coffee culture. the beans, the people, the places, the experience. think of it as an expedition to find the best coffee experiences SA has to offer while meeting and introducing you to the people that make it all possible.
debbie carlos
when it comes to food styling i usually find myself attracted to the simplest of shots. something like a perfectly cooked egg on a piece of toast just does it for me. mmm… perfect eggy. debbie carlos has a very tasty looking collection.
greek salad
after spying a classic walnut, blue cheese & pear salad on robyn maclarty’s blog koek, i immediately thought of my favourite salad of the authentic greek kind. i’m not talking the watered down version you get at mugg & bean and numerous other cafes across the country – greek salad does not have lettuce in it.
roast red pepper & tomato soup
i’ve been making a lot of soups lately – even though it’s unbearably hot here right now. they’re cheap to make, i can freeze the leftovers (which end up tasting even nicer a few weeks/months down the line when you reheat them), you can eat them hot or cold, and there is little to no margin for error. i mean, it’s soup – toss it in and let it simmer.
so yesterday i made a roast red pepper & tomato soup. i didn’t follow a recipe, i basically had a bag of rosa tomatoes that needed to be used and were too ripe & soft for a salad – and winged it from there.
happy pancake day
i woke up this morning and it was raining. yay, said me. i love the rain, mostly because it’s the anti-heat (and i loathe heat) plus it also brings that lovely aaah smell in the air. it’s also pancake weather. that was our family tradition (is it yours, too?) – when it rained, mom made pancakes.
fast, fresh & green
one of my favourite illustrators/designers, jessica hische, did the design for this new cookbook of vegetarian dishes – fast fresh & green by susie middleton. definitely the kind of recipe book i’d buy as i am partial to fast yet healthy food. i’m the kind of girl who’d buy a tub of hummus and find things to dip into it, rather than actually going to the effort of cooking an entire meal. it’s not that i’m a bad cook (i’d like to think the contrary) it’s just that sometimes i am extraordinarily lazy.
that being said, i did some googling around and found a couple of pages of the book over at scripd, which gives you a taste of some of the recipes. the design Read more on fast, fresh & green…
canille et vanille
canille et vanille has some of the most delicious and beautiful looking food & photography i’ve seen in a long time! yum yum yum.
taters
ree drummond makes some seriously good looking food. probably my favourite recipe of hers is crash hot potatoes, basically the only potato dish i make these days.
sweet treats
woodward design is a small, passionate design studio in the heart of edmonton, alberta. we love desserts & we love to share. so we baked and we baked and then we paused to imagine what hundreds of pies would look like after they’d been sent through the mail. thank goodness for cameras. we hope you enjoy our recipes. sweet treas, from our kitchen to yours.
i am a tart for tarts
my sister in law made these tarts – one of fresh strawberries and the other of tinned cherries.