Baking Stuff Envy

Everyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE baking and gadgets. I blame my grandmother and her kitchen full of fun gadgets to bake with.

Taking a stroll through @home, as one does, I found these really cool pie weights, the modern version of baking beans or ceramic beans for blind baking pastry cases.

I want...

Cooking Safari in Bo-Kaap

Over the weekend my mother and I ventured into an area I have not really explored in Cape Town, Bo-Kaap. The area features a tight-knit Cape Malay community and a pretty colourful neighbourhood.

I snapped the photo above on my phone while we took a bit of a walk around and ogled the vibrant colours (it was late afternoon and many shadows). I shall definitely return another day to explore the beautiful houses and mosques. The scenery reminds me of touring Burano.

Our cooking lesson (with Lekka Kombuis) itself took us on an journey through the Cape Malay favourites (though Bobotie is still a favourite): Chicken curry, rotis, samoosas and chili bites. I have finally learnt the correct spice mix for a curry (Chilli powder, tumeric, coriander, fennel, cumin and Masala)!

Rolling rotis was an interesting experience, making the dough itself is very similar to making foccocia dough. The trick is in the rolling and using lots of butter! I also learnt how to beat your dough into submission.

I will definitely be trying out the recipes again at home and posting the results :)

Girly Tea

Girls Tea is always a fun afternoon of tea, snacks and gossip. The last tea I had included a few new recipes and a lot of old favourites. These include Big batch cherry biscuits
Chocolate and Vanilla Cupcakes to match my tea set of pink and gold :)

Cheese and Baby Marrow muffins

Waving The African Flag Proudly

Africa Day was officially a great success. We ate, danced and drank...a typical African party.

YSSPers and a few staff slaved over stoves, watched ovens, shopped up a storm to bring African cuisine to the IIASA ignorants. Arame and I planned (or were told to plan) for 60 - 70 people and so with this in mind we made enough food for leftovers. The problem was (we don't consider it a problem really) that almost double that number attended, so much for Arame's and my plan to eat the leftovers for lunch. We have absolutely nothing left. There were queues for food! I've never such a thing, though to be fair I think that was because everyone required an explanation of the food which made the selection time a lot longer than normal.

The quiz Ben designed apparently taxed the minimal knowledge people had about Africa, including their flag knowledge. Highest score was 26/100!

























The menu for the evening included:

• Beef Bobotie (South Africa)
• Chicken Tajine (Morocco)
  
• Lentil and Brinjal Curry (South Africa)
• Yassa (Senegal)
• Thiou Guinar (Cote d’Ivoire)
• Ugali/Msima (Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia)
• White Jasmine Rice
• Pine nut couscous
• Malva Pudding (South Africa)
  
• Koeksisters (South Africa)

Drinks:

• Bouye (Baobab Tree fruit drink)
• Bissap (Sweet Hibiscus fruit drink)
• Springbokkies (South Africa)

We had a bit of a music problem, how to represent the entire continent's music in 3.5 hours? Make a playlist of 16 hours worth of all our favourites and put it on shuffle, the computer can be the unbiased selector :P Let the dancing begin!!


My mom posted me a few vuvuzelas which provided much entertainment as partygoers tried to out perform each other, talk about noise!

Overall I think it was a great success and the kitchens of Vienna can breathe a sigh of relief as they go back to being unused.

Malva Pudding

Malva Pudding is one of my favourite desserts and something I seem to make/requested to make fairly often. The recipe I have comes from Boschendal and makes enough for roughly 10 portions. The reason I say 10 is because no matter the amount I make the guys make space in their dessert stomachs to finish it. Malva Pudding can be served with either Custard (UltraMel) or Vanilla Ice-cream.

Cake
1 cup sugar (250ml)
1 egg
1 tablespoon apricot jam
1 cup flour (250ml)
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
generous pinch of salt
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vinegar (5ml)
1 cup milk (250ml)

Beat egg and sugar well in a mixer.
Add the jam
Sift flour, bicarb and salt.
Melt the butter and add the vinegar.
Add liquids to egg mixture alternatively with the flour
Beat well and bake in covered dish (tin foil works) at 180C/350F for 45mins to 1 hour. (If the cake comes out white, try baking it for another few minutes with the cover off).

Sauce
1 cup whipping cream
180g baking butter (4oz)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup hot water

Melt together the ingredients for the sauce and pour over the pudding as it comes out of the oven.
(A side note, you might think there is too much sauce, but it DOES soak up all of it, release the cake from the sides of the dish to let the sauce go under and maybe create a few air holes in the cake if you're in a hurry)

Koeksisters

I'm currently trying to get through my mammoth cooking tasks for Africa Day. The list includes double quantities of bobotie, malva pudding and an attempt at koeksisters. I last made koeksisters in a home ec class way back when. That being said I googled it and found a few recipes one of which I am currently attempting. The recipe I found doesn't have an indication of the quantity it makes so it is going to be a surprise. If anything, this will be a baby taste of home on the day (if I don't eat them all beforehand)

Koeksisters

The secret of the crisp syrupy outside of koeksisters is that they are taken straight from hot oil and dipped into ice-cold syrup. This seals the syrup outside and leaves the inside dryish in contrast.

Ingredients:

• 375ml water
• 800g sugar
• 2ml (1/2t) cream of tartar
• 2ml (1/2t) ground ginger
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 500g cake flour
• 30ml (6t) baking powder
• 2ml (1/2t) salt
• 50ml (4T0 butter or margarine
• 2 eggs
• 250ml milk
• oil for deep frying

Instructions:

• To make syrup, heat water in a saucepan, add sugar and stir until dissolved. Add cream of tartar, ginger and cinnamon.
• Boil, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Do not stir, remove from stove and chill.
• While syrup is chilling, make koeksisters. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together.
• Add butter and rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles fine crumbs.
• Beat eggs and milk together and add to dry ingredients. Mix dough well, then knead lightly for 2 minutes to make it pliable.
• Cover basin with wax paper and leave for 1 hour.
• Roll dough to a thickness of 7.5 to 10mm. Cut into strips about 8 cm long and 2.5 cm wide. Cut each strip into three lengthwise, leaving one side uncut. Now plait the three pieces and press ends together firmly.
• Heat oil to 190ºC and deepfry koeksisters for 1 minute. (Do not fry too many at once)
• The syrup will warm up about halfway through, so divide the syrup into two bowls.
• Remove from oil, drain on brown paper for 1 minute and dip in cold syrup for 30 seconds. Remove from syrup and place on a dish to dry.

You'll probably see lots of recipes posted in the next few days as dishes are prepared.

Africa Day Announced

Africa Day preparations are well under way, the recipes decided, the music coming together and soon the vuvuzelas will arrive all the way from South Africa. Aapo made the coolest poster to promote the event, one that truly embraces the colour of Africa. I'll be sure to post the recipes after the event, its going to tour of our favourite African cuisine.

I'm melting

I never thought I would be one to complain about the heat, I've grown up in it but this last week has been a rather warm experience. My temperature widget keeps telling me the maximum temp would be 32C, so imagine my surprise that the current reported temp is actually 37C... This would be fine is there was in fact airconditioning in the office but these palace offices missed that technological advance in favour of open windows and puny fans. People have taken to working in the conference rooms, the only airconditioned rooms in the building.

Last night was the second potluck dinner at the Simmering dorm, lots of food, even more mosquitoes and a thunderstorm with hail to end the evening. I made Dark Chocolate Mousse with Peppermint Liqueur, a change from Orange Liqueur which I couldn't find and after sourcing Amarula from the UN Commissary I made some test Springbokkies.

Springbokkies:

1 part Peppermint Liqueur

1 part Amarula Cream Liqueur (could use Bailey's Irish Cream)

Pour over the back of a teaspoon to retain the individual layers.

The other experiment of the evening was a recipe I found for Chocolate Vodka from the Food show Cooked. Its based on the Long Street drinks we all know and love.

Chocolate Vodka

1/3 bottle vodka

200g plain chocolate

Stand the vodka in a container of warm water. Chop the chocolate into small enough pieces to fit into the neck of the bottle. Slowly swirl the vodka and the chocolate will melt into the vodka as it heats up. The recipe didn't say shake afterwards but it seemed to mix it up properly. Comments from the guinea pigs say that dark chocolate might be better (I used milk) and some milk/cream. I do have 2/3 of a bottle of vodka to try it again...

Dark Orange Choc Mousse

This recipe originally states it serves 4, I happen to disagree, after splitting it into 4 you would go into a sugar coma. A better estimate would be 8-10 servings (I'm assuming its being served after a meal).

300g dark chocolate
30g butter
2 eggs, separated
30ml sugar
45ml orange liqueur (or Van der Hum or Grand Marnier)
250ml cream

• Break up the slab of chocolate and melt it in the liqueur in a bowl over hot water
• Add butter in small blocks, stirring until it has melted
• Beat the sugar and egg yolks until pale and light. Reserve egg whites
• Beat in the melted chocolate and butter, then leave to cool
• Whip the egg whites to stiff peak stage. Be careful not to overbeat
• Whip the cream until stiff
• Fold the egg whites and cream into the chocolate mixture
• Pour into an attractive bowl and chill for several hours before serving

Garnish with crystalised orange / candied orange peel / orange segments. For the super indulgent, drizzle with orange liqueur (or ginger/orange liqueur mix)

Dinner South African style

We had family from overseas for dinner. Dinner had a distinctly South African feel, Bobotie and Malva Pudding. It went down really well and I wonder if some of the ingredients are available overseas, I'm pretty sure Mrs Ball's Peach Chutney is hard to come by overseas. A recipe for those keen to try:

Bobotie (Serves 6-8)

A
30 ml ground(powdered) ginger
30 ml brown sugar
45 ml Cartwrights medium strength curry powder
15 ml turmeric
10 ml salt
2 ml pepper

Meat
50 gr (60 ml) butter/marg
5 ml oil (so the butter doesn't burn)
5 medium onions chopped
1 kg mince
2 slices of bread soaked in water
375 ml milk
2 eggs
fresh lemon leaves (bay leaves are an alternative)

B
100 gr (150 ml) seedless raisins
60 ml Mrs Ball's peach chutney
30 ml apricot jam
30 ml vinegar
30 ml Worcestershire sauce
30 ml tomato paste

Put A into a heavy pan. Heat well. Add butter and stir till melted. Fry onions till soft (add oil so the butter doesn't burn). Remove the pan from the heat and add B and mince and bread. Return to the heat and stir constantly so it does not stick and cook for 20 minutes.

Place in a greased dish. Beat the egg and milk and pour over the meat. Place lemon leaves on top. Bake for 45 minutes at 180C or 10-15 minutes in the microwave.

Chocolate cake in a cup

For those of you who don't have baking equipment, I finally tried a recipe for making chocolate cake in a coffee cup.

4 Tablespoons cake flour
4 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons cocoa
1 Egg
3 Tablespoons milk
3 Tablespoons oil
1 Mug

Mix the flour, sugar and cocoa, add a beaten egg and mix well. Add the milk and oil. Mix very well. Cook on high (1000watt) for 3 minutes in the microwave.

A few comments, I think there is too much egg in the recipe and too little sugar. I also think that if you added baking powder the cake might explode as it may rise too much. I think a nice alternative might be to include chocolate chips in the batter (might also add to the sweetness).