MIXED BEANS STEW

MIXED BEAN STEW

Mixed been stew is a staple food at foods of the Cape.  The mix beans in tins can be turned into a salad, or a curry or a breedie and is also fantastic as a side dish as a braai. But today I going to make it into a stew since it is one of the favorite foods of the cape.

Ingredients:

2 to 3 onion 

half kg shin

2 tins of mixed beans

1 tsp of garlic

1 tsp oreganum

1 tsp mint

1 tsp sweet basil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp white or black pepper

Slice onions and washed the meat and clean off excess fat and sinue. Braise meat with the sliced onions in a medium sized pot until the meat is nicely sheared and the onions golden brown. Add salt, pepper and garlic and add water as needed until the meat is tender. Add the 2 tins of mixed bean and allow it simmer for about 15 mins, add the  oreganum, mint and basil and simmer for a further 15 mins. The aroma will prompt you that the food is done. Cook rice in salt water and when cooked, drain and steam the rice until dry. Serve four and there would be sufficient for a second helping.

FISH PARCEL

FISH PARCEL

Fish is probably one of the nicest meals there is, giving you much needed Omega-3 that improves mental functions and helps in maintaining a healthy heart. Besides there is so many varieties of fish,  for example, snoek, hake, steenbrass, cob, red roman, yellow tail, tuna, shad, maasbanker, bronze breams, silverfish, galjoen, anglefish, musselcracker and stumpnose, each having a very different favour and aroma.  Fish can be deep fried in batter and served with chips and salads. Fish can be fried in a pan, or steamed with veg, or bakes in an oven or  grilled over coals. Fish can be used as a substitute for meat in a curry or in a biryani or in friffadels.   Yep fish frikkadels are by far the best, better than meat mince frikkadels  especially when made with fresh parsely.

In fact fish can be prepared in at least a dozen different ways. So today I have prepared a fish parcel. Essentially the fish is grilled in the oven but since it is wrapped in foil, it steams. And when this happens with a mixture of onions and green and red bell peppers, tomatoes, garlic, lemon slices with its peel, salt and pepper and lavishly sprinkled with olive oil, it is simply delectable.  A coolest part of this meal is that one adds everything at once, places it in a tray, pop it into an oven on medium heat and forget about it, as it gets done the aromas of the sizzling sound will get your attention. I like a tomato salsa served alongside my fish flanked by a heavenly portion  of sweet potato.

Method:

After the fish has been washed and cleaned, make absolutely sure that every last scale has been removed. Do this by scaping the surface skin of the fish one last time. There is no greater letdown when eating fish, to swallow a scale that gets stuck in your throat. Salt the inside of the fish to taste, then stuff it with onion rings, sliced tomato, sliced lemon with its peel, sliced peppers and add 2 to 3 cloves of crushed garlic, and sprinkle it with  ground pepper. Lavishly sprinkle with olive oil  and wrap in such a way that the foil makes a container.  The fish needs to be fully enclosed but the open end of the foil needs to be at the top of the fish, yet not allowing the juices to escape. It takes just 15 mins to prepare and about an hour to cook in the oven. But its bet left  in the over until the aromas speak to your taste buds. This is normally a meal for 2 and the best way to slit it, is along the spine like you open a book. Normally the spine comes out as a single bone but that depends on the type of fish you cooking. Enjoy. 

Medium size fish in tray with ingredients

Medium size fish in tray with ingredients

Before the fish is wrapped.

Sweet potato, meal for one.

After the fish is wrapped

In the oven

Fish is done 

Fish is plated with tomato salsa and sweet potato.

STIR FRY

STIR FRY -  CHOW MEIN

Chow Mein is a Chinese dish which is commonly known as stir fry, but at foods of the Cape the term stir fry can be used for almost any fried foods. However, Chow Mein is a very versatile dish which can be made with either cubed chicken, strips of steak, fish nuggets, prawns, crab meat, crayfish or even scrabbled egg. I'm quite fond of Chow Mein with chicken wings but my Chow Mein of choice remains prawns. Essentially Chow Mein is a mix of meat and vegetables quick fried in vegetable oil in an open wok, on an open flame, covered with a soup of egg noodle that is precooked. Served in a bowl and eaten using chopsticks. 

Ingredients:-

1 kg  pre-pack of mixed vegetables containing  bell peppers, cauliflower, purple cabbage, carrots and bean sprouts.
Soya sauce (salted)
2 large onions
8 pack of egg noodle
8 tblsp Olive Oil
500gms prawns
1 Tsp of crushed garlic
1 Medium sized Chilli
1 tsp ground pepper

Method:-

Place olive oil in wok and add chopped onions, chilli, crushed garlic and fry until onions become translucent. Add 500 grams of washed prawns and fry with the onions for  few minutes until prawns change colour. Add 4 tablespoons of soya sauce and stir and watch the mixture in the wok turn brown, add ground pepper. Then add the pre-pack of vegetables and stir continually for about 2 minutes so that the veg fry in the oil. Make sure veg remain crunchy.

Meanwhile place 6 packs of egg noodle in a large bowl and pour 3 cups of boiling water into bowl. Add 4 tablespoons of soya sauce cover with lid and place in microwave on high for about 4 minutes. Egg noodle will soak-up most of the water but will not be completely soft, when done  add to to wok, cover the prawns and vegetables so that it can steam beneath the noodle to 2 minutes then stir and toss so that the prawns and vegetable mix uniformly with the noodle. The water would form a soup that will stean away. Veg should be limp yet crunchy. As an option, a handful of cashew nuts can be added when the  prawns are added to the onions.  Serves 6.

SPAGHETTI BOLOGNAISE QUICK AND EASY

SPAGHETTI BOLOGNAISE 

Spaghetti Bolognaise is a classic dish and is a quick and easy food to make. It doesn't  need a lot of ingredients to create  a really tasty dish, which is enjoyed my most people for dinner, and kids just simply love it.  My recipe is a family favourite and makes sufficient to serves  four adults. The sauce is ideal for spaghetti, but can be used with almost every kind of pasta.  A Spaghetti Bolognaise dinner can easily be whipped-up in under an hour especially at those those times when you are totally famished but need to eat something substantial. It can virtually be prepared in the same time you wait for take out dinner but it is a lot more tasty and nourishing. I only use fresh ingredients which gives this Spaghetti Bolognaise a flavour and an aroma to die for. It is good culinary practice to get all  your ingredients together on the table before you begin cooking. This just seem to speeds up the process leaving you enough time to lay the table get the coffee brewing whiles the sauce is simmering.

INGREDIENTS

500g of steak mince (lean mince) washed and drained
145g packet tomato paste dissolved into cup of hot water
4 - 5 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 medium sized onions peeled and chopped
6 medium sized tomatoes diced or  8 plum tomatoes ( they contain less water) 
1 medium sized bell pepper diced
2 tablespoons of butter (or margarine)
4 medium cloves of garlic crushed 
6-8 Cherry Tomatoes halved.
1 tablespoon of sugar
2 cups of water 

250g of dried spaghetti (half of 500g pack)

SPICES

1 teaspoon of Salt 
1 teaspoon of Pepper
2 small sticks of Cinnamon
5 Pepper corns
5 Cloves
1 medium green chilli finely chopped
1 tablespoon of freshly ground pepper

The salt and pepper provides the basic flavour to the sauce, the cinnamon adds a scenty taste and smell, the chilli gives you that tang and the ground pepper adds a very specific flavour. 

HERBS

5 - 6 leaves of fresh oregano, washed and  chopped
5 - 6 leaves of fresh thyme, washed and chopped
5 - 6 leaves of fresh Rosemary, washed and  chopped
5 - 6 leaves od fresh sage, washed and  chopped
5 - 6 leaves of fresh basil, washed and  chopped

The fresh herbs releases a flurry of flavours and aromas that just makes this Spaghetti Bolognaise more appetizing but should fresh herbs not be available, dried herbs will do.

1 teaspoon of dried Sweet Basil
1 teaspoon of Sage
1 teaspoon of Oraganum
1 teaspoon of Thymme
1 teaspoon of  Rosemary

Heat the olive oil and allow butter to melt to form ghee in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion, along with the salt, and cinnamon sticks and allow to braise. Take care not to brown the onions but allow them to become translucent. Brown onions turns the sauce brown, it should remain red. Add the mince and the crushed garlic and the diced peppers but don't add water. Allow mince to roast in the ghee and changes colour.  Stir continually with a wooden spoon and don't allow mince to form lumps. When slightly dry, add all the chopped and halved tomatoes and the pepper and allow to simmer. Add water as needed and bring to boil. Add all the fresh herbs and the tomato paste, cover with a lid  and reduce heat to medium and simmer until it turns into a wonderfully rich tomatoey sauce. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar to offset the  soury  tartness of the tomato.

SPAGHETTI

Meanwhile, boil water in a large pot, add 2 teaspoons of salt and a dash of olive oil cook before lowering spaghetti into the pot through the floating oil. The oil prevents the spaghetti from sticking to one another. When done, drain it in a colander and set aside.

SERVING

Dish Spaghetti into plate as if a bed or rice and dish a ladle or two of sauce in the centre of the Spaghetti . Grate some  parmesan cheese over it while its still hot and serve immediately.

VARIATIONS & OPTIONAL

Some chefs add about 200 ml of red wine to the saucepan and say that the alcohol cooks away but I don't recommend this when feeding this Spaghetti Bolognaise to kids. Dried Mixed Herbs may be used in place of the herbs mentioned above.  Beef Stock Pot can be used but tends to turn the sauce brownish. A dash of Worcester sauce can be added to taste. About 50 grams of thinly sliced mushrooms can be added ( into pot with the diced peppers). Half a teaspoon of dried chillies can be used in place of fresh chillies. Instead of fresh tomatoes use 2 x 400g cans of diced tomato. Add sun-dried tomatoes if desired.
Enjoy!

SCRUMPTIOUS BREAKFAST

SALMON AND EGGS WITH TOAST

Breakfast is undoubtedly the most important meal of the day. Most people rush off to work in the morn without eating a morsel only to suffer from headaches and hunger pangs later in the day. Often opting to eat  a huge or heavy meal at lunch only to become sleepy due to over indulgence. But even if you eat as little as one slice of toast for breakfast, you have done justice to breakfast, because "breakfast" means to "break the fast" you've endured throughout the night. Anyway now that you're awake, how does a few ribbons of Norwegian oak Smoked Salmon; two scrabbled eggs flanked by a dollop of Cream Cheese; a slice of advocado, and a few cherry tomatoes on the side, with 2 slices of lightly buttered toast, sound to you. Followed by a frothy mug of  Jacobs Krönung  coffee made with a third mug of milk. Scrumptious, No? Now that's the way to start your day. There is a trueism that says "the day a woman doesn't eat an egg, is the day that she aged".  

Normally my wife  fries my tomatoes along with the scrambled eggs, together but separate. But today I wanted them over easy (sunny side up) with the tomatoes fresh. Normally I have a freshly baked buttered croissants in place of the toasted digesta, but I've got to watch the calories these days. However, this meal has all the nutrients and protein, fibre, carbohydrates, fructose and caffeine you need to be mentally alert and functioning at your best for the better part of the day. Brought to you by Foods of the Cape.

Norwegian oak Smoked Salmon or Trout with scrabbles eggs
and cream cheese with a croissant is a meal fit for a king.

Rosa tomatoes has such a unique taste

Free range eggs is the epitome of health.

Cream cheese with herbs

Digesta high fibre bread makes breakfast what it is

Eggs sunny-side up, sliver of salmon, cream cheese, salad and orange juice

Eggs sunny side up, avocado, cream cheese, rosa tomatoes and toast

Scrambled egg, salad, salmon with a croissant (cream cheese optional)

Scrambled eggs, salad, salmon with a croissant (cream cheese optional)

Half milk and half water makes a fine cup of coffee

Jacobs coffee is the ultimate to conclude a scrumptious breakfast

SAMP AND BEANS

SAMP AND BEANS STEW

Samp and Beans a traditional South African meal and known as umgqusho / mngqusho / umngqusho amongst the Xhosa community and as isistambu among the Zulu community. However, Samp and Beans is also one of the  delectable foods in Cape Malay Cooking and is a dish savoured and enjoyed by virtually everyone at foods of the Cape. It is an alternative to soup and is an amazing dish that we often eat when its cold and especially when its raining.  Since Samp resembles rice as in carbohydrates, it is enjoyed without rice. Eating Beans and Samp  gives the feeling of homeliness when the whole family sits around the fire with a bowl filled to the brim. It is very tasty, quite filling and an ideal meal for marathon runners who need to carbo load.  Besides, it is simple to make and is a low cost meal that serves at least 6 people or more. The best way to prepare Samp and Beans is to pour some boiling water over a packet of Beans and Samp and  leave it to soak overnight in a covered boil. Drain the water in the morning, add sufficient fresh water to cover the samp, add salt, then boil it in a pressure cooker (AMC Classic) on medium heat for about 2 hours or until the Beans are soft.  Samp is  dried corn on the cob, not the traditional yellow corn but rather the white corn taken off the cob.

RECIPE

Ingrdients:
1 kg of meat - Ox neck / knuckles / beef pieces
6 tblsp of Salad Oil
2 medium size Onion (grated not chopped)
2 tsps of Crushed Garlic
2 tsps of Salt
2 tsps Ground Pepper (Crushed Peppercorns)
2 tsps Fine Black Pepper
8 All spice balls
8 Cloves
1 pkt of Tomato paste

Method:
Boil Samp and Beans in a pressure cooker until soft. When done, drain excess water and use at stock to add back into the pot as needed.
Place meat in a separate AMC classic saucepan with the salad oil on medium heat and add fine grated onion and garlic, salt, ground pepper, all spice and clove and allow to braise in the oil.. Add water (stock) as needed and simmer until meat is tender. Then add the cooked Samp and Beans into the same pot with the meat and allow to simmer. Add the fine pepper and stock so that the mixture is saucy and not watery and cook for additional 20 mins to half hour. Check is it has sufficient salt, add if necessary. Stir-in the tomato past into the mixture and allow to simmer for 10 more minutes. Serve hot and enjoy.

Optional: 
A teaspoon of origanum and thyme may also be stirred in to the mixture before the tomato paste is added. It adds a marvelous aroma and a fantastic flavour. Chicken can be used in place of meat.

A packet of Samp and Beans with 2 onions

Braised Ox neck, salt, garlic, onions, cloves and all spice mixture.

The braised meat is the base for Samp and Beans stew.

Tomato past squeezed from packet into mug

The tomato paste mixed with boiling water to form a sauce.

The Samp and Beans in the boiling in its Stock

The Samp is tender but the beans still needs to boil a bit longer.

The crushed Garlic bits are still visible while the meat simmers.

Table for two

A delicious serving of Samp and Beans

The pepper is quite visible and makes the Samp and beans really delicious.