Die Koffiepot, Clarens

I recently went away with my hubby and parents to the beautiful Drakensburg area.  On a particularly miserable, rainy day, we all decided to take a drive through Golden Gate.  This area is a well preserved, pristine, nature reserve, that separates Harrismit from Clarens in the Free State of South Africa.  The scenery was breath-taking and the lighting was perfect for photographs!  

 

The most surprising find of the trip was, however, not a mountain range, waterfall or grassy verge, but a quaint coffee shop called "Die Koffiepot" (The Coffeepot).  Here they serve up traditional "Boerekoffie" that consisted of proper coffee brewed from coffee grounds and served with condensed milk and a soft "Anysbeskuit" (Aniseed rusk).  Delicious!  Even their hot chocolate had a cute twist to it!  Best of all was their traditional milktart - layers of milky custard with thin pastry - need I say more?!?  I was pretty impressed with this little coffee shop that we randomly saw a board for on the side of a mountain pass!  Needless to say, it all went down a treat!

Treatology™ by Wilton

I just came across this website that shares the science behind flavour combinations that you didn't think would work.  Just navigate across the easy-follow-table at http://treatology.wilton.com/

Halloween Spicy Pumpkin Soup

We have never been big celebrators of Halloween in South Africa, but lately there have been many mini celebrations and (dare I say it...) "American-style" candies on our shelves.  Last week, while doing my weekly veggie run at one of our local grocery stores, I came across this pumpkin...

I was so excited that I grabbed the pumpkin, placed it in the trolley and went home...  But then when I got home and looked at this orange basketball shaped vegetable, I realised I didn't have a clue as to what to do with it...

Considering I am one of the clumsiest individuals you will ever meet, as well as not being the most artsy person in the world, I decided against carving the pumpkin...  But luckily that evening an episode of Masterchef Australia aired on tv and guess what they made - PUMPKIN SOUP!  So I trolled the internet for some ideas and came up with my Halloween Pumpkin Soup!  And this is what we ate for Halloween dinner while elsewhere in the world people were gorging themselves on candy and chocolates :)

Ingredients:

• Pumpkin purée
• Tinned pumpkin or roasted pumpkin pieces
• Cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds and place cut side down on baking try lined with tin-foil.  Bake at 180°C (or 350°F) for about 45 minutes until the flesh is soft.  Scoop out the flesh.  I used a Moulinex to make the pumpkin smooth.

• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 to 2 small onions
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper
• A bit more than a pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1 to 2 teaspoons of curry powder
• 1 chicken stock cube
• 1 to 2 cups of water - check the consistency of the pumpkin and eyeball it for yourself; just remember you will be adding milk
• A splash of milk
• Sugar to taste
• Cream for decoration
• Salt to taste

 

Method:

1. Heat the olive oil in a medium sized pot and sweat off the onions and garlic.
2. Add the spices and cook them off .
3. Add the pumpkin and stir.
4. Add the stock cube and water.  Allow to simmer gently on a very low heat for about 30 minutes.
5. Add the milk and stir well.
6. Season to taste.
7. If the soup is too spicy you can add some cream to cool it down a bit.
8. Serve in a bowl with a dollop of cream and fresh bread.

 

Chicken Sweetcorn Soup

One of our favourite take-out meals is Chicken Sweetcorn Soup!  And soup is always a winner on rainy days like we're having here across South Africa the last couple of days!  So why not make Chicken Sweetcorn Soup?  I have made this soup before when I still lived with my brother and before I got married.  It was a winner with nothing left over in the pot afterwards!

Ingredients:

• 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 chicken breast per person
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped.  I like to mash my garlic with the back of my serrated Victorianox knife - I feel that I can extract more flavour out of the garlic in this way.
• 1 Tablespoon cornflour
• 600ml chicken stock
• 1 tin sweetcorn
• 1 egg
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Recipe:

1. Heat the oil and cook the chicken and garlic.
2. Blend the cornflour and some stock and add this with the remaining stock to the chicken and garlic mixture.
3. Bring this to the boil and add the sweetcorn.  Stir continuously.
4. Beat the egg and lemon juice and add this slowly to the soup whilst stirring (this will give you the tendrils you find in the take-out soups).
5. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Paper piping bags and Nozzles

So I recently "inherited" my dads cake decorating goodies, and boy was I excited!  Imagine all the cakes and cupcakes I could now start "decorating"!  But then I realised I didn't know what most nozzles were used for!  So I turned to trusty Google and found Wilton's page full of nozzles and their uses...!

Round Tips:

Leaf Tips:

Flower Tips:

Basket Weave Tips:

Rose and Specialty Tips:

Star Tips:

Multi-Opening Tips:

Ruffle Tips:

But now comes the problem of having accessible piping bags!  I remember my dad folding his own out of brown paper (the same kind used to cover school books).

How to fold a paper piping bag:

 

Okay, so great now I could get started with icing my cake with Butter Cream icing!  What a disaster it turned out to be!  Turns out paper piping bags are ideal for Royal Icing and not Butter Cream...  So I did some research and apparently a disposable plastic sandwich bag will do the trick, as well as any disposable or reusable shop bought piping bags!  So bring on the cupcakes and cakes!  Will definitely be trying these and other techniques...

The next challenge is to figure out how to make gum-paste and sugar flowers...  But lets stick to mastering the technique of icing first :)

I have no idea what I'm doing...

Keep Calm...

Easy Peasy Cone Cakes

As a child my mother always used to make these delicious little cupcakes in cones aka. "Cone Cakes".  The greatest joy was licking the icing off the top and nibbling around the cone and eventually getting to the cupcake centre!  Effective at keeping children occupied for a while and so simple to make!

One of my best friends and lab buddy is having a baby boy soon and we threw her a work baby shower ~ so I thought "Why not bring out the Cone Cakes?"  The cupcakes were moist and the icing creamy, with the cones providing just the right amount of crunch!  You can go ballistic with the type of cones, icing and decorations you want to use!  But this is my Easy-Peasy way of making Cone Cakes :)

Ingredients:

• 1 box ready-to-mix cake mix
• 1 box cones
• 1 packet ready-to-make icing (or you can make your own)

Instructions:

I followed the instructions on the packets...  Easy peasy :)

And in the words of my three year old niece...  "Delicious and Nutritious!"

 

Tiramisu chocolate éclairs

My attempt at The Kate Tin's Tiramisu chocolate éclairs

I am a big fan of fellow Blogger and author of The Kate Tin!  All her recipes are so simple and some have a delicious twist on an old classic!  I attempted her Tiramisu chocolate éclairs the other day for a picnic at the botanical gardens...  Okay, so they didn't look as elegant as Kate's but boy oh boy did they taste great!  Check out the recipe on her blog and I highly recommend following her on Facebook too http://the-kate-tin.blogspot.com/2013/08/tiramisu-chocolate-eclairs.html?spref=fb

Why I'm doing a PhD...

Home-made Chicken Pie

I love this chicken pie recipe as it makes a large pie, perfect for having left overs for lunch the next day or freezing for when I have to go away for work and the hubby is alone at home...  It is also very versatile - you can add what ever veg you think will work, add more or less of certain ingredients and substitute the cream for skim milk.  I don't add mushrooms as I think they are vile (yes, I am a mycologist who hates mushrooms!) but you can add any type that you think will work...  Happy pie-making :)

Ingredients

• 1 packet ready-to-roll puff pastry
• 1 sliver of green pepper, diced
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 2 cloved of garlic, minced
• 2 carrots, cubed
• 1 medium potato, cubed
• 3 skinless chicken breasts, parboiled and shredded
• 1x egg, beaten

For the sauce 

• 2-3 Tablespoons of flour
• 1 Tablespoon of butter or margarine
• 2 Tablespoons cream or milk
• 250ml chicken stock
• Additional boiling water as needed
• 1 teaspoon Oregano
• Salt and pepper to taste

Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 220C.
2. Parboil the chicken breasts in some salted water while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
3. Dice the green pepper, onions and garlic and saute in some olive oil until the onions are translucent.
4. Add the flour and margarine and cook until the flour is straw coloured.  Add the chicken stock and cream and stir until thick.
5. Add the Oregano and season to taste.
6. Add the chicken, carrots and potatoes.  Add additional water to allow for the carrots and potatoes to cook.  (Optional:  Cook carrots and potatoes in a separate pot and add; no need to add additional water then).
7. Spoon into an oven proof dish and lay the pastry over the top.
8. Pierce the top of the pastry several times and brush with beaten egg.
9. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

Learn from the cooking masters

Came across these great tips this morning and had to share!

http://www.womenshealthsa.co.za/nutrition/learn-from-the-cooking-masters/

I'm not that type of cook!

Okay, so by no means am I going to incorporate science into my cooking!  I am not that type of scientist and in no way that type of cook!  I am half Portuguese and so grew up eating the most delicious meals thrown together by my mother, my aunts and grandmother!  Knowing that using simple, good quality ingredients would produce tasty meals has fared me well as a newly wed!  Baking and cake decorating has also been an integral part of my life as I grew up with a father who took to making gorgeous wedding cakes and the coolest birthday cakes a kid could ever have as a hobby!  So where does the science fit in?  I'm a geneticist by trade and love interesting facts to do with science!  Cooking and baking is an escape from the stresses that come from completing a doctoral thesis...

In the beginning...

In the beginning...

I have always been fascinated by the number of different blogs out there in the digital universe.  As a scientist, avid baker and keen cook I have been inspired to create a blog that incorporates all my fields of interest, which may be too many to be healthy!  So here goes nothing...