This recipe for guavas poached in a chamomile syrup with vanilla & cinnamon is my absolute favourite way to eat this winter fruit. The heady tropical smell of guavas when they enter the house always reminds me of winter even though it’s such a summery scent. The chamomile tea creates a very subtle floral base note here but it’s very mild and could totally be left out. It was a success in my recipe for apricots poached in chamomile tea and vanilla, so I thought I would add it in here too. I use used the seeds and the vanilla pod itself to infuse into this delicious syrup along with a stick of cinnamon and star anise. It’s all kinds of tropical spicy heaven and perfect for a dessert with vanilla ice cream or for breakfast.
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I had so many lemons and left-over eggs from a meringue experiment I thought I had better make lemon curd. My recipe for easy passion…
I have an insatiable sweet tooth and love to make all manner of confectionery. My second cookbook was dedicated to the subject and marshmallows are…
One thing we are all often looking for is fairly easy and healthy supper recipes for the middle of the week. Ones that can be…
This cream of roasted cauliflower & cheese soup came about because I had a couple of heads that needed to be used. Since we don’t…
With plums still in season and a recent spate of making ice cream and plum jam with them, I was inspired to make this super…
This is not going to be another post about how to make sourdough bread. There are more than enough of those on the internet and…
I really wanted to see if I could make a super easy custard tart using Ultra Mel because pasteis de nata is right up there…
If you live in Cape Town and are like me, craving really fresh seafood then you are in luck. We have a plethora of wonderful…
A couple of months back La Motte sent me a press drop that included a few mini loaves and the recipe for this ‘Ouma se…
I had never cooked the tops of beetroot before and when I received a bunch of freshly harvested beetroot from Terra Madre in Elgin just…
This recipe for guavas poached in a chamomile syrup with vanilla & cinnamon is my absolute favourite way to eat this winter fruit. The heady…
I had never cooked the tops of beetroot before and when I received a bunch of freshly harvested beetroot from Terra Madre in Elgin just…
This boozy panettone ice-cream bombe Alaska is a showstopper dessert and perfect for the Christmas season. It’s virtually effortless to make with no baking required…
These lemon and blueberry muffins with oats are so ridiculously easy to whip up for breakfast and take only 10 minutes to make. With half…
A couple of months back La Motte sent me a press drop that included a few mini loaves and the recipe for this ‘Ouma se…
I had never cooked the tops of beetroot before and when I received a bunch of freshly harvested beetroot from Terra Madre in Elgin just…
In June last year, Kobus van der Merwe from Wolfgat in Paternoster and Willem Hiele from Willem Hiele Restaurant in Koksijde Belgium came together for…
Before my trip to Italy, I had the pleasure of enjoying lunch at to Gåte at Quoin Rock Estate to experience Head Chef Nicole Loubser…
I recently attended the launch of the spring menu at Greenhouse Restaurant at the Cellars Hotel in Constantia. It was a perfect day with the…
This recipe for guavas poached in a chamomile syrup with vanilla & cinnamon is my absolute favourite way to eat this winter fruit. The heady tropical smell of guavas when they enter the house always reminds me of winter even though it’s such a summery scent. The chamomile tea creates a very subtle floral base note here but it’s very mild and could totally be left out. It was a success in my recipe for apricots poached in chamomile tea and vanilla, so I thought I would add it in here too. I use used the seeds and the vanilla pod itself to infuse into this delicious syrup along with a stick of cinnamon and star anise. It’s all kinds of tropical spicy heaven and perfect for a dessert with vanilla ice cream or for breakfast.
I had so many lemons and left-over eggs from a meringue experiment I thought I had better make lemon curd. My recipe for easy passion fruit curd is very popular on Drizzleanddip and I adapted it to make this lemon curd. The egg yolks of the free-range eggs I used were a deep orange, so the curd came out a lovely amber colour. I also used only the yolks vs a mix of whole eggs and yolks as per the recipe – but I have given both options.
I have an insatiable sweet tooth and love to make all manner of confectionery. My second cookbook was dedicated to the subject and marshmallows are so easy to do. I love a meringue-based marshmallow formulation as per my lime marshmallows and matcha marshmallow recipe but its more complicated requiring a thermometer and additional preparation methods. This recipe for strawberry marshmallows with Grand Marnier is egg-free and super easy. You don’t need much equipment other than a stand mixer. I have added freeze-dried strawberry powder which I bought at the Olive Branch deli in Cape Town and the Spar in Sea Point in their wellness section, but you will need to track it down in your area.
One thing we are all often looking for is fairly easy and healthy supper recipes for the middle of the week. Ones that can be planned from pantry staples or that require fewer cooking steps and ingredients. I am very bad at planning my midweek meals and very often resort to foraging something out the freezer. Here are a few of my favourite recipes that are easy to do when you need something fresh but when your brain can’t handle complicated.
This cream of roasted cauliflower & cheese soup came about because I had a couple of heads that needed to be used. Since we don’t often, and very sadly, get large heads of cauliflower these days, I used two medium ones to make a big pot of soup. Unless you are ordering from a farm producer, the supermarket cauliflower tends to be on the very measly and expensive side of the spectrum. I’m assuming due to high demand from the low carb diet brigade. I long for the days of buying large unpackaged heads of cauliflower from my grocery store, but they seem to be over. Where I can I buy them out of the disastrous Styrofoam and plastic packaging I do. The total weight of the cauliflower I used for this soup was around 1.2k after the leaves were trimmed off.
Just before our country went into lockdown, I was sent a box of shallots from Du Toit Agri and I immediately decided to make about 10 different recipes with them. As the weeks slipped by, I found myself slowly and easily working my way through the stash in my every day cooking so haven’t yet managed to do all the dedicated recipes I planned. I did, however, manage to do this roasted shallot tartin with balsamic caramel and thyme and it was easy and delicious. The sweetness of the caramelised shallots and the balsamic caramel makes this tartin on the sweet side so it would be perfect served alongside a few sharp kinds of cheese as a cheese course with appropriate drinks. I scattered over-generous shards of shaved goats pecorino as the earthy saltiness really contrasts perfectly with the tartin. If you are wanting a more savoury tartin, I would suggest leaving out the sugar completely.