Sunday, April 6, 2014

Malva Pudding from South Africa

This is another South African classic dessert, best on cold nights with a glass of South African port, with the fire raging in the fireplace, the kids asleep in their rooms, the sheepskin rug on the floor...
This is what you need to have in your kitchen:
FOR THE CAKE PART
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon apricot jam
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 cup milk

FOR THE SAUCY SAUCE
1 cup whipping cream (not whipped because we are not into that kinky stuff)
1/2 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup hot water
Dash of brandy or whisky
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
This is what you have to do to make this veritable delight:  
Beat the egg and sugar well in a mixer. Add the jam, sifted flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt. Melt the butter and add the vinegar. Add liquids to egg mixture alternately with the flour. Beat well and bake in a COVERED dish (that means it should have a lid) at 180 Celsius for 45 minute to 1 hour.  I cover it with foil.  It is important to use a covered dish otherwise the sauce won't soak into the cake.
Melt together the ingredients for the sauce and pour over the pudding as it comes out of the oven.  You might have some sauce left over.  Don't feel you have to use it all if the cake is already saturated.  Serve with whipping cream or ice-cream. Man oh man, you will succumb to the pleasures of the taste sensations going on inside your mouth.

Cindy Vine is a South African living and working in Kyiv Ukraine.  She is the author of Hush Baby, Defective and The Case of Billy B.  All her books are available on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback format.

Beef Curry from Sri Lanka

When cooking Sri Lankan food, be aware that the heady aromas travel quite far and you might get neighbours dropping by to see what you are cooking.  This beef curry tastes as good as it smells.  I cooked it the day before so that the flavours could permeate through the beef cubes.
1kg beef stew meat cut into cubes
6 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger finely chopped
1 green chili finely chopped
3 1/2 tablespoons vinegar
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon chili powder
3 tablespoons cooking oil
2 onions sliced thinly
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 cardamom pods bruised
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup water
1 can coconut milk
Put oil into a large pot and add the garlic, ginger, cardamom pods, chilies and onion and cook until the onions are soft.  Add in the curry powder, chili powder, salt, pepper and cinnamon powder.  Mix well with the onion mixture.  Add the beef cubes and brown them and at the same time cover the beef with the curry and onion mixture.  Add in the 1 cup water, vinegar and tomato paste.  Let it cook on medium heat until it starts to boil.  Reduce the heat and add the coconut milk.  Leave to simmer until the beef is tender.  Serve with jasmine and cashew nut rice.
Cindy Vine is a South African living and working in Kyiv Ukraine.  She is the author of Hush Baby, Defective and The Case of Billy B.  All her books are available on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback format.

Chicken Curry from Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan curries have different flours to Indian and Thai curries.  Quite spicy with a heavenly aroma.  Cook the day before so the chicken can really absorb the flavours.  You can keep in the bones.  I removed them when the curry was cooked and falling off the bones as I just thought it looked prettier without bones sticking up.
3 tablespoons oil
1 cinnamon stick
6 garlic cloves finely chopped
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger finely chopped
6 cardamom pods bruised
2 chilies finely chopped
1 tablespoon chopped kaffir lime leaves (optional)
2 onions thinly sliced
 3 teaspoons chili powder
3 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2.5 kg chicken pieces
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 can coconut milk
1/2 cup water
Put oil into a large pot and add the cinnamon stick, garlic, ginger, cardamom pods, chilies and onion and cook until the onions are soft.  Add in the curry powder, chili powder and cinnamon powder.  Mix well with the onion mixture.  Add the chicken pieces and brown the chicken pieces an at the same time cover the chicken with the curry and onion mixture.  Add in the 1/2 cup water, soy sauce, vinegar, lemon juice and tomato paste.  Let it cook on medium heat until it starts to boil.  Reduce the heat and add the coconut milk.  Leave to simmer until the chicken starts to fall off the bone.  Serve with jasmine and cashew nut rice.
Cindy Vine is a South African living and working in Kyiv Ukraine.  She is the author of Hush Baby, Defective and The Case of Billy B.  All her books are available on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback format.

Chapatis from East Africa

Whether you are in Kenya, Tanzania or Uganda, you'll encounter chapatis served with mild curries.  Chapati is a bit of a staple in East Africa.  Surprisingly easy to make, you can knock them up just before your dinner guests arrive.
4 cups flour
8 tablespoons cooking oil
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups warm water
Cooking oil for dribbling
Put the flour and salt into a mixing bowl.  Add the cooking oil and mix it into the flour.  Add the water a little at a time, kneading and mixing until the dough is soft, elastic and not sticky at all.  Let it rest for about 15 minutes.  Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces.  Sprinkle a little flour on your pastry board and roll each of the 8 pieces into a round flat thin circle the size of a dinner plate.  Now is the fun part.  Put a little cooking oil in a large frying pan.  When it's hot carefully place a chapati in it.  Dribble some cooking oil on the top of the chapati and flip it over.  Dribble some oil on the side facing you.  Flip it over again.  You'll see brown spots on both sides.  The whole process of cooking the chapati takes only a couple of minutes.  Lift it out, put it on a plate and fold it in half and then half again.  You'll quickly get into a rhythm of flipping, folding and rolling the next one.  Serve with curry.
Cindy Vine currently lives in Kyiv Ukraine, and is the author of Hush Baby, Defective, C U @ 8, Not Telling and The Case of Billy B.  All her books are available on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback format.

Aubergine and Cashew Nut Curry from Sri Lanka

Being an out and out carnivore, vegetarian cooking has never been my strong point.  However having a vegetarian friend, one has to consider veggie options when planning a lunch or dinner party.  This was delicious and very easy to make.  The only problem was that I never made enough!
1 aubergine
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons salt
4 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 green chili finely chopped
30g cashew nuts
3 tablespoons cooking oil
1 tablespoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1 large onion thinly sliced
1/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon mustard 
Cut the aubergine into 3cm long thin slices.  Lay them flat on a plate and sprinkle with the salt and the turmeric.  Leave to marinate for 30 minutes.
Put the oil in a pan and fry the cashew nuts quickly.  Remove them from the pan and put them on some kitchen towel to absorb the oil.  Fry the aubergine slices until they turn golden.  Remove the aubergine and drain the oil.  Fry the onion, garlic and chili until the onion becomes translucent.
Add the chili powder, mustard and curry powder and mix well.  Pour in the milk and when it begins to simmer add in the aubergines and cashew nuts.  Allow it to simmer for a few minutes.  Done.
Cindy Vine is a South African currently living and working in Kyiv, Ukraine.  She is the author of Hush Baby, Defective and The Case of Billy B.  All her books are available on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback format.

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Pita Bread from the Middle East

Like hummus, many Middle Eastern and North African countries lay claim to pita bread.  Therefore I am just giving the region it comes from rather than a specific country.
Pita bread is very easy to make, homemade is much tastier than the shop-bought varieties, and it freezes very well.  You can eat it with hummus or fill the pita pocket with whatever you like to eat.
1 cup warm water
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
Mix the water and yeast and let it stand for about 5 minutes until the yeast dissolves.  Add the liquid to 2 and a half cups of the flour.  Add in the salt and olive oil.  Mix until you have a soft dough that does not stick to your fingers when you knead it.  Add a little more of the flour if it is too soft.  The dough needs to be kneaded until it is smooth and elastic.  Put it in a warm place to let it rise for about an hour or two.  Preheat the oven at 220 degrees Celsius.  Knead the dough again and divide it into 8 balls.  Flatten the ball with the palm of your hand on a floured surface.  Then roll out the flattened ball to make a thin circular shape about the size of a large saucer or side plate.  Bake the pitas for about 3 minutes until they start to puff up.  Although pitas are best eaten immediately, they do keep well in an airtight bag or container that is refrigerated.  Alternatively, cover the baked pitas individually in clingwrap and freeze them.
Cindy Vine lives and works in Ukraine and is the author of The Colorful Art of Pain, The Great Mountain to Mountain Safari and Survival Tips for the Suddenly Single.  All her books are available on Amazon in both Kindle and print format.  She is currently working on a cookbook called Around the World on 80 Plates.

Samosa from South Africa

Most of you will look at this and think 'Samosa from South Africa?'  She has to be kidding.  Well I kid you not.  While samosas might have originated in India, other countries have taken the original recipe and adapted them to make it their own.  Samosas are very popular all over East Africa, for instance, and while more similar to the South African samosas than the Indian samosas, they lack that bite.  Samosas are a very popular South African snack and their taste does differ in the different provinces.  The ones in Kwazulu for example have a lot more chilies in them.  The ones I make are Cape Malay samosas from my home town of Cape Town.  Wherever I've lived in the world, I have always made my own samosas.  Especially when they are not readily available.  They have proved to be a popular bar snack at pub quizzes.  The only slightly challenging part of this recipe is the folding of the samosa skin or wrap, but once you do a couple you'll become a master.
The filling can be lamb, chicken, fish or beef mince if you want a meat one.  Potato and peas is the vegetarian variety.  For this recipe I used chicken mince.
Samosa filling
1kg chicken/beef/lamb mince
2 onions finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
5 teaspoons curry powder
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh ginger
1 garlic clove finely chopped
1 chili finely chopped
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh coriander leaves
Brown the onions, add in garlic, ginger and chili.  When soft add in the mince and stir to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of your pan.  Add in all the seasonings and let it simmer until cooked through.  You don't want it to be a wet mixture, rather err on the dry side.
Samosa wrap/pastry/paaper/skin
(Whatever you want to call it is okay.  We don't judge.)
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
cornflour for sprinkling
oil for schmeering 
1/4 cup of flour and water paste for glue
Put dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. (Not the cornflour.)  Make a well in the centre and add in the water a little at a time, kneading it together, until you have a soft dough that does not stick to your fingers.  Let the dough rest for about 15 minutes while you get the rolling area ready.  Divide the dough into 12 golf-ball sized pieces.  Set them aside and cover with a damp cloth so they don't dry out.  Then take them one at a time and roll it out into a disc the size of your hand.  Schmeer oil onto the top of the disc and sprinkle a little cornflour to prevent sticking.  Place the next disc on top.  Do this until you have a tower of six discs, all with oil schmeered on their top and a sprinkle of cornflour.  You do not need to schmeer oil or sprinkle cornflour on the top disc.  Now repeat and do the same to the remaining 6 balls so that you'll have two towers of 6 discs each.  The next step is to roll and flatten the tower so that it is about the size of a dinner plate.  Try and make it more like a rectangle.  You should now have two flat large rectangles.  Place your samosa skin rectangles on a greased baking sheet and pop it into the oven at about 120 degrees Celsius for 3 minutes.  Take it out of the oven and using a sharp knife, cut the rectangles into long strips about 6cm wide.  The strips should pull apart.  Fold each strip to make a pocket and put about 2 teaspoons of filling inside the pocket.  Close the pocket, sealing the filling inside, by folding the strip into a triangle.  Keep folding until you come to the end of the strip.  The last bit use your flour and water paste to glue the end bit down so it doesn't unravel when deep-frying.
Fry in hot oil or for the health-conscious, bake in an oven until the wrapping is crisp.
Cindy Vine is a South African currently living and working in Kyiv Ukraine.  She is the author of Hush Baby, Defective, Not Telling and C U @ 8.  All her books are available on Amazon in both Kindle and print format.