Nothing beats The Burger

My all time favourite... must have a burger at least once a week... the BIGGER the better!

The best burger I have ever eaten (and that includes my own home-made, from scratch burgers), was in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. 

The small take-away shop was on the beach, underneath the deck of a more upmarket pub / restaurant. We had our last couple of bucks in our pocket, so Andre and I decided to take a chance on these take-away burgers and hopefully we won't die of heartburn.

It was THE most memorable burgers we have ever had. It was big, the bun was fresh, it was a real beef patty, fresh salad and just beautiful. We ate it right there on the beach with a bottle of Coca Cola.
It's been 15+ years now and we have never eaten a burger like that again...!

And yes, I suppose the setting contributed to the whole experience!

Isn't that what eating is all about... to experience the food... flavour, texture, aroma and don't forget the setting. 

E's Beef Patty Recipe:

500g       Beef Minced Meat (Lean)
1/2          Onion chopped finely
1 tsp        freshly chopped Garlic
2x           Hand-fulls of fresh, dried, Breadcrumbs
1/4 tsp     of dried, ground Ginger (optional)
2x           shakes of Chili Flakes (optional)
1x           XL / Jumbo Egg
1x           Chicken or Beef Stock block
1x Tbsp  of Brown Onion Soup
1/4 - 1/2 cup of Water
Ground Black Pepper

METHOD:

Mix the Breadcrumbs, Ginger and Chili Flakes together is a bowl. Add the minced meat, garlic and onions to the Breadcrumb mix and mix well. Add the egg - mix well.
Crumble the Chicken or Beef stock over the meat mixture, add the Brown Onion Soup and Ground Black Pepper - mix well.
Now add water little bit at a time as you mix it in. The mixture must not be dry and also not watery wet... just slightly sticky!

Note: Not everyone likes the hint of Ginger and / or Chili flakes, so you can leave them out.
          Also, the stock cube add the salt to the mix.

You can make the patties the size of your palm (or slightly bigger) and then fry them in a bit of oil until done. 

Go ahead - Build your Burger!

I was munching away!

This is one of my plain burgers - a quick meal before going out! See, no cutlery! 
I will be making burgers later this week and I'll splurge a little. (Photo to follow)

So clever.... and Pumpkin & Cheese Soup

Yes, there is some "seriously" clever people out there in the world. Which makes me realise (again) that I really don't know anything!!

For instance... I never, ever thought of placing a whole pumpkin in the oven, baking it soft and THEN peeling it etc. to make pumpkin soup - how clever! And then adding cheese to the pumpkin - double clever and simply delicious!

Quick and easy!

So, not to waste another minute, I took one of my pumpkins, from my own veggie patch (if I might add) and tested it out. How could I not!

You will need:

* 1x medium size pumpkin
* 4 - 6 Laughing Cow Cheese Wedges
*  +- 2 cups Veg or Chicken Stock

1. Take 1x whole, medium size pumpkin and pop it in the oven at 100degC for about 45min      -1 hour (or until a knife can easily be pushed through the skin)... but not totally soft!

I wrapped mine in foil, but it isn't necessarily.

2. When the pumpkin has cooled down enough, cut it, peel it and take out the seeds. Place the rest in a pot with about 1 1/2 - 2 cups of vegetable or chicken stock. Cook until very soft.

3. Switch off the stove and take the pot off the heat. Using your hand processor, mix the pumpkin until a smooth, thick-ish consistency.

  3. Now it's time to add in the "Laughing Cow" white creamy cheese... I add in about 4 - 6           cheese wedges to a medium size pot of pumpkin soup! I LoVe cheese.

4. That's it! Now it is ready to serve.

Flops, more flops... so I asked "why?"

Why?? 

Oven temperature good - yes
Ingredients fresh - yes.
Adding all the ingredients - yes.
Hm mm...

Emotions OK - no! 

Tehehe, I should have known! When I'm not happy or when something is bothering me, I must not bake - period. I "baked" a Raisin and Ginger Bread two days ago (in the bread-maker, may I add) and it was terrible! No flavour, no aromas floating around in the house... a flop!
I will not mention all the other flops pestering me over the past couple of weeks! Moving to another country can be a roller coaster ride...

BUT, things are looking up ;-). I baked a batch of Ginger Cookies this afternoon and they are delicious!! I tried another recipe this time - not the recipe from a previous post -  this one was from "bigfatcookies" by Elinor Klivans. The texture is different, but they are really good.

At least I took some photo's of my other "non-flops"... and I promised a customer I'll post them today, so I'd better get a move-on!

Koeksisters

(pronounced: cook + sisters)


Never, ever, EVER did I think I would attempt to make this famous South African sweet treat anywhere in my "baking future" - all on my own, rotating between really hot oil and near freezing cold syrup! Mostly because everyone always told me: "O man, that's a big job!"

But, you know, living in NZ now, I can't just pop into the local SPAR and buy a dozen of koeksisters anymore. I was craving them. So what's a girl to do....?

Yes, I found a recipe, made the syrup, left it in the fridge for 24hrs, started with the pastry the following day, made the koeksisters, placed them in the fridge..... and they were all eaten up by day two. 

Sweet, syrupy and just addictive! If I can make them, anyone can!

Ingredients for dough:

• 2 cups cake flour

• 2 tablespoon baking powder

• ½ tsp salt

• 1 large egg

• 4 tbsp butter/margarine

• ½ cup of water

• oil for frying

Ingredients for syrup:

• 1kg sugar

• 1 ½ cinnamon sticks

• ½ tsp ground ginger

• 1 ½ cups of water

• juice of one lemon

Method: syrup

Prepare the syrup a day before (it needs to be very cold). Dissolve sugar in the water. Add the spices and lemon juice to this and boil together. Leave the syrup cool in the fridge overnight.

Method: dough

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Rub in the butter and mix until pliable.
Mix this with the egg and water (adding the water a little at a time). Work the dough well. 

If the dough appears to be lumpy and sticky, continue to work the dough until it will ball up.
Let the dough rest at room temperature for about three hours (under an inverted mixing bowl).

Prepare the koeksisters:

• Roll out the dough (thickness 5mm).
• Cut the dough into strips of 6cm long, 2cm wide.
• Cut each of these strips into three strips (not all the way through, leave the strips connected at the top).
• Plat each strip, pinch together at the end of the strip.
• Deep fry until golden brown.
• Remove and drain quickly – dip the hot koeksisters in the cold syrup (that was stored in the fridge up to now).
• The secret is to keep the syrup cold and the koeksisters hot, this way it will draw just the right amount of syrup.
• You can keep the syrup cold by keeping the syrup bowl in another container filled with iced water.

Thank you to Just Easy Recipes -http://www.justeasyrecipes.co.za/2009/08/27/koeksisters/

Preparing the Koeksister

Into the oil they go!

Pork Belly Andre

As promised...

...Andre's "secret' marinade recipe for Pork Belly!

On it's way to the Cobb.

The coals and juice go below, then your meat,
then the lid.

I cannot give you quantities :-), because he didn't measure out anything... he tasted! Well, there you have it folks - let your taste buds do the work.

We slow cooked our PB on our cobb (www.cobbglobal.com). It's really a handy little cooker! Of course, us South Africans, love to braai and see flames and stink from smoke and braai-vleis, but some days we can be sophisticated too...

What you will need:

• Your tongue - for tasting
• Olive Oil
• Soy Sauce
• BBQ Sauce
• Tobasco Sauce
• Ginger
• Salt and Pepper
• 1Kg Pork Belly (our PB still had the ribs on)
• Apple juice if using a Cobb

Make about 500ml of the marinade... mix all the ingredients together in your preferred quantities (by tasting). 

Place your PB in a large enough Zip Lock bag, then add the marinade. It's best to let the PB marinade over-night in the fridge.

A Cobb is not a "must have". (BUT, if you do have one, below, where the coals go, pour some apple juice in the area around the coals... you will know where). You can use some other means of slow cooking it as well - Weber, kitchen oven, etc. Ours took about 2hrs to cook!

You can use your thermometer to check the meat temp. to see if it's done! Andre just cut the meat and had a look... he probably tasted it too - hehe!

Hawke's Bay Easy Fruit Cake

Guaranteed to impress

My mom found this recipe in a Hawke's Bay newspaper and of course, we had to make one for Christmas!
It's super quick to prepare and it tastes really good. 

Ingredients

Pre-heat oven to 125 degC.

1Kg dried Fruit Cake mix
2x cups Self-Raising Flour
2x cups Peach Ice Tea

Put some cherries and nuts ontop before baking.

Method

Mix the fruit mix and Ice Tea well and soak overnight (12hrs).
Add the 2x cups of Self-Raising Flour in the soaked fruit and stir well.

Pour mixture into a well greased "spring form" cake tin (20cm or 23cm) OR use a square non-stick tin - grease well.

Bake for 2.5hrs or until cooked (your cake tester comes out clean).

Serve it hot or cold, with cream or custard. I just put butter on and eat it with tea!

Spicy Butternut and Orange Soup

Benjamin's Favourite Butternut Soup

It's now a tradition in our family to have Butternut Soup as a starter for our Christmas Eve dinner. And this year, Ben helped me make it. 

Usually I would make a straight forward one... Butternut, chicken stock and I think some cream, BUT because my recipe books are still "boxed up", I went to one of my, now favourite sites: www.pinkpolkadotfood.com.

They had two options to choose from, so we went for the spicy one.... and we sort of followed the instructions :-)! You will see my high-lighted comments - I use what I have in the kitchen!

I must say that this recipe is the best I have tasted, ever! We had the leftovers for lunch on Christmas day and it tasted even better!! 

Try it. You won't use another Butternut Soup recipe again! 

Oops, missed that drop...

Ingredients

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC.

• 60ml olive oil
• 2 leeks, sliced [ I used 1x]
• 30ml medium curry powder
• 10ml cumin powder
• 15ml coriander powder
• 5ml fresh ginger [ I used ground ginger]
• 10ml turmeric
• 1 large cinnamon stick [ I used 5ml ground cinnamon]
• 2kg cubed butternut [ I used 1.6Kg]
• 3l vegetable stock [ I used veg stock powder with 1.5L water]
• juice and grated skin of 3 large oranges [I only used the juice]
• 30ml honey
• salt and freshly grounded black pepper
• 125ml cream
• chives

Method

Place the olive oil into a large roasting tin and place into the oven to heat.

Once hot, place the leeks, curry, cumin, coriander, ginger, turmeric and cinnamon stick in the oil and mix.

Add the butternut and mix through; making sure that the butternut is covered with the spice mixture.

Roast in the oven for 30 minutes.

Remove the butternut mixture from the oven and transfer to a large pot.

Add the stock, orange juice and peel and honey.

Season with salt and pepper, cook for 20 minutes and remove from the heat to cool down a bit.

Process in a food processor and return to the pot.

Add the cream, heat through and serve sprinkled with some chives and crusty bread.