A Big Fish

Here is what I did:
Pull the fish flesh from bones and skin and shred using two forks.
peel enough potatoes so that it looks like you have the same amount of potato as fish. If they are already baked and from the fridge, pop them in a saucepan of simmering water to warm up and soften.When warm and soft, mash them with some butter and a bit of milk.
Chop a large onion and gently fry in olive oil and a bit of butter with some garlic until translucent and sticky. Add some white wine to the pan and let the alcohol simmer away.
Mix together the fish, the mashed potato, the onion and a small handful of chopped parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Ready To Fry

To make the fish cakes, put flour for dusting in a bowl, beat two eggs into a second bowl and add a cup of breadcrumbs to a third bowl. Have dishes ready to hold the fishcakes (which need to go into the fridge to rest for half an hour).

Roll a fishcake sized amount of fish and potato mixture in your hands, and flatten a little. Dust with flour, dip in egg, then cover with breadcrumbs. Repeat until you’re done!

Rest in the fridge for half an hour, then shallow fry until the breadcrumbs are golden.

And Fishcakes Getting Golden

Serve with sweet chilli sauce and lemon wedges.

One larger than expected Kabeljou will need about 5 potatoes and will make more fishcakes than you can eat in a weekend.

This soup is mostly made up based on a tasty soup that I had skiing in Italy. (Well, not while actually skiing, cos that would be messy, but in the evening while on a skiing trip in Italy.) That soup had ham instead of the chorizo here, also used up the rind of a parmesan, and I think had carrots and bits of pasta in it as well. This soup is instead a little quicker, and has been known to convert a non-soup person. (But that probably has more to do with the fried chorizo than anything else.)

• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 crushed clove of garlic
• a glug of olive oil
• 1 chorizo, sliced
• 1 x 400g tin of whole roma tomatoes
• small glass of red wine (optional)
• vegetable stock
• a touch of chilli
• salt and pepper to taste

Soften the onions and garlic in a saucepan in as little olive oil as possible until the onions are translucent. Add the chopped chorizo and fry until a little bit crispy. Add the wine or some vegetable stock, ands scrape up any caremelised onion. Add the tin of tomatoes and either snip them in the saucepan for chunky soup, or mash them with a masher. Add a tinful of vegetable stock, and simmer for at least 30 minutes. Add salt, pepper and chilli to taste.

Serve with a dollop of basil pesto, grated cheese and crusty ciabatta. Serves 2 who are hungry.

So, for a second go at having A Food Blog, here is a Steamed Asparagus Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette

For the salad:

• 1 pillow pack of soft lettuce leaves
• 1 bunch of asparagus – steamed and still crunchy then left to cool
• Freshly grated parmesan
• Salt and pepper

For the mustard vinaigrette:

• 1 part red wine vinegar – about a tablespoon
• 3 parts good olive oil (Morgenster – yum!) – about 3 tablespoons
• Generous teaspoon of Dijon mustard
• Pinch or two of sugar
• Little pinch of salt (hurrah)
• A crack or two of pepper

Mix the dressing ingredients until well blended. Toss the salad together with the dressing. Tonight it served 5 as a side salad.

(Served with crumbed chicken breasts and lemons, and rice which was artfully presented thanks to a Cuisipro ice-cream scoop.)

(PS: it’s not quite an “oopa” post yet – read the comments here: http://blog.yuppiechef.com/2009/10/26/julie-julia-do-you-have-what-it-takes/ to understand – but am getting there!)

Champagne Thursday. Yay!

This post is not just two weeks late, but rather about two years overdue. This often neglected little space was intended to be something of a cooking blog. My many, many draft posts can attest to that.

So, tardiness aside, here goes a Post With A Recipe (and photos to prove the results).

For Champagne Thursday two weeks ago (where, naturally, one drinks champagne on a Thursday), I made a tasty Aubergine and Lemon Risotto. Very yum. Now, I guess at this point I ought to wax lyrical about my own interpretations of the recipe, history of aubergines, or lemons, or risotto, or something of that sort. But as a blogger, I am not there yet. So what follows is the recipe. As I found it in The Guardian.

Yotam Ottolenghi’s Aubergine and lemon risotto

Smoky aubergine and the strong freshness of lemon and basil are used here to offset the stodgy tendency of some risotti. A good-quality stock is vital, because it’s the backbone of the dish (it’s a cinch to make, too: just cover some aromatic vegetables and herbs – carrot, celery, onion, bay, parsley, garlic, fennel, thyme, etc – with water, add a pinch of salt, simmer for 20-30 minutes and strain). Serves four. [My note: That's what Yotam Ottolenghi had to say. But all the photos are mine. Go me.]

Aubergine and Lemon Risotto. Yum!

2 medium aubergines
170ml olive oil
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
200g risotto rice
120ml white wine
750ml hot vegetable stock
2 tbsp lemon juice
Grated zest of 1 lemon
20g butter
Coarse sea salt and black pepper
50g Parmesan (or other mature hard cheese), grated
10g basil leaves, shredded

Preheat the oven grill to high. Place one aubergine on a tray and grill for about an hour, turning occasionally, until the flesh inside is cooked through (don’t worry if the aubergine bursts – continue cooking, so you get that distinct smoky flavour). Remove from the oven, cut a slit lengthways in the aubergine and scoop out the soft flesh, avoiding most of the burnt skin. Roughly chop the flesh and put in a bowl.

Cut the second aubergine into 1.5cm dice. Heat 120ml olive oil in a frying pan and in batches until golden and crisp. Transfer to a colander, sprinkle with salt and leave to cool.

Heat the remaining oil in a heavy-based pan, then fry the onion slowly. When translucent and cooked, add the crushed garlic and cook for three minutes more. Turn up the heat, add the rice, stir to coat it in the oil and fry for two to three minutes. Add the wine (it should hiss) and cook for two to three minutes more, until all but evaporated. Turn down the heat to medium.

Add a ladle of hot stock to the rice, then stir until it is absorbed, then repeat, stirring all the while, until all the stock has been used up – this will take 10-15 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat, add the lemon juice, half the zest, the aubergine pulp, butter and half a teaspoon of salt. Stir, cover and leave for five minutes. Taste and add more salt if you like and some black pepper.

To serve, spoon the risotto into bowls or plates and sprinkle with the diced aubergine, Parmesan, basil and the rest of the lemon zest.

Source: The Guardian

*Side note 1: I adore aubergine, especially when grilled whole until it collapses.
**Side note 2: Yotam Ottolenghi is chef-patron of Ottolenghi, London. Also, I have an Ottolenghi cookbook! Yay! But this recipe is not in it.
***Side note 3: I love champagne a lot.

Santa Shoe Box 1

Santa Shoe Box 2

Rocking the Daisies

I was there for dinner on a packed Wednesday evening – Capetonians do love a good winter special. As far as I can recall, the staff working in the restaurant are still in training as part of Let’s Sell Lobster, but I might be wrong. They’re all friendly and chatty (although we did have to top up our own glasses – really nice glasses and decanter, by the way). Fasie was on the floor as well, and helped us choose a very tasty wine (if I could only remember what it was!).

I did enjoy all the courses, except for the post-dinner popcorn and marshmallows. The bouillabaisse was particularly satisfying, and the pork belly very winter-comfy-tasty. But I don’t think they stuck their neck out with any of the dishes, and altogether, it would have been good if at least one of the courses had been a little lighter, more delicate. Still, The Roundhouse is a hunting lodge, so I guess robust dinners make sense on a cold Cape Town evening.

Blakey’s subjective (and probably overly critical) verdict:

• Service: friendly, but no replenishing of wine glasses, tut tut!
• Ambience: very picturesque, chairs were comfy (yay!) and very nice glasses (I like glasses)
• Food: bold. Possibly too bold. But tasty. But what was up with the popcorn and marshmallows?

There you have it.

Turns out they were right.

I love tea. I love tea very, very much. My day starts with a cup of tea in bed, and there is not much conversation that I am capable of until I’ve had my morning cup of tea.

Coffee is good, and I do appreciate fine coffee from fine coffee purveyors, but I am definitely a tea girl. Tea makes things better. Tea revives you. (I am SO coveting the Tea Revives You poster from Keep Calm Gallery – that’s the image above.) Tea might make the world go round. Oh, and I also like a G&T. Kind of tea, but not. At all.

Anyways, my fondness of tea means that I have been anticipating Nigiro (the URL might redirect to Origin – tut tut!), the new tea room at Origin Coffee Roasting in De Waterkant in Cape Town, for a while and so was very pleased to be invited along to the launch of Nigiro on Tuesday evening. What a fabulous occasion: Cape Town celebrating my favourite beverage! A beautiful glass box of a tea room has been created in Origin Coffee Roasting’s De Waterkant HQ, and I am very much looking forward to sitting down for a tea ceremony in there.

I got to meet some of the Elle Deco ladies (who were kind enough to compliment on my favourite necklace, which did make me feel less plainjane next to their lovely stylish selves), catch up with a few faces from the Open Everything event, of course congratulate David Donde on such a wonderful evening, meet a bespoke perfumer, drink some Stormhoek tastiness, eat the most heavenly steamed dumplings (best, and first, I’ve ever had) and of course taste some Nigiro tea. Superbly soft vanilla black tea and orange spiced rooibos yumminess. How wonderful.

I left with a beautifully packaged press pack with some teas to try at home (now I just need to get me one of those very nice glass teapots!).