Free State Oxtail Potjie

 

There's a saying doing its rounds in South Africa stating:, "Wat is 'n vrou wat kan braai? Sy is kwaad" resulting from the typical behaviour of men at a South African braai who are drinking a lot of beer and just keeps on adding wood to the fire.  I would like to rectify this, "Wat is 'n vrou wat kan braai? Sy is 'n Vrystater"

Born and bred in the Free State with all the cattle and sheep farms surrounding us, we have a special love for meat. You can keep your "Meat free Mondays" or "Meat free May", thank you very much!

Winter is approaching and with the cooler weather we love to make our Bloemfontein Oxail Potjie.

The first time we made this potjie was about 12 years ago, in the middle of the winter in a very cold Bloemfontein. We drank alot of red wine and the pot were only ready at 11pm that evening. We froze our butts off in the cold Free Sate air that night, but we were younger and more interested in drinking wine.

Clearly from the pictures you can see, it was a party and only the wine mattered......

Now at almost 40 I must say, I am too old for that shit. So we start our oxtail pot really early so that it can be ready by 6pm. The wine still matters but we're unfortanetly to old to party -"like it's 1999" - because a hangover now lasts a week.

So here you go, the recipe for the Bloemfontein Oxtail potjie..... You're welcome ;)

1. Take fresh beef oxtail, (the quantity depends on the size of potjie that you are making, we usually use 12 oxtail pieces for our Size 3 potjie) dunk it in some flour and brown it on the stove in olive oil whilst you are frying celery, carrots, onion and garlic in your potjie.

2. Remove the celery mix and add your oxtails to the potjie and brown it in the potjie for another 5 minutes. Return the celery mix, add 2 cups of lamb stock and a cup of red wine, (and please don't use shitty red wine in food, if you won't drink it, we also don't want to eat it), simmer this for about 4 hours on a constant medium heat.

3. After four hours and copious amounts of red wine (well, copious is a relative description depending on your age, HA HA), add a packet of rich oxtail soup and a cup of coca-cola.  Simmer for another 3 hours.  In the last hour add baby potatoes (halved) and simmer for the last hour.

4. Serve with rice and some spring onion as garnish and ENJOY!

Jy gaan jou vingers af lek - you can thank me later ;)

Camembert and Cranberry Fillet

Camembert and Cranberry Fillet

For my company's year-end lunch we went to one of those Medieval restaurants where you have to eat potatoes and fish balls with your hands. You don't get napkins and if your fingers get dirty you HAVE to ask the person next to you to lick your fingers. Fuck, what an ordeal.

I needed something to balance this out or Friday would be nothing but a big suck-fest. Luckily my fiance (or m'lady in shining armor) rescued me from my Medieval nightmare. She bought the best beef fillet she could find along with some Camembert Cheese and Cranberry sauce.

Ingredients:
Beef Fillet (size = depending on how shitty your lunch was)
Camembert Cheese
Woolworths Cranberry sauce with crushed berries
Crushed Garlic
Salt flakes
Olive Oil
Red Wine
Balsamic
Sugar
A Spring of Parsley
A Small Spring of Thyme
A Small Spring of Rosemary
A Spring of Coriander
Onions

Prepare the beef fillet by rubbing some olive oil, crushed garlic and salt flakes on the meat. Let it stand for a while.

After the fillet stood for a while, cut slits into the side of the fillet to create a cavity in the side of the fillet. Fill the cavity with Camembert Cheese and finely chopped parsley, thyme, rosemary and coriander. To ensure that the filling don't spill out when you cook it, tie some string around the fillet or if you don't have string, you can use toothpicks to keep the fillet together.

Put the fillet aside for time being, it is now time for the Cranberry sauce with Red Wine.

Heat some olive oil in a pan. Fry the onions until translucent and soft. Stir two teaspoons of sugar into the onions. The sugar will caramelize the onions.

Now stir in the Cranberry sauce and a dash of red wine. Cook for 5 minutes while stirring continuously.

Add a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, turn down the heat and let it simmer for 10 - 15 minutes. If the sauce gets to thick, you can add some water to dilute the sauce.

While the sauce is simmering you can start cooking the steaks. Cook them which ever way you prefer your steak - Charcoal, medium or bloody as hell.

Once the steak and the sauce is done, it's time to dish up! Pour some of the Cranberry sauce over your steaks and enjoy with a side dish of your choice. You can go for rice, mash or a nice salad.

 

Friday - rescued!

Date Night Dish Gone...Right

Chicken Cordon Bleu with Herby Potatoes and Feta and Avo Salad

Pan fried baby potatoes with mushrooms and fresh herbs

Me and soon to be hubby (YAY) make time for date nights every week.  This is usually when we try out new recipes, have sushi or make a concoction of our own.  It was Thursday night and date night and the fiancee decided to surprise me with a dish (and a beautiful orchid - now isn't that sweet - and no that doesn't make him a wussy just a man with taste).

 

I was in charge of the side dishes and decided on pan fried mushrooms and baby potatoes covered with herbs fresh from our own herb garden and a nice crisp summer salad.

 

The Chicken Cordon Bleu:

Ingredients:

4 deboned and skinless chicken breast fillets

Gypsy ham

Fairview feta cheese

Calamata olives

Olive oil

Italian herbs

Salt and pepper

 

Prepare the chicken by slicing the breast thinly down the middle, be cautious not to cut it through completely.

Insert the Gypsy ham, Fairview Feta Cheese and Calamata olives into the cavity you just created.

Bind the chicken together with some rope or toothpicks if you can't find that rope staring you right in the eye.

Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the Italian herbs.

Place the chicken pieces in the oiled pan and fry on low heat for about 40 minutes or until done, turning continuously.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

 

This is date night, so don't get carried away with all the smooching and foreplay that you totally forget about the chicken (luckily we remembered in time).  Rather set the timer for in case things get too hot in the kitchen.

 

Pan fried potatoes and mushrooms with fresh herbs:

Ingredients:

Baby potatoes (as many as you like)

Small button mushrooms

Garlic

Flat leave parsley

Sprigs of Rosemary

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

 

Pre-cook the baby potatoes until they are soft.

Heat the olive oil in a pan, add the potatoes, mushrooms, garlic and some of the herbs to the pan.

Stir often until mushrooms are golden brown.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

 

The Feta and Avo Salad:

Here you can let the artistic juices flow..... come on, go wild.

This was a nice salad as a side dish. (If I were to serve just salad I would have been more bold and make it as kinky as I can be). 

 

We highly recommend the KWV Shiraz to go with the dish.

 

Go ahead, do a date night, experiment with some new flavours and get jiggy with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hake with red pepper relish

Hake with red pepper relish

Ingredients

For the fish:
4 Fillets of hake
Some Himalayan crystal salt / coarse sea-salt
Tablespoon butter
Olive oil

For the Red Pepper Relish:
5 Red Peppers
1 Red Chilli
1 Onion
2 Garlic cloves
2 Sprigs of Thyme
1 Bay leave
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 Tablespoon honey
5 Tablespoons olive oil
A pinch of salt
Some fresh fennel
Some smoked paprika

Cover the hake fillets with some Himalayan crystal salt (or normal course sea-salt) and set aside for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes or so, rinse the fish with cold water, use a paper towel to pat the fish dry and set aside.

Now for the Red Pepper Relish.
Crush the Garlic cloves.
Finely chop the onions.
Slice the fennel into fine pieces.
Cut the Red Peppers into Julienne strips.

 Heat the 5 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan together with the red pepper, garlic, fennel, onion, red chilli, thyme, bay leave and a pinch of salt.

Cook for 15 minutes on a low heat until the onions and the peppers are nice and soft.

Add the paprika, balsamic, paprika and honey into the relish.

Cook until this mixture has been reduced by a third.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Simmer gently for a while.

In a sauce pan, heat enough olive oil to cover the base of the pan.

Add the butter.

Pan fry the hake for more or less for 4 minutes on each side. Once done, set the hake aside to rest.

Once the fish has rested, it is time to dish up.

This was a great dish and we enjoyed it a lot. Only thing to mind though - don't take so many pictures of it afterwards that it is completely cold by the time the girlfriend finally decide there is enough photos we can now eat.

This dish works very well as an aphrodisiac. Believe me.

Lavender and Thyme Chicken with red wine sauce

When I heard about mixing red wine with chicken I was intrigued, usually the experts will only recommend white wine with chicken, and so we decided to take up this experiment.

Ingredients:
4 portions skinless deboned chicken breasts
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
(get the good shit, not the cheap crap my boyfriend has in his pantry)
8 shallots (that is now the fancy pancy word for small onions)
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 cup of red wine
(go for the decent bottle in your wine rack, it's only one cup, you can have the rest while making this awesome dish)
1 cup of chicken stock
4 twiglets thyme
2 tsp lavender flowers
shredded skin and juice of 1 orange
salt and pepper to taste

Garnishing the chicken you will need the following:
1 orange, peeled and divided into sections
A few lavender sprigs
4 tsp lavender flowers

So now the experiment can begin, I must say besides being intrigued I was also sceptic.  But me and the boyfriend is one mean team and we were sure that we will pull this off successfully.

The Method:
Heat the butter and "good shit olive oil" in a pan, once heated, add the chicken breasts.
Fry the breasts until they are brown (fondle the breasts of your girlfriend while waiting for the chicken, see that is why a man is handy in the kitchen).
Once the chicken is done, move it to a ceramic bowl.
Fry the shallots in the pan until golden brown and soft.
Add the shallots to the chicken in the bowl.
Add the flour to the pan, cooking whilst stirring continuously.
Add enough red wine and chicken stock to the pan to create a thin sauce.
Bring to boiling point whilst stirring continuously.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Stir in the following:
Thyme twiglets
Lavender Sprigs
And the shredded orange skin and juice.
Pour this combo over the chicken and shallots in the bowl.
Cover and simmer for 40 minutes and Bob's your uncle.

Dish up and garnish the chicken artistically with the orange sections, lavender sprigs and lavender flowers.

You can basically serve this dish with any starch, in retrospect I think cous cous would have been a big hit, but we went with baby potatoes, see the boyfriend just LOVE potatoes, so I had to repay the favor mentioned earlier in this blog :)

And now you can take the word of two self taught amateur cooks that red wine does go with chicken.

Make your own Basil Pesto Pizza from scratch

 

Making your pizza from scratch is not that hard. It might be time consuming but it is a nice activity for the family to do together.

Making the pizza dough

Ingredients:
4 Cups of all purpose flour
1 Sachet of dry yeast
1.5 Cup of lukewarm water
2 Teaspoons salt
1 Teaspoon sugar
Olive oil

Put the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a bowl and combine the lot. Note: if you had cut your finger minutes ago (like I did) your girlfriend might say things like "You fainted when you saw your own blood so maybe I should take over". I never fainted. I just laid down for a quick power nap on the kitchen floor.

I need the power nap because the next part takes some  effort if you don't have a mixer to combine everything. If you have a mixer switch the mixer on and while it is running add the water and two tablespoons olive oil. If you don't have a mixer you will have to do the mixing yourself which could be quite strenuous.

Mix until the dough comes together in a nice solid ball.

Note: if the dough is very sticky add more flour. If the dough is too dry add more water to the mix.

When the dough had formed a nice ball remove the dough from the mixer. Now it's time to put in some elbow grease. Knead the dough into a firm ball.

Grease a bowl with 2 teaspoons of olive oil put the dough in and cover with plastic wrap. Put the dough somewhere warm for approximately an hour. The dough should double in size during that time.

While waiting for the dough it is time to start with the Basil Pesto.

Basil Pesto

Ingredients
Two cups of fresh Basil leaves.
Quater of a cup walnuts or pinenuts.
Two thirds of a cup Olive oil.
Two cloves of garlic.
Half a cup of Pecorino chees.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Combine the Basil leaves, walnuts, garlic in a food processor. Pulse until it's course. Add halve of the Olive Oil and season with salt and pepper. Pulse until a nice smooth paste is formed.

Now put the paste into a bowl and stir in the cheese.

Making the Pizza

Ingredients
Pizza dough (see entry above)
Basil Pesto (see entry above)
Tomato Paste
Mozzarella cheese
Dried Origanum
Fresh Parsley
Any Pizza toppings, we went with:
Salami
Avocado
Calamata Olives

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Once the dough is ready roll it out into an oven proof pan.  Spread the Tomato Paste across the dough.
Do the same with the Basil Pesto.

Spread the Mozzarello cheese evenly across the base and toss the rest of the ingredients on the Pizza.

Put the Pizza in the oven form +- 20 minutes.

Herb-crusted Rack of Lamb with New Potatoes

The mission: Herb-crusted Rack of Lamb with New Potatoes

So we decided on playing around with some herbs.  We recently started growing our own herbs and were excited to start using them in our cooking.

We had a rocky start to the mission.  We walked the Spaniels and made a quick stop at the local butchery to pick up our lamb for the evening.  On our way back, the small "smeagle" look-alike spaniel, named Zoë, broke loose from the leash and charged on down the street.  I instantly became a sprint athlete and chased the little shit and caught her a few blocks down and averted a tragedy which would have ruined the evening.

Spaniel still intact we can now go on to the evening.

The ingredients:
Rack of lamb.
5 (or so) medium sized potatoes.
White bread crumbs (in reality we could only get Corn Flake Crumbs from local grocer).
Two large garlic cloves. Crushed or chopped.
Mix a handful of rosemary, thyme, flat leave parsley and marjoram together.
(Get some extra herbs for presentation)
Quarter cup of melted butter, mix in salt and pepper to taste.
Argument with girlfriend about grammar.
Salt & Pepper.

To go with the lamb we went with tomato and olive oil infused lentils. And of course New Potatoes (see title of blog post).
For the lentils:
Chopped onion.
Argue with girlfriend about blog content.
Receive spelling lessons from girlfriend.
Black Lentils (no shit).
2 tbsp Olive oil.
Chopped Italian tomatoes.
Chopped fresh parsley.

Pre-step 1.
Cook potatoes.

Right, step one!
Preheat oven to 220 degrees or whatever that is in Fahrenheit.
Mix corn flake crumbs with garlic, chopped herbs and butter. !IMPORTANT! You should have started drinking red wine by now!
At this point it is about time the girlfriend should lose an argument (finally).
Rub the mixture on the meaty side of the lamb.
Roast the lamb +- 40 mins. Or 25 mins if you are all 'Twilight' and you like bloody stuff.

Step number twice.
Heat a pan with olive oil and cook the onions until soft.
Add lentils and tomatoes and cook until the lentils are soft.
Add parsley.
Season to taste.

Step three.
Cut potatoes into quarters.
Wrap lamb in foil.
Put potatoes in the pan with the lamb.
Season with rosemary and flat leave parsley.
Drizzle with olive oil.
Season with Himalayan Crystal Salts and pepper.
Roast in the oven for 10 mins.

Mission accomplished.
With everything done, dish the lamb, potatoes and lentils.
Decorate with extra herbs for presentation.
!IMPORTANT! - Have some more red wine.

With the Spaniels safe, and the food cooked, it is time to just chill, drink some more red wine. Enjoy some good company and good food.