Delicious Chocolate Brownies

If you have done something bad, and are looking for forgiveness, then, you have come to the right place, I dont think anyone could resist, I am posting this as I have been a very bad blogger, and I thought this would redeem myself as I havent been posting recipes for a while... therefore I am posting these forgiveness Chocolate Brownies, they are delicious, moist, soft and goo-ey.

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

1/4 Cup of Cocoa Powder
2 cups of Sugar
2 cups of flour
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of bicarb

Wet Ingredients

1 Cup of water
125g of Margarine
1/2 cup of oil
2 large freerange eggs

Preheat oven to 160 Degrees Celcuis.

Melt the margerine, add to a bowl and add water, oil and eggs and mix with a hand blender.
Add all the dry ingredients to a bown and mix, then add all the wet ingredients into the dry and mix again, until you have a very smooth mixture.

*** you can add half a cup on pecan nuts (finely chopped) if you like.

Add this mixture to a 20cm x 20cm baking dish, which is lined with greese proof paper,
and bake for 35 minutes.

After baking, turn out the brownie onto a cooling rack, and allow to cool completely.

Now make the Chocolate Icing

1 Cup Icing suger
20 mls of water
half a cup of chocolate chips

Melt chocolate chips in a bowl, over a bowl of hot water.
add water to icing and mix, then add into melted chocolate until you have a smooth icing mixture.

Pour over cooled brownies and let it set, then cut into squares and eat.

Breakfast at The Oyster Box in Umhlanga

This weekend we went to The Oyster Box for breakfast, it was absolutely stunning.. the food, the service, the view... everything!!!

We arrived there and redecorated the place as we were there to celebrate a 60th, with no complaints, the waiters helped us set up, and were very accomodating.

The champagne was flowing, the buffet breakfast had everything you can imagine, from a good old fry up to salmon, parmaham and oysters.

We loved it so much that we landed up booking in, this was probably due to all the champagne that we consumed... the rooms were beautiful, and the view... it felt like a much needed mini holiday!!!

I would definitely recommend it, and am thinking about having Christmas there... hmmmmm

Rocket, Strawberry and Peanut Brittle Salad

This is my personal favourite salad at the moment!!!

I tasted it ages ago at my sisters house, and it has been on my mind ever since...
She got this recipe from her sister-in-law, Stacy.

So on the weekend we had a prawn braai,
So I called my sis to get the recipe, and boy, ooooh boy was it a hit!!!
More than the prawns I dare say ;)

So, in the light of summery beautiful things, here is the recipe...

10 Strawberries (quartered)
1 x big peanut brittle
Bag of rocket
Danish Feta
1 x Avo

Dressing:
Olive oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Honey

Add the Rocket, strawberries and feta together in a salad bowl.

Just before you are going to eat, add the cubed avo, (broken) peanut brittle and dressing, give it a good mix

It is so yummy!!!

Strawberries with Balsamic Reduction

You just have to try this, its simple and amazingly fabulous.

All you need is:

1 Punnet of Strawberries
80 ml Balsamic Vinegar
160 ml Water
80 ml Honey

Chop 5 strawberries into small pieces
Add strawberries, balsamic and half the water into a small pot, and let it reduce by half.
Add the honey, and further reduce again.
Add this yummy strawberry and balsamic reduction to a blender and blend until smooth.
You will have a vibrant dark pink sauce, allow to cool.

Chop the remaining strawberries into quarters and place in a bowl and add the reduction over strawberries and add a scoop of ice-cream on top.

Enjoy!!!

Brie and Fig Croustades

Ingredients

12 Pastry Shells
Egg
Brie Cheese
Fig preserve

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
Place Pastry Shells on a non stick baking tray and brush with egg.
Bake for 15 minutes and allow to cool.

When the pastry shells are cooled, add the brie cheese and put a quartered preserved fig on the top,
Put bake into the oven and bake for 5 minutes until the cheese is melted and you just have to eat it...

These are easy to make and will impress guests, if you want a selection, make my Scrumptious Salmon Croustades. 

Meatball Kebabs

Meatball Kebabs

I never know what to do with minced meat, but I buy it.
I also have a new found love of putting things on sticks... so I decided to make meatball kebabs.

Ingredients

For the meatballs:

500 g of lean beef mince
Half an onion
1 egg
Beef spices
Fresh Rosemary

Mix the above ingredients well (I used a food processor, makes life so easy)
Roll into 12 large meatballs

For the kebabs:

12 large Meatballs
4 Wooden kebab sticks
4 Button mushrooms - whole
4 Cherry tomatoes - whole
1 Green Pepper - cut into 3cm squares

Assemble the kebabs in the following order

Green pepper, meatball, mushroom, green pepper, meatball, tomato, green pepper, meatball, green pepper

This is simply delicious good home style food.

Serve with brown rice and a green salad.

Mmmmmm Macaroons

The girls and I went for breakfast at Macaroon Cafe last week, and I tried my very first Macaroon.

(yes, for breakfast)

It was really delish, and I had a good look at this piece of art...

I have wanted to attempt making these babies since I saw them on Master Chef...

Upon my research, of the recipe and the actual Macaroon, I have decided to not make these myself and frequent Macaroon Cafe more often, and just buy them...

But for your reference, I have looked for a recipe just in case you would like to attempt them, and maybe one day I will too!!

 

The Macaroons from Macaroon Cafe

 Vanilla

Chocolate

Champagne

Recipe:    http://simply-delicious.co.za/2011/05/06/white-chocolate-raspberry-macarons-for-mothers-day/

White Chocolate & Raspberry Macaroons

Makes approximately 40 Macaron ‘sandwiches’

I know the measurements are very awkward but believe me, you want to get them right. So I suggest you use a digital scale when making these Macaroons.

 

230g (8.11 ounces) icing sugar
115g (4.06 ounces) ground almonds
144g (5.08 ounces) egg whites (approximately 4 large egg whites)
70g (2.47 ounces) caster sugar
3-4 drops gel food colouring

Filling
200g (7.05 ounces) white chocolate
50-70ml (2.37 fluid ounces) cream
100g (3.53 ounces) raspberries, chopped

1. Pre-heat the oven to 140°c and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
2. Process your ground almonds until fine. (South-African ground almonds tend to be too grainy)
3. Sift the processed ground almonds with the icing sugar. Repeat. (yes, it is necessary to double-sift)
4. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.
5. Slowly add the caster sugar and beat for another 4-5 minutes until the mixture forms stiff peaks and it looks glossy.
6. Add all of the almond mixture in and fold in. At first the mixture will look lumpy and strange but just keep folding.
7. Place the mixture in a piping bag and carefully pipe small circles (I make mine about 2cm (0.79 inches)) onto the baking sheet. Don’t pipe them too close to one another as they will spread a little.)
8. Bake for 12-15 minutes until they are just firm to the touch. Allow them to cool completely on the baking tray before carefully lifting them off.
9. To make the filling, melt together the white chocolate and cream until smooth. Place in the fridge to set slightly and when thickened, mix in the raspberries. The mixture should be spreadable / pipeable.
10. Place the mixture into another piping bag and pipe small circle onto the macaroons before gently sandwiching them together.

Jan Ellis Pudding

Now, I am really letting out my secrets, but its so good that I have to share it... real comfort food for winter, or any time...

Ingredients

Dough

1 tsp Baking Powder
375ml of Self Raising Flour (3/4 cup)
125ml of Sugar (1/2 Cup)
Pinch of salt
125ml of Milk
2 eggs
25 ml of soft Butter
30 ml of Apricot Jam

Mix all the above together
Pour mixture into a greased dish
Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes until golden brown
While the it is baking make the sauce

Sauce

Add all the below ingredients into a pan and slightly heat...

250 ml of Hot Water
250 ml of Cream
150 ml of Butter
250ml of Sugar
5ml of Vanilla Essence

Pour the sauce over the pudding when it comes out of the oven,
and leave it until the sauce has been absorbed.

Eat and enjoy it... because its amazing!!

White Chocolate Mousse

Be prepared for lots of whipping...This is good for when you have had a really bad day, you get to whip something and eat chocolate... hehehe...

Ingredients:

350 ml Cream
150 gm White Chocolate
4 Egg Whites
2 Tbs of Sugar



Heat the cream over medium heat just until it boils.
Take cream off the heat.
Add chocolate in a medium bowl.
Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and whip until melted and smooth and cool down completely in the refrigerator

When it has cooled, whip it into fluffy, soft peaks. Return to the refrigerator.

Then whip the egg whites until soft peaks form, then add  2 Tablespoons of sugar and continue whipping until glossy and stiff.

Lastly, you need to combine the two by folding the egg whites into the white chocolate mixture, and then spoon the mixture into glasses, I have used the Martini Glasses again as it looks so nice, I grated some white chocolate over the top aswell

Sticky Ginger Pork Fillet

Ingredients

400gms Pork Fillet

Marinade - Sauce Ingredients

50mls of Soy Sauce
3 Tbs of sugar
2 big cloves of garlic - finely chopped
1 Tbs of grated ginger
Splash of olive oil
Pepper to taste

Marinade fillet for a hour or so in the sauce.
Sear the fillet in a frying pan, do not over cook it.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius
Add seared fillet to baking dish and add marinade onto fillet and baste.
Turn meat and baste again after 10 minutes.
Cook for a total of 20 minutes.

Cut into medallions and  put some of the ginger and soy sauce over.

Served with mixed vegetables, I made these Veggies with a little lemon grass oil and added some roasted sesame seeds.

Simple and delicious.

Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni

I have decided to join the wonderful world of Meat-Free-Mondays... http://www.supportmfm.co.za
and so here is my recipe for this week...

Ingredients

Half a box of dried cannelloni
500 mls of Bechemel (White Sauce)
150 gms of Cypriot dried Ricotta Cheese - You can use normal if you want
500 gms of Spinach
100 gms of Parmesan Cheese
100 gms of Mozzarella Cheese
Pepper to taste

Wash and cook the spinach, once cooked wait for it to cool down.
Once cooled, squeeze all the water out of the spinach and chop into very small bits.

Add Spinach into a bowl and add about 100 mls of the Bechemel Sauce, crumble the Ricotta Cheese into the spinach mixture, and season with pepper.

Now you can start adding the mixture into the Cannelloni.

Put a layer of the Bechemel sauce at the bottom of the baking dish and add the stuffed cannelloni on top, then you can pour the remaining sauce onto the cannelloni.

Sprinkle the top with the Parmesan Cheese and the Mozzarella Cheese.

Bake dish at 200 degrees celcuis for 15 Minutes.

Prawn and Avo Ritz

I don't like the traditional seafood cocktail sauce (basically Mayo and Tomato sauce mixed)
So I tried something different and it was light and so tasty, with a little bite.

Also I used prawns - not shrimps

Ingredients

400gms of Prawns
2 Avo's

Sauce

2 Table Spoons of Salad Cream
1 Table Spoon of Sweet Chilly Sauce
Couple of drops of Tabasco Sauce (or according to taste)

Mix the above ingredients together.

Steam prawns until pink and firm, and Cool off.
Add cooled prawns to the sauce, and mix.

Cut Avo's in half and disgard the pip.

You can now spoon the prawn mixture into the avo.

Eat and enjoy...

Fun With Cupcakes

Crazy Cupcakes and Tea Pots

I was just playing around with decorating cupcakes, may have gone a bit over board with it, but its just for fun!!! Oh, did I mention that they were yummo!!

Loopy Lemon Meringues

Loopy Lemon Meringue

These are like inside out lemon meringues... fun to make and yummy to eat.

Ingredients

Meringue Nests

3 Egg whites

130 gms of Castor Sugar

1 tsp of lemon Juice

Preheat oven to 100 degrees celcius

Beat eggs and lemon until peaks form

add sugar in slowly and mix again until shiny

add mixture into a piping bag and shape into small nests anout 5 cms wide

Bake for 90 minutes

The Lemon Filling

125 ml Lemon Curd

125 ml Condensed Milk

Drop of lemon juice

Mini Tennis Biscuits

Add the lemon curd and condensed milk together and add lemon juice to taste.

Add lemon filling into the piping bag and pipe into meringue nests.

Add mini biscuits on top for some decoration

Love Choc Chip Cookies

Love Choc Chip Cookies

This is my first attempt at baking cookies and was quite happy with the result.
These were very easy to make, and economical, considering the amount that it makes, My batch made 36 Love Choc Chip Cookies...

Ingredients

125g of Soft Butter
100g of brown sugar
2 tbs of golden syrup
2 drops of vanilla essence
160g of self raising flour
150g of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius

Beat butter and sugar together until creamy

Add syrup and vanilla essence into butter mixture and mix

Finally add in the flour and chocolate chips and give a final mix

Cover baking tray with wax paper

Add cookie dough to tray (I used a heart show cookie cutter)

Bake to 12 - 15 minutes until golden brown

Allow to cool before attempting to remove them.

Enjoy them with yummy hot chocolate...mmmmm

Tzatziki

Tzatziki rolled in cucumber

I love Tzatziki, I could eat it every day with everything, you can make it as a salad, with roughly chopped cucumber, or as a dip or sauce with grated cucumber.


Here's how I make my Tzatziki salad:

Ingredients

1 Cucumber chopped
Mint leaves
3 cloves of garlic
Yoghurt
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Salt & Pepper

Cut cucumber into chunks, and sprinkle salt over to draw out water, and leave for a couple of minutes.

Add chopped garlic and mint into a bowl and add yoghurt, lemon juice, olive oil and drained cucumber.
Add seasoning and season with salt and pepper and mix.

Fancy Fish Cakes

Ingredients

4 small potatoes
1 onion
1 egg
handful of parsley
5 crab sticks
250 g of hake
a drop lemon grass oil
a drop of soya sauce
Sesame seeds

Peel, boil and mash potatoes
Steam hake and flake (make sure there is no skin and bones)
Chop crab sticks, onion, parsley.

In a large bowl mix mash, hake, crab, onion, parsley, and egg together, and mix well.

Season with lemon grass oil, soya sauce and pepper.

Mould round cakes from mixture and roll in sesame seeds.

Grill on 200 degree celcuis for 15 minutes until goden brown.
I served it with Tzatziki, or you can serve it with a salad of your choice.

The fish caked also go well with sweet chilli sauce.

Enjoy xxxx

Scrumptious Salmon Croustades

I saw these pastry shells in the frozen section at the shop, and got all inspired to fill them with something... but what ...

This is what I came up with... and WOW, they were so scrumptious!!!

Ingredients

12 Pastry Shells
Egg
Smoked Salmon Cream Cheese
Smoked Salmon
Cucumber to garnish
Pepper

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
Place Pastry Shells on a non stick baking tray and brush with egg.
Bake for 15 minutes and allow to cool.

When the pastry shells are cooled, pipe smoked salmon cream cheese into pasty shells, add salmon and cucumber garnish and season with pepper.

Haloumi, Mint and Watermelon Salad

Growing up, we always had Haloumi cheese in the house, coming from a "Cypriot"-South African family, and living amongst a mixture of nationalities, it was not a common food, but it soon became a hit with our friends, we used to grill it and serve it with tzatziki and a wedge of lemon, my dad on the other hand used to eat it uncooked with watermelon and bread, which is also yummy, and when I tried to get my Dutch boyfriend to taste it that way, he really didn't like the taste of the "Raw Haloumi" (his words) and also wasn't sure of the combination with the watermelon, so I decided to try and come up with something to sway his taste buds a bit...  and it worked with this recipe... 


Ingredients

Haloumi cut into thick strips
Watermelon
Sugar Snap Peas
Lettuce

For Dressing:

Olive Oil
Lemon Juice
Mint Leaves
Salt and Pepper

Fry Haloumi on a non stick frying pan (no need to put oil in the pan)
Cool Haloumi

Add Lettuce, Sugar Snap Peas and Watermelon together, when Haloumi has cooled place on top of salad, and add dressing.


Simple as that and enjoy ;)

Johnny's Seared Tuna

Seared Tuna is so yummy, I cant take the credit for this one, My boyfriend Johnny spiced it and seared it to perfection, it was so Delish, that I had to post it.

Ingredients

Yellow Fin Tuna

Searing Spice (Nanami Togarashi) - You can buy this at a Chinese Deli

Sesame Seeds

2 teaspoons of Olive Oil

Wasabi

Pickled Ginger

Soya Sauce

Rub Tuna with Olive Oil, Searing Spice and Sesame Seeds.

Heat pan until quite hot, and sear Tuna on each side (about 1 minute each side depending on thickness)

Take off heat and set aside to cool

Cut it into slices (Sashimi)

Serve with Wasabi, Pickled Ginger and Soya Sauce

Garnish with fanned Avo

Prawn & Crab Bean Curd Pockets

I always order these little puppies at Cape Town Fish Market, and have watched the Chefs there effortlessly make them so many times, so I have decided to make my very own, I have changed the recipe a bit as they put rice in them, and I put crab... mmmmm

INGREDIENTS

Bean Curd Pockets - You can buy these from any good Chinese Deli

500 gms peeled cooked Prawns

500 gms Crab Sticks

1 Green Chilly & 1 Red Chilly

Japanese Mayonnaise

Sesame Seeds

Cherries

Chop up the Prawns, Crab and Chilly very finely, and add just enough Mayonnaise to just coat ingredients.

Spoon the mixture into each Bean Curd Pocket.

Sprinkle with Sesame Seeds and garnish with a red cherry.

Serve with Soya Sauce, Ginger and Wasabi

These are so Yummy

Strawberry Cheese Cake Martini

These are very easy, and so simple to make, and so so pretty.

INGREDIENTS

You will need 6 Martini Glasses - Or any glasses that you have.

Crust:

Half a packet of crushed Tennis Biscuits

2 table spoons of soft margarine

Cheese Cake Filling:

1 Tub of Smooth Cottage Cheese (fat free)

1 Tin of Condensed Milk

Juice from 1 lemon

Garnish

6 Whole Strawberries

6 Mint Leaves

Mix Crushed Tennis Biscuits and the 2 table spoons of soft margarine together, and place a neat layer at the bottom of each Martini glass.

Mix the fat free Smooth Cottage Cheese, Condensed Milk and lemon juice together, add mixture into the Martini glasses on top of biscuit mixture, and neaten the rims.

Place glasses in refrigerator.

Once set, place a strawberry and a mint leaf on the top, and serve.

Enjoy!!!! 

Thai Poached Hake

INGREDIENTS

4 hake fillets

1 tin of coconut milk

4 lemongrass stalks

2 garlic cloves

1 red chilly

Salt

Pepper

Add the coconut milk, bruised lemongrass (sliced in half), sliced garlic and chilly to a shallow pan on a medium heat and reduce, this will infuse the milk with all the flavours; add seasoning to your liking.

Once the flavours are infused, remove the lemongrass stalks and add the fish, cover the pan with a lid and poach for about 10 minutes or until fish is firm.

Serve with basmati rice.

Garnish with Lemongrass and enjoy

Summer Mango Salad

I was chatting to my brother the other morning, he lives in Australia, so when we have our webcam chats from one side of the world to the other, its normally a Saturday Morning my time and Saturday evening his time, he was telling me about this AMAZING salad that he made with mango and rocket for dinner, and so I had to give it a try... and made a similar salad to his... so this salad was inspired by my big brother, Deon.

INGREDIENTS

1 Mango

Handful of Rocket

Baby leaf lettuce

Dressing

I tsp of grated ginger

Juice of 1 lime

Salt

Pepper

Cut mango into small slices

Wash lettuce and rocket and add to a salad bowl

Mix dressing ingredients together and add to salad

Toss and enjoy.

Breakfast Muffins

INGREDIENTS

6 x Eggs

250g Cooked Diced Bacon

4 x Spring Onions – Diced

100g Mushrooms – Diced

100g Cheddar Cheese

100ml Milk

2 tablespoons of self-raising flour

Salt and pepper

1 x Muffin Tray (Preferably Silicone) 

Put oven on at 200 degrees Celsius

Break your 6 eggs into a bowl and give a quick beat, just to break yolks a little.

Add in the bacon, spring onions, mushrooms and half of the cheese.

Mix the milk and flour together in a smaller bowl, making sure there are no lumps.

Add milk and flour mixture to the egg mixture.

Season with salt and pepper,

Give it another quick mix, don’t beat it too much as it will take longer to cook.

Add mixture into the Muffin Tray (grease tray if it is not silicone)

Bake to 15 – 20 Minutes, adding the left over cheese to the tops of the breakfast muffins half way through the time.

Serve with a spring onion and some sweet chilly sauce and enjoy.