Prawns on pasta

This was the result of my craving for curried prawns. You can serve this with fragrant white rice if you wish, but I didn't want rice so I searched my kitchen for an alternative form of starch. The options I had were potatoes, couscous or any other kind of pasta. There was about half a packet of garlic and parsley flavoured tagliatelle, and that's what I decided to use.

My prawn mixture:

1kg prawns, peeled, deveined, headless, etc.
2 tablespoons of butter
2 onions, thinly sliced
1/2 pepper, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
salt and pepper
10ml cumin powder
10ml chilli powder
10ml curry powder
10ml turmeric powder
10ml dried chillies
125ml tomato puree
125ml buttermilk
3 sticks of cinnamon
3 cardamom pods
3 cloves
a bay leaf if you wish
chopped coriander leaves

Combine the garlic, salt and pepper, spices, tomato puree and buttermilk in a bowl. In a pot, fry the prawns in some butter until they are pink and cooked, then set them aside. In the same pot saute the onions and red pepper. Add the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and bay leaf. When the onions are glossy, stir in the prawns and buttermilk mixture and let that cook for about 10 minutes. Add chopped coriander leaves and let it simmer.

My photograph doesn't capture the green tint of the parsley in the tagliatelle, but the colour combination looked good and the flavours were rather complimentary.

Corn cakes

For some reason I was craving corn and for a quick snack I decided to use my imagination to make some savoury corn cakes.

I took:

1 egg
1 tin of sweetcorn
1 tablespoon of cornflour (for lightness)
2 tablespoons of self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt

I lightly beat the egg and stirred in the tin of sweetcorn. Mixed in the cornflour, self-raising flour and salt. I didn't want to use too much flour, because I wanted more corn than batter and just needed something to hold everything together. I fried tablespoon-full blobs in a bit of oil in a pan and served it with some sweet chilli sauce.

The parsley garnishing, was my husband's idea.

Man-made lasagne and herby brussels sprouts

How many ladies are lucky enough to have a husband that can cook? I am! We were invited for supper a few nights ago and my hubby decided to make his specialty lasagne to take along. I did help, OK! He was in charge of making the mince filling and messing the kitchen. I was making the cheese sauce and cleaning up after him.

How he does it? He's very secretive so I'm relaying what I've learnt by carefully watching him while he's preoccupied stirring the pot.

Two chopped onions along with freshly grated garlic and ginger, are sauted in butter. Chopped up green, red and yellow peppers are added. Three tins of chopped italian tomatoes are poured into the mix. A variety of spices that included, leaf masala, chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder (and possibly others), salt and pepper were thrown in along with half a cup of sugar. When that was bubbling away, the rinsed mince was added in to cook. The gravy thickened and was set to simmer on low heat. Chopped coriander leaves and parsley were stirred in then. It smelt yummy!

While that was happening, I was squeezed next door on the adjacent plate making cheese sauce. I used a litre of milk and roughly, five tablespoons of cornflower. First mix the cornflower with a little of the cold milk to make a paste. Melt some butter in a large saucepan, then pour in the paste and the rest of the milk, slowly bringing it to a boil. Once the sauce thickens, add some salt, ground pepper and an over-flowing cup of cheese (of your choice).

We used lasagne sheets that didn't need to be pre-cooked and that saves a lot of time. In a large dish, pour a layer of cheese sauce then place lasagne sheets over it. These sheets swell up quite a bit so layer the mince filling generously. Layer with the cheese sauce and lasagne sheets again until the dish is filled, finishing off with a layer of cheese sauce. Top with grated cheese and garnished with chopped coriander leaves and parsley.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 ℃ for 30 minutes and voila!

We ended up having this massive dish. There was still filling left though, so we made another smaller lasagne. There were tons of dishes to eat at supper, that our hostess forced us to bring some home to have the next day. I wanted my hubby's lasagne for lunch, so I made Brussels sprouts to add to the leftovers.

You can boil Brussels sprouts for about 3 minutes or microwave them in a bag with a corner cut off for 4 minutes, turning it around half way through. They shouldn't be over-cooked otherwise, they taste yucky.

A quick vegetable dressing:

2 table spoons of butter
2 cloves of garlic grated
and a handful of chopped parsley.

Melt the butter and mix everything together. If you wish, you can add some salt to taste and just pour it over your veggies, adding a little bit more flavour to their natural goodness.


Not bad for a team effort!

Quick fix akhni

Nafisa's post left me craving akhni. So I checked my freezer, found some steak and decided to quickly stir a pot.

I followed a similar method to Nafisa's except I didn't use tomatoes (I didn't have any fresh and was too lazy to go to the supermarket) and it still came out fine. I also added a little bit of curry powder, curry leaves, stick cinnamon and cardamom pods. The fragrant white rice, I boiled with a bit of turmeric and two cardamom pods. My mother-in-law taught me a trick, if she doesn't have turmeric, she uses food colouring to yellow her rice.

After mixing the curry and rice together, I put it in an oven proof dish, spotted it with butter and sprinkled some chopped coriander leaves over it. Left it in a preheated oven at 180 ℃ for about 20 minutes.

And yum, yum, yum...

Thanks, Nafisa!

Blueberry flapjacks

I had blueberries in the fridge and didn't want them to die. So for an after supper treat, I whipped up a batch of these flapjacks.

If you're not lucky enough to have pancake-mix, for a quick batch, beat 2 eggs with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Mix in a little bit of vanilla essence and half a cup of milk. Then slowly add self-raising flour until your mixture is not too thick, but not too runny either. Fry in a pan, making whatever shapes you like. Serve it any way you want and enjoy!

Curried pumpkin

My hubby recently visited the dentist, so needless to say, he couldn't really chew much. Since he's been having soup and all things liquidised, obviously he's been left craving for something with a bit more flavour. Then I had the bright idea of making some pumpkin, my style:

1 chopped onion
fresh crushed garlic
800g of pumpkin chopped into cubes
500g of beef, chopped, cubed or sliced (optional)
cumin powder
coriander powder
curry powder
mustard seeds
half a cup of sugar
ground cinnamon for extra flavour.
a few pieces of stick cinnamon and cardamom pods
dried chillies

Firstly, boil your pumpkin. You can drop a stick or two of cinnamon into the water. In olive oil or butter, saute the chopped onion and garlic. Once the onion is slightly golden, add the mustard seeds, stick cinnamon and cardamom. If you're cooking meat in the dish, place your meat on top of the onions and cover with water until your meat is cooked. Now, I don't measure my spices, so how much you add depends on how strong you want it. About 1 teaspoon each of cumin and coriander powder; and 1 a half teaspoons of curry powder is enough. When a gravy forms, add your boiled pumpkin, sugar and a little bit of ground cinnamon. If it's cooked soft enough, it will start mashing itself when you stir the pot. Finally add your salt and sprinkle some dried chilli onto it. Serve on a bed of fragrant white rice.

A big biscuit with strawberries on it

My husband and I are renting from close family friends and we're living on the same plot, so we spend a lot of time over at their place. Eating! I usually make sweet things to take over and I recently made this really nice, quick and easy tart that I found on a food blog that I read.

It has very versatile and easy crust, I'd probably even use it to make a quick batch of plain biscuits. I just love fresh strawberries and served my tart with whipped fresh cream. My photo's not as professional as at bread & honey, but I'm sure my tart was just as yummy.

Tomato, tomaaato, tomayto

Next to potatoes and freshly baked bread, I think tomatoes is one of the best inventions ever! It's great in salads, on cheese sandwiches and I even eat them sliced up on a piece of toast, seasoned with some salt and pepper. But mostly cooking a tomato sauces makes a great accompaniment to almost any meal.

For supper last night, it was a bit of a quick fix. I fried some freezer-packed crumbed fish and potato wedges. I served this with a generous side portion of my tomato sauce ensemble. I didn't get around to snapping shots of the dish, but there was some left-over tomato that I decided to recycle for lunch, just by adding some penne noodles.



A simple way of making this sauce is by using:

1 onion
chopped garlic, fresh garlic is always better
a combination of green/yellow/red pepper, or whatever you have
spices of your choice, the simplest spice needed is ground cumin
3 small tomatoes
1 teaspoon of tomato concentrate
about 1/3 cup of sugar
salt to taste
fresh coriander leaves

You can chop, grate, pulverise or by whatever means you want to use, get your onions and the like, into small pieces. I chopped my onions and peppers. First sauté the onion in a little olive oil with the garlic. If it sticks add a little water. When the onions are glossy and starting to change colour, add the peppers. Whatever spices you want to use, throw it in. In this particular instance, I only used some cumin and leaf masala. There are times where I get extra daring and sometimes add a variety of spices including curry powder, chilli powder or even cajun spice, amongst others and if wish to execute your taste buds, feel free to add vast amounts of freshly chopped chillies.
I grated my tomatoes, you can chop or even blend them if you want to and add it to the mixture. Add the sugar and some water to slightly thin the mixture, then let it cook for about 10 minutes to become saucy. Add your required amount of salt and just before serving, stir in the coriander leaves.

This tomato sauce can be served as a side dish or add some meatballs or sausage for a meatier meal. I like this with pastas and it's great for a more flavour filled macaroni and cheese.

Easy vegetable soup

I think this is a nifty, time saving recipe. I usually make this without tomato as it stays fresh a little longer this way and I can freeze it in a few 750ml containers to use later on. It's nice for a quick lunch or light supper when you're pressed for time and need something that can just be heated up.

I use:

1 cup of dried soup mix and/or split peas.
4 carrots
2/3 potatoes
1 onion
some celery
a little olive oil
a few cloves and all spice
seasoning of your choice

I use a combination of soup mix and split peas, preferring more split peas. It's your choice with what quantities you'd like to use. Boil this with a little olive oil until it's cooked, you could even microwave it if you want it to cook a bit quicker. While you're waiting; peel, clean and grate the carrots, potatoes and onion; and wash and chop the celery. Once the split peas are cooked, add about 1,5 litres of water and the cloves and all spice and bring to boil. Add the grated vegetables and let that cook for about 20 minutes. Once the rest of the vegetables are cooked, add the celery and seasoning and let it simmer. You can add a little more water to this if you like your soup to be less thick. If you decide to freeze it, add the salt when serving as it loses the flavour when defrosting.

I still had some stored in the freezer here at work, so I had a nice mug full with toasted rye bread for lunch.

Chocolate cake

I'm still in the process of gathering recipes and photos of food and cakes I've made, so initially my posting will be a bit slow.

But to start off, I'll share my favourite thing to bake. The good old, flop-proof, chocolate cake. More recently I've started decorating them rather fancily as well and enjoy it so much that I've made a few specially prettified birthday cakes.



My recipe is:

4 large/5 small eggs, seperated
1 and 3/4 cups of sugar
5ml of vanilla essence
1/2 cup of oil
3/4 cup of luke warm water
1 and 3/4 cups of self-raising flour
2 heaped tablespoons of cocoa
1 tablespoon of baking powder

Set aside the egg whites to beat later. Beat the yolks and sugar until the colours turns a pale yellow. Add the vanilla essence. Then alternately add the oil and lukewarm water. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder and mix it into the mixture. At this point, you beat your egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold it in. Bake it in a preheated oven at 180℃ for 30-45 minutes or until your skewer comes out dry.

I use different baking tins depending on my mood. In the photograph, I used a 20" square tin, but I've used chiffon and ring pans. I also use the same recipe to make a chocolate slab, to slice up or even muffins.

Kook-ing away...

After reading many food blogs, I've decided to start one of my own. I'm not the greatest culinary master in the kitchen but my skills are satisfactory. The dishes I've served have filled plates with second servings, by no means involving me forcing it down anyone's throat.

Hence, from now on, I'll have a fair share of posting filled with my kooky experiences of cooking, baking and all things edible.

So, do watch this space!