Sweet Things from Winter

It has become obvious to many people that I really have a sweet tooth. So, when my cousin suggested we do a bit of baking, I couldn't resist. 

So first of, since I called dibs on the oven first, I made these cupcakes. I made the basic vanilla sponge cake batter 'spiked' with powdered almonds. It was more nuts then flour to be honest, which is something we seem to like.

Delicious looking or Weird?

The icing I made was a basic cream cheese icing, with Amaretto liquor and cocoa powder. To decorate the cupcakes I used flowers and leaves. If you have little ones, or little ones at heart like we are, get them to decorate the cakes. It is much more delicious when you eat something you've made :)

It was so much fun decorating!

Now onto the part I was really excited about. My cousin made a delicious chocolate and orange marble cake for a friend's baby shower and I've been on her case to make it for us ever since. I roped in my sister to join me in the pleading puppy face begging scheme and it finally paid off.

She, my cousin, made the delicious cake for us at last!!!!

My new favourite Winter warming dessert

Her tip for making this cake is 'use the best chocolate you can afford'. So after purchasing a lot of dark Swiss chocolate, and giving me evil looks for wanting to eat up the chocolate (I love dark chocolate) and for hogging the oven, she started with her baking. Be warned, this cake takes 3 hours to make!!

She made separate batters, one made with orange zest and the other with some of the chocolate. I don't  quite remember what she did, it went by in a bit of a blur on account of the chocolate I was praying she'd have leftovers of. After she had baked the cake she then turned it out, cut it up and served with melted dark chocolate. This cake has to be eaten warm - which is probably why it is best for winter.

mmm...

Need I even write the verdict: Yes! Around. This is the type of thing that makes one sound like Oliver Twist.

What is your Winter sweet of choice?

Love for Artichokes

It seems I am always apologising to you guys. Well, here it goes again. I'm sorry for not posting on here in a while. This time I was ill - I've been ill for two weeks and am happy to say I am well now (have been well for the past week :] ). 

As a result, I have quite a number of photos dating back to, let us just call it, a very long time.

One night, when it was my turn to make dinner, I made this artichoke salad for a starter. It had, as most of my food does, mixed reviews. The parents and I loved it while everyone else preferred the artichokes in the wrap.

This salad consisted of char grilled artichokes (with garlic, salt and pepper), baked aubergine (seasoned with salt and pepper and drizzled with olive oil), blanched carrots that were seasoned with salt and a bit of lemon.

The Salad

If you would like to give the salad a go, you can purchase artichokes already char grilled at Spar or fresh ones again from Spar.

Artichoke, aubergine and carrot Salad

Let me know what you think. What is your favourite salad?

Overdue Breakfast

Saturdays, well many Saturdays ago, around here are very slow. One wakes up late and then one is even much more lazy to even make breakfast. 

Where am I going with this you might ask? Well, "one" is me, and I was very lazy one Saturday. I awoke late and found my cousin had made a scrumptious omelette for breakfast. Each person in the house makes their own breakfast, since we are a bit picky and one never  knows what each person is in the mood for. The eggs I make are always sunny side up, since I like a runny egg, but that day I just wanted my cousin's breakfast. Knowing very well I couldn't replicate what she made, she very kindly allowed me to share her breakfast. 

This omelette treat consisted of Gouda cheese, ham, yellow peppers, sweet onions and parsley. 

Delicious Omelette

Seeing as she wasn't going to eat the omelette by herself, she then added two marmalade rusks (one for me and the other for herself), avocado and an extra slice of Gouda (we love cheese :p).

Yum!

The verdict: absolutely delicious!

Happy cooking (non-lazy breakfast!). Do you eat someone else's breakfast too when you are hungry?

Chicken Wrap and Cookie Dinner

First, I would like to apologise for not having posted here in ages. I have been so busy, and tired, lately. I hope to post here regularly from now on.

Weigh-less Sun-dried Tomato wraps

Speaking of me being tired, I wanted a fast and easy dish to make for dinner today, so I opted to make a wrap dinner. Since we've never made wraps before in the house, my sister and I bought some ready-made wraps from the local Spar. The ones we bought are a sun-dried tomato version and are weigh-less. We didn't mean to buy weigh-less ones, but they were the ones we found and the organic herbs side.

The Nice thing about these wraps is they come with instructions of the various ways you can fold your wraps.

Instructions on backside of wraps

To make the wrap dish, I began by making the filling which consisted of:

Chicken

I used three chicken breasts. These were fried in olive oil with sun-dried tomato paste, soy sauce, salt, and sweet Thai chilli. 

Fried Chicken Breasts

Mushrooms

I used four large Portobello mushrooms. These were first cut up and then stir fried in olive oil with some soy sauce and sweet basil leaves.

Fried Portobello Mushrooms

Black-eyed Bean 

The black-eyed bean were soaked in hot water and their skins removed. These we store in the freezer until needed.  The beans were defrosted and then cooked for hours in a pot by our housekeeper with some salt and onion, to make the Owambo traditional dish 'oshigali' .

To make the paste, I added sun-dried tomato paste, basil pesto and dark soy sauce and reduced it down  until a paste-like consistency was reached. 

Black-eyed Bean paste

Artichokes, Cherry Tomatoes and Chinese Sinach 

The artichokes were bought from Spar already char grilled.

The cherry tomatoes were sprinkled with fresh parsley and coriander leaves.

The Chinese spinach was prepared by frying it in olive oil with some dark soy sauce. once it was cooked, basil pesto was run through it.

From top, clockwise: Cherry Tomatoes, Chinese Spinach, Char Grilled Artichokes

Method

1.  Place the wraps on a flat surface

2.  Place a small leaf of lettuce on top of each of the wraps

3.  Place a few Chinese spinach leaves on top of the lettuce leaves

Chinese Spinach Topping

4.  Next top with roasted artichokes

Roasted Artichokes Topping

5.  Add on the cherry tomatoes with parsley and coriander leaves

Cherry Tomatoes with Parsley and Coriander Leaves Topping

6.  Top with fried portobello mushrooms

Mushroom Topping

7.  Add on the Chicken

Chicken Topping

8.  And finally finish off with the bean paste

Bean paste topping

9.  Fold the two sides of the wrap over the filling

Finished Wrap

 10.  "Tighten with the plastic sheets that separated the wraps from one another

'Wrapped' Wraps

I bought some coconut-oatmeal-wheat cookies from the Fruit Lovers Market, which I served as a dessert.

coconut-oatmeal-wheat cookie

I then served the wrap together with the cookie in one package. You can tell I was feeling very lazy by the fact that I didn't even serve in proper dishes! These we recycled after eating as opposed to loading the dishwasher.

How I served the wrap and cookie - Home-style take away?

Finished Packaged Dinner

 With the wrap and cookies we drank cranberry and kiwi juice.

Cranberry and Kiwi Juice

That's a wrap! Pun intend :p

Am I the only one that has been feeling tired and lazy lately? What do you cook on days when your brain just wants to shut down?

Happy cooking.

Finally Namibian-produced Chicken is on Shop Shelves

Hello every one (especially Namibians), let us support our farmers and buy the three brands of Namibian-produced chicken. These are "CountryChoice Chicken", "Realgood Chicken", and "NamChicken".

Let me know once you've tried them out if "local is really lekka"!

Addi :)

Cheese Cake, Chocolate Mini Cakes and Cupcakes

This weekend, it is just us the offspring (I shall not call myself a child!!!) at home! As awesome as that sounds, that is not really how it pans out. There are no sudden bouts of freedom - no parties at home, no parties anywhere else and no trashing the house either. I have to say we are, for the most part, well behaved when left home alone. So early in the morning we went grocery shopping. My sister and I went crazy for dessert ingredients, much to the annoyance of our brother. Having two very hyper dogs also means the grocery money has to be split between human food and the ever expensive dog food and treats. But we managed well.

So home we came with our purchases.  I must say I was in such a good mood and proceeded to do some work on the CAD designs I've been busy with all week. Midway through my drawing my computer crashes and I lost all the work I had added onto it :(.

For no other reason then to get myself in a better mood (actually so as not to scream at my siblings and cousins or bash things about) I did some baking with my sister. While she made a gorgeous cheesecake I made chocolate mini-cakes, vanilla cupcakes and caramel cupcakes.

Cheesecake

Beautiful Cheesecake 

I have to say, I suck at a cheesecake and it is something I doubt I will ever master. My sister on the other hand just does this beautifully and effortlessly. I watched her blitz some tea cookies in the blender before adding melted butter to them and lining a baking dish with her blitzed goodies and placing them in the refrigerator to set. Then she worked on her filling - this bit I must say I found daunting and do not quite remember how she did it.  After putting the filling bit on the base, she then garnished the top with grated dark Swiss chocolate.

Chocolate Mini Cakes

Chocolate mini cakes

I made the ever favourite, among kids anyway, chocolate cake. I did not want to go through the hassle of assembling a cake and icing it. So I used brownie baking equipment to make mini cakes instead. After turning them out and allowing to cool, I made a chocolate butter icing which I layered on top of each mini cake before decorating with smarties sweets and mini eggs.

Vanilla and Caramel Cupcakes

Vanilla cupcakes and Caramel cupcakes

I also made two types of cupcakes, a vanilla and a caramel one. Firstly I made the vanilla cupcakes and then made a white royal icing for the topping before finishing them off with flowers made with multi coloured sweet balls and miniature eggs.

Since my brother and my little cousin made cupcakes last week, I ran out of vanilla and used caramel as a substitute. For the frosting bit of the caramel cupcakes, I made pink and blue royal icing and decorated the cupcakes the same way as the vanilla cupcakes.

In hindsight, I think I might have gone a little overboard with the baking. But I'm sure a sugar high (or a downward spiral for me) is just what we need to get us to the parent's return. We do plan to save them some.

Welcome home cupcakes?

Or this for "Welcome home cupcakes?

As always, let me know what you think and also let me know of any suggestions for new recipes and decorating tips.

Till we bake again. Addi :)

Boys' Cupcakes

So last week, my baby brother and little cousin decided to do a bit of baking. I must say this was unaided and is their second attempt at baking. The last time they made a blue-ish (do not ask me why it is blue) coffee cake which tasted beautifully but just looked odd!

This time they made choco-vanilla (their own making) cupcakes. They had me in giggles, I entered the kitchen to find two little boys trying to stuff an already cooked cupcake into cupcake papers. After having told them they should have baked the cupcake in the paper before and not put it in after it is baked they looked rather surprised. So their batch number 2 of cupcakes was then baked in the proper way.

choco-vanilla cupcake

 They then made a green cream icing to top the cupcakes with.

choco-vanilla cupcake with green icing

 And decorated the top with maroon cream icing and silver decorating balls.

Ribbon choco-vanilla cupcake

Face choco-vanilla cupcake

another face choco-vanilla cupcake

These were delicious and I can't wait for their next round of cupcakes or cakes or whatever they decide to make. 

Let me know what you thought of these.

Till next bake (my brother's). Addi :)

Sushi Dinner

For dinner, on Mother's Day, we decided to have sushi! Yay!!

Smoked Salmon, Cucumber and Sushi Ginger sushi with light soy sauce

Before we could begin, my cousin and I decided to whet our appetites with a glass of red wine each :)

The way one makes sushi is so fast and requires one to have one's ingredients to be conveniently on hand.

Sushi Rice "Shari"

So first all I made the sushi rice. Sushi rice is round and can be bought at most supermarkets like Spar or Fruit Lover's Market in Windhoek. The "shari", as the Japanese call sushi rice, I used was bought by my cousin in the Czech Republic.

 To make the rice, measure out the rice (1 cup makes 3 rolls) that you will require. Then wash it with running water for about two minutes until the water runs clear. You then place it gently in a pot, add some water (1 part rice to 1.5 parts water). Be sure not to use too much water or you will get a clumped mess. Cook the  rice on high heat, stirring after one minute intervals until the water boils. Then  reduce the heat to minimum and cover the pot and allow to cook without stirring. Check the rice occasionally to see the water level - if there is no more water, and grains in the pot are bigger, then the rice is done.
Using a wooden or plastic spoon, as the rice as it is very delicate, remove the rice from the pot and place into a plastic or wooden bowl. Make sure to only take out the rice that comes out easily because the rice stuck to the bottom is dry and won't taste good.

To get your rice to taste like sushi rice, you will have to season it immediately after taking it out of the pot. To make the seasoning for 3 cups of rice you will need: ½ cup rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons salt that you will mix together in a small pot on medium heat until all the solids have dissolved. Then just pour the mixture onto the rice, stir well and allow to cool to room temperature.

The rest of the ingredients

Sushi ginger

Sushi Nori (Roasted Seaweed), this was also bought in the Czech Republic but you can get nori from Spar or Fruit Lover's Market or the market in Klein Windhoek.

 Soy Sauce

 Smoked Salmon

Cucumber

I've decided not to use wasabi this time. But next time I shall use it.

The Method

So first you lay out your mat . Then you feel the nori sheet on both sides and place the nori on the mat with the rough side facing upwards. Since I was making a thick roll, with more than 1 ingredient (Futo maki) I used the entire nori sheet without cutting it.

Next, you wet your hands, and with one hand take a handful of rice and gently shape it like a ball. Gently place the rice ball in the middle of the nori sheet and spread it equally on the nori.

You then place a two slices of cucumber, a few slices of sushi ginger and a few slices of smoked salmon on the edge of the nori. If you put too much filling on, the sushi might be unrollable.

Starting from the closer edge of the rolling mat, close the filling with the nori to make a rectangular shaped hill and tighten it from above. Move forward and continue rolling, keeping it tight with every move until you reach the end of the nori. Put slight pressure on the roll from all three side at all times going from the edges to the centre as you go.

When you open the rolling mat you should find the sushi roll is sealed and ready. If the nori didn't stick properly to close the roll, you should use a bit of water to close it with your fingers.

Wet a sharp knife and cut into sushi segments

Arrange on a plate and serve with soy sauce. Enjoy!

As usual, let me know what you think and how it went for you. Till the next recipe brings us together. Addi!