Chicken liver parfait, tomato and coffee jam with crème brulee, spiced ice-cream and stewed fruit

Chicken liver parfait, tomato and coffee jam with crème brulee, spiced ice-cream and stewed fruit

By Bradley Castle (The Hungry Chef)

Inspiration behind this recipe: The inspiration for these dishes came from many influences during my studies and career thus far. It was also the chef in me, who loves to create unique flavour combinations that marry together in a soft, subtle way; complementing each other so well, after every mouthful you just want more and more.
These dishes are a little technical, but they make a great meal in the end. They're well worth trying if you are the type who likes to experiment in the kitchen a little.

Ingredients

For the dessert:

Spiced white chocolate ice-cream:
80g white chocolate; 8 egg yolks; 1/4 tsp Robertsons cayenne pepper;500ml milk

Stewed fruit:1 packet PnP dried fruits (all fruits except prunes, which go in liver parfait); 1/2 cup of sugar; 1 cup water

Vanilla-cinnamon creme brulee:1 vanilla pod, scraped; Robertsons cinnamon; 200ml cream; 100ml milk; 3 Tbsp sugar; 4 egg yolks

Tomato-coffee jam: 1kg tomatoes, skinned and pitted (reserve pips and inner flesh); 2 red peppers, roasted and skinned; 6 coffee beans; 1 tsp vinegar; 100ml olive oil; 150g icing sugar (placed over reserved pips and flesh and left in a warm place for 3 hours); Salt and pepper to taste; 1/2 tsp Robertsons cayenne pepper

Melba toast: 500g white bread flour; 15g fresh yeast; 15g sugar; 300ml warm water; 10g salt

For chicken liver parfait: 250g PnP chicken livers; 1 Tbsp olive oil; Prunes from the packet PnP dried fruits; 1 vanilla pod, scraped; 1/2 tspRobertsons ground cinnamon; Salt and pepper to taste; 50g butter; 50ml PnP cream

For spiced white chocolate ice-cream:

Melt chocolate over a double boiler. Cream chocolate into eggs with cayenne pepper. Add in heated milk and return to a low heat. Stir with a wooden spoon until it thickens like custard. Leave to cool to room temperature, place in the fridge until cooled, then place in the freezer for about 4 hours. Remove and blitz in a food processor. Repeat this step 3 times, then leave in the fridge overnight for the ice-cream to set.

For the stewed fruits:

Place ingredients in a saucepan over a medium heat and let simmer for about 30 minutes.

For vanilla-cinnamon creme brulee:

Infuse vanilla and cinnamon in cream and milk on a low heat for about 30 minutes.

Cream together the sugar and egg yolks and then slowly add in the hot cream mixture.

Strain into ramekins and bake in the oven at 120 degrees Celsius for 45 minutes or until set. Take out of the oven and leave to cool.

Once cool, sprinkle with white sugar and brulee it with a gas torch.

For melba toast:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Combine yeast and sugar with water and leave to activate. (It usually takes about 10 minutes and you will see a froth develop on the top.) Mix this into the remaining ingredients and knead for 10 minutes. until the dough is smooth. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave to prove for about 45 minutes.

Knock it back, cut and shape into the shapes you want to make and leave to prove, covered again, for another 45 minutes.

Bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes. Take out and leave to cool. Cut paper thin and bake again in the oven for about 5 minutes, until toasted.

For tomato and coffee jam:

After the pips and flesh have macerated for 3 hours, strain off the liquid and add it to the remaining flesh of the tomatoes that have been finely cubed with the red pepper.

Add together with all the remaining ingredients and cook on a medium heat in a small saucepan until it has reduced to a jam consistency. Serve on top of the chicken liver.

For chicken liver parfait:

Saute chicken livers in olive oil until cooked all the way through. Add all ingredients into a food processor and blitz until smooth. Pipe into a serving glass.

Pear frangipane, dark chocolate ice cream and Amarula custard

This is my new recipe for the freshly blogged competition, please follow the link to go and vote for my recipe
http://freshlyblogged.co.za/recipe/pear-frangipane-dark-chocolate-ice-cream-and-amarula-custard/

Inspiration behind this recipe: Decadent dessert – a childhood delight! It's amazing what magic can be created with a few, simple ingredients. This sweet, comforting treat is a nod to nostalgia; I remember helping my granny to make something similar many moons ago.

I'm inspired by the concepts of 'mystery basket' meets 'late-night craving' in this dish. It's super-easy to whip up a delicious pudding with ingredients from your kitchen. While Amarula liqueur, ground almonds and dark chocolate aren't your average store cupboard staples, these simply add a hint of gourmet flavour (they can be substituted with other items for a midnight quick-fix treat).

Frangipane was my favourite dessert as a child. I patiently helped my granny to crush the biscuits for the base and today, while putting together this recipe, so did my daughters.
Sadly, frangipane has fallen out of flavour recently, so a new twist adds modern dining excitement : the pairing of hot, steaming custard with cold, homemade chocolate ice cream.

Pears are a perennial fruit choice in the colder months, so they're an ideal, juicy topping, and they slice through the sticky sweetness too.

Cheers to childhood. Memories are made of this.

Ingredients

For the Amarula custard:

1 cup milk
8 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup Amarula

For the chocolate ice cream:

500ml milk
80g dark chocolate
10 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar

For the pear frangipane:

1 pkt PnP cream crackers
2 Tbsp white sugar
3 Tbsp butter
100g flaked almonds, ground into a powder
2 medium eggs
2 Tbsp cake flour
1/4 cup white sugar
80g butter
2 pears, peeled, cored and sliced

Amarula custard:

Heat up the milk to just below boiling point, remove from the heat, In a separate bowl whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale then slowly whisk in the heated milk, return back to a low heat and stir with a wooden spoon until it thickens like custard, then add in the Amarula and leave to cool or serve hot.

Chocolate ice cream:

Heat up the milk to just below boiling point, remove from the heat and add in the chocolate and whisk until combined. In a separate bowl whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale then slowly whisk in the chocolate mixture, return back to a low heat and stir with a wooden spoon until it thickens like custard. Leave to cool to room temperature, then place in the fridge until cooled, then in the freezer for about 4 hours. Take it out and blitz in a food processor, repeat this step 3 times, and then leave over night for the ice cream to set.

Best of all is that no ice cream maker is needed for this!

Pear frangipane:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. In a food processor, blitz the cream crackers, 2 Tbsp sugar and 3 Tbsp butter until it resembles wet bread crumbs, this is the base for the frangipane. Line a 23cm tart tin with these crumbs.

Now in the food processor add all the remaining ingredients except for the pears and blitz together, spread this evenly over the crumb base, then slice the pears and arrange them on the almond base.

Bake for 30 minutes.

LOCAL BIRD MEETS CORNY BRAAI IN FRUITILICIOUS FUSION DISH

The dish : Ostrich koftas – traditional Indian meatballs – paired with herbed cornbread, dried fruit compote and a red wine reduction

I’ve had a lingering love affair with fusion food since my rookie days as a virgin chef.

There’s nothing more satisfyingly risky than pairing x, y and z from vastly different continents and cultures…and discovering that, really, they were meant to be mixed after all.

Fusion food is the gastronomic equivalent of democracy. Every ingredient is equal – no matter what it looks like or where it comes from.

This week’s dish reflects everything I relish about Indian, South African and classic French cuisine : tasty, tantalising and pleasingly easy on the eye.

Ostrich meat, too, deserves pride of place on our dinner tables. It’s one of the healthiest animal protein sources available – yet so under-rated.

So, I threw together the traditional South African braai, a couple of Indian Koftas, a French plating and red wine sauce.

The result? Magic.

Ingredients for Herbed Corn Bread

500g Mealie Meal (I like the course braai pap, but this is up to your preference)

700g White Bread Flour

35g Fresh Yeast

50g White Sugar

25g Salt

50ml Olive Oil

2 Eggs lightly beaten

700ml warm Milk

30g Chives chopped

1 Onion finely diced

Method for Herbed Corn Bread

Get the braai ready, I have learnt that briquette’s work best when making braai breads.

Mix together 1 TBSP of the sugar with the fresh yeast and “cream” them together, add 1 TBSP white bread flour to this and mix for another minute, add this to the warm milk and leave to form a sponge on the top of the milk, it can take up to 10 minutes to do so.

mean while mix the mealie meal with the remaining sugar, flour, salt, chives and onion.

When the yeasty mixture has formed a sponge, add in the eggs and olive oil, mix lightly.

Add the yeasty mixture into the flour mixture and knead for about 5 minutes, leave the dough to stand in a draft free place for about 40 minutes, place the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and stretch it into a big square about 60cm x 60cm, then fold the bottom half up to the middle, fold the top half down over that, fold the right side in to the middle and fold the left side over that, place back in a container and leave to proof for another 30 minutes, repeat this 4 times, after the 4^th time leave to stand for 1hr30min, then take it out and place into a oiled potjie pot, leave to rest for 10 minutes then place this in the fire place with about 8 briquettes underneath the pot, and about 8 on the lid of the potjie pot, keep replacing  with hot briquettes for about 1hr 30 minutes until it is cooked.

Ingredients for Red Wine Reduction

500ml Drostdy-Hof Pinotage

500ml Beef Stock

1 Bay leaf

1/2 Onion finely diced

2 TBSP butter

1 tsp white sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

Method for Red Wine Reduction

Sweat off the onions with the butter, add in the rest of the ingredients and let simmer on a low heat until it has reduced down to only a ½ cup of liquid, strain and it is ready to use

Ingredients for Ostrich Kofta’s

500g Ostrich Sausage out of the skin

3 tsp Mild Curry Powder (depending on how spicy you like it)

1 Onion finely diced

2 Eggs lightly beaten

½ cup Toasted Bread Crumbs

3 TBSP PnP Peach Chutney

Prunes for 250g packet PnP Mixed Dried Fruit finely diced

Salt and pepper to taste

Method for Ostrich Kofta’s

Pre-heat the oven to 180˚c

Mix all the ingredients together until well combined. Divide the mixture into 12 equal size balls, roll them tightly and place onto a roasting tray rubbed with oil and bake in the oven at 180˚c for 12 minutes

Ingredients for Fruit Compote

250g PnP Mixed Dried Fruit – Finely diced

2 TBSP White Sugar

1 tsp Mild Curry Powder

2 TBSP PnP Peach Chutney

250ml Drostdy-Hof Pinotage

250ml Vegetable Stock

1 Cardomom Pod

Method for Fruit Compote

Place all the ingredients into a small sauce-pan and leave to simmer for until almost all the liquid is gone, take off the heat and keep aside until ready to serve.

Freshly Blogged Week 3 challange

Hello All,
Here is my awesome week 3 challenge on freshly blogged, please follow the link and vote.
http://freshlyblogged.co.za/recipe/local-bird-meets-corny-braai-in-fruitilicious-fusion-dish/

Your votes needed!!!!!

I need your votes.........
As most of you know I have entered the Pick n Pay, Fresh Living, Freshly Blogged Competition, it is a great competition that is taking place from now until 23 September 2013, it involves you the public to vote for your favourite recipes and food bloggers which I hope is me, it is a quick and easy vote to do here is the link and just click vote for recipe.  http://freshlyblogged.co.za/recipe/baby-corn-soup-thai-stir-fried-veg-on-noodles-brie-spring-rolls-with-thaia-marmalade/


Many thanks
The Hungry Chef

Freshly Blogged Voting has opened

Hello All,

Voting has opened today for the Freshly Blogged Competition, please go onto the site and vote for your favorite recipe, hopefully it is mine, but i do understand if it isn't. Here is the link to the site http://freshlyblogged.co.za/ this is a very interesting competition and it a load of fun for myself and I am sure the fellow competitors feel the same, follow the competition week to week to see who gets voted off, who makes it through and who is tops.
Happy Cooking

Christmas in July Dessert........Deconstructed Eton Mess

Before I get into part 3 of Christmas in July, I just want to mention to those of you who follow this recipe of the week loyally, I am taking part in a very interest cooking competition that is online from Freshly Blogged, the competition starts on the 8^th July 2013, and I will be needing your votes to make it through to the next round, so please go onto the Freshly Blogged website and register as a voter and see what I am going to create in the weekly challenges.

Now for today’s dessert, a quick and sexy little dessert that has the Christmas flavours running through it, berries, brandy, cream, meringue hmmmmmmm everything you need, so myself and newly appointed pastry chef, Elri Booyse who I hope I get to work with for a decent while as she is talented and creative, sat and thought a little out the box and came up with this one….

Serves: 4

Difficulty: Easy

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 1 Hours

Ingredients for the meringue

4 egg whites

½ tsp lemon juice

200g castor sugar

Method

Place the egg whites in a mixer and whisk until they start to form soft peaks, then add in the castor sugar a little at a time so that the last bit is totally incorporated before you add in the next bit, when it is at stiff peak add in the lemon juice.

Pipe onto a baking tray lined with grease proof paper and bake at 150˚c for 1 hour.

Ingredients for the Berry Compote

600g mixed berries

150g treacle sugar

1 vanilla pod scraped

¼ tsp cinnamon

2 cloves

100ml brandy

100ml water

Method

Place all the ingredients into a pot onto the stove and let simmer for about 10 minutes until the liquid start to thicken, take off the heat and leave to cool.

Ingredients for the Amarula Creme

500ml Fresh Cream

100ml Amarula

Method

Whisk the cream until it starts to thicken, then whisk in the Amarula and whisk until stiff peak.

Now to build your master piece, break up the meringue and place this at the bottom of your serving dish, I have gone with Martini glasses as they are sexy, then take a very little bit of the cream and spread a layer on top of the meringue, this will stop the red juices of the berry compote from going into the meringue so you will have a perfectly layered dessert. The place a layer of berries on top of that and then top it all off with the crème.

I have garnished this here with an edible flower and a bit of sugar work, but I think that will take a little more explaining in person to do, you can replace it with the pods of the vanilla you have scraped.

Bon appetite

Freshly Blogged Competition

To all my avid blog readers I am proud to announce that I will be competing in the Freshly Blogged competition that will start from the 8th July 2013, I am very excited to be doing it as the competition format is going to be quite interesting, we will be given weekly challenges that you the public need to vote on your favourites each week on the Freshly Blogged website, then contents will get chopped until there is a final winner, which of course I hope is me.

So please stay tuned and go to the Freshly Blogged website to register as a voter.

P.S. I am really going to bring my A-game to the table of this one!!!!!!!!!


Many thanks
Hungry Chef Brad

Christmas in July Main Course..........Mild Venison and Prune Curry

Mild Venison & Prune Curry with Cranberry Chutney

This is part 2 of the Christmas in July menu, and to me there is nothing better in winter than good venison, it is fairly priced, easy to cook into comfort food and in many countries it is a Christmas meat as it is usually hunting season in winter. This is a nice warm dish that goes extremely well with good old samp.

Serves: 6

Difficulty: Easy

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cooking Time: 2 ½ Hours

Ingredients for the Curry

1,5 kg Venison goulash

3 TBSP butter

6 cloves of garlic finely chopped

1 thumb size piece of ginger finely chopped

2 onions roughly chopped

1 TBSP Mild curry powder

2 TBSP mixed garum masala

1 TBSP ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 TBSP ground all spice berries

2 TBSP brown sugar

2 tins whole peeled tomatoes

250g pitted prunes

2 cups good dry red wine

1lt good quality beef stock

1lt water

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Place the prunes and red wine in a bowl and microwave for about 1 minute, this will help the prunes to suck in the wine, then leave to stand for at least 3 hours before using.

Brown off the venison in the butter to start developing a good flavor base, take the venison out of the pot and add in the onions and sauté for about 5 minutes until they start to brown, then add in the garlic and ginger and continue to sauté for another 3 minutes, add back the meat along with all the spices, whole peeled tomatoes, beef stock and water. Leave to simmer on a medium heat for about 2 hours, then add in the prunes and red wine and let simmer for the remaining 30 minutes, check the season and adjust to your taste.

It is always best to cook this the day before eating as the flavours develop and mature.

Ingredients for the Cranberry Chutney

1 Tin Cranberries

2 TBSP white wine vinegar

1 tsp black mustard seeds

1 cup sugar

1 clove garlic

Juice from 1 orange

2 sprigs of thyme

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Place all the ingredients into a small saucepan and simmer for about 20 minutes until it thickens.

Take off the heat and leave to cool before using. 

State of our Sea's

This is just a quick little fact about fish for those of you who didn't know this.

• In 2012 the world produced 63 million tons of Beef and farmed 66 million tons of fish, that's right, farmed fish production has oven taken beef production world wide.
• The current rate at which we are using our resources by 2030 we would need 1 1/2 earths to sustain what we are using!!!!
• 90% of the worlds fish populations are over fished and reaching a critical point.
• It takes 3kg of wild caught fish to feed and produce 1kg of farmed fish.

just some interesting facts to think about when you buy and eat fish, the scary part of it all is that if you go into any super market you will always see the same fish on the shelves and these are mainly the ones that are being over fished.

Christmas in July..........Starter: Cauliflower and Gorgonzola Soup

Cauliflower and Gorgonzola Soup

This is the first of a 3 recipe series that i will do one a week so by mid July you will have a wonderful "easy" Christmas in July menu to do at home.

I know it has been a while since I done the recipe of the week, and sometimes it just gets so difficult to do it as “life” happens, and in the hospitality business that can be a number of things. I recently took a much needed 7 day break in Cape Town with my father in-law and of course my 3 amazing girls. Now for those with a little zest for life will realize that you just cannot do everything there is to do in Cape Town in 7 days, but we did however accomplish many of the things like going to the Old Biscuit Mill Market on Saturday morning, we spent a day in the Wine Lands, went up the mountain to look back down the mountain again, went all the way to Cape Point, look at all the birds and animals at the World Of Birds, ate fish n chips at the Hout Bay Harbor, look at all the stunning fish at the Aquarium and spent a morning browsing around the V&A waterfront.

All of this is just want I needed to get my creative juices flowing again and start my winter thinking cap. So here I have done a very simple little Cauliflower and Gorgonzola soup with toasted walnuts and white truffle oil

Serves: 4

Difficulty: Easy

Prep Time: 10 Minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

2 heads of Cauliflower, stems and all

1 small onion

1 lt good quality vegetable stock (rather make your own that the sodium rich store bought)

1 Wedge of Blue Tower Gorgonzola style blue cheese (much creamier than the Blue Rock)

8 walnut halves

White truffle oil to drizzle

Little extra blue tower for garnishing

Method

Break up the cauliflower and place in a small pot with the vegetable stock and onion and leave to simmer for about 15 minutes, then put it into a food processor with the blue tower and blitz until smooth, it must be hot when you blitz it as this will make it more velvety.

Dish it up into your serving bowl, place the walnut halves in the middle of the serving bowl, top that with a little cheese and drizzle with white truffle oil.

A tasty and classy soup to be served in the winter at a dinner party.

Next week I will do a real winter warmer main course.

Bon Appetite 

Lamb Liver Stroganoff

Lamb Liver Stroganoff

I know that I posted a “skinny chicken stroganoff” recently, about 2 posts ago, but I done this this evening for our Easy Monday Meal at The Links, and it was such a big hit, I tried a little myself and it truly is a classic that I think even the most stubborn non liver eaters would turn around and say, Ooh liver isn’t that bad, really easy to make consists of 2 parts, a base sauce and then the finishing of the liver.

Difficulty: Easy

Prep: 20 min

Cooking Time: 35 min

Serves: 6

Ingredients for base sauce

1 Small onion fine sliced

80g streaky bacon cut into batons

500g Mushrooms quartered

25g tomato paste

250ml dry red wine

250ml beef stock

1 clove fresh garlic

Small handful chopped parsley

A few sprigs of thyme

1 tsp paprika

250ml cream

1 small gherkin finely cubed

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Fry off the bacon in a little oil, until it starts to go a little crispy, then add in the onions and cook until translucent, then add in the garlic, thyme and tomato paste, carry on cooking this for about 2 more minutes, then deglaze the pan with the red wine and add in the rest of the ingredients except the mushrooms and parsley, leave this to simmer gently for about 20 minutes, then add in the mushrooms and parsley and let simmer for a further 5 minutes.

At this point the base sauce is cooked and is ready to be used in either a beef stroganoff, chicken or as in this case a lamb liver.

Ingredients for Lamb Liver Stroganoff

Base sauce from above

1kg lambs liver cut into strips

2 small onions chopped

1 TBSP flour

5 TBSP sour cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Fry off the liver in two extremely hot pans, this is because as soon as you add in the liver the pan is going to lose all of its heat and the liver will stew opposed to frying, so better to use two pans to lessen this effect, as soon as the lamb is in the pan, add in the onions, toss once or twice until the lamb is coloured all around but not cooked through, divide the flour into the two pans toss until all the flour absorbs the oil, then add in the base sauce from the recipe above, leave this now to come to a strong simmer, then add the sour cream take off the heat and serve.

I have served it here with mashed potatoes and caramelized onions

Caramelized onions recipe

2 onions sliced

1 TBSP brown sugar

Oil for frying

1 tot of whisky

Fry off the onions until they start to colour, then add the sugar and cook for a further 4 -5 minutes then just before you take it off the heat add in the whisky and light it, let the flames burn out and you’re done.

Red Velvet Cake with cream cheese frosting and homemade chocolate truffles

Recipe of the week……….Red Velvet Cake

For those of you who know me quite well, will know that there is one thing in the kitchen that I really really don’t like doing more than other things and that is baking cakes, well it always turns out that I get asked to please bake the birthday cakes and always end up saying, sure no problem, well a dirty little secret, its not a problem, I just don’t like to measure things out and that’s why I generally don’t like baking cakes, but from what I have been told this one was a real show stopper, so I thought I would share it for those of you who like to bake.

This recipe was for 40 people, if you would like to scale it down, divide everything by 4 and that will yield a cake big enough to serve 12 easy. Good luck and enjoy the fruits of your labour.

Difficulty: Medium to Hard

Prep time: 25 mins

Cooking time: 35 mins

Serves: 40 people

Ingredients for Red Velvet Cake

1kg Cake flour

4 tsp baking soda

4 tsp baking powder

4 tsp salt

½ cup cocoa powder

2kg white sugar

1lt oil

8 eggs

5 cups buttermilk

6 vanilla pods scrapped

6 bottles red food coloring

4 tsp white spirit vinegar

2 cups hot strong black coffee (this is for you not the cake, just joking its for the cake)

Method

Preheat oven to 160˚c

In a very large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt.

In a separate large bowl mix together the sugar and oil.

Then mix in the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla and red food coloring, coffee and vinegar until well combined.

Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients a little at time, mixing after each addition, just until combined.

Butter and flour 3 x 25cm cake tins or 4 x 20cm cake tins, place then in the freezer for 5 minutes just until the butter hardens

Dived the cake batter evenly into the cake tins you have chosen to use.

Place them in the oven and have 4 shots of tequila and hope it doesn’t flop, just kidding, bake for about 30 minutes, when you insert a toothpick is should come out fairly dry from the middle of the cake.

Let cool on a cooling rack until the pan are warm to the touch.

Slide a knife or offset spatula around the inside of the pans to loosen the cake from the pan.

Remove the cakes from the pan and let them cool.

Now comes the fun part for me partly because you don’t have to be exact with your measurements and you know get to see how well you can hide any mistakes you have made on the exterior of the cake

Ingredients for Cream Cheese Frosting

2,5kg Cream cheese

500g unsalted butter

10 cups icing sugar

4 vanilla pods scrapped

Zest and juice from 2 lemons

Method

Whisk all the ingredients together until light and fluffy.

Then you can ice the cake to your hears desire, this one in the picture is 3 layers with frosting in between each layer, and for added WOW factor some homemade chocolate truffles on top, but these are not for the faint hearted to make as I have used a 70% couverture chocolate that is not tempered and still have to be tempered, but here is the recipe anyway for those of you that are keen to try it out.

Ingredients for chocolate truffles

1kg Lindt 70% chocolate

500ml double cream

Cocoa for rolling in

Method

You need to melt the chocolate over a double boiler whilst mixing continuously until the chocolate reaches 45˚c then you need to cool it down to 27˚c and then bring it back up to 31˚c, then work with it. The main problem is if you over shoot the mark, you are going to have to start all over again.

Once you have tempered it add in the cream and mix thoroughly and quickly as it will thicken very quickly, then place it in the fridge for about 4 hours, take out and heat up a melon baller in some hot water and scoop out little chocolate balls, roll in the palm of your hand to get out any defects and then roll it in the cocoa, arrange then all over the top of the cake, this cake here has 100 of them on it.

Recipe of the week – Skinny Chicken Stroganoff

Recipe of the week – Skinny Chicken Stroganoff

My recipe this week, ”Skinny” Chicken Stroganoff with Sweet potato mash is inspired by Liezl Clause, as she has quite a good eating plan (not a diet, more of a life style change).  The nice thing about this eating plan is that there are still some of the “nicer” indulgences that you are allowed, in moderation of course, so I have gone through all of these things and come up with this lovely “skinny chicken stroganoff” recipe.

Difficulty:  Easy

Prep Time:  10 Minutes

Cooking time:  20 Minutes

Serves:  2

Ingredients:

250g Skinless, boneless chicken breast

250g Mushrooms, cubed

1 small onion, roughly cubed

2 sprigs oregano

2 sprigs of thyme

1 clove garlic, finely sliced

1 TBSP tomato paste

1 gherkin, finely diced

1 leek, sliced

½ cup low fat cream cheese

½ cup fat free yoghurt

½ cup water

2 tsp paprika

1 tot whisky

Salt and pepper to taste

1 TBSP Olive oil

2 medium sized sweet potatoes, peeled and finely sliced (this allows them to cook in 15 minutes)

1 TBSP Cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Cook the sweet potatoes until soft, add salt, pepper and cream and mash as to make mashed potatoes.

Heat a sautéed pan, start to fry off the chicken, when it starts to colour, add in the onions and garlic, continue to stir almost continually, as there is not much oil it will tend to stick quite quickly. Now add in the paprika, salt, pepper, leeks, tomato paste and herbs and continue to sauté for another 2 minutes.

Add in the rest of the ingredients and let it simmer for about 5 to 8 minutes, taste and adjust seasoning if needed.

Pizza, Pizza, ooh lovely Pizza

This is the recipe that got me to the finals of the Global Pizza Challenge earlier this month. I love pizza, as it is a wonderful social food, and it is so easy to make.  Most people make it out to be harder than it really is. This ones inspiration comes from our financial manager here at St Francis Links, I think I made it for him for his birthday a year or two ago, it was a special occasion and he really loved it. It is a marriage of some really good flavours from the creamy gorgonzola, sweet onion marmalade, and the wild scent of truffle oil.

I must admit the finals of the pizza challenge was a lot more intimidating than expected – you stand in front of a crowd of about 100 plus, there are video cameras on you the entire time, and you’re competing with some of the biggest chef names in South Africa - needless to say, I had to have a calming beverage before my slot. In the end though it was fantastic and I definitely will do it again. So here is my pizza recipe.

Difficulty: Easy to Medium

Makes: 2 Medium sized pizza

Prep time: 30 minutes (plus 3 days for the dough to ferment)

Cooking Time: 5 Minutes (in a pizza oven that is around 320˚c) or 15 minutes in a home oven at 220˚c

Ingredients

Pizza Dough

500g Stone ground MN100 flour (white bread or Italian 00 flour)

5g fresh yeast

15g pure salt (preservative and additive free)

300ml water

Pizza Sauce

1 tin whole peeled tomato

10g Fresh oregano

10g crushed garlic

10g Salt

5g Black Pepper

25ml tobasco sauce

2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

Pizza Toppings

300g Fillet Steak

2 TBSP black bean paste

4 TBSP Soy Sauce

2 TBSP Honey

1 TBSP Black Pepper crushed

5g fresh garlic

200g Buffalo Mozzarella

200g Dolce Latte Gorgonzola

Rocket Garnish

30g Rocket

10ml White Truffle Oil

3ml Tarragon Vinegar

Onion Marmalade

250g Sliced Red Onions

200ml Dry Red Wine

200g White Sugar

1 Cardomom pod

2 cloves

Zest and juice of 2 oranges

Method

Start with the dough, mix the yeast with the water, mix the salt and the flour, now combine everything and knead until smooth, about 2 minutes, then place in a container at least 2,5 times the size of the dough, cover with a damp tea towel and place in the fridge for 3 days to ferment.

Take out 2 hours before use to come to room temperature.  Cut the dough into 2 equal pieces, be extremely careful to not knock out the air that is in the dough, then with your finger tips gently stretch the dough into shape, it should be quite thin in the middle with about a 1 inch border that is thicker.

This is called a Neapolitan pizza dough, I first ate it at a wonderful pizza restaurant call Buratta in the Old Biscuit Mill in Cape Town, and fell in love straight away, I think it is the best pizza base to use.

 …now for the pizza sauce, cook out the whole peeled tomatoes for about an hour at a very low heat, this is to remove the excess water from the tomatoes, once you have done that, place all the ingredients into a food processor and blitz until smooth.

Once you have shaped your pizza base, spread this over it.

….for the filler you will mix all the ingredients together and marinade the fillet for at least 2 hours, then slice the fillet about 5mm thick and arrange over the pizza, the crumble the gorgonzola and tear the mozzarella over the pizza, to make a good layer of cheese.

…take all of your onion marmalade ingredients place in a small pot and simmer until it has reduce down to a syrup and clings to the onions.

….to finish bake the pizza as above, when you take it out and it is still hot arrange the onion marmalade over the top, then mix together the rocket, truffle oil and tarragon vinegar and garnish the pizza with it. Cut and serve.

Bon Appetit!

Chicken Tikka Masala

Recipe of the week……….Chicken Tikka Masala

As far as my knowledge goes about Chicken Tikka Masala is that it is known as the national dish of Britain and came about into existence through a gentleman that used to frequent an Indian restaurant and always ate the same chicken Tikka dish but always complained to the chef that it needed a sauce of sorts to go with it as it is dry, so eventually the chef had had enough and went back to the kitchen, put some tomatoes and spices into a pot cooked it up quickly and pour it over the chicken Tikka and the rest is history……

Difficulty: Medium

Serves 4-6

Prep Time: 1 hour

Cooking Time 2 hours

Chicken Tikka Masala

Ingredients:

For marinade:

500ml thick Greek yoghurt

1/2 Cup Chopped Coriander

¼ Cup Chopped Ginger

¼ Cup Crushed Garlic

½ Cup Garam Masala

¼ Cup Crushed Chilli’s or 2 fresh red chilli’s finely chopped with seeds

¼ Cup Lemon Juice

2 kg Chicken Breast Fillet cut into chunks, or chicken thighs (chicken on the bone with skin on to me makes much tastier curry)

For the sauce:

1 Onion finely chopped

2 TBSP crushed Garlic

2 TBSP Ground Cardomom

2 Tins Whole peeled tomatoes

¼ Cup Garam Masala

2 tsp cayenne pepper (if you like it hot add more)

¼ cup brown sugar

500ml cream

Salt to taste

½ cup flaked almonds

Preparation:

blitz the chopped coriander and all other marinade ingredients (except the yoghurt) to a smooth paste in a food processor.

Pour the above mix into a large bowl and add yoghurt. Mix well. Add the chicken and mix well. Cover the bowl and refrigerate. Allow to marinate overnight.

Preheat your oven to 220˚c. Place the chicken onto a roasting tray and roast until cooked through.

To make the sauce: Heat the oil in a deep pan on a medium heat and add the onion. Cook till soft.

then add the cardamom and the garlic. Fry for 2-3 minutes.

Add the garam masala, brown sugar, tinned tomatoes, almonds and mix well. Cook for around 1 to 2 hours on a low heat.

Add the grilled Chicken Tikkas (chunks/ pieces) and stir. Cook for 10 minutes.

Add the cream and mix well. Turn off the flame.

Garnish the dish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot naan breads, sambals and chutney.

Beef Carpaccio with Roasted Red Pepper Sorbet, Fresh Figs, Pecan Nuts and Parmesan shavings

Beef Carpaccio with Roasted Red Pepper Sorbet

I don't often go over the top with plating but this dish was a little inspiration that i got from 4 different things, firstly fresh figs which I just got hold of, Beef Carpaccio which I have been making myself and had some in the freezer, a beautiful red pepper sorbet that I had left over from Valentines supper and then finally some good European guests that have been supporting us since we opened, and it was their final night before heading back home, so I decided I will spoil them the a little tantalizing starter.

It is home cured beef carpaccio with fresh figs, white truffle oil, tarragon vinegar, basil oil, endives, mint, basil toasted pecan nuts, chevin goats cheese, Parmesan shavings and balsamic reduction. Here is the recipe for the red pepper sorbet.

Ingredients
500g Red Peppers cut into quarters and seeded
1 small onion roughly chopped
80ml Water
80ml White sugar
4 sprigs of fresh thyme
salt and pepper to taste
2 tots vodka
1 TBSP honey
dash of lemon juice
and a seeded red chilli (optional)
1 cup of ice

Method
I start off by rubbing the peppers with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasting them in a pre-heated oven at 220˚c for about 15 minutes until nice and dark, then close them in a bag and leave to sweat for 5 minutes then remove the chard skins.

Heat the white sugar and water and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let it cool down to room temperature, or place it in a ice-bath to bring the temperature down quicker, now place all the remaining ingredients into a food processor and blitz at a high speed whilst slowly adding in the sugar syrup.

Now take the puree'd mixture and place it in the freezer until it sets, then remove it from the freezer blitz in the food processor again until smooth and return back to the freezer and leave overnight to set.

and that's it red pepper sorbet, I find this sorbet goes very nicely with seared tuna steak as well.

The First "Be The Chef Night" at St Francis Links

The Girls in action making big flames in the kitchen!!!!!!

 On the 5 March 2013 I played host to 9 ladies who spent in the evening in my kitchen at St Francis Links, they had come for an evening of wine, food and laughs and I think that got all of which they had come for!!!

The theme was Italian and the girls had to prepare and cook there own supper with my guidence and teachings along the way their menu was the following:

Starter

Roasted Butternut, Goats Cheese and blistered Cherry Tomato Ravioli

with pepperonata and parmesan shavings

Main

Fricassee of Rabbit with mushrooms, white truffle oil, onions, garlic, white wine and cream on a bed of gnocchi

Dessert

Tiramisu

They learnt to make saffron pasta dough, how to make ravioli's, pepperonata, fricassee of Rabbit, Gnocchi and tiramisu. 

Although the night was not only about cooking, is was about getting together and having fun (which this group of girls know how to do)

after all the prepping and slogging and slaving, whilst they drank wine (just joking) we all sat down and enjoyed the meal that we had prepared together.

It really turned out to be a great evening and something that I will be doing at least once a month.

The finished Gnocchi

Dan showing the girls how to work a pasta machine (she is Italian)

Taking turns in rolling the pasta dough

Learning to make rabbit stock

Making sure there is enough wine in the system

The stations all set up and ready for the arrival

The welcoming station as the girls arrived.

Fresh Fig Frangipane Tart

Recipe of the week………Fresh Fig Frangipane Tart

I love this time of year when the figs are coming to the end of their season and you can get them dirt cheap, I picked up a punnet of 1kg fresh figs for R22, so I will make jam out of a couple for cheese boards, I have made this beautiful Fig Frangipane Tart as the dessert of the day, and I shall preserve some as fig preserve is amazing, I think I will also do a nice fig salad as a special running over this weekend.

Difficulty: Medium to Hard

Serves: 4-6

Prep Time: 25 Minutes

Cooking Time: 40 Minutes

Ingredients

Short Crust Pastry

500g Cake Flour

400g butter cubed and frozen for about 1hour

1tsp white sugar

1 tsp fine salt

½ cup ice cold water

Method

Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor and then add the butter and until mixture resembles bread crumbs, with pea size pieces of butter. Add ice water 1 TBSP at a time, mixing until mixture just begins to clump together. If you pinch some of the crumbly dough and it holds together, it's ready. If the dough doesn't hold together, add a little more water and pulse again. Note that too much water will make the crust tough.

Remove dough from the food processor and place in a mound on a clean surface.  Work the dough just enough to form the disks, do not over-knead. You should be able to see little bits of butter in the dough. These small chunks of butter are what will allow the resulting crust to be flaky. Sprinkle a little flour around the disks. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour, and up to 2 days.

Remove one crust disk from the refrigerator. Let sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes in order to soften just enough to make the rolling out a bit easier.

Take you short crust roll it out and line your 24cm tart tin, poke a couple of hole in the bottom of the pastry with a fork and then blind bake it at 180˚c for 15 minutes.

Ingredients

Frangipane Filling

125g Butter

125g Caster Sugar

2 Whole Eggs

1 Egg yolk

1 TBSP Almond Liqueur (optional)

Zest of 1 lemon

120g Ground up Almonds (just buy flakes and blitz them in the food processor until fine)

40g Cake Flour

10 Rip Fresh Figs

Method

Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time only adding another one in when the previous one has incorporated totally. Add the almond liqueur and lemon zest if using. Now fold in the ground almonds and cake flour until incorporated, be gentle so that you don’t knock out all the air.

Spread this mixture on the ready baked short crust base until it reaches ¾ the way up the sides, cut the figs in half and arrange them in the paste with the cut side facing up.

Bake in the oven at 160˚c for about 30 minutes. Take out and let cool slightly cut and serve with some mascarpone mixed with some fresh mint or even some crème Fraisch or just whipped cream.

Bon Apeptite

Grilled Chicken Breast with Butternut mash and cocktail tomato sauce

Food for thought

I have just done something that I don’t believe in and that is go on diet (yip a chef on a diet) I was kind of suckered into it, I am only 11 days into it and wishing that I never started, the thing is that I was horribly over weight, by about 20kg’s, so I guess in the bigger light of things it is for the better. Problem with all diets is that as soon as you stop you put all those pounds straight back on, so I am trying something a little different this time round, both for my kids, wife and my health. I will try to adapt into a new eating life style, very difficult being a chef and doing this as you smell all these wonderful aroma’s and scents and you just want to taste if it is as good as it smells. Basically in a nut shell I want to try to cut out fat, sugar and some carbs out of my day to day eating and only have them once a week on my “cheat” day, so this is a lovely little quick healthy lunch that I came up with today (not for myself, for my GM who is also on a eating plan) and I think that this does make a wonderful meal for lunch, it does contain some carbs in the form of butternut, but there is a whole heap of vitamin A in it as well as others and it is only 45 calories per 100g for those of you counting the calories.

Difficulty: Easy

Serves: 2

Prep Time: 10 Minutes

Cooking Time: 15 Minutes

Ingredients

2 Chicken Breast fillet about 200g each (no skin, no bones)

2 cups cocktail tomatoes

2 garlic cloves

3 cups peeled and cubed butternut

Small handful chopped oregano

Small handful chopped basil

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Pre-heat oven to 220˚c

Season your chicken breast with salt and pepper, squash the garlic cloves, leave the peels on. Place the garlic onto a small roasting tray and place and chicken breast onto each one then place the cocktail tomatoes in the roasting tray as well, and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Whilst the chicken is roasting, place the cubed butternut into boiling salted water and boil for 15 minutes.

When the chicken is ready take it out of the oven and place on a cutting boards to rest for 5 minutes.

Take the garlic that should be nicely roasted and mash it together with the butternut, season with salt and pepper and mix in the oregano, put this neatly onto the plate.

Take the cocktail tomatoes with all the roasting juices from the roasting tray and lightly pop the tomatoes, season and mix in the basil.

Slice the chicken and arrange on top of the butternut and top it off with the cocktail tomatoes.

And there we have it, a nice simple easy Very Healthy Lunch or Dinner dish.

My tip would be to those of you who would like the mash to be a little “creamier” boil a ¼ cup of cashew nuts for about 10 minutes and blitz them in a food processor with the water that they boiled in, until they are smooth and creamy, then add this to the butternut for a really creamy butternut mash.