Quiche

• Quiche is a savoury, open-faced pastry crust with a filling of savoury custard with cheese, meat, seafood, or vegetables. Quiche can be served hot or cold. It is part of French cuisine, but is also popular in South Africa.
• I have made it without the crust.
• 

Ingredients

   For the crust:

·         1 1/2 cups flour

·         1/2 tsp salt

·         1/2 cup cold butter

·         3-6 Tablespoons ice water

·         grated cheese (optional)

   For the spinach and feta Filling:

·         One or two bunches  chopped leaf spinach

·         1 medium onion, diced.

·         2 or 3 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed.

·         2 Tbsp  butter

·         2 Tbsps  olive oil

·         2 rings  feta cheese

·         3  eggs

·         1 cup  heavy cream or  whole milk or  Plain yoghurt

·         salt and pepper to taste

(I have added some bacon and mushrooms too!)

How to make it

For the Crust:

-Mix the flour and the salt together in a medium bowl.

-Cut the butter into the flour and salt mixture . Drizzle the ice water over the top of the dough and mix.

For the Spinach and Feta Filling and Quiche Assembly:

-Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

-Heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat until the butter is melted and bubbly.

-Sweat the onion, garlic, mushrooms and bacon in the olive oil and butter mixture until the onions are translucent ..

-Add the spinach to this mixture and continue cooking until the spinach is heated through. Remove from the heat.

-Cut the feta into the spinach mixture and mix together. Set aside to cool.

– Roll dough out on a lightly floured board to the size you need for your pie tin

-Place the rolled out dough in the tin, place the spinach mixture in the dough.

-Beat together the eggs and cream. Add fresh ground pepper and a pinch of salt (you won’t need too much salt, as the feta is rather salty). Pour this mixture over the spinach/feta mix in the pie shell. Grate some cheese over it.

-Bake for about 45-60 minutes, or until a lovely brown on top and the eggs have set .

-Serve hot or cold!

National Braai day in South Africa – Butternut Delight –

Heritage Day (Afrikaans: Erfenisdag) is a South African public holiday celebrated on 24 September. On this day, South Africans across the spectrum are encouraged to celebrate their culture and the diversity of their beliefs and traditions, in the wider context of a nation that belongs to all its people.

In 2005, a media campaign sought to “re-brand” the holiday as National Braai Day, in recognition of the South African culinary tradition of holding informal backyard barbecues, or braais.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_Day_(South_Africa)

We also had a braai. I made a butternut dish my mom used to make years ago. With that we had lamb chops and boerewors. (Boerewors is a type of sausage, popular in South African cuisine. The name comes from the Afrikaans words boer (“farmer”) and wors(“sausage”), and is pronounced [ˈbuːrəvors], with a trilled /r/.Boerewors must contain at least 90 percent meat – always containing beef, as well as lamb or pork or a mixture of lamb and pork, the other 10% is made up of spices and other ingredients. Not more than 30% of the meat content may be fat. Boerewors may not contain any “mechanically recovered” meat, this is meat derived through a process where meat and bone are mechanically separated.

My sister made a beautiful spinach salad to compliment this meal. http://flippenblog.wordpress.com/

 

Butternut Delight

Ingredients
2 medium butternut squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
4 teaspoons butter
Salt and pepper
Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Place butternut squash halves on a large baking sheet flesh side up. Place 1 teaspoon butter in the middle of each squash. Season with salt. Roast 25 minutes, until flesh is fork-tender.

Filling

Ingredients

1 onion cdiced

1 green pepper diced

Half a punnet (or more) mushrooms, chopped

200 gr bacon. diced

2 cloves of garlic , crushed

about 150 ml cream

Method

Fry onion, green pepper and garlic in some butter.

Add the mushrooms and  bacon to the onion and fry until cooked.

Add the cream and let it it reduce for a while.

Cut the butternut halves lengthwise , spoon mixture onto the butternut, grate some cheddar cheese over it. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and bake for about 10 minutes.

Wild flowers of the West Coast

A wildflower (or wild flower) is a flower that grows in the wild, meaning it was not intentionally seeded or planted.

The West Coast flower region, an integral part of the Cape Fynbos Kingdom, boasts more than 1200 species of flowering plants. About 80 of these are endemic to the West Coast and known nowhere else. The rich flora of the West Coast occurs on mainly three different soil types, culminating in three distinctive vegetation types, namely, Strandveld, Renosterveld and Sandveld.

Labelled species at the Darling Wild Flower show.

The Darling Wildflower Society has held a show virtually every year since that first show in 1917. The ideals expressed by the founders still hold true today. They wanted to display Darling’s God-given wealth for the world to see. At the same time they promoted the conservation of flowers amongst the farmers of the district, who have since maintained the botanical diversity of the region over several generations.

Darling lies within the Cape West Coast Biosphere reserve in the centre of the threatened lowland sandplain and renosterveld http://www.darlingwildflowers.co.za/

Although it was a rainy day the atmosphere at this show was vibrant and we had a wonderful time there.

The hall was landscaped with Darling wildflowers, from the most fragile and rare to the ones easily found.

And Arum lilies (my favourite) in abundance!

Easy Vanilla Butter cake – Baking memories

I have been making this easy Vanilla butter cake  since my childhood which my mom taught me to make.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup(s) Sifted Cake Flour
• 3 teaspoon(s) Baking Powder
• 1/4 teaspoon(s) Salt
• 45 ml Unsalted Butter
• 1 cup Sugar
• 3 large Eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon(s) Vanilla Extract
• 3/4 cup(s )whole Milk

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Lightly coat an 8-inch cake pan with butter and dust with all-purpose flour. Sift the cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl.
2.  Beat  eggs and sugar till light and fluffy.  Add the vanilla  beat on medium-high, just until blended.  Add the dry ingredients to this mixture. Mix well.
3. Bring butter and milk to the boil and add it the the mixture. Mix well.
4. 
5. Pour into the prepared pans and bake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean — 25 to 30 minutes. Cool cake in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes.
6. Unmould and cool completely. Ice with any icing you like.

Bombay Potatoes -my way

This is a Jamie Oliver recipe! I saw it in a  TV-programme and found the recipe on the internet.

Bombay Potatoes

Ingredients
3 tablespoons sunflower Oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 pinch of ground cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 knob fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
6 potatoes, peeled, parboiled and cut into cubes
4 knobs butter
4 tomatoes cores removed and flesh diced
fresh coriander, roughly chopped

Method
1 Heat the oil in a pan and fry the spices for a few minutes.
2 Add the butter, then the potatoes, making sure they are completely coated in the spicy mixture.
3 Cook for about 10-15 mins, then stir in the tomatoes and the coriander.

However, this is my version of his recipe.

Bombay Potatoes

Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive Oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
1 teaspoon ginger/garlic paste mix
6 potatoes, peeled (uncooked)and cut into 1cm slices
4 tomatoes cores removed and flesh diced
fresh coriander or parsley, roughly chopped
Sometimes I add mushrooms and green peppers too

Method
1 Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onions and garlic, add the  spices and fry for a few minutes.
2 Add the butter, then the potatoes, making sure they are completely coated in the spicy mixture.Then stir in the tomatoes and the coriander. (or parsley – my husband does not like the taste of fresh coriander)

3, Cook till done.

I serve this lovely spicy side dish with roasted chicken, boerewors,  green beans and a tossed salad.

Bobotie – Traditional Cape Malay dish

Bobotie is a South African dish consisting of spiced minced meat baked with an egg-based topping. Bobotok was an Indonesian dish consisting of meat with a custard topping that was cooked in a pan of water until the egg mixture set. Colonists from the Dutch East India Company colonies in Batavia probably introduced bobotie to South Africa.The first recipe for bobotie appeared in a Dutch cookbook in 1609.  Afterwards, it was taken to South Africa and adopted by the Cape Malay community. It is also made with curry powder leaving it with a slight “tang”.

It is a dish of some antiquity: it has certainly been known in the Cape of Good Hope since the 17th century, when it was made with a mixture of mutton and pork. Today it is much more likely to be made with beef or lamb, although pork lends the dish extra moistness. Early recipes incorporated  ginger, marjoram and lemon rind; the introduction of curry powder has simplified the recipe somewhat but the basic concept remains the same. Some recipes also call for chopped onions to be added to the mixture. Traditionally, bobotie incorporates dried fruit like raisins or sultanas, but the sweetness that they lend is not to everybody’s taste. It is often garnished with walnuts, chutney and bananas. 

Although not particularly spicy, the dish incorporates a variety of flavours that can add complexity. For example, the dried fruit (usually apricots and raisins/sultanas) contrasts the curry flavouring very nicely. The texture of the dish is also complex, with the baked egg mixture topping complementing the milk-soaked bread which adds moisture to the dish.

From Wikipedia

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 10 ml butter
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 cup milk
• 2 slices  brown bread
• 1 teaspoon apricot jam
• 30 ml curry powder
• 1 tablespoon hot chutney
• 25 ml brown vinegar
• 5 ml lemon juice
• 15 ml Worcester sauce
• 15 ml tumeric
• 1 kg minced meat
• 10 ml salt
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup almonds sliced
• 3  eggs
• 8 bay leaves or lemon- leaves

Directions

1. Preheat oven 180 degrees C. Lightly grease a baking dish. Soak the bread in the milk.
2. Heat the oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the onions and garlic  oil until soft. Add the curry powder and apricot jam to the onions and mix well.
3. Then add  the chutney, vinegar,lemon juice, Worcester sauce and half of the Turmeric  to the mixture. Mix well.
4. Squeeze the excess milk from the bread. Set the milk aside. Add the bread to the onion mixture. Stir in the raisins, salt, almond and minced meat.  Mix well and cook over low heat until meat changes colour. Take off the heat and add 1 beaten egg into the meat mixture en stir well. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.
5. Lay the bay- or the lemon leaves onto the top of the  mixture.  Whisk together the reserved milk, egg, and other half of the Turmeric. Pour over top of the dish.

6. Place the dish in an oven pan, pour water into the oven dish about two thirds full. Bake in the preheated oven 1 hour.

Serve it with yellow rice

Granny square blankets

According to Edie Eckman in The Crochet Answer Book:

Any granny square begins with a small loop of chain stitches. Basic granny squares alternate sets of double stitches and chain stitches. Variant patterns use different stitch types or produce other geometric shapes such as hexagons. In order to achieve a distinct angle at the corners the designer uses extra chain stitches. Subsequent rounds are added by wrapping multiple stitches around the existing chain stitches. Hundreds of variant motifs are in use and entire books have been devoted to granny square designs.

Last year my sister-in-law challenged  me to crochet a blanket for our grandson, while she was doing one for our granddaughter, but  I have not done any crochet work in years!!

Frantically I searched for ideas to make a granny-square blanket for a little boy. I came up with this “design” for his “rainbow” blankie. While I was doing this blanket my friends and sisters pitched in and helped crocheting a few blocks.

After completing it , I helped my sister-in-law to put this beautiful girly blanket together for our granddaughter.

These two blankies had to be vacuum packed to fit in a suitcase all the way to New Zealand.

By then I knew that I was “hooked” and started to buy wool for the big one I wanted to make for our king-sized bed.

Although I had the wool I only started with the new blanket during the month of July this year. I have changed the design a few times, which resulted in a lot of extra squares in all different patterns which will have to become my next project!

 I have finished this blanket today.