hugest egg i have ever seen!

ok before all of you think that i have gone and lost my mind posting a picture of a bunch of eggs, let me explain the story to you.

i was hungry. why does it seem all my blog stories start with this line? well anyway, yeah, i was hungry. keen for breakfast, so i opened up the fridge to find the godzilla of eggs waiting for me. me, being the fascinated person i am, could not wait to crack it open and see how big that yolk was! but first i made pancakes to go with the scrambled eggs i was planning on making.

so after the process of making the pancake batter and frying up all the pancakes, with little restraint i cracked open the godzilla egg and look what i found:

twin yolks!

i couldn't believe it! now we have a history of twins in my family - my maternal grandmother had THREE sets of twins! yes, my mum was a twin, but her twin died at birth. now people say that the twin gene skips a generation and i swear to God ever since i could remember i have been seeing double things and everyone tells me it's because i'm going to have twins one day. well i certainly hope so! that would be a certain kind of wonderful!

well, that was my random post for tonight. i am super tired and tomorrow i promise i will post some recipes!

peace and love :)
x

mekarl's birthday

so last thursday (26 august) was mekarl's birthday :) and it was super chilled with his family at his home. his mum did the cooking and boy was it comfort food for a chilly night in! what some people would consider soul food to an extent! even though i had a big test to write the next morning, i spent a fair amount of time with the family and really took some time to unwind.

she made crumbed chops (which is one of mekarl's absolute favourites), parisienne carrots, creamed spinach, roasted vegetables (literally red onion, peppers, butternut and baby potatoes with garlic and butter and i presume some secret spices) gravy, and fresh portuguese rolls. it was delish and a great way to spend the evening celebrating mekarl's birthday.

for his birthday cake mekarl had a tiramissu cake which he loves. all in all it was a lovely evening :)

mutton curry on a cold, winter's day

my mum is really ill with flu at the moment so it was up to me to cook the curry today. you would know from a previous entry that although i love mutton curry, i am a bit nervous about cooking it - but i know exactly what i want this time - i enter the battle with more knowledge!

so here is the dish that is such perfection and comfort on a cold day such as this! i have included a step by step photo illustration so that you know what it should (sort of) look like!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 kg of mutton (or lamb if you prefer)
• 1 large finely sliced onion
• 2 roughly chopped tomatoes
• 2 small potatoes (or 1 large potato)
• masala of your choice (about 2 tablespoons) - i use 1 tablespoon of mild masala and 1 tablespoon of chilli  powder
• ground ginger and garlic
• jeera seeds (cumin)
• 2 small pieces of cinnamon bark
• 1 tablespoon curry seeds (now this i get from gorima's which is a spice shop in durban, but basically it is a blend of seeds used for curries like cumin, onion seeds, mustard seeds sauted in tumeric powder amongst other things - i am sure you could get something similar in any spice shop)
• salt to taste

METHOD:

• in a large, heavy based pot add in your onion to cook on a medium heat until golden. take your time, a mutton curry is all in the braising (like my mum says).
• at this stage you will need to add in your jeera seeds, cinnamon bark and curry seeds. let this saute for a good couple minutes.

• then add in your ground ginger and garlic.
• after a few minutes add in your meat. now many people add the masala into the ginger/garlic/onion mixture in the pot to cook, but i prefer to add it in after the meat has been added if you are starting out with a mutton curry for the first few times. thereafter you can "burn" (which is really just cooking out the rawness of the spice) the masala in the onion mix - i think it comes with more experience.
• so add in your masala and salt to taste and give it a good mix.
• after about 5 minutes, throw in your tomatoes and a stem of curry leaf and let that cook on medium heat for 30 minutes.

• when the time has lapsed, you will see a gravy beginning to form. place your potatoes into the gravy and turn the heat slightly lower. cover and leave to simmer for another 20 minutes.
• thereafter, add in another curry leaf and simmer for about 10 minutes.
• remove from heat and serve.

a mutton curry is nothing without rice (in my opinion) so i made basmati and enjoyed a nice plate :) please try it out if you can - it's really easier than it seems!

peace and love all!
x

steak for supper & apple and cinnamon crumpets for dessert :)

last thursday my mum had to rush up to johannesburg for a funeral. we joined her on friday, but on thursday night my brother and i decided to cook up a storm for my father and my grandmother. my brother, who as i mentioned in previous post, is a dessert kind of guy, so he was gonna make his first steak! i have to hand it to him, that steak was perfection! the boy can cook!

here's his steak and salad:

with a little salt & pepper, steak spice and a couple minutes

on the grill, this steak was perfection on a plate!

i have to admit, i felt useless (lol). happy that my brother had made supper, but sad that i had nothing to do! so my brother suggested i make dessert, which came in the form of apple and cinammon crumpets (or flapjacks if you prefer).

from: www.postcardfromholland.com

i use my mum's old recipe in her recipe file (which i go to on a down day just to find some inspiration, or when i'm looking for an old fashion recipe. my mum started this recipe file when she was in university!). it's literally

• 180 g cake flour
• 20 ml baking powder
• 1 ml salt
• 100 g sugar
• 1 egg
• milk (this can'r be measured because i usually know when it's the right consistency)
• 30 g melted butter
• one large apple
• cinnamon

we made one in the shape of an "M" haha

METHOD:

• in one bowl sift your dry ingrdients and add the sugar.
• beat the egg and melted butter together in a separate bowl with the milk and add your dry ingredients.
• mix until smooth.
• in a blender, put in your cored apples (i keep the skin on actually) and blitz. do this until the apples are small enough but not pureed. 
• add into the crumpet batter with a generous amount of cinammon (to your taste). 
• give the batter a good mix and then drop small ladlefuls of the batter into a hot, lightly greased pancake pan.
• as soon as bubbles form on the top of the crumpet it's ready to turn and then allow to brown on the other side before removing from the heat.

my take on spaghetti carbonara

one of the most amazing pasta dishes ever created is the simple carbonara. the original dish is one that is oh so perfect as it stands, and i usually would reccommend that you use nigella lawson's recipe (click here to go to that) because it is the easiest version i have ever seen, but let's just say that my dish is a variation on the original because i was really craving it but did not have all the ingredients. (ps: nigella has the most amazing website and i have almost this child-like adoration for her that you usually have for a pop star! will elaborate more on that in another post!)

now for the recipe... you will need:

• half a packet of spaghetti
• good olive oil
• a large packet of bacon (chopped), pancetta or lardons - or macon as a substitute if you dont eat bacon
• robertson's parmesan and pesto seasoning
• half a glass of good dry white wine
• milk
• 1 egg
• black pepper

put your pasta on to boil and then all you have to do is fry off your bacon in a pan until it's crispy but not hard. add your wine into that towards the end and let the bacon soak up some of that delicious flavour. in a separate bowl whisk your egg with a little milk, black pepper and add a generous amount of the pesto and parmesan seasoning. i can't really say how much because it's really up to your taste, but if i had to measure, i'd say about 50g.

when your pasta is cooked to perfection (act quick now) drain it and add it to the bacon and wine reduction and add in the egg/parmesan mixture and toss thoroughly, dish up and enjoy :)

such perfection on a plate!

left overs turned into yummoness :)

so right now i am sitting on the couch after having a lovely breakfast, sipping a cuppa rooibos and watching reruns of the great british menu on bbc lifestyle. it's atul kochar against this other random guy and honestly, i want to change the channel but it requires me getting out of my seat. truthfully, i wouldn't be able to multitask if i had what i really wanted to watch on tv was on right now - csi : miami :) i am such a sucker for horatio cain! yes, david caruso's character has those cringe-worthy one liners and the flip of the hair but i can't handle it - what would csi : miami without it?

(side note - everytime i watch great british menu i envy these judges. they have the best job in the world. all they have to do is sit and judge food. they get to eat lovely, gourmet delicacies from some of the best chefs in the world.)

on to what this is really about - left overs, yes yes, we don't like to talk about it because it proves we ate yesterday's food but so what, stop lying we all do it :) after having those pancakes with chocolate sauce last night, all i could think about was what i could do with the left over ones this morning. i even had a dream about pancakes last night. it was quite random and disjointed so i'm not going to share it. anyway this morning i turned a beautifully golden pancake into breakfast.

with some buttery scrambled eggs, slivers of ham and a grating of cheese, the humble pancake turns into amazingness in your mouth. so here's my breakfast (yummo!)

pancakes with chocolate sauce

well what is better than a bedtime treat? i know that we all wish we could raid our fridges for a midnight snack the way that nigella does - unfortunately for most of us, we just don't have such exciting things hiding in our refrigerators waiting for it to be discovered :( in my case, my brother and i believe that when you want something it really doesn't matter what time of the day it is, make it and enjoy it! what is more liberating than a full breakfast at 2am on a whim? we like to break the rules:)

so tonight on a whim we decided to make pancakes (and the chocolate sauce happened by a chance finding of a bar of dark chocolate lying in the fridge) after watching "jamie's american road trip" on bbc lifestyle. it was fantastic as i did very little. pancakes are my brother's piece de resistance you see. he likes to bake, and he's better at it than i am purely based on the fact that i am fearful about baking and he's fearless. i just am so paranoid something will go wrong when i bake but he just throws it together and it works.

so here's mahesh's pancake recipe and my chocolate sauce :)

MAHESH'S PANCAKES with chocolate sauce

INGREDIENTS:

• 300g of flour
• 600 ml milk
• half a teaspoon of baking powder
• a tablespoon of melted butter

mahesh mixing in the melted butter

METHOD:

• mix all your ingredients together (add more flour and milk if needed to get your desired consistency - that always seems to happen with pancake recipes)
• ladle in portions of the pancake batter into a pancake pan with a swipe of butter.
• flip and remove when light brown.

flipping it like a pro:)

For the Chocolate Sauce:

• in a saucepan melt a bar of dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids) with butter.
• when melted remove from the heat and stir in two tablespoons of castor sugar.
• let it dissolve and you're ready :)

serve with the chocolate sauce drizzled over and a dusting of cinnamon.

such a delicious treat and oh so satisfying when you're in need of a little pick me up or just for fun :))