On Sunday evening I decided to make vichyssoise. Vichyssoise is a cold soup made from potatoes, leeks onions and cream. Its very easy to make and its delicious.Here is my recipe:
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Vichyssoise
On Sunday evening I decided to make vichyssoise. Vichyssoise is a cold soup made from potatoes, leeks onions and cream. Its very easy to make and its delicious.Here is my recipe:
Friday, February 5, 2010
Country Sausages with Mashed Potato and Pesto and Sugar-Snap Peas
Sorry for the long absence of posts, but I am flat out broke and in the process of selling my house. I have been eating ALOT of spaghetti and Bangers and Mash, not exactly inspiring.But I felt it was time to give you guys another entry.
First off, I really like both bangers and mash, and spaghetti (in all its forms), but I hate the lack of variety in my diet right now. So I decided to experiment with the classic bangers and mash dish.
Last week I made some pesto and I served it with (you guessed it) spaghetti.
Pesto is really easy to make, delicious and cheap. All you need to do is roughly blend up fresh basil, lemon juice, sugar, olive oil, garlic, and nuts (I used almonds, but any nut will do). DON'T over blend it. It should be rough in texture, a paste not a soup.
Last night I decided to flavour the mash with the pesto.
Wow.
It was fantastic, The flavour really complemented the sausages far better than ordinary mash did. I will definitely be doing this again.
First off, I really like both bangers and mash, and spaghetti (in all its forms), but I hate the lack of variety in my diet right now. So I decided to experiment with the classic bangers and mash dish.
Last week I made some pesto and I served it with (you guessed it) spaghetti.
Pesto is really easy to make, delicious and cheap. All you need to do is roughly blend up fresh basil, lemon juice, sugar, olive oil, garlic, and nuts (I used almonds, but any nut will do). DON'T over blend it. It should be rough in texture, a paste not a soup.
Last night I decided to flavour the mash with the pesto.
Wow.
It was fantastic, The flavour really complemented the sausages far better than ordinary mash did. I will definitely be doing this again.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Pastilla
I'm back and ready to start a new year.
Unfortunately Mark has moved to Cape Town for the summer casting season. I really miss my kitchen buddy, but I wish him every success at finally making it to Hollywood.
Happy new year to all my readers, this year is gonna be great. To get it started properly, I cooked a dinner party for my friend Aidan and his girlfriend Kelly.
For starters I served a thin slice of salmon quiche. For mains I made Pastilla (pronounced "bastiyya"; Arabic: بسطي) a sweet and savoury Moroccan curry pie in phyllo pastry. It was made with chicken, dates, eggs, almonds, onion, and more spices than you can throw a stick at.
Many thanks to Kevin Lynch of Closet Cooking for the recipe (http://closetcooking.blogspot.com/2009/12/chicken-and-date-pastilla.html).
Normally you sprinkle cinnamon and icing sugar on the top, but this time I chose not to.
Aidan and Kelly
For desert I served lemon cheese cake, vanilla ice-cream, and chocolate phyllo parcels. A fantastic start to the Boogie calendar!
Unfortunately Mark has moved to Cape Town for the summer casting season. I really miss my kitchen buddy, but I wish him every success at finally making it to Hollywood.
Happy new year to all my readers, this year is gonna be great. To get it started properly, I cooked a dinner party for my friend Aidan and his girlfriend Kelly.
For starters I served a thin slice of salmon quiche. For mains I made Pastilla (pronounced "bastiyya"; Arabic: بسطي) a sweet and savoury Moroccan curry pie in phyllo pastry. It was made with chicken, dates, eggs, almonds, onion, and more spices than you can throw a stick at.
Many thanks to Kevin Lynch of Closet Cooking for the recipe (http://closetcooking.blogspot.com/2009/12/chicken-and-date-pastilla.html).
Normally you sprinkle cinnamon and icing sugar on the top, but this time I chose not to.
Aidan and Kelly
For desert I served lemon cheese cake, vanilla ice-cream, and chocolate phyllo parcels. A fantastic start to the Boogie calendar!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
An Impromptu Boogie Soufflé Christmas Party
On Thursday it was my mate Russell's birthday. Happy happy again mate :) So, on Thursday night myself, Mickey, and Aidan made our way to the horsey capital of Gauteng, Kyalami, to have dinner with Russell, Lydia, and assorted family and friends. After gorging ourselves on the magnificent snoek casarole made by Lydia, and quaffing* a reasonable amount of white wine, Mickey mentioned that he had a colleague from Pretoria visiting, and would I mind cooking for them?
Friday came with a sunrise and a headache, and after a busy morning I had a brainwave. This was quite a noteworthy event, especially since I still had a mild ache behind my eyes. "Why not", I suggested to Mark, "Why not make this an unofficial (read cheap) Christmas party for Boogie Soufflé? I mean all the local businesses were having their Christmas do's, why not us?" So the idea for the Boogie Christmas party was born.
* Quaffing: the same as drinking, but you tend to spill more. (Terry Pratchett)
Friday came with a sunrise and a headache, and after a busy morning I had a brainwave. This was quite a noteworthy event, especially since I still had a mild ache behind my eyes. "Why not", I suggested to Mark, "Why not make this an unofficial (read cheap) Christmas party for Boogie Soufflé? I mean all the local businesses were having their Christmas do's, why not us?" So the idea for the Boogie Christmas party was born.
* Quaffing: the same as drinking, but you tend to spill more. (Terry Pratchett)
For starters I served Aubergine stacks with grilled peppers and a corriander, dill and lemon drench and a side serving of sherry mushrooms. 
Karen seemed to like my Captain Morgan outfit. :)
Kerry, clearly enjoying the atmosphere.
Mark and I, looking sharp!
For desert I made bread and butter pudding, always a winner.
Mark cooked spaghetti with our famous seafood sauce with salmon, oysters, mussels, tomatoes, and white wine.
Mark and I both surprised our guests, Mickey, Karen and Kerry (Mark's sister) by hosting the party in black tie!
Karen seemed to like my Captain Morgan outfit. :)
Kerry, clearly enjoying the atmosphere.
Mark and I, looking sharp!
For desert I made bread and butter pudding, always a winner.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Dinner with friends from Mozambique
Some pictures from a dinner party I hosted with friends that I made in Mozambique.
Mickey scoring a potato!
Salad with cooked baby apples, nectarines and blue cheese.
Roast beef, roast potatoes, and salad.
Aidan tells us about his plans for global domination.
Vicky and Rachel.
From Left to right: Mickey, Rachel, Vicky, and Kerry
Mickey spooning.
Jen spooning.
Mickey scoring a potato!
Salad with cooked baby apples, nectarines and blue cheese.
Roast beef, roast potatoes, and salad.
Aidan tells us about his plans for global domination.
Vicky and Rachel.
From Left to right: Mickey, Rachel, Vicky, and Kerry
Mickey spooning.
Jen spooning.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Chicken Cordon Bleu with snap peas and roast potato
Made this a couple of weeks ago. The chicken cordon bleu is cooked in white wine and served on a bed of greens. This meals stars were actually the roast potatoes made by Rachel. She uses butter rosemary, sage whole garlic and lemon, and then at the last minute drenches them with honey.
Absolutely delicious!
Absolutely delicious!
Sun-dried Tomato Bread
It has been ages since my last post. Sorry, its been crazy. I promise to blog more regularly in the future. So here is how to make Sun-dried Tomato Bread:
Ingredients:
4 cups bread flour (any kind, you choose)
1 packet instant dried yeast
2 tbl spoons sugar
2 tea spoons salt
2 tbl spoons olive oil
1 jar sun-dried tomatoes
Almond slivers
warm water
Instructions:
1.) Mix flour and salt in a mixing bowl. make a depression in the middle of the flour and add the yeast and sugar. pour in a little luke-warm water. Wait 2 minutes.
2.) Start kneading the dough. Add water as you go until you have a a nice stretchy dou that doesn't fall apart when you pick it up. Add flour if it gets too runny.
3.) Pull the dough ball out of the bowl and put it onto a heavy board or kitchen counter. Make sure you put flour on the surface to stop it sticking.
4.) Make a deep dent in the dough with the side of you hand and add the tomatoes.
5.) Pinch the sides of the dough up around the filling (tomato) to make a parcel.
6.) push the dough in from the sides and make another dent.
7.) Add more filling.
8.) Seal the loaf again thoroughly.
9.) Coat the loaf in olive oil, and place in a bread tin.
(note: if you dont own a bread tin, put it on a baking pan, it works fine)
10.) Cover the loaf with a dish-cloth.
11.) Sprinkle some water on the cloth, and leave it somewhere warmish and out of the wind for an hour to rise. (A cupboard is perfect)
12.) Once the loaf has risen, sprinkle on the almonds first (pat them down) and then a little flour on top. This is the stop the nuts from burning.
13.) Put the pan in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees C for 1 hour.
14.) Take the bread out of the oven and tin, and pat the bottom of the loaf. If it sounds hollow it is ready. Allow it to cool for 10 minutes and serve!
Voilà!
Ingredients:
4 cups bread flour (any kind, you choose)
1 packet instant dried yeast
2 tbl spoons sugar
2 tea spoons salt
2 tbl spoons olive oil
1 jar sun-dried tomatoes
Almond slivers
warm water
Instructions:
1.) Mix flour and salt in a mixing bowl. make a depression in the middle of the flour and add the yeast and sugar. pour in a little luke-warm water. Wait 2 minutes.
2.) Start kneading the dough. Add water as you go until you have a a nice stretchy dou that doesn't fall apart when you pick it up. Add flour if it gets too runny.
3.) Pull the dough ball out of the bowl and put it onto a heavy board or kitchen counter. Make sure you put flour on the surface to stop it sticking.
4.) Make a deep dent in the dough with the side of you hand and add the tomatoes.
5.) Pinch the sides of the dough up around the filling (tomato) to make a parcel.
6.) push the dough in from the sides and make another dent.
7.) Add more filling.
8.) Seal the loaf again thoroughly.
9.) Coat the loaf in olive oil, and place in a bread tin.
(note: if you dont own a bread tin, put it on a baking pan, it works fine)
10.) Cover the loaf with a dish-cloth.
11.) Sprinkle some water on the cloth, and leave it somewhere warmish and out of the wind for an hour to rise. (A cupboard is perfect)
12.) Once the loaf has risen, sprinkle on the almonds first (pat them down) and then a little flour on top. This is the stop the nuts from burning.
13.) Put the pan in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees C for 1 hour.
14.) Take the bread out of the oven and tin, and pat the bottom of the loaf. If it sounds hollow it is ready. Allow it to cool for 10 minutes and serve!
Voilà!
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