A Cape Town Mussel Po(s)t in Winter

Studying pastry means that I've been less inclined to spend time in the kitchen after hours. That's the thing with studying a hobby, it can take away from ones passion initially (another blog post all together).  Luckily, I've had a little rest from the kitchen and I've been inspired to combine my pastry and bread skills with time cooking in the "hot kitchen".  I love cooking as it allows me to experiment with ingredients, flavours, and textures without being too precise.The opposite applies to pastry, cakes, confectionary and bread making. Dont get me wrong, I love pastry and baking but its nice to find a balance between the two completely contrasting approaches to food.  

The other night I made a mussel pot with crusty home made Kitka bread. I was in my element as it was the perfect combination of playing around with flavour and baking! 

Mussel pot with homemade crusty kitka bread

Sam my husband was seriously blown away by the end  result and reckons it was the best mussel pot he has ever had ("even better than Den Anker" were his words) . Of course he is bias but I'm so appreciative of his love of food, his support of my culinary endeavours and weird experiments. 

I looked at a few recipes and came up with my own concoction of heart warming ingredients. My recipe goes something like this but you can play around with herbs if you like. For example use thyme instead of bay leaf (or use both), leave out the celery or add spring onion.  The Dijon mustard adds another layer to the flavours which I feel gives the recipe a unique finish.  

Keri's Mussel Pot with Kitka bread ( serves 4)

Ingredients

• 1kg fresh mussels if possible (Woolworths Cavendish sometimes have)
• 2 small onions finely diced
• 2 celery sticks finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon butter
• A handful of chives
• A handful of parsley
• 1 bay leaf
• 10ml dijon mustard 
• 350ml cream
• 150ml white wine 
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Wash mussels and discard any open ones. Saute the garlic, celery and onion in butter until softened. Add the bayleaf and wine and bring to the boil. Add mussels to wine and cover lid. Allow to steam for 5 minutes. Once steamed stir in the cream and add the chopped chives, parsley, dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Stir and leave to simmer for a minute. 

Serve: with  a sprinkle of fresh parsley and chives and serve with crusty home made bread, Ciabatta or Kitka. Kitka recipe to follow!

Some curry with that naan?

Yup it't that time of year for curries and stews. I don't know about you but it's been quite an adjustment getting into the winter swing of things. One of my favourite winter dinners is a good old hearty indian curry.  

My friend Nina came around for dinner the other night and we decided to concoct our own curry with left over vegetables in our fridge. We had enough fresh ginger, garam Masala, cinnamon, cumin, and crushed coriander seeds to make it work! We also added a bit of paprika, regular curry powder and some dried crushed chilli's for an extra kick. The base of the curry was tomatoes and some yoghurt at the end.  We added a squeeze of lemon juice, some sugar and salt to get the "tomatoey" balance right.

Whilst the curry was tasty, the naan bread was the highlight of our dinner. I found an easy stove top recipe online and just changed it a bit here and there.  It is so easy to make and FLOP proof. The breads are soft and puffy but solid enough to scoop up the curry. You will knock the socks off your dinner guests by making  this, and the best part is it's so easy! I've made it 3 times over the past 3 weeks. 

NAAN BREAD RECIPE:

Makes 6 small Naan breads  (10 cm ovals)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of flour ( or use a mix of tapioca and almond flour for a carb-free version)
• 20 ml sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 2.5 ml  baking soda
• 70ml yogurt a little water if dough too dry
• chopped garlic (optional) or crushed coriander seeds for a variation

Method:

In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients together.  Add the Yoghurt and Knead in the bowl until smooth. Cover for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough int 6 balls and roll into oval shapes 40 millimetres thick using flour on the surface and rolling pin to prevent sticking. 

Heat up a cast iron pan with a tiny dash of oil  or butter ( even tastier) and fry for 25 seconds either side or until the dough puffs up and browns ever so slightly. 

Once cooked I brushed some garlic butter on mine to give it a bit more flavour. Only Including the garlic in the dough is also very tasty  or you can even do both, or leave the garlic out all together depending on what you prefer. 

Serve with any Indian curry or stew : -)

TIP: You could also take this exact recipe and make pita breads

If you get a chance to make this recipe, please let me know how it goes!

Poaching an egg the fancy way (and a recipe)

After running the Two Oceans Half Marathon on Saturday I made a new carb-free concoction of eggs bacon and spinach.  It's not like I'm on the Noakes' LCHF diet or anything but I had no bread in the house. Damn this was tastier than most breakfasts I've had in a while. Maybe it's time to turn to the other side?

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Ingredients:

• Eggs
• Bacon ( shoulder bacon rounds are preferable)
• Spinach
• Greek yoghurt
• Red chilli- medium to hot
•  2 cloves Garlic 

Method:

1. Firstly make the chilli oil: chop up some chilli removing the seeds. Place in a small ramekin and add olive oil to cover the chilli. Add salt and pepper and a bit of crushed garlic and let it marinate while you whip up the rest of the breakfast. 

2. Fry the bacon rounds until brown and crispy. Shoulder bacon has less fat than other cuts so it wont go crisp-cripsy if you know what I mean...

3. Wipe out the pan with roller-towel and add a dash of butter or olive oil. Fill the pan with fresh baby spinach and toss lightly with a clove of garlic on top to infuse a little bit of the flavour. It shouldn't take more than 2 minutes- you don't want it to be too soft.

4. Fancy Poached Eggs: To Poach the eggs bring a  medium sides pot of water to a rapid boil. Make sure that there is enough water to cover the egg. Add a dash of white spirit vinegar. (If you don't have its not a biggy- not sure how much of a difference it makes but hey mine have worked every time doing this.) 

5. Crack en egg into a small pyrex jug. Slowly pour the egg into a serving spoon resting on the inside edge of the pot which helps shape it and keep it all together. It may look  a bit messy but give it 15 seconds or so to settle. If the white isn't sticking together carefully push the white toward the yolk. Cook for 3 minutes for a soft egg and a bit longer for a medium egg.  Repeat the above for each poached egg. I'm usually able to do 3 in a pot at a time.  It's really not that difficult and it looks so professional. I find it harder to fry and egg to be honest- I break it every time....

6. Now that the main ingredients are ready you can start stacking!  Start with bacon rounds, add spinach and then the poached egg on top of this. Layer a tablespoon of Greek yoghurt on top and add a half a teaspoon of the chilli/garlic oil. 

7. Top with salt and pepper to your taste. 

Devour.