Category Archives: Dessert

Sep14

passion fruit cups = food porn with no age restrictions

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My husband, Rick, buys our weekly veggies on a Friday – yes, he does ladies … and there is always a surprise or two in the veggie basket for me … some exotic or peculiar addition to tickle my culinary brain. It’s kinda like a mystery box that I get to explore over the weekends. Last week, he walked in with a punnet of passion fruit. Passion fruit or granadilla as they are more commonly referred to in these parts is one of the most flavoursome of fruits and it takes something really simply to migrate it to an extraordinary level.

Curiosity got the better of me and did a little research on the World Wide Web… to my shock and horror it took me straight to a few porn sites! Clearly, these purveyors of porn were taking liberal interpretations of this innocently delicious fruit. I immediately closed my computer and ran to my fridge to cool down! As it would then happen, I had some Ricotta cheese in the fridge so I decided to mix the two – it set my taste buds racing. I loved it.

I dished it up in in the empty granadilla cups. Be tempted with these forbidden fruits, it is after all food porn – with no age restrictions.

Serves: 6 Mini desserts
Preparation time: 5 min

Ingredients

250g Ricotta cheese
20g Icing sugar
125ml FRESH Granadilla pulp – about 3 to 4 large-sized granadillas

Method

Scoop out the granadilla pulp, mix all the ingredients together…and put back into the granadilla shells. Put in fridge – serve cold…with a sultry smile.

Aug15

flambéed sweet apple omelette = a delicious yellow glowing matter

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Flambéed Sweet Apple Omelette – Every now and then you experiment with something new, sometimes the outcome is just ok and other times it just blows you away. This is what happened to me when I tasted my own rendition of a sweet omelette – whoop whoop – it blew me away and it is so easy to make! But first let me tell you the story how I ended up with fruit and an omelette of all things…

I draw my inspirations from many different people … one person who really inspires me is Lidewij Edelkoort. What a fascinating woman – she is well-renowned as an international trend forecaster in any form of design. The other day I read on her website that yellow is a currently one of the primary fashion colours of the season – and as she says… “ the power of yellow with its strength and radiance, is able to change all volume and all surfaces, giving glow to all matter”. She shared some intriguing, and quite amazing references when it comes to eggs… she took us to France with “eggs + soldiers”…and then to Spain for an omelette. It just got me thinking. Before I knew it, I was traversing the world, the internet and my hoards of cookery books for something, yellow, eggy and interesting…. I eventually found something quite enticing and a recipe that woke up my taste buds….it was an egg + pear omelette … a dessert of all things.

I decided to use apples instead of pears and then used our local brandy to flambé the dessert. It did not stop there though… being my cheeky self, I added some cream, a pinch of nutmeg, a dose of cinnamon, a star anise and a heap of expectation….taste for yourself … it is delicious!

Flambéed Sweet Apple Omelette

Serves: 4
Preparation Time: 10 min
Cooking Time: 25 min

Ingredients

2T Butter
4 Granny Smith apples – cored, peeled and cut into 1 cm slices
1 Star Anise
2 Cinnamon sticks
2T Sugar
4 Large eggs
2T Cream
1 Big pinch nutmeg
1 Pinch salt
3T Brandy

Method

1. On medium heat in a big non-stick pan – melt the butter and add the star anise, cinnamon, apples and 1T of sugar.
2. Cook with the lid on for 10 min and then cook without the lid for a further 10 min.
3. Stir from time to time but be careful not to break the apples.
4. In the mean while beat the eggs, cream, nutmeg and salt together.
5. Then pour the eggs over the apples.
6. Cook till the eggs are set. Lift it on the sides to make sure it stays loose and your egg mixture does not stick to the pan.
7. Invert the omelette onto a large serving dish, sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar over the omelette and pour the 3 tablespoons of brandy over the dish. Ignite the brandy and then shake the platter till the alcohol burns of and extinguishes itself. Serve immediately.

Tuck in and enjoy!

Jul24

milk tart + tea cups + merry-go-rounds

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Milk tart – they say that time changes everything, and everything changes with time…but does it? I think time is like a merry-go-round … it is only your view of things that changes, not the merry-go-round … … the “melk tert” never changed.

I grew up with “melk tert” with almond essence, puff pastry and cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top. It brings back many fond and happy memories. A kaleidoscope of “Kerk bazaars” (chruch fete’s) and of course the “koek en tee na kerk op Sondae” at our home (cake and tea after church on Sunday).

The most lingering memory of the milk tart for me was custard inside the tart shell. This recipe is one of those versatile recipes that gives you the freedom to decide how you want to use it…either in a traditional puff pastry shell, or one where you create your own biscuit base or what I did … I thought I would update this age old classic without trying to change its history or heritage so I served it in my Mom’s tea cup and I added a few a Ameretti biscuits allowing the memories of the past to dwell in the sweetness of the present.

My mom and I made it just the way that we remembered….I went to visit her the other day and we milled about in the kitchen, talking and laughing about those times when we were much younger … the many different stories of how to make milk tart and how to bring the best tart to the bazaar, we talked about family, we giggled like young girls as the milk boiled over and the maizina mix splattered all over the kitchen counter, we counted how many “melk terte” we had made together over the years and then we counted the blessing we have been able to share – then and now. For just a few hours I was again on that merry-go-round … me, my mom, the milk tart and a heap of happy memories….

Dankie Ma. Lief vir jou.

Recipe

Serves: 6
Preparation and cooking time: 30 min

Ingredients

2 Cups of full cream milk
75 g Sugar (the recipe says 4 round table spoons of sugar)
1/4 t Salt
2 large eggs separated
50g Maizina powder mixed with some of the milk (mix through until it has that thick cream consistency)
1/4 t Almond essence
2T Butter (not margarine)
Sugar and cinnamon mix to sprinkle over tart
Amaretti biscuits

Method

1. Mix the milk, sugar and salt in pot and bring to boil.
2. In the meanwhile beat the egg yolks slowly adding the Maizina.
3. Pour this mixture very slowly in the milk mix – I use a hand egg-beater to mix it in – to avoid lumps
4. Cook for 5 minutes till cooked.
5. Add the almond essence and the butter. Stir well.
7. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks start to form then slowly fold this in the custard.
8. Please always taste again for seasoning.
9. Pour in cups, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and serve with amaretti biscuits.

Jun17

chocolate mousse + crispy onion sprinkle = surprising + delicious dessert

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I know many of you think I must be off my rocker … but this is a MUST TRY. Lately, I have been reading a lot about modern food combinations with unusual flavours. Let me mention a few …

1. dark chocolate + parmesan cheese
2. chocolate mousse + crispy onion sprinkle
3. oysters + coconut + lychee + rose
4. lobster + passion fruit
5. belgian endives + chocolate + vanilla ice cream.

The one that really aroused my curiosity was the chocolate mousse and crispy onion sprinkle. I just had to try it so I dashed off to my Woollies store down the road and bought a tub of chocolate mousse and a bag of crispy onion sprinkle, you know the type that they sell as a soup topping. So that evening I took a scoop of chocolate mousse and a healthy serving of onion sprinkle and I served this unusual matching to some very startled guests …! Well, well, well, if you want to impress your friends with an amazing out of the box dessert that you don’t even have to make yourself …try this. The tastes just gel together and produce a surprising and unusual delicious combination. Put this on your list the next time you are out of ideas for dessert!

nom nom nom …

Apr12

frozen grapes + dark chocolate + grappa

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Well it seems that summer could very soon be slipping away from us and before we know it, we will all be creeping away into hibernation but before the North Wester starts to blow and the rains come, why not get out into the sunshine and share this delicious Tuscan treat (www.jamieoliver.com) with your friends … just freeze some grapes for about 24 hours, put on a plate with the best dark chocolate (www.honestchocolate.co.za) and serve with some good grappa … sunshine, good friends, love and frozen grapes + dark chocolate + grappa does wonderful things for the soul.