short rib and red wine casserole
I adore any cut of beef, but I’m especially fond of the ones that need a long time in the oven, and emerge fall-off-the-bone soft and lip-smackingly luscious – cuts like oxtail and short rib. I make this casserole on lazy Saturday afternoons, when there’s rugby on the tele and the world seems like a fine place. The flavour follows [...]
baked goat’s cheese ‘fondue’
There are some things that were just made for each other… Merlot and me, chocolate and orange, tomatoes and basil and, of course, goat’s cheese and beetroot. I’m getting a bit bored of seeing the two combined in a salad though. Bored is dangerous in my kitchen, as that’s when I go into ‘what if’ mode. What if I [...]
smokey ham and split pea soup
I’m not sure who loathes winter more, Merlot or me. I figure she gets the prize, what with having to dodge the Cape rain to go ‘do her business’ outside. (It’s amazing how quick a cat can be when she needs to.) Nonetheless, it’s a close call. A steaming bowl of thick split pea soup packed with smokey, meaty flavour [...]
cheese tart with drunken sultanas
There are few things I love more than a decent French apple tart, with the possible exception of a proper ’tarte au fromage blanc’ – a sophisticated little cheese tart number made with fromage blanc (a soft white French cheese), raisins and candied fruit. So I decided to recreate it, but give it a seriously South African twist. Instead of [...]
roasted pepper antipasto
Men just don’t get it. A woman’s almost pathological need to taste what’s on everybody else’s plate that is. I guess that’s why I love the tapas and antipasto way of eating. A bite of this, a bit of that. Grab a huge platter. Olives, salami, ripe red cherry tomatoes, bottled artichokes all go on it along with a [...]
strawberries with a warm ginger crumble
I have a thing for eating seasonally. The whole grow what you eat/ care for the planet/ hug bunny rabbits bit really resonates. But blimey, two-thirds through winter I just can’t face another apple or pear. When shops obligingly start selling strawberries, I rejoice. I don’t care if they’re hothouse numbers. I don’t particularly care if a million litres [...]