Baby Bunny Chows

So Easter has come and gone, and all the bunnies are now half price! I wondered to myself - why does the Easter Bunny bring eggs - surely we should have a Easter Chicken? So I asked Mr Google and this is what I found.

The Easter bunny has its origin in pre-Christian fertility lore. The Hare and the Rabbit were the most fertile animals known and they served as symbols of the new life during the Spring season.
This is a little confusing to us in the South, as Easter is the start of winter - but I guess most things are upside down for us! So with all these bunnies around - I was inspired to make a very well known South African treat - Bunny Chow. The history of which is far more exciting than the Easter Bunny.

The most popular is that the bunny chow was started by a Durban restaurateur who came up with the idea during the apartheid era. "People of colour" (as opposed to the "see-through people") were not allowed, by law, to sit inside his restaurant and he didn’t want to give them a plate to takeaway so he came up with the idea of making a deep hole into half a loaf of bread, filling it with curry and putting the scooped out part back on the top as a form of lid. (Reference here)

One account suggests that Indian migrant workers from India who were brought to South Africa to work the sugar cane plantations of Kwazulu-Natal, required a way of carrying their lunches to the field; the hollowed out loaf of bread was a convenient way to transport their vegetarian curries. Meat based fillings came later. (Reference here)

So again we have one bunny chow and many stories, but whatever you believe, they are very proudly South African and very good to eat.

I made a "nouveau cuisine bunny chow", using mini loaves - we don't work long hours cutting cane, so our appetite is slightly smaller! You can use any curry filling, I made a simple mince curry using the recipe on the Spice Mecca Tastes of the Cape Curry Mince box.

Pot Bread - Hiking part 4

BreaSo the hike is only 13 days away! I have a knot in my stomach the size of an elephant.

We have had this dream for more than a year and having it so close seems almost too real.

We all have our aches and pains, my brother-in-law (injury free until now) even went as far as to break his wrist this weekend so as not to be left out! But nothing is stopping us now – we can’t stop the magic!

My last mission was to produce bread. Normally pot-bread is prepared in a large cast iron pot, lovingly placed next to the fire with coals placed on the lid – this is called a Dutch Oven. A great piece of equipment – if I could take along my ox-wagon but not when I’ve spent R1000 on a sleeping bag that weighs 650g to save weight!

The question is - can you make good fresh bread, in a very light weight 20cm diameter camping pot, where the lid is actually the frying pan and only using a gas burner? The answer is: “Yes you can if you follow my instructions”.

New Age Pot Bread

2 Cups of Cake flour
15ml Baking Powder
10ml Salt
15ml Milk Powder
15ml Sugar
Water to mix

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
Add enough water to make a dough.
The dough is very similar to a scone dough.
Grease the inside of your pot well and place the dough in.
Cover tightly with tin foil and the "lid" so it is tight fitting.
Cook on the gas on a very low heat for about 25-30 minutes.
Open the bread, tap the bottom, if it sounds hollow it is cooked.
I turned it over and browned the top a little.

Comfort for Winter

So winter is here in Cape Town. The organizers of the DFL IPL cricket must be wondering why they came to South Africa - we seem to have more rain than England!

This however does not worry me, as I did not not pay Us$150 million for a share in a cricket team. I just got out my slow cooker and make a huge pot of bean and beef rib soup - and then added some feather soft, creamy dumplings, to make sure that the comfort level was a 10!

The soup is really easy - I just throw in lots of vegetables,beans, lentils, split peas and about 500g of short beef rib. Add plenty of herbs, garlic and water close the lid and leave it for about 6 hours. When you are about 10 minutes away from serving, you make these dumplings and serve in huge bowls! Winter at it's best!


Dumplings
1 heaped desert spoon of soft Butter
250ml of Flour
10ml of Baking Powder
2 Egg
Salt and Pepper
Enough lukewarm cream or water to blend .(the cream really does work very well)
Mix the first 5 ingredients together, so the butter is well incorporated into the flour.
Then add enough cream (or water) so the spoon slowly falls over.
Work out all the flour lumps.
Place spoonfuls of the batter on top of your stew. Try leaving a small space between each one. Then close the lid tightly and don't open for 10min.
When they are done, it is time to serve. You have these lovely soft clouds floating on your stew.

Quick as a flash - Hiking part 3

There are days when you feel like cooking and then there are days when you just feel like sleeping. On sleeping days I like to make food that has lots of taste but does not take more than a few minutes to cook.

One of my best finds this year is Nomu Sitr, it is undeniably the most versatile product I have found. It adds flavour and body to any tomato based dish. I always buy the Tomato and Chili, because I love the extra tang. This recipe has evolved as part of my quest to find quick light hiking food and I can't think of anything lighter or quicker.



Flash Cook Tomato Pasta

1 Onion sliced
20-30ml Nomu Stir
10ml Mixed Herbs
Cured sausage sliced
Water
Oil for frying
(Cream for non-hikers)
Pasta

Cook the pasta according to the instruction on the packet.
Fry the onion and the sausage until soft.
Add the Nomu Stir and enough water to make a sauce.
Cook for 5 minutes, you can add a little of the pasta water.
If you are not hiking and want extra comfort add a good glug of cream.
Serve with cooked pasta.
It really is that simple - and the taste is incredible.

I am a creature of habit when it comes to breakfast, I never miss it and eat the same thing every morning and never get tired of it. This to most people will seem very boring - for me it's a guarantee to good digestion.

With all the holidays we been having this month, my routine has been shuffled around and I found myself living dangerously! I had toast and marmalade for breakfast yesterday. Not just any toast - homemade rye & caraway bread with my own Seville orange marmalade!

Rye and Caraway Bread 230g Cake (all-purpose) Flour 8g Instant Dry Yeast (just less than one 10g packet) 30 ml Sugar 30ml Sunflower or Peanut Oil 380ml Buttermilk 150g Whole-wheat Flour (I use stone ground flour) 180g Fine Rye Flour 20ml Jenny Morris Caraway seeds 10ml Salt If you are lucky enough to have a bread machine, add the ingredients as per manufacturers instructions and bake using whole-wheat option with medium crust. Should you be making this by hand, follow this method. Here is the recipe for the marmalade. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.