Cookie (Not Cheffy)

I’ve been getting a lot of requests lately from people wanting ideas for meat-free meals to make at home. They have health concerns, but also financial constraints. Arthur and I only eat meat once or twice a week and we cook every night: our weekly shop (excl. household and cosmetic products and including breakfast and lunch foods, which we make at home) is about R500. And we eat very, very well for that.

I first thought I’d just put together some of my favourite tried-and-tested recipes, but I’ve decided to make it a bit more complicated for myself :-). One of my friends asked me how I manage to cook supper when I know there’s “nothing in the house” and that made me realise the importance of the well-stocked pantry. Now, mine’s not nearly as extravagant as some, but it gets the job done and it could be a good blueprint for yours. So, here we go… (more…)

The microwave is a much-maligned device, but when your nose is as close to the grindstone as Arthur’s and mine are at the moment, it’s a really handy thing to have around. Microwaves are not trendy, but even the New York Times admits they’re useful – once you know their quirks. On Food and Zapping will teach you one or two things you didn’t know. I’m off to warm up left-overs to eat while I work.

As research for my book on natural local food, The Wholefood Almanac, I travelled into the Winelands today to visit a couple of farms that are growing food right. Neither of these farms is organic, but their farmers show an understanding and appreciation of nature and how it works, that makes their products noticeably better than their competitors.

The first stop was Dalewood, a dairy cow farm and cheesery. Rob Visser loves his Jerseys, which were munching on lush, purple-flowered lucerne out in the pastures when I met them. This is how we consumers imagine all cows live, but that’s very, very far from the truth. These happy cows, eating great food, make fantastic milk, which in turn Rob turns into fantastic cheeses. The one in the photo is the Dalewood Wineland Blue, a creamy Camembert-like cheese with just a whiff of delicious mold. I ate a whole one last week, and I’ll do it again!

Backsberg Estate is practically “the house next door” to Dalewood on the R45. Owner Michael Back is reportedly “a character” (he was out harvesting grapes today, so I can’t confirm) and is constantly trying out new experiments in energy efficiency. One of the more impressive ones is Backsberg’s methane digester, which turns chicken manure from a nearby farm into gas to power various appliances around the farm. As well as vines, Backsberg grows some fruit and this is where I got these black figs. The figs were firm and sweet with a subtle flowery flavour, no bitterness (and these were the second grade figs – the best ones they send to the UK for the Brits to savour). I suppose I could have complemented this simple platter very nicely with a Backsberg Pumphouse Shiraz, but I’m in the mood to ease into the weekend slowly.

What a fitting end to another horribly taxing day ;-)

So, it being holidays and all, I got up at the deliciously late hour of 8.30am (I’m a morning person), fired up the Jack Johnson CD and started whipping up a batch of pancakes. (Unfortunately, we didn’t have any bananas, but I’ve got no idea how to make banana pancakes anyway – any tips?).

I upped the adorableness factor by making espresso-style coffee in these cute heart-shaped cups our friends Ian and Nicola gave us as an engagement present. Aren’t new fiancés sickening?

Anyhoo, guess whose recipe I used for the pancakes? Delia’s, of course! Basically, it’s 110g flour sifted with a pinch of salt. Make a well, and whisk two eggs into it and then slowly add 200ml of milk mixed with 75ml water. Melt about 30g butter and add 2 tablespoons of it to the mixture, and keep the rest aside for pan-basting.

Now this is where – shock! horror! – I think I’ve actually improved on Delia’s suggestion for buttering the pan. She says that the cook should use some paper towel to wipe the pan with melted butter between pancakes. She also says you should do one test pancake. Now what if you used the test pancake as the butter-wiping device…

It works brilliantly! The pancake doesn’t soak up the butter like the paper towel and you don’t have to worry about bits of paper tearing off and sticking to your pan.

I have tried eating the buttery test pancake when all the rest have been made. Who wouldn’t? But it’s not a good idea.

My idea of the perfect pancake is one that’s about 18cm across so that when it’s rolled you get bits of the crêpey, crispy edges in each spongey bite. Before rolling sprinkle on some white sugar and cinnamon, then lemon juice (otherwise the cinnamon floats on top of the lemon juice). Oh my goodness, I could eat another six right now…

This week, I was craving chorizo. This week I also realised I needed to use up some pine nuts in the cupboard. Also this week, spinach is in season (well, actually it’s been in season for a few weeks, but you see where I’m going with this…)

So, I gently dry roasted about 30g pine nuts. Then I took them out the pan, added a teaspoon of olive oil and fried two chorizo, cut into slices, until they were crispy. I turned down the heat, threw about 250g roughly chopped spinach, put on the lid and let the spinach wilt. Then quickly turned up the heat again, added a tablespoon of lemon juice, some black pepper and about 15g of butter (no need to add salt, because of the feta and salty sausage) and then stirred in the pine nuts. I piled the lot up onto baked potatoes and sprinkled with some crumbled feta cheese. And Arthur declared it good.

If you’re Atkinsing (at this time of year?!), this would also be good with a grilled chicken breast. And you could probably leave out the butter (sigh). It will give you more space for cookies (yay!)