The Quickest Easiest Tomato Sauce

I learnt this on an Italian cooking course I took many years ago....

• One small onion diced
• 1 can good quality whole peeled Italian tomatoes
• 1 tsp dried origanum
• Salt and black pepper to taste

Saute onion in olive until it is see through. Add your tin of tomatoes, origanum and salt and black pepper to taste. I also always add a tsp of sugar to anything that is tomato based to cut the tartness. Simmer the tomato sauce on a low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. This sauce will freeze well so it is a good idea to make it in large quantities.

Reuben Riffel and The Gourmet Guys

I like Gourmet Guys because they like Reuben Riffel! http://gourmetguys.co/recipes/meringue-recipe-reuben-riffel/

Stir fry night

I had the need for sticky sweet chicken and a generous helping of crunchy fresh veggies tonight!

• Slice chicken fillets into thin strips and marinade in soy sauce (about 4 tbsp), sweet chilli sauce (about 2/3 cup) and honey (about 2 tbsp). You can adjust your quantities to your taste
• Slice baby marrows, carrots and sweet peppers into strips. You can use any veggies of your choice for this. I also added cooked sweetcorn cut off the cob. You could even add pineapple, tinned or fresh
• Add sunflower oil to a hot pan and add a dash of sesame oil and heat on high
• Stir fry your chicken in equal batches in the oil and remove from the pan when cooked through and keep warm
• Add the veggies to the pan and stir fry.
• Add the remaining marinade sauce to the veggies and cook for a couple of minutes
• Return the cooked chicken and toss with the veggies

Serve this delicious stir fry with rice or with noodles. Another quick and easy meal done and dusted.....

Meatless spaghetti bolognese

Wow, this really looks delicious - see this link on Food24 from Betty Bakehttp://blogs.food24.com/bettybakeblog/2012/05/28/meatless-spaghetti-bolognese-vegetarian/

Chicken, carmelised shallots, butternut in parmesan cream

• Carmelise shallots, add garlic and then chicken to the carmelised shallots and fry until cooked.
• Add about a half cup of  chicken stock and cook until reduced. Check seasoning and season with salt and black pepper if necessary
• Then add cooked, diced butternut and turn the heat on the pan down and let it simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes
• The final touch is cream and a very very generous handful of grated parmesan (as much or as little as you prefer really) - heat gently until the parmesan starts melting.
• Serve this delicious creamy chicken with pasta or polenta and a little green salad

Tip: grated parmesan cheese freezes really well and you can use it frozen. Cooked butternut freezes well too, you just need to defrost it beforehand

Tuna & corn mac - one for the kids

A friend of mine called me today and we had a great catch-up - thanks Dom! We got to chatting about food and specifically about tuna macaroni that she tried but her little ones weren't that keen on. I have an alternative that I recommended which I know my 2 boys really love, the tuna is toned down for their palate and it is so easy. And again so super quick. So I thought I should share it with you. You need the following:

• Cooked pasta like macaroni, fusilli or penne
• 1 or 2 tins of tuna in water, drained. It really depends on how much you want to use
• 1 tin creamed sweetcorn
• 1 tin sweetcorn, drained
• 1 cup cream (use reduced fat cream if you like) or use 1 cup of evaporated milk (Nestle Ideal Milk). You could even use ready made cheese sauce.
•  Half a cup grated cheddar cheese and about a quarter cup grated parmesan (or any other Italian hard cheese). Reserve some of the cheese for sprinkling over the top of the macaroni.

Combine all the above and pour into a caserole dish. Sprinkle the reserved cheese over the top of the macaroni. Bake in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes at 180 degrees.

Marinated pork steak

My boys really enjoyed this one!

Pop 6 juicy pork steaks into a freezer bag and add a good generous dash of soy sauce (you get low sodium soy sauce if you are watching the salt intake), 2 tsp of crushed ginger, about 1 Tbsp of brown sugar and a generous sprinkling of garlic salt (fresh crushed garlic cloves would be just as good again especially if you are worried about salt intake). Finish off with a small dash of olive oil. Seal the bag and move the pork steak around in the bag and leave in the bag for about an hour (shorter time is also fine). Fry the pork steaks in a small amount of olive oil. Once the pork is nicely browned and cooked through, squeeze the juice of half a fresh orange over the pork, turn the heat down and leave to cook for another 10 minutes watching that the pork does not burn. Yum yum yum......

Serve with potato wedges and a salad - a really quick and delicious meal.

Fragrant chicken curry

Wonderful fragrant chicken curry. Mild enough for my little one but spicy enough for my teenager and husband. Served with basmati rice and honey roasted butternut, it almost qualifies as comfort food. Roasted cauliflower is also rather delicious served with this curry. Cut the cauliflower into bite sized pieces and place in a roasting dish. Add 3 whole peeled garlic cloves. Add a couple of slices of real butter and then add maldon salt to taste. Place in the oven at 180 degrees for about 25 minutes. The butter will help brown the cauliflower and add to the delicious taste, remember to remove the garlic cloves.

For the curry:

• Heat 2 Tbsp of olive oil and saute 1 diced red onion and 1 diced shallot for about 5 minutes
• Add 1 teaspoon of crushed fresh ginger and 2 crushed garlic cloves and saute for a minute
• Add the following spices to the onion, ginger and garlic and fry the spices for about 2 minutes:
• 1 tsp whole cumin
• 1 tsp aniseed
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 heaped tsp ground tumeric
• 1 tsp paprika
• I tsp curry powder
• 2 green and 2 white cardomom pods
• 2 whole star anise
• 2 bay leaves
• About 4 curry leaves
• 5 cloves
• 1 stick cinnamon
• Add 8 skinless chicken pieces  (I used fillets) and brown the chicken in the spices
• Add about half a cup of chicken stock and simmer, covered on medium heat for about 25 - 30 minutes stirring ocassionally
• Season to taste and then add about half a cup of buttermilk
• Simmer on low heat for another 10 to 15 minutes
• Serve with the basmati rice, naan bread and fresh cilantro / coriander leaves

This curry tastes even better the next day!
You could add plain yoghurt or cream or coconut milk in place of the buttermilk for a variation in taste.

Meringue and chocolate mousse cake

This is a variation of my lemon-custard filled cake with meringue topping...simply replace the lemon-custard with chocolate mousse. A delicious idea is to fold chopped nuts into the meringue mixture. I added honey-roasted cashew nuts!

I used instant chocolate mousse for the filling by the way  - a bit of a sin really, but if it is a good brand, it is really quite fine! Here is another chocolate mousse idea courtesy of one of my favourites, Nigella http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/instant-chocolate-mousse-4

A great site for "Easy Cooking"

What a great site for quick and tasty meals. I am going to be trying a few this weekend and will report back ....
Meraai se Chicken Pie sounds really really good as does the lemon and thyme roast chicken.
And for those of you who want to know what "Meraai se" means, Meraai is a typical local (Western Cape, South Africa) variant of the name Marie, so it is translated simply as "Marie's Chicken Pie".
http://www.my-easy-cooking.com/

Nigella's Eton Mess: Meringue diviness!

If you want a really quick really yummy dessert which is really perfect for summer, you just have to try Nigella's Eton Mess! When I made it for a lunch a little while back and everyone asked what it was, I called it 'Eton Mess' of course and they all thought I was saying 'Eat 'n Mess' - what a giggle. Whatever you want to call it - it is a marvellous meringue miracle! Sweet meringue with tart berries and dollops of cream, you can't get better than that. I personally did not use additional sugar as the meringue is sweet enough. Go on, try it for yourself: http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/eton-mess-19

Janet Moat @Work_and_Cook

Follow me on Twitter....Janet Moat @ Work_and_Cook

 

The Mac & Cheese Bake

Well this is as easy as pie. All you need is:

• Macaroni pasta, actually any similar shape will do, fusilli is very pretty
• Bacon, chopped
• Spanish (red) onion, finely chopped
• 1 tin evaporated milk (Nestle Ideal Milk)
• Thin pouring cream (about 1 cup)
• Cheddar cheese, grated
• Packet of instant brown onion soup mix

All you need to do is prepare your pasta the usual way. While the pasta is cooking, saute the onion in olive oil, add bacon and fry until the bacon is crispy. Add the bacon and onion to the cooked pasta and then layer the bacon and onion pasta mixture with evaporated milk, cream, cheddar cheese, sprinkling the instant soup powder between the layers as you go. End with a layer of cheddar cheese on the top. About 2 - 3 layers should be good depending on your dish size. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees celcius for about 30 minutes. Serve with a salad or not, very very delicious. This is truly a super quick meal which the whole family will love......

Idea: you could saute mushroom with the onion and bacon, and include sliced tomato between the layers of pasta.

Lemon custard filled cake with meringue topping

So last night it was my husband's turn to cook, so we had pizza from Toni's. I decided I wanted to use my time to make this really delicious cake - I have been wanting to make this cake forever! It seems to be flop proof.....it looks like a really long list of ingredients but this cake is very easy to make. Here is the recipe for my cake take on a lemon meringue pie:

Base:

• 125g butter
• 80ml castor sugar
• 4 extra large egg yolks
• 250ml cake flour
• 10ml baking powder
• 2ml salt
• 125ml milk

Meringue

• 4 extra large egg whites
• 1ml cream of tartar
• 200ml castor sugar

Custard

• 350ml milk
• 45ml sugar
• 45ml custard powder
• fine zest of a lemon
• juice of half a lemon
• 125ml fresh cream, whipped (optional)

Method:

• For the cake base, cream butter and sugar together, then add egg yolks one at a time and beat until light and fluffy. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together and add alternately with the milk to the butter, sugar and egg mixture. Divide the cake batter between 2 greased 23cm loose-bottomed cake pans.
• For the meringue, beat the egg whites until foamy then add cream of tartar and carry on beating. Gradually beat in the sugar until soft peaks form. Spread the meringue over the uncooked cake batter.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 160 degrees celcius for about 30 minutes or until the meringue is golden. Allow to cool slightly in the pans before removing to cool further.
• For the custard, heat the milk in a saucepan, add the sugar, custard powder, stirring until thickened. Leave to cool, add lemon zest and juice and mix well. Fold in the whipped cream if using it - I did not use any cream for a change.
• Once the cakes are completely cooled it is time to put it all together. Sandwich the 2 cakes (meringue side up) together with the lemon custard in the middle.

This cake is soooo delicious. There is none left for a photo....I will just have to bake another for Mother's Day tomorrow and post the picture before the  hubby and kids get to the cake....again.

Barbara Freethy

No news tonight about cooking nor are there any great ideas so far this week. Moroccon lamb was on the menu Monday this week, Madiba's Sweet Chicken on Tuesday (I wrote a post about that) and last night was bacon and roasted veg pasta. Tonight was a good old boring chicken casserole....you can never go wrong with this...

But I digress - this post is not about food, but some great books written by Barbara Freethy. I am addicted to her books! I have downloaded 6 of her books to my Amazon Kindle in the past 4 weeks and I cannot put them down. I think that the plots in her books can be a bit predictable, but I have still enjoyed them so much - there are so many themes women can identify with. And part of the clever marketing is that at the end of each book, there is the first chapter of another one of her books....so what have I been doing? That's right, moving onto the next book -  her books are a great escape. The one I am currently reading is 'Taken'. I love Barbara Freethy's books! Check out her website http://www.barbarafreethy.com/  for a list of her books.....

Madiba's Sweet Chicken

Mandela's Sweet Chicken

One of Madiba's favourite dishes - Sweet Chicken, that is what my family is getting for dinner tonight. Or at least a slightly adapted version, as I have been making something similar for years. And it is so easy! Xoliswa Ndoyiya, Madiba's chef cooks this for the Mandela family and the recipe is from her recently published recipe book, "Tastes from Nelson Mandela's Kitchen". I saw a TV insert of Xoli Ndoyiya preparing this dish and her recipe is given on the link below.

But here is my now adapted and forever improved version (thanks Xoli) borrowing some of her ingredient ideas - paprika and curry powder. I use less curry powder than Xoli's recipe calls for so that the kids will eat it.....

• You need chicken pieces, about 8 chicken thighs (but I prefer boneless fillets). This should be a sufficient amount of chicken for a family of 4 - 6.
• Sprinkle chicken generously with paprika and then salt to taste and bake in the oven for about 20 - 30 minutes, in an ovenproof dish.
• In the meanwhile, mix up your sauce of about half a cup of mayonnaise, half a cup of sweet chutney, 2 teaspoons of mild curry powder and a cup of thin cream - you could use a cup of water instead of cream for a healthier option. But as per my previous post, fat is good for you - so I am using cream!
• Pour the sauce over the chicken and return to the oven for another 30 - 40 mins. 
• I will be serving this up with basmati rice, but it is really good with couscous and roasted vegetables.

How easy is this recipe? And it is yummy too!

http://www.topbilling.com/articles/Sweet-Chicken.html?articleID=1160

Bangers & Mash - with the twist

So Sunday night dinner is done and dusted - and  the twist was the piquant roasted pepper sauce.....and in true 5 year-old fashion, my little son said 'eeew, I don't like this' - but of course had not tasted it. Well, at least we don't have any problems getting him to taste something, so he duly tasted it, and liked it.
So, how to make the piquant sauce:
Saute about 4 sliced leeks & 2 crushed cloves of garlic in some extra virgin olive oil until soft. Don't let the garlic burn! Add 4 sliced & chopped red and yellow sweet peppers and saute for 10 mins. Then add one can chopped italian tomatoes, a teaspoon of sugar to take away any tartness and season with salt and black pepper. Mix in a generous dollop of sweet chilli sauce and let the sauce simmer until the bangers and mash are ready. Dinner is served, 30 minutes and very little effort......

Sunday night dinner

So, what is for dinner?
While the boys are out riding their bikes I have been racking my brain. Bangers and mash? Well that sounds boring, but this is 'bangers and mash' with a twist.
The bangers will be roasted in the oven - less fattening and with foil covering the roasting tray (not the bangers), much easier to clean-up! The mash will be made with garlic, butter and cream (oh well, there goes the healthy angle) and a piquant roasted red peppers and leek sauce. Yum. And this is not going to take long either....
But getting back to the healthy/unhealthy angle, there is a 'new' school of thought that less carbohydrates, more protein and yes, you better believe it, more fats in your diet are good for you! But, there is controversy around this new school of thought with experts refuting it - so who do you believe? But, I say everything in moderation. So off I go, happy in the thought that cream and butter is really good for you - in small doses.

De'spar'ation.....

Welcome to my blog for the working mom. According to Dictionary.com, 'Desperation' is:

"1.	desperate recklessness
2.	the act of despairing or the state of being desperate "

Sound familiar? De'spar'ation in my case and in my own spelling too, well that represents 'spar' - constant sparring with myself -  what to cook (that which does not look and taste like a disaster), how to juggle the work diary, endless housework and fulfilling my motherly duties with a loving, gracious smile on my face - and not turning into a screaming banshee.....oh yes, and don't forget the husband. I try not to live each day in a completely desperate state, but I sometimes just don't succeed. But, I have come to realise over the years that I am not alone in this daily sparring match and somehow that offers some hope. So what do I do? Get tips from friends, my mom, my sister and colleagues. In turn, I hope to share some rays of hope over the coming days and weeks....so bookmark my blog and watch this space.