Archive for the ‘Lifestyle’ Category
by Luso on May 16th, 2012
By Jackie May for Times LIVE:
Marian Keyes explains in the introduction to her recipe book, Saved by Cake, how she finds baking calming and rewarding because “it is sort of magic – you start off with all this disparate stuff, like butter and eggs, and what you end up with is so totally different. And also so delicious”.
Two years ago the 48-year-old chick-lit novelist revealed on her blog that she had been battling with a debilitating depression.
“My dear amigos, happy new year to you all and I hope your festive season was not too unpleasant. I’m very sorry but this is going to be a very short piece because I am laid low with crippling depression,” she wrote.
It started in 2009, she says in Saved by Cake.
“I couldn’t sleep; I couldn’t breathe; I couldn’t eat; I couldn’t read – by the time I came to the end of a sentence, I’d forgotten the start . I thought a lot about dying.”
There were attempts at available cures. There was the medication, a visit to a psychiatric hospital, (”literally an asylum”), cognitive behavioural therapy, acupuncture, anything she thought might help her. Nothing did.
Until one day she baked a cake. Keyes enjoyed baking the cake so much that she baked another one. And then another.
“I couldn’t stop baking.”
Keyes is very careful not to prescribe baking as a cure to everyone who suffers from depression.
“But it gets me through. My challenge – everyone’s challenge – is about living through the today and I find that baking passes the time. To be perfectly blunt about it, my choice sometimes is: I can kill myself or I can make a dozen cupcakes.”
A result of her therapy is a delightful recipe book with chapters on cupcakes, cheesecakes, meringues and macaroons, chocolate cakes, fruit cakes and favourite classics. There are recipes for every occasion. Her favourite?
Biscuits.
“Making biscuits has given me the most pleasure because I get to use my [many, many] cookie cutters. I get to make my shoes. Edible shoes. And handbags. And owls. And stars. And hearts.”
The recipes are for beginner and experienced bakers and for everybody who loves to see the magical transformation from a little bit of this and a little bit of that into a delicious edible goodie.
Marian Keyes’ Rocky Road Cake
INGREDIENTS
500g rich tea biscuits
300g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
300g milk chocolate
200g butter
300g golden syrup
100g dried dates, chopped small
100g dried apricots, chopped small
120g hazelnuts, skins off, roasted and chopped roughly
100g mini marshmallows
METHOD
This is a no-bake cake. Easy to make and everyone loves it.
I used ready-roasted hazelnuts with their skins off, but if you prefer to roast your own, place the hazelnuts in a single layer on a baking tray and roast in a 180C (gas 4) oven for five to eight minutes or under the grill for two minutes until browned, checking regularly that they aren’t burning.
To make the cake, begin by lining a 20cm square tin with clingfilm – leaving bits overhanging the sides so you can lift the cake out easily. Break the biscuits into small pieces, smaller than bite-size, but not reduced to crumbs. Melt the chocolate, butter and golden syrup in a large, heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water.
Remove the bowl from the heat and stir in the broken biscuits, then add the dried fruit, nuts and marshmallows.
Stir well, then pour into the prepared tin and refrigerate for six hours.
Lift out of the tin and peel off the clingfilm. Cut into 16 chunks.
Watch people devour.
Books brought to you in association with Exclusives.co.za
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by Sophy on May 7th, 2012
The Star‘s Angela Day has compiled a series of reviews of the latest cookbooks to be released to the foodie market including Cape Winelands Cuisine by Hetta van Deventer, The Vegetarian Kitchen by Mellissa Bushby, One-Two-Three On The Table by Bernice van der Merwe, Cook Eat Love Grow by Louise Westerhout, Bitten by Sarah Graham and Relish by Sonia Cabano.
Each review is accompanied by a recipe from the respective book. See the recipe for “Francis’s Salad” from Cook Eat Love Grow below:
FRANCIS’S SALAD
Serves 1
1 potato, peeled, cubed and boiled until tender
1 orange, peeled and cut up into small chunks
half a head of fennel, thinly sliced
1 small avocado, cut into chunks
15ml sesame seeds or tahini
extra-virgin olive oil
lemon juice
Toss all the ingredients together.
Book details
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by Carolyn on Apr 25th, 2012
Uitspraak: wortels
Die moedswillige volksmond reken vinkel en koljander is die een soos die ander.
Ons weet dis nie waar nie. Twee kookboeke, die eerste ’n hartstog-tog, die ander vir die verstand, val binne dié kader; met as agtergrond onderskeidelik die Noordweste en die Boland.
Boekbesonderhede
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by Sophy on Apr 23rd, 2012
By Kate Sidley for the Sunday Times:
Karen Dudley is the author of the cookbook A Week in The Kitchen (Jacana).
As a teenager, I read, hungrily, anything I could find by MFK Fisher. It was a formative experience of food writing. There are few food writers to touch her.
I have just consumed Love in a Dish and other pieces by MFK Fisher, a real treat. Honest, insightful, intimate writing about food and our experience of it – at times hilarious and always deliciously written. I am reading Children of God, the riveting sequel to The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel.
The only survivor of a Jesuit mission to a distant planet, Emilio Sandoz is forced to return to the planet. This is a novel which deals with the full sweep of the human condition: physical pain, remorse, loss of faith, death, rage, abandonment, sorrow, love, hope, betrayal, language, music and culture, endeavour and belief, as the protagonists continue their extraordinary encounter with two alien species.
Book details
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by Luso on Apr 23rd, 2012
Verdict: carrot
I rarely make an impulse book buy these days. While I love the tactile medium of paper I must admit I’m a bit of digital media convert having moved my magazines subs to Zinio, but then this happen…
I have no idea why I was walking down the cookery isle at Exclusive Books, but I was, and there stood ‘A week in The Kitchen’. There wasn’t a dedicated point of sale display or any kind of fan fare heralding its release, just a few copies sitting playfully on the shelf.
Book Details
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by Sophy on Apr 16th, 2012
Verdict: carrot
I have been cooking out of this marvellous book for a month now and still haven’t run out of dishes I want to try, although I have the Whole Lemon Tart in my sights for a weekend lunch party.
Book Details
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by Carolyn on Apr 11th, 2012
Uitspraak: wortel
Wanneer mense hoor ek is ’n vegetariër is die eerste vrae gewoonlik: “Hoe kan jy sonder biltong lewe?” En: “Raak jy nie moeg van al die konynkos nie?”
Wanneer ek dan verklap ek en my Portugese kêrel (ja, ’n eens vleis-en-melkproduk-obsessiewe Portugees) is al twee jaar lank veganiste lig die wenkbroue éérs.
Boekbesonderhede
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by wombatsamwilson on Apr 4th, 2012
Verdict: carrot
In an era where simple and rustic is the fad of choice, South African award-winning chef Reuben Riffel has bucked the trend by producing a complex-looking door-stopper of a recipe book.
A quick page through of Reuben Cooks Local reveals stunningly beautiful images of gastronomic delight that resemble intricate culinary works of art – and it’s extremely intimidating. But that’s to be expected.
Riffel is a serious talent with legions of admirers. His restaurant Reuben’s put the Huguenot settlement of Franschhoek on the foodie map, while the one in Robertson firmly established him as an authentic home-grown talent with international flair.
Book Details
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by Sophy on Apr 4th, 2012
By Andrea Nagel for The Times:
Xoliswa Ndoyiya has been Nelson Mandela’s personal chef for more than 20 years, serving up his favourite meals, such as samp and beans, dumplings, tripe and oxtail.
Ndoyiya says she’s always loved cooking, and learnt her trade in her mother’s and grandmother’s kitchens.
“Both were very good cooks, preparing African fare like maize, beans and fresh vegetables from our garden.”
She was born in Queenstown, Eastern Cape, and her first memory of food is her mother’s inconco.
“It’s so much more than fermented maize and water. It is love on a spoon,” she says in her cookbook Ukutya Kwasekhaya (Food From Home).
“If I have a difficult day, I cook inconcoto restore calm. I know I am strong with a bowl of it in front of me.”
After working for a few years for a family, “where I fell in love with cooking again”, Ndoyiya took a job as a cook at a home for the elderly, and put herself through a chef’s course. Another former Queenstown resident, Gloria Nocanda, was working for Mandela when she recommended Ndoyiya to him as a chef.
“At my first interview, I was taken to Mr Mandela through a security screening. He smiled and asked for my clan name. Then he said: ‘I believe you are a good cook. Can you cook our food for my family?’
“I told him I could prepare ukutya kwasekhaya. He hired me on the spot.”
Ever since, Ndoyiya has graced the kitchen in Mandela’s home and has accompanied him all over the world as his personal chef.
“In isiXhosa we call home food ukutya kwasekhaya,” she says in the introduction to her book.
“But as I grew older I became curious about the food of other cultures.”
While cooking in the kitchens of Jewish families, Ndoyiya learnt how to make dishes like te iglach, gefilte fish and potato latkes.
Thanks to her travels, she also learnt about Indian, Chinese, US and various African cooking styles.
Anna Trapido was writing her book Hunger for Freedom when Ndoyiya met her.
“I didn’t want to give her all my recipes because I wanted to save a few for my own book. Anna said she could help to make my dream happen,” says Ndoyiya.
Mandela’s chef has also cooked for Bill Cosby, Danny Glover, Michael Jackson, Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton, all of whom were guests at Mandela’s house.
“They always have the same compliment. They come into the kitchen to tell me how much they enjoyed the food, and that has meant so much to me,” says Ndoyiya.
UMSILA WENKOMO (OXTAIL SOUP)
Serves 8-10
Ingredients
3kg oxtail, excess fat removed
5ml (1tsp) paprika
15ml (1tbsp) barbeque spice
5 large peeled and sliced carrots (about 350g)
250g green beans (sliced)
4 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered (about 800g)
60g (1packet) oxtail soup powder
Salt and white pepper to taste
Method
Put the oxtail in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and cook until the water has evaporated. The meat will start to brown in its own fat. Add the paprika and barbeque spice together with enough water to cover the oxtail. Cover with a lid and cook over a low heat until the oxtail is tender (about two hours). Keep checking there is still enough liquid to cover the meat, adding more water when necessary. Add the carrots, beans, potatoes and soup powder and cook until the vegetables are soft (about 30 minutes). Season and serve.
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by Sophy on Mar 28th, 2012
Verdict: carrot
I’m not much of a gardener. But I recently got the opportunity to take out the back lawn and redecorate, so to speak.
I had a vague idea of the look I wanted but once I got started, realised there was more to gardening than just planting and watering. For instance: I had some sun and shady spots, but the rest was semi-shade.
Book Details
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