Impala-Liver paté

We spent the Easter weekend in a place called Biki Bini Bos near Rustenburg. It is a lovely place, very quiet and the owners Martie and Pieter and their family are the nicest hosts you will ever meet. On the day we left they even offered the liver of an Impala to me that they shot in the morning ...

So here is my recipe for liver paté - it works with any kind of liver of course but Impala liver has a very nice taste indeed.

Ingredients
400 gr. Liver
110 gr. Butter (warm)
1 small onion
50 gr. fresh cream
a shot of Brandy
1 bay leaf
2-3 juniper berries
fresh thyme




Cut the liver into 2-3 cm thick slices. Roughly chop the onion. Crush the juniper berries in a mortar.

Take some of the butter and put it a frying pan together with the bay leaf, the juniper berries, the onion and the thyme. 


When the butter is really put some slices of the liver in the pan. Not all at once or else the temperature of the pan will drop to much to sear the liver properly.



The liver will take about 3-5 minutes to cook properly. Do not leave it in the pan too long or else the liver and the paté will be grey which you do not want. You can feel if the liver is just about right by how firm it is. It should be firm and very elastic. But this takes a bit of practice.


Take out the liver, deglaze the pan with a shot of Brandy. Take out the bay leaf and the thyme and throw away. But everything into a blender and add the cream and the rest of the butter. Blend the mixture until smooth.

Next put the mixture through a very fine sieve. Do not be lazy and miss this step. It will make the paté very smooth and will take out all the little grainy stuff.

Now you can pour the still liquid paté into whatever kind of container you have available. Put it immediately into the fridge for about 20-30 min. - just long enough for the surface to solidify a bit. If you keep it in the fridge for too long the surface will turn brown.


Now take some extra butter and clarify it i.e. heat it until it dissolves and take of the white froth from the top. Now carefully spoon the clear butter over the paté and put it in the fridge again. It should be ready to eat after about 3-4 hours in the fridge and it will keep for a couple of days. Try the Italian Bread recipe below for a perfect combination.

The Thermals - Born to kill

Neues Video von den Thermals zur neuen Platte 'Desperate Ground':

Roberto's Italian Bread Recipe

A while ago we bought some stunning photographs of Joburg CBD from Kutlwano Moagi which we will finally be able to put on the wall when we move to our new house. Have a look:

These photographs are actually quite large (1.1m x 1.1.m) and we wanted to get them framed. We randomly picked a gallery close to where we live and there we met Roberto who runs a gallery on Jan Smuts.

He is an Italian gentiluomo and while we were chatting we he mentioned that he likes to cook and to bake bread. He gave us a sample of his bread and next time we met to pick up the pictures he gave me the recipe. Both the recipe and the framing is excellent and I am sure you get both if you visit him.

I am still trying to figure out how to execute his recipe properly but I wanted to share it and show my first results.

The ingredients could not be more simple:
1.7 kg of flour (any kind)
1 Paket of dry yeast
2 Tbl Sp Salt
some sugar
Water
some additional Flour for the baking tray

Actually I added the sugar to this list. It was not in Roberto's original recipe.

Ok, now here is what you do:
Take some warm water and dissolve the yeast with some sugar and a couple of spoons of flour. Wait until you get some bubbles on the water. In the meantime get a large bowl and put the flour in it.


Pour the water with the yeast into the bowl. Knead the dough a bit. Dissolve the salt in another big cup of water and add it to the dough.

Now you have to knead the dough for a couple of minutes. Probably not more than 5. Add more water or flour as required. You will feel that the dough will come off the bowl and it will not be sticky anymore. It should be elastic and firm.

Next cover the bowl with a plastic bag and let the dough rest somewhere warm for about 2-3 hours. After that the dough should look like 'cow shit' - at least that is how Roberto described it. The dough should actually have more bubbles than shown on the picture below so I must be doing something wrong but I am not sure what it is.


Next you pre-heat the oven to 240°C or as hot as you can. Cover the baking tray with some flour and carefully take the dough out of the bowl. I use my fingers to scrape the dough from the sides of the bowl to get it out. Cover the baking tray with a clean cloth and let it rest again for 30 min. When the oven is at 240°C put the tray into the oven and close the door quickly again to not lose the heat. Wait for 20-30 min until the crust of the bread is a dark brown colour and than reduce the heat to 140°C for another 90 minutes.

Here is what the result looks like:
Compared to Roberto's bread my version is too dense and has not risen enough. But it is still delicious! If you want to you can add other ingredients to the dough. Today I made a bread with black olives and ricotta which works quite well.

Ever thought of beekeeping?

Recently my love and I were strolling through a book store and I don’t know why, but a book from Luke Dixon “Keeping bees in towns and cities” caught my attention. Bought it, read it and then thought, well, let’s start a new career!

Unfortunately it is not that easy-peasy. Beekeepers deal with wild(!) animals and they have to have some knowledge about bees in order to keep the bees successfully. And of course, not every person living in the city is super-fond of having one or more swarms of bees close to their homes. Besides that, we simply do not have the space in the garden for a bee hive and I am also not so sure about what our two dogs would think.

Nevertheless, I am still interested in the whole subject and do also have every support from my personal chef as the whole subject is about food and potentially having our own honey supply at some time in future is worth something. To improve my knowledge and get some “hands-on” information I visited a monthly beekeeping meeting of the Southerns Beekeeping Association (www.beekeepers.co.za) in Johannesburg. At that meeting, a professional beekeeper mentioned honey badgers and the problems he is having with them. I never heard this English word before, so did some research later at home and here are some amazing facts about the “Honig Dachs” (extract from Wikipedia):

• Honey badgers are intelligent animals and are one of a few species known to be capable of using tools
• Honey badgers favour bee honey
• They also eat insects, frogs, tortoises, rodents, turtles, lizards, eggs, and birds
• Honey badgers have even been known to chase away young lions and take their kills!
• Honey badgers have very powerful jaws
• They kill and eat snakes, even highly venomous or large ones such as cobras
• Their skin is hard to penetrate, and its looseness allows them to twist and turn on their attackers when held. The skin is also tough enough to resist several machete blows

Wohooooo! Seems like having problems with honey badgers basically means you do have really serious problems!

And last thing to think about: Please support your local bee keepers and don’t buy imported honey. Potential diseases for the local bees can be imported with honey!!!

New house owners in Melville

Naa… let’s say, we are this close of buying a house. Nothing is written in stone yet, but we do have the verbal confirmation. Huhuuuuu!

I must admit, these are very exiting times. First time house ownership feels like first job, first degree, first time driving a car… You know what I mean. We knew that this is our home when we first stepped over the door sill… Booom! Hopefully we can take and post some photos soon. However, the next six months are very likely to turn our lives upside down as this house is old and a lot of things need to be fixed and renovated and we are lacking exactly these skills. So good times to improve them soon...

The property is located in Melville. To be honest, I did not really know a lot about this old urban area besides the fact, that I simply liked its look and atmosphere. But “no knowledge” is nothing that cannot be changed into something like “having some basic knowledge” with doing a bit of research. So, here we go:

Melville is over 100 years old and almost as old as Johannesburg. The area was established on the 5th October 1896 and named after the land surveyor Edward Harker Vincent Melville. Melville was constituted as a working-class area. The class origins of the suburb are clearly discernible today: houses are close to the road and facing the street with minimal parking. This was not a suburb of grand driveways and stables. From its very first days, Melville as always been recognized for its picturesque village feel and its magnificent views.

The Melville Koppies Nature Reserve or just “Melville Koppies” is a pretty green space close to Melville. It is also a World Heritage Site and of major historical significance, given that people have lived here since the Stone Age(!), and the ridges are estimated to be 2.9 billion years old.

Map: http://www.mk.org.za

Doggie Treats

Here are my two favorite recipes for dog treats. Both very simple. We use the liver treats for training and the other ones for everyday. Preparing those should not be more than 5 min work before you put them in the oven.

Both the liver treats and the oat ones will keep about a week to 10 days in the fridge. You can easily deep freeze them.

Liver Treats - Ingredients
400 gr. Liver (ox liver rules supreme but any other liver will do)
2 Tblsp Flour
2 Tblsp Milk powder
1 Egg

Mix all ingredients in a food processor and bake on a greased baking tray for 15 min at 180 °C.

Oat Treats - Ingredients
250 gr. Oats
250 gr. Wholewheat Brown Flour
2 Tblsp Milk powder
2 Eggs
100 gr. diced almonds (or nuts or some seeds)
100 ml Milk

Mix all ingredients and bake on a greased baking tray for 20 min at 180 °C.

NPR Tiny Desk Concert: The xx

Mal wieder eine großartiges Konzert in der Reihe der Tiny Desk Concerts. Außerem meine Lieblingsplatte im Moment.

Gogo and Lula

Before we moved to Johannesburg neither our jobs nor the flat and city we lived in allowed any time or space to have dogs. But as soon as we arrived here in South Africa, having found a nice house with a garden and someone looking after the dogs during the day while we are both at work, we made the plan to adopt a dog. From there it actually only took us two weeks while visiting shelters in Johannesburg until we fell in love with a puppy at the SPCA in Sandton.
There she was, our first own dog: X-breed, 3 months, black, with floppy ears, a bit shy and big orange-coloured eyes (depending on the light).

We named her "Gogo" - after a character of the Kill Bill movie played by Chiaki Kuriyama.
Only shortly after we found out that in Zulu "Gogo" means "Granny" and it seems like she is living up to this name, getting a few grey spots in her coat. Gogo is our crazy kid, now 1.5 years old, a bit of its own mind and with some trust issues when it comes to strangers and other dogs, she hasn't met before. She loves to sleep in cosy blankets and being cuddled, but once asleep you get a wild and reproachfull look when our other dogs touches her even in the softest way. Little, beloved psycho-lady!

We always wanted a second dog, but decided to wait for a year while training her being a well-behaved dog before a second puppy were joining us and immitating bad behaviour. Well, we tried our best and went to several puppy and dog training classes; always keen to learn more about dogs and to improve our knowledge about every basic thing one should know when living with and training a dog. And wow, there is a lot to learn! But that is another story and I will definitely come back on this...
Last year Septemberr we decided that it is time to adopt and welcome a second dog at our home. Again, we found our new roommate at the SPCA: "Lula", X-breed, 3 months, tan coat and quite perky and self-confident.

Her name is also the character of a movie: "Wild at heart" - played by actress Laura Dern.

Lula is full of energy, easily excited and always seeking the next adventure and action. Sometimes a bit less-worried and clumsy she finds herself in helpless situations but seldom really seems to care about.

Both dogs are getting well along with each other and we are truly glad about it. We've got into our normal day/dog-routine, including at least two walks a day.
No day could truly start better off with a walk in the park, sun rising, warm temperature, the gras still wet from the morning dew and the two girls running just for the pure joy of it...

FIDLAR - No Waves

Fuck it, dog, life's a risk!

Alt-J: Something Good

hmmz me likes a lots!

Tortellini alla panna

I love Tortellini. I think there is no other dish that I have prepared more often in my life than Tortellini alla panna. It is my favourite dish of all time. If you have ever tasted fresh homemade Tortellini you will never want to buy the finished product again. On the other hand if you make everything from scratch it involves a lot of work! 

Filling:
200 gr Parmesan cheese (good quality)
150 gr Mortadella (you can take the SA local, does not have to be the imported stuff)
150 gr Pancetta or Parma ham (I prefer Pancetta! Make sure that you fry the pancetta for a couple of minutes in a pan)
Salt, Pepper, Nutmeg
1 egg

Put everything in a food processor. Filling complete!

Pasta Dough:
3 eggs
200 gr Semolina
100 gr Cake Flour
2 Tbsp Olive oil
Some salt

Knead the dough and use more flour if you need until it does not stick. Use pasta machine to get the dough really, really thin. Use a glass or something similar to cut out round discs of dough. Put some of the filling (small teaspoon max) on the disc, wet the edges with some water and fold the disc to a halfmoon. Press edges until they stick. Fold the halfmoon to a Tortellini. Sprinkle some flour on the Tortellini and keep in the fridge until you are ready to cook them.

Cook the Tortellini in a big pot for about 5 minutes (should be ready once they come to the surface of the water) and toss them into the pan with the sauce.

Sauce:
Some slices of pancetta (or other bacon)
200 gr of heavy cream
100 gr parmesan
Salt, pepper, olive oil

Fry pancetta with some olive oil until crispy. Take out of pan. Pour heavy cream into pan. In goes the parmesan cheese and the Tortellini. Season with Salt, Pepper. Serve with the crisp bacon on top. Done!

Bicycle Tour in Alexandra

The lady and I have been on a bicycle tour in Alexandra last weekend. It was at the same time a fascinating and sobering experience. Check out some of our pictures below:

We found this tour in the highly recommendable book about Joburg called Joburg-Places 2.0 by Gerald Garner. We booked the tour (2hrs) for R300 via email and were picked up at the Marlboro Gautrain Station. This parking lot is quite expensive (R85) so next time we might ask them to pick us up somewhere else.

Jeffrey, our tour guide was born in Alex and started this successful business on his own three years ago. He currently has five employees. Jeff shared a lot of his experiences with us. The funny stuff (like how to greet someone properly) and the rest as well. He gave us a quick overview of the history of Alexandra, we stopped at Mandelas house and the heritage centre but we were interested in the day to day living as well. He tried to answer every question and invited us to his and his mothers home to see how they live.

Before the tour I was a bit excited because of the crime and all the stories that we had heard about Alex but after a while that went away. Everyone we met was very friendly and even though a lot of people stared at us, most of them smiled and waved. We had a beer at one of the informal pubs after the tour and even though I would not want to go to Alex without a guide or at night, we actually felt quite safe the whole time.

Overall it was an experience for us that we will probably never forget. Here are the links to Jeffs webpage and his facebook profile.
http://www.alexandratours.co.za/
http://www.facebook.com/AlexandraBicycleTour

Cube Tasting Kitchen

Last week we have been to an amazing restaurant in Joburg. I would say it is a great find but it seems everybody but us was already aware of his place. The restaurant is called Cube Tasting Kitchen. Here is a link to their website and the address:

CUBE TASTING KITCHEN SHOP 5, PARK NORTH HEIGHTS,
17 4TH AVENUE, PARKTOWN NORTH.
GPS X:28.024933 – Y: -26.145487
www.cubekitchen.co.za

It is a very small place with only a couple of tables. There is no sign outside so you have to know where you are going. We have been in this area a few times but never noticed the restaurant until we read about it. As you can see there is a set menu which changes roughly every 6 weeks and no a la carte.
 

Menu Cube

You will have to book in advance and they will send you the menu. Since they have no license you will have to bring your own booze. But you can call them and ask form some advice concering the right wine - we will definetely do so next time we go.

The food is really exceptional. It took about 3-4 hours for all eleven courses and we enjoyed every minute. It is a fine dining experience but in a very relaxed and laid back atmosphere.The staff is really obliging and very friendly. The three chefs took turns in serving their courses and explaing them to us. The outstanding course for me was the 'Salmon with garnishes' -so many different possible combinations of flavour on one plate. That was really outstanding.

Pizza dough

After reading a lot and even more trial and error I think I found my perfect recipe for pizza dough. It is a cold yeast dough i.e. you use more yeast than usual the dough will rise in the fridge. Here are the ingredients for 3-4 large pizze:

30 gr fresh yeast
500 gr flour (cake flour)
250 ml warm water
6-10 Tbsp Olive oil
Salt, pinch of sugar

Here is what you do: Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the other ingredients and use additional oil/water or flour until you get the right consistency of the dough. It should not stick to your fingers and should be very flexible. You will probably have to knead the dough for a couple of minutes (5-10 min).

Put the dought in a bowl, cover with a damp cloth and put in the fridge and allow the dough to rise. After a couple of hours cut the dough into 3-4 equal portions and knead again for a couple of minutes. Put separate pieces in fridge again.

After 2 more hours you can use the dough for your pizza. It will keep in the fridge for a couple of days.

Now I just have to convince the landlord to let me build that wood-fired pizza oven in the garden ...

Some music to start off with

KTD FTW!!



Und noch was Weihnachtliches für die Ohren