Springboks in the sky (Ponte City)

[J.] We really miss Joburg and our friends and colleagues there. It is such an amazing city ... This was one of the last things we did before leaving Joburg, watching the worldcup rugby game between the Springboks and Scotland at the 51th floor of the Ponte Tower in Joburg and we had a blast (also, of course, as the Springboks won).
We booked the tickets via Dlala Nje's homepage (who are located at the bottom of the Ponte Tower). As far as I understand, Dlala Nje is renting the apartment on the 51th floor for entertainment purposes. The history of the Ponte Tower was the magnet for us to have a closer look at this building. The view onto Joburg from one of its top floors is absolutely stunning. Few impressions of this evening below...

Vanilla Parfait

I cannot recall where I found this recipe for a vanilla parfait, but I love it as it is easy to make and tastes delicious.

Ingredients:

• 3 egg yolks
• 50 ml water
• 75 caster sugar
• 1 table spoon vanilla extract
• 150 ml double cream

Put the water with the sugar into a saucepan and stir it over low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Boil the sugar water and cook for about 7-10 minutes. Cook until the water starts to thicken (syrup).
Whip the egg yolks with the vanilla extract until it has more then doubled in volume.
Add the syrup and let the mixture cool down.
Beat the cream and fold it with the egg/syrup mixture.
Put everything into the freezer.

Serve with fruits, chocolate or anything you like. YUM!

Guacamole

For everyone who loves avocado and especially guacamole, here are the ingedients for our favorite recipe:

• 2 big avocados (very ripe)
• approx. 10 cherry tomatoes (cut into small pieces as you like)
• 1/2 red onion
• Juice of one lime
• 1 fresh chili
• 3 table spoons yogurt
• Coriander
• Pinch of sugar
• Salt for your taste

Mix everything together using a fork, cover with clean foil and let it rest in the fridge for about an hour. Serve with bread or tortilla chips.

Enjoy!

Amazing South Africa: Sani Pass and Wild Coast

Sani Pass:


Wild Coast:

Volia la moto!

This is our first bike ... I would love to say it is a beast but it is actually a kitten.

Next set of photos will be with the woman in our new motocycle outfit. Terrific!

Hochzeitsmenü mit Familie

Leider habe ich vergessen, Fotos von dem Menü des Vorabends unserer Hochzeit zu machen.  Aber hier zumindest die Rezepte und Ideen ...

Rinderzungen-Carpaccio mit Thunfischmayonnaise

1 gepökelte Rindezunge

Speck

Suppengrün (Nelken, Lorbeer, Wacholder)

Ei

Öl

Essig

Senf
Thunfisch
Kapern
Salad

Rinderzunge mit Speck in Brühe für ca. 2 Std köcheln lassen (bis sie weich ist, Brühe aufbewahren für ). Mayonnaise aus Ei, Öl und Senf machen. Thunfisch und Kapern hinzugeben und mixen. Salad mit Vinaigrette anmachen.

Rinderzunge aus dem Kühlschrank in feine Scheiben schneiden und mit dem Plattieren noch dünner machen.

Zunge auf flachem Teller auslegen und mit Thunfischmayonnaise bestreichen. Salad auf dem Carpaccio anrichten.

Tomaten-Paprika Suppe

Tomaten

Paprika

Suppengrün

Limone
Chili
Sahne

Brauner Zucker

Fischsoße (Thai)

Tomaten, Paprika, Suppengrün, Limone, Chili mit Wasser aufsetzen und kochen bis alles weich ist (ca. 30min). Suppe pürieren und durch Haarsieb passieren. Mit Sahne angießen und mit Salz, Peffer, Chili, Zucker und Fischsoße abschmecken.

Waldorfsalat mit Jakobsmuschel, geräuchter Makrele und Flusskrebschwänzen

Waldorfsalat

Wallnüsse

Knollenselerie

Apfel

Wallnüsse in der Pfanne anrösten und grob hacken

Selerie und Äpfel fein hobeln

Mit einer Vinaigrette Selerie und Äpfel anmachen. Wallnüsse über den Salat streuen

Flusskrebsschwänze

ca. 200 gr. Flusskrebsschwänze

Mayonnaise

Joghurt

glatte Petersilie

Alles vermischen und mit etwas Limone. Chili und Salz abschmecken

Jakobsmuschel

2 Scheiben dünner geräuchterter Speck

4 Jakobsmuscheln

Speck knusprig braten (Mikrowelle oder Ofen). Jakobsmuschel in Butter anbraten, mit Salz und Pfeffer würzen. Mit Speck garniernen.

Geräucherte Makrele

Haut entfernen und in 2cm lange Stücke schneiden.

Rehrücken Wellington mit Kürbispüree, Rettichscheiben

Rehrücken

Senf

Meerrettich

Pilze

Schalotten

Soyasoße

Brandy

Sahne

Parmaschinken

Blätterteig

Kürbis

Butter

Weißer Rettich

Rehrücken Wellington

Rehrücken salzen und pfeffern und sehr kurz von allen Seiten anbraten. Abkühlen lassen und dann mit Paste aus Meerrettich, Senf und etwas schwarzem Pfeffer bestreichen. In den Kühlschrank stellen.

Pilze sehr fein hacken und mit etwas Butter in der Pfanne anbraten bis die Pilze gebräunt sind. Schalloten fein würfeln und mit andünsten. Brandy und Soyasoße hinzugeben und einkochen. Etwas Sahne zum Schluss und mit Salz, Pfeffer abschmecken.

Parmaschinken auf Klarsichtfolie auslegen und mit Pilzpaste bestreichen. Rücken in Schinken einwickeln. Blätterteig auslegen und Rücken im Schinken darauf platzieren. Rücken einrollen und festdrücken.

Mit Eigelb bestreichen und in den Ofen (180 Grad und ca. 30min)

Kürbispüree

Kürbis schälen und würfeln. Mit etwas Wein und Brühe weich kochen (Salz, Peffer, Zucker, Muskat). Butter, Sahne hinzugeben pürieren.

Weißen Rettich in 0.5cm dicke Scheiben schneiden und mit Salz, Peffer, Zucker würzen. Mit Mehl bestäuben und in der Pfanne kurz von beiden Seiten anbraten.

Mehlschwitze mit Brühe angießen.

Gorgonzolaterrine, Parmesanplätzchen mit Traubensauce

200 gr Gorgonzola

80 gr Creme Fraiche

60 gr Frischkäse

4 Blatt Gelatine

8cl geschlagene Sahne

Käse im Topf unter etwas Hitze vermengen. Gelatine einweichen und unter Käsemasse geben und verrühren. Masse durch ein Haarsieb geben und Sahne unterheben. Terrinenform mit Klarsichtfolie auslegen und Masse einfüllen.

200 gr Traubensaft

50 gr Zucker

120 gr Trauben

Portwein

Balsam Essig

Zucker karamelisieren, Traubensaft hinzugeben und einkochen lassen (bis Sirup). Trauben entkernen und unter den Sirup geben.

Parmesanplätzchen

55 gr. geröstete, gehackte Mandeln

100 gr. Butter

Rosmarin

125 gr. Mehl

30 gr. Parmesan

Salz

2 TL Honig

Butter in kleine Würfel schneiden. Mit Mehl, Mandeln, Parmesan und Gewürzen kurz zu einem Teig verkneten und eine Rolle formen. 30 min im Kühlschrank ruhen lassen.

In ca. 1cm dicke Scheiben schneiden und bei 200 Grad 8-12 min (Ober- Unterhitze) im Ofen backen.

Schokoladenkuchen mit Minzparfait

Zutaten für 4 kleine Fondants:
50 g Zartbitterschokolade
50 g Butter
1 Ei+ 1 Eigelb
60 g Zucker
50 g Mehl
2 EL Kakao

Die Schokolade mit der Butter schmelzen. Währenddessen die Formen mit Butter einfetten und gleichmäßig mit etwas Kakao bestreuen.
Die Schokolade und die Butter cremig rühren und zwei Minuten abkühlen lassen. Ein Ei und ein Eigelb mit dem Zucker schlagen, bis es weiß wird. Das Mehl hineingeben und weiter schlagen. Dann die Masse aus Schokolade und Butter hineingeben, anschließend gleichmäßig verrühren.
Den Teig in die vier Formen gießen und für zehn Minuten in den Backofen, bei 160°C Umluft, schieben.
Minzparfait

110 GrammZucker
2 Bund Minze frisch
3 Stück Eier
250 Gramm Schlagsahne
150 Gramm Joghurt80g Zucker und 5 EL Wasser aufkochen und sirupartig einkochen lassen. Minz-Blättchen zupfen und fein hacken. Gehackte Minze in den Sirup geben und abkühlen lassen. Danach die Eier trennen und das Eigelb zusammen mit Zuckersirup und Minzsirup aufschlagen, bis die Masse cremig wird. Dann wird sowohl die Sahne als auch das Eiweiß steif geschlagen. In das Eiweiß am besten 30g Zucker einrieseln lassen. Anschließend werden Joghurt, Sahne und Eischnee unter die Eigelbmasse gehoben.

Eine Kastenform(ca. 1,2l) mit Folie auslegen und die Parfaitmasse in die Form füllen, glatt streichen, mit Folie abdecken und mindestens 4 Stunden in den Gefrierschrank stellen.

Anrichten und ein paar Beeren und vielleicht etwas Puderzucker garnieren.

Death From Above 1979 - Trainwreck 1979 [Official Audio]

Finally! The second LP by Canadian band Death from Above 1979...

Warthog Potjie with Beans and Cashew Nuts

This is my version of a Pork Vindaloo with Naan. But SA style ... because we wanted to do a Potjie on a lazy Sunday afternoon and I found a Warthog leg and shoulder at my favorite butcher here in Joburg. The meat and biltong at RM Meats is amazing and during game season they offer everything from Eland to ... Warthog.
For this recipe I combined a couple of recipes that I found on the internet. I do not think that this is a proper Vindaloo but it tasted great and I can only recommend this flavour combination.

Here are the ingredients:


Naan

400g flour
200ml warm water
3 tbs olive oil
4 tbs plain yoghurt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp dried yeast
1 tsp salt



Warthog Vindaloo
2.5kg Leg or Shoulder
3 Onions
10 gloves garlic
Ginger (same amount as garlic)
Red and green Chili (same amount as garlic, it will help with the colour of the Potjie if you find the bigger chilis because they are much milder and you can use more of them)
35 gr. of Garam Masala
15 tsp of Rice Vinegar (White Wine Vinegar should be fine as well)


1000 gr. Tomatos

100 gr. Brown Sugar
500 gr. Dried Beans (I could not get the black beans so I took speckled beans)
500 gr. Cashew Nuts


Step 1:
Cut the Warthog leg into bite sized chuncks.
Put garlic, ginger, chilis, onios and rice vinegar in a blender and mix it until you get a fine paste.

Step 2:
Add the paste together with the garam masala and some salt to the meat. Make sure everything is properly coated and let it rest in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Step 3:
Heat up the Potjie and add some cooking oil. Add the meat and brown it a bit (5-10 min). Then add the Tomates.You can cut them into smaller pieces but it reallz does not matter much. Add some water but do not cover the meat completely. Let it cook on low heat for two hours.










Step 4:
After two hours you can add the beans. I used speckled beans because I could not find black beans in our Supermarket. The beans had to be cleaned and soaked in water for a couple of hours. But the still need to cook properly inthe Potjie for 2.5 to 3 hours until they were soft. So overall the Potjie will take 4 to5 hours. We removed the lid for the last hour to reduce some of the liquid in the Potjie.













Step 5:
Roast the cash nuts. You can use a pan to do it but you already have a fire going so why not use it brown the nuts (and bake the naan) as well.











Step 6:
Add the nuts to the Potjie just before serving. This is how our Potjie looked like! Use salt, chili, lemon or sugar and season to your liking.

 









Step 7:
For the dough of the Naan mix the warm water with the sugar and the yeast and let it rest for 20 min. You should be able to see some bubbles on the surface of the water. Mix the yeast/water with the rest of the ingredients and knead the dough for a couple of minutes. Let it rest somewhere warm for at least 2-3 hours. 
Divide the dough into 4 pieces and form the naan. Use some oil to cover the naan and bake it on the fire for 5 minutes on each side.

Enjoy!

Our beautiful and sensitive girl...

Foxygen - Shuggie

Emmarentia - Dog Walking Park

This morning I went with the girls for a relaxed walk to the Emmarentia Park quite early in the morning. The dog walking area is close to the botanical gardens and the Emmarentia Dam. You can access the park via various entrences with good parking facilities (e.g. Orange Road or Thomas Bowler Street). This dog walking park accomodates a lot of little lakes/dams, all connected with little natural or man-made streams which makes it perfect for hot summer days. Of course the water offers a lot of fun during the winter period as well... 

The accessible walking area is wide spread and in general it is a good place to socialise your dogs. For really good socialisation I would recommend to visit the park during the week as you meet the regular dog walkers with well socialised dogs while over the weekend the quantity of the "sun-shine-only"- dog walkers is slightly increased and you might meet some not so well behaved dogs. However, in general this park is very nice for dog walks, just always watch the cyclists!

The snapshot below was taken this morning and shows Lula. I cannot believe that she is already one year old now! She is a fantastic swimmer and even enjoys our pool in the garden quite often. She basically lies in the water without showing a lot of moving effort. It's really fun to see her swim as it looks to elegant. Something she very often lacks having solid ground under her feet...You can spot Gogo in the background pretending to go for a good swim as well. In fact, she is not fond of swimming at all and should something in the water accidentally touch her feet you can be sure that she's literally running out of the water. "Don't trust what you cannot smell or see!"... 

Makes perfect sense to me.

Don't shop. Adopt!

I just read some news about the police in Germany who caught a person during some routine check with 78 puppies in the boot of his car. The puppies were between 4 and 8 weeks of age. I mean, really?! Argh, that makes me so angry and feeling helpless at the same time... I guess if there were not so many people looking for a proper "breed" dog for almost no money such things just would not happen. Seriously, there are already so many dogs out there who are put down because they are unwanted.

Our two dogs are from a shelter. They are some unidentified x-breeds and who cares about them not being "proper" dogs? They have phantastic characters and I love and enjoy them every day. I would not want to replace them by any other pure breed dog in the world. 

In addition a high portion of these "ach so cute"-high breed puppies will end up in an animal shelter anyway between the age of 10 months and 2 years, namely then when they are not so cute anymore and terrorise their respective household. I volunteered at such an animal shelter for quite some time and you find all kind of pure breed or crossbreed dogs there. And guess what? All of them are lovely creatures with amazing characters... So please! Please please please: Don't shop. Adopt!

Nerdy Love Song with Added Kitten Bonus

This is so cute...

Atoms for Peace - Ingenue

Snapshot Gogo shaking off water

Just recently when I was walking with Gogo in a bigger group we came past a little lake or dam. Gogo had a blast running in the water and I was lucky to catch the moment when she was shaking off the water. Really love this picture...

Kool & Kass - Pleasance (WDGAF)

Instant Classic!

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!!!