Archive for the ‘Destination Meals’ Category

Destination Meals, Food & Travel, Holidays, The Fabulous

A jaunt through the South of France.

Destination Meals, Food & Fab Endorsed, Food & Travel, Mediterranean Delicacies, Recipes, Seafood, Starters

A snapshot of Mikrolimano in Piraeus, Athens and a recipe for unconventional but utterly scrumptious dolmades.

Chicken & Poultry, Destination Meals, Mains, Recipes, Wine Events

A spicy and creamy Cape Malay Chicken Curry with soft Turkish apricots – a twist on the classic

Destination Meals, Food & Travel, Holidays, Mains, Pasta, Noodles & Rice, Recipes

A recipe using traditional Alheira sausage and all the things I miss about Lisbon. Well, some of them.

Dessert & Baked Goods, Destination Meals, Food & Travel, Recipes

Do you know the story of carpaccio? Yes, it is the Italian word referring to thinly sliced red meat and sometimes fish but is actually named after Venetian painter Vitorre Carpaccio, who was prolific in the 15th century and renowned for his vivid reds.. Also carpaccio has its roots in famous Harry’s Bar in Venice – the story and a refreshing pineapple carpaccio with,mint and praline.

Destination Meals, Indian Food Easy Peasy, Recipes, Starters, Vegetarian

On a recent visit to my folks in Kwa-Zulu Natal, I came upon these alien looking nubbly, wrinkled vegetables (they are actually fruit). I tweeted a photo of them and almost instantly received the reply that they were karela, or bitter gourds. They are tropical or sub-tropical vines, and the fruit vary in bitterness. Popular in South East Asian and Chinese cooking, bitter gourds are valued for their medicinal properties. It’s best to use the young gourds and to follow a strict method of soaking in a saline solution to remove the bitterness. I took a small selection home to Cape Town, much to the amusement of my mother.

Destination Meals, Featured Articles, Indian Food Easy Peasy, Recipes, Vegetarian

The trick, I think is to cook the okra for far less time than the aunties will tell you to. It can stand to hold just a little crunch. A little vinegar added will help combat the mushiness. Amchur (dried mango powder) adds a lovely tangy element, balanced with green chilli and warming cumin and coriander. It’s a dry braised “curry” of sorts.

Destination Meals, Mains, Recipes, Seafood

Cooking stews in a three-legged cast iron pot or potjie (very much like the witches’ cauldrons in Macbeth) over coals or open flame is a South African tradition, as local as eating naartjies (mandarins) at a rugby game or giving biltong (dried, salted meat) to ex-pat South Africans as gifts. I purchased our very first potjie pot earlier this year, and for all the pride and delight I felt, you would have thought I was in the le Creuset store and not the local Builder’s Warehouse. It was large, and large was what I was looking for to feed 16- 20 guests for our house’s first National Braai day (Heritage day) celebrations.

Destination Meals, Recipes, The Fabulous

This Wednesday, after a few freak out sessions by my lonesome in the parking lot, I steadied myself and took my recycled Terra Plana heels into the 2 Oceansvibe Media Offices for my first slot on their lunch time show. Mexican food is often harshly and wrongly termed fattening, cheese-laden and calorific and I wanted to address this (confusion with Tex-Mex food, a cuisine that developed in Texas using American foodstuffs, such as yellow cheeses, combined with the food of Mexican-Americans) and to share some fresh ideas for Spring/Summer eating.

Destination Meals, Indian Food Easy Peasy, Mains, Recipes, Vegetarian

This fairly easy recipe for yellow split pea dhal is adapted from the Bangladeshi Toovar (or ‘sour’ because of the addition of tomatoes) Dhal by the wonderful Rick Stein, Uncle Rick, whom you should know I adore muchly. An easy, aromatic Indian/ Bangladeshi dish for Meat Free Monday.