Tuesday, June 21, 2011

The Egg

I cooked the world's largest fried egg on the weekend.
Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of it.
This means that no one else will ever be able to see how big it really was.
And no one is likely to believe me.

That sucks.

Ps. The moral of the story is: Always take a picture. Evidence is everything.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Hemingway's, Davenport Road, Durban

My parent's and I stopped at Hemingway's for a quick meal.

We decided to order from the tapas menu: fried line fish, grilled calamari, ostrich carpaccio, baked goats cheese, and some chips.

Ultimate win!

The fish and chips were pretty good. The ostrich was scrumptious, served with avo and rocket - I didn't want the dish to end. The calamari was equally impressive - tender and tasty. And as for the goats cheese, OH the goats cheese! Simply sublime. Crispy on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside. I could eat that baked goats cheese everyday for the rest of my life and I would not tire of its taste and texture.
This place is gorgeous, it has a sophisticated charm without being at all pretentious.
The waitresses are friendly and helpful without being over-bearing.
 
The prices are a smidge higher than average, but most definitely worth it.
Another thing is that the mojito's are REALLY good, my only complaint is the tiny tumbler it was served in meant that I had to order two, and it kinda left me feeling that the cocktail was overpriced. 
Completely Cooked Rating: 8/10

Monday, June 6, 2011

Mushroom Burgers

Most South African's, at least the one's I have meat during my 25 years living here, eat meat/fish/poultry with at least two meals a day.

That's a lot of meat.

I'm trying to eat less meat but its a tough task when the people you cook for look sideways at any meal that doesn't contain some animal product in it. Boyfriend even likes to eat salad for dinner sometimes - but only if there is tuna/chicken/bacon somehow incorporated.
Fortunately, boyfriend likes my cooking a lot so even if the dish contains something he doesn't like to eat he will still give whatever I make a solid try.
I was very excited about this meal. However, not only does this meal not contain any meat at all, but it's main ingredient is something that boyfriend hates.

Mushrooms.

For some reason I ALWAYS forget he hates mushrooms. It's not because I don't care about him or consider him when I'm cooking, it is purely because I love mushrooms so much that when I see a good mushroom recipe it just pulls me towards it and engulfs my sensibilities. Also, i think that I've developed some kind of psychological blockage that causes my love for this delicious fungus to somehow outshine all the memories I have of boyfriend piling his mushrooms onto my plate at dinner parties.

Whenever I forget he doesn't like mushrooms he's too sweet and kind to remind me about it at the time so he soldiers on through and eats it all up. Then he'll say something like "For mushrooms that meal was great!" and I will reply with a "doh, how did I forget AGAIN?" and then I'll be happy that I did forget and that I've helped further his journey along the path of mushroom appreciation. If he eats the whole thing and then says he isn't really a fan of the dish the story ends a little differently. But we won't go there because this meal was a winner so that's all that matters today.



Ingredients (for 4 burgers)
  • 4 medium portabello mushrooms, stems removed (I used 8 smaller ones and doubled them up on the burgers)
  • 1 finely chopped onion
  • 1 finely chopped green pepper
  • olive oil
  • 1 avocado, mashed
  • 1/2 tsp minced garlic
  • 4 hamburger buns
  • cheddar cheese
  • Sundried tomato pesto

Method

Brush mushrooms and onion slices with oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper

Under the grill cook mushrooms until tender, 8 to 10 minutes, turning once. 

Fry onion and green pepper 

Mash avo with salt and pepper. 

Spoon onions and peppers into mushroom cavities, divided equally. 

Cover mushrooms with cheese and melt under the grill.

Spread sundried tomato pesto and then smooth Avocado mixture on bottom of each bun; top each with stuffed mushrooms.

Cover with tops of buns. 




This is not an entirely original recipe but I can't remember where I found the one I used as inspiration. If anyone knows please holla and let me know.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Frozen Yoghurt Date

I feel like I'm getting better at this blogging thing. More regular I mean. I'm pretty sure the value of the content hasn't increased. Two posts in two days though. Here's hoping the regularity lasts.

So, last night boyfriend and I celebrated the first of June with a nice dinner at home. For dessert we went out to Durban's first dedicated frozen yoghurt bar, Wakaberry.


Wakaberry yoghurt bar is situated on Durban's Florida Road in the old Bank Gallery. Boyfriend and I both love that building and were quite sad to see it go from the clean white it used to be, to the new pastel-ish colours (on the inside) that it now is. The colour scheme is pretty fitting for a yoghurt bar though.
It might be winter but the cold would never stop me from 1. trying something new (especially in Durban - cos who knows how long it'll be around) and 2. eating cold desserts.

The first thing that struck us on entering was the huge amount of space inside. It felt like even a duck's quack would echo in there. The dude at the counter was friendly and helpful.

Boyfriend opted for lime flavoured yoghurt with jelly babies, sour worms and jelly tots on top.
I went for vanilla flavoured yoghurt with a tiny bit of toffee flavoured on top and I topped that with seeds, nuts, coco pops, smarties and astros.

Boyfriend's lime yoghurt was very limey, like capitalisation-of-every-letter VERY. I could only manage one bite. It was just to electric for my taste. My yoghurt was perfect - delicately tart the way froyo should be. The nuts, seeds, coco pops and astros were delicious accompaniments. Note to self, the smarties went a bit too hard and may have cracked a tooth.

I enjoyed the dessert and found it pretty resonably priced. We both had more than sufficiently sized helpings and it cost us R32.00 for both. I can definitely see myself going back to sample the mixed berry yoghurt with some fresh fruit toppings. Mmmmmm

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

First of June

Today is the 1st of June.

The 1st of June is a special day for two reasons. The first reason is that it is boyfriend and my 2nd anniversary of dating and the second reason is that it is the first day of the best month of the year. My birthday month! And that means CAKE! Yay! I reckon it's an accepted truth that as children we love birthdays but as time goes on we start to hate birthdays because they remind us that we're getting older and a little less pretty and all of that. I'm not sure if the hatred of birthdays is meant to have set in by mid-twenties but I can safely say that I still LOVE my birthday... even though my family totally forgot it last year.

"The day after my birthday is not my birthday mum" Jemaine, Flight of the Conchords.

Happy First of June everyone!!


picture via graphics fairy