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Zimtsterne – Swiss Christmas Cookies December 14, 2023 in   Uncategorized No Comments » Its this time of the year again that we all remember certain things from our childhood. For me it was always the incredible smells of my Granny who was Swiss baking mountains of Christmas cookies for 4 weeks before the actual day. My most favourite was always the Zimtsterne ( Cinnamon Stars) which I still bake today to give away as presents to family and friends. Ingredients for approximately 50 cookies (depending on the size of a single cookie): 3 fresh egg whites 1 pinch of salt 250 g icing sugar sugar 1½ tbsp cinnamon ½ tbsp kirsch or lemon juice 350 g ground almonds Preparation: Stir white of egg and salt in a bowl until it is real stiff. Add icing sugar, stir until ingredients are evenly distributed. Put ½ cup aside for the icing. Add cinnamon, kirsch (or lemon juice) and almonds, knead to a soft dough. Roll out dough on a flat surface (it should be slightly covered with sugar), approximately 7
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It strawberry season again and perfect to enjoy a glamorous French Strawberry tart... I have always had problems making this delicious melt in the mouth pastry that is called pate sablee ( translated into sand pastry).. Think I have now perfected it and  will share it here. Pate Sablee 150 g butter 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp icing sugar Sift icing sugar Mix at low speed and combine 1 egg yolk and 1 hard boiled egg yolk grated mix into batter add 1/2 tsp vanilla 1 cup and 3/4 cake flour Take out 2 tbsp flour and replace with 2 tbsp corn starch Sift the flour   1/4 tsp salt Mix only until it is well blended Then wrap dough into cling wrap and chill Roll out dough with floured  rolling pin into 1/8 inch thickness     and larger than the     18 inch pastry tin you are going to use. You can trim the pastry using your rolling pin over the top of the tin. Make holes     in the pastry with a fork     and chill for about ½ hour. Bake at 175 deg C for 20 minutes. While your tart bottom is baking make t
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Coronation Chicken

Last Saturday was the annual Moonstruck charity event on 4th Beach Clifton. What a great event and thank goodness we went early and found a lekker spot against the rocks as it ended up being 36 000 people on that beach. The concert was organised by Radio 702 and one of the performers was Vivky Samson who finished her set with her signature song that makes every expat overseas homesick with a dose of "wet eyes" - My African Dream - brings goosebumps every time I hear it. No vino allowed unfortunately but we all brought some nice munchies. One of my friends had Coronation Chicken. I must say it was the first time I ate this really nice way of using up day-old chicken as with me having done my apprenticeship in a German kitchen,  there was definitely no coronation :):):):).... We had something similar and called it Hawaiian Chicken Salad.. So here goes with the South African version of Coronation Chicken: Ingredients: 2 either freshly cooked or day-old chicken breasts
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ALBONDIGAS SOUP

My sister lives in Brussels and this is one of her favourite meals for lunch and she kindly passed her recipe on to me. The combination of beef and chorizo works so well and gives the whole meal a bit of a zing which I love. ( I am not too fond of those extreme hot sort of dishes which most South Africans love so much). Having received one of those amazing Smoking Shed hampers last Sunday at the Food Bloggers Indaba, I also added a spoon of smoked bell pepper to the soup part of the dish.. and it made it WOW ..:) J MEATBALLS 1/2 lb   lean ground beef 1/2 lb   chorizo sausage , casing removed  1   egg , beaten 2   garlic cloves , minced 1/2   carrot , grated 1/2 cup   cooked rice 1/2 cup   coriander , chopped 1/2 teaspoon   salt 1/4 teaspoon   pepper 1 teaspoon   ground cumin ALBONDIGAS SOUP 6 cups   chicken stock  1/2 cup   onion, chopped 3 stalks   celery, cut in chunks 1 can   diced tomatoes 1/2 teaspoon   ground cumin 1 teaspoon   oregano 1/2 cup   corian
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Sprouting Seeds

I just read Pink's fab blog  showing Beetroot sprouts.. pink sprouts look so amazing.. and as we all know just how healthy sprouts are..  little nosey me went off on a tangent and found them ! You can buy every kind of sprout online from a place in PE at very reasonable prices http://www.sproutingseeds.co.za am soooooooo  exited as  lets face it  nothing could be more healthy that  fresh sprouts !!! so go for it...  and their prices are discounted by 5% until tomorrow ( opening offer) have a great weekend all xoxo GLOSSARY OF SEEDS Here is alphabetical quick-link list of all of the seeds available from Umuthi Sprouting Seeds with brief descriptions. Just a Reminder: All of the sprouting seeds are suitable for planting in the vegetable garden as well.  Adzuki Beans (Organic) for Sprouts   have a distinctive sweet, nutty flavour, ideal for stir fries and veggie burgers. Alfalfa Sprouting Seeds , known as Lucerne in South Africa, are very nutritious, vitamin-rich,
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Raw Beetroot & Carrot Salad

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It was only in the last couple of months that I have started to use beetroot in my recipes. This deeply red vegetable had always been relegated to opening a jar of pickled beetroot, and then I only ever opened one of those jars because the man in my house loves this stuff. I just could never get my head around it. However ...........  I then discovered roasted beetroot ( very yummy with creme fraiche and some balsamic glaze) and I was hooked !  so here in my pursuit of different ways of creating summer salads that are "skinny" is the Raw beetroot ! :) How to: Peel and grate about 4 beetroot Grate 2 large carrots Add 1 handful dried cranberries Add 1 handful pine nuts Add 1 handful sprouted chickpeas Mix:  Juice of 1 lemon 1 tbsp tamarind paste 2 to 3 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp soya sauce That's all..  It is a wonderful fresh tasting salad that can be eaten right away and even tastes nice the following day. ( Perfect for lunch boxes to take to the office :
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Connor's Birthday Cake

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Being a Granny to a 2 year old has certain duties attached to it... one of them is the making of a birthday cake! I love birthday cakes, especially those that don’t come from some shop but are homemade. So there I was last week with the task to produce a “beach cake”.. as Connor and his family live next to the beach it was definitely the way to go. I am fortunate enough to live in Cape Town where we have a shop that just does baking stuff and equipment! ( Baking Tin in Claremont). Having scoured the shop for anything beachy I started the elimination of my chocolate recipes in the many books lining my shelves. I decided on the absolute yummiest one I could find which is David Lebowitz. This recipe comes out of his wonderful book called “The Sweet Life in Paris” and can be bought here from Amazon.com. For the beach cake: 250 g bittersweet or semisweet chocolate ( I used half & half) 8 tbsp ( 120 g) unsalted butter 1/3 cup ( 65 g) sugar 4 large eggs at room temperature sepa
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