Wood Fired Pommes Dauphinoise

Pommes Dauphinoise or Gratin Dauphinoise (scalloped potatoes or potato bake) is an ideal accompaniment for any meat dish. I usually make it with  rump, and I bake mine in a kettle braai such as a Webber with charcoal and a hard wood log. The result is a smoky, flavorful potato bake that always goes down a treat without fail.  

You will need:
about a kilogram of peeled medium sized potatoes, 
4 cloves of fresh garlic chopped fine - not minced.
some butter.
grated parmesan cheese - about 250g
salt and pepper.
Cream - up to 500ml

Slice the whole potatoes as thinly as you can manage, I use an electric slicer or a hand held veg slicer.  In a greased ovenproof dish (I always use a round one) arrange the sclices fanning over each other in the classic dauphinoise fish scale style. Season well with salt and pepper, add a few dabs of butter, sprinkle a pinch of chopped garlic and add a bit of parmesan cheese.  Fan the next layer of potato slices in the opposite direction and repeat the process until you fill your dish to just below the top. Add the cream and voila! 

This all takes a bit of time, so you could make your fire beforehand  but you need a fair amount of heat so best to prep and then begin the fire. 

This is a kettle braai my dad made out of an old copper geyser

Build your fire like you  normally would in your kettle braai, I use briquettes and when they are all ignited I add a small piece of hardwood  bosveldhout like Kameeldoring gives the best smoky flavor.  Pop your dauphinois in and cover with the lid, insuring you open the vents to allow air flow.  

It takes about an hour, sometimes I run out of heat (this depends on the quality of the braai-briquettes) and then I finish it of in a moderate oven 180 degrees celcius.  Use a skewer to test if its read, let stand for 10 min and serve.



I have also used Peti Pans and Courgettes giving them the same treatment - looks gorgeous and is delicious!

Bon Appetit! 

Down to Earth Farm Feast IV Video

And so it was that Foodie SA was invited to partake in the 4th Down to Earth Farm Feast in the Cradle of Human Kind near Lanseria in Gauteng. Danielle Strydom and Dany Krynauw are partners in crime who are giving Gautengers a chance to experience Pop-up restauranteering in magical rural settings such as this Poplar forest on a Farm just of the R512 near Johannesburg.  

On the menu: Seasonal, locally sourced  produce. As far as possible organic and home grown.  A blue wildebees was shot and dished up in an unambitious attempt at "Nose to Tail" cooking.  The treatment of which was absolutely delicious! Albeit a bit repetitive for the likes of this food snob :)

The setting was out of this world. The wine free flowing and the company plentiful and persistent! All in all a great evening spent with great people having a big fat kuier.  

Visit www.downtoearth.travel for more. 

for an HD version of the video visit: https://vimeo.com/62984430 

Extra mayo please! By Mynhardt Joubert

I am reading two books at the moment: “My Life in France” by Alex Prud Home / Julia Child and “Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck. Get it! If you love food and anything food related you won’t be able to put it down. While reading “My Life in France” an autobiographical recollection of Julia Child’s time spent in France, I have her cook book “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” right next to me. The book describes in detail her experiences, research and composition of all the different recipes. I found it fascinating that so much care, detail and dedication could go into writing a recipe book, as opposed to what we have become used to, the quick flash in the pan dishes that you prepare after your favorite TV soap and the eight o’ clock news, no Sir! The recipes are described step by step with the most wonderful notes, hints, remedies and attention to detail. 

How refreshing to read something that has no full colour pictures, which are so styled and jazzed up that one can never get it to look the same and which takes up three quarters of the book, but only simple informative line sketches showing you exactly what to do. What a gift she has left behind, a true work of art, love and dedication. After reading for a while you become so intrigued that you start to cross reference to the recipes and then eventually have no choice but to move your arse and start cooking. The results are phenomenal and one can’t go wrong. The style is French Bourgeois which makes it accessible for all of us and the ingredients easy to find and can be wonderfully interpreted with your own local produce and personal flavors. 

This is my interpretation of her mayonnaise. I made the first batch of which the remains were collected with our fingers from the glass jar the first day so I decided to increase the quantity. It might seem quite a bit at first but lasts in the refrigerator for up to a week if not finished earlier by those ‘midnight snackers!’


The bowl! Most important: use a three liter sized ceramic bowl that you warm up with hot tap water, not boiling water as you will cook the eggs. Let the bowl warm up for about 3 minutes so that it can retain the heat and dry thoroughly with a cloth.

The Eggs: 3 of them. One gets the most beautiful Canola Eggs at the moment but any good quality large egg or even better your own will do. They have to be fresh and at room temperature. Add the egg yolks to the bowl and with an electric hand held mixer whip them up until they become puffy and quite sticky. This takes about three minutes. Add to this a table spoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice, half a teaspoon of salt and a heaped teaspoon of prepared mustard. Dry mustard will also work and prepared whole grain mustard is the absolute best. Beat for another two minutes and then the oil…

The oil: Three cups (750ml) Olive oil, which she lists as an option, is to my taste too strong. I have been using soyabean oil which is light and fruity. The one time we had crayfish tails all cooked up and prepared and a friend launched herself towards the fridge to grab the shop bought acidy mayo. I stopped her dead in her tracks and said there is no way! I will make the mayonnaise. After searching high and low for some oil the only thing we could manage to produce from the cupboards was a bottle of roasted artichokes in oil. I drained off the fragrant oil, shut my eyes and hoped for the best…it was absolutely delicious. So experiment! 

While mixing start adding the oil in a thin stream, little by little, the mixture will start to thicken after about a minute, just keep on going until all the oil has been added. After about four minutes the result is a beautiful thick pale yellow cloud of mayonnaise winking at you from the bowl.

Herbs: One can keep the mayo as is but I love adding fresh herbs to it and always some garlic. Chop about 50ml of your favourite herb. Anything will do. Basil is particularly good and I have been using a mixture of chopped rosemary and thyme. Add three or four grated cloves of garlic. Bottle in a glass jar and let it rest for about two hours. Enjoy with and over….everything! Bon appétit!

Mynhardt Joubert - Moerby Kultuur

Pickle now for winter.

I LOVE pickled onions! On their own as a midnight snack or in a plowman's lunch or with cheese and wine.   You can use them in stews or chopped up in sauces and vinaigrette. Delicious in a home made herb mayonnaise instead of capers or anchovy. I'v noticed how pricey they have become in the shops, and besides if you make your own they turn out much more tasty and with a wonderful crispness to the bite that you will never get in a mass produced product. They are an absolute joy and all my friends and family love them.

Okay pickling anything is real slow-food, these onions takes at least 2 months for the full taste to develop and they only become better with time. So it is advised to pickle on bulk.  I usually pickle 3 of these big can-fruit bottles in March, so that they can be enjoyed over the winter months, sounds OTT, but trust me there are never enough of them to satisfy to everyone's full content.  

Apart from the obvious peeling and prep of your containers, the process is really quite simple.  The main thing to keep in mind is hygiene and cleanliness. Especially if you want to preserve for a a long period of time.  To this end many pickling recipes will instruct heavy salting of your peeled onions over-night.  I however find that it ultimately makes them to salty and may leave them soft and soggy.

Through trail and error I have devised a method that is fairly fool proof and straight froward so here we go...

Ingredients: (to fill 1 large jar or 3x750g glass jars)

2kg pickling onions (usually 2 bags at the grocer)
750ml white spirit vinegar
500ml white wine vinegar
1 cup of Cola Tonic and 1 cup of water or 500ml of coca cola
2 tablespoons brown or white sugar.
1 packet of pickling spice - ask at a super market or green grocer.
3 tablespoons of salt.

EVERYTHING used in the entire process needs to be super clean and spotless.  

1) Dump your un-peeled onions in a basin with lukewarm water, soak for about 10min, this makes them much easier to peel.  I wont lie the peeling takes some time so get help if you can - a bottle of wine or a friend or both.  

2) Place your peeled onion in a large clean bowl. Add the salt and toss them about to cover the lot. Leave to stand. I don't use any salt (adding a teaspoon to the pickling mix instead) but I use a Product called Colloidal Silver (about 175 ml), available at good health stores and pharmacies.  This is to kill any germs, fungus and nastiness that might corrupt your jar.

3) Wash your jars well and rinse thoroughly in clean water. You need to sanitize the jars and their lids, to do this you can either boil them in a large pot for 10 min, microwave them containing some boiled water for 10 min or bake them in the oven also containing some boiled water for 15 min at 110 degrees Celsius. LID OFF! Set aside to cool.

4) Dump all the other ingredients into a pot and bring to a boil on the stove. Stir to dissolve the sugar  Allow to simmer for 10 min and set aside to cool.

5) NOW go have some vino with your helpful friend to give your onions about another 30 min with the salt. Periodically shaking them about, then rinse them under running water to remove all the salt.

6) Fill your jars with the onions, first about half way then some pickling mix and so forth. Try to divide all the spices between the jars. You should have enough to cover all the onions and fill the jar to the brim, if you run out top them up with some raw vinegar.

7) Cover your jars with their lids and tighten them up well.  Give each jar a good shake and wipe with a damp towel.

Pickling spice usually contains black or green peppercorns or both, allspice, cloves, mustard seeds, bay leaves and chilies.  Feel free to experiment by adding more aromatics. I like dried thyme and fresh dill.  Garlic or lemon zest are other options.  Just be sure to boil everything in the vinegar to sanitize your mixture.

Like I mentioned I leave mine to pickle for at least 2 months, but you can try a sample after about 3 weeks.  Leaving them longer is advisable as they will only get yummier as time goes by.  I turn my jars from time to time leaving them to stand on their heads for a while before turning them right side up again.

YES it takes time but its not tricky at all, the reward is well worth the effort and the wait, and I myself can't think of a better gift than a jar of home made pickled onions.

La Terrine à l'Ancienne - Old-Fashioned Oxtail Stew

Oxtail is an all time winter classic and there are many ways to prepare this delicious cut of meat, one being in a pressure cooker and the results are pretty good, but I set about preparing it in a very traditional way and I have to say it is the best oxtail stew I have ever had.

To Serve 8
2 Oxtails
salt and pepper
2 carrots, quartered
4 large onions halved
1 bouquet garni - parsley, thyme and bay leaf.
125g butter
2 tots brandy
3 gloves of garlic, crushed.
75g flour
1.5 liters red wine (go for the good stuff its worth it)
0.5 liter beef stock
1 kg brown mushrooms
500 g Bacon cut into lardons
flour and water paste


Pre-heat your oven at 170 ºC. Season the oxtail with salt and pepper.  In a large sauté pan, sauté them with the carrots, the onions and the bouquet garni in 60 g of butter untill they are a good brown colour. Moisten with the brandy and flambé. When the flames die, add the garlic and flower and mix well. Pour in the wine and the beef stock and mix again. Bring to the boil. Transfer to a casserole and place in the oven for 2 hours.  


After 2 hours strain the cooking liquid through a sieve into a bowl and set aside. Discard the vegetables and return the oxtail pieces to the casserole.  In a seperate sauce pan gently sauté the mushrooms in the remaining butter with the bacon.  Add to the casserole with the oxtail pieces. 


Skim off any fat that has risen to the top of the strained cooking liquid, transfer to a pan and reduce till halve the quantity - the consistency of a light bodied sauce.  When the sauce is ready, pour it over the oxtail pieces and bring to a boil on the stove. Once boiling, seal lid with a flour and water paste - mix a cup of flour and a cup of water with a teaspoon of oil, make paste into a ribbon and dress along the rim of the lid, press the lid onto the pot (after cooking run a thin blade along the lid to break the seal) Place the casserole in a moderate oven 180 ºC for 2 hours to finish cooking.  Serve with ur favorite starch, I like samp. Enjoy! 

The "Vark" Word - Pressed belly of pork with smoked sweet potato and gravy.

Chef Gordon Ramsay was kind enough to demonstrate how to make this on his TV show "The F Word" also view able on youtube. I added the smoked sweet potato mash and sweetened the combination while adding a lingering Räucherkammer to the palet  Bold heart warming flavors to be enjoyed with a wine of gravitas. 

about 1.3kg belly of pork

2 heads of garlic, halved horizontally
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
handful of thyme sprigs
olive oil, to drizzle
generous splash of white wine
450ml brown chicken stock

Recipe:

Preheat the oven to 170°C

Untie the belly of pork if it is rolled and lay it flat on a chopping board. Score the skin evenly in a criss-cross pattern with a sharp knife. Turn the belly skin side down and cut a slit through the thick end of the pork to open it out like a butterfly so that the meat is evenly thick throughout. Rub all over with salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.

Place the garlic, halved side up, on a lightly oiled roasting tray and scatter over the thyme sprigs. Lay the pork belly on top, fat side up. Trickle with a little more olive oil and sprinkle with a little more sea salt. Add a splash of white wine around the pork, cover the meat with a piece of foil and bake for 1½ hours. Remove the foil, baste the pork with the juices and return to the oven, uncovered, for another ½-1 hour until the meat is tender. Continue to baste the pork occasionally with the pan juices.

Transfer the pork to a clean chopping board and leave to cool slightly. While still warm, place another tray on top of the pork and weigh down with a few heavy tins to flatten it. Cool completely, then chill for four hours or overnight in the refrigerator to set its shape.

Pour off any excess oil from the roasting tray and place over high heat. Deglaze the tray with a generous splash of white wine, scraping the bottom and crushing the heads of garlic with a wooden spoon to release the sediment. Boil the liquid until reduced by half, then add the chicken stock and bring back to the boil until reduced and thickened. Strain the stock through a fine sieve, pressing down on the garlic pulp with the back of a ladle. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.

Heat the oven to the highest setting, about 250°C

Cut the pressed pork into individual portions or squares and pat the skin dry with kitchen paper. Place the pork squares, fat side up, in a roasting tin and drizzle with olive oil and a generous pinch of sea salt. Roast for 15-20 minutes until the skin is golden brown and crisp. Rest the pork for 5 minutes, then serve with the light gravy and accompaniments: Peel the sweet potato and boil in salted water till cooked.  Smoke in smoker with oak chips or rooibos leaves.  Mash with butter, cream, salt and pepper.  

Sweet Potato and Cumin Soup.

I first had this delicious soup at my friend Willem's house and its been a favorite ever since.  My guests go gaga over it and there never seem to be enough in the pot :)

Ingredients:
1 table spoon oil for frying
4 decent size sweet potatos peeled and diced
4 leeks chopped
1 sitck of celiry chopped
1 tablespoon fresh cumin seeds
1 teaspoon tumeric powder
1 liter chicken or vegetable stock 
1 can coconut cream 
salt and pepper

Method:
In a hot dry pan roast the cumin seeds till they start popping and smoking - this releases their flavorful oils - set aside.  Fry the vegtables in the the oil till soft.  Add the turmeric powder, cumin seeds, salt and pepper and cook for 10 min. Add half the stock and simmer for about 20 min allowing all the flavors to develop. Use a stick blender or transfer into a blender and blend till smooth.  Add the rest of the stock and the coconut cream. Serve hot with fresh cream and chives.  You can drizel some port over the top for added goodness! Enjoy!