It is December - Fun in the sun time!

So it is already December. I started this blog in January but it has been a hectic year so I didn't manage to post any new recipes, throughout the year.  I have now officially been a vegetarian for one year. I have been using a lot of new recipes and started using an unfamiliar ingredient: Halloumi Cheese. I managed to also attend a few braais and braaied the cheese on the grill. It helped.
Silon and I are friends now.
She has also started cooking and she makes the tastiest vegetable dishes. My favourites are:

- Peas and Tomato
- Cabbage and Potato
- Ekadasi Vegetable stew - no onions and garlic
- Spinach
- Her speciality is vegetable breyani.
I will ask her to share her recipes. I also learned that I really do not like food that has been cooked with ghee (clarified butter)

I am still good at cooking meat and I make (but not eat
):

- Prawns
- Mutton Curry
- Roast Chicken
- Fish Roes

I also tried and suceeded at bhajia.

Here's a poem:
You carried my light
You carried my light, for a long time
For a while, I saw it shining brightly in my eyes,
other times just glimmers as I walked in the dark,
flying high in the sky, it flooded me and I got confused about the source
It shone sometimes cool like the moon, bearable,
Other times scalding like the sun, unbearable
You carried my light, I am convinced you were aware of it.
And in your kindness, your generosity of spirit, and above all your wisdom, you gave it back.
So this is the moment when I acknowledge, not thru clenched teeth or a fake smile,
Not just to buy your face.
Or make a pretty poem.
But with you at the centre,
Of my awareness, my gratitude, my humility.
Sincerely,
Thank you.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken

Silon bought a small skinless chicken. I left it in the freezer for a week, wondering what to do with it until she had a brainwave: bacon wrapped chicken!

I marinated the chicken with:

1 small onion, very finely diced
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 pinch ginger
1 pinch chilli flakes
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon hot sauce (Bandito’s 10/10)

I rubbed the mixture all over the chicken and steamed it for 30 minutes. I then wrapped the whole chicken in bacon using toothpicks to keep the bacon in place. Place the wrapped chicken in an oven proof dish along with 1 medium potato, halved and 3 cleaned, whole carrots. Roast for 45 minutes.

I received positive feedback but the chicken looked a bit dry. If I have to do this dish again, I will steam the chicken for 15 minutes only and use a simpler marinade type thing.

Chickpeas and Sweet Potatoes

One of the traditional dishes I loved as a child was channa and kheer. Channa is fried chickpeas and kheer is a sort of sweet rice pudding.  Here is my fairly healthy version of a childhood favourite:

250g dried chickpeas
1 small onion, sliced  
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1 pinch chilli flakes
1 pinch hing
1 tablespoon oil
2 cinnamon sticks
2 sweet potatoes

Boil the chick peas until slightly tender. Place sliced onions, mustard seeds, chilli flakes, hing, and oil in an ovenproof dish, mix all ingredients together and roast for 1 hour.

Insert Cinnamon stick into sweet potatoes and steam for 30 minutes or until tender. Remove cinnamon sticks and mash up the sweet potato. Serve with roasted chickpeas.

Ekadasi - Supper and Dessert

I decided to try and observe the Ekadasi fast which fell on Saturday.  For my practise run, I had bananas for breakfast and baked potato slices for lunch. I made the most awesome supper:

2 medium potatoes, sliced
1 larger tomato, sliced
pinch salt
pinch oregano
1 teaspoon olive oil ( I still have to check if olive oil is allowed)
250 g of mixed vegetables (butternut, peppers, baby marrows, patty pans)
1 teaspoon hing
mixed herbs

Coat potato and tomato slices with olive oil. Layer potato  slices in first layer of the steamer,  layer tomatoes directly on the potatoes, sprinkle oregano and salt and steam for 20 minutes
Next, mix remaining vegetables with hing, and mixed herbs and steam for 20 minutes. These two dishes together are delicious and filling.

Dessert was the most delicious part. I mixed half a teaspoon of cinnamon in 2 teaspoons of honey. Cored and cut the apple in 4 parts and coated with the honey mix and steamed for 15 minutes. Please try this at home.

Vegetable Soup for Me and Mince Curry for Silon

Tonight, I will be having Vegetable Soup that I prepared yesterday.

½ cup of soup mix (lentils, barley etc)
1 onion
1 tomato
1 eggplant
1 beetroot
2 cloves garlic chopped
2 chillies, sliced
1 teaspoon hing (aesfoetida powder)
2 tablespoon hot sauce

Boil Soup Mix Once, Add all Vegetables, Boil until Vegetables have softened. Delicious and Healthy.


I forget to mention that I also made the most tastiest (I was Told) Mince Curry:

1 onion, sliced
Olive oil
1cm cinnamon stick
1 piece of star anise
2 cloves
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
1 ½ tablespoon masala
250g mince
1 potato, cut in quarters
Salt to taste
½ teaspoon ginger
Sprinkling of mixed herbs
2 chillies

Place onions, cinnamon, star anise, cloves in a pot on medium heat. Add oil and fry until onions are golden brown. Add garlic, fry off, then add Masala. Let Masala fry then add the mince and potatoes. Add all other ingredients, cover pot and allow to cook for 10 – 15 minutes.  Add water. Allow to cook for half an hour. Serve with rice or roti.

One day I am going to try and make roti.

Steamed Roast Veg, Spinach and Brown Rice with Potato Curry

Dinner last night was steamed roast veg:

1 packet prepared roast veg
1 garlic, chopped
1/2 onion, sliced
1/2 teaspoon hing (asfoetida powder)
1/2 tomato

Mix all ingredients together and steam for 20 minutes. Delicious!

I had and old bag of spinach so I just discarded the darkening leaves, added salt and pepper and steamed. Not the best method to prepare spinach. The brown rice was also steamed and the potato curry was cooked for me.

Old movies that I liked – Cousins

Cousins is a light-hearted romance starring Ted Danson and Isabella Rosellini.

So Ted Danson’s character is described as being a loser at everything but life. I really like his character though, Cos he is like really relaxed and funny  and entertaining and Isabella Rosellini is this sweet girl who you just know is the type of girl who married the  nice guy with a steady job and potential. But we all know that guy, he turns out to be a freak with a panty fetish or something. In this case he is having an affair with Ted Danson’s beautiful but neurotic and  bitchy wife. So Ted Danson and Isabella Rosselini kinda figure it out and decide to pretend that they are having an affair but they fall in love. It’s this really sweet movie and they are so cute together. If you have a free Sunday afternoon, watch this movie.

Brown Rice in a Steamer

Brown Rice cooked in a steamer is divine.