Crisp, melt-in-your-mouth meringues are easy to make. All you need is patience, time and these essential tips. How to make meringues MAKES about 20 INGREDIENTS 3 egg whites 100g castor sugar 15ml cornflour METHOD PREHEAT the oven to 100°C. Line a large baking tray with baking paper. WHIP egg whites in a glass bowl with an electric mixer until very stiff – you should be able to hold the bowl over your head without anything falling out. Gradually sprinkle in the castor sugar while whipping, then mix in the cornflour. Mix for 2 minutes to help the sugar dissolve. SPOON…
Here’s how we make perfect pancakes every time – easy pancake recipe: Put 100g cake flour and a pinch of salt in a mixing bowl and make a well in the centre. Break 2 eggs in the middle and add 80ml milk and 10ml oil. Whisk gradually, combining all the ingredients to form a smooth thick paste. Add a little more milk if it is very stiff, then add 220ml milk and continue to whisk until you have a smooth batter with a slightly thick cream consistency. Heat a small frying pan or preferably a cast-iron pancake pan over medium heat.…
You don’t have to meander through the cobbled streets of Madrid to sample authentic tapas and experience what has become the spirit of sharing good food. Here are some hot new local contenders who are creating small plates with big personalities SERENA WALKERThe tapas trend has taken South Africa by storm, particularly in Cape Town, with some interesting new chefs behind the scenes who are packing the punch into bite sizes. Give our tapas trail a try… and remember it’s all about sharing so more is definitely more! Fork Head down Long Street and step inside Fork (84 Long Street,…
Fancy two weeks in southern France with a fleeting visit to Spain? KIM MAXWELL stayed close to the Mediterranean for a personal exploration of time-steeped places and produceThe adventure began in an original feudal village in the south of France. Puissalicon is so small I couldn’t find it on a map, but it’s near Béziers in the Herault. I was travelling with my fiancé Craig, after friends had invited us to join them in a modest holiday home below a very steep cobbled incline. At the apex, a circular street surrounding a château had only a boulangerie, provision shop and…
Nic van Wyk loves fantasising about, talking about, and working with food. Over tapas at his recently opened Barnyard Brasserie in suburban Cape Town, he was spreading the mood. By Kim Maxwell We’re meant to be talking tapas, but pigs’ ears and tails are on the menu. We’ll get round to the tapas chat – when Nic van Wyk talks food there are always culinary diversions and detours aplenty. Chatting in the open kitchen of his new restaurant in Tyger Valley, Cape Town, Barnyard Brasserie and Tapas Bar, Nic rolls dough for fried Spanish churros for the day’s tapas gathering…
Meet four of the country’s most talented chefs, winners of the Unilever Foodsolutions Chef of the Year competition in the categories of By Invitation Only, Senior, Junior and Ethnic Mystery baskets gave way to creative and delicious dishes at the recent Unilever Foodsolutions Chef of the Year competition, which saw top chefs from around the country pitting their skills against each other in what has become one of the most esteemed culinary awards. For the first time there were four exciting categories in the competition: By Invitation Only, Senior, Junior and Ethnic chefs. In the By Invitation Only section, six…
Theatre of Dreams’ Richard Griffin shows you how culinary magic happens in the circus tent he’s just brought to Johannesburg from Cape Town. By Hilary Prendini Toffoli Chopping beetroot in the kitchen behind his highly successful dinner theatre tent, the Theatre of Dreams, Richard Griffin has the impish air of one of those cute gypsy waifs who run off with your purse at Rome’s central station. Yet he’s a fully fledged professional restaurateur with a degree from the Cordon Bleu Institute in London who, at the age of 33, has almost two decades of cooking experience in kitchens from Cairo…
Against the odds, a township cooking school in Cape Town is slowly making a difference, and forging promising careers in hotels and restaurants for its students Dressed in a white chef’s hat and a neat uniform, two students are methodically combining flour and butter in a bowl. The oven is nearly at the correct baking temperature for scones in the making, and trainer Ashley Miller is supervising their steps. It’s a familiar scene from any professional cooking class. The difference is that this one is in a converted container in Langa, in greater Cape Town. Eziko Cooking & Catering Training…
Food & Home Entertaining’s food editor ANNA MONTALI relished a delicious visit to L Telfair Golf & Spa Resort where she cooked Mauritian cuisine with the expertsANNA MONTALI What can I say about Mauritius that you don’t already know? This is one island that has been talked about more than any other holiday destination I’m aware of: lots of sunshine, long sandy beaches, hours of relaxation and, travelling from South Africa, you don’t have to fly for hours to experience paradise. I accepted a media invitation to Mauritius and this time it was quite different – we were going to cook.…
Relaxing alongside the river at Summerfields River Lodge and Rose Spa, Jan Smuts’s former hunting lodge, offers heady romance and respite from the city madnessANNA TRAPIDOAs our six-seater, private plane comes in to land alongside Summerfields River Lodge and Rose Spa, the great Sabie River snakes through the majesty of the lowveld landscape and the urban expanse of Hazyview, Mpumalanga quietly slips away. We step off the plane into a charmingly Out of Africa-style tented camp built on a working rose and macadamia farm that was once the site of Jan Smuts’s hunting lodge. We are welcomed into a world…
Renowned French chef Marc Guebert is Johannesburg”s Mr Souffle. A magician with egg whites and a whisk, he estimates that in the last 30 years he has conjured up more than 400 000 of his light-as-air creations. Since he arrived in South Africa in 1972, Marc Guébert’s Grand Marnier soufflé has been the shining star of high-society birthday parties and economy-altering business lunches. In French, the expression “à bout de soufflé” means “breathless”, and Marc’s soufflé has consistently left Johannesburg diners gasping in admiration. From his early days at Ile de France and later at Bistro 277, the popularity of…
Paris – it’s the city of romance, fashion and style. It’s also a dream destination for foodies, as F&HE rediscovered. Share our must-keep guide to the best gourmet spots VANESSA GROBLEROne of the best things about exploring an enormous city like Paris is that there is so much to do, see and taste that anyone who has visited it probably has their own list of favourite spots, especially when it comes to the city’s culinary culture. Arriving in the French capital can also be quite daunting if you have no idea where to start, especially as some of the best…
In this age of extreme choice among luxurious safari lodges, how do you differentiate one from another? Ecca Lodge, in the Eastern Cape’s Kwandwe Private Game Reserve, not only fits the bill, but breaks the mould with its funky, modern design and superb dining KIM HOEPFLYou’ll find Ecca Lodge (named for the dark shale seen lying in abundance in the area) an hour’s drive inland from Grahamstown in Kwandwe Private Game Reserve. The surrounding bush is scrubby and treeless. Water is scarce. Giant cacti, taller than a man, give it an air of the prehistoric. A curiosity is the thick…
VERUSKA DE VITA La Grande Epicerie and Fauchon in Paris, The Organic Café in Dubai, Harrods Food Hall and Fortnum & Mason in London, Dean & DeLuca in New York. Besides having the commonality of world-class cities, these food emporiums have another common element – they’re all geared for the executive eater who is conscious of organic produce, variety and daily freshness. In these stores vegetables sparkle, uniformed staff are friendly and knowledgeable, hot meals are made from delectable recipes and shopping becomes a bucolic experience of one-stop gourmet browsing, even for those who hate trudging up and down food…
A personal chef. Gwyneth Paltrow has two – one for sweet and one for savoury; Toni Collette has one to cook macrobiotically; and hip-hop star Jay-Z has added one to his entourage just to make chicken wings, The Observer online reports. But it’s not just in the lives of the rich and famous that personal chefs are becoming de rigueur. In the United States for example, there’s the American Personal and Private Chef Association, and according to www. personalchef.com about 9 000 personal chefs are registered, with over 0 million a year being spent on the service. While the trend…