Being exposed to a wide range of new ingredients and products, I have decided to share a few of these amazing new products. Most of these products are widely used in Asian Cuisine and can only be found in certain stores that specialise in Asian Cuisine. I have included the traditional name as well as a rough translation of what each item actually is.  As time goes on and I become more familiar with these ingredients I will post some of my own recipes. So keep an eye out for those in the next month or so. Hope you all learn something new and put it to use next time you make a Asian fest for your Family or friend. Or even if you just able to identify those ingredients you never knew on the menu at you favourite Asian restaurant. 

Ingredients List 

1. Takano Stame - Dried Chilli
2. Kochukaro- Red Pepper flakes 
3. Szechuan Povar - Mixture of Spices native to the Szechuan Province of China 
4. Hondashi Gyomuyou - concentrated grains of bonito flakes used for flavouring 
5. Itogaki Katsuo - Fine shaved Bonito Flakes 
6. Shisen Tobanjan - Assorted Chilli Paste 
7. Moniji Orashi -Chilli Paste 
8. Hoisen Sauce - Thick sauce made from soy beans, vinegar, sugar, garlic and various spices
9. Goma Abura - Sesame Seed Oil 
10. Nata mame no Hanna - Prepared sword bean blossoms 
11. Yuzu Kusho - Spicy citrus paste (yuzu, Japanese citrus fruit similar to lemons in appearance) 
12. Nagai’s Aonori Ko - Prepared Sea Weed
13. Kozuru Zero - 0% Saki (Rice Wine) 
14. Matcha Midori - Green Tea 
15. Layu - Sesame seed chilli oil 
16. Kaiso salad - Sea weed salad 
17. Me hijiki - Sea weed (fine black) 
18. Saitaku sushi nori - sushi sea weed sheets 
19. Yakisushinori - sushi nori (roasted, Gold brand)
20. Itagaki Katsuo- shaved Bonito 
21. Fueru wakame - seaweed mix dried
22. Katsuo kombu awase dash - seaweed crushed dried bonito & kelp 
23. Kewpie (QP) - Sushi mayo 
24. Karashiko - Mustard powder 
25. Harusame - Cellophane noodles or Glass noodles made from starch and water
26. Dried Vermicelli noodles - Type of Rice noodles
27. Dashi kombu - Dried seaweed/ family of Kelp
28. Mizu Ame - Liquid Candy used as a sweetener (Millet Jelly)
29. Tankatsu Sauce - Thick brown sauce similar to HP sauce.
30. Mamenori San Goma - Soy bean sheets for sushi 
31. Rayu - Chilli infused vegetable oil 
32. Masago - Capelin roe
33. Negi - Japanese leak, mistaken for green onions 
34. Kanikama Mix - Artificially flavoured crab sticks made from white fish.   
35. Yamaimo - White Japanese yam/ wild yam
36. Sansho pepper - Powdered berry like fruits from the prickly ash tree. (Shuan Pepper)
37. Miso - Fermented Soy Beans 

Today I have decided to keep it simple with a easy home made chili oil. It does how ever take a bit of time, but at least you don't have to stand over it the entire time. Its also a very small ingredients list as well as amount of steps in the method. Some people choose to simply use this oil for a colourful decoration and some for actually enhancing the entire dish. There are plenty of ways to play around with this easy to make and long lasting oil. You can choose to incorporate more of a complex flavour profile by adding different spices, one really nice one for me is the Rosemary oil and mint combination for drizzling over roasted leg of lamb. As I mentioned earlier, this is a product that you can easily store in a air tight bottle or container and it will last you a good 8-12 months. As for what oil is the best to use when making your own flavoured infused oil, it should be a tasteless oil with little to no taste of its own. Some of the oils I would recommend include a good quality sunflower seed oil, canola oil or a good quality vegetable oil. While doing this you might also want to make use of you thermometer to ensure that your oil does not get too hot,other wise the ingredients will burn and you will be left with a bitter tasting oil. 

Ingredients 

• 300ml of canola oil 
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or 1 tsp dry chili flakes)
• 1 fresh chili 

Method

1. Place all your ingredients into a medium sized pot and then place on top of a medium to high heat. 
2. Allow the oil to come up too 85C/185F and then put it on a low heat. 
3. Allow for the ingredients to infuse on the low temperature for a good hour. 
4. Once the hour has past, carefully remove from the heat and allow to cool down
5. Once cooled down, slowly with out disturbing the ingredients at the bottom, pour the oil into the container you have chosen to store it in. 
6. If there are still some impurities, you can strain it through a fine sieve or muslin cloth. 

This recipe I'm posting today is a traditional one, with no fancy extra ingredients that will win you the "Checkers Boerewors of the Year". But feel free to start off with this as a foundation and play around with it, make it your own. Every weekend in South Africa, hundreds and thousands of families partake in what we call the "Braai", to others it is known as the BBQ. This is a good time for us as it's a time where families and friends get to relax with a ice cold beer, my favourite's being Black label and Castle Light, and enjoy good food as well a big screen in the outdoor lapa or stoep (veranda) watching a good rugby game. The gentlemen would stand around the braai where every single one of them will check the meat (they can't help it) and the ladies would be busy in the kitchen making potato salad, beetroot salad and mielie pap. Once all the food is cooked and ready to be eaten, its all laid out on a big table where everyone can help themselves. It's when everyone all comes together and talks about anything and everything. And by this time they have had a few and the conversation is flowing and everyone's just having a great time! Braai is a really big thing here in South Africa, we have a national Braai Day as well as a song just for Braai Day, I'll place a link at the bottom for the song. 

Recipe 

• 2kg Lean Beef (you can either buy the meat and mince it yourself or ask your butcher to mince it for you) 
• 1kg Fatty Pork (you can either buy the meat and mince it yourself or ask your butcher to mince it for you) 
• 45g Coriander Seeds (toasted and roughly ground ) 
• 5ml Cloves (toasted and finely ground)
• 2 tbs Salt
• 1 tbs Black Peppercorns (toasted and finely ground) 
• 2ml Ground Nutmeg
• 10ml All Spice (toasted and finely ground) 
• 10ml Brown Sugar 
• 125ml Red Wine
• 90g Casings 

Method 

1. If you have chosen to mince the meat your self, place the chunks of meat through your meat mincer at quite a coarse grain. 
2. Once all of your meat has been minced place all of your dry ingredients with the meat and mix well . Add the red wine and mix in thoroughly.
3. Allow for meat to rest for about 30 minutes in the fridge.
4. Now using your sausage stuffer attachment place the casing around the nozzle and add you minced meat. Slowly start to stuff your casing making sure to create a thick sausage.  
5. Cook on a open fire for best taste. Enjoy. 

Edited by: Monique Boaventura

Cape Malay people have blessed South Africa with this wonderful dish I'm about to give you the recipe for today. But before I do that I'm going to tell you a bit about these wonderful people. The Cape Malay people were fist brought to the South African shores back in the early 16th century to be used as slaves for Dutch Master. They were settled in the souther point of South Africa, as this was the VOC (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie)  trading point where the Dutch East Indian Company ships would pass by either on the way to Asia or back home. The Cape Malay community is a divers collective of people ranging from Western Africa all the way to Malaysia. They were exiled from their countries by the Dutch Masters for resisting the change the Dutch brought to their country. Then shipped off to the Cape of Good Hope and used as slaves here in the plantations to produce enough supplies for the ships when they passed by. Due to the vast cultural diversity between the "Cape Malay" people, they where able to create their very on style of cooking. Marring the deep rich flavours of Western African with the Aromatic flavours of East Asia together to give us a unique flavour profile you can only fine in South Africa. This unique flavour can still be found in Cape Town where the Cape Malay people are still living, giving us the opportunity to experience something unique.  For more history on the Cape Malay people simply click on the buttons below. 

When you make this dish it is best served a day or two after it has been made so that the flavour are able to combine properly and the pickling liquid is well absorbed by the fish. It is also better to use a firm meaty fish to use as it will be able to last longer with out falling apart. Im using hake today in the recipe but other good fish for this is sea bass, yellow tail and kingklip. If you pan on storing the fish for long periods of time, please ensure that the container you are using has been properly sterilised and has a air tight seal to prevent the fish from going off. If all of the criteria are met, you will be able to store the fish for about 4-6 months. 

Tonight I'm going to give you a great recipe to make your very own Thai Green Curry paste. So no more excuses to go and buy the bottled Thai paste, this recipe will give you a much more flavourful taste to your Thai green curry! 






Ingredients 

• 12g green chillies 
• 130g onions 
• 30g ginger 
• 15g garlic cloves 
• 40g fresh coriander 
• 30g lemon grass 
• 30g zest and juice 
• 8 fresh Kaffir lime leafs  
• 7g coriander seeds 
• 5g cumin seeds 
• 5g peppercorns 
• 10ml Thai fish sauce 
• 45ml olive oil 
• 5ml soya sauce 
• 5g palm sugar 
• 40g fresh basil 

Method 

1. Place coriander and cumin seeds into a pan and allow to heat up, once at you can start to smell the spices, remove from heat! (this will release the essential oils from the spices) 
2. Place all ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend all ingredients till you have a good paste consistency 
3. Place into sterilised container and cover with a layer of oil to create a seal! 

So those of you that are regulars on my website will have noticed that I've posted two other recipes for butter icing on my blog. Each one using a different part of the egg and thus giving each icing its own unique texture and flavour profile. Making it suitable for different occasions and cakes. This whole egg butter icing is my favourite simply because i don't like to waste produce, and you don't always have a need to do something with extra egg whites or yolks! Even though there are several different and easy items you can use both egg whites and yolks for. And as with the other two recipes this one is also very easy to adapt to different flavours you'll like to try out. With the festive season, it is perfect to play around with to make a eggnog flavoured butter cream frosting and pair it with a simple Victoria sponge sandwich cake. Perfect for dessert after a wonderful family dinner. 
For a Great eggnog recipe go have a look at "Toast to Food's" Glipho Blog page! Simply click on the button at the bottom. 
BUTTER CREAM (whole eggs)

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
  
• 200 g sugar
  
• 250 g butter
  
• flavouring (vanilla, cocoa powder, coffee powder)
  
• 10 ml Lemon juice
  
• 1 Lemon, zested
  

Method

• Beat the eggs and sugar over a double boiler (bain marie) until ribbon stage along with the lemon zest 
and juice.
• Remove from the heat and whisk until cool.
• Beat the butter until creamy and gradually add it to the egg mixture, beat until it is all incorporated.
• Flavour as desired.

Happy Holidays Everyone! 

Apples, Cinnamon and Ice cream: three thing that remind me of Christmas in South Africa. 



Apple and raisin crumble 

Ingredients 

• 50g flour 
• 40g granulated sugar 
• 30g butter 
• 10g brown sugar
• 1 can or 2 poached apples 
• 10g raisins 
• 2g cinnamon

Method 

• Mix the flour, butter and granulated sugar to get a bread crumb consistency 
• Place apple pieces into a ramekin along with the raisins
• Cover with bread crumb mixture and sprinkle with brown sugar
• Place into 180C oven for 20-25minutes 
• Serve with crème anglaist (see recipe page)

Amarula ice-cream 

Ingredients 

• 500ml cream
• 500ml milk
• 6 yolks
• 150g sugar 
• 5ml vanilla
• 25ml amarula (You can also use Baileys) 

Method 

• Bring milk, cream and vanilla to the boil then allow to cool for a hour
• Mix yolks and sugar
• Bring milk and cream back to boil, temper egg yolks and add to mixture off heat along with 
the amarula 
• Strain mixture and cool down
• Place into sorbetier and allow to set ( Or you can place the mixture into a large container with a big surface area and place the liquid in it. Place the container into the freezer and every 10 minutes remove and give a good whisk and return to freezer.) 
• Place into freezer for 90-120 minutes 
• Serve
P.S. Will be posting a home made Baileys recipe soon as well! 
Apple fritters 

Ingredients 

• 2 apples
• 200ml flour
• 10ml baking powder 
• 125ml corn flour
• 5ml salt
• 5ml cinnamon 
• 2ml nutmeg
• 2ml ginger
• 190ml cold water
• 50ml sugar

Method 

• Peel the apples and cut into 1/8 even wedges ( sprinkle with lemon juice)
• Mix in a bowl the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger powder, cold water 
and sugar
• Allow for the mixture to rest for 10 minutes
• Cover the apple wedges in corn flour and then cover with batter 
• Place into a 170C deep fryer and cook till golden brown (use a deep pot with a thermometer will also work perfectly!) 

Spice List Commonly used in Indian Cooking:

English Name- Indian Name

Asafoetida- Hing: This is a powdered gum resin from several Iranian and East Indian plans that is dried, it has a very unpleasant smell which is a acquired taste. But when used in dishes it resembles the taste of leeks, and is also used in pickling mediums and helps with the digestion of food. The plant looks very much like that of fennel.  

Besan-Gram-Garbanzo: The flour made using dried chick peas. Gram flour is considered as a  staple ingredient in India, Pakistan and Bangladeshi, used in several delicious  dishes to make fritter and flat breads. 

Cardamom- Elaiche: This is the dried fruit form a leafy plant which is of the same family of ginger. The seeds are cased in a triangular pod which is either green or brown in colour. This wonderful spice is native to India, Nepal and Bhutan with Guatemala being the biggest exporter followed by India. In my personal opinion this spice goes really well with white chocolate to make wonderful truffles. 

Coriander-Dhania: It is in the same family as parsley, also known as cilantro or Chinese parsley. The seeds are also use in either whole or ground form. It has a great refreshing aroma when used fresh and adds great depth to any dish when using the seeds. One of my Favourite herbs to use in stir fries and in salsas.

Cumin-Jeera: This flowering plant comes from the East Mediterranean all the way to India, the cumin seeds are in fruit which is dried and then removed. This spice is used across a wide range of cuisine and can be used either whole or ground with a ver strong aromatic flavour. It can also be easily confused with caraway, but cumin is lighter in colour and is also larger in size. 

Fennel Seed-Sauf: Mostly found on the shores of the Mediterranean, the plant has yellow flowers and it feathery in appearance. The flavour and smell of the fennel seed is that of Liquorice. It is available whole and ground. 

MInt-Pudina: Grows in a big bush with bright green leaves which have serrated leaves with a very refreshing fragrance with can be used in salsa, teas and several dishes including desserts. It can be found all across the glide and it very easy to grow and maintain your self. 

Saffron- Kesar: This thin thread is from a flower which grows in Spain as well as Kashmir, when blooming in warm water it yields a yellow orange colour which is a very soft aromatic flavouring. One of the most expensive spices you will get, so treat with care! 

Turmeric-Haldi: Is made from a dried root, which is then ground and made into a fine powder which is bright orange in colour. The fresh root is very similar to that of fresh ginger. It is mostly used in curries in India as well as used to flavour other dishes. It is found in subtropical India subcontinents, and needs a constant of 20-30C and plenty of rain fall to thrive.