noodles

Since our trip to Hong Kong and the awesome inspirational Momofuku recipes, we make noodles. It's like pasta, same method but better recipe and results. And I am hooked. It is like when you crave sushi or lamb tjops, I crave noodle broth! That's how good it is.

In Hong Kong, there are noodles literally everywhere. You smell it, you see it, you are probably lucky if you don't trip on it walking in the streets, breakfast, lunch and dinner. From the minute we put our bags in the Hotel at 9pm, we took a taxi and we were out and about, non-stop for the 2 days. Thank goodness we like to eat, it was the start of a cyclone and the weather was getting really bad. We walked and shopped and stopped to eat, whenever the rain gets too hectic we just smooch our way into another backdoor restaurant, not expecting too much. But my word, every sweetcorn soup, noodle broth, fried noodles, eel sushi, crispy whatever we had served with the best tea was always just flippin' good. Not forgetting the dim sum's. That specific night, we walked and ate and drank tea until 2 in the morning; that is how the Chinese roll in Hong Kong.

During the day we were on the hunt for all the fresh food markets. All that Arno really wanted in Hong Kong was a fresh eel. He read about it, that at some these fresh markets they sell fresh eel (look at the photo - they really keep the fish as fresh as possible) and then slice it up and fry it. Unfortunately we couldn't find the eel that he wanted. I wasn't too upset, I can live without eating fresh eel. At these markets they also make noodles (refer to photo), and do they make noodles!! The amount of noodles in one spot is actually mind blowing. I am sure that those ladies can make the noodles in their sleep.

The secret to noodles, as far as I know in my experience, is the alkaline ingredient and the method of kneading that makes the noodles chewy and to not disintegrate like a soft pasta would into a hot ramen broth. For the alkaline we use sodium carbonate and the dough should be kneaded until it is elastic and smooth. Just roll it out with a pasta machine, blanch it quickly and let it cook further in the hot broth.

Unfortunately I don't know any specific restaurant in Cape Town that makes amazing ramen broth (besides some chinese restaurant where I wouldn't really try it). So far I am lucky, I don't have to go far because our kitchen is a few steps away.

Changing the idea

This blog previously just focused on pastry and desserts. Now that I have my own website : www.fabuleuxfood.co.za, I can dedicate this space to Arno and me and our food travels and our daily cooking rituals. We are both chefs living ~ eating and drinking together. Sometimes there is harmony in the kitchen and sometimes there is war. Our kitchen is really the heart of the home, ask our friends.

I know that it is a late post, but we had such an awesome Introduction Braai for National Braai Day. We had it on Friday night because we had a wedding the Saturday and we can not NOT celebrate braai day. I mean really, it is a huge excuse to braai and you can not let it slip through your hands. We had a huge potato salad with homemade mayonaisse (had some help from friends to make a huge batch mayo!), pap tert (not a winner for Cape Townians, some reason Cape Townians are not really into maize - including my other half. Snobs.) and some breads (some crusty peppadew ciabatta bread from our oven) with mezze style condiments.

Any excuse for a braai is a good excuse.

My Red Velvet Cake

I like to take a recipe and make it my own. That is where one's creativity comes in. The last recipe that I made "my own" is yesterday's Red Velvet Cake. Miraculously there is still some left, which yes, I have had some this morning.
I do like this cake because it is super easy to make, it is moist, light, smells delicious and tastes great. 


The whole history around the Red Velvet Cake is American. Legend has it, a woman went to eat at a restaurant in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York during the 1920's. She ordered this cake for dessert and was smitten by it! Later on she asked for the chef's name and for the recipe. She received the recipe in the mail with a hefty bill! (Nothing is for free dear!). She paid the bill, but I can imagine that she felt cheated by the chef. As a typical woman, she thought a way of getting even.  She published the recipe. 


This cake recipe uses oil instead of butter. Oil prolongs the 'life' of cakes. Therefore you can make this cake 2/3 days in advance and it will still taste great! Then ice your cake on the day you want to serve it. I also added some spices in there, it is Winter after all.


I used two 25 cm baking tins for this recipe:


2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp mixed spice
250 ml buttermilk
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp white wine vinegar (or I used lemon juice)
5 tsp red food colouring 
1/2 vanilla pod


Sift all the dry ingredients together
In a mixer, combine the eggs and oil. Whisk until combined. Add the buttermilk, red food colouring and vinegar. Add the vanilla seeds.
Add the dry ingredients at a time and whisk until well combined.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180 deg for 20 - 35 minutes until cooked.
Take out and cool on cooling racks.


A lot of recipes call for cream cheese icing, but I used cottage cheese instead.
For the icing:
150 g butter, softened
7 tbsp icing sugar - until it is sweet enough for you.
200 g smooth cottage cheese


Whisk the butter until it becomes lighter, add the icing sugar tbsp at a time. Whisk until it is light in colour and becomes fluffy.
Add the cottage cheese and whisk just until combined. Do not over mix it, the cottage cheese will then get an uneven texture.
Cover the cake with the icing one it has cooled down.


It's so exciting to slice into the cake, you do not expect it to be 'that' red! Love it!

Baked cheesecake vs fridge/set cheesecake

Unfortunately you can choose only one! I don't even have to think twice about this one, definitely baked cheesecake!

Cheesecake can be compared to a whisk: at the end of the day it is still a whisk but there are so many shapes and sizes to compare and take into consideration. Same for cheesecakes, the ingredients differ but in the end it is labeled "cheesecake". Think about the available main ingredients : mascarpone cheese, cream cheese, cottage cheese and these are just the basics, you can even throw in some blue cheese as well! What makes each of these ingredients different? Texture, flavour, consistency in the end product are a few things to think about. Mascarpone cheese is smooth, rich but a bit sweeter than the cottage and cream cheese. Cream cheese have a wonderful texture but you definitely need to add something to it to give it more flavour, the same with the cottage cheese. Cottage cheese for me, is heavier than cream cheese. For the best results, I mix the different cheeses to get my desired taste and texture.

Set cheesecake is sweeter than baked cheesecake. I make an Italian meringue for a set fridge cheesecake therefore you do not have to use a lot of gelatine. A set cheesecake can get a rubber plastic texture if your quantities are not correct, do not use a lot of gelatine because the cheese itself have a desired texture and the Italian meringue is stable enough to keep its shape.

If you plan ahead, you will know what you are serving with the cheesecake which will also influence the cheese combination.The best combination so far is 2/3 cottage cheese with 1/3 mascarpone. Serving cheesecake with a berry sorbet will counteract on the sweetness of the cheesecake. When serving a sweeter companion like a chai flavoured creme anglaise with your cheesecake you will know that a baked cheesecake will be a better bet. Try your own combinations to get your signature cheesecake.

Cheesecake is a winner in Winter, baked that is! Vica versa for set cheesecake, it is better in Summer.

chocolate

For some reason, I am not a sweet tooth. I don't usually eat chocolate, well unless it is Lindt, that is also the reason why I put on a few kg in Switzerland. It is way too accessible and there are just so many and different chocolates to choose from it makes you feel that you need to try every single one of them otherwise you haven't lived to the fullest (yes the fullest of your physical body as well). To add to their chocolate flair, they make the most amazing hot chocolate ever! I can remember the one cafe in Bern where we had hot chocolate, it was unforgettable! The other reason why I remember it is because there was a crazy old man that couldn't speak English (he was the owner of the place, you would never have thought!). It looked more like chocolate ganache, the taste was smooth, silky dark chocolate in a liquid form. Once you took a sip from the hot chocolate there's a thick residue on the cup that you just want to eat with a spoon. 


This is a Spanish recipe (the Spanish introduced chocolate to Europe from Mexico);
In a double boiler, melt 55g chocolate in 2 cups milk until thick and smooth. Stirring constantly, add half a cup  of sugar, 2 tsp ground cinnamon and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Whisk the mixture and serve immediately. 


I also love chocolate mousse, that is what I made lately. The thing with chocolate mousse is that it can be used as part of a dessert or it can be served just as is.
The recipe I make is very basic, the only ingredients that you need are eggs, castor sugar, cream and a good quality chocolate.

• 4 egg whites
• 25 g castor sugar
• 250 g dark chocolate
• 125 g cream

Whisk the egg whites until frothy, add castor sugar and whisk until it becomes smooth and reaches stiff peak.

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler, cool down to room temperature and fold the meringue into the chocolate.

Whip the cream until medium peak and fold into the chocolate mix. Refrigerate for about 2 hours before use.

I served the chocolate mousse in a quenelle form with a baked chocolate slab, poached pear, berry gel and a white chocolate foam.


I might say that our relationship with chocolate is complicated. You love it but at the same time you despise it because it is the one thing that you can not say no to.

"Chocolate is heavenly, mellow,sensual, deep, dark, sumptuous, gratifying, potent, dense, creamy, seductive, rich, excessive, silky, smooth, luxurious, celestial. Chocolate is downfall, happiness, pleasure, love, ecstasy, fantasy...chocolate makes us wicked, guilty sinful, healthy, chic and happy"

Fig tart

Fresh, Roasted, Dried or Jam; figs have it all! 

It is one of the sweetest of all fruits when ripe with a high content of vitamins A,B and C. There are a few varieties, mainly the white fig(includes the green fig), purple and red fig. Figs work great with sweet or savoury flavours. Also blends in well with other fruits like raspberries, lychees and sweet melon. If you think about a recipe that includes prunes, you can always substitute it with dried figs (Woolworths have awesome dried figs). In Europe they even flavour coffee with roasted figs. I am not even going to go into my obsession with preserved green figs with fresh bread and cheese!

For now we have a roasted fig and vanilla creme patisserie tart. 

For 4 small tarts:

The creme pat you need

• 6 egg yolks
• 125 g castor sugar
• 40 g flour
• 500 ml milk
• 1/2 vanilla pod, split halfway and scrape the seeds out

Whisk together the eggs yolks and castor sugar with the vanilla until it becomes thick and creamy. 

Add the flour.

Heat heat the milk, pour it slowly into the egg mix. 

Put it back on the heat until the the mixture becomes thick and all the flour is cooked out.

Take 2 figs for each tart, slice them into quarters or smaller. Pour over 3 tbsp honey and roast them in a hot oven.

Once the creme pat has cooled down,pour into a pre-baked pastry tart case. Arrange the roasted figs on top and voila!

You can substitute the creme pat with lemon curd which will be more acidic so you can use more honey on the roasted figs.

Beetroot cake

I am addicted to vegetables. Especially the naturally sweet ones! Even if you are not fond of veggies, you might like this one. I have been thinking about this cake for a while now. What flavours will go well with beetroot, what icing would be best to use, what spices would bring harmony to the cake? After about a week now, I started experimenting.  Recently there is a lot of “beetroot cakes”, maybe it is because Valentines day is around the corner, but this one is different.

We went for a wine and dine evening , where all the dishes were paired with sparkling wine (bubble heaven!) and the only thing that I remember from that night is the harmonious symphony of beetroot and orange together (so no, I am not the first one that came up with the combination).
The spices that I thought would go well together with the orange and beetroot is cardamom, cinnamon and cloves, of course dark chocolate is there as well.

I baked this recipe twice now, perfecting it the second time. But both times they were a total hit! First time I baked a big cake, because it is a bit on the heavy side, I had only one layer with orange cream cheese icing, topped with our own potent brandy cherries. Second time I baked cupcakes, I filled the cups 90% because you need a bit of height. I halved them, piped some orange cream cheese icing in the middle, topped it with Lindt 75% dark chocolate ganache! I must say, I liked the second one better, everyone did!

This recipe will make 8 cupcakes or one 30 cm round cake.

• 1 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 4 big eggs
• 2 - 3 cups beetroot, grated
• 1 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/3 cup cake flour
• ½ cup pecan nuts, toasted
• 2 tsp cinnamon, fine
• 1 whole cardamom (seeds need to be crushed with pestle & mortar, add cloves)
• 1 clove
• Pinch salt
• 2 orange’s zest 

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the oil and sugar. Add eggs one at a time.
Sift flour, baking powder and spices together, add it to the egg mix.
Add the grated beetroot and orange zest. Fold in the toasted pecan nuts.
Pour into moulds, bake in a preheated oven at 160 degrees until baked.
Cool down.

For the orange cream cheese icing, use half a recipe for the filling of the cupcakes, full one if it is for the whole cake.

• 100 g butter
• 125 g plain smooth cream cheese
• 150 g icing sugar
• 2 orange zest and juice

Whisk together the butter and icing sugar until fluffy. Add the cream cheese, combine well and then add the orange juice and zest.

Make a plain chocolate ganache for the top. 1 part chocolate to 2 part cream. Boil the cream, pour over chocolate, cool down to room temperature before you pour over cupcakes.