Cooking fresh food and drinking divine Cape wines in Melkbosstrand Cape Town
During my visit to Aveiro in Portugal a few years ago, I had the pleasure of tasting the most delectable beef cheeks I have ever had! The unforgettable taste of that dish stayed with me, and I have always had the desire to replicate it. Therefore, I present to you my version of Portuguese beef cheeks served on a bed of creamy polenta.
I recently got my hands on wild boar and seeing that cider and sage are commonly used with pork, I decided to improvise and use an apple and beer with a browned sage sauce instead to contribute to the rustic flavours and image of the wild boar.
This is an extremely easy recipe which can be prepared in minutes. The original recipe uses skinless chicken breasts, but I opted for pork fillet. Don’t be shy with the sage and serve with your starch of choice.
I recently got some very impressive sheep tails i.e. skaapstertjies from a friend in Loeriesfontein, a small village in the Northern Cape situated in the Hantam region. This area is renowned for its sheep farming and its hospitality.
Ragù is an Italian meat-based sauce normally served with pasta. For the meat, I chose duck breasts and as for the pasta, I decided on pappardelle which is a large, very broad and flat pasta. The “ruggedness” of the pappardelle goes very well with the peasant-style ragù. To spruce things up a bit, I added aubergine and fava (broad) beans.
Bourbon chicken is a bit of Cajun and Chinese cuisines mixed together. There are quite a variety of recipes for bourbon (or whiskey) chicken, but my aim was simplicity and a short preparation time as well as a good sauce with a hearty starch.
This is a creamy and wholesome Italian dish which is very easy and quick to prepare. The dish is said to originate from western Sicily in the 19th century with English families, where Marsala wine is produced. A heavy French influence is also suspected together with American influence in the modern version. This will probably explain why Chicken Marsala is more popular in the Unites States than Italy these days. See this article.
Arní me fasolákia is a Greek lamb stew with green beans and tomato sauce. Arní translates to lamb and fasolákia translates to green beans or string beans. As a twist I added baby onions, garlic and cumin which is not traditionally done.
