Cook sister!

Smoked chicken on the BBQ with curried stuffing

One of the hottest food debates in the media in recent weeks has centred on the provenance of everybody's favourite white meat - chicken.  In a nutshell, it boils down to the interests of Big Business (i.e. making lots of money fast) versus the interests of the chickens (i.e. having a safe and healthy life).  On the side of the chickens we had Hugh and Jamie and surprisingly weighing in against free-range chickens was Delia Smith.  Hugh even turned shareholder activist this year and tried to persuade Tesco shareholders to vote on forcing the supermarket to enforce RSPCA standards for all chickens it sells at the company's AGM. 

One of the hottest food debates in Chez CookSister in recent weeks has been whether the weather will ever be warm enough again for us to want to braai this "summer".  And it appears that we may have a small window of opportunity sometime in September.

I weep.

But when that window of good weather does come, I'd hate any of my faithful readers to be stuck for recipes as to what to cook on the BBQ!  So here's the recipe for a smoked chicken we made back in the late Spring, before the drizzly summer had set in.  The reason why it was the perfect post for this event is because the chicken generated a lot of discussion amongst our guests at the time.  "Oooh, it's so big, look at how yellow it is, good grief there's a lot of flesh on that!" etc etc.  The reason was that I'd bought the Rolls Royce of supermarket chickens - a free-range, corn-fed bird.  Compared to its battery-farmed neighbours, it was a HUGE beast and the corn feeding does indeed make chickens appear yellow.  Our guests were actually bemoaning the fact that they just don't see these in their local Tesco (and I must admit, they aren't always available at ours, so I buy them when I see them). 

I won't lie to you - it was substantially more expensive that the battery-farmed birds, and therein lies the rub.  People like Delia Smith and others have come out in support of cheap, battery farmed chickens because they form a vital and affordable source of protein for those whose incomes don't give them the luxury of an ethical choice.  And you have to admit that they have a point - it's fine and well to browbeat everyone into buying more expensive ethically-raised meat, but the fact is that if you are on a limited budget and your x Pounds has to buy x number of meals, you are not going to head straight for the premium-priced organic free-range aisle.  Apart from telling people that their buying habits are bad, you also need to show them that there are ways of keeping costs steady while changing your shopping habits.  For example, if I had bought a standard-sized battery chicken, it would have fed four comfortably but probably not have yielded many leftovers.  However, this Godzilla chicken fed the four of us amply; then with the addition of a creamy sauce the leftover meat was made into a smoky version of chicken a la king; and then the carcass and its last scraps of meat were boiled up to make a delicious chicken noodle soup.  So although the chicken seemed expensive, it yielded at least 6 delicious adult meals.  Show me the battery bird that can do that.

And how did it taste?  Fantastic.  The stuffing is very lightly curried and the apple juice lends a hint of sweetness.  The woodchips do a fantastic job of imparting a seriously smoky flavour to the flesh, and basting together with long, slow cooking means that the skin acquires a sticky-sweet crispy deliciousness.  The free-range bird also had (gasp!) a taste - somehow more flavourful and defintitely of a better texture than the cheaper birds.  Our guests agreed that it was definitley worth spending the extra money, even if you were only looking at taste and not ethics.  My only word of warning would be to make sure you have lots of coals to hand - maybe even make some more coals in a separate kettle BBQ halfway through the cooking time, just to add to the chicken's kettle.  And although the recipe (from the ever-reliable South African Kettle Braai Cookbook) says to baste frequently, remember that every time you lift the lid you lose heat and smoke flavour, so try to baste only once or twice, and be prepared to add extra coals.

Kate of A Merrier World recently asked me to submit a recipe for her Let Them Eat Chicken event, which aims to raise awareness of ghastly broiler rearing systems - there is a lot of excellent info on Kate's site here and here.  Thought-provoking and often downright scary.  I do believe my entry might be pushing it to the limit as regards her deadline of 18 July, but I'm hoping I can still squeak into the roundup!

SMOKED CHICKEN WITH CURRIED STUFFING

Ingredients:

1 large free-range chicken
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 large stick celery, finely chopped
2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
ground black pepper
40g butter, melted
100g stale bread cubes
90ml apple juice

FOR THE SAUCE:
150g smooth apricot jam
2 Tbsp apple juice
1.5 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp finely chopped onion

FOR COOKING:
2 cups wood smoke chips
water
apple juice
vegetable oil

Method:

Wash the chicken inside & out and pat dry.  In a large bowl, combine the onion, celery, curry powder, salt, pepper, butter and bread cubes.  Add the apple juice to make a rough paste and use this to stuff the chicken.  Tie the chicken legs togerher securely and fold the neck skin under to keep the stuffing in the cavity. 

Make the sauce by mixing all the ingredients together in a small saucepan and heating gently until the sugar has fully dissolved. 

Soak the smoke juice in water mixed with a little apple juice for about 30 minutes.

Prepare a large indirect fire in your Weber or other kettle BBQ.  When it is ready, add 500ml water and 250ml apple juice to the drip pan between the coals. Sprinkle half the soaked smoke chips over the coals and place the chicken on the oiled grid over the drip pan.  Brush the chicken with a little of the oil.

Cover the BBQ kettle and cook for about 2 hours, brushing the chickens with sauce a couple of times and topping up the liquid in the drip pan if dry.  Insert a skewer into the fleshy part of the chicken leg to check if it is cooked - the juices should run clear.

We served our with the glorious and a proper South African potato bake (recipe to follow soon!)

My fiction debut (!), more press, and two awards

So I keep saying I can write... now is your chance to find out if I can walk the walk as well as talking the talk.

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to participate in Can You Twist, a project where 6 female South African bloggers compete with their short stories for the title of "short story diva" and a cash prize. Sure, I said, no problem!  And 15 minutes later I was hyperventilating in uncontrolled panic.  Oh crap, what have I agreed to - I haven't written fiction in 20 years!!  But I found it to be like riding a bicycle and before I knew it I was cutting paragraphs out to trim the length, rather than scratching my head for inspiration.   My story can be found here: one instalment a day every day this week, with a big finale this Friday.  Last week's story ended with free flowers from strangers.  What will this Friday bring?

The winner is determined by a public vote, so I will need your votes if you like my story :) You need to register on the site to vote (enter your e-mail address, name, and choose a password). You have to provide a valid e-mail address because you will be sent a confirmation e-mail and only once you've clicked a link in that e-mail will you be allowed to vote.  There are 6 stories in total and you can vote either FOR or AGAINST each story, but you only get one vote per story so use it wisely.

Although you can register now, voting for my story only opens on Friday 18 July when the story finishes.  You can also wait to vote until you've read all the stories if you like, because voting continues until the end of the competition on 20 August.  All the stories will remain available on the site until the end of the competition. 

So what are you waiting for - go and check out the first two instalments today!  You can also enter your  e-mail address and all subsequent instalments will be e-mailed directly to your inbox so that you don't miss a word. And please feel free to tell as many of your friends as possible about the competition too!

Enough on fiction for one day - let's get back to the facts!  I'm pleased to be able to tell you that it's been another good month for press mentions here at Chez Cooksister. 

Firstly, I was approached by New Moon Magazine, an ad-free magazine for teenage girls, and asked whether they could use my photo of Peppermint Crisp fridge tart in their July/August 2008 issue.  I like the concept of the magazine, which is content generated by girls for girls, on topics that are really relevant to them - without all the ghastly marketing usually aimed at teenage girls.  My picture illustrates a piece written by a South African teenager on her daily life in South Africa, and the editor very kindly sent me a hard copy of the magazine for my files.  Thanks Heather!   

And the other big press news is that the award-winning Woolworths Taste magazine has run a small piece in their August 2008 issue selecting their top five South African food bloggers.  I'm thrilled that I am one of them and that I am regularly in touch with all the others - and have even met two in person!  I'm still considering legal action for defamation of character after Taste hailed me as "best veteran food blogger" (!!), but that aside I'm thrilled to see that the South African food press has finally recognised the excellent content being generated on South African food blogs. (Don't forget to check the weekly SA food & wine blogger profiles on the Directory site!)  

And finally, on to the awards. Firstly, I was thrilled to discover that I have won the Word4Word writing award in The Greedy Gourmet's monthly Snackshots event - for the second time! It appears that the judges liked my declaration of love for Ottolenghi's chargrilled vegetable salad and I feel very honoured.  Thanks guys!  Remember that this month's theme for Snackshots is meringue, so start whipping!  I was also nominated for a second time for an Arte y Pico award by the lovely Jan of What Do I Want to Cook Today?   I was previously nominated for this award not too long ago, so Jan please forgive me if I don't nominate again, but have a look at who I nominated in May.  

Phew - I think that just about covers it, both on the fiction and non-fiction fronts.  Tomorrow, it's back to the food!

WTSIM - the berried treasures round-up

Berried treasures indeed.  Judging by the length of time this Waiter, There's Something in My... roundup took, some of you probably thought I'd buried them and then forgotten where they were buried!  But never fear, all your entries are safe and sound and I haven't lost my treasure map. 

As I'd hoped, this month's berry theme was not only perfectly seasonal (for this hemisphere, anyway...), but also lent itself very well to various levels of complexity.  From simple berries and yoghurt, to far more elaborate berry creations - everything looked and sounded wonderful. So without further ado, grab a shovel and let's go looking for berried treasure!

When I first went over to read my friend Nic's entry at Cherrpeno, I wrote in the comments "I'm sorry, my brain stopped functioning when I read 'white chocolate custard cream'" - and I wasn't joking because I then proceeded to forget to include her divine entry in the roundup!  So as a gesture of recompense I've added it right at the top where everyone can see her picture-perfect summer berry millefeuille.  Apologies, Nic!

First off the mark, shortly after I announced the theme was one of my favourite bloggers - Susan of Food Blogga in San Diego, California.  She was also one of only three brave souls who attempted a savoury berry dish - bravo!  She wowed me not only with her pictures but also with the innovative recipe for pork tenderloin with a strawberry & mango salsa.  How can anybody resist that?

On the other side of the world, Johanna of the Green Gourmet Giraffe in Melbourne kept it simple and made a smoothie.  But not this any smoothie... this one has a surprise vegetable ingredient.  Raspberry, apricot and pumpkin smoothies, anyone?  As Johanna says, suspend your disbelief till you try one - it really works!

I love a good clafoutis, I do... and apparently, so does The Budding Cook over in the USA.  After a trip to the farmers' market left her with a glut of blueberries, she decided on a blueberry clafoutis. A very berry clafoutis - wonderful!  And knowing how healthy blueberries are, you can almost convince yourself that this is health food...!

Like me, Mansi of Food and Fun in California was pretty sceptical the first time she heard of strawberries with balsamic vinegar and black pepper.  But, like me, she was won over as soon as she tasted them.  And now she has even used them to give a new twist to an old favourite as she prepares vanilla pannacotta with balsamic strawberries.  And just see her adorable heart-shaped panacottas!

In the northern parts of Europe, strawberry season isn't going to last forever so Ulrike of Kuechenlatein in Germany is making the most of the local berries while they're available.  She keeps things really simple with strawberries on yoghurt - all the better to taste those little treasures!  And check out the martini glass presentation :)

Talk about blogging beyond the call of duty... Although Kit of Food and Family lives just outside Cape Town, she was so devastated that the WTSIM berry theme was out of sync with South Africa's seasons that she arranged a family trip to the UK especially so she coudl make somethign with fresh berries ;-)  And what she makes is probably the all-time classic English berry dessert:  summer pudding.  Who would have thought that stale white bread and berries could taste so damn good?

Moving over to Vienna, we meet up with Astrid of Paulchens Foodblog.  Apparently, it's been hotter there than it has been here because she's been craving a frozen dessert.  She creates a strawberry-raspberry frozen yoghurt that not only tastes fab, but just look at the beautiful mould she's made it in.  I'd say it looks good enough to eat :)

You've probably all heard of some variation of rhubarb & strawberry pie, but Mickey of Kitchen Inferno in St Louis, Missouri decides to ring the changes and presents us with a rhubarb and blackberry pie instead.  I agree with her that theflavours and colours are more interesting than pies using strawberries and I like the crumble she puts on top of the pie - I can convince myself it's a healthy dish :)

I do love a twist on a classic dish... and apparently, so does Cakelaw of Laws of the Kitchen in Melbourne, Australia.  You've all had lemon meringue pie - a great combination of sweet and tart flavours - so why not try a berry meringue pie instead? Cakelaw had cleverly frozen a couple of punnets of berries when they were in season and they worked beautifully as a pie filling.  Clever!

Up next is another of my favourite bloggers, fellow South African Inge of Vanielje Kitchen in Somerset, UK.  She subscribes to the same belief as I do, namely that the best dishes take 30 minutes in the kitchen, but look and taste as if they took 3 hours.  She wows her friends and family with strawberry & raspberry feuilletées - she describes it as summer on a plate and who am I to argue?

A newcomer, both to blogging and top WTSIM is the lovely Dawnielle of Exceeding the Speed Limit.  She and I have been chatting on e-mail since long before she started her blog and I'm thrilled that she has taken the plunge :)  She combines the sweetness of peaches with the tartness of raspberries to create a delicious looking rustic raspberry peach galette - and the secret is... vodka in the crust.  Now that's my kind of baking :o) 

And as if that wasn't enough, Dawnielle also created a second entry for this momth's WTSIM!  She because the second participant along with FoodBlogga to try a savoury berry-based dish as she brings us an intriguing raspberry chipotle Zinfandel marinade.  WIth those flavours, how can yo go wrong, and just look at the vibrant colour.

From there, we head over to Amman, Jordan to visit Zita of Simplicious.  She is one of those brave and crazy bloggers that make up the Daring Bakers, and she found that she had some praline left after this month's challenge.  She transforsm it by building an entirely new dish around it: praline strawberry tarts with sour cream filling.  Gorgeous!

Down in Sydney, Australia, Anna of Morsels & Musings shows us that you don't have to think summery desserts when you think of berries.  Oh no - she pictures chilly Victorian familes huddled around their table in England to ooh and aah as the steamed pudding is ummoulded. Her version consists of individual steamed blueberry puddings, and I'm sure there are oohs and aahs all round!

One of the best things about food blog events like WTSIM is that you get to discover new blogs - like Jude's Apple Pie, Patis and Pate in Chicago, Illinois which I had not visited before.  Jude wowed me with an unusual berry dessert - raspberry lambic sorbet, made with rasberry lambic beer!  Simple and brilliant - I'll be back :)

I think everyone has dishes that they have an unreasonable phobia of making. For me, it's jam... but Karen of Bake my Day in the Netherlands has no such qualms!  She gives a great step-by-step explanation of how to make strawberry jam, including the sterlilization of the jars.  And I love the addition of black pepper to the recipe!

We're staying with strawberries but heading over to visit Faith of Blog Appetit in San Francisco next.  She has that rarest of assets - a husband who voluntarily stops the car to shop at farmstalls (unlike mine!) - and as a result she had more berries than she knew what to do with.  So she makes strawberry sorbet with a berried treasure inside - literally! 

It seems that frozen desserts were a big hit this month as we head over to Minneapolis, Minnesota to visit Bhags of Crazy Curry.  Bhags gives us a beautiful post, all about memories of the monsoon in India - I was ready to book my flight by the time I'd fininshed reading it!  And the post finishes on a high note with David Lebovitz's frozen blueberry yoghurt. Yummy!

Up next is one of my favourite recipes this month. The lovely Deeba of Passionate About Baking... & Beyond near Delhi, India gets my attention by using some wonderful quotes from Erma Bombeck, but I really sat up and started listening when I got to the recipe for chocolate cinnamon mousse with cherries.  Can you think of a better combinatio of tastes?  Nope, me neither :) 

If you're in England and you have stale white bread and berries, you make summer pudding.  But if you're first-time WTSIMer Joelen of Joelen's Culinary Adventures in Chicago, Illinois you make... strawberry bread & butter pudding!  I love playng around with the basic bread & butter pudding recipe, and this seems like an inspired take on the original.

Slightly north and across the border, we pop in to visit Kevin of Closet Cooking in Toronto, Canada.  He's another brave soul who attempted a savoury dish as he finds himself with more strawberries than he knows what to do with.  The rest of us might have made jam... but Kevin dreamed up cod with a strawberry and balsamic salsa!  I'm intrigued - and I'm sure you will be too!

Up next is one of my favourite entries this month from one of my favourite bloggers - Ilva of Lucullian Delights in Italy.  Not only does she say the most outrageously nice things about me, she also posts a spectacular mixed berry and ginger tart with a rosemary crust.  Berries + ginger + rosemary can only = absolutely fabulous - and just look at her exquisite photos...

Back to Canada, and this time we're off to visit my old friend Elizabeth from Blog from OUR kitchen. Like me, Elizabeth always seems to have more things to do than there are hours in a day but this month she comfortably makes the deadline.  Her dish is a delicious strawberry shortcake, but it's quite different to how I always imagined it - go and take a look for yourself :)

It seems strawberries were a big hit this month on both sides of the Atlantic.  Back here in the UK in Bristol, Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar tries something a little more adventurous with hers than the usual strawberries and cream.  Just have a look at her spiced strawberry soup with honey frozen yoghurt and strawberry granita - not only is it beautiful (look at the intense colour of that soup!) but it sounds mouthwateringly delicious too.

From the relatively complex to the deliciously simple - let's see that Becke of Columbus Foodie in Columbus, Ohio is up to.  She seems to have a treasure chest of assorted fresh berries at her fingertips and sticks to a beautifully simple dish to let the ingredients shine through: mixed berries with lemon quark.  Just look at that tempting picture!

As I mentioned earlier, one of the great things about hosting this event is discovering new blogs and another new discovery for me this month is Munchkin Mail, here in Warwickshire, UK.  First time WTSIMer Lysy wows me with another simply delicious recipe for strawberries - grilled strawberries with Pimms.  Now can you think of anything more symbolic of an English summer menu?

From the simple to the more complex, and from the UK to The Hague in the Netherlands to visit Linda of Make Life Sweeter.  She was asked to make something for a charity fundraiser and just look at these little redcurrant & blackcurrant mini cakes she made - little jewelled berry beauties!  No wonder they sold out before she got a taste.

Back across the channel in Derbyshire, UK, I can't resist popping into Jules' kitchen at Domestic Goddess in Training.  After a visit to a pick-your-own berry farm, she just has to make a classc English pudding - but she grabs my attention by miniaturising the portions to give us adorable individual summer puddings.  Gorgeous!

On the other side of the world in Melbourne, Australia it's the middle of winter and you'd be forgiven for thinking that the antipodean bloggers would struggle with this month's theme.  Not the lovely Haalo of Cook (Almost) Anything at Least Once!  You see, she froze some blueberries in the summer when they were plentiful and now she has no trouble whipping up a brioche and blueberry pudding - a rather sexy take on bread and butter pudding.  Inspired.

Probably the most unusual berries I came across this round arrived courtesy of Susan from The Well-Seasoned Cook in New York.  You've all seen raspberries, in their day-glo red colour.  But how many of you have seen yellow raspberries?  I know I haven't...  Susan gives them extra special treatment, first by cooking the fruit in a spiced syrup and then baking them in a rosemary-spiked yellow raspberry crisp.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it! 

Now we've had all sorts of baked goods this month, but not really that many cakes.  However, Paula from Dragon's Kitchen in Ontario, Canada aims ro redress that imbalance.   She makes a cake - but oh what a cake.  One look at the beautiful photo, and the fabulous inclusion of Limoncello in the recipe will tell you that this lemon blueberry cake is something special :) 

And right here in England we meet up with the lovely I-Ling from Feed Me!  I'm Hungry!  She's also been travelling, but still manages to squeeze in a gorgeous entry for this month's WTSIM - it's a baked raspberry and nectarine (pan)cake.  Think colourful clafoutis and you wouldn't be far wide of the mark - too lovely!

Co-founder of this event, Andrew of Spittoon, has been travelling more than ME lately!  Geneva, Berlin... it's allright for some!  Just before he set off on his travels he made the most of some berried in his freezer and cream in the fridge to counjour up the simply delicious mixed berry mousse.

After returning home from his travels, Andrew of SpittoonExtra managed to squeeze in a second entry - and this one's a goodie.  It may be simple, but his chocolate croissants with strawberries and ice cream looks mind-bogglingly good - and easy enough to make on the spur of the moment.

And last but not least, there's my own entry - those deliciously sinful dark chocolate and raspberry cupcakes.  One bite and you'll be doomed to eternal (but delicious!) chocolatey damnation ;-).

Phew!  A huge thank you to everyone who went to so much trouble to take part and create wonderful berry-based dishes.  It's been a pleasure browsing through all your wonderful blogs :) Next month, it's Johanna's turn to host WTSIM and I hear a rumour that the theme may involve sumer picnics... Do check her site to see when she announces the theme!

Rosemary roasted beetroot and butternut

It's been a while since I participated in Weekend Herb Blogging, the perenially popular event created by the lovely Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen.  Not because I don't cook vegetables, you understand, but because I always think 'oh, I'll post on Sunday because that's the deadline' and before you know it, it's midnight on Sunday nightand you just want to go to bed :(

But it's a good thing I had a look at her site this week because it seems there are some rule updates for WHB in the pipeline.  As of next week, requirements are being tightened up a bit and entries will have to feature either: a) principally a herb; or b) an unusual vegetable.  I agree with Kalyn that this will help to make the event more focused (rather than having entries that have only a nodding acquaintance to herbs!) in an ever-increasing pool of food blog events.  Go and read for yourself and remembrr that the new requirements take effect next Sunday!

Not sure that today's post would make the cut for next week, so I'm sneaking it in now.  However, this is an unusual dish for me because it's the only way that I like eating beetroot ;-)  Yes folks, mostly I find beetroot to be Satan's Own Vegetable.  I blame a childhood littered with sliced beetroot salads.  They were always too vinegary and the texture of beetroot has never appealed to me one little bit.  And then there was that bloody juice.  You only had to look at it and it would stain some item of your clothing.  Aaaarrrgh!

But I always felt vaguely guilty about not eating beetroot because it's so good for you.  Beta vulgaris has been eaten and cultivated by man for centuries and is high in fibre, carotenoids and flavonoids and low in calories, as well as being low GL.  It's also a good source of Vitamin C.  For the trivia buffs out there:

• the Romans used beetroot to treat constipation;
• the colour of red beetroot is due to betacyanin pigments, unlike most other red plants, such as red cabbage, which contain anthocyanin pigments; and
• red beetroot can affect the colour of urine and faeces of people who have an inability to break the pigments down.

Butternut squash (Cucurbita moschata),is rich in Vitamins A and C, as well as dietary fibre.  And as for rosemary, many supersititions surround it power.  Some believed it would only grow in the gardens of the righteous; that a sprig placed under the pillow would repel evil spirits or bad dreams; or that rosemary laid on the bedlinens would ensure faithfulness. 

I discovered the concept of roasted beetroot paired with butternut squash from my sister-in-law and was astonished to find that I actually like beetroot when it's roasted like this.  It brings out a sweeteness that just about conteracts the overt earthiness that I'm not so partial to.  You can use scrubbed raw beetroot or (as I usually do) buy cooked beetroot  - just make sure it isn't preserved in vinegar as this overpowers the sweet flavours.

And if the trivia mentioned above is to be believed, making this easy dish will apparently ensure that you and your beloved remain flu-free, unconstipated and faithful ;-)

ROSEMARY ROASTED BEETROOT & BUTTERNUT (serves 2)

Ingredients:

1 small butternut (or half a large one)
4 small beetroot
3-4 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp dried rosemary
Maldon salt flakes or fleur de sel to serve

Method:

Peel and dice the butternut.  If using raw beetroot, scrub and dice.  If using cooked beetroot, slice each beet into 6 wedges.

Place diced vegetables in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Pour olive oil over and toss to make sure all cubes are coated.  Sprinkle with the dried rosemary and place in a preheated oven at 200C for about 30 minutes, turning once.

When the edges of the cubes are beginning to brown and they yield when tested with a skewer or sharp knife, remove from the oven, sprinkle with Maldon salt flakes or fleur de sel and serve.

The charming hostess for WHB this weekend is Simona from Briciole - do check her site for the roundup this week!

Tomato saffron fish stew with anchovy pesto - for those needing comfort

Don't you just hate coming back from holiday? 

You arrive back all relaxed and full of optimistic plans about how you are going to rearrange your schedule to do more yoga/cooking/writing/ sleeping/whatever... and within days you feel so worn down by the realities of daily life that you need another holiday. 

Monday night as I was walking to Spanish class and Nick was just getting ready to leave home to join me, Siemens (contractors for British Gas) arrived to replace our gas meter - their idea, not ours.  They replaced it, tested the system and then said  ooooh, you have a gas leak.  So Nick questions this because a) nobody can smell gas and b) if there is a gas leak THEY caused it, otherwise surely we would have blown up the minute we returned from holiday and switched on a light!!  But they refuse to express an opinion, turn off our gas supply, and tell Nick to call Transco/National Grid to report a leak.  So he does this, and they show up sharpish, thinking they need to avert a gas explosion.  They then do their test and say no, no gas leak.  However, the Siemens guys had warned Nick that they might say this, and had told us to get them to switch the boiler back on and then test for a leak.  So Transco try to restart the boiler that Siemens had switched off (you know, the one that was running happily when Nick got home...) - no dice.  The pilot light had permanently died.  Of course, Transco can't do boiler repairs, so they cheerfully seal off our gas supply and ride off into the sunset, telling Nick to call British Gas. 

By now it is 8pm and British Gas say they'll only visit the next day, between 12 and 6 (what - do people in this country not fooking WORK?!).  So I stay home from work all day and at 17h30 we call to ask if they are really still coming - yes of course, says the operator.  At 18h30 and facing the prospect of another day without hot water, we call again.  Oh, sorry, the engineer got stuck on a very lengthy job and can now only come tomorrow.  Will we be in?  Aaaarrgh!  No!  We bloody well won't - we will be at work, earning a salary so we can pay our gas bill!  So no hot water for second night.  Tuesday morning the guy finally shows up at about 08h45, tinkers extensively with the boiler to get the pilot light lit, berates ME for the location of shelves that landlord put up in such a way that you have to remove the shelves from the wall in order to remove the boiler casing, and finally gets the pilot light working again so he can test for a gas leak.  And after all that he connects up his test equipment and... he declares that there was no gas leak in the first place.

Give.  Me.  Strength.

And then we get the ever amusing Very Angry Folk out there on the Internet.  God bless those Internuts.  In the space of a week, I have been variously accused in my own comments section of:

• plagiarising a specific recipe from Recipezaar (Not even close, pal. In fact I posted the link to the alleged original recipe in the comments just so future visitors can see how not similar it is to mine.)
• posting a snoek recipe that sounds "absolutely disgusting" because I am obviously of the wrong ethnic persuasion ever to be able to make this recipe properly (Beware, all you non-Italian bakers of pizza or non-Greek rollers of dolmades - you might be next up against the wall!)
• corrupting the youth and spoiling everyone's dining experience by (gasp!) daring to photograph the meal I had over 2 years ago at the Fat Duck and then double daring to leave the photos blatantly on my blog for all and sundry to see and become annoyed all over again. Because, of course, I am the only blogger ever to have done this and obviously deserve to be singled out for chastising. (But I'm touched to note that, although said commenter said he does not care what I ate, three months after first berating me he's still reading Cooksister. Bless.)

Are you surprised that I felt in need of comfort food by last night?  Wouldn't you have?

Every Mediterranean country seems to have its own take on a rich, soupy fish stew.  Think bouillabaisse in France,  cioppino in Italy,  zarzuela de mariscos a la Catalan in Spain, or kakavia in Greece.  Before anybody gets offended by my ethnically-incorrect cooking and attempts to club me with a large spiky fish (or other cultural weapon of their choice), this recipe does not attempt to recreate any of the abovementioned classic recipes.  But it's low fat, soupily comforting, very tasty, and can be on the table in 30 minutes.  I served mine on tagliatelle, but crusty bread would make an equally good partner.  For me, the anchovy pesto is what really lifted this dish into weeknight dinner heaven, so don't stint on it.

Oh, and just to avoid yet more trouble, this recipe was clipped from a South African magazine 10 years or more ago and I freely admit that I have no idea which one.  Also, please note that no other diners were offended in the photographing of this dish.  

TOMATO SAFFRON FISH STEW WITH ANCHOVY PESTO (serves 2)

Ingredients:

600g firm white skinless fish fillets
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 large stick of celery, sliced
1 can plum tomatoes, chopped
1 Tbsp tomato paste
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp dried oregano
2 Tbsp chopped parsley
1 bay leaf
a pinch of saffron
1/2 cup of dry white wine
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

FOR THE PESTO:

1/2 a 50g tin of anchovy fillets, chopped
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
frreshly ground black pepper

Method:

Soak the saffron in a little of the wine for 15 minutes or so while preparing the other ingredients.

Rinse and dry the fish and cut into chunks.  Mix the chopped plum tomatoes, tomato paste and herbs. 

In a large saucepan over medium heat, gently sautee the onion, garlic and celery until soft.  Reduce the temperature to a gentle heat and add the fish and the tomato mix to the saucepan.  Add salt and pepper to taste, then mix in the saffron, the olive oil and the wine.

Cook uncovered for 30 minutes or until the fish is just  cooked and the liquid has reduced to a thick soupy consistency.

In the meantime, pound together the pesto ingredients with a pestle & mortar to make a rough paste.

Remove the bay leaf and serve the fish stew on good pasta in shallow bowls, topped with a dollop of the pesto.

Elsewhere on the food blogs:

Peter made prawns Tourkolimano 
Elise made her dad's fish stew 
Carolyn made a Nigerian fish stew 
Anthony made bouillabaisse 
Johanna made a Catalan monkfish and clam stew

Recipe for a perfect Alpine summer holiday

Ingredients:

1 apartment in a secluded chalet in the shadow of Mont Blanc and the Aguille du Midi

3 local kittens and their mom for hours of entertainment

a generous handful of snowy mountain peaks

a sprinkling of glaciers

2 spectacular cable car rides

4 mountain walks

2 Alpine braais (BBQs)

A few wild strawberries

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together in generous quantities. Bake at 30C every day and allow to cool in the daily late-afternoon thundershowers. Make sure everyone gets a big portion every day.  Try not to worry about the lack of WiFi or the almost total absence of photographable meals.  When you need internet access, why not take your laptop down to the Chamonix tourist office where you have free 24 hour internet access at a long wooden counter under a little awning - perfect for Gonzo blogging in the middle of a thunderstorm.  (I am not making this up.)

For dessert, why not try a weekend in Geneva with dear friends:

Garnish with a wedding in a beautiful Chateau and a couple of newlyweds:

Sinful dark chocolate & raspberry cupcakes

Hooray!  I have an internet connection again!  This is CookSister coming to you live from Geneva, so do pardon me if this post is not as long and detailed as those that you are used to.  My excuse is that the sun is shining, and the city is calling - far too nice a day to spend blogging!  All the same, a woman has responsibilities, and I am aware that the WTSIM deadline for this month is looming... so here is my own contribution.

They say opposites attract. Think of salty aged Pecorino and sweet honey.  Of crisp toast and runny egg yolk.  Of salty anchovies and sweet caramelised onions in a pissaladiere.    Of cold ice cream and hot chocolate sauce. 

They could have a point.

This is how my train of thought was chugging along in relation to this month's theme of berried treasure.  Berries as a group are probably one of the tartest fruit families.  Unless they are VERY ripe, all of them retain an appealing tang which makes them the perfect, balanced partner for sweet stuff.  An absolutely classic combo is raspberries and white chocolate - think cheesecakes or muffins.  But I had another idea in mind - something even more decadent and sinful. What about raspberries and dark chocolate?  Since my muffin pan has so far only been used for ridiculously healthy muffins, I thought it was time to take it for a walk on the wild side (so to speak!) and make sinful chocolate raspberry cupcakes.

I can't recommend these enough.  The recipe is the result of two different ones that I combined:  I liked the chocolate that one used but not the raspberry preserves; while I liked the fresh raspberries the other used, but not the cocoa powder - so I mixed & matched.  They are dead easy, the texture is moist and light (lightness probably aided by the extra baking soda I added) and the raspberries hidden in the centre means that they are never overwhelmingly sweet,  But they will make you fell very, very naughty!  

 

SINFUL DARK CHOCOLATE & RASPBERRY CUPCAKES (makes 12 large cupcakes)

Ingredients:

113g butter (preferably unsalted)
75g dark chocolate, broken into large pieces 
1 cup soft brown sugar
1 tsp instant coffee powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour 
2/3 cup water
1 cup fresh raspberries

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and flour the cups of a 12-cup muffin pan (or use paper muffin cups lke I did).

Melt the butter in a heat proof bowl over a pot of boiling water.  When it is half melted, add the chocolate,  Remove from heat when the chocolate is completely melted and stir to check for lumps.  Mix in the brown sugar, coffee powder and vanilla essence.  When these are fully mixed, mix in the eggs.

Sieve the baking soda into the mixture (to prevent lumps) and stir well. Stir in the flour and beat the mixture until all ingredients are well incorporated and the batter is thick, then stir in the water a little at a time.  Make sure the liquid is entirely absorbed into the bater..

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan, filling each cup about half full. Place 3 raspberries on the surface of each cup - they will sink into the batter.  Fill each cup almost to the top, place another fresh raspberry on top and bake until each cupcake is firm and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean - about 25 minutes

Cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then carefully lift each cupcake from the pan and let cool to room temperature.  Or, if using paper cups like me, you can move them from the pan to a rack almost immediately. 

As I mentioned, this is my entry for this month's Waiter, There's Something in My... event, which I am hosting and which has berries as its theme.  As I am unlkely to get to the roundup tomorrow, You can still send me your entries until Monday 7 July.

Spicy salmon fillets with fresh herb salsa

As we all know by now, women are from Venus and men are from Mars, and I very much doubt that anybody who is married will dispute this.

On Mars, apparently, technology is far more advanced than it is here on Earth.  This high-tech environment extends even to the smallest room in the house, where used cardboard toilet rolls are automatically removed from the spool in the middle of the night without human intervention and teleported to the recycling bin.  Sadly, men's Martian DNA means that they retain a life-long inability to identify empty toilet rolls and give these unfamiliar items a wide berth.

Similarly, the advanced technology on Mars means that towels are unnecessary - the Martians simply step into cubicles rather like full-body hairdryers and emerge seconds later, perfectly dry.  This has two consequences:  firstly, it means that the novelty of towels never quite wears off for them, and they are seized by a compulsion to gather and use as many as possible,  regardless of whether the towels belong to them or to their housemates.  In fact, in some expat Maritan communities, the number of damp, crumpled towels in a house is seen as an indicator of prosperity, and therefore a much sought-after status symbol. 

These cultural differences are also much in evidence in the kitchen.  I have heard many reports of the average male Martian cooking session dirtying 7.29  times as many cooking utensils as an equivalent session by their Venusian counterparts, and involving approximately 738% of an adult's Recommended Daily Allowance of saturated fat.

My own personal Martian remains true to his species in terms of the first two cultural quirks, but in terms of the third it seems that he displays some differences.  Not to say he is more like me - he just has different quirks to other Martians.  If I cook dinner, there will be some sort of protein, some sort of starch, and a lot of vegetables.  Yes, this will dirty more than one pot, but that's because it's in effect 3 different dishes (more often than not - I seldom master the art of one-pot cooking!).  And if we had chicken/fish/pasta/pork last night, I will make sure we have something different tonight.  Nick, on the other hand, will go to great lengths to make sure he uses as few pots as possible - if vegetables will dirty another pot, let's skip them!  And I do believe that, left to his own devices, he would eat the same thing every night:  pasta with chopped tomatoes, onions and garlic.  And maybe a braai or two when the weather is good...! But the biggest difference is the speed at which we produce meals. However I cut it, preparing dinner seems to take me at least an hour - but Nick transforms from lethargic sofa-surfing mode into Speedy Gonzales when he enters the kitchen!  I came home from a meeting after work the other night, tired, grumpy and hungry, at about 9pm and my heart sank when I saw that the oven was not even on yet. 

But my fears were ill-founded because half an hour later we sat down to these salmon fillets and their delicious herb salsa, together with sauteed zucchini with leeks!  It seems he had been surfing the net and defrosting the salmon, waiting to leap into action when I walked through the door :)  They have a warm, spicy flavour rather than a take-the-roof-off-your-mouth heat, and the crisply refreshing salsa is a perfect match.

What can I say - my Martian's a keeper :)          

 SPICY SALMON FILLETS WITH FRESH HERB SALSA (serves 2) (from the BBC Food website)

Ingredients

¼ tsp ground turmeric
¼ tsp ground paprika
¼ tsp dried oregano
¼