Kitchen Diary

Hello blogland, long time no see.....life has been rather hectic for me lately. Lots of exciting food competitions, meeting lovely new people, being interviewed by others, and being invited to Fairview Wine Farm was just the cherry on top.

A couple of weeks ago 12 bloggers were invited by Fairview to participate in a Food Bloggers Challenge using their Fairview camembert as the main ingredient.  So we all did our entries and posted them onto our blogs. You can see mine over here The list of all the other bloggers who participated is on the page linked just above.

Little Jay sniffing in the lovely cheesey aroma of my tarts. He ate a whole one too and enjoyed it!

Last Friday we arrived at Fairview and were taken through the goat sheds, visiting the pregnant nanny goats, and we also got to cuddle and bottle feed the kids. We had so much fun. Here you can see Nina getting up close and personal with one little fella.

After seeing the goats we were then taken on a tour through the fabulous cheese factory by cheese maker Bruce Rowbotham. A wonderful experience to see the different processes that the cheeses go through before they get opened up in our kitchens.

Once the tour was over our gracious and lovely hostess Maryke Truter, the Sales and Marketing Manager took us to the Goatshed Restaurant where we were entertained, wined and lunched by Charles & Di Back, Chris Davis the CEO and Maryke. Fabulous food & wine, you can see some exquisite photos on Ninas blog My Easy Cooking and then we each presented with a wonderful hamper of their products, an apron and a recipe booklet. Chris then announced the winner of the competition who was Hila from Add to Taste blog

You can read all about it in great detail and see lots of photos on my Wordpress blog

Happy Friday, I hope you are all wearing your Casual day stickers in aid of the disabled in our country today, and I also do hope that you are all going to plant a tree in honour of Arbor Day.

Have a great weekend

browniegirl xx

PS A very big congratulations and WELL DONE to the Eat Out team on the launch of their new website earlier today. It was worth the wait guys. xx

Greetings blogland from a sunny corner of my little world. We have had some cold fog the last two days but Mr Sun seems to be winning the battle at the moment and it's delicious to feel the warmth of it!

For Auntie Halfpint and all those other lovely folk here who follow the Jay story, here is the little man with his new glasses. He does not like them too much and they spend more time on top of his head than on his face hehe. But he has to wear them for close up work like playing, colouring in, reading etc so at least he doesn't have to wear them all the time.

Voting is going fairly briskly on facebook in the Verlaque Challenge and at the moment my recipe is coming up trumps, but then again, there are still about 6 more days to go with the voting so anything could happen in that time. I must say there is a lot of fun to be had on facebook and also loads of competitions too. I won a whole lamb last week from Braai4Heritage. Now to find the freezer space to put it all into :o) I drool thinking of all the delicious recipes I am going to be making! Some fellow blogging members are very active on facebook and I laugh a lot at all the antics :o)

Nina over at My Easy Cooking ran her first exciting Blog Event (Thai food) recently and I decided to enter but left it rather late due to circumstances. Anyway, happy to say that I managed to skid in there with my entry. You can take a look at my recipe here . I made a 3 course Thai inspired meal consisting of a Chicken Lemongrass and Coconut Soup with healthy shiitake mushrooms...It was hoooot and potent but very delicious. My main course, which I entered into the event, was a Spicy Peanut Chicken Dish that I served with Coconut Rice - yum yum yum!!! And then for dessert (you all know I have to do the dessert thing hehe) I did a delicious sweet chilli salted caramel sauce for pouring over vanilla ice cream. I will blog the other two recipes as well sometime soon.

Enjoy the rest of the week and the last of winter........spring is around the corner but I think that Winter still has some nasty surprises for us up her sleeve! But I have been really enjoying the warmer weather the last week or two. We do however need rain for the catchment areas.

browniegirl xx

I am very honoured and thrilled to have been chosen as one of the six finalists in the Verlaque Recipe Challenge

My recipe for Mandarin Duck Breasts with Citrus Ginger Soy Glaze was selected out of the three recipes that I submitted for the challenge. The photographs have now been posted on the Verlaque Facebook page so if you belong to facebook please do pop over and go and take a look at all the entries and cast your vote.

As before in the ClemenGold competition this is how the voting happens:

1. Go to the Verlaque facebook page and click on the LIKE button alongside the name Verlaque.

2. Go to the Verlaque Challenge Photo Album and there you will see photographs of the six finalists and their recipe 

    entry photographs alongside each one of them. Click on a food photograph to open it up into the large format so that you

    can take a look at the yummy food :o) If it screams eat me now then act immediately....no do not try and eat the screen

    but rather cast your vote by clicking on the LIKE button directly below the photograph for your vote to be counted.

3. You can also leave a comment if you wish but these will not be counted.

4. There are 2 weeks for the votes to be cast. Thats soooo long to wait hehe. The winner will be announced on August 10th

5. At the end of the two week period all those who have voted will be entered into a lucky drawer and 1 voter will receive a

    prize of a delightful gift box of Verlaque goodies. Yes, if you go and cast your vote you might win something too!!

Now don't forget, this is my recipe that is in the final six! I was going to insert a photograph of my Mandarin Duck Breasts with Citrus Ginger Soy Glaze here for you to feast your eyes upon once more but unfortunately Letterdash is playing up again and I cannot access my albums. So pop over to the blog entry and go take a look.

And remember..........YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!

browniegirl xx

My final entry into the Verlaque Recipe Challenge is a dessert that I have been trying to find ingredients for. Struck it lucky on Wednesday when I found the cherries and then the rhubarb at the food market.

RHUBARB POMEGRANATE & CHERRY COBBLER WITH A TWIST

(Developed and tested by browniegirl)

Serves 6

Preheat oven to 180⁰C

Grease a medium sized deep rectangular or square ovenproof dish with butter

Filling:

2 Bunches Fresh Rhubarb – washed, leaves discarded & sliced into 2cm lengths

100g Fresh Black Cherries – washed, stoned and stalks removed

1 Tbs Verlaque Pomegranate Concentrate

Grated zest of 1 orange

Juice of ½ Orange

65ml Castor Sugar

2 Tbs Cornstarch

Mix all together well and set aside while you make the topping – mix thoroughly every now and again to get all the filling well mixed

Cobbler Topping:

4 Large Eggs

250ml Coconut Oil

250ml Sugar

250ml Self Raising Flour

5ml Baking Powder

2ml Salt

2ml Vanilla Extract

• Sift dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, add the rest of the ingredients then whisk together to form a soft batter
• Pour the filling into the prepared dish then spoon the topping roughly over the filling
• Bake for about 30 minutes until the topping is brown and springy to the touch
• Poke holes in the topping with a fork then pour over the following

Pomegranate Sauce:

250ml Milk

125ml Castor Sugar

1 Tbs Verlaque Pomegranate Concentrate

15g Butter

Boil all together then pour over the hot pudding so that it will be absorbed into the topping and make a delicious moist cobbler.

Serve with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream or Whipped Cream. Custard is also a good accompaniment to this delightfully tart yet sweetly stylish cobbler.

 It is very late, I might just not make the midnight cutoff but I will submit it anyway seeing as I have come this far. Had both boys for the night so my evening and night was a bit busy.

Have a great weekend,

browniegirl xx

Verlaque Recipe Challenge Part 2 as promised last night. Best I get this blog post up before my two little tornadoes arrive for the afternoon and night....its a double bill Pinky Friday today for brownieboy and I. Definitely no baking will be done, not with the monster Jaybird in residence haha!! So on with my second entry into the Verlaque challenge. Midnight tonight is the closing deadline for entries into this challenge guys so best you get to it pronto! Get Verlaquing....Im totally Verlaquered myself hehe!

For my second duck breast I decided to team up the last of my ClemenGolds with Verlaque before I ate them up. I have so been enjoying them and every time I go out to the mall these babies are on my shopping list. Sure getting my fill of Vitamin C this winter and loving it!

Mandarin Duck Breast Verlaque with a citrussy ginger soy glaze

MANDARIN GINGER & SOY GLAZED DUCK BREAST VERLAQUE

(Recipe compiled, tested & photographed by browniegirl)

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 Duck Breasts – washed and patted dry

10ml Olive Oil

5 Spring Onions – topped & tailed then sliced on the diagonal into 1cm slices

10ml Fresh Ginger – peeled and finely sliced or grated

Few Sprigs of Lemon Thyme

250ml Hot Chicken Stock

240ml Orange Juice – I used 4 oranges

2 ClemenGold Mandarins – thinly peeled strips of zest (no pith) from 1 then both peeled and segmented

20ml Soy Sauce

50ml Verlaque Persian-Pomegranate Balsamic Reduction

65ml Runny Honey

Freshly Cracked Black Peppercorns

10g Unsalted Butter

• Preheat the oven to 200⁰C
• Wash and dry the duck breasts then score the skin sides with a small sharp knife (a craft knife works magnificently) into a diamond pattern, Make sure not to slice into the flesh. Salt both sides then pepper just the flesh side. Set aside.
• Saute the spring onions in the olive oil in a medium sized saucepan until just glazed and translucent
• Add the ginger, lemon thyme leaves, stock, zest, juice, Ponzu, balsamic reduction, honey and a good grinding of black pepper. Bring all to the boil then boil quite rapidly until the liquid is reduced and thickened – about 5 minutes or so.
• Add the mandarin segments and stir through. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Set aside.
• Place the duck breasts skin side down in a cold non stick frying pan over a medium heat and sauté for about 4 minutes or so. Drain off all the rendered fat, flip the breasts over so the skin is on top then pop the pan into the oven for approximately 6-8 minutes. Longer if you want them well done. Duck breasts should be moist and pink in the middle.
• Remove from the oven, cover with tin foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing on the diagonal about 1cm thick slices. Plate then spoon over some of the mandarin ginger sauce.
• I served my duck breasts with oven roasted root vegetables & zucchini

To make the roasted root veg, butternut & zucchini I washed, peeled (where necessary) and cubed or sliced some butternut, zucchini, red onion, baby turnips, carrots & parsnips. Popped them into a roasting tin with a glug of olive oil, Verlaque persian-pomegranate balsamic reduction, a drizzle of honey, salt & pepper and a few sprigs of lemon thyme. Roasted at 200degC for about 25 minutes. Yet again sweet daughter arrived just in time to share this meal with me. I have discovered after 31 years that my child's favourite meal is duck breast! Who knew? Certainly not her mother haha....anyway, she said this one was her favourite of the two although yesterday she said that the blackberry duck breast had been the best she had ever eaten. Last night she phoned to say this one is now her best favourite......just goes to show. The French really do have something with their classic world famous Duck a l'Orange!

Enjoy! And have a rocking weekend blogland. If I can get my errrrm ducks in a row I might, just might, be back with a third entry into this exciting challenge. What can I say? I love dessert :o) Do pop over and see more recipes on my wordpress blog

browniegirl xx