Thursday, November 26, 2015

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!


The LekkerBek office is covered in red ribbon and glitter! 

Hoe cute are these custom pamper gifts? It’s a tin apple filled with goodies from The Body Shop surrounded by delicious chocolates in a hand made wire beaded basket. Love it! 


Visit www.lekkerbek.co.za for more festive gift ideas.

Monday, November 16, 2015

Posole Rojo



We adapted this traditional chunky Mexican soup from the Thug Kitchen cookbook, and although all the recipes in the book are vegan, we’ve added some beef for our meet-eating family, but it will be equally delicious without it.

This soupy spicy one-pot-meal is fantastic served with a whole array of crispy fresh accompaniments topped with a squeeze of zesty lime juice.

Posole Rojo
Serves 4

Ingredients
6 large dried chilies
1 ½ cups warm water
6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 T cocoa powder (unsweetened)
2 red onions, chopped
1 T vegetable oil
350 – 400 g beef or pork mince (or tempeh for a veggie version)
1 T dried oregano
3 tsp cumin powder
1 cup carrot, cubes
1 cup cauliflower florets, cut into bite-sized pieces
Soy sauce
1 can red kidney beans (or hominy)
5 cups good vegetable stock
Salt

For serving
Fresh limes
Shredded cabbage
Sliced spring onion
Fresh coriander
Baby radish wedges

Optional: Tortilla crisps

Method

In a deep heavy based pot (the same one you’ll be using for the rest of the recipe) toast the dried chilies for 3 – 5 minutes until they become fragrant and bendy (don’t burn them) and remove the stems. Soak the chilies in the warm water for 20 minutes. Roughly chop them once finished soaking and reserve the water. TIP: Remove the seeds at this point if you want it less spicy.

Combine the garlic cloves, cocoa powder, chopped chilies and soaking water in a food processor or chopper and process until fine with no remaining chunks.

Fry the onion in the oil for about 3 minutes then add the mince to brown.

Add the oregano and cumin and fry for a minute or two.

Add the carrot and cauliflower and a splash of soy. Stir to combine all the ingredients.

Add the vegetable stock and chili sauce you made earlier and bring to the boil.

Turn down the heat and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.

Season to taste with salt.

Serve hot with all the fresh accompaniments.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

The Swartland Revolution

The husband and I spent the most fabulous weekend sipping wine, open air dining and talking all things viticulture in the little town of Riebeek Kasteel, tucked away in the Swartland Winelands. 

The 500 tickets for this year's Revolution were sold out in 2 minutes! So one can say that the festival has garnered somewhat of a cult following. The aim of the weekend is to showcase wines from the Swartland region and talk all things wine during the 3 'seminars' - well organised but still casual in approach. (Read about the tastings in more detail in this article by Tim James: WineMag

More about the Swartland Revolution:
www.theswartlandrevolution.com

Here are my highlights in pictures: 

Designer G&T's on the lawn of the Royal Hotel.

Our first tasting with Pax Mahle from Wind Gap in California. 

Dinner under the stars.

Hangover burgers and coffee.

We tasted some devine (and one-of-a-kind) wines at 9 in the morning!

Craft beer and snack break.

The last tasting hosted by John Platter (who specially came out of retirement for this event).

Picnic (and loads more wine) on the lawn.