Mikrogolfoond-bekerkoek

Iemand deel gister 'n mikrogolfoond-sjokoladekoek-in-'n-beker-resep.

Dit is só eenvoudig, die resep brand sommer in my geheue vas. Meng in 'n beker:

2 x eetlepels koekmeelblom
2 x eetlepels sjokoladepoeier
2 x eetlepels suiker
2 x eetlepels melk (ek het room gebruik)
1 x teelepel bakpoeier
1 knippie sout (my bydrae)
1 eier

Bak in die mikrogolfoond vir twee minute. (Ek het gevind twee minute en 20 sekondes werk beter.)

Die sjokolade koek het ek met groenteeroomys en vrugte geniet.

En toe vanaand is ek weer lus vir 'n middernagtelike nagereg. Ek het die sjokoladepoeier met kokosneutpoeier vervang. Die koek is in stukke gebreuk en met room, kersiestroop, en amandelgeursel bevogtig, en toe saam met die geurige koekstukke het ek ingelegde pynappel, gegemmerde waatlemoen, en versnipperde malva blare in 'n bakkie bedien. Genugtig was dit lekker!

Daardie reseppie is so eenvoudig, ek dink 'n mens kan allerande interesante konkoksies optower. In plaas van die sjokeladepoeier kan 'n mens ander droë bestandele gebruik om geur en kleur aan die koek te gee. Ek het kokosneutpoeier gebruik, maar ek dink 'n mens kan byvoorbeeld veromer, soos Cremora, gebruik vir 'n heerlike ryk wit sponskoek. Of as jy 'n kaneelkoek wil hê, kan jy moontlik 'n teelepel kaneel gebruik (met nog 'n teelepel koekmeel om die droeë bestandele eweredig te hou). Of 'n mens kan aan die natbestandele peuter -- vervang een teelepel melk met byvoorbeeld kersiesjerrie en bedien met kersies en room. (O aarde!) Miskien kan 'n mens in plaas van melk lemoensap gebruik, en dan ook lemoen zest by die beslag rasper om 'n heerlike lemoenkoek te kry. Moontlikhede is eindloos!

Heavenly Food

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I make myself a simple dish of pasta with tomatoes and red peppers baked in coconut oil, mixed with basil pesto, and tossed with fresh herbs and freshly ground coriander seeds, and I feel utterly blessed. It's not a particularly complex dish, nor expensive. The ingredients are few, fresh and well chosen. Yet, I feel like I've had a foretaste of the Good Life

God--Thank You!

Scones Recipes

Since I just came back from my holiday in South Africa I have little ingredients in my house; no milk, no eggs, no bread -- basically nothing that's not in a tin or a sealed bag. What I do have is a bag of flour, salt, baking powder, and a tin of coconut milk. So I decided to make some vegan scones.

Vegan Scones

25 Minute Vegan Scones Recipe:

Makes about 6-8 vegan scones.

Sift two cups of (whole wheat) flower together with a quarter teaspoon salt and a teaspoon baking powder. Mix a three quarter cup of coconut milk and a quarter cup of luke warm water. Fold the liquid into the dry ingredients, and finally knead just enough to ensure all the dry ingredients have been worked into the dough. Break into equal parts, roll them into balls and place into a greased scones pan. Drizzle a few drops of oil on the top of each ball and rub over the surface. Put the pan into a preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes at about 250 degrees Celsius.

If you do not have coconut milk, you can experiment with a good oil instead: try a third cup oil, with two thirds water. I don't know if it will come out equally as well, but intuitively I think it will get the job done.

The following non-vegan recipe is the one that I used as my template from which I developed the one above.

12 Minute Scones Recipe:

Makes about 10-12 scones.

Sift 500 ml cake flour with 15 ml baking powder and 3 ml salt into a bowl. In a 250 ml measuring cup, add 60 ml oil, add an egg and about 125 ml milk (or just enough to reach the 250 ml mark) and mix it all together. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix together. Divide into balls and place in a greased scones pan. Put the pan in a preheated over and bake at 220 degree Celsius for about 5-10 minutes, or until golden brown on top.

This recipe has quite exact measurements -- a little to exact for my liking -- but it is a well tested recipe that doesn't disappoint.

Vegan Coconut Cake

A while back I found a nice vegan clementine and cranberry muffin recipe by another Korean blogger. I had neither clementines nor cranberries, but I did have blueberries so I winged the recipe and made a blueberry muffin mix instead. I also do not have muffin pans, thus my muffin mix became a cake mix. Neither do I have cake pans -- I just have glass containers that are oven resistant. Any way, the small blueberry cake came out quite nice.

Then I experimented with a chocolate-walnut cake. I had made walnut milk the night before so used that, with some crushed walnuts, and a couple of heaped table spoons of cocoa powder, to characterise the rest of the ingredients. When it came out of the oven I melted chocolate truffles over the top as the icing. It was absolutely deliciously decadent!

Vegan Coconut Cake

Today I decided to make a coconut cake. I wasn't sure how it would come out, but it came out surprisingly well, although I did have to bake it longer than the previous cakes I made. Luckily I kept tabs of the ingredients so I can share the recipe.

Dry ingredients:

2 cups of flour
1/2 a cup of coconut shreds
1/2 a cup of sugar
1/4 to 1/2 a teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

Wet ingredients:

1 tin coconut milk (i.e. two cups)

Procedure:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

Mix the dry ingredients together. Then add the coconut milk and mix well. Poor into a greased pan and bake for around 40 minutes, or until a testing utensil (e.g. knife -- I use a chopstick) comes out dry.

I topped my cake with condensed milk, but I'm sure you can find a vegan alternative instead.

It is not a very big cake. Maybe four big slices, so great for a small group of friends or a nuclear family.

Enjoy it with fruits and Rooibos tea!

Sweet Sticky Rice with Cranberries

I cooked some basmati rice yesterday, but then didn't know what to make with it, so I decided to attempt making sticky rice. Here's how I did it:

I made the rice following a typical method for cooking basmati rice. Once cooked I poured one tin of sweetened cream of coconut and an equal amount (about one tin's worth) of rice into a pot. (Note that sweetened cream of coconut is different from plain cream of coconut and also different from regular coconut milk.) Bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat and cook over a low heat for about half an hour. The result is extremely sweet and tasty sticky rice. Because it is so sweet I opted for frozen cranberries instead of the mango pieces which is usually served with sticky rice. The slightly bitter taste of cranberries contrasts nicely with the sweet sticky rice. I also added a few leaves of lemon verbena herb to compliment the flavours.

A very delicious, but very sweet desert which I would not recommend to people with low blood sugar, diabetics or ADHD children!

My Spinach Curry with Rye Flat Bread

A few nights ago I made a delicious spinach curry that I enjoyed with flat bread made of rye flour. Making the curry is fairly simple.

Ingredients:

Potatoes
Spinach
Green curry paste
Cardamom pods, 1 bay leaf, salt and fresh cream.

Cook some potatoes. Add to the water a couple green cardamom pods, a bay leaf and some salt. When the potatoes are soft, add the spinach leafs to the pot. Add a big dollop of green curry paste. Cover with a lid so that the spinach can steam until soft. Once done, remove the bay leaf. Cut the potatoes in chunks and put it, together with the steamed spinach, a little cream and some of the broth into a blender and pulse just enough to get everything mixed well. (If you don't have a blender you could use a potato masher.) Dish up while hot and garnish with a few cardamom seeds. Serve with the flat bread (roti, chapati, nan) of your choice.

Instead of regular flour I merely used rye flour making for a more rustic and wholesome bread. The Food Network supplies a nice recipe for oven baked flat bread. I made my dough in a similar fashion, but instead of oven baking I made mine on the stovetop. See how to do it here.

The secret to this spinach curry is two fold. First, using green curry paste rather than a curry powder does not overpower the natural flavour of the spinach, yet adds everything else one would expect of a curry. Second, the cardamom pods brings a distinctive Oriental taste to the plate that compliments the spinach very well.

Enjoy!

Strawberries and Cream with Lavender

Strawberries and cream is a classic delicacy and it seems difficult to think how one could enhance it. Something I tried just now was to add fresh lavender. It works wonderfully. The herb brings an aromatic softness to the palate that perfectly compliments the smoothness of the cream. It is a delicateness that other stronger herbs such as mint, rosemary or even lemon verbena could not replicate. I am sure vanilla would be equally enchanting, but vanilla lacks in colour the appealing green that lavender brings to the desert. I'm sure that equally enchanting would be strawberries with a good quality vanilla ice-cream and fresh lavender. But unless you really have good quality ice-cream I would just stick to cream. Strawberries and Cream with Lavender is a lovely twist on this old time favourite.

My Broccoli and Black Pepper Soup

I just enjoyed this tasty Broccoli and Black Pepper Soup that I put together on the spur of the moment. It is really easy to make; here's how I did it:

Ingredients:

Four medium sized potatoes
Half a head of broccoli
Some salt, fresh black pepper, lemon thyme and cream

Cook the potatoes until soft. Add the broccoli and cook for about five minutes with the potatoes. Put the potatoes (you may need to cut it into smaller pieces), broccoli and about a cup of the broth in a blender and blend until smooth. Add lots of freshly ground black pepper, fresh lemon thyme, and salt to taste. (If you do not have lemon thyme you can use regular thyme and add a little lemon zest instead.) Dish into bowls. Stir in a little cream and garnish with black pepper and fresh thyme. (If you want to make it healthier, you can omit the cream and drizzle a little olive oil -- about a teaspoon per bowl -- instead.)

It can be a tasty appetiser for about four to six people, or a light dinner for two if served with good bread, like baguette (French loaf) and garlic butter.

Home-Made Tahini

For dinner I had tahini on wavers with strawberries. I made the tahini myself, following the instructions by Dede's Mediterranean Kitchen -- see the YouTube video below.

I had tahini for the first time last month when I visited my friend Jaco in Polokwane. He came back from Israel recently and brought some tahini with him, which he gave me a taste of. I very much liked the taste and was adament that once I'm back at my place (i.e. back in Korea), I'm going to try and make it, since sesame seed (the main ingredient) is so easily accessible here. 



Seeing as I don't own a food processor I made it in my blender. It took much longer and didn't come out as runny as the tahini in the video, but is still pretty smooth. The Israeli tahini that I tasted was much sweeter. I'm not sure how they sweeten it. I decided to add a little honey to mine.

It's a pretty good spread (similar to peanut butter) which I put on water wafers and topped with fresh strawberries. A delicious, and surprisingly filling, snack!