Hope you guys had a swell Christmas and plan to have a really cool New years eve as well. HAPPY NEW YEAR !

I catered a couple of Christmas parties and had a really fun time preparing for them! My husband was out of town so I decided to party and dance along with everyone else. I thought that it would be the antidote to me missing him.  If you are a regular visitor here, you most probably know that I love dancing, ( a great way to work out),  and occasionally, yet, enthusiastically burst into song, (this you did not know!)!  Oh, come on, don’t be coy with me, tell me you don’t do this when you are alone? It turns out to be a favorite pastime of mine and heck, I am actually insulted for not being discovered ….yet he he ! Hay, let me tell ya, singing, whether on or off key,  is good exercise for relinquishing, cooped up crap, as long as it is in the confines of your own home ( the shower), you’re not hurting anyone’s eardrums! In fact, catchy lyrics and a visceral heave or two, ( you know when you hit those high notes), are  my melodramatic stance at “stardom.” What can I tell you, music,  simply moves me!

This was pretty much the festive mood I was in, trying to expedite the task of baking all thirty of these scrumptious curry pies and other delectable party food. I had lots of help so setting up, including decorating the huge table for the party was a cinch. People were very much impressed by the food and the beautiful table decor! Within in no time, we were dancing and just having a really good time.

Vocal trance rocks!

There I was, minding my own business and rhythmically swaying to the beat of my ultimate favorite trance song—— DASH BERLIN—featuring CERF,MITISKA & JAREN singing MAN ON THE RUN and the Tritonal vocal trance of Nadia Ali, singing  “Fantasy”, ( I am a trance junkie &  I  actually requested the DJ to play this because frankly, he was just playing crap all night, you might also  recognize Nadia Ali, from the group, Iio,  singing “Rapture,” when this Matthew McConaughey wannabe, comes up to me and says in this rather humorous &  Southern colloquial drawl, ” Na za ray na”, I am digging your “abonible” snowman,would you like to dance?” I was actually surprised because when we were introduced earlier, he could barely say two words to me & I do think he was a little drunk, (not snockered) at this point in time.  I felt like saying to him, the word is  “abominable” you fool, but instead I  pretended  that I did not hear him and just sang the chorus line  of  “Fantasy”, a little louder……”Stay away from me….” and hoped that he would just go away.  He most probably realized then that I was not going to oblige, when he turned  around and said, ” Your food and your dance moves are fantastic but your singing is not!”  Flustered, I defiantly stammered a bad word  in Afrikaans, “Vok jou, jou ou moer”  “last time I checked Mr Simon Cowell, you certainly are  no American Idol either!”After a rather awkward silence, we both just cracked up and I decided to just dance with him to keep the peace! Turned out that he was a rather nice guy after all! He did ask what I said to him in Afrikaans, I politely answered, ” I plead the fifth!”

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Lattice pocket pie mold

( Talk about party crashers & a disappearing act! these curry pies simply vanished the minute, they came out of the oven). I had to literally scramble to take the picture of my final presentation!

I bought this simple, yet inexpensive mold from William Sonoma and it truly does a marvelous job of molding these lattice pocket pies. They have a fruity filling on their box & another type of dough.  However, I used my own recipe for the pie crust and the filling. I made my pie crust with pastry flour,  cream cheese,  unsalted butter etc….. The cream cheese gave this dough a flaky and tender crumb, while the butter gave it lots of flavor. I also added a teaspoon of my masala, ( spice blend),  into the prep of the dough, thus giving it that extra burst of flavor! As you can see below, my pie dough is extremely forgiving and holds its shape beautifully!

I would recommend buying this little gadget because it makes the lattice design appear very professional & the other good thing is that, one can really place a lot of filling in the pie without distorting the design.

These pies had a very flavorful & light curry flavor with bits of chopped egg on top. I also made some without egg, but added small chunks of potatoes to the ground beef mixture. The potatoes has to be tender! I also made a roasted apricot & chili chutney as an accompanying dipping sauce. Delish!

Accompanying them were icy cold glasses of the non alcoholic Martinelli’s sparkling apple drinks & maraschino cherries as a garnish. I do not drink alcohol,  ( this does not mean that I cannot have my fun LOL!),  so the hosts, I cater for,  always provide their own alcoholic drinks .

Recipe

• Please use organic ingredients when possible!
• 1 large onion
• 3 large tomatoes, skins removed ( to remove the skins,  make a deep “cross” in the top of the tomato and soak in boiling water)
• 1 T pounded garlic
• 1 teaspoon pounded ginger root
• 1 lb of ground beef, slightly rinsed and drained in a colander
• 2 teaspoons of meat masala( I make & toast my own spice blends)
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon garam masala ( My blend has toasted cumin, coriander, fenugreek etc…..
• 1 julienned  green bell pepper
• 1 chopped green jalapeno, seeds removed
• juice of half of a lemon
• half cup chopped cilantro, including the stems
• 3-5 curry leaves
• 2 small potatoes peeled and diced (optional)
• 3 hard boiled eggs, chopped into tiny pieces ( Do this only if you do not want the potatoes in the ground beef mixture)
• If you cannot find all these spices, then use cumin, sweet red paprika & turmeric of course
• an egg wash for the glaze

Method

Peel & finely chop the onion & saute in 3 T olive oil & 1 T unsalted butter until translucent. Add the pounded garlic & ginger and cook for 5 minutes. Chop the tomatoes into chunks & then add to the onion mixture and cook for 10 minutes until saucy. Add the ground beef and cook for 30 minutes. Toast all the spices first….this brings out a tremendous flavor & aroma…then add them, green peppers,  jalapeno & lemon juice and cook further for about 10 minutes. Now would be a good time to add the potatoes, if you so wish and cook until they are almost tender & then top off with cilantro & curry leaves and cook for 5 minutes more. When done, the potatoes have to be soft & have taken on the color of the spices! Fill the lattices with the ground beef mixture and scatter the chopped egg on top and continue to follow the instructions of molding the pies as per the William Sonoma box. If you wish to leave out the egg then just follow the recipe with the chunks of potatoes instead. Frankly , I love the potato ground beef mixture the best,

Beat an egg yolk with a little water and then brush pies before baking. You can freeze these pies as well. I let the pie dough rest in the refrigerator for an hour before molding and filling them. I baked them at 400 degrees for 25 minutes

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Here are just a few of my other favorite songs for 2010: My sweetie always cracks up when I say “The Giddy DJ is in the house”

I really, really really want to go to a concert & see the two best DJ’s in action, one of them is,

Tiesto—-power mix

& the other is Armin Van Buuren—–Imagine

Lady Antebellum—– Need you now

Vocal trance 2010——Xtreme snow mash up

Rihanna——Only girl in the world, what’s my name etc….

Also listen to this version of Nadia ali “Fantasy” & cool dance moves from the queen of clubs

Nadia Ali—-Is it love?

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Gosh, I have so many more, I swear I do not have enough time to list them all!!!

Hope you too can dance the night away!

Love,

Nazarina.

How to make food soar:  sweet potato chips, “Lays style” potato chips, panko  baked  pearl onion & sweet potato salad and super easy & cute sushi napkin folds.

The premise of this blog is to share cooking, crafts and many laughs and many of you already know that I am extremely ostentatious in all of my efforts whether culinary, presentation of dishes or otherwise but never gaudy! I love exciting food and to say that I am disambiguous would be an understatement especially since I am more than eager to transform anything into more ways than one and totally override  an ingredient’s current potential. So, today I am going to do just that share a recipe, a craft and many a laugh in the form of  a couple of jokes, (hopefully, not too indecorous for your taste!) Oh! c’mon, are you going to sit there and tell me that when friends get together that one of them is not liable to let loose a “dirty” joke? Its funny because normally, I am the one that is easily embarrassed. I always turn red as a tomato and in the process mess up the entire joke he! he! Isn’t it fun to be a little naughty?

Spuddy, buddy?

Tomato flavored potato chips and Chinese 5 spice sweet potato chips

Everyone has a favorite chip and a different term of endearment for this comfort food, whether they are gaufrettes, crisps, frips or like a former neighbor of ours in South Africa would say ‘KRIPS” ( this one always cracks me up!). “Wil jy ‘n pakkie krips he?”

Nevertheless,  they all have to be crispy! My favorite were “Tomato chips” back in South Africa. Unfortunately, I cannot find this flavor here, so,  I made my own. I made my spice  with tomato powder ( on its own, this powder lacks va va va voom), so I  toasted some pink peppercorns in a hot pan, and a few more toasted ingredients to make up the most captivating blend! This spice blend is to die for and imparted a very good flavor to my popcorn, french fries and roasted tomato soup as well. I also made a Chinese  5 spice, a little cinnamon, & a few more toasted ingredients, a custom blend, for the sweet potato chips as well. I made a note of all so that I can get the same flavor every time! Don’t you just hate it if you did not!

See some good tips below on how to keep the chips crispy!

Recipes :

Please use organic ingredients when possible

• 2 big Idaho russet potatoes or Yukon golds or more
• 2  garnet sweet potatoes or more
• Bob’s Red Mill potato starch ( so silky, you do not even have to shake off the excess! I love Bob’s Red Mill!!! & this makes the spuddy extra crispy!
• peanut oil for frying
• kosher salt
• my special tomato spice blend
• my special Chinese 5 spice & cinnamon blend (for sweet potatoes only)

Method and tips for making a batch of “Lays style” chips

Warm half of a saucepan with peanut oil and if you drop in a piece of bread, it should immediately crisp up, this is your queue to drop in the chips. Meanwhile scrub the russets,  (do not peel some of the potatoes, keep it rustic),  under running water and thinly slice with a mandolin. It is fun to use all the different settings on the mandolin like the waffle and many others.  Rinse the russet slices until water runs clear and pat dry with paper towels. Do not let the potatoes sit in water!!! They will become water logged and will steam instead of crisp up! The same goes for the prep of homemade french fries as well.  These slices should  be very dry and then toss them in the silky potato starch and then drop immediately into the electric fryer or a Dutch oven, ( cast iron pot). These two utensils tend to maintain the temperature of the oil and allows anything to be fried evenly. Do not overcrowd the pot, you do not want to steam the potatoes. Fry for about 2 mins until golden brown and drain on a cookie sheet covered with paper towels. Season with your choice of seasoning. If you have a big batch to make, then keep the cooked potato chips in a 300 degree convection bake oven until you are done with the rest and no longer than 20 mins. I use the convection setting because the air flow further dries the residual oil and hence the crispy appeal!

Scrub the sweet potatoes in the same way and dry with a paper towel but do not rinse the slices in water. Toss with Bob’s Red Mill potato starch and fry in the same way as for the regular russets. When the Chinese five spice blend hit the sweet potato chips as it came out of the fryer, the dry cold weather outside seemed like a cinch to bear.

I actually sliced the garnet sweet potatoes very thinly by hand and let all the slices air dry the night before I fried them. This is a kick a.. snack for Thanksgiving !

*Try this as well if you dare!

As the regular russets or Yukon golds come out of the fryer, lightly drizzle with malt vinegar and kosher salt. Do not put on any of the spices I mentioned on this batch though, it will clash with the vinegar! This is a British influence on the tater and was taught to me by my Mom.

Actually now that I remember, it was the Portuguese fish & chip shops that would sell these in South Africa.

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I share with you this really cute sushi napkin fold that I folded by using fabric remnants. You could use paper napkins as well! This will be great for a sushi party!

Crafts

“How to fold the sushi napkin”

For the inside napkin:

• Fold the napkin in half  with the folded edge on bottom & iron flat
• Fold the napkin into 2 & half inch wide bands, starting from the bottom to the top. Do not worry about the little piece sticking out, when you reach the top.
• Roll the napkin tightly, starting from one end into a “roll” and set aside.
• Lay the second napkin in a diamond shape and fold the bottom point up to about 2 & half inches and continue folding into 2 &half inch bands until you reach the top and then flip over.
• lay the first napkin roll about 2 inches from the left side of the second napkin and roll the outside napkin around the first like a sushi roll all the way to the end. The bottom edges of the sushi rolls should be aligned.  Secure with a corsage pin or just tuck the loose end into the folds of the second roll.

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*Baked panko sweet potato balls & half pearl & half boiler onions “onion rings” salad. My take on a potato salad.  I made this as a pot -luck dish for friends and went over really well even with those “burly, bad boys!”

This is a totally vegetarian meal! ( not that I have anything against meat because I do indulge every so now and again )

There is a bed of sesame vinaigrette slaw ( julienned  carrots, cucumbers & parsnips) on the bottom of my panko sweet potato balls and crispy pearl onion “rings” & tomato salad. I made the mayonnaise also from scratch and lightly coated this unique potato salad. Both the little panko sweet potato balls and the pearl & boiler onion rings (balls) were baked.

I say unto all carnivores in light of this menu, “Eat your hearts out!”

Looking at these pictures, one would think that these are meatballs, but I kid you not, they are baked  panko sweet potato and onion balls. The pearl onion balls had a very cool coating on it as well & no it is not a regular flour coating!!!

You will love this homemade version of this light & creamy ” Hellman’s style” mayonnaise and believe it or not, no raw eggs were used!

BTW, I am still getting tomatoes from my patch! See post below for the tomato patch and spicy tomato jam!

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Jokes!

A funny senior citizen joke

“You’re getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster.

Mother-in-law joke

Employment joke!

How to ask your Boss for a salary increase..?

One day an employee sends a letter to her boss asking for an increase in
her salary!!!

Dear Bo$$

In thi$ life, we all need $ome thing mo$t de$perately. I think you $hould be
under$tanding of the need$ of u$ worker$ who have given $o much $upport
including $weat and $ervice to your company.

I am $ure you will gue$$ what I mean and re$pond $oon.

Your$ $incerely,
Marian $hih

The next day, the employee received this letter of reply:

Dear Marian

I kNOw you have been working very hard. NOwadays, NOthing much has changed.
You must have NOticed that our company is NOt doing NOticeably well as yet.

NOw the newspaper are saying the world’s leading ecoNOmists are NOt sure if the
United States may go into aNOther recession. After the NOvember presidential
elections things may turn bad.

I have NOthing more to add NOw. You kNOw what I mean.

Yours truly,
Manager

State of mind joke!

It doesn’t hurt to take a hard look at yourself from time to time, and

this should help get you started

During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the director what

the criterion was which defined whether or not a patient should be

institutionalized.

“Well,” said the director, “We fill up a bathtub, then we offer a

teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to

empty the bathtub.”

“Oh, I understand,” said the visitor. “A normal person would use the

bucket because it’s bigger than the spoon or the teacup.”

“No” said the director, “A normal person would pull the plug … Do you

want a room with or without a view?”

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That’s it folks, oh dear, I need a room with a view!!!!

I decided against the really bad jokes after all!

Enjoy,

Nazarina.