Koeksisters

I cannot believe 2 years have passed since my time in Cape Town. Crazy. Such great memories, lots of wine tasting, not so much hospital-work, lots of eating, beaching, exploring and more wine tasting. Best. Elective. Ever. My liver must not have been happy. To reminisce, a friend and I got together one evening this past week. We drank wine from the Peter Falke vineyard (in Stellenbosch), which she still had in her cellar from our trip, and made Koeksisters (finally, this had been our plan for the past two years but somehow…..2 years later there we were). Koeksisters are the unhealthiest but most rewarding small spiced balls of fried dough. The first time we ever tasted them was in the Bo-Kaap neighbourhood of Cape Town, from a small corner shop that sells fresh ones only once or twice a week, usually on a Sunday. They were delish.

BoKaap

A house in Bo Kaap

But just to clarify – there are two types of Koeksisters, the most common ones are shiny braided looking things drenched in syrup or honey, the ones we had in Bo-Kaap which are harder to find, (and tastier in my opinion) are of malay origin. An essential ingredient is ground cardamom, which I knew would be a challenge to find in Switzerland, so a while ago, with this plan on the back of my mind, I seized the opportunity at a local indian shop in Shepherd’s Bush :-). No excuses now – Koeksisters had to be made!! The recipe we used is from a b&b owner we met along the way, so no guarantee for its accuracy – I feel it is more a cross between the shiny braided version and the malay version. In any case, whatever it is we ended up with was tasty 🙂

Koeksisters

Koeksisters1

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The Medical Gourmet’s Tiramisu

Tiramisu is, despite being simple, a tricky dessert. Lots of people claim to have the best recipe and don’t want to reveal their secret. However, in my opinion, Tiramisu is the one dessert one can’t really claim to be the king of, as tastes widely vary. How much coffee to use? Whether or not to add egg whites? Oooo or Marsala or Amaretto or Rum or Grand Marnier? And who on earth decided to add fruit to Tiramisu? That is just wrong. Is it? I’m sure every italian grandma would shake her head with disapproval.

I have yet to try an actual italian home-made Tiramisu and am longing for one of my italian friends to make me a one ala Nonna. Come to think of it, I don’t really know many italians. Damnit. Well, I guess until then I am stuck making my own. My preference: a medium amount of coffee (due to the fact that I actually don’t like coffee… ), egg whites, Marsala, and no fruit pieces. If I may say so, it has improved drastically since my first attempt a couple years back. My secret ingredient: lemon zest and juice. Go ahead and try it out, let me know what you think!

Tiramisu

 

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Moroccan Chicken Tagine

Can you believe it’s already almost Christmas again?? Personally, I am quite excited for my favourite season of the year – the lights, the smell of gingerbread, the food, the mood, everything about it basically. There are two reasons Christmas came to mind. First being that today I actually helped a friend start on making Christmas puddings. Yes, you heard right, we were making dessert for December 25th on the October 12th . Bizarre. But the pudding has to sit for around 8 weeks to fully allow all of the flavours to develop. Boy was it hard not to dig in to the gooey, raisiny, spice filled boozy mess. My mouth is drooling just thinking about it.
Second being today’s recipe. In recent years, my brother and I had decided to give our family & close family friends group excursions as a Christmas present (makes it sooo much easier and the outings are super fun). A few weeks ago we finally organised our last years gift – an evening/dinner/drinks on a small ferry in the middle of the Rhine. What flavour packed dish is better made in advance (30 year old boats sadly don’t have cooking facilities) than a tagine or a chilli? We opted for the more “exotic” of the two which went down extremely well.

Moroccan Chicken Tagine

tagine

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The High Tea Experiment

It is fair to say that a friend and I have this slight obsession with baking and food. We wanted to join our forces and create something extraordinary…… No more needed to be said as our thoughts were clearly identical – we had to host an afternoon tea. Not just a boring old tea with some scones and clotted cream. We had to go all out. And we did –  with the following result: IMG_2324

 

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It was a raving success and boy, did we have a bit too much fun planning and preparing. We might even start making this an annual treat for our friends … I’m sure none of them would object.

Now, 7 recipes are a tad much for one post, so I thought I’d start with one of the winners: Lemon Tarts. Refreshingly light and perfect for a Summer Sunday. Admittedly also quite a bit of work with all the little cases and blind baking, but definitely worth it.

Lemon Tarts

Lemon Tartadapted from Mary Berry’s Tarte au Citron Recipe

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