roast lamb rack

There is something wonderful about a home that smells like a roast on a Sunday. In fact, any day of the week. I love cooking and having friends arrive over to a home that smells of nothing but delicious aromas that kiss your nose and pull you into the home.

I must confess sometimes I close my kitchen window just to let the smell fill the kitchen while I have my glass of wine and cheerfully cook on. Luckily I live in a city that has the most spectacular wine lands a stone throw away and i am fortunate enough to not only enjoy drinking the best but also to pair the best with my food for dinner parties. After all what is a great dinner party without world-class wine? 

So here is a tasty and juicy lamb rack with roasted vegetables

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serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 1x free range rack of lamb about 850g
• 230g tenderstem broccoli 
• 4 large carrots 
• 4 baby beets or one small bunch 
• 700g baby potatoes 
• 2 large brown onion 
• 1 garlic bulb 
• 4 rosemary twigs 
• olive oil 

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Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 220c

Get out your roasting pan that has high edges as you are going to roast all the veg except the broccoli together underneath your lamb rack. 

Peel and chop your onions into quarters and put them into your roasting tray. Followed by your peeled carrots and then the beetroot, that can also be roughly chopped into bite-sized pieces. Put your baby potatoes in with the vegetables. Cut your garlic bulb through the middle and place the whole bulb in with the veg. once it has roasted you can just pop out the pieces, as they will be juicy and are easier to remove from the skin. Remove your rosemary from three of the twigs and mix it together with your veg. drizzle over a generous amount of olive oil and for this part, use your hands and mix everything together making sure every piece is covered in olive oil. 

Take out your lamb rack. Salt and pepper your lamb rack and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil. You are going to render down the fat of the lamb rack. To render fat you require a low to medium heat, as you don't want the fat to burn, you want to achieve golden crispy fat. You want to hear the sizzle. Place your lamb rack in the pan fat side down. Make sure you watch your lamb, as you do not want the fat to burn or the meat to cook. Keep it fat side down for about 10 minutes or until evenly golden brown. You will see the oil in the pan increase as the fat renders down. 

Once rendered place your lamb rack on top of your vegetables (fat side up) and sprinkle your lamb with remaining rosemary. Pop your roasting tray into the oven and turn down the heat to 180c. Let it roast away for 45minutes. 

For the last 10 minutes you are going to blanch your tender stem broccoli. Boil the kettle and put your tender stems in a pot, over a medium heat. Add your boiling water. I let my broccoli cook for no more than 5 minutes, as I love the crunch and freshness of them. a fork must just be able to pierce them. Remove them off the heat. 

Take your roast out of the oven. Your potatoes should be soft and your meat should be golden. 

Let your lamb rack rest for a further 5 minutes before slicing. When you slice into the lamb it should be beautifully pink inside. 

Serve the lamb cutlets on a bed of veg with a side of tender stem broccoli and a fantastic red wine. 

For this meal I chose the Doolhof wine estate, lady in red 2008. A warm, rich Bordeaux-style wine

Tasting notes: Garnet red wine with an intense perfumed mélange of red and black fruits with cedar and oak undertones. On the palate, the fruit / oak balance is harmonious with soft, firm tannins, cassis and plum flavours producing a wine of excellent structure. The fruit lingers long on the palate. Its suited beautifully to red meats particularly lamb. You can get this amazing wine here

-Melissa 

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foraging in franschhoek, cape town

wild goose and duck rilette, duck skin crackling brioche, fig cultured cream, nightshade, granadilla vinaigrette, crispy milk skin and ferns

Warm salad of forest mushroom and free range beef hump, sorrel and radishes

Nick's home made legion cheese, quince pate de fruit, wild peach chutney and mosbolletjie

If there is one thing I have learnt, is that food makes me happy. Like deep down in my soul happy. Photographing it, eating it and meeting the people who are as passionate about food as I am, really moves my soul. One such person is Chris Erasmus of Foliage. 

I was having one of those mornings. When nothing really goes right and you are not sure why. I was feeling glum and not up to shooting this morning. But the call of the food summoned me out of bed. After much debate and several snooze buttons later I pulled myself together packed up my gear and took a drive.

The drive was to Franschhoek. a little French Huguenot village at the base of the Franschhoek mountains. By the time I was driving into the village I was already feeling lighter. Just the beauty of the surroundings can inspire. I stopped my car outside of foliage. A beautiful restaurant with a warm earthy feel to it. Chris Erasmus, head chef and owner was there to meet me. I knew I would love him because his energy instantly made me forget that I was glum. We were going on a forest foraging mission and he couldn't be more excited to share it with me. 

We hoped in the car and drove into the mountains. Parking in a secret spot (Chris has an arrangement with the farm owner) we hoped out, baskets and waters in hand. 

Chris is wildly knowledgeable of the forests and surrounds and I never realized the education I was going to get from this high-spirited chef and forager. Sharing his little nuggets of information of how to hunt for the best mushrooms and how to pick them, we wondered through the forest finding large fungi that seemed to belong in a fairytale. Chris shared with me how mushrooms grow to the moon just like the tides do. Simply beautiful. I had to take a moment from our high intensity walk to just breath in the forest and all its beauty. We did a huge loop in the forest, passed the cattle and up this beautiful walk way and before I knew it we were back at the car.

"Just one more stop" Chris mentioned. The stop was to collect fern tips and berries for the restaurant. Most of his produce is foraged. Which I think is simply marvelous. He is like the bear grills of Franschhoek. After we had collected all we needed, we made our way back to foliage. He speaks fondly of his mother a huge food inspiration that taught him how to pickle and make jams, to appreciate the earth and the small community that is Franschhoek. 

With laughter and energy Chris enters the kitchen smiling at his staff. He mentions it will only take a few seconds to prepare the plates. With ease and simplicity he plated the most beautiful dishes to be photographed. Inspired by Margot Janse and René Redzipe, Chris truly is a food and flavour genius. 

The food is simply and the ingredients speak for themselves. Who would have thought that foie gras and fern tips go together? But they do. The fern taste like a hybrid of chilli and walnut and leaves your tongue tingling. The colours on the plate flow and the finest attention to detail really makes you see that Chris is a world-class chef. 

I left foliage after the day had ended feeling uplifted by its energy and inspired by its beautiful food. I felt moved that you could live from the earth and translate that food into magnificent plates that would hold up to any five start restaurant around the world. It left me dreaming and on a high. A much better end to my day than the beginning. 

-Melissa 

rhubarb and honey tart

Rhubarb is not something I was not familiar with growing up as a child. I’m not sure why, but we just never used it. In my adult life I must admit the first person I saw use rhubarb was Jamie Oliver. He grows it in his garden and he uses it in so many recipes. Thanks to him I got the bee in my bonnet and decided to hunt down a great recipe. This one is so tasty because of it's layering of not only rhubarb but frangipane and honey which balances out the tart flavours of this celery like plant. I’m rather excited that I have discovered rhubarb and there are definitely many more exciting recipes to come. 

For this recipe you can use your own home made puff pastry or store bought puff pastry. If you get a good store bought puff there is no judgment here. Although I do think that home made just tastes better.

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Serves: 6 

Ingredients:

Puff pastry:

•    250 grams cake flour

•    Pinch of salt 

•    250 grams butter

•    5ml lemon juice or brandy 

•    175ml ice cold water Filling:

•    1 cup almond flour

•    6 tbsp. castor sugar

•    ¼ cup cake flour

•    ¼ tsp. salt

•    6 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

•    3 eggs

•    1 tsp. vanilla

•    1 fresh bunch of rhubarb roughly 500g (I like to go for the reddest stalks)

Instructions:

preheat oven to 200c

Puff pastry:

Sift flour and salt into a bowl. Rub in a piece of butter the size of a walnut. 

Add lemon juice or brandy to water, make a well in the center of flour and pour in about 2/3 of the liquid.

Mix it with a palette knife or a round bladed knife. When the dough is beginning to form, add the remaining water.

Turn the dough out on to a clean counter that has been dusted with flour. Knead the dough for 2-3 minutes, and then roll out to a square about 1.3-2cm thick.

Beat the remaining butter if necessary to make it pliable and place in center of dough. Fold the dough up over butter to enclose it completely (sides and ends over center like a parcel)

Wrap it in a cloth or in greaseproof paper and refrigerate for 15-20 minutes 

Flour your clean worktop, take the dough out, the join facing upwards, and bring rolling pin down on the dough 3-4 times to flatten slightly.

Now roll out to a rectangle about 1.3-2cm thick. Fold into three, ends to middle, as accurately as possible, if necessary pulling the ends to keep them rectangular.

Seal the edges with hand or rolling pin and turn the dough half round to bring the edges toward you.

Roll out again and fold in three (keep note of the turns given)

Set aside in refrigerator for 5 minutes. Repeat this process, giving a total of six turns with a 15 minutes rest after each two turns. Then leave in the refrigerator until wanted. 

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Roll out pastry to fit a baking sheet. Place pastry on greaseproof paper on baking sheet and keep chilled in the fridge or freezer until needed. If the butter in the pastry melts it will not puff up.

To make the almond paste, pop everything in a food processor and blend until thoroughly mixed. You can mix by hand but make sure you use good elbow grease! 

Evenly trim down the rhubarb stalks. Gently sauté stalks in a little butter and pinch of sugar until they begin to soften. Set aside to cool.

To assemble the tart: spread the almond paste evenly over the pastry. Place the rhubarb on top of the almond paste sideways next to each other-like little soldier and fold in the sides of the pastry. Brush the sides with a beaten egg yolk.  Place in the oven and turn heat down to 180C and bake for 40mins, checking towards the end that it does not brown too much.

When removed from the oven dust with icing sugar.

To serve: drizzle with honey and cut 

-Melissa

quinoa salad

This is one of my all time favourite party tricks. Yes, this salad. For those of you who are not that familiar with quinoa, it is a grain that is very high in protein, simply delicious and easy to make. It has a marvelous nutty flavour to it and it is tastier than most rice’s and healthier to serve. 

This salad is my go to salad when I have my vegetarian friends come over. When I make this salad I more often than not don't make meat, although you can serve it with pan-fried moist chicken breasts if you want. It’s beyond filling and decked out with so many flavours that it will leave you wanting more. It’s the salad I take with to a braai (South African barbecue) and impress everyone with, or it’s a great salad to make for lunch, work or to nibble on at home.

The amazing thing with this salad is that once you get the hang of it and its ingredients you can start playing around with what you add to it, making it your own symphony of flavours. 

Here is my version of this healthy, delicious and colourful salad! 

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Serves: 5

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 butternut, medium, peeled and sliced
• half a head of broccoli 
• 1 red onion 
• 1 baby red cabbage
• 50g pine nuts 
• 100g rocket 
• 100ml balsamic vinegar
• 100ml water 
• olive oil to dress the salad 
• 40g parmesan cheese

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Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 180℃

Place your peeled and sliced butternut on a roasting tray and drizzle it with olive oil. Making sure all the pieces are covered. If you do not want them to char, cover with foil (shiny side down) and place in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until soft when pierced with a fork. 

While your butternut is roasting slice your red onion into rings. If you find it easier you can also slice it in half and slice half rings from there. Put the water and balsamic into a pot over a low heat. Put the onions in and let them simmer and reduce. It should take about half an hour depending on your heat for them to become sticky and be fully reduced. Once the onions have reduced set them aside. 

In another pot put your one-cup of quinoa to two cups boiling water and a pinch of salt. Make sure the water is boiled before adding it. Cook over a low to medium heat for 30 minutes. If the water disappears before 30 minutes just turn the heat off and put the lid of the pot on. The moisture and residual heat will continue to cook the quinoa. Don’t add more water. Keep an eye on it so that the bottom doesn't burn. At the 25-minute mark just lightly fluff the quinoa with a fork. If you give the quinoa a taste it should still have some crunch but not be too hard-al dente one could say. Once ready set aside. 

In a large bowl grate the broccoli head (tree top bits), the Parmesan cheese and the baby red cabbage. Once they are all in add the rocket to mixture. 

Place your pine nuts in a small pan and over a low heat. Make sure you tend to them and watch them. When roasting nuts they can go from zero to burnt in two seconds. just keep turning them until they are golden brown and toasted. 

Grab your butternut out of the oven and add to your salad bowl. Add your quinoa and balsamic onions. Salt and pepper the salad to taste. Give the salad a good mix and drizzle with a great olive oil. My favourite is Rio Largo olive oil and you can shop it here. Once everything is mixed in and the salad is dressed, sprinkle the pine nuts on top.

This salad is great served hot but just as delicious cold! 

-Melissa

new york, new york

Yes you should spread the news and yes, if you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere...

Frank Sinatra had it right and I can really see, not that I didn't before, why this epic city is so iconic! It’s simply spectacular in every single way that you can imagine. 

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to skip over man holes and tilt my head up at the empire state building. Amazingly, thank you to certain special people in my life it became a reality October 2014. From the yellow cabs to the subways, time square and the upper west side New York City is magic. It’s a strange thing because when I went to New York I realized how small I am. There, you are no one. Which is so beautiful because it opens up the fact that you can be anyone, someone. Now who wouldn't want that!

I decided on the way, which is a very long flight from South Africa that it was going to be all about the food. I just new it. One of the food capitals of the world how could it not be a trip focused on where to eat, what to eat and how to eat it. 

The trip had to include the classic New York hot dog, the oldest pizzeria in America, the Smogersburg market in Williamsburg and of course last but not least the Cronut. We were going to fit this all in between the top of the rock, empire state building, statue of liberty, time square and anything else we could find. Talk about a jam-packed ten days. 

Walking shoes at a ready... you're going to need them. New York is a mighty beast that will not be tamed

We begin with a coffee break, something simple something small. The beautiful thing about most of the coffee shops, bakeries etc. is that at the end of every day they give all their food to the homeless and in the morning make it fresh for their patrons. 

One of the first places we had to go to was of course Dominique Ansel’s bakery. For one reason and one reason alone, the Cronut.

Here it is Cronut 101 as they call it. This is a little parcel of heaven is like a doughnut and a croissant had a baby. It’s a hybrid of both and it takes a lengthy process of being proofed, fried, rolled in sugar, filled with cream and then topped with a glaze. This process takes up to three days. Each month is a new flavour and the invention of the Cronut took over two months to create. 

Having given it a practice run the day before, simply because we were unaware that the queue. Started at 6 am every single morning and you had to be one of the first 150 in the queue because the bakery only sells 300 Cronut a day. Which is understandable once you know the effort that goes into one of them. 

The next morning after a frightfully early wake up we hit the queue at 6am. Thankfully we were only number 25 in lines. the bakery opens up at 9am and thankfully the weather in October is moderate and kind to this standing in queue at this ungodly hour. The bakery is friendly and as soon as the staff arrive they come out and greet everyone handing out fresh madeleine’s as a little taster and encourager that you are on the path to heaven, you just need to wait. 

As the doors open there is a resounding cheer from everyone who simply cannot wait to sink their teeth into a Cronut. They pass a baguette as a sort of baton marking groups of twenty at a time to go into the bakery, as it is not a very large space. If you do not want a Cronut you do not have to stand in the queue. You can go into a separate queue and get other baked goods, which according to me, should be just as famous. 

Once we were in, it’s a feast for the eyes that you simply cannot believe. From decadent éclairs to delicate cheesecakes this bakery is beyond. After much debate and hungry eyes we settled on two peach and black tea Cronut’s, a lobster tail (pretzel dough filled with peanut butter and served with salted caramel butter) and a DKA 'Dominique’s Kouign Amain' tender, flaky croissant like dough with a caramelised crunchy crust. a mouth full indeed. 

Every. Single. Bite. Was absolutely worth every. Single. Second. Of waiting. 

The Cronut is all that is right with the world. Its rich moist and sugary sweet. Its beautiful layers are clear and precise. It’s flaky and chewy all at the same time. You lose yourself in every mouthful. The ice coffee that was recommended cut through the richness. A definite must for those who cannot handle the sweetness or simply want the different flavours playing in their mouths. 

The DKA is the unsung hero of this bakery. It is for me, on another level. Its perfection in its crust and its gooey center. You can break it up with your fingers and it simply melts in your mouth. The DKA has the perfect balance of flavours in its richness and its sweetness. The best part, you don't have to queue for the DKA. So there is no excuse to not get something amazing from this bakery, if you are in New York. I should be thankful I do not live in the area because I would get a coffee and a DKA every single morning. Hangover or not and probably look like one within a week! 

The lobster tail reminds me of my childhood. Salty and sweet this play on flavours was delicious. The dough is slightly heavier and not as light as the DKA but not as chewy as the Cronut. I could judge the lobster tail but anyone who judges’ peanut butter with salted caramel butter I cannot be friends with. Who needs that type of negativity in their life! It’s a great pastry to get with the DKA as its slightly more complicated in flavour and not as simple. Needless to say every choice was perfect in the bakery. i look back and wonder if we could of made an incorrect one? Each one is probably just as good as the next. 

The man is a master. *Applaud* 

The DKA and iced coffee 

the peach and black tea cronut 

So lets talk hot dogs. I decided to go to Coney island and hunt down Nathan’s famous. Home to the original New York hot dog. Served with a large soda and cheese fries, this is no place to count calories. No amount of cheese spread in your childhood will ever prepare you for melted hot cheese on fries. It’s a sin and so so good all wrapped up in one. The hot dogs are tasty and perfectly served with fried onions, tomato sauce and mustard. The only way you can go wrong is if you make the rookie error and have lunch before the rides like I did. Coney island almost got all of me that day. But I put my big girls pants on and enjoyed every second. Full belly or not! 

Little Italy is exactly how you would imagine it from the movies. Filled with Italian everything. From cannoli’s to pizza it was one of my favourite adventures. 

We decided to go to Lombari's pizza, how could we not. It’s the oldest pizzeria in America. First licensed in 1905 this pizzeria was started by an Italian immigrant with a vision. We got there late as we had gotten lost on the subway. All part of the adventure. They hustled us inside in haste and told us that we had 5 minutes to order before closing. Working well under pressure we decided our toppings and placed our order. By the time we got our hot pizza box it was time to vacate the building. We didn't care, we had pizza. Off we went on our trip back to the apartment. We had decided to eat once we had gotten home but the aromas of the pizza got the better of us. Only two slices survived the trip. We ate as we went with hungry onlookers judging us. I can assure you that the pizza was spectacular and that the ricotta cheese used will live on in my memory forever. 

Smorgasburg, lunch with a view. This amazing market is a feast for all. Its situated in Williamsburg and over looks the city. The first time I actually was removed from the skyscrapers. It feels like gaining perspective. a refreshing thought for anything in life. Each stand is unique and sells something delicious and different. I recommend following the queues. It doesn't sound fun but they are there for a reason. We visited the Mighty Quinns first and foremost. Slow smoked for 29 hours this brisket sandwich topped with pickled cucumber and chilli will melt in your mouth. 

the organic market on the upper west side on a saturday was a true treasure. it reminded me of being back in cape town. we stumbled upon it by simply taking a walk. the wonders of exploring by foot.  

organic cheese farm 

I'm no authority and it's no rule- here it is, a list of the places I went to and loved.  

lombari's pizza 
dominique ansel bakery
nathans famous hotdogs 
gooey&co
mighty quinns
smorgasburg
creperie nyc
rafele ristorante
los tacos 
 

-Melissa