A new Goddess joins the team!

At the end of last year Natalie joined Domestic Goddesses on a freelance basis. She has subsequently fitted into the team so well and our clients who have worked with her, loved her just as much as we do. So she's joining us full time!

Apart from being a naturally gifted cook, Natalie has been working on the super yachts of the rich and famous for over 9 years. She worked her way up to the position of Chief Stewardess, which is about as high as it goes for interior staff. 

On her last yacht she led a team of 8 stewardesses ensuring that cleanliness and service was of the highest possible level. When you are paying 6 million rand a week to rent one of these yachts, guest expectations are pretty high. 

If you are curious to see the last yacht Natalie worked on, click here.

She has extensive experience training ladies in all areas of housekeeping; including laundry with a special focus on textile care and stain treatment; general and specialised cleaning, time management and cleaning schedules as well as table setting and service.

Apart from assisting me with cookery training, Natalie will be handling all our housekeeping training. I have also asked her if, from time to time, she would share some of her recipes and housekeeping tips on the blog too.  

Welcome Natalie - we are so happy to have you with us.

Crazy for organic

Yesterdays box of pure joy from Ethical co-op!

Ever since returning from Norway, I have gone organic crazy. The family I worked for there tried, as far as possible, only to eat organic or bio-dynamic products and we had many discussions around the topic. I feel particularly strongly about it as I drink freshly pressed fruit and veggie juice daily and the idea of the pesticides going in concentrated form through my juice into me, has become totally unpalatable. 

So in my quest for organic products I have found that the larger Woolies stores such as the one in Cavendish Square; Wild organics and the Ethical Co-op have provided me with a huge selection of relatively reasonably priced products which have so far not been that hard to get hold of. It's still a far cry from popping into my local store and being able to get all I need there. But then again, there is a certain special charm and enjoyment to getting a weekly hamper stuffed to the brim with good, wholesome and exciting food. And also making a special trip to a store or market to find things which are made with care and love. You end up treating those things with the same care and love they were produced with. 

I am so over the mass produced convenience which is rammed down our throats at every turn. And then having to run to the gym or the doctor to solve the problems related to our excessive life styles.   

Okay, okay - I will get off my levitating soap box now. I have sooo many guilty pleasures I can't even keep count, but 2013 is my year to try to live and eat more consciously.   

Flavor burst Pad Thai salad

One of my most unexpectedly successful recipes from last year was my Pad Thai salad. I first discovered the inspiration for this recipe in a Fresh Living magazine and added it to a list of recipes I taught the domestic of a client of mine, who is a raw vegan. 

It has become a household favorite of mine and I have been making and remaking it non stop with various tweaks and twists each time. My clients have also been loving it and I have taught this recipe at least half a dozen times for various clients since I came back from abroad. Every time it has been a smash hit. 

When you look at the ingredients, most people are suspicious and can't imagine this being any good. But once you taste it, it is a burst of freshness and flavor. Totally unexpected. 

Pad thai salad

Serves 4 side salads or 2 main courses

1 cup of butternut, peeled into ribbons with a potato peeler

1 cup of cabbage (red or green), finely shredded

4 baby marrows, peeled into ribbons with a potato peeler

2 medium carrots, peeled into ribbons with a potato peeler

½ a red pepper, cut into thin strips

1 tsp of salt

½ a cup of raw cashew nuts (peanuts or almonds)

2 Tbsp of pickled ginger, roughly chopped

Dressing

80ml of coconut cream (or coconut milk)

2 Tbsp of peanut butter (or nut butter of choice)

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1 tsp of fresh ginger, finely minced

2 Tbsp of soya sauce

1 Tbsp of the juice from the pickled ginger

Juice of 1 lime or half a lemon

a handful of coriander leaves, picked and washed for serving

1 fresh chilli, chopped (optional)

Toss the veggies with the salt and set aside while making the sauce. Whisk together all the ingredients for the sauce until smooth.

Arrange the veggies on a platter and drizzle with the dressing. Or toss them all together in a large bowl and serve into individual portions.

Garnish liberally with the nuts, pickled ginger and coriander. Add chopped chill to the garnish for extra zing if you like that.  

I'm alive!

No, I have not died. No, I have not given up blogging. No, I have not run away to join the circus. But yes, I have been on holiday!!! 
Last year was quite a formidable year for me. The last few weeks of the year also culminated in complete work mayhem. So when the time came to catch my breath and take a few weeks of much needed rest, I quite literally stopped. I did the barest amount of cooking possible and relied on those who don't cook for a living to have a turn in the kitchen. I didn't write or take photographs. In fact I barely opened my laptop. 

I did sleep a lot, nap a lot, watch a lot of movies, read a bit, walk a bit, sun bathe a bit, swim a bit. All of this I did very slowly; very very slowly. There were, of course, many fun gatherings around my birthday, Christmas and New Years as well as friends and family visiting. My husband and I also celebrated our first wedding anniversary. So it was a time of celebration, fun, frivolity and above all rest!

As far as blog worthy topics go, I have allowed most of this holiday to fade away into a lovely satisfied blur, but the two things I am going to have to talk about are my new coffee machine and my induction hob! But not today... 

Today, I am going to remind you about that fabulous multipurpose paste of pure pleasure - hummus! I just made a fresh batch today and have been teaching it and making it for events non-stop over the last year. Kids love it, grown ups love it. It's great as a dipper, it's great as a spread. No fridge should be without it. 

Hummus

Makes about two and a half cups

2 cups of soaked and cooked (or canned) chickpeas

2 tsp of ground cumin (or to taste)

1 tsp of paprika (optional)

¼ tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

2 cloves of garlic, peeled

2 tsp of lemon zest

3 - 4 Tbsp of lemon juice

2 - 3 Tbsp of tahini

1 tsp of salt

½ a cup of olive oil

½ a cup of iced water (more if needed)

Blend all the ingredients together until smooth. Add as much water as needed to achieve the desired consistency and blend long enough to get the mixture silky smooth.

Hummus freezes well, so you can make extra and defrost it when needed.

Mrs. Moxon's Posset

This dessert is a family tradition. My mother has made it for as long as I can remember and it has always been called Mrs. Moxon's posset. Who this Mrs. Moxon is, non of us know. But her name lives on and try as I may, I can't bring myself to call it anything else.  

It is in essence a kind of syllabub - traditional wine and cream mixture. But there is nothing old fashioned about the light and refreshing taste; the look is elegant and unique; and it is in my opinion the perfect way to end off a summer meal. 

Mrs. Moxon’s Posset

Serves 4

250ml of white wine (I used an organic sauvignon blanc)

½ a cup of castor sugar (or to taste)

2 Tbsp of lemon juice

½ a cup (125ml) of whipping cream

1 Tbsp of lemon zest 

Combine the wine, sugar and lemon juice and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Whip the cream until stiff being careful not to over whip as the cream will split. Stir half the lemon zest into the cream. Fold the cream and the wine mixtures together until just combined.

Divide the mixture up equally between four pretty glasses. Use the remaining lemon zest to garnish the top of each dessert. Carefully transfer the dessert to the fridge and leave for a few hours to separate and set.

The cream should rise to the top of the glass leaving a lemony wine mixture at the bottom of the glass. Serve chilled with teaspoons to eat it with.

Florentines

Until last week I had never attempted making a Florentine. For some reason I had assumed that they were difficult to make. 

When a client asked me to teach her housekeeper to make them, I had to do a quick trial myself before attempting to teach someone else to make them. 

To my delight, they were really quick and easy. The housekeeper I taught has re-made them twice in the last week since I taught her and they have been perfect every time.

The recipe below  is a slight adaptation of a recipe I got from the recipe book Bake written by Tina Bester.


Florentines
Makes about 12 x 4cm cookies

2 tsp of preserved ginger syrup
2 Tbsp of preserved ginger, chopped into small pieces
3 Tbsp of dried cranberries (or sultanas), chopped into small pieces
120g of flaked almonds
100g of butter
100g of castor sugar
A pinch of salt
100g of dark chocolate, melted in a double boiler

Preheat the oven to 180˚C and place the rack in the middle of the oven. Grease a 12-insert muffin tin (silicone molds work the best). 

Combine the nuts, ginger and cranberries in a medium sized mixing bowl. 

In a small saucepan melt the butter and sugar together over high heat. Add the ginger syrup and salt. Simmer the mixture stirring continually until it starts to turn light caramel in colour, about 5 – 10 minutes. Add a teaspoon or two of water if the sugar crystals have not dissolved. Pour over the nut mixture and combine well. 

Divide the mixture evenly between the muffin inserts. Bake for 10 – 15 minutes until golden brown and allow to cool fully before turning out onto a wax paper sheet with the smooth side of the cookies facing up.  

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and using a pastry brush, paint flat side of the cookies with the chocolate. You can do a few layers of chocolate and continue until the chocolate is finished. Allow this to set fully (perhaps even refrigerate for a few minutes) before storing in an airtight container in a cool place. 

Breakfast at Betty's

Adam and I have spent the weekend out in Betty's Bay with my parents. Now anyone who knows my parents, knows that they make arguably, the best breakfast in the world. Now this is not because they are complex or multi-course or fancy in any way. They are just made with care and excellence. 

The way my mother makes grilled tomatoes is simply unsurpassed. I can't order grilled tomatoes at a restaurant, as the disappointment is just too much for me to bear. Now the secret is simple. You cut just the top and bottom sliver of the tomatoes off. Fry them in a heavy bottomed pot on medium heat in a little oil until the the side which is facing down starts to brown. Flip the tomatoes and sprinkle a little salt and half a teaspoon of brown sugar on the top of each tomato, allowing it to melt and seep into the tomato. Once the flipped side has browned as well, then turn the tomatoes again and salt and sugar the other side. Turn the heat down very low now as you don't want the sugar to burn at the bottom of the tomato. Put the lid on the pot for a bit to speed up the melting of the sugar. This also promotes condensation which develops a lovely syrup at the bottom of the pot. 

The eggs my parents had, caused quite a stir. They buy their eggs from a farm shop out in Kleinmond and are the biggest eggs I have ever seen in my life. Every egg has a double yolk and is at least double the volume of a jumbo egg. 

  

I love the rings my mom used to contain the pouched eggs and ducked out immediately after breakfast to buy some. 

I couldn't resist this picture of my husband, caught showing his true monkey self, with his tail peeking out behind him. Note on the table, the bowl of chopped herbs with garlic and some spices, which are a family tradition on our breakfast eggs. 



My mother has also perfected a high fibre gluten free seed loaf which we made tidy work of at breakfast. She has promised to take down the recipe next time she makes it and will send it to me.