Category Archives: FOOD
The Sponge Fancy Cakes
The Sponge Fancy Cakes
SERVES
Makes about 35 squares
DIFFICULTY
Easy
COOKING TIME
30 minutes
Woolworths is committed to sustainability via our good business journey. Seasonal (and other) products might not always be in stock.
The sponge cake is moist, soft and fluffy. My Eid table is never without these beautifully decorated colourful fancies. Perfect to place on your cake stand along with all the other sweet treats.
Ingeridents
For the sponge cake:
1½ cups castor sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup oil
2 t vanilla essence or extract
1 cup milk
2½ cups flour
1 T baking powder
1 t salt
For the cake coating:
1 x 290 g can apricot jam
3 – 4 cups boiling water
food colouring(s) of your choice
desiccated coconut, to coat the cake squares
For the decorations:
whipped cream
Caramel Treat
sugar flowers
chocolate flake
canned fruit
Jelly (1 packet of jelly to 1 cup of water and let it set)
COOKING INSTRUCTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Spray a deep baking tray with cooking spray or grease with butter and sprinkle with a little flour.
SPONGE CAKE:
2. Add the castor sugar and eggs to a mixing bowl and beat for about 4 – 5 minutes. Start adding the oil little by little to the egg mixture while beating.
3. Next add the vanilla essence, milk, flour, baking powder and salt. Stir all the ingredients until well combined. Give the batter one last beat to make sure that everything at the bottom of the bowl has been combined with the mixture.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tray. Swipe a toothpick through the batter to get rid of any bubbles that may have formed.
5. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven. Test the cake with a toothpick to make sure that it’s baked completely – if pressed into the centre, the toothpick must come out clean.
6. Let the cake cool for 5 minutes in the baking tray, then turn it out on a cooling rack to cool completely. Once cool, cut off the edges of the cake neatly and cut the cake into small squares.
COATING:
7. In a mixing bowl whisk the apricot jam and boiling water together. Divide the mixture into three separate mixing bowls. Add a few drops of food colouring to each bowl. (You can use three different colours, or only one colour if you prefer.)
8. Dip a cake square into a jam mixture and then coat it with coconut. Continue until all the cake has been dipped and coated.
DECORATION:
9. With a piping bag, pipe the cream onto the cakes and decorate as desired.
SEE MORE
Mavrou for Wedding
Mavrou for Wedding
SERVES
6 – 8
DIFFICULTY
Easy
COOKING TIME
2 hours 15 minutes
During wedding season, every Sunday was booked to capacity, and every hall was turned into a thing of beauty. Everyone was dressed to the nines, elegant and dapper. Aunties, uncles, grannies and cousins, friends and neighbours. All that was missing was a big sign at the entrance saying, “Everyone is welcome” because that’s exactly how it was, no one was turned away. The aunties would gather around a table and break out into a song just before the servers walked out with platters and bowls full of food. One of those dishes was often the classic and very traditional Mavrou, made with cubes of steak and served on special occasions. Fatima Sydow
INGREDIENTS
4 T oil
5 onions, finely chopped
2 green peppers, seeded and finely chopped
5 chillies, seeded and chopped
5 cloves
5 bay leaves
5 allspice berries
4 cardamom pods
5 sticks cinnamon sticks
2 kg steak, cut into cubes
8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, grated
1 T ground cumin
1 T ground coriander
1 T ground black pepper
1 T sugar
salt, to taste
Cooking Instruction
1. In a very large pot, heat the oil and braise the onions, green peppers and chillies with all the whole spices until golden brown, for about 15 minutes.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and braise on medium to low heat for 2 hours, adding just a little water now and then to prevent burning, and stirring when required.
3. Serve with mashed potatoes or yellow rice and vegetables like carrots, peas, sweetcorn and gem squash.
Easy Tweegevrietjies
Easy Tweegevrietjies
SERVES
Makes about 36
DIFFICULTY
Easy
COOKING TIME
12 – 15 minutes
Ingeridents
For the filling:
2 cups fine-desiccated coconut
¾ cup sugar
1 pinch of ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground cardamom
1 cup water
drop of vanilla or almond essence
For the pastry:
250 g soft butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 – 2 t vanilla essence or extract
3 cups flour
1 t baking powder
For the dark chocolate icing:
¾ cup icing sugar
3½ T cocoa
1 t vanilla essence
2 T milk
For the pink icing:
¾ cup icing sugar
2 T milk
a drop of red or crimson food colouring
drop of vanilla essence
COOKING INSTRUCTIONS
FILLING:
1. Place the coconut, sugar, cinnamon, cardamom and water in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir and cook the mixture until the water is cooked away and the mixture forms sticky balls (about 10 minutes). Remove from the heat and add the vanilla or almond essence and stir.
PASTRY:
2. Add the butter to a mixing bowl and loosen it with a mixer. Add the sugar and beat for a few minutes until light and creamy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix.
3. Add the flour. (Do not pack the flour too tightly in the measuring cup. Just do a loose scoop and then scrape the top off with a knife, otherwise, you’ll end up adding too much flour, and the pastry will be dry.)
4. Add the baking powder. Mix the flour and baking powder using a spatula and then use your hands to bring everything together. Once the mixture has formed a dough, cover it with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Grease 3 shell pans with oil. Sprinkle the working surface with flour.
6. Roll out the dough to about 0.5 cm in thickness. (You can also cover your dough with plastic wrap and roll it out.) Cut the dough into circles using a round cookie cutter.
7. Put the dough circles into the prepared shell pans and press down in the centre with your thumb. Fill the dough shapes with the coconut mixture and press it down, as the icing still needs to be added. Bake in the preheated oven for 12 – 15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.
DARK CHOCOLATE ICING
8. Put the icing sugar in a mixing bowl. Sift in the cocoa. Add a drop of vanilla essence and some milk – not too much (rather gradually add more milk if needed as the idea is for the mixture to be stiff).
9. Mix everything with a spoon. If the icing is too light, add more cocoa. If the mixture is too stiff, add some milk and if the mixture is too runny, add more icing sugar and cocoa.
PINK ICING:
10. Put the icing sugar, milk, food colouring and vanilla in a mixing bowl and mix together with a spoon to form a stiff mixture. If the mixture is too runny, add icing sugar and if you want the mixture to be a bit paler, add more icing sugar and milk.
DECORATING:
11. Using a knife, spread some of the chocolate mixtures over one side of the tweegevrietjies and spread the pink mixture over the other side.
Watch Vegetable curry with pap
Watch Vegetable curry with pap
SERVES
4 to 6
DIFFICULTY
Easy
PREP TIME
10 minutes
COOKING TIME
35 minutes
INGREDIENTS
2 t olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 T garlic, grated
1 T ginger, grated
1 T chili, finely chopped
1 T fresh turmeric, grated
a sprig of fresh curry leaves
1 T Korma curry paste
200 g sweet potatoes, diced
200 g Woolworths medium Apache potatoes, diced
100 g baby carrots, halved lengthways
2 x 400 ml cans of coconut cream
200 g baby marrow, sliced into 2 cm rounds
1 x 400 ml can butter beans
fresh coriander, roughly chopped, for serving
For the pap:
3 cups water
500 g maize meal
1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and sauté the onion until golden brown. Add the garlic, ginger, chili, turmeric, curry leaves, and curry paste, and cook for 2 minutes.
2. Add the sweet potatoes, Apache potatoes, and baby carrots, then pour in the coconut cream and stir through. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes, adding the baby marrow in the last 5 minutes of cooking time.
3. To make the pap, bring the water to a rapid boil in a large saucepan. Add half the maize meal and cover. Reduce the heat to medium-low and leave the pap for 8 to 10 minutes stirring occasionally.
4. Remove the lid, then stir vigorously for 1 minute to incorporate any remaining maize meal into the water.
5. Repeatedly mash the pap against the side of the saucepan using a wooden spoon for about 2 minutes to create a smooth consistency.
6. Gradually add the remaining maize meal, stir vigorously, and mash again. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and steam the pap for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
7. Check the consistency of the pap, adjust with water, and mix if necessary.
8. Serve with the curry, garnished with coriander.