Sauteed beef with Shiitake mushrooms

Whenever I'm working with meat, I always trim off the bits and pieces I don't want (at that moment) and store them in the freezer. When I have enough, a new dish is born, like this one.
Take two large onions and dice them roughly, place in a deep pan or casserole with a clove of crushed garlic, some butter, salt and pepper to taste. Once the onions are transparent, add in your beef strips and brown evenly. Next, add in the Shiitake mushrooms, diced (allow to hydrate beforehand) and stir through. To complete the recipe, add cream to the mixture and turn the heat down, allowing a few minutes to simmer.
Meanwhile, boil rice, strain and return the rice strainer to the pot (with a little water) so that the rice can steam and become fluffy.
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Veggie soup

They say that necessity is the mother of all invention and I agree. When you open that fridge in the evening and there's "nothing" there, it's time to get creative. And thus is born my veggie soup. The ingredients, as you can well imagine, are dependent on what is in the fridge and for this particular occasion I used carrots, spring onions, onion, celery, green peppers, garlic, parsley and carrots. Just about any hard veggie will do.
Dice everything up as small as you can, add to a pot and add lots of water as well as salt and pepper to taste. Then boil away. The water will evaporate, leaving your soup quite thick. Add more water to achieve the consistency you desire.
Once all the veggies are soft your soup is ready. A final step (optional) is to blend everything together with a hand-held blender. If the resulting mixture is too thick, add milk to give it a creamier taste.
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Oxtail poitjiekos

Today is a special day in Argentina when people traditionally eat locro (see previous post) and since I made a pot for my guests, I thought I'd mix things up a bit with a typically South African dish called a poitjiekos (translates to food in a pot - go figure). Anyway, a "poitkie" is a three-legged cast iron pot (witch's cauldron style) and it allows for outside cooking that is done slowly, VERY slowly. In fact, this dish took three and a half hours to cook (which is great since you can attend to your guests, have a beer and even get in a few hands of cards or dominoes).
Using your hand, rub about 30g of butter inside the pot to which you then add an oxtail, 500g of mutton and 500g of chopped lamb ribs. Allow this to braise in the pot for about 15 minutes until brown.
Add 8 medium onions that have been diced, 250g of chopped bacon, 4 blocks of beef stock (broken up), 8 cloves, 10 peppercorns, 2 tsp mixed herbs, a stick of cinnamon, 1 red chilli chopped and pepper to taste (no salt is needed as the beef stock is pretty salty). Cook for another 15 minutes.
Remove the mutton and the lamb and set aside while adding 60ml of water and 125ml of red wine and cook for an hour without  removing the lid. Return the meat and cook for 50 more minutes.
Now for the veggies: take 500g of green beans and chop roughly and place in a circle against the edge of the pot. Now take a bunch of carrots that have been peeled and chopped and make another concentric circle. Last place a shopped cauliflower in the middle, completing the circle.
To finish off, take about 15 baby potatoes and 15 baby onions and pack them on top. Take button mushrooms and squeeze them into the sides of the pot. Take a green pepper that is finely diced as well as three sticks of celery diced and sprinkle on top. Last, take a packet of onion soup and sprinkle over everything. Replace the lid and allow to cook for a further hour and a half to two hours. At no point is the pot stirred. Upon serving, dish downwards to get a cross section of all the ingredients. Enjoy!!
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Locro

This is a traditional Argentine dish for the 25th of May celebrations and it is really (surprisingly) simple to make but it has a host of different ingredients. And yet, the most important ingredient of all is patience: it takes up to two hours to cook and needs preparation the day before.
So let's get started: take 500g of white maize and 200g of butter beans and soak them in water for at least six hours (overnight is better). In a thick-based pot, place about 500g of flank steak, an oxtail, 500g of pork ribs, two chorizos and a pig's foot and boil for about five minutes. Remove from the pot, strain and allow to cool before chopping up onto manageable pieces (I prefer to do this to the raw meat).
Now add the maize and beans to the pot, cover with lots of water and boil until soft. Next add one kilo of butternut, 3 potatoes, 3 sweet potatoes, all of which have been chopped into cubes. With this, add two roughly chopped onions and two spring onions that are diced as well as 200g of bacon, cubed. Bring to the boil. Finally, add rosemary and thyme, salt and pepper to taste as well as a teaspoon of paprika. Turn the heat down and allow to simmer for an hour at least.
Upon serving, a teaspoon of "sauce" is added to give it a bit of a zing. To make the sauce: finely chop three onions and add it to a pan with a cup of oil and cook until the onions are transparent. Add two heaped teaspoons of chilli powder, two cloves of crushed garlic, salt and pepper and allow to cook slowly for ten minutes. Spoon into the locro and stir.
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Savory rice muffins

These little treats are easy to make and yet look really amazing when done. Also, there are no end to the possible variations.
Boil the rice, strain and allow to cool. In a bowl, beat an egg and add and (all) of the following:
grated cheese, cream, chopped ham, finely diced spring onions, salt, pepper.
I also like to add a teaspoon of baking powder just to make the final product light and fluffy. Once beaten together, add rice and mix. The resulting product should be a pretty stiff mixture which is then spooned into (silicon) muffin molds and baked in the oven.
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Boeber (arroz con leche)

With the onset of the colder weather, I decided to make a dessert that I haven't eaten in many years. And to be fair, it isn't something that was eaten at my childhood house with any regularity. The reason: boeber is a dessert / hot drink made by Capetonian Muslim people as part of their Ramadan celebrations (usually on the 15th day of the month-long fast) and then shared with neighbours. In my case, the Salie family introduced me to this Malaysian delight.

In Argentina, the closest equivalent is "arroz con leche" (rice with milk) but, needless to say, it isn't the same thing.

Melt 125ml of butter in a saucepan and add a cup to vermicelli (or thin pasta) to it, allowing it to go golden brown. Next add 8 cardamom seeds that have been bruised, 3 sticks of cinnamon and, optionally, 50g of sultanas. Stir into the butter mixture followed by 2 litres of milk. Bring to the boil and reduce the heat. Next, add in 75g of sage which has been soaked in 200ml of water for at least 15 minutes. Stir frequently to prevent the mixture from sticking. Lastly, add in 150ml of sugar (more or less to taste) as well as 20ml of rose water and 50g of blanched almonds (optional). Serve warm.

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Chocolate mousse

Here's a really power dessert that is a sure crowd-pleaser and yet simple to make.
This mousse is rich and light and definately not to be eaten in large quantities!!!
Take a pot and add about 4cm of water in it and bring it to the boil. Meanwhile, take an oven-proof pyrex dish and chop up 100g of butter and 300g (or more up till 600g) of chocolate. Use semi-dark cooking chocolate and dark if you're going for the heart-stopping effect!! Allow this to melt, stirring from time to time and once melted, remove pot and pyrex dish from heat. Add in the yolks of six eggs (up to 10 if you're going all out) and stir in. Also add 200ml of cream (again scale this up to 400ml if you're going large).
By now your melted chocolate will have a smooth, shiny appearance to it. You could, at this stage, add some alcohol to intensify the final product. Brandy, Amarula, Bailey's all work well.
Lastly, add the egg whites that are already beaten till stiff, to the mixture and fold in gently. Now either pour the mixture into a large bowl or, as I prefer, shot glasses and then allow to cool in the fridge, until set.
For the final decoration (and this is optional), take whipped cream and add to mousse just before serving.
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