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Friday, April 20, 2012

Trinchado

The start of something beautiful
When you have a relationship with some one for many years, living in the same house, sharing meals, you learn their preferences, their quirks. You discover what makes them turn up their nose and what makes their ears perk. After 7 years with Jack I can happily say that I KNOW the man and I KNOW what he loves.

My misfortune is that my husband is a man that eats because it is something that is needed to survive. He does enjoy things that taste good and has preferences but he does not go googly eyed at a well presented dish or get a far away stare when something so good touches his tongue, random "mmm" sounds do not escape his lips when he tastes something amazing. He will even eat things he isn't crazy about in the right company.

simmer away
He does, however, have his favourites. Something he will order every time we go to a certain restaurant or something he loves for me to make for him if I have a chance. One such thing is Trinchado. A Portuguese beef stew, rich with flavour. My favourite thing about this recipe is how forgiving it is of adjustments, especially the kind of adjustments that make it a healthier option.

The long cooking time means you can use lean cuts of meat and using evaporated milk or regular milk (carefully), while not making the dish AS creamy as using actual cream, still make for a very tasty dish. I personally don't miss the olives in the dish when I need to take them out for TheSister and my favourite adjustment has to be the wine.

A little longer

Trinchado

What you need:
1 tbs butter
1 tbs olive oil
(or 2 tbs olive oil if you want to reduce the fat)
1kg beef, cubed (as this is a stew you can decide how lean you want the beef)
2 large red onions, chopped
2-3 red chillies, chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
250ml beef stock (I used NoMu fonds, the richness is unbeatable)
1 bottle red wine, minus 1 glass for the cook (I used Pinotage)
1 bay leaf
100g black olives, stones removed (optional)
1 sprig fresh rosemary
125ml cream (or evaporated milk or regular milk)
1 tsp lemon rind
Salt and Pepper to taste

What to do:

Heat the butter and oil in a heavy-based pan and brown the beef.
Remove from the pan and set aside.
Lower the heat and saute the onions, I like to put in some water so that the onions get soft without burning, when the water has evaporated add the chillies and cook for about a minute.
Add the stock and wine. Bring to boil and stir continually.
Add the bay leaf, olives (if using) and the fresh rosemary.
Add the crushed garlic
Return the meat to the pan and simmer slowly for 2 hours (or more).
If you are making this in advance, this is where you stop. The rest of the process happens just before serving. When you are ready to serve, gently heat up the trinchado to a medium heat.
Add the cream (or substitute) and stir through. If you are using milk instead pour slowly and carefully to avoid it splittin.
Add the fresh lemon peel and if you want extra rosemary.
Season to taste

You can serve trinchado as a starter with some bread, or a main course with rice.


Tuesday, April 17, 2012

At the Palms Market (photo blog)

I had all the good intentions in the world, I had all the right ideas. I wrote all the details down and I was ready and willing to put it ALL here. Then life happened. You know that thing that gets in the way of what we want to do, all those things we NEED to do. 

As I mentioned in the previous Monthly Mingle post, my grandmother is not well. My mother had to fly to be with her and help her for a month and in that month I tried to be supermom and well, I managed to be mom and sometimes get my day job done too. 

Those of you who blog know, if you can't blog for a while you lose your steam and I lost mine. This last weekend however, it all came back. I will do a post on my weekend in JHB cooking up a storm but for now I leave you with the images from the Palms Market and urge you to support this beautiful and unique shopping experience 


















Thursday, March 1, 2012

Heart Healthy Roundup - Feb Monthly Mingle


What an interesting month February proved to be. My heart swelled at times and broke a little at other. My little boy has been hitting his milestones ahead of time which makes me so proud but at the same time my grandmother is ill and we may not get to see her in person again as she lives in Israel. Work has been work and nothing exciting or engaging has happened in a while and all this time the stress that the lack of tourism is putting on my husband is not doing wonders for his mood and in turn mine.

What has made me smile a lot this month is the contributions I have received for the Monthly Mingle. I thought for sure there would be scepticism about theme as everyone loves to overindulge in the month of love. However, a lot of you have not only embraced it but really went to town with it.

Thank you for filling my head with delicious ideas. Here is a round up of all who participated:
Assia Turner from Assia's Kaleidoscope 


Ann from anN-series


Robin from What about the food?


Mairi from Toast

Tandy from Lavender & Lime

Soma from eCurry



More from Robin at What about the food? 
Janet from the taste space

Ok, now I am hungry