Tag Archives: cookbook

MasterChef SA Season 3 episode 2 Bootcamp 2: Tomatoes create curved ball in Invention Test, scones decide Top 12!

MasterChef SA 3 ep 2 Tomatoes 2The pace in last night’s episode 2 of MasterChef SA Season 3 was a little slower than that of the first episode, but irritating was the judges whispering amongst themselves in evaluating the contestants, so softly that one could barely hear what they were saying.  The episode was designed to reduce the 24 contestant from Bootcamp 1 to the 12 Finalists going to the Nederburg MasterChef SA kitchen, ending off with a last-minute scone-baking competition.

The 24 contestants were still in the Cape Town harbour for Bootcamp 2, but now inside a warehouse, with cooking stations set up for each of them, and a Woolworths pantry too.   The brief for the Invention Test sounded easy enough, in preparing their choice of dish within 60 minutes. The pantry would be closed down during the episode, the contestants were told.  Chef and judge Pete Goffe-Wood said that the pantry was so well stocked that ‘if you can dream it, you can cook it’.  One contestant was looking for tomatoes for her dish, and was surprised that there were none. Midway a curved ball was introduced, Chef and Continue reading →

Tokara goes ‘Beyond the chocolate handkerchief’ with MasterChef SA Season 2 Finalists Seline and Leandri van der Wat!

Tokara Leandri, Chef Richard Carstens, Seline Whale CottageLast night I attended a collaboration dinner between Tokara Chef Richard Carstens and Leandri and Seline van der Wat, the two sisters who made it to number two and three, respectively, in Season 2 of MasterChef SA last year. The dinner was entitled ‘Beyond the Chocolate Handkerchief’, and was a huge success, being sold out, and will be repeated tonight.

I had the pleasure of spending a day with bubbly Seline van der Wat earlier this year, showing her all the foodie hotspots in Cape Town.  More recently she and younger sister Leandri visited Cape Town, and we had lunch together at Chef’s Warehouse.  A subsequent Facebook post announced the dinner, and I booked immediately, not having seen the two sisters in cooking action except for the MasterChef Season 2 episodes, in which they both won the hearts of viewers who enjoyed the Continue reading →

Eating out: are our restaurant choices sustainable and responsible? Should we not be Eating in?

Michael Pollan is a man with a food conscience, and has written a number of books on the theme of sustainable food and healthy eating, promoting cooking at home, and eating out responsibly, if one must eat at a restaurant, reports The Daily Telegraph.

Admitting that he once was a McDonald’s fan, having one of their meals daily, and that their chicken nuggets are his son’s ‘Proustian smells and tastes of childhood‘, he would not touch their food anymore.  He is concerned that ‘we don’t cook, can’t cook, won’t cook‘, despite the flood of TV food shows and rise in cookbook sales, leading us to eat unhealthy food, which is not environmentally responsible. Even worse is that we don’t connect socially over home-cooked meals any more.  Pollan is a Professor in Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and was named in 2010 as one of TIME‘s 100 persons to ‘most affect our world‘.

Pollan’s book ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma‘ inspired Angus McIntosh, owner of Spier’s Farmer Angus meat and egg supply, to be environmentally responsible in the biodynamic rearing of his animals.  He gave me a copy of the book, to inspire me to spread the message when I visited his farm. The book is subtitled ‘The Search for a perfect meal in a fast-food world‘ and encapsulates Pollan’s criticism of fast food, which he calls an ‘industrial meal’, and of McDonald’s in particular. Pollan analysed the ‘nutritional’ content of McNuggets from a flyer, and found them to contain 38 ingredients, of which 13 are derived from corn, as well as synthetic ingredients made at petroleum refineries or chemical plants, allowing the food to be stored for longer.  Corn is the staple diet of cattle, yet ‘violates the biological or evolutionary logic of bovine digestion’, writes Pollan.  The omnivore’s alternative to industrial food is claimed ‘organic‘ food, sounding more ethical and sustainable. He concludes his book with a description of a meal he prepared from self-foraged ingredients, the ultimate way of eating but time-consuming to gather, including mushrooms, wild boar, fava beans, pâté, morels, bread (made using wild yeast), a garden salad, and a fruit tart for which the fruit was sourced from a public cherry tree, served with chamomile tea. Continue reading →

Lucky Star ‘You Can with Fish’ cookbook puts healthy eating in a can!

As bloggers we are invited to a diversity of functions to launch new products and menus.  The launch of Tamsin Snyman’s new cookbook for Lucky Star, ‘You Can with Fish’, was one of the most unusual, with great attention paid to the theme of the product, and some of the recipes in the cookbook forming the meal we were served for lunch.  The launch expressed the Lucky Star pay-off line ” Eat better. Live better”.

Banners with different recipes depicted in the cookbook welcomed the guests on arrival, on a beautiful Spring day at the recently renovated Granger Bay Hotel School Restaurant, almost at the ocean’s edge. I waited to be seated with MasterChef SA Finalist Lungi Nhlanhla, who now is the deputy Food editor of Drum magazine.  I was lucky to sit between Tamsin and Errieda du Toit, whose PR consultancy had organised the function, which meant that I could obtain additional information from both.  Tamsin impressed with her professionalism, being present and in charge of the event, despite her husband Chris having undergone serious surgery a few days prior. The marine theme was interpreted with origami boats in different sizes, which were part of a Lucky Star product display on each table, including Light meat shredded tuna, Pickled pilchard cutlets, Curried Pilchard cutlets, Pilchards in tomato sauce, South African sardines, Middlecut, and Pilchards in hot chilli sauce.

Tamsin has taken over her late mother’s Lannice Snyman Publishers, and the company has published the third cookbook for Oceana Brands, following ‘Cooking with Canned Pilchards‘ in 2003, and ‘Out of the Can’ in 2009, which marked the 50th anniversary of the brand. ‘You Can with Fish’ is divided into three sections, with 29 recipes that take 10 minutes, 20 minutes, and 30 minutes to prepare, and appeal to all members of the family. Time-saving tips for busy cooks are shared in the cookbook. The beautiful styling and photography for the book was done by husband and wife team Diane and Christoph Heierli, whose work impresses in every issue of WineStyle.

Shân Biesman-Simons, the Director of Nutrition and Education at The Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa, emphasised the health benefits for the heart of eating tuna, pilchards, and sardines, being rich in omega-3 fatty acids, and therefore the Lucky Star range carries the Heart Mark.  The brand’s product range is included in The Heart and Stroke Foundation Eating Plan, and is approved by Diabetes South Africa.  The products do not contain preservatives or artificial colouring.  Additional health benefits of the Lucky Star products are that the protiens are more easily digested than those in meat; the calcium strengthens bones; they contain iron, iodine and vitamins A and B; they have selenium, an immune booster, which helps to prevent cancer and heart disease; and the tomato sauce in the products contains lycopene, an anti-oxidant protecting against heart disease, cancer, and arthritis.  September is Heart Month, and therefore the cookbook is well-timed to educate South Africans about healthier eating.

Each guest was given a menu, and we were invited to ‘unleash your inner foodie!‘ On arrival, Pilchard bunny chow and sardine samoosas were served.  For the main course, seven dishes were brought to the table, all from the cookbook, prepared by the Granger Bay Hotel School Restaurant chef Jerome Peters, and were Tuna fishcakes with tartare sauce; Pilchard, marrow and mushroom cottage pie; curried pilchards, samp and corn; Sardine pancake bake; Tuna and mushroom casserole; and pickled pilchards with pap and spinach. Errieda had cleverly sourced ‘Gone Fishing’ cider by James Mitchell’s from Elgin, to match the theme!  The cookbook also has recipes for wraps, breyani, curries, bobotie, goulash, omelette, casseroles, and bakes.

In addition to the cookbook, 400000 leaflets with a selection of ten recipes out of the cookbook were printed, for distribution with magazines, at food shows, and at expos.

Disclosure: We received a Lucky Star shopping bag with the media kit, the cookbook, and a selection of the company’s canned products.

‘You Can with Fish’, Lannice Snyman Publishers. Available at leading bookstores.  R85,50.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage