Munch Christmas specials starting soon

For Christmas this year, Munch will be making the classic French Christmas dessert, buche de Noel, to order. Otherwise known as a Yule log, a buche de Noel is a classic French Christmas dessert, shaped and decorated to resemble the logs traditionally thrown on the Yule fire. Yule logs come in as many varieties as there are bakers. The Munch version starts with a vanilla Genoese sponge cake that is spread with rich hazelnut mousse before being rolled up. The rolled cake is then frosted with dark chocolate buttercream, with the classic meringue “mushrooms” added to complete the presentation.

As well as the buche de Noel Christmas special, Munch will also be making classic cut-out Christmas cookies, cut into star shapes and decorated with piped white royal icing and edible glitter in gold. Two flavours are available – lemon and almond sugar cookies, and spicy gingerbread cookies – and can be ordered in mixed boxes, or just one of the flavours if preferred.

Both specials will be available from the first of November. To find out more about ordering, delivery and prices, e-mail me at emma@munchfoodcakes.co.za.

Springtime high tea

Recently, Munch put together a springtime high tea.

Dark chocolate cupcakes with fresh strawberry buttercream, vanilla cupcakes with
chocolate buttercream, and toasted coconut cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Miniature scones with homemade strawberry preserves and double thick cream

Roasted baby tomatoes and feta on toasted baguette slices

Smoked salmon and horseradish-spiked creme fraiche on sweetcorn crumpets
with wild rocket

Vanilla angel food cake with sweetened mascarpone and fresh berries
(the cake really is there, underneath all those berries)

Rare roast beef, watercress and wholegrain mustard on baby Yorkshire puddings

Here you can see a little bit of the cake peeking out between all the berries and mascarpone

Angel food cake recipe coming soon!

Yet another salad

Sweet things are coming soon - a vanilla angel's food cake with sweetened mascarpone and fresh berries, to be exact. But in the meantime, here is another light but substantial summer salad.

From the top left corner, going clockwise, we have:

1. brown basmati rice and green lentils, simmered together slowly till tender, drained and cooled
2. half a lemon
3. beetroot, sliced thinly, tossed in olive oil and salt and roasted at 180 C for about 25 minutes
4. parmesan, shaved
5. little baby carrots, topped and tailed, tossed with olive oil and salt and roasted at 180 C for about 25 minutes
6. fresh baby spinach

Squeeze the lemon to get its juice, toss that with everything else above, and add some salt, pepper, and a little olive oil. If you're a determined carnivore, some cold roast chicken is good in this mix.

Summer salads

Cape weather is notoriously fickle, so I'm hesitant to say this, but it does seem like summer is arriving - for now, at least. When it's hot, I really don't want to keep the oven and stove on any longer than absolutely necessary, which means Andrew and I tend to eat salads for the duration of summer. Here is last night's inaugural summer salad:

It might look all innocent (and very green) in that picture, but there is a lot going on in that salad. If I'm going to eat salad for dinner, it has to be both interesting and substantial. Luckily, as I've mentioned before in this post, I tend to have lots of bits and pieces of already cooked leftover components in my fridge most of the time, so often I cobble hearty salads together using those bits and pieces.

Even if you don't have that advantage, though, it's easy enough to cook a big batch of one or more grains, chop and saute or roast a few vegetables, maybe cook some bacon or chicken over the weekend, and keep all of this in the fridge to use for salads during the week. Then it's just a matter of throwing these cooked ingredients together with fresh, raw ones in different combinations, and with different dressings.

Of course, this sometimes works out better than other times. Luckily last night's salad was a winner.

Inaugural simmer salad

about 1 cup cooked bulgur wheat
half a small head of broccoli, chopped and sauteed
5 small courgettes, sliced and sauteed
about 1 cup peas, sauteed
1/4 cup roasted cashews
3 rashers streaky bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/2 log garlic and herb chevin
juice of half a lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
squirt of honey
salt and pepper

Everything tossed together, except the chevin, which I crumbled on top. Dinner in less than five minutes.

Bacon or cheese?

Salad with bacon

And salad with cheese

Which would you choose - bacon or cheese?

Potato salad with green beans, rocket, and bacon or Parmesan
Serves 4

16 baby potatoes, quartered and steamed till firm but cooked through
handful fresh green beans, steamed for just a couple of minute
200g rocket
1/4 cup plain yoghurt
3 tbsp fruity olive oil
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 tsp honey
salt
pepper
6 strips streaky bacon, crispy and crumbled, OR:
as many shavings of good Parmesan as you like

As you can see, most of this recipe is already written out in the ingredients list. You'll have to quarter and steam the potatoes, stem and steam the green beans, cook and crumble the bacon or shave the Parmesan, using a vegetable peeler.

Then you put the yoghurt, olive oil, lemon juice, honey, salt, and pepper in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Add the potatoes and green beans and toss to coat well.

Now divide the rocket between four plates, in nice little piles on each plate. Top the rocket with the potato mixture. Finally sprinkle the crumbled bacon or Parmesan shavings on top, and you have what I consider to be a very nice lunch.

I'd have the bacon :)

Recently produced by munch

Triple tomato tartlets with rocket

Brownies filled with dark chocolate chunks, white chocolate chunks,
marshmallows, caramel, and nuts

Sweet corn crumpets topped with smoked salmon, horseradish
mascarpone, and watercress

Baby Yorkshire puddings topped with rare roast beef,
horseradish sauce, and watercress

Phyllo pastry parcels filled with almond and apricotchicken tagine,
and spicy mushroom empanadas

Baby chicken burgers with brie and caramelized onion

Friday night pizzas

Most week nights, I like to make sure that we have a home-cooked meal for dinner. Nothing fancy or traditional, like roast chicken or lasagne. Usually wraps, a grain salad, pasta, something simple and hopefully reasonably good for us. The only drawback is that I almost always get too many ingredients for whatever I plan to make during the week, and then often also make for too much food for dinner. By Friday, our fridge is full of bits and pieces of leftover ingredients and dishes. While we eat some of the bits and pieces over the weekend, some of it always goes off before we get to it and has to be tossed.

Now, I hate throwing away food – in this and many other respects it seems I’m becoming more and more like my dad. I needed a solution for the bits and pieces, and so – Friday night pizzas.

I love gourmet pizzas with carefully coordinated toppings, and I do make that kind sometimes. But pizza was originally invented as a way to make a few scraps of food go a long way, so now, that’s what I do when our Friday bits and pieces seem to lend themselves to becoming pizza toppings. All I need to do is make pizza dough, assemble and bake.

Here is this past Friday’s pizza. The base was covered in tomato-red pepper sauce, red pepper slices and caramelised onions. Andrew’s side got Black Forest ham and camembert, and my side got smoked salmon and brie. And to top, avocado for both sides.

Pizza dough

Makes enough dough for two large pizzas – I make one large pizza for two of us and freeze the other half of the dough to use later.

3 cups bread flour

7g instant yeast

2 tsp salt

4 tsp sugar

1 tbsp olive oil

½ - 1 cup warm water

Place all the ingredients except the water in either the bowl of a stand mixer, or a mixing bowl. Then start adding the warm water slowly, while at the same time stirring slowly, either with a dough hook attachment on the stand mixer, or with a wooden spoon. Keep adding water and stirring until the dough starts to come together into a sticky ball.

Now, if you’re using a stand mixer, turn the speed up to high for about 3 to 5 minutes, until the dough is soft and smooth and just a bit sticky still. If you’re making the dough by hand, turn it out onto a floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes, also until the dough is soft, smooth and retains just a bit of stickiness.

Now place the dough in a large oiled bowl, turning it once to cover the dough in oil. Cover the bowl with a dishcloth and place the dough in a warm spot. Leave the dough to rise for about 30 minutes, until doubled in size.

While the dough rises, preheat the oven to its hottest setting (this is 240 C for my oven) and if necessary, prepare your toppings.

When the dough has doubled in size, give it a quick knead in the bowl, and you’re ready to assemble your pizzas. Here’s where you can get fancy with pizza stones, pizza peels, and more, but if I want a perfect restaurant-style pizza, I’ll go to a pizza restaurant. When I’m making homemade pizza, I keep it simple. Brush a cookie sheet with olive oil, cut the dough in half, and place one half on the oiled cookie sheet. Gently spread and push the dough to cover the whole cookie sheet, making raised rims all along the edges. This usually takes a bit of time since the oiled cookie sheet makes it a bit difficult for the dough to stick once stretched, but you’ll get there eventually.

Then just add whatever spreads, sauces, and toppings you like. Slide into the hot oven and bake for 10 to 20 minutes – the time depends very much on how hot your oven can go, and how crispy you like your pizza. I like very crispy pizza with dark brown edges, so sometimes I bake mine for as much as 25 minutes.