SOUS VIDE CHICKEN

21st Century Sous Vide Chicken with an Old School Pesto.                                                                              Andrew

Like our Hunter Gatherer ancestors, I still live in the Stone Age. Wot I'm saying is, I’m a technophobe. Anything digital has me pushing beads (thatz sweating by the way). Give me things with dials and I might start to relax. I consider, been able to post this blog as a serious technical achievement.
Yeah for me…

The Sous Vide kit                        Me

My foodie friend and associate from ‘The Urban Feasts’, Harry Melck, is a part owner of two successful London restaurant’s (www.steakandwinecafe.co.uk). Anyhoo, he used a sous vide technique to cook a pigs' heart for our terrine at our ‘Pigs Can Fly’ event. The heart was ridiculously yummy, so against every fiber in my being, I decided to give this contemporary technique a go. Harry suggested that I should try some skinless chicken breasts, so using his fancy kit, that’s just what Stef and I did.

Foraged pine nuts                                                                Me

Basically, Sous Vide is a technique of cooking, where you put your ‘chompables’, (chicken breasts in this case) into a vacuum-sealed bag and then cook it in a temperature controlled water bath. We kept our chicken breasts in 60°C water for 1-½ hours. Then we slapped them onto a scorching griddle just to give them some color. They tasted tender, succulent and delicious.

Stefs' hourly rate is huge, thatz why pine nuts cost so much Ha ha.             Me

Coz we were going all high tech, I thought to balance things out, we should go ‘Old School’ with some part of our dish. A basil pesto seemed the obvious choice, coz I had plenty of basil in the garden and a jar of foraged pine nuts, given to me by my friend Gill, but wot excited me the most was that I could at last use my traditional stone grinder that I pilfered from Mums’ garden. Andrew Cole a no nonsense bloke and a no nonsense chef was taking the pics for the blog. When I started to clean out the neglected grindstone that was lying in a forlorn part of the garden, he rolled his eyes in frustration at how I always chose to complicate things, non the less he humored me. When Andrew took a pic of the pated dish, he was unhappy with the color of the yummy pesto that Stef had made, so he dressed another plate and took further pics. I agree that the pics of the pestoless plate looked better, but then without the pesto, how could I balance the 'new' with the 'old', or ‘The Urban’ with ‘The Hunter Gatherer’. Also, I wouldn’t have been able to use any the pesto pics for this blog.

Stone-age Basil Pest on the way                         Andrew

The dish without the pesto                                        Andrew

So sorry Andrew, you’ll just have to humor me once again. Shot for the pics though… 

Just so you get an idea of wot shenanigans go down to get these blogs out. I'm using my longest surf board as a reflector, while Stef, who is showing plenty of leg skin makes the pesto. In the background is Ingrid (Prague) cracking open pine nuts. Thanks all.                                                                                                                                       Andrew

BREAD

I know it's hard, but wait at least a little while for it cool before you stuck in                   Mans

These days it seems as if it’s all the rage to turn your nose up at foods that are high in carbohydrates. If I were to do that, I would probably starve. My quick ‘go to meals are pastas and sandwiches and I’m not about to change that just because it has become unfashionable amongst curtain ‘trendoids’ about town. There is probably is plenty of truth as to why a low carb diet is good for you, but hey, ‘what would Italy do without pasta and what the hell would the world do without bread??’ Anyhow, the chances are that a high carb diet will again become fashionable in the foreseeable future. In the meantime I’ll keep munching bread and occasionally making it.

In go the dry ingredients                                     Mans

Baking scared the living daylights out of me, so I avoided it at all costs, but when I decided to write ‘The Urban Hunter Gatherer Cookbook‘ (a painfully slow process, in my case) I could no longer ignore the baking guillotine that teetered above my head. It took a few goes to get it right, but now I mostly make it by feel and it usually leaves me feeling pleased as punch. Below is a basic bread dough recipe. By applying different techniques and a tweak here or there, it can be used for a whole basket of different bread types, such as oven bread, steamed bread, pizzas, focaccias, flat breads, braai bread (barbeque), pot bread or pretty much any style bread you have in mind I guess. The beauty of this oven baked one, is all in the crust.

 Making dough is like being a child again                Mans 

Wot You Need

700g white bread flour (stone ground is definitely better)

10g dry yeast

About 550ml tepid water

A pinch of salt

A pinch of sugar

Wot To Do

Mix the dry ingredients in a jolly big mixing bowl and add most of the water. Give it a good old mix with a wooden spoon until it forms a sticky dough. Flour a large work surface and tip the dough onto it. It’s now time to start kneading it, which is my most fun part (it reminds me of wedging clay in my parents pottery studio) Just work it by pushing, rolling and folding. Basically give it a gentle but firm pummelling (the heel of your hand is most useful). Keep doing this for about 10 minutes, until it’s light and springy. Pop it back into the your big bowl that you have cleaned and oiled (to stop it sticking). Place a tea towel over it and put it in a warm draught free spot. After an hour or so the dough should have doubled in size. It’s now time to ‘knock it back’ by tipping it back on your work surface and giving it another quick pummelling session (only a few minutes). Shape the dough into a ball or log and place on a floured baking tray, dust it with more flour, cover with your tea towel and place back in the warm spot. Switch your oven on to 250°C and place a small ovenproof bowl of water in it (this helps form a yummy crust). After about half an hour, when the dough is again twice its’ original size, gently shape the slightly flattened dough to make it higher. Again, gently place it in the oven and bake. After 10 minutes, turn the oven down to 220°C and bake for a further 25 minutes or so. It’s ready when it sounds hollow when you tap it. At least try to let it cool on a wire rack for a while, before you get stuck in.

This is the best part                                                                                                                                                       Mans

TWO-MINUTE NOODLES

This, in about the same time it takes to make a couple slices of toast                                               Mans

This Urban Hunter Gatherer thing is wonderful and all, however not everybody has the food passion or the luxury of time, like I do. Coz city living is a crazy busy thing; people just simply don’t have the time to go foraging or to go through the processes of making food from scratch. Often, I just want a good ‘healthy’ chow that will take about as long as it does to prepare a slice or two of toast. So here is my quick fix 2-minute noodle dish.

And for color, a few shavings of carrot                   Mans

Wot You Need

(This was wot I had in the fridge the day we shot the dish – hell man, use whatever you've got)

-        A packet of two minute noodles with it’s broth seasoning

-        1 and half cups of water

-        A small clove of garlic, finely chopped

-        A small nubbin of ginger, finely chopped

-        Fresh chili, to taste

-        1 or 2 sliced spring onions

-        Shavings (veggie peeler) of 1 carrot

-        A few sliced mushrooms

-        Chopped fresh coriander or basil

Wot To Do 

Pop a pot of water on the stove, while waiting for it to boil, chop/crush your garlic, ginger and chili and add to the water, also throw in the mushrooms and sachet of the noodle flavoring (of course, a home made clear stock is first prize). When the water comes to a boil, toss in the noodles, as soon as they are just cooked, toss in the rest of the ingredients and that’s that. You are now ready to get stuck in. If you feel the need, a squeeze of lemon or better still a lime and a splash of soy is rather splendid. First, I like to cup the bowl in my hands and sip the broth and only then get stuck into the noodles and other goodies with a fork.

How quick wozzat?                                                                          Mans

SAMP AND BEANS

Thembi at home, feeding Samp and Beans to extended family and to us                                    Mans

Samp and Beans is a traditional South African staple dish that is about as comforting as food can get. Some of my earliest memories, were sneaking off to the humble dwelling of my Zulu Nanny, sitting around a pot of Samp and Beans and stuffing my face with this nourishing chow. ‘Now, why cant we eat like this at home?’ I used to think. Well now that I’m all grown up, I can.

Tea and giggles                                                                                       Mans

Thembi is a Xhosa woman from the Transkei, who now lives in Khayelitsha (one of the largest informal settlements in South Africa.) She comes in once a week to sort out the chaos in my home. Thembi grew up in rural South Africa eating mostly Samp and Beans, which she calls ‘Umngqusho’, so who better to go to, to learn how to cook this splendid dish.

Mans, armed with his camera and I headed off to Thembis’ home to sample her Samp and Beans. What a fabulous experience it turned out to be. This kind and dignified woman made us feel as though we were part of the community. Her house was beautiful and spotless. While the Samp and Beans were on the simmer, we sat around enjoying tea, giggling and chatting about food. Her home has no running water or electricity. She has only a single gas cooker, but still manages to produce delicious meals. Her steamed bread is very yummy indeed. (Watch this space)

Daves' Solar Cooker                                                        Me

Because this dish takes a long time to cook and requires plenty of energy, I started to explore energy efficient ways to make it. Most people who make it regularly could benefit from saving a buck or two on energy and of course it’s good for our environment too.

Me mate Dave leant me a solar cooker that he made. Please refer to http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/radabaugh30.html on instructions on how to make one. So I tried my hand at Samp and Beans cooked only by ‘heavens flame’. The result was pretty good, though not quite ‘Thembi good’. I have also used a Wonderbag to make a Samp and Beans. A Wonderbag is basically an energy saving insulation unit, which is brilliant. It should be compulsory that all kitchens should have at least one. Check out the Wonderbag link on         

 http://nb-wonderbag.com/Pages/Default.

 All kitchens should have a Wonderbag             Me

HOW TO MAKE A NO FRILLS SAMP AND BEAN MEA

Wot You Need

500g packet of samp and bean  mix

1 onion

1 stock cube (don’t turn your nose up at a stock cube)

Yum                                          Mans

      Wot To Do

Soak a packet of supermarket bought Samp and Beans overnight. Rinse the mix, cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer for about 2hrs, until the beans and samp are soft (you may need to add water a long the way). In a different pot, fry an onion until soft (at this stage you can add your own touch – like , bacon, browned meat, spices, curry or whatever tickles your fancy) then add a stock cube that you have dissolved in a little hot water. Finally add the onion mix to the soft Samp and Beans, just as it gets to a lava bubbling simmer it’s time to get stuck in. Eat a bowl full of this and it’ll keep you going for a loooooooong looooong looooooong time.

Thembi outside her immaculate home with Lion, the neighbors dog                                                                         Mans