Sweet and savoury canapés

My friends and family will tell you that I love receiving foodie gifts, particularly new and interesting products that I have not see before. A few weeks ago my parents returned from a weekend away with two such items – large tortilla baskets and smaller canapé shells from a local company called Kari Foods. Today I am going to show you how to make happiness in a mouthful with two recipes that I created using the canapé shells.

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Tarte au chocolat

Last week I posted a round up of the dishes I made over the Christmas period (you can check out that post here). This article received quite a bit of attention, mostly because of the delectable dessert featured right at the beginning. Some of you have been asking for the recipe…and your wish is my command. You will find everything you need to know below.

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In my kitchen … Christmas 2013

Tarte au chocolat
This post, my first for 2014 is a little indulgent, but hey ho, it is holiday season and I thought it would be fun to do a round up of some of the things I have been cooking over Christmas. Just in case you haven’t seen enough food over the last week or so!

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Double chocolate almond meringues

I whipped these up a while ago when I found myself sitting with a few extra egg whites leftover from a batch of fresh pasta I had made. The perfect excuse to make meringues! Not just any meringues, no no… but an extra special version with dark chocolate and crunchy almonds. They were so delicious that I have made them several times since. Continue reading “Double chocolate almond meringues”

Double chocolate brownies and a chat with Sam Taylor

In a perfect world I would have hours and hours of free time to spend reading food blogs. I love discovering a beautiful blog, getting inspired by the recipes and images, and finding out a little bit more about the author. I first came across Pomegranate Days a few months ago, around about the time I started Cupcakes and Couscous. I was immediately drawn in by the friendly tone of the writing, the stunning images and the mouth-watering recipes. I knew I had found a gem!

 

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National Cookie Swap 2013 and spiced dark chocolate cookies

Well readers, I can’t wait to tell you about an exciting event that I attended over the weekend. If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter then you will no doubt know what I am talking about – the third annual Cape Town Cookie Swap! This year it was a national event with cookie swaps also taking place in Joburg and Durban on the same Saturday. Proceeds from the event went to Khayelitsha Cookies, and I will be telling you a bit more about this fantastic company in a little bit. 

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Dinner party feast – chicken liver ravioli and double chocolate meringue cake

The Freshly Blogged competition is in its 6th week already, wow! This week’s challenge was sponsored by Robertsons Spices and it was a double whammy with a brief that said that we had to create two dishes, both containing cayenne pepper and cinnamon. The other ingredients we had to use were chicken livers, cream and white chocolate, and we could also include any three fresh ingredients and two grocery items.

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Pear, rosemary and almond praline tart with chocolate and Amarula sauce

Pear and almond praline tart with chocolate ganache
The 5th challenge in the Freshly Blogged competition had all the bloggers excited because it was a sweet challenge for a change. Personally, I was thrilled as this was just what I had been hoping for! The ingredients list was a cook’s dream, with a myriad of recipe options to choose from: Amarula cream, dark chocolate, pears, blanched almonds and cream crackers. The challenge also stipulated that the dish had to include a custard based recipe. The hardest part of the challenge was deciding what dish to make! In the end I decided on a pear and rosemary tart, filled with almond praline pastry cream and served with a chocolate Amarula drizzling sauce.

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