So what's for boeka?

In the name of Allah, Most gracious, Most merciful

New seedlings

 

3 Ramadhan 1435/1 July 2014

 I could not resist, had a bit of time with everything prepared and ready for us to hit the kitchen at 4.45. So here I am blogging.

All praise is due to Allah SWT who gives us good health and disposition and wonderful, wonderful cool weather. The only thing that marred my mood a bit was the dogs seeming to congregate in the middle of the night and cause havoc. They jumped off the glass  dome of my cheese plate  leaving sandy spoor all over, frolicked around in the new cabbage patch and dug holes and uprooted many of the new seedling, not nice!

More and more dogs come through and have midnight brawls and leave their signature are all over the place. All vegetables and herbs I pick now I soak a bit extra in salt water just in case they decided to water the plants too. So yesterday I saw the neighbours working in the garden on their side and marched over, burkha lekker skeep gekap.

companions

“Excuse me Sir, askies tog meneer” and I see two of the dogs at their feet and for the first time I look around and see that they in fact have a gate that can cordon off the dogs. “Die honde maak moles in my tuin, hulle grawe op die (could not think of a word for lettuce) ...groente, spring op die tafels en breek my goet, en (I searched for a polite word for poop) en skuit in my kool en in die sypaaitjies!” Face very firm meaning business.

“Die honde, maar hulle is dan so rustig?” “Glad nie, en ‘n groot Alsatian oek!” “O hy hardloop deur ons plasie.”

“Meneer, ek sê maar net, ek wil nie hê my seun moet hulle skiet nie so hou hulle maar op julle kant toegesluit.” And I turned around in a huff! And thought no, said “Baie dankie.” I went inside and told my son just to walk around with his bow with me shouting, “watch out those arrows are dangerous.” Anyway it seemed to work, no dog spoor in the garden, but hey, had to remind myself I was fasting.

So on a lighter note what's for boeka tonight? I thought some butternut soup with panfried slices of yesterday’s French loaf smothered in olive olive oil. Some butternut fritters with cinnamon sugar to accompany it and of course some spinach and cheddar samoosas. Some warm tea and falooda with ice cream whisked in it. A light supper a bit later – freshly cooked corn beef and steamed veggies from the garden with Panini. Not to forget the water and dates that are available all night long. The corned beef can also be served for morning Suhur and stored. Yep that sounds a good.

Butternut soup

Ingredients

• 1 extra large butternut steamed, keep stock and a bit aside for fritters too
• 1 tub Fresh cream or sour cream
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 large sprig fresh rosemary
• 1 medium onion - finely chopped
• 1 chilli
• sea salt and black pepper
• tspoon cumin (jeera), grilled and slightly ground
• few cashew nuts roughly ground

Preparation

Steam butternut until soft, strain, cool off and keep stock aside.

In a large saucepan sauté the onions, green chilli and rosemary in the oil for about 5 minutes. Mix in the butternut simmer gently for 15 minutes.

Season with freshly ground black pepper and a little sea salt to taste and add stock. When the mixture has cooled slightly, blend until smooth.

Mix in the fresh or sour cream and continue stirring, keep some cream aside for garnish.

Pour the soup back into the saucepan, heat through and serve drizzled with cream , cumin and cashews.

Plant food and make hearty soups

Yasmine