Guavadilla Cupcakes

I had to giggle to myself as I have nearly 2 cups of guavadilla pulp and only used 50ml for this recipe – guess I might be making loads more cupcakes…  No no, the balance will go into the freezer and probably get used to make a juice concentrate when the folks next visit or possibly used as the topping to an unbaked cheesecake – you never know, maybe both.  I used the same recipe as for my Birthday Cupcakes – think it’s my new favourite cupcake recipe and if you are worried about what to do with the egg yolks, you can always make Celia’s Microwave Custard.

Ingredients

110g butter
1 cup sugar
¾ cup milk
2 tsp baking powder
1½ cups cake flour
¼ tsp salt
4 egg whites
50ml guavadilla pulp

Icing

300g icing sugar
50g butter at room temperature
10ml vanilla essence
25ml milk

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Cream the butter and sugar.
3. Add the milk alternating with the dry ingredients.
4. Beat the egg whites until stiff.
5. Fold the egg whites and guavadilla pulp into the batter.
6. Divide the mixture into 12 prepared muffins tins and bake for 15 minutes.

Icing

1. Beat all the ingredients together in a bowl for 3 minutes.
2. Pipe over the cupcakes and decorates with guavadilla pips.

Mini Chicken Meatballs over Butter Fried Baby Cabbage and Roma Tomatoes

I really should think about a shorter title but Chicken Meatballs and Cabbage doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.  This makes for a scrumptious lunch or light dinner and comes together in no time at all.

The picture leaves much to be desired but the flavour was delicious, promise.

Ingredients

500g ground chicken
1 egg
45ml finely diced onion
15ml sweet chilli sauce
10ml chicken stock powder
5ml dried thyme
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 baby cabbage shredded
8 Roma tomatoes halved

Method

1. Combine all of the ingredients except for the cabbage and tomatoes in a bowl and form small meatballs.
2. Pan fry the meatballs in a little drizzle of olive oil and set aside.
3. Melt a good sized knob of butter in a pan and fry the cabbage and tomatoes for 2 minutes.

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I have always thought a guavadilla to be a cross between a guava and a granadilla – turns out its just a yellow variety of the purple granadilla just bigger and smooth skinned, although I must say that the yellow variety does smell like a guava where as the purple variety doesn’t.  I’m sure if I try hard enough I can even taste a wee bit of guava in the yellow ones too.  They grow in abundance here in our little village and Steff from our garden service was kind enough to share some of his loot with us and even did a second trip to bring me some of the vine for my photos.  Thanks Steff!  Think I shall make some guavadilla infused cupcakes.

Passiflora edulis is a vine species of passion flower that is native to Paraguay, Brazil and northern Argentina (Corrientes and Misiones provinces, among others). Its common names include passion fruit (UK and US), and passionfruit (Australia and New Zealand), purple granadilla and maracuja. In Colombia, the purple passion fruit is referred to as “gulupa”, to distinguish it from the yellow maracuyá.

In South Africa, passion fruit, known locally as Granadilla (the yellow variety as Guavadilla), is used to flavour yogurt. It is also used to flavour soft drinks such as Schweppes Sparkling Granadilla and numerous cordial drinks. It is often eaten raw or used as a topping for cakes and tarts. Granadilla juice is commonly available in restaurants. The yellow variety is used for juice processing, while the purple variety is sold in fresh fruit markets.

It is cultivated commercially in warmer, frost-free areas for its fruit and is widely grown in India, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, the Caribbean, Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Indonesia, Peru, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, California, Florida, Haiti, Hawaii, Argentina, Australia, East Africa, Mexico, Israel, Costa Rica, Venezuela, South Africa and Portugal.

The passion fruit is round to oval, either yellow or dark purple at maturity, with a soft to firm, juicy interior filled with numerous seeds.^[1] The fruit is both eaten and juiced; passion fruit juice is often added to other fruit juices to enhance the aroma.^[2]

The two types of passion fruit have clearly differing exterior appearances. The bright yellow variety of passion fruit, which is also known as the Golden Passion Fruit, can grow up to the size of a grapefruit, has a smooth, glossy, light and airy rind, and has been used as a rootstock for the Purple Passion Fruit in Australia.^[3] The dark purple passion fruit is smaller than a lemon, though it is less acidic than the yellow passion fruit, and has a richer aroma and flavour. It tastes like lemons, guava and pineapple combined. ^[4]

The purple varieties of the fruit have been found to contain traces of cyanogenic glycosides in the skin.^[5]

Fresh passion fruit is high in beta carotene, potassium, and dietary fibre. Passion fruit juice is a good source of ascorbic acid (vitamin C)^[9], and good for people who have high blood pressure.^[10] Some research is showing that purple passion fruit peel may help with controlling asthma symptoms.^[11] The fruit contains Lycopene in the mature and immature pericarp.^[12]

Information sourced from Wipipedia.

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I have this ridiculously soft spot for animals of any kind.  I would take in every single one (except for spiders) if I could, especially when we were living in Mauritius.  It broke my heart to see all of those dogs and cats…before I digress and get all upset about the state of those poor animals, let’s get to the pigeon.

This beautiful specimen of a bird arrived one afternoon in my parents courtyard here at the River.  He is quite a handsome and proud bird with his chest out and clearly enjoying the attention of us all oohing and aahing over him.  Him could also be her – I have no idea.

Birdy didn’t want to leave and seemed to be pacing a bit at which time I started falling apart and wanted to take him home.  Probably not the best idea with 3 feline fur children at home, 2 who are official mousers.  As we humans do, we succumbed to the pressures and out came a slice of bread which Birdy gobbled up very quickly.  The little fellow was probably starving, so there goes my heart again and my mind thinking that he hasn’t eaten for days and he must lost and thought it better to rather give him water than food as I am sure he is very thirsty, especially if he is lost, he must be quite stressed.

I haven’t often seen a pigeon with feathers around his feet, I wonder what it means, if anything at all?

He made his way straight to the basin of water and took a nice long drink.   With his belly full and thirst quenched he was clearly a happy bird again.

Birdy was so happy that he strutted his stuff up and down the stairs and nearly into the house – he would have gone in had he been allowed.  Mom and Dad would not hear of it!  He would have been allowed in ours though – I am sure I could get our 3 to behave themselves long enough to make Birdy feel welcome.  I know, I know,  I can be slightly delusional.

Looks like somebody needs a pedicure

Birdy was still there the next day and evening which broke my heart – why did he not try and find his family – how did he get separated?  Oh dear, I get myself very flappy.  Dad tootled down the road to see if Birdy belonged to a gent who trains homing pigeons while I got ready to capture Birdy in a tea-shower, but alas the man has moved away!

Thankfully dad saw that their neighbour puts seed out every afternoon for the local wild birds so I’m  hoping our boy moves in there!

Do you possibly know if he is a homing / racing pigeon – how would you tell?

Birthday Cupcakes

Today is my birthday so thought it appropriate to celebrate with some vanilla cupcakes but could not decide between vanilla and chocolate icing so I made both.  I finished these delectable treats off with a sprinkling of glitter.  I have also heard this fun glitter called, pixie dust, fairy dust and crystals.  I am now on the hunt for new colours.  Its amazing how differently it reflects on the vanilla icing versus the chocolate icing – so pretty!

Ingredients

4 egg whites
110g butter
1 cup sugar
¾ cup milk
2 tsp baking powder
1½ cups cake flour
¼ tsp salt

Icing*

250g icing sugar
30ml cocoa powder
50g butter at room temperature
10ml vanilla essence
25ml milk

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Beat the egg whites until stiff and set aside.
3. Cream the butter and sugar.
4. Add the milk alternating with the dry ingredients.
5. Fold in the egg whites.
6. Divide the mixture into 12 prepared muffins tins and bake for 15 minutes.

Icing*

1. Beat all the ingredients together in a bowl for 3 minutes.
2. Pipe over the cupcakes and sprinkle with glitter.

* If you are making vanilla icing, increase the icing sugar to 300g and omit the cocoa powder.

The Complete Cook (in eBook and Printed version) is available for Sale

It has taken us quite a while and we are still not 100% there but we are close; close enough to share with you that you can now purchase The Complete Cook Book in an eBook version – hooray!  Have a look at our website (www.etep.co.za) here.  We would also appreciate any comments on how we could improve our site.

For those on home soil (South Africa), we have a few printed versions (as shown above) which wewill gladly post to you – I’m so sorry that we cannot offer our overseas friends a printed copy at this stage but the postage costs make it an expensive buy, we’re working on improving that.  Please send me an email to  mandy@frielinghaus.co.za detailing your order and I will make the necessary arrangements to get it to you.  The cost of the printed copy is R150.00 plus postage and packing of R35.00.

You have already had a preview of my book by way of my posts here on my blog (www.thecompletecookbook.com).  Just to recap,  it is a very comprehensive book of over 300 pages covering a wide range of content from abbreviations , conversions, ingredient substitution, cooking basics, helpful tips, meat cuts, terms and definitions, the food pyramid , table setting guidelines and so much more.

In addition, it is also jam packed with over 165 recipes with space for you to make your own notes and each chapter provides blank recipe pages for you to add your own favourites, allowing you to personalise your copy.

It‘s also a fabulous gift idea for both men and woman.

Thank you for your support, I know you’ll love the book.

Mandy

PS.  I will gladly sign the copies you purchase, so if you have a special message, please include those details in your email.

Mom’s Pork and Mushroom Pie

Mom had some roast pork leftover from a family Easter meal and turned it into her delicious Pork and Mushroom pie.  Quantities depend on the amount of meat you have left.  We served the pie with a light salad but mashed spuds and steamed greens.  You have to try this is you have any roast pork leftovers, it is so tasty.

Ingredients

Onion chopped
Mushrooms sliced
Left over roast pork chopped
Chicken stock
Slat and pepper to taste
Bistro and Maizena (cornstarch)
1 roll puff pastry

Method

1. Fry the onion and mushrooms until tender.
2. Add the pork and chicken stock and simmer until the meat is very tender – add more stock if required.
3. Season with salt and pepper and thicken with bisto and maizena.
4. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
5. Place the meat into a baking dish and lay the pastry over the top.
6. Bake for approximately 20 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.

Mom made the prettiest flower with the excess pastry

In My Kitchen – May 2012

Doing these In My Kitchen posts has made me realise how quickly the month’s fly by and also how many fun things I always have to share with you all.

In my kitchen…

Is a Mauritius keyring which our housekeeper from the island sent for me with friends that came to visit – very special!

In my kitchen…

Is a bowl of freshly harvested peppadews.  Think I will be making some peppadew chutney.

In my kitchen…

Is a bowl of freshly harvested chillies.  Not sure what to do with all of these – think I will keep them in the freezer until I decide.

In my kitchen…

Is the coolest pressie from my mom – a milk frother, which I really can’t resist using every single day.

In my kitchen…

Seeing that my new milk frother gadget works so well, I hauled out my good old faithful coffee filter machine – so cappuccinos are the order of the morning while reading my emails.

In my kitchen…

Is the most awesome sugar spoon that was moulded using an old South African 1c piece from 1961 – the year Pete was born.

What’s in your kitchen this month?  Please remember to link back to Celia’s blog Fig Jam and Lime Cordial if you partake in the fun.

Plum and Apple Crumble

This absolutely scrumptious and ridiculously easy recipe came about when the folks were visiting over Easter.  I had bought a bag of plums from our local veggie man but sadly they were a touch over ripe by the time we got around to eating them and not wanting to throw them away, we peeled and chopped them up with a couple of apples and sugar, simmered until reduced and grated over our family flop proof, super easy sweet pastry et voila, a super moreish dessert, which we served with Celia’s Microwave Custard.

Ingredients

8 plums peeled stoned and chopped
2 apples peeled cored and chopped
½ cup sugar

Pastry

125g butter
½ cup sugar – I used brown
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder

Method

1. Place the plums, apples and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the liquid has reduced and the fruit is soft.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
3. While the fruit is cooking, cream the butter and sugar for the pastry.
4. Add the egg and about 1 tablespoon of the flour and mix well.
5. Add the flour and combine to form a dough and roll into a sausage.
6. Wrap half the sausage in cling film and freeze for another day.
7. Place the fruit mixture into a small pie dish and grate the pastry over the top.
8. Bake for approximately 20 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.

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No sooner am I back from my last little trip and I am going away again.  Seems I am becoming quite the frequent flyer – not really.

I am heading back to Johannesburg and will be back on Monday 07 May.  I will endeavour to keep up to date with all of your posts during this upcoming week, sorry if it seems that I am AWOL, won’t be for long.

I have scheduled posts for during this period and will log in as often as possible to moderate your loving comments.

Mandy