This was a super fail on my part. I got excited and forgot to take it off the heat. Sugar pounces on weakness.
Ingredients:
500g brown sugar
250ml water
125g butter
2ml vanilla
1 cup nuts ( traditionally pine nuts but I used what I had, which was pecans)
Dissolve sugar and water over low heat, add butter. Boil steadily without stirring until the miture starts frothing, test a drop in cold water to see if it hardens. Once it passes that test, REMOVE FROM HEAT. Then add your vanilla and your chopped nuts, stir. Pour into a shallow, well-greased pan and park off squares with a wet knife. Let cool and then break into squares.
Tameletjie is supposed to be like a nut brittle. I made…a disaster. Good luck!
1 packet (250g) superwines or any plain sweet biscuit
175g melted butter
2 Tbs gelatine
1/2 cup boiling water
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
juice of 1 lemon
Hooray for no-bake desserts! I’m not going to lie, initially when I was reading about this dessert it struck me as that weird jell-o pretzel dessert that shows up at every redneck cook-out. After tasting it though, its so much better!
Line your desired dish with parchment paper and set aside. Grind up your biscuits in a food processor and combine melted butter and optionally, the zest from a lemon. (I highly recommend bc its delicious) Press into your dish to form the crust and place in fridge for 30 minutes to chill
In a medium bowl, combine gelatine and 1/2 cup boiling water and mix until dissolved. Add the sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice and mix well. Pour over the crust and place back in the fridge for 30-40 minutes until completely set.
Mix your jell-o with the 3 cups of water and let cool- don’t let it set. Pour it on top of your milky layer and then place back into the fridge until set.
Once its all set up, slice into squares and serve. It can be easier if you use a hot knife, but I think that depends on the pan you’re using.
Keep leftovers in a sealed container in the fridge, though, I don’t think leftovers will be much of a problem.
A literal mountain of food! Delicious, delicious food.
For the Seffa:
2 pounds of dry broken vermicelli
3 Tbs vegetable oil
2 tsp salt
1 cup golden raisins, soaked in water for 20 minutes
4 Tbs butter
1 cup powdered sugar
For the Saffron Chicken
1 whole chicken, disassembled
2 large onions chopped
1 Tbs ground ginger
1 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 small sticks of cinnamon
1 tsp saffron threads, crumbled
1 tsp turmeric
1 1/2- 2 tsp salt- to taste
4 Tbs butter
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Toppings
1/2 – 1 cup almonds (blanched, fried & ground)
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbs ground cinnamon
I will warn you that this is time consuming. Not a casual weeknight meal, definitely a special occasion- lots of people over- type meal.
I bought an instant pot for this haha If you have a steamer, you’re good. I’ve had so many recipes that require a steamer and I made due, but for this recipe in particular, I knew I needed to bring out the big guns.
Fill the base of your steamer with salted water and proceed to steam the broken vermicelli 4-5 times (add the raisins for the 4th steaming)
Mix the chicken, lamb or beef with the onions, spices, butter, oil and cilantro in a Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot. Gently brown the chicken over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Cover the pot and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the meat is very tender. This will take about 1 hour. When the chicken has been cooked, reduce the liquids until a thick sauce has formed. Discard the cinnamon stick, and taste for seasoning. If desired, remove the chicken from the bones.
To Serve:
Gently toss the steamed broken vermicelli with the butter and powdered sugar. Place about 1/3 of this mixture on a very large serving dish. Arrange the chicken in the center, and cover with the sauce. Pile the rest of the vermicelli on top of the meat, using your hands to shape a dome.
Decorate the mound of seffa in a vertical pattern with the cinnamon, ground almonds and powdered sugar. Serve immediately, with small bowls of powdered sugar, ground almonds, and cinnamon on the side.
2 cups plain greek yogurt (original recipe calls for hung curd, but greek yogurt is a good substitution)
1/2 cup ghee
1/2 cup corn starch
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups of oil for frying
Syrup
3 cups sugar
3 cups water
5 strands of saffron
1/2 tsp cardamom
4 drops rose essence
So first things first, this isn’t a one day recipe. You need to let the batter ferment over night. Mix AP flour, cornstarch, and baking soda together in a bowl. Add ghee, food coloring, yogurt, and water. I didn’t list the water in the ingredients because you’ll add it little by little until you reach a slightly flowing consistency. Cover the bowl in a towel and let sit for 8-10 hours on the counter.
For the sugar syrup, heat water in a pan over medium heat. Add sugar and stir until fully dissolved. Simmer the syrup until it reaches one string consistency. ( I didn’t know what this means so I messed up this step and had to redo it) One string consistency is reached when you put a little of the syrup between your fingers and there’s a “string” when you pull your fingers apart. Remove from heat and add saffron, cardamom, and rose. Stir well
Now time to fry!
Heat your oil over medium heat until you’re about 350-365F
Put your batter in a ziplock bag and snip a small hole in the corner. Moving from the inside-out you want to make concentric circles in the oil with your batter. This will take a few tries to look right. Practice makes perfect and all that.. Fry a few minutes on either side until they’re crisp and golden.
Your syrup should be warm, but not hot. When your jalebis are done frying, soak them in the syrup for 2-3 minutes and place on a foil lined tray. They should be served warm or at room temperature.
I will warn you that this makes A LOT of batter. The good news is that it freezes well.
These are not a 1 day make, allow for at least 2 or start in the morning.
Ingredients:
Meatballs
8 T butter (unsalted)
1 cup AP flour
3 cups beef broth
2 T parsley
1 small onion minced
1 lb ground beef
1/2 t salt
1 t black pepper
1/4 t nutmeg
Breading
1/2 cup AP flour
3 eggs (beaten)
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
+ vegetable oil for frying
Melt butter over medium high heat in a large skillet. Once melted, add your flour little by little, whisking until a thick paste forms. Slowly stir/whisk in the beef broth, making sure to stir thoroughly. You want all of the broth incorporated in your roux (pay special attention to the sides of your pan) Your gravy will be smooth and get quite thick. Simmer for a couple minutes and add your parsley, onion, and raw ground beef. Stir well, season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Adjust seasoning as needed. This will look all sorts of wrong and frankly disgusting. It is what it is.
Transfer your meat/gravy mixture to a tupperware container and refrigerate overnight or until it has solidified (4 hours probably)
⭐⭐ It’s worth noting at this point that I refrigerated mine overnight and it was still not solidified..however I think that’s because I opted to use the lean ground beef instead of 80/20. I think the higher fat content would have made it tighten up better. ⭐⭐
Assuming your mixture is solidified, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Put flour in a plate, bread crumbs in another, and your eggs in a pie pan. Shape meat mixture into 1 inch balls and place on baking sheet. Roll in flour, then eggs, and then bread crumbs. Repeat for all and then place pan in fridge while your oil heats. You want your oil to be about 375F
Fry 5 meatballs at a time until they’re golden brown. This will take about 4-5 minutes. If you have enough oil in your pan, the meatballs will actually float when they’re done. Drain and repeat until you’ve cooked them all.
I learned quite a bit while making this. Mainly I learned that I fucking hate frying things. Well, breading and frying. Fuck that. I hate it. It’s messy and to me, just not worth it. Not to say that these weren’t good, because I think they were quite delicious. I just don’t think they were worth it.
Anxiety Kitchen 