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Irish Times
18 hours ago
- General
- Irish Times
Chocolate Marquise
Serves : 6 Course : Dessert Cooking Time : 30 mins Prep Time : 30 mins Ingredients For the layered cake filling: 6 eggs, separated 160g caster sugar 60g cocoa powder, sifted 30g self-raising flour For the marquise: 160g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids 80g soft butter 80g caster sugar 3 eggs 250ml cream Preheat the oven to 190°C and line a loaf tin with parchment paper. Place the egg whites in a mixing bowl and whisk at high speed until the eggs form soft peaks. Add half the sugar and whisk until the meringue is glossy and forms stiff peaks, then set aside. Place the egg yolks in a mixing bowl and add the other half of the sugar. Whisk at high speed until the mix has doubled in size and turned pale; this takes about three minutes. Add the cocoa powder and flour to the egg yolk mix and fold together until it is combined. Fold the meringue into the egg yolk mix in three stages, keeping in as much air as possible. Once combined, pour this into the lined loaf tin and tap gently to allow the mix to fill the corners. Place the tin in the oven and cook for 20-25 minutes until a cake tester or skewer inserted into the centre comes away clean. The mix will soufflé up slightly but level out as it cools. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn it out upside down on to a flat surface and remove the parchment. Allow to fully cool, then turn the cake on its side and carefully slice lengthways into pieces approximately 1cm thick. You will need three even pieces; the rest of the cake can be frozen to be used at another other time. Trim the three slices slightly, if needed, into three rectangular pieces, just slightly smaller than the base of the loaf tin. Now it's time to make the marquise base. Break the chocolate and place in a heatproof bowl. Make a bain-marie by pouring a little water in a saucepan and placing the bowl on top (making sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl). Place on a low heat, stirring the chocolate pieces occasionally, until fully melted, then take off the heat. Place the butter and half the sugar into a bowl. Mix with a stand mixer or electric hand whisk until light and creamy, then add the cocoa powder mix until combined. Separate the eggs, keeping the egg whites in the fridge or freezing for later use, and add the egg yolks to another bowl. Add the other half of the sugar and mix until it has doubled in size and turned pale. In a separate bowl, whisk the cream until thickened with soft peaks. Pour the melted chocolate into the butter mix and carefully stir and fold with a spatula until well combined. Gently fold in the egg yolk mixture until well combined, then stir in the whipped cream. Line the loaf tin with cling film, leaving a 10cm overhang all the way around. Spoon in some marquise mix, enough to be around 2cm thick and even, then add the first rectangular piece of trimmed cake. Spoon more marquise mix on to cover the cake layer by around 1cm, then add the second piece of cake. Add more marquise mix to cover, then add the final piece of cake. Cover with the remaining marquise mix, the tap the tin gently to remove pockets of air, place in the fridge and leave to set overnight. To serve, carefully lift the marquise out of the loaf tin using the excess cling film and turn upside down on to a clean chopping board. Remove the cling film, then heat a sharp knife in hot water to make it easier to slice the marquise. Dry the knife and slice the marquise in pieces approximately 1-2cm thick.
Irish Times
18 hours ago
- General
- Irish Times
Rum baba with pineapple and mint
Serves : 4 Course : Dessert Cooking Time : 15 mins Prep Time : 1 hr 30 mins Ingredients 50ml milk 1 tsp caster sugar 1 x 7g sachet dried yeast 180g plain flour 25g caster sugar 1 tsp salt 2 eggs, lightly beaten 50g butter, melted and cooled slightly Some soft butter to grease the cupcake/muffin tray 200ml water 200ml brown rum 200g light brown sugar 1 vanilla pod, split lengthways Zest of 1 orange ½ pineapple 1 tbsp honey Handful mint leaves, thinly sliced 150ml cream 30g icing sugar Seeds from 1 vanilla pod, or 1 tbsp of vanilla bean paste 100g apricot jam 1 tsp brown rum Start by making the babas. Gently warm the milk slightly until it is lukewarm. Add one tsp of sugar and the yeast to a small bowl, then pour in the lukewarm milk. Allow to stand for a few minutes until the mixture is foamy. Place the flour, sugar and salt in a mixer and combine. With a dough hook attached, add the yeast mixture and eggs and combine, then slowly add the melted butter. Mix on a medium speed for five minutes until smooth and shiny. Then cover with a tea towel and leave to prove for an hour in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size. Grease the cupcake tray with some soft butter. Dust a work surface lightly with flour, then knock back the dough. Weigh the dough and divide it into 10. Shape the dough into small balls and place in the greased cupcake moulds. Preheat the oven to 170°C and leave the dough balls to prove a second time in a warm place for 30-40 minutes. After a second prove, place the tray in the oven and bake for 12 minutes at 170°C. Remove and allow to cool. To make the syrup, add the water, rum and brown sugar to a saucepan. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and add the vanilla pod and the orange zest. Allow to simmer for five minutes, then turn off the heat. Place the babas in the hot syrup and allow to soak for 15 minutes (can do in batches). Then take the babas out, place on a plate and chill in the fridge. To prep the pineapple, remove the outer skin and core. Chop the pineapple evenly into small cubes and place in a bowl. Add the honey and mint and stir to combine, then place in a serving bowl to be served on the side. Add the cream, icing sugar and vanilla to a mixing bowl and whisk until soft peaks form, then place in small serving bowls to be served on the side. Place the apricot jam in a small saucepan and heat gently to loosen up. Remove the chilled soaked babas from the fridge and brush them lightly all over with the apricot jam. Then slice in half and place in a serving dish. Spoon over some more chilled syrup, and a few drops of rum, and serve with the pineapple and vanilla cream on the side.
Daily Maverick
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Maverick
Hotel Foibles and Feisty Fowls — no, this isn't Fawlty Towers
On a journey from Cradock to Durban, we survive the urban nightmare of Komani to lick our psychological wounds in a surprisingly good small-town restaurant, and continue to Kokstad, where a feisty bird falls foul of your food editor. On the long roads, when we're pulling in for the night here, for petrol there, or stopping at that place over the road for dinner or breakfast, and when we have all those hours behind the wheel to fill our heads with thoughts we normally don't have the time for, we might play a little game. We might ponder on the weighty matter of which chicken dish was the best on the journey towards Durban. In particular: how would that eccentric fowl on your plate in Komani have fared if it had encountered that feisty little chook that somehow made it onto that menu in Kokstad? Not without a fight, I don't doubt. I see feathers flying in every direction as the plucky little fella from timber country lays waste to the plump hen from Queenstown. And what would the denizens of Kokstad, living their lives in the desultory timberland bypassed by travellers making their way from the interior towards the coast, make of the food served at The LivingRoom at Summerhill, which happens to be your destination? Mysterious little twists and curls of who knows what, with drizzles of this and squeezes of that, each morsel tasting exquisite yet unlike anything served on any menu in the region. So different from the Cape, where there are now many restaurants indulging in the intriguing new ways of the contemporary world-wise chef. Chef Johannes at Summerhill actually cooked us a farmyard chicken when we finally did reach Durban. Hêrrie Hoender from Kokstad would have seen that one off too, I have no doubt. And those crunchy, spicy deep-fried prawn balls in Queenstown. Were they really as good as you remember them — and in Komani, which you didn't even know had any restaurants more interesting than a KFC or Spur until this trip? And what the hell was that thing I had for a starter in Kokstad? I had no recollection of it when I went through my camera roll back home. Komani, if you're wondering, is the new name for Queenstown, which is regarded as a sort of informal capital of the Eastern Cape. Komani has become almost unrecognisable to those who may have known it in earlier decades. Though it's a small town, relatively, its CBD is a shambolic urban nightmare. You might feel you're in the middle of a large African city, with cars and trucks paying no attention to traffic lights, and wonder how the hell you're gonna find your way out. Honestly, I gave up trying to be a gentle, respectful driver and just did what everyone else was doing — ploughed forward, through robots, turning left or right while holding my breath and hoping for the best, otherwise I wouldn't have got anywhere. I waved my fists at sneering drivers, who barked through their windscreens only because I was doing precisely what they all were. Just donnering ahead and to hell with the consequences. I'd punched Game (the store) into the GPS. Somewhere on the endless road through town, which presents eyesore after eyesore on either side, the GPS man (I call him Kirby, after the hilarious voice recording on FlySafair flights) told me to turn right. Whereupon, we were in another place altogether. 'Thanks, Kirbs,' I muttered. (Yes, I talk back to the GPS.) How can a South African town fall so far without entirely falling apart? How does anyone ever get out alive? You said right, but this is left. Right? Kirbs? Hello? But Kirby was saying nothing. But I pushed forward no matter what. That's how you survive Komani traffic (and pedestrians). And being grateful when you finally make it back to that discordant main road which suddenly feels a much better place to be. We did find the new suitcases we were looking for at Game, by the way. But… (take a bow, Kirbs, we made it out) … Veer off the main road to the left and you find yourself in leafy suburbia. I had no idea. It's quite lovely, in fact, and we stayed overnight in a neat and tidy small hotel called the Positano, where we found ourselves in the Presidential Suite, would you believe, which is a moniker that suggests a certain style, a standard, a benchmark. More than that, a 'Presidential' (or King or Queen) Suite holds, in its very name, a promise: that if you stay in this suite you will be treated like a king or head of state. You will be pampered. Grey is the new beige Now, I don't expect to be fussed over, in fact I hate that: I just book a room, pay right away, and am glad of a bed and something to eat. I'm not fussy on the long roads. But don't claim something and not deliver. On the website, it is called an executive room, which itself suggests that it's a cut above whatever the other rooms must be like. Arriving at the door, I see that it is emblazoned with 'Presidential'. Ooh, look at this. Pleasant surprise. Inside, it's smart in a monotone kind of way. Greys and blacks are the first choice these days when renovating an interior, it seems. Grey is the new beige. But it's what was not in the room that got my goat. No bedside lights, just empty bedside tables. No sweeteners on the coffee and tea setup (I always look for them). That's commonplace, annoyingly, but more to the point? There were no teaspoons either. Cups, sugar, but no spoons. What, you must use your sleeve? Grab a twig from a tree outside? I used the back end of a toothbrush to stir my coffee the next morning, after giving it a thorough wash. There was no rusk or biscuit either. I didn't mind overly, although these are things you find in almost every simple old BnB throughout the Platteland. I'm a coper. As long as there's a clean bed decently made up, I'm not gonna make a fuss. But don't promise a cornucopia and deliver an empty basket. Having said all that, ironically my overall impression of the Positano was strangely positive. And everything I cited above is easy to fix, in a single day. Maybe they will if they read this. We drove a few blocks away to a restaurant called The Gallery for dinner, which we reached late after Kirby got us lost again. This place was really good as small town restaurants go. Part of a guest house too. Maybe they also have a Presidential room. We'll ask them next time we go that way, because then we won't have to take the risk of Kirby leading us back to the wilds of the Komani CBD. At night. (Creepy zither music here, please.) The Gallery? Attractive environment, good service, and well-made food, if a tad eccentric. I had the 'sweet and sour prawn meat' which were round, plump parcels of Chinese-inspired sweet and sour shrimp meat. So much like traditional sweet and sour pork, very sweet in a way that few like these days. They were really good — made me think I was at a local Chinese spot. Then I ordered the 'spicy crumbed chicken breast'. Well. What arrived was two massive chicken breasts 'dunked in our spicy sauce and filled with a jalapeño and cheese mix'. Filling nearly the entire plate. Soooo much sauce, really hot and super-spicy in a good way. I actually loved it and devoured the lot. Everything on the plate screamed: 'not for the fainthearted or squeamish'. Yes please. What the hell was that thing in Kokstad? This was the destination for our second night on the road. This is the older me, I should explain. Back in the day I'd shoot right through to Durban in one day, but now I stop at least once, sometimes twice. Hence having driven from Cradock to Queenstown. (Queenstown/Komani, Somerset East/kwaNojoli? I should explain: I have a personal policy with changing place names: I choose to use both the old and the new name, interchangeably. I will not be dictated to. In a mature society, we should all be able to accommodate and be accommodated. Digression over.) Anyway, back to Kokstad. For decades, we've occasionally travelled this route and stopped at Kokstad for breakfast at the Wimpy, which is on a petrol station forecourt. I booked, online in advance, at a hotel called Mount Currie Inn. Which has a restaurant called the Guinea Fowl. Oooh, sounds quite posh, right? It's on that same forecourt. But it's not all that bad, speaking of the motel rooms at least. Like the Komani stopover, it was freshly painted in greys with black trim. There were zooty bedside lamps. There were sweeteners. There were teaspoons and rusks. And no executive suites. After a glass of wine at a cement table and benches in the grounds, where I took this photo, it was time to meet that scrawny, feisty little bird. It looks idyllic but it really is just the fenced yard of the motel that backs onto the petrol station complex. We strolled past all the other chalets with their cars parked outside and went inside to find the Guinea Fowl restaurant. No grand expectations required. A functional, canteen-like space with attentive service and food no one is ever going to write home about. Except to say that this poor bird should have been left in the yard to live out its life. Ag shame, man. I actually said that when I saw it: Oh, about that thing on my plate in Kokstad. I've just run the photo through Photoshop and blown it up. And it was cheese-topped mushrooms, gratinated and, now that my memory has kicked in, really not bad at all. Funny how a detail in a photo can prompt a memory. A good one, this time. Certainly a better one than the feisty little fowl whose short, sad life will haunt my dreams forever. The destination for this first part of the trip from Cradock to KwaZulu-Natal was Summerhill in Cowie's Hill, where we were expected for dinner. Talking of which, here's great news for Durban foodies. Chef Johannes Richter and his wife sommelier of The LivingRoom at Summerhill are friends with chefs Kobus van der Merwe (Wolfgat) and Vusi Ndlovu (Edge) in Cape Town, and the pair will be guests at Summerhill on Friday and Saturday, 29 and 30 August, when the three will present lunch and dinner with paired wines for R2,500 a head (that's inclusive of wine). Details and bookings for those dates here. DM
Irish Times
02-08-2025
- Lifestyle
- Irish Times
Turkish eggs with chorizo, yoghurt and sourdough
Serves : 2 Course : Brunch Cooking Time : 10 mins Prep Time : 15 mins Ingredients 2 tbsp vegetable oil 50g chorizo 1 clove garlic, peeled and thinly sliced 1 tsp dried chilli flakes 4 large eggs 100g thick natural yoghurt Juice and zest of half a lemon Sea salt Sliced sourdough bread Dill fronds, to garnish Start by seasoning your yoghurt: add the juice and zest of half a lemon to the yoghurt before seasoning with salt and mixing, then set aside in the fridge Place a large heavy-based saucepan on the heat filled with water, bring it to the boil and season with salt. Gently stir the water with a spoon before dropping the eggs in, reduce the heat and cook for three minutes until soft poached. While the eggs cook, place a non-stick pan on a medium heat, dice up the chorizo and add to the pan with some vegetable oil. Cook over a medium heat for a minute until the chorizo starts to release its oils. Now go in with the garlic and chilli flakes and cook for a further minute until the garlic slices are just browning. Spoon the yoghurt on to the plate and top with the poached eggs, drizzle the chorizo and oil over the top like a dressing and finish with the dill. Serve with sliced sourdough bread.
New York Post
31-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Martha Stewart takes aim at Meghan Markle and her lifestyle brand: ‘I hope she knows what she's talking about'
The queen of shade is back, and she's taking no prisoners. Martha Stewart has made a not-so-subtle dig at aspiring lifestyle guru Meghan Markle following the launch of her As Ever brand. The original lifestyle extraordinaire, 83, didn't mince words when asked about the Duchess of Sussex's foray into the world of hosting — saying she truly hopes the 'Suits' alum 'knows what she's talking about.' Advertisement 6 Martha Stewart has made a not-so-subtle dig at aspiring lifestyle guru Meghan Markle following the launch of her As Ever brand. Instagram/@marthastewart48 'Meghan, I don't really know very well. I hope she knows what she's talking about,' Stewart told Yahoo Lifestyle earlier this week. 'Authenticity, to me, is everything, and to be authentic and knowledgeable about your subject matter is extremely important.' Advertisement And while the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia founder appeared to reserve praise for Markle, she had a totally different thing to say about fellow lifestyle guru Gwyneth Paltrow. 'Gwyneth has been very successful; she created quite an interesting body of businesses,' she said of the Goop founder. 'She's admired. She won an Oscar for heaven's sake as an actress. She's pretty powerful,' she said, adding that her career as an entrepreneur is 'very successful.' 6 Markle's apparent rebrand as a domestic goddess was earlier this year branded 'inauthentic' by several royal experts. aseverofficial/Instagram Advertisement 6 The Duchess of Sussex, 43, launched her lifestyle brand, As Ever, in March. As ever Still, Stewart is not stopping anyone from venturing into the world of home and hospitality, saying she wishes them all 'good luck.' Markle's apparent rebrand as a domestic goddess was earlier this year branded 'inauthentic' by several royal experts, who compared come-up to that of Stewart. Following the release of her Netflix series, 'With Love, Meghan,' the former actress was weighed up against the likes of Stewart and Nigella Lawson, 65, both of whom have built strong brands from their lifestyle-focused business ventures. Advertisement 6 The original lifestyle extraordinaire, 83, didn't mince words when asked about the Duchess of Sussex's foray into the world of hosting. marthastewart48/Instagram 6 Also in March, the former actress released a Netflix series titled 'With Love, Meghan.' Netflix In a New York Times article in January, the outlet noted that Markle's lifestyle-guru plan is reminiscent to that of the pair, both of whom overcame public scrutiny and achieved 'profitable' results. When asked if she's seen the former working royal's project, Stewart said in April that he hadn't gotten round to watching the show yet. 'Has it started?' Stewart asked in the 'Access Hollywood' sit-down, while promoting NBC's cooking competition show 'Yes, Chef.' Follow The Post's royal family live blog for the latest pics, news, exclusive details and more 'I'll watch an episode and see how she does,' she concluded, before noting that she 'is curious.' Earlier this month, official figures showed that project failed to rank among Netflix's top 300 most-watched titles between January and June 2025. Advertisement The Post confirmed that Markle's eight-part series ranked 383rd with just 5.3 million views since its March 4 debut — unprecedented numbers for a Netflix original that has been renewed. 6 And while Stewart appeared to reserve praise for Markle, she had only complimentary to say about fellow lifestyle guru Gwyneth Paltrow. Getty Images for goop The series has since been bashed by critics and earned lower viewership numbers than her and her husband's 2022 series 'Harry & Meghan' — with IMDB giving it just 3.2 out of 10. While Netflix still plans to release the second season of the cooking show, it will be the last — given that Markle and Prince Harry's $100 million deal with the streamer has reached a dead end.
