Food and Drink
Anybody for coffee?
One of the many coffee bars in Italy; you find them all over the county. Many are just a bar counter where you order a quick yet most excellent expresso on your commute. This particular coffee bar was at the Napoli railway station.
Distillery in the Deep South
There is a new distillery in Town. Deep South Distillery opened its doors to the public mid-December, so of course we had to pop over for a visit. They have a small but well-equipped operation, you can have a short tour of the production area where you can see the pot and column stills, and then a generous gin-tasting in the bar area (if you ask nicely you might even be able to taste some rum).
We sampled both their clear and pink gin; both are very different and both are very well made. You get both the tour and tasting for R60. Don’t go when you’re in a rush, because it is a leisurely tasting which includes experimenting with different additions to the gin’s to see how the flavour is affected (eg lemon peal, orange, thyme etc).
Of course we came home with a bottle of both the pink and clear gin, and have been enjoying some wonderful experimentation with some fantastic gin’s in the evenings. Make some time and pop down to the Deep South in Kommetjie. You can find them here on Facebook, and their phone number is 021 783 0129.
Zakopane’s cheese
Zakopane there are small cheese market stalls, selling an amazing smoked cheese from the region. The salty cheese is called Oscypek, and it is mostly made from sheep milk, but also from cow and sometimes goat.
On every street corner in
It is great on its own, but even better when they heat it on the coals and serve it with a little cranberry sauce. You can buy just one or two pieces of the cheeses, or buy a big block to take home. We did both, but when we arrived back in Cape Town all our clothes smelled of smoked cheese…
Warning: it is very addictive.
How to make a Greek Salad
When we arrived in our apartment in Athens, we found that a section of one of the walls had been turned into a chalk board shopping list. Except that instead of a shopping list, we saw the recipe for a Greek Salad. We had eaten plenty of them by the time we arrived, but now we had a real recipe from a real Greek host in Athens.
How to make a Greek salad
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 cucumber
- 1 onion
- 1 green pepper
- feta cheese
- black olives
- olive oil
- salt, oregano & pepper
- mix and enjoy!
Here’s how it looks!
Zurek – sour rye soup
Here’s one of my favourite recipes – a hearty sour soup from Poland. No it does not have a sour taste, but it contains fermented rye flour which gives it a unique taste.
There are two parts to the recipe – making the zakwas – the base, and then the actual zurek.
The base for zurek
- about 1/2 cup of rye flour
- 1 cup of boiling water
- 2-3 cups of warm water
- bread crust (the best would be rye bread)
- 1-2 cloves of garlic
Mix the flour with the boiling water until there are no lumps. Then set it aside to cool. Add bread crust (it should sink completely), garlic, and remaining water. Put the mixture in a jar or clay pot covered with gauze or a delicate piece of cloth. Let the mixture sit for 3-5 days at room temperature (each day mix the ingredients a little). As the flour ferments, there will be some lactic acid bacteria and wild yeast, and you will smell the sour rye-bread smell. You can use it immediately or put it in the fridge (it can be stored for about 2 weeks).
Zurek
- Zakwas (zurek base) – about 0,5 l (use as much of the top clear part as possible and a little of the thick floury part to thicken the soup with)
- Soup vegetables (potato, carrots, turnips etc)
- 1 onion
- Sausage (chopped thinly (kielbasa if you can get them – otherwise any good German, Polish or Russian sausage will do)
- Smoked bacon, or ham hock, or kassler pork neck etc
- Dried mushrooms – I used about 1/2 punnet of fresh mushrooms
- Garlic (3-4 cloves)
- 2 bay leaves
- Some herbs
- Salt and pepper
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Stock if you want it more meaty
Directions
- Fry the onion, garlic and bacon.
- Chop the veggies and add to the pot.
- Bring them to boil with about 3-4 cups of water, add the sausage, and simmer until cooked.
- Add “zakwas” to the stock (about 2 cups from the clear part at the top and 2-3 spoons of the thick flour from the bottom).
- Bring to a boil, add spices, salt & pepper to taste
- Serve with quartered hard-cooked egg in each serving and rye bread on the side.
Original source: http://blog.polishorigins.com/2013/06/26/zurek-traditional-polish-sour-soup/