The Irene Village Market

I’ts been a while since we’ve visit the Irene Market in Pretoria. The Irene Market is situated on the Grounds of the Smut House Museum.

What makes this market so special is the great entertainment it offers to children and adults alike, from camel rides and jumping castles to the fresh smell of baked goods and over 300 stalls.

The ambiance from being outdoors, walking through the tall trees sipping on a Red cappuccino and being visually entertained by the great arts and crafts from the exhibitors makes it more than just another market.

My favorite spot is by far the great food stalls that vary from Asian, indian to traditional foods, from Cupcakes to home-made venison pies and everything in between. Be prepared for a treat from the live entertainment while you enjoy your favorite foods. Did I mention that pets are also allowed?

Some of my favorite products is the Olives stuffed with nuts and garlic, the homemade pesto’s, olive tapenade, freshly baked rye bread and not to mentioned the home-made varieties of Cheese spreads.

My ultimate treat is all the spices available. I just had to buy a big bag of my favorite curry mix as well. The magic ingredient to this curry mix is the dry spices mixed with a blend of masala infused oil which makes it a moist mix with an unbelievable taste!

The next market date is the 28th of April, be sure not to miss it!

Irene Village Market

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Healthy oven baked Chimichangas

Fancy a healthy Chimichanga? Try this oven baked whole-wheat and poppy-seed tortilla. Great for lunch and quick and easy to make when you have your prepared tortilla’s ready.

I usually bake a batch of whole-wheat Torilla’s and freeze them to use them later in the week. Use shop bought Tortillas if you are pressed for time, although I could promise you that once you’ve made your own tortillas you will never buy them again.

My recipe calls for whole-wheat flour and poppy seeds bu you could replace it with plain flour instead if you prefer.

Breakfast on the run? than have a look at my previous post for healthy Breakfast Wraps. 

Whole-wheat , poppy seed Tortilla Wrap 

Makes 12 Tortillas

500 g Brown Bread Flour
5 ml Baking powder
2 ml Salt
10 ml Poppy Seed (optional)
60 ml Butter
225 ml Warm water

1. Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add butter and rub in with your fingertips to resemble   coarse breadcrumbs. Add water and mix until well combined. Turn onto a floured surface and knead for two minutes until dough is smooth.
2. Divide dough into 12 pieces and roll into a ball. Place onto a floured baking tray and cover with a damp cloth. Leave to rest for one hour.
3. Roll each ball out onto a lightly floured surface to form very thin circles.
4. Heat a heavy-base frying pan over high heat and place one tortilla int he pan.
5. Cook for four to six seconds, then turn over and cook for another five seconds. Remove from the pan and cover with a dishcloth. Cook remaining tortillas, keeping the pile wrapped until they are all are cooked.

Filling  

Serve 6

500g Minced beef

5 ml paprika

1 onion sliced

1 red chilli (optional)

2 Tomatoes cubed

2 tbs Tomato paste

1 tbs Sugar

1 – 2 cups  Cheddar Cheese grated

Salt and pepper to taste

Olive oil for frying

In a frying pan fry your Sliced onions until soft, add the Beef mince and the Paprika and brown. Add the Chilli and the tomatoes and fry for another few minutes, stirring the mixture allowing the tomatoes to break up. Add the tomato paste and the sugar and a enough water to form a sauce. Gently cook for a minute or two.  Season to taste with Salt and pepper.

Assemble your Chimichanga by placing some of the grated cheese in the middle of the flour tortilla. Add the meat on top of your cheese. Now fold the top part over the meat mixture and fold the bottom part over your top part.  Close your Chimichanga by folding the left and right sides over to the middle. Place your Chimichanga with the folded sides facing down onto your baking tray and bake for +- 10 minutes until brown on top.  Place on a bed of greens and enjoy with quaqamole. 

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Healthy Apple and Grape Crisp (NOT a Crumble!)

Very interesting indeed, there is in fact a difference between a crumble and a crisp!

A crisp is a dessert made with a crisp topping that contains oats, nuts, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon  and flour sprinkled over the fruit.  A crisp have a coarser texture compared to the crumble because of the nuts and oats used.

A crumble is made with flour, butter, sugar that is sprinkled over the fruit, basically the same ingredients as a pastry except for the liquid.

Either way both taste fantastic and you don’t have to stick to just apples to make this dessert.

I’ve used grapes with the apples, this created two kinds of sweetness in one pie, just lovely.

Ingredients

Serve’s 4

5 Apples (peeled and cubed)

a handful of  seedless grapes

10 ml lemon juice

30 ml honey

50 ml flour

250 ml oat bran

50 ml “lite” margarine

50 ml brown sugar

1 ml salt

5 ml cinnamon powder

Grease a  pie dish and pre heat your oven to 180 degrees.

Place the apples in a saucepan, add a few tablespoons of  water to the apples, add the lemon juice and cook the apples for +- 10 minutes until soft but still firm. You can add water spoon by spoon is it cooks dry. Strain, add the honey to the apples,  mix through and transfer to your pie dish.

Cut the grapes in half and add to the apples in the pie dish.

Rub together the flour, oat bran, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and margarine and sprinkle the mixture over the fruit.

Bake until the crust is brown.

Serve with low-fat custard, low-fat reduced fat cream or low-fat ice cream.

Fruit in the greased pie dish

Ready for the oven!

Tips

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If you don’t cook the fruit cover your crisp with tin foil and bake for 30 minutes, remove foil and bake for 10 minutes or until the crisp is browned.

Try using these fruit next time; rhubarb, strawberry and blueberries, peaches, mango or plums.

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Curried Fish and Basmati rice

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Tip

Be careful, if the dish it too hot when you add the yogurt it might curdle.  I’ve also only used half of the yogurt as to  what the recipe indicates, just my own preference.  I’ve add a good pinch of minced chillies in my dish and                smoked salt    instead of table salt. 

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All men hate fish! No they don’t really, they just enjoy beef so much more.  Having a pre-teen in the house you soon  realize that what ever you made the last week for supper just won’t cut it this week since they HATE everything.

Last night was no different. ” I won’t eat that, that looks absolutely disgusting. Is that FISH?!… WITH  lentils! No way I’m eating that!”  unfortunately for pretty boy his mommy don’t have a problem if he goes to bed on an empty stomach, certainly he won’t starve before breakfast.

Well, well pretty boy cleaned his plate, fish and lentils,  all of it!

This is a lovely simple recipe to Jazz up frozen Hake. Don’t leave the lentils out of this dish, it creates a beautiful contrast  in textures and soaks up all the curry flavors. It might not look that good but this is healthy, low-fat, low GI comfort food. Good enough for this cold front that is creeping up on us after what felt like a spring weekend here in the Highveld area.

Ingredients.

400 g Frozen hake deboned and skinned.

1 tsp Fish spice

250 ml low-fat milk

1 medium onion chopped

5 ml olive oil

2 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp Turmeric powder

80 g Basmati rice

Pinch of Salt

2 hard-boiled eggs

200 g cooked lentils or half a tin

125 ml low-fat yogurt

rind and juice of one lemon

Freshly ground Pepper to taste.

Curry spices

1. Place the fish fin a saucepan, sprinkle with fish spice. Pour milk over, cover and cook for 10 minutes.

2. Drain, retaining the cooking juices. Add enough water to the cooking juices to make 600ml.

3. Flake the fish.

4. Fry the onion in the oil until soft. Add the curry powder and turmeric. Add the rice, salt and milk and water mixture. Stir well. Simmer for 20 minutes or until the rice is done.

5. Meanwhile, shell the eggs and cut into wedges.

6. Add the fish, lentils, lemon rind and juice to the rice mixture. Mix lightly and gently heat trough.

7. Add the yogurt, mix and heat for a few seconds.

8. Sprinkle the pepper and serve hot or cold with lemon wedges and a side salad.

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Wholewheat, Poppy seed Breakfast Wraps

Last Sunday I felt like spoiling the family with a healthy breakfast wrap before heading off for a round of Golf. Off course if you play like me you need all the energy you can get, I’m no Yani Tseng and for some reason my golf balls gets strangely attracted by tall trees and ponds.

I love tortilla wraps but I wanted something a bit more healthier.
For the filling I have spread a simple tomato relish evenly over the tortilla wrap topped with creamy scrambled egg, caramelized onions, low fat low sodium bacon, grated Cheddar Cheese and fried mushrooms and spring onions.

Wholewheat poppy seed Tortilla Wrap

500 g Brown Bread Flour
5 ml Baking powder
2 ml Salt
10 ml Poppy Seed (optional)
60 ml Butter
225 ml Warm water

1. Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add butter and rub in with your fingertips to resemble   coarse breadcrumbs. Add water and mix until well combined. Turn onto a floured surface and knead for two minutes until dough is smooth.
2. Divide dough into 12 pieces and roll into a ball. Place onto a floured baking tray and cover with a damp cloth. Leave to rest for one hour.
3. Roll each ball out onto a lightly floured surface to form very thin circles.
4. Heat a heavy-base frying pan over high heat and place one tortilla int he pan.
5. Cook for four to six seconds, then turn over and cook for another five seconds. Remove from the pan and cover with a dishcloth. Cook remaining tortillas, keeping the pile will wrapped until all are cooked.

 Tips

Your pan should be very hot! You should see spots of rising on the surface within two seconds, if you don’t the pan isn’t hot enough.

Tortilla’s freeze very well. After cooking let cool and wrap each tortilla individually with cling wrap.
Wrap everything in foil and freeze. As you require wraps simply re-heat individually.

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