I have had the good fortune in my life to have sampled, and become addicted, to one of the greatest dishes I have tasted in my entire long 28 year life. The South African Bunny Chow! Available in three main flavours; lamb, chicken and bean. And two sizes; half and quarter.

I am going to give you the secret of this genius invention, so that one day, maybe you too can try and create this masterpiece for yourself. It may take many years of practise, dedication and hard work, but I have faith in you, dear reader, and I will pray for you and your efforts.

Okay, first of all you must buy a full loaf of bread, not sliced, otherwise you will end up with the messiest food…ever. It must be whole, but white or brown, well, I have only ever seen it done with white loaves. That doesn’t mean to say that you also must use white. If you are a health freak, err, I mean, concerned about your health, than by all means you can use brown or whole wheat. It is not a problem.

Next, you must cut the loaf according to the size you wish to serve. Cut the loaf in half to make the Half Bunny, or cut off a quarter piece to make the Quarter Bunny. It is entirely up to you. One thing you must keep in mind however, is that one loaf of bread will make 2 Half Bunny’s, but not 4 Quarter Bunny’s. The reason for this is that you need the crust end of the loaf of bread to act as your Bunny base. The middle portions of the loaf can not serve this purpose. Are you with me? Okay, good, let us move swiftly on.

Lets say we have chosen the Half Bunny. Stand the loaf with the crust side down. Now from the top, which should be pure soft bread, using your hand, reach into the loaf and roughly remove the majority of bread innards. Keep this to one side as this will act as your lid and a edible tool with which to attack your feast.

Good, so you will now have a near enough hollow half loaf of bread with the insides kept to one side. This is the essence of the Bunny Chow. Next you will need to choose your filling. Lamb, chicken or bean. Please note that these fillings are all Indian style curry’s. I for one, do not know how to make these curry’s. My mum does this part for me as she is a world leader in the kitchen. If there were a Nobel prize awarded to kitchen expertise, my mum would be well up there in the nominees!

Now my brownie points are earned for plugging mum’s cooking, we can go on. As I was saying, your filling will be one of these three curry’s. Having said that, these are usually the fillings that are offered when buying the Bunny in South Africa. For you to construct your own, I am sure that you can play around with the fillings, but make sure that it is a spicy curry to get a realistic Bunny taste. The curry recipe will be available somewhere online, or you can usually get them ready made at supermarket deli counters, or if worse comes to worst, then those ready made frozen dishes, but that is a scenario I don’t want to envisage right now. It depresses me so lets say that you make your own and it tastes fan-bloody-tastic. Don’t make it too runny though.

You should now have your hollow loaf of bread, the scooped out insides, and the curry filling of your choice. All you do now is pour in the steaming hot curry into the loaf of bread half an inch from the top, cover with the bread that you earlier had removed, and serve. It is as easy as that.

The way to eat, is to break off portions of your bread lid, use it to grab some delicious curry and plonk into your salivating mouth. Absolutely gorgeous. The curry will soak into the bread but wont soak through the crusted shell. So once your lid is finished, you begin to break off portions of the shell to eat with the curry or even on its own, simply working your way down until it is finished.

A Half Bunny is usually good for two people. The good thing being that a person can sit on either side of the Bunny, and as you are eating with your hands, you can eat at the same time. Or not, if your friend has the hygiene of a sick badger that lives in the gutters leading out to the Thames. It is all up to you.

And finally, if you are ever in the vicinity of Sparks Road, in Durban, South Africa, just ask anyone for Sunrise Takeaways. They are the all time greats of the Bunny Chow, their Lamb Bunny is unbeatable.

God bless and may you always have your taste buds tickled into the heavens.

Delicious Beef Cordon Bleu Recipe

This recipe is for one piece of Beef Cordon Bleu.  Multiply the ingredients according to the number of pieces you would like to cook.  It is a simple but very tasty dish.  Your family will enjoy it!  It’s best served hot.

Ingredients:

beef tenderloin about 150 g.

1 slice ham

1 slice cheese

1 egg, beaten

½ cup breadcrumbs

Oil

Procedure:

Slice the beef tenderloin into 2 thin steaks.

Season the beef tenderloin steaks with salt and pepper, or with steak seasoning.

Put the ham and cheese on top of the steak, and top it with the other piece of steak.

Seal the edges of the “sandwiched steak pair” by gently pounding the rims together.

Dip it in the beaten egg, then roll it on breadcrumbs.

In a pan heat the oil and fry until the steak is brown on both sides.

Serve with grilled vegetables.  Enjoy!

30 Fast and Easy Potluck Ideas – Part 1

30 Fast and Easy Potluck Ideas – Part 2

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2 Pounds Ground Chuck

1 Green Bell Pepper (chopped)

2 Eggs (beaten)

1 Small Onion (chopped)

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce

1 Cup Milk

2 Cups Crackers (crushed)

1 Teaspoon Salt

1/2 Teaspoon Pepper

Bottle Ketchup

Cooking Utensils Needed

1 Large Bowl

1 Sharp Knife

1 Tablespoon

1 Teaspoon

1 Cup

1 Glass Cooking Dish (medium size)

1 Chopping Board or Plate

Tin Foil

2 Clean Hands

Preparation

Place your Ground Chuck, Bell Pepper, Eggs, Onion, Worcestershire Sauce, Milk, Crackers, Salt & Pepper into your bowl. Add lots of Ketchup then mix very well with your hands. Place in your glass dish and flatten smooth. Layer with a topping of Ketchup. Cover with tin foil and bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Cool and serve.

*You can add a little extra of your ingredients for additional flavor, if you wish.*

.

Things You’ll Need:

• 1 lb hamburger
• 1 lb bulk sausage
• 1 lb bacon
• 1/2 loaf toasted bread
• 6-8 Celery Sticks
• 1/4 cup Ground Sage
• 3 Frying Pans
• Large Mixing bowl
• Turkey

1. Step 1

   Ground up all of your meats, It goes faster if you use three different pans. One for your sausage, one for your hamburger, one for your bacon. You do not need to cook them well done. Just get them to the point where they are near done. Drain, once your bacon has cooled you need to tear it into pieces.

2. Step 2

   Toast your bread, you need just about a half of a loaf. Tear them into pieces, and put them in the bowl. We always let one of the smaller kids do this part since you really can’t mess up.

   Note: IF they do happen to burn the toast it isn’t a big deal you can always take a butter knife and scrape off the burnt part of the bread.

3. Step 3

   Cut up the celery it needs to be pretty small pieces. We always cut them down the middle long ways and then sliced it.

4. Step 4

   Put all ingredients into the bowl make sure that you let your meat cool before doing this step. Mix together pretty well.

5. Step 5

   Stuff your turkey, then when it is done you pull it out and serve. This stuffing is soooooo good

   Image via Wikipedia

Make pork chops spicy sweet with a quick simmer in garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce, and a flourish of brown sugar over the top.  For more fun, add sliced apples to the hot pan and saute until tender.

Serves 4

4 Pork Chops

2 teaspoons garlic powder

2 Tablespoons Woprchestershire sauce

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

3 apples – peeled, cored and sliced

Head a large skillet to medium high heat.  Add pork chops and a little water; heat until simmering.  Sprinkle with garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce.  Heat and let all simmer until underside of chops are browned and 95-7 minutes); turn chops over.  Sprinkle with brown sugar and cook until the other side is browned about (5-7 minutes).

Remove chops from skillet and set aside.  Add apples to skillet and cook in left over liquids until they are soft and tender.  Pour apples and juices over chops and serve

To make the marinade:

1. In a mixing bowl add one tablespoon of olive oil.
2. Add 2 teaspoons of mustard
3. Crush about 2 tablespoons of black pepper (see below for a quick way to do this)
4. Add a teaspoon of salt (too much salt will dehidrate and shrink the meat)
5. Strip the leaves off of the rosemary twig and add the leaves to the mix. About 4 twigs.
6. Peal and chop 2 cloves of garlic (per 1kg meat) and add to the mix. No need to chop to finely as chunky bits add more flavour.
7. Add a couple of dollops of soy sauce.
8. Add 1 teaspoon of salt.
9. Now mix it all together with your hands!

Preparing the meat:

1. All across the fatty bits and along the side, slice a finger-sized hole and futher separate it by inserting your finger.
2. Put the meat in the marinade and roll around. Force some bits of garlic and whatever else follows into the holes you made.
3. Place it all in a pre-heated oven (minimum. If it is higher than 100Celcius use the slow cooker.)

Crushing pepper:

Simply place it under a double folded piece of kitchen roll and bask with the back of a meat cleaver.

Cook on the lowest heat for about 12 hours. This will turn out succulent and juicy. And if you minimise the amount of salt by adding soy sauce you should still have a larger piece of meat.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

4 Italian Sausages

1 Green Pepper

1 Large Onion

¾ cup Red Wine Vinegar

4 Tablespoons Olive Oil

4 Tablespoons Honey

3 heavy pinches of salt

2 Teaspoons Red Chili Flake

Process:

1.       Heat 4 Tablespoon of olive oil in bottom of non-aluminum pan.

2.       Fry onions and green peppers for about 5-6 minutes.

3.       Add Sausages and fry until brown on either side, turning over once.

4.       Add  ½ of the vinegar and Chili Flake allow liquid to cook off about 2-3 minutes.

5.       Add salt, honey, and the rest of the vinegar, cover.

6.       Allow to cook for at least ten minutes, until sausage center reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

7.       Serve with Ciabatta bread.

8.       Voila!

Here is my first article on Asian Cuisine as i travel and dine with you for the ultimate culinary adventure in my country and around Asia.

For my first in the series, I wish to introduce you to an extra-ordinary dish that is popular in the Metro Manila.

This special Filipino dish is known locally as: Sinigang Na Bangus at Baboy sa Bayabas (Milkfish and Pork Belly in Guava Juice)

                                              Sinigang Na Bangus at Baboy sa Bayabas

Here are the ingredients:

500g pork belly, chopped in eight equal sizes

500g Philippine Milk fish, chopped in 4 equal sizes

500g ripe guava, sliced

6 pieces okra, cut in half

100 grams sweet potato tops

200 grams String beans, cut 2 inches apart

6 cups rice water

Procedure:

Clean and chop pork belly into eight equal bite sizes. Set aside

Clean milk fish and cut into four equal sizes. Set aside

In a casserole, place the sliced guava, add two cups water and boil for 10 minutes. Extract guava juice by placing in a soft cloth and squeezing it to form a guava juice concentrate. Set aside the strained guava juice.

In another casserole, place the bite size pork and add six cups rice water. Let boil for 30 minutes or until it becomes tender. Add milk fish and cook for another five minutes. Then add okra, string beans, potato tops and cook for another three minutes.

Salt & pepper, fish sauce to taste.

Serve hot. Good for six servings.

This dish is particularly popular in the national capital region especially among the tagalog-speaking towns and cities of metro manila.

Happy eating and enjoy.

Boiled mutton pieces with all the dry ingredients (Cinnamon to red pepper) and garlic paste till mutton is soft and cook. Take out the mutton pieces and keep the stock separate. Put 4 tablespoons oil and fry the mutton till it is brown. Boil rice with 1 teaspoon oil and three fourth salt. Also add 2 cups mutton stock or 2 cups plain water. When rice are half boiled, add mutton pieces with all its ingredients till rice is cooked. Garnish with coriander fried onion and herbs. Serve hot with curd.

Look this dish up, and you’ll be given all sorts of waffle about how it came about, where the name came from and all sorts of other boring chit chat about it’s origins.  As the son of a Yorkshire man, the English county where Yorkshire pudding and Toad in the Hole are said to originate, I’m happy with the explanation I was given when I was knee high to a grasshopper, passed down from father to son over the generations.

Toad in the Hole was a dish used by poorer folk to help leftovers go down slightly more palatably.  The name originates from the fact that the left over meat, or perhaps sausages if you were a little better off, resembled toads poking their heads out of some murky mud hole when the dish was cooked, particularly if covered in onion gravy as tradition dictates.

Despite this somewhat yucky description, Toad in the Hole is a great and easy to prepare alternative to a Sunday roast.  Best served with mashed potatoes, peas and other vegetables of your choice and a good, rich and thick gravy (onions optional), this dish is a delight to eat and sure to remain a huge favourite for many, many years to come.

Ingredients to serve four:

8 thick pork sausages

(I actually prefer to buy sausage meat and make it into toad shapes for the children, but if you’re not quite that adventurous, sausages of your choice are perfectly acceptable).

6oz plain flour

1 pint of semi-skimmed milk

2 medium eggs

A pinch of salt to taste

Method:

Peal and cut your potatoes and have your vegetables ready to cook at the appropriate time while the dish is in the oven.  You should find that vegetable cooking coincides perfectly with the 25-30 minutes that the dish will take to cook.

Pre-heat your oven to 425oF, 210oC, Gas mark 10.

Break your eggs into a large jug or mixing bowl and add half of the milk.  Beat the eggs into the milk.

Add a pinch of salt and add in the flour gently, mixing all the time.  When all of the flour is added, continue to add milk, beating the mixture until it is smooth and pourable, not quite as runny as English pancake mixture is ideal.  If you don’t quite use the full pint of milk, that’s fine.

This is a good time to put the potatoes on to boil.

Place sausages (do not prick them) or meat into a 12” baking tray, preferably non-stick, and put them in the top of the oven for around 10 minutes until they are ever so slightly browned, but only just (turning as necessary).   Note that when the batter is added, it will rise considerably above the baking tray whilst cooking, so make sure there is at least 5 inches clearance at the top of the oven.

Drain any excess fat, but leave enough in the pan to coat it.  Arrange the sausages in four sets of two and place the tray back in the oven for a couple of minutes until the fat is sizzling again.

Now pour the batter around the sausages or meat and put the tray back in the top of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until the batter is well risen and golden brown.  Adjust cooking time accordingly for fan assisted ovens.

At the appropriate time while the dish is cooking, you can put your vegetables on and prepare your gravy.

Cut the dish into four and serve with piping hot potatoes, vegetables and gravy to your ravenous diners and let them enjoy this traditional and hearty meal.

A tasty addition to this recipe is to add onions, mushrooms and half a teaspoon of paprika to the batter.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe.  If you’d like to see more of my work, you can find me at:

https://www.triond.com/users/Aldrin+A+Wilding+West

Thanks for reading.