It's around the corner....

The Mother City's Culinary Event of the year is around the corner.  Have you got your tickets yet?  We'll see you there!

Spoil your Valentine with Heart-Shaped Eggs & Toast

Happy Valentines Day
Using a 7 cm heart-shaped cookie cutter, remove the center of a thick slice of bread and toast it.  
Melt 1 1/2 teaspoons butter in a small frying pan over medium heat.  Place bread slice in frying pan and cook until underside is lightly browned.  Add another 1 1/2 teaspoons butter and flip bread.
Fit cookie cutter, coated with cooking spray, in bread's cutout heart and crack an egg into cutter.  Cover frying pan and cook until egg is set, 2 to 3 minutes.
Use tongs to remove cutter.  Serve with toast heart for dipping into yolk.

Food Trends For 2014

What are your thoughts on the food trends predicted for 2014?  

1.   Locally sourced meats and seafood
2.   Locally grown produce
3.   Environmental sustainability
4.   Healthful kids' meals
5.   Gluten-free cuisine
6.   Hyper-local sourcing (e.g. restaurant gardens)
7.   Children's nutrition
8.   Non-wheat noodles/pasta (e.g. quinoa, rice, buckwheat)
9.   Sustainable seafood
10. Farm/estate branded items
11. Nose-to-tail & root-to stalk cooking 
12. Cooking & serving ancient grains such as kamut, spelt and amaranth
13. Small plates instead of eating larger meals
14. In the dessert category, savoury instead of sweet
15. Using unusual herbs such as lovage, chervil & lemon balm
16. Pickling, fermenting & smoking 

Merry Christmas from C3 Food Services

Christmas Biscotti

A wonderful gift to take the hostess at your next Christmas event or to have in the house to eat with a cup of tea or glass of sweet sherry.

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup maize meal
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp coarse salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 6 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbsp finely grated lemon zest
• 1 cup dried cherries
• 1 cup shelled pistachios, chopped

1. Heat oven to 180 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk flour, maize meal, coconut, baking powder, and salt.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix eggs, sugar, oil, and zest on medium speed until well combined (this could be done by hand whisking to combine in a large bowl). Reduce speed, add flour mixture, and mix until just combined. Fold in cherries and pistachios.
3. Transfer dough to a parchment-lined baking sheet and pat into a small log. Bake until firm and golden, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and reduce oven to 160 degrees.
4. Once cool, transfer log to a cutting board and, using a serrated knife, cut diagonally into slices. Arrange slices on lined baking sheet and bake, 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool completely.

These can be kept in an air tight container for 2 weeks.  

Huis Horizon Outing

Huis Horizon is a residential and sheltered employment centre in Stellenbosch for primary intellectually disabled people. Just a few pics of C3 Food Services delivering sponsored lunch packs for their yearly outing.  

Happy Halloween

With Halloween around the corner, we're having a fun day in the kitchen making these gorgeous Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes.

Ingredients (makes 22 cupcakes)
1 pumpkin (680 g)
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup pecans
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Pinch ground cloves
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 x 200 g packages almond paste
Food colour -orange, brown and green

Cream cheese frosting

Method
Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius.  Line two muffin tins with paper liners.  Grate pumpkin in a food processor or on the large holes of a box grater (you should have about 2 1/2 cups). Transfer to a medium bowl, add pumpkin puree and pecans.

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves.  Pulse to combine.  With machine running, add oil and eggs; process until smooth, scraping sides of bowl as needed.  Add pumpkin mixture; pulse to combine.

Spoon about 1/3 cup batter into each cupcake liner.  bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Make the marzipan pumpkins:  Tint two-thirds almond paste orange, adding food colour a dab at a time until desired colour is reached.  Tint a quarter of remaining paste brown and the rest green.  using a small rolling pin, roll out green almond paste about 1/8 thick; use a leaf cutter to cut out leaf shapes.  Roll brown into small ropes; cut and shape into stems.  Using the palm of your hand, shape orange paste into three-quarter-inch gloves.  Use a toothpick to poke holes in tops of pumpkins and to press creases from top to bottom.  Attach leaves and stems to tops with a bit of frosting.

Decorate cupcakes with frosting and marzipan pumpkins.