Everyone
deserves a well-earned break now and then and if you’re
the type of person who would like to combine a trip abroad
with a delicious cooking experience, this is the prize for
you!
If
you love cooking, or even just enjoy food for
food's sake, you should visit Henrie's Hotch
Potch, the Highlife regular recipe column for
a truly amazing website: www.iafrica.com.
A
food guru if ever there was, Henrie
Geyser does not supply just any old kind
of recipe, randomly pinched from the yellowing
pages of Your Average Cookbook. Rather, the
wondrous menus that grace the pages of Henrie's
Hotch Potch each week have come to exist through
endless experimenting and tasting, night after
night of gleeful peeling, chopping, stirring,
stuffing, straining, baking, grilling, frying
and braaiing - wooden spoon in one hand, glass
of wine in the other.
We
are fortunate enough to have been given permission
to reproduce a few of Henrie's recipes, just
so that we can get a taste! To visit Henrie
at the iAfrica web site where he updates
his column every Friday with a full menu
of Starter, Main Course and Dessert - click
here
"Traditionally,
clams are used for this dish, but I prefer using
mussels, mainly because fresh clams are not
easy to find".
Ingredients
30
black mussels, scrubbed and left in a bucket
of seawater for an hour or so. This will allow
them to expel any sand they might contain.
1 large onion, sliced thinly
1 tin of peeled tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 small tin of tomato paste
1 teaspoon sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon
3 cloves of garlic, peeled, crushed and coarsely
chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
salt and black pepper
5 tots of gin
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Method
In
a large sauce pan, heat the oil and fry the
onions until soft, then add the garlic and
parsley. Fry for about two minutes, stirring
constantly.
Add
1/2 cup warm water and let the mixture simmer
for a minute, then add the chopped tomato,
the tomato paste, the mussels, salt, pepper,
sugar and the gin.
Let
it simmer until the mussels start opening,
then add the lemon juice.
Remove
the lid to allow the strong in-fumes to escape.
Serve
on its own, or with plain white rice and or
crunchy fresh bread or rolls.
Serves
4
Henrie
To
visit Henrie at the iAfrica web site where he
updates his column every
Friday with a full menu of Starter, Main
Course and Dessert - click
here
A
food guru if ever there was, Henrie
Geyser does not supply just any old kind
of recipe, randomly pinched from the yellowing
pages of Your Average Cookbook. Rather, the
wondrous menus that grace the pages of Henrie's
Hotch Potch each week have come to exist through
endless experimenting and tasting, night after
night of gleeful peeling, chopping, stirring,
stuffing, straining, baking, grilling, frying
and braaiing - wooden spoon in one hand, glass
of wine in the other.