Recipe : Shrimp Puffs with Mint & Lemon Pickled Cucumber

 
This recipe is the result of a very happy collision of circumstances. I've been following Spoon Fork Bacon for a few months, and they are now officially one of my favourite food blogs. Add to that a delivery of Pinot Grigio from Two Oceans Wines, and a spare cucumber and handful of mint, and you have one of the yummiest combinations I've discovered in the kitchen.

The Pinot Grigio is ideally paired spicy dishes and seafood, and comes with hints of dried apricot and peach and a note of litchi - a great easy drinking wine. This recipe immediately came to mind, and I'm so happy I eventually made it. It's a fantastic way to use inexpensive little shrimp, and turn them in to a seriously impressive snack, starter or canape.

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Recipe : Mint and Coriander Beef with Vegetable and Noodle Stirfry in Coriander Pancakes (and the Vital competition story)

  
As some of you may have already heard, I was very lucky to be chosen as the winner of the Vital Soy Sauce competition. This competition ran for 6 months near the end of last year, so I really didn't think I stood a chance at winning. Thankfully, Vital thought differently -I got an exciting email from them, telling me I'd won! This means I got to spend a lovely 3 nights at The Twelve Apostles Hotel in Cape Town (which was amazing - a separate blog post on that will follow), and appear on the Expresso Show on SABC 3, cooking my dish (the video is below).

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Review : 5 Rooms at The Alphen Hotel

Part of the beautiful lawns outside the Rose Bar
The lovely man and I recently discovered a real gem in Constantia - The Alphen Hotel, and more specifically their 5 Rooms Restaurant. We love Constantia, and spend many weekends exploring the region's wine farms - but we never ventured towards The Alphen, simply because it was an hotel, and subsequently out of our budget we assumed.
Inside one of the rooms of the restaurant
Thankfully, we were offered the opportunity to explore this uncharted territory, and we loved it so much we went twice in the space of a week! You know you've found something really special, when you walk around the ground constantly "oohing" and "aahing" and in complete disbelief that you hadn't found this oasis sooner.

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The Lovely Constantia Food and Wine Festival (and some amazing cheese!)



 
Last weekend the lovely man and I spent our Saturday at the Constantia Food and Wine Festival, held at Constantia Uitsig. It was the most perfect autumn day, and we hardly needed an excuse to visit one of our favourite wine farms, tasting and drinking the best that the region has to offer.

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Recipe : Surprisingly Delicious Chocolate Beetroot Cake

 
It was my lovely new boss' birthday last week, and the search was on for a cake to impress. I tried to do a mini-survey in the office to find a favourite, but we're all trying to eat healthily for winter, so the suggestions weren't exactly forthcoming. There were murmurs of chocolate cake and carrot cake, but as I've made them both before, I wanted to try something a little different (all for you, dear reader).

I did a little Googling, and stumbled across this combination of chocolate and beetroot. Now, it wouldn't have ordinarily struck me as something I'd want to bake, but combined with the office health-kick, and the baby beetroot I had waiting in my fridge, it seemed like the perfect solution to both of our problems.

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