Bacon Wrapped Suprise

It's has been a minute since my last Blog Post. So what better way for me to greet you with our mouth watering Appetizer which is a bomb of flavor and all things yummy in your tummy. I have missed sharing my love of food and cooking with you.


I love surprises and I wanted to surprise my Africanista Family too with this Bacon Wrapped Surprise dish. One of the surprises ingredient in this dish is Amadumbe(Yams) which happen to be one o f  my Favorite ingredient to work with and to indulge on of course hahahaha.




So let's cook and indulge in all of these AfricanistaFoods yumminess








Ingredients

Bacon
Mushrooms
Amadumbe(Yams)
Carrot
Onion
Green Pepper
Oil
Rajah Mild Curry Powder
Koo Baked Beans
Ginger And Garlic

Method

Amandumbe
*Wash, then Boil them with salt till they are soft( 1hour 30 minutes)
*Pill and mash them when they are cool. Add a pinch of salt and black pepper


Chakalaka

*In a hot pan with oil, add onion and green pepper. Cook till soft, add ginger and garlic. let it cook and add your curry powder.

*Add grated carrot and let it cook for a few minutes. when soft add a tin of Baked Beans. let it cook for a few more minutes.

* Let it Rest for a few minutes

Finishing Touches

*Removed the mushroom stem
*Stuff the mushrooms with Amadumbe(Yams)
*Wrap the Stuffed Mushrooms with Bacon
*Place in a Baking Tray and Put in a Pre Heated Oven. Let it Baked till the Baked  in Cooked to your preference.
*Top it of with Chakalaka

Enjoy


Tip: If time isn't on your side, Make Amadumbe(Yams) the night before


xoxo
Sugar&Spices
Samke Hlongwa

2016 Highlights

As we wrap up 2016 and we look ahead into 2017 and what it brings us..let's take a last look into 2016

6 months ago I started this Blog with minimum knowledge on blogging, with no smartphone, no laptop, no camera and zero resources.....Somedays I would book a food shoot but didn't have ingredients or would have ingredients but my photographer won't be available on that day.

I faced many challenges especially with the Fashion side of the Blog to a point that most associate my Blog with Food only. I guess  I gravitated  more on what I could control, seeing that I'm a Chef.

Next year I promise you will see a Balance of Food, Fashion and Lifestyle

Below are just a few pictures of some of our Blog Posts from the past 6 months. Next years I will also have Scheduled weekly post.

Bye for now...Enjoy your New Year's Eve and be safe. May 2017 rain love and blessing for you all my family

xoxo

Samke

Sugar&Spices

Fish Curry Mini Dumplings served in Sea Shells and Carrot Salad

So it's no secret that I'm a beach baby. The beach is my little escape heaven.
Today like most days, I was missing the beach but this hectic life wouldn't allow me this desire :(

So since I couldn't go to the beach today, I settled on making this spicy mini dumplings in Fish curry served in Sea shells with Carrot Salad......Yes Fish curry and Sea Shell will have to do hey. This is as close as I can be to the beach today hahahahahaha

Usually we make dumplings into medium sizes and we make bigger ones at those family events. You know those family traditional events, when you cook dumplings with goats meat or any other animal that was slaughtered for that event....yep those dumplings 😃😃😃

Today we are taking dumpling to the next level or in this case to the mini level hahaha

Ingredients 

Self-Raising Wheat Flour - SASKO
Salt
Lurk Warm Water
Robertsons Black Pepper

Robertsons Fish Spice
Onions

Ginger and Garlic 

Ra haj Mild and Spicy Curry Powder  

Mix Masala curry powder
Green Pepper
Lucky star pilchards tin fish
Carrot
Chillies
Vinegar 



Method

Fish Curry

*Fry onions and green pepper, add ginger and garlic. When onion and green pepper are soft, add curry powders and let it cook

* Add peeled and grated tomatoes,Salt and Fish spice....let it simmer for a few minutes

*Add Lucky Star Tin Fish( opened and cleaned) and stir together


Mini Dumpling

*Mix Flour, warm water and a pinch of salt. Let it rest for a few minutes, make it into little balls
*Add the mini dumpling balls in the fish curry and let it cook for 10 minutes

  Carrot Salad

*Grate carrot and chop chilles
*Add the carrot and chillies with a pinch of salt and a dash of vinegar

Spoon fish curry and dumplings into the sea shells and add carrot salad on the side. Now Enjoy!


xoxo
Samke
Sugar&Spices

Spinach and Rice Salad with Pan Fried Chicken Breast and Feta

So today I was feeling like eating something lite  and easy to make without slaving in the kitchen for hours and that is how this recipe came to life and it was born......hahahahahaha, yes sometimes I enter the kitchen without a clue of what I will make and to my surprise something comes out eatable lol.

Ingredients

2 cups of Spekko Rice
Robertson Rice Spice
Robertson BBQ Chicken Spice
Salt
Robertson Black Pepper
Big Bunch Spinach
Olive Oil
1 Big Onion
Clover Feta Cheese


Method

Rice

*Wash Rice and put it in your pot with 4 cups of hot water, let it cook. When soft put it in a strainer in the sink, drain it and rinse and put it back in the pot. Put it back in the stove  for a few minutes to eliminate the remaining water and Add the Rice Spice.
*Let the Rice cool off while preparing your Spinach and Chicken

Spinach

*Place your pot on the stove and when hot add olive oil. Add your finely chopped onions and garlic the hot oil
*Add spinach, black pepper and Salt( cook for 2/3 minute, we don't want the spinach to be over cooked and too soft)



Chicken Breast

*Marinate the chicken in black pepper, salt and BBQ chicken spice
*Put it in a pan with hot oil, fry it for 5 minutes on each side

1. Mix the Rice and Spinach Together 
2. Slice the Chicken Breast 
3. Assemble the slice Chicken Breast with Sliced Feta Cheese in-between 

Tips

#The Oil Olive Adds any amazing Flavor to the Spinach and the Salad as a meal 

#You can have the Salad warm or cold

#If you squeeze lime over this salad....you tongue will worship you...wink wink  

xoxo

Samke

Sugar&Spices

Home Girl

As we bid farewell to the month of  September .....which is the most beautiful and heart warming month before Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We call it Heritage month here in South African(On the 24th of September we were celebrating Heritage Day here in South African. It was so beautiful to see our Nation embracing their roots and Heritage, wearing Traditional attires or embracing the next person's heritage), some call it Spring month, Birth of new things month and New Year in some of our sister African Countries.

This year on Heritage Day I  was wearing this Nigerien attire, which by the way reminds me of Half The Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who is  an Nigerian Author.

For me September  however has made me miss home.The South Coast( Mkomass in Amahlongwa Mission) that's where my heart is and my roots get watered. Eating my Granz's food and just listening to her stories, hahaha yes she knows everything that happens in the whole village.

On a serious note though.........I always find knew strength when I visit home, the atmosphere is filled with so much love and life. Each breath I take in feels like I am taking my life back.
There is just something so wholesomely  and spiritual about being home. It's like all my worries are taken away just by setting my foot on the ground. It's a place of no judgement, a place of emotional and spiritual nourishment. Sitting on my Granz veranda and looking at the beach from afar has to be the best view I have ever set my eyes on since my childhood,

Being in my Granz home is like receiving a emotional revival. Knowing that I away a home to run to gives me so much peace and I am truly grateful to have my family. I would be the first to admit that I can keep to myself and sometimes it may seem that the city life is winning me over but I am a Home Girl. I wouldn't trade my Home for anything.

Home is where the heart is


xoxo
Samke
Sugar&Spices

Sigwaqane served with Beef curry and Salsa

Isigwaqane(Savory Bean Pap) has to be one of my ultimate favorite traditional dish. It always takes me back to my Granz  planting fields and to her plan cooking that had no color to it but amazingly tasted delicious......I still wonder to this day how her plan food tasted so good but had no color.

When making this meal, my Granz would boil the sugar beans and when soft and tender, she would add maize meal and mix together till it cooked. She would serve it with mfino(Spinach) or curry.


Today we are keeping it simply yet flavorful.

Ingredients 

4 cups Sugar beans
1 large onion
Ginger and Garlic
2 Knor Vegetable Stock Pot
50 ml Oil
Black Pepper



Method

*Wash sugar beans and put it in the pot with 4 cups of water(preferable hot water, this will help cook in a shorter time)
*Let it boil and add more water if need be.
*Add Knor Vegetable stock pot, ginger and garlic, oil, onion and black pepper to the Soft tender beans and let it cook.
*Add 2 cups of maize meal and stir together with a wooden spoon( wooden spoons are magic )
*Stir for the next 3/4 times till it's cooked

Tip:You can always serve Isigwaqane with Curry, Vegetables, Grilled/ Roasted meat and gravy, it's always up to what you feel like eat on that day

xoxo

Samke

Sugar&Spices

Be Patient with me

I am still learning. I know it’s hard to believe or understand but I am still learning.

I am still learning how to be passionate again without any fear

For I had forgotten how to think with my heart because it’s not acceptable in our society

I am learning how to embrace my roots and my origin without any apologies

I am still learning to love myself without makeup and well styled hair

I am still learning how to love that girl I see in the  mirror without acting overly confident

I am still learning how to love me with my Afro

I am still learning that Vulnerable doesn’t always mean Weak

I am still learning that it takes strength to be delicate

I am still learning that walls don’t always protect you

I am still learning that those very same walls hurt you sometimes

I am still learning that behind them you hurt all by yourself in darkness

I am still learning how to let people in

I am still learning how to eat food that my grandparents enjoyed

I ask again……..Be patient with me

I am still learning that Zulu dancing is a part of who I am and if it makes me look uncool Sorry This is who I am

I am still learning that no matter how much you speak the next person’s language it doesn’t mean you will be acceptable to them

I am still trying to grasp that freedom of speech has less to do with freedom, for regardless of your freedom this society expects us to sugar coat everything so you can be adored and accaptable to them

I am still trying to understand where the freedom in that is

I am still learning that sometimes you have to stop caring before they see that you cared all this time while they were still blind

I am still learning how to pour my heart out without any fear of judgement and scrutiny

Pants                                     - Gift from my Cousin
White Long Sleeve Top        - Edgars
Purple Neck-piece                - free market
Colorful head wrap              - Gift from a friend
African Design Sandals        - China Mall

xoxo

Samke 

Sugar&Spices