COMFORT FOOD for GO's

Winter School Holidays in the KZN Midlands, Curry's Post

I'm not sure why I think I'm going to be more productive during the school holidays. Somehow I always forget about the 6 hours of peace and quiet when the boys are at school everyday. During the holidays my role shifts to Gentil Organisateur (those chirpy chappies at Club Meds) as I think up daily entertainment programmes suitable for 9 to 86 year olds. Sometimes it's quite tricky to meet everyones expectation of Fun, but we all agree on food so we generally end up eating out somewhere. This seems to keep most people happy most of the time.

Pizza and Put Put. Very popular with the  9 - 14 year olds. Not so much with the 86 year old

Back in the kitchen, which is now surrounded by growing piles of rubble and felled trees, there has been a strong comfort theme running through our meals these past few weeks, mostly needed by the GO after long, fraught days co-coordinating Club Dawson.

A big hit recently was the Citrus Pudding we had a few nights ago. I've made a few attempts at winter puddings but havn't really gotten into them as it hasn't been that cold (well that's my excuse anyway0. This is the only picture I have of the pudding: An empty dish. At least it's an empty dish in front of the fire and not just any old dish.

Spot the Citrus Pudding between the supine 12 year old,
the Staffie hogging the fire as usual and the Colman's mustard

Citrus is madly in season at the moment and we can buy pockets of gorgeous oranges for nothing. I don't think they are very local however (I will find out where they come from) but at least they are seasonal. I found this recipe on Donna Hay's  more-perfect-than-life-itself website and it was ridiculously simple to make.  I particularly liked the combination of orange and lemon which reminded me of marmalade and it was not in the least bit stodgy.

Winter Citrus Pudding

90g butter, softened
3 eggs
330g caster sugar
375 ml milk
125ml lemon juice
75g all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp orange zest
Icing

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C and grease a medium-sized pyrex dish
2. Place all the ingredients in a food blender and blend
3. Pour into pyrez dish and bake for about an hour or until golden on top
4. Dust a bit of icing sugar over the top

Serves about 6 normal people or 3 hungry boys. Not both.

Another dead easy but deeply satisfying receipt we've recently concocted was Mulled Apple Juice. My mind was wondering along the Vin Chaux  route a few blustery days ago but obviously I could not give this to the under 86 year olds. When some Sir Juice Harrismith Apple  arrived in our Veg Box last week and after some seriously good Hot Apple Cider at the Rosetta Market, I thought that some mulled apple juice would be nice. It's so embarrassingly simple to make it's almost not a recipe and just a good idea, but it was a big hit (from 9 to 86) and is now firmly in our family recipe box.

BBC Food

Mulled Apple Juice

2l Sir Juice Harrismith Apple juice

6 strips of orange zest

8 cloves
Large cinnamon stick

Method:

1. Simmer all the ingredients together for about 20 minutes
2. Serve in tin mugs

One could always add a slug of rum I suppose, if desperate.

Boys disappear back to school next week but nothing is very 'normal' at the moment.  With every contractor south of Mooi River in and out of our property everyday, it's all bit challenging.

We have at least 6 months of this.

1 Rose Lane. In about 6 months time I'll be able to post the 'After' picture