Beef biltong stew for Mr Matekoni (Precious and Grace by A.McCall Smith)

Precious and Grace is the seventeenth novel from the much loved series No.1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. I have read all the books in the series, and always look forward to a new book.
There is not much of a mystery involved in this installment, but there is a usual dose of kindness and philosophical thoughts on life, humanity and forgiveness.
Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi help a Canadian woman find her past. She spent her childhood in Botswana 30 years earlier, and wants to re-discover her past.
The case, though simple enough, is threatening to shake Precious and Grace's friendship. Will they fall out over the case?
Then there is a pyramid scheme, in which Mr Polopetsi is involved, a lost dog who wants to be loved, Mma Potokwani with her delightful fruit cake and much more.
There is a certain idealism in all the No 1 Agency novels. In Precious we see a symbol of Mother Africa, traditionally built, kind, wise and patient. She always finds good in people.

Reading Precious and Grace, I came across a detailed description of one of the meals Mma Ramotswe cooks lovingly for her husband. I was intrigued, and tried to google it.
I couldn't find any exact recipe. There is plenty of recipes for beef biltong stew, but none of beef AND biltong stew, so I had to "invent" it. This recipe is based on the authentic biltong stew recipes, but cooked with beef too, so it's a mix of several different variations of the stew. I hope Mma Ramotswe would approve.

"Mr J.L.B.Matekoni sniffed at the air. There was no doubt about it - Mma Ramtoswe was making his favourite stew. The aroma, detected even as he set foot on the stoep, was unmistakable...
Onions were the key to that: the recipe, developed specially for him by Mma Ramotswe, advised by Mma Potokwani, involved onions chosen for their smallness and sweetness - "not these football-sized onions they try to sell us", warned Mma Potokwani. These were gently softened in sunflower oil flavoured with a pinch of chilli flakes, and then the beef, fine Botswana grass-fed beef... was added in small pieces. this was then sealed before the addition of stock and a small quantity of chopped ostrich biltong, the dried and salted meat that people considered such a delicacy."

Beef biltong stew
Ingredients:
3tbsp mild olive oil
1tbsp chilli olive oil (optional)
5 shallots, finely chopped (about 150g)
450g beef, cubed
1tsp plain flour
1tsp ginger, grated
2tbsp tomato puree
2tbsp peanut butter
a mug of beef stock
1 tin of plum tomatoes (Cirio)
35g biltong (a pack of King's biltong)

In a deep frying pan heat 2tbsp of olive oil.
Finely slice the shallots and cook in the frying pan until translucent, stirring regularly. Once cooked put the fried onion in a big pan or pot where you're going to cook your stew.
Add more olive oil to the frying pan, and brown the beef cubes (dust them with flour before cooking). Season with salt, but not too much, as the stock has added salt. Put all the ingredients in the pot - chilli oil, grated ginger, tomato puree, beef stock and tinned tomatoes.
I used Waitrose Cooks' Ingredients beef stock. Place the pot in the oven preheated to 200C. Cook for 5 minutes, then lower the heat to 180C, and cook for an hour+, occasionally stirring.
You might need to get a bit more water if the stew becomes too thick. Add the biltong in the last 15 minutes of cooking.
Serve hot.
Biltong adds an interesting strong flavour to the stew, and more chewy texture. Mma Ramotswe used ostrich biltong. I couldn't source it locally, but even if it were available, I don't think I am very keen to try ostrich.

In this recipe I used two products from Cirio - tomato puree and plum tomatoes - which work perfectly in this rich flavoured stew.
I used chilli flavoured olive oil, but if you don't have it, a teaspoon of chilli paste or flakes would be a good substitute.

Banana loaf (#ReadCooEat - The woman who walked in sunshine)

The Woman who Walked in Sunshine by A.McCall Smith is the latest installment of Mma Ramotswe's best-selling series. Its gentle humour, kindness and humanity for me are a literary equivalent of comfort food, the kind your Mum cooked for you when you were a child, and when the world appeared smaller and kinder. There is also comfort in recognition of the same behaviours from the same characters. In a way, this series is a bit like fairy tales for grown-ups, and I love it.

Mma Ramotswe is "forced" to go on holiday, and this proves to be quite a challenge for her, as she is not sure what to do with all her free time.

As a foodie, I'm always curious to read just what the book characters cook and eat:
"A bowl of meal porridge, drowned in milk and sweetened by a spoonful of syrup, was followed by a piece of toast spread with dripping and then sprinkled with salt and pepper. The toast was an indulgence - even by Mma Ramotswe's standards - but it was the one culinary treat she felt unable to give up, even in the face of evidence that it was really not very good for you" I don't even eat dripping on bread, but this delicious description makes me want to run to the shop and buy some. The power of word! "Mma Ramotswe finished her piece of toast, licking the last of the dripping off her fingers. It was the most delicious foodstuff imaginable; there was nothing, she thought, to beat dripping. You could order the most expensive dish on the menu at President Hotel and it would not taste anywhere near as delicious as dripping. Bread and dripping, preferably eaten outside, in the shade of an acacia tree, with the lowing of cattle not far away - what could be more perfect than that?"

Clearing the kitchen cupboards, Mma Ramotswe discovers some semi-forgotten foods: "Right at the top were the sweet things - the jars of produce she bought from the sale of work out at Kgali Junction: melon jam, cumquat spread, marmalade made out of bitter oranges from the Cape..."

Still on the matter of clearing off the pantry shelves:
"Dessicated coconut - something that Mr J.L.B. Matekoni loved on the rare occasions when they had a curry... And brown sugar, normally so useful for making the banana loaf that Puso and Motholeli so hankered after, was similarly spoiled when ants had somehow worked their way into the package..."

I've tried to find if there is a specific banana loaf, typical of Botswana. The only recipe for the banana loaf that originates in Botswana which I manage to find appears in Mma Ramotswe's Cook Book. I have seen this book in the library in the past, and even borrowed it to read last year or so.

If you want to read how to cook Motholeli's Disappearing Cake, The Dessert Spoon blog has reproduced the recipe from the book. It is a very basic banana bread recipe. I decided to jazz it up a bit, but not too much, trying to take into consideration which ingredients could be found in Mma Ramotswe's kitchen.

Banana loaf for Puso and Motholeli
Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas
100g demerara sugar
4tbsp olive oil
2tbsp golden syrup
2 eggs
pinch of salt
1tsp baking powder
1/2tsp cinnamon
1tsp vanilla essence
225g self-raising flour

In a mixing bowl mash ripe peeled bananas with a fork. Add the sugar, olive oil, golden syrup, salt, baking powder and vanilla and mix well. Beat the eggs in, finally add the flour and mix well together. The batter is quite thick. Spoon into a greased loaf tin, sprinkle a bit of demerara sugar on top, and bake at 180C for an hour.

It is a lovely, not too sweet banana bread. Great with a cup of tea. Of course, for a proper Mma Ramotswe's experience you'll need to have it with a cup of rooibos tea.

Have you read a book recently which inspired you to run to the kitchen and cook to your heart's content?

I hope you are inspired by books to join in the #ReadCookEat challenge.

The idea is to choose a book, either a world classic or modern fiction, or even memoirs and pick up a dish mentioned or described in that book and then recreate it in a recipe. Please say a few lines about your chosen book, and maybe even do a quote from the book.

If you decide to take part, please add the badge to your post and link up back to me, and either use a link-up tool or add the url of your post as a comment. Alternatively, email me with the link to your post (my email is sasha1703 at yahoo dot com).

I promise to Pin all blogs posts taking part in this challenge, as well as RT and Google+

Fruitcake for Mma Ramotswe: ReadCookEat challenge

"Fruitcake came to her mind unbidden - a large fruitcake rich in sultanas and candied peel: the sort of cake that would torment and tantalise those on a diet. But Mma Ramotswe was nether dieting nor planning to do so, and she welcomed the vision wholeheartedly. She had not had fruitcake for a long time, and the idea of a generous slice - or possibly even two slices - seemed very attractive... There were two ladies in Botswana who made good fruitcake, and Mma Potokwani was one of them" (Alexander McCall Smith, The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon)

I love Mma Ramotswe, the founder of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, and admire this traditionally-built lady for being wise, kind and intelligent. I have read all the books in the series (except the very last one). I also enjoy numerous references to food and cooking in the books, and of course, Mma Potokwani's fruitcake features regularly.
A few years ago the flavours of the series were recreated in a cook book called Mma Ramotswe's Cookbook: Nourishment for the Traditionally Built. I have borrowed this book in the library in the past and enjoyed reading it.
My recipe for fruitcake has been inspired by the recipe from this book called Persuasive Fruit Cake which also appears on The Redbush tea company's site.

Fruitcake for Mma Ramotswe
Ingredients:
4 medium eggs
200g caster sugar
zest & juice of 1 orange
220g mixed dried fruit (dates, raisins & lemon peel)
2tbsp brandy
100g ground almonds
110g cornflour
3tsp baking powder
300g plain flour
200g butter, melted
1 teabag of Rooibos (I used Dragonfly Earl Grey Rooibos)
1tsp vanilla bean extract
1tsp essence of orange blossom water
icing sugar + 3tsp of orange blossom water for the icing + more icing sugar

Start by soaking the dried fruit in brandy and orange juice. Leave it for about 30 minutes. Beat the eggs with the caster sugar, add the zest of one orange, ground almonds, cornflour, flour, the contents of one rooibos teabag (discard the bag), vanilla and orange blossom water, mix well.
Add the fruit with all the juices and melted butter, and mix again.
Butter the cake tin (or use the cake release spray) and spoon the cake batter in (it will be quite thick), then place the tin in the oven preheated to 180C. Bake for an hour.
Once baked, decorate with simple icing made of the orange blossom water and icing sugar.
And sprinkle more icing sugar on top.
If you like your fruitcake sticky rather than crumbly, add more dried fruit.

"There are times when it is better to concentrate on the cake in one's mouth than contribute to a debate".

Have you read a book (and I don't mean a cook book) and felt inspired to recreate the dish or recipe mentioned in it? Every time I read an Inspector Montalbano book (and I have read all of them), I feel like running to the kitchen and starting cooking those fabulous Sicilian dishes like pasta with sardines or caponata. Salvo's house keeper Adelina cooks the most scrummy dishes for him, and it's a joy to read the descriptions of the local food through the series.

You don't have to "travel" far, just pick any Jane Austen's novel and explore what her characters had for dinner. Aren't you tempted to reconstruct Mrs Bennet's dinner for Bingley or try the rout cakes mentioned in Emma or negus served at the balls in Mansfield Park?

Chris from Cooking Around the World has kindly agreed to run a joint reading-cooking challenge with me. The idea is to choose a fiction book, either a world classic or modern fiction, and pick up a dish mentioned or described in that book and then recreate it in a recipe. Please say a few lines about your chosen book, and maybe even do a quote from the book.

As Chris is the original author of the Cooking around the world linky, I am merely stating the rules for taking part in our joint linky.
Please add the badge to your post and link up back to Chris and me, and either use a link-up tool or add the url of your post as a comment. Alternatively, email either of us with the link to your post (my email is sasha1703 at yahoo dot com).
The challenge will start on 1 April and will end on 30 April 2014.
I promise to Pin all blogs posts taking part in this challenge, as well as RT and Google+.

If you would like to discover which book inspired Chris, visit his blog.

Looking forward to everyone's creations!

Mma Ramotswe's date & ginger cake

Mma Ramotswe always has a pot of redbush tea ready. Redbush tea is also known as Rooibos, and often when I enjoy my cup of rooibos, I think of my favourite traditionally built heroine and her love of tea and life in general.

This recipe is for her, and I hope Mma Ramotswe would have enjoyed sharing a cup of tea and a big slice of cake with me.

I have recently discovered a new tea: Charbrew Tropical Rooibos.

When you open the box, the aroma is overwhelmingly enticing. The teabags themselves are very pretty, and look like an essence of summer, with their splashes of colour.
Each teabag is actually a transparent tea pyramid which contains rooibos, apple pieces, orange peels, ginger, cinnamon, lemongrass, coconut rasps, pink pepper, cardamom, cornflower blossoms, red currants. It's like a whole tropical orchard in a cup.
The colour of tea is lovely too. It tastes wonderfully refreshing and aromatic. And don't worry about the pepper, it adds just a hint of heat without assaulting your tastebuds.
I can easily see it becoming my new favourite. Simply delightful.

Mma Ramotswe's Date & Ginger Cake

Ingredients

2 Charbrew Tropical Rooibos teabags
250g of dates, chopped
100g crystallised ginger, chopped
100g mixed fruit, chopped
1 standard mug of self-raising flour (about 200g)
1 mug of golden caster sugar
2 medium eggs
75g butter, melted
1tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp baking powder

First boil the water and pour over 2 Charbrew Tropical Rooibos teabags in a mug. Allow to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

In a big mixing bowl mix together chopped dates and ginger, mixed fruit, flour, sugar, eggs, melted butter, all spices and baking powder. Pour the mug of tepid tea (discard the teabags) in the mix and stir well.
Oil a tin, pour the mix in the tin. Place the tin in the oven and bake the cake for about an hour.
Once the cake is done (check with the wooden skewer), take the tin out of the oven and allow to cool before taking the cake out of the tin.

I used a cake ring for this cake, but I confess it was a bit of a struggle to take the cake out because of the sugared ginger, as it made the cake quite sticky. Next time I bake this cake I am going to use a standard springform tin to make it easier to take the cake out.

I used Natural Selection products for this cake: mixed fruit and dates come already chopped, which saves you time in the kitchen, very handy, and all the dried berries and fruit that I tried from Natural Selection are lush.

Decorate the cake with the icing sugar to your heart's content.

The cake itself was very moist, aromatic and lovely with a cup of tea. If you like, serve with a dollop of the Greek yogurt to add a sharp note to its sweetness.

I think my hero, Mma Ramotswe would approve.
"She had a taste for sugar, however, and this meant that a doughnut or a cake might follow the sandwich. She was a traditionally built lady, after all, and she did not have to worry about dress size, unlike those poor neurotic people who were always looking in the mirrors and thinking that they were too big. What was too big anyway? Who was to tell another person what size they should be? It was a form of dictatorship, by the thin, and she was not having any of it. If these thin people became any more insistent, then the more generously-sized people would just have to sit on them! Hah!"
(Morality for Beautiful Girls)