Cook with your soul and spirit

great big story

Mexico’s Zapotecs are an indigenous community living in Oaxaca, Mexico. Before Spanish colonization, Zapotecan civilization was a thriving epicenter of food, culture and tradition. Today, chef Abigail Mendoza is on a mission to keep those traditions alive by cooking the food of her ancestors. All the dishes she cooks—including pre-hispanic mole, stuffed chiles with Oaxaca cheese and atole—are made using ancient techniques. Recognized by the world’s best chefs for her dishes, she hopes to keep the food of her ancestors alive and thriving.

Vocabulary chunks to learn from video

• An indigenous group
• Pre-colonial era
• Keep their traditions alive
• She has become world-famous
• Keeping the traditional ways of cooking alive
• A Corn-based sauce
• She cooks chilies directly on coals
• Foods that were eaten thousands of years ago

Map of Oaxaca :

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Nature’s miracle

[Green Renaissance]

Inspiralized

[Inspiralized.com]

Make this easy, gluten-free spiralized shrimp scampi with zucchini noodles and bacon! Just a few ingredients, this recipe is a quick weeknight meal! Grab your spiralizer HERE and follow along!

Frikaddels

Woolworths SA

Because cheese makes everything better…

decadent!

Woolworths SA

Three ways with the chocolate fondant mix:

1. Whisk together 2 free-range eggs, 80 g melted unsalted butter and 50 ml milk.

2. Add the dry fondant mix and whisk to combine.

3. Fill the greased moulds halfway with this mixture.

4. Then add a marshmallow, a scoop of peanut butter or a couple of Chuckles to each mould. (A Lindt chocolate ball would also not be a terrible idea)

5. Top with the remaining mixture, then bake at 220°C for 9–12 minutes until set outside but still gooey in the middle. 6. Serve with a cup of freshly brewed coffee [Woolworths]

sweet !

Woolworths SA

Everyone loves a good potato salad, but every now and again you want to mix it up a little. Introducing a fresh, new take on the golden oldie: it’s sweet (we’re using sweet potato); it’s herby (hello, salsa verde) and it’s hot (as in actually warm, so perfect for winter). Meet your new winter (and braai!) staple.

Show stopper winter warmer salad:

* We used Kara orange sweet potatoes, but any sweet potato would work well here, including the Kara purple and white sweet potatoes, the ridiculously delicious Beauregard sweet potatoes, our organic sweet potatoes and the new baby sweet potatoes.

Boil 6–8 Kara orange sweet potatoes until tender. To make the herby salsa verde dressing, combine 4 garlic cloves, chopped and braaied (or fried) in 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, 5 chopped anchovy fillets, 15 g chopped Italian parsley, 10 g chopped mint, 10 g chopped basil and the juice of half a lemon. Give it a good stir and set aside. Tear the sweet potatoes into bite-sized pieces and spoon over the green herb dressing. Don’t be shy! [Woolworths]

Scrambled eggs coming up

Epucurious

Four and Twenty Blackbirds

  [Epicurious]

• It comes from the nursery rhyme
• Old-fashioned homespun dessert
• We grew up in a restaurant
• She was definitely known for her pies
• The delivery drivers would stop in our little town to buy her pie
• We had gravitated back to the kitchen
• We really felt a true drive towards baking and towards pie making
• We only work with fruit when it is in season
• The combination of sweet and savory
• It has hit all the notes on the flavor pallete
• Create a pie
• It just wasn’t coming out quite right
• We came up with adding apples to it
• The secret ingredient
• It just adds a special herbaceous aromatic note
• It acts as a little bit of a barrier
• We can add our oat crumble topping
• You can certainly get a good pie if you seek it out
• The pie scene has grown
• An arts community here, artists and musicians
• They needed a gathering place
• That is a mission of our business
• It’s an endlessly creative food medium

Visit the pie shop @  Four and Twenty Blackbirds

Try something new

Woolworths SA

A delicious Greek-style cottage pie

The new heroes of cottage pie include:
Red onion, feta, olives, rosemary, garlic, Woolworths Lamb Rub and sweet potatoes!

Step one: cook the mince
Brown 2 chopped red onions and 500 g lamb mince in a bit of olive oil. Add 2 tablespoons Woolworths Lamb Rub, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, 1–2 cups beef stock, 3 sprigs rosemary and 100 g olives (pitted). Let simmer until cooked and fragrant.

Step two: make some mash
Mash 500 g boiled Kara purple sweet potatoes with 1 tablespoon butter, 1/4 cup plain yoghurt and season to taste.

Step 3: get it together
Top the cooked lamb mince with lots of baby spinach and scoops of sweet potato mash.
Sprinkle with crumbled feta and breadcrumbs. Now bake for 15–20 minutes at 200°C until golden brown. Enjoy!

Try something new

[woolworths sa]

Sweet potato pizza: Slice assorted sweet potatoes and toss in egg white to coat. Season and arrange in a circle, overlapping each slice, on a non-stick tray. Brush with melted butter and bake at 170°C for 20–25 minutes until crisp and golden. Top with your favourite ingredients, like kale leaves,  fresh cheese sauce and sliced chorizo. Bake again to heat through and serve with grilled cherry tomatoes.