Fresh Living December 2018

 Christmas gift guide  Table settings  New Year’s Eve dinner

freshliving | picknpay.co.za/freshliving

DECEMBER 2018 ISSUE 124

freshliving SOUTH AFRICA’S BEST-LOVED FOOD MAG

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Fest ive

Issue 124 | December 2018

FOOD FIESTA

SOUTH AFRICA’S BEST-LOVED FOOD MAGAZINE

R29.90

1-Cover COR 1.indd 1

Wreath platter.

Recipe on page 66 (OTHER COUNTRIES: R26 EXCL. VAT)

SEASON’S EATING

RECIPES TO SUIT ALL OCCASIONS AND EVERY POCKET 10/22/18 5:04 PM

FEEDBACK

SAY IT, WRITE IT, WINNING LETTER

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WE ASKED, THEY SAID . . .

PYJAMA PARTY SUCCESS! I’m a 13-year-old girl who is obsessed with Fresh Living magazine. I recently had my friends over for a pyjama party and it was a big hit. At every pyjama party I go to there’s usually pizza for dinner, but mine was unique and had a fantastic twist thanks to your ‘Potato-base pizza’ from the August issue.

It was delicious! The next morning I had to make breakfast, and again, you made it an awesome experience with your yummy ‘Fruity breakfast bowls’. Fresh Living is the perfect example of an amazing food magazine. Thank you and please keep up the good work. – LINDSEY LOOPS



We asked Fresh Living staffers what’s the wackiest Christmas gift they’ve ever received.

They said . . .



FL IS A GODSEND

GOOD FOR YOU

1 Peanut ’n apple bowl

ENERGY 1 415kJ PROTEIN 12g FAT 14g • CARBS 45g

I would like to take my hat off to the team behind Fresh Living magazine. I’m a newlywed and this fabulous magazine saved my marriage.

For a bit of history, I moved in with my husband a year ago and had no idea how or what to cook for him.

We are an interracial couple (he is white and I’m black) and I was accustomed to traditional African meals of meat, curries and starch. Our taste in food often clashed and I really struggled until I came across Fresh Living; I swear, it was godsend.

When I flipped through the pages I was amazed by all the different meals and quick bites. I have learnt so much – from identifying herbs and spices to knowing how to use them to add flavour to my dishes. Best of all, my husband is happy!

Cook ¾ cup (80g) oats according to packet instructions.

Stir through 2 Tbsp (30ml) peanut butter.

Garnish with 1 sliced apple and 2 Tbsp (30ml) chopped pistachios or almonds.

2 Pear, orange ’n date bowl ENERGY 566kJ • PROTEIN FAT 0g • CARBS 36g

 

@MrGads2 Omg @Fresh_Living the peanut butter and banana bread pudding in your August issue has my name all over it! Cannot think of a better combination. That’s dessert sorted for Sunday. Thanks!



@riy_captured While I was trying to enjoy some quiet time with yummy carrot cake, lemon rooibos tea and this month’s @freshliving_pnp mag, little missy decided to join me. Pinkies up!

SHARE WITH US

Email letters@freshlivingmagazine.co.za Instagram @freshliving_pnp Twitter @Fresh_Living

– AMANDA VILAKAZI

6-Letters_dec COR 2.indd 6

1g

An old aunt of mine gave me a kitchen gift … a crocheted mielie! Two of them, actually.

– Michelle Dunn

ALL BOWLS SERVE 2

3 Berry zing bowl ENERGY 989kJ • PROTEIN FAT 3g • CARBS 47g

7g

Cook ¾ cup (80g) according to packet instructions. Heat ¼ cup (60ml) frozen berries, 2 tsp (10ml) sugar and juice (30ml) of ½ lemon in a pot and cook until syrupy.

Stir berry syrup through cooked oats. Garnish with ¼ cup (60ml) fresh berries and mint leaves.

picknpay.co.za

55-GFY August_COR 2.indd

@mtembuchick #saturdaychillvibes #breakfastforone About to enjoy my August issue of @freshliving_pnp

FRUITY BREAKFAST BOWL S three ways

Cook ¾ cup (80g) oats according to packet instructions. Stir through 2 Tbsp (30ml) chopped pitted dates and 1 tsp (5ml) ground cinnamon.

Garnish with 1 Tbsp (15ml) honey, 1 sliced Packham pear and 1 segmented orange.

PHOTOS: DONNA LEWIS RECIPES AND STYLING: CHAD JANUARY STYLIST’S ASSISTANT: KRISTEN SCHEEPERS

WE LOVE HEARING FROM YOU ONLINE!

Fresh Living - August 2018

| 57

57 2018/06/22 14:47

A TASTE OF HOME My sister who lives in Canada visited South Africa in December 2017 and while here she perused a copy of Fresh Living magazine.

She was in awe of all the delicious recipes and took my old copies back to Canada.

Since then, I’ve been buying an extra copy of Fresh Living and post them to her every month – which she and many of her friends share and enjoy.

She says this keeps her closer to home as she is still proudly South African. Thank you, we appreciate your hard work. – PRIYA NAIDOO

My older brother would joke every year that he’d give me a can of beans.

Needless to say, one year he called my bluff.

– Jodi Jean Patel A pyjama set without the bottoms.

– Melissa Ndlovu An elf costume! – Sharon McTavish Brightly coloured socks in a cellphone box.

– Elana Bailey

INGREDIENTS Products and recipe ingredient availability may vary from store to store

ILLUSTRATION: SHUTTERSTOCK PHOTO: SUPPLIED

Your chance to share your thoughts and ideas with other Fresh Living readers

10/22/18 5:07 PM

Happy holidays!

ILLUSTRATION: PATRICK LATIMER

It's finally here! Well, almost... Soon you'll be packing up your desk, wishing colleagues well and heading home – perhaps to whisk the family away to the seaside – for a well-deserved break.

It's been another turbulent year, and we could all use a bit of time out to reconnect with ourselves, our loved ones, eat, drink and make merry. Naturally, Fresh Living is here to help.

This month's issue is packed to the rafters with inspired recipes for every conceivable occasion.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah... Let's ring in 2019 with a bang!

Welcome Dec.indd 3

10/22/18 6:30 PM

RIPE STUFF

SEASON’S FEASTINGS Create your own menu with our all-time favourite festive recipes. Whether you’re traditional or trendy, fancy or frugal, or just want a downright delicious table of indulgence, look no further...

PHOTOS: DONNA LEWIS RECIPES AND STYLING: LIEZL VERMEULEN STYLIST’S ASSISTANTS: MERRILL BUCKLEY & MARIÉSE VAN DER LINDE

F E SRT II PVEE SF TE U AF S FT

PERFECT PAIRING Kaapzicht Chenin Blanc is a wonderful summer drink with lively yellow fruits and a crisp, zingy finish.

HONEYED STONE FRUIT AND GOAT’S CHEESE SALAD Summer on a plate!

1 packet (100g) pumpkin seeds 2 logs (100g each)

32-Christmas Feature COR 3.indd 43

goat’s cheese ½ Tbsp (8ml) olive oil + extra for pesto 1 Tbsp (15ml) honey 4-6 nectarines or peaches, stoned and halved 1 packet (80g) wild rocket

3 radishes, sliced Handful basil leaves ½ tub (60g) basil pesto SERVES 4-6 Crush half the pumpkin seeds.

Roll goat’s cheese logs in crushed seeds and slice.

Heat oil in a pan and fry remaining pumpkin seeds until golden.

Season.

Add honey and remove from heat.

Arrange fruit on a platter.

Scatter with rocket, radishes, toasted seeds and cheese.

Add a little olive oil to thin pesto and drizzle over salad just before serving.

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TOP TIP “Glaze as you go! Adding too much basting at the beginning will simply make the glaze run down the meat and burn the bottom of the pan.

Glaze every 5 minutes for crunchy, glistening gammon.” – Liezl Vermeulen, food editor

48-Xmas Mains COR 3.indd 53

RUM AND ORANGE GLAZED GAMMON Preheat oven to 200°C. Heat ½ cup (125ml) strained fresh orange juice, ¼ cup (60ml) dark rum, 1 cinnamon stick and 2 Tbsp (30ml) each marmalade and honey or maple syrup, until well combined. Brush gammon with glaze, reserving some for basting. Roast for 20-25 minutes until crispy, basting every 5-8 minutes. (You can grill gammon for 5 minutes if not browned enough.) Rest meat for 10 minutes before carving. Serve on orange slices with fresh cherries on the side.

SERVES 6-8

10/22/18 5:30 PM

FESTIVE FEAST

CUT COSTS Make one pavlova instead of two and halve the whipped cream, making a single meringue instead of a stack. Replace cherries with stone fruit wedges or berries.

BLACK FOREST PAVLOVA STACK This decadent showstopper deserves a standing ovation.

(Double the meringue mixture to create the stack.)

Meringue: 6 egg whites ½ tsp (3ml) fine salt 2¼ cups (450g) castor sugar

62-Xmas Puds and leftovers COR 2.indd 65

2 tsp (10ml) apple cider vinegar 4 tsp (20ml) cornflour ¼ cup (60ml) cocoa powder, sifted 2 slabs (150g each) dark chocolate 3 cups (750ml) cream 1 punnet (200g) cherries, halved Fresh mint, for serving SERVES 8

Preheat oven to 110°C. Trace the outline of a 25-30cm serving plate on baking paper.

Whisk egg whites and salt to stiff peaks using an electric beater.

Add sugar ½ cup at a time, in a thin stream, making sure all sugar dissolves before the next addition.

Once meringue is smooth and shiny,

whisk in vinegar, then cornflour.

Fold through cocoa to create a marbled effect.

Spoon meringue onto baking paper, leaving a 3cm border on the sides (it'll swell while baking).

If doubling the recipe, repeat to make a second meringue.

Bake for 1½-2 hours until meringue has formed a crispy shell.

Turn oven off and cool completely, with oven door slightly ajar.

Melt chocolate with 100ml cream to make a ganache.

Whip remaining cream to stiff peaks and spread over meringue.

Place one meringue on top of the other.

Top with ganache, cherries and mint.

Serve immediately.

10/22/18 5:32 PM

THINGS TO READ, KNOW AND DO THIS DECEMBER | HOT PICKS

KEEPING WITH TRADITION Every culture has its customs – but so too does every family. We asked folks who work at Fresh Living to share their festive family traditions…  I grew up in England, and every Christmas Eve we would hang up our stockings. They were the biggest socks we could find in the house – normally my dad’s – and we would pin them on a string over the fireplace.

The next morning, they would always be filled with the same things: 1 apple, 1 satsuma (the English equivalent of

a naartjie), a toothbrush (Father Christmas believed in having clean teeth apparently!), some chocolate coins, a 10 pence coin, a small game and a magazine. All the big presents would be under the tree and we would have to wait until we came back from church to open them.

The contents of those stockings never changed,

We’d all gather on her stoep to watch the moon go down and the sun rise.

17-Picks COR 2.indd 18

and now, we do the exact same thing for my son.

Cathy Marston, wine editor

It was so simple but it always made me feel like it was the best way to ring in the new year with people who mean the most to you.

 Growing up, we’d always go to my greatgrandmother’s house in Mpumalanga. It’s in the rural areas and so far from pollution and the rush of the city.

Every year without fail, on New Year’s morning, she’d wake all of us up at 5am – from the kids to the adult. We’d all gather on her stoep to watch the moon go down and the

sun rise. She’d refer to it as “watching the sun dance”.

We always made a big deal of it – there’d be fresh scones and tea in iron pots on the fire as we impatiently waited for this new dawn.

It’s been about five years since she passed away but we still do it, even if we’re not all

gathered at her house like we used to.

Lesego Madisa, digital copywriter  Before I got married and still lived at home, we had the New Year’s tradition of going to church for a midnight mass and when we got back home my dad would rush to the fridge to open

10/22/18 5:18 PM

ILLUSTRATIONS: TOBY NEWSOME

Each took their turn to stir the mixture, wishing the most special wishes as we stirred.

youngest member in the family until the oldest.

Melissa Ndlovu, chief copy editor

a bottle of bubbly, put on the radio or his favourite Bob Marley record and pour us all a glass.

We would make our way outside and watch the fireworks and shout out 'Happy New Year'.

My sister and I would dance around the garden pretending that we were in a club (we would often pour ginger ale shots and pretend it was tequila).

At some point during the craziness my dad would always tell us stories about his childhood and my mom would laugh at every joke he told.

It was so simple but it always made me feel like it was the best way to ring in the new year with people who mean the most to you. It’s crazy how we did the same thing every year but it always felt like we’d never done it before!

Jill Petersen, art director

 My British gran always made a Christmas cake in October and doused it with brandy every week until the 25th.

Then at the end of the Christmas feast, we would turn all the lights off and she would light it! There’d be this rush of flame that would take your eyebrows off if you were too close.

But the blue flame in the dark dining room is something that will always stay with me.

She also used to wrap coins in foil and slip them into the pud.

Money pudding!

Even though I loved the tradition, I hated Christmas pudding and would always slather it in brandy butter and cream to get it down – there was no not eating my gran’s Christmas pudding.

Robyn MacLarty, deputy editor

 I’m of the Christmas pud generation. Beautiful moist, boiled pudding.

My mom would usually start around the middle of November each year, laying her loads of very expensive mixed fruit and almonds in large oven trays, coated in flour to dry.

In the first week of December, she’d start mixing all the fruit and other ingredients into this huge, very old, beige Pyrex dish. The pudding got stirred every night.

My dad, us three girls, eventually boyfriends,

17-Picks COR 2.indd 19

then husbands, then grandchildren, each took their turn to stir the mixture, wishing the most special wishes as we stirred. I have never ever found anything to match the perfect texture of this Christmas pudding.

My dad, of course, was the final stirrer of this precious mixture.

A great night of note, the bowl would be ready for him when he got home after work, with the huge spoon at the ready, another half dozen eggs and the bottle of sherry to each side of the bowl.

Perfection each and every year. It was their labour of love which they undertook each year with much patience.

Tessa Smith, production manager  Our favourite Christmas tradition is that every year, all four of us (my daughters, husband and I) each get to choose one new Christmas tree decoration. Each one is individually chosen and special for our own reasons and each one has a story behind the choice.

Tamara Werth, Pick n Pay project administrator  On Christmas eve, my family and I (about 20 of us) sit around the Christmas tree singing carols. When the clock strikes 12 we all wish each other a Merry Christmas and open our gifts starting with the

 We’re Jewish but love celebrating Christmas.

When I was growing up in Somerset West we had two smallish conifer trees in front of our house and my mom would always get my brother and I Christmas ornaments so we could go to town decorating them. And each year our neighbour would call us over on Christmas morning because, amazingly, Santa had left a little something under the tree for us.

Mandy Allen, décor editor

NEED A LAST-MINUTE GIFT? Stock up on PnP gift cards for stocking fillers and just-in-case gifts. Choose from PnP gift cards, which you can top up with up to R5 000 at any till or check out the PnP Gift Card Mall for a wide selection of prepaid cards including Uber, Google Play, iTunes, Showmax, Always On and more. For more information, visit Picknpay.co.za/giftcardmall

LINDT TEDDY LOVE Now there’s an even better reason to enjoy one of South Africa’s most delicious luxury chocolate brands. Purchase two Lindt Teddy 100g chocolates, R54.95, enter their unique codes on Lindt.com, and Lindt will donate 1 school bag to a child from SOS Children’s Villages South Africa. How cool is that?

Visit Lindt.com to find out more.

10/22/18 5:19 PM

Sparkling wine sangria. Recipe on page 103

18 GOING ON 19!

We’ve got your New Year’s Eve extravaganza covered with our scrumptious snacks, drinks, mouthwatering mains and desserts to feed a festive crowd PHOTOS: DONNA LEWIS RECIPES AND STYLING: CHAD JANUARY STYLIST’S ASSISTANT: KRISTEN SCHEEPERS

NEW YEAR’S EVE

TEQUILA AND LIME STEAK ENCHILADAS Omit the tequila for a booze-free alternative.

Combine 2 Tbsp (30ml) each olive oil and chopped fresh coriander, 1 Tbsp (15ml) smoked paprika, ¼ cup (60ml) tequila and juice (60ml) and grated peel of 2 limes. Coat 4 (about 125g each) porterhouse steaks in this marinade, season and leave for 30 minutes.

Cook steaks over a high heat for 3 minutes per side, reserving the leftover marinade. Rest steaks for 5-6 minutes. Combine 1 chopped red onion, 1 can (410g) drained corn kernels, 1 punnet (180g) chopped PnP assorted

tomatoes, 1 chopped and deseeded red chilli and juice (30ml) of ½ lemon.

Season to taste. Slice steaks and divide between 10 chargrilled tortilla wraps. Top with salsa and scatter with ½ block (about 150g) grated mozzarella. Roll up tortillas and pack tightly in an ovenproof dish.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Combine leftover marinade with 1 jar (375ml) store-bought salsa. Pour mixture over tortillas, scatter over ½ block (150g) grated mozzarella and sprinkle with 2 Tbsp (30ml) chopped coriander. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden. Serve with fresh rocket and lime wedges.

SERVES 10

GOOD IDEA Marinate steaks overnight for maximum flavour