tortilla lasagne

It has been quite a while since my last post, but I had a Canadian intern staying with me and things have been hectic on the study and work front to say the least!

On Tuesday morning I discovered Pinterest. What an awesome place for food (and other) inspiration! I probably shouldn't have downloaded the app to my ipad though, since I'm now "pinning" and "following" while I should be listening to my lecturers. Amongst hundreds of other awesome recipes, I saw one for "Enchilada lasagne" and decided that it sounds like something I must try. I did not really look at the recipe, so the one that follows here (which I made yesterday afternoon) is what I interpreted from the title "Enchilada lasagne".

With these quantities the recipe will most likely feed two people (so much for "cooking for one", hey?). I saved some in the fridge and had it for lunch today, but I'm pretty sure it would be easy to just halve all of the ingredients.

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celcius.

Heat 20ml olive oil on medium high heat in a medium sized pot. Add one finely chopped shallot or pickling onion to the heated oil. Stir in half a teaspoon of chilli powder and fry until softened (3-4 minutes).

Add 300 grams of extra lean ground beef/beef mince. If the meat sticks to the bottom of the pot, add a few drops of oil extra. Add half a teaspoon of salt and a pinch of pepper and brown meat.

Add half a can of tomato puree (approximately three quarters of a cup). Add 2 tablespoons of sugar. Stir and taste for salt content. Depending on your taste, add some more salt. I added another half a teaspoon. Stir in 3 tablespoons of tomato sauce.

Reduce the heat and simmer with the lid half on, half off, for 5-10 minutes. Stir thoroughly 2 or 3 times while simmering. 

Butter or spray a small pie or pasta bake dish. Cut tortillas so that they cover as much as possible of the bottom of the dish. The amount of tortillas you will use depends on the size of the tortillas and of the dish you are using. I used 2 medium tortillas. You can always use the leftover bits to make tortilla chips by deep frying them in some vegetable oil.

Spread the top of the tortilla pieces with cream cheese (I would have preferred to use plain cream cheese, but the shop was out of stock. I ended up using onion and chives flavour, it worked quite well). Layer the tortillas and meat sauce, starting and ending with tortilla. Mine had four layers of tortilla and three layers of meat. Make sure to spread the top tortilla with a thicker layer of cream cheese. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and paprika.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes.

Serve with some chopped tomatoes and a nice, big dollop of sour cream. Yum!

In other news...happy Valentine's day! I'm off on some surprise date with the boyfriend now :)

individual rammiken chicken & mushroom pie

So...here is my very first recipe post!

Yesterday I saw the cutest little casserole rammikens in a Mr Price Home store. It was on a 50% off sale and since I already find it hard to resist clearing out the store on most days, I just had to have them (and so I bought four). They are oven proof and therefore perfect as individual pie dishes...which is exactly what I used them (one) for today!

Start off with some puff pastry, I bought a pack of frozen pastry at the grocery store. I suppose if you want you can make it from scratch, but I don't think the type of cook who makes puff pastry from scratch would be reading an amateur cooking-for-one blog :) The pastry needs to be cut as a "lid" for the rammiken. As today was my first time working with puff pastry, I did not prepare for the fact that puff pastry puffs and therefore shrinks so be sure to cut the "lid" sizeably larger than the actual top of the rammiken. The puff pastry needs to be baked according to package instructions. It takes quite a while to cook through, so I would advise you to do this first. Cook at 200 degrees celcius for 15-30 minutes (until light, golden brown).

Heat half a tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan on medium high heat. To give you an indication, my little two plate stove has settings 1 to 3 and I used setting 2 for the oil.

Add a quarter of an onion (finely chopped) to the heated oil and fry for 3-4 minutes, stirring regularly. I probably would have used one shallot or pickling onion instead, but they did not have any at the shop.

 Add half a clove of finely chopped or grated garlic (about a quarter of a teaspoon). At this stage I probably would have also added a quarter or a half of a small, finely chopped leek, but the store also did not have any leeks. Fry for another 3-4 minutes, stirring regularly.

Add  3-5 mushrooms, halved and sliced. I used button mushrooms but I suppose it does not matter which kind you use. The amount also depends on the size of your rammiken, mine is quite small so I ended up only using 3 mushrooms. Fry for 2 minutes, stirring regularly. At this point you might also want to reduce the heat. I put my stove on setting one.

Chop one deboned, skinless chicken breast (about 90-100 grams) into very small pieces. Mix the chicken pieces with half a tablespoon of olive oil, some salt and a pinch of pepper. Add the chicken pieces to the mixture on the stove. Stir constantly. Add a splash of Worcestershire sauce, a splash of olive oil (if the mixture seems too dry) and a few drops of Tobasco. The Tobasco is optional, I used the green pepper flavoured one. Cook the mixture until the chicken is no longer visibly pink (1-2 minutes). The chicken should be chopped in such small pieces that it browns almost instantly. Remove from heat.

Put a small pot on the same stove (which should be on low heat now). Melt a heaped teaspoon of butter/margarine. Add a pinch of salt and pepper, a teaspoon of flour and the leaves from two small branches of fresh thyme. Whisk together.

Strain the chicken mixture through a sieve, allowing the liquid to pour into the pot with the flour mixture. Whisk.

Add 60 ml of milk and whisk to form a smooth, creamy consistency.

Add the chicken and onion mixture to the sauce, mix in and add salt and pepper according to taste (if necessary).

Bake in rammiken for 5-10 minutes in the same oven used for the puff pastry.

Remove and serve with puff pastry lid.


I served my chicken pie with a very simple rocket salad (rocket leaves, cucumber, halved cherry tomatoes, feta cheese and croutons). The balsamic glaze dressing (store bought) that I used on the salad really worked well with the chicken pie. I think in the future I will try to incorporate balsamic in the chicken pie mixture somehow!

Bon appetit!

blogpost numero uno

So, welcome to my blog and my first blogpost (ever)!

The past few weeks I've been contemplating about starting this blog, but somehow never got round to actually doing it (a very common phenomenon in the world of Marike). It is now almost 4am on Saturday morning, I should be sleeping, but in my world great ideas and productivity only strike together in the wee hours of the morning.

I'm a 20 year old Actuarial Science student at the University of Stellenbosch. The past year and a bit I've been living in an apartment by myself and before that I shared a town house with two friends, so I've been having to look after myself food-wise for quite a while now. Initially I was very excited about moving out and finally being able to do/eat what I want, when I want (Coco Pops for dinner, anyone?), but after a few months inspiration deserted me and I decided to resort to a life of grilled cheese sandwiches.

About six months ago I started dating someone new (Chris) and he makes the best food. He is extremely inventive, original and just has a natural flare when it comes to cooking (and even baking). Suddenly inspiration struck again. I slowly started putting some thought into the meals I prepare and I'm not entirely horrible at cooking either, even if I have to say so myself.

I find cooking for one person to be quite a challenge. I've tried to cook "in bulk" and freezing the leftovers in portions, but I find the food loses some cardinal quality when it's spent a fortnight or two in the freezer. I've searched endlessly for (relatively) simple cooking-for-one recipes, but have to date not found what I am looking for and that is basically where the idea for this blog came from: I am writing the blog that I would have liked to find.

My sister (who has her own blog, threadpiece) suggested themes for my blog, something which I will explore as I get more comfortable with this whole blogging experience. I might do some "reviews" of restaurants and new food related products on the market in my area, who knows?

For now, I will leave you with a "teaser". This is a butter chicken type of dish (I love Indian food) with a summer side salad. Step-by-step recipe to follow soon :)