Tangy Red Savoury Sauce

This sauce is SO good I can almost eat it all on it's own - it's very tangy and rich in flavour and it's the best accompaniment (at least according to ME) to what we here in South Africa call "pap", which is traditionally eaten as a side dish at a bbq.  It's sort of a porridge made from maize meal and there are a variety of tomato & onion-y sauces usually eaten with this "pap" and it's called "pap en sous" (porridge & sauce) - but this red sauce is WAY better than those tomato-y based sauces. :)

When we're not having a bbq with people over, I serve this sauce with cous cous - I think it's a little healthier than the refined maize meal.

This recipe makes a large amount of sauce, but it freezes really well in a sealed tub - when you need some all you have to do is dish out how much you need and heat it up in the microwave.

250 g butter
1 tsp mustard powder
30 ml worcestershire sauce
125 ml sugar
125 ml vinegar
250 ml tomato sauce (what some of you call ketchup I think)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 finely chopped green pepper (what some of you call bell peppers I think)

Dump everything in a pot, heat and stir until the butter is melted (if you're using frozen butter) and all ingredients are mixed together, then cook on medium to high heat for about 10 minutes.  No need to boil it at any stage.

Sugar Spice Cookies

These are one of my favourite cookies EVER. 

2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbs cream

• mix together 1 cup flour, baking powde, salt & all the spices.
• cream butter, beat in sugar.  Beat in egg, vanilla & cream.
• stir in flour mixture, then add enough of the remaining 1 cup flour to make the dough stiff enough to roll.
• wrap in plastic wrap and chill several hours.  
• preheat oven to 180 degree C / 375 degree F.
• place dough on adequately floured surface (lightly floured didn't work for me...) and roll to about 1/8" thickness - these cookies must be quite thin.  Cut into shapes, placed on ungreased baking sheet and bake for about 8-10 minutes. (mine came out perfect at 10 mins) (Note: when I used an ungreased sheet as suggested, my cookies stuck to it and broke! So I greased it with spray on grease and that worked much better)

As you can see, I last made these at Xmas time. :)

Tapioca Pudding with Pineapple & Cream

I didn't know exactly what tapioca was made from myself, so I google it quick: Tapioca is made from the cassava root and does contain some nutrients and fiber, however the processed tapioca bought in store seems to have virtually no nutrients left and so all it contains at that stage is mainly starch.

 Tapioca cooked on it's own has virtually no flavour at all, so I suppose it's used mainly as a base ingredient and then everything else is added to add a flavour.

Anyway, all I use tapioca for is this pudding. :)  Because you have to soak the tapioca before you use it, you need to begin this recipe the night before you want to cook it.

500g uncooked tapioca
1 cup sugar
1 can crushed pineapple (undrained) (+- 400g can)
 250ml cream

Makes a big pot of pudding - many servings!

• Before you go to bed, place tapioca in a pot and cover completely with water and cover with the lid.  Let soak until the next morning.  Before I started cooking it, I topped it up with more water to cover the tapioca again.  Cook on low to medium heat until the tapioca becomes clear (this may take up to an hour or so), stirring frequently so as to prevent it from burning and sticking to the pot.  I added little bits of water throughout every now and then when it started sticking to the pot - the water is absorbed quickly by the tapioca.  The tapioca is done when most of them have turned clear, like this:

•  Add the sugar (I only added 1/2 cup sugar because that's fine for my liking), pineapple with juice and mix until well combined.  Let cool a bit.
• Then add the cream.  You can add more cream if you'd like it more creamy

It's a nice subtle-tasting pudding and I love it. It's quite filling too.  It's yummy while still warm, or chilled.  Should be kept in fridge after cooking so that it keeps longer.

By the way, I read that tapioca flour can be used as a substitute for other flours, it's gluten-free and apparently a healthier option compared even to whole wheat flour.