Sea Spray and Cherry Peppers, by Zuretha Roos

Sea Spray and Cherry Peppers, by Zuretha Roos.

Sea Spray and Cherry Peppers reports farm adventures and over 70 recipes tried and tested by Zuretha Roos.

Zuretha Roos  

From the chapter: Cattle Call

The phone shrilled like a banshee in the pale dawn light, and the sound held all the menace of bad tidings. As my husband wants no truck with phones at night, its on my side of the bed, and from the chaos of a dream I flail my arms, for a long moment not knowing what, apart from the cawing gulls outside, is making the ringing noise. Alarm clock ...? No ... phone ... ‘H ... hello ...’ My voice is hoarse with sleep. ‘Yerr betterr come quickly! Yerr cattle’s all overr the rroad! There’s going to be an accident and it’ll all be yerr fault!’ Clarity dawns quickly in the old brain cells. Omigod. Not again. This was not what we had retired for. Oh, please ... I kick my husband under the sheets. He’s put his head under a pillow and is holding it over his ears. ‘Wake up, dammit!’ It is the very early morning of Good Friday and I’d have preferred not to wake with curses on my lips and murder in my heart. The person on the phone is Mrs McMillan, the no-nonsense ex-Scottish chicken farmer next to our farmlet in St Francis Bay. And ‘the road’ she is shouting about is the busy gravel road between St Francis Bay and Oyster Bay. Yerr cattle have escaped - again - and we live in Cape St Francis, a ten minutes’ drive away from our little farm and the potential disaster. Outside the french windows the sea murmurs placidly and the silvery light on the eastern horizon is shot through with rose. The sun is about to rise. The curtains move slightly in the tepid breeze. It is going to be another hot, humid day. We keep bumping into each other as we open taps, brush teeth, grab clothes. My muscles still ache from all my chasing after cattle the previous day. Daniel runs downstairs, and out, to start up his slow old diesel bakkie. We are supposed to be retired, albeit earlier than normal. We are supposed to have a laid-back, serene eternal-holiday existence here on the sea, going for leisurely walks inspecting the fynbos and reminiscing about days gone by. It should now be possible to have those perfect ‘food magazine’ breakfasts I’ve dreamed about all my life, but never achieved. It’s all there in my mind, in perfect Fujicolor: a table with a red-checked bistro tablecloth neatly set on the little patio with its seaview, less than 100 metres away, a tall jug of orange juice, freshly squeezed by a smiling me, perfect hot toast, puffy omelettes, cute pots of farm-stall jams, the heavenly aroma of hot black filter coffee ... […]

Recipe: Old-fashioned Buttermilk Pudding

I lost my old recipe for this rustic winter pudding, and after years found it again. Delicious.

100 g very soft butter
200 ml (1/4 cup) castor sugar
3 large eggs, beaten
10 ml (2 teaspoon) vanilla essence
250 ml (1 cup) cake flour
10 ml (2 teaspoons) baking powder
3 ml (1/2 teaspoon) salt
1 litre (4 cups) buttermilk
Cinnamon-sugar

Heat oven to 180 °C. Use a deep, large oven dish, roughly 20 x 20 x 5 cm deep. Grease, or spray with a non-stick spray. Using an electric mixer, whisk soft butter briefly, then add the castor sugar. Beat mixture well, to incorporate the sugar. Add the beaten eggs in three batches, beating well after each addition. Beat until you have a pale, creamy mixture, and add the vanilla as well. Sift the dry ingredients into another bowl, then add it to the creamed mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Whisk well until smooth. Pour the mixture into the greased oven dish. The dessert will crack a little around the edges: this is not serious. Bake for about 50-60 minutes, until brown and puffy on top. In the meantime mix about 3 tablespoons sugar with 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (or more to taste). When the pudding comes out of the oven, sprinkle generously with the cinamon-sugar. Can be served with ice cream or a fruit syrup, but it is very good on its own. Serves about 8.

Recipe: Potato Salad with Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing

A potato salad with a slightly more upmarket dressing than the usual mayonnaise. Delicious with braai meats! Make a day ahead.

1 kg small new potatoes, rinsed
60 ml (4 Tablespoons) dry white wine
150 ml (just over 1/2 cup) mayonnaise
1 x 250 ml container sour cream
30 ml (2 Tablespoons) prepared mustard, preferably Dijon
125 g blue cheese, crumbled
1 bunch spring onions, topped and tailed, chopped
About 3 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves chopped
125 ml (1/2 cup) thinly sliced celery
65 ml (1/4 cup) very finely chopped fresh parsley

Salt and white pepper. Lightly boil the potatoes until just tender, then drain. Do not over-cook. While the potatoes are cooking, mix the rest of the ingredients, except seasoning, and whisk well. Add salt and white pepper to taste. Depending on personal taste you could also add 2 tea-spoons cider vinegar, or a little chilli or cayenne pepper. Unless the potatoes are really mini-size, cut each one in half when cool enough to handle. Mix in dressing carefully. Cover and leave overnight in the fridge: the flavour will improve. Serve near room temperature: not cold from the fridge. Serves 6.

This is an extract from the book: Sea Spray and Cherry Peppers,  by Zuretha Roos.

Title: Sea Spray and Cherry Peppers
Author: Zuretha Roos
Publisher: Struik
Imprint: Oshun Books
Cape Town, south Africa 2007
ISBN 9781770200135 / ISBN 978-1-77020-013-5
Softcover, 13x20 cm, 384 pages