Durban - Sue Clarence, director of the Hilton Arts Festival, talks about about food, drink and what she gets up to in the kitchen.
What meal is your favourite? And your least favourite?
I love Indian cuisine. I have visited India five times and my love affair with this magnificent country includes a love of the great variety within its cuisine. Although I am a great fan of fresh fruit, I have to list meals with cooked fruit in them as my least favourite.
Your first food memory?
Candyfloss coated in sand on the beach. I’ve not been a fan of the stuff since.
As a child, did you develop a taste for unusual foods?
I was known to remove pips from avos and fill the cavity with sugar.
First thing you ever cooked?
I have many early memories of baking with my mother.
However, the first unsupervised attempt deserves mention. My brother and I, in student digs, set out to make dahl. Suffice it to say that, despite many attempts to clean the small triangular saucepan we had used (remember them? Three to a plate?) , the lentils were so badly burnt that we had to throw the pot away… and the dahl!
Dish you cook most often?
Slut’s Chicken. I have a good friend in London who is threatening to write The Slut’s Cookbook. All his recipes are lazy, short cuts to designer meals.
What do you like and/or dislike about dinner parties?
Dinner parties should not be stressful events. Good friends sharing freshly prepared food, conversation and a hotly contested game of cards is an excellent way to relax.
Biggest kitchen disaster?
I once hosted a dinner party for a friend’s 50th.
All guests had to bring their favourite vegetarian dish. Mine was a wondrous combination of wild rice, lentils, baby vegetables and egg. I proudly put it on the table in the saucepan it had cooked in. This was one of those very well-known, heavy and expensive French varieties of saucepan. Guests commented on how gritty the food was. I thought the rice was undercooked … but, no, the enamel lining of the saucepan had disintegrated into the food. So much for the lifetime guarantee!
Biggest culinary success?
Mastering the art of makhni sauce. This was as a result of a cooking course I did in New Delhi in January this year. Makhni is the age-old basis of an excellent butter chicken or dahl or vegetable dish.
Are you something of a wine fundi – and what is your favourite tipple?
I love wine, and bubbles are the best. If you cannot afford the French stuff there is nothing wrong with Kanu’s Giselle or Saronsberg Brut MCC.
Favourite kitchen item?
A “whizzy stick”, also known as an electric stick-blender.
What kitchen utensil or appliance do you want?
A state-of-the-art Kenwood Chef.
Most kitsch kitchen item?
Royal memorabilia. It’s there because I don’t think it’s kitsch.
Foods you refuse to try?
Haggis, brain and sheep’s eyeballs. They just sound slimy. I am not opposed to liver and kidneys, though.
Fave Durban restaurant?
Panajii’s in Durban North. I love their Lamb Rogan Josh.
Fave cooking ingredient?
Fresh herbs, generally. They are great value and add a certain je ne sais quoi if used in interesting combinations with different foods.
What has been your most memorable meal?
In the 1980s and early ’90s there was a restaurant just below Cascades – the very beginnings of the promenade in Umhlanga. I can’t recall its name, but I ate bouillabaisse there with friends. The tide was high so there were waves beneath our feet. There were stars in the sky and an electric storm over the horizon. Unbelievable.
What would you rate as the sexiest of foods?
Oysters. Obviously.
What do you tip in restaurants?
I am happy to tip up to 15% for good service. I am also quite prepared to give nothing at all for abysmal service.
Favourite fruit, veg, pud and store-bought sweet?
Raspberries and mangoes; asparagus; crème brûlée; Lindt.
SLUT’S CHICKEN
6 chicken thighs
2 medium shallots
1 medium onion
2-3 cloves garlic
butter
olive oil
bunch of fresh thyme
1 can Guinness
1 tub crème fraiche
parsley
1 Heat the butter and the oil.
2 Fry the onion and garlic over a high heat.
3 Without removing the onion and garlic from the pan, add the chicken and then brown, allowing the onion and garlic to burn slightly. This takes 5 to 8 minutes.
4 Turn chicken constantly, then add the thyme.
5 Cover with Guinness.
6 Simmer for 15 minutes.
7 Remove chicken and reduce the liquid.
8 Add a tub of crème fraiche.
9 Decorate with parsley and serve with mashed potato and a salad.
The Mercury