Cape Town - Season 3 of the hit reality show Masterchef SA starts tonight (Thursday August 21), and producers have promised this instalment is to set the highest standard yet.
This season sees celebrated Cape chef Reuben Riffel join colleagues Benny Masekwameng and Pete Goffe-Wood on the judging panel. Viewers can look forward to epic culinary triumphs, as well as some spectacular gastronomic failures.
While this season gets under way, preparation has started for Masterchef SA Celebrity, to be screened in January. All the celebrities taking part in the show will be playing to win money for a charity of their choice.
Famous faces who are set to don aprons include Patricia Lewis, Lorna Maseko, Terence Bridgett, Chris Forrest and Alex Jay.
* Tune in to M-Net on channel 101 at 7.30pm tonight.
Here, Previous MasterChef SA contestants dish up some recipes:
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Deena Naidoo
The IT specialist was the winner of the first MasterChef SA.
Naaidoo lives in Durban, but has input at the Joburg restaurant he was given. He joined the Fry’s company at which he is developing a range of Durban-inspired products.
Here is his recipe for mussels in a white wine sauce
Mussels in creamy white wine sauce
Serves 4
60ml olive oil
20g butter
4 spring onions, finely chopped
2 stalks of celery, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, finely chopped
3ml salt
45ml crushed garlic
100g button mushrooms, finely chopped
300ml white wine
15ml mixed dried herbs
10ml fish spice
800ml fresh full cream milk mixed with 1 packet of white onion soup
100ml fresh cream
15ml Dijon mustard
125ml grated Gouda cheese
20ml chopped parsley
salt and pepper
500g mussels in shell, washed
Heat the olive oil and butter. Sauté the onion, celery and carrot for 3-4 minutes.
Stir in salt and garlic and sauté for 1 minute.
Add the mushrooms and heat for 2-3 minutes.
Pour in white wine and allow to cook to reduce.
Add dried herbs and fish spice. Pour in milk and white onion mix and the cream. Simmer until slightly thickened. Stir in mustard and cheese. When cheese melts, add parsley, season if necessary.
Add the mussels and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Kamini Pather
The season 2 winner says the title has helped her live her food dream: working within media on behalf of food.
Pather, who lives in Cape Town, hosts a weekly radio segment on Heart 104.9 FM called My Favourite Things, covering food, fashion and fitness, among others.
Her next project is to shoot nine episodes for a forthcoming TV series Girl Eat World. She’ll use the show to realise her goal of building a digital platform for people around the world to share food ideas.
Kamini has shared her beer ice cream with seed brittle recipe.
Beer ice cream with seed brittle
Serves 6
Beer ice cream:
500ml BREWERS & UNION Handwerk All-Day IPA
250ml single cream
750ml low-fat milk
1 vanilla pod, scraped through
½ cup sugar
3 egg yolks
Pumpkin seed brittle:
Handful pumpkin seeds
1 tbs water
½ cup sugar
Heat the IPA in a small pot for about 15 minutes, until halved in quantity. Allow to cool.
Next, heat the cream and milk. Stir occasionally so it doesn’t catch at the base of the pan and burn. Add vanilla pod scrapings and continue to stir.
In a bowl, whisk together the sugar and egg yolks until pale.
Temper the yolk and sugar mixture by adding a quarter of the hot milk to the yolks and mixing before adding it back to the pan. Allow the mixture to bubble over medium heat for 20 minutes to thicken.
Test if the liquid is ready with the “back of the spoon” test: if the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon and you’re able to draw a line thought it that stays, then it is ready.
Once ready, add the beer reduction and mix through gently. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Brittle: Add the sugar and water to a pan. Allow to melt and form a caramelised sugar syrup. Then add the seeds to the syrup and mix it up so everything is coated.
Then spread the mixture on to a non-stick baking tray to cool. Once cooled, break apart into chunks and crush in a pestle and mortar before sprinkling over your freshly churned ice cream.
* If you don’t have an ice cream machine, check out how to make ice cream without one.
Leandri and Seline van der Wat
These sisters endeared themselves to both the viewers and judges.
They may not have won the competition – they finished second and third – but they certainly used this opportunity to launch themselves in the food industry, becoming food writers, cookbook authors, TV presenters and brand ambassadors for Robertsons Herbs & Spices.
Here is the sisters’ recipe for a seafood pasta.
Seafood pasta with a grape and white wine sauce
Serves 4
300g tagliatelle
Sauce:
100g butter
½ onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 bunch of seedless white grapes, cut in half
½ tsp garlic flakes
½ tsp dried parsley
sea salt
½ tsp black pepper
250ml white wine
500g clams
200g baby squid
200g mussels
60ml cream
½ lemon, juiced
dill
1 fresh fennel bulb and chopped fennel leaves, to serve
Bring a pot of water to the boil with a good helping of salt. Boil the tagliatelle until al dente, according to the instructions on the packet. Remove and drain.
Sauce: Heat the butter in a heavy-based pot and fry the onion and garlic until translucent.
Add the grapes, garlic flakes, dried parsley, salt and pepper and cook on a gentle heat for about 5 minutes.
Add the wine and cook for a further 10 minutes on a low heat.
Add the seafood at this point (maintaining the low heat) and cook for 5 minutes, until opened. Finish the sauce off with the cream and toss through the cooked pasta. Add lemon juice to taste.
Serve immediately with some dill, some fresh fennel leaves and some thinly shaved fennel bulb.
Sue-Ann Allen
It has been a whirlwind ride since the first season of Masterchef SA for Capetonian Sue-Ann Allen.
She has made several appearances on TV insert shows and is now working on a show of her own. One of her most rewarding experiences was co-writing a cookbook with fellow contestant Ilse Fourie, which won the Gourmand Book award for best First Cookbook in SA last year.
Allen, who was Masterchef SA runner-up, is setting up a culinary management business, where she’ll source chefs for food events, and consult on menus and product development. Here is her recipe for a trio of mini chocolate samoosas.
Trio of mini chocolate samoosas
Serves 6
1 slab good-quality milk chocolate, broken into blocks
1 slab good-quality dark chocolate, broken into blocks
1 slab good-quality white chocolate, broken into blocks
spring roll pastry, cut into 18 strips measuring 20x5cm
milk to seal edges
2 cups of canola oil
vanilla ice cream
seasonal berries
Place one block of chocolate into the corner of a pastry strip and fold, ensuring to form a samoosa that all sides are tucked in. Seal with a light brushing of milk. Place the completed samoosa under a damp tea towel.
Continue with the remaining chocolate until all the pastry strips have been used, keeping the chocolate variations separate. Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the samoosas in batches. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on paper towels to drain excess oil.
Place one samoosa of each kind together on individual plates and serve with vanilla ice cream. Garnish with berries.
Cape Argus