Blaauwklippen

Small dogs on a cloudy day

What can I say, my hairy children are seriously sweet.

Sky dog

I couldn't resist snapping this German Shepherd staring at the sky.

Fishhoek beachfront photographs

Trusty Tortillas

A few years ago my friend Claire hosted a Mexican dinner and I was so impressed by her homemade tortillas that I made sure I got the recipe. As often happens, I tucked the neatly handwritten sheet into my recipe file and forgot about it until I found myself scavenging for a trusty tortilla recipe on the internet. The search engine results were a lot easier to navigate than my messy recipe file, but I decided Claire’s tortillas were worth braving the pasta sauce spattered plastic sleeves. My courage was rewarded when I found the tortilla recipe without too much difficulty nestling between a chicken curry and baileys cheesecake.

Burritos are great if you’re having a lot of people over for a casual meal and don’t feel like bankrupting yourself on a gourmet soiree. That is if you’re prepared to make the tortillas. The ready made supermarket variety at R40 for 10 are pain free in a “microwave in 1 and a half minutes” kinda way, but leave me resentful and expecting more than floured flatbreads when I open the bag.

Here is my trusty tortilla recipe and some rolling instructions I put together after being tutored by Helen. She recommended I get a decent rolling pin that wasn’t simply hewn from one piece of pine. Point taken. This recipe can be doubled.

Tortilla Recipe
(makes 12)

450ml cake flour
100ml maize meal
10ml baking powder
3ml salt
75ml butter
About 275ml water

• Sift dry ingredients together into a mixing bowl
• Rub in butter till well blended and add just enough water to form soft dough
• Knead dough for about 5 minutes or till smooth
• Roll into sausage shapes and cut into 12 even sized pieces.
• Cover with plastic wrap, leave at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• Roll out on a lightly floured surface into 20cm circles (see rolling guide)
• Heat large ungreased frying pan
• Fry each tortilla briefly on both sides until specked with pale brown flecks.
• Remove from pan and keep warm by storing in a large bowl lined with a clean kitchen towel folded over tortillas
• Serve with spicy chilli mince, grilled meat and peppers, guacamole, salsa, grated cheese and sour cream, each in a separate bowl.

Rolling guide (see image)

MAXIM - Flour is your friend!

1. Put your dough ball on a floured surface.
   
2. Pat the ball into a circle and sprinkle flour on the top
   
3. Roll the dough firmly in each direction once or twice to form
   
4. a small round
   
5. Pick up the small flattened dough round and reflour your surface, turn over the dough, sprinkle it with flour and now roll to your hearts content, sprinkling the tortilla with flour when necessary
   
6. The result should be a very thin piece of dough which you can further stretch out by tossing it between your hands.

To make burritos, I make tortillas and then have a number of fillings like guacamole, sour cream, grilled meat, sweet peppers, salsa and grated cheddar. The secret to a well folded burrito is to take it easy with the fillings. Don’t cover the whole tortilla with filling, even though this is quite tempting. Make a stripe of filling, leaving a space at the bottom and sides for folding. Flap the bottom of the tortilla over the filled section and then bring one side over the filling and bottom flap. Secure the burrito by folding the remaining side over everything.

Yum.

Cape of Pointy heeled shoes

The day commemorating the liberation of the Bastille and the beginnings of the French Revolution dawned to the strains of Billy Blanks encouraging me to kick that little bit higher. The sun had just risen and it was Tae-Bo hour, or Tae-Bo abbreviated 40 minutes, fast forward to the cool down.

Kicking wildly, fists punching the air as my dogs looked on through the front window with concern, I showed the forces of morning lethargy a thing or two.

A filter coffee and some muesli and Bulgarian yoghurt later, Pat and I headed out for a Saturday morning wander. Our destination was the Cape Point Nature Reserve, a local attraction we’d both visited as kids, but not since moving to the area. We forgot to pack a flask of coffee and nutritious snacks and off we went.

Cape Point Nature Reserve is rather spectacular. It is strangely desolate with fynbos clinging to the rocky landscape and bays and coves carving up the mountainous shoreline. Rolling breakers that would have the saltiest sea dog intoning the rosary, crash far out to sea and the sky sends lines of thin white clouds to scout for baboons.

Arriving at the parking area below the lighthouse, the clouds are not the only ones keeping an eye on the baboons. Marshalls patrol the area with catties, those beloved childhood toys made from forked twigs and bits of tyre tube rubber.

The funicular trip up the hill to the lighthouse was R25 per person one way, so we decided we’d walk, but not before some tea and a bit of sustenance at the Two Oceans restaurant. Perched on a cliff face, overlooking False Bay, the views from the restaurant are impressive. There’s a lot of sea, a pretty shoreline back towards Simonstown and then the smokey blue Helderberg mountains across the bay. There is also the tower of Babel playing itself out before your eyes with folk from every corner of the earth sipping beer and wine and ordering seafood at 11am. If you want the serenity, the Two Oceans restaurant on a Saturday morning is not the spot, even in the middle of winter.

After hand to claw combat with a starling to protect our cheesecake, we headed up towards the lighthouse. Billy had already scuppered my thigh muscles with his round house kicks and squats, but I trotted after Pat, pausing to take tasteful shots as an excuse for a bit of leg rest. The climb is not that arduous, but the occasional muscle did twinge and we were both puffing by the top.

Our efforts were rewarded with beautiful views, but again, the magic was broken by the rabid buzz of stiletto booted tourists. It seems that for some, a holiday is no excuse to skimp on accessories and uncomfortable shoes.

We jostled; we vied for good photo angles and then made our way down to the car park. We could see what all the fuss was about. The mountains, the sea, the lighthouse on a mossy cliff face and the foamy beaches far below, but I think I prefer my natural splendor with a little more peace and fewer stilettos.