Digital
Love your online shopping? Or last-minute shopping for Valentine’s Day? An easy way to pre-plan and stick to your budget is by doing online shopping. There are many reputable South African online shopping sites and apps out there but make sure you are not caught in a scam. Rather use well trusted and secure sites. Shop with extreme caution when making use of social media market shopping.
Check It Out
Have a Zen experience. Enjoy some nature, take an easy hiking trail and go to a nature reserve or well-kept botanical garden.
https://www.facebook.com/suikerbosrand.friends/
https://www.facebook.com/hennopshiking/
https://www.facebook.com/Sablehikingtrail/
https://www.sanbi.org/gardens/
Community Star and Charity
Show the puppy love and help the SPCA with donations of tinned puppy food and bags of puppy pellets.
Food For Thought
Remind yourself every morning of at least three things to be grateful for in this life, #gratitude.
Steaming Remedy
Have some “me time” and enjoy a cuppa relaxing tea. Camomile, Green tea, Earl Grey, Thai tea and rooibos are a few favourites. We are spoilt for choice with incredible flavour combinations. The history of tea is long and complex. Tea likely originated in the Yunnan (China) region during the Shang dynasty as a medicinal drink.
Pro-Tip
Here are a few ideas to balance your life. Embrace a healthy lifestyle. Take care of relationships and spend quality time with friends and family. Explore and travel. Rest your brain over a weekend. Expand your awareness, and take a course or class. Take time management to the next level at work. Treat yourself and remember to have loads of fun.
Go Green
Local to South Africa and inspiring locals everywhere in the #spekboomchallenge #cleaningtheair – challenging all South Africans to plant at least 10 spekboom plants each in 2020 to combat climate change. The spekboom can live up to 200 years and has the ability to adapt to its surroundings. It is also an edible plant with very high nutritional value. This magical plant is also water-wise. The spekboom is an indigenous plant that grows easily. You can even grow it by making your own cuttings.
Have You Streamed It Yet?
Caxton Radio is broadcasting from its own radio studio inside Emperors Palace, with their fingers on the pulse of the community. Stream from Joburg’s 26 local Caxton community websites. For Boksburgers it will be www.benonicitytimes co.za. Don’t miss us every Tuesday from noon till 1pm on Caxton Radio.
Yummi Ramen
This is a Japanese dish that originated in China. We don’t always have the miso and umami paste available to cook Japanese or Chinese, but we can include the flavours we have. This is a love bowl with a flavour explosion that is easy to make and an express version of the original ramen.
Serves 4:
Ingredients 800g chicken, deboned with skin (whole chicken or thighs)
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- Salt, pepper to flavour
- 120g shiitake mushrooms, sliced
- 2 gloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon of fresh ginger minced
- 1.5l chicken stock (good quality)
- ½ small onion
- 30ml Worcester sauce
- 30ml soy sauce
- 30ml rice vinegar
- 4 carrots, cut julienne style
- A packet of bok choy
- 4 boiled eggs (six minutes, for a soft yellow)
- 2 small spring onions, cut into fine cut strips
- 340g egg noodles, cooked and strained.
Method
Season chicken with salt and pepper, you can even add some chilly spices to add to the flavour. Fry chicken in a deep casserole pot, brown evenly until completely cooked. Take out of the pot and set aside. With chicken fat still inside the pot, fry shiitake mushrooms, garlic, and ginger until brown.
Add 1.5l of good quality chicken stock. Add Worcester sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and onion and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain through fine sift and just keep mushrooms, not the rest.
Blanche carrots and whole bok choy in a separate pot of clean water and strain. If you prefer your veg more cooked, boil them for five minutes or so. Slice the chicken and divide it into 4 deep bowls.
Divide carrots, bok choy, noodles into bowls. Add the mushrooms and strained broth to the bowls and top off with a boiled egg and some spring onion. We don’t have to travel to the East to enjoy this experience. *You can substitute chicken with pork belly.
Cook & Culture is written bi-weekly by Annelette Bezuidenhout, a media specialist at Caxton local media.
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