Cinnamon-Stencilled Cheesecake

There are few desserts to rival a cold, creamy cheesecake, but everyone has their own idea of what constitutes a Proper Cheesecake.  I like unbaked cheesecakes to be light and rather airy, but in a cooked cheesecake I want an unctuous, fairly dense filling, not too sweet, and a generous crumb base made of plain-tasting biscuits.  This is the ninth and final recipe in a series  for Woolworths South Africa, pantry sponsors of MasterChef South Africa.

My rich and luscious cheesecake, with its whimsical cinnamon stencilling, is unusual in that it has a baked filling and a thin sour-cream topping lightly set with gelatine.  You can, of course, make it without the sour cream topping, but this second layer adds an extra dimension of velvety deliciousness, and it’s essential to create a smooth white surface on which to apply the stencils.

A generous dusting of cinnamon applied over a laser-cut stencil gives
 this creamy cheesecake a whimsical touch.

I used laser-cut henna stencils to apply the cinnamon, which you can find in Asian markets, or order online. If you can’t find them, use an old-fashioned doily, or simply dust the cinnamon lightly over the top of the cake.

This is not a complicated recipe but – like all good food – it takes time and patience to make.  It’s very important to allow baked cheesecakes to chill very thoroughly, for at least 6 hours, so that the filling has a chance to settle and firm to just the right texture. Use a very thick, good-quality plain cream cheese – low fat is fine.

If you'd like to try stencilling other dishes, have a look at my Henna-Patterned Spiced Cream Cheese.

My other MasterChef SA recipes for Woolworths #wooliespantry:

• Panko-Crumbed Calamari with Black Salt and Lime Mayonnaise
• Pork Steaks with Wine, Tarragon and Mustard
• Moroccan-Spiced Lamb Chops with Citrus Couscous Salad
• Spicy Chicken, Tomato and Sweetcorn Soup
• Warm Lamb and Potato Salad with a Mint Dressing
• Curried Lamb Ribbetjies with Mint Yoghurt
• Champ with Chives and Garlic
• Gin-Cured Gravadlax with Crisped Capers

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Cinnamon-Stencilled Cheesecake

2 x 200 g packets shortbread biscuits
180 g unsalted butter, melted
3 x 250 g tubs cream cheese, at room temperature
1½ cups (375 ml) caster sugar
3 extra-large free-range eggs
2 tsp (10 ml) vanilla extract or essence
1 tsp (5 ml) cinnamon
1 Tbsp (15 ml) cornflour

For the topping:
1 Tbsp (15 ml) water
1 tsp (5 ml) gelatine
1 carton (250 ml) sour cream
½ cup (125 ml) caster sugar
½ tsp (2.5 ml) vanilla extract
cinnamon, for stencilling

Heat the oven to 170 ºC, or 160 ºC if you have a fan-assisted oven. Break up the biscuits and whizz them to fine crumbs in a food processor.  Stir in the melted butter. Press half the crumbs evenly over the base of a non-stick 24-cm springform cake tin.

Press the remaining crumbs over the inner sides of the tin, gently easing them upwards. Use the side of a small glass gently to flatten the biscuit base, rolling it around in a circle, then stand the glass upright and roll it around the edges of the tin to form a smooth, even wall. Press a fingertip into the right angle formed where the sides meet the base to thin out this corner.  Refrigerate the crust while you make the filling.

Put the cream cheese and caster sugar into a large bowl and, using a rotary beater, whisk until just smooth and combined. Beat in the eggs one by one, then whisk in the vanilla, cinnamon and sifted cornflour. Take care not to over-beat the mixture. If you're a confident maker of cheesecake, you can add all these ingredients to the bowl in one go, (see picture below) and gradually incorporate them into the mixture.

Pour the filling into the crumb crust. Bake, preferably in a bain-marie (see Cook’s Notes) for an hour to an hour and a quarter (this will depend on the efficiency of your oven. It is done when it is slightly risen, pulling away at the edges, lightly freckled with gold, and wobbles reluctantly when you give it a shake). Turn off the oven, open the door, and let the cheesecake cool completely in the oven.  Refrigerate for at least two hours.

To make the topping, put the water in a little heat-proof bowl and sprinkle the gelatine over it. Set aside for a minute to sponge. Place the bowl in a pot of simmering water (the water should come half-way up the sides) and stir occasionally as the gelatine melts. When the liquid is clear, remove the bowl from the water and set aside to cool slightly. Whisk the sour cream, caster sugar and vanilla together and stir in the melted gelatine. Pour the mixture over the top of the chilled cheesecake and smooth the top.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

To decorate, place your stencils in a pattern of your choice over the top of the cake. If they are self-adhesive stencils, place them on the surface of the cake sticky-side up.  Put the cinnamon in a tea-strainer and dust it evenly all over the top of the cake. Gently blow away any excess cinnamon. Slowly peel off the stencils, using a pair of tweezers to lift each one.  Cut into slices using a very sharp knife dipped in hot water.

Makes one 23-cm cheesecake; serves 8.

Cook’s Notes

• Cooking the cheesecake in a bath of hot water helps ensure a good smooth texture. However, as springform pans have a tendency to leak, make sure to wrap the outside of the tin in several large sheets of tin foil before you place it in a roasting tin half-filled with hot water. Alternatively, bake the cheesecake in a deep glass or ceramic flan dish.
• This basic cheesecake recipe can easily be adapted.  For a lemony cheesecake, add the finely grated zest of a lemon to the filling.
• Make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature when you make the filling. Cold cream cheese is difficult to whisk until quite smooth, and you may end up over-beating the batter.
• If you’d like a crust on only the base of the cheesecake, use 200 g of biscuits, and 90 g melted butter, and line the inner edge of the cake tin with a strip of oiled baking paper.

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Moroccan-Spiced Lamb Chops with Citrus Couscous Salad

This dish of spicy lamb chops and citrussy couscous salad is one of my favourite happy-hybrid inventions. It’s largely Moroccan in its spicing, but it also contains a popular and versatile Middle Eastern ingredient: pomegranate concentrate. This delicious elixir (also known in its many forms as pomegranate syrup, reduction and molasses) is made by simmering fresh pomegranate juice down to a tart-sweet syrup filled with fruity flavours. This is the sixth in a series of recipes for Woolworths South Africa, pantry sponsors of MasterChef South Africa.

Moroccan-Spiced Lamb Chops with Citrus Couscous salad. Plate by David Walters

Cooks are often told on MasterChef and other reality shows to exercise caution when mixing ingredients from different regions, or indeed from diverse flavour ‘families’. I think this is advice worth following. Honey doesn’t go with mashed potatoes or fresh linefish, for example, and nutmeg and rocket are sworn enemies.

But, if you’re an adventurous cook, it’s worth keeping your mind open and trying out interesting flavour combinations. If you want to experiment, the best advice I can give you is to choose ingredients from regions that are geographically adjacent.  For example, because of the influence of the Moors, the cuisines of the Iberian Peninsula are compatible with the cooking of North Africa. Israeli cooking has much in common with Lebanese, Greek and Turkish food, and so on.

And all of the above are compatible with pomegranate, that most lovely and ancient fruit. (Although I do think that the seeds must be used judiciously. I see these "rubies", as magazines like to call them, scattered over everything but the cat these days. Pomegranate seeds strewn prettily across a salad  or dessert may improve the look of the dish, but - like the ubiquitous micro herbs so loved by chefs - they don't necessarily add much to its taste.)

My other recipes for Woolworths #wooliespantry:

• Spicy Chicken, Tomato and Sweetcorn Soup
• Warm Lamb and Potato Salad with a Mint Dressing
• Curried Lamb Ribbetjies with Mint Yoghurt
• Champ with Chives and Garlic
• Gin-Cured Gravadlax with Crisped Capers

Moroccan-Spiced Lamb Chops with Citrus Couscous Salad

12 small lamb chops
4 Tbsp (60 ml) lemon juice
4 Tbsp (60 ml) pomegranate concentrate
1½ tsp (7.5 ml) cumin
½ tsp (2.5 ml) cinnamon
½ tsp (2.5 ml) cayenne pepper, or more, to taste
1 tsp (5 ml) dried mint
black pepper
1½ cups (375 ml) couscous
2 cups (500 ml) very hot water
a tin of chickpeas, drained
salt
100 g slivered almonds, toasted
½ cup (125 ml) finely chopped fresh parsley
¼ cup (80 ml) finely chopped fresh mint
the seeds of a pomegranate [optional]

For the dressing:
finely grated zest of a large orange
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
6 Tbsp (90 ml) fresh lemon juice
5 Tbsp (75 ml) fresh orange juice
1 tsp (5 ml) cumin
1 tsp (5 ml) dried coriander
½ tsp (2.5 ml) cinnamon
½ cup (125 ml) olive oil
salt and pepper

Place the lamb chops in a non-metallic dish. Whisk together the lemon juice, pomegranate reduction, cumin, cinnamon, cayenne pepper and mint. Pour the marinade over the chops and toss, using your hands, so that each chop is coated. Season with black pepper, cover and set aside for two or three hours.

In the meantime, start the couscous salad. Put the couscous in a deep bowl and pour in the hot (not boiling; see Cook’s Notes) water. Immediately cover the bowl with clingfilm and set aside to steam, undisturbed, for 15 minutes. Combine all the dressing ingredients in a bowl and whisk well.

Uncover the couscous and, using a fork, gently scratch at the surface, lightly fluffing the grains so they separate. Add the chickpeas and dressing to the still-warm couscous and toss to coat. Season with salt and black pepper, to taste. Cover and set aside at room temperature while the chops are marinating.

Heat your oven’s grill.  Season the chops with salt and place in a roasting pan. Grill the chops, not too close to the heat, for about 4-5 minutes on either side (or until done to your liking), basting with the pan juices and leftover marinade now and then. Watch them closely, as the sugar in the pomegranate syrup may cause them to scorch.

Stir the toasted almonds, parsley, mint and pomegranate seeds into the couscous and add more salt and pepper, if necessary. Serve the chops piping hot with the couscous on the side.

Serves 4. 

• Try this couscous salad with other ingredients from the Mediterranean region: crumbled feta, green olives, chopped preserved lemon, pistachios, and so on.

• Leave the dried mint out of the marinade if you can’t find it. It’s easy to make your own dried mint – place a bunch of leaves in a very low oven, with the fan on, and leave them until they’re completely dry.  Crumble and store in a sealed jar.

• Most ‘instant’ couscous recipes specify boiling water, but I’ve found that hot water produces the best result.  If you’re not confident about preparing couscous, follow the instructions on the packet.

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Spicy Chicken, Tomato and Sweetcorn Soup

When I read the theme of this week's Woolies Pantry recipes, I gave a happy little snort. I have teenagers, you see, and feeding them (and the other ravenous students who swarm through my kitchen) is not unlike cooking for an army. If I were a millionaire, I'd give them their favourite food - slabs of steak and triple cheeseburgers - but I'm not, so I have resorted over the years to more economical ways of feeding young people with hollow legs. This is the fifth  in a series of recipes for Woolworths South Africa, pantry sponsors of MasterChef South Africa.

A big pot of richly flavoured soup, served with a mountain of bread, makes excellent teen fodder, and this recipe is one I make often in winter. It's packed with filling carbs - potatoes and sweetcorn - and really is a square meal in itself. What's more, it stretches one chicken across eight or more mouths, whereas if you had to roast a chicken, it would feed only four (and that's being optimistic).

If you're in a hurry, you can make this with shop-bought liquid stock and a ready-roasted chicken, but a proper home-made chicken broth adds wonderful depth of flavour. This is a mildly spiced soup, so feel free to give it extra heat with chopped fresh chillies, dried chilli flakes or lashings of Tabasco.

My other recipes for Woolworths #wooliespantry:

• Warm Lamb and Potato Salad with a Mint Dressing
• Curried Lamb Ribbetjies with Mint Yoghurt
• Champ with Chives and Garlic
• Gin-Cured Gravadlax with Crisped Capers

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Spicy Chicken, Tomato and Sweetcorn Soup

For the stock:
1 large free-range chicken
3 litres cold water
3 ripe tomatoes, chopped
1 onion, skin on, quartered
2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 stalks celery, thickly sliced
6 stalks flat-leaf parsley
2 bay leaves
1 tsp (5 ml) black peppercorns
2 whole cloves

For the soup:
3 Tbsp (45 ml) olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 sticks celery, finely sliced
4 big carrots, peeled and cubed
6 big potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-cm cubes
3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 red chilli, seeded and finely minced (optional)
2 tins Italian tomatoes, finely chopped, and their juice
3 Tbsp (45 ml) tomato paste
500 g frozen sweetcorn kernels
1 Tbsp (15 ml) cumin
1 Tbsp (15 ml) dried oregano
1 tsp (5 ml) ground coriander
1 tsp  (5 ml) sweet paprika
1 tsp  (5 ml) chilli powder, to taste
salt and milled black pepper

To serve:
chopped fresh parsley
chopped spring onions
sour cream or natural yoghurt

Place all the ingredients for the stock in a large pot and bring to gently to the boil. Turn down the heat, cover with a tilted lid, and simmer for 45 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken from the stock, strip the flesh from the bones and set aside, covered. Return the bones and skin to the stock and simmer, partly covered, for another 45 minutes. Strain the stock into a bowl and discard the bones and flavourings. Pull the reserved chicken into strips. At this point, if you are planning ahead, you can put both the stock and the chicken into the fridge for a few hours, or overnight.

Heat the olive oil in a large pot. Add the onion, celery, carrots, potato cubes, garlic and chilli and fry over a medium heat for five minutes. Skim any fat from the top of the stock and pour the stock over the vegetables. Bring to the boil. Add all the remaining soup ingredients, except the reserved chicken, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the potato cubes are tender. Skim off any foam, tip in the chicken strips and cook gently for a further 35-45 minutes, or until the chicken has fallen apart into shreds. Check the seasoning, stir in the chopped parsley and serve at once, topped with spring onions and sour cream.

Cook's notes:

• For an even more substantial soup, add a cup of split orange lentils, and cook the soup for 10-15 minutes longer, before adding the chicken.
• If you’d like a thicker texture, give the soup a quick whiz with a stick blender before you add the chicken.
• You can use tinned sweetcorn in place of frozen sweetcorn.

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Warm Lamb and Potato Salad with a Mint Dressing

The most important criterion for me when I’m cooking for a small crowd (and I’m talking about 10 people or more) is that every key element of the dish can be prepared many hours in advance, then heated, assembled and dished up with minimum fuss, at the last moment, so it arrives at the table fresh, hot and delicious. This is the fourth in a series of recipes for Woolworths, pantry sponsors of MasterChef South Africa.

An easy way to stretch an expensive leg of lamb between many mouths.

Obviously this is not possible for MasterChef contestants faced with the challenge of catering for a horde (given the tight time-frames of reality TV).  But for home cooks, painstaking planning and preparation are the secrets to success when you’re expecting a flock of hungry guests. A recipe that allows you partly to cook the ingredients well ahead of time, without any significant loss of freshness, flavour or texture, is the best bet, because all you need do is take 20 minutes or so to finish them off in pan or oven, fling the dish together and carry it triumphantly to the table.

This recipe for a warm salad of garlicky, rosemaried lamb, baby potatoes and peas allows you to do just that, and it’s economical in the sense that it stretches a single leg of lamb (which is ruinously expensive these days, for reasons I cannot understand) between many mouths. In the recipe below, I’ve given instructions for preparing the dish well ahead of time and then assembling it at the last minute.

You’ll save a lot of money if you buy a whole leg of lamb and debone it yourself (see Cook’s Notes, below), or ask your butcher to do it for you.

It’s important to serve this warm, as it’s the heat of the potatoes and lamb that releases the minty, mustardy, lemony flavours of the dressing.

My other recipes for Woolworths #wooliespantry: 

Curried Lamb Ribbetjies with Mint Yoghurt
Champ with Chives and Garlic
Gin-Cured Gravadlax with Crisped Capers

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Warm Lamb and Potato Salad with a Mint Dressing

1 x 3.5 kg leg of lamb, deboned and butterflied
6 sprigs fresh rosemary
4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
3 Tbsp (45 ml) olive oil, plus extra for frying
a large lemon
milled black pepper
3.5 kg new potatoes
olive or sunflower oil, for frying
4 cups frozen baby peas
baby mint leaves, to garnish

For the dressing:
4 tsp (20 ml) good Dijon mustard
1 large clove garlic, peeled and crushed
6 Tbsp (90 ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ tsp (2.5 ml) white sugar
flaky sea salt
milled pepper
1 cup (250 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
a big handful of fresh mint leaves (about ¾ cup, loosely packed)

Lay the butterflied lamb, skin side down, in a large non-metallic dish. Scatter over the rosemary sprigs and garlic slices and drizzle with 3 Tbsp olive oil. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice over the lamb, then slice the squeezed-out lemon halves and arrange them on top of the lamb. Season well with milled black pepper (but no salt). Fold the lamb ‘butterfly’ in half to enclose the filling and cover the dish with clingfilm. Marinate in the fridge for 24 hours (a minimum of 12), turning the lamb over once or twice during that time.

Now prepare the potatoes. Cook them in plenty of boiling salted water for 10 minutes, or until just tender when pierced with the tip of a sharp knife, but not squashy or falling apart. Drain in a colander for 10 minutes, return them to the empty pot and cover.

To prepare the dressing, put the mustard, garlic, lemon juice, sugar and a pinch of salt and pepper into a bowl and stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Whisk in the oil to form a smooth emulsion. Cover and set aside at room temperature.

Now sear the lamb (you can do this up to eight hours ahead and keep it, loosely covered with clingfilm, in the fridge). Heat 3 Tbsp oil in a large frying pan or a heavy-based roasting pan until blazing hot and shimmering, but not yet smoking. Scrape the garlic, rosemary and lemon slices off the lamb (don’t leave a trace of garlic behind, as it will turn bitter in the pan) and season with a little salt on both sides.

Sear the lamb in the hot oil for 4-5 minutes on each side, or until nicely browned and caramelised. Cover and set aside (at room temperature if you’re planning to assemble the dish within two hours, or in the fridge if you’re preparing this well in advance.)

About 45 minutes before you’re ready to serve the dish, heat the oven to 190 ºC. Put the lamb in a roasting pan and roast for 20-25 minutes, or until it’s cooked through, but still a pale rosy pink on the inside (how long this will take depends on your oven and the thickness of the lamb; see Cook’s Notes.) Cover loosely with foil and set aside to rest for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, finely chop the mint leaves, stir them into the dressing and check the seasoning. Add a few tablespoons of water to the pot containing the potatoes, set it over a low heat and gently reheat for 7-10 minutes. Put the frozen peas into a pot of rapidly boiling salted water and cook for 3-4 minutes.

Cut the hot potatoes in half and arrange them on a large, warmed platter. Drain the peas and scatter them on top. Pour the pan juices that have accumulated under the lamb into the bowl containing the dressing and whisk well.

Cut the lamb into thin slices and arrange the pieces on top of the potatoes. Pour over just enough of the minty dressing to coat the potatoes and lamb, and garnish with small mint leaves. Check the seasoning and add more salt if necessary.

Serve immediately with a leafy green salad scattered with crunchy croutons.

With salad, serves  8-10.

Cook's Notes:

• It’s not difficult to debone a leg of lamb: use a very sharp knife to release the flesh from the bones, using long sweeping strokes. Don’t worry if the lamb ‘butterfly’ looks a little ragged: no one will notice once it’s sliced. If you’re not confident about doing this, have a look on the Internet for an instructional video.
• To test whether the lamb is done to perfection, cut a small, deep slit in the thickest part of the meat. If it’s still a bloody pink inside, let it roast for 5-7 more minutes, then check again.
• You can use large potatoes for this dish: boil them in their skins, taking care not to overcook them. Reheat them whole, then cut into thick slices.

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Curried Lamb Ribbetjies with Mint Yoghurt

Slow cooking, and dishes that take a few days to prepare, don’t ever feature on MasterChef because of the obvious time limitations of reality TV. I think this is a pity, because time and patience are often the most delicious aspects of a dish, and this is especially true of meat that is cooked over an open flame.

Curried Lamb Ribs with Mint Yoghurt 

Long marinating and/or many hours of slow cooking can work absolute wonders, especially with tougher cuts of meat. Think, for example, of a whole lamb or pig that is spit-roasted for hours, rotating gently in front of a wood fire until its skin is burnished mahogany and its meat falling from the bone in tender flakes.

A braai is quintessentially South African, so for this week’s Woolies The Pantry recipe I’ve chosen lamb ribbetjies [riblets] because I love them (and their name!), and a Cape-Malay-style marinade based on a traditional curried lamb-sosatie soaking sauce. Drenched in a turmeric-yellow, sharp-sweet marinade, Malay sosaties of this sort have a long and noteworthy history as one of the classics of Cape Malay cooking. The basic recipe has remained largely unchanged over at least two centuries; its pedigree is doubtless older than that, because the dish was bought to the Cape from the East during the earliest days of the slave trade. In my version of the marinade, I’ve used yoghurt in addition to a variety of wonderful spices, because this helps to tenderise the lamb ribbetjies so they are beautifully succulent when they come off the braai.

Click here for my recipe for snack-sized Cape Malay Lamb Sosaties.

My other recipes for Woolworths The Pantry: 
Champ with Chives and Garlic
Gin-Cured Gravadlax with Crisped Capers

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Curried Lamb Ribbetjies with Mint Yoghurt

1.2 kg lamb ribbetjies [riblets]
salt
lemon wedges, to serve

For the marinade:
4 T (60 ml) sunflower oil
2 onions, peeled and very finely chopped
4 cardamom pods
1 quill of cinnamon
1 red chilli, finely chopped
2 T (30 ml) grated fresh ginger
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1½ t (7.5 ml) ground cumin
1 t (5 ml) ground coriander
1 t (5 ml) red chilli powder
2 t (10 ml) medium-strength curry powder
1½ t (7.5 ml) turmeric
3 T (45 ml) white wine vinegar
80 ml thick fruity chutney
1 T (15 ml) sugar
3/4 cup (180 ml) water
milled black pepper
80 ml lemon juice (about 3 small lemons)
2 cups (500 ml) natural white yoghurt

For the dip:
1 cup (250 ml) thick white Greek yoghurt
80 ml finely chopped fresh mint
80 ml finely chopped fresh coriander
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
the juice of half a lemon
salt and milled black pepper

Heat the oil in a pan and add the onions, cardamom pods and cinnamon stick. Fry over a medium-high flame for 5 minutes, or until the onions are golden. Add the chilli, ginger and garlic and cook for another minute, without allowing the garlic to burn. Stir in the cumin, coriander, chilli powder, curry powder, turmeric, vinegar and chutney, turn down the heat and cook, stirring, for two minutes. Add the sugar and water, season with pepper and simmer briskly for 8 minutes. Remove from the heat, allow to cool, then stir in the lemon juice and yoghurt.  Tip the marinade into a lidded plastic or ceramic bowl, add the ribbetjies, mix well and refrigerate for 48 hours, stirring once or twice.

To make the dip, combine the yoghurt, mint, coriander, garlic and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate.

Season the ribbetjies with salt and braai over medium-hot coals for about 8 minutes on all four sides (half an hour in total), basting frequently with the leftover marinade.  The coals should not be too hot, or the ribs will scorch: by the end of the cooking time, they should be a rich yellow gold, flecked here and there with sticky black bits. Serve hot with the yoghurt dip and lemon wedges.

Serves 4. 

• For best results, marinate the ribbetjies for two to three days; 24 hours is the absolute minimum.    
• If you’d like a hotter marinade, add more chilli powder or chopped fresh red chillies to the marinade.
• Don’t rush the cooking time: lamb ribbetjies can be quite fatty, and long cooking over medium coals will help render the fat.
• These can be successfully cooked in an oven under a very hot grill, but make sure the ribbetjies are at least 20 cm below the grill, and turn them frequently.

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Champ with Chives and Garlic

I always watch MasterChef from the comfort of my own squashy couch, safe from the scrutiny of scary judges or ogling cameras, and yet I can’t help feeling a moment of slight panic whenever I consider what I’d make with a particular ingredient. It’s difficult to imagine how nerve-racking it must feel to be an actual contestant, to have to make a choice within minutes, and then to have to cook the dish in a ridiculously short period of time.

[This is the second in a series of recipes I've developed for Woolworths' revamped cookery-inspiration platform The Pantry, which has just been launched to tie in with their food sponsorship of the much-anticipated first series of MasterChef South Africa.]

I felt the same sense of mild alarm when presented with this week’s Woolies Pantry ingredient: potatoes. My first impulse was to come up with a complex dish that would wow the judges of an imaginary tasting panel with its cheeky flavour combinations. This is certainly the path I would have taken when I was an inexperienced cook and eager to impress my friends and family with what I thought was clever, edgy cooking. But then I sat back on my heels, metaphorically speaking, and considered the potato.  Potatoes, to my mind, are the ultimate comfort food.  They are dearly beloved by millions of people the world over, and mostly in their simplest forms: baked, mashed, fried and slow-cooked to fall-aparty goodness in stews, soups and curries. After some thought, I decided that if my imaginary judges really appreciated good ingredients, they’d surely like potatoes plainly presented in all their humble glory. So here, I give you potatoes in the honest form I love the most, and one that has been my favourite comfort food since I was a small girl: smoothly mashed with a scandalous amount of butter and cream, piping hot, and topped with a cold block of salty butter.

This is my version of the classic Irish dish champ (similar to colcannon, but with some refinement), which I’ve given a kick in the pants with garlic and chives.This recipe epitomises how I feel about good, fresh ingredients: do as little at you can to them, and let their essential character sparkle on the plate. Or in the bowl, in this case.

Champ with Chives and Garlic 
6 large floury potatoes
water to cover
a bunch of spring onions [scallions]
200 g salted butter
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced
2/3 cup (160 ml) cream
a little hot milk
salt and white pepper
4 T (60 ml) finely snipped French chives
a few extra cubes of cold butter, for topping

Cut the potatoes in half crossways and cook them, in their skins, in plenty of boiling salted water for 25-30 minutes, or until very tender, but not yet falling apart. In the meantime, finely slice the white and pale green parts of the spring onions. Heat the butter in a frying pan, add the spring onions and cook very gently, over a medium-low heat, for 3-4 minutes, or until the onions are just soft. Stir in the garlic and cook for another minute or so, without letting the garlic or onions brown.

Drain the potatoes in a colander and leave them to dry out for 3 minutes. Put the potatoes back into the still-hot pot and set over a low heat. Now, using a potato ricer (see Cook’s Notes) or masher, mash them with the cream until very smooth. Add the buttery spring onion mixture and just enough hot milk to form a creamy, fluffy mash.  Season with plenty of salt and a few pinches of white pepper.  Pile the hot mash into a serving dish (or into individual bowls) and scatter over the chopped chives.  Make a few indentations in the mash, add a cube of butter to each, and take to the table piping hot.

Serves 4 as a main dish, 6 as a side serving.

Cook's Notes

• You can get away with preparing a dish of such simplicity as a main course, but it needs to be perfect: absolutely smooth mash, not a speck of burned onion or garlic, and brought to the table fresh and hot.
• The secret to very creamy, fluffy mash is to use the right sort of potato (buy spuds that are specifically labelled as good for mashing) and to use a potato ricer. These are affordable (look for them in kitchen shops) and they remove every little lurking lump from the mash. Alternatively, you can use an old-fashioned mouli, or push the mash (before you add the onions) through a metal sieve, using the back of a spoon.
• Don’t overheat the mash in the pan, or beat it too furiously, or put it in a blender or food processor, as it might become gluey.
• The amount of milk you add to the potatoes will depend on their age and variety. Add the milk a little at a time, until you are satisfied with the consistency of the mash.

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