Jodi-Ann Pearton and her team have cooked up the perfect all-American gourmet cookie recipe: light and crunchy on the outside and fresh and gooey on the inside…

The cookies, which come in heavenly flavour combinations, are available in three different sizes: tea treat, midi and American giant. Enjoyed best with a steaming cup of freshly-brewed coffee or an ice cold glass of milk, these cookies are enjoyed as much by adults as they are by children!

Cookie flavours include:

Pomegranate and white chocolate

White chocolate and cranberry

Toasted coconut and chai

White chocolate and chai

Double Dutch chocolate

Organic peanut honies

Espresso and dark chocolate

Other delicacies include: macaroons, crisp biscottis, buttery shortbreads and brownies.

Contact Jodi-Ann Pearton (info[AT]fooddesign.co.za) for more.

Three-time Chef of the Year winner Jodi-Ann Pearton is the sole agent for Little Leaves’ range of microgreens in South Africa.  Microgreens are grown naturally, in greenhouses, without the use of chemicals, pesticides or fungicides and provide easily-digestible vitamins, mineral and phytonutrients which have disease-fighting properties.

 Microgreens are nutritionally-dense plants and herbs, the first leafy growths of celeries, peas, cabbage, rocket and mustard plants which are harvested in their infancy. Their culinary use offers robust and flavourful dimensions to soups, desserts, sauces, pizzas and breads. These plants are presented ‘live’, in trays and are not cut or harvested into supermarket-type punnets or pillow packs.

Jodi says, “It is great to see microgreens of such superb quality eventually available in South Africa, they are an incredible product and allow chefs and consumers alike a completely new culinary journey. I have found the service, commitment and passion from Little Leaves absolutely amazing and look forward to working with the ever increasing range of products well into the future.”

South Africa is a relatively late bloomer in terms of adopting the microgreen trend; international chefs have been using these little leaves for a few years already, and these tender little plants not only add healthy crunch to meals, but make for really attractive dish presentations.

Little Leaves’ microgreens are endorsed by the South African Chefs Association.

Contact Jodi for more or read Little Leaves’ Micro-Greens presentation for all the benefits.

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APRIL / MAY NEWS LETTER

newsletter May 2010

Click on the link above to view our April / May news letter! This month’s edition is full of fabulous surprises, recipes and a little bit of cheeky fun!

POLITICS & FOOD

by: Zama Ngwane

“Politics” and “food” are two very unlikely words to be put together in a sentence and yet that is exactly what I have done. So, am I prompting you to imagine a situation where fruits, vegetables, chicken and food take over the world as we know it and form an ANC of lemons versus a DA of potatoes? Amusing as that may seem, it’s not quite the point I am aiming for. Instead what I would like to highlight is the inextricable relationship between the food we eat and underlying socio-political connotations between the two.

When talking about politics, essentially one is talking about the daily interactions between groups of people within the social spaces they live in. It is also the struggles that arise from these daily interactions. The question remains then, how does food feature in the domain of politics?

People carry with them the histories of their lives and continuously perform practices which re-enforce who they are. At the heart of these performative activities lies food; how it is eaten and how it is used to construct particular cuisines. Consider for example biltong, which came about when the Trekboers in South Africa ‘trekked’ up from the Cape in search of new lands to settle in. Biltong was the result of their efforts to preserve the meat that they hunted through drying. Coriander was then added to make it more palatable. Today biltong is one of the foods associated with ‘South African’ culture and is synonymous with national sports like rugby. Though hailing from one particular group in South Africa-the Afrikaner community- the reach and appeal of biltong is so large, that it has a truly ‘rainbow nation’ political identity. Read the rest of this entry »

This past weekend I had the fabulous opportunity to demonstrate at the Grand Designs Live show. More about the details will follow but for now I am posting a recipe that I show cased yesterday which went down wonderfully. It is really a French Classic with a tiny South African twist.

CHICKEN IN A POT

Ingredients:

• 1 baby chicken, trimmed & trussed
• 1 liter good quality chicken stock
• 6 sprigs thyme
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 8 basil leaves
• 6 baby carrots
• 3 baby leeks, each cut into 3
• 1 thin, baby rib celery, cut into 6
• 3 baby potatoes, halved
• 2 baby turnips, peeled
• 2 baby radishes, peeled
• 6 spears green asparagus, each cut into 3
• healthy teaspoon salt
• black pepper

Method:

1. Place the stock in a heavy based pot and bring it up to a gentle simmer. Place the chicken into the simmer stock with the herbs
2. Now add the root vegetables – carrots, turnips, radish’s & potatoes
3. Once the potatoes begin to go soft, turn the baby chicken over and add the celery and leeks
4. Cook until the chicken is completely cooked and the vegetables are soft
5. Remove the chicken and carve off the leg and thigh – remove the thigh bone gently without breaking the flesh
6. carve off the breast and remove the skin. The breast should be bright white and very succulent
7. Whilst carving add the asparagus to the broth and blanche for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat under the broth and season  well
8. Place the thigh and leg in the base of a soup plate – top with the breast  and decoratively place the vegetables around the meat.
9. Spoon broth over the vegetables
10. Garnish with a garlic emulsion and micro greens.



The March Wine & Dine evening will have an Asian influence

Join us at the Miele Kitchen in Bryanston on April 15th

BOOKINGS: info@fooddesign.co.za

March wine & dine

Hostex was a huge success for the Food Design Agency we went there to dominate and dominate we did. Jodi-Ann Pearton took home the Spekko chef of the year and Stacey Chan took home the Mc Cain chef of the year.

Both are 80/20 competitions so a lot was able to be prepped before hand, nevertheless we only had an hour to complete what hadn’t been done and plate up 3 courses of impeccable food.

In the Spekko competition Jodi had to compile a 3 course menu with rice being used in all courses.

In the Mc Cain competition Stacey had to come up with a 2 course vegetarian menu utilizing as many Mc Cain products as possible.

Jodi also entered the global pizza challenge where you had to design your own pizza; she pulled off a fabulous, tasty pizza and landed up being in the top 5 out of 48 other contestants.

All in all it was a fabulous Hostex for the Food Design team but now it’s back to work to make us even better for next year.

newsletter March 2010