Last night I used my newest addition to my kitchen cookware – the Typhoon Large Reversable Grill Plate – for the very first time!  As a cooking fanatic and food lover – I have been on a personal mission lately to master the perfect steak – and it seems that I just may have found the solution!

The Grill plate fits perfectly over 2 plates on top of my stove.  Because of its weight (yes, it is HEAVY), it doesn’t move around at all when you are cooking on it.  Before using it – I “seasoned” it by heating it up slowly with a light coating of oil on it.  I let it warm up for a good couple of minutes while I seasoned the steak.  I used 35 day matured Rump Steak, lightly coated it in oil and generously sprinkled coarse salt and a fabulous new barbecue seasoning mix that I bought from Woolworths.

The sound that the meat made when it hit the grill put a smile on my dial.  It seared the meat beautifully.  There was no splattering of hot oil that normally comes with cooking in a pan.  I cooked the steaks for about 10 minutes on each side, turning them a couple of times.  I landed up with four perfectly cooked “medium” pieces of steak that tasted just as good as they looked!

I am super thrilled with this new addition to my kitchen and forsee many fantastic meals being cooked on it!

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We’ve had this on our site for a while now, but it hadn’t arrived in the country until a few days ago. Check it out – the Joseph Joseph Cut & Collect.

It makes so much sense – don’t you wish you thought of this!? In my case, instead of just throwing away all the ‘organic waste’ bits in the bin, it could go one of two ways. Either they would make the table of  my kid’s miniature Angora rabbits, or they would be lovingly added as choice morsels to our newly established worm farm. Lovely stuff.

Beech wood forms the casing for a large dishwasher safe tray that pulls out to collect waste. Kept in place by a small magnet, the tray can be opened and closed as required and then removed completely and emptied into the bin. Stylish and practical, it has large handles cut into its side to make it easy to transport.

Joseph Joseph Cut & Collect

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Last night Sarah and I made our way to the launch of Origin Coffee’s new tea house – Nigiro.

Nigiro is simply ‘Origin’ spelt backwards and is a great representation of the synergy that the well established ‘coffee guys’ are hoping to achieve by having the two ‘opposites’ under one roof. Yin and yang, Origin is to coffee as Nigiro is to tea.

The Tea House is encapsulated in glass, away from the frenetic hustle of coffee on the go, steam and espressos. A tranquil environment is effectively established through the use of sound, scent and carefully placed lighting.

Mingwei Tsai, Nigiro’s tea connoisseur, poetically describes the ideal process: “The quality of tea is in its making. As tea leaves unfurl in the pot, they dance, unlocking their natural aroma and flavours. With the correct temperature and steeping time, tea manifests beautiful, natural notes that resonate with the dancing leaves. Wonderful company and the perfect setting complete the overall experience.”

Nigiro’s interior design is a fusion of Africa and Asia, from the colours, to the contoured wall, lighting, textured wood and floor finishings; as well as the authentic stone tea tray for traditional tea ceremonies. The back wall captures the idea of a tea plantation, guiding you into the land of tea, and ever further into the horizon. On this wall are handmade pots for the storage of tea leaves, made by two local potters. The selection of leaves is truly global – from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Argentina, Kenya, Germany, Malawi and South Africa.

Nigiro currently features over 80 varieties of the finest teas & blends, including white, green, oolong & black teas, as well as rooibos, herbal & fruit infusions. The experience encompasses all aspects of tea: from the desires of the passionate consumer in the High Mountain Tea Ceremonies to the professional needs of the café, restaurant, guest house and luxury hotel. In addition to its full range of teas & blends, a comprehensive range of accessories for home and professional use is available.

Check out the Nigiro website: www.nigirotea.co.za (When we last checked it wasn’t live yet)

In the meantime, have a look out our tea related products.

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Here’s something that could make your food prep a little more social and comfortable. It’s called the Lap Counter and it’s designed to ergonomically fit your lap and double up as a prep surface and bowl. It beats having to stand behind the counter for ages just to peel and dice your veggies, and it means that you can go mobile and move to the sofa to watch the latest episode of Prison Break. Sounds like freedom to me!

The down side is storage – not the easiest thing in the world to fit in your plastics cupboard.

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Typhoon’s Pantone Storage Jars caught our eye, particularly the one in Yuppiechef pink. We like!

We’re busy trying to track these Jars down – we’ll keep you updated.

Never heard of Pantone – read here.

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Designed by the non-flying Wright brothers for Joseph Joseph, the spring loaded Smasher turns any mundane mashing chore into a World Pogo Stick championship.The ‘Smasher’ has been specifically engineered to speed up mashing.Its efficient mechanism cups and traps the potato firmly in place, while the unique pump action plate mashes the potato. Also ideal for mashing fruit and other vegetables and it’s Dishwasher safe.

The Joseph Joseph Smasher coming soon on Yuppiechef…

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The latest addition to Jamie Oliver’s food-lifestyle-empire is the first of his Recipease stores which opened in Clapham Junction, London, last week. At Yuppiechef we’re great Jamie Oliver fans so there was no way I was missing the opening day.

Jamie Oliver's new Recipease Store, Clapham Junction, London

Described as ‘Jamie’s new food and kitchen shop where anyone can learn to cook and make great food,’ the combination of cooking and retail environments is cleverly done, taking a leaf (albeit a different leaf) from the book of my favourite small London eatery, Books for Cooks. But unlike a few other places that have tried similar setups, the cooking and retail environments feel very much a part of one another – no separate kitchen feeling here.

Olives, bowls, plates, herbs and that good kitchen feeling

The front of the store features a selection of Jamie’s JMe kitchen & home products along with wines, farmers market veggies, fresh breads and herbs and various other cooking essentials. Delving a little deeper one finds the kitchen area, ‘countrified’ by dangling pots, pans and vegetables while maintaining a contemporary feel. Dan, the store manager who I ended up having a good chat with after he kindly asked me to stop taking photographs of everything in the store (sorry, Dan), explained, “People know retail, so it makes sense to engage people through what they’re familiar with. Then once they’re engaged, they can be introduced to the kitchen concept which we feel is going to be a great success.”

The kitchen area is large enough for 14 people to each have their own station and the free-flowing, open plan design allows non-participating visitors to wander amongst the cooks. The brave could even steal a cheeky taste.

Recipease Kitchen

The big idea about Recipease is that you choose a few recipes you’d like to cook, book these online, go into the shop where all the shopping, chopping and preparing is done for you, and follow the simple step-by-step recipe under the guidance of chefs and then take it home to cook. A somewhat unusual approach to home cooking, but the location and feel of this store may just help this concept fly. 

A customer preparing a meal, ingredients prepared and portioned

What Jamie and his team have done so well to date is inspire people to embrace a love of food and cooking. With the opening of Recipease, we think he’s just taken that to the next level. We take our hats off to you and your team, Mr Oliver. Keep up the great work.

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Bodum has been available in South Africa for years now, admittedly with a very limited range of products (the standard french press/coffee plunger comes to mind). A whole new range of exciting Bodum products will be arriving this week and will effectively be ‘relaunched’ in SA. The brand is extensive and we look forward to seeing the general response to the range. Coming to Yuppiechef very soon. Now available on Yuppiechef.

Bodum Bistro Herb Chopper. Sweet!

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The UK’s Channel Four is running a season of programmes exploring the issues around the food that the British eat.

Heston Blumenthal, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay will be celebrating the best of British food and exploring issues around animal welfare in a number of hard-hitting films.

I absolutely loved the trailer for this “campaign” – if you know these guys, which you should -  you will agree that the Ad does an excellent job in portraying their unique little quirks.

Check it out:

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