Chef'Ease: How do you like your jam, ma'am?

* Chef'Ease products supplied for review purposes.

The blog heads to Wellington again this month, but this time, Wellington in South Africa - home of Chef'Ease products.

I agreed to taste test and (honestly) review the line of jams, so a day on which I baked bread (today) seemed like the perfect opportunity to do a bit of smearing (pun not intended).

Being the South African girl that I am, thick slices of bread straight out of the oven call mos for apricot jam.

Packaging: I'm a big fan of squeezy bag packaging when it comes to allergies and products that are usually easily cross contaminated. Let me set the scene: 

Daddy, mommy, boetie and sussie live in a house. One jar of jam. But sussie is allergic to wheat. Now boetie spreads strawberry jam on his wheaty toast, dipping the crumby knife into the jar of strawberry jam multiple times. Sussie unsuspectingly comes to breakfast and dips her clean knife into the cross-contaminated jar of jam, innocently spreading it (and all the wheaty toast crumbs) on her rice cake. Two minutes later: anaphylactic shock. 

What a way to start the day.

Solution? Squeezy bags of jam! 

(Someone please just teach boetie not to drag the plastic rim of the squeezy bag along his wheaty toast, for goodness sake!)

One point of contention: The lid. It is easy to open but those little twisty plastic bits on the lid are sharp and don't come off easily.

Deployment: I didn't think to shake the packet before opening it, so when I squeezed some jam onto my slice of bread, some sugary water spurted out before the really thick jam could be squeezed out.

Visual appeal: Good. Judging by the colour, it looks like apricots were involved in this jam's origin.

Spreadability: Excellent. Spreads easily and doesn't break my gluten-free bread (gluten does a sticky but important job when it comes to bread, so this was a big plus for me).

Texture: SUPER smooth! No lumpy or textured bits at all. 

Flavour: Excellent. Not overly sweet with a good hit of fruity tartness (just the way I love my apricot jam). No lingering aftertaste of anything other than apricots either. 

Since fresh, locally grown blackberries have (finally) made an appearance in Woolworths stores this December, I've been eating these pricey gems by the half punnet full (a girl has to share). May I just interject (in my own post) and say a hearty: "Thank you!" to whichever South African farmer decided to grow blackberries and not export them all! My taste buds and antioxidant levels are much obliged.

Anyway, the point of my verbal meander is to say that I was anxious to try the blackberry jam, since the only other blackberry jam I usually eat is St. Dalfour.

Deployment: I remembered to shake it before opening it. This jam is more runny than the apricot, so it shakes easier and you don't get "sugary water spurt" (now a technical term).

Visual appeal: Not great. It's true, blackberries are called BLACKberries, but when you view them up close in all their globular glory, they have hues of purple and reds. They are pretty berries. This jam has the visual appeal of primordial sludge.

Spreadability: Excellent. Spreads easily.

Texture: Very smooth.

Flavour: Really not my flavour at all. This was reminiscent of childhood pseudo-flavoured cough syrups with a distinct medicinal aftertaste. IMHO this doesn't do blackberries any justice. None of the fresh, sweet, tart flavours are imparted. I couldn't take more than one bite. To quote my friend Carolina's grandad: "Something is wrong here that should be right."

Third and final flavour: guava jam. Another South African staple (mos).

Deployment: Same as for the blackberry jam.

Visual appeal: Okay - a bit uneven but, again, it looks like it comes from guavas (or more like dried guava rolls, really).

Spreadability: Excellent. Spreads easily.

Texture: Very smooth. No teeth cracking on guava seeds in this jam.

Flavour: Tastes like guavas initially but then something ever so slightly bitter lingers in the aftertaste. Sweeter than the apricot jam with less tartness. I miss some tartness.

Winner, winner chicken dinner?

Apricot jam - hands down! In fact, I would actually now stop using other apricot jams and start using this as my first choice, that's how perfect the balance of sweetness to tartness is!

I can't comment on cost, since I don't now how much these products cost, but I'm guessing that it wont be anywhere in the region of imported Bonne Maman and St. Dalfour prices (i.e. pricey).

But you know, the thing about jam is that you use so little of it (comparatively speaking) and expect it to impart a big flavour punch in that small amount as well (I mean, I don't hear many people admitting to standing with a spoon in a jar of jam the way you would with, say, Nutella), so forking out money for the perfect tasting jam that is going to last you a while seems like money well spent.

So, what's your jam?

Restaurant Review: Fresh Earth Food Store

Since moving back to Pretoria from my beloved Cape Town, I have been silently mourning the lack of freely available gluten-free fare. In fact, most restaurants seem to think you are swearing at them when you enquire about the gluten-free status of menu items.

As fate would have it, I could've heard the heavens open up to hear old Will S. singing: "Sigh no more, lad(y), sigh no more...And be you blithe and bonny, converting all your sounds of woe into, 'Hey, nonny, nonny'", on the happy day I perchance stumbled across the website for Fresh Earth.

Situated in Komatie Road, Emmarentia; this health food store/bakery/eatery is a coeliac sufferer's dream come true. All suitable menu items are coded (gf) to offer peace of mind when ordering, and bakery items are labelled with a full list of ingredients when perusing the display cabinet.


The menu is diverse, offering breakfast options, salads, hot meals, burgers, sandwiches, smoothies, fresh juices, a variety of beverages and sweet treats. Temptation for trying a variety of menu items dictated that we conquer this corner of Emmarentia two Saturdays in a row. Below is the resulting photographic feast:

Frittata (gf)

Oven baked omelette filled with pesto roasted vegeatbles, saute tofu, goats feta and mozarella cheese.

This was delicately flavoured with a good balance of toppings. Vegetables were roasted to perfection, while the amount and varieties of cheeses used were not overpowering.

Avocado Pizza

Spinach, avocado and mozarella cheese (on a gluten-free base).

Base was crisp (a bit too crisp in places). Topping was, according to my hubby, "Simple yet tasty."

Pesto Pizza
Basil pesto, spinach, olives, Italian tofu, tomatoes, oregano and mozarella cheese (on a gluten-free base).

This topping managed to amalgamate a profusion of tastes, with none being singularly over-reaching. The basil pesto was sufficiently bouyant to make its presence known, while the Italian tofu was a little taste of vegan yum.

Tramazzini

Roast veggies, olives and mozarella cheese (served with a side salad) (non-gf)

While I can't vouch for the taste, my mom did take her leftover pita slices home with her, which is a testament of its own I suspect.

Chocolate Cake (gf)

Ah, the cake...my favourite part :-) Moist and dense without being overly sweet. The cocoa is what comes through here, which is exactly what a fan of 70%+ dark chocolate Lindt is wild about. Big thumbs up.

The Carrot Cake (gf) was also exceptionally good. We bought this as a take home version at R45 for a decent sized log cake. Ingredients are listed as: Rice flour; pineapple; carrots; oil; sugar; eggs; pecan nuts; cream cheese and spices. The topping adds a subdued lemon zesty zing, which balances out the sweetness of this extremely moist cake to perfection.

Since price and value-for-money are relative concepts, I can only offer that for two people (breakfast x 2, beverages x 3 rounds, cake x 2), the outing came to R240, while for three people (breakfast x 3, beverages x 2 rounds, cake x 3), the total was R340. Make of that what you will. A full menu with prices is available on the Fresh Earth website.

Having graduated from The Prue Leith College of Food and Wine in 2001 (now known as Prue Leith Chefs Academy), excellence in service was a mainstay in my training. As such, the make or break point of most restaurant outings for me is the service. Fresh Earth strikes a good balance here - friendly waitrons (fast, efficient, knowledgeable about their product, and attentive without being overly so...thank you Michael and Tryphina), impeccably polite manager (kudos to you, David) and smiling cashier (shine on, Rebecca!)

As with any production, the stage plays a part in making a lasting impression. The outdoor setting is lovely, with wooden tables under an awning, flanked by wheat grass and a red tractor (which seems to give most kids something to happily clamber about on, while having the odd side-effect of making my IT-ish husband want to refurbish old VW combis). The interior shop is well-stocked and lends itself to the element of 'browsiness', which I like.



In an otherwise stellar review, I have only two minor gripes. One, the bathroom arrangements are cramped, noisy due to the extractor fan, malodorous due to the trash cans and somewhat lacking in privacy should someone look out of their windows in the surrounding block of flats. Two, the indoor seating area. This space is cramped and lacks a good supply of fresh air, which isn't helped by the patroness using this area as a space for a rather loud Saturday morning business meeting at the adjoining table. That's it, end of complaints.

In summary, was the food good? Yes. Was the service good? Yes. Was the setting good? Mostly - outside is lovely. Would I go there again? A resounding, yes!

I offer up a hale and hearty high five to this quirky little gem :-)