Homemade Raspberry Sauce

The raspberries as they start to cook & slowly disintegrate .....

The (almost) finished sauce, with raspberries now completely disintegrated and ready to be strained

The finished sauce after straining - such a gorgeous, deep red colour - and completely natural, too !

This is a deliciously tangy yet slightly sweet homemade raspberry sauce – once you try it, I guarantee you’ll never go back to the shop bought variety again ! I usually make a large batch – this recipe yields around 800 ml’s of sauce - and it is well worth it (but you can always halve the quantities below if you prefer).

It can be served either warm or cold over ice cream, meringues, waffles, pancakes, chocolate cake, chocolate mousse or a hot sponge pudding. (You can even eat spoonfuls of it just on it’s own straight out of the fridge *wink* *wink*).

I use frozen raspberries for this recipe, but I’m sure that fresh would work just as well. Alternatively, you could also use another berry (like blackberries, strawberries or blueberries) to make this versatile sauce -:


Homemade Raspberry Sauce

4 tbsp Cornflour (Corn Starch)
6 tbsp Sugar*
¾ cup warm Water
6 cups frozen Raspberries

Place the cornflour, sugar and warm water in a large, heavy based pot and put on a gentle heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved, then add the raspberries. Mix all together and bring to a gentle boil, stirring every so often to prevent sticking. Turn the heat down and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes (keep stirring every now and then). As you stir the raspberries will break up/disintegrate and you will be left with a lovely ruby red pulp. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly, before straining to remove all the pips. Store the sauce in a sealed container in the fridge until ready to use.

(This recipe yields around 800 ml’s of raspberry sauce)

*depending on the tartness of your raspberries, you may need to add more or less sugar – which is a good excuse to taste the sauce as you go along !

Mountains, Meringues & Magnificent Sunsets ....

Oh my goodness - it's Saturday already and this past week has just flown by ..... there were so many things I wanted to blog about, but they'll just have to wait for now as I buzz around crazily today, getting ready for a crowd of friends we have coming to the farm tomorrow for the day .... including children, there will be between 13 and 16 of us altogether & I am doing all the cooking for the lunch we hope to serve out on the veranda .... weather permitting. So, the photo above is what our house/garden looks like now that it's Winter ... and the photo below shows what I've been up to my eyeballs in so far today - meringue mix ! This is for part of the dessert I plan to serve .... which I'll put on the blog soon .....

And speaking of meringue .... and whipped white peaks .... here is a photo below of part of Mt. Kilimanjaro's icy snow cap - as viewed from our garden this week, too ..... (click to enlarge the photo for a better view).

Now, you know from past experience that I often forget to take photo's of the food and table settings etc when we have a crowd of guests over .... I hope I won't forget tomorrow, but just in case -this is what I'll be serving .... for pre meal snacks (a.k.a. 'bitings' here in Tanzania) I'll be making Cheese & Herb Twists, served with small wooden bowls of cheese, marinated olives and pickled onions .... then the main course will be (well I keep changing my mind on this one) probably 'Chicken & Broccoli Bake' with 'Oven Baked Carrots In Sherry & Honey' and Roast Potatoes and then for dessert I've made meringues and homemade fresh raspberry sauce which I'll serve with cream (no fresh cream to be had in the city this week, so tinned cream will just have to do !) .... afterwards, some nice Tanzanian tea and coffee and small pieces of Mum's Zimbabwean Fridge Cake (click on any of the above bold links to find where the recipe for each has appeared on my blog before).

So, I hope that everyone will enjoy the day and that it is warm and sunny (else we'll be eating inside, instead). Yesterday was one of our coldest days yet, with such thick mist I couldn't see past the bottom of the garden until lunch time when the sun came out. To make up for the misty, grey morning though, we had another magnificent sunset. The staff were just leaving (it was a late day for them as we have so much work to do before Sunday) and looked at me oddly when I threw my arms in the air and shouted from the veranda 'See ! This is why I live in Tanzania ! Look at that - just look at that !' as they gave me odd looks (and the dogs got excited and started barking at my heels) as I ran inside to get my camera and started snapping away ..... because I wanted to share the beautiful sunset with you too, below ...........

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone - and I'll be back on Monday with a recipe for that yummy Raspberry Sauce ........

Glazed Lemon Pepper Chicken

This Glazed Lemon Pepper Chicken is easy to make - and tasty, too ! (Read on to find out why my chicken looks so pink !)

Here is another easy chicken recipe, which also has stacks of flavour. It is cooked together with potatoes and as a result the potatoes have a lovely sweet flavour to them ….. mmmmm !

The recipe calls for chicken breasts, but as I had none in my freezer last week when I made this dish, I simply used mixed (skinless) chicken pieces instead. (Another change which I made to the recipe was by par boiling the potatoes before cooking them together with the chicken.)

I know that my chicken in the photograph above has a pink hue to it. This is fairly common of chicken here in Tanzania, even when it is well cooked. When my husband & I ran safari camps here and had chicken on the menu, I often had to warn our guests not to be alarmed ! I have been told that this happens when the chicken is too young, or if it has not been hung properly after slaughtering or due to varying haemoglobin levels in the chicken’s tissues. I’m really not sure of the exact reason, only that I am so used to it now that I don’t even notice it anymore (and have never become sick after eating pink chicken as it is well cooked !)

A lot of the chickens here are fed on a rich diet of fish meal, and as a result we sometimes get batches of chicken which taste very much like fish (especially if you cook them and then reheat them – this seems to accentuate the fishy flavour !) When I have a lot of fishy tasty chicken, I cook it in strong sauces (e.g. a curry) so that it is not so noticeable – else fussy husband refuses to eat it !

Anyway, here is the recipe for you to try -:


Glazed Lemon Pepper Chicken (from the Good Food Magazine/BBC Book ‘101 Low-Fat Feasts’)

4 skinless, boneless Chicken breasts
4 tbsp clear Honey
Finely grated zest & juice of 1 Lemon
2 Garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp Dijon Mustard
2 tsp freshly ground Black Pepper
750 gm/1 lb 10 oz baby salad Potatoes or larger ones, halved
Steamed Broccoli florets, to serve (or green beans)

Slash each chicken breast two or three times with a sharp knife. In a shallow dish mix the honey, lemon zest and juice, garlic, mustard and black pepper. Add the chicken and turn to coat. Leave to marinate for 30 minutes or preferably overnight. Preheat the oven to 220’C/425’F/Gas mark 7. Arrange the potatoes & chicken in a single layer in a shallow-sided roasting tin & pour any excess marinade on top. Roast for 25-30 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and the chicken is cooked. Serve with broccoli & any pan juices.