Farm-style feast fails to make the grade
Guests roast mom and daughter duo’s Karoo menu
MY Kitchen Rules SA, on Sunday featured Cradock-based mother-and-daughter duo Lani and Louzel, who narrowly missed taking the bottom spot on the leader board as their farm-style feast fell short of everyone’s expectations.
They received a score of 64 out of 100, which means that the food dudes from Krugersdorp, Rein and Rowan, are still in last place with their score of 63.
“We’re going to pull out all of the stops and show them true Karoo hospitality, and bring a generation of knowledge to this competition,” Lani said confidently ahead of hosting their Instant Restaurant, aptly named “Farm 2 Feast” because of the fact that they were hosting their competitors and the judges at their own Angora goat farm.
But, despite having a three-generationfamily recipe book to rely on, the bubbly mother-and-daughter team got off to a rocky start.
Their starter of a chicken liver mousse, sesame tuile and thyme-infused olive oil did not go as planned, as the original dome settings that they’d intended to serve the mousse in collapsed. Lani and Louzel had to get creative and quickly came up with an alternative way to plate the dish.
Despite this, the consensus around the table was that the chicken livers not only lacked flavour, but that it wasn’t a suitable starter portion. “I must say, I’m disappointed,” judge David Higgs said.
Undeterred, Lani and Louzel got cracking on their main course: lamb shanks on parmesan polenta with glazed vegetables and pickled courgette spaghetti.
It was evident that they’d made this recipe many times before and were confident when serving it to their guests. However, the hearty flavours that their fellow competitors were expecting were not there.
“The meat and the vegetables were perfectly cooked, but that’s where it begins and ends for me,” Claudia said.
Things were not looking good for Lani and Louzel, while Rein and Rowan started growing more confident that they would not find themselves at the bottom of the leader board for much longer.
Lani and Louzel soldiered on with their dessert: malva pudding domes with salted caramel centres, candied ginger and a salted caramel crumb.
Luckily for them, the dish was packed full of flavours and textures which everyone found delicious.
“I would like to put this on the menu of my restaurant!” J’Something raved.
With their stellar dessert dish, the mother-and-daughter team just managed to scrape onto the leader board one point ahead of Rein and Rowan.
With only one more week to go for the first group of MKRSA Instant Restaurant contestants, the final team – Kelly and Claire – will have to put on an excellent spread to ensure that they aren’t the ones who could be sent packing in the first elimination of the show at their home in Johannesburg next week. My Kitchen Rules SA is broadcast on MNet channel 101 every Sunday night at 6pm. — DD