Indulging that sweet tooth

First up is HIFA — from April 30 to May 5 followed by Restaurant Week starting on May 17, and all culminating in Africa Day celebrations and an inaugural Harare carnival! Eatout website is still under construction but adverts have revealed a new website dedicated specifically to restaurant week. I am mystified as to why Guy Fieri who hosts Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network — a programme dedicated to gutsy ‘guy’ food usually in huge proportions — features on the homepage. Is he coming?
Probably not. All the same with seventeen participating restaurants offering menus from US$15 to US$25, this year’s restaurant week has a lot to offer.
Check out www.zolrestauran       tweek.co.zw for more information and detailed menus from the participating outlets.
Trawling through the large HIFAprogramme is a pleasant task but very difficult to choose shows. With tickets ranging from minimum US$6 for entry to the grounds, access to Coca Cola Green and roaming free shows, up to US$15 for big mainstage events, keeping to a budget is essential.  But it certainly won’t be possible to experience everything on offer. 
I am looking forward to tonight’s exciting local sounds of mbira punk sensation Chikwata 263 (Coca Cola Green at 4pm) followed by the Noisettes (tonight on mainstage — US$12) — an English Indie Rock outfit from London, featuring bassist and vocalist Shingai Shoniwa of Zimbabwean heritage and guitarist Dan Smith. Local acts are shining this year. Combinations to look out for include Busi Ncube and Edith Wetonga, (Saturday 4) and Hope Masike with Bokani Dyer and Muzila Malembe (Sun 5). 
Billed as Daughters of Legends — Selmore Mutukudzi and Nkulee Dube are two young songbirds to watch. (Fri 3rd on mainstage).
Prudence Katomeni and Alexio Kawara will already have performed — as will Victor Kunonga and Bheki Khoza — but you can catch that magic combination again at Book Café on Saturday night.
The Hivos poetry café in the National Gallery garden also promises some special spoken word performances. Curated by Chirikure Chirikure assisted by ‘Outspoken’ Makawa and featuring a line up of international and local poets — this is the place for wordsmiths to hang out.
Too busy browsing through programmes and menus to eat out this week, and looking forward to sampling several restaurants later this month, I looked out some low calorie recipes to satisfy a sweet tooth without piling on the kilos.
Quick and easy to put together, no-cook strawberry tart  (adapted from Food and Home magazine) is light and delicious as a dessert or with an afternoon cup of tea. Okay — it does include some butter and cream — but no sugar — so you can still feel virtuous.  Use amaretto biscuits for the biscuit base — if you can find them. I couldn’t and presume they would be expensive if available.  Otherwise compromise with shortbread or digestive biscuits mixed with ground almonds. Whole unblanched almonds are readily available now at Food Lovers Market and though pricy you don’t need many. About 100g in this case. I ground them in a food processor and then added the biscuits — I used three quarters of a pack of eet-sum-mor.
Melt 100g butter and add to the crumbly mixture.  Press into a tart tin and refrigerate for 30 minutes.  For the filling whip 1 cup of cream with 2 tsp lemon zest until slightly thickened, add 1 cup of natural yoghurt and the sieved pulp of 2 large granadillas. Pour into the tart case and refrigerate again.  When ready to serve, top the tart with halved strawberries and dust with icing sugar.
– g.jeke@yahoo.com