WHOLE FRESH FISH


There is nothing as easy and simply delicious!! Make sure it is properly gutted and scaled. You can rinse of any excess blood or guts under running water. Fill the belly with sliced lemon, fresh thyme and seasoning. Sprinkle the sides with lemon juice and olive oil. Follow with coarse salt, black pepper, chopped garlic, dried herbs and a sprinkle of paprika. Layer sliced lemon on the side facing up and topped with a few nobs of butter. Cover with foil and bake at 160 degrees until the flesh are soft at touch and easy to pierce through. Remove foil, base the fish with the pan juices and bake for 10 more minutes at 180 degrees (small fishes only 5 minutes.) Sit for 5 minutes and serve. You can serve it with a fresh salad, potato baked, mash or savory rice. 


ENJOY xxx

STICKY LAMBS RIBS: 


Cook 2 sides of rib in a flavoured stock until soft and just about falling off the bone. Remove and cool. Dice 1 large onion and fry with oil and salt until cooked through and translucent. Add in 10 ml crushed garlic and 10 ml mixed dried herbs and fry for 2 more minutes. Combine 125ml chutney, 125 ml tomato sauce, 30 ml lemon juice, 30 ml honey and 30 ml thick soy sauce. Add to the onions along with 400 ml of the stock. Simmer for 5 minutes. Brush over your ribs and bake at 180 degrees until sticky. Serve straight up with 'slap chips' and salad. Bon A Petit!! (par boil chicken wings or drumsticks and brush with the same sauce - delicious!!)

PORK CASSOULET 

Cassoulet – a slow cooked pork and bean dish - were traditionally made in the South of France and mainly consist out of pork, pork sausages, goose and beans and topped with breadcrumbs and crackling.

It became a nursery and comfort dish that are now made world-wide with a large variety of ingredients.

Beans were traditionally soaked in a mixture of aromatic herbs and vegetable stock – but using tinned beans will make no difference to your hungry family on a chilly winters night.

This is my variation on traditional cassoulet but with an eastern touch. – and soon will become one of your families favourits too.

(recipe will serve 6 people)

1 x Deboned pork shoulder cut into cubes

400 g of pork sausages

4 onions - sliced

4 large garlic cloves - chopped

20 ml masala

6 cardamom seeds

4 pieces of star anise

10 ml cinnamon

5 ml whole cumin

15 ml grounded cumin

2 whole dried red chilies

30 ml brown sugar

15 ml dried parsely

15 ml dried thyme

5 ml grounded ginger

1 piece of fresh ginger root – crushed

1 tomato puree sachet

1 liter chicken stock

1 tin Butter Beans

1 tin Red Kidney Beans

Gently brown die pork meat and sausages in a heave base pot over a hight heat.

Once browned – remove from stove and keep separate.

In the same pot – fry the onions with olive oil and salt until cooked through and translucent.

Add in the garlic and cook for 1 more minute

Combine the masala, cardamom, star anise, cinnamon, cumin, chilies, sugar and add to the onions. Fry for 2 more minutes until the spices are well toasted

Add in the parsley, thyme, ground ginger and ginger root followed by the pork and sausages.

Fry for a few minutes, making sure that the meat are well coated with the spices.

Combine the stock and tomato paste, add to the pot and simmer over a medium heat for 90 minutes.

Keep checking on it – stirring gently through once or twice.

You might need to fill on the stock.

Remove the cardamom, star anise, ginger & chili from the pot and add in the beans.

Gently simmer for 10 more minutes.

If needed – thicken the sauce with a cornflour paste.

Topped with lots of freshly chopped parsley & coriander and serve.

TIPS:

• This Cassoulet will freeze very well – but if you are planning on freezing it, do not add the beans, until it is defrosted and heated up.
• If you cant get hold of cardamom or star-anise, simply leave it out and add 5 ml of aniseeds.
• You can substitute the pork with lamb meat.
• A de-boned pork shoulder are traditionally called a 'pork butt'.

WHITE CHOCOLATE & GOOSEBERRY TART
 

This is a border line dessert between cheese cake and chocolate tart. But better you would not find.

Serve this at your next tea party - and your guest will beg for more.

250 ml Smooth Cottage Cheese

200 ml cream

5 ml vanilla essence

420 g white chocolate

gooseberry jam

Fresh gooseberries

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler
Heat cream and cottage cheese over a medium heat and add in the vanilla essence

Gently whisk the cream mixture to the melted chocolate until a smooth consistency has formed.

Spread a layer of gooseberry jam over the bottom of a prepared pastry case. (for this you can use a ready bake shortcrust base – or a tennis biscuit and butter base.)

Pour half of the mixture into the pastry case and top with a layer of fresh gooseberries.

Top with the rest of the white chocolate mixture and genly press more gooseberries around the edge of the tart.

Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving it.

This tart keeps up to 5 days in the refrigerator.

Happy Baking x

QUICK ONION, LEEK & BACON QUICHE

Very simple recipe for a delicious quick and easy savoury quiche.

It will keep well in the refrigerator for up to 4 day.  Simple reheat it

in a pre-heated oven of 160 degrees for 10 - 15 minutes.

RECIPE

Puff Pastry

2 Large Onions sliced

5 x celery sticks sliced

20 g crushed garlic

1 packet streaky bacon

10 ml salt & pepper

10 ml mustard powder

10 ml veggie spice

200 g cheddar grated

250 ml cream

3 eggs

2 egg yolks

Layer a quiche tin with the pastry and rest in freezer for 30 minutes

Prick with a fork and bake blind in a preheated oven of 180 degrees for 20 minutes

Remove blind bake material and bake for 10 more minutes without at a reduced heat of 140 degrees.

Meanwhile – sautee onions, celery and garlic until translucent and cook through.

Remove from frying pan and fry bacon until cooked.

Place onion mixture back in frying pan and add seasoning, mustard and veggie spice and fry for 5 more minutes. Remove pan from heat and cool mixture for 15 minutes.

Combine cream, eggs and yolks and add to the bacon mixture. 

Pour mixture in ready bake pastry case and bake at 160 degrees until just set.

Cool slightly and serve with a fresh green salad. 

ENJOY!! 

CHOCOLATE TART

You cant go without a quick, easy and very simple chocolate tart recipe.

This one are tried and tested more than just a few times and keep very well for a few

days in the refrigerated. 

CRUST
250 g Chocolate Ginger Snap Biscuits

Zest of One orange / naartjie

50 g Chopped Hazelnuts

2.5 ml coarse salt

1 whole Egg

100 g butter melted

Crush biscuits and add in zest, hazelnuts and salt

Add in egg and mix well.

Lastly add in the butter and combine well

Press down in a loose form tart tin and bake at 160 degrees for 10 minutes

Cool

(if the crust is a bit too crumbly – add more melted butter)

FILLING

350 g dark chocolate (70% if possible)

200 g smooth cream cheese

30 ml strong black coffee

200 g whipped cream

Melt the chocolate over a boiler.

Once melted add in the cream cheese and stir until melted and well combined.

Remove from the heat

Add in the hot coffee and whisk until a smooth texture has formed

Cool slightly and gently fold in the whipped cream

Pour in prepared and cooled pastry case and set in refrigerator for 2 – 3 hours.

Served with Fresh strawberries, mascarpone or chantilly cream, mango or berry coulis.

• This tart can keep up to 7 days in the fridge. Just make sure it is well covered or clingwrapped.
• You can leave the nuts out if allergic to it.
• Toast the hazelnuts in a pre-heated oven of 180 degrees before using it
• Substitute the ginger snap biscuits with romany creams or coffee biscuits
• Chantilly cream – are cream that has been whipped with icing sugar and vanilla essence added to it.
• Make a little extra of the crust (but without the egg) and crumble it on top of the tart when serving.
  you can also add a little of whiskey/kalua/amarula/vanilla to the coffee before adding it to the mix.

Happy Baking ! ! !

BEST BURGER IN TOWN

This is my famous burger patty recipe.  And you gonna look long and hard for anything better.

THE PERFECT PATTY

2 onions – finely chopped

20 ml salt

20 ml crushed garlic

10 black pepper

5 ml Masala

50 ml balsamic vinegar

50 ml chutney

50 ml worchester sauce

20 ml treacle sugar

200 ml dried herb breadcrumbs

2 whole eggs

50 ml mixed dried herbs

1 kg minced meat

Gently fry onions with salt until translucent and cooked through

Add in garlic, pepper, masala, chutney, worchester sauce and treacle sugar

Cook over a low heat until a pasty consistency forms

Add with breadcrumbs, herbs and eggs to meat and knead through well

Form 200g patties and refrigerate for 4 – 6 hours.

Fry on both side in a hot pan until a good crust appears.

Place in a pre-heated oven of 180 degrees and cook until desired done-ness.

Let patties sit for atleast 10 minutes before serving.

A FEW TIPS FOR THE BEST BURGER IN TOWN

• If you are short on time – use boerewors or wet droewors meat. Simply squeeze the meat out of the casing and shape into a patty.
• If you are scared that your patty might fall apart during the cooking process, coat it in flour and eggwash – this will help to bind it from the outside.
• To add a little bit of texture to your patty, coat it in breadcrumbs and fry in a bit of oil.
• Bake or fry your patties until perfection and see what works the best for you. When baking it in the oven it might have a slightly pale look to it – but this method will definitely ensure to get rid of all the excess fat in the meat.
• Allow your guests to built their own burger and make sure that there is enough condiments to choose from. Cheeses, pickels, preserves, lettuces, cook & raw onions, poached or fried eggs, spicy pastes like harissa or chermoula, pesto's, flavoured butters, crispy bacon and ham.
• Make sure that your burger bun is freshly baked. Use small focassia or ciabatta rolls instead of the traditional burger bun. Prego and garlic rolls is also a big winner. Slightly heat the buns in a pre-heated oven to freshen them up and crisp the outside crust.