Wednesday – summery angelfish salad

I saw a snippet of a master class from Masterchef last week, where they made some sardine salad and it really looked delish, but then of course I couldn’t find the recipe.

So, inspired by that, I created this fresh and flavoursome angelfish salad:

For the greens, I used a butter lettuce torn into pieces (enough for 2 people), topped with grilled carrot ribbons and green beans, cucumber ribbons, diced papaya and thinly sliced fresh pears.

I grilled the carrots and beans for 8minutes.

Dressing for the carrots & beans:

Half a tsp sesame oil

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tbs soy sauce

2 tbs honey (I grilled the carrots & beans in this dressing – keep leftover dressing)

Dressing for the salad:

2 tbs olive oil

Juice of half an orange

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp honey

Pan fry fish in butter & olive oil for about 2-3mins on each side until just cooked and golden on the outside.  Place cooked fish in the leftover dressing from the carrots.  Cut into strips and place on top of salad.

This was a seriously delicious salad – perfect for summer!

For dessert, I made a vanilla pannacotta. For some reason I just cannot get this right! It’s either been too soft, or the gelatine hasn’t dissolved properly and I was left with a funny layer at the bottom of the dessert, or like tonight, I used too much gelatine and the pannacotta was too firm… Next time will be a winner! Nevertheless, it tasted great and now I know exactly how much gelatine to use next time.

For 2 pannacottas:

500ml cream

a quarter cup of sugar

the seeds from half a vanilla pod

1 sachet (10g) gelatine powder from Woolworths

Heat the cream slowly over a low heat, add sugar and dissolve.  Add vanilla and gelatine.  Stir over low heat until gelatine is dissolved completely, taking care not to let it boil. The gelatate does take a while to dissolve, so be patient!

Serve with fresh strawberries – enjoy! XImage

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Tuesday dinner

Mince pockets filled with raisin relish and wrapped in bacon

I do love bacon! Who can live without it?! Like I’ve mentioned previously, most of the meat I use is venison (blouwildebeest to be exact), but all these recipes can be made with beef too.

I usually make this with stewed prunes and cling peaches, but tonight I used the leftover raisin relish from yesterday’s dinner.

500g venison mince

1 tablespoon peppadew spice

half a teaspoon salt

half a teaspoon paprika

half a teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons raisin relish juice

1 egg

1 tablespoon tomato paste

Mix all ingredients together. Now, take your bacon rashers and place them in a muffin pan in a cross-shape with the ends draping over the side of the pan (to fold over the filling later.). Add a spoonful of mince mixture, press down and create a hollow for the relish. Add spoonful of relish and cover with more mince.  Wrap the ends of the bacon over the parcel and secure with a toothpick. Bake at 180C for 30 minutes until cooked.

Serve with a salad (I made a simple salad of lettuce, roast pine nuts, carrot ribbons, fresh basil and tomatoes)

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Monday dinner

Tonight I made spicy chicken livers, served with sweet potato mash and a raisin relish, along with a salad.

Spicy chicken livers, sweet potato mash & raisin relish

Spicy chicken livers, sweet potato mash & raisin relish

For the livers:

500g chicken livers

butter

olive oil

red chillies

salt & peppadew seasoning

Heat oil & butter in a pan, and add the chopped red chili.  Add chicken livers and season. Place a weight on top of the livers to compress them and ensure a crispy outside.  Fry until cooked and crispy.

For the mash:

sweet potatoes (I used 2)

butter salt

Boil sweet potatoes in salt water until tender, mash and stir in butter.

For the relish:

(I used a recipe from Taste magazine of Mariana Esterhuizen)

1 cup of giant mixed raisins

2 cups rooibos tea

teaspoon lemon zest and lemon juice

Steep raisins for an hour in the tea, add lemon juice and zest and let it boil, then simmer until reduced to a syrupy consistency.

Serve mash with livers and the relish – add a fresh green salad.

Enjoy! X

On the menu this week

Like I’ve mentioned, I love lists and ‘listy’ things – so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I like to do a menu for each week, and then I shop accordingly.

Here’s this week’s dinner menu: (I will post a photo and recipe for each day)

Monday

Spicy chicken livers with sweet potato mash and a raisin relish

Tuesday

Game mince pockets wrapped in bacon, served with a salad

Wednesday

Angelfish salad and a berry panacotta for dessert

Thursday

Thai-style salad

Friday

Roast chicken with roast veg

Saturday

Slow-roasted leg of wild boar with roasted beets and a caprese salad – along with some scrummy cake for dessert

We have a get-together with all our neighbours on Sunday, yay!

*I use mostly game meat or venison – whatever you’d like to call it – in my cooking, I apart from chicken or pork, which I just get from the local supermarket.  (However, the wild boar is wild game.)

One of Eben’s best friends goes hunting every season and he supplied us with our venison.  Now, the reason for us going the ‘wild’ route, is health (we’re trying to eat as paleo as possible – and how much more paleo can you get than hunting for your own meat?!) and also cost (it works out to almost half the price of what you pay for hormone-injected beef in the supermarket! Plus it tastes way better!)

Watch out for these recipes this week, along with a snappy…

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The great South African braai tradition…

What better way to spend a lazy Sunday than with friends, having a braai and enjoying a perfect Jozi summers (well, spring actually, but it sure feels like summer!) day…

Today we did just that – what a lovely day!

On the menu we had burgers (minus the bun – gluten-free, remember?) with a balsamic onion relish and sweet mustard, game boerewors and kebabs. We also had a simple caprese-style salad, some ‘braai broodjies’ (always a braai favourite!) and roasted mielies. Yum! Simple and delicious.

Oh, did I mention wine? Yes we had some nice wine too! (Wouldn’t be a perfect day without some wine!)

(Next time I will remember to take a photo…)

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