Warthog Pie

 

Warthog Pie

Leftovers… What leftovers?! I used most of the leftover meat from a warthog roast we made a few days ago. (I froze the meat)

I hate wasting food and and there is usually something creative and tasty you can do with leftovers – especially meat. Just be sure to freeze it if you’re not going to use it straight away.

Anyway, so here’s my recipe for a delicious, juicy warthog pie: (You could use regular pork meat too!)

Leftover warthog meat (in a sherry, ginger & quince glaze – see my post Warthog Roast), +-800g, cut into small pieces

1 carrot, diced

250g peas

500g streaky, fatty bacon (warthog meat is very lean and loves a bit of fattiness!)

1 onion, chopped

1 cup of dry white wine (I used Pinot Grigio)

1 1/2 cups of chicken stock

Sauté onion in olive oil and add carrots. Add diced bacon, warthog meat and peas – cook until bacon is cooked. Add wine and stock and let it simmer for a good 1/2 hour at least.

Let the mixture cool, then add 3 tbs of flour to thicken it up while baking. Put filling into a pie dish and cover with puff pastry. Brush with egg and bake at 180C for 40 minutes until golden brown.

Enjoy with a yummy salad – we had roast beet, goats cheese & walnuts on a bed of mixed lettuce and drizzled with olive oil.

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#BraaiDay – Roast Pork Neck with Apple & Sage stuffing

Our Braai Day feast consisted of:

Corn bread & chicken liver paté for starters

Roast (and lightly smoked) pork neck stuffed with Apple & Sage

Roast beet & goats cheese salad

Buttery roasted sweet potato

Peach tart for dessert

Roast Pork:

2kg deboned pork neck

Woolworths BBQ rub (a brown sugar & coriander rub)

2 large granny smith apples, peeled, cored & cubed

butter

4 slices of thick white bread, crusts removed and cubed

8 fresh sage leaves

handful of dried apples

olive oil

brown sugar

1 onion, diced

1 egg, beaten

Slice pork neck open length-wise, but not all the way through – you should be able to fold open and have one large piece of pork.

Deboned pork neck

Rub with olive oil and BBQ rub – I used about half a pot – inside and outside. Fold the pork neck closed, place in a casserole, clingwrap and refrigerate overnight.

In a skillet or casserole, sauté onions, apples & sage until soft. Remove from heat and add bread, salt & pepper, egg and half a cup of brown sugar. Let this mixture cool before stuffing the pork.

Remove pork from fridge a while before stuffing, allowing it to get to room temperature.

Fold open the pork and spread stuffing mixture over the entire piece of pork.

Stuffing on pork

Roll up up gently, keeping all the stuffing inside. Fasten with string or secure with toothpicks.

Roast or smoke for 2 hours at 120C. (We smoked it low & slow, just to give it a hint of smokiness – but you can just roast it too.)

Roast pork

Roast beet & goats cheese salad:

Place beets into a casserole & rub with olive oil, balsamic & salt. Roast until tender (2hrs). Let them cool, peel and cut into quarters.

Toss cooled en roasted beets with mixed salad leaves, goats cheese chunks and ribboned cucumber. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts and serve with olive oil & balsamic vinegar.

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Buttery sweet potatoes:

Cut sweet potatoes into quarters, place dollops of butter on top and inbetween, sprinkle with peppadew spice and roast for 2hrs with the pork (in a separate casserole).

Corn bread: (recipe from Sarie.com)

500g self-raising flour

3ml salt

50ml sugar

30ml sunflower oil

2 eggs – beaten

200ml evaporated milk

1 can of creamed corn

100g grated cheddar

1tbs chopped parsley

Mix flour, salt & sugar. Whisk together oil, eggs & milk and add to flour mixture. Add rest of ingredients and mix well.

Place in a greased black ‘braai’ pot and bake on the coals (also place hot coals on top of the lid) for an hour.

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Chicken liver paté: 

1kg chicken livers, cleaned

1 onion

1 cup of brandy

salt & pepper

1/2 cup of cream

bay leaves

butter

Soak chicken livers in brandy for an hour (do not discard liquid). Sauté onions in butter until soft. Remove livers from brandy. Add to onions and fry until cooked and no longer pink. Season with salt & pepper. Add cream. Transfer to blender and blend to a smooth consistency. Add the brandy that you soaked the livers in. Add half a cup of butter (soft) and blend until properly mixed.

Pour into desired dishes and top with melted butter and a bay leaf – refrigerate overnight.

Serve with corn bread.

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Peach tart:

1 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of butter

1/4 cup of milk

1 cup of flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

3 dessert peaches

Cream together sugar & butter. Add milk And mix. Add eggs and mix again. Sift together flour, baking powder & salt and add to egg mixture. Place in greased tart dish, top with thinly sliced peaches and bake at 180C for 40 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

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Enjoy! X

Paleo burgers & polenta chips

I’m such a huge Masterchef fan and I saw a great idea from SA finalist, Leandri – polenta chips (aka fries).

So I decided to try it out.  Tonight we had paleo burgers (no bun!) with these yummy fries:

grill patties (I used venison) and stack with cheese slices, tomato, lettuce and basil. I also used a bit of mayonnaise and whole grain mustard on the patty after grilling.

serve with polenta chips:

cook polenta and pour into a buttered dish to set.  Once set, turn out from dish and cut into thick chips.  Dust with raw polenta and deep fry in sunflower oil until golden & crisp. Serve with tobasco mayonnaise.

We had real 80’s style retro dessert tonight – I made lemon ‘snow’ puddings from the South African classic ‘Kook en Geniet’ cookbook.

1.5 tbs gelatine

1/4 cup cold water

1 cup boiling water

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice and grated rind of half a lemon

2 egg whites

Pour gelatine powder into cold water and dissolve this in the hot water.  Add sugar, lemon juice & rind.  Let the sugar dissolve and pass through a sieve.  Let mixture cool and start to set.  Once it has started to get firm, whisk until it has a fluffy and frothy consistency. Whisk egg whites until stiff and fold into gelatine mixture.  Place in a mold or glasses and set in fridge.

Enjoy! X

Paleo burger & polenta chips

 

Snow pudding

 

Rosemary & Yoghurt Roast Chicken

Roast chicken

This heat is making me super lazy! So here’s another easy & super tasty recipe:

Rosemary & yoghurt roast chicken

a cup of plain yoghurt (you can use low-fat / Bulgarian or Greek)

sprig of fresh rosemary, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

pinch of salt

pinch of freshly ground black pepper

2 tbs lemon juice

half a cup of sauvignon blanc

3 tbs olive oil

Mix all ingredients and marinade one whole chicken (with skin is best!) for about an hour.

Roast in the oven or your grill for an hour and 45mins at a low heat of 150C. The low heat makes the chicken more succulent and if you’re using a grill (like a Big Green Egg or Weber), it imparts a delicious smokey flavour to the chicken. I used a small dutch oven to roast chicken in – for an hour and 20mins and the last half hour I placed chicken directly onto the grill to brown and get crispy.

Delicious – we just kept it simple and had a tomato, basil & feta cheese salad with the chicken.

Enjoy! X

Warthog Roast

Big Green Egg

What a fab day – sunny Joburg with good friends, good wine & good food!

We tried out a new recipe today for warthog (I’ve never made or eaten warthog before…) from Shiny Happy People by Neil Roake (I love this cookbook!).

1 leg of venison (bush pig – I used warthog)

5 onions peeled & quartered

2 thumb-sized pieces of fresh ginger, peeled & crushed

freshly ground salt & black pepper

olive oil

200ml sherry

225g quince cheese (quince jelly)

Rub meat with olive oil, salt & pepper.  In a large casserole, brown meat on all sides & set aside.  Add onions & ginger to the same casserole used to brown the meat and sauté.  Add sherry to deglaze.  Return the meat to the casserole and add random dollops of the quince jelly.  Cover and slow-roast in a pre-heated oven of 160C For 3-4 hours.

Now, I adapted this recipe slightly by doubling all the quantities (except the onions) because of the huge piece of meat I used.  Also, we roasted it in our Green Egg.

The result – delicious and slightly sweet meat!  Next time I would just add more liquid halfway through the cooking process and have the temperature even lower – maybe at 120C for 4 hours.  The sauce was just a tad bit too reduced for me… But still delicious nonetheless!

Warthog roast

Sides:

Mielies (corn on the cob) with butter – always a braai favourite!

Roast beets with balsamic vinegar, olive oil & feta cheese

Scrumptious salad with roasted tomato & Danish feta with avocado – made by my friend Karin

Dessert:

Summer Berry Pavlova

This might just be my all-time favourite dessert – and healthy too! (Just egg whites & fruit… Oh yes, and a bit of cream and sugar too… Just a bit ;))

Summer Berry Pavlova

6 egg whites

pinch of cream of tartar

1.5 cups of castor sugar

1.5 tsp corn starch

pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp red wine vinegar

Whisk egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form.  Add sugar slowly, along with the corn starch & salt until glossy and stiff peaks form.  Fold in vanilla & vinegar.  Place on baking paper, in a round or oval shape.  Bake at 120C for 1.5 hours and let it cool in the oven.

Top with sweetened whipped cream (I use regular cream, whipped with castor sugar), fresh strawberries (cut and sprinkled with castor sugar), blueberries, gooseberries & pomegranate seeds.  Dust with icing sugar, serve & enjoy!

x

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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