Tag: dinner

Grilled Aubergine Burgers

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I don’t know about you, but I love aubergines (eggplant / brinjals)!

I’ve realised that a lot of people don’t know what to do with them, or haven’t even tried them before. They’re usually a hit with vegetarians because of their fleshy texture and is often used as a meat-substitute – but not in our house – no way! We love meat! So what better way to have aubergine, than with meat, on a burger!

This is a good paleo-friendly burger version – using grilled aubergine slices as the ‘bun’. You can put anything you feel like on your burger, but here’s what I did:

Grilled aubergine slices (brush with olive oil and grill on a griddle pan or straight on the braai / barbecue)

Sliced fresh tomatoes

Lettuce leaves

Fairview Blue en Blanc cheese (a creamy camembert-type cheese with blue vein running through – simply scrummy!)

Caramelised onion (onions sautéed in butter with a drizzle of honey and a splash of balsamic vinegar – sauté until nice and caramelised)

Burger patties (I used blouwildebeest – will also work nicely with ostrich or beef)

And last but DEFINITELY not least – grilled bacon strips

Assemble everything inbetween aubergine slices, secure with toothpicks and enjoy!

Aubergine burgers

Tapas-style platter & pannacotta for dinner

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What can I say – I have a teensy bit of an obsession with pannacotta…

The first time I made it, the gelatine didn’t dissolve properly and I used too much – leaving a weird blob of gelatine at the bottom. I made it again a few times and it either came out too runny, too ‘solid’ or too creamy. Well I suppose it can never be too creamy, but maybe the portions were too big and it was just too much ‘richness’..

So, I tried it again tonight, with half buttermilk and half cream and I set the gelatine in water first (might sound obvious, but all previous recipes I used called for the gelatine to be added straight to the warm cream mixture) and then added it to the cream mixture. This worked much better!  (Basic pannacotta recipe from Donna Hay – love her! – with my addition of peach & apricot.)

So here it is – buttermilk pannacotta with peach & apricot:

1 cup of cream

1 cup of buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp gelatine

2 tbs water

1/2 a cup of icing sugar

2 tsp chunky apricot jam

1/2 a peach, cut into thin slices

Mix gelatine with water, stir and set aside.  Heat cream, buttermilk, vanilla & sugar until sugar has dissolved. Add gelatine and let it dissolve properly.  Pass through a sieve and set aside.

Next, place peach slices into 2 cups or small ramekins and top with a teaspoon apricot jam in each. Pour pannacotta mixture onto the fruit, refrigerate for at least 7 hours until set.

To serve, simply invert onto a plate (insert a sharp knife and edge it all around the cup to loosen) and garnish with a sprig of fresh mint.

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{Best pannacotta ever!! Seriously – SO yum – a real winner!}

With summer on our doorstep, I decided to serve up a platter with all sorts of delights that we can simply eat ‘finger-food-style.

My platter consisted of:

Grilled aubergine (Brush with olive oil and grill on a griddle pan)

Goats cheese

Danish feta cheese

Roasted, cooled beets (leftover from our Heritage Day feast)

Assorted lettuce leaves

Marinated tomatoes (2 diced tomatoes marinated in salt, freshly chopped garlic and olive oil)

Slices of cabanossi sausage (smoked & cured pork sausage)

Crispy grilled chicken livers (dusted in flour, paprika & cayenne pepper, fried in butter & olive oil. To get them nice & crispy, place a weight on top while frying. I use the bottom of another pan or pot – this also helps to prevent splatter from when the livers ‘pop’)

Perfect summer’s meal – refreshing, romantic and delicious! We enjoyed our dinner outside on the patio with a glass of crisp Pinot Grigio.

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Enjoy! X

#dinner tonight: Zucchini Lasagna

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After having way too much {delicious, delicious, yet makes-you-feel-icky} bread yesterday {remember I don’t do much carbs these days and no bread really, so I’m not used to it anymore!}, I decided on a yummy zucchini lasagna bake.

Instead of using lasagna pasta, I used thinly sliced zucchini.

This is a classic dish,with 3 main components:

Bolognese mince sauce, bechamel or white sauce and lasagna (zucchini!)

For the bolognese sauce:

1/2 an onion

500g venison mince

peppadew spice

2 tsp tomato purée

1 can of Italian cherry tomatoes or chopped tomatoes

1 carrot, finely grated

1 clove of garlic, chopped

About half a cup of red wine (I used Porcupine Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon)

2 tbs brown sugar

salt

Sauté onions and garlic in olive oil until soft, then add mince and peppadew spice and cook through. Add tomato purée and carrot. Add can of tomatoes and sugar. Add wine and let it simmer and reduce slightly until all the flavours have mingled nicely. Season with salt.

For the bechamel sauce:

2 tbs butter

2 tbs plain flour

1 cup of warm milk

salt & white pepper

Heat butter in a saucepan and when it’s melted, whisk in the flour to form a paste. Slowly add warm milk in teensy bits and whisk furiously to ensure the paste stays smooth and silky while the milk is added. Once all the milk is added, you should have a thin-ish and smooth consistency. Continue to whisk over medium heat, allowing the sauce to thicken. Season with a pinch of salt & white pepper.

Layer in an oven dish: start with zucchini ribbons (I used about 5 that I sliced into 2mm strips), then a layer of bolognese, followed by white sauce. Sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese. Add another layer of zucchini and top with the rest of the mince. Sprinkle with more cheese.

Bake at 180C for 30 minutes.

Serve with mixed herb salad and avocado, a sprinkle of freshly ground salt and a drizzle of olive oil – enjoy! X

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Bobotie – Always a Favourite!

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After a nice weekend of relaxing and just taking it easy – visiting with some friends and drinking a bit too much wine – I decided on one of those good ol’ favourites: Bobotie.

I think this dish is perfect for a weekday dinner – you cook everything in one pot, add a bit of this and that – pop it in the oven and voila – dinner is done! You don’t even need to serve it with anything – just as is, is perfect. However, you can add a salad, or serve it with yellow rice (traditional way).

Tonight, we just had it as is, as I’ve had a lot to prepare for our #HeritageDay braai tomorrow. (You will have to wait for tomorrow’s post to see…)

Bobotie:

500g  venison mince

1 onion, chopped

1 tsp turmeric

2ml ground cloves

10ml masala powder

10ml mild curry powder

salt

1 egg

2 slices of stale white bread, soaked in water

10ml lemon juice

100ml raisins (soaked in water to make them extra juicy)

3 tbs apricot jam

3 tbs oil

Sauté onion in the oil and add spices. Sauté until the onion is soft and spices cooked out. Add mince and cook for a few minutes until the mince is almost cooked. (If you overcook the mince, it tends to make the dish very dry.)

Add lemon juice, apricot jam and raisins – cook a little bit more and mix through.  Remove from heat and add egg, as well as the bread, making sure you squeeze the excess water from the bread.

Mix through properly and scoop into a buttered oven dish.

Cover with savoury custard and place 4 bay leaves on top.

To make the savoury custard, beat 2 eggs together with half a cup of mil and a pinch of salt.

Bake at 160C for 45 minutes, until golden brown on top.

Enjoy! X

Bobotie

Caveman Bake & Corn Salad

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So you might be wondering, ‘what the heck is a caveman bake?!’…

It’s my version of a bobotie-inspired, meaty type of tart slash bake – and here it is:

You will need:

500g venison mince (you can use beef too)

footlong piece of cabanossi

3 eggs

half a cup of milk

salt & pepper to taste

1 punnet of pattipans (cut into quarters)

6/7 mushrooms (cut into quarters)

6 cherry tomatoes or 2 whole regular tomatoes

peppadew spice

1/2 a tsp of cumin

1/2 a tsp of cayenne pepper

1/2 a tsp of paprika

Woolworths fried onion sprinkles

olive oil

Start by heating olive oil in a skillet and cooking the pattipans, sprinkle with peppadew spice. Cook until al dente, you don’t want soggy pattipans – so gross!  Set cooked pattipans aside and use the same skillet to cook the mushrooms.  Same story, sprinkle with peppadew spice and add tomatoes and another glug of olive oil.  Set aside cooked mushrooms & tomatoes. In same skillet, cook the mince.  Add peppadew spice, cumin, cayenne pepper, cabanossi and paprika. Cook the mince until just done, you don’t want dry mince!  Next, layer all your ingredients in a baking dish:  mince and cabanossi at the bottom, then sprinkle with the fried onion sprinkles, next layer is the mushrooms & tomatoes and finally the pattipans. Pour egg and milk mixture (season with salt) over entire dish and place 3 bay leaves on top.  Bake at 180C for 30 minutes until set.

Caveman Bake

To make the corn salad, grill whole corn until cooked and golden.  Cut corn off the cob and toss with cherry tomatoes, sweet basil and mixed salad leaves. Serve with olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar.

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Oh yum – I LOVE eating! What would life be without food?! To finish off our delicious meal, we had some ‘homemade’ peanut butter ice cream.  Now I say homemade, because, yes I made it at home, but not from scratch… {yes yes… I NEED an ice cream maker!}

Anyways, so I just mixed plain vanilla ice cream with smooth peanut butter and golden syrup. Yummy yum yum!

Watch this space – soon I will be dazzling with my own homemade (proper homemade!) ice creams..!

Enjoy! X

Thursday – Asian-style venison with butternut squash

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I don’t know how much venison they eat in Asia, but nevertheless, this is my Asian-inspired venison with butternut squash:

500g stewing meat (I used venison)

2 tbs soy sauce

1 tsp fish sauce

2 cloves of garlic

1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, roughly chopped

2 red chillies, sliced open length-wise

peppadew spice (one my faves!)

1 cup of chicken stock

1 tbs honey

Place all these ingredients in your slow-cooker (so easy!) and cook on high for 3 hours. After 3 hours, remove meat from cooker and chop into pieces and remove bones. Return to cooker and add another splash of soy sauce, a dash more water and 3 tbs of sweet chili sauce. (Venison loves something sweet!)

Cook for another hour and serve with roasted butternut squash.

Enjoy! X

Wednesday – summery angelfish salad

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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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Monday dinner

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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

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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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