Classic Roast Chicken

March 13, 2014Leave a comment

When you think of the perfect roast chicken, you’re probably reminded of flavours like rosemary, lemon & garlic. For me at least, those are the perfect classic flavours for chicken… You can never go wrong – trust me.
So here it is – classic roast chicken with rosemary, garlic & lemon:

You will need:
1 large whole chicken
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 small sprig of rosemary
Course sea salt
1 lemon
Olive oil

Halve the lemon and use the juice of one half for the ‘marinade’. Place the other half of the lemon inside the chicken.
In a mortar and pestle, combine the garlic, rosemary and salt – grind to a smoothish paste and add olive oil & lemon juice.
Rub the chicken with this and give it a sprinkle of ground black pepper. Let it sit for a while before cooking.

Roast the chicken in an oven dish, in a pre-heated oven of 180C for about an hour or until the chicken is cooked.
I always turn the chicken over, halfway through, just to ensure it gets a nice golden colour all-over. {Like an even tan!}

Once the chicken is cooked {juices should run clear}, let it ‘rest’ for a bit before carving.

Enjoy with any scrumptious salad or a few yummy roasted sweet potatoes. X

Thick cut grilled rump steak with caramelised tomatoes & onions

March 11, 2014March 11, 20142 Comments

Nothing beats a good steak, but it’s also so easy to get wrong…
I honestly never order steak at a restaurant, because I am convinced I’ll have a better one at home. Steaks should be kept simple, paired with something fresh and tasty, not covered in some bland sauce.

I asked my butcher for a very thick cut rump steak – perfect for serving nice and rare, with a beautiful fatty strip on the outside, grilled to perfection.
I rubbed the steak with olive oil, freshly ground course salt and black pepper.

You will need:
Large, thick cut rump steak {probably 1kg}
Olive oil
Freshly ground sea salt & black pepper
Mixed baby salad leaves
Avocado
Rosa tomatoes
1 onion
1 tbs honey
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
Halloumi cheese

Slice the onion and sauté in butter. Once it’s soft, add honey and balsamic vinegar and let it caramelise on a low heat. Add tomatoes and let it all caramelise some more. {You can make this quite a bit in advance and just reheat before serving.}

Rub the steak with olive oil, salt & pepper and let it sit for a while before grilling. You also need the steak to be at room temperature before cooking it to ensure even cooking and so that you don’t have an ice cold centre if you’re doing a rare steak.
Grilling the steak is the best idea – either on your Big Green Egg {best!} or Weber or just a normal braai.
Make sure the grill is very hot. Cook the steak for about 5 minutes on each side and again for another 2 minutes each side. You will need to check the steak and see that it’s to your liking.

While the steak rests, grill halloumi slices in a hot pan until just melted.

Now, place a handful of salad leaves on the plate, top with a few slices of avocado.
Slice the steak and arrange a few slices on top of the salad. Top the steak with halloumi cheese and then the tomatoes & onions.
Season with salt & pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.

Enjoy with a glass of crisp Sauvignon Blanc – yes, white wine with red meat..! {Shock, horror, gasp!}
It’s such a refreshing meal, with the creaminess of the halloumi cheese, essentially a salad, and it goes so well with the white wine. A red wine would just be too heavy.

Anyways – give it a try and enjoy! X

My twist on the classic Caprese Salad

March 4, 20142 Comments

As you know, I love simple flavours, using less ingredients and letting them shine.
Well, the caprese salad is such a great example of simple flavours that shine: from Capri, it usually consists of sliced fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and sweet basil, drizzled with olive oil & salt.
Now, as you also know, I love aubergine. No, I LOOOVE aubergine!
Long ago, like, a couple of years, I made these yummy aubergine stacks with grilled polenta, tomato and basil. I guess that’s where my Caprese was born, because I’ve made versions of it ever since.
Right, let me get to the point…

You will need:
Aubergine, sliced
Mozzarella or a soft white Gouda, sliced
Tomatoes, sliced {I used rosa tomatoes, but any will do}
Sweet basil
Pine nuts
Olive oil
Salt

Rub the aubergine slices with olive oil and grill until golden. Let it cool and place on a serving plate.
Top with sliced cheese, tomato and basil.
Dry roast pine nuts and scatter over the salad. Drizzle with olive oil and salt.

This salad is great as a starter, as it’s meant to be enjoyed traditionally, or as a side dish to a roast chicken. In fact, I’d say it’s brilliant with chicken!

The result – a nutty and earthy salad with the freshness of basil & tomatoes.
I could easily and happily eat the entire plate!
Enjoy! X

Light, crispy & super-tasty coconut fish with curried mayo

February 26, 20141 Comment

From the the Real Meal Revolution – a definite winner!

I’ve never really been one for crumbed and fried stuff, they always just seem to taste of oil & breadcrumbs, but then I saw this recipe from my current favourite book and decided to try it out.
Well, it’s deeelish! Using desiccated coconut instead of breadcrumbs and butter or coconut oil instead of sunflower oil makes all the difference.
You have to use a good quality fish though, as the fish is the hero of the dish, there’s no masking the flavour with breadcrumbs and other nasties.
With it’s pure and bold flavours, I can easily imagine eating this dish somewhere in the south of India or the Caribbean…

You will need:
White fish, cut into strips {I used fresh hake fillets from Woolworths, cleaned and deboned – skin on – I know, how lazy of me..!}
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Desiccated coconut
Coconut oil or butter for frying {I used butter}

Very simple – just dip the fish strips in the egg, then coconut, then fry until golden and just cooked. There’s nothing worse than overcooked, rubbery fish!

For the curried mayo:
1 onion, diced
1 tsp curry powder
1 thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Mayonnaise
Butter
Sauté the onion in butter and add curry powder, garlic & ginger. Sauté until the onion is soft and fragrant.
Add to a few dollops of full-fat mayo and blitz with a stick blender.

Voilà – all done! Serve with a nice refreshing salad and a wedge of lemon.

Broccoli & Bacon Salad

February 24, 20144 Comments

My son won’t eat anything green – unless it’s sweets or green tomatoes from the garden…
He loves other veggies and has a very healthy appetite, but for some reason won’t touch the Good Greens… {Except for green beans, he likes those.}
Anyways, so I made this salad over the weekend, along with a pork roast, and he just LOVED the broccoli ‘trees’!
I honestly didn’t think he would even eat it, but I always try, you never know…
So this is definitely a hit with the entire family!

You will need:
Cabbage, shredded
Butter
Broccoli
White wine vinegar
Mixed and salted nuts, roughly chopped
Dates, roughly chopped
Streaky bacon, chopped

Start by frying the bacon in a large pan with some butter. Fry until nice and crisp, then set aside and keep the fat. Quickly roast the nuts in the bacon fat and keep the fat again. Remove the nuts from the pan and keep aside with the bacon.
Sauté the shredded cabbage in the same pan in the bacon fat and a bit more butter, until tender.
In a separate double boiler, steam the broccoli until just tender and a nice bright green. They should still have a good crunch. Rinse with cold water immediately after steaming.
When you’re ready to serve, add the broccoli to the cabbage and flash-fry to heat everything again slightly, add a splash of white wine vinegar.
Add the bacon, nuts and dates.

The combination of the sweet dates, salty bacon and earthy veggies is just heavenly. It’s also really filling, so it can easily do for lunch or just a light summer’s dinner, all by itself.

Enjoy! X

Wise words by Julia Child

February 20, 2014Leave a comment

Four-bird-roast with all the bells & whistles

February 20, 2014Leave a comment

Heard of ‘Turducken’ before? Well this four-bird-roast is kind of like that, with extra quail thrown in the mix to liven things up a bit!
It’s a turkey, stuffed with chicken, duck & quail – all perfectly deboned of course.
It’s really a Christmas roast, or perhaps better suited to a Sunday lunch extravaganza… We decided to enjoy ours mid-week, mid-Feb, you know, live a little!

The menu includes:
Four-bird-roast
Cauli-mash
Tomatoes in olive oil
Creamy mushroom sauce
Cucumber & corn salad

For the roast:
Rub with olive oil, salt & pepper and cover with foil.
Roast in a pre-heated oven of 180C for an hour. Remove foil and roast uncovered for another hour {for a 2kg roast}.
They also come with a nifty little pop-up timer to signal when it’s ready. But yes, work on 2 hours.
Once your bird is cooked, let it rest for at least 15 minutes before cutting.

For the cauli-mash:
Steam or boil a large head of cauliflower until tender, then purée using a food processor / blender / stick blender.
Add a large chunk of butter and season with salt & black pepper.

For the tomatoes:
Use a pan just big enough for the amount of tomatoes you want to use and cover the bottom with olive oil. Fill the pan with small tomatoes {cherry is best} and let it cook until the skins burst. Don’t throw away the oil! This is the most amazing sauce for the cauli-mash.

For the mushroom sauce:
Dice an onion and sauté in olive oil and butter.
Add sliced mushrooms, oregano & garlic and sauté until the mushrooms are cooked and browned.
Season with salt & pepper and add about a cup of cream. Reduce the heat and let it reduce to a thickish sauce.
Add a ladle of the juices from the roast and stir well to ensure everything is mixed properly. Deeelish!

{Enjoy this feast with any green salad – I just made a very simple salad using up some leftover bits from the fridge: diced cucumber, sweet corn kernels, lettuce, olive oil, white wine vinegar and a lemon & black pepper seasoning.}

Grilled yellowtail – fresh from the sea

February 19, 2014February 19, 2014Leave a comment

Fish is one of those things that is best kept simple. Forget complicated sauces – your best bet is freshly squeezed lemon juice and perhaps a bit of butter. Add some salt & pepper and you’re done.
While visiting Mom-in-law at the coast, I decided a nice fresh fish will be in order for dinner. That, some crisp white wine, fresh sea air and a salad – yum!

We bought 2 freshly caught yellowtails from a local fishmonger and decided to braai them.

The fish were scaled and gutted – all I had to do was prep them for the braai:
Sprinkle generously with salt {on the inside}, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, some black pepper and melted butter. I also placed a few slices of lemon inside while the fish ‘rested’ and waited for the braai.

They went onto the grill closed {with lemons inside} until the outside was nicely cooked and golden brown, slightly charred. We then opened them up and removed the lemon slices, placed the whole fish open and inside down on the grill for a few minutes, just allowing the inside to cook. Be careful not to overcook, fish is very delicate and must be just cooked, never overcooked!

Perfect meal for a {VERY} hot summer’s eve! Enjoy! X

Super Summer Salads

February 11, 2014February 11, 20141 Comment

With a low supply of veggies in the fridge, I’ve been faced with a bit of a dilemma… What shall I put in the salad?
Here are two options for super tasty salads, even without a large selection of fresh goodies:

Rocket, halloumi & tomato salad:

Grill a few slices of halloumi cheese, until just melted.
Use yellow and red Roma tomatoes and slice them in half, toss with rocket leaves, olive oil and salt.
Add halloumi and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

Grilled pepper, tomato & rocket salad:

Roast a red pepper under a hot grill, turning every now and again, until it’s charred all over. Place in a bowl and cover with clingwrap. Let it cool and then gently peel off the skin and remove seeds.
Toss pieces of the grilled pepper with rocket and halved Roma tomatoes. Add feta cheese and drizzle with olive oil.

Fast, fresh and delicious – the perfect accompaniment to roast lamb or chicken {or any meat really!}.

Enjoy! X
{The rocket came from our veggie garden, and so did some of the red tomatoes.}

Prune, rocket & halloumi salad

February 10, 2014Leave a comment

A very easy dish – quick, flavourful and exciting – and quite extraordinary!

You will need:

Rocket leaves
Dried prunes
Halloumi cheese
Dried fennel seeds
Freshly ground sea salt
Olive oil

Grind the fennel & salt in a mortar & pestle.
Toss the rocket and prunes together, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with the fennel salt.
Grill the halloumi on a hot griddle pan until just melted, let it cool slightly and cut into smaller pieces.
Add to salad and voila!