Tag: paleo

Bacon-wrapped, goats cheese-stuffed chicken

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My husband always says that chicken is a vegetable – he worked in the Northen Cape on a project for a while and there they really didn’t eat salads or veggies – their veg was chicken..! I know, right?!

I used to cook chicken so often – and especially chicken breasts, that he would get teased by a friend at work about getting chicken for lunch almost everyday. I haven’t actually made chicken breasts in a while – it can be quite boring sometimes, and I hate dry chicken. I’m not one for saucy dishes either, I would rather have a sauce on the side that I can add to the dish as I please. Anyways, so this dish is great because the chicken is moist and the bacon also adds extra flavour.

So that would make tonight’s dinner almost vegetarian, apart from the bacon…

6 chicken breasts, sliced open halfway

olive oil

butter

baby spinach leaves (3 per chicken breast)

sage leaves (5 per chicken breast)

salt & pepper, freshly ground

goats cheese (2 slices per chicken breast)

streaky bacon (2 strips per chicken breast)

Start off by heating a glug of olive oil and about a tbs of butter in a pan. Season one side of the chicken breasts (open them up so they lie flat) and flash-fry on the inside. The chicken will cook much quicker when the inside is already partly cooked, plus you get extra flavour from the browning of the chicken on the inside. If you don’t flash-fry the inside, you will be left with a very dry breast, trying to get the whole thing cooked through.

Just brown the one side slightly – don’t cook all the way through.  Remove from heat.

Place spinach leaves, sage & goats cheese on the cooked inside and season with salt. Wrap in bacon and secure with a toothpick.

Fry until golden & cooked through.

Serve with asparagus – blanched, with a drizzle of lemon juice, salt & a dollop of butter.

Enjoy! X

Bacon wrapped stuffed chicken image image

Chili Pork bowl

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Tonight I was thrown a curveball… My husband came home from work and asked if we could have some chili pork comfort food. He also wanted rice. {Sure, what’s the big deal, right? Except that I don’t keep any rice at home!} I was planning on making fennel rubbed pork chops with a prune & rocket salad – oh well, will make that one another time!

After a bit of brain-wracking, I came up with this:

Chili pork bowl with a sweet potato rosti and a carrot, rocket & baby spinach salad

For the chili pork:

700g of pork neck, deboned and cubed

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped

1 red chili

olive oil

2 tsp of soy sauce

pinch of salt

3 tbs sweet chili sauce

2 tbs hot chili sauce {use a chunky sauce with bits of chili}

Saute ginger, chili & garlic in olive oil and add pork meat. Fry until the pork is almost cooked through. Add soy, sweet chili and other chili sauce. Cook through.

For the sweet potato rosti:

3 sweet potatoes, peeled & grated

salt & white pepper to taste

butter

olive oil

Squeeze all the water out of the sweet potatoes and add salt & pepper. Heat a dollop of butter and a glug of olive oil in a non-stick pan and place dollops of sweet potato into the pan. Press down with a spatula and fry on either side until golden and cooked.

For the salad:

Rocket leaves

Baby spinach

Ribboned carrot

1/2 a tsp of sesame oil

1 tsp of apple cider vinegar

juice of 1/2 a minneola

1 tbs olive oil

1 tsp honey

Mix all the ingredients for the dressing and drizzle over the spinach, rocket and carrot.

Serve the pork with a sweet potato rosti and salad. I must say, the sweet potato rosti works brilliantly with the spicy pork. Enjoy with a glass of fruity white wine.

{Hubby was well-satisfied and he said it hit the spot!}

Enjoy! X

Chili Pork bowl

Aubergine Bites

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Just a quick post with another delicious aubergine recipe.

These little yummies are perfect as a light lunch / dinner or as an appetizer {and so quick and easy to prepare! You can also throw these onto a platter with a few other bits for cocktail hour or a lazy afternoon} enjoy with a fruity white wine:

Grilled aubergine slices {brush with olive oil}

Grilled Russian sausage slices

Butter lettuce leaves

Dipping sauce:

Plain yoghurt

1 large clove of garlic, finely chopped

Cayenne pepper

Cumin

Dash of Tabasco sauce

Assemble bites by placing a piece of grilled aubergine into a lettuce leave, top with sausage slices and tie with string.

Serve with dipping sauce – enjoy! X

Aubergine bites

Build-your-own-salad-platter

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What to dish up on a lazy summers’ afternoon? Why, a build-your-own-salad-platter, of course!

Don’t get me wrong, I love cooking and it fills me with pleasure to whip up delicious things, but sometimes {especially on a lazy Sunday, when you’ve already spent the day sweeping and picking up toys} you just want to be able to snap your fingers and make something appear!

Ah, well, that’s not going to happen soon, so instead, it’s handy to just throw together a platter and let everyone help themselves.

Here’s my seafood salad platter – using items I already had on hand:

Simple salad {lettuce, cucumber cubes & tomato, dressed with olive oil}

Tinned smoked mussels

Smoked snoek {remember to remove the bones!}

Blanched green beans, drizzled with olive oil and capers

Fresh tomatoes {on the vine}

Boiled eggs, seasoned with salt {I boil the eggs for exactly 7 minutes to get a nice soft-boiled egg}

Lemon mayonnaise dressing {just add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to mayonnaise}

Everyone can help themselves to what they want and build their own salad – enjoy with cold white wine or a crisp Savannah!

x

Build-your-own-salad-platter

Veggie Fridge Raid!

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I must confess to shopping blindly last week… I usually plan my week’s menu ahead and then shop accordingly – so I don’t waste anything and I don’t have to spend hours trying to figure out what to cook for dinner.

Yesterday, as I was cleaning out the fridge, I realised I had heaps of veggies that I need to use before my weekly shop. Also, I had some uncooked patties that I had to use.

So – here it is, my ratatouille stacks (using pattipans instead of zucchini):

Layer spinach & mushrooms, hamburger patties (or a steak!), ratatouille and top with roasted tomatoes on the vine.

Spinach & mushrooms:

10 large spinach leaves

5 mushrooms

2 tbs butter

2 tbs cream

white pepper

Heat butter in a pan and sauté mushrooms. Add spinach, wilt it down slightly (don’t let it get soggy, you still want some crunch to it) and then add cream and pepper. Set aside.

Ratatouille:

1/2 an onion

6 pattipans, diced

1 large aubergine, diced

2 large red tomatoes, diced

Olive oil

Salt

Peppadew spice

Start off by sautéing the onions in olive oil, add aubergine. Next, once those two have softened a bit, add pattipans and more olive oil. Add tomatoes, season with salt and peppadew spice, add another glug of olive oil, reduce heat and just let it simmer away until you’re happy that all the flavours have mingled nicely and everything is cooked.

Roasted vine tomatoes:

Place a vine of tomatoes in an oven roasting dish, sprinkle with olive oil & ground sea salt and bake at 180C for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, grill for 5 minutes in the oven.

Once everything is ready – remember to grill those patties! – assemble and enjoy!

X

Ratatouille stacks image

Meatilicious bake

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I love different meats together – it just seems to add to the taste and make it more exciting! {not always – and not with all meats… Still – just try it out sometime, there are lots of options here!)

For tonight’s bake I layered strips of bacon, tenderised and flattened chicken breast, pork roast meat, mozzarella cheese and more bacon.

I seasoned the chicken breast with freshly ground sea salt and olive oil then layered on the pork roast meat. {This I had leftover from a roast I made a week ago – and froze the leftovers – it also had an apple & sage stuffing.} I added freshly ground fennel seeds,another layer of chicken breast, then thick slices of mozzarella cheese and more bacon.

{You could use any cooked pork meat, a leftover roast or even some pork chops…}

Bake at 180C for 45 minutes – this is just enough time to ensure the chicken is cooked properly but is still juicy.

I served this with a sundried tomato & goats cheese salad. {Mixed lettuce leaves, diced cucumber, sundried tomatoes, goats cheese and a drizzle of olive oil.}

I prefer salads with less but more ‘punchy’ ingredients – like they say, less is more!  And forget elaborate salad dressings – you want to taste the salad, right?! My current favourite dressings are vinegars and olive oil – perhaps with a splash of fresh minneola juice {now in season} and honey to bring out the flavours of the salad. And nuts – yum, I love nuts in salad! Raisins are great too!

Ok, before I get too carried away – here’s a pic of my meatilicious bake and my youngest, ‘helping’ me in the kitchen today…

Enjoy! X

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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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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