Breakfast Crostini served with Avo and Pickled Chillies

Here is a simple cost effective way to serve a delicious healthy breakfast!


Ingredients:
Italian bread rolls
Cherry tomatoes
Fresh Basil and Oregano
Olive oil
Garlic
Parmesan Cheese
Mozzarella Cheese
Avocado Pear
Balsamic vinegar
Pickled Chillies


Method:
Cut the bread rolls into thin slices.
Put them on the wire rack in the oven under a hot grill, for a couple of minutes just to brown them.  This step is done so as to prevent your crostini from going soggy once it goes in for the final grilling.


Cut a clove of garlic in half and brush the toasted bread, with the garlic to flavour it. Discard the cloves once you have brushed the bread.
Slice the Cherry Tomatoes and add them to the bread.
Finely chop the Oregano and  Basil, and sprinkle over the tomatoes.
Finely grate the Parmesan over the bread.

Tip: Assemble on the baking tray, then remove the bread, collect the herbs and parmesan cheese that fell off while you were grating and sprinkling.  Therefore less mess on the baking tray and more flavour on your crostini.  Put the breads back onto the tray!


Drizzle Olive Oil over the bread.
Cut or tear the Mozzarella into strips and lay it in a criss-cross pattern on top.
Season with salt and black pepper.
Grill for about 3-5minutes, until the cheese is melted and starting to brown.

Serve with Avocado Pear, roughly chopped and seasoned with salt and black pepper.  Drizzle Balsamic vinegar over the Avocado Pear


Tip: Serve the Avo chopped and seasoned and don't drizzle on the Balsamic vinegar, some people may not like it, but more importantly if you put it on before serving the avo mix goes brown and does not look appetising! (Refer to my photo... does not look good but boy does it taste great!!)


I had mine with the pickled chillies from a previous post, but this is obviously an optional extra.  I must say they were very hot this time round!! The decision to leave the pips in has paid off in a fiery way!!

Thai Pork Red Curry

I love Thai food, and by no means am I a specialist at cooking it, but this is my take on a Thai Red Curry.


Ingredients:
350g      Pork neck cut into thin strips
2 tsp      Thai red curry paste
1 can     Coconut milk (400g)
1 cup     Sugar snaps/ Mangetout 
1 cup     Baby corn
1 cup     Shredded Cabbage
1 large   Red Onion
2 tbsp    Peanut oil
2 tbsp    Soy sauce
1 tsp      Fish sauce


Method:
Put a wok/pan on the stove to heat up on high.
Chop the vegetables, and thinly slice the meat.
When everything is chopped and ready to fry add the peanut oil and make sure it is hot (should smoke slightly).
Add the meat and stir fry for a couple of minutes.
Add the vegetables and stir fry for another minute.
Push everything to the side of the pan and add the red curry paste to the centre of the pan and fry for about 30 seconds.
Mix all the ingredients together in the pan.
Add the soy sauce and fish sauce.
Slowly add the coconut milk, so as to not cool the pan down too much. 
Once the coconut milk is all in and the pan is boiling, turn the heat down and simmer for 5 minutes .
Serve with noodles or rice.


Notes:
The quantity of the red curry paste is for a very nicely spiced dish, that the whole family can eat.  I on the other hand put 2 tablespoons instead of teaspoons, and it made for a very nice hot Thai curry!  Very happy with it! 

Sweet Potato and Butternut Bake

This is one of my own creations and is super delicious!


Ingredients:
1Kg         Sweet potato
750g       Butternut
500ml     Fresh Cream
250ml     Milk
1packet  Royco Parmesan and Garlic Potato Bake
2 tbsp      Basil Pesto
150g        Parmesan Cheese
100g        Cheddar Cheese
4 tbsp      fine bread crumbs




Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 deg C
Peel the butternut and sweet potato, slice into thin slices.
Put the packet of potato bake powder in a bowl, add a splash of milk and mix to a paste.
Add the cream and the rest of the milk and mix well.
Finely grate the parmesan cheese and add to the milk mixture.
Add the Basil pesto to milk mixture.
Layer the sweet potato and butternut in a shallow baking dish.
Pour over the milk mixture over the potato and butternut.
Grate the cheddar cheese and sprinkle over the top.
Sprinkle the fine bread crumbs over the cheese.
Put it into the hot oven and bake for 50 minutes uncovered.


The addition of the breadcrumbs is optional, but it gives the dish a really nice crispy topping.
My mom also uses potato crisps finely crushed and sprinkled over the cheese, which adds a nice flavour to the topping.


Believe me this will become a family favourite, my son loves it.

Jamie Oliver's Home Made Lasagne

This is one of the recipes on his iPhone recipe App!! The app is absolutely brilliant and worthwhile downloading if you have an iPhone!


Ingredients:
350g         Beef Mince
2 rashers  Smoked Streaky Bacon
150g         Dried Lasagne Sheets
700ml       Semi-skimmed milk (I just used full cream)
75g           Parmesan Cheese
1 large     Red onion
2 cloves   Garlic
1               Carrot
1 stick      Celery
2               Fresh Bay Leaves
1 sprig     Fresh Rosemary
200ml      Red Wine
1 1/2        410g tins of chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp      Plain Flour
2 pinches Ground nutmeg
125g        Mozzarella cheese
2 knobs   Butter
Olive oil, Sea Salt and Black Pepper


Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 deg C
Pour the milk into a saucepan, add the bay leaves and some salt and black pepper.
Place on high heat and bring to the boil, once boiled take it off the stove and let it stand.
Roughly chop the Bacon, Onion, Garlic, Carrot and Celery put it into a food processor and pulse until everything is finely chopped up.
Put the chopped up mix into a pan on medium heat with some olive oil, and cook for 10mins, stirring occasionally. Strip the rosemary leaves from the stalk and add the leaves to the pan.
When the chopped up mixture is nice and soft add the mince to the pan, breaking up any clumps with a fork.  Turn up the heat and fry for about another 10 mins until all the mince is nicely browned.
Stir in the wine and the tomatoes, add about half a tomato can of water too.
Season with a bit of salt and pepper.
Bring the mixture to the boil and reduce to a medium heat, then simmer for 30 minutes.
After which time you should have a good consistency.


In another saucepan melt the butter on medium heat, once bubbling add the flour and stir to form a paste.  Start adding the hot milk a spoon at a time, stirring in each addition before adding more.  Discard the bay leaves.  Let the Bechamel sauce simmer for 5 mins on very low heat, stirring occasionally.


Finely grate the parmesan cheese, add three quarters of it to the bechamel sauce, with a pinch of nutmeg, salt and black pepper.


Grease an oven proof baking dish with olive oil.
Add a third of the bolognese sauce, cover with lasagne sheets, then cover these with the bechamel sauce.  Then repeat the layers twice more, finishing with a layer of bechamel sauce.  
Tear or cut the mozzarella into small blocks and spread over the top with the remainder of the parmesan cheese. Sprinkle with a pinch of nutmeg, salt and black pepper.


Cover with tin foil and bake in the oven for 30minutes, then remove the foil and return to the oven for a further 15-20mins.


Notes:
I don't preheat the oven in the beginning as my oven heats up fairly quickly so I only put it on, once the bolognese sauce is simmering.


I made more bechamel sauce than it states in the recipe, by adding more butter and double the amount of flour, then just increasing the amount of milk you add at the end.  The reason is I always find that there is not enough white sauce when you are assembling the lasagne. Be careful not to make the white sauce runny, it needs to be relatively stiff, otherwise it will just mix with the bolognese sauce.


The comment about not overlapping the pasta sheets is quite important as they don't cook as well and if you overlap by too much the pasta layer becomes "too much".
I like to use thinner lasagne sheets, as this make the dish "lighter".


If you are cooking for those that don't like the addition of the red wine, then replace the red wine with the same quantity beef stock.  The red wine gives it a very distinctive taste which I like, but some people might not like it.


This is a nice take on Lasagne which sometimes I find to be too "tomatoey" you will find this one has much more interesting flavours.


Enjoy it!


Sorry no photo's, the photo I took with the iPhone, was blurry as the steam from the lasagne got onto the lens!

Dad's Cookbook: Sundried Tomatoes in Olive Oil

Dad's Cookbook: Sundried Tomatoes in Olive Oil: "Sundried Tomatoes in Olive Oil This post was prompted by a shopping trip, on which I saw sundried tomatoes in olive oil in bottles being..."

Sundried Tomatoes in Olive Oil

Sundried Tomatoes in Olive Oil

This post was prompted by a shopping trip, on which I saw sundried tomatoes in olive oil in bottles being sold for R56.00 (US$8), well I am going to show you how to do it just as well for a lot less money.


I use the tomatoes in a lot of dishes, such as salads, pasta bakes etc and therefore they are useful to have around.  


Ingredients:
3 packets  Sundried tomatoes
4-5              200ml bottles with air tight lids sterilised (refer to the notes)
1 liter          Extra virgin Olive oil


Method:
Put the sundried tomatoes into the jars, making sure there is a bit of space at the top of the jar.
You want to fill the jar to about 3/4.
Put the olive oil in a pot on the stove on a medium heat and warm it up.
Do not make it extremely hot, if you have a kitchen thermometer then about 90-100 deg. C
Once the oil is hot, pour it over the tomatoes, making sure that it covers the tomatoes by about 1 cm (10mm)
Leave to cool and then put the cap on and keep in the cupboard.  They will keep in the cupboard for about 10 months, once opened though you will need to refrigerate, and use fairly quickly.


Notes:
The Jars:
You can either collect old jam jars, or buy the shop bought jars, the one in the picture I paid R7 (US$1)/ bottle.  Sterilise them by either submerging in boiling water, or I trick that I use is to put them in my son's old baby bottle microwave steriliser.  8 minutes in the microwave and they are perfect.


The Tomatoes:
Because this is a store cupboard item, I keep and eye on the fresh produce section of the supermarket or green grocer, as often times you will find sundried tomatoes at very cheap prices.  When they go on sale I make this recipe as I know that I have stock for a while.  When sundried tomatoes are packed in polystyrene and cellophane wrapping they tend to go mouldy, watch out for this, as you don't want to put the mould in your jars.


The Olive Oil:
Again this is an item that I keep an eye on constantly, and when I see an extra virgin olive oil go on sale, I purchase for just such an occasion. The reason I use extra virgin, as apposed pomace oil or any other inferior quality oil, is that I use the oil in pasta dishes and salads.  One of my favourites is a warm pasta salad with chopped up sundried tomatoes and the oil from the bottle drizzled over warm fusilli pasta.  The heating of the oil is optional, but it does help in keeping things sterile, and it also speeds up the usefulness of the tomatoes.  If you do it this way, you have tender and juicy tomatoes in a couple of hours, whereas cold oil, takes a couple of days to achieve that.  


Costs:
My cost to make these 5 jars was under R20 (US$3) per jar, a lot better than paying R56 (US$8) for it from the supermarket.


Variations:
If you intend on using the tomatoes mostly in salads, a good tip is to add 2-3 cups of red wine vinegar to the oil mixture.  This creates more of a vinaigrette than just an oil, and is delicious drizzled over salad.


The other variation I do is to add one finely chopped and deseeded chilli to each jar, which gives it a nice spicy zing!! 




Enjoy the tomatoes and the cost saving
They also make the most amazing hand-home made gifts!!

Honey and Mustard sauce

I was not going to post anything about the really "run of the mill" supper we had last night, but then to liven it up a bit I made a Honey and Mustard sauce that is well worth mentioning and it will certainly be made again.


Ingredients:
1 large    Onion, very finely chopped
2 tbsp      Honey
2 tbsp      Wholegrain mustard
Knob       Butter
125ml     Home made chicken stock (warmed up)
125ml     Double cream
salt


Method:
Heat the pan over a medium heat and add the butter, 
once melted (don't let it burn) add the onion.
Fry the onion on a medium heat for quite a while, until softened
Add the honey, and allow the honey to dissolve.
Add the chicken stock and the whole grain mustard.
Turn up the heat and add the cream, stir to mix and bring to the boil.
Turn the heat down again and simmer until the sauce reduces to the consistency you want!
Season with salt if necessary.


Notes:
I told you that I use the chicken stock in everything!!
I served the sauce over shop bought pork nuggets with mash and sweet corn, mundane meal made slightly interesting with this nice sauce.
If you have people in your home that do not like the texture of the onion in the sauce, either chop them finer, or cut them rough and sieve them out at the end.
Depending on your taste you can adjust the ratio of honey to mustard, I find that a 50/50 mix works well, but some might say that it is too sweet and would prefer more of the mustard flavour coming through.




Enjoy it, I would think that this would even go well with a nicely grilled pork chop!

Chicken Cacciatora ala Darrel

Chicken Cacciatora

This is my adaptation of an Italian Classic, taken from one of my favourite cookbooks:
Italian Kitchen by Jane Price!  If you see the book, buy it!


In the original form of the recipe the entire meal is cooked on the stove top.  I have changed it to be baked in the oven, it works perfectly and frees me up to do other things, once it is  popped in the oven.  I also find that the chicken is more evenly cooked in the oven.


Ingredients:
60ml        Olive Oil
1 Large   Onion finely chopped
3 cloves  Garlic, crushed
150gr       Pancetta finely chopped (refer to the notes below)
125gr       Button Mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 large    Chicken cut into 8 pieces (1.6 Kg) (refer to the notes below)
80ml        Dry vermouth or dry white wine
800gr       Chopped tinned tomatoes
1/4 tsp     Cayenne pepper (refer to the notes below)
1 tsp         Brown sugar
1 sprig      Oregano
1 sprig      Thyme
1               Bay leaf


Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C
Brown the chicken pieces in a hot pan with the oil.  Do them in batches if necessary.
Remove the browned pieces to an oven proof casserole dish with a lid.
Once the chicken has browned, drain off approximately 1/2 of the chicken fat in the pan.
Add the onions and Garlic and fry for about 6-8 minutes on medium heat.
Turn the heat up to full and add the mushrooms and the Pancetta. Fry for 4-5 minutes.
Add the wine or vermouth, to deglaze the pan and flavour the sauce, once the wine has virtually cooked away, add the rest of the ingredients: Tomatoes, sugar, cayenne pepper, thyme, bay leaf and oregano.
Bring the mixture to the boil and pour over the browned chicken in the casserole dish.
Put the lid on and put it in the preheated oven for about 1 hour 20 minutes.


Notes:
Pancetta:
If you can't find pancetta, just replace with streaky bacon, and use a whole packet (250gr) as apposed the 150gr in the recipe.  If you fry the bacon until crispy before adding it to the sauce it adds a really nice flavour.  If you can find Pancetta, it is well worth the premium in price, as the flavour is amazing.


Chicken:
As you might have seen in Charlie's Chicken and Pasta, I am not a big fan of chicken breast, therefore instead of using a whole chicken I prefer to use just thighs.  This is a preference so if you are comfortable with the whole chicken go ahead and use it.  The whole chicken is cheaper than just using thighs.


Cayenne Pepper:
Adhere to the 1/4 tsp if you don't like spicy.  As you can see from the photo's I did not do so tonight and as a result Charlie won't be eating the Chicken Cacciatora, it is a bit spicy.  Fine for me but not so good for the little ones in the house.


Believe me once you have cooked this once, it will become a family favourite of yours as it is in my household.  Really nice served with rice and gem squash or butternut!


Enjoy it!

The chopped ingredients

The browned chicken

The sauce poured over the chicken before it goes in the oven

Apologies about the comments section

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Pity as I really would like your comments to appear on the page.  However if you don't feel like logging in here then post a comment on Facebook I will pick it up there!


Thanks again for the support!

Macerated Berries with Mascarpone Cheese

Here is the desert that we had with the Family lunch on Sunday.


Ingredients:
500gr Mixed berries (any you can find, blueberries, blackberries, gooseberries raspberries etc.)
2-4 tbsp Caster sugar (super fine) 
2 boxes of Raspberry jelly
Mascarpone Cheese to serve


Method:
Mix the jelly as per the packet instructions, and pour into six serving bowls.  Refrigerate for 2 hours.
Wash the berries, and allow to drain in a colander for a while.
Put all the washed berries into a bowl, cover with the caster sugar and toss lightly to coat. 
This works quite well if you put cling film over the bowl, which you leave on whilst in the fridge.  Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, but preferably an hour.
Mix a little pouring cream into the mascarpone cheese, and stir to soften up.


Add the berry mixture to the top of the jelly in your serving bowls.  
Add a dollop of mascarpone cheese to the top and serve!


Notes:
The jelly part of the desert was my wife's idea - Brilliant!
If you have small ones in the house that don't like the mascarpone, my son loves it, but his mom doesn't care for it, then rather serve with custard.  It tastes great with the custard too!


Nice and easy desert that you can prepare long in advance, so you are not working while your guests are drinking all the wine.


Enjoy!