Category Archives: Snacks

Aug7

hot olives + baguette and the #hot-and-happening

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Hot Olives – A few weeks ago I was on a business trip in the bustling metropolis of Johannesburg, Guateng. The City of Gold has plenty of interesting foodie places well worth seeking out…Some colleagues and I ended up in a very interesting restaurant that serves both gossip and glitter to the well-heeled of Parkhurst and surrounds. We ordered a few small starters to share and one of them was hot olives with baguette. Never in my life would I have thought of heating olives in olive oil – isn’t that kind of like smuggling sand in the desert? Well, just so you know, this little starter tapas was so delicious. Heating the olives gives this stone fruit an undeniably new dimension. Dipping the fresh baked bread into the fragrant hot oil just seems to forge with the olives… leaving a most tantalizing taste….wash this down with some chilled wine and you could swear that you were sipping wines with the gods of ancient Greece!

It is just one of those really simple dishes you can make on the run or when guests come knocking unannounced…simple yet oh so sophisticatedly #hot-and-happening.

Serves: One bowl of tapas
Preparation Time: 5 min
Cooking Time: 7 min

Ingredients

150 ml Virgin olive oil
1t Fresh rosemary (not chopped)
1t Parsley – roughly chopped
2 Red chillies chopped (I like it hot but you can leave the chillie out of the recipe if you are not fond of the fiery stuff)
1 Garlic clove – finely sliced
200g Kalamata olives
1 Spring onion – chop the stalks and leaves
1 Fresh baguette

Method

1. Heat the olive oil, rosemary, chillies, parsely and garlic slowly in a pan for a 5 minutes minutes. Just to infuse the flavours with the oil.
2. Add the olives and heat through for about 2 minutes.
3. Add the spring onion at the end, give it a good stir + serve with baguette.

Jul12

guava + camembert + beetroot-rhubarb-fig-balsamic chutney = easy delicious snack

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At the recent Bloggers Indaba we received amazing goodie bags and one of the items in the giveaway was a Beetroot-Rhubarb-Fig-Balsamic-Chutney from Pick and Pay. I love rhubarb and figs and knew that I was going to love this chutney. Once back home, I tasted some of the chutney and it was just yummy. By chance there was also a punnet of beautifully ripe guavas staring at me from my fruit bowl on my kitchen table. I got thinking….one slice of ripe guava, a good chunk of camembert and topped with the chutney and coriander leaf or two. Wow…a kind of explosion of different, tropical tastes… again an unusual combination but oh so good…fresh and fun…you will be a fan too…try it!

I don’t have specific measurements or recipe – just buy the mentioned ingredients, poor yourself a glass of wine + slice + play + enjoy!

Jun10

tomato + onion + basil + puff pastry = easy + hearty tomato tart

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I just LOVE tomatoes – and I need no inspiration to cook with these amazing and nutritional gifts from nature’s wonderful garden. This is probably the easiest and most delicious tomato tart you will ever taste – simple, hearty, sweet and sour and such a rich taste when combined with the caramalised onions!
Serve this with a side serving of rocket salad + balsamic dressing!

Preparation time: 10 min
Baking time: 25 min
Serves: 6

Ingredients
1 ½ Big onion – thinly sliced
2 T Olive oil
Pinch of salt
500g Rosa tomatoes
1 Roll puff pastry
30 – 40 g Parmesan cheese grated
1 handful of shredded fresh basil leaves
Salt
Pepper
To serve
Parmesan shavings
Handful of basil leaves – shredded

Method
1. Preheat your oven to 200°C.
2. In a pan – on medium heat – caramalise the onions for about 10 minutes until golden brown.
3. Take a +- 37cm by 25cm pan (+- the same size as the puff pastry) put the tomatoes in the pan. Sprinkle with olive oil and roll around till each tomato is lightly coated in oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and a bit of black pepper.
4. Take the caramalised onion and scoop these over the tomatoes.
5. Sprinkle the grated parmesan and a hand full of shredded basil over the tomatoes.
6. Take the whole piece of pastry and cover the tomatoes. Don’t press it down or anything. I you want you can tuck the sides in.
7. Bake for 25 minutes or till pastry is a lovely golden colour.
8. Turn over on a big dish (so the tomatoes are on top) and sprinkle some shredded fresh basil and parmesan shavings.
9. Cut into pieces and serve with your green rocket salad….

Remember to never forget the “pomme d’amour”!

May3

maple syrup + mielie fritters + new york

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Whilst wrapped-up under the duvet on a public holiday with a glass of red wine and watching a dvd, I was wondering what I felt like to eat. Jade de Waal’s twitter came through with a recipe for mielie fritters (Jade is an extraordinary wonderful woman that is currently in the Top 13 in Masterchef SA). That little tweet took me back to my moms’ “mielie brood” (mealie bread) that we used to gobble down with lots of golden syrup. My mind then next teleported me to the place where I had fallen in love with Maple syrup … New York…! Oh my word, how I love maple syrup! That amazingly, beautiful, golden sticky, earthy, sweet syrup stole my heart (as did New York…). At that moment I knew I wanted Jade’s Mielie Fritters with my maple syrup!! I really love mixing sweet and savoury and immediately started cooking. To say the least – it was YUMMY and the chopped spring onion complimented the Maple syrup in such a profoundly earthy way!

Just a little snippet about Maple Syrup…
In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before the winter; the starch is then converted to sugar that rises in the sap in the spring. Maple trees can be tapped by boring holes into their trunks and collecting the exuded sap. The sap is processed by heating to evaporate much of the water, leaving the concentrated syrup.

So here is Jade’s recipe – she serves it with a green avocado salsa and/or sweet chilli sauce – delish! You can also watch her cook the fritters on Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tZih27ytV0)

The recipe makes about 6 medium fitters
Fritters
1 cup (250ml) cake flour
1 teaspoon (5ml) baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 egg
1 spring onion, finely chopped
½ cup (125ml) corn kernels in brine, drained
Olive oil, for frying
Salsa
Small handful coriander, roughly chopped
1 avo, peeled and diced
½ chilli, finely chopped, optional
Juice of 1 lime or lemon, optional
Salt and pepper, to taste
Sweet chilli sauce, to dunk, optional

Mix all the ingredients for the fritter in a bowl. At first the batter will look dry, but keep mixing until the ingredients come together. Heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium frying pan. Turn down to medium so the oil is not too hot, otherwise the outside of the fritter will burn whilst the inside is still raw. Spoon a tablespoon scoop of the batter in the oil, frying about 2-3 at a time for 2 minutes on each side or until brown.

Meanwhile chop and mix the ingredients for the salsa in a bowl. Test the first fritter by cutting in half to make sure they’re cooking through. When all fritters are done, spoon the salsa over to serve perhaps with the sweet chilli sauce on the side to dunk the fritters in or … as I did smother the fritters with golden maple syrup.

Bon appétit!