Filed under: Lunch
YIKES! Is tabouli something you can eat?
Surprise! It is, and it’s 1,2,3 chop and throw everything together for lunch. Here we go!
For 1 hungry person you need (just adapt by multiplying ingredients by how many persons you plan to serve):
1 cup couscous
Roughly 1/2 cup cucumber, sliced and then diced into four
1/4 red onion, also finely diced
one big fat red tomato, chopped
one chicken breast, marinated in yoghurt and paprika overnight (but it’s optional), then pan-fried with a bit of oil, torn into pieces (almost shredded) and cooled
one small handful fresh mint (and coriander is good too), chopped
One sweet pepper, you can use red, yellow and green for multi-coloured tabouli, diced in square
Juice of one lemon
Salt and freshly grinded black pepper
How to go about it:
Pour some water and the couscous in a pan and cook according to package instructions (about 2 minutes). By this time the water should be absorbed (it does that quite feverishly), loosen it with a fork so that it fluffs up. Transfer it to a bowl and add a few drops of olive oil (about 1T). Next throw everything together! In goes your cucumber, onion, mint, lemon juice, peppers, chicken, tomato and seasoning ( salt and pepper.
To serve – put in a smallish ramekin/bowl, one that you would put butter/porridge/tapas in – press flat and then turn it over on a plate. WOW! Now eat it!
Filed under: Restaurants
Last night my brother and I went to Gainsbourg, for supper, after being dubbed as having the best burger by someone (at quite a heftyR52) . I had their special for the evening, Norwegian Salmon with herby mash and green beans, Uno had the Gainsburger…
He gave it 7 or 8 out of 10. And he knows his burgers. He still thinks Royale in Long street are the burger kings.
It appealed to me that it was a Saturday evening, so hopefully the salmon would be fresh and yes, it was almost jumping around in my plate, but my green beans, having probabley been cooked beforehand, were quite dead. The mash was good.
For dessert – we could not resist – Uno and I decided to share a cheesecake and a chocolate brownie (a la mode with ice cream and Belgian chocolate sauce). The brownie was amazing, the cheesecake had the look of spending too long a time in the fridge.
At the end we did not have enough money (R250), so my brother went back home (200m from the restaurant) and got another R50. The salmon was overpriced, I feel ashamed that we payed R100 for it, I did not realise the price when I ordered and ate it. Maybe it is the season, but gosh, are we starting to pay the rent of a flat on good food?
But it really does taste good. Even though I did not have the precise ingredients for making a Nicoise Ratatouille, it did not stop me from making it. This is honestly how I made it. There is no pressure with this dish to eat it all at once, so you can make quite a big pot of it, eat it hot the first time, then store it in the fridge until needed later in that day or the day after. I cannot guarantee it will last long far from the mouth…
For about 6 cups you need:
One big aubergine (eggplant)
3 red Bell Peppers
2 onions (I used red ones)
One courgette (zucchini) – that is all we had, but you can add 5 more, that’s perfect
3 garlic cloves
One tsp chopped chilli
2 cans tomatoes
4 Rosa tomatoes (on their way out, meaning really ripe)
Some olive oil
2 tsp fresh herbs (basil stalks/origanum)
That’s it!
How to go about it:
Chop the aubergine into chunks roughly about 2,5 cm in diameter, put that in a colander and pour some salt over it and toss. Leave it to drain out all the bitter juices while you chop the onion (roughly 1cm ) and the garlic (very finely), chilli (very finely)and the pepper (thin strips), as well as the courgettes (rounds, a fancy name for that is Vichy). Using a biggish deep pan put about 3 T of oil in it and heat it up a bit. Add the onion and gently fry over a low heat for about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and then the pepper and chilli and herbs. Let that fry for another 5 minutes. Chop the fresh tomatoes and add that (all of it), the aubergine (salt washed off) and the courgette to the pan and cook slowly for 10 minutes.
It is now ready to eat, you can let it simmer slowly for another traditionally correct 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, but my brother and I ate it for breakfast at the last point described at 2 o’clock in the afternoon with scrambled eggs and toast. When my parents and sister came back for the weekend they had it as a snack on some buttered bread. You can’t go wrong.
Filed under: Tapas
You can do this in a pan, no problemo, but the salt will turn a bit black. I think it will be best to roast the almonds together with the cillies under the grill for 5 minutes. It is important that you dry-fry the almonds (that is without any oil), so that you don’t end up with oily fingers.
For 3-4 persons you need:
1 cup natural almonds
1-2 small dried chillies, crushed with a mestle and portar
2 big pinches of salt
Preheat the grill on full blast. Place a rack not to close to the grill, but on the next space. Place your almonds on a baking plate covered with foil and sprinkle over chillies. Grill for 2 1/2 minutes and then check, shake the almonds a bit to loosen up and put it back in the oven for a further 2 1/2 minutes.
Take it out of the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, add your salt, through it around in the bowl and serve. (more…)
One can chickpeas, drained
2 T tahini or plain yoghurt
A good pinch of salt and a 3 grinds of pepper
Olive oil
One pinch of smoked paprika, to garnish
Place the chickpeas, coriander, tahini or yoghurt, salt and pepper and one lug of oil into a food processor. Pulse while adding some more olive oil in a slow, steady stream. Stop when you have the right consistency – smooth and not to stiff, but it should be able to hold it’s from. Transfer to a bowl and garnish or use as a spread in a sandwich.
Everybody drinks it – a mixture of 1T Chinese green tea in a pot with boiling water, a bunch full of washed mint and 4 T sugar. Traditionally served in beautiful glasses and poured from a height to airate the water. Warning! You can leave out the sugar if you do not want your teeth to look like a moroccan’s, but do try it every now and again for a treat, it is heaven after walking/working the whole day, this is the perfect pick-me-up for locals and visitors alike…
This keeps in an airtight container/sterilized bottel for a good month.
For 10 people you need:
1T olive oil
1t cumin seeds
1t fennel seeds
1t coriander seeds
1/4t cardomom, ground
pinch ground nutmeg
pinch cinnamon
1 1/2 cups olives (preferably green ones)
1T fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 T feshly squeezed orange juice
3 garlic cloces, finely chopped
One small red chilli, finely chopped with seeds
Heat the olive oil, cumin -, fennel – , coriander seeds, cardamom, nutmeg and cinnamon in a saucepan pver a medium heat for about two minutes, shaking and keeping an eye on it in case it wants to burn, for about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the olives and toss to coat. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Refrigirate at least 4 hours before use.
You can do it yourself! Another spectacular way to use eggs, rather than just plain scrambled eggs (although that can be extra creamy and good to) and it looks really impressing when you bring it out for breakfast.
For 4-6 persons you need:
2 potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
Olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced into rings
6 medium eggs
pinch of saffron, steeped in a medium bowl and about 1 T freshly boiled water
salt and freshly grinded pepper
Bring a pan with salted water to the boil on a high heat, add the potatoes and then simmer for 8 minutes. Next drain the potatoes in a colander. While you let the water srain out of the potatoes, heat a swish of olive oil over high heat in a non-stick pan of +/- 25cm, add the potatoes and onions and turn the heat down. Cook this for about 10 minutes, while stirring every now and agagin, but very gently as not to break the potatoes. The onion should be soft, but try not to burn it, add another few drop of oil if you see it is sticking. Add the eggs to the saffron and beat lightly with a fork/whisk. Pick up the pan with the onions and potatoes in eat, shake lightly to distribute it evenly, place back on the heat and pour the eggs over. If you need to, flatten the potatoes out to the sides a bit. Once the egg-mixture is set at the sides, about 1 and a half minutes, loosen the sides with a spatula. Turn off the heat. Put a big plate, enough to cover the whole pan over the pan and holding with both hands, 1, 2, 3 tip it over so that the tortilla lands on the plate. Next slide the tortilla back into the pan so that it cooks on the other side. Serve cut up like a cake, at room temperature or still warm.
Peel and cut a medium spanspek/melon in about 5cm x 5cm (roughly!) squares. Wrap pieces parma ham around the spanspek and arrange on a plate. Add a swish of peppery olive oil and serve. What makes this a great combination? The sweetness of the spanspek and the saltiness of the parma ham show that opposites attract in this case.
Sosatie is the Afrikaans word for kebab or skewer. My mother, sister and I shared this as a starter at MAO, a marvelously fresh restaurant with a Irish owner/manager (no potatoes only) and I was al fired up to try my own version for a picnic on the beach one hot autumn evening…beautiful.
For 5 people you need:
5 free-range boneless chicken breasts
1 cup plain yoghurt
about one teaspoon chopped garlic and another one of chopped ginger
two pinches smoked paprika/curry powder (you choose)
How to go about it:
To make the marinade: mix up all of the ingredients except the chicken in a shallow bowl with a fork. Cut the chicken breasts lengthways in two. Toss the chicken in the marinade so that it is coated evenly, cover and leave in the fridge for 1/2h to 2h, depending on how you are pressed for time.
To make the peanut sauce:
3 TB smooth peanut butter
2 TB soya sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
The juice of 2 limes
and 3 TB hot water
Throw everything except the water into a processor or blender and mix t0 combine. Whiole still pulsing, pour the water in to thin it out a bit, but use your senses here, if you see it does not need any more water, leave it just like that – just make your finishing touch by pouring it in a bowl and voila!
Next take 10 bamboo skewers* and thread the chicken pieces through, but don’t let the skewers stick out, at the top or when going through the chicken, it should only be there to hold onto. Heat a griddled pan if you have one, or you can do it on the braai (barbecue). Brush the pan with oil so that the skewers don’t stick. Now add the chicken and hear it sizzle! Turn them around after 2 minutes and fry on the other side for 2 minutes. Check if it is cooked by making a cut in the middle and peeking in. Serve with the ppp-peanut sauce as a dip!
*The skewers can be soaked in cold water for 30 minutes to prevent them in turning into charcoal.
