Wednesday 27 January 2016

Buffalo Cauliflower Bites with Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce

Image credit Mark Boughton Photography

  • 6 to 8 servings
  • Prep: 5 minutes
  • Cook: 25 minutes

Ingredients

Cauliflower Bites
1head cauliflower, cut into bite-size florets
1tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
Freshly ground black pepper
1teaspoon garlic powder
1/2cup hot pepper sauce
1tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
 
Blue Cheese Dip
3/4cup whole milk Greek yogurt
1 green onion, finely chopped
1/4cup crumbled blue cheese
2tablespoons mayonnaise
2teaspoons cider vinegar

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425°F; line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread cauliflower in a single layer on baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper. Bake 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven, sprinkle with garlic powder, toss and bake 10 minutes longer.
  2. Stir together hot pepper sauce and butter in a small bowl. Pour over cauliflower and toss.
  3. For blue cheese dip, combine yogurt, green onion, blue cheese, mayonnaise and vinegar. Stir well. Serve with cauliflower. Serves 6 to 8.
 Recipe from 'Relish'

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Saturday 23 January 2016

Broccoli, Grape, and Pasta Salad


Serves: 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients
  • ½ cup chopped pecans
  • 8 ounces pasta of your choice
  • 3 cups finely chopped broccoli florets
  • 1 cup mayonnaise
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • ¼ cup red wine vinegar
  • ⅓ cup diced red onion
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups seedless red grapes, cut in half
  • 6 cooked bacon slices, crumbled
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place pecans on baking sheet and toast in oven for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring half way through.
  2. Prepare pasta according to package directions, cooking to al dente. Drain pasta and place in a large bowl.
  3. In a medium bowl combine mayonnaise, sugar, red wine vinegar, red onion, and salt. Whisk well.
  4. Add broccoli and grapes to the large bowl with pasta. Gradually add mayonnaise mixture (you may not want to add the whole amount).
  5. Cover and chill for 3 hours. Stir bacon and pecans into salad just before serving.

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Wednesday 20 January 2016

Pasta with Basil, Tomatoes, Red Pepper and Baby Marrow and chicken (optional)


A delicious, light and nutritious summer dish, quick and easy to prepare.
Serves 4

Ingredients:
250 grams pasta of your choice
4 de-boned and skinless chicken breasts chopped into cubes (optional)
4 medium-sized baby marrows, sliced
4 large tomatoes, diced
1 large red pepper, chopped
1 chopped onion
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
½ cup chopped fresh Basil, or more if you prefer.
3 tablespoons of coconut or olive oil
2 Chicken stock cubes (optional)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Method:
In a large saucepan, sauté the onions in the oil for a couple of minutes over a medium heat. Add the chicken cubes or water and cook for another 3 minutes before reducing the heat and adding the garlic, red pepper, tomatoes and baby marrow. Allow to simmer gently without a lid, stirring occasionally.

Cook the pasta to your liking in salted water, drain and add to the sauce. Lastly stir in the Basil and turn the heat off. Allow the pan to stand for a few minutes to incorporate all the flavours before dishing up and garnishing with a sprig of basil.

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Variations: This recipe is most versatile and can also be made using beef; and for those who like it spicy, cayenne pepper or chilli can be added.

(This recipe from "Gardening in South Africa")

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Monday 18 January 2016

Cucumber salad

With warmer days looming just around the corner here in South Africa, it's time to put all those lovely cucumbers you've planted to use! The benefits of cucumbers are legendary (you can read more here) and they are so easy to prepare. So here's a lovely quick and easy cucumber salad to spice up your life.


1 cucumber
10 black olives
2tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 spring onions
½ lemon
½ fresh red chilli
5 or 6 sprigs of fresh mint

Run a fork down the length of the cucumber all around it, then halve and quarter it lengthways and cut the quarters across into 1cm (½in) chunks. Put them into a mixing bowl and set aside.

Drain 10 black olives, squeeze out their stones, and tear them into another bowl. Pour over 2tbsp balsamic vinegar and push down on the olives, so the vinegar starts pulling out their saltiness. Trim and finely slice 3 spring onions, then add to the olives.

Drizzle 4tbsp of extra virgin olive oil and the juice of ½ a lemon into the olive mixture and stir really well.

De-seed and finely slice ½ a red chilli and add to the bowl of cucumber. Pick the leaves from the sprigs of mint, finely slice them and add to the cucumber. Pour over the dressing, toss quickly, drizzle over a little more extra virgin olive oil and take to the table and enjoy!

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Thursday 14 January 2016

Macaroni Cheese with bacon




Ingredients
Serves: 4 - 6

  • 4-5 rashers streaky or back bacon
  • 30g butter 
  • 225g macaroni pasta
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
  • 340g grated Cheddar cheese

Sauce
  • 475ml milk
  • 2 fresh farm eggs 
  • salt and pepper 

Prep: 10min
Cook: 35min
Ready in: 45min

Method

Preheat oven to 180 C / Gas 4.

Chop bacon into bits and place bacon in a frying pan. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown.
Drain, crumble and set aside.

In a large pot with boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente. Drain.
In a medium frying pan, sauté the chopped onion and garlic.
Take off heat and add chopped cooked bacon and set aside.

To make the sauce, break the two eggs into the milk, add salt and pepper. Whisk well until all the egg is mixed in.

Place half of the cooked macaroni into a 2 litre baking dish (remember to slightly oil it first so that the macaroni doesn't stick to it). Sprinkle over half of the Cheddar cheese and half of the chopped bacon, onion and garlic. On top of that, place the other half macaroni and bacon mix and cover with the rest of the cheese. Gently pour over the egg and milk mixture and, if required, sprinkle some more grated cheddar over the top.

Bake uncovered in preheated oven until cheese on top is melted and brown, 15 to 20 minutes.
Serve warm.

Of course you can vary the recipe by adding mushrooms, spring onion or any of your other favourites.

Enjoy!

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French-style Omelette



Ingredients
• 10 ml cold, hard butter, cut into small dice
• 3 large farm-fresh eggs, beaten lightly
• A little olive oil
• A little extra butter
• Salt and freshly milled black pepper
• 65 ml grated cheese
• 15 ml torn basil
• 45 ml tiny tomato dice
• Serves 1  

Method
Stir the diced butter into the beaten eggs. Add an extra nugget of butter and a little oil to a pan and place over heat. When the pan is warm, pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook briefly on medium-high heat, about 20 seconds. Turn the heat lower and with a small spatula start to gently push the mixture away from the sides of the pan while tilting the pan so that the uncooked egg can run onto the surface of the pan. Continue doing this until the egg is no longer runny, yet still creamy and moist.

Season to taste and then sprinkle with the cheese, basil and tomato dice. Fold two of the sides of the omelette towards the centre and continue to cook for a few seconds longer to warm the filing. Tilt the omelette pan almost upside down over a serving plate and allow the omelette to slide onto the plate. Garnish and serve immediately.
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