Cook quick, easy and tasty

With this wonderful weather in the Boland – it’s definitely Friday night braai night here So here is a wonderful idea for a light lunch or gorgeous salad. I got this recipe from a stall once in the supermarket! And I have made it a lot since then. Everyone – even the non salad eaters loves it And it is so colorful – really makes the whole table pretty

• 500g – 750 g mini tomatoes
• 1 or 2 wheels of feta
• handful of fresh basil

Cut tomatoes in half. Arrange on a serving platter. Sprinkle chopped basil over. Crumble Feta over.

Dressing

• 2 cloves of freshly crushed garlic
• 2 tsp salt
• pinch of mustard
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice – fresh
• 4 Tbsp olive oil
• Optional – add some grated lemon peel

Crush garlic and shake up with the rest of the ingredients. Drizzle over salad and serve.

This goes well with any meal, braai, with other mediterranean snacks as a starter or with some freshly baked bread for a light lunch.

Wonderful wonderful is all that I can say about this recipe. My grandmother made it for us when we were little and I recently made it again when we were on holiday in Durbs with my sister, brother in law and their kiddiewinkles. We finished the whole pan that evening!

Did you know that sweet potato is low GI, potato is medium GI and butternut is high GI? So this wonderful sweet treat is still a healthy option

To make – just get some sweet potatoes, slit them in lenghtwise and pack out on a baking tin. If you want you can rub them with a little oil , but this is not NB.  I prefer smaller sweet potatoes, but you can use whichever ones you prefer.

Next slice babanas in thin slices and pack on top of the sweet potato halves. Sprinkle over some grated cheese and bake in the oven on 180 deg until they’re soft.

The kids will love this one

After a long sickness, a two wonderful holidays – and some other cooking excitement I will tell more a bit later – I am finally back!

I got this winner recipe from my friend Keren, who got it from her friend, Mary-Lou. This is their family recipe (and it is quickly becoming a family recipe here as well )…this one is an absolute gem and very easy to make. You literally just throw everything in and mix. As it is very rich a lot of people can eat from one batch – but you will never have enough

Brownies:

• ½ cup cacao
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup flour
• ½ cup butter (margarine is just not the same)
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• Pinch of salt ½ – 1 cups nuts (optional! – I never throw in nuts. Instead of nuts I add one slab chocolate broken into chunks and mix this in – this is D’Vine especially if the brownies are still hot from the oven. Mint or Caramel chocolate works well – or white & dark mixed. Chocolate chips also work)

Throw everything together. Mix like mad. Bake at 180°C for ½ h – 45 min until set (check at ½ h just for incase). Slice or break in blocks / pieces.

Icing sugar: (also optional, sometimes I throw over a chocolate sauce and serve with ice cream if still hot)

• ½ cup cacao
• 6 Tbsp butter
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 ½ cups icing sugar

Mix everything together until creamy – this is a wonderful chocolate icing sugar and if mixed well looks like melted chocolate. Milk can be replaced with cream for a more decadent version

Happy baking!!!!

Back from a lovely holiday! I thought I would just quickly share this great stuffed chicken recipe with you.

I can become quite lyrical about de-boned whole chickens (especially if you marinate them). I buy them from our local checkers (but I suppose you can DIY?)and they are just wonderful. Especially when stuffed since you can stuff-the-stuff right into those legs and everywhere where the bones once were – hmmm, yeah… In addition, it’s just not such-a-mission-to-cut-up when finished! Just slice right through. So in my opinion this makes fantastic “easy-friday-night-friends” food (since no, I don’t really do pizza).

I call it Regina chicken, since Regina in my head means a mushroom, onion, garlic, peppers and some type of meat combo on pizza. However – I see that Regina actually means “queen” which I feel is quite fitting as well…you can’t really go wrong with a peppers, mushrooms, onions and garlic combo. They just compliment each other.

Tip: Let fruit & veg do the chopping. Or use a stick blender with its little bowl since the veggies need to be quite fine.

So here goes. You’ll need (for 6-8 people):

Marinade:

• 45 ml lemon juice
• 15 ml garlic
• 30 ml oil
• 10 ml salt

Stuffing:

• 2 de-boned whole chickens (unflavoured)
• 1.5 cups of finely chopped up onion (about 1 large onion)
• 1.5 cups of finely chopped up peppers (about 1 or 2 large peppers)
• 1.5 cups of finely chopped up mushrooms (about half a packet of mushrooms)
• 5-10ml crushed garlic (fresh, but if you’d like to use dried, first throw a little boiling water on it for a few minutes)
• 0.25 cup of bread crumbs ( I used a slice of rye bread that I toasted and then chopped with the stick blender)
• Oil for frying

Combine ingredients for marinade and rub into de-boned chicken on the inside and outside. Let it stand for as long as possible.

For the stuffing, throw oil into a frying pan and fry all the veggies and garlic for a few minutes. Add the breadcrumbs. Fry for a few more seconds (add 1 Tbsp of water if necessary).

Now (make sure you’re hands are clean) and then work the stuffing into the two chickens. Work it into all the empty spaces in the chicken.

Bake until golden in the oven at about 180° (about 30 minutes).

Enjoy with a salad.

As we’ve all heard – Africa now it’s your time to shine! And aren’t we doing it beautifully? Celebrate our shining, next time when you have to make an easy-as-pie dessert and try these great little Starte Tartins with hot cream. They are really a breeze to make and with inexpensive ingredients too.

With star fruit and star anise seed – it is really a very starry eyed business. (Don’t be dismayed however – if you can’t get hold of all the starry stuff – star fruit can be replaced with apples cut into star shapes with a star cookie cutter and the star anise seed can be replaced with a cinnamon stick).

So…this is my version of the traditional tarte tartin (click on the link to read the history of this historic french tart), appropriately renamed Starte Tartins for Inspiration’s make a tart challenge. You’ll need:

• a metal muffin pan – sprayed with spaying cook
• a star cookie cutter

• 3 star fruits (or 3-4 large granny smith apples and a star cookie cutter)
• 1 roll puff pastry
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp butter

Syrup

• 200 ml white sugar
• 50 ml cold water
• 30 ml butter

Hot cream

• 250 ml cream
• 10 ml castor sugar
• 2x star anise seed
• a little bit of milk

Start by making the syrup. Pour the sugar and water into a pan and boil until slightly brown. Stir in the butter. Quickly spoon into muffin tins (before its sets!) – but not to worry if it sets – mine still came out delicious

Rinse and cut up the star fruit (our checkers here in Somerset-West stock them at R9.99 for a packet of 4). Remove pips. If you couldn’t get hold of the star fruit you can buy some apples, cut them in slices and use a star cookie cutter to cut star shaped pieces of apple.

Put a fruit star in each muffin tin and sprinkle with a little brown sugar and put a small piece of butter on each fruit star. Use a star cookie cutter and cut stars out of the puff pastry. Put a star on each fruit star. Brush with a little milk. Bake at 180°C for 15-20 min.

While the stars are baking pour the cream, castor sugar and star anise seed into a pan. Boil until the cream becomes a golden colour (about 4-5 min) – stir continuously and keep a close eye on this as it burn easily. Add a little milk to thin if needed.

Take Starte Tartins out of the oven when golden brown, and ladle upside down out of the muffin tins unto plates so that the puff pastry is at the bottom with the star fruit on top. Preferably serve straight away with the hot cream. If you cannot serve it straight away, it is still good when warmed up in the micro for a few secs. Just add a little milk to the hot cream when warming up.