CHICKEN SOUP
Although I have said that I love soup I noticed that, at this stage, there are only two soup recipes in this blog. The reason is that I don’t use recipes for my soups, they have in them what every good soup should have – whatever is in the house and whatever is in season. […]
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BANANA AND DATE BREAD
This is again something that I have cooked from time to time over the years. The urge to bake banana bread is usually brought on by having over-ripe bananas in the house. This time the cause of the over-ripe bananas was my gardening hat which I had put on the fruit basket for want of […]
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EASTER MUFFINS
I began making these a couple of years ago when I couldn’t get tasty hot cross buns at a reasonable price. Seemed like the choices were cheap and nasty mass-produced soggy lumps from the supermarket or expensive, and still not so nice, too-large buns from the specialty bakeries. I even tried making my own buns […]
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GARLIC, CHILLI, PRAWNS ON PASTA
This is another really easy emergency prawn dish that can be made upmarket with fresh green prawns that you have shelled and deveined or can be simply made from half a bag of defrosted prawn meat. As with most of the prawn dishes this is very easy to make using the actifry, and almost impossible to over […]
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ONION SOUP
This recipe has been in my handwritten recipe book for a couple of decades. It comes out when onions are cheap or when I feel like a savoury, light meal. The ingredients are usually available in the kitchen so a fairly classy meal can be made in an emergency. Yesterday I bought a 10kg bag […]
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BEETROOT AND CREAM CHEESE
Corned silverside is a favourite meal in our house, it was cooked by my mother and her mother before her. My take on it has a lot of spices in the boiling water, is cooked in a pressure cooker, and left to depressurise naturally. An essential part of the meal is the sweet white sauce […]
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MUFFINS
This recipe was written on my fridge whiteboard for at least 12 months. It was great whenever I felt like something a bit different for breakfast. At some stage I copied it onto a piece of paper. This morning I spent ages looking for the piece of paper so it has now made it to the […]
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GARLIC PRAWNS IN TOMATO – a la Claire
One of Claire’s signature dishes – can be served with bread, cous cous or rice, always good, quick to prepare and very versatile. This can be made with fresh or frozen ingredients. A few tins of tomatoes and some frozen prawns makes an almost instant dinner. Ingredients: 1 bulb of garlic – minced or finely […]
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CURRIED FISH
This is a mildly curried fish dish flavoured with chilli, kaffir lime leaves and coconut milk. It is quick to prepare and easy to serve. Ingredients 1 kg of fish pieces1 star anise 1 cup cauliflower broken into small florets 1 large leek finely sliced 5 kaffir lime leaves – finely sliced 2 tsp cummin […]
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POACHED COD
Another easy fall back meal, I always have a kilogram of smoked cod in the freezer. Ingredients, Method and Serving: Cook the fish 1 kg of smoked cod, poached in milk at a slow simmer, with a bay leaf, salt and pepper for about 10 minutes, until tender and fish just flakes apart. Remove from […]
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CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES
Really easy recipe – the only problem is that your hands get very chocolatey. I think that the longer you can leave the mixture in the fridge the less messy your hands should get. These need to be quite small, otherwise they are quite a commitment to eat. You want to feel as if you […]
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BEARNAISE SAUCE
Bearnaise Sauce (in a microwave) Maybe not so conventional but pretty easy and pretty foolproof, goes really well with steak or poached eggs. Follow the instructions in the method – pretty easy but the method needs to be followed. Ingredients 2 tbs white wine vinegar 2 tbs white wine 5 peppercorns – from freshly ground pepper […]
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NEIMAN MARCUS DIP
Found this dip on the internet when I was looking for something about marinating feta – it was just an “you may also like . . . ” on the side of the page I was looking at. I was intrigued, firstly by the limited number of ingredients, the simplicity of flavours and lastly by […]
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RADISH RAITA
So we grew radishes – all types – fantstic because they grew so fast but the problem was what to do with them. This is so fast and is a great sauce to have with steak. Itis strong and bites a bit like horse radish sauce. (enough for a side dish for 6) Ingredients 3 […]
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BEEF LASAGNE
This is a good recipe for meat lasagne. Just don’t make the meat and cheese layers very thick. It is much healthier than the version with white sauce and doesn’t go soggy and collapse, a problem that my lasagnes have, probably because I make the layers too thick. Best Beef Lasagne Recipe –Serves 12 people– […]
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SPINACH SAUCE
This is a similar dressing to the warm green salad except that I use palm sugar, cook it for a bit longer and add about 100g of cream cheese to make a creamy side dish to have with steak. The spices can be varied depending on what it is accompanying. Ingredients Dressing ¼ cup olive […]
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WARM GREEN SALAD
Leafy Greens I discovered that the tops of most of my root crops make very tasty leafy greens to use in salads. Radish, beetroot, turnip tops all taste better than silver beet. Ingredients: For Vinaigrette: ¼ cup olive oil 2 tbs balsamic vinegar 2 tbs water 1 tbs honey / maple syrup / palm sugar […]
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STRAWBERRY, ROCKET AND BLUE CHEESE SALAD
Amazingly tasty, the strawberries and blue cheese complement each other and having it with steak and a bearnaisse sauce is delicious. Ingredients 1/4 cup white balsamic 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil 1 tsp dijon mustard 1 bunch rocket / baby spinach (washed and drained) 4 slices of prosciutto or pancetta (torn into pieces) 1 […]
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RHUBARB COMPOTE – STEWED
RHUBARB COMPOTE This is the kind of recipe that barely feels like cooking — and that’s exactly the point. Rhubarb macerates overnight in sugar, drawing out its own juices so that by morning it’s halfway to a compote before it even hits the stove. A gentle simmer with a little lemon and vanilla, and you’re […]
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Freezing Zucchini
This is great. I just washed the zucchini and ran them through the grater on the food processer, packed the result into zip lock bags, pressed out as much air as possible, lay them flat on a tray and froze them. I am hopeless at labelling things that I put in the freezer – note […]
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GINGERBREAD MEN, GINGERBREAD HOUSE
Christmas Gingerbread These are such a winner with any child, the smaller the child the more preparation needs to be done before they actually become involved. The mixture needs to be made in advance and left to chill in the fridge for at least an hour. This takes little time and can be done in […]
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Zucchini Chutney
Just another way to use up all of those zucchini. Ingredients First day: 1.5 kg assorted zucchini, seeded and chopped into 1cm cubes 1/3 cup salt Second day: 5 medium tomatoes or chopped or a couple of tins of tomatoes 3 small onions chopped 2 medium cooking apples diced 2 1/2 cups white vinegar 1 […]
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ZUCCHINI PICKLES
This is brilliant, I made a small batch the first time and it was so good that I made a lot more towards the end of the season. I freeze it in batches, flattened, in zip lock bags and it lasts for ages. Tastes great with ham and almost anything else. The spices are quite […]
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MARINATED OLIVES
I still don’t have olive trees that do anything other than grow and get thrips, however I do like a good olive and the best are always the marinated ones from the deli. My sister-in-law once gave me a jar of olives that she had marinated herself so after finding that it was possible to […]
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