Cauliflower Bake

Now, I saw a recipe on Facebook, posted by Kris Quartermus, for Loaded Cauliflower. I made a couple of changes, which is why I also changed the name of the dish, and I have to thank Kris Quatermus for this wonderful inspiration!! We had it last night with our braai instead of a usual potato side, and it goes very well!! It is also much more filling than you would expect.

Preparation Time: 30min
Cooking Time: 30min
Difficulty Level: Very easy
Serves: 8

Ingredients

3 heads cauliflower
250g bacon, cubed
50g butter
1 onion, chopped
1 punnet mushrooms, sliced
3tbs mayonnaise
2tbs cottage cheese
2t parsley
250ml sour cream
salt & pepper to taste
cayenne pepper

Method

Cook the cauliflower in very little water and some salt, until just done. Add pepper to taste. 

Melt the butter and fry the onions, bacon and mushrooms until slightly browned. 

Combine the mayonnaise, cottage cheese, cream and parsley well. I used my stick blender. 

Mix the mayonnaise mixture, the mushroom mixture, salt to taste and 3/4 of the cheese well. and scoop into a baking dish. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and lightly dust with cayenne pepper. 

Bake in the oven at 160degrees C for about 30 minutes, until the cheese starts to brown. 

Enjoy with a tjoppie and a salad!!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Cheesy Mince Bake

Just something different with mince... But much more delicious than you can imagine. Can be enjoyed with rice or potato, we had ours with a slice of bread!! 

Preparation time: 15min
Cooking time: 20 - 30 min
Difficulty Level: Easy
Serves: 6

Ingredients

500g Mince
200g grated cheddar cheese
1 onion, chopped
2 eggs
2t spice for mince
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
salt & pepper to taste
2tbs soya sauce
1tbs balsamic vinegar
cayenne pepper

Method

Mix the mince, soya sauce and balsamic vinegar. Mix the eggs, onion, spice for mince, flour, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper thoroughly. 

 (I used those thinga-ma-jigs from Verimark...) Add the egg mixture to the mince and combine well. 

Spray an oven dish with spray&cook. Scoop half the mince into the dish and level out. Add 2 thirds of the cheese and spread evenly over the mince. 

Add the other half of the mince and level. Add remaining cheese evenly over the mince. Sprinkle some cayenne pepper over. 

Bake in the oven at 160degrees C for about 20 - 30 minutes until the cheese is a nice golden brown.

Serve with a fresh salad and enjoy!!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Buttery stew Pie

I am so sorry, yet ANOTHER stew recipe... Although, this one is a little different. And even more delicious than the others!! But I do love my pies...

Preparation time: 10min

Cooking time: 5 hours

Difficulty Level: Easy

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

4tbs butter

2tbs soya sauce

1tbs balsamic vinegar

500g stew meat

300ml boiling water

1 cube beef stock

2t Bisto

1 onion, chopped

4 medium potatoes, cubed

1 roll puff pastry

Method:

I used the slow cooker as it is very easy to put the meat in and leave it. It also cooks very soft, as stew meat can be a bit chewy. You can do this on the stove, if you don't have a slow cooker. Your cooking time will be much less, though, and you will have to continually check that it does not burn. 

Place the meat in the pot. 

 Add the butter, soya sauce, vinegar. Dissolve the beef stock in half the boiling water and add to the pot. 

Cook for 2 hours. 

Dissolve the Bisto in the other half of the boiling water and add to the pot. Add the onion and the potato. Cook for another 2 hours. The potato should be ready. Roll out the puff pastry and line a baking dish. Scoop the meat into the dish and cover with pastry. Brush with eggwash or milk. Bake in the oven at 160degrees C until nicely browned.

Serve with a salad or side veggies and enjoy!!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Quick Cheesy Mustard Sauce

This is a quick sauce that requires no cooking, and tastes absolutely fabulous!! We had it over baked potato and it was awesome!! It will go great with hamburgers or pasta, too.

Ingredients

2tbs margarine, melted
50g finely grated cheese
2tbs mayonnaise
1t hot english mustard
salt & pepper to taste

Method

Combine the margarine, mayonnaise and mustard. I used a stick blender. Add the cheese, blend well. Add salt & pepper to taste.

And serve!!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Christmas Cake

I made this cake a couple of months ago, and I did not write down the recipe or took pictures of the cake itself, but I just wanted to brag with my second attempt at decorating the Christmas Cake!! My mom and daughter helped with this project and it was so much fun!!

Merry Christmas!!

Yours in oil and veggies... and cake!!

Risch

Honey-Mustard Gammon

With Christmas around the corner, the question of what to eat has escalated from a daily routine question, to one of a national security crises!! With friends and families visiting, the catering party feels a lot of pressure to perform. Well, this past weekend was my turn. We had family over, and we were 10 adults and 9 kids. Quite a bunch to prepare meals for!! Luckily for me, I had my menu worked out months ago, and I had enough time to practice my meals.

My menu:
Starter:  Spinach Soup
Main Course:  Honey-Mustard Gammon
                        Basil Potatoes
                        Sweet Pumpkin
Dessert:   Christmas Cake with ice cream and Ginger cream sauce

And it was an absolute feast!! The Spinach Soup is already on the blog, and it is truly a winner. Completely different to what people normally expect from spinach. Even the people who don't like spinach, admitted that this was not bad at all!! This recipe is for the Gammon...

Ingredients

1x Gammon
50 - 100g butter
2tbs honey
3tbs hot english mustard
2t whole grain mustard

Method

Melt the butter. Add the honey and mustard and mix well. You can play with these ingredients to suit your taste, of course.

Place the gammon in your pot of choice - mine being a cast iron pot of course!!

Add a little water just covering the bottom of the pot. Brush the butter mixture over the gammon.

Close the lid and place in the oven at 140degrees C for a total of 5 hours.
After 1 hour: Brush with the butter mixture
After 2 hours: Turn the gammon over. Brush with the butter mixture.

After 3 hours: Brush with the butter mixture
After 4 hours: Pour the excess liquid off. Brush with the butter mixture. Remove the lid.
After another 30 minutes: Turn the gammon over. Brush with the butter mixture. Leave the lid off.

After another 30 minutes - Your gammon is ready!! If you want, you can grill it for about 10 minutes, to deepen the rich brown colour. Brush with butter mixture before you grill for extra flavour!

And enjoy!!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Quick Stew

There are so many things you can do with stew... Simply by adding one other ingredient, you can change the whole taste of the dish. This is quite a quick version, but also with depth of flavours that catches you by surprise!!

Preparation time: 2 min
Cooking time: 30min
Difficulty Level: Very Easy
Serves: 4

Ingredients

500g stew meat
1tbs olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3tbs soya sauce
2tbs balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper to taste
2t steak & chops spice
3/4 cup water
1tbs brown sugar
1 cube beef stock

Method

Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the meat and seal off until nicely browned. 

Add the vinegars, soya sauce, spices, sugar and 1/4 cup water. Mix through. Cook a couple of minutes, until it thickens up. Dissolve the beef stock in the 1/2 cup of water and add to the meat. Lower the heat to a simmer, and cook for about 20 - 30 minutes. 

Serve, and enjoy!! I served this with some chunky veg and couscous. Unfortunately, no photo - we were way too hungry!!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Cheese & Onion Sauce

I love the combination of cheese & onion. I think it is Wimpy that has the toasted sandwich with cheese & onion rings... I'm no Wimpy fan, but that is genius!! In light of this, I created this absolute winner of a sauce:

Ingredients

3tbs butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
pinch nutmeg
pinch cayenne pepper
salt & pepper to taste
3/4 cup milk
2tbs flour

Method

Melt the butter. Fry the onion in the butter until soft. 

Add the flour, salt, peppers and nutmeg and cook a little. 

Add the milk 1/4 cup at a time and blend well so that no lumps form. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring continuously so that it doesn't burn. Cover and remove from heat. You can reheat later if you want to, too. Adjust the thickness of the sauce by adding more milk to make it thinner, or more flour to thicken it. 

And Enjoy!!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Spinach & Feta Baguette

Over these festive times, I will not be posting very often. We are so busy in and around the house, preparing for the family to come and visit and to make use of the time of the holidays where we are all together, that documenting our meals is way down on the priorities list! However, I will be posting every now and then, and hopefully it will be just as delicious as you expect.

Yesterday I made this Spinach & Feta Baguette. It was sooo delicious, even Baby liked it! These quantities makes enough for 5 people.

Ingredients

2x Deeghuys French Loaves, defrosted
1 onion, chopped
2tbs butter
250g cut spinach
salt & pepper to taste
pinch nutmeg
1 rind plain feta
3tbs mayonnaise

Method

Preheat the oven to 160degrees C. Melt 1tbs butter and brush the loaves with the butter.

Cut diagonal lines onto the bread, spaced as thick as you want your slices (1 1/2cm - 2cm), and about 3-5mm deep. 

  Bake in the oven for 20min. Take out, brush again with butter. 

Put back in the oven for another 10 - 15 min. Take out of the oven and let it cool down a little.

 I chopped the onion in the Veri-Mark special chopper thingy, which came in handy a little later on. Melt the butter and fry the onion until lightly browned. Add the spinach. This was fresh store-bought pre-cut spinach, which I just washed again. Add the salt, pepper and nutmeg. Fry until the spinach starts frying too. 

Scoop the whole mixture into the chopper thingy, Add the feta, crumbed, and add the mayonnaise. Blend well.

Cut the bread along the cuts you already made before baking. Lightly spread with butter. If you wish, you can spread a thin layer of Dijon Mustard or hot English mustard for a little kick. Scoop the Spinach & Feta mixture over... 

...And Enjoy!!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Bread Pizza

We had the loveliest rain yesterday - about 27mm! But rainy days calls for comfort food, and yesterday was Meat Night... So we switched!! 

Preparation time: 30min
Cooking time: 1 1/2 hours
Difficulty level: Easy
Serves: 6

Ingredients

Base
2cups self raising flour
1t baking powder
1/2t salt
2 eggs
3/4cup milk

Topping
2tbs cooking oil
1 onion, chopped
1 punnet mushrooms, sliced
250g bacon, diced
2tbs mayonnaise
1tbs basil pesto
italian herbs
cayenne pepper
150g cheddar cheese, grated
100g mozzarella cheese, grated

Method

Base
Sift the self raising flour, baking powder and salt together. Whisk the eggs and milk together.

 Add the liquid to the flour and mix lightly. Spray a deep baking dish with non-stick spray. Scoop the dough into the baking dish and spread out.

Topping
Heat the oil in a frying pan. Fry the onion, mushrooms  and bacon until browned.

Spread the mayonnaise evenly over the dough. Follow with the basil pesto.

Spread the cheddar cheese over the dough evenly. Then follow with the mushroom mixture.
Lastly sprinkle the mozzarella over. Sprinkle a little Italian herbs and cayenne pepper over, to taste.

Bake in the oven at 160degrees C, until the cheese starts to brown a little and the dough has risen to at least double in thickness.

Enjoy!!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Scrambled Omelette

Breakfast is a very important meal of the day, and we have a quite a tendency to also make it the most uninteresting meal of the day. I guess, mostly because of time constraints. We don't have time to make a fabulous, wholesome breakfast before work in the mornings. And if we had the time, we probably wouldn't have the time to eat it!!

This was supposed to be an omelette, and I wanted it fluffy... apparently the 2 does not go together, and the omelette didn't want to bind. So, it became scrambled..

Ingredients:

5 eggs
1/2cup milk
1t parsley
1t sage
1 onion, finely chopped
3tbs mayonnaise
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 baking powder
Feta cheese
Cheddar Cheese

Method

I chopped the onions in some Veri-Mark chopper thing. I then added all the spices.

Then the baking powder, the egg, milk and mayonnaise. 

Heat some oil in a pan, add the egg mixture and let it cook a while. Add some feta to taste. 

Once it starts to brown on the bottom, whisk it up, let it fry a little, scoop onto a plate, add some cheddar cheese on the top - and enjoy!!

 Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Mayonnaise

Making my own mayonnaise has been something I wanted to do for a very long time, but just never got round to it. Probably because I already had store-bought mayonnaise on hand. However, I decided recently that once this bottle of store-bought mayo is finished, I am going to make my own. So, yesterday was the day! There are literally hundreds of websites with recipes for home made mayonnaise, each with its own little tweak - as is mine - but it's basically egg, oil, vinegar and flavouring. 

From what I could gather, your ratios should look like this:
1 egg = 1 cup of oil = 1tbs vinegar

Vinegar can be any vinegar, from white wine to grape to apple, brown or white. You can substitute it with lemon juice, too. And, of course, the taste will be different with each of the different vinegars or juices. Flavouring is your basic: salt. To taste. Seems like you don't need to be too shy, as the salt evens out the sour of the vinegar. And then pepper and mustard. All to taste. The oil can be any oil, too. From olive to peanut to sunflower... 

Here is 2 of my versions, both taste quite different from the store-bought version, but it is very addictive, much creamier and softer on the tongue. The one version is a softer, plainer mayo, while the tangy one has a bit of "zing". The method is the same for both.

Plain Mayo                                                                              Tangy Mayo Ingredients:                                                                            Ingredients:

2 eggs                                                                                        3 eggs
2 cups sunflower oil                                                               2 cups sunflower oil
1tbs red wine vinegar                                                            1/4 cup white vinegar
1tbs white vinegar                                                                  2t hot English mustard
1/4t hot English mustard                                                      pinch white pepper
pinch ground black pepper                                                  pinch salt
1/4t salt 

Method

Add all the ingredients into a tall beaker. Let it sit for a while so that everything can settle into it's layers. 

Use a stick blender and place it on the bottom of the beaker. Put it on high for about 20 seconds. Slowly lift it up, to incorporate everything. 

Taste to see if it suits your taste. Add some salt or pepper if needed, and incorporate well.

And enjoy on Hamburgers or my famous Baked Mince Roll!!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch