White Wine & Honey Chicken

I bought beautiful chicken breasts for a bargain the other day, and wondered what I was going to make with it. I couldn't quite decide what flavours to use - honey & mustard... sticky... and decided to do something different... It worked beautifully!!

Serves: 5

Ingredients

5 chicken breasts
2tbs olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
pinch nutmeg
3tbs honey
1/2 cup white wine

Method

Place the chicken in a frying pan. Drizzle over the olive oil, sprinkle over the salt, pepper and nutmeg, cover and let it simmer on medium heat. 

Turn over every now and then. Cook for about 30 - 40 minutes. The chicken should be almost done. 

Pour off the chicken stock. Pour over the wine and drizzle over the honey. Fry on high power, turning over often. Let the skin fry and caramalize, but be careful not to let it burn.

Dish up and enjoy!!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Melon Juice

I love melons. Not paw-paw. I really don't like paw-paw... But I really, REALLY love my melon! So I bought some. With the idea of making a smoothie. But we don't have ice-cream. Or Ice. And I don't have a lot of experience with smoothies, so I kept this simple. And it came out really great!!
It is not soft and smooth, as it still has all the fibres and fleshy bits. If you want, you can strain it, to remove all those bits.

Ingredients

1 Melon , diced
3tbs honey
1 cup soda water

Method

Place the diced melon in the blender, Add the honey and the soda water. 

Blend it up...

...and enjoy!!

Yours in oil and veggies... and fruit!!

Risch

Coconut-Honey Chicken

Sunday. Lunch. Need I say more?

Preparation time: 30min

Cooking time: 5 hours

Difficulty Level: Easy

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken

2tbs olive oil

2tbs coconut oil

2tbs honey

Salt & Pepper

Method:

Place the chicken in the slow cooker, add the oils and honey, cover and let it cook. 

Turn over every hour ...

...until it is completely done and you are actually unable to turn it over, because it falls off the bone. You can season with salt & pepper to taste, if you like, but it is not necessary.

Pour off the sauce into a saucepan. Add a teaspoon of bisto, beat well, heat up. Be careful not to reduce it too much. It just needs to thicken.

Dish up and enjoy with some Spinach & Feta Baked potatoes.

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Thai Fried Fish

I was in the mood for something different, and I was craving coconut... Being Thursday, it is fish or chicken night. So, I decided to make something resembling Thai. I am specifically saying "resembling" as I am not quite sure if I actually achieved it, but from what I could find regarding flavours and combinations, I came pretty close. 
I have to admit, this is not my favourite flavour combination. Don't think I am a Thai-person. But perhaps you feel differently?

Preparation time: 20min
Cooking Time: 10min
Difficulty Level: Easy
Serves: 6

Ingredients
Sauce

165ml coconut cream
1/2t hot curry
1/2t mild curry
1tbs soya sauce
1tbs lemon juice
1t honey

Add everything together in a pot and cook until starting to thicken. Remove from heat, cover, and let the flavours develop.

 Fish

6 pieces of deboned hake fillets
2tbs butter
1tbs olive oil
1tbs lemon juice
1/4t ground ginger
1/4t ground cinnamon

Melt the butter and the oil together in a pan. Add the lemon juice, ginger and cinnamon. Let it fry a little. Add the fish and fry on both sides until done. It's done when it is soft, flaky and white. There shouldn't be any more fish meat that is translucent.

Serve on rice or bread (We had it on bread, as you can see) and drizzle the sauce over. My kids loved it!!

Yours in oil and veggies

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

Simple Thai stirfry

We are busy moving - I am super excited!! But that also means limited time, energy and resources (my pots and glassware are already packed!) Tuesday is meat night, though, so I defrosted some tenderised steak. I thought of a traditional stirfry, but didn't have all the veggies fresh on hand. Or frozen, mind you. This is what I came up with:

Ingredients

750g tenderised steak, cut into strips

2tbs butter

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup raisins

1tbs golden syrup

1tbs honey

1tbs balsamic vinegar

1/2t ground ginger

1 apple, grated

1/2t english mustard

Salt & Pepper to taste

Method

Melt the butter. fry the apple, raisins and sunflower seeds a little, 

Add the meat. Fry a little. 

  

Whisk the honey, syrup, vinegar, mustard and ginger together. Add to the meat and mix well. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Lower the heat, put on the lid and let it slowly cook a little to develop the flavours. Turn off the heat, keep covered. Re-heat when you are ready to dish up. 

We had it with microwave potato and some Cottage-Mayo sauce. Very interesting combination of flavours, very delicious. and low-carb to boot!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Honeycomb Crunch

My daughter came across this while browsing YouTube... She really wanted to try this, so eventually I gave in. You can use either syrup or honey. We didn't have enough syrup left (I need to do some shopping today!!) so we used honey.

Preparation time: 10min
Cooking time: +- 10min (depends on your heat setting)
Setting time: +- 2 hours
Difficulty Level: Skilled

Ingredients

100g sugar
2 1/2 tbs honey
1t bicarbonate of soda

Method

Melt the sugar and honey over low heat until dissolved.

Stirring continuously, until it reaches "hard crack stage". That is when the mixture cracks immediately when dripped into ice cold water.

Very quickly stir in the bicarb. The mixture can start to burn, so this needs to be done very very quickly. The bicarb needs to be mixed in as thoroughly as possible, though.

Pour into sprayed baking dish and immediately put into freezer to set.

The quicker it cools down, the smoother the texture and smaller the holes.

Once set, crumble and enjoy with freshly whipped cream and ginger syrup... Or dip into melted chocolate... or eat is as is!!

It is so delicious, but be careful: you might get addicted!! Thank you Beccy's Bright Ideas!!

Yours in oil and veggies... and sugar!

Risch

Lemon Butter Eisbein

Aaaahh, Sundays... As always, Sunday feasts remain extra special and yesterday, I wanted to make something special. I chose smoked eisbein, and a lemon-butter-honey for the glaze. With roast potatoes... and whole green beans for the sides... It was absolutely heavenly... My mouth waters just by the thought of it! But wait, here is the recipe, so you can go and try it for yourself!

Preparation time: 5min
Cooking time: 5 hours
Difficulty: Very easy
Serves: 5 (depending on the size of your eisbein)

Ingredients

1x smoked eisbein (I chose an huge one, with a smaller bone, thus more meat)
4tbs honey
4tbs butter
2tbs lemon juice

Method

Place the eisbein in an oven dish. Add a little water to the dish, just to cover the bottom. Brush the eisbein thoroughly with the glaze.

 Cover with the lid and bake in oven at 140degrees C for 4 hours. Every half hour, open up, brush with the glaze and put back again. After 4 hours, take off the lid, brush with glaze, and put the oven on light-medium grill (my oven's setting was nr 4 out of 8), for another half hour, but check regularly. It will "caramalize" or burn a little, but check to make sure it doesn't burn completely! When the glaze is finished, use the sauce that formed in the oven dish.

After the 30min, turn over, brush again with glaze, another 30 min under the grill. 

And you're ready to serve!!

This eisben was so soft, you could cut it with a butter knife... the lemon glaze complimented the smokey flavour beautifully. A true Sunday afternoon feast...  

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Cheesy Onion & Egg Breakfast

Good Morning!!

Yes, another breakfast... But we had dinner at Spur yesterday, so I didn't make anything... My son had a rugby event - and it was pure chaos!! You can imagine... 13 kids running riot in the play area, eating and drinking cooldrinks inbetween. But it was a lot of fun!!

Breakfast this morning is the Cheesy Onion & Egg Breakfast. I was quite sceptical myself about this combination, but I have to say: this is such an amazing taste sensation! It has a zing, and a bite and some sweetness on the tongue... From all the breakfasts so far, this is my favourite!!

Ingredients

2 eggs
50g cheese, finely grated
1 onion, chopped
lemon zest to taste
salt& pepper to taste
1tbs butter
1t honey

Method

Poach the eggs. Melt the butter and fry the onion until it browns a little. Spread the onion on the plate. Place the 2 poached eggs on the onion. Sprinkle the cheese  over. Sprinkle the zest over (I grate it directly from the lemon). Add the salt&pepper to your taste. Very little salt is required, though. Drizzle with the honey. And then prepare yourself for a fresh and tangy start to your day!!

Hope you have wonderful day - full of little blessings!!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Poached egg & Apple breakfast

Good Morning!

It's been a while since I have posted any recipes, because I got a little busy... Had my baby, got retrenched and started working from home, busy buying a bigger house.... It has been quite a ride, but we are all happy and content.

And part of the pleasures of being at home, is having very wholesome, healthy, delicious breakfasts! 

Part of eating more healthy, and in line with slimming objectives, is to cut out all refined and "white" carbs. So, no bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, flour or maizemeal... This makes finding alternatives for these carbs, challenging... but interesting!

For today, I have decided on Butter fried apples, drizzled with honey and feta, with poached egg and salad leaf.

Ingredients
1 apple
1/8th of a feta ring
1t honey
2 eggs
1t butter
1 salad leaf

Method

Slice the apple (skin on) in thin slices, around the core. If you can make ribbons, that will be fabulous! Melt the butter in a pan and fry the apple in the butter.
Poach the eggs until done. I like mine soft.

 The apple can caramelise a little, it adds flavour!!!

Place the apple on the plate. drizzle the honey over and crumb the feta. 

Add the egg and salad leaf, and of course a fresh cup of coffee, and you are ready to enjoy your breakfast... and the rest of the day, too!!

O, you read right, no salt, pepper or any flavouring added. It's not needed...

Have a wonderful day!!

Yours in oil and veggies,

Risch