Category: Starter

Posted on

Soup weather

Winter, the season for soup.

So far I’ve made a pot of chicken soup and a pot of zucchini soup (requested by the boy child).

I wasnt sure about the zucchini soup. I like it roasted or as zucchini noodles but soup…?

So I searched the interwebs and found a few recipes but none really appealed to me. What did appeal to me were the recipes that had garlic in them.

So armed with a list of various recipes, a bag of zucchini, a garlic bulb and my spice rack I created my own recipe.

img_6470

 

Zucchini Garlic Soup
A mild and creamy zucchini soup.
Write a review
Save Recipe
Print
Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
1 hr
Total Time
1 hr 15 min
Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
1 hr
Total Time
1 hr 15 min
Ingredients
  1. Oil for frying
  2. 4 large zucchini, peeled and sliced
  3. 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped (more or less per your taste)
  4. 1 red onion, diced (most recipes called for white onion, I only had red and it was perfect)
  5. 4 cups of water or vegetable stock
  6. Salt and pepper to taste
  7. Herbs, I used basil and rosemary
  8. Ginger powder
Instructions
  1. Soak your peeled and sliced zucchini is a bowl of salted water.
  2. While that is soaking, in a large, heavy bottomed pot, lightly fry your onion and garlic until the onion is soft and translucent.
  3. Drain your zucchini and add to the pot.
  4. Heat until the zucchini starts to soften.
  5. Add your water or stock and bring to the boil.
  6. Once boiling, lower to a simmer and add your salt, pepper, herbs and ginger to taste. If you are using water, add more, if you are using stock add less.
  7. Simmer, partially covered, for 45 minutes.
Notes
  1. Serve hot with slices of olive bread.
  2. This soup has a very subtle flavour. Next time I will probably add a bit of sweet chili powder for a bit of a kick.
A Bit of This A Bit of That https://gnatj.com/
Posted on

Carrot and red onion soup

We landed up with two bags of carrots, way to much to eat before they went off, so I decided to make a carrot soup.

Ingredients

  • Carrots, peeled and chopped into medium chunks
  • Red onion, peeled and chopped into chunks (I used two small onions)
  • Stock powder (I used chicken stock powder, you can use vegetable stock or maybe even mushroom soup powder)
  • Oil for frying
  • Water
  • Walnuts, toasted (I used about half a cup.  Also walnuts in their shells are far cheaper than ones already shelled, also its fun to use a heavy bottomed pan and go all HULK SMASH on them, although its quite messy)

Method

  • Add carrots, onions and a tablespoon or two of dry stock powder to a large pot.

IMG_0509

  • Drizzle with a bit of oil and lightly fry the veggies until the stock powder is dissolved.
  • While frying, bring a kettle of water to the boil.
  • Cover veggies with water, just above the veggies should be enough.

IMG_0510

  • Bring the water and veggies to a boil and then cover and turn down the heat to simmer.
  • Simmer until carrots are soft.
  • While the veggies are simmering, toast some walnuts.
  • Once the carrots are soft, add half the toasted walnuts.
  • Blitz the veggies for a smooth, thick soup. (Its ok if its not completely smooth, it still tastes delicious!)

IMG_0514

  • Roughly chop the remaining walnuts and add to the top of the soup as a garnish.

IMG_0516

  • Enjoy!
Posted on

#CookAlong with @Foodiction and @LifeologySA

Last night Wendi and I headed out to Foodiction in Bryanston to attend their very first #CookAlong.

We were kindly invited by Lifeology SA along with a bunch of other celebs, bloggers and foodies.

The evening entailed preparing a 3 course meal and from prep to cooking to eating it was a blast.

Chef Barry was fantastic, leading us through making the mouthwatering meal.

Chef

Im going to be making all the dishes we made over the next week or so and will blog them here.  I only hope they come out as well as they did last night.  Note: I made the fondant for dessert tonight but totally forgot to take pictures so I guess I will just have to make it again so I can blog it.  Its a yummy hard job but someone has to do it 😉

We made Salmon in Citrus Broth for starters, Chicken and Mushroom Risotto for the main course and a to die for Chocolate Fondant for dessert.  Needless to say I rolled home and slept on my back last night 😉

Foodiction is an awesome venue, catering (haha) to private functions tailor made to suit you as well as to group lessons and even kids cooking classes!  (I cannot wait to take Aaron for some lessons).

We had an amazing time and I certainly learnt a lot.  Also I managed not to chop off any fingers or stab anyone around me.  Bonus 😉

So, without further ado, here are some of the amazing photos taken by Pat Sloane (you can see the full FB gallery here).

Segmenting citrus for the citrus broth 

 

Olwagens

Jess

The gang!

Thank you to Jodene and Greg from Lifeology SA for inviting us to a fantastic evening of fun, food and laughter!

Contact Foodiction here.

Contact Lifeology SA here.

Posted on

Yorkshire Pudding

First off I had to find out why its called a pudding.  I mean really, pudding is sweet and suger filled and served at the end of a meal right?

Take a quick look here to see some history about it and why its called a pudding then come back and see the recipe 🙂

Yorkshire pudding is meant to accompany the roast of a main meal. It should be light and airy on the inside and crispy on the outside and should have a dip in the top (not all of mine did), they are great for soaking up extra gravy!

You will need

  • Oil or drippings from your roast
  • A Yorkshire Pudding pan (I just used a muffin pan)

Ingredients

  • 1 egg
  • 75ml milk
  • 55ml water (note: you can use 130ml water if you dont want to use milk)
  • 75g flour (about 1/3 of a cup)

Method

You will need no less than 30 minutes to make these, so make sure you give yourself plenty of time.

  • Set the oven to 180°C
  • Place a small amount of oil (or drippings) into the bottom of each muffin cup.
  • Place tray into the oven and allow the oil to heat up, it should start to smoke a little, about 10 minutes.
  • While you are waiting mix together the egg, flour and liquid.  You should have a very thin batter.
  • Once the oil is heated remove the tray from the oven and fill each cup about 2/3.
  • Return the pan to the oven and allow to bake for about 20 – 25 minutes or until they have risen and are brown and crispy.
  • Try not to open the oven door too much or they wont rise.

I used the above amounts for the ingredients and it made 8 smallish puddings.  You can increase the amounts as you need to.  Just remember that you should have (pretty much) equal amounts of eggs, flour and liquid.  I.e. 2 eggs, 260ml water/milk (2/3 cup) and 150g flour or 3 eggs, 390ml milk/water (1 cup) and 235g flour.

Posted on

Baked Camembert in White Wine

I am a soft cheese lover of note!  I cannot get enough of Brie and Camembert cheese and will eat it until I make myself sick.

So when Tanya mailed me her recipe and pictures I let out the hugest ‘squeeeeeee’ ever.  Im off to the shops after work to get the ingredients 🙂

~~~

A simple recipe that is totally delicious if you love cheese!

Ingredients:

  • 1 wheel of Camembert cheese
  • Small amount of white wine of your choice
  • Fresh Garlic (either a clove of garlic, or I used crushed garlic from woolies)
  • Fresh Herbs – thyme or rosemary etc
  • Ramekins of approximately the same size of your wheel of Camembert

Method:

  • Preheat oven to 180
  • Pop the wheel of cheese into the ramekin… I had to squash mine in quite a bit
  • Poke cheese with a fork
  • Push a clove of garlic into the cheese… since i used crushed garlic, i basically just wiped a teaspoon in the tub of garlic and then smeared it onto the cheese… just very little as I didn’t want to be stinky the next day!
  • Stick the fresh herbs into the cheese
  • Pour the white wine over the cheese. You need very very little. Probably only 2-5 tablespoons – depending on the size of your ramekin
  • Pop the lids onto your ramekins (or cover with foil)
  • Put on a baking tray (in case of leakage!) and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes.
  • In the mean time, slice up some crusty French loaf
  • When the cheese is done, remove from oven, take out the stalks of herbs, and the clove of garlic if you used one…
  • Use your fresh bread to stir it up and enjoy your own little cheese pot!
  • Be careful of the hot ramekins though!

note one wheel of Camembert may be slightly too much for one person as it is quite rich , so I’d suggest sharing one portion between two people… or if you have hungry people, one portion per person could do!

Posted on

Strawberry Salad

Woolies had a large (and I mean LARGE) punnet of strawberries for sale to day.  Of course I bought it.  But what to do with them?

I googled ‘strawberry salad’ cause I need to take a salad with to my mom in law for dinner tonight and I came across this simple fresh salad, I immediately pinned it and turned it into reality.

Ingredients

Salad

  • Lettuce (I used a bulk bag of crispy lettuce, ready washed etc from Woolies)
  • Red onion (I had bought a little bag of ready sliced red onion from Woolies. Gd bless you!!!)
  • Strawberries, hulled and quartered
  • Fresh mint, chopped (this I got from around the tap next to my back door, yum)
  • Pecan nuts (I left these out, cause well, I didnt have any…)

Dressing

  • Quarter cup olive oil
  • Third of a cup balsamic vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • Salt and crushed black pepper to taste

Method

  • Toss lettuce, onion, strawberry and mint together in a salad bowl.
  • Blend together the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper.

I kept the dressing separate for each person to add for themselves but Im sure you could just toss the dressing over before serving.

Posted on

Roasted Tomato Soup

Today we have another guest chef, Tanya (aka @Beagle_Momma) sent me a delicious and healthy recipe for roasted tomato soup.

Ingredients:

  • 900g baby tomatoes
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 20ml (weigh less) olive oil
  • 900ml chicken stock (I used oxtail – didn’t have anything else)
  • 20g Fresh chopped basil (i didn’t have, so just used about a tablespoon of dry italian herbs)
  • 5ml (weigh less) balsamic vinegar
  • Salt & pepper

Method:

  • Cut tomatoes in half, place on baking tray cut side up.
  • Also pop the 4 cloves of garlic on the tray
  • Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt & pepper
  • *Since I wasn’t using fresh basil, I sprinkled my dry herbs on too – fresh basil comes later tho*
  • Roast at 195degrees for an hour.
  • In the mean time, i prepared my 900ml of stock, and added balsamic vinegar to the stock.
  • Once the tomatoes & garlic are roasted (divine smell!!) take them out, pop the stock mixture, the roasted tomatoes/garlic into a blender *now would be when you add the fresh basil if you using it*
  • Blend until smooth.
  • Sprinkle with a little bit of feta before serving! A slice of crusty bread would be perfect too!

Serves 4 and each portion counts as 2 Veg and 1 Fat.

The recipe says serve hot or cold!

Easy, healthy, tasty, quick! Winner!

Posted on

Chopped Liver

I am debating putting up pictures with this post, mainly because chopped liver pictures are not the most appetising things, even though the actual dish is delicious… Lets see how we go 🙂

Ingredients

  • 1 x 500g kosher frozen chicken livers, thaw in microwave (I say kosher only because they are as clean as you will get them)
  • 1 x onion, diced
  • 1 x egg, hard boiled (you can use 2 or 3 eggs depending on how many people you need to feed)
  • 2 or 3 tablespoons Ina Parmens (or similar) chicken stock powder
  • 1 tablespoon marge or schmaltz for frying

Method

  • Hard boil your egg(s).
  • Melt margarine in a large heavy pan, add diced onion and fry for 5 minutes or until lightly golden.
  • Toss in the chicken stock powder and mix.
  • Add thawed chicken livers to the onions and fry until cooked through.
  • Place onion and livers in a mixing bowl, crumble the hard boiled egg into the bowl.
  • Using a hand held electric chopper thingy (I have no idea what they are actually called) chop the cooked ingredients.

How smooth you chop the liver is up to you.  You can leave it quite chunky or make it into a smooth patè.

Serve on challah or french bread or even on toast the next morning for breakfast.