Tag: starter

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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 🙂

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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!

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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!

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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.