Fresh Asian Noodle Salad

This is adapted from Jamie Oliver’s recipe, but his uses mince as well - I think it’s nicer with just prawns.   Try to use green (uncooked) prawns instead of the pre-cooked ones.  It’s a lovely fresh salad for a summer’s day.

Fresh Asian Noodle Salad

300 g cellophane or vermicelli rice noodles

2 tsp chinese five spice

3 tbsp olive or coconut oil

2 cloves of garlic, grated

2 tbsp fresh ginger, grated

200g peeled fresh green prawns

3 tsp sugar

1 bunch spring onions, finely sliced

3 tbsp fresh lime juice

1 tbsp fish sauce

2 red chillis, finely sliced

1 handful fresh coriander, chopped

1 handful fresh mint, chopped

2 handfuls roasted peanuts

salt and pepper

Put the noodles in a large serving bowl and cover with boiling water.  Soak until soft, then drain and return to the bowl.  Mix the lime juice, fish sauce and sugar together, and stir into the noodles.  

Heat the oil in a wok and gently fry the garlic, ginger and Chinese five spice for a couple of minutes until just soft.  Add the prawns and cook until they are pink and just cooked through.  Add the prawns to the noodles, along with the fresh herbs, spring onion, the chilli and the peanuts, and salt and pepper to taste. Toss well to combine.  Test the seasoning - it needs to be quite zingy with the lime juice.  Serve immediately or cool in the fridge and serve cold.

meringues and pavolva

Meringues are very easy to make if you follow the rules - this recipe looks very long and complicated for something with only 3 ingredients!  But it is worth following it properly to make sure they turn out well.    A lot of recipes say you should add cornflour but I don't like the taste and much prefer them with just eggs and sugar and a pinch of salt.  If you are making a pavolva base follow the recipe but just make one big meringue with a hollow in the middle and cook it for a little longer.

Ingredients

4 egg whites (at room temperature)

a pinch of salt

1 cup caster sugar

Preheat oven to 120°C.  Measure and prepare all your ingredients.

Bring your eggs to room temperature before using them - cold egg whites incorporate less air than those at room temperature. When you separate the egg whites from the yolks, separate each egg into a small dish or ramekin rather than straight into a large bowl. Transfer the whites and yolks to different bowls before. separating the remaining eggs. This way, if a yolk breaks into a white, you will not spoil all four egg whites. 

The salt will help to stabilise the meringues and help them stiffen before the sugar is added. A pinch of cream tartar can be used in place of the salt if you wish.

Line 2 large baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Have all the required utensils on hand. An electric stand mixer or electric hand beaters with a whisk attachment or a hand balloon whisk can be used to whisk the egg whites - they will all give good results but the texture of the meringue mixture will be slightly different with each.

Place the egg whites and salt in a large, clean, dry mixing bowl. Make sure your egg whites, bowl and whisk attachments are free of any water, or fat such as butter, oil or egg yolks, as this will inhibit the egg whites from incorporating air and producing a good volume. It is best to use a stainless steel, glass, ceramic or copper bowl for whisking egg whites and not plastic as traces of fat are difficult to remove from plastic bowls. Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form.

Add the sugar, a spoonful at a time, whisking until just combined. The sugar should be added gradually but there is no need to whisk well after each addition. If the sugar is added too slowly, the resulting mixture will be fluffy and not smooth and the meringues an open texture.

After the last of the sugar has been, added, continue to whisk for a further 2-3 minutes or until the mixture is very thick and glossy, all the sugar has dissolved and a long trailing peak forms when the whisk is lifted. The best way to test if all the sugar has dissolved is to rub a little of the mixture between your thumb and forefinger.

If it is smooth, all the sugar has dissolved.  Keep a close eye on the mixture and stop beating as soon as it reaches this stage. If the mixture is overbeaten, the meringues will collapse during cooking and beads of sugar will form on their surface.

Use teaspoons to spoon the mixture onto the lined trays to form the meringues.If you are making meringues dollop large tablespoons of the mixture onto the trays, If you are making a pavlova do one big meringue and hollow out the middle a little for the cream and fruit.  

Place the meringues into the oven and reduce the temperature to 90°C. When you place the meringues in the oven, the initial slightly higher temperature sets their outsides. The lower temperature then dries the meringues rather than bakes them. Leave the oven on for 1 1/2 hours or until the meringues are crisp and sound hollow when tapped on the base. (if you like your meringues chewy, like I do, check them after an hour or so.  Turn the oven off and allow the meringues to cool in the oven - this will take 3-4 hours.

Store the meringues in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

Serve with fresh cream.

Pomegranate pavlova

Cover your pavlova base with thick cream and top with pomegranate seeds (the easiest way to get the seeds out whole is to cut the pomegranate in half, and then hit it on the uncut side with a wooden spoon until the seeds fall out.  You can substitute other fruits but try to choose something slightly tart to counteract the sweetness of the meringue).

roasted vegetables

I got the idea for this variation of roasted veg from Nigella (where lots of good ideas come from!) and you can adjust it to your own tastes by changing the type of vegetables.  This recipe is my favourite combination - I love flavour & the orange, red and yellow colours.

Roast vegetables

4 large clean red skinned potatoes

1 large sweet potato

1/2 butternut 

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

2 red onions

2 tsp mixed herbs or braai spice etc (I use Ina Paarman’s Olive and Rosemary seasoning)

salt and pepper 

a couple of glugs of extra olive oil

1 piece Greek feta or haloumi

some baby spinach leaves

Pre heat the oven to 220C.  Cut all the vegetables into bite size pieces.  Put them on a roasting tray and drizzle with olive oil and seasoning (don’t pile the veggies too high, use 2 trays if necessary so that they can spread out a bit).  Mix them up with your hands until they are all coated with the oil and seasoning.  Roast for about 40 mins or until they are just cooked.

Chop the feta (or haloumi) into chunks and scatter over the veggies.  Return to the oven for 5 to 10 minutes or until the cheese starts to melt.

Remove from the oven and toss through some baby spinach leaves.  Serve immediately with a roast or steaks or all by itself.

Batesi's coffee ice cream

Simply the best ice cream in the world.  If you don't like coffee you can replace it with vanilla, add fruit etc - the choice is yours.

 Batesi’s coffee ice-cream

1 tin condensed milk

5 tsp Nescafe dissolved in 1/4 cup boiling water and then cooled.

2 eggs (separated)

300 ml cream

Pour condensed milk into a bowl.  Beat in the coffee and egg yolks.  Beat the cream until thick and mix into the condensed milk mixture.

Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.  Fold into the mixture with a metal spoon.  Freeze.

potato and broad bean salad

This is a favourite salad with all the family.  It is a little fiddly to shell the broad beans but it’s definitely worth it.

Potato and broad bean salad

 Approx 3/4 kg baby potatoes (or some very clean and scrubbed bigger potatoes)

1 packet frozen broad beans

6 slices bacon

Niki’s salad dressing

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 tsp sugar

2 cloves garlic (grated)

1 tsp mustard

Salt and pepper

Cut the potatoes into bite sized chunks and boil in salty water until just cooked.  Dice the bacon and fry until crunchy.  Cook the broad beans according to the packet instructions.

To make the salad dressing put all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk with a fork until combined.

Drain the potatoes and pour the salad dressing over them while they are still warm.  Take the tough outer shells off the broad beans and mix into the salad, along with the bacon.

Pecan Pie

I used to make the American classic pecan pie all the time in Zim - and I don’t know why I’ve stopped making it here.  It’s really easy to make if you use an all butter ready made pastry or even a partially baked pie shell (or you can make individual tarts).

Pecan Pie

50g softened butter

3 eggs

1 Tbsp flour

1 tsp vanilla

175 g caster sugar

235 mls golden syrup

1 tsp salt

200 g pecans

1 partially baked pie shell*

Beat the butter, sugar and eggs.  Stir in the syrup.  Add flour, salt and vanilla.  

Scatter the pecans into the pie shell and pour the mixture over

Bake on the bottom shelf for 40 to 50 minutes at 350F until barely (top should still feel soft to touch).

Cool.  Serve with whipped cream.

banoffee pie

Bananas, cream, caramel and chocolate.  Need I say more.

Ingredients

(makes 8 small tarts)

8 all-butter pre-made tartlet cases (chocolate or plain)

(You can of course make your own)

or some pre-made chocolate cups.

A can of sweetened condensed milk

2 bananas, sliced

1/2cup mascarpone

1 cup double cream

1/2 tsp vanilla

Chocolate for chocolate curls

cocoa powder for dusting

Remove the label from the can of the condensed milk and put it in the pot completely submerged in water.  Bring to a boil and continue cooking for 1.5-2 hours. Keep checking it to make sure the can is completely covered in water through the duration of cooking or it will explode.  Cool until it’s ready to use. When you open it you will discover that your condensed milk has turned into delicious caramel!  

This step could be done well in advance - up to a couple of weeks beforehand. Just leave the tin unopened.

If you are making your own tart bases, make a batch of pastry, roll it out, cut into rounds and put it in the tart tins.  Put a piece of baking paper on top of the pastry and put in some baking weights or uncooked rice.  Bake for 10 mins at 180 C (160 C in a fan forced oven), then remove the weights and the baking paper and brush with a little beaten egg.  Put the tart shells back in the oven for another 3 minutes to finish baking and then put on a wire rack to cool.

Whip mascarpone with double cream and vanilla until it’s thick.

Spread your caramel equally among 8 tartlets, and top with sliced bananas. Top with cream mixture and chocolate (either grated or curled - see below) and dust with cocoa powder.

For Chocolate Curls:

Melt the chocolate in the microwave and spread it thinly on a baking tray, pop it in the fridge for 3 minutes to set. Take it out and let it stand for a couple of minutes to soften a bit. Drag a knife or a cheese slicer like I did  along the surface of the chocolate to make the curls. When you have enough curls, put them back in the fridge for a couple of minutes to harden.  Dust with cocoa powder.

Creme brûlée

This is French version of panna cotta (creme brûlée means boiled cream), except it uses eggs to set it and not gelatine.  The crunchy caramel topping is the best part so don't leave it out.  If you don't have a kitchen blowtorch put it under the grill until the sugar caramelises and turns brown to finish it off (but a blow torch is cheap and much more fun!).

Ingredients

2 cups whipping cream

1/2 cup sugar

2 tblsp chopped peeled fresh ginger (optional)

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

5 large egg yolks

12 teaspoons sugar

Preheat the oven to 325°F.   Place six 3/4-cup (oven proof) ramekins in a large pan which holds them all easily.   Mix the cream, sugar and ginger in saucepan.  Using asmall sharp knife, scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add the seeds and bean to saucepan.  Stir over a medium heat until sugar dissolves and mixture comes to simmer, then cover the saucepan and reduce the heat to very low and simmer gently 10 minutes to infuse the flavors. Strain the mixture into a large jug.

Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl until well blended.  Gradually pour in the hot cream mixture, whisking all the time, until it has combined (don't whisk too long).  Pour the custard back into the large jug and divide among the ramekins.  Pour enough hot water into the large pan to come halfway up sides of dishes.  Carefully transfer the pan to the oven.

Bake the custards until they are almost set in center when the pan is gently shaken (about 35 minutes).  They should wobble a bit in the middle.   Using tongs or  a metal spatula, carefully transfer the custards onto a work surface and cool for 30 minutes., then chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours and up to 2 days.

When you are ready to serve, sprinkle 2 teaspoons of sugar evenly over each custard.  Working with 1 custard at a time, hold the blowtorch so that flame is about 2 inches above the surface.  Direct the flame so that sugar melts and browns (about 2 minutes).

Garnish your crème brûlées with fruit.  These ginger infused ones are lovely with tropical fruit like mangos or pineapples.  You can leave out the ginger for a more traditional creme brûlée and serve it with berries.

Graham's sticky ribs

Sticky and delicious!

Graham's sticky ribs

Feeds 6

Take 1.5 kg of pork ribs

Cut up the ribs 2 or 3 ribs at a time.  Put them in saucepan with half water/half beer to cover, add an onion cut in half with the skin left on and 4 cloves garlic lightly crushed. Add a carrot cut in thirds, and 2 long thin red chilies, cut in half lengthways.  Add one cup of brown sugar, half a cup of white sugar, and one thumb of ginger roughly sliced.   4 tablespoons soy sauce. Salt and pepper to taste and a bay leaf. 1/4 a cup of tomato sauce.   The juice of half a lemon.

Simmer the ribs for 45 mins.

Remove the ribs.

Continue reducing the liquid until sticky.

Quickly brown and caramelise the ribs on the braai or under the grill. 

Put the ribs back into the hot sauce and serve with crusty bread.