Author: Karen Claassen

One of my favourite eateries is L’as du Falafel, in the Marais District of Paris. The cue that stretches around the corner during lunchtime is a sure indicator of its popularity amongst the local French crowd. Whenever we go to this simple Middle Eastern eatery we get our pita-filled, perfectly fried falafel and walk down to the Place de Vosges where we find a shaded spot on the grass to eat like true locals. Believe me …. you will never forget this meal!

Falafel is plant-based, vegan fritters that are often served with hummus, tahini or smoked garlic sauce. It originated in Arabic countries and was traditionally made with fava beans. Falafel became the most popular street food in Israel when it was made with a chickpea-base and loaded into pita breads with vegetable pickles.

There are many recipes available but I prefer falafel made from chickpeas and deep-fried in oil, opposed to baking it in the oven.

One can of chickpeas will give you more-or-less 15 falafel, which leaves you with 5 falafel per person, in a decent sized pita bread. Feel free to double or triple the recipe.

1 can chickpeas, drained, patted dry with a clean tea towel and left to dry for 30 minutes or so

1 onion, grated

30ml parsley, finely chopped

5ml baking powder

10ml ground cumin

2,5ml garlic, minced

45ml flour

salt and pepper

Falafel can be made in a food processor, a blender, a hand blender or by hand. I make mine by hand as I love the unevenness in texture.

If you are using an electric appliance, simply add all the ingredients and pulse to break it up. You DO NOT want a paste. The mixture should be dry and crumbly.

When making by hand, add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl and smash the chickpeas with a potato masher. Give the mixture a good mix-through.

Place the mixture in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, so that it can firm up.

Line a baking sheet with baking paper.

Use a 15ml measuring spoon and scoop up some of the mixture. Roll in a ball and place on the lined baking tray. Keep going until all the mixture has been utilised.

Heat some vegetable oil in a heavy based saucepan and bring it to about 170℃.

Place about seven Falafel balls into the oil and fry until beautifully golden.

Keep warm and fry the rest in batches.

Serve warm in a pita bread, salad and a sauce of your choice.

PS: I know this is very unusual but I serve mine with Greek Tsatziki sauce…..it is delicious!!!

It has been found that micro greens contain forty times the level of nutrients than their mature counterparts. These tiny gems are rich in antioxidants and high in potassium, zinc, iron and magnesium. Adding them to a batch of hummus will boost your energy levels and set you up for a nutrient-filled, high-energy day.

1 400g can of chickpeas

60ml Tahini

1 clove of garlic, minced

the juice of one lemon

5ml salt

60ml vegetable oil

a generous bunch or two of microgreens (I used radish and it is delicious!)

Drain the chickpeas.

Add all the ingredients, except the micro greens, into the jug of a blender and blitz together.

Once you have a smooth, creamy mixture you may add the microgreens.

Blitz for as short a time as possible – you JUST want to chop and incorporate the herbs.

Enjoy as a dip for crudities or as a snack on a wholewheat cracker.

I’m not a great fan of breakfast but I do love grazing my way through a good brunch. This is more of a throw-together than a recipe, which makes it perfect for lazy mornings when the time for breakfast has come and gone, but the hunger remains.

The dish was inspired by Armand Aucamp’s Shakshuka recipe which can be found in his book, Nude. (See more about the book in the COOK & BOOK section). Shakshuka is a tomato-based dish with various spices and eggs poached in the sauce. This recipe does away with the tomato sauce and utilises spinach and chorizo instead.

You will need the following, adapted according to the number of people you want to feed:

1 onion, sliced

1 sweet pepper, sliced

1 chorizo sausage, casing removed, sliced

a large bunch of spinach

a handful of rosa tomatoes

9 eggs

two discs of feta cheese

Preheat your oven to 180℃.

Put a large cast-iron pan onto medium heat. Add some oil and sauté the onion, sweet pepper and chorizo.

Tear the fresh spinach leaves in half and fill the pan with as much of it as you can. Push the leaves down into the pan until it wilts slightly.

Break the eggs on top of the spinach, scatter the tomatoes over and crumble the feta on top.

Season with salt and pepper and place in the oven until the eggs are just set.

Serve warm with flatbread or a crusty sourdough.

This is such an easy way to prepare lamb that it may just become your fall-back on a busy day or even when you are having friends over for a stress free dinner.

For 6 people you will need

2 racks of lamb, French trimmed

2 cloves of garlic, minced

about 75g fresh breadcrumbs

a handful of rosemary leaves

a handful of parsley

a handful of mint

30ml Dijon mustard

Take your meat out of the refrigerator at least one hour before cooking.

Preheat your oven to 180℃.

Add the garlic, breadcrumbs, rosemary, parsley and mint to a small food processor and blitz until finely chopped and incorporated. Add about 30ml of oil to bring the mixture together. Put aside.

Put a few drops of vegetable oil in your hand and rub it all over the meat, season with salt and pepper.

Put a heavy bottomed frying pan onto a high heat.

Sear the lamb in the pan, turning to brown all over.

Take the lamb from the pan and allow to cool slightly so that you don’t burn your fingers when handling it.

Liberally rub the mustard all over the meat.

Now take a handful of the herb and breadcrumb mixture and coat the meat with it. This is almost like playing with mud….. It’s the same action: pat the herb mixture on thickly, but evenly, making sure all of the meaty parts are covered.

Gently put the rack of lamb onto a roasting tray and cook for 25 minutes, until the crust is crisp and lightly browned and your kitchen smells like heaven.

Take the meat from the oven and rest for 10 minutes before carving.

Serve with golden, roasted baby potatoes and a crisp glass of wine.

The word melkkos directly translates to milk food. It may be so named as it probably evolved from the Malay dish Boeber, that is traditionally eaten to break the fast at the end of Ramadan. It is comforting and nourishes body and soul. It is an emotive food, it is warming and completely satisfying.

I make melkkos with “snyseltjies” which resembles Tagliatelle pasta. A simple dough from eggs and flour is rolled out thinly, cut by hand into strips no wider than half a centimetre and boiled in cinnamon flavoured milk. Served with sugar and extra cinnamon, this is my idea of winter pampering on a plate!

This recipe feeds six hungry people.

4 eggs

5ml salt

750ml cake flour

2 – 3 litres milk

2 cinnamon quills

ground cinnamon and sugar, to serve

Break the eggs into a mixing bowl, add the salt and give it a good whisk.

Add the flour to the eggs and mix together to form a kneadable dough.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 2 -3 minutes. You want a soft, smooth dough.

Shape into a disk, cover in plastic wrap and put aside to rest for 15 minutes.

Pour two litres of milk into a large, heavy bottomed saucepan, add the cinnamon quills and place on high heat. You want to bring the milk to boiling point …. do not leave it!

Dust a working surface and roll the dough to a 3 -5 mm thickness.

Cut into strips not wider than 0,5cm. Dust the strips with flour so that they do not stick together. Don’t worry about being too liberal with the flour as the extra flour will thicken the milk, adding to the lusciousness of the final dish.

Add all the strips to the boiling milk and give it a light stir with a wooden spoon.

Turn the heat down and simmer the melkkos for twenty minutes until the dough strips have absorbed some of the milk and are beautifully fat and puffed up.

Serve steaming portions with extra milk, sugar and ground cinnamon.

Ever heard of a no-knead Rye Bread?

I found the inspiration for this recipe on the back of a 2 kilogram Bio-Wheat Flour package. The original recipe is a light rye bread and belongs to the Fourie family.

This bread takes no effort to make and is truly delicious and filled with goodness.

350g Bio-Wheat Rye Flour

150g Bio-Wheat Course White Flour

30ml brown sugar

10ml salt

10g dry yeast

400ml lukewarm water

15ml honey

15ml oil

15ml vinegar

Sprinkle the yeast onto the water and stir until dissolved. Put aside.

Grease a medium sized bread tin.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl.

Add the honey, oil and vinegar to the yeast mixture and give it another stir.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix through with a spatula.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared bread tin and even out the surface with the back of the spatula.

Cover the baking tin with a clean tea towel and set aside for one hour.

Preheat your oven to 180℃.

Once the bread has proofed for an hour, bake it for another hour.

Cool on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before turning the bread out and allowing it to cool completely before slicing.

Serve with butter and jam!

I met Armand Aucamp from “Armand Kook Kaal” while helping him in the kitchen at the Stellenbosch Woordfees. We made some fabulous Banting and Keto recipes from his recipe book NUDE for the tasting kitchen at the festival.

This tall, dark and handsome man had me in his pocket after the first day! He is warm, kind, with his feet firmly on the ground and his generosity reflected in the food he makes. This recipe was inspired by his “French Toast with Brinjal” (read more about his book in the COOK & BOOK section of this blog).

You can get the crumpet/flapjack recipe from my recipes on this blog.

Chocolate cream cheese:

250g cream cheese

5ml vanilla extract

a pinch of cinnamon

50g chocolate, finely chopped

a handful of nuts, roasted and roughly chopped

15ml honey

Add the cream cheese to a small mixing bowl and beat it with a spatula until it becomes creamy and soft.

Add the rest of the ingredients and fold through.

Spoon onto the crumpets and serve warm.

This is an easy and delicious recipe to make any cut-out biscuits with, whether it is for a birthday party and you want hearts, cats or dinosaurs, or whether you need a tea-time biscuit decorated with edible flowers.

240g butter

360g caster sugar

2 eggs

10ml vanilla extract

440g cake flour

70g cocoa powder, sieved

5ml baking powder

5ml bicarbonate of soda

2,5ml salt

Add the butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.

Beat until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs and vanilla and mix at high speed for 1 minute.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a separate mixing bowl.

Now add a spoonful of this mixture with the engine running on low speed until all of the dry ingredients have been incorporated.

Scoop the biscuit dough into a plastic bag and put into the refrigerator for at least an hour to firm up.

Preheat your oven to 180℃.

Line a baking sheet with baking paper or a silicone baking mat.

Lightly dust a work surface with cake flour and roll the dough to a thickness of between 3 and 5mm.

Cut the biscuits with a biscuit cutter and place onto the baking sheet.

Bake in the preheated oven for 7 minutes.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven and allow the biscuits to cool on the sheet for 5 minutes so that they may firm up.

Cool the biscuits completely on a cooling rack before decorating.

This is a really easy dish to make and you will most probably have all the ingredients in your store cupboard. If you would like some spiciness you may add a chopped chilli to the sauce before adding the fried chicken.

6 – 9 skinless chicken breasts, cut into ±2cm X 2cm pieces

Batter:

125ml cornstarch

125ml cake flour

5ml salt

1 egg

30ml vegetable oil

125ml water

Add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl and whisk until you have a smooth batter without any lumps.

Add the chicken to the batter and stir through so that all the chicken pieces are coated in batter.

Set aside.

Sweet-and-sour sauce:

45ml oil

6 cloves of garlic, minced

15ml grated, fresh ginger

375ml water

75ml rice wine vinegar or malt vinegar, or any other vinegar you have

90ml honey

90ml tomato sauce

90ml soy sauce

1 tin of pineapple pieces or 250ml fresh pineapple cut into 1cm pieces

30ml cornstarch

15ml cold water

Heat a small saucepan on medium heat and add the vegetable oil to it.

Fry the garlic and ginger for one minute.

Add the water, vinegar, honey, tomato sauce, soy sauce, salt and pineapple and whisk while on the heat.

Bring to a light simmer.

Make a slurry by mixing the cornstarch and cold water in a small bowl.

Add the slurry in a steady stream to the simmering mixture, while whisking continuously.

Allow the mixture to thicken.

Keep warm.

Heat some vegetable oil for deep frying to about 170℃.

Fry the batter-covered chicken in batches until beautifully golden.

Once all the chicken has been fried, heat the sauce and place the chicken pieces into the sauce to warm through.

Serve with steamed rice.

These muffins are sinfully moorish! Buttery, cheesy and garlicky goodness at your fingertips!

50g butter

2 cloves of garlic, minced

Dry ingredients:

300g flour

7,5ml baking powder

2,5ml bicarbonate of soda

2,5ml salt

Wet ingredients:

1 egg

250ml milk

60g sour cream

85ml vegetable oil

1 clove of garlic, minced

250ml zucchini, grated

125ml feta cheese

125ml cheddar or any other small bits of leftover cheese you have

Preheat your oven to 180℃.

Melt the 50g butter and garlic in a small saucepan.

Brush a twelve-hole muffin tin with the mixture, but reserve some to brush onto the muffins once they come out of the oven.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Add the wet ingredients to another bowl and whisk together.

Pour the wet into the dry and give it as few stirs as possible. You want to incorporate all the flour without over mixing the batter.

Add the zucchini and cheeses and stir until barely mixed through.

Spoon the mixture into the muffin tin and bake for 25 minutes.

Remove the muffins from the oven and brush the reserved butter and garlic mixture over the tops while still warm.

Serve as is.