12 cocktail tomatoes, about 3,5cm in diameter 150g tub of small bocconcini cheese olive oil salt and pepper 12 basil leaves
Trim a sliver off the base of each tomato so that it can sit on a plate. Slice about 0,3 cm off the top of the tomato and scoop the pulp out with a teaspoon or back of a teaspoon. Season the inside of the tomato with salt and pepper. Slice the bocconcini in quarters and stuff a piece in each tomato. Drizzle with olive oil and season again with salt and pepper. Place a basil leaf on top of each tomato and serve.
For the hazelnut topping: Place the hazelnuts in a pestle and mortar and grind it to a coarse texture. If you don’t have a pestle and mortar you may chop the nuts with a knife but make sure that you have a good mix of fine and coarse texture. Add the parmesan cheese, olive oil, sesame oil, red wine vinegar and salt and stir through. Set aside.
For the goat’s cheese topping: Break up the cheese into a small bowl, add the cream and mix through to loosen the cheese slightly. Set aside.
For the green sauce: Blanche the kale and spinach in a saucepan of boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain and run under cold water until cool. Add to a bowl with the basil and olive oil and blitz to a paste/sauce with an immersion blender. Set aside.
Pour the stock into a saucepan set over medium-high heat and bring it to a simmer. Place a large, wide saucepan on medium-high heat and add the butter and oil. Wait for the butter to melt and add the onion. Cook until translucent. Add the garlic and stir-fry for one minute. Now add the rice and stir to coat for 2 minutes. Pour in the wine and wait for it to evaporate. Add about 125ml of stock (two soup ladles) to the risotto, stir it around until most of the liquid has been absorbed and then add some stock again. Keep going – adding stock, stirring until the rice is tender but still firm to the bite. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the parmesan cheese. Add the kale mixture to the risotto and stir until the risotto is bright green. Spoon the risotto on to serving plates and top with some hazelnut mixture and a generous dollop of goat’s cheese.
The recipe yields about 30 biscuits and they disappear very quickly!! If you want to make an extra batch I would recommend that you prepare the dough twice. If you simply double up on the ingredients, it will probably be to dry to bring together as a rollable dough.
125g butter, cubed (salted butter adds most flavour) 140g flour 120g hard cheese, finely grated (your choice of cheese, I love Gruyere)
Add the butter to a mixing bowl and sift the flour into the bowl. Rub the butter and flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Reserve 30ml of the grated cheese and add the rest to the flour mixture. Knead or rather push the dough together into a disc, wrap in plastic and chill in the refrigerator for one hour.
Preheat your oven to 200℃ and line a large baking sheet with baking paper. Place the dough on a sheet of baking paper and roll it out to a 0,5cm thickness. Cut out rounds of 4cm in diameter with a cookie cutter. Space the biscuits evenly apart on the prepared baking sheet and sprinkle the reserved cheese on top. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Cool the cheese biscuits on the baking sheet and store in a glass container.
250ml milk (you may replace with any, e.g. almond) 80ml pistachio nuts 1,2ml matcha powder (for colour purposes only) 15ml maple syrup 2,5ml vanilla a pinch of salt 125ml rolled oats 30ml chia seeds
Add the milk, pistachio nuts, matcha, syrup, vanilla and salt to a blender and blitz together. Pour into a bowl/jar and add the oats and chia seeds. Cover and shake/stir to mix and combine. Refrigerate for 6-8 hours. Remove the oats from the refrigerator 30 minutes before eating.
250g spaghetti 45ml olive oil 3 cloves of garlic, minced 1 spring onion, finely sliced 2 tins of shredded tuna, drained 1 lemon, zest and juice 125ml sour cream 30ml capers, roughly chopped 30ml chopped parsley 15ml chopped chives parmesan cheese
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain the pasta and keep it in the pot too stay warm. Place a large pan over medium heat, add the oil and wait for it to heat up. Add the garlic and spring onion and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Now add the tuna, lemon zest and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Pour in the cream and cook for 1 minute. Add the spaghetti, capers, parsley and chives and stir until the spaghetti is well coated in the sauce. Grate over a generous amount of parmesan cheese and stir through. Now grate over some more parmesan, stir again and serve.
Glaze: 375ml icing sugar, sifted 15ml boiling water
Preheat your oven to 180℃ and spray a 24-hole mini-muffin tin with cooking spray. Add the self-raising and regular flours, caster sugar and butter to a food processor and process to fine crumbs. Tip the mixture into a mixing bowl. Add the milk, egg and vanilla to a jug and whisk together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir to combine. The dough will be very sticky. Set aside. Add the brown sugar and cinnamon to a bowl and stir to mix. Add the 25g butter and rub it into the sugar with your fingers. Flour a work surface and divide the dough in half. Roll out to 35cm x 20cm rectangle. Sprinkle half the sugar and butter mixture evenly over the surface and roll it into a long, tight log. Trim the edges neatly and then cut the log in to 1,5cm slices. Place each slice in a hole in the muffin tin. Melt the 20g butter and brush it on to the swirls. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove and cool on a cooling rack.
For the glaze: Add the icing sugar to a small bowl and pour in 15ml of boiling water. Mix together and drizzle over the swirls. Stand the cookies for 20 minutes to set, before serving.
This is true French bistro style – a delicious warm bacon and egg salad!! Serves two.
30ml olive oil 200g smoked bacon, diced 1 clove of garlic, minced 2 slices sourdough bread, cubed four handfuls of frisée salad leaves half an onion, sliced into rings 15ml vinegar 2/4 eggs
Dressing: half an onion, very finely diced 15ml red wine vinegar 15ml Dijon mustard 45ml olive oil
Place a large frying pan over medium-high heat and add the olive oil and bacon to it. Cook until the bacon is crisp. Scoop the bacon out but leave as much of the rendered fat in the pan. Add the garlic and cubed sourdough and toss in the bacon fat. Turn the heat to low and fry for about 5 minutes, until golden and crisp. Remove from the pan.
For the dressing: Add the diced onion, vinegar, mustard and 15ml cold water to a small bowl and whisk together. Gradually add the olive oil, whisking all the time until you have a thick dressing. Taste the dressing and season with salt.
Now, add the bacon, croutons, sliced onion and salad leaves to a mixing bowl. Drizzle half of the dressing over and toss together. Pile the salad onto 2 plates.
Bring a saucepan of water to a gentle boil and add the 15ml vinegar. Crack the eggs into small bowls and gently lower into the water. Poach the eggs for 3 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on top of the salad. Drizzle the leftover dressing over the egg and salad and serve immediately.
8 – 16 pork sausages 15ml + 45ml vegetable oil 1 large onion, sliced 3 leeks, washed and sliced 2 cloves of garlic, minced 45ml flour 500ml beef stock 1,2ml salt black pepper
Place a large saucepan/pan over medium-high heat and pour in the vegetable oil. Add the sausages and cook until browned. Turn them every now and then to get an even golden colour. Cook for 10 minutes or so. Remove the sausages from the pan and lower the heat to medium. Add the onion and leek and cook for about 5 minutes or until soft. Add the garlic and stir-fry for 1 minute. Spread the onion and leek out in the pan and sprinkle the flour over. Stir and cook for about 2 minutes to cook out the flour. Add 60ml of the stock to the pan and stir. Add another 60ml, keep stirring and wait for it to become more saucy. Slowly drizzle in the rest of the stock while stirring – if you pour it all in at once the sauce will be lumpy. Simmer the gravy until it thickens. It won’t look as thick as you will want it to be but it will thicken more, later on. Add the salt and a few grindings of black pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Place the sausages back in the pan and heat through on a low heat for between 5 and 10 minutes. Serve the sausages on potato mash and slosh it with the gravy.
9 eggs, hardboiled 250g small pasta/macaroni 190ml mayonnaise 25ml wholegrain mustard 15ml lemon juice 1 clove of garlic, minced 5ml salt 2,5ml smoked paprika 1 small red onion, finely chopped 2 spring onions, finely sliced
Cook the pasta according to packet instructions. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold water until cool. Peel the eggs and quarter them. Separate the whites and yolks in two bowls. Chop up the whites and set aside. Set a sieve over a bowl, add the yolks and push them through with the sieve with a wooden spoon. Add the mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, garlic, salt and paprika to the bowl and mix through. Add the cooled pasta to the bowl and stir through to coat the pasta with the dressing. Now add the chopped egg whites, red onion and spring onion and mix through. Serve the pasta as a main or as the perfect side for a picnic, braai or bbq.
My Whisk and I 