500g prawns, shelled and deveined – keep the tail ends on
2 eggs, lightly beaten
83ml flour
250ml popped rice (rice crispies)
vegetable oil for frying
Clean and dry the prawns.
Add the eggs to a shallow dish and beat together.
Add the flour and popped rice to a second and third bowl.
Heat the oil in a saucepan to about 170℃.
Now dredge each prawn in flour, then egg and finally in the popped rice.
Fry the prawn in the oil for 2-3 minutes.
Serve with a dipping sauce, as a canapé.
2.5 – 3kg oxtail
vegetable oil
3 onions, chopped
4 clove of garlic, minced
60ml flour
5 carrots, peeled and chopped into chunks
2 bay leaves
2 x 400g tins of chopped tomato
250ml red wine
1,5l beef stock
Worcestershire sauce
Dumplings:
250ml flour
7,5ml baking powder
2ml salt
60g butter, cut into small cubes
10ml dried mixed herbs
60-80ml milk
For the stew:
Preheat your oven to 220℃.
Add the oxtail to 2 large roasting tins and drizzle with the vegetable oil.
Season with salt and pepper.
Roast the oxtail for 20-25 minutes, until beautifully caramelised and golden. Set aside.
Place a large saucepan on medium-high heat, add some vegetable oil and then add the onions. Cook until soft.
Add the garlic and stir-fry for one minute.
Sprinkle over the flour and stir while cooking for another minute.
Now add the carrots, bay leaves, tomatoes, red wine, beef stock and about 6 dashes of Worcestershire sauce.
Add the oxtail and whatever pan juices you have and bring to a simmer.
Reduce the heat to a low simmer and partly cover with a lid.
Simmer the oxtail for 3 hours, stirring every now and then.
Remove the lid and check the consistency of the sauce – if it is too watery, simmer without the lid for 20-30 minutes longer. The sauce should be thick and rich and the meat should be fork tender.
For the dumplings:
Add the flour, baking powder and salt to a mixing bowl and stir through.
Add the butter and rub it into the flour mixture with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the herbs and enough milk to form a soft dough.
Spoon teaspoonful of the dough onto the oxtail stew and cover with a lid.
Simmer for 15 minutes without opening the lid.
Serve the oxtail on fragrant rice.
1 chocolate bar, broken into blocks – I used De Villiers nut butter chocolate
puff pastry, store-bought
1 egg yolk and 15ml water, whisked together
Preheat your oven to 220℃ and line a baking sheet with baking paper.
Cut the pastry into squares and follow the following technique to make little parcels:
Place the chocolate parcels on the prepared baking sheet and brush with the egg-wash.
Bake for about 12 minutes, until golden.
Serve warm.
150g sugar
45ml cornstarch
3 egg yolks
50ml + 700ml milk
7,5ml vanilla
5ml ground cinnamon
500ml oats
ground cinnamon and sugar, mixed, for dusting
Add the sugar and cornstarch to a mixing bowl and stir to mix.
Whisk the egg yolks and 50ml milk together and stir into the sugar mixture to make a smooth, runny paste. Set aside.
Add the 700ml milk to a saucepan set over medium-high heat and bring to a boil.
Take the saucepan from the heat and drizzle a thin stream of milk on to the egg mixture while whisking vigorously.
Pour the mixture back into the saucepan, place it over medium-high heat and whisk until thick.
Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and cinnamon.
Add the oats to a bowl/glass jar.
Pour the warm mixture over the oats and leave to cool.
Refrigerate overnight.
Dust with cinnamon-sugar to serve.
The oats may be kept in the refrigerator for 5 days.
This is such a simple salad but so very satisfying and delicious to eat!! Make extra, you will want seconds!
papino
rocket leaves
50g + 100g blue cheese
60ml cream
pomegranate seeds
50g cashew nuts, roughly chopped
Peel, halve and deseed the papino and place it on a serving dish.
Add some rocket leaves to the papino and break chunks of blue cheese and arrange it between the leaves.
Place the 100g blue cheese and cream in a small saucepan and set it over a low heat. Stir the mixture until melted and the sauce has amalgamated.
Generously spoon the sauce over the papino and rocket.
Sprinkle the cashew nuts and pomegranate seeds over.
Serve the papino with extra blue cheese dressing on the side.
3 litres chicken stock
1,5kg chicken breasts, skin removed
5ml black peppercorns
5ml salt
2,5ml smoked paprika
3 x 400g tins chopped tomato
2 large onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 x 400g jars sweet jalapeño, drained
30ml + 30ml vegetable oil
120g spaghetti
fresh coriander
lime wedges
Add the stock to a saucepan and bring to a simmer.
Cut the chicken breasts into chunks and add it to the stock.
Add the black peppercorns, salt and smoked paprika and simmer together for 30 minutes. Set aside.
Add the tomato, onion, garlic and jalapeño to the bowl of a blender and process until smooth.
Add 30ml oil to a large saucepan set over medium-high heat and add the tomato mixture to it.
Bring to a low simmer and cook half-covered for 10 minutes.
Remove the cooked chicken pieces from the stock and finely shred the meat.
Pour the stock into the tomato mixture.
Simmer the mixture for 20 minutes.
Now add the shredded chicken and cook for another 10 minutes.
Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning – salt, black pepper, smoked paprika.
Place a frying pan over medium-high heat, add 30ml vegetable oil and add the spaghetti to the pan.
Stir continuously while frying the spaghetti until it is a golden brown colour – about 3 minutes.
Drain the pasta on paper towel and then add it to the soup.
Simmer the soup for about 8 minutes, until the pasta is cooked.
Serve the soup immediately with fresh coriander and lime wedges.
190ml smooth peanut butter
125ml honey
1,2ml salt
4 x 250ml puffed rice/Rice Crispies
80g chocolate, chopped
a handful of peanuts, finely chopped
Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cups.
Add the peanut butter, honey and salt to a small saucepan set over a very low heat.
Stir continuously until melted and amalgamated.
Measure the puffed rice into a large mixing bowl and pour the peanut butter mixture over.
Mix thoroughly with a spatula, making sure that all of the puffed rice is covered in the sticky goodness.
Scoop spoonfuls into the lined muffin tin, dividing the mixture equally. Press down onto each cluster with the back of a spoon to ensure that it is compact and sticks together.
Set aside to cool completely – at least 30 minutes.
Add the chopped chocolate to a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water and allow to melt completely.
Drizzle the melted chocolate over the clusters and sprinkle with the chopped peanuts before the chocolate sets.
Store the peanut cluster in an airtight container for up to a week.
This is an effortless way of cooking up delicious, succulent lamb and may be prepared a day ahead and re-heated prior to serving.
one leg of lamb, bone in
a whole head of garlic
salt
1 x 340ml French Salad Dressing, store bought
Preheat your oven to 160℃.
Place two large pieces of aluminium foil, one on top of the other on a work surface.
Place the lamb on the foil and lift the foil and lamb into a roasting dish.
Salt the lamb and slice the head of garlic in half horizontally. Place the garlic on the lamb.
Pour half the salad dressing over the lamb, flip it around and pour the rest of the bottle over the meat.
Cover the lamb with the foil and place it in the oven. Cook for 5 hours.
Take the roasting tin from the oven and allow it to cool for about 30 minutes.
Remove the foil, leaving the lamb, garlic, fat and any cooking liquids in the roasting tin.
Squeeze the garlic out and mash it with a fork. Now pull the meat apart with two forks and remove the bone.
Mix/massage the pulled meat, fat and cooking juices.
Serve the meat warm or at room temperature.
The original cake, Kladdkaka, is a traditional Swedish bake but this is my take on it, resulting in a warm dessert that is somewhere between a brownie and a lava cake. From start to finish it will take you 30 minutes to put together this more-ish chocolate cake!
80g chocolate, chopped
130g butter
250ml flour
125ml cocoa powder, sifted
330ml sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
5ml vanilla
Preheat your oven to 180℃ and spray a 22cm loose-bottom cake tin with cooking spray. Dust the bottom of the tin with cocoa powder. Set aside.
Add the chocolate and butter to a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water and stir every now and then until completely melted. Pour the chocolate-butter mixture into a mixing bowl.
Add the flour, cocoa powder and sugar to the bowl and stir together by hand.
Add the eggs and vanilla and stir until combined.
Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 25 minutes.
The cake should have a firm top that cracks when you apply pressure to it with your finger.
Allow the cake to cool slightly in the cake tin. Run a knife between the cake and the tin and remove the cake ring.
Serve warm with a dusting of icing sugar.
45ml butter
15ml vegetable oil
2 large leeks, sliced
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
600g potato, peeled and diced
2litres chicken stock
5ml salt
black pepper
200g mature cheddar cheese, grated
80g cheese and onion potato chips
Add the butter and oil to a large saucepan set over medium-high heat.
Add the leeks and onion and cook while stirring until completely wilted and soft.
Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
Add the diced potato, stock, salt and pepper and bring the mixture to a simmer.
Lower the heat to a slow simmer, cover the saucepan with a lid and cook for about 30 minutes. Check on the soup every now and then and adjust the heat as you go. The potato must be very soft.
Decant the soup into a blender and blitz together until smooth and silky.
Pour the soup back into the saucepan and place over a low heat.
Add the grated cheese and stir the soup until the cheese has melted.
Spoon the soup into individual bowls.
Crush the potato chips in the packet and sprinkle a generous amount onto each bowl of soup.
Serve immediately.
My Whisk and I 