Cheesy Herb Twists

I used ready rolled made puff pastry to make these - so easy !

The 'Cheesy Herb Twists' are pictured on the left of the plate (clockwise from top - if you're interested - were cubes of cheddar & mozzarella cheese; marinated sundried tomatoes; biltong (dried beef) and in the blue & white bowl were stuffed/marinated olives

This is a really simple ‘cheats’ way of making a quick and tasty snack which is great served with pre meal drinks. I say ‘cheats’ because I use shop bought puff pastry to make these. This is still somewhat of a novelty for me, as up until a few years ago and the opening of a large South African supermarket in our nearby city, you could not buy puff pastry here – so if you wanted it, you had to make your own which, let’s face it, can be quite a time consuming task !

I used a packet of ‘Cheese & Herb’ puff pastry to make these (it was the first time I’d ever spotted it on our shelves here as we can usually only get the plain type) but you could just as easily add your own dried herbs and finely grated cheese to plain puff pastry, or just sprinkle these on the top before baking -:


Cheats Cheesy Herb Twists

1 x 400 gm packet of ‘Cheese & Herb’ Puff Pastry
¾ cup finely grated Cheddar cheese
Garlic flakes (dried)

Carefully unroll the puff pastry onto a lightly floured surface. Roll lightly to flatten if necessary (it should be a little bit thicker than a piece of cardboard). Sprinkle the cheese & garlic flakes over the surface, and pat down lightly. Cut thin strips around 1 ½ cm in width and 15 cm in length. Twist each strip a few times by holding one end firmly between 2 fingers and twisting the bottom of the strip with your other hand. Place on a lightly greased baking tray and bake at 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5 for around 12 minutes until brown. (I turned mine over once during baking so that they could brown on both sides).

Spicy Butterbean Dip

This butterbean dip is easy to put together - and versatile, too !

This is a quick and easy dip which can be whizzed up in the blender in a minute or so, and all the ingredients are probably things which you already have in your kitchen.

I like serving this on baked potatoes, spread on to hot toast or – the way I mostly serve it – as a spicy dip for crisps, melba toast or sticks of raw vegetables.

It’s a hit with the kids (just tone down the chilli !) and a great fat free alternative to ‘traditional’ dips.

(You can see a similar recipe I have for ‘Fat Free Spicy Hummus’ - made with tinned chickpeas - over here.)


Spicy Butterbean Dip

1 x 400 gm tin of Butterbeans, drained
1 tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp Garlic paste (or finely grated garlic)
Pinch of Chilli powder (or more/less to taste)
Salt to taste

Place all ingredients into a blender and quickly blend until everything is well mixed & has formed into a nice, spreadable dip. Serve on baked potatoes, spread on to hot toast or use as a dip for crisps, melba toast or sticks of raw vegetables.

Cheese & Marmite Balls

Marmite - as the slogan goes - you either love it, or you hate it !

These Cheese & Marmite balls melt in the mouth with salty, buttery deliciousness !

This recipe is one I’ve been making since I was a teenager (don’t ask how many years ago that was !) It’s quite unusual, I think – I haven’t ever come across the recipe in a book or anywhere else (my Mum got it from a friend of hers in South Africa).

I know that some readers may not be familiar with Marmite. It’s something that you truly either love or hate – I imagine that if you haven’t grown up eating it, you’ll probably dislike it as it does take some getting used to. It originates in the UK and is basically a sticky dark brown (savoury) paste that you use as a spread on sandwiches, toast etc and can also be used to flavour soups, stews and gravies. It is very salty & is described as a ‘yeast extract’ (the method of making it, aswell as the exact ingredients, are one of those closely guarded culinary secrets !)

I believe that Vegemite is the New Zealand alternative to Marmite – I’ve tasted Vegemite before and it is not as strong tasting as Marmite.

This recipe uses Marmite as a filling – and also offers the alternative of Apricot jam. The apricot jam works well, and I imagine that fig jam would, too.

I’ve made these for both an afternoon tea party and as snacks served with sundowners & both times they’ve gone down well - the cheese/butter combination makes them ‘melt-in-the-mouth’ delicious !


Cheese & Marmite Balls

250 gm (9 oz) Butter
250 gm (9 oz) Cheddar Cheese, grated
375 gm (13 oz) Flour, sifted
1 tsp (5 ml) Baking Powder
½ tsp (2,5 ml) Salt
For filling : Marmite; Apricot Jam

Mix all the ingredients together and shape into small (walnut sized) balls. Make a hollow in the top of each ball (the end of a wooden spoon works well for this) & into this, spoon your choice of filling – Marmite or Apricot jam (you can fill half the batch with Marmite, and the other half with Apricot jam). Bake at Gas Mark 4/350’F/180’C for 15 minutes. (Allow to cool down completely before eating as the filling will be piping hot !)

Gibby's Shad Pate

Gibby's Shad Pate - delicious served with crispbread or melba toast, a nice fresh salad & a glass of Chardonnay !

My Dad first met Gibby in then Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe) in the late 1960's - they both hailed from the UK and had joined the BSAP (British South African Police) and were living in then Salisbury (present day Harare, and the city where I was born). They have been friends for over 40 years now and from what I can tell, Gibby is an excellent cook !

Gibby has been an avid reader of my blog since the day I started it over a year ago, and has tried many of the recipes on it and we are in regular email contact (he now lives back in the UK) and he often describes for me the wonderful meals he cooks for his wife and friends. I have not seen him since I was a child, so was thrilled to hear that he would be in South Africa on a brief visit during my time here (the British Lions Rugby Tour !), and was hoping to meet him again.

As luck would have it, and due to all my date changes etc, we did not quite make it although we chatted on the 'phone and he spent some time with my parents at their home in the Eastern Cape. He whipped up this delicious Shad Pate when he was staying with them, & my Mum took some photo's and wrote the recipe down so that I could share it with you all.

Thanks for the recipe, Gibby and my only regret is that I was not there to enjoy it with you all - maybe next time, or perhaps on a future trip to the UK as I'd love to sample some of the delicious meals which you prepare !

(Shad are herring like fish which appear in huge shoals around the Eastern Cape coastline during certain times of the year - these shad were caught and smoked by one of my parent's neighbours less than 24 hours before being turned into this tasty pate !)

Gibby's Shad Pate

4 small fillets of Shad (Gibby says that you can use Mackerel instead)

1 tablespoon of Mayonnaise (or Creme Fraiche)

Lemon Juice - enough to soften/moisten the mix

1 heaped teaspoon of Horseradish (optional)

Chopped Chives / Parsley (optional)

Salt & Pepper to taste - if using unsmoked fish

Mash the fish fillets up with a fork, adding enough lemon juice to soften/moisten to the desired consistency. Add the mayonnaise (or Creme Fraiche) and mix to blend well. Add a heaped teaspoon of Horseradish if desired. You can also add some finely chopped chives and / or parsley to taste. Season with salt & pepper if needed.

Cashewnut Brittle

The mixture should be quickly poured onto a well oiled surface, as it begins to harden as soon as you remove it from the stove.

My sister recently sent me a signed copy of Nigella Lawson’s book “Nigella Christmas” (you can read the post I wrote about it over here) and I have been meaning to try some of the recipes in the book ever since.

Although the majority of them are Christmas based (just wait until the festive season & I’ll be making and posting about stacks of them !) there are a few which can be made and enjoyed all year round, like this recipe below for peanut brittle.

I had a large amount of ‘raw’ (unsalted & un roasted) cashew nuts in the house and decided to use them in place of the peanuts. I chopped them quite finely & toasted them in a pan on the stove top first - some of them burnt a little which is why you see the black flecks in the photograph – but the brittle still tasted fine !

So, aside from using cashew nuts in place of peanuts, I stuck to Nigella’s original recipe & have copied it word-for-word below – just incase you wondered as Nigella is known for her very descriptive and ‘flowery’ language and way of explaining things ! (The "Art" in the title of this recipe is due to the fact that Nigella got this recipe from Art Smith, & has adapted it slightly to make it her own).


Peanut Brittle with Art and Soul (from “Nigella Christmas” by Nigella Lawson)

200 gm Caster Sugar
60 ml Water
150 gm golden Syrup
150 gm salted Peanuts (I used Cashew nuts of this recipe)
1 ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
25 gm soft Butter
1 ¼ tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

Get out a large sheet of “Bake-O-Glide” and place on a baking sheet (or put some foil on the sheet and butter it). Sit it by the stove, waiting to receive the brittle once it’s ready to pour.

Put the sugar, water and syrup into a pan, bring to the boil gently, then turn up the heat and let it boil seriously for 10 minutes. It will be smoking by then, so be warned !

Take the pan off the heat and, with a wooden spoon, stir in the nuts, followed by the vanilla, butter and bicarbonate of soda. You will have a golden, frothy, hot and gooey mixture.

Pour this briskly onto the waiting parchment or foil, using your wooden spoon to coax and pull it to make a nut-studded sheet, puddle-shaped though it may be, rather than a heap.

Leave it to cool, then break into pieces and store in an airtight container or box; or bag up to give at once as presents. You’ll get around 400 gm (just under 1 lb) in total.

Foolproof South African Fudge

A plate of richly sweet, melt-in-the-mouth fudge (quick - grab yourself a piece - it won't last for long !)

Miles and miles of ..... freshly made fudge. Ooohhhh - heavenly !

I absolutely adore fudge. I know it’s very sweet – almost too sweet at times – and very rich, but then I do have an extremely sweet tooth so this is right up my street ! Fudge is commonly found all over South Africa and although there are many different flavours – chocolate, choc mint, caramel etc – I still prefer a good old fashioned traditional vanilla fudge.

With apologies to all my UK readers, but the fudge you get in the UK is not ‘real’ fudge *boo hoo* the disappointment the first time I bought “fudge” in England, only to find that it was a soft sweet - almost a cross between a caramel and a very soft toffee. I thought it was just the brand – so tried another, and another and even went to Harrods to buy fudge there – to be bitterly disappointed once again !

The fudge which I’m talking about has a dry frosting (icing) like texture, when you bite into it, it snaps off easily (and is crumbly & smooth) and dissolves on your tongue in a warm sugary pool of – heaven ! It’s not at all chewy or caramel-y. Oh, no. It has the same sort of effect in your mouth as a great big teaspoon of melting - almost warm textured - peanut butter. (Oh yes, come on admit it – we all do it from time to time – dip the spoon into the jar and take a big mouthful !)

Now, for a short while in South Africa there was a franchise called “The American Fudge Factory”. I have no idea if it is still going, or if it was American at all. But the fudge which they made was exactly like the traditional fudge which I know – so maybe some of my American readers can enlighten me. Do you have fudge in America, and what is it’s texture like ? I’m dying to know !

Here is my traditional recipe for South African fudge (although the addition of flour is not very common, this recipe is traditional nevertheless). It’s one which I’ve been making since I was a teenager and I guarantee you, it works every time (and is quite addictive) -:


Foolproof South African Fudge

1,5 kg’s Sugar
45 ml Syrup (Golden Corn Syrup - the one I use is quite thick)
1 x 397 gm tin Condensed Milk
1 x tin Water (refill the empty Condensed Milk tin with water to measure)
100 gm Margarine
1 ½ tsp Vanilla Essence
1 ½ tsp Cream of Tartare
250 ml Flour (or 125 ml Flour & 125 ml Cocoa Powder for Chocolate Fudge)

Mix flour & sugar together. Melt syrup, condensed milk, water & margarine in a large pot. Add the flour/sugar mixture to this, stirring continuously. As soon as the mixture comes to the boil, add the cream of tartare and stir only to blend. Switch the temperature down to medium/high and allow to simmer gently for 20 minutes. (It is important that the mixture simmers constantly for the full 20 minutes.) Remove from the stove, pour into a clean bowl (this is important, too) and add the vanilla essence, stirring to blend. Now beat the mixture with a wooden spoon for about 10 to 15 minutes & you’ll see that it starts to thicken as it cools. Once it begins to thicken (to the consistency of a thick porridge) pour it immediately into a greased baking tray and allow to cool & set before cutting into squares.

Easy Fat Free Tuna Pate

This easy fat free tuna pate is great served with melba toast or crackers

This is a very quick and easy fat free pate recipe that can be served as a light lunch (it’s great for summer !), or even as a party snack. Make it the day before & chill overnight in the fridge so that it’s nice and firm before serving -:


Easy Fat Free Tuna Pate

2 x tins Tuna in brine, drained (185 gm size/130 gm when drained)
200 gm plain Fat Free Cottage Cheese (Cream Cheese)
3 tbsp Fat Free Mayonnaise
2 tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tbsp Sweet Chilli Sauce
1 tsp Garlic Flakes
1 bunch Spring Onions (tops & tails), chopped (reserve a tablespoon for garnishing)
Salt & freshly milled Black Pepper (to taste)

Place all the ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth. (Mix just to blend - so that the pate mix does not become too runny). Pour into a small bowl & cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight. Garnish with the remainder of the chopped spring onions & serve with toast triangles, melba toast or crackers.

Chipolata Sausage Hedgehog

A novel way to serve mini sausages to young children !

This is not a recipe as such, but more like an idea for serving small sausages at a kid’s birthday party (or even served at a cocktail party for fun loving adults !) I made it recently (actually the one pictured was my Mum’s handiwork – thanks, Mum !) for my daughter’s 4th birthday party, & it looked really cute.

Basically, you take mini/chipolata sausages (beef or pork) & lightly fry them, then once they have cooled a little you secure them with toothpicks into a paw paw/papaya or similar fruit which has been cut slightly at the base so that it sits evenly on your surface. (You could also use a grapefruit - as the original recipe* states but we can’t get them here easily, hence the paw paw).

For the hedgehog’s eyes you can use green olives secured with toothpicks and for the eyelashes you can use cut pieces of black olives (the original recipe* had strips of liquorice cut to form eyelashes) & we used a mini meatball and a pickled onion to make his nose !

For young children I would remove the sausage skins after cooking & before securing to the fruit, as they can be a choking hazard.

You could also serve the hedgehog with a small bowl of dip or tomato based sauce/ketchup on the side, for dipping the sausages in to.

Dad's Quick Pizza !

We added some capers to our pizza slices, & served them with the crusts still on

My Dad used to make these for us when we were kids. They are so quick and simple to make, yet deliver maximum flavour … these were such a hit that the recipe was even featured in a copy of my annual primary school Cook Book.

For my daughter’s recent birthday party, I asked my Dad if he’d make these so that we could serve them to the parents who attended. We ate the leftovers the following night for supper with salad. They were every bit as good as I remembered as a child !

Dad’s Quick Pizza

(All ingredients are approximate according to how many people you are feeding, and how much cheese etc you like on your pizza !)

A Loaf of freshly baked White Bread (remove the crusts if you prefer)
Butter
2 Onions, finely chopped
2 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
4 ripe Tomatoes, skinned & chopped
Fresh Herbs to taste, chopped (Basil, Oregano, Sage, Marjoram) – or you can use dried
Salt & Black Pepper to taste
Cheddar Cheese, to taste grated
Mozzarella Cheese, to taste sliced

Have the bread slices nearby on an oven proof tray. Melt some butter in a pot. Add the onions, garlic, tomatoes, herbs and seasonings and cook until browned and softened. Add a handful or so of the Cheddar cheese to this mixture just as it is nearly cooked, & stir until melted. Remove from the heat & spoon this mixture (whilst still hot) on to the bread slices. Sprinkle a little more of the Cheddar cheese over the topping, then add a couple of slices of Mozzarella cheese to each. Place under a hot grill until the cheese is golden and bubbling. Serve immediately. (Cut the bread into triangular slices before serving if you prefer).

Nacho's - A Taste of Mexico in Africa !

Nacho's make a quick & easy stand-by dinner or party snack ...

I enjoy Mexican food, although we don't have any Mexican restaurants here. When we travel outside the country one of the things on my shopping list is usually Nachos and jars of Salsa (although we can get them here now from time to time & actually, come to think of it, I should make my own Salsa which would probably taste a lot better than the shop bought variety !)

So, for a lazy Friday night dinner I sometimes pull out a bag of Nacho's, lay them on an oven proof plate, pour a jar of Salsa over the top of them, top with grated cheddar cheese & place in a hot oven until everything has heated through & the cheese has melted.

I then serve this with homemade Guacamole and Yogurt dip (you can see my recipes for both of these over here) - but you could serve sour cream instead.

I think that sometime I will attempt to make refried beans, as they always go well with Nacho's, too.

This makes a great light main meal, but you could also serve it as a snack with pre dinner drinks to a group of people. Either way, it is equally delicious !

Two Easy Dips For The Festive Season

There are so many great ways to serve & eat this Guacamole & Yogurt Dip !

Here are 2 nice easy dips which can be used over the festive season. You could serve these with crisps/chips or as a healthier option with slices of raw vegetables such as carrots and cucumber. You could also use these as fillings for baked potatoes, or even as a topping for Nacho’s – the possibilities are endless !

I have an Avocado Pear tree in my garden & something I’ve learnt only since living in Tanzania, is how much dogs adore eating Avocado’s (or “Avo’s” as we call them here) ! In fact, I reckon that they must be quite nutritious and filling for dogs due to their oily content & I’m sure that many a starving stray African dog has kept itself alive by eating Avo’s which have fallen onto the ground (all my dogs go crazy for them during Avo season !)

The Tanzanian name for an Avocado is “Parachichi” pronounced “Parrer Chee Chee” - I think that it is a delightful name with a nice ring to it, don’t you agree ?!

Guacamole

1 ripe Avocado, mashed
1 ripe Tomato, chopped into small cubes
1 heaped tbsp Onion, finely grated
1 heaped tbsp fresh Coriander leaves, chopped
Juice of 1 fresh Lime
Salt & Black Pepper to taste

Mix altogether & serve straight away.


Yogurt Dip (a healthier alternative to sour cream !)

250 ml tub of Plain Yogurt (the thick Greek variety works best)
Dried Garlic Flakes – to taste
Salt – to taste

Mix everything altogether & serve. This keeps (covered) for up to 2 days in the fridge. (I also sometimes add a few cumin seeds & some chopped fresh coriander leaves, & serve this dip as a cooling accompaniment to a hot curry or Tandoori chicken.)

Festive Treacle Toffee

Watch your teeth when you bite into & chew this delicious treacle toffee ;)

I love to make homemade sweets over the festive season – things like fudge, toffee and caramels. Wrapped in pretty coloured paper or a gift box, these sweets also make nice gifts for friends, teachers or hosts.

I had a large jar of treacle left over after making my Christmas cake (that recipe to follow shortly !), so decided to make Treacle Toffee with it. If you don’t have any treacle in the house, you can always substitute it with golden syrup/thick corn syrup. (Treacle is like Molasses).

I’ve never owned or used a sugar thermometer, but just follow the guidelines re. dropping the mixture in cold water to test it and this has always worked fine for me (instructions for this below).


Treacle Toffee (from “The Complete South African Cookbook” by Magdaleen Van Wyk)

110 gm Butter (or Margarine)
225 gm Sugar
225 gm Treacle (or Golden Syrup)

Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan over high heat. Stir in the sugar & treacle and then boil steadily (without stirring) until the mixture reaches the hard-crack stage when tested in water (The syrup separates into hard, brittle threads when a little is dropped into cold water. It usually takes me around 15 minutes of boiling to reach this stage). Pour the mixture into a well greased tin & allow to set. When set, cut into squares.

Cheese Puffs

These Cheese Puffs are great served with pre dinner drinks or even as school lunchbox fillers

Here is the other recipe I made recently for our visitors from Japan.

Cheese puffs are to me, quite South African. They are usually always found served at school fetes, Church tea’s, weddings and funerals and almost every 'home industry' shop stocks them.

Home industry shops can be found – or used to be found – in every South African town or village. They are basically shops where women from the local area take their delicious homemade baked goods to sell and are very popular for people stocking up for parties or special occasions. (Over the years I have noticed less and less of these home industry shops around and I sincerely hope that they are not a part of South African food culture or 'history' that is dying out.)

Here is the recipe -:

Cheese Puffs (from “The Complete South African Cookbook” by Magdaleen Van Wyk)

1 cup Flour (I always add an extra ¾ cup flour though)
1 cup Cheddar Cheese, grated
1 Egg, beaten
5 tbsp Butter or Margarine, melted (I only use 4 tbsp)
2 tsp Baking Powder
Milk
pinch of Salt
pinch of Cayenne Pepper (I also add 2 tsp mixed dried Herbs)


Pre heat the oven to 200’C/400’F (& turn it off as soon as the cheese puffs go in).

Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, cheese & cayenne pepper thoroughly in a bowl. Combine the beaten egg with enough milk to make up to 1 cup/250 ml & stir the liquid into the dry ingredients. Mix well. Stir in the melted butter or margarine & blend thoroughly.

Place teaspoonfuls of the batter on a greased baking sheet & put in the oven which has been pre heated & then turned off & bake at Gas Mark 6/200’C/400’F until golden, about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven. Allow to cool on the sheet for a few minutes, then remove and cool thoroughly on a wire rack.

Cheese & Mustard Straws

These Cheese & Mustard Straws are great served with sundowners ...

These make a great snack, especially when served with drinks (sundowners on the veranda !). You can leave the Paprika out and add mixed dried herbs instead, to make these a child friendly snack which are great for school lunchboxes, too.

In Tanzania, snacks served with drinks before dinner are commonly called “bitings”. I’m not sure where the name originates from, or whether it is just something ‘unique’ to the East African safari industry, but mentioning the word “bitings” always reminds me of camp fires, hyena’s calling and the smell of tent canvas …. funny how certain things can do that !


Cheese & Mustard Straws

1 cup grated Cheddar cheese
1 cup cake Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Salt
pinch of Paprika
1 Egg, beaten
1 tsp Hot English Mustard
2 tbsp Milk

Mix the cheese (reserve a tablespoon or so for garnishing), flour, baking powder, salt & paprika together. Mix the egg, mustard and milk together and then add to the dry ingredients. Blend well, then knead lightly to form a dough.

Roll out (about 3 mm thick) on a floured surface and cut into rectangular strips. Place on a greased baking tray. Brush with some milk, then sprinkle the remaining grated cheese over.

Bake in a very hot oven at 230’C/450’F/Gas Mark 8 for 10 minutes until golden.

Rosemary Biscuits (Cookies)

I did not have any cream cheese in the house to secure the rosemary flowers onto each biscuit - so I simply 'balanced' them on top !

Why do we call cookies biscuits in this part of the world ? I’m not sure ! A cookie is the same thing as a biscuit to us, but I know that in other parts of the world a biscuit is not what we would call a cookie. (Are you with me ? Am I making any sense yet ? Good !)

This cookie/biscuit recipe is quite unusual, so I wanted to feature it on the blog. The recipe originates from a book published by “Pick ‘n Pay” (which is one of South Africa’s large supermarket chains) which is simply called “Cookies” (which jumped out at me as we don’t actually call cookies “cookies” in Africa so why not call the book “Biscuits” ? But anyway ….)

So, this is the – slightly unusual - recipe for savoury biscuits made with fresh rosemary leaves. They are great served with cheese and would work well served as part of a cheese and biscuit platter after a nice meal. Thyme would work equally as well in this recipe. (Don’t be put off by the addition of the curry powder, as you really can’t taste it at all and if anything, it actually enhances the flavour of the biscuit.)

Rosemary Biscuits (Cookies)

2 cups Plain Flour, plus extra for dusting
½ tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Curry Powder
pinch of Salt
6 tbsp Butter, diced
2 tbsp finely chopped young Rosemary leaves
1 egg Yolk
2 – 3 tbsp cold Water
Milk, to glaze
2 tbsp Cream Cheese
Rosemary flowers

Put the flour, baking powder, curry powder & salt in a bowl. Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the rosemary, egg yolk and sufficient water to mix to a firm dough. Chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180’C/350’F/Gas Mark 4. Roll the dough thinly on a lightly floured surface & cut rounds using a 5cm/2 inch fluted cutter.

Transfer to a large baking sheet and prick with a fork. Brush with milk to glaze & bake for 10 minutes, or until pale and golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Spread a little cream cheese on to each biscuit and secure some rosemary flowers on top.

Individual Pizza "Swirls" - Great For Kids Lunchboxes !

These make a great lunchbox snack for kids, or served with a side salad as a light lunch for peckish adults !

I have a busy day ahead of me in the kitchen today. As I mentioned recently, it is my daughter’s school Sport’s Day tomorrow, and I have offered to take a tray of savoury snacks and a tray of sweet snacks for the children.

After much pondering, I’ve decided on Chocolate & Raspberries Muffins as my “sweet” snack (you can find my recipe for those here), and for my “savoury” snack I’ve settled on another version of my sister, Colleen’s Savoury Swirls (you can find the recipe for those over here).

The Savoury Swirls are being altered a little to become Pizza Swirls (or mini Pizza coils … or Pizza snails ?!) as I have decided that instead of a Bolognese/ meat filling, I am going to do a cheese, tomato and herb filling instead.

This filling, I must just add, was inspired by the recent influx of jars and jars of “pasta” and “pizza” sauce on shop shelves in the city. I have rarely seen this product here before, now everywhere I look – there it is ! Several consignments of food items have obviously just arrived in the country and been cleared and obviously they contained cases and cases of the stuff, as every shop I’ve been into is stocking them – in all sorts of varieties ! (So I had to nab myself a couple – ‘cause once the stock has run out, we’ll probably never see them on our shelves here ever again !)

I wouldn’t be surprised to find that this particular brand has either a.) expired -fiddling & forging expiry dates is common place here or b.) been removed from shelves in the “first” world due to a recall because of dodgy product ingredients & has ended up here c.) has been donated by an overseas charity to feed the starving and has somehow ended up being sold on shop shelves. (How else would you explain thousands of jars of the stuff ?!)

As I have never made the “Pizza” version of these before, and also because I was itching to open a jar of this magical pizza/pasta sauce and test it - I did a trial run earlier this week (pictured above) and they turned out really well !

So, enough of my waffling as I have to get cracking in the kitchen now …. here is the recipe I used this week - the same recipe which I will be using today -:


Pizza Swirls

Dough:
250 gm Butter / Margarine

250 gm Grated Cheddar Cheese

375 gm Flour

5 ml Baking powder

pinch of Salt

Filling:

375 gm jar Pasta/Pizza Sauce (I used Tomato & Garlic)
1 cup grated Cheddar Cheese
10 ml mixed dried Herbs

First make the dough - mix all the ingredients together to form a soft dough. Gently roll the dough out onto a well floured surface (or a sheet of wax paper/plastic wrap) into a rectangular shape.

Now spread the dough with the pasta sauce, top with the grated cheese and dried herbs and gently roll up lengthwise into a sausage shape. Thinly slice the dough into rounds and place on a greased baking tray. (Leaving the dough in the fridge for around 20 minutes before cutting makes it a little easier).

(You can also sprinkle a little extra grated cheese and herbs on the top of each slice before baking if you like.)

Bake for about 15 – 20 minutes at 180 °C/350’F/Gas Mark 4.

A Recipe For Curried Eggs

Not as well known as deviled eggs, these curried eggs are absolutely delicious and well worth a try ...

Eggs are so versatile and nutritious and seeing as I have access to a steady supply of lovely fresh farm eggs, I make sure that I always have a good stock of them in the house.

I call them ‘fast food for toddlers’, as after a long day off the farm and a late return home, I usually whip up a quick omelette or some scrambled eggs for my daughter for dinner .. with a few veggies or cooked meat thrown in and some cheese sprinkled on the top, served alongside some fresh buttered bread – a really nutritious, fast and easy ‘toddler’ meal !

Frittata are also a great lunchtime meal, served with a fresh side salad (mmmm … I might just have to make one this coming week and post a recipe for it). I also love stuffed, or deviled eggs but my all time favourite egg recipe is for curried eggs.

I first ate these when I was at boarding school in South Africa – they were usually served as a light meal on bread or with rice. They are really delicious - especially if you make them the day before you plan to eat them. They are also great served cold as a side dish to accompany a barbecue or cold lunch spread. The curry sauce in this particular recipe is just – perfect. So whether you prefer deviled eggs or poached eggs, frittata or eggs benedict …. do add this recipe to your collection and give it a try sometime – it’s a real winner !


Curried Eggs (recipe from the book “Cook & Enjoy It” by S.J.A. de Villiers)

2 Onions, sliced
2 tbsp butter/margarine
2 tsp Medium Curry Powder
2 tbsp Cake Flour (I use Cornflour)
1 tsp Salt
½ tsp Pepper
1 tbsp Sugar
2 tbsp Vinegar (or 1 tbsp Chutney & 1 tbsp Vinegar)
2 cups Meat Stock (I use 2 beef stock cubes dissolved in 2 cups boiling water)
6 hard boiled Eggs, sliced lengthways

Brown the onions in the butter. Combine the curry poweder, flour, salt, pepper & sugar and blend with the vinegar. Add to the onion and gradually stir in the meat stock liquid. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour the curry sauce* into a serving dish, and add the boiled eggs.

*You can also add two ripe sliced bananas to the curry sauce.

Colleen's Savoury Swirls

I made these with a Bolognese filling, but you could also use cheese or Marmite (Vegemite) instead

My sister, Colleen, is a great cook and I always look forward to eating at her house. (The only problem being that she now lives in the UK - so it’s a bit far to pop over for a regular Saturday night dinner, if you know what I mean !)

I remember when we were teenagers, she had a pizza recipe which she used to make for us which was absolutely out of this world. She refused to let us (me, my Mum) have a copy of the recipe, and always banished us from the kitchen when she was making it, so that we wouldn’t discover the “secret ingredients” and method used to make it ! (I remember using that as an excuse when I was found snooping in her bedroom one day and reading her diary “I was only looking for THE pizza recipe !”)

Of course we were just kids at the time and I think that as we grew into adulthood she must’ve eventually shared the recipe with me, because the other day I came across it in one of my hand written recipe books “Colleen’s Top Secret Pizza recipe” …

Anyway, my sister is also mother to my adorable niece and nephew and as she has been packing school lunch boxes for close on 5 years now (as you know, I’ve only been packing them for close on 1 week !) she recently shared one of her favourite school lunch box filler recipes with me - “Savoury Swirls”. She created the recipe herself some time back.

I made these yesterday … smaller ones for lunch boxes and larger ones which we enjoyed with salad for supper. They really are tasty – and luckily, not “Top Secret” so I can share the recipe with you all here -:


Colleen’s Savoury Swirls

250 gm Butter / Margarine
250 gm Grated Cheddar Cheese
375 gm Flour
5 ml Baking powder
pinch of Salt
Filling of your choice (Bolognese sauce or Marmite/Vegemite/Cheese)

Mix all the ingredients together (except for the filling) to form a soft dough. Gently roll the dough out onto a sheet of wax paper/plastic wrap roughly into a square shape. Spread the pastry square with Marmite/Vegemite/grated Cheese or Bolognese Sauce (find my recipe for that here).

Gently roll up (as you would a swiss roll) & allow to cool in the fridge for about 20 minutes (this makes it easier to slice). Remove from fridge & cut into slices, lay slices on a greased baking sheet & bake for about 15 minutes at 180 °C/350’F/Gas Mark 4.

You can also use shop bought puff pastry for this recipe.

Sausage Rolls

These are lovely served with a fresh salad and Tomato Sauce (Ketchup)

This morning after our “Farmhouse Breakfast” tradition which I spoke about last Sunday, I had some pork sausages left over and decided to make some sausage rolls.

Now, I know that sausage rolls should be made with a light, fluffy puff pastry but we prefer a slightly different pastry on ours. Not as flaky as the traditional sausage roll pastry, but not as oily either – and to be honest, this pastry is MUCH easier than trying to make fiddly puff pastry !

This pastry recipe comes from my Grandmother, and I use it for all my savoury pie recipes as well. It is unusual in that it uses boiling water in the mix – which somehow just makes the pastry come together all that much better ?

For the sausage rolls I simply roll the pastry out and cut it in to a large rectangular shape. Then I cut it in to 6 (or however many sausages you have) smaller rectangles and roll one around each (raw) pork sausage. I then make a few slashes across the top of each & brush it with some beaten egg. These are then baked at 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5 on a baking tray in the oven for around 30 minutes until golden brown. They’re great served with a salad as a light meal, or with mashed potato, gravy and peas as a main meal. You could even cut them in to smaller pieces and serve them as cocktail snacks. Or add them to a school lunch box.


Hot Water Pastry

3 cups Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1 cup Margarine
½ cup boiling Water

Sift the dry ingredients together. Rub the margarine in with a fork until well mixed but not too fine. Add enough of the boiling water to make a stiff paste. Roll out on a well floured surface & use as desired.

Haloumi Cheese and Memories ...

Delicious served with freshly squeezed lemon juice, the Haloumi could also be garnished with sprigs of fresh mint

Many years ago, before my husband and I were married and when we were in between jobs in Tanzania (and waiting for our Work Permits to come through) we ran a hotel just outside the town of Louis Trichardt – which is close to the Zimbabwe / South African border - for a few months.

At the time, the hotel was owned by a Greek family and one of the Greek brother’s (who ran and cooked in his own restaurant in Johannesburg) used to visit for weekends and the 2 things he always used to bring with him were spare ribs and Haloumi cheese.

Now, I had never heard of this traditional Greek cheese until then but he cooked it for us for the first time and we loved it. He served it as a starter drizzled with fresh lemon juice, and to this day that is the way I like to eat it. (Whenever I see it on a restaurant menu, I order it without fail !)

So, you can imagine my delight when I saw Haloumi cheese being sold in our local butchery/deli when we were in the ‘big city’ yesterday. Although traditionally made from goat and sheep’s milk, this was made from cow’s milk but tastes very much the same. It was packaged in a mint water “brine”. (In my opinion, Haloumi is quite similar to Mozzarella cheese in taste and texture ?)

Haloumi is a great cheese as it cooks without melting. I simply sliced it and pan-fried it (with no oil) in a grill pan until the outside was browned and crispy, and served it with some freshly squeezed lemon juice over the top. We ate it just like this, but it would also be lovely as an addition to a salad. If I see it regularly appearing on our shelves here, then I will definitely experiment with it further as a quick Google search this morning confirmed that there are hundreds of different ways in which to prepare it.