Old Years Eve '08 Feast - Roast Lamb, Pork Belly....

We, as always, escaped the New Years Eve's madness and spent it at the cottage. Paulie, Sabrina and Luigi joined us for a meaty feast and some lovely veggies from Son. All this with the ocean in the background and the Mtwalume night sky bursting with a riot of rainbow colour from the surrounding fireworks.

Luigi did an all too succulent Leg of Lamb, that according to urban legend took copious amounts of scotch to lubricate the chef and his helper during the four hours it took to cook.

Soni's Veggies took the form of roasted bean and potatoes with pine nuts and ricotta stuffed mushrooms.

...and I couldn't resist the temptation and my contribution was a juicy Pork Belly.

With all the attention on the meat going around, we all forgot dessert - Soni and Sabrina to the rescue! Marshmallow and Nutella SURPRISE!

Christmas '08 - Instalment 5 - Side Dishes

The side dishes:

Mixed garden salad with Mint, Cranberries and fennel.

Washed mixed salad leaves of your choice.

A generous handful of dry roasted hazel nuts.

1 fennel bulb sliced very thinly on the diagonal.

Small bunch of fresh mint.

Half cup of dried cranberries.

10 caper berries.

Dress the salad leaves, fennel, berries and mint in a bowl with olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Layer on a salad platter, scatter with the nuts and caper berries and squeeze over the juice of half a lemon.

New potatoes and beans in mustard dressing

500g each of new potatoes and runner beans
large white onion
1 tablespoon of wholegrain mustard
1 crushed and minced garlic clove
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Parboil the potatoes in salted water until soft. In a separate saucepan do the same with the beans that have been top and tailed, and cut into bite size pieces, along with the finely sliced onion. Mix the potatoes, onion and beans and let cool.
Heat the olive oil in a small pan, take off the heat and add the garlic to infuse the oil. When luke warm, add the mustard to the oil and beat with a whisk till it emulsifies into a creamy sauce. Mix into the potato and beans and serve at room temperature.

Roasted Roma tomatoes, with Ricotta, pesto and pine nuts.

1 kg Roma tomatoes

350gm Ricotta

1 Jar of organic basil Pesto

Half a cup of dry roasted pine nuts

1 garlic bulb, cleaned into cloves

1 Jar of organic marinated artichokes

Cap the tomatoes and de-seed, spoon in the ricotta and drizzle with pesto and top with the pine nuts. Place in a oiled oven dish, and scatter baby tomatoes, whole peeled garlic and marinaded artichokes in between. Roast in a medium, hot oven (180 deg C) for 20 minutes.

Christmas '08 - Instalment 3 - Dorado in Salsa Verde

What can beat the idea of fresh Dorado with Herbs? Even better the ease of this dish on a hot summers day - Christmas or not.


With the fish butterflied and oven ready, all I had to do was rub generously with olive oil and Maldon salt, spread the inside with fennel, dill, oregano and lemongrass. Be generous with the lemon juice, wrap in foil and pop into the oven for 20 to 25 min.

For the salsa, pick and wash two generous hands full of Basil and the same quantity of baby spinach. Wilt the spinach in a pan with salt and a little water, combine with the basil, a table spoon of toasted pine nuts, half a cup of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, two crushed garlic cloves, freshly ground pepper and half a cup of Italian parsley. Blitz all together in a blender till smooth and adjust the seasoning to taste.

Plate the cooked Dorado on a wide platter and surround with the Salsa Verde.