Growing into 2011

Welcome back to Homemade Heaven. I've just returned from a wonderful summer holiday. I had a great rest and am back fully inspired to make wonderful food and share great out door experiences with you.

So to start off the year I want to give you something special from my garden.

A few years ago I was known as the Grim Reaper of the plant world. When I walked through garden centres and nurseries you could almost hear the plants screaming out in pain - trying not to get picked up by me.

I was never put off by the fact that everything I bought died a painful death. I continued to persevere in buying plants full of energy, taking them home and then I'd fane surprise that after 2 weeks of neglect they would be dead. I blamed the weather, the nursery that sold defective plants, not having the perfect place to plant things....the list just goes on and on. I have never been one short of excuses!

This all changed about 3 years ago when I started to investigate what exactly I was doing (or in my case not doing) which resulted in everything dying. Turns out that plants need love, water, weeding and a lot more work than I ever realised.

I turned over a new leaf (okay you can laugh now) and started focusing on planting things that I can eat. The excitement of planting a baby tomato tree and then 2 months later, picking the beautiful red gems of goodness and the feeling of creation in your hands just can't be beaten.

I really need to give special thanks to Keith for installing the automatic sprinkler system this year - without which my babies wouldn't have lived through the Cape Town heatwave while I was away on holiday .

Last night, Meatless Monday, was a feast of home grown goodness. Freshly picked tomatoes, chillies, oregano and thyme.

Summer Salad Sensation

"We having guests on Saturday night, I would like to do a braai (BBQ), since the weather is so good. The only thing is that half the guests are vegetarians".
He says: "What? You mean they don't eat any meat? - not even chicken? Why would you want to braai - what on earth do they eat?".
She replied : "Don't worry, they'll have great food, good enough to make you want to change your life choice of carnivorism.".
He smiles : "I very much doubt that.".

So we had the braai and the vegetarians certainly didn't go without and while the carnivores enjoyed the meat, they also enjoyed the meat-free dishes too. Perhaps not enough to change their life choice, but definitely enough to surprise them that meat-free can be almost as good.

Here is one of the wonderful salads I made, which can easily be a full meal, served with some home made bread or a brie and olive focaccia.

 

Roast Vegetable Salad

1 Whole Aubergine sliced
1 Red Pepper seeded and sliced
3 Courgettes sliced
Olive Oil for roasting
2 handfuls Rocket leaves
Walnuts roughly chopped

Dressing
2-3 Garlic Cloves
½ teaspoon Coarse salt
Juice of 1 Lemon
60ml Olive Oil (Extra Virgin)
10-15ml Palm sugar (or regular sugar)
2.5ml finely ground Black Pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC
Roast the aubergine, pepper and courgettes coated in oil until soft and brown.
Make the dressing, by pounding the garlic to a paste and
then mixing the rest of the ingredients, adjust to taste.
Once the vegetables are done, pour over the dressing while hot.
Allow to cool slightly and then toss in the rocket leaves, pepper and the walnuts.
Serve at room temperature, drizzled with the dressing and optional extra walnuts .

Crème Brûlée and Lavendar and Lime

My father has always been the "special occasion cook" in our family, Mom was the journey (wo) man, making the weekly fair - but Dad was the Sunday lunch / special day man - roast and gravy king.

Retirement for my parents, has brought with it more time to watch TV and then came the food channels. Now my Dad drops words like "caramelize" and "flambe" with the same ease as Nigella Lawson! They followed Australia MasterChef (2009) with same passion as me. We still are able to debate the merits of Poh's smile verses Chris's crispy pork and Andre's downfall of always cooking pasta - much to my hubby frustration!

The one thing Dad has been taking about since the Australia MasterChef Singapore trip is Crème Brûlée. He's been dreaming of trying this dish that every foodie talks about in hushed tones. The holy grail of desserts.

After mentioning on Twitter yesterday that I needed the ultimate recipe, I was pleased to see there are plenty of Crème Brûlée fans out there - Cindy even commented that she orders it at a restaurant to gauge the talent of chef.

One of my favourite bloggers and supporter's Tandy Sinclair from Lavender and Lime sent me her recipe for Crème Brûlée.

It's so simple to make, all you need is patience to bake it and then wait for it to chill. It is soft and creamy, pure decadence. Please go visit Tandy Sinclair from Lavender and Lime for the Crème Brûlée. recipe, you will not find a anywhere.

Butter Bean Butter Boom

We've had a hard few days in our household this week, hence the fact that I only have one post this week. My Keith had double knee surgery and is recovering on the couch, unable to bend his knees. It's amazing how you can take a body part for granted until it's out of action and then you're literally floored!

Meatless Monday became a trip to the Spur (a local steak house), Tuesday was something re-heated (after fetching my patient from the hospital) but by Wednesday I just had to have something healthy - my body was screaming from all the junk from the last few days.

I always have a tin of butter beans (Lima beans) in the pantry. They are my favourite standby for just about any meal - from butter bean mash to plain in a bowl with salt and olive oil. The creamy sweetness filled with goodness, opening the tin makes me feel healthy!

This simple butter bean, grilled vegetables and harissa paste salad was so good, I wish I  had made more.

 

Butter Bean Salad with Harissa Paste and Grilled Vegetables

1 Tin Butter Beans (drained and washed)
10ml Harissa Paste (I used shop bought, but you can make your own)
Zest of 1 Lemon and the juice of ½ the Lemon
10ml Palm Sugar (or plain sugar)
4 Courgettes slice diagonally and char-grilled
½ Yellow or Red Pepper seeded, sliced and char-grilled
10ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
10ml roughly chopped parsley
Salt and Black Pepper
Rye Bread, thinly sliced, rubbed with olive oil and grilled with the vegetables

Place all the ingredients in a bowl, expect the bread and allow to marinate for 1 hour.
Serve the salad on the hot toasted bread.
Garnish with fresh parsley.

Roast Belly Pork Roll

I am so happy, summer has arrived in Cape Town. There's still some wind, which is normal for this time of the year - but it helps to ease you into the rising temperatures. Once January and February comes, all we'll have are blisteringly hot days and no cool breezes to combat the heat.

Our days are longer now, so supper is being served later and later, it's too hot to eat at early and I find facing hot meals too much effort. We are enjoying lots of pasta, salads, cold meat and of course ice-cream!

Yesterday I managed to find a beautiful rolled pork belly( at Woolworths), which had very little fat and decided to slow roast it, and then leave it to cool before serving it with a big salad and a boiled potato - simple to make and easy to digest on a hot summer evening.

Slow Roasted Pork Belly Roll.

1 Rolled Pork Belly
2 Large Onions cut into 1" rings
2 Granny Smith Apples, slides crosswise the same as the onions
10 Fresh Sage leaves
Salt and Pepper
Olive oil
Pomegranate juice concentrate to serve (optional) - I used Verlaque

Pre-heat your oven to 160ºC
Place the onion, apples and sage leaves on the base of the roasting pan.
Dry the pork well with kitchen paper.
Rub the pork with a little oil and salt well.
Place the pork on the vegetable trivet and top with a good grinding of black pepper.
Roast for about 1½ -2 hours until done.
Remove from the oven.
Remove the rind from the roast and set aside - this will make the crackling.
Leave to cool to room temperature, or you can serve it hot if preferred.
To make the crackling, heat a thick based non-stick frying pan to high.
Lay the rind which you removed and weigh it down with another heavy pot.
Allow to fry until crispy.
Slice the rind into thin strips and serve with the pork.
I made a green salad with blue cheese and grapes, which worked very well with the pork.
If you using the pomegranate juice, pour over a little just before serving.