December 31, 2012 by hanlie green

2012 in review

Here’s an extract received today from WORDPRESS blog hosting:

“600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 4,300 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 7 years to get that many views.”

To the 4300 people who viewed my blog over the last 5 months…, wow I am blown away…. I loved every second I’ve spend creating it, the cooking, the fun times with friends, the long hours editing the pics, a big thanks to SHANNON for all your help and assisting with the cooking.

I cannot wait for 2013….

Hanlie Green

December 29, 2012 by hanlie green

Sweet potato and phyllo bake ….. Christmas at Bodemloos Kombuis

Thanks to Maryke van Niekerk for sharing this recipe with me, I need to create a “noddy badge” system on my blog to highlight my top 5 recipes, yes….. , it will be real easy to select my top 5, but to start with, this recipe will be right there at the top….

Bodemloos Kombuis, the venue for our Office Christmas Dinner, will stay one of my favourites in our Valley. Looking out over our beautiful Elgin Valley it is ideal for smaller size functions like our recent Office Christmas Dinner. Maryke and Henk’s friendly approachable and enthusiastic nature combined with great food made us return year after year to this venue… and let me not mention the “rolled up lamb spit” and her sweet potato bake and and and…

Bodemloos Kombuis at night…

Nicole, our General Manager’s wife, always goes “all out” with creating a real Christmas feel to these dinners, and I once said that she is maybe the only person apart from Shannon (my blog partner) who I will trust blindly with decorating and setting up for a function without any “interference” from my side.

The beautifully decorated tables by Nicole and Maryke…

Always something different…

For the second year in a row, we’ve selected the Bodemloos Lamb roll on a spit…. and I will put money on it that next year we might choose it again.

Bodemloos Lamb roll on a spit …

Let’s get back to that Sweet Potato and phyllo bake that accompanied the tender and juicy lamb.

For the Sweet Potato and phyllo bake you will need:

This recipe is for +/- 12 people….

Shortcut sweet potato method

2.5kg sweet potatoes (or a bit more)
125ml or half a cup of butter
187ml brown sugar
125ml golden syrup
one roll of phyllo pastry
+/- 1 cup or tub of cream
125ml brown sugar, half a cup

Cook the sweet potato by your method of choice, basically the “traditional South African” way, and if you don’t know how to do that, follow the easy method below, thanks to Ilse Groenewald for sharing this method with me.

Peel the 2.5kg sweet potatoes, immediately put the peeled sweet potatoes in water to prevent browning. Once peeled slice the sweet potatoes in 5mm thick rings and keep covered with water. In a heavy based pot melt together 125ml butter, 187ml brown sugar and 125ml golden syrup, simmer together for about 5 – 10 minutes until it looks like a slightly thick caramel. Drain the sweet potatoes and add the rings to the simmering caramel. Give the caramel and sweet potatoes a good stir. Add boiling water to “just cover” all the sweet potatoes, this is the strange part, as the traditional method cooks the sweet potato without adding any water. Simmer for about 45 minutes on a low heat without stirring until well cooked and all the water has dissapeared. Keep an eye on it for the last 10 minutes as you only want to cook it until there’s about 1 cm of liquid remaining. Let it cool.

Once cooled completely start rolling the pastry rolls.

Very important when working with phyllo is to firstly defrost it overnight in your fridge, and once ready to use make sure you have a damp tea towel at hand to immediatly cover the sheets of phyllo as soon as you remove them from the plastic packet, if you don’t cover the flat opened sheets they will dry out quickly and stick together. I love working with phyllo, as long as you remember to cover it with that damp cloth.

Remove one sheet, and spoon one long line of sweet potato 5cm from the bottom of the pastry over the full lenght of the sheet, refer to the pic below, and roll it up tightly. Cut into 4 – 5 cm long pieces and pack the rolls into our dish. Make sure you cut the all the same length to create an even layer of little rolls stanking up in your dish…

The process…

Up to this stage you can prepare in advance, I would guess up to 3 or 4 hours before you need to serve….

About an hour before you need to serve, drizzle the cream over the sweet potato rolls and sprinkle with the 125ml of brown sugar, add a bit more sugar if the 125ml don’t seem to be enough, the cream will absorb into the phyllo and the brown sugar will turn into a crispy layer on top of the rolls… sweet crispness at the top and soft heaven inside…

The unbaked rolls sprinkled with brown sugar…

Bake for about 40 minutes at 180 degrees or until crisp at the top and all the cream absorbed into the pastry…

For a printable recipe card click on the PDF link below:
Sweet Potato and filo bake … RECIPE CARD

The crispy top

I loved this recipe so much that we made it on Friday night before Christmas at our “Christmas with friends” dinner and AGAIN on Tuesday for our Christmas Lunch….

Maryke, serving crispy prawn snacks…

Thanks to Ilse for always grabbing my camera and taking a couple of pics….(not a lot of people will be brave enough as they might get a growl), I don’t have a lot of pics of myself and really love the fun pics I find on my camera late at night when lying in bed and quickly scanning through the evenings pics on my camera…

Me and Bruce, thanks Ilse for taking the pic

Now time for something sweet…

The yummy dessert.

LET THE PARTY START!! But I’ve had a busy busy week… (one of the pics I found on my camera)

A find on my camera…

What a GREAT evening, I think we went home at 3…. the next morning….

And next year we will be back…. Thanks Maryke for your great food and Henk for the music that made us dance the night away…

December 28, 2012 by hanlie green

Quick picnic cake… summer evenings at the dam

I love the picnic’s Mandy arrange for us on the farm, always on short notice as the weather needs to be picture perfect…. always a challenge for me to throw together something “different” to take along…

Last Friday was no different, the invite arrived at 11 in the morning, I baked this lovely quick cake over my lunch hour, went back to work till 16:30, iced the cake and arrived for our picnic at 17:30. Always up for a challenge, and loving every second of it…

We usually have a large sandy “beach”, but due to changing dam levels our “beach” was underwater….

Shallow water perfect for the kids…

For the quick picnic cake you will need:

CAKE:
335g cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1.5 teaspoons vanilla
185g softened butter
220g castor sugar
3 large free-range eggs
3/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper. Sift flour, baking powder, add softened butter, eggs, sugar, vanilla and milk. Mix until smooth and bake for 40 minutes until golden brown. Turn out and cool.

For the icing you will need:

350g sifted icing sugar
80g white woodenspoon margarine
1t vanilla
Ripe cherries or raspberries or…

Whip the sifted icing sugar and softened margarine with the vanilla until light and fluffy. Spread over the cooled cake, cut into 5cm x 5cm blocks and decorate with red ripe cherries or raspberries…

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW FOR A PRINTABLE pdf RECIPE CARD:
Quick picnic cake… RECIPE CARD

Very late afternoon swimming in the liquid gold of the farm dam…

And when it get’s too dark it is time for drying at the warmth of the fire with a thick slice of soft freshly baked cake…

Drying at the fire..

CAKE PLEASE!!!

We first have cake and then what is on offer from the braai…..

Driftwood braai next to the dam…

These summer evenings at the dam usually turns into a visual feast for my camera… the sun setting over the liquid gold water and the fire’s reflections over the water, and then it is time to pack out the battery operated fairy lights for soft light around the fire..

Liquid melted gold…

Creating memories for our children..

Evenings like this will create memories in our children’s minds that will stay with them forever…

Nicole, reading with the fairy lights… maybe it is time to go home.. as the walk back to the vehicles will be dark…

The walk back to the car will be dark… wonder what we will forget at the water’s edge…. most likely some shoes, towels ect….

I CANNOT WAIT FOR OUR NEXT FRIDAY PICNIC…

December 19, 2012 by hanlie green

With 6 days to go before Christmas it is time to start wrapping those gifts…

Now is the time to get creative and start wrapping those gifts….

This year I’ve decided to keep the gift wrapping simple, a strong brown kraft paper and a red ribbon. Emma on the otherhand had different ideas and asked if she can do potato stamping on the gifts.

I usually cut the potato stamps freehand, but with a kitchen full of Christmas biscuit cutters I’ve tried to press the design of the biscuit cutter onto the potato and it worked so well that i will never do it differently.

Use Large potatoes, put the potato on a flat surface and slice off the top of the potato to expose as much “flesh” as possible. Select a cutter that fits onto the potato and firmly press the cutter into the potato as far as possible. Remove the cutter and with a small knife carefully cut away the potato around the pressed design. We’ve used white paint and stamped the designs onto the already wrapped gifts.. What fun and it only took about 30 minutes for me to cut and Emma to stamp all of the gifts.

Now the waiting starts… I LOVE Christmas!

December 12, 2012 by hanlie green

Picture perfect summer picnic at the HOPE 2012 concert in aid of the Thembalitsha Foundation

IN AID OFF

When I think back to the HOPE 2012 concert, I think of PERFECTION…. the evening turned into a peach, every little detail from parking our car, the taxi’s that transported us to the Country Club, the friends who joined us drinking glasses filled with pink Rose, to the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever experienced and then I have not even talked about the Parletones, Watershed, Gian Groen and my picnic jars and lots lots more, and let me end by saying when Emma (7) wanted her Rooibos Tea at 11:15, I walked hand in hand with her and found the most amasing kiosk which made her a cup of tea….

The HOPE 2012 concert was in aid of The Thembalitsha Foundation, Thembalithsa is the Xhosa word for NEW HOPE and they aim to bring and restore hope to the desperate and needy people of South Africa, here in our Valley. Developing them to a point of self-reliance through the provision of healthcare, education and training….

Let me start with a couple of pics I took some months ago of what they do….

Visiting the needy at home…

Home visits…

Caring for the sick at Thembacare..

Now back to the concert….

Our spot…

Thanks Elzaan for keeping a spot for us, centre stage…

Shannon and Nicole who returned for her 30 day “trek throught the wild” on a school outing..

Now for the best pic of the night… Nicole went on “trek” walking, kayaking and cycling for 30 days, … she left as a young girl and returned a young women…. you are soooo beautiful Nicole…

Nicole, need I say more.

Nina, Abby and Bella …. friends having fun…

Little Emma and Lea..

THE FOOD- CHILLI PRAWN JARS WITH PINKISH MAYO..

And now for the picnic snacks, lets start with the Cucumber avo chilli prawn jars with pinkish mayo…

Cucumber avo chilli prawn pots with pinkish mayo…

You will need:
Cubed cucumber
Cubed firm but soft avo
Devained and peeled prawns
Chilli flakes
Butter and Olive oil
Mayo and a squirt of tomato sauce

Layer the cubed cucumber and cubed avo in the jars. Flash fry the prawns in a little bit of butter and olive oil, add chilli flakes and season well. Cool. Make the dressing by mixing 1 cup of mayonaise with a couple of squirts tomato sauce…

Click on the link below for a printable PDF RECIPECARD..
Chilli prawn and avo jars with pinkish mayo RECIPE CARD

Trading Prawn jars for Yummy Langbaken cheese… with Amanda

TENDER PESTO AND YOGHURT CHICKEN SATES…..

If I need to list my 5 most used recipes, this one will feature on that list, I make it at least once every two weeks…. not on the stick but cut the chicken pieces in half after frying and dipping and then you stir the luke warm soft chicken into egg noodles, including the remaining yoghurt and pesto mix…. soft tender chicken with a hint of pesto… topped with grated parmesan and roasted pine nuts… lets return to the picnic….

The process… easy and really worth a try.

You will need:
8 Elgin Freerange chicken fillets
1 small tub of bulgarian or greek yoghurt
2 heaped teaspoons pesto
1 cup flour
chicken spice

Slice the chicken fillets in half lenghways, and in half again (refer to picture above). Spice well with chicken spice, salt and pepper and roll the mini fillets into the flour. Pack the floured chicken fillets in one layer, if you stack them on top of each other they will become soggy. Mix the yoghurt, about 250 ml or a small tub with the pesto, don’t use more than 2 teaspoons of Pesto as you don’t want the pesto to be overpowering, the yoghurt needs to have a light green colour. Flash fry the fillets in a little bit of canola oil, secret no 1….. FLASH FRY, they must be just cooked but brown, and make sure the pan is hot before you start. Secret no 2…… remove the cooked fillets (the flour should have disappeared and crisped up the fillet) and take them from the pan with a tongue and dip them one by one straight into the bowl of pesto yoghurt, first the one side, then the other side and place on a flat plate to rest…. all in one movement, the very hot crisped cooked flour on the chicken will absorb the cool yoghurt and I am not sure WHAT happens but it turns the chicken into these tender soft juice little bites… so hot oil, don’t overcook, immediately dip into yoghurt and let rest…..

Once slightly cooled skewer them onto a medium length sosatie stick and cover…. ready for the picnic…. can be served at room temperature or warm…

Print on the recipe card for a printable PDF recipe card:
Tender Pesto and Yoghurt chiken sates RECIPE CARD

Sharing with friends…

Nina and Abby, what a carefree age….

Amber, Emma and Rosie… fun fun fun…

AND NOW, FOR THE MINI MILKTARTS….

Mom and daughter having fun…

These little milktarts are soooo easy I will most definately make them again for a picnic… they look great and taste even better, I had about 5 friends and little Danny asking for more…. but what a pity there were none left… Danny, now your mom can make them for you…

I am not going to add the recipe here but will insert the recipe card….
Easy mini milktarts… RECIPE CARD

Only the filo needs to bake for 10 min’s….

Little Danny, I promise that next time I will make a double batch…

LET THE CONCERT START !!!

What a stage Emily organised!!! WELL DONE…

Emma having fun

I think a 7 year old can only handle that much and at 11:15 she demanded Rooibos Tea….

Jayyyy we found some tea…

Passed out under the picnic blanket, and resting for our BIG race of tomorrow morning…

Not part of this blog, but let me show you the race Mom and daughter did early the next morning…

Emma and Lara, the “lappoppe” at the Jolly Jester triathlon..

Tying up the pink hair before our dam crossing…

Did I say this was an adventure race, me and Emma decending the very steep dam wall…

The end… well done girls we might have come last, but you’ve completed the 3 km trail run, 12 km MTB cycle and dam crossing…

WHAT a weekend, it started with our Christmas Party at Bodemloos Kombuis, where I’ve had the most devine sweet potato bake, (on the blog in a couple of days), then prepping for the Hope 2012 concert Saturday night, and Sunday morning the Jolly Jester triathlon… I think I need a couple of hours sleep….

Well done if you’ve managed to read through this blog post, it is a bit long, sorry, but what a fun filled evening for a GREAT cause….

Cannot wait for next year EMILY HOUSE!!!

December 8, 2012 by hanlie green

Chickpeas, spinach and sweet potato… Part 3…. Cooking for Jacques and testing recipes for Chritsmas Lunch

This is the last recipe I would like to share with you from our late November Sunday lunch with Jacques, a great side dish for our chicken braai or the ideal “main meal” for my no meat friends like Melisse…

I’ve heard of this recipe from my sister, Liezel, she emailed it to me and said it is really worth a try, it is from a book I recommended to her by “Ottolenghi”, a great book, but being a bit of a “picture” girl I battle to cook from this book as I find that the pictures are very dull and non inspiring… a terrible thing to say I know, but the truth, and now I also need to say that EVERY recipe we’ve tried from this book is a real winner. So if you have the book, don’t look at the pictures, but do try the recipes as they are great….

I try out many recipes from books and magazines around me, and sometimes like with this recipe, you just know that it will become a favourite and real winner, so this one will most definately find a special place in my recipe file.

For the Chickpea, spinach and sweet potato dish, adapted from Ottolengi you will need:
1 tin drained chickpeas
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1,5 tsp fine cumin
1 tsp fine coriander
1 tbsp tomato puree
400g tinned italian tomatoes
1 tsp castor sugar
100g baby spinach leaves
a handfull chopped coriander leaves
salt and pepper

500g sweet potatoes
water for cooking
50g butter
4 squeezes of honey
salt

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and add the onion, fine cumin and fine coriander. Saute until soft. Add the tomato puree, tinned tomatoes and sugar. Cook together for about 5 minutes, add salt, pepper and drained chickpeas. Add the spinach leaves, mix through and cook until wilted. Put to the side and warm through just before serving.

Peel the sweet potato, remember to keep the uncooked sweet potato covered with water to prevent browning. Slice the sweet potato into 4cm high rings, add to a saucepan, add the butter and drizzle with honey. Fry a little bit and then add boiling water to the saucepan, covering the sweet potato about 2/3’s… Cook with a lid on until cooked, don’t stir as you want the sweet potato to keep it’s shape, top up with water every now and then until cooked. Leave in the saucepan until just before serving.

Time to set the table…

Just before serving warm the tomato and sweet potato, use a flat shaped serving bowl, first add the tomato and chickpeas then top with the sweet potato, add a handfull of chopped fresh coriander. This dish can be served at room temperature but I prefer it slightly warm.

On perfect summer afternoons like this one our lunch can drag on till late afternoon…. then we quickly pack a platter of leftover’s and feed everyone again just before they need to go home, as tomorrow is Monday…

Jacques, it was great having you for lunch, hope we will see you in December for that cycle in our beautiful valley…..

For a printable recipe card click on the link below
Chickpea, spinach and sweet potatoe side dish RECIPE CARD

December 8, 2012 by hanlie green

Homemade ice cream and meringue blueberry pots….Part 2….. Cooking for Jacques and testing recipes for Christmas Lunch

I could not wait to try out this new idea, originated from the Zest kitchen at Beaumont Wines, I love jars, any kind of jar and to serve food for a picnic or dessert like this is visually appealing to me.

The pots have layers of ice cream, broken up meringues (see part one), and a berry coulis, this is my “attempt” to re-create the Zest Jars… o and if you EVER need a great catering team, they are THE BEST!

For the little ice cream jars you will need:
Ice cream
410g evaporated milk, this must be very cold
250ml castor sugar
250ml double thick cream (I used normal whipping cream)
5ml vanilla essence (I used vanilla extract or a pod, just love the little black seeds)

Blueberry coulis
3 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1.5 cups water
200 ml castor sugar
30 – 50ml of fresh lemon juice (to taste)

Gooey meringues
See part 1 for the gooooey meringue recipe, you can buy the meringues but please don’t get the white powdery ones, make sure it is a good quality meringue.

AND little jars for serving…

For the ice cream, (recipe found it in one of our Local Magazines….) whip the evaporated milk, I prefer to use my Kenwood for this, you need a powerfull mixer to beat the evaporated milk into a cloud. Once thick add the castor sugar spoon by spoon, make sure you mix well after each spoonful, whip the cream seperately and fold into the whipped evaporated milk and sugar. Finally add the vanilla extract… and fold through. Pour into a chilled plastic container and freeze immediately, no need to stir this icecream like some recipes suggest, it is perfect….

Local grown blueberries from Lorraine Farm

Now for the berry coulis, boil together 3 cups of blueberries with 1.5 cups of water, for +/- 7 minutes. Use a potato masher and mash the cooked watery blueberries, this will crush open the soft blueberries and release the insides. Then strain them over a sieve to get rid of the skins, I use the back of a spoon to press the skins and force every little bit of liquid through the sieve. Now boil the strained runny blueberry liquid with 200ml of castor sugar for about 10 minutes until slightly reduced. Add the lemon juice and taste, add more if not sour enough, you want it sour as that is what works like magic with the sweet meringues and ice cream.

You need to give the icecream about 5 hours to freeze and the blueberry coulis needs to be cold…. THEN we pack the jars….

The process of packing the jars…

Pack layers of flat crushed gooooey meringue, layers of ice cream and the blueberry coulis, and another layer of flat crushed gooooey meringe , ice cream and blueberry coulis….. and freeze, I did not put the lids on the jars as I was worried that the lids will rust… and what is great, you can make everything up to this point a day in advance, even two if you want. I’ve kept one jar out for Mr Huxter, my blueberry grower and ice cream fanatic, and only managed to get it to him 4 days later, and need I say that there was a little bit of a fight over who’s spoon goes in first between him and Issie…

My good friend, suggested we add some mint to add colour to my pics…

At dessert time, all you need to do is remove the jars from the freezer and serve, add frozen or fresh whole blueberries on top and mint for pretty pics as Shannon said.

Someone could not wait for their jars…

These jars seems to be a bit of an effort, and to be honest they are, but really easy and so worth it…

The secret is in the quality of the meringues and icecream, you can go the quick way but believe me the taste of the homemade version is just soooooo worth it.

Jacques, next time I will serve the ice cream jars as the “starter” then you can take your time enjoying them as there won’t be any need to rush to catch that plane back to Johannesburg…

What a wonderful idea, thanks to the Zest girls….

Printable PDF recipe card, click on the link below…
8. Ice cream, blueberry and meringue jarsRECIPE CARD

Hanlie Green

A blog about my passions… photography, food, my "always with me" recipe book and life in general.,

Monthly Archives: December 2012