November 26, 2013 by hanlie green

Halfaampieskraal breakfast souffle…. Overberg at it’s best…

Not often that I am without words…. but the 24 hours spend at Halfaampieskraal was pure magic…. thanks needs to go to our hosts Jan-Georg and Cobus who went out of their way to wine and dine our group of eight, my seven supercool friends and the Magic of Halfaampieskraal. Luckily I’ve managed to convince Jan-Georg to demonstrate a “recipe” for my blog, and he was wise enough to suggest a breakfast treat, while the others were in dreamland early Sunday morning, I entered the inner soul of Halfaampies and Jan-Georg cooked… but first… some photies..

Our weekend was planned to the finest detail, a special invite for a special place….

Deep inside the Overberg over rolling hills of screaming yellow canola fields..

Directions…

The ROADTRIP….

All good things starts with bubbles, and no Roadtrip is complete without a bottle or two, even if the wind blew our feathers all over the Overberg.

Waiting “on route” for our friends with our glasses filled, nearly Lunchtime …

Welcome, welcome to Halfaampieskraal, our host helped us unpack, yes one night only but we had loads of stuff, tripods, camera bags, bags with stuff for our dress up dinner, boxes of apples and and and…o yes, boxes of bubbles …

The best decision we made was to request a “light” lunch on arrival Saturday afternoon, ja right, I don’t think the word “light” exists at Halfaampies, it was a sensory overload, not sure if it was from the bubbles “on route” and bubbles pre, during and post lunch but I was on an euphoric high…..

LUNCH is served…on the stoep, overlooking the rolling hills… and our glasses, filled by Jan-Georg…

Layered potato salad, with soft soft leeks, light mayo dressing, sliced egg and caper berries...

Layered potato salad, with soft soft leeks, light mayo dressing, slices of egg and caper berries…

I will dream of soft soothing mayo leeks for nights to come…

Turkish bean, pg 82 of the beautiful coffee table cookbook, "halfaampies celebrates"...

Turkish beans, pg 82 of the beautiful coffee table cookbook, “halfaampies celebrates”…

I love flags… flags everywhere…

Jan-Georg … making us feel truly welcome…

And more lovely flags…

Lunch flowed into drinks on the stoep…. and a surprise early birthday cake for my good friend Evie…. served with coffee and bubbles…

Evie showed me a pic of this cake months ago… I don’t forget…

The main “excuse” for this quick one night away was a “photographic weekend”, well this is proof if it… I even took my camera to the loo for self portraits…(thanks Evie)…

Beautiful welcome letters and dinner menu on our bed…. how perfect can this be…

Time to pack out those feathers and get dressed to fit the theme…. Dress Halfaampies…

TIME FOR THE FUN TO START…

Magriet starting the evening on a high note…

Dressed and ready for dinner… how special, dinner was for us eight only… a real feast…

And yes, we started with trays filled with yummy cocktails.

Dinner, it felt as if we were in a different world,…

Our starter… prawn parcels…

Carol…

Dinner for 8….

Loads of fun..

Me and my good friend…

And then… Dessert…

Halfaampies Velvet Pudding… a velvety baked custard with a thin layer of berry coulis, topped with a crispy but soft mallow meringue…

SWEET DREAMS UNDER PUFFY WHITE DOWN DUVETS…

While the others dreamed of velvet pudding and brandy cocktails… I could not waste a minute in bed… the light of Halfaampies is calling..

Magic hour…

My early morning walking companions.

LETS cook…

Entering the kitchen early morning while the others are still in dreamland was a bit of an “excitement wobble” in my life… according to me the ultimate highlight of our 24 hours at Halfaampies… all for myself!

click on this recipe card for a one page printable PDF recipe card: ->Halfaampies Breakfast souffle…. RECIPE CARD
For the Halfaampies breakfast soufflé you will need:

1 x roll phyllo pastry
some melted butter and a brush
grated parmesan +/- 1 cup
1 or 2 handfuls yellow sultanas
1 tub cream cheese (half plain, half blue)
2 Jumbo eggs at room temperature separated
on tablespoon flour
125ml cream
salt and pepper

Defrost the phyllo pastry in your fridge overnight, cover with a damp tea towel once opened. Layer a 20cm pie dish with layers of phyllo, lightly brush each sheet with melted butter before adding the next sheet. Use +/- 7 sheets. Fold the edges into the pan to create an even edge.

Grate a +/-3 mm thick layer of parmesan on the top layer of phyllo, this will create a salty crust under the sultanas. Add a handful of yellow sultanas on top of the grated parmesan.

In a separate bowl, mix the cream cheese, 2 egg yolks, tablespoon of flour, 125ml cream, salt and pepper.

Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the cream cheese mixture. Add to the phyllo, parmesan and layered sultanas and bake at 180 degrees for +/- 20 – 25 minutes until light brown and still slightly wobbly on top when you take it out of the oven.

This recipe can be made with variations of salmon, spinach, bacon and flavoured cream cheese.

After my early morning walk and about an hour in the kitchen with Jan-Georg I think it is now time to go and shake that Princess out of bed and go for my second walk of the day…

Myself and “the princess” stayed in The Greek room, with our own open plan kitchen and upstairs puffy white bed and views from here to never end…from the bed, the bath, the loo, the side kitchen window AND the kitchen door…

Breakfast is served !!

Being spoilt by Carol my “artist, potter, sculpture and photographer” friend, little bags of white lace pressed pottery Christmas tree decorations on our breakfast table…

Visuals from the Breakfast table…

Our breakfast soufflé …. the salty parmesan crust and sweet pop in your mouth yellow sultanas gives an unexpected taste sensation … served with crispy baked salty bacon and thyme flash fried rosa tomatoes…

Our breakfast companion…..

Sadly our food feast at Halfaampieskraal has come to an end…

Our hosts walked with us to help pack our cars… and treated us to a sneak peak at Club Havana…an intimate party or small wedding venue in a little shed on the “Halfaampies Werf”…. a shed from the outside, and a colour explosion on the inside, instantly transferring you to a different world, of feathers, fur and lashes… heavy velvet and music for the soul…THIS is the place to book for that intimate party….your friends will love you forever…

CLUB HAVANA..

Me and my other special friend… Evie…(thanks for today’s flowers, what a great surprise)

Time for the road trip home, but not without stopping for a quick roll and group pic…

Halfaampieskraal, pure magic… book it NOW, take 4 couples, book lunch on the Saturday just after arrival, dress WILD for dinner and have a breakfast feast overlooking the rolling hills of The Overberg … and pleassssssssse invite me with…

In January 2014 I will book another weekend, with the same group of girls… I think this will become an annual affair…

Keep your eyes posted for the invite, and I will keep mine posted for the next Party invite at Club Havana…

November 23, 2013 by hanlie green

Christmas wreath, teatime treat…

Christmas…. Whip up this quick and easy very visual Christmas tea time treat, serve it anytime from now till Christmas and spread some Christmas magic.

Some years we have a “big” Christmas and other years we tone it down a bit… and even with a “toned down” Christmas, this delicious tea time treat will put big smiles around you….

Printable PDF recipe cardChristmas wreath teatime treat…. RECIPE CARD

For the Teatime wreath you will need:

1 x roll of good quality puff pastry
1/3 cup apricot jam
+/-300g Glaze luxury fruit mix
OR luxury fruitcake mix
handful flaked almonds
zest of 1 lemon
zest of 1 orange

For the Icing:
1/2 cup sifted icing sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice

1 x egg mixed in a cup for brushing

To serve…. luke warm custard…

Defrost the puff pastry overnight in your fridge or for +/- 2 hours at room temperature.

In advance:

Open the pastry on a flat surface on a clean tea towel, do not roll out flatter. Spread the jam evenly over the full area of the puff pastry sheet. Scatter the Glaze fruit mix evenly over the pastry sheet, leaving +/- 2cm’s on all sides.

Grate the lemon and orange zest over the glaze fruit mix and add the almonds. At this stage anything else can be added, I think of maybe orange peel, slices for preserved green figs…. endless but optional.

Roll up “swiss roll size” from the longer side, using the tea towel to assist with the rolling. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate until needed.

Before serving:

Remove the clingwrap. Grease your baking tray, position a 6 – 8 cm tin in the middle of your baking tray to assist in packing the circle. Cut 3cm thick slices of the pastry roll and arrange around the tin, once done, remove the tin and brush the pastry ring with a little bit of beaten egg. Bake at 180 degrees until golden brown, not too dark.

Remove the baking tray from the oven and let it cool for 15 minutes, slide the wreath off the baking tray onto a pretty flat platter and drizzle with the icing sugar/ lemon juice mixture from +/- 30 cm’s high… if the icing sugar mixture is too thick add a bit more lemon juice.

Serve luke warm with custard…… Christmas perfection!

This wreath looks, smells and taste pure CHRISTMAS MAGIC!

Even the frogs needs a bit of Christmas warmth…

September 2, 2013 by hanlie green

When only the best will do, white chocolate pots served with fresh fruit… The Princess turns 40 …. Part 2 of 2

The secret….. keep the servings as small as possible… two to three tablespoons only, and your guests will dream sweet dreams of smooth creamy melt in your mouth heaven….

This is the ideal dinner party dessert, quick and easy make in advance….

Easy, make in advance…

click on the link for the recipe card in PDF format White chocolate pots ………. RECIPE CARD

For the White chocolate pots you will need:
250 g crème fraiche
250 ml fresh cream
400g GOOD quality white chocolate (I use Lindt or Woolworths organic)
1 x small tub of granadilla pulp
1 x packet crushed nutti crust biscuits
Strawberries OR raspberries

Beautiful strawberries

Crush the nutti crust biscuits until fine.

For jars, add 2 x tablespoons and for espresso cups, add 1 x tablespoon of fine nutti crust biscuits to each jar/cup.

Slowly mix the cream and crème fraiche until well combined (not whipped). Slowly heat the cream/crème fraiche mixture until near bubbling point. Take off the heat, add the finely chopped chocolate and slowly stir until melted, velvety and smooth.

Make sure you use only the very best white chocolate you can find..

Fill the jars or espresso cups with the melted white chocolate mixture, make sure you only fill them maximum half way, or less….

Don’t over fill

Refrigerate until needed….

If you use strawberries, slice them into quarters and stir in the Granadilla pulp, refrigerate and add to the cups before serving. If you use raspberries, top the jars just before serving with the raspberries and spoon over some of the granadilla pulp.

While I topped the espresso cups, the girls got ready for a quick family shot..

Time for a quick family shot…

Just lovely I think..

We served the white chocolate espresso cups as part of a cheese platter… it looked beautiful and decadent and was a great end to an even greater evening…

Dust with icing sugar..

The cheese platter with White Chocolate espresso cups

I use the small jars with a lid for a sweet surprise at a picnic, see the pic below… at the Paul Cluver Amphitheatre. I cannot wait for this year’s summer concerts under the stars in the forest… pure magic…

Picnic dessert jars…

Evie, the lucky recipient of a White Chocolate Jar at the Paul Cluver Amphitheatre…

Come on summer!!

Let the countdown begin to this year’s summer concerts…

August 29, 2013 by hanlie green

When only the best will do, Pear and Leek soup… served with blue cheese crostini, crispy bacon bits, fresh pear and micro greens… The Princess turns 40…. Part 1 of 2

Serve this fabulous, quick and easy soup when you need to impress!

Sweet juicy pears from the farm…

When I was asked to make the starter and dessert for Shannon’s surprise 40th Birthday party I stressed, yes, I stressed a lot, as I knew she would expect only the very best, and I would really like to serve the very best for my foodie friend. I spend three weeks searching for ideas, and instantly knew that “this was the one”, from the Crush! online magazine. I knew that the flavours would work for her, pear, leek, a touch of blue cheese, bacon AND it is visually pleasing.

For the Pear and Leek soup you will need:

Saute the leeks…

50g butter
1 chopped onion
2 leeks, finely sliced
6 ripe pears, peeled and cubed
4 cups of chicken stock
2 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
125 ml fresh cream
salt and pepper
FOR THE GARNISH:
1 packet streaky bacon
3 fresh pears
2 hot dog rolls (yes that is right)
1 block creamy blue cheese
one small punnet micro greens (optional)

Click on this link for a printable recipe card Pear and leek soup ………. RECIPE CARD

In advance, if you want to, sauté the onions and leeks in the butter until soft and translucent. Add the cubed pears and sauté for another 5 minutes. Add the cubed potatoes and sauté a further 5 minutes.

Add the boiling chicken stock, simmer for +/- 30 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked. Cool for +/- 10 minutes and liquidize until smoooooooth and creamy. Put aside until just before serving.

Crispy baked bacon

Also in advance “bake” the bacon in your oven until very crispy, cool and cut into small pieces. Slice the hot dog rolls into 1cm slices and pack on an oven tray, add one thin slice of blue cheese to each of the hot dog rounds. Cover with cling wrap until serving.

Elzaan mastering the monster finger cutter…

30 Minutes before serving:
Warm the soup and add the cream, while warming the soup, toast the blue cheese crostini in the oven until crisp and the cheese melted. THINLY slice the fresh pears.

Add the little bits of very important garnish.

Serve the soup, topped with 2 x toasted blue cheese crostini’s (floating on top of the soup), one thin slice of fresh pear, bacon bits and beautiful micro greens…

Just perfect, for “when only the best” will do…

Needless to say, nearly everyone wanted seconds…. it is very important to add the blue cheese crostini, sweet fresh pear, and bacon bits, it is a flavor and sensory explotion…

Our sexy host, Taryn….

Taryn served a lovely chicken curry and then it was time for the dessert, to follow in Part 2 of 2….

Every party needs a beautiful cake (by Monique) and the VERY BEST wine you can afford (Oak Valley, by Pieter Visser)…

For those who have not turned 40 yet, please promise me you WILL do something nice and exciting for this very special “once in a lifetime” birthday party! Memories forever…

The Birthday girl with her mom and dad..

A special friend…

THE DESSERT to follow in part 2….

March 29, 2013 by hanlie green

Smoked Salmon tagliatelle and bunny paw prints, Part 3 of 3….. EASTER at Bosbokfontein Nature Reserve

I’ve waited eight months to post this recipe, it was the first one I thought of when I started my blog…. Now at last, 56 posts and eight months later, Shannon cooked it for me and I’ve managed to capture the process at this very special Easter venue…. Bosbokfontein Nature Reserve, a little piece of paradise….

After a long afternoon on the beach, collecting driftwood sticks for our silhouette bunnies and playing with my polariser ring we climbed up the hill and started cooking….

Collecting beach treasures…

Early evening view from the deck…

Shannon, first enjoying a glass of bubbles before hitting the kitchen….the one thing we missed, the champagne glasses….2 x boxes WILL be delivered , to say thanks…

It was time to light the candles… with no electricity, the house gets lit by flickering candles…

The lighting of the candles..for earth hour, we had EARTH weekend, no electricity for 4 days…

For the Salmon tagliatelle you will need:

+/- 150g smoked salmon
1 small bunch spring onions
butter and olive oil
5 large red tomatoes
1 teaspoon sugar 200ml cream
2 tablespoons old brown sherry
200ml milk mixed with 2 teaspoons Ina Paarman white sauce powder or flour
salt and pepper to taste
3 shakes of tabasco
1 teaspoon grated parmesan per serving
2 handfulls chopped flat leaf parsley

Click on this link for a printable recipe card Smoked Salmon tagliatelle ………. RECIPE CARD

Peel the tomatoes

Cut a cross on one side of the tomatoes and dunk them in boiling water for 1 minute, this will make the peeling easier without loosing any tomato flesh.

Finely chop the spring onions.

In a heavy based pan or wok, saute the finely chopped spring onions in butter and a bit of olive oil. Cut the peeled tomatoes into small chunks and add to the spring onions. Fry for +/- 5 – 8 minutes to soften the tomatoes.

Add one teaspoon of sugar to the fried tomatoes and 2 tablespoons of Old Brown Sherry. Cook for 2 – 3 minutes.

Add the cream and milk mixed with 2 teaspoons of Ina Paarman White sauce powder OR two teaspoons of flour. Cook through. Chop the smoked salmon into smaller pieces and add to the pan with one tablespoon of chopped flat leaf parsley.

Add black pepper and salt to taste as well as 3 shakes of tabasco.

Serve on tagliatelle with one teaspoon parmesan and more chopped parsley.

Food for angels…

Emma, my “tea please” little one, first had to have a tea party with Lara…

Think it is bed time…

Early morning, Sunday… Bunny masks done, part 1 of 3, black silhouette bunnies, part 2 of 3, and now the bunny flour paw prints….

Cut out the paw prints and “stencil” them with flour….

We could not have asked for a better EASTER weekend, thanks to great friends and magical venues……

ps…. add a squeeze of lemon… just before serving..

March 29, 2013 by hanlie green

Chilli Chicken Liver Pancakes and Bunny Silhouettes, Part 2 of 3….. Easter at Bosbokfontein Nature Reserve

Waking up at Bosbokfontein Nature Reserve is a magical experience, the light through the huge windows gives a blue haze and the wooden house feels like a big ship floating on the open sea….

Evie treated me to a real coffee experience and we downed huge cups of steaming coffee discussing the menu’s of the day…

The real coffee experience WITH a view…

We moved inside, to the kitchen with the “best view” I’ve ever cooked in and Evie spoiled me with these lovely baked pancakes filled with chilli chicken livers…and more coffee….

A kitchen with a GREAT view…

For the Baked Pancakes filled with chicken livers you will need:
1 x batch of pancakes- see recipe on recipe card
500g free-range chicken livers
1 onion and 1 clover of garlic chopped
Black pepper and Ina Paarman chilli and garlic salt
Dash of Wellingtons Hot Sweet Chilli marinade
2 tablespoons rosemarie leaves
200 – 250 ml cream
Lemon juice and grated white cheddar cheese

Chicken liver pancakes ………. RECIPE CARD Cut on this link for a printable PDF recipe card.

The process…

We asked the girls if they wanted some Chicken Liver Pancakes as well…. look at the faces we got…

Lips in spasm…

Evie busy in the kitchen… it took her about 45 minutes to get this dish on the table… nice chat time for the two of us …

Evie busy spoiling me ….

Suite the onions and garlic in a little bit of olive oil and butter. Once soft add the roughly chopped chicken livers. Fry until cooked and nicely browned. Add black pepper and 2 good shakes of Ina Paarman Chilli and Garlic salt. Add a dash of Wellingtons Hot Sweet chilli marinade and +/- 250 ml cream. It should not be too runny. Add 1 tablespoon of rosemarie leaves and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and cook through.

Fill the pancakes and add a thin line of mayo over the chicken liver mix before you close the pancake.

Add grated white cheddar and bake for +/- 20 minutes until crisp on top.

Yum yum…

Ready for the oven… bake until crisp..

After our BIG breakfast it was time for a quick walk on the beach…

And then, Evie and Albert went to show me the farm… Evie, apparently is the “better” driver and in the loose sand we needed a GOOD driver. At one point we went up a very steep hill and could not see the road going down, Albert shouted “sharp right” which was what Evie did…. but it was not as sharp as what we thought….

A view of the Nature Reserve..

Our very capable driver..

A quick damage check…mmm not tooo bad…

CREATIVE BUNNNNNY TIME……

We’ve decided to cut out 20 black silhouette bunnies for the easter egg hunt. We did not want to disturb the vegetation and decided to do the hunt all along the access road, and marked the “nests” filled with chocolate eggs with our black bunnies on a stick.

Evie busy cutting out the bunnies…

Print the bunnies on A4 white paper and make photocopies on the darkest setting, roughly cut them out and stick them to cardboard. Cut them out and tape a small stick to the back…

Midnight creative fun by candle light..

Evelyn woke me at around 6 on Sunday morning… mmmmm it was drizzling outside but we had to get this done before the kids wake up…

Early morning fun, think we had more fun than the kids..

WE also had some mmmmmmm bunnies for the adults…

Bunnies for the Adults..

Let the HUNT begin…

The HUNTERS…

A little bit of hassle, a HUGE lot of creative fun…

Full of smiles…

To follow in part 3, Shannon’s Smoked Salmon Tagliatelle and bunny paw prints…

March 28, 2013 by hanlie green

Velvety quick MILK TART and BUNNY MASKS, Part 1 of 3……. Easter at Bosbokfontein Nature Reserve

EASTER AT BOSBOKFONTEIN NATURE RESERVE!

The invite said “come and celebrate Easter in Stilbaai”, little did I know how magical this place would be, the house gave me the feeling of a HUGE pirate ship on the open ocean, all you can see looking out of the windows is the rolling ocean for 180 degrees, even from the loo window……

The view from the Stoep…

Menu planning for weekend’s away are easy, everyone gets a turn and it makes for easy packing and you only need to focus on 2 meals over 4 days, and every one was just nicer than the one before….

I will post 3 recipes in this EASTER Blogpost, the first will be a really easy velvety quick milk tart, then Evie’s baked pancakes filled with creamy chilli chicken livers and end with Shannon, the Princess’s smoked salmon tagialtelle….. I will also add templates for quick Easter fun for the kids, Bunny Masks, Black bunny silhouettes and flour bunny paw prints…

For this Quick Milk Tart you will need:

3 x XL eggs
250 ml sugar
30 ml soft butter
250 ml cake flour
5 ml vanilla
5 ml baking powder
1 ml salt
1 l milk
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/4 cup sugar mixed

Click on this link for a printable recipe card Velvety milk tart , quick and easy ………. RECIPE CARD

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease a deep “lasagne dish” with butter. Cream the egg yolks, sugar and butter till pale and light yellow. Add the cake flour, baking powder and salt to the yolk mixture. Add 750ml of the milk and mix well.

Whisk the egg whites till stiff and fold into the remaining 250 ml milk. Add the egg white mixture to the yolk mixture and fold until combined, the mixture will look very runny.

Pour into the greased dish and bake at 180 degrees for 55 minutes until golden brown and slightly wobbly in the middle. Remove from the oven and dust with the cinnamon sugar. Cool for 1 hour 30 minutes and serve slightly warm but set.

After lunch it was time to hit the beach…. down the dunes and we have the beach to ourselves for as far as the eye can see….

Girlie time with a bottle of bubbles…

Late afternoon it was time to start making the Bunny Masks for the easter egg hunt on Sunday Morning…. A nice holiday craft for the kids. See template attached Easter Bunny Mask click on the blue “Easter bunny Mask” to open the template.

Cut out the template and trace the outlines onto A4 White cardboard. Cut out.

Cut out two smaller pink pieces to form the inside of the ears, and paste to the white mask. Glue around the pink area on the ears and around the eyes and stick cotton wool to the mask. Let it dry.

Cut 30 cm long strips 5 cm’s wide out of white cardboard and stick to the left and right inside of the mask to form the bands around your head.

Leave the 2 bands loose in order to fit it to size once you are ready to do your hunt, then stick the two banks together to size.

READY for our Easter Egg Hunt!

Not too sure who had the most fun, the adults or the kids…

What a setting for an Easter Egg Hunt…. we’ve kept to the road and marked the eggs with black silhouette bunny’s, to follow in the next post…

The find…

To follow…. Baked pancakes filled with chilli chicken livers and black bunny silhouettes….

January 24, 2013 by hanlie green

Time to send out your Valentines Dinner Invites….

It is nearly 3 weeks to go, so NOW is the time to deliver your Valentines Dinner Invites… They must be RED, SEXY and full of PROMISE…..

Come on! Everyone LOVES a good party, and what better reason than a sexy dress-up Valentines dinner for your friends….

I will leave you with a couple of pics out of my “archives”…I think it is time again..

It was a GREAT evening, one that will be remembered for a loooooong time…

January 3, 2013 by hanlie green

Slow roasted acorn-fed pork shoulder with honey and buttered apples and pears….Christmas with friends…

Christmas, friends, gifts, acorn-fed tender pork shoulder, honey and buttered apples….. what more do you want for a lovely early Christmas get-together with friends to exchange gifts and eat delicious food produced here in our beautiful Valley…

Once a year a couple of our friends get together to celebrate Christmas the weekend before “Christmas”. As usual it will take us a week or two to decide on “what to cook”, this year we outsourced the snacks, starter and desert to two of the other families and myself and Shannon focused on the Main Meal…. we did however demanded Yummy Galore food from the contributors and they knew they had to perform or be scrapped for the invite list, and believe me they did not disappoint…

Shannon decided on a simple yet beautiful and tender acorn-fed pork shoulder for The Pool Room at Oak Valley Estates… wow, what a beautiful piece of meat, you should have seen Shannon handling that lovely shoulder, rubbing it with the lemon salt with true respect…
We are spoiled with various restaurant’s in the Elgin Valley and THE POOL ROOM with chef Nicole Precoudis, is the latest edition to a growing list… they also have a deli and restaurant filled with local produce, flowers, freshly baked breads and bakes, acorn-fed pork, beef and their own Oak Valley Wines.

For the slow-roasted acorn-fed pork shoulder you need to follow the following steps:
The day before, soak the shoulder in brine…
+/- 3kg or larger acorn-fed pork shoulder with the bone and skin on
1/4 cup sea salt
3/4 cup castor sugar
2.5 litres water
6 bay leaves, rosemary, a hand full of sage leaves or 1 tablespoon of dried sage
1 whole head of garlic with the top cut off to expose the cloves
1/4 cup green peppercorns

Make the brine, by adding the salt, sugar and water to a saucepan, slowly bring to the boil and dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat and add the cooled liquid to a plastic bowl, big enough to fit and cover the shoulder. Add the bay leaves, rosemary, sage, whole garlic and peppercorns. Prick the shoulder with a skewer and dry the skin. Score the skin at 1cm intervals with a small sharp knife or ask your butcher to do it, rub with salt… Place the shoulder in the brine and refrigerate for 24 hours.

4 hours before serving…
Pre heat the oven to 220 degrees. Remove the shoulder from the fridge and discard the brine. Pat DRY with paper towelling.

Handled and rubbed with LOVE it could not be anything else that tender...

Handled and rubbed with LOVE it could not be anything else than juicy and tender…

Make the Lemon Salt rub..
Make the Lemon Salt Rub by grinding together in a pestle and mortar…
1/3 cup sea salt
2 tablespoons lemon rind
1/3 cup green peppercorns
1 tablespoon olive oil

Rub and massage the DRIED shoulder tenderly and with LOVE with the Lemon Salt mixture…work it into the scored/cut skin.
Line a roasting pan with foil, and add 500ml of boiling water, rosemary, sage and bay leaves. Place the shoulder skin side up in the roasting pan. The water should come up +/- 3 – 4cm in the pan. Roast for 35 minutes at 220 degrees. Remove from the oven and cover with foil, REDUCE THE HEAT to 150 degrees. Roast for 3 hours 30 minutes, remove from the oven, uncover the pork and crisp at 200 degrees for a further 30 minutes until crisp. Rest for 15 minutes, remove the skin and cut the skin into smaller pieces to serve as cracking with the sliced tender pork.

For a printable version of the recipe click on the LINK BELOW
Slow-roasted acorn-fed pork Shoulder with Honey buttered apples and pears … RECIPE CARD

We’ve set the table as per Shannon’s instructions, silver and white, while the pork roasted in the oven and finished a couple of bottles of bubbly on the kitchen floor, life like we love it…..

Me in kitchen heaven…

The silver and white themed table…

Shannon decided to serve the tender pork with sweet honey and buttered apples and pears straight from the farm…
Poach the peeled and cored apples and pears until slightly soft but still firm. Drain and fry on a high heat with 1 and a half tablespoon of butter and a big squirt of honey until golden brown…

Honey and butter like the girls in the kitchen…

We started the afternoon with me and Shannon and the other friends joined us a bit later… the girls all dress up for our dinner…

After dinner it was time for the VERY important “exchanging of gifts”…. thanks to Vissie for being very “willing” to be Father Christmas, I wonder why??

So Shannon promised me a scale,( see it is in Vissie’s hand on the pic above) yes I don’t have a kitchen scale and every second day phone her to “weigh” flour ect for me and give me the ml’s…. so when I saw my flat small parcel I gave it back to her, unopened and said “WHERE IS MY SCALE??”, she gave it back and once opened I saw it’s a VERY FANCY flat electronic scale that can take any type of bowl… wow how lucky am I…

And for the “outsourced” desert … a truly decadent triple layered chocolate mousse… to follow on the blog as soon as I can get Elzaan to make it for me again…Elzaan I demanded Yummy and it was “Yummy GALORE”…

Christmas is all about tradition, and this is one tradition I would like to keep…

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…

Hanlie Green

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

Category Archives: Special feasts…