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

November 27, 2012 by hanlie green

Gooey meringues… Part 1…… Cooking for Jacques and testing recipes for Christmas Lunch…

I’ve tried and tested this recipe several times before I got the timing right, yes the goooooeyness is all in the baking time…..

We invited Jacques, a brother of a GOOD FRIEND, for lunch, and what better time to try out those frozen homemade icecream and meringue pots I’ve ordered from the Zest Kitchen at The Beaumont Wines’s open gardens day in early November…. I don’t have the recipe but will give it a go….

It start with baking gooooey meringes

For the Gooooey meringes you will need:
8 egg whites at room temperature
240 g castor sugar
240 g sifted icing sugar
5ml of cacao powder
2.5ml vanilla paste or half scraped out vanilla pod

Seperate the eggs and beat the egg whites until soft peaks. Mix together the castor sugar, icing sugar and cacao and spoon tablespoons full of the sugary dry mixture into the egg whites while continiously mixing, I use my Kenwood on a high speed, but you can use any “freestanding” electric mixer.

By slowly adding the dry ingredients while continiously mixing, the egg whites will turn into a shiney stiff sugary cloud…. mix in the vanilla…

Preheat the oven to 120 degrees.

Spoon egg size dollops of meringue onto a baking tray, I prefer not to use baking paper for these. Use two tablespoons, and scrape the egg size dollop out of the other spoon onto the try, make a twirly point at the top of the meringe by circling the meringe with one of the spoons.

The meringues will double in size, so make sure you leave enough space so they don’t “climb on top of each other”.

Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes at 120 degrees. Do not open the oven door, leave to cool for 2 hours before taking them out.

After 2 hours, remove the meringues from the oven and store in an airtight container.

Click on the recipe card in PDF for a printable recipe card.
Gooooey Meringues RECIPE CARD

And this is what these meringues turned into, recipe to follow later…

Gooey meringe, homemade icecream and blueberry coulis pots…

November 20, 2012 by hanlie green

Christmas inspiration….

Surprise your friends with a beautiful invite to an early “Christmas celebration with friends”. I wish I have the time to do this every year, the fun of planning an “early” Christmas Dinner is nearly more exciting to me than the dinner itself….

Flashy fab invites, dress up, the garden filled with tiny fairy lights…. and good friends…

A tray filled with shotglasses full of baberton daisies… one per place setting..

Christmas should be RED….

The table under the tree…

The weather…. WILL play along…. (lets hope)

Pretty…

Fill the table with homemade menu’s, nametags, individual flowers, small gifts…..

I love looooong tables, this one should have been longer… with white flowing tablecloths.

Plan, plan plan ahead.

The very important “drinks table”…

And go all out for your friends….

As this night they will remember and always be thankful for being on the “invite list”…

Fill the garden with brown paper bags, filled with sand and candles..

And friends will chat the night away…

Thanks to Liezel for taking the pics for me, as I was running around to get the well planned 5 course dinner on the table….

I LOVE Christmas.

SO, there’s more than enough time to plan your “early Christmas Dinner for friends” this year, they will love you for doing it.

And pleasssssse invite me too.

November 14, 2012 by hanlie green

Orange cake ……. (light, easy, moist and delicious!)

This light summer orange cake is ideal for lazy Christmas holiday afternoons. I love making this cake as a gift when we get invited to a summer lunch…. Even if your host serve dessert, this light cake will go down well with late afternoon coffee…

For the Orange Cake you will need:

1 cup sugar
1 cup soft butter
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 + 3/4 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon bicarb of soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
rind of 2 oranges

Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, sourcream and orange rind. Mix well. Add the sifted flour, bicarb of soda and baking powder and combine with butter / sugar mixture. Bake in a greased square tin for about 45 minutes.

While the cake is baking prepare the orange syrup:
Simmer together for about 5 minutes, the juice of 2 oranges, juice of 1 lemon, 3/4 cup of sugar and a pinch of salt.

Let the warm cake rest for 15 minutes, turn the cake out of the tin onto a pretty flat serving platter. Pour the warm syrup over the cake.

Serve with fresh berries and a dusting of icing sugar… and a dollop of cream, but not really necessary…

Light, orangy, plain and simple afternoon tea cake….

Click on the recipe card link for a printable PDF recipe card
Orange cake RECIPE CARD

Or serve this lovely orange cake as a light Christmas eve dessert, beautifull and full of Christmas colours and flavours….

October 30, 2012 by hanlie green

Snack style dessert and cheese boards with Lemon Mousse ….. Let’s cook for 50 at a good friend’s 50th… Part 9 of 9

Shannon decided to serve small size sweet and cheese boards, one of each per 10 guests, snacky style…..

We’ve decided to add the shot glasses filled with lemon mousse for “visual effects…”, it needs to look good and one of our “mood boards” had a picture of these little shot glasses filled with chocolate mousse, with small spoons tied onto each glass with a ribbon. We changed the chocolate mousse to lemon mousse and let me tell you that the tying of the spoons to the little glasses neeeeeeeearly let me loose my cool, so if you like this idea, just put the spoon in the glas…..

What is easy about this dessert is that everything can be done before the time and you can ask one of your “creative” friends to pack the boards while you mingle with the guests, choose your friend well as this is all about “how it looks”…..

Our Boards consisted out of the following:

Sweet Boards
Lemon mousse shotglasses
Small chocolate brownie blocks
Strawberries
Turkish delight
Nougat

Shannon made the Lemon Mousse the evening before our lunch, as you need enough time to let it “set” properly…

For the Lemon Mousse you will need:
finely grated rind of 4 lemons and the juice of 3 lemons
8 large freerange eggs
250g castor sugar
1.5 (20gms) sachets powdered gelatine
450ml cream
1 small tin granadilla pulp
1 pkt Nuttikrust caramelised Oat biscuits – for the base

Whisk the egg yolks and gradually add the sugar, whisk till pale in colour and thick. Heat the lemon rind and lemon juice in a saucepan and add the gelatine. Over a slow heat stir and melt the gelatine into the lemon juice, bring the lemon juice to just before boiling point to make sure the gelatine dissolve completely.

While whisking, slowly pour the lemon juice into the sugar and egg mixture, whisk well. Let the mixture cool completely at room temperature. Fold the whipped cream into the eggy mixture. Whisk the egg whites until very stiff and fold into the eggy and cream mixture.

Liquidise the nuttikrust biscuits finely, and add about 1 teaspoon to the bottom of each shot glass. Spoon the mousse into the small shot glasses,…. be patient…. . Refrigerate over night. Just before serving add one teaspoon of granadilla pulp on top of the mousse.

We’ve used square wooden boards, +/- 30 x 25 cm’s wide. Pack with rows of lemon mousse shot glasses, and small heaps of strawberries, brownies, turkish delight and nougat. Dust with icing sugar …

So how excited can I get, seeing that our idea “worked” , VERY EXCITED when you look at it and just know that these sweet and cheese boards is going to blow Shannon away when I serve these to her and her guests at the lunch table (as per my previous posts, I told Shannon to go and sit down with her guests, heee haaaaa and took over her kitchen)……

Click on the link below for a printable PDF short recipe:
Lemon mousse RECIPE CARD

For the cheese boards we’ve used:
Purple figs cut in 4
Grapes
Brie
Camembert
Creamy Gorgonzola
2 x types biscuits (we love digestive biscuits)
Cheddar blocks
and almonds

This is where all the planning stopped, right here…..

BUT I had a little surprise up my sleave for Shannon……

I’ve planned a small coffee table, we did not plan to serve coffee but looking at the weather report I realised that it is going to be a very cool 15 degrees and realised that some of the guests might like to end their lunch with a late afternoon cup of coffee and something sweet… ooooo yesssss…… Ouma Babsie’s Caramel biscuits…. the ultimate coffee biscuit….. when you have one, you have 5….. and make it the next day at home…. see recipe under “sweet yummyness“ the very first recipe I posted on my blog.

I filled those plungers more than 8 times…..

Our lunch ended at 22:00 that night, or let me rather say that was when I called it the day……

Thanks Mike, and Happy Birthday!

October 14, 2012 by hanlie green

Let’s cook for 50 … the prep work…… Part 1 of 9….. endless hours of fun planning and cooking for a good friends 50th!

Mike started off by saying “I want everyone at my 50th who will attend my funeral”….. then it swinged around to supper for 4 couples and it ended off with “Let’s cook for 50 for Mike’s 50th” in his backyard. From the start I knew that this would be one of those “lets go all out” planning and fun filled events, with me assisting my blog partner in cooking for her husbands 50th…..

The menu was decided upon by Shannon, the “file” was prepped by myself with moodboards, shopping lists, table plans ect….

We started cooking after work on Friday afternoon, the menu was planned around a semi-cold lunch… just so much easier if you can prepare everything in advance, especially if you cook for 50, at home…

Friday late afternoon, lets start cooking…

Shannon and Evelyn started cooking at 4 in the afternoon, I phoned and asked them to ask “the fairies” to please start chopping the red onions for me ….

I arrived at Shannon’s house with Evie “my fairy” busy with the first item on my “to do” list…

We opened a bottle of bubbles……

The Menu
Salmon mousse cups with cheese straws
Mediteranian skewers drizzled with a red wine vinegar reduction

Fillet with salsa verde
Coronation chicken salad
Roasted balsamic beetroot and red onions
Cakestands packed with beautiful caprese basil and pesto tomatoes
Green beans with rosa tomatoes
Luke warm baby potatoes with pesto and parmesan

Wooden dessert boards overflowing with chocolate brownies, strawberries, turkish delight, nougat and shotglasses with lemon mousse…

Wooden cheese boards filled with Brie, Gorgonzola and cheddar blocks, biscuits, grapes, firm ripe red figs and almonds…

AND a small coffee table with plunger coffee and “Ouma Babsie’s Caramel biscuits”…..

So, lets start cooking….

Stefan (4Every Event) and Shannon setting up the tent in front of the Garage….

4 Every Event, the ALL YOU NEED for any event company…. located in Grabouw…. and supplying all over the Western Cape, we are soooo lucky having Stefan and Nadia close to us, with their stores filled with anything from bedouin tents to cutlery and stunnnning decor items, and Nadia, always there to give you that very inspiring idea to make any party a big stylish success….

The tables specially designed by “the birthday boy” …

The seating plan was carefully planned by the birthday boy, with a little help by myself in the form of a table plan and names, there’s just no other way to do this and get a good “visual” of who needs to sit where, so VERY important for the flow of the day…

The Birthday Boy…. and the seating plan…

We’ve decided for a set the table without tablecloths, to use lovely paper placemats, potted succulents and white roses…. with some odds and ends from 4 Every Event and our kitchen cupboards….

Evelyn, busy with another “job for the fairies” I just don’t have the patience….tie knots for the boys and bows for the girls

The tables, seating 25 each….

After a very long Friday evening it was time to go home, an early start tomorrow morning, and I told Shannon that I’ve arranged the weather, little did I know that I will meet a REAL Meteorologist at the party, all the way from Denmark, (some of you might know that I am a bit of a WEATER person…) who could have given me an insiders report on THE VALLEY FARM’S weather ……

September 26, 2012 by hanlie green

Decadent chocolate tart……. part 5 of 5, Nieuview Paternoster

Let me start by saying, this is one of those recipes that will haunt me at night, and my mind will not rest until I taste it again and again…..

We found this “new version” of the Chocolate Tart on The Pretty Blog about two weeks before our weekend away, we did amend it slightly but it introduced us to one magical ingredient….. I think that this tart ended the weekend with a BIG smile on my face, and the secret ingredient, the very simple “nutti crust biscuit base”.

For the Chocolate Tart you will need:
1 x loose bottom fluited quiche / tart tin, preferably one that is about 4 cm high…
400g very fine nutti crust biscuits (a caramel flavoured dry biscuit)
120 g melted butter
200g dark chocolate, chopped finely
300g normal milk chocolate, chopped finely
500ml cream
butter for greasing the tin
A little bit of whipped cream for serving

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees. Grease the tin well with butter. Mix together the fine nutti crust biscuits and melted butter, line the base and the sides of the tin with the biscuit mixture, we used our fingers and a flat bottomed glass to firmly even out the biscuit base, it is quite important to seal the whole bottom and the sides with the mixture as the filling is very liquid and will seep through if the base is not properly lined with the buttery biscuit mixture….

Bake the biscuit base for about 15 minutes, make sure the biscuits don’t turn too brown, all the ingredients are already cooked, but the butter and biscuit mixture needs to “seal” during the baking process…

In a small saucepan, heat the cream until just before boiling point, add the chopped chocolate and stir through, keep on stirring slowly until all the chocolate has melted. Initially it will look as if it won’t melt, but just keep on stirring. It should turn into a glossy chocolate liquid….. If the warm cream don’t melt the chocolate completely, hang the mixing bowl over a pot with hot water, make sure the water in the pot don’t touch the bottom of your bowl… but this should not be necessary… the melting process can take up to 5 minutes so don’t rush it.

Pour this glossy chocolate mixture onto the biscuit base and refrigerate of at least 6 hours….. It should set firmly….

Once set, and ready to serve, remove the side of the loose bottom tin, and with one firm but gentle movement slide the tart off the base of the thin onto a serving platter. Decorate with fresh berries and dust with icing surgar. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream.

Nieuview in the evening light

We closed off this festive weekend with writing messages on sky lanterns and sending them up in the air….

Our “chef” and her hubby…

You cannot turn 40 without a couple of friends dancing for you, this was quite funny and very late…

And this is me, ending my day doing what i love… on the beach, late at night taking pictures of Nieuview….

I could not have asked for a better weekend or a nicer 40th Birthday. Surprising my friends with an early morning kayak trip, a lovely breakfast at a different guest house, a lazy afternoon at the pool and Shannon cooking up a storm for my 40th dinner, sending sky lanterns with messages and taking pictures on the beach at midnight….

If i can have my 40th over again, I will do everything exactly the same…

Just a pity that tomorrow morning we all need to go back home, but Nieuview had a special extra surprise waiting for us…

Nieuview saying “goodbye” … pic taken from the veranda at Nieuview…

Thanks to a very special group of friends for making my birthday a weekend I will remember for the rest of my life..

September 23, 2012 by hanlie green

Peach and tomato summer salad………. part 4 of 5 at Nieuview, Paternoster

As part of the Main Birthday dinner at Nieuview, we made this lovely zingy Peach and Tomato salad, i will be making this a lot this coming summer, there’s something brave about the combination of a sweet peach and a zingy red wine vinegar soaked, salty tomato…. one of those taste combinations that takes your breath away, mmm or it might be the red wine vinegar that took my breath away…

For the Peach and tomato summer salad you will need:
4 Firm but sweet and ripe peaches, preferably the soft fleshy ones, don’t use yellow cling peaches…sliced with skin on.
2 cups of tomatoes, use small rosa tomatoes chopped in half
1 red chilli, finely chopped
Juice of one lemon
a handfull of finely chopped parsley
one red onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
olive oil
Maldon sea salt and black pepper

Prepare all the ingredients, try to cut the peaches over a bowl in order to catch all the juices running off, add the peach juice, if any, to the salad.

Mix all the ingredients together and serve at room temperature……

The only rule of the weekend was, “on Sunday morning, the day of my Birthday, everyone had to be on the beach at 6:30, in their costumes”, no questions asked, no matter what time we got to bed the night before, BE ON THE BEACH AT 6:30…………

I’ve arranged with Dianne Heesomgreen to take us paddling early Sunday morning as a surprise to my guests on my Birthday, it was a perfect morning and when Dianne “told” me to go and put my camera away, I told her that my camera goes where I go, and so we went off on the kayak’s with our camera’s in zip lock bags….

Surprise Kayak trip for my friends on my birthday…

Some of us have done this before…

I cannot think of a better way to start my birthday, this was truly beautifull….

And back at Nieuview, after a couple of “kayak rolls” coming back to the beach, we had a lazy sun filled day, full of laughs and yet more gifts….

Shannon, time to go and play in the kitchen…..

We’ve decided that we will be cooking a late afternoon Birthday dinner, this is what we do, we love cooking, and this house was so perfect for just that, all open plan with 360 degree sea views. I am not tooo sure how this happened, but between Evie and myself, we somehow missed capturing the prepping of the main birthday dinner as well as the meal itself, BUT I did capture the finale to this special weekend, THE chocolate tart….. to follow a bit later….

Hanlie Green

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

Category Archives: Special feasts…