Lamb neck is a tough and relatively inexpensive cut of meat, but is delicious when slow cooked in a stew or made as a filling for a pie. In this recipe, I slow roasted the necks with cardamom and saffron until tender and slightly sticky and served on soft polenta with a date and almond chutney.
I was invited by Errieda du Toit, an experienced hand in the kitchen and new twitter friend to be part of a feature on her, by the Afrikaans television programme Pasella. We were tasked with cooking with venison and each chose something a little unusual, a bit of a challenge and at the same time spoke about our activity on twitter and how we experienced the social media medium.
A recipe using traditional Alheira sausage and all the things I miss about Lisbon. Well, some of them.
For this week's Woolworths MasterChef SA Spice Challenge, I delve into the wonders of Zanzibar the Spice Island and make a Parsi dish, a prawn dhansak. Freddie Mercury was born in Zanzibar and was Parsi- did you know? Dhansak uses a variety of spices, lentils and in this case mango and pineapple pulp and lime juice. Serve with a mango and pineapple salsa.
A ballotine is traditionally a deboned leg of chicken or duck, stuffed, tied and rolled and steamed, poached or baked. Nowadays chicken breast and various cuts of red meat are also used to make a ballotine - really a fancy way of saying a stuffed and rolled piece of meat. I stuffed chicken breasts with Mediterranean Delicacies basil pesto and topped with their Olive Tapenade and bread crumbs.
Smoked Spanish almonds from E & A Gispert, master roaster in Barcelona, founded in 1851 - a lovely crust for garlic and lamb chops.
Squid or cuttlefish ink takes me to the Mediterranean and remind me of travels to Italy and Spain. I am always on the look-out for unusual or indigenous food items when we explore - sometimes repeat visits yield new items afresh each time. I picked up a box of fine short squid ink vermicelli in Andorra three weeks ago, and with careful packing it made the journey . more or less unscathed. I made this dish with it.
This bright and zingy chicken pita is the ideal meal for when you don't have time but need the nutrition. The raw julienned beetroot is a sweet take on red cabbage slaw. Personally one I prefer. Instead of mayonnaise, I've used low fat plain yoghurt. By all means use double cream or thick Greek yoghurt if you like.
A beautiful creamy chicken pasta with browned onion and garlic, Parma ham, a dollop of creme fraiche and a grating of Parmigiano. Also, I dig deep and share 10 intimate things you may not know about me. Your turn?
A rich chicken tagine, with carrots, tangy apricots and preserved lemon - easy to make and utterly fragrant and comforting. An ode to love. "Be of love (a little) more careful than of anything." -E. E. Cummings
