Cheese and Rosemary Bread

 

 After a few years of our rosemary bush not doing very well, we planted a new one in a different position in the garden and wow! Its gone wild, so every night rosemary finds its way into dinner. Now nothing beats the smell of bread baking in the oven, adding rosemary adds that extra punch and makes you get the plate and butter out way before its ready. I found this recipe in a magazine, but searching in the grocery cupboard and the fridge I didn't have the right ingredients so tweaked it and used what I did have.

 

Ingredients



1 x cup grated gruyere cheese
3T chopped rosemary
500g self-raising flour
5ml salt
5ml ground black pepper
250ml buttermilk
250ml plain yoghurt

Method
1. Heat the oven to 180 degree C.

2. Mix the dry ingredients together.  Add the gruyere cheese and rosemary and mix in.

 

 

3. Add the yoghurt and buttermilk and mix well with a wooden spoon.

4. Grease and flour a loaf tin, put bread mixture in, grind some salt over and bake for a 50-60 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

 

 

Grilled Cheese and mustard sandwich

The fridge and pantry cupboard always seem to be a bit bare after the weekend, but I always have cheese and today I also had some left over small ciabatta loaves. And what is more perfect than making grilled cheese sandwiches. 

This sandwich is fried gently and slowly in a pan, so that the cheese melts and runs out. The taste is so much better than if you’d toasted it in a toaster machine.  This amount of filling is enough for one small loaf, just double it up if you need more grilled cheeses.

Ingredients

 

1 T olive oil

1 small garlic clove, peeled

1 sprig fresh rosemary

50g strong cheddar cheese

½ t wholegrain mustard

1 egg yolk

A dash of Worcester sauce

1 t fresh parsley, chopped

1 small clove garlic, crushed

salt and pepper

1 small loaf ciabatta

Method

1. Place the olive oil, garlic clove and rosemary in a small pan and heat gently. Remove from the heat and let it rest for a while.

2. Mix the cheese, mustard, egg yolk, Worcester sauce, parsley and crushed garlic and season to taste with the salt and pepper.

3. Slice the loaf (I got six slices out the small loaf) and place three slices on a board.

4. Divide the cheese mixture between the slices and cover with the remaining slices. Brush the olive oil over the slices on both sides.

5. Pan fry the sandwiches very gently over a low heat until the bread is golden and the cheese mixture has melted.

Baked Potato with Cottage Cheese, Crispy Bacon and Avocado

We had this for brunch today as everyone was going off in different directions.  Its quick to make, you can feed a crowd or just a few. It's for the hungry (use two potatoes or one large potato) or the not so hungry (use small potatoes).

Baked Potato With Cottage Cheese, Crispy Bacon and Avocado

 

 

Ingredients

 

1 -2 potatoes per person

3 rashers bacon per potato

a few teaspoons Cottage Cheese per potato

Avocado, peeled and sliced

salt and pepper

 

Method

 

1. Grill the bacon until crispy.

 

 

2. Slice bacon into bite size pieces and set aside.

 

 

3. Microwave the potatoes until soft, between 7 - 10 minutes depending on the size of the potatoes.

4. Cut a cross in each potato and open up.

 

 

5. Spoon the cheese into each potato.

6. Top with the crispy bacon.

 

 

7. Top with avocado.

 8. Season with salt and pepper.

 

 



Mushroom Lasagna

As I walked around the corner at our local farmers market,The Shed on Route 59, Natalie's fabulous fresh exotic mushrooms were just begging to be made into something yummy.  Something that will allow the flavours to come out, and not be overpowered by meat or tomatoes or something similar.  I must add that these mushrooms never even made it to the fridge, lunch was on the way.............

 

 

 

Ingredients

 

1 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoons flour

500ml milk

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

lasagna sheets

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 red onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

150g exotic mushrooms (shiitake, portabellini,

shimeji, king oyster)

150g button mushrooms

salt and pepper

extra grated cheese

 

Method

 

1. Melt the butter slowly in a pot.

2. Add the flour and stir in well.

3. Slowly start adding the milk to the butter and flour mix, whisking all the time.

4. Whisk until the sauce has thickened, remove from the stove.

5. Add in the cup of grated cheese and stir until the cheese has melted. Set aside.

6. Add the olive oil to a frying pan and add in the chopped onion.

7. Add in the crushed garlic and cook until soft.

 

 

8. Slice the mushrooms and add to the pan. Season with salt and pepper.

 

 

9. Cook until they are slightly brown.

10. In the meantime, bring a pot of water to the boil with some salt and cook the required amount of lasagna sheets until they are soft.

11. When soft, drain the sheets and set aside.

12. In a Pyrex dish first layer a small amount of cheese sauce, followed by lasagna sheets to cover the base. Then layer in some of the mushroom mix followed by another layer of lasagna sheets.  Start again with the cheese sauce and continue with the layers until you reach the top of the Pyrex dish, ending in a layer of the cheese sauce.

 

 

 

13. Sprinkle over the extra grated cheese, and bake in a moderate oven for about 30 minutes.

 

 

Chilli Cheese Biscuits

So it's coming up to Christmas, and the parties are starting.  We're off to a wine and food pairing dinner tomorrow with our daughters and mom's wine club.  So what to give as a present.....hum!  Chilli cheese biscuits of course!!!

 

Chilli Cheese Biscuits

 

 

 

Ingredients

 

125g butter

90g chilli cheese (if you can't find chilli cheese use cheddar and chop up one small red chilli, discard the seeds)

pinch salt

1 cup self-raising flour

1 cup cornflakes

1 egg

1 tablespoon milk

 

Method

 

1. Cream butter until soft.

2. Grate the cheese and add together with the salt, sifted flour and cornflakes.

3. Mix together the egg and milk.

4. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the egg and milk mixture for glazing.

5. Add remaining egg and milk mixture to the cornflake mixture.

6. Mix thoroughly.

7. Roll teaspoonfuls of the mixture into balls, put on lightly greased oven trays about 5cm apart.

8. Press tops with a fork and glaze with the reserved egg and milk mixture.

9.Bake in a moderate oven for about 15 minutes.

10. Cool on a wire rack.

 

 

 



Mushrooms Topped With Cheese And Garlic

Last Saturday (like every Saturday) we took a drive out to The Shed on Route 59 farmer's market. Going straight to Natalie and Andrew's mushroom stall to buy some of their enormous mushrooms, they are huge, I mean really huge, bigger than the size of my palm.  Normally we make mushroom pizza's out of them, this time though I knew exactly what to make with them.......

 

Mushrooms Topped With Cheese And Garlic

 

 

Ingredients (serves 1)

 

1 Giant mushroom

2 teaspoons soften butter

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/4 teaspoon thyme

salt and pepper

paprika

 

Method

 

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

2. In a bowl mix the soften butter with the garlic and thyme.

3. Mix in the grated cheese.

4. Spoon the mixture into the mushroom.

5. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle a little paprika on top.

 

 

6. Place in a ovenproof bowl and pour in a little water (tip from Andrew). This helps the mushroom cook on the bottom.

7. Bake for about 20 minutes until the cheese has melted.

 

 

 

 



Wraps

So every now and again I find myself home alone, just me and the woof.  And seriously who feels like cooking just for one.  Not me!!

But on the other hand, if I ordered in a takeaway delivery, I usually wait about half an hour and eventually by the time it arrives I am starving and the food is not very hot. Or if I hop into the car and drive up for takeaways, it means a wait while the food is prepared and by the time I get home the food is once again not very hot. Ugh!! 

So now, to look for something that is tasty and takes just about as long as the takeaway does.  Hum.....whats in the fridge? 

Chicken wraps with red pepper, served with a mild

sweet chilli sauce.

 

 

Ingredients

 

1 wrap

1 chicken fillet, sliced thinly

1 red pepper

olive oil

2 peppadews, sliced

handful baby spinach leaves, washed and dried

Spur seasoning salt

1/2 round feta cheese, crumbled

salt and pepper

2 teaspoons plain yoghurt

2 teaspoons mayonnaise

1 teaspoon sweet chilli sauce

 

1. Blacken the skin of the red pepper on the gas burner. If you don't have gas, grill the pepper until the skin blackens, turning all the time.

 

 



 

2. Place the blackened pepper in a bowl and cover with cling wrap for a few minutes.

 

 

3. In the meantime, season the chicken with the Spur seasoning salt, cook in a frying pan with a bit of olive oil until nicely browned and cooked through.

 

 

 

 4. Scrape off the blackened skin on the pepper, don't wash it as this is where all that flavour is.

 

 

5. Take out the pips and slice the pepper into thin strips.

6. Make the sweet chilli sauce by combining the yoghurt, mayonnaise and sweet chilli sauce and put to one side.

7. Heat the wrap for 30 seconds in the microwave and place on a plate.

8. Start layering with the baby spinach leaves, followed by about half of the red pepper,feta cheese and peppadews.

 

9. Top with the chicken and pour the sweet chilli sauce over.

10. Season with the salt and pepper

11.  Roll up the wrap and slice in half.

 

 

You can easily double up on the ingredients if serving two. Remembering that you would probably only need to use one red pepper.

 





Mealie Bread

Come summer time, good weather and relaxing weekends, we like to braai (BBQ) a lot.  Boerewors, lamb chops, steak, chicken, ribs, salads, potato bake and of course mealie bread. What would a braai be without mealie bread?  Hum...not sure!

As soon as it comes out the pan it is literally finished before your very eyes. Some like it with butter, some like it plain, but whichever way you like it, it is fabulous.  And there's no kneading involved. If you are lucky enough to have some left the next day, it makes really good toast.  Here's the recipe for you.

Ingredients

 

2 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon sugar

1 egg

1 tin sweetcorn (410g)

salt & pepper

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

 

1.  Heat oven to 180 degrees C.

2. Grease and flour a loaf pan.

3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and pepper.

4. Add 3/4 of a cup grated cheddar cheese and mix.

 

 

5. Add the egg and sweetcorn and mix in well.

 

 

6. Place in the greased loaf pan and sprinkle the remaining cheddar cheese on top.

7. Bake for about 1 hour until cooked through.

 

 

 

Note: If you can't get sweetcorn, use plain corn and mix with a bit of milk until you get a dough like consistency.

 

Variations

Add garlic, chilli or herbs.