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 eggs or “oeufs en cocotte”

What a wonderfully fancy name for such a simple dish.  It might sound hard but really its easy and ready in a few minutes.  Quick to rustle up for breakfast or on Sunday nights when you just don’t feel like spending time in the kitchen.  It somehow has that feeling of comfort and conjures up all sorts of fabulous ideas.  You can make one egg per small ramekin or two eggs per medium size ramekin.

Serve it with sliced and toasted Turkish Ciabatta loaf (the Turkish loaf is a soft loaf), slice your loaf, spread with butter and a sprinkling of thyme leaves and a little grinding of sea salt.  Put under the grill until brown and crisp on the edges.

 

Ingredients

 

4 jumbo eggs

4 T cream

Salt and pepper

1 T thyme, chopped

Butter for the ramekins and a bit for the top

 

Method

 

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree C.

2. Grease 4 small ramekins with butter, break an egg into each and season with the salt and pepper.

3. Sprinkle on the thyme and a knob of butter in each ramekin.

4. Divide the cream between the ramekins.

5. Place in a roasting pan and pour in enough boiling water to reach halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

6. Bake for 10 minutes or until the whites are set and the yolks are how you like them.

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.