Ostrich and mushroom lasagne

I wrote in the past about some hake kebabs that arrived on my plate - and your screen - courtesy of The Queen. What you might not know is that she regularly cooks up pretty impressive stuff. After hustling me for the first 2 years (when I was convinced all she could do was a roast chicken) the cat is now very much out the bag. The girl has skizzills. This recipe is hers and I'll admit it is one of my favourite on this blog. The white sauce was homemade but it's not really necessary - you could easily just buy one. 

Stuff you'll need to feed 8 (or 2 of you. Umm...4 times):

•  1 kg of ostrich mince
  
• A box of the best lasagne sheets you can find. 
• 1 x onion, finely chopped
• 2 x tins of tomatoes
• A handful of parsley, roughly chopped
• About a tablespoon of tomato paste 
• About a teaspoon of dried thyme
• A handful of mixed mushrooms, roughly chopped
• 1 x chilli, finely chopped
• 2 x cloves of garlic, crushed
• A handful of grated parmesan (I don't mean buy grated parmesan. Please, don't ever do that. Buy proper parmesan, grate it yourself. Come now) 

To make the white sauce (if you are backing yourself):

• 1 and a half tablespoons of butter
• About 3 tablespoons of flour (to start with. You might need more as you go) 
• A litre of fat-free milk (we were keeping it healthy. Use whatever milk you want) 

Okay, what to do:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees celsius. Gently fry your onions over medium heat for a few minutes until softened. 

2. Add the thyme, the chilli, the mince, the garlic and the mushrooms and fry for a few minutes more. 

3. Add the tomato paste, the tinned tomatoes and the parsley and bring to the boil. Season well, reduce heat and allow to simmer with the lid on for as long as possible. Depending on the time available, remove lid and allow sauce to reduce and thicken. 

4. In a suitable baking dish, layer white sauce, pasta sheets and mince mixture, repeating two or three times until the dish is full. Make sure the top layer is white sauce. 

5. Sprinkle grated cheese over the top and bake for 45 minutes. 

If you're making the white sauce:

Start by melting the butter. Remove from stove and start adding flour slowly mixing in to form little dough balls. Make sure flour is covered in butter. Slowly start adding your milk, continuously whisking. As the milk warms, the mixture will thicken. IT IS SUPER-IMPORTANT TO CONTINUE TO WHISK THE ENTIRE TIME. If you don't, lumps will form. This is a slow process so be patient. You might need to add some more flour at this point - if you do make sure the whisking doesn't stop. 

I'd serve this with a very simple herb salad. That was the plan. That was also the plan for the shoot, but when I put it on a white plate there was something about the simplicity of it that appealed. I loved it. Hopefully you do too. 

Cheers,

Jamie Who 

Beef braised in beer and served on butter beans

Beer is a highly underrated ingredient when it comes to cooking. It makes a great batter, it is awesome to braise meat in and it's pretty handy in a marinade/sauce. I'm talking about good beer. Real beer. Beer with depth of flavour and character. (The irony is that I'm writing this post after drinking my own body weight in Budweisier at last night's football. My word that stuff is average.) 

Anyway, the other night I got my hands on some free range beef and threw together a little stew using the beer I was drinking. It was good. Like...reaaalllllly good. You should try it sometime. 

Stuff you'll need to feed 2:

• A dark beer (I used the dark lager from &Union) 
• A tin of tomatoes
• About 400g of free-range stewing beef, cubed
• A handful of chopped celery
• A teaspoon of coriander seeds, crushed
• A teaspoon of dried thyme
• A handful of parsley, chopped
• A handful of chopped carrot
• An onion, roughly chopped
• A handful of mixed mushrooms, roughly chopped
• A few leaves of sage to garnish
• A cup of water
• A chilli, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
• A tin of butter beans, drained (or your favourite beans) 

Okay, what to do:

1. Preheat your oven to 160 degrees celsius. Brown your meat over a high heat in some olive oil. Remove and set aside. 

2. Reduce heat and gently fry your onion, carrot and celery until soft. Add the mushrooms, chilli, herbs (except sage) and garlic and fry for an additional minute. 

3. Add the tinned tomatoes, the beer and the water and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer. 

4. Cook in the oven for 2 hours. (If you can, cook it longer at a lower temperature. The longer the better) 

5. About 30 minutes before serving, remove pot from oven and cook on the hob to reduce sauce to the desired consistency. 

6. To serve, spoon beans into a bowl and pour on some beef and sauce. Garnish with sage. 

You'll have to go a long way to find better comfort food than this. The beer is phenomenal in the sauce and plays a part in tenderising the meat. It is a healthy, hearty dinner and will impress anyone. Well...it should. If it doesn't (1) You're an idiot and you messed up or (2) They're an idiot and they should leave.  

Cheers,

Jamie Who 

Sweet potato gnocchi with shredded lamb shank

Who doesn't love lamb shank? In winter it must rate as one of the best comfort dishes around. Plus, it's super easy to cook. I usually make mine the night before and let it cook on a low temperature through the night. Serving it on the bone with polenta, parmesan mash, saffron rice etc. is cool, but what I like to do is shred the meat. It opens up so many options and you can create phenomenal things with it. I've used it in the past in a risotto which was sensational. The dish was pretty heavy though and I needed something a bit lighter when we hosted The In-Laws on Sunday. Enter gnocchi. 

Gnocchi is highly underrated. It is not overly difficult to make and when you use sweet-potato as I do it's a lot healthier than most starches. The other bonus is that you can always make extra dough and freeze it. In terms of exact amounts, it's a bit tricky. Just gauge as you go and add flour or water as necessary. 

Stuff you'll need to feed four:

For the gnocchi:

• 3 - 4 sweet potatoes, peeled, cooked and mashed
• A pinch of nutmeg
• One free-range egg yolk
• About 2 cups of flour plus extra for dusting 

For the sauce

• 4 lamb shanks 
• A handful of finely chopped carrot
• A handful of finely chopped celery
• An onion, finely chopped
• Two tins of tomatoes
• About half a bottle of red wine. (Good wine. Wine that you would drink happily)
• A handful of hard herbs, chopped (Go for thyme, rosemary, oreganum or a combo)
• Flour, for dusting the meat
• A handful of parsley, roughly chopped
• 1 - 2 chillies, finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed

Okay, what to do:

For the gnocchi

1. Make sure the sweet-potatoes are well mashed and while they are still warm add flour, egg and nutmeg. Season well with salt and pepper and knead to make a warm, soft dough. If you need to add some flour or water do so. Cover with a tea towel for 5 minutes. 

2. Sprinkle your work surface with flour and roll out the dough to form a long, thin "sausage".

3. Using a sharp knife cut the dough into 1cm pieces. Use a fork and squash each piece to form ridges on one side. Place pieces on a floured baking tray. 

4. Bring a pot of salted water to the boil and cook gnocchi pieces in batches. What's pretty cool is that the gnocchi tells you when they are ready by rising to the surface. When this happens, scoop them out gently and put aside. 

For the shanks

1. Preheat your oven to 140 degrees celsius. Dust your shanks in flour and brown them in a deep pot. Remove and set aside. 

2. Gently fry your onion, carrot and celery in the pot for a few minutes and add your herbs, garlic and chilli. Fry for a bit longer before adding the tinned tomatoes and wine. Place your shanks in the liquid. They should be covered so you might need to add a glass or two of water. 

3. Bring to the boil before reducing heat to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes before placing in the oven. 

4. Cook shanks for as long as you can (at least 2.5 hours but preferably 7 or 8!) Take the pot out and gently turn the shanks every now and then. 

5. When the meat is falling off the bone, remove shanks and set aside to cool. Shred meat. 

6. Add ladles of the sauce to a pan and reduce until desired consistency. Add the meat and heat through. 

To serve, spoon sauce into bowls, top with some gnocchi pieces and garnish with chopped parsley. 

Quite simply, an epic meal. 

Cheers,

Jamie Who

"Caprese salad" soup

Look, in the food and wine world we know some ingredients belong together. Dark chocolate and raspberries. Mint and peas. Mushrooms and thyme. Shiraz and pepper. Tequila and Myprodol. Some things just work, you know? 

One of the most celebrated examples of flavours being best friends is the simple Caprese salad. Basil. Tomatoes. Mozzarella. Done. With the temperature being what it has the last few days (fu*king cold basically) I had a stab at trying to bring these flavours together in a way that would warm me up too. The result was a pretty cool "Caprese salad soup", which was a bit like a tomato soup dressed up for a night out. 

Stuff you'll need to feed 4:

• Three handfuls of cherry tomatoes 
• Two tins of tomatoes
• A bunch of basil 
• The best olive oil you can get your hands on 
• About 500ml of the best chicken stock/vegetable stock you have (Check out NoMU's fonds range) 
• About 12 balls of bocconcini, or the equivalent amount of mozzarella ripped into 12 pieces. 
• Half an onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• A handful of finely chopped celery
• A handful of finely chopped carrot

Okay, what to do:

1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees celsius. Place your cherry tomatoes in a roasting tray, drizzle with olive oil and season. Roast for 35 minutes, or until they begin to blister. Remove and set aside. 

2. Meanwhile, gently fry your celery, onion, garlic, carrot in a pan until softened but not coloured. 

3. Add your tinned tomatoes and stock to the pan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer. Add your roasted tomatoes. Allow to simmer for as long as possible, or until the liquid has reduced to your liking. 

4. Using a stick blender blitz mixture until smooth. (If you don't have a stick blender pour into normal blender and blitz.)

5. While soup is simmering, make a very rustic "pesto" by pounding the basil with some olive oil and sea salt in a pestle and mortar. 

6. To serve, ladle the soup into bowls and add three pieces of cheese to each bowl. Drizzle over the "pesto" and a bit of olive oil if you need to. Make sure to season with plenty of black pepper. 

This is - quite simply - cooking for dummies. Anybody can make this. It is more sophisticated than a tomato soup and way tastier. The cheese that melts into the soup is what makes the difference. It scores high on the health:taste ratio and is perfect for winter. Get moving. 

Cheers,

Jamie Who

Tomato and basil bread

I love to take recipes and make them "my own". Add a little something here. More of this. Less of this. Cook it longer. Cook it slower. Substitute this for this. You get the picture. What I did with this recipe was read it out loud and do exactly what it said. I didn't change a thing. The flavour combinations seemed perfect for me and I didn't mess with it. It came from the Woolworths Taste Cookbook and it's a cracker. I knocked it up for breakfast on a recent trip to Wellington with Power, The Awesomes, Mama Kee and of course The Queen. I'm not sure if it was the stinging hangover (it definitely wasn't just them being polite) but they seemed to love it. I served it for breakfast with some silky, scrambled eggs but honestly it could work with pretty much anything. At pretty much any time of the day. It would also work if you used the mixture to make muffins. 

Stuff you need to feed 6:

• 15 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 120g flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 free range eggs
• Half a cup milk
• 125g basil pesto
• 165g parmesan, grated

What to do:

1. Preheat your oven to 140 degrees celsius. Halve the tomatoes, season with sea salt and black pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 2 hours. Remove and set aside. 

2. Increase the temperature to 180 degrees celsius. Combine flour and baking powder. In a bowl beat the eggs, then mix in the flour mixture. Add the milk and basil pesto and stir through. 

3. Fold half the roasted tomatoes into the mixture and stir in the parmesan. 

4. Grease a loaf pan and spoon in the mixture (or into muffin tins)

5. Bake for 50 minutes, or until cooked. To test, insert a skewer and pull it out. The bread is done if the skewer comes out cleanly. 

Like I said, I served mine with scrambled eggs. If you want to just throw it onto a chopping board and present it like that (and it will still look incredible) roast some extra tomatoes and use them as a garnish with some basil leaves. 

Cheers,

Jamie Who

Whole wheat penne with pork sausage, blistered tomatoes and chilli

Sausages. Jeez I miss them. With the whole free-range thing it has honestly been one of the toughest things to give up. So you can imagine how stoked I was to stumble across Open Veld organic and free-range sausages recently. Created by Ian Bergh (trained chef), they are not made from sinewy off-cuts (like most sausages in this country) but rather good quality meat, sourced from ethical suppliers. This means they add no preservatives and cereals or bread in order to bulk them up. They also use less fat, which is an added bonus. (Look, they need to use some fat to add flavour - and help as a binding agent - but they are definitely healthier than most.) There are a couple of flavours but the one I keep coming back to is the pork, garlic and white wine variety. It's fantastic. My favourite way to cook them is to cut them open, take out the meat and use it in a pasta. Here's what I mean:

Stuff you'll need to feed 4:

• 500g organic, whole wheat pasta of your choice (I prefer a short pasta with a chunky sauce like this, so go for something like penne, farfalle or fusilli)
• A punnet of Open Veld pork sausage
• 2 chillies, finely chopped
• Half an onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• A handful of parsley, roughly chopped
• A handful of basil, torn 
• Half a tin of tomatoes
• Three handfuls of rosa tomatoes

Okay, what to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius. Place your rosa tomatoes in a baking dish, pour over some olive oil, season with sea salt and black pepper. Roast for about 35 minutes, or until blistered.  Remove and set aside. 

2. Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a pan and fry your onion until it softens. Add the garlic and chilli and cook for about 2 minutes more, making sure not to burn the garlic. 

3. Cut the sausage casing and remove meat. Add to the pan and fry until golden. 

4. Add the roasted tomatoes and the tinned tomatoes, reduce heat and gently simmer sauce until reduced to the desired consistency. 

5. Cook the pasta as per packet instructions. Drain, reserving a little bit of the cooking water. 

6. Add pasta sauce to pasta, along with cooking water. Throw in the chopped parsley and stir to combine. 

7. To serve, spoon into bowls and garnish with the basil. Shave over some pecorino cheese, if you really feel like a treat (and let's be honest...this dish deserves it.)

The great thing about this is the seasoning that is built into the sausages. It adds heaps of flavour for you so just keep that in mind and taste as you go. 

Cheers,

Jamie Who 

P.S. Look for Open Veld sausages at The Neighbourgoods market, The Foodbarn Deli (Noordhoek) and Melissa's. 

The Neighbourgoods Market antipasti platter

I was at The Neighbourgoods Market in Woodstock on Saturday when I got the call from Mr Awesome looking for a place to watch rugby later that day. Coming off a long week of eating, drinking, cooking and reviewing I was pretty tired and wasn't really feeling the pub vibe so I suggested my house. I wasn't in the mood to cook so I threw together a little antipasti platter, with tasty things I found at the market. All I had to do was sautee the wild mushrooms I found, mix some mashed avocado into the hummus I bought and make sure it all looked good. Obviously what you buy is up to you, but a good place to start is with the following:

• A tub of hummus, with an avocado to mix in.
• A jar of olives (I bought some marinated in chilli) 
• A jar of pesto
• Cheese (I got a phenomenal brie and camembert)
• A bag of mixed wild mushrooms
• Chorizo and Merguez sausage
• Smoked trout fillets
• A few figs
• A handful of mixed nuts
• 300g of free-range, Namibian biltong 
• A loaf of ciabatta and a loaf of sourdough

Okay, so all you need to do is sautee you mushrooms in some thyme, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Mix a mashed avocado into your hummus and cut your figs into quarters. Throw some nuts over the figs and drizzle with the best honey you have. Make sure you have plenty of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar for the bread and hot english mustard for the sausage. 

A platter like this is a brilliant way to entertain when you don't feel like cooking. It's also a cool way to eat with everyone getting their hands dirty and experimenting with different flavour combinations. Nice. For me, the sausage and hot mustard washed down with some Berne from &Union was a winner. (Yip, you buy your Jack Black and &Union beer at the market too.) Pretty skoochie. 

Cheers,

Jamie Who

Creamy oats with spiced fruit compote

Winter is here. I think it's official. I tried hanging on for as long as possible but every day 5 o'clock rolls around and I'm thinking about stews, soups and slow-roasts. It's here guys, deal with it. Down in Cape Town this means the sky starts leaking rain and the temperature never gets above 15 degrees. It's grey every day and the leaves on the trees are gone. It can be depressing. But you know what? It doesn't have to be. I knocked up a hearty breakfast this morning that The Queen described as "smelling like Christmas". I loved that. It proved again that food - and cooking generally - can have a big impact on our moods. If I had poured a bowl of cereal and milk I would probably still be miserable. Instead, this recipe has left me feeling ready for a big day. I adapted it from Gordon Ramsay's book Healthy Appetite, which I love. The book proves that healthy cooking doesn't have to be boring cooking and this principle is fundamental to what I aim for with most of my recipes. 

Stuff you'll need to feed 4:

For the compote:

• 500g mixed, dried fruit. Use your favourite. I went for apricots, pears, apples and prunes.
• A cup of water
• Juice of two oranges
• Zest of two oranges
• 2 star anise
• 1 cinnamon quill
• 2-3 cardamon seeds
• Half a teaspoon of ground nutmeg
• 2-3 whole cloves
• A teaspoon of vanilla paste

For the oats:

• 2 cups raw oats
• 3 cups milk
• 3 cups water
• A pinch of salt

Okay, what to do:

For the compote:

1. Place all the ingredients except half the orange zest in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer with the lid on for about 10 minutes. You want the fruit to become plump by soaking up the liquid. If it becomes too dry too quickly just add more water. 

2. Strain through a fine sieve to separate whole spices and return fruit to liquid. Keep warm. 

For the oats:

1. Place all ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce and cook until done to the consistency you like. (I like to cook my oats until they creamy so I will add more milk/water as I go) You can also cook it in a microwave but I like the control of temperature I get with a stove. 

To serve, divide oats into bowls and spoon compote over the top. Garnish with remaining orange zest. 

There you have it peeps. A healthy breakfast big in fiber and anti-oxidants, with slow-releasing energy. It'll keep you going all day and it's super-easy to make. Just get up 10 minutes earlier. Stop your whining. You'll thank me later. 

Cheers,

Jamie Who

P.S. For a Saturday/Sunday brunch I reckon a shot of whiskey would be awesome in this recipe. No kidding. If that doesn't warm you up, nothing will. 

Baked prawn, calamari and mussel linguini

The cool thing about this recipe is that you can cheat. You can cheat as much as you want. For example, on Sunday I was nursing a fairly severe hangover so I bought already cooked prawns. Normally that's a bit of a cop-out for me but at that stage I honestly didn't care. You could buy frozen prawns that have already been peeled, or you could buy the real deal, cook them properly and de-shell them yourself. How much effort you go to with the mussels is up to you too. If you want to put on boots and scrape them off the rocks in Simon's Town by all means, go ahead. They will taste sensational. Because of the already-mentioned hangover I just bought some from Woolies. (Yip, you can do that now). They were green-lipped beauties from New Zealand and because this recipe calls for steaming them they were done in 5 minutes. 

Stuff you'll need to feed 2:

• 2 x 150g calamari steaks
• 400g of mussels
• 400g of cooked prawns (if you buy raw ones, pan fry them until they are pink)
• 250g of whole wheat linguini, spaghetti or other long pasta
• A punnet of cherry tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 chilli, finely chopped 
• A handful of parsley, roughly chopped plus extra to garnish
• 2 lemons, cut into wedges
• Tin foil
• A few shavings of pecorino

Okay, what to do:

1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees celsius. When ready, place your cherry tomatoes in a baking dish, drizzle with olive oil and season with sea salt and black pepper. Roast for 4o minutes, shaking every now and then. 

2. In a very hot pan, fry your calamari in the chilli and garlic for 2 minutes per side. NO MORE. Remove and set aside. When cool, cut into strips. 

3. Cook the pasta as per packet instructions. Drain, reserving about half a cup of the cooking water. 

4. In a bowl, mix the tomatoes, the pasta, the prawns, the calamari and the mussels. Add some of the water from the pasta. Throw in the parsley. 

5. Tear two thick pieces of tinfoil and lay them on a work surface. Carefully spoon half of the pasta and seafood mixture into the middle of the foil and using another piece fold in to create a "parcel". Before closing, divide the lemon wedges and throw them in. Close the parcel, making sure it is airtight. Repeat so that you have two pillowcase-looking foil parcels. 

6. Place them in the oven and cook for 5-7 minutes. Remove and carefully peel back some foil to see if the mussels have opened. Return to oven if necessary but be careful not to overcook the seafood. Really, you just want the mussels to open and the flavours to all infuse a bit. 

7. To serve, place parcels in a deep bowl, slash open the foil, add the pecorino, pour in some olive oil and extra parsley and eat. Glory. 

The thing here is not to be scared of the mussels. With all the moisture in the parcels they should open up pretty quickly. BE SURE TO CHUCK OUT ANY THAT DO NOT OPEN!!!! If you try and eat them chances are you will end up in hospital with seafood poisoning. That will really ruin the vibe. 

A nice touch would be to add a splash of wine into the parcel before cooking but my hangover wouldn't allow me to smell wine, let alone eat or drink it. 

Cheers,

Jamie Who

P.S. You can also serve this by carefully sliding the pasta into a deep bowl once cooked. It's not as dramatic but it does look a bit more elegant. 

Beef and wild mushroom stew served on butternut and celeriac mash

I had a good giraffe (laugh) the other night, watching TV. There's a show on BBC Food which is all about how some people are scared of food. Like, properly terrified of it. The particular episode I watched had a dude who freaked out every time you brought fruit or vegetables anywhere near him. I'm not kidding. He started sweating, shut his eyes and blocked his ears. It was truly bizarre and I laughed unashamedly. As the programme went on I realised it wasn't supposed to be funny. Not that this made me stop laughing. What was interesting to me was the reason the guy was so scared of the fruit and vegetables. You see..he didn't know what they were. He was scared of the unknown. Once I had figured this out the show became a lot more interesting to me. I say this because I am constantly trying to explain to people not to be scared of food. You can't learn unless you try things. Use ingredients you aren't familiar with. Buy whole foods and unusual cuts of meat. Get inventive. You'll find out soon enough the recipes you can come up with are limitless. 

A good example of a strange looking ingredient is celeriac. I spotted some in Woolies the other day and used it to take a pretty standard dish to a level that made it interesting. Here's how:

Stuff you'll need to feed 2:

• 400g stewing beef, cut into chunks (I used free-range)
• 1 tin of tomatoes
• Half an onion, sliced
• A red chilli, roughly chopped
• A handful of mixed wild mushrooms, roughly chopped
• Half a cup of red wine (I used Cloof Very Sexy Shiraz. Use whatever you like but I do like the way a shiraz has the spiciness to support this dish)
• Half a cup of water
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• A handful of parsley, roughly chopped
• 1 celeriac bulb, skin removed and cut into cubes
• 1 butternut, skin removed and cut into cubes
• 2 teaspoons of paprika
• A pinch of cayenne pepper
• A handful of parsley, roughly chopped with extra for garnish 

Okay, what to do:

1. Preheat your oven to 20o degrees celsius. In a deep pot fry your beef in olive oil until browned. Remove meat and set aside. 

2. Add onion and the mushrooms to the pot along with the red wine. Cook for a minute and add the garlic and chilli. Cook for another minute and add the tomatoes and the water. 

3. Return meat to pot, bring liquid to the boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook on a medium to low heat with the lid on for as long as you can. (3 hours or more is ideal. If you don't have time make sure it is at least 1 hour. Anything less and the meat will be tough). About 45 minutes before serving remove lid to allow liquid to reduce and thicken. Add the parsley at this stage. 

4. Place the butternut and celeriac in a roasting tray. Drizzle with olive oil and add the paprika and cayenne pepper. Season with sea salt and black pepper and shake to make sure vegetables are covered. Cook for 20 minutes, remove and shake. Cook for 25 minutes more, remove and mash. 

5. To serve spoon celeriac/butternut mash into deep bowls and pour over some of the stew. Garnish with parsley. 

The celeriac is a funny-looking thing but it adds a great depth of flavour when combined with butternut. Together they work as a beautiful alternative to mashed potato and visually the dish is more attractive. How smooth you make the mash is up to you. Personally I like to leave it looking a bit rustic - I think the extra texture is a bonus. Of course, it's also a lot healthier than mashed potatoes which is another plus. 

There you have it. A nice little winter dish with an ingredient that you really have no right to be afraid to use. Give it a shot. What's the worst that could happen?

Cheers,

Jamie Who

Quinoa salad with roast beetroot and caramelised onions.

Ok my lovelies, this entry is probably going to be my shortest ever. I'm extremely busy and have an important meeting to get to. Look it's at Caveau and yes, I will be drinking but don't you DARE feel like I am neglecting you to rush off and get drunk. You know I love you. So much. Kisses. 

Annnyway, here's what you'll need to feed 4:

• A cup of quinoa 
• 6 baby beetroots, quartered
• 2 onions, peeled and quartered
• A handful of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• A handful of basil, ripped

Okay, what to do:

1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees celsius. Drizzle some balsamic vinegar and sea salt over the beetroot and onions and roast for 45 minutes. 

2. Meanwhile, cook your quinoa on the stovetop as per the packet instructions. 

3. When your vegetables are cooked, remove and allow to cool. Chop finely. 

4. In a large bowl mix the quinoa into the vegetables and add the parsley and basil. Add a good glug of olive oil (the best you have) 

5. To serve, place in the middle of a large plate. Drizzle some olive oil and balsamic vinegar around the salad. 

Told you it was going to be quick. Don't be fooled though, this salad will make you weep. It's that good. 

Now excuse me. Chardonnay and brainstorming awaits. And we all know how well those two go together. 

Cheers,

Jamie Who 

Fig, raspberry and almond cake

I got a quiet reminder from some of the guys I had over for lunch the other day that I had forgotten to post the dessert I made. With a bit of a chocolate hangover from Easter I figured this was a good time to stick it up on these pages. I got the idea for this recipe from the awesome Kylie Kwong and chose to use the ingredients because they are beautifully in season at the moment. Any fruit can be used but honestly, why would you not want to use figs? 

Stuff you'll need to make a cake for 8-10 people:

•  3 figs, stems removed and cut lengthways
  
• Two-thirds of a cup of self-raising flour
• 2 cups of icing sugar
• 2 cups of almond meal (ground almonds are fine)
• 2 tablespoons of finely grated orange zest
• 8 egg whites
• 185g of butter, melted
• 1.5 tablespoons of milk
• A punnet of fresh raspberries
• 1.5 teaspoons of brown sugar

Okay, what to do:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius. Lightly grease a 23cm cake tin and line the base and sides with a double layer of baking paper. Make sure it sticks out a bit over the rim of the tin. 

2. Sift icing sugar and flour into a large bowl. Stir in almond meal and orange zest until well combined. 

3. Place egg whites in a bowl and whisk lightly with a fork. (You don't need peaks, you just want the egg whites to break down slightly).

4. Add egg whites, butter and milk to almond mixture and stir until everything is mixed in. Fold through half the raspberries. DON'T OVER-MIX. 

5. Pour half the mixture into the cake tin and add the remaining raspberries. Pour remaining mixture over the top. Push sliced figs into mixture at a slight angle. (How you do this is up to you but I like it to look "haphazard". The rustic vibe is cooler I think)

6. Sprinkle over the sugar and place in oven for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Start checking after an hour though. You know it is done when you can insert a skewer/knife and remove it cleanly. If the top is becoming too brown cover with tinfoil. 

Now the hard part. You have to leave the beautiful thing in the tin for 10 minutes before you turn it over onto a wire rack. It's tough to wait. 

You can serve this either hot or cold, which makes it a great dessert to make in advance. Oh, and please throw on a scoop of proper vanilla ice cream. I mean, come now. 

Cheers,

Jamie Who 

Whole wheat linguini with blue cheese, walnuts and wild rocket

Jeeeeeeeeez, I hate it when people say "oh this? I just made this with whatever ingredients I could find". Sure you did. That quail just happened to be in the freezer. So I understand if you're going to be pissed off with me starting this recipe with "I just made this from stuff I had lying around." But honestly, I did. See...I insist on having some cheese in the fridge. Good cheese. Strong cheese that smells. Unashamedly. Like it's proud to be stinky. Anyway, I had some unbelievable blue cheese in my fridge and (inspired by the classic waldorf salad) I used it as the base for this recipe. It is embarrassingly easy to make. 

As with any dish, the better the ingredients the better the dish. When it is this simple though, that philosophy is even more important. So get the best you can. 

Okay, stuff you'll need to feed 4:

• A block of blue cheese the size of a tennis ball, torn into chunks. 
  
• A packet of whole wheat linguini (or any long pasta) 
• The zest of three lemons
• A handful of walnuts
• A big bunch of wild rocket 

Okay, what to do:

1. Cook the pasta as per the instructions. 

2. Drain pasta and add blue cheese immediately so it begins to melt. 

3. Add the lemon zest, the rocket and the walnuts. Stir through pasta to ensure everything is mixed properly. 

4. To serve, place in deep bowls and drizzle over some extra-virgin olive oil. (The best you have. I'm a big fan of Tokara and Willow Creek) 

Yip, that's it. Could be the easiest recipe I've ever put up here. Which is proof that tasty food doesn't have to be fancy food. 

Cheers,

Jamie Who

Mixed green vegetable salad

Part 2 in the Easter Feast special here. I am going to make this entry short mainly because it's supposed to show how easy the recipe is. Also, quite a big part of me wants to go drink a glass of Chardonnay at Cornuti. 

This is called the green vegetable salad because...umm...because that's what it is. I literally buy as much green shit as I can and throw it all into a salad. I was lucky enough to find some pumpkin seed sprouts at a food market so I added them. Obviously these are rare but you can use any microherbs as a substitute. Always top it off with some pumpkin seeds and shaved pecorino/parmesan or similar cheese. The visual contrast is pretty cool. 

Okay, stuff you need to feed 6: 

• A few handfuls of rocket
• A few handfuls of baby spinach
• 2 Avocados
• A handful of microherbs or your favourite herbs (flat-leaf parsley is a good one)
• A bunch of tenderstem brocolli
• A punnet of sugarsnap peas
• A cup of frozen peas (This is one that I have no problem cooking from frozen)
• About 5 medium-sized courgettes, sliced lengthways as thinly as possible
• Some pecorino shavings 
• A handful of pumpkin seeds

Okay, what to do:

1. Blanch your vegetables in boiling water. When done plunge them into a bowl of iced water. This will keep the electric green colour. 

2. Rub your courgettes with olive oil and cook over a braai or in a griddle pan. You want them to have charred lines. 

3. Throw your herbs into a big bowl and mix in the vegetables. Halve the avo, remove the pip and scoop the flesh out with a teaspoon. Add avo to bowl. Add some good olive oil and mix to ensure everything is coated. 

4. To serve arrange salad on a platter and garnish with the pumpkin seeds and cheese. Find the best balsamic vinegar you have and use it to dress. 

I sincerely hope you managed that one. If not, maybe we should just quit now. No hard feelings. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to get my drink on. 

Cheers,

Jamie Who

Deboned leg of lamb, stuffed with mushrooms, spinach and blue cheese

Jeez I have eaten for the A-Team this weekend. Thanks to The Dragon our Plett headquarters is packed with chocolate. Like...packed. You can't move without knocking over a bunny or a rabbit. If you open a cupboard there's one staring at you. The fridge has them wedged in between fruit and vegetables. On top of the TV there are little bowls of white chocolate chickens. There are dark Lindt balls in the bedrooms. It's a joke. Honestly, I almost expect to see milk chocolate when I turn on my shower in the morning. And it doesn't stop with the chocolate. It seems Easter has become a bit of a general binge and the lunch we hosted for some family friends summed it all up. 

After visiting an amazing local butcher and a market in the morning I made olive-and-sundried tomato rolls, a huge mixed green vegetable salad, a butterflied leg of lamb stuffed with wild mushrooms, spinach and blue cheese and roasted tomato and basil pasta rice. The Queen weighed in with decadent chocolate brownies and ice cream. So yeah, it was a bit of a feast. I'm not going to do all the recipes in this single post because...well because I'm lazy and I'm on holiday in Plett and the beach is looking awesome. So I'm going to break them up for you. Let's start with the lamb shall we? 

Stuff you'll need to feed 10-12 people:

• 2 deboned legs of lamb, about 1.5 kg each
• About 750g of mixed wild mushrooms
• Two big bunches of baby spinach
• A good block of blue cheese
• A handful of rosemary
• 3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

Okay, what to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius. Fry off the mushrooms in a little olive oil and set aside. 

2. Do the same with the spinach leaves, adding some water. This allows the leaves to steam and wilt down fairly quickly. Don't overcook the leaves - you still want a bit of bite and you want the green colour. 

3. Lay a leg of lamb on a large work surface. You will see the cavity where the bone used to be. Slide a knife in and cut through one side. Now carefully use the knife to cut as you roll the meat out. You are trying to flatten the meat so just cut wherever you think is right. Use the palm of your hand, a mallet or a rolling pin to beat the lamb down if you want. Repeat process for the other leg. 

4. Take your mushrooms and spinach and chop them as finely as possible. If you have a food processor use it. What you want is something that resembles pesto in consistency. 

5. Spread the mushroom and spinach mixture over one of the pieces of lamb. Add rosemary and garlic and season generously with salt and pepper. Crumble over the blue cheese. Place the other piece of lamb on top of the mixture. You should now have something that looks like a T-Rex sandwich. Season the outside of the meat again.

6. Wet some string and tie the two pieces firmly together. 

7. Take the tray you will cook the meat in and place over your stove. Turn all the hobs on high and pour in some olive oil. Place your meat in the tray and brown on all sides. 

8. When your meat has a nice golden colour, place the tray in the oven and cook for about an hour or until done. (use 20 minutes per 500g for pink lamb as a guideline)

9. Remove, cover with tinfoil and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Remove string and carve into slices. 

10. To serve, place on a large platter carefully keeping the stuffing between the two pieces of meat. 

As I said, this went down with plenty of other stuff but there is no need to go so overboard. A couple of roasted potatoes, or a nice simple salad would be awesome. It would also work really well on a Weber. 

Cheers,

Jamie Who

Chicken and Mushroom pie

You know those healthy recipes I love to bang on about on this site? Yeah, well this isn't one of them. In fact, there's pretty much nothing healthy about it. It is high in fat, loaded with calories and the carb count is also up there. But it tastes like it's made from the tail of a unicorn. And on Saturday, after I had squashed a big trail run in the wind and rain with The Gym Nazi, Prego and Long Distance, I wasn't too fussed about what I ate. See...they were all coming for lunch with their lovely wives and I figured we had more than earned it. 

There are plenty of cheats for this recipe. You can buy a whole chicken cooked and shred it yourself. You can buy chicken thighs and fry them. You can buy chicken stock. You can buy puff-pastry instead of making your own. You can buy a white sauce instead of your own. You can blah blah blah blah blah. The recipe below is how to do it if you have the time and are willing. Otherwise, take a little shortcut. 

Stuff you'll need to feed 8:

For the stock and chicken:

• 2 large carrots, roughly chopped
• 2 onions, quartered
• 5 cloves of garlic, cut in half
• 2 pieces of celery, roughly chopped
• 2 medium sized chickens (I used my favourite Spier ones) 
• 2 teaspoons of thyme
• A few black peppercorns

For the rest of the filling:

• Butter
• Flour
• 4 big handfuls of mixed mushrooms, roughly chopped (I used shiitake and porcini)
• 1 onion, finely sliced
• A teaspoon of thyme

For the pastry:

• 2 coffee cups of cake flour
• Half a teaspoon cream of tartar 
• A teaspoon of salt
• 250g of STALK baking margarine, cut into cubes
• 2 egg yolks
• A cup of ice cold water (it is essential that the water is cold)

Okay, what to do:

1. Place the carrots, onion, garlic, thyme, peppercorns and celery in a pot of water and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and submerge the chicken in the pot. Place a side plate over the chicken to make sure it is covered by the water. 

2. Poach the chicken for approximately 1 hour, or until cooked. Repeat for second chicken. Keep the beautiful stock you have just made. 

3. Once the chicken has cooled, shred the meat and set aside. 

4. Cook the sliced mushrooms and onion in some butter and thyme until softened. Set aside with the chicken. (You might have to do the mushrooms in two batches to avoid them stewing) 

5. Make your pastry. Start by combining all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add STALK margarine and work in with your fingers until combined. Add the egg yolks and a little bit of the water (your dough mustn't be too wet). Work in to create a nice smooth dough. If it is too wet, add a bit more flour. Too dry, throw in a bit more water. When it is a nice ball, cover with clingfilm and place in fridge for 30 minutes. 

5. Make your white sauce by adding some butter and flour to the pan. Using a whisk, combine the two to make sure the butter is coated with the flour. The appearance should be dry, like breadcrumbs. 

6. Skim off any white fat from your chicken stock and start slowly adding it to your flour and butter, continuing to whisk gently. It is important that you never stop whisking. Once your sauce has a good consistency remove from heat. 

7. When your pastry is ready, remove from fridge and roll out on a floured surface. Carefully use it to line two suitable dishes and cut off extra pastry to leave a 'lip" hanging over the edge. Use your fingers to press it down into the bottom of the dishes, being careful not to tear the pastry. 

8. Cut two circles out from the pastry to serve as lids from the pies and pour the filling in to both pies. Place lids on top and using your thumb and index finger pinch the pastry together, moving along the dish as you work. 

9. When you're done place pies in oven pre-set at 220 degrees celsius and bake for 40 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and flaky. 

Jeez, that was a long process! Are you still with me? Look, it is a bit more difficult than my other recipes but as I said you can simplify it by cutting a few corners in the preparation. Even if you do, I guarantee it will taste a whole lot better than anything you buy pre-packaged and bought off the shelf of a supermarket. 

I served this with a simple green salad and on the advice of a fellow blogger and wine ninja some good buttery Chardonnay. It was beautiful. 

Cheers,

Jamie Who 

8. 

Grilled yellowtail served on fennel gazpacho

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a beautiful, chilled bowl of gazpacho. Except maybe for the fact that it is never really enough for me. It's fine as a starter but as a main I really do need more. So with this in mind I threw together this little dish last night. The plan was to leave the gazpacho very chunky so that it could double-up as a kind-of-sauce. It worked out pretty nicely...

Stuff you'll need to feed 2:

•  About 450g of any firm white fish (I used yellowtail) 
  
• A mixture of mustard seeds, coriander seeds and fennel seeds, all crushed
• 3 tomatoes, quartered
• One red onion, quartered
• A bulb of fennel, quartered (keep the leaves too)
• A tablepoon of red wine vinegar
• One chilli, roughly chopped
• Half a cucumber, peeled
• About 100ml of water
• A few tablespoons of olive oil

Okay, what to do:

1. Preheat your oven to the highest temperature. Rub fish in olive oil and cover with mustard seed mixture. 

2. Using a spoon remove the seeds from the cucumber and discard. Add cucumber, along with tomatoes, fennel, onion, olive oil, vinegar, chilli and water to a blender and pulse to form a chunky soup. Place in refrigerator. (The consistency is totally up to you. It can be as smooth or as course as you would like) 

3. Grill fish in oven for 8-10 minutes or until done. 

To serve, spoon gazpacho into bowls and place fish on top. Garnish with halved cherry tomatoes and fennel leaves. As a final touch drizzle over some extra virgin olive oil. 

Another healthy dish that's absolutely perfect for the heat we are going through at the moment. It's light and easy and the fennel adds an interesting dimension. Give it a bash. 

Cheers,

Jamie Who

Calamari, mango and coriander salad

Isn't the 1st of March supposed to be the start of Autumn? I thought so, but someone clearly forgot to tell whoever it is up there that controls the weather. You see...Cape Town has been off-the-charts hot this week. On Wednesday Icepick and I set out to do the Men's Health 10km race (cleaned it, obviously) and it was 35.5 degrees. What's the big deal? The race started at 18h15!!! Yeah, that's what we're dealing with down here. 

Don't get me wrong though, I'm not one of those people who moans about the heat. If I do feel the slight pang of "this is just too hot" I do a quick Google search for temperature in London and see how the expats are doing over there. 9 degrees. Yeah...

It's pretty chilly here today too. 28.5 at the moment. Annnnyway, the point is when it gets this hot I turn to light, easy salads for dinners. I keep the flavours clean and try and spend as little time cooking as possible. That was the gameplan last night and this popped out. A lovely little dish. Check it out. 

Stuff you'll need to feed 4:

•  800g calamari tubes, cut into strips
  
• 2 - 3 mielies (cobs of corn)
• A handful of cashew nuts
• 2 big handfuls of mixed lettuce (different colours, shapes, textures etc)
• A handful of coriander, roughly chopped
• 2 mangos, peeled and thinly sliced

Okay, what to do:

1. In boiling, salted water cook the corn for a few minutes until done. Slice the corn to remove the kernels.

2. In a dry pan roast the nuts for a few minutes. Be very careful not to burn them. It's quite easy to do so keep an eye on them and shake the pan often. Remove and allow to cool. 

3. Place the lettuce leaves, the coriander, the mango, the nuts and the corn in a bowl.  

4. Heat a wok (or big pan) until smoking hot and cook the calamari in vegetable/avocado/sunflower oil (olive oil won't work here) for 1-2 minutes. Do not overcook it.  Add the calamari to the bowl. 

5. Season with salt and black pepper and serve immediately, before the calamari has a chance to wilt the leaves. 

I didn't make a dressing which was a big a mistake but I just used some soy sauce and honey to drizzle over, which was a pretty good save. If you've got lemons that would be good too. The whole thing took about 10 minutes and was absolutely perfect for a quick, healthy summer dinner. Loving it. 

Cheers,

Jamie Who

Chicken and wild mushrooms braised in white wine

I normally start giving some thought as to what I'm going to write for you lovelies somewhere on my way to work in the morning. This morning was different though, and as I stood admiring myself naked in a full-length mirror, I knew what I was going to write even before I had time to exfoliate. You see...it was raining. And I have just the thing for a rainy day. Look, it's not the prettiest dish you'll find here but in terms of taste it's hard to beat. And perfect - absolutely bloody perfect - for a cold night when you just feel like no-hassle cooking. 

Stuff you'll need to feed 4:

• About 800g of organic, free-range chicken pieces (I use skinless. Try and get the thigh meat, otherwise get chicken on the bone.)
• A handful of cherry tomatoes
• A cup of white wine
• A cup of water
• An onion, finely sliced
• A handful of mixed wild mushrooms
• 2 Tablespoons of fresh thyme
• 2 Tablespoons of fresh rosemary, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced

Okay, what to do:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees celsius. 

2. In an oven-proof pan or casserole dish gently fry the onions, mushrooms and garlic in a little olive oil. You want the onions to soften but not colour and you don't want to burn the garlic so make sure the heat is not too high. 

3. After about 2 minutes add the chicken pieces and the herbs and fry for about 1 minute. Add the water and the wine and increase the heat. Bring to a boil and reduce back to a simmer. 

4. Add the tomatoes, season well with black pepper and sea salt and cover the pan/dish with a lid or damp wax paper. Place in the oven and cook untouched for about an hour and fifteen minutes (maybe an hour and a half, depending on your oven). 

5. Remove the pan/dish from the oven and cook gently on the stovetop to reduce the sauce to your desired consistency. You can have it as thick as you want, depending on what you are serving it with (quinoa, couscous, brown rice and lentils are good options). 

So...that's it. There's an expression that says if something is too good to be true it probably is. Not here though. Here it really is that easy. And healthy. And f-ing delicious. Enjoy it. 

Cheers,

Jamie Who 

Sichuan pepper calamari salad

I got the idea for this dish from Kylie Kwong, who has to go down as one of my all-time favourite chefs. Her philosophy is to bring Asian techniques into Western cookery and she does this by showing us that real Chinese cooking isn't all about sticky sweet and sour pork, MSG-packed sizzling beef and some chicken and stale cashews served in a gooey sauce. It's more about clean, simple flavours that showcase the main ingredieent of the dish. She is very clear about the fact that quality of ingredients is absolutely vital. I'm a big fan of this approach to food and love her "less is more" vibe. 

Last week I had some fresh calamari steaks and didn't really know what to do with them. I ended up adapting one of her dishes and the whole thing took about 10 minutes from start to finish. The end result was a beautifully balanced, light warm salad. 

Stuff you'll need to feed 2:

• About 400g fresh calamari steaks
• A quarter of a cup of cornflour
• Canola oil (I like using this oil for this dish as olive oil is a bit overpowering)
• A handful of coriander, finely sliced (use the stalks and roots) 
• 2 tablespoons of spring onion, sliced diagonally
• About a thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely sliced
• 1 - 2 chillies, finely chopped
• 1 - 2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
• About a teaspoon of sea salt
• 2 teaspoons of Sichuan pepper (you can find this in any Asian store but I think places like Woolies and Pick 'n Pay are stocking it now too)
• A head of iceberg lettuce, finely sliced
• 2 lemons, cut into wedges
• A packet of rice noodles, soaked in boiling water as per packet instructions

Okay, what to do:

1. Score your calamari steaks to make criss-cross patterns. Be careful not to break through the skin. 

2. In a bowl, combine the calamari and cornflour to coat. Shake off any excess flour. 

3. Heat some canola oil in a wok (or the biggest pan you have). Wait until the oil is extremely hot and cook the calamari steaks for about 1 minute per side. 1 minute guys, that is all it will take. Please don't be tempted to cook it longer. Remove calamari, cut into pieces diagonally and set aside. 

4. Add the coriander, spring onions, ginger, chilli and garlic to the wok and stir fry for another minute. Return squid and add the sea salt and Sichuan pepper (leave a bit for garnish). Stir-fry for 30 seconds and you're done. 

5. To serve, place a handful of noodles in one half of a bowl and shredded lettuce in the other. Top with the calamari mixture and finish by sprinkling over some Sichuan pepper and squeezing over some lemon juice. 

This dish is healthy, fresh and ridiculously easy. The only thing that can go wrong is if you overcook the calamari. It will be tough, tasteless and generally pretty average. Just have a bit of faith and pull it off early. As a worst-case scenario you can chuck it back on if you need to. 

Cheers,

Jamie Who