Freshly layered Broccoli and Stilton Lasagne

So it's Friday and if all you want to do is settle down comfortably on the couch with a glass of red and something delicious and just a little bit indulgent, then this is the dish. Fresh layered lasagne is all the rage at the moment. No more of long prep only to be followed by an hour of cooking time in the oven. This lasagne is so easy it can be made in one pot before you plate it up - another plus for a Friday night, who after all wants to have a pile of dishes to do after a hard week of work and your plan is to lull off to sleep watching a DVD?

Oh, and who said that broccoli has to be boring? This is a flavoursome and morish vegetarian lasagne. If you wrinkle up your nose at (what I think is a particularly diverse, not to mention vitamin and mineral-packed vegetable) this recipe should change your mind. Many people discard broccoli stems, but this is my favourite part- cut it into centimetre-thick disks so that it gets tender when you cook it. But this is not a lesson in there virtues of broccoli; it’s a post about lazy Friday nights. But I will say this: Broccoli olive oil, origanum (oregano, as it’s known in some places) and crushed garlic is a combination made in culinary heaven. Add shavings of parmesan, or a sprinkle of feta, stilton, blue cheese, goats milk cheese and you have a most delicious side-dish which I could gobble just on it’s own! But for a more filling and satisfying meal, then just add pasta as I have here. Adjust accordingly, but here I have given the quantities for four people.

Fresh layered broccoli, stilton and olive vegetarian lasagne

300g Broccoli (divided into florets and the stem thinly cut)
30 pipped Calamata olives
3 good lugs of olive oil
1 clove crushed garlic
1 small red chili
A pinch of salt
Fresh black pepper
Origanum
40g Stilton cheese

6 pieces of lasagne pasta, broken in half

Parmesan cheese for serving



Bring a large pot of water to the boil with a good pinch of salt. Place the pasta into the water. In a steel colander, place the broccoli and place this on top of the pasta and cover with a lid.

After three minutes remove the florets. If the pasta is al dente, then remove that into a bowl and cover with some of the pasta liquid.

In the pot, heat up the oil, garlic, chilli, salt and pepper and origanum. Toss in the broccoli and the olives. Take off the heat and sprinkle over half the cheese. Toss again and add a little of the pasta water so that you get a little bit of a creamy sauce.

Place a layer of pasta (one per person) and cover with broccoli and sauce. Add another layer of pasta and some more broccoli. Distribute the left-over stilton between the portions and the layer. On top put a final layer of pasta and then grate on a sprinkling of Parmesan, a crack of black-pepper and another lug of olive oil. If you want, you can pop this under the grill for a minute or two, but if you have worked quickly, it should still be warm, so serve immediately.

Drink with a wooded Chardonnay (if you want to be fancy) but the stilton will happily accommodate the tannins of your favourite red blend.

Starting the Week Right

Is it just me, but after a gloriously relaxing weekend, Mondays can seem a little difficult to negotiate, especially in the mornings. There is no time for slow brewed coffee and lazy breakfasts until half ten. So, it being a Monday morning, I thought that I would put up a breakfast recipe that is both tasty and nutritious. It will give you the energy you need to start the day (and the week) well and since it is well balanced, will leave you feeling light but sustained throughout the morning. And is a perfect way of getting at least one of your fruit servings in for the day.

Breakfast oats may seem like a something for winter mornings, but I love them and eat them all year round. For those in summer now, add summer fruit, like I have added papaya to mine, but for those of you whose January means being in the mist of the coldest months, use apples or pears, which work eaqually well in this recipe. You can make your oats in the microwave if you are in a hurry, but I like to make mine on the stove, because this way they definitely come out creamier. Adjust the recipe for however many family members you're making it for. Also these quantities are just a guideline so use any cup size according to what you can manage eating in the morning.

1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup water
Pinch of salt
2 dried peaches
1/4 cup low fat milk or soya milk
2 teaspoons flaxseed oil
Flaked almonds

1/2 a papya peeled and cubed                                       

Honey for drizzling.                                                     

Put the oats, water and pinch of salt into a bowl and microwave or microwave oats as per product instrucstions.

Alternatively, bring the water to the boil in a saucepan on the stove. Add the pinch of salt and then the oats. Stir so that the oats become creamy.


Using the kitchen sissors, cut the dried peaches into the oats and at the same time add the flaxseed oil and almond flakes. Stir well.

Add the milk. And stir again.

If you've been doing this on the stove, then dish into individual bowls and add the fruit to the top. Drizzle over the honey and if you are really mad about almonds, then spinkle some of those ontop as well.

For an even more comprehensive breakfast you can add a dollop or two of low-fat Bulgarian yoghurt onto your fruit or ontop of the oats before you add the fruit. Also try with mango.

If you're doing the wintery version with pear or apple you can grate this fruit over the top. For a little more wintery comfort, which we all need on those dark mornings, serve with chopped peacan or wallnuts and drizzle you honey over this.

Enjoy with your favourite morning blend.

Mango, Litchi and Coriander Salad with Chilli and Lime Dressing.

As promised, here is the salad. While there is a lot of sweetness in the salad from the fruit this is well balanced out by the saltiness of the cheese and the sourness of the lime. The coriander leaves (also known as Cilantro in the States, and in Indian cooking as Dhania) adds the greens but also it's own flavour to the salad. The chili adds a spicy tang which balances the dish. This salad would go well with grilled lamb chops, and some simply boiled potatoes tossed in olive oil. You could also substitute the potatoes with Naan bread.


Just one last note before I get to the recipe, and that is that I think that this dish displays the most important part of any dish and that is balance. I cannot emphasise enough how important the following elements are and how balance holds the ultimate key to a good meal: Variety is, after all the spice of life!

As I pointed out above the tastes compliment and balance each other out, even though each of the ingredients have distinct individual flavours, they compliment each other and fuse to become something new. Similarly there is a balance of colours and textures. The bright orange colour of the mango, the green of the coriander and the white of the cheese and the translucence of the litchi, be-speckled with red chili all serve up a visual feast. Lastly texture is balanced out with the succulence of the mango and litchi is set off against the creaminess of the cheese and the crunchiness of the coriander and the chili.

Salad:
One large mango
Eight litchis (peeled and pips removed)
A small bunch of coriander leaves (about a cup when roughly chopped)
80grams of feta cheese (or ricotta)

Dressing:
One lime
One small-deseeded red chili
A piece of ginger, about 2cm thick
30-40mm olive oil (extra virgin if you have)


Peel the mango and cut around the large pip. Then cut the mango into thin (about half a cm thick) strips. Shred the litchis. Place the chopped coriander on a platter. Arrange the mango strips on top. Place the shredded litchi in between the mango and then crumble the cheese on top of that. Season with salt and black pepper (but hold off on the salt if you are using a salty feta)


For the dressing, grate the zest of the lime into a container and then juice the lime on top of that. Finely chop the chili and grate in the ginger. Add the olive oil (it should be about a third of the dressing, so add accordingly), mix and pour evenly over the salad.

If you like you could also add boiled prawns to the salad, at the stage before you dress it. Serve with a garlic naan.

If you have this salad with just the garlic naan I would recommend a Chenin Blanc or with it as a meal or a light Sauvignon Blanc that has citrus overtones in it.

The same Sauvignon with or a Rosé if you make it with the prawns I’d probably opt for a dry Pinotage Rosé, Delheim makes and excellent one.

If you have it accompanying your lamb chops I’d leave it up to you to have a red or a rosé of your choice. But in the red category I’d probably go for a Merlot as that is lightly oaked or a dry red blend.

I don’t think that there is a single wine that you can have with this, for one different wine estates bring out different flavours in their varieties and then two different types of wine can be equally enjoyable but produce a totally different taste experience.

Bon Appétit

Summer Fruity Fun

Yesterday I was perusing the shops when I was overcome by the scent of ripe mangoes lingering in the air mixed with the sweet essence of litchis that was escaping from where a naughty child was peeling some and popping them in her mouth, while her mother had her back turned away. Nectarines gleamed round and red as cricket balls and cling-peaches were solidly yellow. Pawpaws lent their own subtle tang to the air. Each fruit promised, that if you bit into it, it would  not only quench your thirst and tantalise your tastebuds with sweetness but also deliver, in its juicy wholeness, the elixir of longevity.
Ah, I love summer!
On the other side of the stall stood fresh lemons and limes, also gleaming their dazzling yellows and greens, while adding to the spectacular performance of fragrances that filled the air.

The abundance and heady perfumes were too much for me to resist, and soon I was plucking fruit from the stalls and filling my shopping basket. At the same time, ideas of exotic flavours swirled together in my mind and thoughts of suddenly being on an Asian island in the mist of pristine aquatic-blue Pacific Ocean filled me with excitement. Oh, what I would do to savour those tastes and be transported there. So I came up with a few ideas on how to make the best of these flavours. Tomorrow I promise to put up a recipe for a mango and litchi salad with corriander and a chili and lime dressing. But why stop there? I'll explore several other recipes as I take full advantage of the texture and colours that make up summer!

The Art of Eating

Gourmandize: n. appreciation or consumption of good food. (Concise Oxford English Dictionary)

It may seem stranage to speak about 'the art of eating' especially when in so many parts of the world, just getting enough food is a matter of survival. But for those of us lucky enough to have the resources of the modern world, where virtually every type of food is now globally available, I do feel that it is my duty to share with you the are of eating well. It is a sin, I think to thoghtlessly plunder one's tastebuds with food that is composed of inorganic chemicals.

As the title suggests I am a lover of good food; a gourmet (though not in the strictest sense of the title). The gourmand may be tempted, in their relishing in the shining joy of wonderful taste experiences to overindulge (indeed the word gourmand has a connotation of excessive eating - which we must guard against!) While we all have our moments of overindulgence, the true value in food lies not in over-eating but in making the choice to eat discriminatingly. Balance is the key here.

The result will certainly seem as if you are being all the more indulgent. Let me try to explain: Simplicity compliments complexity in cooking and in food's taste. Having less of something truely divine tasting often means more enjoyment if you take the trouble to savour the moment.
Now I don't mean to sound regimental. Au contraire savouring means to derive more enjoyment from one's food. And even this is a dicipline- but one that allows you to become a gourmet!
And if you do anything in excess, let it be giving yourself over to relishing the moment you take your first bight of something delicious. Or let it be to the excessive pleasure that providing good food for those you love (and even those you don't so much) around you can bring.

In this blog I will share with you some of my thoughts about food and some of my favourite recipes, some of them simple (and these are often the ones I like best) as well as more complicated and daring ones, which lend a certain amount of excitement to the palate. I will discuss wines and food combinations, gathering people together for meals, preparing for dinner parties and little tricks that make such gatherings work, as well as various texts that I have read on food and cooking.

More than anything though, I hope that I can awaken in you a new sensation: an enthusiasm for good food and the joy that this can bring into your life; as the gourmand, already knows, if food is the source of life, then to love food is to love life.

Mon Bonne