The fact that today is the day before Valentines Day, is pure co-incidence. But why not use it as an excuse to share the love and eat healthy raw cacao and walnut balls of deliciousness…

It’s a summer evening and it’s time for a picnic. On a hill. With friends. And a bottle of cold white wine. Crackers and cheese are sufficient but who can resist roasted butternut and cherry tomatoes mixed with quinoa, basil pesto, feta cheese and served in a big white Tupperware bowl?
Not me.

½ butternut, washed and cut into rough cubes
punnet cherry tomatoes
garlic
salt and pepper
block feta cheese
4 tablespoons basil pesto
handful coriander
200g baby spinach
handful dry roasted pumpkin seeds
1 cup quinoa

Parboil butternut. Place in a baking tray with tomatoes. Drizzle  with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, 2 cloves of garlic. Grill in the oven for about 15 min. Take out the oven and leave to cool.

Pour uncooked quinoa into a pot with 2 cups water. Bring to boil and then allow to simmer on a low heat for about 20min or until quinoa is light and fluffy.

Grab your Tupperware bowl and mix together the quinoa with the roasted veg, baby spinach and basil pesto.

Crumble in the feta cheese, scatter over the roasted seeds and chopped up coriander (stalks included as they contain lots of flavour.) Season with salt and pepper and add a dash more vinegar and olive oil.

Don’t forget the plastic forks and paper napkins.

On a recent holiday in South Africa, I couldn’t resist filming this special episode – with the help of my crazy family!

There’s nothing like fresh fish cooked on a braai/barbecue – especially a wheel-on-fire in a wheelbarrow!

Click here for the recipe, and the link below to see the Youtube video. If you’re a fan of these cooking video’s, please subscribe to my Youtube channel.

This delicious sun-coloured fruit is known in other parts of the world as papaya. For some reason in South Africa we call it pawpaw.

½ cup mielie-meal*
½ cup water
¼ cup milk
1 TBS butter
pinch salt
drizzle of honey
¼ cup chopped and peeled pawpaw
2 TBS sunflower seeds
cinnamon
*use rolled oats if mielie-meal is unavailable

Place mielie-meal (or raw oats) in a pot, add water and bring to the boil.
Allow to simmer for about 10/15min and add the butter, milk and salt.
Once cooked, spoon into a teacup and add the pawpaw.
Drizzle with some honey, scatter over the seeds, a dash of cinnamon and enjoy!

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I have just been on an incredible family holiday in the dragon mountains and sugar cane-fields of KwaZulu-Natal and in the mother of all cities, known as Cape Town. While in the Drakensburg (known to locals as the dragon mountains) I felt like Maria from the Sound of Music as I ran through green fields and danced with grazing cows, looking for inspiration for my next episode of Ceire’s Kitchen.

I wandered through outdoor markets in the nearby town, spoke to stall holders in broken Zulu, but it was when I saw Tuusa mowing the lawn on a little tractor that an idea struck! Tuusa is the big African mama who maintains the gardens and house on the farm where we were staying. The comical image of her grinning and whizzing around the edges of flower beds on a tractor, while the dogs excitedly chased and barked after her, reminded me of one my favourite breakfasts from when I was younger… Pawpaw porridge. Mielie-meal porridge is a staple diet of many South Africans and I added my own touch by adding fruit, cinnamon and seeds… And eating it out of a bone chine tea-cup. Just because I like it!

Grab a glass of sherry and enjoy EPISODE 3 !

click here for full recipe

From all of us in CEIRE’S KITCHEN, have a Merry Merry Christmas.

One of the main things I absolutely love about food is that it brings people together.

Offer someone a cup of tea and the grounds on which an acquaintance stands on begins to deepen. And let me just say; the way to my heart is certainly through my stomach!

A few years ago a good friend of mine, Nicole, started a neighborhood Christmas lunch feast – she and her housemates invited their neighborhood community to a lane-way party outside their house. They made a slow roast lamb and vegetables and the neighbours were invited to get involved in this bring-and-share lunch by sharing a dessert or salad. This was all in aid of getting to know the fella next door – making the community smaller and friendlier (and it also meant that there was someone’s door you could knock on when you ran out of sugar.)

As I had recently moved into the leafy suburb of Surry Hills (notorious in the 1920’s for illegal speakeasies and underground jazz clubs – my kinda place) I was invited to the 2013 Christmas Feast, and I couldn’t wait. My bright red bicycle and I rounded the corner into a little bricked lane, decorated with colourful bunting strung between the houses. There was a long wooden table laden with flowers, friends, steaming food and good wine. It was a merry saturday afternoon, indeed.

This is what we all could do a bit more of – sharing food and sharing the love! I dare you to give it a go – especially since it’s Christmas.

I love art exhibition openings. Not only is there wine on tap and nibbles of bree and baguette, but there is also very interestingly dressed members of society wandering around the gallery with thoughtful expressions on their faces as they ponder the meaning of life while looking at a canvas and sipping slowly on their glass of pinot-noir.

It was my friend Bess Kenway’s exhibition at the Janet Clayton gallery and I was looking forward to an evening of feeling cool and cultured (or at least trying to appear cool and cultured.) I arrived slightly late, enthusiastically thanked the barman as he handed me a glass of red and joined the circle of people who were looking on in puzzlement.

An opera singer was literally singing for her supper, while orange slithers of confetti were gently showered on her from above, against the back-drop of a wall that had the peelings of 120kilos of very orange oranges. I was speechless.

I had no idea what was going on.

Thank goodness Bess likes questions and she happily explained her fascination with the ephemeral: art (and life) constantly changing. Her vision of art was not only concerned with the ‘deep and meaningful’, her art was also about the viewer actively getting involved: with their sight, smell and touch.

I wanted to eat the wall.

Not the one with orange peels, but the one next to it that had over 300 pink sugar biscuits stuck onto it.

Does everything always have to mean something? Does everyone always have to change someone?

I have no answers but simply a new appreciation for

Orange. Opera. Art.

EPISODE 2  is here!

I’m cooking an old school Sunday roast… click below and enjoy

It’s a Friday evening. I’m tired after a long day/week/life at work. The Finders Keepers market is happening and my friend Kat begs me to go with her.

If I have to socially interact with one more person I think I’ll faint. She promises that there will be good food.

I’m convinced.

I hop onto my bicycle and pedal as fast as my long South African legs will allow me (pretty damn fast I tell you.) I arrive slightly out of breath and am greeted by a feast for the eyes! Beautiful hand-made goods, live music and of course  – delicious food.

I was taken in immediately by the brightly coloured juice jars and the birthday cards of delicately drawn fruit. But the highlight of my evening was Farmer Jo and her muesli made in heaven. There’s something about granola with roasted nuts, coconut shavings and dried cranberries that makes me think I could live on this food alone! Sally and her husband Scott (the co-creators of Farmer Jo) happily allowed me to sample all of their different muesli’s while I chatted away to them about recipes and acting and this and that. I was rather pleased to discover that Scott was also an actor and was currently exploring his creativity through this family business venture.

Mmm I’m looking forward to breakfast already.

I hear a gentle ‘ggfflat’ at the front door. I’m in the kitchen making my breakfast smoothie – completely preoccupied with perfecting the quantities of kale and banana (It’s taken me half an hour already and I’m not finished and I’m running late and I’m in a bad mood.)

‘What on earth is Jack doing?’ (I tend to blame everything – good and bad – on my poor unsuspecting, housemate)

I stalk over to where the sound came from and there lying on the mat is a beautiful, blue shiny postcard. A hand written love letter from my friend Kirsty – sending news and bright-eyed inspiration from back home. The day just got better.

I accepted imperfection, poured a glass of my breakfast masterpiece, grabbed the card and ate every word with gratefulness.

Kale, banana and almond smoothie

1 large frozen banana

small handful almonds

3 large leaves of raw kale

1 TBS cocoa nibs

½ cup cooked quinoa

¼ raw rolled oats

1 TSP cocoa

3 TSP of honey

¼ cup milk or coconut milk

4 TBS yoghurt

This is my favourite breakfast in the world. Quinoa is an amazing source of protein, kale keeps you young, chocolate promotes fertility and love, and bananas are creamier and sweeter when frozen. This recipe makes enough for two, so blend all the ingredients in a food processor and pour one for your mother, lover or house mate and begin the day with power from the Greek gods.