The team working on the Vision Van needed an energy booster and so I made this healthy snack for them

Ingredients:

1 cup pitted medjool dates/dried fig
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup almonds
1/3 cup raw organic cacao powder
1/3 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 tablespoon chia seeds
pinch of salt

Method:

Add all the ingredients together and mix in a food processor.
Divide the mixture up and roll into the size of a golf ball.
Roll the balls in shredded coconut.

 

episode 4 : fish on the fire
(smoked trout with lemon dressed lettuce and chargrilled red pepper)

serves 2

1 whole trout (about 300-400g)
1/2 small butter lettuce
6-8 baby potatoes
1 red pepper
1 lemon
butter
2 sprigs parsley
salt and pepper
1 tsp horseradish
2 TBS Greek yoghurt

Once your braai or barbeque has been fired up, leave it for a couple of hours until you are able to hold your hand over the flames for about 5 seconds.

Place your trout onto the grid (make sure both sides have been brushed with butter, rubbed with garlic and seasoned with salt and pepper).

Grab a square of tinfoil and place your parboiled baby potatoes in the centre. Blob on some butter, grate a clove of garlic on top, sprinkle  on some parsley and wrap up the potatoes in the foil. Place the potatoe parcel onto the hot coals.

Cut your red pepper in half and take out the centre. Squash down flat and place onto the grid. Drizzle on some olive oil. After the fish has been on the fire for about 10 min, carefully flip it over.

Finely chop the lettuce into thin slivers, place it in the centre of each plate and squeeze over some lemon.

Check on your fish and flip over the red pepper and potato parcel.

In a small cup, mix together the horseradish and yoghurt, add a dash of lemon and seasoning to taste.

Take out the potatoe parcel, unwrap and gently squash down 3 or 4 potatoes onto the bed of lettuce.

After the fish has been cooking for 10 min and has a light pink colour inside, place it onto the potatoes.

Smear a teaspoon of the horseradish sauce onto the fish.

Take the red peppers off the grill and cut into thin slices. Arrange them on top the fish and finish off your meal with a sprinkle of parsley!

Enjoy with a glass of chardonnay and friend for good company.

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episode 3: marvellous mince pies*    

                                                          *thanks Jamie Oliver

makes about 20 small pies

preheat oven to 200’C

150g mincemeat
1 sheet puff pastry
4 sheets philo pastry
cracked pepper
dash sherry
orange zest
icing sugar

Scoop the mincemeat into a bowl and add the sherry and freshly ground pepper. Sprinkle your kitchen table with flour and lay down the sheet of puff pastry. Spoon on the mincemeat and spread evenly, leaving a 1cm gap around the edges. Roll into a firm Swiss roll and leave in the fridge to firm up.

Butter two cupcake trays and gently lay down a layer of filo pastry. Brush with melted butter and lay down the second layer of filo pastry. Brush again with butter.

Take your Swiss roll out of the fridge and cut into 1cm slices. Place each slice (flat-side down) into a filo lined hole. Sprinkle some flaked almonds over and pop into the oven for about 20 min (until golden brown).

Once cooked, crack each pie out of the cupcake tray, sprinkle over some orange zest and icing sugar and serve with some mulled wine or just a cup of tea. Turn up the carols and from all of us here in CEIRE’S KITCHEN….

Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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episode 2: sunday roast

Serves 6 people
Duration: 45-60 min

Roast potato and butternut:
2 sweet potatoes
½ butternut
600g baby potatoes
Wash and roughly chop vegetables into rough chunks. Parboil until the butternut and potatoes are soft. Place in a baking tray and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Crush in three large cloves of garlic, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle in two long stems of rosemary. Grill in the oven for about 25min (turn the potatoes once after about 15 min.) When golden brown, keep hot in the oven at 200’C.

Aubergine and tomato:
1 large aubergine – chopped into round slices
1 red pepper – roughly chopped
punnet cherry tomatoes – sliced in half
Place in a baking tray and drizzle with olive and balsamic vinegar. Crush in three large cloves of garlic, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle in three long stems of rosemary. Grill in the oven for about 15min. Finish off with:
2 blocks feta (crumble in with your hands)
2 handfuls pepitas, dry-pan roasted and scattered over red vegetables

Rocket salad:
200g rocket
1 lemon
1 orange
Wash the rocket and place in a long flat dish. Grate in the zest of the lemon and the orange. Squeeze in the juice of ½ lemon and drizzle with olive oil.

Grab a free-range organic chicken from the butcher down the road, pour yourself a glass of wine and lets eat… in Ceire’s Kitchen!

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episode 1: basil and tomato pasta with pear and parmesan salad

serves 4-6 people
Duration: about 30-45 min (depending on the wine and how good the music is)

pasta: 1 bag of fusilli dried pasta
2 tins whole peeled tomatoes
1 red onion
3 cloves garlic
3 TBS greek yoghurt
small tub of pitted kalamata olives
2 block of creamy Danish feta
bunch of basil
pinch of salt, pepper, sugar
splash of red wine
olive oil and balsamic vinegar
(optional for the meat eaters : slice up 2 chorizo sausages and cook it with the garlic and onion)

salad: 180g rocket
½ pear
small block of pecorino or parmesan
handful walnuts

thinly slice the red onion and crush the garlic into a medium size pot. Drizzle with olive oil. Sizzle away on a medium heat, until the onion has softened and the garlic has browned.
Add a splash more olive oil and about ¼ cup of red wine.
Pour both tins of tomato into the pot and ‘wash out’ both tins with ¼ cup of water. Pour this tomatoey liquid into the pot. Take off the heat for a few moments while you break up the red tomatoes of goodness with your hands (Portuguese cooking method).
Add 2 or 3 table spoons (depending on how creamy you want to the sauce to be) of Greek yoghurt and 2 teaspoons of sugar.
Wash the basil, tear off the stalks and add to the sauce. Toss in the olives and crumble in the feta cheese.
Gently mix all the ingredients together and leave on a low heat for about 15min, allowing all the Mediterranean flavors to fuse together.

In a large, shallow bowl, place the washed rocket. The flatter the bowl the better, in order for the colors and salad ingredients to be evenly distributed or else all the ingredients tend to sink to the bottom and one is left with just a bowl of greens.
With a wide potato peeler or mandolin, shave the pear in long strips into the bowl. Do the same with the parmesan. Gently lift the salad so that pieces of pear and parmesan are layered into the rocket.
Break up the pieces of walnuts and scatter into the bowl.
Thinly slice the long red chili and flick into the salad (deseed to avoid spicy-ness).

Boil the kettle, empty into a large pot and add the bag of fusilli pasta with a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of olive oil. Once cooked to aldente, drain and empty back into the pot to keep hot. Grab a glass of wine, some serving spoons, the handsome fella next to you and then lets eat… In Ceire’s Kitchen!