Cape Town by Mouth

This has got to be one of my all time favorite Ottolenghi recipes (recipe from first Ottolenghi cookbook). Take something as well uninspiring as broccoli and spice it up with chilli and lemons. Mmm. I bet you can make anyone like broccoli if you feed them this. It is also very easy to make and spices up any wintery meat, potato and veg-type meal.

Ingredients:

2 heads of broccoli, separated into florets

115ml olive oil

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

2 mild red chillies thinly sliced

sea salt and black pepper

toasted flaked almonds or thin slices of lemon with skin

Fill a large saucepan with water and bring it to boil. Throw in the broccoli and blanch for two minutes only. Don’t over cook it. Using a large slotted spoon transfer the broccoli to a bowl full of ice water. Drain in a colander and allow to dry completely. It is important that the broccoli isn’t wet at all. In a mixing bowl, toss the broccoli with 45ml of the olive oil and a generous amount of salt and pepper.

Place a ridged griddle pan over high heat and leave it there for five minutes so that it becomes very hot. Grill the broccoli in several batches. The florets must not be cramped.

While grilling the broccoli, place the rest of the oil in a small saucepan with the garlic and chillies. cook them over medium heat until the garlic begins to brown. Pour the oil, garlic and chilli over the broccoli and adjust the seasoning.

Serve warm or at room temperature. Garnish with almonds of lemons.

You don’t come across bananaflowers in just any supermarket. I think most of the times they actually go to waste because people are unaware of their value as a delicacy (That is outside Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia) When we were staying in Kuala Lumpur a few years ago, I spent most of my days in a Kampung (village) just outside KL at the house of a lovely local lady called Rohani. Rohani runs a cooking school from her kitchen and has now expanded to a b&b, Bayan Indah, offering culinary retreats. Her house is surrounded by the most lovely herb garden with bananaleaves and other treats galore. Highly recommended if you are traveling in the region. Anyway Rohani taught me to make this salad out of bananaflowers.

Bananaflowersalad

We haven’t actually been able to pick them anywhere until last weekend. Cam’s aunt lent us her cottage in the Cederberg which has a lovely bananagrove in the back.

To make this you need:

1 medium sized bananaflower

2 tbsp dried prawns soaked in warm water

1 dessicated coconut

3 chillies sliced

1/2 tsp roasted shrimp paste

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

1 tbsp tamarind

1 tbsp lime juice

1 medium sized red onion finely sliced

1 torch ginger thinly sliced

Discard 3-4 of the outer petals to reveal the lighter coloured bud inside. place the bananaflower in a pan of boiling water and simmer for 15-20 minutes until tender. Drain in a colander and allow to cool. Cut into quarters lengthwise and slice 2 cm thick.

Dry fry coconut until crisp and golden brown. Pound fine a mortar and pestle.

Pound the soaked prawns in a mortar and pestle and toast them in a small pan for until crisp and fragrant (5-6min)

Place chillies, tamarind, shrimp paste, salt, sugar and lime juice in a small foodprocessor

Toss all ingredients together gently and serve soon.

Bananaflower hanging from a tree

Winter has finally come to Cape Town. Something has clearly switched in my scandie brain as I consider days of 18 degrees celsius to be cold. This salad is not wintery in any hemisphere but here in Cape Town winter brings with it some lovely tasty treats such as avocados, which they practically hand out for free at traffic lights.

Cape Town winter treats

Serves 3-4 (or two very hungry people)

1 cup of quinoa

2 avocados thinly sliced

2 grapefruits

2tbsp chopped coriander

1 tbsp chopped parsley

Dressing:

2 tsp olive oil

2 tsp rice vinegar

½ tsp maple syrup

½ tsp cumin

¼ tsp cinnamon

salt

½ cup toasted pumpkin and/ or sunflower seeds

Segment the grapefruits. Cut peel and pith layer off with a knife and cut out segments of grapefruit. Squeeze juice out the remaining core for dressing. Toast the quinoa in a pan until it smells nutty. Cover with about double the volume of water, boil for 15 mins and drain. Stir in dressing ingredients and grapefruit juice while hot and plate out. Yum.

“Ish” because it is developed from scratch by me. Asian flavours dominate but it is not Cam-spicy.  You can of course add chillies ; )

Salad:

1 red cabbage finely sliced
1 onion  sliced finely
1 chili sliced finely
bunch of coriander roughly chopped
Sauce
1 clove of garlic chopped
1 grated lime zest
squeezed juice of one lime
½ cup rice vinegar
¼ cup peanut oil
2 tbsp fish sauce
3 tsbp palm sugar/ brown sugar
2cm ginger grated
2 tsp salt

Heat up all sauce ingredients and stir until sugar dissolved. Combine with other ingredients in a bowl and let the flavours develop for at least an hour in the fridge. Tastes even better the next day

Chicken glass noodle salad

This is a remnant of our honeymoon in Vietnam. I have been missing those light flavourful salads.
Lots of work I admit it, but worth the effort : )

Serves two:

Chicken prep:
2 medium chicken breasts
1 medium onion roughly chopped
1 bayleaf
2 cloves of garlic sliced

Other prep
200g glass noodles
1 large carrot cut into julienne strips (the thinner the better, might want to consider using a normal peeler if you don’t have a julienne peeler)
4 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Sauce:
3 tbsp ground nut oil
juice of 4 limes
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp tamarind paste
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
2tbsp palm sugar
1 tsp salt

2 shallots finely sliced
2 cloves of garlic crushed
Oil to fry (canola, sunflower, groundnut… not olive)

To serve:
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
2 tbsp crushed toasted cashew nuts
2 chillies sliced
bunch of roughly chopped coriander
bunch of roughly chopped mint
bunch of roughly chopped thai basil/ normal basil if you can’t get thai

In a large pot combine the onion, garlic, bay leaf, salt, and water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add the chicken breasts and reduce the heat to medium. Simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove chicken from water and cool completely. Shred the chicken. I find this quite a nice way to prepare chicken breasts for salads. They retain a lot more moisture.

Soak glass noodles in cold water for five minutes. Drain and place into boiling water and boil for 3 minutes. Drain and allow to cool.

Combine all the sauce ingredients.

Combine rice vinegar, sugar and salt and boil julienned carrots for two minutes. Fry shallot and garlic in rapeseed oil. As they turn brown pour in dressing and bring to boil. Take off heat. Add noodles. Allow to cool and add carrots, nuts, seeds, chillies, herbs and chicken.

Chorizo is a firm favorite of mine. You can add it to anything and make it interesting. This salad works great as a summery lunch or on a picnic.

chorizo, butterbean and fennel salad

250g butter beans soaked overnight (/tinned work just fine)
100g chorizo diced
1 bulb of fennel, finely sliced and fried in butter
1 red pepper grilled and peeled
handful of diced cherry tomatoes
bunch of coriander roughly chopped
bunch of mint roughly chopped
bunch of parsley roughly chopped
chives chopped

Dressing
1/4 cup (0.50dl) olive oil
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 grated clove of garlic
salt, pepper
1 tsp brown sugar
pinch of cayenne pepper

Boil the butter beans for about 60 minutes and shell them (rinse tinned butter beans thoroughly and drain).  Fry chorizo and fennel in a pan until lightly browned. Combine all the ingredients. Tastes even better if you let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Pomegranate and barley salad

This salad is like health in a bowl. Really simple and yet it is very tasty. It is based on a recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi.

For two:

100g pearl barley
3 celery sticks chopped into 1cm cubes
30 ml olive oil
1 quarter of preserved lemon skin chopped
1.5 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 small garlic clove
1/3 tsp ground allspice
1.5 tbsp chopped dill
1.5 tbsp chopped parsley
Seeds from one large pomegranate*
salt & pepper

Rinse the barley and boil for 30mins until it is nicely cooked but still retains a bite. Meanwhile mix the chopped celery, garlic, vinegar, preserved lemon, allspice and olive oil in a bowl. Add the barley when it is still hot and leave to cool. Add the herbs, pomegranate seeds and salt and pepper.

*The easy way to release the seeds is to cut the pomegranate along its belly and tap the skin with a wooden spoon.

Mango soba noodle salad - tasty vegan food

I had a little dinner yesterday with one of my first Cape Town friends. Girls evening. Both of our other halves are out of town so she asked me to teach her something new. My most inspiring new recipe is a soba noodle salad. Mostly inspired by the genius recipe from Ottolenghi my hero. But also inspired by our honeymoon foodie tour.

It is refreshing. A really great summer salad and a firm favorite in our household.

Serves three

1 medium ripe mango cut into 1cm cubes
1 aubergine cut into 1 cm cubes
half  a red onion thinly sliced
60 ml rice vinegar
1tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 clove of garlic crushed (or grated! easy way to get it fine if you don’t have a garlic crusher ; )
1/2 red chili finely sliced
1 lime, grate peel and squeeze juice
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil (use peanut oil if you don’t like the flavour)
125 grams soba noodles
Bunch of coriander coarsely chopped
Bunch of Basil coarsely chopped
Sunflower/ vegetable/ canola oil

Pour a generous amount oil sunflower oil into a frying pan and fry the aubergine until it is brown on the sides and soft in the middle. Pour into a colander to drain excess oil and liquid and sprinkle liberally with salt. Heat vinegar in a small pot and pour in salt and sugar. Stir until salt and sugar dissolve and take off heat. Add garlic, chili and sesame oil while still hot. When it cools down add lime juice and lime peel. Boil soba noodles in plenty of salted boiling water for 5ish minutes until nice and al dente and rinse under a cold water tap, pat dry with a kitchen cloth. Combine everything in a big bowl and let the flavours develop for about 1 hour. Serve cold. Enjoy!

Skinning Broad beans requires a fair bit of work but it is worth it. This healthy and yummy salad is from Ottolenghi’s Plenty cookbook- a must for any vegetarian.

Ingredients (for 6):
200g quinoa
500g shelled broad beans
2 medium lemons
2 ripe avocados
2 garlic cloves crushed
200g radishes finely sliced
50g basil leaves
1 tbsp ground cumin
75ml olive oil
1/4 tsp chilli flakes
salt and black pepper

Put the quinoa in a pot and cover with plenty of cold water. Bring to boil and let it simmer for 9 mins. Rince with cold water and let it dry.

Here comes the work: Put the broad beans in a pan of boiling water, bring back to the boil and drain in a colander. Gently remove the skin of each bean.. (it is worth it)