This Spanish inspired summer punch is one of the great classics. Unfortunately it is often adulterated with too much sugar, too many fruits and is then diluted with soda water. Here is the 'proper' recipe. Smooth and mellow, especially if left to stand for about 8 hours.

2 large juicy oranges, washed, one orange sliced and the remaining orange juiced
1 large lemon, washed and sliced
¼ cup (60 g) sugar
¼ cup (60 ml) Orange Liqueur or frozen orange concentrate
1 x 750 ml bottle inexpensive, fruity, medium-bodied red wine, well chilled e.g. Merlot

Add sliced orange, lemon and sugar to a large jug, mash gently with a wooden spoon until fruit releases some juice, but is not totally crushed, and sugar dissolves. Allow to stand for a minute. Stir in orange juice, Orange Liqueur, and wine, refrigerate for at least 2 or up to 8 hours.

Before serving, add a tray of ice cubes and stir briskly to distribute settled fruit and pulp, serve immediately.

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A refreshing non alcoholic punch for adults and children alike. It looks quite similar to the Sangria, so nobody will feel cheated, but don't get them mixed up !

2 large juicy oranges, washed, one orange sliced and the remaining orange juiced
1 large lemon, washed and sliced
2 T (30 ml) sugar
½ cup (125 ml) frozen orange concentrate
750 ml red grape juice (we used Grapetiser)
500 ml sparkling water

Add orange and lemon slices and sugar to a large jug. Mash gently with a wooden spoon until fruit releases some juice, but is not totally crushed, and sugar dissolves. Allow to stand for a 1 minute. Stir in both squeezed and frozen orange juice. Refrigerate.

Before serving, add sparkling grape juice, sparkling water and ice cubes and stir briskly to distribute settled fruit and pulp. Serve immediately.

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Boerewors Submarines 

Keep the boerewors straight during braaing by cooking them on sosatie sticks. To develop maximum flavour and keep the sausage juicy we marinate before and baste during cooking. Do not overcook.

2 kg best quality boerewors
Sosatie sticks
1 cup (250 ml) Ina Paarman's Barbeque Marinade
3 long French loaves
olive oil
2 butter lettuce, washed and broken into smaller pieces
6-8 very ripe red tomatoes, sliced
Ina Paarman's Green Onion Seasoning
3-4 onions, sliced into rings
1 x 200 ml Ina Paarman's Steak & Burger Sauce

Cut the wors into 15 cm lengths and push an oiled sosatie stick through each piece. Cut through the skin of the sausage along the length with a pair of kitchen scissors and remove the skin. This helps the marinade to penetrate better. Pour some of the Barbeque Marinade into a flat platter and roll the skewered sausages in the marinade to coat the meat. Pile coated sausages on a clean plate. Cover and leave in the fridge until ready to braai. Can be overnight or even just an hour.

Braai over hot coals, turn and baste with fresh Marinade at regular intervals. The sausages will cook much faster without the skin, therefore be careful not to overcook and dry them out.

Towards the end of the cooking time, put the whole unsliced French loaves on the braai and toast the outside. Remove loaves from the braai and slice lengthways, but not right through. Remove some of the soft interior of the bread and drizzle the inside with olive oil. Line the bread with green leaves and sliced tomatoes seasoned with Green Onion Seasoning. Slash the sausages along the length and lift out the sosatie sticks. Lay the sausage along the length of the bread. Add onion rings. Snip the corner of the Steak & Burger Sauce and squeeze generously over the filling.

Cut into 5-10 cm lengths for serving.

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It is a good idea to butterfly the breasts before marinating and cooking. It speeds up braaing and adds a lot of flavour and moisture. Delicious in a roll with candied lemon slices, sundried tomatoes and fresh basil.

18 chicken breast fillets
Ina Paarman's Chicken Spice
1 cup (250 ml) Ina Paarman's Lemon Marinade
2 long French loaves
Olive oil
2 bags of fresh basil
1 x 240 g Ina Paarman's Sundried Tomato Quarters in Vinaigette
candied lemon slices, see recipe below
1 x 300 ml Ina Paarman's Lemon & Olive Oil Mayo Style Dressing

Butterfly each breast by cutting lengthways into the thickest side of the fillet, making sure not to cut right through.

Open and pound lightly to flatten the breasts to an even thickness.Season with Chicken Spice and coat with 1 cup of Lemon Marinade. Best done in a zip-lock plastic bag. Squeeze out all the air and refrigerate for up to 2 hours. Prepare the braai. Place the marinated breasts on the braai and press down to emphasise grill marks. Turn only when the first side is nicely marked, then turn and sear the other side. Do not overcook!

Towards the end of the cooking time, put the whole unsliced French loaf on the braai and toast the outside. Remove French loaves from braai and slice lengthways, but not right through. Remove some of the soft interior of the bread, if you like, and drizzle the inside with olive oil. Line the bread with fresh basil leaves. Drain the Sundried Tomato Quarters. Halve the cooked breasts and lay the halves along the length of the French loaf. Top slices of chicken with Sundried Tomato Quarters and candied lemon slices. Spoon or squeeze the Lemon & Olive Oil Mayo Style Dressing generously over the filling. Cut into 5-10 cm lengths for serving.

CANDIED LEMON OR LIME SLICES

1 cup (250 ml) water
¾ cup (150 g) white sugar
3 sprigs of lemon thyme or lemon grass
4 medium thin-skinned lemons or 6 limes, thinly sliced

Bring the water, sugar and lemon thyme to the boil. Add the sliced lemons or limes, cover and boil for 5 minutes. Pack hot into a clean glass jar and store in the fridge. Will keep for 3 months. Also very good with braaied fish.

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Roasted Butternut, Onion, Feta and Tomato 

Serve this salad on the side or use it as a vegetarian bread filling.

2 medium butternuts ± 2 kg
5 medium onions
2 T (30 ml) sugar
Ina Paarman's Green Onion Seasoning
1 x 300 ml Ina Paarman's Classic Balsamic Vinaigrette
1 x 250 g tub of feta cheese
1 x 500 g baby rosa or cherry tomatoes
1 punnet rocket leaves

Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Peel the butternut, remove seeds, and cut into 2 cm x 2 cm cubes. Place in a shallow ovenproof dish. Peel and cut each onion into eight wedges from top to bottom. Add the onion wedges to the butternut in the pan and sprinkle sugar over. Season generously with Green Onion Seasoning. Shake and pour the whole bottle of Vinaigrette over and toss to mix together. Roast uncovered for 1¼ hours. After 45 minutes stir, add cubed feta to roast with vegetables for the final half an hour.

Cut the baby tomatoes in half lengthwise. Season with Green Onion Seasoning and toss the raw tomatoes with the hot vegetables as soon as they come out of the oven. Leave to cool.

To serve, dish into a large bowl or platter and toss with rocket leaves.

VARIATION:

To make a de Luxe version, add 1 x 240 g of Ina's drained Sundried Tomato Quarters, when adding the fresh tomatos.

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1 large watermelon

Here is a campers tip to chill watermelon. Wrap the watermelon in a beach towel and place it in a dish with water, 2 cm deep. Keep the towel wet and the water topped up. Best to do this the night before. The reason why this old fashioned method works is that as the water evaporates out of the towel it draws the heat out of the watermelon.

Cut the cold watermelon into wedges. Don't remove the pips. The kids can have a pip-spitting competition afterwards with a prize for the best spitter.

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Clown Birthday Cake   

We have used our Vanilla Cake Mix to bake the Clown Cake. You will need 2 boxes of Cake Mix. One for the face and one for the hat etc.

2 x Ina Paarman's Vanilla Cake Mix
6 extra large eggs at room temperature
1½ cups (375 ml) oil
2 cups (500 ml) milk

Butter and line the bases of two cake tins - one round 22 cm pan and the other a square 22 cm pan.

You can mix both cakes in one batch, just remember to use a big enough mixing bowl.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Beat eggs and oil for 2 minutes on high speed until well blended. Add milk and beat for 1 minute on high speed. Add Vanilla Cake Mixes. Beat very slowly until the mixture is evenly blended in. The mixture will be fairly soft and runny. Scrape the mixture into prepared pans. Bake on middle shelf for 45 minutes. Cake is done when a thin-bladed knife inserted in the centre comes out clean or cake pulls away slightly from the sides of the pan. Cool completely before icing.

Butter Icing

1 cup (250 g) butter, softened but not oily
4 cups (400 g) sifted icing sugar
± ½ cup (125 ml) water
food colouring e.g. red, green, blue etc.

Beat the butter until it is pale, then gradually beat in the sifted icing sugar until the mixture becomes crumbly. Add enough of the water while beating, to make a soft spreadable icing.

Use plain uncoloured icing for the face.

Tint half of the remaining icing green for the hat, a quarter blue for the tie and remaining quarter bright red for the lips, etc.

EXTRA

1 pkt instant noodles (for hair)
Toss the raw noodles with orange or yellow food colouring to tint the hair
1 pkt Astros, for hat
Liquorice strips for eyes and mouth
1 red Jawbreaker for the nose
birthday candles for hat
apricot ball for the bow tie's knot

TO CUT THE HAT
Find a halfway point on the top edge of the square cake. Place a ruler down on the cake from the halfway point to the bottom corner. Cut and repeat on the other side. Ice the hat.

TO CUT THE BOW TIE
Cut two smaller even sized triangles from the remaining pieces. Give the leftover cake to your hungry helpers! Ice the bowtie pieces.

TO ASSEMBLE
Place the round cake on a foil covered board. Ice the face. Place iced hat and bowties in position. Now add the detail as shown in photograph.

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We have made these bumble bee cakes in miniature chocolate paper cups because there is always so much waste with the children only taking one or two bites, besides, the adults only want a taste. Stand the paper cups in mini-muffin tins to keep their shape while baking.

3 extra large or jumbo eggs
1 cup (250 ml) oil
1 cup (250 ml) black coffee ( made up with 2t coffee granules and 250 ml hot water)
1 x 650g Ina Paarman's Chocolate Cake Mix
± 72 small paper cups

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line mini muffin pans with small paper cups. Beat eggs and oil for 2 minutes on high speed until well blended. Add black coffee and beat for 1 minute on high speed.

Add Chocolate Cake Mix and beat until combined on slow speed.

Pipe or spoon the mixture into paper cups. Only fill them up to 2/3 full. Bake for 15-18 minutes.

EXTRAS

Silver balls and liquorice ropes for eyes.
Rice paper for wings - see step-by-step instructions below on how to cut out wings

PATTERN FOR WINGS

Mark the middle of a sheet of rice paper and fold the sides in to meet on the marked line (see illustration).

BUTTER ICING

½ cup (125 g) butter, softened but not oily
2 cups (200 g) sifted icing sugar
3-4 T (45-60 ml) water
3 T (45 ml) cocoa powder
yellow food colouring

Beat the butter until it is pale, then gradually beat in the sifted icing sugar until the mixture becomes crumbly. Add the water slowly while beating it in.

Divide the prepared icing in half. Beat the cocoa powder into the one half and tint the other half bright yellow with the food colouring.

Pipe alternating yellow and brown stripes over the top of the cup cakes. Position the wings as illustrated. Cut the liquorice ropes into 2 mm thick rounds and position them for eyes. Stick on silver balls with a little remaining icing.

STEP 1: DESIGN	STEP 2: FOLDING THE PAPER	STEP 3: CUTTING ON FOLD

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