african style menu Green Pea Soup with Basil Venison Pie with Port and Prunes Sweet Potato Mash Sweet & Sour Roasted Beetroot Roasted Aubergine Salad Orange Nut Crunchies with Chocolate Drizzle Coffee

Green Pea Soup with Basil Pesto

Serves 6 starter portions

A pale green soup scented with basil, delicious either hot or cold.

1 medium or 2 small onions, peeled and chopped
1 large potato, peeled and cubed
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 t (5 ml) Ina Paarman's Green Onion Seasoning
4 T (60 ml) butter or olive oil
2 cups (300 g) frozen peas
4 cups (1 litre) water
4 x 25 g sachets Ina Paarman's Liquid Vegetable Stock or 3 T (45 ml)   of Vegetable Stock Powder
2 T (30 ml) Ina Paarman's Basil Pesto
½ cup (125 ml) fresh cream
Fresh basil to garnish

Gently sauté the onion, potato, garlic and Green Onion Seasoning in butter for 5 minutes without allowing it to colour. Adding the Green Onion Seasoning in the beginning helps to draw out the juices and prevents over browning. Add the peas (still frozen) and stir to coat them with the butter. Add the water and Liquid Stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Blend the mixture in a liquidiser or processor. Add Basil Pesto and cream. Taste for seasoning.

Reheat in the microwave or on the stove.

Divide the soup into bowls and garnish with the fresh basil.

Chef's Note:
For a thicker meal in one soup, use the whole 500 g pack of frozen peas.

Although fresh peas are not yet in season, the frozen alternative is excellent.

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Venison Pie with Port and Prunes

Serves 6

If venison is not available you can use beef (lean brisket). Do make the filling the day before, it improves with keeping. A good quality bought puff pastry will save time if that is a problem, but first prize remains our Sour Cream Pastry. Click here for recipe.

1 kg shoulder or leg of venison cut into 3cm x 3cm blocks
200 g lamb shank (optional)
125 g pipped prunes
1 cup (250 ml) ruby port
125 g streaky bacon
canola oil
2 T (30 ml) Ina Paarman's White Sauce Powder
1 T (15 ml) Ina Paarman's Meat Spice
2 medium onions, chopped
2 carrots, sliced into rings
2 bay leaves
4 cloves of garlic, sliced into slivers
2 cups (500 ml) water
2 x 25 g sachets of Ina Paarman's Liquid Beef Stock
¼ cup (60 ml) balsamic or red wine vinegar
400 g puff pastry
1 egg

Leave the meat out of the fridge to come to room temperature.
Soak the prunes in the port. Leave on one side.
Cut the bacon across the rashers into smaller pieces. Crisp them in about 2T of oil using a large ovenproof cast iron pot. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon but retain the oil in the pan.
Toss the cubed meat with the White Sauce Powder and brown in three batches in the oil. You may have to add a little more oil after each batch. Remove each batch of browned meat with a slotted spoon and keep on one side. Season with Meat Spice after browning. Adjust the oven shelf to one below the middle and pre-heat the oven to 150°C.
Brown the onions with a little more oil. Add the carrots, bay leaves and garlic. Stir through for 1 minute.
Add the water and Liquid Beef Stock. Bring to the boil. Add the meat. Cover the pot with a lid.
Bake for 2½-3 hours until the meat is fork tender. Spoon the meat out with a slotted spoon. Put the pot back on the stove and strain the port into the sauce. Boil sauce very fast, without a lid, until reduced by half. Return meat to the sauce.
Add the prunes and bacon. Taste for seasoning, add balsamic vinegar to balance the sweetness of the port. Leave the filling to cool down completely.

Dish the filling into a 30 cm pie dish with a little lip all round. Position an upside down egg cup in the middle to support the pastry.

Cover the pie with pastry and scallop the edges (see picture).

All this can be done the day before - refrigerate the pie or it can be frozen for a month.
Adjust the oven to 2 slots below the middle. Preheat to 200°C.
Beat the egg with a pinch of salt. Brush the egg over the pastry.
Bake for ± 35 minutes until well browned.

Note: a very cold pie will require a longer baking time ± 50 minutes. Cover the pie crust with baking paper after 35 minutes to avoid over browning.

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Sweet Potato Mash

Serves 6

Sweet potatoes are a Vit A rich alternative to regular potatoes. If you cook them in the microwave, in their skins, with a dash of water, they only take a few minutes.

4-5 sweet potatoes
Ina Paarman's Potato Spice
2 T (30 ml) butter or olive oil

Prick the skins of sweet potatoes a few times with a fork. Put onto a pie dish and add ¼ cup of water. Microwave, uncovered, for ± 15 minutes (depending on your oven) on high until they are soft when squeezed. Leave to stand for 5 minutes. Cut in half lengthways and scoop out the flesh. Mash with ± 2-3 t of Potato Spice and the butter. Sprinkle with a little extra Potato Spice when dished up in the serving bowl.

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Sweet & Sour Roasted Beetroot

Serves 6

I always shy away from recipes that tell me to roast beetroot for an hour or more in the oven. It is such an uneconomical use of oven space unless you are using the oven for another dish as well. Boil the beetroot first, peel and slice before roasting with this delicious spicy sweet and sour glaze.

1 kg medium beetroot (± 8 whole)
1 roll of cinnamon, broken up into long strips
1 T (15 ml) canola oil
grated rind of one lemon
¼ cup (60 ml) fresh lemon juice
3 T (45 ml) brown sugar
2 t (10 ml) Ina Paarman's Vegetable Spice or Green Onion Seasoning

Wash the beetroot, don't trim the root end. Cut the leafy ends with 5cm still attached. Cover with water and boil, for ± 35 minutes until just tender (keep the lid on the pot while cooking). When tender, cool to touch temperature and peel.

Cut each into 8 wedges. Toss with cinnamon, canola oil, lemon rind, lemon juice, brown sugar and seasoning. Mix well. Dish into an ovenproof dish and cook with the pie at 200°C for 35 minutes.

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Roasted Aubergine Salad

Serves 6

Aubergines are very heart healthy and I am always looking for new and interesting ways to prepare them. Besides, they are abundantly available in autumn and early winter.

2 large aubergines (eggplant)
Ina Paarman's Seasoned Sea Salt
1 orange
1 lemon
200 g cherry tomatoes
1 red onion, diced
2-4 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
1 T (15 ml) sugar
½ cup (125 ml) Ina Paarman's Greek Vinaigrette
½ cup (125 ml) fresh mint, roughly chopped

Dice the aubergines into 2cm x 2cm cubes, season them lightly with Seasoned Sea Salt and leave in a colander to sweat for 30 minutes. Grate the rind from both the orange and lemon and squeeze the juice. Adjust the oven shelf to the middle position and preheat the oven to 200°C. Spread the seasoned aubergines out in a big baking pan. Add the orange and lemon juices (reserve the rind for later). Add half of the cherry tomatoes (keep them whole), chopped onion and garlic. Sprinkle the sugar over. Bake for ± 45 minutes until aubergine is soft and browning. Leave to cool.

Just before serving toss gently with Greek Vinaigrette, remaining cherry tomatoes (halved), mint and grated orange and lemon rind.

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Orange Nut Crunchies with Chocolate Drizzle

Makes about 36 crunchies

We have found it is an excellent idea to mix crunchies the day before, to flatten them in a lined Swiss roll pan, they can be covered and left in the fridge. Bake them fresh on the day when you need them.

Do watch the vidio before you start !

Click here (35MB) to download to your computer. You will need the Apple Quicktime Player, download here, if you don't already have the player.

125 g butter
2 T (30 ml) golden syrup
1 orange
1 x 530 g packet of Ina Paarman's Honey Crunchies with Cinnamon
½ cup (50 g) chopped pecan nuts, almonds or cashews
90 g Cadbury's dark chocolate

Butter and line the base of a Swiss roll pan with baking paper.
Place the butter and golden syrup in a micro proof mixing bowl and microwave on high for 1 minute until melted. Grate the zest from the orange and squeeze the juice from one orange half. Add the grated zest and the juice to the melted butter mixture. Add the contents of pack, and chopped nuts to the melted butter mixture and stir with a spatula until all the dry ingredients are well coated.

Flatten the mixture into the prepared pan and level the top with the back of a tablespoon or small palette knife. Bake straight away or leave to stand overnight. Bake on the middle shelf of an oven preheated to 140°C.
Bake for 30-35 minutes. Cut into 3cm x 3cm squares while hot and leave to cool completely before drizzling with chocolate. Melt the chocolate gently over warm water or in the microwave. Spoon melted chocolate into a small sandwich bag. Squeeze to one of the bottom corners and snip a tiny hole in that corner. Drizzle with chocolate. Pile up on a serving plate.
Serve with coffee.

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This month's wine sponsor: Cheviot Winery

Cheviot Winery are giving away five bottles of their 2006 Cheviot Syrah to this month's lucky winners!

THE CHEVIOT WINERY was established in 2003 by Elmari Swart (M.Sc Oenology) and Jaap Scholten to produce small quantities of excellent wine which would reflect the nature and character of their source vineyards and express the differences apparent in vintages. Our winemaking philosophy has three guiding principles: quality, purity and authenticity.

The focus of THE CHEVIOT is Syrah and we strive to produce wines which express this regal variety at its best. We source ripe fruit to give big, flavourful wines with silky, opulent tannins which remain elegant and balanced. No effort is spared in the selection of grapes, vinification and maturation and our passion is to produce wines which we enjoy drinking.