Chocolate Cheesecake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 packs chocolate wafers
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
220g dark chocolate (70%)
2 tubs full fat cream cheese (220g)
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
4 Tbsp cocao powder (unsweetened)
1 tsp vanilla extract
500ml sour cream
4 Tbsp Amarula cream (Cape Velvet or Baileys Irish Cream works just as well)

Method:

Crush the wafers with a rolling pin add the sugar and melted butter and mix well.
Press mixture carefully onto sides and bottom of a 23cm springform pan. Chill in the fridge.
Cream sugar and cheese.
Add eggs one at a time and mix until very smooth.
Melt chocolate in a glass bowl over hot water. Add to cheese mixture and mix well.
Add vanilla, cocoa, sour cream, and Amarula and mix well.
Pour into prepared pan and bake at 180C for 45 minutes.
Cool thoroughly in pan, then chill In the fridge.

Chocolate Ganache Topping:

200g Chocolate broken into pieces
3/4 cup cream

Place chocolate pieces in a large bowl.
Heat the cream until it comes to a boil.
Remove from heat and immediately pour cream over chocolate and stir until completely mixed and glossy.
Allow ganache to cool before pouring on cheesecake.

Chill cake for a least 6 hours. Decorate with chocolate shavings.
Serves 12

Smoked Snoek Paté

One of my Facebook friends, Dawn Henderson-Stewart, asked for an authentic South African recipe and I can think of nothing more authentic than snoek paté.  If you don't have snoek you can use any smoked fish - mackerel or angel fish make good substitutes.

Ingredients:

300g smoked snoek deboned and flaked
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 Tbsp dill, chopped
1 Tbsp chopped green onion (scallion)
1 tub cream cheese
1/2 tsp tomato sauce (ketchup)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
A dash of hot sauce (Tabasco)
salt and pepper to taste.

Method:

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz for about 2 minutes until all the ingredients are combined and have formed a smooth paste.

Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Serve with melba toast or whole wheat bread.

Chicken Caesar Salad

Cobus loves Caesar salad and I make this quite often. I am including the recipe for the salad dressing, but to my shame I have to admit that, being the sloth I am, I use Ina Paarman's Caesar salad dressing.

Ingredients:

4 skinless chicken breasts - cooked ( I fry mine in a little oil with a bit of salt and paprika)
1 packet lettuce - torn ( again, use what you like or what you have handy)
250g cooked crispy bacon
1 cup croutons. (don't have these? cut up slices of white bread into blocks and fry for a few seconds in hot oil)
1 Avocado sliced into squares
Parmesan shavings

Ok.... now for the salad dressing.  I know that it's supposed to have coddled egg yolk (yeah, you read right and life's too short to coddle an egg yolk) etc etc, but I found this recipe for Caesar dressing ages ago and it's really lekker (yummy).


Ingredients:

2 Tbsp mayonnaise (lite works just as well)
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 clove of mined or finely grated Garlic
2 Tbsp Fresh grated parmesan chees
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
11/2 Tbsp anchovy paste (fish paste)
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil


Method:

Whisk together everything except the olive oil. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil whilst whisking.


Assembling the Salad:

Put some of the dressing in the bottom of a salad bowl (as much or as little as you like). Coat all the ingredients. Serve with Parmesan shavings and extra dressing.

Ricotta and Spinach Puffs

These are super as canapes. 

Ingredients:

2 Packets of rolled puff pastry
500g fresh spinach - chopped
1 Tbsp salt
500g pound ricotta
2 eggs (one for the filling and one for egg-washing)
2 Tbsp cream
4 Tbsp grated Parmigiano Reggiano
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Pinch black pepper

Method:

Preheat oven to 18C
Cut the puff pastry into largish squares.
Beat 1 egg in a small bowl and brush the edges of the pastry.
Plunge the spinach into boiling water and leave for 2 minutes. Remove and plunge into a bowl of ice water.
In a large bowl combine all the ingredients.
Place the mixture on one half of the pastry and fold the pastry into rectangles. Press the party sides together to make sure that the triangles are well sealed.
Brush the top of the triangles with the remaining egg wash.
Bake in preheated 180C oven for about 20 minutes or until the pastry is puffed up and golden.

Spinach and Raspberry Salad

This must be without a doubt my favourite salad.  It's tart, sweet, crunchy - all the things you want. I make a white vinagrette for this salad.

Ingredients - White Vinaigrette:

2 Tbsp Cider Vinegar
3 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tsp Dijon Mustard
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 bruised clove garlic

Method:
Whisk together until emulsified. Remove the garlic clove.

Ingredients - Salad:

1 Packet spinach leaves.
1 Punnet raspberries
A handful chopped walnuts
1 cup blue cheese - broken into pieces
4 preserved green figs cut into small pieces

Method:

Toss together in a large salad bowl.
Drizzle with vinaigrette

Tip:  If I'm going to serve the salad immediately, I toss the spinach leaves in the vinaigrette and then all all the other ingredients.  Sometimes I just coat the spinach with the vinaigrette and keep all the other ingredients separate and assemble the salad on individual plates. In that way, if I have left over ingredients, they don't go to waste.

Creme Brulee

Ingredients:

8 egg yolks
1 cup castor sugar
2 tsp vamilla extract
750ml cream
250ml milk
1/4 cup brown sugar. (demerara)

Method:

Place the egg yolks and castor sugar in a bowl and add the vanilla and whisk.
Stir in the cream and milk.
Pass the mix through a sieve and divide between six small ramekins. (I sieve it into jug so that I can easily pour the mixture)
Place in a pre-heated 140C oven in a bain marie of hot water (a oven dish with water that comes half way up the sides of the ramekins) and cook for about 1½ - 2 hours until set on the top.
Remove from the oven and cool.
Place in the fridge until set (about an hour).
Sprinkle the surface with the brown sugar and place under the grill until golden brown. (If you're one of those people who has all the gadgets, use a blow torch to caramelise the sugar)

Trinchado (Beef Cubes in a Red Wine Sauce)

Ingredients:

50ml Worcester sauce
1 cup red wine
4 cloves crushed garlic
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon peri peri
3 small red chillies chopped with the seeds
Butter and oil for frying
1 kg rump steak cubed
3 tablespoons flour
1 large onion finely chopped
1/2 cup of beef stock.
Water
Black olives

Method:

Make a marinade with the Worcester Sauce, red wine, garlic, bay leaf, salt, pepper, paprika, peri peri and chillies.
Put the beef into a big zip lock plastic bag and pour in the marinade.
Place the bag in the fridge for a few hours - overnight is ideal but if you're like me and only think of tonight's supper today, marinade for about 4 hours.
Remove the beef cubes into a colander and leave to drain.  Pat the beef dry with kitchen paper towel.  (You are going to fry the beef and you don't want it to stew)
Heat the butter and oil in a large pot until really hot.
Fry the beef cubes in batches for a few minutes until brown.  Set the beef aside in a dish.
Add the onion to the pot and brown.
Add the beef stock.
Strain the marinade and stir in the flour.  ( I use a whisk)
Add the marinade to the pot and stir so that you don't get lumps.
Add water to make a good amount of sauce. (This is not a thick sauce by any means)
Simmer the sauce for 10 minutes. Keep adding water if it gets too thick.
Remove the pot from the stove and return the meat cubes and any juices to the pot.
Coat the beef with the sauce.
Toss in a few black olives - nice but not essential.
Serve in a bowl with lots of sauce and crusty Portuguese bread.

I like really hot and spicy Trinchado, but if you're not into very hot food, remove the seeds from the chillies and leave out the peri peri.