Salad Days I

25 January 2016 ~ Fiona ~ 9 Comments

No, I’m not referring to either my youth or the best days of my life, but rather to logical menu choices during the hottest summer in many, many years. Certainly since we arrived in McGregor.

The average maximum temperature, this December was 31ºC (89ºF)*, a degree higher than 2014, as was the average minimum, at 19ºC (66ºF). More interesting, though, are the spikes: the highest maximum was 41ºC (106ºF) as opposed to “only” 37ºC (99ºF) the previous year. This is the type of heat that we usually associate with February, and when summer crops are virtually all harvested. The heat, the wind and the humidity without rain, has taken its toll; the grape harvest has started earlier than the farmers can remember. Wonder what it will mean for 2016’s wines?

The impact of the heat and the equally desiccating wind shows:

Willow_Jan2016 — Summer fall: Neighbours’ willow, virtually naked of leaves.

SAM_5769 — A glorious, yellow leaf carpet.

And because we water only the vegetables and flower beds, the grass is, in places, crisp underfoot.

In that heat, the menu has to be dominated by salads, but because (as you’ve heard me say so often) one can have too much of a good thing, innovation is important. There are only so many carrot sticks one can eat and watermelon can do more than serve as a refreshing fruit (especially when there’s only two…).

Watermelon provided the base for the h’ordeuvres for Christmas dinner and was a refreshing and flavourful salad that’s already become a favourite, as has the carrot salad that formed part of the main course.

Watermelon, feta and olive salad

For the Christmas menu, I had planned what has become for many of our friends, one of my signature dishes: Jamie Oliver’s Thai Watermelon Salad. It’s one of those recipes that needs all the ingredients, so if one can’t get them, it has to be plan B. This year, because of the heat, it was impossible to find any fresh coriander. So, with an enormous watermelon in fridge….the watermelon had to be used…it wasn’t paying rent. At that late stage, visit to the local shop was out of the question, so I had to make do with what was in the pantry and in the garden. Another celebrity chef to the rescue: Nigella Lawson. I had everything except the limes, but there was lime juice in a bottle. Problem solved.

Ingredients

1 small red onion
4 limes
3 ¼ lb watermelon (sweet and ripe)
8 oz feta cheese
1 bunch fresh Italian parsley
1 bunch fresh mint (chopped)
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
⅔ cup pitted black olives
black pepper

Peel and halve the red onion and slice thinly. Put this in a small bowl to infuse with the lime juice.

Peal the watermelon, and cut into approximately 4cm / 1½ inch triangular chunks, removing as many pips as possible. Cut the feta into similar sizes and put them both into a large, wide shallow bowl. Tear off sprigs of parsley so that it is used like a salad leaf, rather than a garnish, and add to the bowl along with the chopped mint.

Pour the onions, with the juice over the salad in the bowl, add the oil and olives. Gently toss the salad so as not to break up the feta and melon. Add freshly ground black pepper and taste to see whether you need to add more lime juice.

This is a very pretty salad which worked well to add a touch of red to our white Christmas – and is so easy to make which is belied by the really interesting combination of flavours: it’s all about getting the proportions right. I’ve done it both with and without mint which has been equally acceptable.

Roasted Carrot Salad

A raw carrot salad with dill was also supposed to have featured on the Christmas menu. Until The Husband discovered that the gardener had “weeded” the dill that he had been carefully nurturing. Needless to say, “we” were not amused, so with plan B underway, it had to be “plan Z”. A few recipes were reviewed, The Husband consulted; Roasted Carrot Salad was selected. I had to make some adaptations. These and what I’ve subsequently done, come after the original recipe by Morgan Nowicki:

Ingredients

2 pounds (1,8kg) carrots, peeled and thinly sliced on the diagonal
1/2 cup slivered almonds
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
salt and ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1 (4 oz) package crumbled Danish blue cheese
2 cups arugula (rocket)

What to do

Preheat an oven to 400ºF (200ºC).

Combine the carrots, almonds, and garlic in a mixing bowl. Drizzle with the olive oil, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Spread out onto an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake the carrots until soft and the edges turn brown, about 30 minutes. Remove and allow to cool to room temperature.

Once cool, return the carrots to the mixing bowl, and drizzle with honey and vinegar; toss until coated. Add the cranberries and blue cheese; toss again until evenly mixed. Combine with the arugula and serve immediately.

What I did

Because I didn’t have almonds or cranberries, I omitted the latter and substituted the almonds with pumpkin seeds. I also elected to roast the carrots in larger chunks – either whole or cut longitudinally and the cloves of garlic were roasted, whole.** I also elected not to toss the rocket leaves with the carrots, but rather to present them on a bed of rocket.

The result was acceptable, but more acceptable, was the second time I made this, when I –

par-boiled and then roasted the whole carrots and
substituted the almonds with crushed macadamian nuts which were roasted with the carrots and garlic.

On this occasion, and because I knew that I’d roasted more than we needed, I simply plated the carrots with the cheese and served the leaves separately. The carrots we didn’t eat, kept well in the fridge for another meal.

And now, it’s back to the weather…

Certain parts of South Africa are in the throes of a drought; some say that it’s the worst in 20 years, others 50. Either way, the figure is moot when some farmers haven’t been able to plant crops and the maize harvest will be the lowest for 20 years. Farmers unable to feed their livestock, are sending animals to other provinces and suitable grazing, or to slaughter. There are towns without water and which are being supplied by generous members of the public. So meat, for the moment is cheap, but when that’s gone, that and all other food prices will skyrocket. Not helped by our currency with is currently sailing through the doldrums.

So, this, the heat and an abundance of tomatoes, and other crops coming, all mean that our salad days are set to continue.

Clouds that promise rain but only bring unbearable humidity. — Clouds that dance around the mountains, promising rain but only bring unbearable humidity.

* Data supplied by The Husband who diligently records the daily maximum and minimum temperatures and the rainfall.
** Roasting minced/crushed garlic can end up with it being overdone and bitter. Rather roast the cloves whole and then squeeze out the creamy garlic and mix it in with the dressing/liquids to drizzle over the salad.

Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

28 October 201412 April 2020 ~ Fiona ~ Leave a comment

This is a warm pasta salad with roasted peppers, cilantro and ginger – another of my “made-up” dishes. I had not made it for a while when I saw Jamie’s recipe for roasted red pepper and walnut spread. This prompted me to make it again.

Ingredients:

Sweet bell peppers. I generally use robot peppers as that gives great colour variation, but go lightly on the green peppers because they have much stronger flavour. This time I used red peppers with yellow (small and end-of-season) ones.
Fresh ginger, grated
Fresh cilantro (coriander and, in South Africa, also known as Dhanya). We still have some in the garden which is flowering – so I used the feathery leaves, green seeds and flowers for garnish
Clove of garlic (I add it to the water in which the pasta cooks and after I’ve drained the pasta, I squeeze out the creamy flesh, mash it and add it to the cooked pasta).
Cheese – this time I used lovely Labneh made by a McGregor resident, but cheddar and/or another mild cheese works equally well)
Pasta (commercial or home made)

Here’s what I do: Roast the peppers, cool and and then peel them, removing seeds and any pith. The peppers release juice – I reserve that – the flavour is wonderful. Slice or tear the peppers into slivers. Once the pasta is cooked and drained, and a little olive oil tossed in, the rest of the ingredients, except for the cheese and some of the fresh dhanya, are equally unceremoniously tossed in and about. Plate in a pasta bowl and garnish with the cheese and reserved cilantro. Serve immediately (on hot plates if the weather is cold; in summer I don’t bother).

Here today, gone tomorrow!

12 October 2014 ~ Fiona ~ Leave a comment

Here today, gone tomorrow just about epitomises last week.

Summer arrived with a vengeance on Monday and the thermometer hit 38 degrees Celsius (just over 100 Fahrenheit). Overnight, a little swarm of bees took residence in our Cotoneaster. We were delighted because a couple of months ago, a local beekeeper had put an empty hive on our plot and we’ve been waiting patiently for a swarm to occupy it. Bee man said to leave them alone. “They’ve already decided where they’re going….”

Wednesday dawned: cool and blustery and got progressively more blustery and cold. By evening it was pouring with rain. After Monday’s heat, this was all a bit much, so I persuaded The Husband to light the fire; I know he thought I was being extra dramatic. Wonderful man: he indulged me.

When Pearli thundered home, bang-crash-wallop through the cat flap, she was very glad to discover a lovely warm fire. And the sofa, with its pristine throw, was just the place to dry off. Of course.

I had planned omelettes and salad for supper, but with the cold, I thought that something more warming and stew-like would be in order. But what? Whatever I made would have to have egg or cheese as the protein, and whatever else was in the kitchen, garden, or the fridge. Thursday is shopping day, so the proverbial pantry was rather bare.

Fortunately, and don’t ask me why, we had a large number of tomatoes and in the fridge I found courgette, sweet bell peppers and mushrooms (these we would have had in the omelette, anyway). In the garden there is fennel, oregano and parsley, all of which go well with both eggs and tomatoes. Fortunately we both like egg and tomato. My dad didn’t, and nor do a few other people I know…

So, in the wok, I made a tomato stew with sautéd onions and garlic to which I added chopped peppers, mushrooms and courgette, with some fennel. I let all of that brew for a little while – not too long so that the vegetables keep some crunch. When it was all bubbling nicely, with a good bit of liquid, I made four “wells” in the stew, and broke an egg into each. I put the lid on the wok and let the eggs poach in the tomato stew until they were ready.

Boy, did we need that warm stew. It was a cold night and we woke to snow on Thursday morning – summer was gone – and our little swarm of bees had huddled themselves into a tiny little ball.

And by Sunday, winter had retreated. And our swarm of bees, still here yesterday, was gone. Our empty hive is still empty.

Anyone for eggs?

25 August 2014 ~ Fiona ~ Leave a comment

I have always loved eggs. As a little girl, I loved eating Dad’s scrambled eggs; of course I had had my own, but they were much nicer when I perched on his knee, eating them off his plate. He loved his eggs on buttery toast and topped with a good sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper. Another “egg” memory associated with Dad, and which I’ve mentioned before, is my (actually Dad….) bidding for the winning egg and succeeding, at the Gonubie Agricultural Show. I guess those eggs must have been quite expensive in the grand scheme of things. Why was I besotted with those particular eggs? I have no idea, except that they were generally a beautiful white, not the brown we are used to, now. And always double yolkers.

Eggs feature quite a bit on our menu; fortunately, we both could eat them for breakfast, lunch and supper! There was a time when an egg-rich diet was considered potentially dangerous. Not so, nowadays, and for two key reasons, it seems: they don’t contain “bad” cholesterol, and it would appear that there are now even questions about whether cholesterol is the consequence of too much unsaturated fat. Adding fuel to this fire is the move to a low carbohydrate, high-fat diet – people are Banting bonkers at the moment. I’m not knocking it as I have been leaning in that general direction for a while…

Eggs are an essential ingredient in many things we eat, often without realising it, for example mayonnaise, cakes and cookies, rich pastries and of course, in custards, including the savoury custard in a quiche. My home made pasta is egg-rich. So, we eat eggs, often, and not just for breakfast.

Breakfast

Over the weekend, have sort of a ritual. I loathe early mornings and am virtually non-functional, so what needs to be done must be done in “auto pilot”. On a Saturday, because there is no alarm, things are a little more leisurely, but we still need to be at the McGregor pop-up market, and set up by nine o’clock, so our day begins without breakfast.After the market, we get home and unpack the bakkie (also known, depending on where you live, as a pick-up or ute), and Tom does breakfast: soft boiled eggs, toast and coffee. He’s a real egg-boiling pro, and if the batch of eggs contains a speckled one – it’s always mine! The speckled egg is another throwback to my childhood and Alison Uttley’s wonderful stories about Grey Rabbit and Speckeld Hen; stories that my granny read to us when she visited South Africa in 1969 into 1970. A “speckeldy” egg always gets me clucking with childlike delight!

Sunday is a whole different ball game; breakfast is the full catastrophe! Fried egg, beautiful, homemade bacon, fried tomato, mushroom, brinjal, potato… And, needless to say, toast or croissant, and coffee. We love our Sunday brunch which, weather permitting, we usually eat on our lovely, sunny veranda.

Lunch

So, if that was breakfast, what about lunch, you ask. Well, ever since I was a tot, a favourite sandwich was egg mayonnaise – it still is. I even enjoyed the ones we got at boarding school! There can be few things more delicious than lovely fresh bread, hard boiled egg, grated and mixed with home made mayonnaise, seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Jazz that up with some fresh parsley, a lettuce leaf and some sliced tomato, and you have a feast!

But you don’t have to stop there: firm, but not quite hard-boiled eggs (so that the yolk is not quite cooked and a lovely rich, orange colour), added to a green salad are delicious, on a hot summer’s day.

On a cooler day, here’s a thought: poached eggs on freshly picked spinach, wilted, with tomatoes, topped with a dollop of cottage cheese, grilled. Fresh fennel goes well with all of these components, so I use it both as a garnish and as an element in the meal – with or without lovely crusty bread.About poaching eggs: make sure that your eggs are as fresh as possible, and add a little vinegar to the water when you cook them. Once they’re cooked to your taste, remove them with a slotted spoon and place them on a cloth (not paper towel – it sticks to the egg and is hard to get off). Allow them to drain for a little while – there is nothing worse than a poached egg that deposits puddles of water over your plate!

Supper

A regular supper, one night during the week, has egg as the main protein, in one form or another: an omelette, a Spanish Omelette, a frittata, or a quiche, accompanied by a garden salad. A two-egg omelette, with a filling of your choice, which includes cheese, is a really filling and easy meal.If you’re nervous about folding an omelette, and other than practice, my technique is to make sure that I use a pan that is the right size, and I don’t believe anything is non-stick, so I always add a knob of butter and olive oil. Don’t overheat the pan…. Once the eggs are in the pan, don’t fiddle with them until you see that the edges are cooking. Then, with a small egg lifter, draw a little egg towards the centre and allow the runny egg to flow out to the edge. Once the egg is mostly cooked, add your filling – on one side and then gently lift the other over it.

Another tip about folding omelettes over their fillings: make sure that you have the pan handle at nine o’clock. Put the filling on the same side, between twelve and six o’clock. Then you can comfortably hold the pan and gently lift the other side of the omelette over the filling, and then slide it onto a warm plate. If you’re left handed, do it the other way round, i.e. have the handle at three o’clock, etc…

Have a look at another supper that includes eggs, cooked in a tomato sauce….

Veg-ing out

17 August 2014 ~ Fiona ~ Leave a comment

I have flirted with vegetarianism on and off for about thirty years, particularly when I lived alone – which I have done, not unhappily, on and off, until I finally settled down with Tom. One of the first, if not the first, recipe book I bought, was the A – Z of Vegetarian Cooking in South Africa. And two of our favourite quiche fillings (leek & onion, and spinach & feta) are based on recipes from this book. I do confess that I work very hard at not thinking about the journey that meat must take to reach my kitchen.

Consequently, entertaining friends who are vegetarian is fun! Well, I think so, anyway. For some, it’s a challenge, so I thought I’d share with you what I did when our neighbours joined us for a long overdue dinner, a few weeks ago.

It was a Friday evening and Fridays are my day in the kitchen, preparing for the market. This particular Friday, I was really in the mode, so it was in for a penny, in for a pound. The broccoli was ready to pick and we had ripe gooseberries, so there were two ready ingredients.

That said, it was cold and miserable and had the makings of becoming even more so, and what is more warming than cottage pie, I thought. So, instead of the beef mince, I used beautiful green lentils, soaked and cooked, that were added to sautéd onions and mushrooms. This was seasoned with chopped garlic, some tomato paste, a twig of fresh rosemary and a good glug of red wine. A lesson I learned, and which I had forgotten, was that it’s really easy to let this mixture dry out – watch it and add water and/or vegetable stock so that it stays nice and moist as the flavours develop. Transferred to an oven proof dish, this was topped with a potato and butternut mash, dotted with knobs of butter and baked in the oven for about 20 minutes to half an hour. The butter is what gives you the crispy, caremelised crust on the cottage pie which was served with a garden salad.

So, we started our dinner with broccoli soup, made with the first picking, and discovered to my delight, that not only does Ant enjoy soup, but particularly loves creamy ones.

For dessert, we had a gooseberry tart with jam I had made earlier in the day.

No meal is complete without wine. We don’t really do the wine-pairing thing. Although we do take the menu into consideration, we choose what we like, and what we think our guests will like. As usual, we chose beautiful wines from our valley: Tanagra‘s Heavenly Chaos (isn’t that a wonderful name for a wine?), a lovely red blend, which is beautifully different every year, and Springfield’s Life from Stone, one of my favourite Sauvignon Blanc wines.

Pat and Ant, it was fun – we’ll do it again!

Eating to live and living to eat?

17 July 2014 ~ Fiona ~ Leave a comment

I enjoy preparing and eating food. I lost my sweet tooth a long time ago, although I do enjoy the odd dessert from time to time. My preference is for uncomplicated meals which, in old fashioned language, would have been known as “balanced”. Although not vegetarian, I prefer not to eat meat every day, eating quite a few vegetarian meals – often with eggs and cheese.

Over the last few weeks I have heard and read much about converts to the Banting diet, and similarly also heard what the detractors are saying about it. Also, over the past few months, I have made certain choices about my own eating habits: in mid-January, I decided to try to do without bread and potatoes. During the week.

I know from previous efforts at diets that they are deadly: for personal harmony and for the weekly menu, particularly if it’s not just me that’s to be considered. So, I decided that those were the only two things that I would change – and only for me. I continued having my evening tipple and cooking dinner in exactly the same way as I always had. Lunches, for me, are salads which include either lots of cheese or cold chicken and, sometimes quiche or soup (there is always a protein, and with most tasty protein, there is fat). As time has progressed, I have found myself avoiding other starches, particularly rice and commercial pasta. I make my own pasta, and as I’ve mentioned before, that has had an impact on the quantity we eat per serving, so I’m still eating that. Also, when we entertain, I still make and keep our guests company with dessert, and the menu choices are not influenced by my particular proclivities.

Since I’ve been thinking consciously about these choices, and as more and more people are Banting, I have realised that for some, their conversion to a particular eating regime has become an all or nothing affair. Similarly, I am astounded, respect but fail to understand, people who go on diets that make them feel as though they are living in hell. Each to their own.

So, my “almost-no-carb-journey” has been a relatively easy one because I’ve not cut it completely. I have taken on board, with great relief, that full cream milk and butter are ok. (Tom has never approved of low fat anything…) I have long rejected margarine because of the way it was made, and what it consists of (and it tastes horrid). A few years ago, on examining the contents of yoghurt, come to the conclusion that Greek yoghurt was better for one than the low fat options that are full of sugar and starch stabilisers!

And then, there’s more: Having stuck to my choices, I no longer get hungry and consequently am not eating as much. I am happy to stop eating when I am satisfied. I thought that I would find it difficult to stick to this when I was travelling; it hasn’t been. It’s easy to “lose the chips” and order a burger without the bun.

And what has all of this meant in terms of my own well-being? I have certainly lost weight – my friends and my clothes are telling me so. I don’t have a scale, so I couldn’t tell you how much. I feel better in myself and have more energy. And best of all, because I do still get to enjoy a slice of toast and Bovril or pizza, and my glass(es) of wine, I really don’t miss the bread and potato.

So, I do eat to live, and I live to (cook and) eat!

Waste not, want not – I

10 July 2014 ~ Fiona ~ 7 Comments

Both my parents grew up in the UK in the Second World War: Mum in Oxford, where her mother took in evacuees and then later also billeted soldiers. Dad grew up in Glasgow, and with his sister, Belle, evacuated to a poultry farm . Consequently, we grew up constantly hearing, “waste not, want not”. Little was thrown away.

So, last Friday, I was making quiches. One of the fillings was broccoli and blue cheese. Having cut off the florets, I was left with this beautiful, thick broccoli stem.

Too good to put into the compost bucket, I thought; and it was a cold, cold day.

Soup is always a good lunch during winter, and a vegetable soup relatively quick to make. So, why not turn the stem into broccoli soup?

Here’s what I did: chopped an onion and sautéd it in a little butter, and then added about a table spoon of flour (you want the soup to have a bit of body). Covered the chopped stalk with vegetable stock and allowed it to boil. Simmer until the vegetables are soft; liquidise and then add some cheese (because I had some, I used Camembert) and liquidise again to ensure the cheese is well distributed. Re-heat and serve with sprinkling of freshly grated nutmeg.

Tips:

I use Ina Paarman’s vegetable stock powder – it’s a useful standby, and is neither too salty, nor has too many preservatives
Save some of the broccoli florets – steam them and add them to the soup when you serve it.
Of course, you can also add a swirl of cream or a dollop of Greek yoghurt to serve…

Sensational sandwiches

29 June 2014 ~ Fiona ~ 6 Comments

A sandwich is a sandwich, is a sandwich – or is it?

Since mid-January, I have forsworn bread and potatoes. I thought that it would be difficult, but it hasn’t been. I think that the main reason for this is that I made a decision that this was a choice rather than a rule. It was also my choice and no-one else’s. Why do I make this point? Well, I figured that if I allowed it to govern every meal I cooked, particularly over the weekend, I’d make everyone miserable. The upshot is that it’s the 5:2 approach – as far as possible….

We have a wonderful pop-up market in McGregor. You don’t always know what or who will be at the market. That means that you can’t be guaranteed bread, but when there is bread, it’s beautiful, often really healthy. There are a few bread makers in the village. One is Hester, who sadly doesn’t bake bread as often as she used to. Her potato Ciabatta are fantastic, wood-fired chunks of tasty bread. In addition to being great when fresh, they also make the most fantastic crostini that you can top with almost anything to make a really easy, sexy sarmie. To make crostini, heat the oven to about 200 Celsius and lightly brush each slice on both sides, place on a baking sheet and place in the oven for 10 – 12 minutes.

A spread of pesto, with tomato, cheeses, gherkins, pickled bell peppers and fresh herbs, in different combinations make a feast!

Corlie is another baker in the village. She makes a few lovely breads, and one we are particularly fond of, is a part rye bread. She makes it with molasses which gives it a lovely soft, spongy texture with a delicious malty flavour. I made this sarmie – unplanned – with what I had in the fridge:

On a slice of thin-ish bread, layer slivers of Camembert or brie, a warm, quick-fried slice of brinjal (warm is important – it begins to melt the cheese, and brings out its flavour), and top with a slice of fresh tomato and salt and pepper. Now spread a generous dollop of pesto over the second slice of bread and put the lid on your sandwich!These (even if I say so, myself) sensational sarmies are favourite Saturday or Sunday afternoon late lunches for us – in the garden – with a glass of wine from our lovely valley!

Beetroot: it’s beautiful – and delicious

4 May 2014 ~ Fiona ~ Leave a comment

We have a bumper beetroot crop at the moment and although it’s easy to bottle, it’s also great doing new things with it. Freshly pulled, beetroot cooks more quickly than when shop bought, and is beautifully tender and sweet – another reason not to just pickle it. Besides being delicious roasted or simply added to a leafy green salad, here are two salads that have become firm favourites with us.

This first one is often requested by our friends, so I suppose it has become one of my “signature” dishes. The other is a new addition to the repertoire. More of that in a mo….

Beetroot and plum salad

The original recipe for this salad comes from Fruit & Veg City’s range of recipe books which I have adapted (Not that there’s an outlet anywhere near McGregor…). I’ve served it on a large platter for a buffet meal, and this Christmas, served it plated, as a starter – either way, the presentation is the same, just the scale varies – and it’s very attractive.

In terms of quantity, I usually work on one beetroot (cooked and sliced) and plum per person and then work the leaves and other bits accordingly. Make sure that you select beetroot of similar sizes so that when you assemble your plate or platter, you don’t get all balled up because things don’t look right.

The salad consists of fresh plums, pitted and quartered, red onions, thinly sliced (or chopped spring onion leaves), all marinated, in a lemony vinaigrette for about an hour.

To assemble: if you’re using a platter, place a circle of overlapping slices of beetroot around the edge and then pile salad leaves in the centre (the original recipe says baby spinach), top with the plums, reserving some of the marinade, and sprinkle crumbled feta over these and then drizzle some of the remaining marinade over the plate.

Rocket, beetroot and goat’s cheese salad

We recently went to see the magnificent gardens at Babylonstoren. There is also a restaurant, Babel. The menu is based on seasonal fare with much of the produce from the garden and surrounding area. Although we didn’t eat there, we did get the book about the garden and its produce, and also some of the recipes they use. The approach is interesting, in that it talks about a particular vegetable, and what other ingredients compliment it. On the way home from our visit, we also passed Fairview and had bought some of their fabulous goat’s cheese.

So given both the glut of beetroot and my reluctance to use rocket (which, I think can be overpowering), I gave one of the combinations suggested a bash – beetroot, rocket and goat’s cheese. This is what I came up with: Beetroot on a bed of rocket, with slices of black pepper chevin, drizzled with lemon and parsley pesto.

It was delicious – the sweet beetroot is a fantastic counter to the peppery harshness of the rocket and the textures work beautifully.

And then, there’s more…

Remember that if you’re growing your own beetroot, the leaves are a wonderful addition to salads and stir fries. The flavour is rather earthy, like spinach, and young leaves add lovely colour variations.

Autumn – preparing for spring (and winter!)

17 March 201413 April 2020 ~ Fiona ~ Leave a comment

Although the grape harvest in our valley seems to be later this year, autumn seems to have arrived early. Along with this, we have had a wonderful experience: a pair of swallows building a nest in preparation for the spring. Jack and Jill are Greater Striped Swallows, indigenous to Africa, and they summer south of Namibia, and winter in Northern Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They will leave us in two to three weeks’ time. Their nests are characterised by a tunnel which they will build when only when they return in the spring.

Clever little birds, planning for the future, I reflected as I made basil pesto on Sunday.

Basil pesto

You will need a very, very generous picking of sweet basil, leaves stripped from the stems and the damaged leaves discarded.

Rule of thumb: about two-thirds more basil than nuts and Parmesan or Pecorino cheese, coarsely grated.

About the nuts: traditional (and the best) pesto is made with pine nuts. They are expensive so I substitute them with cashews which also have a high oil content. To enhance the flavour, toast them in a dry pan, allowing them to cool before you crush and add them to the other ingredients.

One or two cloves of garlic. Be careful with the garlic: even if you like lots of garlic, remember that combining dairy with garlic makes the garlic flavour stronger. I’ve learned this the hard way…..

Then, of course, the ubiquitous pinch of salt which is optional if you’re not using a pestle and mortar (which does make the best pesto…), and because the salt does help with the maceration of the leaves and the garlic. Enough olive oil to make a thick paste. I usually add it as I go along.

Bung all the leaves into the food processor, with the garlic cloves and whiz for a few seconds – not too long; then add olive oil and the other ingredients and whiz or pulse until you have a good, thick paste, adding more olive oil as you need.

Bottle as you would other preserves, in sterilized jars and top with olive oil to keep it fresh.

Make a caprese salad, enjoy on pasta, sandwiches, as a dip with yoghurt for crudites or as an accompaniment to whatever you please!