Chopped Egg & Onion with Lemon Thyme

Tags

Cape Town, Chefs & Cooks, Chopped Egg & Onion, Clifton Kitchen - Cooking thorugh the seasons, Food Blogs, Food Writing, Kate Abbott, Lemon Thyme, Lifestyle, Light Lunch, Light meals, Mayonnaise, Mustard, onions, Photography, South African Food Blogs, Spring onions, Wholegrain mustard

This recipe is lovely to serve as a starter or a light lunch. As simple as the ingredients may sound, the end result is high in flavour; delicious served sprinkled with chopped parsley, onion rings, and piled on toast, or used as sandwich filling. I love it just on a bed of crisp lettuce leaves.

 

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

8 hardboiled eggs, shelled and finely chopped – or if you prefer coarsely chopped

6 spring onions or 1 small onion, very finely chopped

A sprig of finely chopped fresh lemon thyme – about a ¼ of a tsp. once chopped

4 tablespoons good quality mayonnaise or sufficient mayonnaise to bind the mixture together

1 tsp. French whole grain mustard

Fresh parsley finely chopped to garnish or fold into the mixture

Method

Place the chopped egg and onion in a bowl and season well with salt and black pepper

Mix the mayonnaise and mustard together, then add to the chopped eggs and onions and combine all ingredients together. Chill for 15-30 minutes to allow the flavours to develop

Serve with a garnish of parsley

Options:

You could replace the Lemon Thyme with Dill or Tarragon

You could also add some fresh cooked and flaked crab or steamed, shelled and roughly diced prawns to the mixture which will take it to a whole new level.

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Tomato & Green Bean Salad served with Basil & Olive oil infusion

Tags

Basil, Black Pepper, Cape Town, Cape Town Food Blogs, Chefs & Cooks, cherry tomatoes, Clifton Kitchen, Cooking Through The Seasons, Food writer, Food Writing, Green Beans, Healthy Meals, Kate Abbott, Lifestyle, Olive oil, Photography, Quick meals, Salads, Seas salt, South African Food Blogs, Tomato and Green bean salad, Vegetarian

With summer comes the wonderful abundance of fresh garden produce. Green beans, cherry tomatoes and beautiful sweet Basil are popped into my garden basket; with these few ingredients I will make a salad that is enormously satisfying. Infusing the basil in the olive oil brings out its wonderful aromatic flavour, and together with the tomatoes provides beautiful summery notes to this gorgeous salad.

The salad may be served as a starter or as a light lunch, the latter served with some nice French baguette and a glass of crisp white wine.

Serves 4 as a starter or 2 as a light lunch

Ingredients

2 cups of fresh green beans

½ cup fresh basil leaves

5 tablespoons good quality extra virgin olive oil

2 cups cherry tomatoes cut into half or into quarters

Flaked sea salt & freshly ground black Pepper – season to taste

Method

Top and Tail the green beans then blanch them in boiling salted water; remove when they have turned bright green and are still slightly crisp (about 4-5 minutes), refresh in cold water. Cut the beans into three or four pieces and set aside.

Gently tear the basil leaves into small pieces; reserve a few leaves to use later as garnish.

Pour the olive oil in a pan, add the torn basil leaves and heat gently for about 1-2 minutes, until the basil begins to sizzle, change colour and crisp up slightly.

Place the chopped cherry tomatoes and cooked green beans in a bowl; pour over the basil infused oil with the gently sizzled basil leaves; season with flaked sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Toss together gently and leave for 15-30 minutes to allow all the flavours to infuse and for the basil infused olive oil to mingle with the tomato juices.

To serve: garnish with a few fresh basil leaves.

What’s In Season For Spring

Tags

Chefs, Cook Books, Entertaining, food and drink, Food and Wine, Food Blogs, Fruit and vegetables, Menu, Seasonal produce, South African Food Blogs, Spring, Spring Lamb

We flow into September and with that comes the joy of finding new spring produce. The food markets are particularly colourful with their display of wonderful goods.

Early spring brings in the new and everything seems so bright and cheerful. It’s a time to celebrate with tiny green peas, tender lamb and sweet little leeks.

Baby leeks are gorgeous and can be used in their entirety, just trim off the base. I like to cook leeks with a butter or olive oil a sprinkle of salt, cook over gentle heat until they are just soft and wilted to bring out their sweetness. For a light treat serve them with smoked salmon on toast. I also, like to serve them as a warm salad with goat’s cheese and Hazelnut dressing.

Spring lamb from the Karroo is another wonderful treat; it has a delicate taste and should have a rosy pink flesh and pure white fat. I cook it very gently so that it is still pink in the middle when serving.

Glorious spring peas are so sweet and delicious. Beware of buying fresh shelled peas though as they quickly turn starchy. Try to buy pods that are full and heavy for their size with a crisp snap to them when broken.

Also in season are:

Fruit:

apples, cumquats, grapefruit, lemons, mandarins, oranges, papayas, paw-paws, pineapples, tangelos

Vegetables:

artichokes, asparagus, avocados, broad beans, broccoli, cabbages, carrots, cauliflower, lettuce, morels, onions, potatoes, pumpkins, silver beet, spinach

The Grouse Season, A Birthday & Roasted Salmon Wrapped In Parma Ham

Tags

baby potatoes, Butter, Butternut, Chefs, Country Living, food and drink, Food and Wine, Food Blogs, Gourmet, Grouse Season, Lime Jelly, Lime marmalade, limes, Norwegian Salmon, Olive oil, Parma Ham, Rocket, South African Food Blogs, Stock, Watercress

It is the 12^th of August, the start of the grouse season in the U.K and for some a prompt reminder of my birthday. My day has been flooded with telephone calls, emails and sms’ from friends and family scattered all over the world, to wish me a lovely day, and some messages from people that I have not heard from in ages.

It’s raining like mad in Cape Town, so I am rather pleased not to be going out for dinner, instead we are celebrating at Clifton House and on Sunday we have booked a table for lunch at Terroir in the Cape wine-lands.

The meal for this evening is Roasted Norwegian salmon wrapped in Parma ham served with creamed butternut, baby potatoes, a seasonal salad and a garnish of lime jelly.

Roasted Norwegian Salmon wrapped in Parma ham served with a lime Jelly

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 portions of Norwegian salmon

Parma ham, sufficient to wrap each portion of salmon

Salt and pepper

8 Baby potatoes

1 medium butternut peeled and diced

Sage leaves. A small bunch finely chopped

Olive oil

15 ml of butter

125 ml stock or water

Salt and pepper

Garnish: lime jelly, slices of lime wedges or a dash of lime marmalade

For the salad

Watercress

Rocket

Vinaigrette

Method

Set the oven to 175C

Season each portion of salmon and wrap in Parma ham, place on a baking tray and lightly drizzle with olive oil. Pop into pre-heated oven and roast for about 25-30 minutes.

Place the potatoes in a pot with sufficient water to cover, add salt and cook for about 20-25 minutes or until done.

In a large pan heat some oil and a blob of butter, add the butternut together with the sage and sauté for a few minutes, season and add a little stock or water to just cover the butternut, place the lid on the pan and cook until done, about 20-25 minutes. Once cooked, blend to a nice creamy consistency with a hand blender. Check for seasoning.

Serve the salmon with the creamy butternut, potatoes, the garnish and a side salad of watercress and rocket tossed in vinaigrette.