Salads for manne

During the week I was asked to make some salads for a bunch  a scrum of rugby coaches, to go with their braai of course.

A brief survey around the house between the art teacher and the little hacker and I think I had it nailed- men like substance in their salads, think eggs, green beans, any and all cheese, red onions, always tomatoes and definitely croutons.

My first salad ticked a lot of the boxes -  blanched green beans, roasted baby tomatoes, boiled egg slices, shavings of pecorino cheese and red onions.

Who can resist figs when they are in season, so for my second salad I added them to the caramelised and roasted pear slices, creamy blue cheese and more of those red onion slices.

So many juicy mangoes available, my last green salad had to have slices of them, with green peppers, cucumbers, lots of salty feta cheese and crunchy garlic croutons...I see I didn't throw on the red onions but they wouldn't have been amiss if I did.

Lastly a  potato salad, I was thinking gherkins here and decided to up the game with a salsa verde dressing- crushed garlic, capers, gherkins, anchovy fillet, mustard, balsamic, olive oil- lost of parsley, less basil and mint, I was short of time so tossed and whizzed.

I hear they liked.

Alfresco lunch

This is your recipe if you're dreaming of having a large alfresco lunch, but don't have the time to spend in the kitchen.

It looks sensational and is very simple to prepare, the secret is in the tomato sauce which you can happily make your own with a bit of 'tweeking'.

Find the best cooked free range chicken, grab as many as you need, work on 5 people per chicken for this dish, tear the chicken apart into nice chunky pieces discarding the bone, or if you feel that inner 'martha' stirring, keep the carcass for that perfect chicken soup, arrange the torn chicken on a large serving platter and set aside.

Now for the tomato sauce, here is the basic- 2 tins chopped Italian tomatoes, 1 onion chopped, 2 cloves garlic, 2 tsp smoked paprika, pinch of dried chilli flakes, a gluck of balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp sugar, salt and pepper and and gravy from the chickens. Saute the onions and garlic, add tomatoes, paprika, sugar etc and simmer away for 30 mins.
When your tomato sauce is cool, pour artistically over your torn chicken, dollop with creme fraiche and scatter with fresh basil leaves and maybe add a drizzle of balsamic blaze.

Tweek with any of the following additions, add more chilli, fresh chilli for a bigger bite, add bay leaves for a more Italian flavour, sliced chorizo sausage will make your man very happy, or even some sherry for a sweeter boozier edge....have fun!

Tasty little pea shoots

Almost tastier than peas, deliciously sweet and very trendy at the moment. We first ate them at The Test Kitchen,  they have neat window boxes packed with eager little shoots- genius idea to grow the peas just for the perfection of their shoots.

The art teacher fearing for his plants, gathered the old pea pods and kindly planted an urn full of shoots for me.

I also couldn't resist purchasing a huge tray full for R60 at the Gaia Market, Alphen Centre Constantia. A lovely lady- Cherene Organics, makes them to order and has other sprouts to choose from -chereneorganics@gmail.com / 0834271085- next market this Friday.

I've been tossing the pea shoots on everything, on sandwiches, in salads and simply with fresh peas, add a little olive oil and a few dollops of creme fraiche for some decadence.

And guess what- they've all sprouted again!