This is a lovely light brunch, lunch or evening dish full of the tastes and colours of summer. A the best bit is… it doesn’t take that long to prepare so you don’t have to miss too much time in the sun.

I use a traditional flan pastry for the base and fill this with fresh wilted spinach, red capiscums and grated cheddar cheese with some grated Jarlsburgh cheese for a delicious bite.

You will need:
1/2 packet of ready made savory pastry or 1/2 quantity of homemade traditional flan pastry
Large bunch of fresh spinach, washed with hard stalks removed and leaves torn
1 Red Capsicum, roughly chopped
50g Button White Mushrooms, wiped and sliced
Splash of Olive Oil
6 Eggs
Milk
Cheddar Cheese
Jarlsburg Cheese (optional)
Seasoning

What to do:
• Roll out the pastry big enough to line the base and sides of your flan tin. Gently, prick the base with a fork, do not push the fork all the way through the pastry.
• Now, you have a couple of options:
1. You can bake the flan case blind, by covering the base with baking beans or uncooked rice, then popping into the oven until the flan begins to colour, approx. 5 min. Remove from oven and take out the beans/rice (you can save these in a jar for next time). This gives a firmer base.
2. You can make the filling and put this straight in to the flan, this gives a softer pastry base.
• Saute the mushrooms and capsicum in a little olive oil, remove from heat and add the torn spinach.
• When the vegetables are cool, put them into the flan case.
• In the saute pan, add the eggs and using a wooden fork whisk gently, until the whites and yolk are combined.
• Add a good splash of milk, don’t over do it or the flan will not set.
• Pour the mixture over the vegetables. Season.
• Cover with grated cheese and pop into the oven until golden brown. Approx. 30mins.
• Let cool slightly before serving with minted new potatoes.

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I love this dish and I often use it for our sunday brunch, which includes yummy scrambled eggs or a cheese and roasted capsicum omelette, hash browns or patatas bravis.

But you can use it anytime you like!! It is a great way of stretching a portion of fresh button mushrooms as they can be expensive. I am researching growing my own as I adore every kind of mushrooms, but I am not brave enough to gather wild ones… scaredy cat that I am…

What you will need:

• Whole Button Mushrooms, sliced
• Slice of butter and a splash of Vegetable Oil
• 50mls Cream
• Sprinkle of Garlic Salt
• Chopped Parsley to garnish

Tip: When sautéing any vegetables, I always use butter and a splash of vegetable oil, the oil prevents the butter from burning and the butter adds flavour. You may use any kind of oil or margarine that suits you.

Tip: Don’t wash mushrooms, always wipe them using a paper towel. Always store extra mushrooms in a paper bag.

What to do:

• In a frying pan, melt the butter with the splash of oil.
• Add the mushrooms and sauté gently until sort and slightly brown add the garlic salt.
• Add the cream and let the mixture gently simmer until the cream has thickened slightly.
• Remove from heat and serve with chopped parsley sprinkled over the top.

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These will blow your guests away, they will think you have slaved over a hot stove for a week… believe me, the taste is sublime and they are SO easy… but that part is our secret

Choosing the best Capsicums
Make use of the ‘on sale’ capsicums when the are in season as they can be expensive otherwise, usually the big super markets need to move them quickly or try the farmers markets and get a good deal as capsicums cannot be stored for any length of time.

Choose ones that are undamaged, feel slightly heavy in your hand and have bright almost glowing skins but not ‘shiny’ or ‘waxy’ looking.

A little tip: Use nice, fancy jars and make your own labels to put your finished roasted capsicums in and bingo what a gift for your friends and family.
MORE
What you will need and What to Do:

Capsicums, as many as you want. As I said at the start, it’s more economical to do this when they are in season, you can mix the colors and sizes. You have so many colors to choose from. I grow red, green, yellow and chocolate brown capsicums!!

Wash or wipe the capsicums depending upon where you got them, I usually just wipe mine from my kitchen garden then remove the stalk and seeds by cutting from stalk end down to the bottom tip and gently prizing the pepper apart. I usually cut the capsicums into thick quarters, rather than slicing them thinly.

Make nice sized pieces, put them onto a flat baking tray, drizzle over a little olive oil and coat all the pieces on all sides. You need to get your hands and massage the oil into the pieces, don’t use too much oil, just enough to coat the pieces all over. A bit like using moisturizer just enough to do the job!!

Pop under a hot grill, I put my tray quite low down so that the capsicums ‘flesh’ cooks a little before the skin gets too black. Trust you sense of smell, they will be ready when a ‘beautiful sweet smell’ fills the kitchen. Be near by the grill, you can multitask, but keep alert.

The skins should be black but sometimes not all the skin blackens and it kinda bubbles away from the flesh. Don’t over do them or they will be too dry. Aim for sweet and succulent.

Remove from grill and let cool slightly, you want them so you can hold the pieces without burning your fingertips, but NOT cold. Peel off the skins using your fingers, some people put the capsicum pieces in a plastic bag and rub them to remove the skins. But I find this spoils the shape of the pieces and makes an unsightly mess.

Place the whole pieces into a sterilized jar,you can pop clean jars under the roasting tray to warm them gently.
Pack them gently but fill the jar. It’s hard to explain but don’t ‘crush’ or ‘pack’ the pieces in so you reduce the amount of air space between the pieces.

Cover the pieces with olive oil, there is no need to use virgin olive oil unless you want to, but, the second pressing olive oil is just a good for this type of thing and less expensive as well. When you use the end product, you can use the oil straight from the jar for cooking or as a dressing especially if it has steeped for a week or tow and it gets a rosy hue and tastes beautiful.

Seal the jars while they are still slightly warm, this helps to make a good seal and reduce the chances of them going off. Keep refrigerated once opened and use within a month or less.

Believe me, the oil becomes infused with the fragrance of the capsicums and is tinted by their colours, I use this oil for cooking, substituting plain oil. You can use the roast capsicum pieces where and when your imagination lets you. Eat them as part of a Mezza platter or in stir fries, omelets
Go wild…

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These are small diced, roast potatoes with a herb coating. The recipe originates in Spain and they are often served as a tapas dish.

What you will need:

• Roasting Potatoes, I use Agria, washed and diced
• Assorted herbs: Dried or Fresh-chop finely if using fresh
• Large Pinch of Garlic Salt
• Vegetable Oil

What to do:

• In a large bowl, add the diced potatoes, herbs, garlic salt and a splash of oil.

Tip: Don’t over do the oil, you can always add more, but you cannot take in away.

• Using your hands toss all the ingredients until well coated.

• Pop the coated potatoes into a large frying pan and slowly fry until the potatoes are golden brown and soft inside.

• Serve hot and Enjoy!!

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Another zucchini glut lifesaver, but, you will get me in trouble if this recipe leaks out. My friends would be horrified if they saw this post!! I NEVER cook curry quickly, mine takes two days at least to make.

The spices are roasted and ground by hand and lovingly added with the precision only a true Indian cook can imagine. In any cuisine that relies on spices, the order in which they are added to a dish is of the utmost importance and Indian cookery is no exception.

All that said, this is a life saver if you haven’t got two days of tender loving care to spare, it is a beautiful blend of spices and vegetables.

Great as a main dish or an accompany to grilled meat or fish. And you can always pretend you spent two days of tender loving care preparing it:)

I have used artistic license on this dish, to give you busy working people a balanced meal after a hard days work.

So don’t be put off by the length of the ingredients list, most of it you just pop into the pan, if you prepare the zucchini before hand and have all the ingredients ‘ready to go’ then you will save heaps of time.

What You Need

4 Good size Zucchini’s
1 Head of Garlic (about 6-8 cloves)
1 Thumb nail size piece of Fresh Ginger
A pinch of Yellow Mustard Seeds
A Pinch of Cumin Seeds
4-6 Small Green Chillies, carefully de-seeded
1 Heaped Tea spoonful of Garam Masala
Juice of a Lime
Small Handful of Raisins
Small Handful of Cashew Nuts
A Good Sprig of Fresh Cilantro/Coriander
A Sprig of Parsley
2-4 Bay Leaves
4 Curry Leaves
Splash of Oil

What To Do

In a heavy based pan, heat a small splash of oil and gently fry the mustard seeds and cumin seeds until the cumin becomes aromatic and the mustard seeds begin to ‘pop’

Add the ginger, garlic and chilies, continue to fry until the garlic begins to turn a golden colour, at this stage add the zucchini, some coriander leaves and parsley

Cover the pan and cook on a low to medium heat until the zucchini is tender and most of the water that oozed from the zucchini has evaporated

Add the rest of the ingredients and gently cook until all the ingredients has mingled and then serve on a bed of rice or a side dish.

Alternatives:
Zucchini curry with aubergine & pumpkin
Zucchini curry with butter beans
Zucchini curry with sweet potato & chickpeas

See how easy it is to make one recipe become 4 recipes, simple by adding alternative vegetables!! Have fun!!

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Now, these are SO simple and taste so divine that people will think you have slaved over a hot stove all day, which of course you have!!!

What you will need (for 2 adults)

A good handful of white potatoes

A good handful of Jerusalem artichokes

Sprigs of: Apple mint, true Greek oregano and Curly parsley (Three herbs of your choice)

25g Butter

What to do:

Clean the potatoes and the Jerusalem artichokes, do not peel, pop both into a saucepan, cover with water and add a small pinch of salt, bring to the boil, then simmer gently until soft

Rinse the herbs and chop

Drain the potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes (You could use the water for a weed killer on the patio or as a tonic for your indoor plants, for more great gardening tips click the blue link!!)

Mash the potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes with the butter and herbs, check the seasoning and consistency of the mix once it has cooled slightly.

Heat up some cooking oil in a large frying pan. To test if the oil is hot enough, gently drop in a small piece of bread, if it sizzles straight away, you are ready to go.

Take a good teaspoon full of the mixture and drop in into your palm, squeeze gently to form a ball shape and gently lower this onto the hot oil.

Please be careful at this stage, hot oil can spit and if you get any on you rinse the area under cold water for at least 10 mins and if necessary seek medical attention. If you have a large burn, after cooling it in cold water, if you can wrap the area with plastic wrap and go straight to hospital)

Cook until golden brown then turn them over and cook the other side until golden

Serve hot or cold.

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For the last few weeks the fields around our piece of paradise have been full of field mushrooms and button mushrooms all FREE for the picking. And pick them we have…

Words of WARNING:

ALWAYS CHECK WHAT MUSHROOMS ARE SAFE TO EAT BEFORE EATING THEM FROM THE FIELDS. SOME TYPES CAN KILL

What you will need:

1kg White Button Mushrooms and Portobello/Field Mushrooms
25g Butter
1 cup Pearl Barley
1 cup of Green Lentils
4 Potatoes, cubed
1 Capsicum, diced
Few Cloves of Garlic
Seasoning
Vegetable Stock

What to do:

Brush off any dirt on the mushrooms, if you have picked them fresh like I did, you may have to wash them on both sides to remove any unwanted visitors, this does not impair the flavour of freshly picked mushrooms but it does on shop brought ones.

Dice up the mushrooms, capsicum, garlic and potatoes.

Throw everything in a big pot ( I use a cast iron pot that I can put on top of a wood burner and leave all day, you could use a slow cooker ) and cover with stock, cook gently all day over a low heat. The soup will thicken and the flavours will mingle just in time for you to come home from work, light the fire and throw your shoes off.

All that is left is to enjoy with fresh bread and lashings of butter. Yummy it is too!!

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A cross between Toll House cookies and coffee cake this delicious and versatile cake works well both as a snack with coffee or tea or as a dessert after a meal.

Ingredients

1/3 cup of packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons of butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup of chopped nuts
2 cups of Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mini Morsels (divided)
1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
3/4 cup of granulated sugar
1/2 cup of softened butter or margarine (1 stick)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 cup of sour cream

Instructions

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2) Grease a 13 x 9-inch baking pan.

3) To make the topping, blend the brown sugar, flour and butter in a small bowl. You will use a pastry blender or two knives to create a crumbly mixture.

4) Stir in the nuts and 1/2 cup of morsels.

5) To make the cake, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.

6) Beat the granulated sugar, butter and vanilla extract in a large mixer bowl until the ingredients become creamy.

7) Add the eggs (one at a time), making sure to beat well after each addition. Gradually add the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream.

9) Fold in the remaining morsels.

10) Spread into a prepared baking pan. Sprinkle with topping.

11) Bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean.

12) Cool the cake in the pan that has been placed on a wire rack.

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I love the colors in this salad, the richness of the green against the creaminess of the pasta.

And, of course, it tastes great, I have a passion for sautéed broccoli with fresh lime juice any day, so the citrus zing to this salad is right up my street.

What you will need:

300g Dried Pasta shapes.
1 head Broccoli, cut into florets.
¼ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
4 Garlic Cloves, crushed.
1 of each Capsicum: yellow & red, chopped.
3 Large Tomatoes, deseeded & chopped.
1 Tbsp Capers.
Juice of a Lemon.
Seasoning.
Toasted Pine nuts for garnish.
Balsamic Vinegar to sprinkle over as garnish.
Chopped Parsley for garnish.

What to do:

• Cook the pasta until al dente. Rinse well to remove the starch. Cool.

• Steam the broccoli, cool slightly then sauté gently in oil with the garlic.

• Toss everything together, before serving add lemon juice & seasoning & garnish.

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