Tasty, healthy and lots of it

Sauté of patty pan squash, mushrooms and spinach

Sauté of veggies in the fridge. You can mix and match whatever needs to be used now.

What’s in the fridge – a philosophy rather than a recipe.

Seeded hamburger rolls

Since I have started baking my own bread and rolls, store rolls are disappointing, lacking in texture and substance. I have added some seed mix out of curiosity, and it worked great.

Huevos Rancheros – the deconstructed version

Huevos Rancheros, ranch eggs. Fried egg on a spicy salsa and refried beans, wrapped in a tortilla

Huevos Rancheros means ranch eggs. I suspect there are more different recipes for this dish than there are ranches in Mexico. In essence it consist of fried eggs on a bed of a spicy tomato, onion and possibly peppers, with or without beans, served on a corn tortilla.

Flour tortillas

They are rustic, not perfectly round, gnarly charred bumps and bubbles and utterly delicious.

Homemade flour tortillas are in a different class to the plastic prepacked overpriced ones you can buy at stores. They are soft and pillowy, and they make air pockets which char for texture and taste. It is more work, but everything homemade is. In any case, this is why I resorted to child labour.

Roasted beef potjie

Years ago a family friend introduced me to slowly roasted lamb knuckles – a cheap and delicious family meal. Then suddenly this cut became popular and very expensive – to properly enjoy you need a lot of meat. So I am trying the same thing using beef potjie meat.

Basic bread dough

As long as you have a good dough, you can make any number of breads at home. This is my crusty loaf, made in the humble aluminum casserole dish.

This is my basic white bread dough. I use it to make crispy round loaves, regular loaves, a variety of flat breads, pizza crust and bread rolls. It all depends on what you do after you have made the dough.

Tomato Relish

Tomato relish is a quick and easy way to give a burger or any savory dish a tangy lift

Ripe tomato and herbs braised in olive oil — Chop small, ripe tomatoes in half, or peel and chop larger ones

Beef burger patties, the loadshedding edition

Beef burger patties are super fast easy to make and delicious. A case of less is more.

Loadshedding means no electricity, thus this fire. I used very little charcoal - the impressive fire are from twigs the children picked up on the lawn. — How to make hamburgers when there is no electricity

Chicken Stock

Make and freeze delicious chicken stock at home. Easy to make, cheap and very little mess.

Chicken Stock

Chicken stock is a kitchen essential and I have made it very successfully in the past. It’s really easy to make, but decanting my chicken stock was a mission. My kitchen was covered in drops and blotches of sticky stock liquid and I had this huge mass of meat, bone and vegetable residue to dispose of. So I have found a way to make, clarify and freeze my stock with very little mess. I will describe this at the end of this post.

Bran, oats and sunflower seed rusks

Rusks are wonderful to have in the house with always-hungry children. This is my recipe for bran, oats and sunflower seed rusks, enough for about two weeks.

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