Quick Low-Carb Gammon Steak with Tender-Stem Broccoli, Garlic & Cream

I'm excited to share this recipe with you because it's so quick and surprisingly delicious. It takes about eight minutes to cook from start to finish, and I eat it at least three times a week because I'm smitten by Woolies' tender-stem broccoli, which has become one of the mainstays of my low-carb regime.

Quick Low-Carb Gammon Steak with Tender-Stem Broccoli,
 Garlic, Green Peppercorns & Cream

I've always loved broccoli, but it's become something of an obsession since I cut out carbs. I find tender-stem broccoli utterly scrumptious - up there with fresh asparagus - and as far as I know it's available only from Woolworths. If you can't find it, use small florets of ordinary broccoli for this dish.

This recipe serves one, but you can easy double or quadruple it. Please use a large, shallow pan that allows for fast reduction (a big wok will do).

Although this recipe contains a considerable amount of cream - so allowed on a low-carb, high-fat diabetic regime - its main ingredients are good for you, provided you use top-quality lean gammon steak, with all visible fat trimmed away.  You can use Greek yoghurt instead of cream - please see my Cook's Notes at the end of the recipe.

This dish is so convenient because it's made in one pan, in a flash.

The gammon adds a lovely smoky, caramelised note to the sauce, and I wouldn't consider making this dish without it.  If you're not a pork eater, you might try this with a fillet of firm-fleshed white linefish, but I don't think it will taste as good.

I had to leave brined green peppercorns out of the recipe title because they would have made it too long, but I urge you to try them in this dish - they add a wonderful warm peppery pop and pull all the flavours together.

Quick Low-Carb Gammon Steak with Tender-Stem Broccoli, Garlic & Cream

1 lean gammon steak, all visible fat trimmed away
1 tsp (5 ml) olive oil
12 spears tender-stem broccoli
4 Tbsp (60 ml) water
1 small clove garlic, peeled and finely grated
1 tsp (5 ml) Dijon mustard [optional]
1 Tbsp (15 ml) green peppercorns, drained of their brine and lightly crushed using a mortar & pestle [optional]
½ cup (125 ml) cream
a squeeze of fresh lemon juice
milled black pepper, to taste

Pat the gammon steak dry on kitchen paper.  Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a large frying pan, over a high heat. When the oil is just beginning to shimmer, fry the gammon steak on one side for 2-3 minutes, or until its underside is brown and caramelised.

In the meantime, cut the broccoli spears crossways into thirds.

Turn the steak over. Now add the broccoli to the pan, arranging it around the edges of the gammon steak, and pour in the water. Cover immediately with a lid (or with an upturned plate, if your frying pan doesn't have a lid).

Turn down the heat and cook at a brisk bubble for 3-5 minutes, or until the broccoli is just tender when you poke the thickest stalk with the tip of a sharp knife.  If you've covered the pan with a plate, please be very careful when you lift it off, as you risk an excruciating steam burn (see Cook's Notes, below.)

If the pan looks a little dry, add another splash of water.

While the broccoli is cooking, combine the grated garlic, mustard, crushed peppercorns and cream in a small bowl.

When the broccoli is tender, take off the lid, turn up the heat and pour in the garlic/cream mixture.  It will bubble furiously and immediately turn a caramel colour at the edges. Toss the pan energetically while it does so, not taking your eye off it for a moment, and let it bubble for 30 to 60 seconds, or until the cream has thickened and the sting has gone out of the garlic.

If you haven't used green peppercorns in the dish, add a few generous grinds of black pepper. The sauce shouldn't need any salt, as gammon is salty enough in its own right.

Remove from the heat and add a small spritz of lemon - just enough to add a whisper of acidity.  Serve immediately.

Serves 1.

Cook's Notes

• You can serve the gammon steak whole, or slice it into strips or cubes, as shown in the picture below. 
• If you've covered your frying pan with a plate, use a fork to lift up its edge, which will allow puffs of steam to escape. Or wrap a thick dishcloth around your hand as you lift the plate away. 
• You can use thick Greek yoghurt in place of cream, but be sure to add it to the pan a few tablespoons at a time, over a low heat.  When the yoghurt is hot and slightly reduced, remove the pan from the heat and stir in a little lemon juice.  Here are my tips for cooking with yoghurt. 
• This recipe also works beautifully with thinly sliced baby marrows [courgettes/zucchini].
  
  

Cut the gammon into cubes, or leave it whole.

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Creamy Low-Carb Chicken Breasts, Fennel & Bacon with a Cauliflower and Nutmeg Mash

A luscious dish packed with all the delectables permitted on a low-carb diet: bacon, cream, dry white wine and golden chicken skin. I've developed this recipe for Woolworths's new Flavour Society, on May's theme of winter food. Along with my friend Nina Timm, I'm one of the bloggers contributing my original recipes to Woolies' Flavour Society Winter Pinterest board - hop over and have a look!

Creamy Low-Carb Chicken, Fennel &  Bacon, with a Cauliflower and Nutmeg Mash

Chicken breasts toughen fast in the pan, so it's important to cook them gently over a very low heat once you've added them to the sauce. I always cut the breasts in half crossways - making the thickest end into a slightly smaller piece than the thinner end - because I think whole ones look ungainly and intimidating on a plate.

Another crucial step in this recipe is to a achieve a handsome golden crust on the chicken pieces.  The golden stickiness left on the bottom of the pan (that holy grail among flavours) will add gorgous depth to the sauce.

Cauliflower - the new darling of the low-carb world - is a good enough substitute for mashed potatoes (I'm stifling a sob as I type because I sorely miss mash, particularly buttery champ), and is much improved by cream, butter and particularly nutmeg, with which it has a wonderful affinity.

I've tried many different ways of preparing cauliflower mash, purée and 'couscous', and concluded that microwaving is the best method, because it keeps the florets nice and dry, and minimises that farty whiff so characteristic of boiled brassicas.  If you don't believe in microwaving, you can steam the florets instead.

Fennel isn't everyone's cup of tea (though I've managed to convert my family) and if you don't fancy its delicate aniseed flavour, you can leave it out and use two more big leeks in the recipe.

This luscious dish depends for its depth of flavour on the gorgeous golden
residue that forms on the bottom of the pan when you fry the chicken skin.

Creamy Low-Carb Chicken, Fennel &  Bacon, with a Cauliflower and Nutmeg Mash

8 large bone-in chicken breasts, skin on

salt

2 Tbsp (30 ml) sunflower oil, for frying

500 g baby fennel bulbs

3 large leeks

1½ cups (375 ml) dry white wine

1½ cups (375 ml) organic Woolies chicken stock (or water to which you've added two teaspoonsful of a good condensed chicken stock, such as a Nomu fond, or a Knorr Chicken Stock Pot)

1½ cups (375 ml) cream

1 Tbsp (15 ml) Dijon mustard

250 g bacon, chopped

a squeeze of lemon juice

milled black pepper

3 Tbsp (45 ml) finely chopped curly parsley

For the cauliflower mash:

2 heads cauliflower, trimmed of leaves

1 Tbsp (15 ml) water

½ cup (125 ml) cream, or milk, or a mixture (plus a little extra, see recipe below)

3 Tbsp (45 ml) butter

a pinch or two of freshly grated nutmeg, to taste

salt and white pepper

Trim all globules of fat from the chicken breasts. If the breasts have skinny little ribs attached to them, snip these off using kitchen scissors and discard. Slice each breast in half, crossways, using a heavy knife and a chopping action to cut through the small bone. 

The breasts should still be raw on the insides after frying.

Heat the oil over a medium-high flame in a large shallow pan. When it is very hot and just beginning to shimmer, fry the breast pieces, skin-side down, in batches of 8 at a time, for 3-5 minutes, or until the skin is crisp and a beautiful golden-brown. (See Cook's Notes at the end of this post).

Set the chicken pieces aside, skin-side up, on a plate. The insides of the breasts must still be quite raw.

In the meantime, prepare the veggies. Trim the fennel pieces and remove any tough stalks or out leaves, leaving about half a centimetre of stalk on each bulb. Slice off the dark-green upper parts of the leeks and make a long horizontal slit three-quarters of the way through their lengths. Fan out the ‘pages’ of the leeks under a cold running tap and rinse away any grit hiding in the outer leaves. Now cut them into slices 4 mm thick. 

Drain away all but a teaspoon or two of the fat from the pan in which you fried the chicken, return it to a medium heat and gently fry the fennel and leeks for 3-4 minutes, or until lightly coloured. Now turn up the heat, add the wine and briskly deglaze the pan, using a wooden spoon to scrape away the sticky residue so it dissolves into the liquid. 

The stock and wine will reduce to a rich syrup.

Cover and gently braise the vegetables for 10-12 minutes, or until the fennel pieces are just tender, the leeks are soft, and the wine reduced by half.  

Add the chicken stock and bubble over a low heat, uncovered, for a further 6-8 minutes, or until the liquid in the pan has halved, and looks slightly thickened.

Add the cream and mustard and stir well. Return the chicken pieces to the pan, skin-side up, along with any juices that have accumulated underneath them. The sauce should come about a third of the way up the sides of the breasts. 

Turn the heat down to its lowest setting, cover the pan with a tilted lid and let it burble for 12-17 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked right through to the bone, but is still very tender and succulent.  How long this will take depends on the size of your chicken breasts (see Cook's Note's, below). 

While the chicken is braising, fry the bacon bits in a hot pan until crisp. Blot on kitchen paper and keep warm. 

Sprinkle the crisped bacon bits over the chicken at the end.

To make the cauliflower mash, cut off the florets - discarding any thick stalks -  and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with one tablespoon of water.

Cover and microwave on high for 12-15 minutes, or until the cauliflower is very soft and yielding. Alternatively, you can steam the cauliflower over boiling water. 

Drain the cauliflower in a colander and let it dry out for at least 10 minutes. Process it together with the cream (or cream/milk mixture) to a fine, smooth mash using a stick blender or food processor, adding more cream if necessary to keep the blades turning.

Stir in the butter and nutmeg, season with salt and a pinch of white pepper, and keep hot.  

When you're ready to serve the chicken, sprinkle with a little fresh lemon juice to give the sauce a whisper of acidity, and stir gently.  Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Scatter over the bacon bits and parsley, and serve hot with the cauliflower mash.

Serves 8.

Cook's Notes

• Take your time frying the chicken breasts so they brown nicely without catching or burning. Don't prod them or turn them over. The skin may stick to the bottom of the pan at first, but as the fat renders and turns golden, you will find that the pieces can easily be lifted out.  The trick here is to keep adjusting the heat under the pan. 
• Be careful not to over-cook the breasts, or they will become stiff and dry.  To check whether they are done, poke the tip of a sharp knife into the thickest part of the biggest piece. If the juices run clear and the bone feels very hot to a finger-touch, they're ready, and you must remove the pan from the heat. 
• This dish can be prepared well in advance. When the chicken pieces are almost cooked through, with just a touch of pinkness in the middle, remove the pan from the heat, cover, and set aside to cool.  If you're going to reheat the dish within two hours, you can leave it on the counter. If it's a very hot day, or you'd like to serve it the next day, refrigerate the whole pan, covered.  To serve, remove the pan from the fridge, let it come up to room temperature for an hour or more, and then reheat it over a very gentle flame until the sauce is bubbling and the chicken is hot to the bone.

Note: I was paid a fee by Woolworths for this recipe. 

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Spicy Shredded Duck with Crackling

Here's my latest MasterChef recipe, the fourth and last in a series of recipes I've written for Woolworths, food sponsors of the latest South African series.

Tender shredded duck with cucumber, spring onions and a
super-crispy topping of duck crackling.

[Click here to go straight to the recipe >>]

This is a sneaky way to make 24 or more delicious canapés using just two duck breasts: first confit the breasts in their own fat, then toss the tender shredded meat with cucumber, spring onions and some sexy Asian flavours, and finally top each portion with golden shards of crunchy duck skin.

This dish is ideal for starting the day before, as the flavour of the duck breasts will improve overnight. I’ve used the five-spice powder sparingly, but feel free to add more if you’d like more perfume in the dish.

This is a great snack for a cocktail party, because you can prepare the duck
a day or two ahead, and put everything together at the last minute. 

For more details about how to confit duck at home, have a look at my recipe for Easy Duck Rillettes.

Finally, this year, it’s not just bloggers getting the chance to get creative in the kitchen along with MasterChef and Woolies. Create a recipe with the same ingredients used each week by the Woolworths Masterchef Competition bloggers and you could win one of fourteen R1000 Woolies gift cards, or the (very!) grand prize of a R10 000 gift card. Head over to the Woolworths Masterchef Hub for more info and T&Cs.

• My first recipe for Woolies/Masterchef:  Slow-Roasted Leg of Lamb with a Basil Walnut Sauce
• My second recipe:  Peppercorn Chicken with Chilli and Mint 
• My third recipe:  Billowing Meringues with a Sunset Berry Coulis

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Spicy Shredded Duck with Crackling

2 boneless duck breasts, skin on
80g spring onions
half a large cucumber
1 tsp (5 ml) Chinese five-spice powder
1 Tbsp (15 ml) Hoisin sauce
4 tsp (20 ml) rice vinegar, to taste
milled black pepper
Maldon sea salt

Heat the oven to 160 ºC. Place the duck breasts, skin side down, in a cold frying pan. Turn on the heat under the pan to its lowest setting, and heat the breasts very slowly and gently for 10 minutes, without disturbing them. This long heating process will help to render the fat.

Turn up the heat in the pan to medium high. Fry the duck breasts in their fat for another 4 minutes, or until the skin is a rich golden colour.  Place the breasts, skin-side up, in a small, shallow ceramic oven dish and pour over all the juices and fat from the frying pan. Sprinkle half a teaspoon (2.5ml) of five-spice powder into the juices, cover with a piece of foil or kitchen paper and bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes at 160 ºC.

Now turn down the heat to 120 ºC and roast for 1½ to 2 hours, or until the duck is very soft and succulent.  At this point, you can refrigerate the duck overnight (see Cook’s Notes).

Half an hour before the duck is ready, cut the cucumber in half lengthways and scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon. Cut into neat, small cubes.  Finely slice the spring onion (you’ll use only the purple, white and pale-green parts).

Remove the duck breasts from their cooking dish, peel off their skins and set both aside.  Skim the fat off the top of the remaining juices and reserve – you’ll use this to fry the crackling.

Pull the duck flesh into shreds and place these back into the dish in which you cooked them, tossing well so every shred is coated in juices.  Keep this mixture warm in the oven while you make the crackling.

Sprinkle the remaining half-teaspoon of five-spice powder over the duck skins, then slice them into very fine strips.  Heat the reserved duck fat in a small frying pan and fry the strips over a medium-high heat for a minute or two, or until they are golden brown and crisp. Drain well on kitchen paper and season generously with salt.

Remove the warm shredded duck from the oven and mix in the cucumber cubes and spring onion.  Stir in the hoisin sauce and rice vinegar – to taste - and season with salt and milled black pepper.

Divide this mixture between 24 or more small warmed spoons – or little bowls – and top with the crisp duck crackling. Serve immediately, garnished with baby leaves.

8 as a canapé

Cook's Notes

• If you’d like to prepare the duck the day before, follow the recipe until step 4, then tightly cover the dish containing the cooked breasts with foil and refrigerate it overnight. Gently warm the dish through in the oven before carrying on with the recipe.
• The duck crackling carries on browning for a while when it comes out of the pan, so don’t let it get too dark when you’re frying it.

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Billowing Meringues with a Sunset Berry Coulis

Here's my latest MasterChef recipe, the third in a series of four recipes I've written for Woolworths, food sponsors of the latest South African series.

Crackly, billowing, snow-white meringues in a sunset raspberry
and Cape gooseberry sauce.

I adore big, brittle meringues, but it has taken me years to figure out how to produce a crisp, delicate, snow-white result every time. The secret, apart from very long and patient whisking, is to dry the meringues out overnight in very low oven. This may seem like a long time to wait for dessert, but the end result will not disappoint you. If you'd like a slightly squishy centre to your meringues, take them out of the oven as soon as you're happy with their internal texture (to test, turn one over and poke the end of a pencil into it).

The first time I made this, I strained both the sauces. 

I've used both raspberries and Cape gooseberries for this sharp-sweet coulis. The sunset effect was a happy discovery: this first time I tested the recipe, I covered the plate I'd photographed (see picture above) and put it on the countertop to see if the meringue would still be crisp the next morning. It wasn't, but the sauces had merged to create a very pretty puddle.

So the next time I made it (this time without straining sauces; see first picture) I plated the coulis in the morning, then popped the meringues and berries on top at the last minute.

Finally, this year, it’s not just bloggers getting the chance to get creative in the kitchen along with MasterChef and Woolies. Create a recipe with the same ingredients used each week by the Woolworths Masterchef Competition bloggers and you could win one of fourteen R1000 Woolies gift cards, or the (very!) grand prize of a R10 000 gift card. Head over to the Woolworths Masterchef Hub for more info and T&Cs.

• My first recipe for Woolies/Masterchef:  Slow-Roasted Leg of Lamb with a Basil Walnut Sauce
• My second recipe for Woolies/Masterchef:  Peppercorn Chicken with Chilli and Mint 

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Billowing meringues with a Sunset Berry Coulis

5 extra-large free-range eggs
a pinch of cream of tartar
250g caster sugar
250g Cape gooseberries
250g raspberries
150g strawberries, hulled and halved
icing sugar, for sweetening and dusting

Heat the oven to 55 ºC and turn the fan off.

Separate the eggs, placing the egg whites in a spotlessly clean metal bowl. Add a pinch of cream of tartar. (Keep the yolks for making mayonnaise!)

Using an electric whisk or a food processor fitted with a balloon whisk, beat the egg whites for at least 7 minutes, or until they are standing up in very stiff, dry peaks.

Trickle the caster sugar into the egg whites, a few tablespoons at a time, beating well between every addition. Continue beating for another 5 minutes, or until the meringue is very thick and glossy, and easily holds its shape. (See Cook’s Notes)

Line a baking sheet with baking paper (put a little blob of meringue on all four corners of the sheet so the paper sticks to it).

Using two large spoons, scoop out an apple-sized ball of meringue and carefully place it on the baking paper, pulling the meringue upwards to form it into a billowing cloud. Repeat until you’ve used up all the meringue, spacing the balls well apart.

Place the baking sheet in the middle of the oven and leave the meringues to dry out overnight, or for at least 10 hours, without disturbing them. The longer you leave them, the dryer their centres will be.

Take half of the gooseberries and whizz them to a fine purée. Taste the purée, and stir in a little icing sugar if you’d like it sweeter. Chill.

Purée half the raspberries in the same way, then strain the mixture through a sieve, pressing down well with the back of a spoon. Taste the coulis and sweeten, if necessary, with a little icing sugar. Discard the pulp and chill.

To plate the dessert, decant the two purées into two little jugs. Holding a jug in each hand, simultaneously pour two puddles on to a dessert plate, gently flooding it so the different-coloured purées meet in the middle. Leave the plates to stand for an hour or two, if you’d like a graduated sunset effect – the line between the two colours will gradually blur.

Top each lake of purée with a crisp meringue, and decorate with the remaining gooseberries, raspberries and strawberries.

Sieve a little icing sugar over each plate and serve immediately, with lashings of thick Jersey cream.

Serves 4.

Cook's Notes

• You will know the meringue is ready when you place a big blob on a plate and it does not flop over or subside – it should perfectly hold its shape. 
• Before you make the meringue, wipe the inside of the metal bowl with a slice of lemon to remove any grease spots, then dry thoroughly using a clean kitchen towel. 
• To avoid a speck of egg yolk ruining all the egg whites, separate the eggs one by one into two small bowls, then add the whites one by one to the big metal bowl. 
• Store the meringues, once cool, in an air-tight container. 

Serves 6.

Here is the list of ingredients I was given to work with:

Egg whites
Castor sugar
Cream of tartar
Icing sugar
Corn flour
Raspberries
Fruit selection

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Peppercorn Chicken with Chilli & Mint

Here's my latest MasterChef recipe, the second in a series of four recipes I've developed for Woolworths, food sponsors of the latest South African series.

Tender, mint-infused chicken breasts with a sticky-sweet honey and soy glaze

I was stumped by this week’s mystery-box ingredients (see the list at the bottom of this page). The spices in the list hinted loudly at a home-made Chinese five-spice powder, while coconut and soy sauce confirmed the Asian theme. But, oddly, there was no acidifying agent (such as lime or rice vinegar) in the ingredients list, and my first three recipe attempts were disappointing flops.

These are some of the ingredients I had to work with.
Picture courtesy of Woolworths.

In the end, I decided to focus on my favourite flavours in the list, and to combine them in a simple dish of succulent chicken breasts infused with fresh mint and chilli, and coated with rainbow peppercorns and a honey/soy sauce glaze.  Mint, peppercorns and chicken are an unusual combination – but why not?

The only tricky part about this recipe is making sure the chicken is perfectly cooked. This is not as easy as it sounds, because the one end of a bone-in chicken breast is considerably thicker than the other. How long your chicken will take to cook depends, of course, on the size of the pieces.  I always cut a deep slit into the thickest part of the breast, then prise it open to check that it's cooked to the bone.  Any sign of pinkness in the juices, and I put it back in the oven for another few minutes.

Finally, this year, it’s not just bloggers getting the chance to get creative in the kitchen along with MasterChef and Woolies. Create a recipe with the same ingredients used each week by the Woolworths Masterchef Competition bloggers and you could win one of fourteen R1000 Woolies gift cards, or the (very!) grand prize of a R10 000 gift card. Head over to the Woolworths Masterchef Hub for more info and T&Cs.

My first recipe for Woolies/Masterchef:  Slow-Roasted Leg of Lamb with a Basil Walnut Sauce 

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Peppercorn Chicken with Chilli & Mint

4 large free-range chicken breasts, on the bone
flaky sea salt
20g (half a cup, closely packed) fresh mint leaves
2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
4 Tbsp (60 ml) olive oil
4 Tbsp  (60 ml) honey
2 Tbsp (30 ml) light soy sauce
2 tsp (10 ml) rainbow peppercorns, coarsely crushed


Heat the oven to 180 ºC. Put the mint leaves, chillies and olive oil in the jug attachment of a stick blender and whizz to a fairly fine pesto.

Season the breasts lightly with salt. Slide your fingertips under the skin on top of the breasts, breaking the fine membrane as you go to create a pouch. Take half the mint paste and spread it evenly under the breast skin (reserve the remaining mixture). Pull the breast skin back into place.

Cut a deep horizontal slash into the fleshiest part of each breast, and rub the remaining paste into the slashes. Set aside for an hour, or until you’re ready to cook the breasts.

Place the breasts skin-side up in a roasting pan, cover them lightly with tin foil or baking paper and roast for 25-30 minutes, or until they are just cooked through. Drain any excess fat from the pan.

Warm the honey until it’s runny, then stir in the soy sauce.  Drizzle this mixture all over the chicken breasts – and don’t worry if it slides off into the pan. Press the crushed peppercorns onto the skin of the breast.

Drizzle the glaze over the partly cooked breasts before  returning them to the oven.

Turn the oven grill on to its highest setting and place the roasting pan on a middle shelf, not too close to the element.  Grill the breasts for 5-8 minutes, basting them every few minutes with the honey-soy glaze.  Watch them like a hawk, as the honey burns quickly.

When the skin is golden and beginning to blister, remove the chicken breasts from oven and let them rest for 5 minutes.

Cut the breasts into pieces and drizzle over any pan juices.

Serve hot, with wedges of lemon.

Serves 4.

Here is the list of ingredients I was given to work with (I was also allowed to add salt, pepper and oil to my 'mystery box'):

Chicken
Honey
Light soy sauce
Star anise
Fennel seeds
Three colour peppercorns
Cloves
Cinnamon
Coconut
Chilli
Mint

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Moroccan-Spiced Lamb Chops with Citrus Couscous Salad

This dish of spicy lamb chops and citrussy couscous salad is one of my favourite happy-hybrid inventions. It’s largely Moroccan in its spicing, but it also contains a popular and versatile Middle Eastern ingredient: pomegranate concentrate. This delicious elixir (also known in its many forms as pomegranate syrup, reduction and molasses) is made by simmering fresh pomegranate juice down to a tart-sweet syrup filled with fruity flavours. This is the sixth in a series of recipes for Woolworths South Africa, pantry sponsors of MasterChef South Africa.

Moroccan-Spiced Lamb Chops with Citrus Couscous salad. Plate by David Walters

Cooks are often told on MasterChef and other reality shows to exercise caution when mixing ingredients from different regions, or indeed from diverse flavour ‘families’. I think this is advice worth following. Honey doesn’t go with mashed potatoes or fresh linefish, for example, and nutmeg and rocket are sworn enemies.

But, if you’re an adventurous cook, it’s worth keeping your mind open and trying out interesting flavour combinations. If you want to experiment, the best advice I can give you is to choose ingredients from regions that are geographically adjacent.  For example, because of the influence of the Moors, the cuisines of the Iberian Peninsula are compatible with the cooking of North Africa. Israeli cooking has much in common with Lebanese, Greek and Turkish food, and so on.

And all of the above are compatible with pomegranate, that most lovely and ancient fruit. (Although I do think that the seeds must be used judiciously. I see these "rubies", as magazines like to call them, scattered over everything but the cat these days. Pomegranate seeds strewn prettily across a salad  or dessert may improve the look of the dish, but - like the ubiquitous micro herbs so loved by chefs - they don't necessarily add much to its taste.)

My other recipes for Woolworths #wooliespantry:

• Spicy Chicken, Tomato and Sweetcorn Soup
• Warm Lamb and Potato Salad with a Mint Dressing
• Curried Lamb Ribbetjies with Mint Yoghurt
• Champ with Chives and Garlic
• Gin-Cured Gravadlax with Crisped Capers

Moroccan-Spiced Lamb Chops with Citrus Couscous Salad

12 small lamb chops
4 Tbsp (60 ml) lemon juice
4 Tbsp (60 ml) pomegranate concentrate
1½ tsp (7.5 ml) cumin
½ tsp (2.5 ml) cinnamon
½ tsp (2.5 ml) cayenne pepper, or more, to taste
1 tsp (5 ml) dried mint
black pepper
1½ cups (375 ml) couscous
2 cups (500 ml) very hot water
a tin of chickpeas, drained
salt
100 g slivered almonds, toasted
½ cup (125 ml) finely chopped fresh parsley
¼ cup (80 ml) finely chopped fresh mint
the seeds of a pomegranate [optional]

For the dressing:
finely grated zest of a large orange
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
6 Tbsp (90 ml) fresh lemon juice
5 Tbsp (75 ml) fresh orange juice
1 tsp (5 ml) cumin
1 tsp (5 ml) dried coriander
½ tsp (2.5 ml) cinnamon
½ cup (125 ml) olive oil
salt and pepper

Place the lamb chops in a non-metallic dish. Whisk together the lemon juice, pomegranate reduction, cumin, cinnamon, cayenne pepper and mint. Pour the marinade over the chops and toss, using your hands, so that each chop is coated. Season with black pepper, cover and set aside for two or three hours.

In the meantime, start the couscous salad. Put the couscous in a deep bowl and pour in the hot (not boiling; see Cook’s Notes) water. Immediately cover the bowl with clingfilm and set aside to steam, undisturbed, for 15 minutes. Combine all the dressing ingredients in a bowl and whisk well.

Uncover the couscous and, using a fork, gently scratch at the surface, lightly fluffing the grains so they separate. Add the chickpeas and dressing to the still-warm couscous and toss to coat. Season with salt and black pepper, to taste. Cover and set aside at room temperature while the chops are marinating.

Heat your oven’s grill.  Season the chops with salt and place in a roasting pan. Grill the chops, not too close to the heat, for about 4-5 minutes on either side (or until done to your liking), basting with the pan juices and leftover marinade now and then. Watch them closely, as the sugar in the pomegranate syrup may cause them to scorch.

Stir the toasted almonds, parsley, mint and pomegranate seeds into the couscous and add more salt and pepper, if necessary. Serve the chops piping hot with the couscous on the side.

Serves 4. 

• Try this couscous salad with other ingredients from the Mediterranean region: crumbled feta, green olives, chopped preserved lemon, pistachios, and so on.

• Leave the dried mint out of the marinade if you can’t find it. It’s easy to make your own dried mint – place a bunch of leaves in a very low oven, with the fan on, and leave them until they’re completely dry.  Crumble and store in a sealed jar.

• Most ‘instant’ couscous recipes specify boiling water, but I’ve found that hot water produces the best result.  If you’re not confident about preparing couscous, follow the instructions on the packet.

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Spicy Chicken, Tomato and Sweetcorn Soup

When I read the theme of this week's Woolies Pantry recipes, I gave a happy little snort. I have teenagers, you see, and feeding them (and the other ravenous students who swarm through my kitchen) is not unlike cooking for an army. If I were a millionaire, I'd give them their favourite food - slabs of steak and triple cheeseburgers - but I'm not, so I have resorted over the years to more economical ways of feeding young people with hollow legs. This is the fifth  in a series of recipes for Woolworths South Africa, pantry sponsors of MasterChef South Africa.

A big pot of richly flavoured soup, served with a mountain of bread, makes excellent teen fodder, and this recipe is one I make often in winter. It's packed with filling carbs - potatoes and sweetcorn - and really is a square meal in itself. What's more, it stretches one chicken across eight or more mouths, whereas if you had to roast a chicken, it would feed only four (and that's being optimistic).

If you're in a hurry, you can make this with shop-bought liquid stock and a ready-roasted chicken, but a proper home-made chicken broth adds wonderful depth of flavour. This is a mildly spiced soup, so feel free to give it extra heat with chopped fresh chillies, dried chilli flakes or lashings of Tabasco.

My other recipes for Woolworths #wooliespantry:

• Warm Lamb and Potato Salad with a Mint Dressing
• Curried Lamb Ribbetjies with Mint Yoghurt
• Champ with Chives and Garlic
• Gin-Cured Gravadlax with Crisped Capers

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Spicy Chicken, Tomato and Sweetcorn Soup

For the stock:
1 large free-range chicken
3 litres cold water
3 ripe tomatoes, chopped
1 onion, skin on, quartered
2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 stalks celery, thickly sliced
6 stalks flat-leaf parsley
2 bay leaves
1 tsp (5 ml) black peppercorns
2 whole cloves

For the soup:
3 Tbsp (45 ml) olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 sticks celery, finely sliced
4 big carrots, peeled and cubed
6 big potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-cm cubes
3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 red chilli, seeded and finely minced (optional)
2 tins Italian tomatoes, finely chopped, and their juice
3 Tbsp (45 ml) tomato paste
500 g frozen sweetcorn kernels
1 Tbsp (15 ml) cumin
1 Tbsp (15 ml) dried oregano
1 tsp (5 ml) ground coriander
1 tsp  (5 ml) sweet paprika
1 tsp  (5 ml) chilli powder, to taste
salt and milled black pepper

To serve:
chopped fresh parsley
chopped spring onions
sour cream or natural yoghurt

Place all the ingredients for the stock in a large pot and bring to gently to the boil. Turn down the heat, cover with a tilted lid, and simmer for 45 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken from the stock, strip the flesh from the bones and set aside, covered. Return the bones and skin to the stock and simmer, partly covered, for another 45 minutes. Strain the stock into a bowl and discard the bones and flavourings. Pull the reserved chicken into strips. At this point, if you are planning ahead, you can put both the stock and the chicken into the fridge for a few hours, or overnight.

Heat the olive oil in a large pot. Add the onion, celery, carrots, potato cubes, garlic and chilli and fry over a medium heat for five minutes. Skim any fat from the top of the stock and pour the stock over the vegetables. Bring to the boil. Add all the remaining soup ingredients, except the reserved chicken, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the potato cubes are tender. Skim off any foam, tip in the chicken strips and cook gently for a further 35-45 minutes, or until the chicken has fallen apart into shreds. Check the seasoning, stir in the chopped parsley and serve at once, topped with spring onions and sour cream.

Cook's notes:

• For an even more substantial soup, add a cup of split orange lentils, and cook the soup for 10-15 minutes longer, before adding the chicken.
• If you’d like a thicker texture, give the soup a quick whiz with a stick blender before you add the chicken.
• You can use tinned sweetcorn in place of frozen sweetcorn.

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Warm Lamb and Potato Salad with a Mint Dressing

The most important criterion for me when I’m cooking for a small crowd (and I’m talking about 10 people or more) is that every key element of the dish can be prepared many hours in advance, then heated, assembled and dished up with minimum fuss, at the last moment, so it arrives at the table fresh, hot and delicious. This is the fourth in a series of recipes for Woolworths, pantry sponsors of MasterChef South Africa.

An easy way to stretch an expensive leg of lamb between many mouths.

Obviously this is not possible for MasterChef contestants faced with the challenge of catering for a horde (given the tight time-frames of reality TV).  But for home cooks, painstaking planning and preparation are the secrets to success when you’re expecting a flock of hungry guests. A recipe that allows you partly to cook the ingredients well ahead of time, without any significant loss of freshness, flavour or texture, is the best bet, because all you need do is take 20 minutes or so to finish them off in pan or oven, fling the dish together and carry it triumphantly to the table.

This recipe for a warm salad of garlicky, rosemaried lamb, baby potatoes and peas allows you to do just that, and it’s economical in the sense that it stretches a single leg of lamb (which is ruinously expensive these days, for reasons I cannot understand) between many mouths. In the recipe below, I’ve given instructions for preparing the dish well ahead of time and then assembling it at the last minute.

You’ll save a lot of money if you buy a whole leg of lamb and debone it yourself (see Cook’s Notes, below), or ask your butcher to do it for you.

It’s important to serve this warm, as it’s the heat of the potatoes and lamb that releases the minty, mustardy, lemony flavours of the dressing.

My other recipes for Woolworths #wooliespantry: 

Curried Lamb Ribbetjies with Mint Yoghurt
Champ with Chives and Garlic
Gin-Cured Gravadlax with Crisped Capers

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Warm Lamb and Potato Salad with a Mint Dressing

1 x 3.5 kg leg of lamb, deboned and butterflied
6 sprigs fresh rosemary
4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
3 Tbsp (45 ml) olive oil, plus extra for frying
a large lemon
milled black pepper
3.5 kg new potatoes
olive or sunflower oil, for frying
4 cups frozen baby peas
baby mint leaves, to garnish

For the dressing:
4 tsp (20 ml) good Dijon mustard
1 large clove garlic, peeled and crushed
6 Tbsp (90 ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ tsp (2.5 ml) white sugar
flaky sea salt
milled pepper
1 cup (250 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
a big handful of fresh mint leaves (about ¾ cup, loosely packed)

Lay the butterflied lamb, skin side down, in a large non-metallic dish. Scatter over the rosemary sprigs and garlic slices and drizzle with 3 Tbsp olive oil. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice over the lamb, then slice the squeezed-out lemon halves and arrange them on top of the lamb. Season well with milled black pepper (but no salt). Fold the lamb ‘butterfly’ in half to enclose the filling and cover the dish with clingfilm. Marinate in the fridge for 24 hours (a minimum of 12), turning the lamb over once or twice during that time.

Now prepare the potatoes. Cook them in plenty of boiling salted water for 10 minutes, or until just tender when pierced with the tip of a sharp knife, but not squashy or falling apart. Drain in a colander for 10 minutes, return them to the empty pot and cover.

To prepare the dressing, put the mustard, garlic, lemon juice, sugar and a pinch of salt and pepper into a bowl and stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Whisk in the oil to form a smooth emulsion. Cover and set aside at room temperature.

Now sear the lamb (you can do this up to eight hours ahead and keep it, loosely covered with clingfilm, in the fridge). Heat 3 Tbsp oil in a large frying pan or a heavy-based roasting pan until blazing hot and shimmering, but not yet smoking. Scrape the garlic, rosemary and lemon slices off the lamb (don’t leave a trace of garlic behind, as it will turn bitter in the pan) and season with a little salt on both sides.

Sear the lamb in the hot oil for 4-5 minutes on each side, or until nicely browned and caramelised. Cover and set aside (at room temperature if you’re planning to assemble the dish within two hours, or in the fridge if you’re preparing this well in advance.)

About 45 minutes before you’re ready to serve the dish, heat the oven to 190 ºC. Put the lamb in a roasting pan and roast for 20-25 minutes, or until it’s cooked through, but still a pale rosy pink on the inside (how long this will take depends on your oven and the thickness of the lamb; see Cook’s Notes.) Cover loosely with foil and set aside to rest for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, finely chop the mint leaves, stir them into the dressing and check the seasoning. Add a few tablespoons of water to the pot containing the potatoes, set it over a low heat and gently reheat for 7-10 minutes. Put the frozen peas into a pot of rapidly boiling salted water and cook for 3-4 minutes.

Cut the hot potatoes in half and arrange them on a large, warmed platter. Drain the peas and scatter them on top. Pour the pan juices that have accumulated under the lamb into the bowl containing the dressing and whisk well.

Cut the lamb into thin slices and arrange the pieces on top of the potatoes. Pour over just enough of the minty dressing to coat the potatoes and lamb, and garnish with small mint leaves. Check the seasoning and add more salt if necessary.

Serve immediately with a leafy green salad scattered with crunchy croutons.

With salad, serves  8-10.

Cook's Notes:

• It’s not difficult to debone a leg of lamb: use a very sharp knife to release the flesh from the bones, using long sweeping strokes. Don’t worry if the lamb ‘butterfly’ looks a little ragged: no one will notice once it’s sliced. If you’re not confident about doing this, have a look on the Internet for an instructional video.
• To test whether the lamb is done to perfection, cut a small, deep slit in the thickest part of the meat. If it’s still a bloody pink inside, let it roast for 5-7 more minutes, then check again.
• You can use large potatoes for this dish: boil them in their skins, taking care not to overcook them. Reheat them whole, then cut into thick slices.

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Curried Lamb Ribbetjies with Mint Yoghurt

Slow cooking, and dishes that take a few days to prepare, don’t ever feature on MasterChef because of the obvious time limitations of reality TV. I think this is a pity, because time and patience are often the most delicious aspects of a dish, and this is especially true of meat that is cooked over an open flame.

Curried Lamb Ribs with Mint Yoghurt 

Long marinating and/or many hours of slow cooking can work absolute wonders, especially with tougher cuts of meat. Think, for example, of a whole lamb or pig that is spit-roasted for hours, rotating gently in front of a wood fire until its skin is burnished mahogany and its meat falling from the bone in tender flakes.

A braai is quintessentially South African, so for this week’s Woolies The Pantry recipe I’ve chosen lamb ribbetjies [riblets] because I love them (and their name!), and a Cape-Malay-style marinade based on a traditional curried lamb-sosatie soaking sauce. Drenched in a turmeric-yellow, sharp-sweet marinade, Malay sosaties of this sort have a long and noteworthy history as one of the classics of Cape Malay cooking. The basic recipe has remained largely unchanged over at least two centuries; its pedigree is doubtless older than that, because the dish was bought to the Cape from the East during the earliest days of the slave trade. In my version of the marinade, I’ve used yoghurt in addition to a variety of wonderful spices, because this helps to tenderise the lamb ribbetjies so they are beautifully succulent when they come off the braai.

Click here for my recipe for snack-sized Cape Malay Lamb Sosaties.

My other recipes for Woolworths The Pantry: 
Champ with Chives and Garlic
Gin-Cured Gravadlax with Crisped Capers

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Curried Lamb Ribbetjies with Mint Yoghurt

1.2 kg lamb ribbetjies [riblets]
salt
lemon wedges, to serve

For the marinade:
4 T (60 ml) sunflower oil
2 onions, peeled and very finely chopped
4 cardamom pods
1 quill of cinnamon
1 red chilli, finely chopped
2 T (30 ml) grated fresh ginger
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1½ t (7.5 ml) ground cumin
1 t (5 ml) ground coriander
1 t (5 ml) red chilli powder
2 t (10 ml) medium-strength curry powder
1½ t (7.5 ml) turmeric
3 T (45 ml) white wine vinegar
80 ml thick fruity chutney
1 T (15 ml) sugar
3/4 cup (180 ml) water
milled black pepper
80 ml lemon juice (about 3 small lemons)
2 cups (500 ml) natural white yoghurt

For the dip:
1 cup (250 ml) thick white Greek yoghurt
80 ml finely chopped fresh mint
80 ml finely chopped fresh coriander
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
the juice of half a lemon
salt and milled black pepper

Heat the oil in a pan and add the onions, cardamom pods and cinnamon stick. Fry over a medium-high flame for 5 minutes, or until the onions are golden. Add the chilli, ginger and garlic and cook for another minute, without allowing the garlic to burn. Stir in the cumin, coriander, chilli powder, curry powder, turmeric, vinegar and chutney, turn down the heat and cook, stirring, for two minutes. Add the sugar and water, season with pepper and simmer briskly for 8 minutes. Remove from the heat, allow to cool, then stir in the lemon juice and yoghurt.  Tip the marinade into a lidded plastic or ceramic bowl, add the ribbetjies, mix well and refrigerate for 48 hours, stirring once or twice.

To make the dip, combine the yoghurt, mint, coriander, garlic and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate.

Season the ribbetjies with salt and braai over medium-hot coals for about 8 minutes on all four sides (half an hour in total), basting frequently with the leftover marinade.  The coals should not be too hot, or the ribs will scorch: by the end of the cooking time, they should be a rich yellow gold, flecked here and there with sticky black bits. Serve hot with the yoghurt dip and lemon wedges.

Serves 4. 

• For best results, marinate the ribbetjies for two to three days; 24 hours is the absolute minimum.    
• If you’d like a hotter marinade, add more chilli powder or chopped fresh red chillies to the marinade.
• Don’t rush the cooking time: lamb ribbetjies can be quite fatty, and long cooking over medium coals will help render the fat.
• These can be successfully cooked in an oven under a very hot grill, but make sure the ribbetjies are at least 20 cm below the grill, and turn them frequently.

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Kohlrabi, Baby Cabbage and Apple Slaw with Yoghurt & Horseradish Dressing

Every now and then I get a craving for the peppery crunch of a good Sixties-style coleslaw, and because I can't be bothered to make it myself (cabbage is not something I usually have in the fridge) I slope off to Woolworths to buy a ready-made one. Then, after I've eaten it, I feel queasy, because the Woolies version is so over-mayonnaised, oily and - like so many Woolies ready-meals - under-flavoured. And doubly queasy because I paid through the nose for something I could have made in a jiffy at home.

With a spare fresh kohlrabi rolling around in my fridge (the other beauty having gone into last week's Kohlrabi 'Carpaccio' with Radishes and Blue Cheese), I thought I'd make a lighter, brighter version of coleslaw, using the usual ingredients, plus grated apple, baby red cabbage and a dollop of creamed horseradish.

If you can't find kohlrabi, leave it out, or add a little finely diced celery. Sultanas are entirely optional. Make this salad in small quantities, and very soon before you serve it, because it doesn't improve on standing.

Kohlrabi, Baby Cabbage and Apple Slaw with Yoghurt & Horseradish Dressing

For the salad:
juice of one lemon
1 red apple, cored but not peeled
1 baby (fist-sized) white cabbage
1 baby red cabbage
1 young kohlrabi bulb
2 carrots, peeled
a little handful of sultanas (optional)
1 t (5 ml) caraway seeds (optional)

For the dressing:
¾ cup (180 ml) good mayonnaise (Hellman's, Kraft or home-made)
½ cup (125 ml) plain thick white yoghurt
2 T (30 ml) white wine vinegar
1 t (5 ml) caster sugar
1 T (15 ml) creamed horseradish, or more, to taste
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the lemon juice into a big plastic bowl and coarsely grate the apple directly into the juice. Toss well to combine. Finely shred the white and red cabbage, coarsely grate the kohlrabi and the carrots, and then add all the vegetables, along with the sultanas and caraway seeds, to the bowl containing the apple and lemon juice. In a separate bowl, whisk together all the dressing ingredients, taste the dressing, and adjust the seasoning if necessary (this dressing needs quite a lot of salt). Add just enough dressing (dollop by dollop) to the salad to lightly coat each individual shred: the salad should not be swimming in its dressing. Toss well and serve immediately.

Serves 4-6 as a side salad. Print Friendly