Two Scrumptious Low-Carb Cheese, Nut & Herb Pestos

Feta, Blue Cheese, Herb & Toasted-Walnut Pesto with
Griddled Courgettes (recipe below). 

One of the things I miss most on my low-carb regime is glorious garlicky hummous.  Although hummous has a relatively low glycaemic-index ranking and load - depending on how much tahini it includes - it is still fairly packed with carbohydrates, so I avoid it these days.

Over the past few weeks I've been experimenting with combinations of cheese, nuts, herbs, garlic and olive oil to create vibrant low-carb pastes packed with singing flavours.

Because these pestos contain both nuts and cheese, they're crammed with calories, but all you need is a single dollop to add beautiful aroma and crunch to steamed fresh green beans or broccoli or griddled sliced courgettes.

You can also serve these as a dip with hot and cold crudités, or dobbled on flash-fried chicken or fish fillets.  If you're not on a low-carb regime, try tossing these through hot pasta, or spreading them over hot toasty ciabatta bread (with a topping of roasted tomatoes or some melty mozzarella) to make scrumptious bruschettas.

First, a gorgeous nutty pesto with fresh Mediterranean flavours.  I know this looks a bit like window putty, but I promise you won't be disappointed by the punchy flavours of this easy and versatile sauce.

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Low-Carb Pesto of Roast Aubergine, Macadamia Nuts,
Feta, Lemon & Rosemary. This nutty pesto is delicious
 with steamed green beans lightly dressed with olive oil 
and lemon juice.

Low-Carb Pesto of Roast Aubergine, Macadamia Nuts, Feta, Lemon & Rosemary

1 large aubergine [eggplant or brinjal]

½ cup (125 ml) macadamia nuts

a big pinch of flaky sea salt

2 'wheels' (about 140 g) feta cheese, crumbled

1 Tbsp (15 ml) finely grated lemon zest

the juice of a medium lemon

1 tsp (5 ml) very finely chopped fresh rosemary needles

1 small clove garlic, peeled and finely grated

½ cup (125 ml) extra-virgin olive oil

salt and milled black pepper 

a pinch of smoked paprika or cayenne pepper, for dusting [optional; see Cook's Notes, below.]

Heat the oven to 200 ºC.  Put the whole aubergine directly onto a middle rack of the oven.  Let it bake for 40-50 minutes, or until it is very soft and slightly shrunken.  Remove and set aside to cool for 25 minutes.  

Now toast the macadamias. Heat a frying pan over a medium-low heat and dry-roast the nuts for three to four minutes, tossing and turning them frequently, until they are a light golden colour and freckled here and there with dark-brown spots. 

Put the macadamias, still warm, into the jug attachment of a stick blender, or into a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Add a big pinch of flaky sea salt and press the pulse button repeatedly to process the nuts to fairly big crumbs. Don't over-process them, or they may turn into an oily paste. Tip the crumbled macadamia nuts into a mixing bowl.  

When the aubergine has cooled, cut it in half lengthways and use the blade of a knife to scrape out all the flesh, seeds and all. Tip this flesh into your food processor, and discard the tough outer peel of the aubergine.

To the food processor, add the feta cheese, lemon zest, lemon juice, rosemary, garlic and seven tablespoons (105 ml) of olive oil.  Process until you have a fairly smooth paste.  If the blade is reluctant to turn, add a tablespoon or two of warm water. 

Scrape this mixture into the bowl containing the macadamia crumbs and stir well to combine.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Tip the pesto into a glass lidded jar and pour the remaining tablespoon of olive oil over the top to seal it and prevent oxidisation.

To serve, pile the pesto into a small pretty bowl, and drizzle with more olive oil.  Grind some pepper over the top, and dust with smoked paprika or cayenne pepper. 

Keeps for a week in the fridge, and freezes well.

Makes about 1½ cups. 

Cook's Notes: 

• When I make this, I dust it very lightly with smoked paprika, which adds a final flavour flourish. Do use smoked paprika sparingly, though, as its pungency can overwhelm the other flavours.
• I love the crunch and interesting meaty texture of macadamias, but if you can't find these where you live, try using blanched almonds instead.  
• You can roast the aubergine a day or more in advance, and keep it in the fridge until you're ready to use it. 
• If you'd like to add some extra colour to this pesto, whizz it up with 4 tablespoons (60 ml) of chopped fresh parsley.

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Feta, Blue Cheese, Herb & Walnut Pesto with Griddled Courgettes

See picture at the top of this post. 

50 g (about 25) shelled walnuts
a small bunch (about 40 g) fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
half a pillow-pack (about 40 g) fresh wild rocket, roughly chopped
1/3 cup (80 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp (30 ml) fresh lemon juice
a small clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped or grated
a small block (40 g) creamy blue cheese, crumbled
one 'wheel' (70 g) feta cheese
milled black pepper
24 young courgettes [zucchini or baby marrows], rinsed to remove any grit

To serve: 
olive oil and fresh lemon juice, for sprinkling
salt and milled black pepper

First toast the walnuts. Place them in a frying pan over a medium-low heat and dry-roast them for a minute or two, tossing frequently, and watching them like a hawk as they burn quickly.  When they are hot, and smelling pleasantly nutty, take the pan off the heat.  Remove 6 toasted walnuts and set them aside for your garnish.  Tip the remaining nuts into the jug attachment of a stick blender, or into a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Process the nuts to a rough crumb, and set aside.

Remove the stalks from the parsley and add the leaves to the food processor along with the rocket, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic. Process to a fairly fine paste. Don't worry if the blades won't whizz freely - the next step will sort this out.

Add the blue cheese bits and process the mixture till smooth. You will find that the mixture magically smooths out into a soft paste.  But if the blades still won't turn freely, add a few drops of warm water.  Now add the feta and process again.  Season with plenty of black pepper.  You shouldn't need to add any salt, but go ahead and add a pinch or two if necessary. If the mixture needs a little more acidity, add a drop or two more of lemon juice.

Scrape the mixture into a small serving bowl or glass jar and cover with a thin layer of olive oil. Seal with clingfilm and refrigerate.

To prepare the courgettes, slice them lengthways into 'leaves' 3 mm thick.  I do this using a mandolin, which produces perfect shavings. If you don't have a mandolin, you can use a very sharp knife, held with its blade horizontal to your chopping board.

Put a large griddle pan or a frying pan over a high flame until it's blazing hot, add a lick of olive oil and fry the courgettes slices for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until they are tiger-striped, toasty and just soft. Tip the slices into a bowl and sprinkle with olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice, plus salt and pepper to taste.

Serve hot with spoonfuls of the pesto, and the crumbled toasted walnuts you set aside earlier.

Makes about ¾ cup of pesto. With the courgettes, serves 6. 

Cook's Notes: 

• If you'd like to give this pesto even more fragrance, add a small handful of fresh basil. 
• This is very good with pan-fried beef, lamb or ostrich steaks.
• You can freeze this paste in a small lidded box.  Let it defrost overnight in the fridge. 

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Onion and Blue Cheese Tart

I'd like to have put the word 'winning' in the title of this recipe, but I was just pipped to the post by my friend Matt Allison, whose Onion and Biltong Tart walked off with top honours at the recent Ommiberg Onion Tart Cook Off. I couldn't begrudge Matt his win: his choice of biltong was inspired, and he magicked up a very fine tart indeed, as did the other competitors, my pals and fellow food bloggers Jessica Ulyate and Linda Harding.

Clockwise, from top left: Matt's Onion and Biltong Tart, Jessica's Onion and Pear Tart, Linda's Onion and Confit Pork Tart, my Onion and Blue Cheese Tart

Cooking under pressure, and in public, was something I'd never tried before, and I enjoyed every minute of it, except when a TV cameraman poked his lens into my face (a stomach-churning moment for a camera-phobe like me). Quite by chance, the cameraman in question turned out to be an old and dear friend, musician Carl Raubenheimer, so as you can imagine I did not hold back on threats and insults.

This is how the cook-off worked: we were given a pre-cooked pastry shell,  and some basic ingredients - eggs, milk, onion and Cheddar - and asked to choose (in advance) our own secret ingredients.

Food bloggers: (left to right:) Jessica Ulyate, Linda Harding and Matt Allison, with one of the judges, chef Neill Anthony, at the back.

Before I settled on blue cheese, I tried out various secret ingredients (by making a big batch of filling, dividing it between six ramekins and adding a different ingredient to each). The six 'candidates' were smoked Franschhoek trout, Boursin garlic and herb cheese, blue cheese, roast chicken and marinated artichoke hearts. After a taste test, and input from my husband and son, blue cheese came out tops (with Boursin a close second).

Then I tried three blue cheeses: first a pungent Roquefort, then a squashy Italian gorgonzola, and finally Fairview's Blue Tower, which had the right balance of pungency and creaminess. As I tested the recipe,  I also juggled the proportion of milk to egg to get just the right creamy 'set'. (In an nutshell: four eggs to 125 ml milk.)

I also wanted my tart to deliver a Full-Monty onion experience, so I used the onions in different ways:  finely chopped and slowly seethed in olive oil (for the filling); thinly sliced and caramelised in butter (for the topping). For punch, I added a tablespoon or so of  raw onion juice.

Chef Neill Anthony, one of the judges, paying serious attention to a slice of tart

We were restricted to just one secret ingredient, but if we had not been, I would have added fresh thyme to the mixture, and topped the tart with a sprinkling of poppy seeds. I would also have added a little fresh cream to the egg mixture. (If you'd like to do the same, use a tablespoon - 15 ml - chopped fresh thyme leaves, and substitute half the milk for single cream).

Make sure the blue cheese is very cold, or it will not grate well.

My thanks to Rhebokskloof wine estate, Ommiberg Wine Festival, Neill Anthony, and Illanda Smit of Erica Meles PR, and also to Fairview and Yuppiechef for some lovely prizes.

Note: I'm not sponsored by Fairview; I just like their cheese!

Onion and Blue Cheese Tart

For the pastry shell:
250 g white flour
a pinch of salt
150 g cold butter, cubed
2 egg yolks

For the filling:
4 medium onions, peeled
2 T (30 ml) olive oil
4 T (60 ml) butter
4 large free-range eggs
1/2 cup (125 ml) milk
1 cup (250 ml) grated Cheddar (loosely packed into the cup measure)
1 cup (250 ml) grated mild blue cheese (loosely packed)
salt and milled black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180° C. To make the pastry shell, sift the flour into a bowl and add the butter. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. (Or blitz in a food processor fitted with a metal blade). Now stir in the egg yolks, and combine to form a stiffish dough. (Add a few drops of iced water if the mixture seems too stiff). Put the dough in the fridge for 10 minutes, then roll out and use it to line a greased 23-cm quiche or flan dish. (Click here for my top tips for making pastry.)

Prick the bottom of the pastry shell all over and bake blind. Set aside to cool.

(Alternatively, if you're feeling lazy and don't mind a slightly soggy crust, simply press the pastry across the bottom and up the sides of the dish, using your fingertips, and then add the filling).

Now make the filling. Finely chop two of the onions. Heat one tablespoon (15 ml) of the olive oil and 2 T (30 ml) of the butter in a frying pan. Add the finely chopped onions to the pan, toss to coat, cover with a circle of baking paper (or the paper wrapping from a butter block) and gently sweat the onions for 10-12 minutes, or until tender. Tip onto a plate and allow to cool.

While the onions are sweating, put the eggs and the milk into a mixing bowl and, using a wire whisk, beat well for one minute. Add the grated Cheddar and blue cheese.

Grate a third of one of the remaining onions. Place the pulp in a sieve over the mixing bowl and press down hard to extract a teaspoon or two of raw onion juice. Discard the grated pulp.

Very finely slice the remaining onions into paper-thin rings (use a mandolin, if you have one). Heat the remaining oil and butter in the frying pan, add the onion rings and cook, stirring often, over a brisk heat for 4-5 minutes, or until the rings are golden brown and caramelised. Watch them like a hawk, as they burn quickly.

Tip the cooled, sweated onions into the egg mixture. Give the egg mixture another quick whisk, season with salt and pepper to taste, and pour into the prepared pastry case. Arrange the fried onion rings on top. Bake at 180° C for 30-40 minutes, or until puffed and golden. The centre of the tart should have a very slight wobble.

Serve hot or warm, with a green salad.

Makes one 23-cm tart; serves 6-8

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My heaven on a plate: Profiteroles with a Double-Creamy Blue-Cheese Filling

Wicked, decadent and sinful hardly begin to describe these dreamy little puffs, which are so packed with calories that you might as well skip eating them and strap them directly to your thighs and bottom*. But hell, Christmas is coming, so why not go ahead and indulge? Besides - if you're in my frame of mind (and body) - there are going to be slim pickings indeed come January.

This recipe, which I finally wrestled to the floor last week after several failed attempts, is all wound up with my personal history as a devoted lover of food.

Let me explain. Do you remember something utterly delicious that you ate as a child or teenager; something that turned your knees to jelly and filled your eyes with tears? I had two such tasting epiphanies in my early years.

The second was when I tasted Boursin cheese with garlic on a trip to Paris when I was fifteen (but more about that in a future post). The first, also involving cheese, was a few years earlier, when I reached into the fridge and sunk my teeth into a little puffy ball filled with a chilled, creamy mixture that tasted, frankly, of heaven. I believe I might have given out a low whimper: there were choirs of angels, and beams of celestial light fell through the kitchen windows.

Okay, I exaggerate, but the memory of tasting those little beauties remains as clear as day.

I reached back into the fridge, and had another one. And another. And another. Within a few minutes, I'd demolished most of the savoury profiteroles my mother had bought for some special occasion. She was furious with me: 'How could you eat so many?' she asked. 'You might have left one or two for the rest of us!'

'I just couldn't help myself, Ma,' I told her, wiping the crumbs off my bulging cheeks, and that was the honest truth.

My mum hasn't any memory of this event, so she was not able to help when I asked her if she recalled what was in those little puffs. At that tender age, I didn't have a library of tastes to draw upon, so in recreating the recipe I've had to take a guess, using my more experienced adult palate.

And, do you know what? I believe that what I was tasting was either blue cheese, or camembert, or very likely both.

In my most recent attempts, I've tried a combination of creamy blue cheese and camembert, and I've also tried using Brie. The mixture tasted right, but the the filling was a little oily and stiff. So I've abandoned the camembert, and come up with a silken mixture of blue cheese, cream cheese and whipped cream that is as close as I think I'll ever get.

I presume that whoever created these intended them to be served at room temperature, with a crispy outer shell and a soft and fluffy filling. But, for me, these are perfect eaten cold, somewhat soggy on the outside, and straight from the fridge. With bulging cheeks.

As choux pastry is quite tricky to get right, I've given detailed instructions below. Please measure the ingredients exactly (and see Cook's Notes, below).

For best results, a good-quality creamy blue cheese and a thick, full-fat cream cheese are essential. I used Lancewood's lovely plain cream cheese, and a Simonsberg creamy blue.




Profiteroles with a Double-Creamy Blue-Cheese Filling

For the profiteroles:
1 cup (250 ml) cake flour
a large pinch of salt
125 g salted butter (this is a quarter of a 500-gram block of butter)
1 cup (250 ml) water
4 extra-large free range eggs

For the filling:
130 g creamy blue cheese
1 cup (250 ml) whipping [single] cream
one tub (240 g) full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
freshly milled black pepper

First make the profiteroles.

Preheat the oven to 180º C. Line a baking sheet with a piece of greaseproof paper. Sift the flour and salt into a little bowl, or onto a sheet of paper. Put the butter and the water into a large saucepan and set over a brisk heat. When the mixture begins to boil rapidly, remove the pan from the heat. Immediately tip the sifted flour and salt, all in one go, into the butter/water mixture. Stir energetically with a wooden spoon, and return to the heat. Turn down the heat and cook, stirring vigorously and continuously, for one to two minutes, or until the mixture forms a ball that comes cleanly away from the sides of the pan.

Take the pan off the heat and allow to cool for five minutes, or until just warm to the touch. Now beat in the whole eggs, one at a time, beating hard after each addition. Once you've added the fourth egg, you should have a glossy and thick - though slightly slack - mixture. Pile the mixture into a large piping bag fitted with a big plain nozzle, and pipe blobs the size of a litchi onto the baking paper (or use a teaspoon to make neat little dollops).

Put the baking sheet into the hot oven and bake for 25-35 minutes (depending on the ferocity of your oven) until well risen, golden brown and crisp. Turn off the oven, open the door, and allow the profiteroles to dry out for 10 minutes. Remove the profiteroles from the oven and turn them onto their sides. Use a piping nozzle (or the handle-end of a wooden spoon) to poke a hole into the bottom of each one. Set aside to cool completely.


In the meantime make the filling. Crumble the blue cheese into a saucepan, and add half (125 ml) of the cream. Place over a gentle flame and heat through, stirring often as the cheese melts. Do not allow to boil. When all the cheese has melted, remove the pan from the heat and set aside to cool for a few minutes.

Place the cream cheese in a large bowl, add the warm blue cheese mixture and, using a metal spoon, stir furiously until the mixture is smooth and well combined. Whip the remaining half-cup (125 ml) of cream to a soft peak, then stir it lightly into the blue cheese mixture. If the mixture seems a little stiff, don't worry: persist with gentle stirring, and it will all come together Season with a few grindings of black pepper. Cover and set aside, at room temperature.

Wash and dry your piping bag and fit a medium nozzle to it. Fill the piping bag with the blue cheese mixture. Poke the nozzle into the underside of each profiterole and squeeze in just enough of the cheese mixture to fill the cavity.

Serve immediately with a dab of wine jelly. Or - please trust me on this - put them in the fridge for a couple of hours, or until the filling is firm.

Makes 12 large profiteroles, or 18 small ones


Cook's Notes

• Choux pastry, although easy to make, is a little temperamental, and you can really only learn from experience when the batter is of a perfect consistency. Much depends on the flour you're using and the size of your eggs. Measure all the ingredients exactly, and follow the instructions above to the letter.
• If your first batch of choux pastry doesn't turn out well, don't be discouraged. Try again!  Perfect choux buns are light and crispy, hollow on the inside, and have a soft golden-brown colour.  

* With apologies to a friend of my sister's, who came up with the idea of strapping fatty foods directly to your backside.

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Salad of Warm Baby Leeks with Blue Cheese and Chilli Croutons

The French refer to leeks as l'asperges du pauvre, or 'the asparagus of the poor', and it's not difficult to see why. Young leeks braised to a melting softness in olive oil and water are delicious, and every bit as tasty, in my book, as asparagus.

Salad of Warm Baby Leeks with Blue Cheese and Chilli Croutons. If you're on a
low-carb regime, leave out the croutons or use my halloumi croutons instead.

For this salad, baby leeks are simmered whole in water, with a little olive oil and some herbs and garlic. By the time the water has evaporated, the leeks are as tender as a mother's love. They are then left to colour and caramelise slightly in the remaining oil, and served warm with crumbled blue cheese and croutons. If you're on a low-carb regime, leave out the croutons!

I came up with this salad last week when I pounced on a big punnet of very beautiful baby leeks. Some I used to add a bit of pep to this dish of smoked tuna, and the rest went into this salad. These are best warm, but you can serve them piping hot (in which case add a little butter to the pan just as you finish frying them).

You can omit the chilli powder, if you like, but it does add colour and a little kick to the crunchy topping. The croutons should be crumbled over the salad at the very last minute to prevent them from losing their bite. A frying pan is essential, as the large surface area helps the water to evaporate quickly.

I've recently adapted many of my recipes to suit my low-carb, diabetic diet, and if you're following a similar regime, I suggest you either leave out the croutons, or replace them with gorgeous halloumi-cheese 'popcorn'.

Finally, use a mild, creamy blue cheese, not a sharp one that will overwhelm the delicate taste of the leeks. I used Fairview's Blue Tower, a rich Gorgonzola-style cheese with a good crumbly texture. (Disclosure: this cheese was part of a consolaton prize I received after this recipe was a finalist in Fairview's Food Bloggers' Competition.)

Salad of Warm Baby Leeks with Blue Cheese and Chilli Croutons

30 baby leeks, topped and tailed
4 tsp (20 ml) olive oil
1 clove of garlic, peeled
a large sprig of fresh thyme
4 Tbsp (60 ml) white wine
salt and milled black pepper
water or vegetable stock, to cover
3 Tbps (45 ml) lemon juice
1 x 100 g wedge creamy blue cheese
a little extra olive oil, for drizzling

For the croutons:
4 slices white bread, crusts removed
4 Tbsp (60 ml) vegetable oil
a pinch of chilli powder (or more, to taste)

Put the leeks, olive oil, whole clove of garlic, thyme and wine into a large frying pan and season with salt and pepper. Add enough water to just cover the leeks, and bring to the boil. Now turn down the heat and cook, uncovered, at a fairly brisk bubble for 20-30 minutes, or until all the water has evaporated. Allow the leeks to colour slightly in the oil remaining in the pan (but don't allow to burn).

While the leeks are braising, make the croutons. Heat the vegetable oil in a small pan. Tear the bread into little tatters and fry in the hot oil, tossing once or twice, until they are a rich golden brown. Drain on a piece of kitchen paper and sprinkle with chilli powder and a little salt.

Arrange the leeks on a platter and pour over the lemon juice. Top with crumbled blue cheese, and drizzle with a little more olive oil. Taste, and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Using your fingers, roughly crush the croutons and scatter them over the salad.  Serve immediately.

Serves 4 as a starter or side dish.

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