Warm Marinated Olives with Lime, Thyme and Chilli

Fresh limes and olives are unlikely bedfellows, I know, but I was fresh out of lemons when I made this yesterday, so slices of lime it had to be. And, my goodness, the lime tasted good! (Although there's no startling difference in the final taste, a green and perky note of lime adds special zip to the olive-oil marinade.)  I often make this dish in summer as a snack to go with drinks: it's so quick and easy to prepare in advance, it tastes gorgeous, and it goes a long way if you serve it with a big platter of sliced crusty bread for dipping.

Warm Marinated Olives with Lime, Thyme and Chilli

It's not essential to warm the flavouring ingredients in the olive oil (if you're in a hurry, pack everything into a jar and leave it to steep for three days) but I've found that heating the marinade helps to release the lovely aromatic oils in the thyme, citrus zest, chilli, garlic and pepper.

It takes less than a minute gently to reheat the olives before you take them to the table, and it's well worth the effort, because the aromas that drift from the warm oil are quite irresistible.

You can stone the olives if you like, but I think half the fun of eating an olive is rolling its pip around your mouth (and then seeing how far you can spit it  placing it daintily on the side of your plate).

I alway use Calamata olives because they're so big and glossy and delicious, but you can use any sort of black brined olive, or a mixture of green and black olives.



Warm Marinated Olives with Lime, Thyme and Chilli

1 large jar Calamata olives, drained (or olives of your choice)
enough extra-virgin olive oil to cover the olives (about a cup and half; 375 ml)
2 slices of fresh lime or lemon
½ tsp (2.5 ml) dried red chilli flakes
1 large fresh red chilli, split in half lengthways (or more, to taste)
4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled and sliced in half lengthways
2 large sprigs of fresh thyme
2 fresh lemon leaves, if you can find them
milled black pepper
flaky sea salt
the juice of half a lemon

If you have time, cut a slit in the side of each olive.  Pour the olive oil into a saucepan and stir in the olives, lime slices, chilli flakes, fresh chilli, garlic, thyme and lemon leaves. Add plenty of freshly ground black pepper (eight to ten twists of the mill). Very gently heat the olive oil over a low flame, until it's quite hot and beginning to seethe, but not yet bubbling; this will take 3-4 minutes.

Take the pan off the heat and, using the back of a fork, squash and squish the garlic cloves to release more of their flavour. Tip the mixture into a lidded plastic container (or a very large glass jar) and set aside at room temperature to steep for at least six hours - preferably overnight.

If you'd like to make this a few days in advance, you can refrigerate the mixture. Don't worry if the oil solidifies in patches: it will melt down again when you rewarm the mixture.

When you're ready to serve the olives, tip the mixture back into the saucepan and reheat it gently over a medium flame for one minute, or until very warm, but nowhere near piping hot.

Remove the pan from the heat and squeeze in the fresh lemon juice. Season with flaky sea salt, add a few more grinds of black pepper and stir well. Tip the mixture into a shallow serving dish and take it straight to the table with some sliced fresh bread.

Serves 6-8  as a snack

Print Friendly

Moroccan-style Tomato and Preserved-Lemon Salad with a Tomato & Paprika 'Broth'

Made with red onion, preserved lemons, capers, radishes and green olives, this Moroccan-style salad is not for shrinking palates. But I love these boisterous flavours, and would be happy to eat a bucketful. The picture below, taken in fading light, doesn't do justice to the brilliant colours of this salad.

If you're not sure your family will go for this, treat it like a rough-cut salsa and serve each person just a dollop to pep up grilled chicken, spicy fish or steak. Cubes of mild creamy feta cheese (look, Greece is not that far from Morocco) might entice kids and teens to try it. If you're presenting it on its own as a starter or snack, provide plenty of hot pita bread to soak up the juices.

Perfectly red, ripe tomatoes and fresh paprika and cumin are essential if the dressing is to taste like the knees of the bees (and there should be lots of dressing; it should be like - without wanting to sound poncy - a cold broth). The pips and pulp are scooped out, but they are squished through a sieve to make the dressing (British chef Heston Blumenthal recently proved that the wobbly inside bits of tomatoes are packed with the elusive fifth flavour, umami; see my notes about this here.) If you don't have preserved lemons to hand, leave them out.

Tomato, Onion and Preserved-Lemon Salad with Tomato & Paprika Dressing

6 ripe, very red, but not mushy tomatoes
1 red onion, peeled
half a preserved lemon (or more, to taste)
6 radishes
12 green olives
a small bunch each of fresh coriander, mint and flat-leaf parsley
3 T (45 ml) capers

For the dressing:
2 red, ripe tomatoes
about 4 T (60 ml) olive oil
the juice of half a lemon
one and a half tsp (7.5ml) fresh paprika
1 tsp (5 ml) freshly ground cumin

First make the salad. Cut a cross on the stalk end of each tomato and cover with boiling water. Leave for a minute or two, and then, as soon as you see their skins begin to furl and loosen, scoop them out of the hot water and slip off their skins. Set a sieve over a separate bowl.

Cut the tomatoes in half, scoop out the pulp and pips with a teaspoon, and place the pulp in the sieve to drain. Cut each tomato half in half again, or into thirds, if you are using big tomatoes. Halve the onion lengthways, place the halves cut-side down onto a board, and slice finely into crescent-moon shapes. Rinse the preserved lemons under running water to remove any excess salt. Using a sharp knife, held parallel to the chopping board, slice away any pulp and white pith. Cut into fine slivers. Slice the radish into thin discs. Depip the olives and cut them in half.

Finely chop the coriander, mint and parsley. Put the tomatoes, onion, lemon slivers, radish, olives and chopped herbs in a salad bowl, add the capers and toss gently to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To make the dressing, quarter the two tomatoes, place in a liquidizer or food processer and whizz to a chunky pulp. Pour the pulp into the sieve containing the reserved tomato pulp and pips. Using the back of a soup ladle, press down on the mixture to extract the juice. Discard the pulp. To the tomato juice, add all the remaining dressing ingredients. (You may need to add more olive oil, depending on the size of the tomatoes you've used.) Whisk well and pour over the salad. Toss well, cover, and set aside for 30 minutes for the flavours to mingle.

Serves 6.

This recipe was inspired by a salad from Moroccan: A Culinary Journey of Discovery by Ghillie Basan. Print Friendly

Double Dinner: Fusilli with Marinated Chicken, Pesto and Tomatoes, and Pasta Salad the next day

If you're feeding a hungry family, you will know what I mean by Double Dinner. First, there's the DDDTPE (Double Dinner Due to Picky Eaters), which involves your having to make two separate meals because the smaller, fussier kids won't eat what the bigger kids (or teens) want to eat. And then there are the meals that you make in bulk, in the faint hope that you'll have plenty left over the next day for snacks, lunch-boxes and freezers.

I say 'faint hope' because there is no such thing as a left-over in my house, which is the land of midnight snackers. Even if a few morsels do find overnight refuge in the fridge, nicely covered in clingfilm, the chances are that a) they'll mysteriously vapourise in the early hours of the morning and b) there will be loud complaints about having to eat the 'same old food that we had yesterday'.

Still, I persist in my quest to find the ultimate Double Dinner. I reckon most kids and teens will eat this happily, in its hot and cold forms, but if you have a super-fussy toddler or preschooler, I suggest you put a portion of the pasta to one side, add a little of the hot chicken, pulled into shreds, and top it with a knob of butter, a little grated cheese and a dollop of tomato sauce.

The yoghurt is an essential ingredient in this dish: it makes the chicken breasts amazingly tender and succulent.

This recipe serves five to six people, twice over.

Double Dinner: Pasta with Marinated Chicken Breasts, Pesto and Tomatoes, and Delicious Pasta Salad the next day

12 deboned, skinless organic chicken breasts
1 cup (250 ml) plain white natural yoghurt
3 cloves garlic, crushed
the juice of a fat lemon
salt and freshly ground pepper
750 g (one and a half packets) dried pasta shapes (fusilli, farfalle or similar)
a little olive oil
1 cup (250 ml) dried tomatoes, soaked in water for an hour, or oven-baked cherry tomatoes
3/4 cup (180 ml) basil pesto
1/2 cup (125 ml) grated Parmesan, Grana Padano or Pecorino cheese

For the next-day salad:

depipped, halved black olives
fresh basil leaves, shredded
firm feta cheese
a little olive oil and lemon juice

Using a very sharp knife, make three or four 5-mm-deep slashes in each chicken breast, top and bottom. Place the breasts in a big plastic or glass bowl or dish. In a separate bowl, mix together the yoghurt, lemon juice, garlic and two tablespoons (30 ml) of the pesto. Tip this mixture over the chicken breasts and mix well - using your bare hands, preferably - making sure that every breast is thorougly coated with the marinade. Set aside in a cool place (in the fridge, if it's a hot day) for two hours. Don't leave the breasts for longer, as the yoghurt may tenderise them to the point of mushiness.

Pre-heat the oven to 170 C. Put an enormous pot of salted water on the heat and bring to the boil.

Remove the chicken breasts from their marinade and, using a spatula or the blunt edge of knife, scrape off the excess yoghurt. It doesn't matter if a little yoghurt still clings to the breasts. Season each chicken breast with salt and freshly ground pepper. Heat a large frying pan and, when it is blazing hot, add a dash of olive oil. Brown the chicken breasts, in small batches, in the fiercely hot oil for a few minutes, until golden brown on both sides. They will still be raw in the middle. Place the partially cooked breasts on a metal baking sheet. When they are all browned, place them in the oven to finish cooking for 10 to 12 minutes.

In the meantime, throw the pasta into the boiling water. Boil for 10-13 minutes, or until just cooked (al dente). Drain the pasta, leaving a little of the boiling water behind in the pot, and set aside.

Remove the chicken breasts from the oven. They should be perfectly cooked: you can test by cutting through the thickest part of the biggest breast. If there is any sign of pinkness, put them back in the oven for 5 more minutes.

Gently heat the remaining pesto and the drained sundried tomatoes in a pan, but do not allow to boil.

Using your hands or a sharp knife, tear or cut the chicken breasts, along the grain, into pieces as big as your pinky finger. Tip them into the pot of hot pasta, along with any juices. Stir in the warmed pesto and the tomatoes, and splash over a little more olive oil. Check the seasoning - it may need more salt and pepper - and serve piping hot, in deep bowls, with grated Parmesan.

Now, the leftovers:

Tip the remainders into a big salad bowl and set aside in a cool place (or in the fridge, if it's summer). The next morning, stir in the olives, feta and basil, and any other ingredients you fancy - perhaps some chopped spring onions, shredded fresh spinach leaves, halved fresh cherry tomatoes, a handful of toasted pine nuts... Add a splash of olive oil and lemon juice if the salad seems dry, and season well with salt and pepper.

Serves five to six, twice over. Print Friendly

Mead-tasting and olive-noshing at the Jozi Food Market

I'm so heartened to see little food- and farmers'-markets popping up all over Johannesburg, showcasing the very best fresh local produce and a variety of gorgeous home-manufactured, hand-made foodstuffs.

For decades, the famous Bryanston Organic Market was the only real farmer's market in the city, but in the past year or so, a number of little weekly markets have started in shopping centres in and around the city, driven by foodie entrepreneurs with a real passion for artisanal foods.

Closest to me is the Jozi Food Market, held every Saturday morning in a shaded car park in Parktown North. The adjacent shopping centre, once a slightly tatty but agreeable centre hosting a famous video shop and one of Johannesburg's earlier branches of Nando's, has been swankified beyond recognition: it's now crammed with ludicrously expensive decor shops and coffee shops, and has been renamed 'The Parktown Quarter' (as if there are not enough retail 'quarters' in Johannesburg's northern suburbs to form several wholes).

Still, this is an excellent market with an energetic buzz. You'll find plenty of parking, friendly stall-holders, good music, trestle tables for impromptu picnics, and entertainment for your kids (including gingerbread-man decorating and live goats for petting).

It's a pity this market isn't set in a park with shady trees and rolling lawns but, heck, this is Johannesburg, land of the eternal car park (and I'm referring to the city's motorways).

Do go early, when all is crisp and fresh, because the early bird gets the worm - by 11.30 or 12 pm, the market has a slightly jaded, sold-out feeling.

There is a good variety of produce: coffee, organic veggies, wholegrain breads, smoothies, preserves, pickles, herbs, hot samoosas and spring rolls, cupcakes, smoked meats, excellent pizzas, ice-cream and hand-made cheeses.

I was irresistably drawn to the stall of librarian-turned-beekeeper Caroline Whitehead, where you can sample a range of lovely badger-friendly honeys and honey products, and a delicious range of South African meads. Honey Sun Mead is produced by Makana Meadery in the Eastern Cape; its Herbal Blossom Mead (a semi-sweet mead with rooibos, honeybush tea, cinnamon and apple) won a gold medal for the second year running at this year's International Mead Festival held in Colorado, USA.

Do try the African Bird's Eye Chili Mead (which delivers a lip-tingling double blast of honey and heat). The bottles are beautifully packaged, their tops dipped in beeswax.

By far the most popular stall is that of Elbow's Up (owned by food fanatic and deli owner Dave Moss) which sells an dazzling variety of sauces, syrups, preserves, vinegars, oils, glazes and olives, sourced from some of South Africa's leading producers. What sets this stall apart is not only the enormous range of bottled goodies, but also their enthusiastic sales staff, who will ensnare you by offering you samples of all sorts of titillating taste combinations: a little dab of Balsamic Gold Reduction here; a little splash of pomegranate syrup there, or perhaps a spicy rub? Don't leave without buying a jar of lovely Romesco Olives: grown in McGregor and processed in Mooi River, these gorgeous olives come in a variety of flavours and are preserved in fruity olive oil that makes wonderful salad dressings; try the Orangey Kalamata Olives, the Campfire Smoked Olives and the Heavenly Chilli Olives.

Another table I never miss is the Moema stall (the outstanding Moema's coffee shop and patisserie is in the adjacent shopping centre) for its billowing, crispy, tennis-ball-sized meringues, which are quite simply the best meringues I have ever tasted. The picture shown on the left is of Moema's Raspberry Swirl Meringues: here is the recipe.

And here is a pic of my daughter Elinor giving a make-over to a gingerbread woman.

For more details about this market, visit their site: Jozi Food Market



Print Friendly

Oven-roasted Chicken with Tomato, Feta and Olives

Here is a good recipe for a crowd. If you judge the cooking time right, and you use good, fresh, free-range chicken, you'll end up with the most succulent, tender chicken, infused with a summery flavour of tomatoes and basil. This recipe was inspired by a Jamie Oliver recipe that I saw while browsing one of his books in Exclusive Books. I tried to memorise the ingredients, but by the time I'd got home I'd forgotten them. I remembered the tomatoes, both chopped ones and cherry ones, and had to invent the rest of the recipe. Here's a quick version using my all-purpose cooking elixir.

Oven-roasted Chicken with Tomato, Feta and Olives

For the marinade:
1 cup (250 ml) cooking elixir*
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary needles
finely grated rind of 1 lemon

For the dish:
8 pieces of free-range chicken (thighs and breasts are best)
salt and milled black pepper
1 large punnet ripe cherry tomatoes
4 plump, ripe tomatoes, quartered
1 cup (250 ml) white wine
a handful fresh basil leaves
1/2 (125 ml) cup black olives
2 disks feta cheese (about 1 heaped cup when crumbled). I use Simonsberg black-pepper feta, which crumbles beautifully. Don't use Danish feta cheese.
½ cup (125 ml) cream (optional)

To garnish:
Fresh basil

Place the chicken pieces in a large ceramic or stainless-steel oven dish. Season well with salt and pepper. With a fork, aggressively prick the chicken pieces all over, top and bottom. Shake your jar of cooking elixir well, measure out a cup and pour it over the chicken pieces, turning each one well to coat. Place in a cool spot and allow to marinate for at least an hour (or overnight, in the fridge).

Preheat the oven to its highest setting (22o°C on most ovens), and place the dish in the oven. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the chicken skin is golden and beginning to blister.

Remove the dish from the oven and drain off excess fat by tilting the dish over the sink. Scatter the cherry tomatoes and quartered tomatoes all over and in between the chicken pieces. Pour in the wine. Roughly tear the basil pieces and tuck down between the chicken pieces.

Return the dish to the oven, turn the the heat down to 180°C and cook for 30-40 minutes, or until the chicken pieces are cooked right through. (Test by poking a knife into the thickest part of the chicken thigh: if the juices are crystal clear and unbloody, the chicken is ready). Remove the dish from the oven, and toss the chicken pieces so they are well covered with juices. If you are feeling decadent, add the cream now. Scatter with olives and crumbled feta cheese. Put the dish back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

Allow to rest for five minutes before serving. Scatter with freshly torn basil and serve with new potatoes or crusty bread, and a green salad.

* If you haven't made a batch of cooking elixir, use this marinade:

3 cloves fresh garlic, crushed
Juice and finely grated rind of two lemons
1 T (15 ml) soy sauce
1 tsp (5 ml) Tabasco sauce
100 ml olive oil
10 ml dried oregano

Serves 6. Print Friendly