Kitchen love: Veggie omelette

This recipe is ideal for breakfast, lunch or supper. An omelette is a great, easy and delicious dish to prepare. It can have almost any filling imaginable, herewith our vegan omelette.


Makes 1, 10 minutes


Omelette

• 3 eggs, beaten
• 5ml maizena
• 50ml milk

Filling

• 125ml sliced button mushrooms
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 125ml mozarella cheese, grated
• 2 sliced sundries tomatoes
• salt & pepper to taste
• a dash of dried basil
• rosa tomatoes, sliced in half to garnish
• Italian parsley, to garnish (this is a favorite of mine!)

Preparation

1. Spray "Spray-n-Cook" on the surface of a medium pan.
2. Warm a plate to medium heat.
3. Beat the ingredients for the omelette until foamy and pour it into the pan.
4. Spread over the base of the pan and cover with a lid.
5. Cook for about 3 minutes until firm - checking often.
6. Sprinkle the filling ingredients on one half of the egg mixture and fold over.
7. Bake for another minute in order to melt cheese.
8. Slide onto plate and serve with homemade buttered toast.

More ideas for fillings:

• tuna mayo, finely chopped gherkins and parsley
• cooked mince, tomato paste and sliced red pepper
• cooked chicken pieces, sweet and sour sauce, pineapple and sliced peppadews
• salami, sweet corn, onion and mozarella
• asparagus, cheese sauce and spring onions

Kitchen love: Best Chocolate Chip biscuits

Okay, what is the difference between a cookie and a biscuit you might ask? A cookie is crispy on the outside with a soft center whereas a biscuit is crispy right through. There you have it! This recipe can be used for both a cookie or biscuit. I personally prefer the biscuit, it is delish!

Makes 12 (or less if you want really big ones), 30 minutes

• 300g bourneville or dark chocolate
• 100g milk or white chocolate
• 80g brown sugar
• 85g butter, at room temperature
• 100g crunchy peanut butter
• 1 large egg
• 5ml vanilla extract
• 100g self raising flour
• 100g salted peanuts - large ones are best

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Chop 200g of the dark chocolate into chunks. Chop the white chocolate as well, but do not mix the two.
3. Melt the remaining 100g dark chocolate over simmering water. (Do not let the container touch the water)
4. Stir in the sugar, butter, peanut butter, vanilla extract and egg.
5. Stir in the flour, peanuts, white chocolate and 3/4 of the dark chocolate chunks. The mixture should be soft.
6. Drop the mixture onto a baking sheet leaving enough room in between to spread.
7. Divide the rest of the dark chocolate chunks between the cookies and press into lightly into each cookie.
8. Bake for 12-15 minutes. 
9. Remove from the oven and leave for a few minutes to firm up before placing on a cooling rack.
10. This will yield a crispy cookie when cool with a soft center. Should you prefer a biscuit instead of cookie, bake for longer, but be careful not to burn your precious creations!

 

PS: These treats are very soft due to the high chocolate content and should be stored in an airtight container in a cool place. This only applies if you have any left after 15 minutes from baking.

Kitchen love: Sweet & Sour saucy chicken pizza

Sweet and sour sauce

This sauce can be used as a dip for spring rolls, for stir-fries, Oriental dishes and now also pizza! It freezes really well and I always make sure I have at least one container in the freezer to use whenever.

120 ml white wine vinegar

120 ml sugar

200 ml water

10 ml oil

5 ml dried ginger

20 ml soya sauce

20 ml tomato sauce (All gold!)

30 ml corn flour

1. Heat all the ingredients except the corn flour in a saucepan.

2. Mix the corn flour with a little water and stir into the sauce.

3. Stir over medium heat until thickened and voila!

Now for the pizza

2x ready-made pizza bases (I prefer the thin ones from Woolworths)

Half the amount of sweet and sour sauce from the above recipe (1/4 per base)

250 ml chicken pieces, browned (more or less a standard chicken breast)

12 sundried tomatoes (Woolworths have lovely ones in an oil preserve)

125 ml pineapple pieces

500 ml mozzarella cheese, grated

5 ml dried basil

5 ml dried oreganum

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius.

2. Spread the sweet and sour sauce onto each pizza base.

3. Cut the sundried tomatoes into smaller pieces and arrange onto each base.

4. Next, arrange the chicken pieces and pineapple.

5. Top with grated cheese - add more if you prefer a really cheesy pizza.

6. To finish it off, sprinkle basil and oreganum over the cheese.

7. Bake for 8 minutes.

8. Repeat recipe.....and let me know what you think or taste for that matter!

Kitchen love: Valentines Oozy center chocolate pudding

Before I share this absolutely delish pudding, I want to mention that it is worth investing in a good quality kitchen scale. Sometimes weight works much easier to get your recipe going than having to measure 48,5ml or whatever odd amount of ingredient!

Makes 4 (1 for your loved one, 1 for you and another 2 for you!), 35 minutes

Filling:

·      70g dark chocolate (I use 80%)

·      50ml cream

Pudding:

·      40g brown sugar

·      50g butter

·      1 egg, beaten

·      25g flour (I know - almost nothing)

·      20g cocoa powder (NoMU is the best!)

·      20g ground almonds  (can be substituted with more flour)

1.     Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

2.     Melt the chocolate over simmering water and stir in the cream. Leave to chill for about 10 minutes.

3.     Grease 4 pudding moulds (not too big) - or 4 muffin indents of a muffin pan, which I always do. 

4.     Beat together the sugar and butter then add the egg.

5.     Fold in the flour and cocoa powder.

6.     Use enough batter to fill the moulds/"indents" to a third.

7.     Spoon the chilled chocolate mixture on top of the batter.

8.     Fill each one with the remainder of the batter.

9.     Bake for 10 minutes until set.

Prepare the plates:

Cut a heart shape out of a piece if paper. Use a small amount of cocoa and sift it through a sieve over the heart. Move the heart cut out and repeat. 

Leave the pudding to cool down slightly before using the paper with the heart cut-out and icing sugar sifted through a sieve to decorate the top of the njammy pudding.

Kitchen love: Honey & mustard kassler chops

We have decided to include a special Thursday "Kitchen Love" feature for all those who enjoy spending time cooking. Hope you enjoy!

serves 4, 30 minutes

ingredients:

• 4 Kassler chops (I used the ones from Woolworths)
• 4 tsp Dijon mustard
• honey to drizzle

steps to prepare:

1. Prepare the Kassler chops by frying in a pan over medium heat until cooked, turn regularly.
2. Spread a teaspoon of Dijon mustard on each chop and place under a preheated grill until small 'cracks' are visible in the mustard. It can be grilled longer should a crust be preferred.
3. Place chops in a dish and drizzle with honey.

The spicy and sweet combination is great! I used chopped spring onion to garnish. Serve with a green salad and potato mash.