Ready Steady Cook!

7 Mystery ingredients, 3 courses, 3 weeks to prepare. The Ready Steady Cook! challenge is based on the popular television show by the same name. The challenge is to create a 3 course meal, using 7 mystery ingredients (supplied by another blogger) as well as any of the pantry ingredients specified. My mystery ingredients were supplied by Hila from Add to Taste and are as follows:

• Black Grapes


• Boerewors


• Palm Hearts


• Red Wine


• Haloumi


• Watermelon


• Fennel Root

The pantry ingredients supplied were the following:

• Stock


• Milk/Cream


• Eggs


• Flour (or a flour substitute)


• Lemons


• Garlic


• Ginger


• Chillies


• Fresh Herbs


• Dried Herbs


• Dried Spices


• Sugar (or a sugar substitute)


• Butter/margarine


• Salt


• Pepper


• Oil – any of your choice


• Vinegar


• Pasta / Noodles / Rice


• Tinned Tomatoes


• Tinned Chickpeas


• Chocolate / Cacao

This round of Ready Steady Cook! was kindly hosted by Tandy from Lavender & Lime, thanks Tandy!



Starter: Fried Haloumi Finger Food

• Haloumi (a few slices about 5mm thick)


• Butter


• Boerewors


• 1 Sage Leaf


• 250ml Red Wine


• 30ml Sugar


• 1 Star Aniseed


• Black Grapes, halved

1. Start with the Red Wine Reduction, put the red wine, sugar and star aniseed in a pot and boil until reduced to a syrup. Leave to cool.


2. Pan fry the boerewors with a few sage leaves in a pan until done.


3. For the haloumi, heat a pan to medium heat and add a generous amount of butter to a pan (the more butter the better in this case). Add the haloumi and fry on each side until the outside is just crispy (you don't want to the cheese to get too soft, otherwise you'll have trouble turning it over!).


4. Arrange all the items on a plate and drizzle with the red wine reduction.

Main: Fennel Root Risotto with Gingered Palm Hearts

• 1 Fennel Root bulb, sliced finely


• 2 Tbsp Butter


• 1 cup Arborio Rice


• 6 cups Chicken Stock, hot


• 1 tin of Palm Hearts


• 2 cm piece of Ginger, grated


• Some more butter for frying

1. Start with the Gingered Palm Hearts. Heat a generous amount of butter in a frying pan.


2. Add the ginger and palm hearts and fry on a medium to low heat until the palm hearts are soft inside.


3. For the risotto I used the fennel instead of onions in the traditional recipe and omitted the usual cheese. There are as many ways to make risotto as there are people making risotto, so feel free to use the method you find works best. I will describe the method I used.


4. In a pot, fry the fennel with the butter until the fennel is soft.


5. Add the arborio rice and stir until it is coated with the butter and heated through (about 1 minute).


6. Add 1 cup of the chicken stock and stir until it is completely absorbed. Add another cup and continue in the same way until the rice is soft and creamy.


7. Serve immediately with the palm hearts.

Dessert: Watermelon and Cardamom Chocolate Mousse

• 80g Chocolate (use good quality chocolate, it is the main ingredient!)


• 70ml Watermelon Juice


• 5ml Cardamom Powder

1. This recipe requires everything to happen at the right time, so a few things need to be prepared before starting. Get two bowls, one larger than the other. The smaller bowl should be large enough for you to whisk in. Fill the larger bowl with ice and water, this will be used as an ice bath for the smaller bowl. Get a whisk ready.


2. To start, break the chocolate into small pieces (you want it to be able to melt quickly). Put the chocolate into the smaller bowl.


3. For the watermelon juice, press pieces of watermelon through a sieve (throw away the pulp). Measure out the right amount of juice, mix with the cardamom and heat it until almost boiling. Add it to the chocolate and stir the mixture until all the chocolate is melted.


4. Put the bowl into the ice bath and start whisking. The idea is for the mixture to be agitated continuously while cooling down. As it cools it will start to thicken. When it just reached mousse consistency, stop immediately and remove it from the ice bath. If you over beat it, it will become too stiff and grainy, but don't worry! You can just heat the mixture again and restart the process.


5. Serve immediately with a few slices of watermelon.


Note: Check out this video for a more detailed explanation of this method, as well as showing how it is done.

Click on the image below to see what the other bloggers did! Best of luck everyone!

Nectarine Parcels

Phew, last post, last minute! Thank you LadyRaven for hosting the Ready Steady Cook! challenge, it definitely was a challenge to finish it all on time (due to my laziness...), but it was a learning experience.



This dessert is quick and dirty, no measuring of ingredients, just add to taste..!

Nectarine Parcels

• Nectarines, cut into slivers
  
• Butter
  
• Sugar
  
• Cinnamon
  
• Mixed Spice
  
• Lemon Zest
  
• Phyllo Pastry
  

1. Melt the butter and sugar in a pan. Add the nectarines and cook for about 10 minutes.
   
2. Add the spices and lemon zest, cook for a few minutes more and remove from heat.
   
3. Cut phyllo pastry into 10cm wide strips. Place about 5 strips on top of each other.
   
4. Place some nectarines on one of the corner areas. Fold the corner over to the opposite side to form a triangle. Keep on folding triangles until you have reached the end of the strip. Brush the edge with butter to seal the triangle.
   
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius until the pastry is golden brown.
   

Filled Red Pepper with Hollandaise Sauce

In my mind the 15th of September was on a Friday (I soon realised that it was actually a Wednesday). This date is significant because it is the deadline for entries for the Ready Steady Cook! challenge. Why did I fly into a panic when I realised that the 15th of September was tomorrow? It is because up until that point I had only finished my starter entry. This blog post will probably hold the record for the fastest turnover time between cooking and blogging, there's nothing like a deadline to get me moving!



I had my reservations about how successful this course would be, but the pronounced silence when my boyfriend started eating soon quelled any fears I had! This is the first time that I have made hollandaise sauce, despite my fears of ending up with pieces of lumpy egg it came out great; smooth, creamy, lemony and oh so tasty!

Check out my first post to see what this Ready Steady Cook is all about: Red Pepper Walnut Dip with Naan Bread


Hollandaise Sauce

• 3 egg yolks
  
• 150ml butter
  
• Juice of 1-1.5 lemons
  
• Salt to taste
  

1. Place egg yolks, salt and lemon juice in a blender. Blend for 1 minute.
   
2. Heat butter until very hot (the butter is going to cook the eggs).
   
3. With the blender running very slowly pour in the butter.
   
4. Continue blending for about a minute, then it's done!
   

Couscous and Broccoli filled Red Pepper with Chickpeas
Serves 2

• 1 Large Red Pepper
  
• 3/4 cup Couscous, uncooked
  
• 0.5 Broccoli head
  
• 0.5 tin Chickpeas, drained
  
• 2 teaspoons Cumin
  

1. Cut red pepper in half, place on a baking tray and bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius or until soft.
   
2. Meanwhile heat a splash of oil in a pan. Add cumin and fry for a minute. Add the couscous and fry for 5 minutes.
   
3. Prepare the couscous according to the instructions on the packet.
   
4. Steam broccoli until just cooked.
   
5. Assemble and serve with the hollandaise sauce!
   

Red Pepper Walnut Dip with Naan Bread

This is my starter course for the Ready Steady Cook! challenge hosted by LadyRaven from Add To Taste. How does this challenge work? Each blogger thinks up a list of 7 ingredients for another participating blogger. You have to create a 3 course meal with your ingredients as well as the allowed pantry ingredients. I got assigned the following ingredients from Ayeesha from Taste of Pearl City:

• Couscous
• Chickpeas
• Red Pepper
  
• Broccoli
  
• Walnuts
  
• Filo pastry
  
• Nectarines
  

So first thing I thought when I saw the chickpeas was "Yay, hummus!", but then I realised that tahini isn't one of the pantry ingredients, boo. "But wait", I thought, "tahini adds a nutty taste and I've got nuts man, walnuts!". So the hummus was back on, although I'll rather go with calling it a dip as it is rapidly straying from traditional hummus territory.

I decided to serve it with naan bread because I've wanted to try my hand at making it for a while now. Alas, another obstacle was in my way, after making the naan and taking photos I realised that I had used *gasp* a disallowed ingredient! Since baking powder isn't one of the pantry ingredients, I made the recipe again with self raising flour instead of bread flour and I am happy to say that it came out just as well. So with a clean conscience I can now present the recipes for Red Pepper Walnut Dip with Naan Bread!



Red Pepper Walnut Dip

• 1 can of Chickpeas, drained
  
• 1 large Red Pepper
  
• 50g Walnuts
  
• 2-3 Garlic Cloves
  
• Juice of 1 Lemon
  
• Salt, Pepper and Cumin to taste
  

1. Cut the red pepper into segments, roast in the oven until soft and cooked.
   
2. Roast walnuts under the oven grill for a few minutes.
   
3. Put the walnuts in a blender, blend until fine.
   
4. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth. Extra oil can be added if the mixture is too firm.
   

Naan Bread
Makes about 10 thin breads

• 3,5 cups Self Raising Flour
  
• 1.5 Tablespoon Sugar
  
• 2 Teaspoons Salt
  
• 1 cup Milk, warmed
  
• 60ml Oil
  
• Melted butter for brushing the dough (keep for later)
  

Note: If using bread flour, add 1 teaspoon baking powder.

1. Mix the dry ingredients together.
   
2. Add the wet ingredients and knead for 10 minutes.
   
3. Cover the dough and leave to rise for 1 hour.
   
4. Break off golf ball size pieces and roll out very thin into elongated oval shapes (some refer to this as teardrop shaped).
   
5. Brush the dough with melted butter and bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for about 2 minutes or until golden brown.