Fabulous fritters
Ingredients
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp paprika
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup milk
- 2 cups fresh or frozen sweetcorn kernels
- 6 spring onions, sliced
- ¼ cup fresh coriander and parsley leaves (combined)
- 4 Tbsp canola oil
To serve:
- 1 tub low-fat cream cheese
- 200g smoked salmon
- 60ml sweet chilli sauce
Instructions
- Sift flour, baking powder, salt and paprika into a bowl, stir in sugar and make a well in the centre. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk. Pour the egg mixture into the well and whisk until you have a lump-free batter.
- Mix the corn, sping onions and herbs into the batter. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a non-stick frying pan, then drop in a tablespoon of batter per fritter. Cook for 2 minutes on each side or until the fritters are golden brown. Drain on kitchen towel and reserve until needed.
- To serve: spread a little cream cheese on each fritter. Heap a ribbon of smoked salmon on top and drizzle a little sweet chilli sauce over.
Tip
Children love these little savoury “cakes”. It makes a great finger food for toddlers. They probably won’t go for the salmon topping, but a little cream cheese on top is good for them. It’s packed with calcium and protein.
R14.50 per portion
Eight hour lamb
Ingredients
- 1 (± 1.5kg) leg of lamb
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 6 anchovy fillets
- 3 red onions, peeled & sliced
- 6 sprigs of rosemary
- ½ bottle of red wine (Pinotage works well)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 220ºC. Wipe leg of lamb with kitchen towel. Mix together the crushed garlic and anchovy fillers to make a paste, and rub this all over the leg of lamb.
- In an oven roasting dish, make a bed from the rosemary and onions and place your leg of lamb on top.
- Pour the wine into the roasting dish, place in the oven for 20 minutes for the meat to sear. Remove from oven, turn the heat down to 120ºC, cover the roasting dish with tin foil (shiny side in) and leave in the oven for 6 to 8 hours.
- The meat will be fall-off-the-bone succulent. For a Greek party feast, tear lamb into pieces and serve with toasted pita breads, Greek salad, hummus and tzatziki.
Tip
Hummus is an excellent protein for babies. It’s so easy to make: just mash a tin of chickpeas and mix with a couple tablespoons of Tahini, a crushed garlic clove and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. You can do this by hand or in a blender.
A fun party food for toddlers is to cut some cucumber into fingers and toast pita triangles and let them dip these into hummus
R27.50 per portion
Home-made ice cream
Ingredients
- 8 plums, halved & stoned
- 1¼ castor sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups cream
- berries in season to serve
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200ºC. Place the plums in an ovenproof baking dish and sprinkle ¼ cup of castor sugar over it. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside until needed.
- Place the eggs, egg yolks, vanilla and the rest of the castor sugar in a heatproof bowl. Place over a saucepan of simmering water and, using a hand-held electric mixer, beat for 6 to 8 minutes or until thick and pale. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
- Whisk the cream until soft peaks form.
- Gently fold into the egg mixture until well combined.
- Place the plums in a food processor or blender and purée. Fold the purée into the egg and cream mixture. Pour into a 2 litre capacity bread or cake tin and freeze for 6 hours or overnight. Serve with fresh berries.
R5.75 per portion
Tip
What is a party without ice-cream? You can’t do better than this homemade, preservative free treat.
You can use any fruit purée to flavour this ice-cream (just replace the plum purée with 2 cups of puréed fruit in season, or use tinned or frozen fruit).
To make it extra special for grown-ups, you can add a dash of berry liqueur.
Shopping list
Meat/poultry/fish
- 1.5kg leg of lamb
- 200g smoked salmon
Dairy
- 125ml milk
- 250g low-fat cream cheese
- 500ml cream
Vegetables
- 3 red onions
- 3 cloves garlic
- 6 spring onions
- small bunch rosemary sprigs
- small bunch fresh coriander leaves
- small bunch parsley
- 8 plums
- 1 punnet berries
Groceries
- 1 tin anchovies
- 1 bottle red wine
- 6 pita breads or 12 mini pitas
- 2 cups frozen sweetcorn
- 7 eggs
- 1¼ cups castor
- sugar
Check your store cupboard for:
- olive oil
- salt & pepper
- flour
- baking powder
- paprika
- sugar
- sweet chilli