Breakfast Pitas

 Quick and easy. Perfect for breakfast, or even an easy weekend night dinner! Adapt and change ingredients to suit your needs. No exact measurements here, this is just a guideline :-)

INGREDIENTS

Pita pockets, sliced in two - using the bottom part per person

Cheddar cheese / Mozzarella cheese / cream cheese (about 1/2 cup)*

1 - 2 Avocados cut into little blocks

2 eggs, hard boiled

Bacon strips, fried until crisp (you can also use your Air Fryer for this)

Salt and Pepper

Rocket / parsley / cilantro for garnish

Sour cream / mayonnaise 

Cherry tomatoes

METHOD

• Heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line a baking sheet with baking paper
• Mix the cheese, salt and pepper together
• Spread some sour cream onto the pita pocket base and add the cheese mixture on top
• Bake for about 8 - 10 minutes until cheese is melted
• Add the rest of the toppings and serve

NOTES

- Use only one cheese or mix more than one together

- There are no exact measures for this recipe, feel free to adapt and play around with your favourite additives

Weiss' Scones

 The best scones ever! This is my friend's recipe and the only one I use to make scones. It can't get easier than this, and of course, it's delicious. 

Makes about 6 big scones

Image by elsasupport at Pixabay

INGREDIENTS

2 cups self-raising flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 medium size eggs or 1 jumbo egg

pinch of salt

1/2 - 3/4 cup cream / buttermilk / sour cream

METHOD

• Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together
• Dust your working area with some flour
• Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius (fan assisted) or 180 degrees Celsius (normal oven)
• Grease a suitable baking sheet
• Beat the eggs and add the cream, add little by little to the flour mixture. The mixture shouldn't be runny but also not dry
• Shape the dough with your hands into a circle. No need to knead the dough
• Dip a glass / dedicated cookie cutter in flour and use this to make circle forms from the dough
• Shape the scones with your hands and add to baking sheet
• Brush with any remaining egg wash (or use a freshly beaten egg)
• Let stand for a few minutes to rise
• Bake for 7 - 8 minutes until nicely browned on top. Check for doneness and let cool a little before serving - buttered / jam and whipped cream or whatever takes your fancy! 

NOTES

• Use a glass with a smaller diameter or smaller cookie cutter for smaller scones
• Cream, buttermilk and sour cream all work equally well. Use what you have on hand. Personally I prefer buttermilk and sour cream :-) 

Image by Brandi Hasse at Pixabay

Quick Moroccan Chicken Pockets/Wraps

 INGREDIENTS

Pita pockets

Sour cream

Rocket leaves, chopped

Moroccan spice rub

Skinless, deboned chicken, cut into strips

Can lentils

Onion, finely chopped

1 - 2 Avocados, sliced into little blocks

Image by ha11ok on Pixabay

METHOD

1. Slice the chicken into strips, coat with spice rub, and leave aside. 

2. Prepare the onion and fry in heated oil, when golden and soft, add enough lentils to your preference and keep stirring. Don't burn the lentils, you just want them heated through.

3. Heat oil in a pan and fry the chicken until golden and crispy.

4. While heating the pita pockets, chop the rocket leaves and spread the pockets with sour cream on both sides (I toast my pita pockets in the toaster)

5. Add chicken; onion mixture; rocket leaves and Avo to your pita and enjoy! 

Serve with a side salad or home made chips, or some veggies if preferred.

Instead of pita pockets you can use wraps as well. 

Corn Salad

 A nice easy corn salad to go with meat dishes. Let stand at for at least an hour for the flavours to develop. 

INGREDIENTS

1 can corn kernels / 3 fresh corn hubs, kernels removed

1/3 cup crumbled or little blocks of feta cheese

1 TBS sour cream

1 TBS olive oil

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon/lime juice

1/4 tsp fine sea salt

1/4 tsp fine black pepper

1 avocado, cut into little blocks

pinch dried tarragon - optional

Combine all the ingredients together and let to stand. When ready to serve, gently toss to combine again. 

If using fresh corn, up the salt to 3/4 tsp of fine salt. 

Add some finely chopped red onion for extra flavour.

Chimichurri Sauce

 With its roots in Uruguay and Argentina, this sauce is the perfect flavour bomb for your meat or chicken. Even over veggies it's delicious! I'm not claiming mine is authentic, but it does have the authentic ingredients (although I used curly leaf parsley), and the measurements might differ. Mine is a adaptation of "authentic" chimichurri recipes I found on the Web. 

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup olive oil

2 TBS red wine vinegar (or freshly squeezed lemon juice)

2 garlic cloves, chopped or minced (use more if preferred)

1/4 tsp dried oreganum (use up to 3/4 tsp if preferred)

1 tsp coarse sea salt - level (or 1/2 tsp fine sea salt)

1/2 tsp fine pepper

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes or more (or 1 or 2 chopped fresh chilies if you have)

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley (flatleaf or curly)

METHOD

Mix everything together in a bowl and leave to stand for as long as possible. Preferably 2 hours, but you can leave it for as short as 20 minutes. The longer it stands the better it gets! 

Enjoy!

*Serve with garlic mashed potatoes and a fresh corn salad (recipe to follow in my blog)

Chip Chicken

Super easy to make, and very quick to put together! For those nights you really don't feel like hands on cooking - just make a nice salad, or roast veggies in the air fryer. 

INGREDIENTS

4 - 6 chicken thighs / drumsticks (bone in; skin on)

1 cup buttermilk

1 small packet cheese and onion / sour cream and chives chips packet - crushed into small pieces (to be safe buy a bigger bag and eye ball the quantity needed, you don't want to be short on the topping)

Seasoning: lemon pepper or crushed garlic, and/or some herbs you prefer like Italian seasoning*

METHOD

• Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius
• Butter or line an ovenproof dish
• Add chicken to dish and cover with buttermilk and add seasoning
• Add crushed chips and press into the tops and sides of the chicken
• Drizzle some oil over for extra crispiness (optional)
• Bake open for 40 to 60 minutes (I bake mine for 60 minutes)

NOTES

Serve with lemon wedges - the lemon juice really makes the flavours pop!

You can use any flavour of chips (crisps) you like

*Be careful not to add too much salt as seasoning, as the chips (crisps) are already salty

Serve with roasted veggies, a crisp salad and some avocado, or really any veggies you like!

Manus' Pork Sosatie Marinade

 Sweet and spicy! Marinade for 2 hours or overnight. 

INGREDIENTS

1 TBS olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tsp finely chopped ginger (or 1/2 tsp powdered ginger)

2 TBS apricot jam*

2 TBS rice vinegar*

1/4 water / chicken stock

1 TBS curry powder

1 tsp coriander

1/4 tsp cumin

1 tsp allspice*

4 cloves

2 bay leaves

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

METHOD

1. Sauté the onion in olive oil until lightly cooked

2. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 5 minutes

3. Let cool completely and add to the pork sosaties, using your fingers to distribute the sauce evenly - it is not a very 'saucy' marinade

4. Marinade for 2 hours or overnight

NOTES

*Allspice can be difficult to find (the powdered version). Substitute with whole allspice or a 1/4 tsp Mixed Spice.

*Rice vinegar can be replaced with apple cider vinegar or white grape vinegar.

*Substitute apricot jam with chutney