Olives Two Ways – Part 2: Dry Salt-Cured

Last year I posted a recipe for preparing olives in brine – and I must say they came out well! This is another method of curing olives and the end result is totally different, although also delicious.

Salt-cured olives come out with a very intense, salty and actually slightly sweet flavour, and are great to add punch to dishes, especially Mediterranean-style recipes. You can also eat them straight up – I can personally only manage 2 or 3 at a time though as they’re so salty and intense (as opposed to, say, 10 or 20 at a time of brined olives).

Date, Fig and Nut Bites

These bites are both delicious and good for you – always a winning combo!

Although I’ve seen many variations of this recipe, after much playing with different combinations and quantities of the ingredients, this one is my favourite. Feel free to change up whatever you like though to suit your own tastes.

Olives Two Ways – Part 1: Brined

Who doesn’t love olives? Actually I know some people who don’t but I can’t understand that at all. When I was growing up, we used to count them out on to everyone’s plate when serving up salad with dinner, to make sure no-one got more than their fair share. A sad but true story.

A happier story is that not only are olives delicious, but they’re also really good for you, being high in healthy fats as well as a multitude of vitamins and minerals, not to mention anti-oxidants. For more on their health benefits, see here, here and here, just for starters.

The thing with olives though is that they’re very more-ish and a bottle really doesn’t last very long, plus they’re expensive (here in South Africa anyway). So years ago when a friend told me she could get fresh olives direct from an olive farm, I jumped at the chance to make my own and ordered 5kg.

Since then, I’ve made a batch every year I’ve been able to get my hands on some, which sadly hasn’t been every year but certainly many of them. Those years I enjoy eating them till they’re coming out my ears and they also make great gifts to give away.

Baked Chicken, Tomato and Yoghurt Casserole with Broccoli Rice

This is one of the easiest and most delicious recipes to make when you only have a few minutes to spend on preparing dinner. It’s fresh, tasty and healthy, and only takes 5 minutes to put together. Then it cooks for about 45 minutes, while you go off and do other things, before needing another 5 minutes at the end to finish up and serve.

It’s also versatile in that you can serve it with many different options of “starch”. If you’re going low-carb, it works really well with cauliflower or broccoli rice, as I’ve served it here, or cauliflower or broccoli mash. You can also go more traditional and serve it with mashed potato or sweet potato, or rice of any description and/or lightly steamed green beans.

Foodie Quote:

“When you’re cooking with food as alive as this —
these gorgeous and semi-gorgeous fruits and leaves and flesh —
you’re in no danger of mistaking it for a commodity, or a fuel,
or a collection of chemical nutrients.
No, in the eye of the cook or the gardener …
this food reveals itself for what it is:
no mere thing
but a web of relationships among a great many living beings,
some of them human, some not,
but each of them dependent on each other,
and all of them ultimately rooted in soil
and nourished by sunlight.”

– Michael Pollan, from In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto

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Makes you think, doesn’t it?

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Courgette-Feta Crumpets

Normally when you think of pancakes or crumpets (the South African version of American ‘pancakes’, which are different from French ‘crêpes’ and also different from English ’crumpets’ – I know, it’s very confusing!), it tends to bring up images of a tea-time treat that’s a bit starchy and usually served with jam and cream. And those are certainly delicious, no doubt about it.

These crumpets are completely different though, more like very light fritters – savoury and fluffy, and a different and interesting way to prepare vegetables. You can eat them as a snack on their own, have them as a side dish with meat or make them the main part of a light meal and just add a salad or something to round it out.

Sweet Potato Cottage Pie Recipe

This dish is a fantastic combination of tastes – sweet and savoury – and textures – grainy and creamy smooth. The idea for it popped into my head out of the blue one day and I’ve never looked back. I’m afraid ordinary cottage pie just doesn’t measure up any more! Plus this version is more paleo, if you’re that way inclined.

If you use a full quantity of bolognaise sauce and make the whole recipe, it will easily serve at least 4 people. It’s a great stand-by for a 1- or 2-person meal though when you have some bolognaise sauce left over in the fridge/freezer and a sweet potato or two hanging around, especially as the prep time is then very minimal.

Bran Muffins

My Mom originally got this recipe from a friend years ago and it was then called ’30 Day Muffins’. Since we usually ate them immediately, I’m afraid I can’t vouch for what the results would be after 30 days. To be honest, I would be very surprised if they were still edible!

Depending on who filled the muffin pans though, we did occasionally have a couple of spoons of mix left after the first batch, sometimes enough for a muffin or two a few days later (although only if the mix was well hidden at the back of the fridge). The second batch of muffins still tasted good, even if they didn’t rise as much. The trick is to keep the raw mixture in the fridge and only bake the muffins when you want to eat them.

This recipe requires a bit of forward planning as the mixture needs to sit overnight so the bran softens and it all blends together. It’s really quick to put together the evening before though, and well worth the effort for the pleasure of fresh, delicious and fairly healthy muffins the next morning.

Quick and Easy Hummus Recipe

Hummus (also spelled houmous or hummous, amongst other variations) is a fantastically quick, easy, healthy and delicious dish which can be served as a snack or as a meal with accompaniments. There are many different recipes for it but this particular version is one of my favourites.

Honey-Roasted Nuts

Apparently it’s good for productivity to take regular breaks from work during the day – which is lucky as I love my coffee/tea breaks and would probably take them anyway. 🙂 Since I like a nibble with my beverage (and that can lead down a dangerous road if you work from home a lot), I am always on the look-out for relatively healthy snack ideas.

I have a really good (and reasonably-priced) supplier of raw nuts so have been experimenting lately with different ways to use them to create yummy bites, and I came up with these honey-roasted nuts. Yes, you can buy something similar but they are ridiculously expensive and not nearly so delicious!