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pan tumaca = simple + delicious {viva españa}

March 10, 2013 in Snacks, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Tags: bread, maldon salt, olive oil, pan tumaca, spanish breakfast, tomatoes

A slice of toasted bread with tomato … a sophisticated Spanish breakfast? This might surprise you but this is a very popular breakfast for millions of Spaniards… just plain and simple … bread and tomato. Pan tumaca is a recipe invented in Catalonia but according to the www it was probably brought there by Andalusian emigrants. There is just something about the Spanish, the Italians and the Greeks … they have a unique gift of turning the mundane into the fabulous and the dull into something truly delicious.

You see my very good friend chef Louis now lives in Spain – I was heartbroken when he moved to Castellón de la Plana near Valencia a few years ago – it felt like a part of me has gone with him. This past December we had the chance to meet up and spend a few magical days together. Just catching up again with him and his adventures was the most wonderful gift – to laugh, talk and cook together just like in the old days. Spain is now Lu’s new home and he gave me such insights about the real Spanish traditions and their infective passion for food.

The first breakfast of our holiday was this traditional Spanish breakfast – a slice of toasted bread + grated tomato + the best olive oil + maldon salt. No butter – just that. I was a little taken aback as Louis and I, given our collective South African heritage are kinda used to the big breakfasts… you know greasy fry-ups and perhaps even a mixed grill of sorts from the braai the night before… but after my first bite of this tapas-style-pan-tumaca, my anticipation for a sumptuous breakfast dissipated into complete contentment … I was converted! There was bliss to be found in its simplicity and the rudimentary sophistication of this dish.

However, with everything in life, Lu reminded me that there were a few good rules to follow … click here for Lu’s rules.

by lifeisazoobiscuit

sumptuous green salad + broken-cheesy-olive-melba-toast

September 27, 2012 in Salads, Vegetables, Vegetarian

8 Comments »

Tags: Asparagus, Avocado, Baby Marrows, Goats Cheese, Lemons, olive oil, Pistachios, Pumpkin Seeds, Salad

After a brief but blitzy gastronomic tour through Johannesburg this past weekend I returned home in need of something healthy – something green. So I made this delicious + scrumptious + sumptuous salad. It’s fresh and easy – just add all the ingredients in a bowl, sprinkle with some salt and drizzle with lemon infused olive oil and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. I like to serve the baby marrows still warm from the oven and then all the other ingredients at room temperature. It’s crunchy, creamy, tangy and really splashy in flavours. Enjoy.

My favourite shades of green
+ Irish colour green – I am married to a wonderful man of Irish descent … where everything from the Emerald Isle seems to be green;
+ The green of an olive;
+ The green colour of growing grass;
+ Lime green;
+ … and then the US Dollar green.

Serves: 4
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Preparation time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

For baking the baby marrow
400 g Baby Marrows
2T Olive Oil
Salt

For the broken-cheesy-olive-melba-toast
Melba toast – decide how many you want – I like plenty
Handful of green olives – chopped
100g Peppery Chevin goats cheese
Squeeze of lemon juice

Other salad ingredients
250g Asparagus (I only had tinned asparagus but fresh asparagus will be first-class)
1 Handful pumpkin seeds
1 Handful pistachios
1 Avocado sliced
Few sprigs of parsley – torn
Lettuce of your choice – I like to use the frilly lettuce for this salad
Lemon infused olive oil
1 Lemon
Salt

Method
1. Baking the baby marrow: Preheat oven to 180 °C. Coat each baby marrow with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and bake for 30 minutes. Take out of oven and cut length ways.

2. The broken-cheesy-olive-melba-toast: Break the Melba toasts up into pieces. Mix the goats cheese, green olives and the lemon juice together and smear on each piece of toast.

3. Making the salad: Mix all the ingredients together. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice. Sprinkle with some salt.

Serve with love.

by lifeisazoobiscuit

hot olives + baguette = #hot-and-happening

August 7, 2012 in Snacks, Vegetarian

11 Comments »

Tags: chillies, garlic, kalamata olives, olive oil, olives, spring onion

Hot Olives – A few weeks ago I was on a business trip in the bustling metropolis of Johannesburg, Guateng. The City of Gold has plenty of interesting foodie places well worth seeking out…Some colleagues and I ended up in a very interesting restaurant that serves both gossip and glitter to the well-heeled of Parkhurst and surrounds. We ordered a few small starters to share and one of them was hot olives with baguette. Never in my life would I have thought of heating olives in olive oil – isn’t it kind of like smuggling sand in the desert? Well, just so you know, this little starter tapas was so delicious. Heating the olives gives this stone fruit an undeniably new dimension. Dipping the fresh baked bread into the fragrant hot oil just seems to forge with the olives… leaving a most tantalizing taste….wash this down with some chilled wine and you could swear that you were sipping wines with the gods of ancient Greece!

It is just one of those really simple dishes you can make on the run or when guests come knocking unannounced…simple yet oh so sophisticatedly #hot-and-happening.

Serves: One bowl of starter to share / tapas
Preparation Time: 5 min
Cooking Time: 7 min

Ingredients

150 ml Virgin olive oil
1t Fresh rosemary (not chopped)
1t Parsley – roughly chopped
2 Red chillies chopped (I like it hot but you can leave the chillie out of the recipe if you are not fond of the fiery stuff)
1 Garlic clove – finely sliced
200g Kalamata olives
1 Spring onion – chop the stalks and leaves
1 Fresh baguette

Method

1. Heat the olive oil, rosemary, chillies, parsely and garlic slowly in a pan for a 5 minutes minutes. Just to infuse the flavours with the oil.
2. Add the olives and heat through for about 2 minutes.
3. Add the spring onion at the end, give it a good stir + serve with baguette.

by lifeisazoobiscuit

tomato pasta sauce + 10 variations to spice it up

June 27, 2012 in Pasta

5 Comments »

Tags: basil, garlic, olive oil, Parmesan, Pasta, tomato

I made a tomato pasta sauce with well-renowned and fabulous Nina Timm at her home earlier today. What an honour and absolute delight to meet and spend a day with this amazing woman! Yip, she is the wonder behind the much followed www.my-easy-cooking.com blog. We laughed, we cooked and shared so many stories from our past and talked about the thrills of living in today…. I will be chatting to her tomorrow on her RSG radio broadcast between 9 and 10 am and share what we did today. I am so inspired and so alive … Nina I thank you for one of the best days of my life and to cooking up many more memories in the future!

Back to the sauce … I am a freakishly mad about tomatoes. So obviously my most favourite pasta sauce is a tomato-based sauce … made from fresh, ripe, juicy tomatoes that brim with flavour. I read about this method to make tomato sauce a few years ago in a magazine – unfortunately I cannot remember or find the magazine between the thousands of foodie magazines lying around in my house – please try this, it is definitely the most delicious tomato sauce you will ever taste!!

Serves: 6
Preparation and cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

900g Rosa tomatoes
200ml Olive oil – good quality (I know this sounds a lot but the tomatoes burst open to combine with the olive oil, garlic and basil – and creates the most amazing sauce )
8 Garlic cloves – peeled but kept in whole segments
Handful fresh Basil
Salt and black pepper
150 – 200g Fresh parmesan cheese – shaved with potato peeler
500g Penne pasta (or spaghetti)

Method

1. Add the olive oil to a large pan / pot and add the garlic and about one handful of torn basil leaves. Heat the oil very slowly on low-medium – we want to infuse the oil with the garlic and basil. Infuse for about 5 minutes – please don’t burn the garlic.
2. Add all the tomatoes, turn up the heat to medium high and cook for +- 20 minutes without the saucepan lid.
3. You will see the tomatoes will start to burst open and infuse with the olive oil.
4. Season generously with salt and freshly grounded black pepper. Please be sure to taste when you season!
5. Just before serving, add the rest of the basil and sprinkle generously with shaved parmesan
6. You can use the sauce just as is or see the 10 variations below you can add at the end for an interesting twist.

10 Variations you can add to the tomato sauce + remember always sprinkle generously with shaved parmesan!

1) Cut chorizo sausages in slices and add – this makes it a rich and spicy dish.
2) Bacon (+ chilies optional) – everyone loves bacon! Adding a somewhat smoky flavour to your pasta.
3) Meatballs – you can make this on Sunday and just add in the week to your pasta dish.
4) Lots of fresh chopped chilies – simple, yet always deliciously and one of my favourites.
5) Capers + olives + anchovies + chilies – my absolute favourite!
6) Any seafood – prawns, calamari, fish, mussels – add them to the tomato based sauce at the end of the cooking process – let it simmer through for 5 minutes – taste for seasoning again after you have added any seafood.
7) Fresh herbs (basil, parsley) and lots of rocket – mix it with the sauce – yum.
8) Roasted vegetables + olives + capers + crumbled feta – these produce lovely Mediterranean tastes.
9) Artichokes, creamy feta cheese + sprinkle of dry oregano (use the oregano very sparingly).
10) Fresh slices of buffalo mozzarella + sprinkled with smoked Maldon salt.

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