Kaatjes Appel-Zuurkool ovenschotel (Original Dutch Apple - Sauerkraut oven dish – with a twist)

Ingredients: (Serves two hungry person as main dish – it’s always enough for us two)
Sauerkraut natural or in White wine (jar 680 gr, drained weight + 540gr)
4 – 5 reasonable sized potatoes (+ 900 gr)
1 jar of smooth applesauce (250 – 360 gr)
1 smoked (pork) sausages (230 gr – ready to eat variety,
like Unox rookworst

Empty sauerkraut jar into a large pan, add a tea-spoon water, place lid on pan and put pan on low fire on the gas. Stir regularly and add, only if really needed, more water to prevent the sauerkraut from cooking dry.

Peel potatoes and cut in small pieces. Boil in water with a sniff of salt added until done (kruimig).

Cut sausage, straight from the packaging, into small slices.
Pre-heat oven, gas mark 5
Wipe some olive oil into (glass) oven dish.

Just before potatoes are done, cover bottom of oven dish with the sauerkraut (don’t add left-over liquid in the pan with it) and cover sauerkraut with the sausage slices.

When the potatoes are really done, pour water from pan and put pan back on low fire to evaporate remaining moist until potatoes are crumbly (kruimig). Carful not to burn them!

Mash potatoes with the apple sauce (*) and spread over the sausage slice in the oven dish. (You can write a greeting or someone’s initials on the mash with a fork, surprise your guests!)
Place in gas oven for 20 – 25 minutes. Serve piping hot.
(Or place in gas oven for 10 minutes and switch to grill oven for 3 – 4 minutes to add ‘golden’ colour. Serve piping hot)

Eet smakelijk.

* = in the original recipe the potatoes are mashed with milk and the apple sauce is spread over the sauerkraut before the sausage slices are added. But since in our home we don’t drink milk, besides loads of coffee-milk, one day I forgot to buy milk for the mash. That’s why the applesauce now ends up in the mash, had to think of something!
To be honest, we both find my ‘twisted’ recipe better ;-)

Steak Casserole

From our new butcher we were sold some stewing steak, which was just one big piece of prime steak chopped up. No fat just pure steak cubes, which stewed amazingly.

This is what I did to to the beef:

Fried the beef along with 2 onions (sliced), added a beef oxo cube, fried some more then added a tin of sliced tomatoes (which already contained oregano and basil).

This was it, a let it simmer for a couple of hours and then served with some wild rice.

(The sliced tomatoes worked really well, I was supposed to buy chopped but we had picked up the wrong tin, although sliced were perfect as they clumped together nicely when cooking).

Springbok Sausage

This isn't really a recipe as you put the sausage on the BBQ (or braai seeing as it's springbok).
Then cut open a soft bread roll and put the sausage in.

We have just discovered a new butcher on Kloof which is looking like a great find. This is where the sausages came from.

Now every Saturday we take a drive to pick up the weekly meat, and mike gets treated to biltong.

Ciabatta (Part 2)

This bread was amazing and so easy to make, you can easily impress at a dinner party with very little effort.

Further Ingredients:
250g Bread Flour
10g yeast
190ml water
12g salt

To finish the bread, add the flour and yeast to the bread mixture and mix well. Gradually add the rest of the water, when the water has nearly been added, add the salt and mix together for a further 5 mins, until sticky dough formed.

Transfer the dough into a large oiled bowl and leave to rise for 1 hour

Transfer dough to a heavily floured work surface and leave to rest for a further 30 mins.

Preheat oven to 240c

Cut the dough into 3 strips and stretch them out to make long flat ciabatta loafs. Mine got a bit skinny so I made fat ciabatta sticks (which we actually great - like the ones that you can buy in woolworths).

Place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and leave for 10 mins.

Transfer the dough to the oven to bake for 25 minutes, or until risen and golden brown.

Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

We had these for lunch and they were very very good, would be great as a accompliment bread
to a starter, soup, pasta dish, or just for lunch with good ham and cheese.

(sorry no pics as we eat them too quick)

Spinach, onion & Prosciutto Focaccia: Part 2

This was amazing, so I am definitely adding this to my cookbook.

I must warn you this is not a recipe from Ready Steady Cook, it's a bread to be made when you have a whole afternoon to potter around the house.

The next day remove the started bread from the fridge about 2 hours before you need to start.

Ingredients:
500g all purpose flour
360ml warm water
2tsp sea salt
75ml olive oil
200g baby spinach roughly chopped
100g spring onions roughly chopped
200g parma ham chopped
80g butter
1 sachet dried yeast (10g??)

Put flour in a bowl and add the water, yeast and the mix you left overnight. Then add salt and olive oil. In food processor mix for 1/2-1minute or until get a clear dough. (or work by hand).

Now add spinach, onions and parma ham. Mix into the dough and put in a lightly greased bowl, and cover with cling film (or put bowl in a plastic carrier bag). Wait until the dough has risen threefold.

Punch the dough back and give it another rise. (15mins??)

Sprinkle flour onto worktop and tip dough onto surface. Cut into 3 and and shape each into a ball. Place on a baking sheet and cover gently with cling film. When slightly puffed up (30 mins??), put balls back on to floured surface. Dip fingers repeatedly into melted butter and massage the butter into the ball. As you work the dough, flatten it out and dimple until it is flat 3/4inch disk with dimples.

Put back onto a greased baking tray. Let it recover and prove for 30 mins and put it into the oven at 200c and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

(once baked you can drizzle a bit more melted butter over the top).

These were great, we ate one with a salad and then took the remainder cold the next day for a picnic.