Bigger Nibbles
Corn bread (the fresh corn kind)
You'll need:
2 cups corn kernels scraped off the cob
1 1/2 cups plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
Method:
Mix butter, egg and milk.
Fold in the dry ingredients.
Bake in a hot oven for 25 minutes. It is ready when the top springs back when pressed.
Eat hot, eat cold, wonderful with cheese or just butter. Freezes well.
Classic Cheese and Tomato Sandwich
You'll need:
4 thick slices crusty bread.
Butter (optional)
2 cups sliced home-grown or farmer’s market tomatoes
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
Toast one side of the bread. Butter the other side, if you wish (I don’t). Top the untoasted side neatly with the tomatoes and top with cheese. Place on a rack at the top of a hot oven (preheated) till the cheese is bubbling and just slightly brown. Take out, slice quickly – if you don’t the topping will slide off and give any exposed area of your body beneath it third degree burns, plus you’ll waste the best bits – and eat hot, with your fingers.
Stuffed Zucchini
You'll need:
6 big zucchinis, but make sure their skin is not yet hard.
1 cup roast capsicum
4 small fresh zucchini
4 tb roast macadamias
6 tb currants
2 red onions, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
6 tb olive oil
1 cup rice
1 litre chicken or veg stock
juice 3 lemons
2 tb brown sugar
2 tb olive oil extra
Method:
Sauté onion, garlic, currants, in oil till onion is soft. Add rice and currants; stir 1 minute. Add stock. Cook 10 minutes; add small zucchini; cook till rice is soft. Add more stock if necessary. Add capsicum when cooked.
Pile stuffing in big zucchini. Mound it up.
Put lemon juice and sugar and extra oil in baking pan. Add stuffed zucchini. Take at 200 C till large zucchini are soft. Serve hot or tepid, with the juices poured over.
Toasted Cheese and Cherry Tomatoes
You'll need:
4 thick slices crusty bread
8 slices cheddar cheese
20-40 cherry tomatoes (depends on size)
Method:
Slice a deep cross in the top of each cherry tomato.
Toast one side of the bread. Butter the other side, if you wish (I don’t). Top the untoasted side with the cheese. Arrange the cherry tomatoes on top of that. Place on a rack at the top of a hot oven, preheated, until the cherry tomatoes are just beginning to turn black on their cut tips, and the cheese bubbling. Again, slice quickly before eating and be warned: a roast cherry tomato is a small volcano. Hot!
Eggy Bread with Tomatoes
You'll need:
2 thick slices of crusty bread
butter
2 large eggs
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
Method:
Remove an egg-sized shape from the slices of bread. Toast the other side of the bread.
Butter the egg hole. Mix egg and tomatoes. Pour into hole. Place at the top of a preheated, very hot oven.
Bake for about five minutes, or till the egg is cooked to your liking.
For me it’s the whites set, the yolk liquid and spilling out over the hot bread as you eat it with knife and fork. Salt and lots of pepper optional but black pepper especially is delicious.
Zucchini slice
I love this hot or cold
You'll need:
About 6 cups grated zucchini (the number of zucchini needed will vary according to their size)
1 carrot, grated
1 large red onion, peeled and grated
1 cup strong cheddar cheese, grated
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
6 large eggs
optional 6 tbsp chopped parsley or chopped coriander leaves
optional 1 tsp finely chopped chilli
optional 1 red capsicum, finely grated
optional salt and pepper
Method:
Mix. Pour into a greased baking dish and bake in a moderate oven 30-40 minutes till firm and brown on top.
potato cakes
Method:
For every cup of grated potato add:
1 dessertspoon of chopped parsley
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 dessertspoon of onion, chopped
1 egg
1 tbsp plain flour
Mix well.
Drop spoonfuls on a hot pan with plenty of olive oil or butter.
Cook till brown on one side then turn.
If the cake sticks the pan wasn't hot enough or clean enough.
If the potatoes are very liquid you may need to add a little more flour.
Prawn and zucchini salad
Mix:
2 cups shelled green prawns
½ cup fresh very ripe and fragrant pineapple chopped
3 cups of strips of zucchini brushed with olive oil and dusted with oregano then quickly fried on each side with 2 cups small, sweet onions sliced in half and ½ cup currants and ½ cup cashews
1 cup chopped fresh coriander
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp brown or palm sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
Serve and eat at once.
Grilled Mushroom Sandwich
This is superb.
You'll need:
4 large field mushrooms – not tasteless champignons – chopped
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped and peeled
1 red onion, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp chives, chopped
8 slices incredibly good bread
8 tbsp olive oil
Method:
Heat frying pan for three minutes on high; put down on low and add oil, then the other ingredients.
Cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, till the mushrooms are soft and the onion transparent, about 3-5 minutes.
Turn off heat.
Butter each slice of bread on both sides or brush with olive oil.
Place a quarter of the mushroom mix on four of the slices of bread. Place another slice of bread on top.
You now have four sandwiches.
Place them under the griller and grill each side till deep golden brown.
Serve at once, hot.