I used ingredients in my fridge to make this super easy delicious tart.

This recipe is basically putting together roasting vegetables that I had in my fridge, cheese sauce and short crust pastry.

If you do not fancy making your own short crust pastry –then use a shop bought one.

 

Roast Vegetable tart

Serves 6

Medium effort to make

Takes about 1 hour to prep

Recipe, photo and styling by Thulisa Martins

 

For the Pastry

250g Cake flour

Pinch of salt

50g matured cheddar cheese, grated

150g butter, cut into blocks

1 egg yolk

30ml ice cold water

 

Filling

30ml (2Tbsp) olive oil, plus extra if needed

5ml (1 tsp) crushed garlic

5ml (1 tsp) crushed fresh ginger

2.5ml (1/2 tsp) crushed green chillies

800g fresh roasting veg mix

Salt and pepper to taste

500ml cheese sauce or add grated cheese to white sauce

 

Sweet chilli sauce to serve, optional

Edible flowers to serve, optional

Method:

1. To make the pastry, mix together the flour, salt, cheese and butter with a food processor or use your fingers to mix until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
2. Add the egg yolk and water, mix into a dough – do not over mix.
3. Rest for 20 minutes in the fridge. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
4. To make the filling, heat a large deep frying pan on high heat, add the olive oil, garlic, ginger and chilli and fry, taking care not to burn the garlic, 1 minute.
5. Add the roasting veg and sauté for 5 minutes until the veggies are brown – not soft. Add a little more olive oil if needed. Season to taste.
6. Take the pastry out of the fridge and roll out into a rough round shape, about 3-5mm thick and line into a 20cm baking tin, blind bake for 10 minutes. Now as mentioned previously – this pastry can be bought ready made from your local store.
7. Fill the blind baked pastry with half the vegetables and then top with cheese sauce. Finish with a heaped layer of vegetables on top. Bake for 30 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.
8. Serve warm topped with edible flowers and sweet chilli sauce and a light green salad.

 

All content by Thulisa Martins.

All I can say about this cheese cake is that you have to try it.!.. its creamy and delicate and the nutty pistachios compliment it so well. The raspberries just add that lovely tart berry flavour to complete it, mouth watering stuff. It was great to develop this recipe. I love to play in the kitchen trying out new things and this one was worth it. I loved taking the pictures of this lovely beauty.

For the crust

160g coconut biscuits, crushed

60g butter, melted

 

For the filling:

10g hemp powder

1 medium sized avocado, peeled and pip removed

250g medium fat cream cheese

250g full cream plain cottage cheese, smooth

80g castor sugar

250ml double thick cream

Small handful pistachio nuts

Small handful raspberries

Method

1. Grease a 20 cm pan/ serving dish.
2. Mix together the biscuits and melted butter and press onto the bottom of the dish. Chill while preparing the filling.
3. To make the filling blend together the hemp, avocado, both cheese’s and sugar until smooth on a free standing blender, about 3 minutes. Add the double cream and blend for another 1 minutes until mixed through.
4. Spread the filling mixture over the biscuit crust and smooth the surface using a flat knife. Refrigerate to chill for at least two hours. This can be chilled overnight to take out the stress of prepping too much on the day.
5. Just before serving toast the pistachio nuts, cool and sprinkle over the cheese cake. Top with fresh raspberries, dust with more hemp powder and serve.
6. tip…you can use some of the pistachio’s chopped into the filling. I just like mine smooth.
   

   

   

All content by Thulisa Martins.

A hot cross bun served warm is just the best thing for Easter.

Either just with butter oozing and melting on the bun…

or a bit exciting with fresh figs, cream cheese and a hint of fresh herb to add an earthy note to the dish.

My dear reader I love sweet things. Yet they must just not be too sweet for me. A balance of sweet, acid & fruity with creamy cheese and melt in the mouth good quality chocolate does the trick.

Toasting my Hot cross buns just before serving is just the thing for me.

Yes it is simplicity on the plate and a great experience in your mouth and true soul food.

 

 

Enjoy my lovelies… you deserve it! Put your feet up with your favourite music in the background and peace that surpasses all understanding! You deserve it.

This recipe is the same as the ‘Pretty in pink’ post cookie dough. After rolling, just cut the dough with Easter bunny and egg shaped cookie cutters.

Get the entire family involved – its fun. What I will share besides the pics in this post.

Tips:

So the dough is very soft after beating and gets very hard when refrigerated.

Just pop it into the cling film even if it looks a bit too soft, cover and refrigerate.

Knead it a bit to make it more pliable after refrigerating and use the rolling pin with flour or icing sugar to prevent from sticking.

 

When rolling, keep on pushing the dough together and it will become more manageable as you continue to roll. Lift the dough and sprinkle with flour or icing sugar underneath to prevent from sticking to the surface or roll onto cling film.

Be creating with your garnish – I like to be playful and also use some fresh fruits as well and herbs.

I hope that helps and happy baking.

Crunchy Apple and white rock salad

Very easy to make

Serves 4

2 medium sized apples, sliced

Handful baby spinach leaves

150g Green bean, blanched

Handful strawberries, halved

Two heaped tbsp., sprouts

100g White rock cheese with cranberries

Salt and cracked black pepper to taste.

Dressing

Lemon juice and olive oil.

Method,

1. Toss all the ingredients together and drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.
2. This salad goes really well with chicken, Italian meats (such as Prosciutto Crudo) and pork.
3. For those that like cream dressings a dollop of French style mayonnaise can be added.

TIP…dip your apples into lime cordial water – makes the apples keep their colour for longer and do not make them taste sour like when you use lemon water.

1 cup water and two table spoons cordial

Recipe and photo by Thulisa Martins

 

I recently ordered vegetables from this amazing initiative: umthunzi farming community. An initiative that supports sustainable organic urban farming from seed to consumer. This Kale was part of the offer for the week and it is super easy to make. Great as an Easter lunch side or any other dinner party. It felt amazing making this.

All you need is a bunch of Kale, washed and roughly chopped

60 ml (2 TBSP) extra virgin olive oil

Salt and black pepper to season

150 ml medium fat cream cheese

Method

1. Heat a non stick saucepan over medium heat. Add the olive oil and kale.
2. Saute for 2-3 minutes and season with salt and pepper. Saute for another 3 minutes until soft yet still firm (so not too soft).
3. Add dollops of cream cheese and serve.

Recipe

200ml olive oil

220g caster sugar, sifted

3 large eggs, beaten

10ml (2 tsp) vanilla extract

30ml (2 table spoon) cocoa powder, sifted

125ml (1/2 cup) boiling water

125g cake flour, sifted

5ml (1 tsp) bicarbonate of soda

pinch of salt

100g 70% dark chocolate, finely chopped

Icing sugar to dust.

 

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a 20 cm cake tin with butter and line with baking paper.
2. In a free standing blender, whisk together the olive oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla until creamy, 3 minutes, while the mixture is still being blended, In a separated bowl, whisk together the cocoa and boiling water using a hand whisk until mixed through. Let the cocoa mixture cool aside slightly in the fridge, 3 minutes. Mix together the flour, bicarb and salt and add to the egg mixture and whisk, add the cooled cocoa mixture an blend until a smooth batter, 3 minutes. Stir in the chopped chocolate pieces.
3. Pour into the prepared 20 cm cake tin and bake for 20 – 30  minutes; until a skewer comes out clean when inserted.
4. Remove onto a cooling rack. Sprinkle with icing sugar and decorate with olive branches.

 

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.

 

Try this chocolate bark which will go down very well when entertaining (you can serve it as dessert with vanilla ice cream). This is also a great gift to pack beautifully into a gift box with tissue paper when invited to a dinner party. I used milk chocolate, yet dark chocolate also goes down well.

All you need to do really is melt the chocolate then pour it onto a cut grease proof paper (making sure the paper is big enough), top with fresh berries and sprinkles of your choice. Enjoy. also see the tips section below.

Tips:

1. Use a double boiler to melt the chocolate. Or place water into a pot and top with a heat proof bowl (do not let the water touch the bowl). Place roughly chopped chocolate into the bowl. Heat the pot on medium heat (the water should simmer not boil). Melt the chocolate while stirring.
2. After melting the chocolate, remove from heat and keep on stirring until the chocolate is slightly cooled and thick prior to pouring onto the grease proof paper.
3. This is so quick and easy to make. If using fresh berries, the bark has to be eaten on the day. dried berries can also be used to keep the bark for at least a week.

If you are like us in SA and are having a hot summer holiday season, then these mini wine ice cubes are just the thing to chill your beverages. They can also be made with water or a clear fruit juice. I have seen lots of friends who forget to chill white wine and then use water ice cubes to chill the wine which intern dilutes the good stuff. These will chill your beverage while the flavour is not affected.

Recipe:

makes about 6 to 8 cubes

250 ml white wine or apple juice- same wine you will be serving for your guests.

small handful fresh berries of your choice

6-8 shot glasses or you can use an ice tray.

Method:

1. Fill the glasses or ice tray with fresh berries.
2. Carefully top the glasses/ tray with wine or juice.
3. place in the freezer and freeze – about 6 hours until frozen.
4. tip – I used some rosemary in mine as well – this adds flavour and makes it easy for the ice cube to come out of the glass as it can just be pulled using the rosemary stem. this is optional…Happy Entertaining.