Cheese Muffins, child's play

I got this recipe from my friend Dawn and it never fails :-)

You will need:

2 cups Flour
2 cups Cheese
2 cups Milk
4 tspns Baking powder
a pinch of salt

Method:

Mix all together and bake at 180deg until golden

easy easy easy

Really Simple Roast Chicken

Sometimes Less is More and that's what happens here.

You will need:

A large whole chicken without the giblets
2 large onions
1 large lemon
course salt and black pepper
2 sprigs of Rosemary
A splash of olive oil

Method:

Coat the Chicken in a little olive oil
Sprinkle with course salt and pepper
Cut Lemon in half and squeeze one half over the chicken and place both halves into the chicken cavity.
Dice onions in big chunks and place in the bottom of the roasting tin
Place chicken on top
Lay rosemary over the top of chicken
Cover with foil and place in the oven at 160deg (a cooler oven prevents the legs from shrinking and keeps the chicken moist)
Cook for about an hour and a half then remove the foil and leave it until golden. You can increase the heat to 180 at this point if time is a factor.

If you have some whole garlic you can roast it in the same pan, very nice.

Serve with veg or salad and a starch like rice or roast potatoes.
Enjoy

Rustic Rusks....

This recipe was given to me many years ago by my deares friend / sister Carrie who now lives in Australia. She was always baking something when they lived across the road from us. Miss her stacks xx

Just a few tips with this, I use 2 x 3 or 4cm deep dishes to cook these. I also find it easier to cut them with a pizza cutter that can roll. Best to make them and leave them to dry out in a warming draw of an oven over night or on a very low temp for a few hours. They are wonderful dunked in coffee :-)

You will need:

1 kg Selfraising flour
10ml Salt
10ml Baking Powder
2 cups of Brown Sugar
2 cups of Rolled Oats
3 cups of all bran flakes
2 cups of Sunflower Seeds
2 large Eggs
2 cups Buttermilk
500g Butter

Method:

Mix all the dry ingredients together.
Beat the buttermilk and eggs together.
Melt the butter
Mix everything together to form a dough.
Spoon into a large deep baking tin or 2 loaf tins
Bake at 180deg for an hour
Cut into rusks.
Dry out the rusks in a cool oven for 4 hours.

You can play with this, replace sunflower seeds with peacan nuts or poppy seeds, sesame seeds, raisens, almonds etc just keep the basics in mind :-)

Baked Kasler Chops

This is so simple!!!!!!!!!

Place Kasler chops in an oven proof dish. Put a large dollop of onion marmalade on top and bake in the oven until done.

Divine with mash potato and veg :-)

"No Fail" Chocolate Cake - very yummy!!

You will need:

1/2 cup of cocoa
1 cup boiling water
1 + 3/4 cups of flour
1 + 1/2 cup sugar
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
4 eggs
1/2 cup cooking oil

Method:

Pour 1 cup of boiling water into a jug with 1/2 cup of cocoa powder
Mix the flour, sugar and baking powder together. Make a well in the centre and add the cocoa mixture, vanilla, 4 unbeaten egg yolks and the oil and mix well.
Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites
Pour mixture into cake tins and bake at 180deg for an hour.
Test the cake with a skewer to see if it's cooked before removing from the oven. If there is batter on the skewer then leave a little longer :-)

Cool on drying rack and I love jam in the middle with icing sugar sprinkled on top.

Best Butter Chicken - from my friend Donovan Bush

This recipe was given to Donovan by his mom, it stems from her Indian friends in Durban. Now this recipe is one of the very few that I follow to the tee and it is really divine!!! Worth every effort :-)
Thanks Donovan for allowing me to share this as I have had many requests for it.

You will need:

1 pack (1kg) of chicken thigh fillets (they don't dry out like the breast )
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of lemon juice
1 cup plain yoghurt
1 onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic
3cm grated ginger
1 chopped green chilli
3 teaspoons of Garam Masala
1/2 cup tomato puree
1/2 cup water
2cm ginger
1 cup cream
2 tea spoons of sugar
3/4 teaspoons of chilli powder
1 table spoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon ground cumin
100g butter (not margerine)

Method:

Sprinkle chicken with salt and lemon juice.
Place yoghurt, onion, garlic, 3cm ginger, 3/4 tsp chilli powder, green chilli, 2 tsp garam masala in processor and blend.
Place chicken in yoghurt marinade and refrigerate over night. Drain off excess marinade.
Bake at 220deg for approximately 15 min (or cook on a webber)
Mix together tomato puree and water. Add ginger, cream, 1 tsp Garam Masala, sugar, 1 tbsp lemon juice , 1/2 cup marinade and other 1/4 to 1/2 tsp chilli powder and cumin.
Melt butter over medium heat, stir in tomato mixture and bring to the boil. Cook for 2 min then add chicken and simmer until the chicken is tender.

That is the best Butter Chicken ever!!! Remember Butter Chicken is not meant to be "hot" but tasty.

Enjoy xxx

Tomato Salad - from my friend Gail

You will need:

Cherry tomatoes
Fresh Basil
Balsamic Reduction
1 table spoon of dark sugar

Method:

Cut tomatoes in half and place in a deep bowl
Add 4 or 5 leaves of Basil torn up into small pieces
Add sugar
Pour Balsamic reducton over tomatoes to cover
Mix together and leave for 20 min for flavours to mingle.

Serve chilled

Very nice with a braai / barbeque ;-)