Don’t know what to cook for family dinner tonight? Change up your usual dinner-time staples with these amazing recipes.
Chicken skewers
Some lovely options using natural skewers range from bay leaf branches for cooking beef and pork, cinnamon sticks for cooking chicken, pork, or fruit, lemongrass stalks for chicken, duck, pork, scallops, shrimp, and tofu, rosemary branches for chicken, lamb, and shrimp, and sugarcane stalks for chicken, pork or shrimp.
Since metal skewers retain the heat of the grill or fire, make sure food is never eaten directly from the metal or it may cause a severe burn.
If you really want a special meal of chicken skewers served up, the head culinary artists at Granny Mouse Country House & Spa have the most tantalising meal on the bistro menu and have shared this special recipe that you can try at home.
Ingredients
For the marinade for chicken skewers (Yields: 1 litre)
50ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
Zest of two lemons
1l plain yoghurt
50g onion powder
50g garlic powder
10g salt
5g turmeric
10g fresh thyme, chopped
2 x bay leaves, ground
20g freshly ground coriander (whole)
10g chopped fresh coriander
Full cream milk to achieve ribbon consistency of yoghurt
For the pineapple and cayenne mango salsa (Yields 1kg)
2 x pineapples, peeled and sliced into 1cm rounds and core removed (reserve the core for use later)
500g fresh mango, peeled and 1cm diced
10g cayenne pepper
100ml freshly squeezed lime juice
5g coarse ground black pepper
3g salt
10g fresh mint leaves chiffonade
Method
For the marinade for chicken skewers:
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and allow to rest in the fridge for 2 hours.
Pour over cubed chicken and vacuum seal.
For the pineapple and cayenne mango salsa:
Sprinkle cayenne pepper over pineapple and grill on both sides just until you see grill markings.
Set aside and allow to cool
Blend pineapple core and pour pulp through a chinois and reserve the juice.
Dice grilled pineapple into 1cm cubes.
In a bowl, mix the pineapple, mango, and mint.
Mix 100ml of the reserved pineapple juice with the lime juice.
Add this to the mixture.
Add the salt and pepper.
Mix gently by hand, place in a container, and allow to rest for 1 hour in the fridge before serving.
Truffle wild mushroom gnocchi
Looking for a tasty vegan dish to make for you and your family or friends? Try your hand at this delicious Table Bay hotel-inspired vegan recipe that you can easily prepare in the comfort of your home. Executive sous chef Wesli Charles Jacobs says this recipe is tasty, melt in your mouth vegan meal, perfect for the whole family or group of friends.
Serves: 4
Ingredients
400g large potatoes
140g flour
40g potato starch
12g nutmeg
140g char-grilled stem broccoli
120g roasted brown mushrooms
250g sautéed wild mushrooms
40g shaved vegan cheese
40g onion
150g wild mushroom mix
150ml white wine
20g garlic
15g thyme
400ml oat milk
40ml truffle oil
10g of salt
5g of white pepper
50ml of oil
5g pea-shoot or micro herbs
8ml truffle oil
Method
Potato gnocchi
Cook whole potatoes, until fork tender. Then drain them thoroughly.
Allow to steam for 5 minutes, peel potatoes and mash them with a potato masher.
Allow cooling then mix with flour, potato starch, salt, and nutmeg. The dough must be soft but not sticky.
Roll the dough into thick rope rolls. Cut rope into 10mm little balls. Simply roll each ball over a fork.
Bring a large pot of salt water to a boil. Then drop in gnocchi and simmer until the gnocchi starts floating to the top. If they do, they are done.
Remove them with a slotted spoon and drain well. They will firm up a bit as they cool.
Sauce
Use a saucepan to cook your mushroom sauce.
Sautee your onions in oil until softened, then add garlic and thyme till fragrance releases.
Add mushrooms and wine, reduce wine halfway, then pour oat milk and season.
Cool down and add truffle oil.
Vegetables
Blanch long stem broccoli till tender and then grill broccoli in a dry pan.
Brown mushrooms should be peeled and roasted in the oven.
To heat for serving
Preheat the pan to medium heat.
Pan fry gnocchi till golden brown and set aside.
Heat up the sauce.
Plating
Pack gnocchi in a bowl, only on one side of the bowl.
Place broccoli and mushrooms on top of the gnocchi.
Pour the sauce into the open space of the bowl.
Garnish with micro-herbs and vegan cheese.
Garnish
- Pea-shoot or micro herbs
- Truffle oil