Homemade easy

We like to go out and buy ingredients and food that is different from the normal everyday ingredients. Vanilla Sugar, basil infused olive oil, herb crusted cream cheese and really anything with the words gourmet, homemade or farm style in front of it.

The crazy thing about all of this is that it is just so easy to make yourself but we simply don’t have the know-how. 

Today I’d like to share some of my own favorites with you. Easy short cuts that will make your friends think you are the best cook they know. And most of these things should not take you more than 15 min.

Flavored oils

What flavors you want in your oil is up to you.  

This is just some basic steps to make sure that you know how to infuse the oil and from there you can experiment.

Citrus Oil

2 x lemon and orange peel

1 cup of olive or vegetable oil

Take the peel of the fruit make sure you don’t get a lot of the white flesh.

Give it a rough chop and add it with the oil.

Heat up the oil until it looks like the oil is about to start frying the ingredients. (Little bubbles form)

Take it off the heat and store for use once it is cooled down.  Leave the aromatic ingredients in the oil once you store it.

Use this oil for salads and frying fish.

You can do this with chilli, thyme, onions, and basically anything. The key here is to make oils and use them with other flavors that work. Also the amounts of aromatic ingredients depend on the intensity you want.

Marinated feta

1 Tub of feta

2 lemons

Sprigs of thyme

1 clove of garlic

2 tbls of course black pepper

1 ½ cup of olive/ vegetable oil

Zest the lemons and chop the garlic fine

Add the thyme, pepper, zest and garlic to the oil.

Heat up the oil until it looks like the oil is about to start frying the ingredients. (Little bubbles form)

Take it off the heat and let it cool to room temperature.

Now cube your feta and add it to the cooled down oil. Put all of this back in a container and store until you can use it.

Use it for anything like salads, quiches and cheese platters.

Wake up Muesli

We all like muesli for breakfast but sometimes it gets boring. Here is a way to spice up those nuts. I do this one bag of muesli at a time and always try something different if you want to keep it fresh.

1 kg Bag of muesli (doesn't matter what flavor it is.)

2 tbls Filter/ percolator coffee

1 tsp Vanilla essence

½ tsp Cinnamon

50g sugar

Preheat you oven grill to its medium heat. Number 4 or 5 depending on the oven

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and make sure it is evenly mixed through.

Put the muesli in a baking tray and make sure that the muesli is spread out evenly and not layered to thick.

Roast the muesli for 5 minutes about 15 cm from the grill. Keep an eye on it as you don’t want it to burn and it does burn very easily. 

You just want to heat it up a little bit to release the flavors. You will start smelling the coffee beans and the nuts roasting.

After the 5 minutes pour the roasted muesli on your kitchen counter and spread it out so that it can cool down. Keep moving the muesli around every minute so that it doesn't build up steam and go soft. Do this until the muesli cooled.

Once it is completely dry and cool store it for use.

The coffee and cinnamon gives the muesli a whole new taste. You can always add orange zest, ginger and even a bit of rooibos tea leaves (from the tea bag) for a whole new combination. Keep playing around with flavors and tastes.

Balsamic Marmalade

A beautiful and sticky condiment that was brought to fame by Woolworths. This is my recipe. You work in a ration system for this recipe and it I all about feel and your own personal taste. The ratio is 1: ½ : ¼  

1kg Onions chopped 

500 ml balsamic vinegar

250 ml sugar

Salt and pepper

Fry the onions in a pot until they are translucent. (no browning)

Add the Balsamic Vinegar and sugar all to a pot and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Let it reduce slowly until the liquid is reduced by half.

Add salt and pepper to taste and then store it in a jar for use over cheese, salads and in roasted vegetables.