We have just harvested the first beans of the season. I just have to share  our daughter's memories of harvesting beans with you:
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Long before I knew I would make a career of my passion for food, my childhood summers were marked by warm evenings congregated around the kitchen table, top- and tailing beans. In winter, my brothers and I were asked to squeezed one liter of orange juice per day as part of our daily chores and together with the bean harvest, these were the rhythms that marked the seasons of my childhood. As long as I can remember my father has been a keen vegetable gardener. He fought the odds in the harsh Namibian climate by building an elaborate shaded frame over his vegetable garden; and during one short summer spent in Canada, filled our basement with the sweetest sweet corn and buttery new potatoes. My mother has had to become very creative with my father’s harvests, be it spinach, broad beans or rhubarb there is always more than needed! She’s had to come up with a number of ways to preserve and capture the deliciousness for another day or season and this broad bean and garlic spread is just one of those recipes.





Broad bean and garlic spread
Ingredients:
1 whole garlic head, cut horizontally
4 cups of beans (can be replaced with butter beans)
Salt and milled black pepper
1 onion, finely chopped
Olive oil, to drizzle
A small bunch parsley or thyme sprigs
Day-old baguette to make bruschetta
Optional: 2 rashers of streaky bacon, this gives the dip a delicious, smokey flavor.
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Drizzle a little olive oil on the garlic and roast until it is completely soft.
In a small pot, fry the onion. Add the bacon, if you are using bacon and render slowly on low heat.
Add the beans and the soft garlic puree; slowly cook with the lid on for 20 minutes. Mash the beans slightly with a fork, but keep the dip chunky. Remove from the heat add the chopped parsley or the thyme leaves.
When serving drizzle generously with olive oil and salt and milled pepper. Serve with char-grilled bruschetta.
Bruchetta:
1 mini baguette, cut into 1.5 cm slices at a slant.
¼ cup olive oil
Heat a griddle pan until it’s smoking hot. Brush the bruschetta with olive oil and griddle until toasted and slightly charred.
Green Beans Marinated in lemon, chili, and coriander served with Quinoa
Quinoa is available in selected supermarkets but can be found in health stores and specialist food stores.
(Serves 4)
Ingredients:
250 ml quinoa
300g green beans, tossed in oil
60 ml of olive oil
Juice and zest of a lemon
1 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 chili, seeded and finely chopped
A bunch of fresh coriander
50g toasted pine nuts
Salt and milled black pepper
Method:
Cook the quinoa in salted water, following the instruction on the packet.
Combine the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, chili, and fresh coriander to make the marinade.
Chargrill the beans very quickly on a hot griddle pan and while they are still hot, toss them in the marinade. Allow them to cool and marinate for 20-30 minutes.
Season the quinoa, and serve with the marinated beans and toasted pine nuts. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve with lemon wedges.

We take pride in our unique fruit entrées- sometimes a plated fruit salad, other times a mini portion of Bircher Muesli garnished with apple shards, or a homemade smoothie with carrot, ginger, orange and apple... On the buffet we have an assortment of cereals: homemade muesli, ProNutro, bran flakes, Weetabix as well as yogurt, more fresh fruit and a baked fruit compote, which in season consists of rhubarb or quince from the garden, otherwise stewed prunes, guavas or peaches.







Maize porridge made on request in summer, in winter it is standard fare. We like to serve it with a dollop of cream or double thick yogurt or a drizzle of maple syrup or honey - and my personal favorite: the syrup from preserved figs. Yes, we have our own fig tree and do preserved figs the way your grandmother did. All the preserves are homemade from fruit grown at Fairview: peaches, apricots, kumquats, tree tomatoes, guava, orange, strawberries, tomatoes, figs... For our homemade compotes, we use plums, quince, rhubarb, and apple.
We like to buy our bread from our local La Pattiserie. Whenever Desmond asks how it is that a woman with 5 ovens in her kitchen does not bake bread every day I answer him that I have to
support Claire and Antoine : Claire grew up with our children and went off for a stint in France where she worked in a French bakery and had the good sense to marry and bring home Antoine so that our George tables can be graced with his delicious bread.
For the main course of your breakfast, you could treat your taste buds to one of our mouthwatering omelets, made to order, that will leave you wanting to come back for more. We have perfected the art of a one egg omelet for the cholesterol conscious guests (or those who simply find that they cannot handle such a big breakfast early in the morning). Guests who enjoy a traditional breakfast will appreciate the fact that we always try to ring the changes: be it with a small portion of our own take on baked beans, a sweetcorn griddle cake, fried green tomatoes or some other little accompaniment we'll think up to take 'bacon and eggs' to a non-boring level. We'll never compromise on good quality back bacon and sausages are from our local butcher.


You name it, we'll make it: Eggs Benedict, Waffles, Stuffed French Toast, Frittata, Eggplant fritters
Eggs Benedict: two poached eggs, settled on a piece of sauteed ham, nestled on a split and toasted English muffin, topped with a Hollandaise sauce.
Eggs Florentine: same as Eggs Benedict, but remove the meat and replace with sautéed spinach.
Dutch Baby Pancake: a souffléd pancake baked and stuffed with carmelized apples.
Pancakes: either thin pancakes served with cinnamon sugar or flap-jacks served with maple syrup and crispy bacon.
Stuffed French Toast: French bread stuffed with cheese,ham and topped with flash-fried cherry tomatoes (and a sunnyside up egg should you wish..)
We serve fresh juices and our coffee is roasted by Baruch Roasters from Mossel Bay. We prefer to make our coffee to order using a Bialetti coffee brewer but we also can offer plunger coffee (we have the coffee specially ground for the plungers, so no muddy residue in your cup) or Nespresso. For the tea lovers we have a multitude of black, Rooibos, Honeybush, green, herbal and other teas.

​It is grapefruit time again and when my guest told me how much she enjoyed her grapefruit starter (a take on Bircher Muesli served with grapefruit) I remembered how my daughter loved her grapefruit. As she remembers: ' When I was a little girl my mother would give me half a grapefruit sprinkled with sugar, each segment delicately cut loose for me to eat it more easily. I still remember that bittersweet deliciousness, it's such a fond memory, but thinking about it now I realize it was quite unusual for me to be eating, not to mention enjoying grapefruit at that age! Somewhere along the line, probably when I started doing my own shopping and choosing what to fill my fruit bowl with, grapefruit didn't quite make the cut and many years passed without me giving them much notice.'

I serve it as she describes, but my favorite way of serving it is to replace the apples one would normally use in Bircher Muesli with broken grapefruit segments. You basically mix segments of half a grapefruit with 80 ml double fat yogurt, 80 ml of raw oats and 80 ml commercial muesli.
Another idea is to top it with a meringue - you beat 3 egg whites until soft peaks form, then gradually add 60 ml castor sugar. Place 2 cups of milk in a saucepan, bring to a gentle simmer. Drop dessert spoon full of meringue mixture at a time into simmering milk.
Poach on one side for about one minute and gently turn over using a slotted spoon. Remove carefully to drain on absorbent paper. Cut a grapefruit in half and loosen the segments and then slide the meringues onto the grapefruit halves. Just before serving I sprinkle a few grains of dark brown sugar onto it (the moisture in the meringue will make it melt) Garnish with a sprig of mint. (I use the discarded milk to make creamy maize porridge and the egg yolks to make Hollandaise sauce for Eggs Benedict.)

​I think I should offer cooking class exchanges officially on my website! I was delighted when Dani, who lives in London, but is of Greek descent, offered to teach me how to make dolmathes using the new leaves from our vine. Last year I exchanged recipes with an Ukrainian guest and in December we had guests from Mumbai who demonstrated and cooked us a traditional Indian meal. What fun! Not only do they learn something about South Africa food, but they get an opportunity to have a home cooked meal and we get an opportunity to eat something exotic.


I never realised that Dolmades are cooked in a tomato sauce (either in the oven or on hob over very low setting) Dani showed me how to use two plates as weight to ensure that the Dolmades remain covered in this delicious, buttery tomato sauce.

Today I would like to share the following, written by our son Alex:
"We headed out from a launch near the Cape Town Waterfront to hunt for snoek, those nasty looking wolves of the sea – to most people the quintessential South African fish. We must have looked rather comic as we chugged out of the launch site, four big guys perched on a tiny, pink rubber duck. After cruising about for a while we spotted a group of boats floating together about two kilometers offshore and we immediately knew they were into the snoek. The adrenalin was pumping, but we had to keep to a pretty moderate speed as the small boat climbed up and down the swells. Eventually, we joined up with the other boats and rushed to get our lines in the water.

Snoek are vicious fish that will take just about any bait or artificial lure, but the traditional way to catch them is a thick handline, a heavily weighted lure, and a large hook. The heavy-duty tackle is used to haul the snoek out of the water as fast as possible…no arching rods and running drags here. The commercial guys use the handlines so that they can catch as many snoek as possible in a short time, but also so that the fish don’t tangle all the other lines hanging from the boat. Then, of course, there are the seals. They drift around the boats and rip into the snoek as they are being pulled up. Unless you get your fish out of the water quickly you can end up losing a significant part of your catch to the seals.



When you cook your snoek you occasionally find one that has a course, mealy texture. This is referred to as a ‘pap’ snoek (the word translates as soft/squishy). No one is sure why the occasional snoek goes ‘pap’, but I have heard a theory that if you fight them too long lactic acid builds up in the flesh, which spoils the fish. I’m not too sure I believe that theory, as there are plenty of recreational anglers who do catch snoek on relatively light tackle, but why risk it? (By the way, if there are any other theories on why snoek go ‘pap’, please post them in a comment to this article.
The snoek wasn’t in a concentrated school, but rather seemed to be moving about in small groups. The boats were spread out in an area the size of maybe six rugby fields, and from time to time the fishermen on a particular boat would hook into two or three fish as the small schools moved around in this area. We had a frustrating few minutes watching the guys in the other boats pulling up fish, but suddenly my brother and I hooked up almost simultaneously. As my brother brought his fish to the surface a large seal grabbed it by the tail. The seal surfaced with the snoek in its mouth and a classic tug of war ensued, with the fish stretched between my brother and the seal, both equally determined. Eventually, my brother pulled the snoek free, but now my fish was just approaching the surface and I watched helplessly as the seal dived toward it and ripped it from the line. Soon my brother had more fish on the boat, but I wasn’t having any luck and was still sulking about my stolen snoek.''
The worst thing about fishing with my brother is not that he usually catches the most and biggest fish (although that is pretty irritating too), it’s the way he starts dispensing advice after he’s brought a few fish on board. I grumbled under my breath as my brother offered tips on retrieval speed, depth and other snippets of wisdom. I did get my snoek and we had an incredible day on the water, ending up with nine large snoek between the four of us. It was delicious braaied over the coals basted with a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice and apricot jam.


RECIPE  for  Snoek Spread:  Saute 1 medium sized onion in 30ml butter until soft and transparent. Add about 200 gram flaked and deboned snoek, juice of a small lemon, 125ml creme fresh (or cottage cheese) salt and pepper to taste as well as a shake of Worcestershire sauce. Add fresh herbs to taste (we like dill and/or parsley) Blend and refrigerate until required. Delicious on wholewheat bread.
It is no wonder our two sons love the sea - they were brought up in Walvis Bay, Namibia, and were taken on fishing trips when they were still in diapers.

​Older residents of George still remember raids into the apple orchards at Fairview -when it was finally decided to develop the suburb of Bergsig there was much debate whether to call the suburb Appelboord or Bergsig! We still have one apple tree left. I would like to share the easiest apple crumble recipe you will ever try. Foolproof, with such basic ingredients that you'll be able to whip it up in a flash.Delicious served with custard, cream or ice cream.

Switch oven to 180°Celsius.
Open two cans of tinned 410 g apple slices (or peach or pears...) Or stew about 4 apples in a pot with little water, a stick of cinnamon and sugar to taste if you have your own apple tree!
Drain off syrup and plonk into an ovenproof dish.
In a mixing bowl: 1 and ¼ cup flour; ¼ teaspoon salt; 125g butter (margarine if you do not have butter) ; 1 cup sugar (white, brown, whatever...)
Rub between your finger until all crumbly and smooth over fruit (smooth down with a fork or the back of a spoon) Pop into the oven for 35 minutes - until brown.
That's the basic recipe, but you could add a handful of slivered almonds or coconut; I always add a whole cinnamon stick to the apples. Or half rhubarb; half apple - that's my favorite...

​Secrets first: we cook apple slices in a small quantity of water. These apple slices go into the bottom of the cake tin.Bake a day before you want to serve it to allow the flavour and texture to develop.
Geheime eerste: ons kook appelskywe (so 2 appels) in bietjie water en sit dit onder in die koekpan. Bak dit ten minste een dag voor jy dit wil bedien sodat die geure/tekstuur kan ontwikkel.



Initially, apples were farmed on the grounds of Fairview. We were told by old doctor Tiensie Stander that when the ground for the development of Bergsig was subdivided, serious consideration was given to the name Appelboord, but because the apple orchards had to go for the development it was decided to name the new suburb Bergsig. Today we have apple tree left on the yard and it hardly ever bears more than 5 apples per season!
First things first:
Place ½ packet Tennis Biscuits biscuits in a plastic bag and roll to fine crumbs with a rolling pin (a bottle also does the trick)
Add to 80ml melted butter and press the mixture onto the base of a lined 20cm springform cake tin. Make sure the sides are well coated with Spray 'N Cook. Refrigerate.
Preheat the oven to 160°C ;
In a bowl: 3 cups ricotta cheese (600g), 125ml cream, 180ml castor sugar, 15ml cake flour, 30ml cornflour (Maizena) + 3 extra large eggs Beat together until smooth (bearing in mind that ricotta is a crumbly "cheese" and the texture will remain slightly crumbly, but smooth)
Stir in juice and zest of one lemon
Pour into cake tin and bake for one hour ; then increase temperature to 180°C and bake a further 10 minutes. Take out of oven, put on rack and allow to cool in cake tin, remove and keep in fridge overnight. Serve at room temperature (that's important!)
Let us make that a Banting recipe:
Preheat the oven to 160°C ;
In a bowl:
3 cups ricotta cheese (600g |750 ml ) 62ml is 1  = 12 dairy fat portions
125ml cream 30ml is 1 daily fat = 4 dairy fat portions
180ml castor sugar
15ml cake flour, 30ml cornflour (Maizena) + 3 extra large eggs Beat together until smooth (bearing in mind that ricotta is a crumbly "cheese" and the texture will remain slightly crumbly, but smooth)
Stir in juice and zest of one lemon
Pour into cake tin and bake for one hour ; then increase temperature to 180°C and bake a further 10 minutes. Take out of oven, put on rack and allow to cool in cake tin, remove and keep in fridge overnight. Serve at room temperature (that's important!)