Leek Soup with Feta, Dill and Paprika

Creamy leek soup is a popular Turkish broth. Flavoured with dill and topped with crumbled white cheese, this soup is warming and satisfying. The saltiness of Feta gives it a good tang, but Roquefort or Parmesan, both equally as salty, could be used, or you could use croutons in place of the cheese. Serve with chunks of fresh, crusty bread.

Ingredients:

30ml olive oil

3 leeks, trimmed, washed and roughly chopped

1 onion, chopped

5ml sugar

1 bunch of fresh dill, chopped, with a few fronds reserved for garnish

600ml water

300ml milk

15ml butter

115g Feta cheese, crumbled

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Paprika to garnish

Method:

Heat the oil in a heavy pan and stir in the chopped leeks and onion. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft, but not coloured. Add the sugar and dill. Pour in the water and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Leave the liquid to cool a little before processing with a stick blender until smooth. Pour in the milk and stir over gentle heat until it is hot, but not boiling. Boiling at this point would spoil the texture of the soup. Season with salt and pepper, bearing in mind that feta is salty. Drop the butter onto the surface of the soup and let it melt.

Ladle the soup into warmed bowls and top with the crumbled feta. Serve immediately, garnished with a little paprika and some dill fronds.

Serves 3-4

Cottage Cheese Dill Bread

This cottage cheese dill bread is so easy to make.

It's a batter bread, not a yeast bread, 

so it only takes about 15 minutes to prepare and about 50 minutes to bake.

Ingredients:
500ml flour
10ml baking powder
2.5ml baking soda
2.5ml salt
250ml cottage cheese
2 eggs
90ml milk
60ml sugar
60g melted butter
45ml minced fresh or dry dill
2.5ml onion powder (optional)
2.5ml garlic powder (optional)

Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C . Lightly butter a medium sized loaf pan.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, onion and garlic powders (if using) in a medium-large bowl.

In a small bowl, combine cottage cheese, eggs, milk, sweetening, and melted butter. Beat well. Add to the dry ingredients along with the dill, and mix just enough to thoroughly blend. The batter will be a little stiff.

Spread the batter evenly into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes, or until a butter knife inserted all the way into the centre comes out clean. After removing bread from oven, rest for 10 minutes before removing from loaf pan. Cool on rack an additional 30 minutes before slicing.

Breaded Grilled Lemon Dill Fish

It's Friday. That means it's punishment day, LOL.... Fish for dinner! I grew up in Rhodesia, a land-locked country in the centre of Africa, now known as Zimbabwe. We didn't often see fish, but on a Friday fish was flown in from Capetown in South Africa so the good Catholics and Anglicans could have fish on their tables for dinner. For many years we kept up the tradition of fish on Friday. 

Personally I'm not fond of fish because our cook at home and at school did not know how to make a delicious meal with fish and it was almost always abused (battered and fried), overcooked, dry and tasteless, so fish on Friday was the only way to get me to eat seafood. My husband, who grew up in Durban, caught fish on the beach regularly, introduced me to FRESH FISH, cooked it for me and over the year brought me to change my mindset about fish. 

Grilling fish fillets with breaded lemon and dill is one of my favourite ways of cooking fish. There's no frying, so it's low fat and delicious.... 

Enjoy! 

Ingredients:
500g firm textured fish fillets
125ml mayonnaise
5ml grated lemon zest
15ml lemon juice
5ml dill herb, chopped
125ml breadcrumbs

Method:

Preheat the grill to medium heat. 

Mix mayonnaise, lemon peel, lemon juice and dill and bread crumbs.

Place fish on greased grill grate. Brush with half of the mayonnaise mixture. Grill for 5 minutes; turn fish. Brush with the remaining mayonnaise mixture. Grill an additional 5 to 8 minute or until fish flakes easily with fork.

Garlic and Dill Potatoes

Ingredients:
900g potatoes, peeled and cut into shallow slices
8 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
30ml olive oil
15ml fresh chopped dill
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Place the potato pieces in a shallow baking dish large enough to hold the slices in a single layer. Drizzle with the oil and toss to coat evenly. Sprinkle with garlic, salt and black pepper and toss again.

Roast, uncovered for 30-35 minutes, turning halfway through cooking, or until the potatoes are well browned and tender through the centre. Sprinkle with fresh dill and serve hot.

Halibut Poached in Olive Oil with Cucumber and Dill

Halibut is the largest of all flat fish, available mostly in fillets, steaks and cutlets. Its firm meaty white flesh has a delicious flavour, but can dry our quite easily, and thus needs careful cooking.

Ingredients:

600 ml olive oil

4 x 175 g pieces of thick halibut fillets, skinned

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 large cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced

1 tbsp chopped dill, plus a few sprigs to garnish

2 tsp white wine vinegar

sea salt

Method:

Pour a thin layer of the olive oil into a pan just large enough to hold the pieces of halibut side by side. Season the fish on both sides with a little salt, put it in the pan and pour over the rest of the oil - it should just cover the fish. Very slowly heat the oil to 55-60°C, agitating it with a fish slice now and then so that it heats evenly. If you don't have a thermometer, the oil should just feel unpleasantly hot to your little finger. Now take the pan off the heat and leave it somewhere warm on top of the stove for 15 minutes to poach gently in the oil. The temperature should remain at 55-60°C; if necessary, keep taking the pan on and off a low heat to maintain this temperature.

Shortly before the fish is ready, heat the extra virgin olive oil in a large frying pan. Add the cucumber slices and toss over a medium heat for 1 minute. Add the dill, vinegar and a little salt.

To serve, divide the cucumber between 4 serving plates. Carefully lift the fish out of the oil, allowing the excess to drain off, and put it on top of the cucumber. Pour the oil off into a jug, leaving behind the juices from the fish, which will have settled at the bottom of the pan. Spoon these juices around the edge of each plate, sprinkle the fish with a few sea-salt flakes and garnish with a sprig of fresh dill. Serve with some boiled new potatoes.