Beef Teriyaki Crisps with Wasabi Mayonnaise

Ingredients:
For the Marinade:
30ml fresh orange juice
30ml soy sauce
15ml sweet rice wine
15ml honey
5ml grated fresh ginger

250g flank steak, trimmed
sunflower oil

For the Mayonnaise:
125ml low fat mayonnaise
10ml wasabi paste
10ml rice vinegar

To Serve:
24 baked rice crackers
Pieces of fresh chives to garnish

Method:
To prepare the steak, combine the ingredients for the marinade in a large zip-lock plastic bag. Seal and allow the meat to marinade in the fridge for 24 hours, turning occasionally.

Remove the steak from the bag; discard the marinade. Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat; add enough sunflower oil to the pan to give it a light coating. Add the steak to the pan and grill on each side for 5-6 minutes, or until desired degree of cooking. Remove the steak from the pan and allow it to rest for 10 minutes. Cut the steak diagonally across the grain into thin slices. Cut these slices into 2 inch pieces.

Combine mayonnaise, wasabi paste and vinegar, stirring well to blend. Spoon 2-3ml mayonnaise mixture onto each cracker, place a piece of steak on top of mayonnaise and top with a little more mayonnaise mixture. Garnish with chive pieces.

Chicken and Avocado Salad

Ingredients:

2 skinless, cooked chicken breasts

1 ripe avocado

45ml lemon juice

2 spring onions

Salad greens

60ml toasted slivered almonds

Dressing:

30ml mayonnaise

30ml sour cream

15ml chilli sauce

10ml runny honey

Method:

Cut the chicken into strips. Peel and stone the avocado, cut into wedges and brush with lemon juice. Trim and finely slice the spring onions on the diagonal.

To make the dressing, mix together the mayonnaise, sour cream, chilli sauce and runny honey and toss with the chicken.

Serve the avocado over salad greens topped with the chicken and garnished with the slivered almonds.

Meat and Bean Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

225g cooked lamb, diced

225g salami, skinned and diced

3 thick slices cooked ham, diced

225g English cucumber, diced

2 granny Smith apples, cored and cited

225g cooked macaroni

2-3 spring onions, chopped

Small can butter beans, drained

125ml mayonnaise

12,5ml lemon juice

5ml Worcestershire sauce

Lettuce

Method:

Combine all the ingredients except the mayonnaise, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce in a large salad bowl.

Blend the mayonnaise, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce and pour over the salad mixture. Toss lightly, ensuring all the ingredients are covered with the dressing. Serve on a bed of lettuce.

Pasta Slaw

Coleslaw is one of South Africa’s favourite salads, but we got tired of the ubiquitous cabbage and carrot smothered with mayonnaise and added pasta to it for an interesting variation.

I like to add a few extra special touches to this salad, which always goes down a treat, such as a couple of handfuls of raisins, sultanas or chopped dried apricots and some chopped nuts such as macadamias, pecans, walnuts or cashew nuts. Mix some fruit or nuts into the salad and sprinkle some on top to garnish.

Ingredients:

250g Elbow Macaroni

15ml olive oil

¼ cabbage, shredded finely

2 ribs of celery, finely sliced

1 large carrot, grated

½ 470g can crushed pineapple

250ml mayonnaise

60ml snipped chives

100ml sultanas (optional)

100g chopped macadamia nuts (optional)

Method:

Cook the macaroni according to the package instructions. Drain well and mix with the oil.

Combine the pasta, cabbage, celery, carrot, pineapple and some of the sultanas and macadamia nuts, if using, reserving some of each of the dried fruit and nuts for garnish, then mix in the mayonnaise.

Garnish with sultanas and macadamia nuts, if using, and snipped chives.

American-Style Potato Salad

Potato salad makes a wonderful accompaniment to any meal.

As a family, we enjoy it the traditional way with mayonnaise,

but adding a runny mustard and gherkins to the sauce

gives it such an interesting flavour.

Ingredients:

4-5 medium waxy potatoes,

30ml milk

50ml hotdog mustard sauce

5ml vinegar

5ml liquid from a jar of gherkins

5ml sugar

125ml homemade mayonnaise

1 gherkin, chopped

1 hardboiled egg, chopped

2-3 rashers of streaky bacon,

Method:

Cut each potato into 8 pieces and cook in salted boiling water until tender. Drain and set aside to cool slightly.

Mix the milk, mustard sauce, vinegar, pickle juice and sugar together in a small bowl to make a dressing.

Fry the bacon until it is cooked and crispy. Cut the rashers in half lengthwise and snip into 1 inch pieces.

When the potatoes have cooled, pour over the dressing and toss to coat the potatoes. Add the mayonnaise, the chopped gherkin, egg and bacon and blend through the potato mixture. Chill in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.

Homemade Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise is an ingredient you always need to have available.

I can't abide the ready made shop bought mayonnaise;

it always tastes like plastic.

Here's a quick and easy recipe for this wonderful classic

that you can have ready for when you need it.

If you prefer to have vinegar in your mayonnaise,

leave out the lemon juice and use about 30ml vinegar to replace it.

.

Ingredients:

2 egg yolks

2 eggs

15ml Dijon mustard

Juice of half a lemon

5ml caster sugar

200ml vegetable oil

200ml olive oil

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to season

Method:

Blend all the ingredients except the oil in a food processor for 10-15 seconds, or until well combined. In a glass jug, blend the two oils. While the motor is running, pour the oil into the food processor very slowly until well combined and the mixture is thick and glossy. Season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Store in a sterilised glass jar in the fridge for up to a week.

Asparagus and Gremolata Aioli

Asparagus and gremolata aioli is wonderful served as a side dish to red meat.

Ingredients:
a bunch of fresh asparagus, 250g bases snapped off and shafts pealed.
25ml mayonnaise
7.5ml grainy mustard
zest of 1 lemon
7.5ml chopped fresh mint
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to season

Method:
Blanch the asparagus in boiling salted water for around 5 minutes.
Mix the mayonnaise, mustard, lemon zest mint and add salt and pepper to season.
Serve the asparagus spears covered with a dollop of gremolata aioli.