Festive Summer Recipes

Long gone are the days of slaving over a hot oven to produce the quintessential Roast Turkey. South Africans are embracing the summer festive season in by making chilled light dishes that can easily be prepared in advance.

Here are 3 easy recipes for lazy days spent around the pool with family and loved ones.

Rooibos Punch

(Makes 4L)

Ingredients

1 L Rooibos Tea

1 L Ginger Ale

1 L Orange Juice

500 ml Soda Water

500 ml Lemon Vodka or Pimms or Cane

Mint for garnish.

Lemons for garnish.

How to make it

Prepare Rooibos Tea and allow to cool.

Combine all the ingredients in a large punch bowl.

Add crushed ice.

Garnish with Mint & Lemon slices.

Blue Cheese, Ricotta and Baby Marrow Terrine

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

2T Lemon juice

½t Salt

Black pepper

3T Extra virgin olive oil

3 – 6 Baby marrows (depending on their size)

200g Creamy blue cheese

250g Ricotta cheese

How to make it

Slice the baby marrows lengthwise as thinly as possible (a peeler works well for this). Lay flat in a tray.

Whisk together the lemon juice, zest, salt and good grinding of black pepper to create a marinade.

Pour over the sliced baby marrows and marinate for at least 1 hour, turning the slices occasionally so they all get a good dose of marinade.

Line a loaf tin with cling wrap, with a generous overhang. (It helps if you drizzle the plastic with a bit of olive oil for handling)

Line the cling wrap with marinated baby marrow strips, overlapping a bit and with an overhang to fold over.

Combine blue cheese and ricotta.

Spoon into baby marrow lined tin, fold over the baby marrows, then the cling wrap and press down firmly.

Refrigerate at least 1 hour before unmoulding.

Serve with seeded bread or biscuits as part of lunch, or cheese course.

 Duck Liver Terrine

 Serves 6-8

 Ingredients

 500g Duck Livers, cleaned and trimmed

 500g Pork Belly, chopped or minced

 250g Chicken Mince

 25g Bread Crumbs

 125ml Chicken Stock

 250g Streaky Bacon

 2T Fresh Thyme

 1T Fresh Oregano

 1T Dried Coriander

 1t Dried Nutmeg

 80ml Brandy

 2T Butter

 1 Small Sweet Onion, finely chopped

 2T Garlic, crushed

 2T Olive Oil

 4 – 6 Bay Leaves

 2 tsp each Coarse Salt & Cracked Black Pepper

 How to make it

 Heat a heavy based pan and melt 1 Tbls Butter until it starts to bubble. Add Duck 

 livers and fry on each side for no more than a minute, until just browned. Remove from 

 pan and chop into chunky pieces.

 In the same pan melt another Tbls Butter and add ¾ of the onion, fry on a low heat 

 for about 5 minutes. Add 2 Tbls Garlic and fry for another minute. Set aside.

 Pre-heat your oven to 180°C.

 Place the bay leaves at the bottom of an oiled terrine tin, layer bacon diagonally 

 across to form the outside of the terrine.

 Mix all the remaining ingredients (including the cooked duck livers and onion) well.

 Press the mixture firmly into the terrine mold. Once all the mix has been used, cover 

 with a lid (or foil) and bake for about 80 minutes – until firm to the touch and slightly 

 shrunken.

 Place weights on top of the terrine to compress the ingredients slightly.

 Refrigerate and serve chilled with spiced cherries.

*The terrine recipes are from a book on Terrines by Fiona Smith, the punch is our own.