Cucumber salad

With warmer days looming just around the corner here in South Africa, it's time to put all those lovely cucumers you've planted to use! The benefits of cucumbers are legendary (you can read more here in a previous post) and they are so easy to prepare. So here's a lovely quick and easy cucumber salad to spice up your life.

1 cucumber
10 black olives
2tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 spring onions
½ lemon
½ fresh red chilli
5 or 6 sprigs of fresh mint

Run a fork down the length of the cucumber all around it, then halve and quarter it lengthways and cut the quarters across into 1cm (½in) chunks. Put them into a mixing bowl and set aside.

Drain 10 black olives, squeeze out their stones, and tear them into another bowl. Pour over 2tbsp balsamic vinegar and push down on the olives, so the vinegar starts pulling out their saltiness. Trim and finely slice 3 spring onions, then add to the olives.

Drizzle 4tbsp of extra virgin olive oil and the juice of ½ a lemon into the olive mixture and stir really well.

De-seed and finely slice ½ a red chilli and add to the bowl of cucumber. Pick the leaves from the sprigs of mint, finely slice them and add to the cucumber. Pour over the dressing, toss quickly, drizzle over a little more extra virgin olive oil and take to the table and enjoy!

.

Antipasto Platter

With the weekend coming up, quick and easy meals are always welcome. Whatever you're serving up in this cold weather (we're almost at the end of winter now here in South Africa), whether it's a hot stew or a pasta dish, a fresh, tasty salad is always welcome.

Antipasto (plural antipasti) means "before the meal" and is the traditional first course of a formal meal. Traditional antipasto includes cured meats, olives, peperoncini, mushrooms, anchovies, artichoke hearts, various cheeses (such as provolone or mozzarella) and pickled meats and vegetables (both in oil or in vinegar).

The contents of an antipasto vary greatly according to regional cuisine. Here in South Africa, an antipasto platter would generally consist of salad material like lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and many of the ingredients which you can find in your own vegetable garden, perhaps including some cheese and croutons.

If you’re planning a party with lots of guests, keep the antipasto simple so you don’t crowd out the main meal.

Quick and easy Antipasto Platter 
Serves : n/a
Preparation Time : 20 minutes
Cooking Time : n/a Oven Temperature : n/a

Ingredients:
Cocktail Onions
Dill Cucumbers
 Green Stuffed Olives
Black Pitted Olives
 Jalapeno Chillies
Pickled Onions
Calamata Olives
Artichokes
Pimento
Mini Corn Spears
Asparagus
Few slices Provolone cheese or cheese of your choice
Few slices salami Freshly sliced tomatoes.

Method:
Arrange all the ingredients attractively on a serving platter.

Cook's Tip : Garnish with fresh basil and serve with Olive oil and vinegar




.