Mushrooms with butternut and basil pesto

I am just back from a trip along the Garden Route in South-Africa and one of the places where I stopped was in Wilderness. It was lunchtime so we entered a restaurant called the Blue Olive. The idea for this recipe is based on what I ate there a big mushroom with butternut and basil pesto.

Ingredients:
- A big mushroom
- Butternut
- 2 cups of basil leaves
- 1 garlic clove
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- Olive oil
- A pinch salt

Prepare the mushroom by getting out the stem and fry it in a pan with olive oil. It should be nice brown when ready.

The basic idea of the filling is to make a butternut puree mixed with basil pesto. Start by estimating how much butternut you will need. It depends on the size of you mushroom. Peel the butternut and boil it soft (I personally steam it in my microwave). Make the butternut into a puree and add the the basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil and salt to it. Mash it further down and scoop the mixture into the mushroom.

You can eat it either warm or cold.

Arepas

Arepas are corncookies on which you put something like blue cheese or pico.

For the arepas you will need:

- 3,5 dl of water

- 2 spoons of brown sugar

- 200 grams of corn flour

- 2 eggs

- 120 grams of blue cheese

For the pico you will need:

- 3 ripe tomatoes

- 1 garlic clove

- 1 spoon of ahorn sirup

- 2 spoons of freshly chopped coriander leaves

- 1 sjalot

- sea salt and black pepper

Heat up the water and add the sugar until completely disolved. Add bit by bit the corn flour so you get a nice smooth thick batter. Mix the eggs and half of the cheese trough it. Let the dough cool down.

Put the oil in the frying pan and heat it. Roll little balls from the dough and roll them out so that it becomes cookie-shaped. You fry them 4 to 5 minutes on each side.

To make the pico you dice up the tomatoes, squeeze the garlic and add the juice of the lemon to it. Mix it up and then add the coriander to it together with the sjalot. Mix it up again and finally add the sirup to it and mix it up again. To finish it you add sea salt and pepper to bring it up to taste.

So finally you crumble your cheese onto the arepas or put some pico onto it.

Chicken with prunes

This one is for Jodie, it is based on a Belgian classic called "rabbit with prunes".

You 'll need:

- 500 grams of dried prunes with no pits if possible.

- 5 dl of white wine.

- 125 grams of sugar

- 1 cinnamon stick

- 5 thee spoons of honey

- 1 lemon (cut in parts)

- 2 onions

- 2,5 dl of chicken stock

- chicken legs, 1 or 2 a person

- mustard

You start of by bringing the wine to the boil with the prunes, sugar, cinnamon and lemon. Add 1 spoon of honey to it. Peel the onions and chop them up.

Do some frying butter in a deep pan and fry the chicken legs so they get a nice brown crust. Add the onions to it and add the chicken stock to it. Mix the rest of the honey and the mustard into it and add the wine with the prunes. Lets it simmer for approx 40 minutes. The chicken should be cooked through but check by making a little incision.

In Belgium we serve it with potatoes but they can come in many forms.

Mayonaise

When I was a kid my grandmother always use to make mayonaise. I really like the taste and it tastes a thousand times better than commercial one.

Ingredients:

- 2 egg yolkes

- 1 spoon of mustard

- 1 spoon of vinegar

- corn oil

- 1/2 lemon (juice)

- pepper

Put the egg yolk, mustard and vinegar together in a mixer. Mix them together on a slow speed. Add in the oil bit by bit and look how the mixture becomes mayonaise. To know when you've put enough oil to it is a personal taste.

Once I got the desired texture I add the lemon juice and mix it under the mayonaise and then as a final touch the pepper goes in.

Brocoli soup

Ingredients:

- 1 liter of water

- 1 stock cube

- 1 broccoli

- potatoes

Bring the water with the stock cube up to temperature so that it dissolves in the water. Add the broccoli and let is simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile bring the potatoes to the boil.

When the potatoes are ready add them to the broccoli and mix the whole thing down.

Bon appétit!