Inspiration Station
Sharing is Caring – Celebrating Local COBBers
Sharing is caring – Celebrating Local COBBers
What makes a community? People like me and you enjoy every day whilst respecting our neighbours and loving our friends and family. An ideal world calls for everyone to live peacefully, and it’s an ideal we all strive for. The best way to get to know each other and how we think is to cook and enjoy each other’s recipes. That’s why we decided it was time to get the community involved in our next social media push and ask you, our avid COBBers, to share your favourite recipes with us.
Celebrating our Heritage means celebrating YOU! We were overwhelmed with the delicious recipes that were shared with us. Boy oh boy were our mouths salivating! From the Mother City to Pretoria (and a number of places in between) our taste buds travelled throughout the country!
Firstly, we’d like to take the time to thank everyone who contributed. We appreciate it and can’t wait to have a go at some of these delicious dishes. If you think you have the perfect dish you’d love us to try, please don’t hesitate – send it our way. We love to try new things. Speaking of new things, here are a few of our favourite recipes that came our way:
The Quick Pizza – A Familiar Favourite
Chante G
This is perfect for a typical South African evening (these days). No power, no problem. Warm up the COBB and make use of some store-bought pizza bases. The toppings can be anything that grabs your fancy. Even pineapple rings can work.
First, prepare and light your COBB Cooker with a CobbleStone. Place the Frying Pan and the Dome Cover on your COBB Cooker and let it heat up for at least 5 minutes. This is essential if you feel like frying something up for your pizza. You could fry the previously mentioned pineapple slices or some bacon as examples, although both will work well together on your pizza.
After your toppings have been organised, place your Pizza Stone into the COBB and leave to warm up. Add the toppings, cheese and herbs to your pizza base. Bake the pizza for at least 15 minutes, but it may take up to 20 minutes. The time depends on how thick your store-bought pizza base is.
Once cooked through, serve and enjoy!
A Quick Snack – Movie Night
Alizna J
There’s nothing quite like watching a movie and having some salty popcorn. That’s why we are sharing this exciting recipe. It’s not only easy to make, but it is sure to please all popcorn lovers! Plus, it sounds awesome when the kernels pop.
Light your COBB using half a CobbleStone or 5 briquettes. You can also use the residual heat from the CobbleStone if you’ve already cooked (this could be the perfect snack after the pizzas).
Once the CobbleStone turns grey, place the COBB Frying Dish and the lid on the COBB and let them heat up for at least 5 minutes.
Pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil into the COBB Frying Dish. Use two kernels of corn to measure the temperature. Place the two kernels in the COBB Frying Dish and cover the COBB again. When the two kernels of corn start popping, the oil is hot enough to pop the corn.
Add 1/2 cup of popcorn kernels and cover the COBB with the lid. The popcorn is ready when no more kernels are popping.
Serve the popcorn in a bowl, sprinkled with your choice of topping (Alizna suggested salt and pepper).
If you want to make more popcorn, repeat the steps starting with adding oil to the COBB Frying Dish.
Enjoy!
The Quick Catch – The Ocean’s Bounty
Rui D
This recipe comes courtesy of someone who loves seafood. We were sceptical, at first, but quickly fell in love with this salty sardine recipe. It’s so easy, and a great snack or meal.
What you’ll need:
- 12 cleaned sardines
- 300 ml olive oil
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- Juice of 2 lemons
- A pinch of cayenne pepper
- A pinch of cardamom
- 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 1/2 bunch of parsley, finely chopped
- 1 ciabatta bread
- 1 bulb of garlic
- 4 sprigs of rosemary
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Mix the olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, cardamom, and parsley to create a marinade. Set aside a small amount of the marinade to finish the dish.
Place the sardines in a dish and pour the marinade over them. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and return the fish to the refrigerator. Let the fish marinate for 30 to 40 minutes.
Light the COBB with a CobbleStone.
Slice the ciabatta bread. Cut the garlic bulb in half. Rub the slices of ciabatta with the garlic, then with the fresh rosemary. Season the slices to taste with salt and pepper.
When the CobbleStone is grey, place the Grill Grid and the lid on the COBB and let it heat for 5 minutes. Grill the bread slices on both sides until they are crispy.
Next, grill the sardines for 2 to 4 minutes on each side (depending on their size).
Serve the sardines on the bread with the reserved marinade drizzled over them. And enjoy.
The Quick Fix – Warm the Heart
Venitta V
Who doesn’t love a great-tasting soup? We know we do. This Potato and Bacon Soup warms the body up with every spoonful.
Who doesn’t love a great-tasting soup? We know we do.
You’ll need:
- 1 x Onion
- 1 x 250g Packet of diced bacon
- 10 x Medium potatoes
- 250ml Milk
- 2 tablespoon Cream of Chicken soup powder
- 1 Cube Chicken stock
- 1 teaspoon butter
Dry flavouring:
- 1/2 teaspoon Chicken spice
- 1 teaspoon Garlic & herb
- Pinch of nutmeg
- Pinch of paprika
- Salt & pepper to taste (I used half a teaspoon of each)
Wet flavouring:
- 1 teaspoon Vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Tomato sauce
- 1 teaspoon Bovril
Prepare and light your COBB with a CobbleStone.
Place the Frying Dish and the dome lid on your COBB and let it heat up for at least 5 minutes.
Cube potatoes and boil in water with the cube of Chicken Stock until the point where you can push your fork easily through a cube. Drain water off potatoes and add two cups of fresh water, take your hand blender and blend potatoes until there’s a smooth consistency. Put in separate bowl and set aside.
Fry diced onion in butter with all the dry flavouring and then add to the potatoes. Fry the bacon in the same pan used for the onion and add it to the soup. (You can leave out some of the onion & bacon mixture to use as garnish when dishing up – you can even add some feta to the garnish)
Mix the soup powder with the milk and add to the mixture in the Frying Dish. Stir in all the wet flavouring and simmer for 20 minutes. Add salt & pepper to taste. (If the consistency is too thick, add more milk, if it’s too runny, add more soup powder).
You can serve it with any bread/vetkoek, or have it as is seeing as it is super filling.
The Country Fix – The Shepherd’s Staple
VB-Lekka
A favourite for many, a cottage pie fills the spot every time. Here’s what you’ll need:
Ingredients:
- 100 g Butter
- 2 large Onions; chopped
- 2 Celery stalks; finely diced
- 1 can of Mixed Veg
- 1kg extra Lean mince
- 2 tbsp plain Flour
- 4 tablespoons chopped Parsley
- 2 tablespoons Tomato puree
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 4-5 Potatoes, peeled
- 4 tablespoon Milk
- 3 teaspoons Mustard
- 1 cube Beef stock
- 1 cube Chicken stock
- 150g Cheddar Cheese
Method:
- Prepare and light your COBB with a CobbleStone.
- Place the Frying Dish and the dome lid on your COBB and let it heat up for at least 5 minutes.
- Melt 50 g butter in Frying Dish, and fry up the onion for 2 minutes until soft
- Add celery and mixed veg and fry for another 2 minutes
- Put mixture aside
- Add 50g butter and fry mince until brown, add salt & pepper to taste
- Return the cooked onion mixture to the dish and cook for 2 minutes
- Sprinkle flour evenly over and mix in with mince
- Gradually add the beef stock dissolved in 500ml water while stirring, add parsley and puree and bring to a simmer for 45 minutes – set aside.
- Place the Frying Dish back on, and cook potatoes in hot water with 1 cube of chicken stock
- Mash potatoes into a bowl and add milk and salt/pepper
- Replace Frying Dish with the Aluminium Grill Grid and Fenced Roast Rack and place the Dome Lid on again.
- Add mustard to the mince and spoon evenly into an ovenproof dish
- Cover with mash and seal to the edges of the dish, sprinkle cheese on top and bake until the cheese is melted.
