Sweet potato and chickpea burgers with homemade braai relish

This is a blend of this recipe for the patty and this one for the relish with some small changes. It worked quite nicely eventually.

Should make around 4 patties

1-2 sweet potatoes (should be around 500g or so)
400 ml tin chickpeas
1 lemon, zest and juice
cumin, cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste
burger rolls, tomatoes, salad leaves, gherkins to serve

These quantities make quite a lot of relish. You could cut them in half if desired:
1 onion
6 tomatoes, or 2x 400 ml tins of diced tomatoes
garlic to taste
1-2 tbsp peri peri sauce (or to taste)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp tomato sauce/purée
salt, pepper, cayenne pepper to taste

Chop up the sweet potatoes into chunks and steam until soft. Drain and rinse the chickpeas, then chop them up in a food processor. Once the sweet potatoes are ready, add them to the chickpeas, add the seasoning, and mix in (don't use the food processor). Form into four patties (or as many as you want) and put them in the freezer for about 30 minutes or so. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

After 30 minutes, put the patties on a baking tray and put in the oven. Cook for about 25 minutes or so. Once they are "cooked," fry them in a pan to firm them up well.

While the patties are in the freezer or the oven, dice the onion and garlic and gently cook in a pot until soft. Add the tomatoes, peri peri, soy sauce, tomato sauce, and seasonings and cook on a low temperature for around 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally to stop it catching on the bottom of the pot.

Serve in a roll with your preferred toppings (the gherkins, tomatoes, salad leaves and braai relish really worked well with this). You could also make some chips if you are feeling energetic.

Duck with soy, ginger and honey gravy

This was amazing. I made some changes from this recipe, and I'm pretty chuffed with the results:

2 duck breasts, skin scored
Salt, cayenne pepper, pepper (to season duck)
1/2 cup chicken stock
2-3 tbsp honey
2-3 tbsp soy sauce
2-3 tbsp rice wine/rice wine vinegar (you could probably use wine vinegar too)
1 tbsp ginger, grated
1 tbsp tomato sauce or purée
Chilli powder/flakes to taste
1 tsp lemon juice (original calls for lime juice, though)

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Rub the salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper into the duck, then place skin down in a hot pan for about five minutes to brown, flip and cook for another minute or two, then put in the oven and cook for around 15-20 minutes (or to taste—duck can be cooked medium or even medium-rare). When ready, pour off the excess fat into a small pan and leave the duck breast to rest for a few minutes.

Heat your small pan with its duck fat and add the stock, honey, soy sauce, rice wine (vinegar), ginger, tomato sauce, chilli powder and lemon juice. Whisk while bringing it to the boil and then cook for about 5 minutes, still whisking.

Slice the duck breast into thin slices, serve the sauce over the duck.

We had this with a rice/quinoa/lentil mixture they sell in France, but it should go well with potatoes too.

It is lovely. Highly recommended.

Chickeney Garlicky Honeyey Orangey Gingery Goodness

I quite enjoy cooking, which most of you should know. I've tried some rather interesting recipes, some of which worked better than others, and some of which could have used a bit of tweaking. The suggestion was made to start a collection of things I've made or done or whatnot, with appropriate thanks to whomever I owe a full belly.

Any thoughts, comments, or tales of wretchedness following an attempt at a recipe, please let me know. Also, please email and tell me stuff, which I will possibly try, possibly not. If I do, you can be sure I will let you know...

First one I owe to a hairy Welshman. I haven't the foggiest idea of its name, so it is hereafter known as the chickeney garlicky honeyey orangey gingery goodness. Directions are for a wok, but I made it in a pot. Be careful with the sweetness - I slightly overdid the honey, which made it a bit sweet for my taste; but it was pretty fantastic otherwise.

Chickeney Garlicky Honeyey Orangey Gingery Goodness: (makes enough for about 500g of chicken, or about 4 people)

500g chicken breasts
2-3 tbsp clear honey
2 large oranges
ginger (2 thumb-sized pieces)
1 or 2 red onions and spring onions
egg noodles (1 pack should do)
3 or 4 garlic cloves
a generous amount of soy sauce
parsley
a carrot
chilli flakes
sesame oil (optional, didn't use as I didn't have it)

Fry the diced chicken in olive oil for a few minutes. Add the juice and zest of one orange and 2 or 3 tablespoons of clear honey, grated ginger (a thumb sized piece) and salt and pepper to taste. Fry until the juices have evaporated and the meat is cooked.
Cook noodles and drain. In a wok, heat olive oil and add the carrot (finely sliced into ribbons), onion and spring onions (chopped). Fry for a few minutes on a low heat. Add crushed garlic (3 or 4 cloves, depending on taste), another thumb sized grated piece of ginger, and some optional dried chilli flakes. Fry for a further minute. Add soy sauce (3 or 4 tablespoons, according to taste), and juice and zest of the other orange, and optional sesame oil (a tablespoon or two). Fry for another minute. Stir the parsley (chopped) and the previously cooked noodles, and fry for a bit more until fully mixed through.

When made for me before, it was fantastically brilliant - I made it and let it get a bit dry, so be careful about that.

Very tasty. Enjoy, taste, have fun.