The following dish was voted by the public as the winning recipe for week 7 of the Freshly Blogged competition.
Roasted butternut and rice pie
By Barry Gerber (www.capecook.co.za)
Inspiration for Barry's dish
Every week when I receive the ingredients for the new week I ask myself the same question: Do I go over the top, try to impress, or do I stay true to my blog and myself?
My blog has always been about food that gets cooked in a normal household kitchen. And, okay, if you go through every blog post I have ever written you might find a recipe here or there that breaks that rule, but that also happens in the average home. Sometimes we cook a little more extravagantly for a special occasion, but then it's back to feeding those hungry mouths.
So what to cook with rice, butternut, thyme, leeks and canned tomatoes? A couple of ideas went through my head, but the one image that kept reappearing was that of roasted butternut pie. By using the rice as a base for the pie, it can also be enjoyed by people who are gluten- or wheat-intolerant.
Ingredients used
For the rice pie base:
1 cup Spekko Parboiled Long Grain Rice
2 cups water
5ml salt
1 egg
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, roasted
For the roasted butternut pie:
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 bunch of leeks chopped
1 butternut, peeled and cubed
1 can PnP chopped tomatoes
1 handful thyme
1 rice pie base (from above)
3 eggs
100ml milk
1 cup grated Gruyere cheese
Method
For the rice pie base:
Add rice, water and salt in a pot and bring to the boil. Cook over a low heat until all the water has been absorbed. Let the rice cool down slightly, add egg and sesame seeds and mix through.
Add the rice mixture to a greased pie dish. Push the rice down flat with the back of a spoon along the bottom and sides of the dish.
Bake for 15 minutes in a 180 degree Celsius preheated oven
To make the roasted butternut pie:
In an ovenproof dish, heat olive oil and fry leeks until tender. Add butternut, tomato and thyme and mix through
Place dish in a 180 degree preheated oven and roast until butternut is almost done, but still firm.
Dish butternut into the rice pie dish
Beat eggs and milk together. Pour milk/egg mixture over butternut filling. Add half of cheese evenly over the top of the filling. Bake the pie until egg mixture has set, about 30 to 35 minutes, in a 180 degree preheated oven.
Remove from oven and sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top.
Bon appetit!
About Barry Gerber (http://www.capecook.co.za/)
I'm 45 years old and from Bellville, Cape Town. I grew up in Malmesbury, and still love the Swartland and West Coast very much. The people are like my cooking: honest, without pretence.
I didn't grow up watching my mother cook. I played outside like most boys. But when I left home at 18 I started cooking for myself and friends - sometimes with success; sometimes with disastrous results! My love for cooking stems from my love for making people happy. My cooking style is rustic, with influences from boerekos and the country-style cooking of France and Italy, with occasional attempts of
About the competition
Competition organisers are Pick n Pay and Fresh Living, SA's top-selling food magazine, and sponsors are Knorr and Spekko.
The competition runs from July 8 to September 26, and will see 40 food bloggers from across South Africa compete in a series of weekly food challenges for the coveted Top Blogger title.
Each Friday, participating bloggers will receive a food challenge with a list of specified ingredients. Bloggers will receive a smart shopper loyalty card, pre-loaded with points, to purchase their listed items at Pick n Pay for the week.
Contestants will have five days to experiment with the ingredients to create a recipe, make the dish, photograph it, and write about their inspiration. This will be uploaded to their individual profiles for judging on www.freshlyblogged.co.za
Fresh Living editor Justine Drake, food editor Anke Roux and Pick n Pay's Food developer Yvonne Short will determine which bloggers make it through to the next challenge each week, until the final three remain.
Public voting will determine which recipe is the favourite each week with fabulous prizes up for grabs. The final three contestants will compete in a live cook off at the Pick n Pay Taste of Joburg on 26 September 2013, to determine who will be crowned the Top Blogger.
The overall competition winner will receive a three part recipe series in Fresh Living magazine, two SAA return tickets to a European destination of choice, an iPad and more.