Brie and pepper jelly toasts

I serve this as an appetizer, although I have also used this exact same topping for a pizza as well.

Ingredients:

• 1 ciabatta, cut into slices
• 1 wedge of brie
• pepper jelly

Top each slice of ciabatta with a slice of brie cheese, then add a teaspoon of pepper jelly on top. Bake in the oven at 200°C for 5-10 minutes, until the brie has melted slightly and turns lightly golden brown. Enjoy!

raisin, pistachio and honey cheesecake

I used this recipe from Simon Rimmer's book 'The Seasoned Vegetarian'. I first served it when I had my family over for dinner, and they loved it.

Ingredients:

For the biscuit base:

• 250g water biscuits, crushed (I used the food processor)
• 125g butter, melted (I ended up using almost twice that amount, or the mixture wouldn't stick...)
• 75g demerara suger (I used brown sugar)

For the filling:

• 1kg ricotta cheese
• 200 cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)
• 6 eggs
• 100g caster sugar
• 100g honey
• 200 shelled unsalted pistachios
• 200g golden raisins

Sauce:

• 100g honey
• 100g shelled unsalted pistachios
• thick Greek yoghurt, to serve

Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan) or 160°C (gas). Combine the biscuits, butter and sugar, then press the mixture into the base of a buttered 25cm spingform cake tin.
For the topping, beat together the ricotta and cream cheese, eggs, sugar and honey, then fold in the nuts and golden raisins. Spoon the mixture on to the biscuit base.
Bake the cake for 1 hour until lightly golden brown and firm.
Turn off the oven, open the door slightly and allow the cheesecake to cool completely in the oven. When cool, run a knife around the sides to loosen it, release the clip and remove cake from tin.
For the sauce, warm the honey with the nuts in a pan.
Cut the cake into wedges, pour over the warm sauce and serve with thick Greek yoghurt.

Sweet potato with a sauce of cayenne pepper, ginger and peanuts

A steaming bowl of exotic comfort food for chilly fall days. Serves 4 to 6 people.

Ingredients:

• 4 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 5cm ginger root, peeled and chopped
• 75g sweet potato, in cubes (75g is what the recipe says... I use one small sweet potato per person, because I love sweet potatoes)
• 450g white cabbage (I like to use cauliflower instead)
• 1 tbsp paprika powder
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 400g pomodorotomatoes (fresh or canned, I use canned), chopped
• 300ml pineapple juice
• 125g peanut butter
• salt and pepper

To garnish:

• 2 carrots, rasped
• 2 raw beetroots, rasped
• 2 bananas, sliced (optional... I'm not a big fan)
• juice of one lime
• some freshly chopped cilantro

Heat the sunflower oil in a large pan. Sautee the onion until soft, then add the garlic and the ginger and sautee for a few minutes. Add the sweet potatoe and the cabbage. Fry the vegetables until soft. Add the paprika and the cayenne pepper, then the tomatoes and the pineapple juice. Cover the pan and let the vegetables simmer. Spoon in the peanut butter. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

To garnish, mix the rasped carrots, beetroot (and optional banan) with the lime juice. Top the stew with this mixture and some chopped cilantro.

Serve with rice, or quinoa.