Crostini with Goat’s Cheese and Fresh Figs

6 ripe figs
2 x 115g (4oz) rolls goat’s cheese
1 baguette
olive oil for drizzling
2-3 tablespoons runny honey
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Slice each fig thinly. The aim is to have 32 slices in all, so you need 5 or 6 slices from each fig. Cut each roll of goat’s cheese into 8 slices. Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F/Gas 4). Cut the bread into 16 slices, each about 5mm (1/4in) thick. Place on a baking sheet and drizzle with the olive oil. Bake in the oven for 5-7 minutes, until lightly toasted on top.

Spread the crostini thinly with honey. Top each one with a slice of fig, then goat’s cheese.  Return the crostini to the oven for 3-5 minutes until the cheese has started to melt. Serve hot with extra honey drizzled over.
Serves 4-6

Serve with a glass or two of Chenin Blanc Chardonnay

Pork Fillet with Mustard Yogurt Sauce

Easy to prepare, tender and with no waste, pork fillet is a gift for the cook keen on quick cuisine. Try it with this simple sauce. It makes an ideal midweek meal for the family, but is dressy enough for guests. The pork tastes good with ribbon noodles.

25g (1oz/2 tablespoons) butter
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 small pork fillets (tenderloins), trimmed and sliced about 2cm (3/4 inch) thick
2 teaspoons cornflour (cornstarch)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon tomato purée (paste)
225ml (8fl oz/1 cup) natural (plain) yogurt
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Melt the butter in the oil in a large frying pan. Add the mustard seeds, put a lid on the pan and cook until the mustard seeds stop popping.

Add the pork fillet rounds and cook them for 3-4 minutes on each side. Meanwhile, stir the cornflour and mustard together in a small bowl. When the mixture is smooth, stir in the tomato purée and yogurt.

Add the yogurt mixture to the pan and cook over low heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens and coats the meat. Check that the pork is fully cooked, season with salt and pepper, and serve.

Serve with Kumala Chardonnay Semillon.

Top tip

Adding a little cornflour (cornstarch) to the yogurt helps to stabilize the mixture and prevent it from separating when heated. Don’t let the sauce boil.

Choc Orange pots

This is so easy! Make it several hours before you plan to eat it. It looks very impressive, especially if you serve it as suggested in liqueur glasses. Depending on the size of your glasses, the mixture might fill six or eight or even more, which is a plus as you can produce second helpings with a flourish when your guests get to the scraping stage and start looking sulky.

200g (7oz) good quality dark organic chocolate, broken into squares
300ml (½ pint/1¼ cups) whipping cream, plus extra for topping
2 tablespoons van der Hum or other orange liqueur
1 egg

Melt the chocolate with the cream in a heavy pan over low heat. Whisk in the liqueur. Leave to cool slightly, then whisk in the egg. Pour into liqueur glasses and place in the fridge for 2-3 hours or overnight until set. Just before serving, top each pot with a thin layer of cream.
Serves 4-6

Top tip
Serve this with home-made Melting Moments (recipe follows) or simply buy langues de chat or sponge fingers.

Melting Moments

Put 55g (2oz/½ cup) icing (confectioners’) sugar and 55g (2oz/ ½ cup) custard powder or cornflour (cornstarch) in the bowl of a food processor.

Add 175g (6oz/1½ cups) plain (all-purpose) flour. a pinch of salt and 175g (6oz/3/4 cup) butter, cut in cubes.

Process until the mixture forms a ball of dough. Pinch off small balls of dough, each the size of a large marble, and place on 2-3 greased baking sheets.

Flatten with a fork, pressing down so that the tines make a pattern on each biscuit (cookie). Bake in a preheated oven at 160 C (325 F/Gas 3) for 20 minutes.

Cool on the baking sheet. The biscuits will be pale and soft when they come out of the oven but will harden as they cool.

Perfect with Kumala’s Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz