Holiday entertaining recipes
It’s starting to feel a lot like the holiday season and there’s no better time than now to show off you’re cooking and hosting skills. These delicious recipes are packed with flavour and will have everyone asking for more.
Perfect for sharing and adding that extra bit of yumminess, these recipes include the strong taste of Hinds Spices, making every meal an extra special moment for you and your loved ones.
Spiced corn on the cob
Serves 8
You’ll need: Canola oil, to fry; 2 Tbsp butter or margarine; 8 whole cobs of corn; 1 cup boiling water; 1 tsp Hinds Chip Seasoning.
To serve with – 2 spring onions, sliced; 1 tsp fresh chilli, chopped (optional); handful crumbled feta cheese.
How to:
In a large frying pan or pot, heat the oil and butter and then fry the sweet corn for 5 minutes until golden brown.
Add the boiling water and simmer for 10 – 15 minutes until the corn is cooked. Sprinkle with Hinds Chip Seasoning.
Serve the corn with sliced spring onion, crumbled feta and chopped chilli.
Chef’s tip – Use sweetcorn or mielies.
Hinds ginger and cinnamon-spiced koeksisters with coconut
Serves 6
You’ll need: For the koeksister dough – 2 cups cake flour; ½ tsp salt; 2 Tbsp baking powder; 2 Tbsp cold butter or margarine; ⅔ cups milk; 2 large eggs, beaten; oil, to deep fry; 1 cup desiccated coconut, toasted.
For the syrup – 2 cups sugar; 1 cup water; 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice; ½ tsp Buffalo Cream of Tartar; ½ tsp Hinds Spices Cinnamon; 2 tsp Hinds Pure Ground Ginger.
How to:
For the koeksister dough:
Combine the flour, salt and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. Using your hands, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until well combined.
In a jug, whisk the milk and eggs together. Combine the flour mixture with the milk and eggs using a wooden spoon.
Knead the dough on a clean surface for about 10 minutes. Use a little extra flour on the surface if the dough starts to stick.
Place the dough in a bowl and wrap it with plastic wrap. Put the dough in the fridge for 2 hours.
For the syrup:
In a large pot combine the sugar, water, lemon juice, Buffalo Cream of Tartar, Hinds Cinnamon and Hinds Ground Ginger.
Heat and stir continuously until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and place into the fridge to cool down.
The syrup must be used as cold as possible for the best result.
Final steps:
Once the koeksister dough has rested, sprinkle some flour onto a clean surface and roll the dough out into a rectangular shape about half a centimetre thick.
Slice the rectangle into 12 strips, each 1cm in width. Take two strips and gently fold one over the other. After you have folded the two strips together, cut them in half to make two koeksisters.
Squeeze the ends together so they don’t fall apart when you fry them. Repeat the process until you have used all the dough.
Heat 2 L of oil in a large pot or deep fryer. Fry the koeksisters in batches for 5 minutes at a high temperature until they are golden brown.
Remove the koeksisters from the oil and place them straight into the cold syrup for about 5 minutes then roll them in the coconut to serve.
Store the koeksisters in syrup overnight before you roll them in coconut- they will soak up more syrup and be sweeter.
Chef’s tip – Keep the syrup cold. The hot koeksisters must go into the cold syrup. You can use half the syrup in a bowl and keep the other half in the fridge, when one half gets warm swap it out with the cold syrup from the fridge.
Salt and vinegar onion rings
Serves 8
You’ll need: For the rings – 2 L oil, to deep fry; 3 medium onions, peeled, cut & separated into 1 cm rings.
For the batter – 1 x 200g box Hinds Southern Coating Batter Mix; 4 tsp Hinds Salt and Vinegar Spice; mayonnaise or tomato sauce, to serve.
How to:
Preheat the oil in a large pot to deep-fry the onions.
To make the batter, follow the instructions on the Hinds Southern Coating Batter Mix packaging for Battered Onion Rings.
Place the onion rings directly into the hot oil. Deep-fry the onion rings in batches on high heat for 2 – 3 minutes until golden brown and crispy. Remove the cooked onion rings from the oil, place them on a paper towel and sprinkle with Hinds Salt and Vinegar Spice. Serve hot with mayonnaise or tomato sauce.
Chef’s tip – Also, give Hinds Chip Seasoning a try. It’s super tasty!
Spicy rice stuffed peppers
Serves 8
You’ll need: Canola oil, to fry; 2 Tbsp butter or margarine; 2 onions, chopped; 1 punnet/ 250g mushrooms, sliced; 1 Tbsp Hinds Spice for Rice; 1 tsp chilli flakes (optional); 2 tsp Hinds Mixed; Herbs; 2 large tomatoes, chopped.
For the pepper and rice – 8 medium bell peppers; 2 spring onions, sliced; 300g brown rice, cooked (about 500g cooked rice).
How to:
For the spicy rice:
Heat the oil and butter in a large pot. Fry the onions, mushrooms, Hinds Spice for Rice, chilli flakes and Hinds Mixed Herbs for 2 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and brown rice. Cook for 5 – 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add a splash of water if the rice sticks to the bottom of the pot. Taste the rice, and add salt as you need to.
For the peppers:
Cut the tops off the peppers and gently remove the seeds. If the peppers are falling over, carefully slice the bottom tips off to make them stand level, but take care not to make a hole in them, otherwise, the rice (once stuffed) will fall out.
Place the peppers in a pot of boiling water and simmer for 5 minutes until tender, then remove.
Drain off the excess water and pat dry on a clean dishcloth or paper towel.
Using a tablespoon, fill the peppers with rice, sprinkle on the sliced spring onion and serve.
Chef’s tip – Don’t over-cook the peppers. They need to be firm enough to be stuffed with the rice.
Cheesy garlic bread pinwheels
Serves 8
You’ll need: 50g (2 handfuls) fresh parsley, chopped; 2 tsp Hinds Mixed Herbs; 2 tsp salt, to season; 2 tsp Crushed Garlic; 200g butter or margarine, softened; 1kg ready-made bread dough, proved and ready to use; 200g mozzarella, grated.
How to:
Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease a baking dish with some melted butter.
Combine chopped parsley, Hinds Mixed Herbs, salt, garlic and softened butter.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the bread dough into a rectangle then spread the garlic butter over the bread dough. Starting on a longer side of the rectangle, roll the bread dough into a log.
Using a knife, cut the log into 8 equal size pieces the arrange the pieces spiral side up into your baking dish then add the mozzarella on top.
Bake for 20-30 minutes until the bread dough is golden brown & completely cooked.
Chef’s tip – You can find ready-made bread dough at all major retailers or bakeries. Try this recipe with puff pastry for a flaky garlic bread alternative.
Triple-cooked super-fries
Serves 8
You’ll need: 1,8 – 2 kg/ 8 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 – 2cm thick chips; salt, to season; 2 L/ 8 cups oil, to deep fry the chips; 2 tsp Hinds Chip Seasoning; mayonnaise and tomato sauce, to serve.
How to:
Bring about 3 – 4 L water to a boil in a large pot, adding salt. Then add the cut potatoes to the water and boil for 10 – 15 minutes and remove from the water. The potato chips should be firm, not soft.
Heat the oil in a pot or deep fryer. On medium heat, fry the potato chips for 10 minutes, until they are a light white/ gold colour, not too dark. Remove the chips from the oil to cool, but leave the oil in the pot.
Bring the oil back to high heat, and fry the potato chips for a second time for 5 minutes until golden brown and crispy. Remove from the oil, place the chips in a bowl lined with a paper towel to absorb any excess oil.
Sprinkle with Hinds Chips Seasoning while the chips are still hot and serve with mayonnaise and tomato sauce.
Chef’s tip – By cooking the chips three times, the outside of the potato chip is super crispy while the inside is fluffy and soft.