School holidays, wrapping up work, packing for the beach, going on a trip  … all anyone is thinking about right now is Shopping … and delectable, decadent, spoil-yourself FOOD for those big family-gathering days. So this Post is about Food.

Gravel Road Adventures does sometimes take a break from planning trips to the gramadoelas, and Hirsh has earned himself quite a reputation for his skills in the kitchen. As he likes to tell everybody, I wouldn’t know how to find it. I like it that way.

But just to whet your appetite for the days to come, this is how we dine (very untraditionally) during the hazy, crazy, lazy days of Summer (isn’t that the line of a song?). This particular meal was inspired by a trip we’d recently completed around Spain and Portugal, so think plump juicy tomatoes, ceviche, pancetta, anchovies, Spanish cava.

 

To start with, green Spanish Manzanilla & black Kalamata olives,
and the early preparations for red peppers stuffed with juicy tomatoes.

 

Left The “After” pic of the stuffed red peppers, finished off with balsamic, fresh basil and anchovies.
Right  Kingklip ceviche with red onion, lemon zest, cilantro, olive oil and lemon juice.

 

  

Left  Tower of roasted brinjal slices on rocket and couscous, topped with marinated sun-dried tomatoes.
Right  Of course there had to be Spanish cava, all the way from Barcelona.

 

Fresh rosemary skewers of kingklip, pancetta and lemon zest (before they went on the fire).

 

Dessert … ruby grapefruit & naartjie, melktert, chocolate cups.

 

At some stage of the afternoon El Toro, who was hanging round the neck of a Spanish tempranillo wine, found himself suspended from the chandelier. It was a good party.

Happy Holidays!

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