We ended off our weekend by driving through to Paternoster for the day. And what a perfect day it was, the sun was shining and the sea breeze was so refreshing.

And of course, as a fellow blogger, how could I not go and introduce myself to Kobus(Sardines on Toast) at his lovely farm stall, Oep vir koep!(Winkel op Paternoster) What a nice guy, he made us feel so welcome from the second we walked in.

And when I saw his menu, we had to sit down in the relaxing garden and have us some lunch!

I was being a “oink oink”, so I had the mussel soup with two helpings of addictive olive ciabatta( J played part in that too!)

This soup had such a fresh flavour, almost broth like with a dash of cream. Heaven.

And then(oink oink) I had to try his dune spinach and buttermilk ricotta open ravioli with a sage butter. Now I have never tried Dune Spinach, so I did not know what to expect, but man was it was delicious! Kobus gets the spinach from his friend’s garden! The pasta was freshly made and just melted in my mouth. The subtle flavours married beautifully. The buttermilk ricotta was so light, absorbing all the other flavours. And of course, a must, a few shavings of Pecorino.  What a delight!

Here’s a close- up!

J had the vegetable lasagne with a fresh wild rocket salad on the side, of course I tasted, and it was so yum, I need the recipe please Kobus!!

We washed all this delicious food down with some deliciously cold vino!

The lighting at this place is fabulous for taking photies! I had a ball!

Had to get myself a bag of Fleur de sel too 🙂

I am so glad we took a drive and spent the day there.  It really was fantastic to unwind in this fishing village and we definatley plan on visiting more often in the near future!

Thanks for your hospitality and inspirational food Kobus! Top class 😉

So when we got home on Sunday late afternoon, we couldn’t face eating a full on meal, and I felt inspired to bake a quick bread and soak it up with the olive oil and balsamic we got from Kloovenberg, so this is what I did…

A thyme and rocksalt “cake”

I just call it a cake, because it looks like one!

It’s just a quickbread with fresh lemon thyme and rocksalt

You will need:

500 g self raising flour

+- 500 ml beer

2 pinches of rocksalt

3 sprigs of thyme, chopped

A glug of olive oil

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees

Mix all the ingredients together until well combined then place into a greased( I used olive oil) +- 24 cm round baking dish.

Top with sprigs of thyme and sprinkle with rocksalt.

Bake for 1 hour.

Because it looked like a cake, I serve it like a cake, quite cheeky – ha ha!!  Served with a little bowl of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Warm fresh bread, with little bursts of saltiness and thyme dunked into olive oil and balsamic, what else do you need?

Lovies

C xx