Oh what a time it was!

The girls gathered. A really close friend I hadn’t seen for about 8 years, my sister divine, a neighbour sistah (and horse) and moi.

Let me tell you about the horses first. They have ‘Play Dates’. My Mmino curly horse, the one in my Facebook photo, was housed next door for two months while I finished building fences and he lived with the herd, just the way horses like it. Then he came home to me and to life with Shanti an old retired gelding. Fortunately  he gets to see his buddy Magick who comes to ‘play date’ once a week or so. While the horses romp and graze, this is the time to gather on the stoep, overlooking the forest and talk plants, horses, dogs, cats, chickens, gardening, permaculture, moon planting, organics, creativity, art, meditation, chakras, healing, horse therapy and a zillion other things to do with the planet we love and how we live our lives on it. And then we eat:)

So brunch was the time to get creative with banting-legal ingredients. The final result was this…

Girls' Gourmet Brunch

Green Scrambled Eggs with Fillet Medallions and Green Peppercorn Cream Sauce

Serves 4

Green Scramble Ingredients

coconut oil/ghee

4 big beetroot leaves (the green leaves were straight from the garden)

8 big Swiss Chard leaves with pink stems (very colourful)

4 garlic cloves

4 spring onions (green onions/scallions)

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or to taste (I used three good shakes)

1 heaped teaspoon turmeric

12 eggs (3 each – we were getting hungry and it was our first meal of the day:)

1/4 cup cream

1 cup grated mozzarella cheese

Finely chop the garlic, spring onions and the stems of the chard and saute in the oil until the onions and stems are tender. Add the finely chopped green leaves and stir for about 3 minutes or until they are bright green and just cooked. Set aside.

Green Peppercorn Cream Sauce

Half a small bottle of green peppercorns (It’s what I had)

Cream – probably about 2 cups

Two blobs of butter – about 3 tablespoons

1/2 tsp arrowroot (optional)

Heat the cream, butter and peppercorns in a small saucepan until boiling and then turn down to a simmer and let the cream reduce and thicken while you put the griddle pan on for the steak medallions.

If it does not thicken in time (and time was of the essence) add a little paste of arrowroot and water little by little until it is a good consistency. (Dip a wooden spoon into the sauce and run your finger across the back of it. If the line stays and the sauce doesn’t drip, the sauce is ready.)

Fillet Medallions (I had about 400 to 450g)

Cut fillet steaks into medallions about 1 cm thick.

Put the medallions into a bowl with some olive oil and make sure they are nicely covered with the oil.

Do not oil the pan. Heat it to smoking.

Grill to your liking. (It doesn’t take long for medallions to cook.) Cook them in batches and set aside. Too many at once and the meat will steam and you don’t want that. When they are nicely browned, set aside, ready to heat up in the pan at the last minute when the scrambled eggs are almost done.

Egg mix

In a bowl mix the eggs and all the other ingredients except the cheese.

Return the pan with the leaves to the stove and heat.

Add the eggs, cream and spice mixture and stir continuously until the eggs start to thicken.

(Here is where you return the griddle to the flame and heat up the fillet medallions.)

Add the mozzarella cheese to the pan and stir into the eggs. Continue stirring until the eggs are creamy and the cheese is melted into the mix. Do not overcook the eggs.

Now you bring it all together. Plate your green eggs and fillet medallions and serve the sauce on the side. Add ground sea salt and black pepper as desired. Oh yes! It was a taste sensation!

With this we had filter coffee with cream. (Not a piece of toast in sight and no-one missed it even for a nano-second. A couple of us did lick our plates though. Hey! This is down on the farm!)

Grooving with the Revolution…