Gates - Food for your Brood: Cooking for the people you love

Huge thanks to:

Andrew for your encouragement, inspiration and love.

My wonderful army of enthusiastic supporters and top testers: Stormer, Lulu, Carol, Stefan, Georgia, Mum, Dad, Polly, Daisy and Emma, the Pattinsons, Ned and Oscar, Helen, Julia, Claudia, Penny, Kerry, Karen, Holly and Ruby.

The supermodels: Jack Storm, Tallulah, Rachel, Kate-Ruby, Amy, Jordan, Carol, Ed, Diani, Maggie, Shirley, Max, Teia, Kate, Kiera, Kai and Josh.

Quirky me, Sonja Moore, Laidback, Mariaan van Zyl, Le Creuset and Klobbabags for props.

My unflappable and hardworking helpers: Magda, Plackie, Tanya, Gloria and Wendy.

Linda de Villiers, Joy Clack and Helen Henn at Random House Struik, for making it happen.

And to the amazing and talented Anthea Kirkman, for your stunning photography and boundless enthusiasm.

Published in 2015 by Struik Lifestyle
(an imprint of Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd)
Company Reg. No. 1966/003153/07
Estuaries No. 4, Century Avenue
(Oxbow Crescent), Century City, 7441
P O Box 1144, Cape Town 8000, South Africa

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Copyright in published edition: Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd 2015
Copyright in text: Sam Gates 2015
Copyright in photographs: Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd 2015

ISBN 9781432305772

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.

Publisher: Linda de Villiers
Managing editor: Cecilia Barfield
Editor and indexer: Joy Clack
Designer: Helen Henn
Photographer: Anthea Kirkman
Food styling: Sam Gates and Anthea Kirkman
Proofreader: Gill Gordon

I love the different meanings of the word brood. Its such a perfect way to describe your favourite people: the family and friends who are always on your side, sharing love and laughter when the sun is out and hanging around in darker times. They play a fundamental and essential role in our lives, so its no surprise to me that the Afrikaans word brood means bread, the simplest, most basic meal of all. Like staple foods, broods are a crucial factor for survival and happiness, and the best meals are always those shared with the people you love.

Growing up, food burst vibrantly into life for me when we left the city and moved to the country. Before that, it had functioned as fuel in the form of joyless, overcooked school dinners or as a rather inconvenient interruption to the business of being a kid. But our new place had stacks of cool neighbours with children the same age, and overnight the whole family gained a busy social life that revolved around food. We roamed between houses in a sprawling posse of kids, grazing our way through impromptu picnics, communal teas and braais, and being fed by random parents whenever we stood still for long enough.

We were having a ball and so were the grown-ups. At night our parents joined their new friends in a frenzied round of entertaining that coincided with the latest food trends. World cuisine was in and thrilling dishes surged out of kitchens at breathtaking speed, bypassing dull dining rooms without a backwards glance. Pointless etiquette and tedious dinner parties were booted out of touch, along with fish knives, side plates and blancmange, and quickly replaced with amazing food that demanded to be eaten hot, fast and anywhere you could find space to stand up.

We snuck downstairs in our pyjamas to spy on raucous parties where hordes of happy people talked, laughed and downed steaming, colourful bowls of fragrant curries, spicy stir-fries and richly flavoured tagines. I quickly realised that sharing meals was infinitely better than eating alone and now that its my turn to cook for the crowds, a noisy group around the table is always my favourite accompaniment.

But finding divine culinary inspiration or the time to be creative when you are cooking for family and friends every day can be difficult, so when the kids asked me to write a book of recipes for sharing I knew it had to be bright and adventurous, but still practical. Thats why Food for your Brood is all about creating exciting everyday food as well as sparkling meals for big gatherings and events, be it indulgent sugar-rush holidays, quick pit stops on the road or a cosy night in at club duvet. Whatever the reason for your crowd to come together, youll find the perfect recipe here to complement the occasion and help fuel, nurture and treat those close to your heart. Just make sure theyre really hungry

Sam Gates

Breakfast is quintessential Food for your Brood that should take you to lunch and beyond. During the week, burnt toast or a quick bowl of cereal might suffice, but come the weekend its time to gather your people together for long, lazy breakfasts that smack of holidays, lieins and delicious anticipation of the downtime ahead.

This chapter uses traditional ingredients and some hardworking new ones to help you create exceptional morning feasts. Ive nothing against a classic fry-up, particularly if someone else is cooking, but have always found cooking is more fun off-road, so these dishes are a long way from the full English. Just remember to stick to foods that feel like morning, rather than those that veer towards lunch. Gruyre and Emmental cheeses are heavenly first thing, but Id leave their runny, pungent relatives Brie, Camembert and the like until later in the day. Likewise, ham and chorizo make a fine breakfast, but save chicken or lamb for lunch or later.

Vegetarian breakfasts cant rely on the salty fallback of bacon or sausages and have to work harder to be interesting, but even they still have no-go zones. Its fine to include spinach or leeks but you wont find many turnips or celeriac at dawn.

A clean breakfast plate is full of promise and optimism, and a crowded, noisy table sharing opinions, gossip and laughter is a blissfully blank canvas for you to fill with fabulous food. Whether its filling boots for a monster day ahead or feeding hangovers, a perfect breakfast gives you the opportunity to put things right and send your honeys out well prepared and ready to tackle whatever the day may bring.

Eggy bread is no-frills food and none the worse for it. White bread triangles dipped in beaten egg and fried make for a definitive camp breakfast, and nothing tastes better to hungry kids drunk on fresh air than soggy slices of eggy bread dripping with tomato sauce.

But these sunshine-yellow slices of freedom dont travel well and when you try to sell the same meal at home, minus the tents and scorched campfire pans, it becomes nothing more than plain old fried bread (and a bit too, well, eggy at that), which no one is very keen on eating.

Luckily, the plus side of being back from the bush is that youll be closer to a decent supermarket, and with the help of some Swiss cheese, decent tomatoes and a crusty baguette, you can quickly elevate this simple pleasure into a seriously substantial breakfast. Invest in the thinnest, saltiest ham you can find to serve alongside, and your table will soon fill up with punters. It might have needed an image revamp, but eggy bread is back.