Honey & Bee Feature

46 FOOD & HOME ENTERTAINING October 2013 www.foodandhome.co.za October 2013 47
SWEET THINGS
Flavoured honey
(recipe on page 48)
The
Think beyond tea
and toast when it
comes to adding
sweet and sticky
honey flavours to
your menu
Honeyed macadamia,
lemon, spinach and ricotta
spaghettini (recipe on page 48)
honeypotBy LEILA SAFFARIAN, Assisted by
LAURA NAUDÉ Cookery Assistant
NOMVUSELELO MNCUBE
Photographs by DYLAN SWART

SWEET THINGS
Flavoured honey
So incredibly easy to prepare and they
look fab stacked on a kitchen counter.
Make a few bottles of flavoured honey
to keep the kitchen pantry well stocked
and to give away as edible gifts
Makes 1 bottle EASY 10 mins
THE FLAVOUR COMBINATIONS
500g (1 bottle) Badger-friendly honey
OR peel of 1 lemon
OR 4 – 5 slices fresh ginger
OR 3 – 4 red chillies, split
OR 5 stalks fresh rosemary
OR 6 stalks fresh thyme
HOW TO DO IT
1 This is so easy, simply decant the
honey into a sterilised glass jar, choose
one herb or spice of your choice from
the suggestions listed here and add to
the honey.
3 Seal the bottle with a tight-fitting lid
and store for 2 weeks before using to
allow the flavours to infuse.
Honeyed macadamia,
lemon, spinach and
ricotta spaghettini
Be sure to make a big pot of this –
seconds, possibly even thirds, will be
on the cards. The lemon and spinach
make for a lighter pasta dish and the
crunchy, sweet and caramelised nuts
add great texture
Serves 4 – 6 EASY 40 mins
HONEYED MACADAMIA NUTS
250g macadamia nuts
60ml (¼ cup) runny honey
400g spaghettini
45ml (3 tbsp) olive or avocado oil
juice and zest of 1 lemon and 1 lime
1 red chilli, finely chopped
small handful of fresh dill, finely
chopped
5ml (1 tsp) fresh thyme leaves
Maldon Sea Salt and freshly ground
black pepper, to taste
150g ricotta cheese
2 handfuls fresh baby spinach
goat’s cheese, to serve (optional)
HOW TO DO IT
1 Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Honey and mustard
sticky beef sausages
Everybodyneeds a quick,
tasty and easy tray bake – give
these stickysausages a go!2 Place the nuts and honey on a baking
tray lined with baking paper and brushed
with oil. Place in the preheated oven until
caramelised and golden, 15 – 20 minutes.
3 Removethenutsfromthetrayandplace
onasiliconemattocool.Whencooled,
roughlychopthenutsandsetaside.
4 Cook the spaghettini according to
packet instructions, drain and set aside.
4 Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying
pan and add the pasta, tossing well. Add
the lemon and lime zest and juice, fresh
dill and thyme leaves, and season well.
5 Toss well, add the ricotta and spinach
to the pan and remove from heat. Add
the honey macadamia nuts.
6 Serve with sliced goat’s cheese for
extra creaminess if desired.
Honey and mustard
sticky beef sausages
Serves 4 EASY 40 mins
1 green, red and yellow pepper
30ml (2 tbsp) olive or avocado oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 red chilli, seeded and chopped
(optional)
15ml (1 tbsp) fresh rosemary, chopped
2 stalks fresh rosemary
2 x 410g tins butterbeans, rinsed and
drained
500g beef or pork sausages
60ml (¼ cup) rosemary-infused
honey (see Flavoured honey recipe
on page XX)
juice and zest of 1 lime
30ml (2 tbsp) grainy mustard
grilled flatbreads, to serve
fresh lime, to serve
HOW TO DO IT
1 Preheat the oven to 220°C.
2 Place the peppers on a baking tray
and roast in the oven until soft and
charred, 15 – 20 minutes. Remove from
the oven, cool and remove seeds. Slice
into chunks and set aside.
3 Place the oil, garlic, chilli (if using),
chopped and whole rosemary,
butterbeans, sausages, honey, lime
zest and juice and grainy mustard on
a large baking tray.
4 Season well and roast in a preheated
180°C oven until sticky, about 25 minutes.
5 Servethestickysausagetraybakewith
charredpeppers,flatbreadsandfreshlime.
Spiced honey pork belly
with crispy dill potatoes
Porkbellyisagreatcut–thecracklingis
incrediblycrispyandthespicyhoneyglaze
workswellwiththeporkanddillpotatoes
Serves 6 A LITTLE EFFORT 50 mins
700g pork belly
GLAZE
60ml (¼ cup) red chilli flavoured
honey (see Flavoured honey recipe
on page XX)
5ml (1 tsp) dried chilli flakes
juice of 1 lime
5ml (1 tsp) fresh thyme leaves
DILL SMASHED POTATOES
15 baby potatoes, parboiled, skin on
45ml (3 tbsp) olive oil
45ml (3 tbsp) fresh dill, chopped
grainy mustard, to serve
HOW TO DO IT
1 Preheat the oven to 200°C. Pat the
pork belly dry with paper towel and
score the skin.
2 Season well with Maldon Sea Salt
and freshly ground black pepper – salt
helps to create a crispy crackling.
Place on a baking tray and roast in the
preheated oven, 20 – 25 minutes.
3 For the glaze, combine the honey,
chilli flakes, lime juice, thyme leaves
and seasoning.
4 Removetheporkfromtheovenand
carefullydrainsomeoftheexcessfatfrom
thebakingtray.Pourthehoneyglazeover
theporkandreturntoa180°Covenuntil
thecracklingissuper-crispandthepork
cookedthrough,25–30minutes.
5 While the pork is cooking, smash the
potatoes, place on a baking tray, drizzle
with oil and season well. Bake in a 180
– 200°C oven until golden and crisp,
about 30 minutes. Scatter with dill just
before serving.
6 Serve the pork with crispy dill
potatoes and lots of grainy mustard.

SWEET THINGSSWEET THINGS
Braised honey beef short
rib, walnut and filo pies
These little pies are winners – the sweet,
sticky, spiced flavours of the braised
beef ribs work well with the flavour of
the walnuts and crisp pastry
Serves 4 A LITTLE EFFORT 2 hrs
30 mins
500g beef short ribs
Maldon Sea Salt and freshly
ground black pepper, to taste
60ml (¼ cup) soya sauce
2 star anise
5ml (1 tsp) dried chilli flakes
1 whole cinnamon stick
5ml (1 tsp) Chinese five spice powder
60ml (¼ cup) ginger-infused honey (see
Flavoured honey recipe on page XX)
250ml (1 cup) water
250ml (1 cup) beef stock
150g walnuts, finely chopped
8 sheets filo pastry
50g butter, melted
HOW TO DO IT
1 Preheattheovento180°C.Placethebeefshort
ribs,MaldonSeaSaltandfreshlyground
blackpepper,soyasauce,staranise,
chilliflakes,cinnamonstick,Chinese
fivespicepowder,gingerhoney
andwaterinalargebakingtray.
2 Cover with foil and braise
slowly for 2 hours until the
ribs are tender and falling
off the bone.
3 Shred the meat using
two forks and set aside.
Once the cooking liquid
has cooled, remove
the fat layer from the
surface and set aside.
4 Add the chopped
walnuts to the beef,
together with 45ml (3
tbsp) of cooking liquid, mix
well and adjust seasoning.
5 Divide the meat mixture and
the beef stock between 4 small
pie dishes.
6 Tear 2 sheets of filo pastry and
place in a folded fashion on top of the
pie dish (2 pastry sheets per pie).
7 Brush the pastry with butter and place in
the preheated oven until the pastry is golden
and crisp, 15 – 20 minutes.
Lo
ve
Spiced honey pork belly with crispy
dill potatoes (recipe on page 48)

yellow alertyellow alert
yellow alert
What’s the
Honey prices are up, bee numbers appear
down. There’s talk of a ‘beemageddon’ and
we’re worried By JENNIFER COHEN Photographs by XXXXXXXXXXX
B
ees around
the world are
overworked and
stressed, and
farmers, scientists
and foodies can’t
stop talking
about them. They’re dying in
unimaginable numbers in a
dozen countries while books,
documentaries and beekeepers
marching on Britain’s
Parliament refer to colony
collapse disorder (CCD).
SincefarmersinFrancefirstrangthe
alarmnineyearsago,the‘beemageddon’
haswipedoutsome30percentofthe
managedbeesintheUSandupto80per
centinSpain.Willthephenomenonimperil
ourfoodsupplyanddriveupprices,oris
itjusthysteria?Science and speculation
offer wildly variant explanations for
the decimation of bee populations.
Adherents to the urban legends point
to cellphone towers, electrical lines,
foreign plots and bee ‘rapture’.
Researchers are exploring the more
plausible routes, starting with the
combination of the ‘usual’ bee ailments,
including mites and other parasites,
coupled with the cocktail of pesticides,
buzz?
fungicides and insecticides that bees are
exposed to in the flowers they visit. These
include the new ‘systemic’ pesticide
distribution method that coats a seed
rather than spraying the plant.
TheEuropeanUnionrecentlyenacted
atwo-yearmoratoriumonthreesuch
pesticidescontainingneonicotinoidson
floweringcrops–acontroversialdecision.
Mike Allsopp, head of honeybee
research at the Agricultural Research
Forum in Stellenbosch, likens the
problem to a “bee HIV”.
“Bees are under stress,” he explains.
“Pests and diseases spread more readily
around the globe; pollution, pesticides,
fungicides, insecticides, heavy metals
and electro-magnetic radiation make
life more difficult for the bees; and their
nutrition is less than optimal. These
factors add up to an immunodeficiency.”
He says there are more bees on the
planet than ever before, but our demand
on them to pollinate our food crops has
increased by 350 per cent over the past
50 years. They just can’t keep up.
So far there have been no reported
incidents of CCD in South Africa, but
honey lovers and beekeepers face other
problems too. Allsopp says South African
beekeepers – some 2 500 – produced 4
500 tons of honey before 1980. Now it’s
closer to 2 500 tons. There is less forage
for the bees and more and more honey
is being imported, mostly from China,
where fears of antibiotics and additives
worry consumers.
So where to from here?
Allsopp says government should take the
lead in protecting the pollinators and their
environment as best as possible. “We
need a good pesticide authority, which
tests regularly and enforces regulations.
“Bees are more important to us today,”
he adds, “because prior to World War
II, the food we referred to as ‘staple’ did
not come from insect-pollinated crops.
Foods like wheat, barley, maize, rice and
potatoes used to make up 90 per cent
of the world’s diet.” Now, he says, fruit,
nuts, berries and even fodder crops that
support the production of milk, cheese
and meat depend on flowering, bee-
pollinated plants. “Today some 35 – 40
per cent of the world’s diet is reliant on
bees and it’s increasing all the time.”
Beekeeping is one of the few human
endeavours that, for the most part,
leaves the environment better off. As
bees collect nectar to make honey, the
pollen clings to their fuzzy legs and
bodies, which is then deposited into
the next flower they visit, fertilising their
food source. This symbiosis preserves
biodiversity and pollinates nearly 100
food crops – about a third of the items in
our shopping trolley: from cardamom and
melons to onions and prickly pears.
We can all help, by ensuring that bee-
friendly gardens and urban landscapes
include the flowers they love, like clovers,
bee balm, borage, zinnias, lavender and
sunflowers. We can also help by buying
honey from local farmers and producers.
And never kill a honeybee. Should they
swarm, which they rarely do, call an
expert to remove them. Remember that
we need them more than they need us.
Now, fruit, nuts, berries and even fodder crops that support the production of
milk, cheese and meat depend on flowering, bee-pollinated plants.
Man and beeHumanbeingshaveanancientandongoingloveaffairwithbees
andhoney.EarlySouthAfricanKhoisanartistsdepictedhivesand
swarms.ThePhoenicianscalledBritaintheIsleofHoney;thebee
wasthesymbolofthecourtofNapoleon,andtheHoneycomb
Conjectureproposedin36BCthatthehexagonalstructuretothe
hiveswasthemostcompact,allowingforaneconomyoflabourand
wax.(In1999amathematicianfinallyprovedthatitis.)
Honeyandbeeshavealsoprovidedphilosophical,sociologicaland
literaryinspiration,showingupintextsfromasearlyas2100BC.
ThesweetmusevisitedwritersfromPlutarchtoPlinytheElder,
HippocratestoHomer,andShakespearetothewritersoftheBible.
WilliamButlerYeatsyearnedto“livealoneinthebee-loudglade”.
Edmund Hillary planned his conquest of Mount Everest while
tending to his beehives in his native Auckland. It is impossible
to imagine how Winnie-the-Pooh could have achieved global
adoration in the absence of his obsessive love of honey.
(Paddington, another once-famous bear, is now almost forgotten,
perhaps because he preferred marmalade, which patently lacks
the cachet of honey.)
Our language is full of bee metaphors: you’re the bee’s knees, a
hive of activity, what’s the buzz? Spies are always falling for the
honey trap, sewing fundis attend quilting bees and, of course,
when we marry we go on honeymoon.
Whether harvested as a natural sweetener, aphrodisiac, antibiotic,
tipple or embalming material, every society has found a use for
honey and beeswax. Today the honeybees’ products are used in
lipstick, furniture polish and candles and for the faces and hands of
Madame Tussauds’ models. Our guilty pleasures include lavender
and honey ice cream, honey-drizzled figs and beetroot with honey-
roasted walnuts.

54 FOOD & HOME ENTERTAINING October 2013
yellow alert
54 FOOD & HOME ENTERTAINING October 2013
yellow alert
Keeping bees, like so many agricultural pursuits, is not
for the faint-hearted. Peter and Elizabeth Lawson, who
produce rare, organic varietal honeys from indigenous
Cape plants under the label Karoo Gold, are ‘migratory’
beekeepers, transporting their hives to the honey flows. By
doing this they can ensure a mono-floral honey (similar to
a single varietal wine) and that wildflowers – including the
rare and endangered – are pollinated.
Elizabeth says beekeepers need to have a reasonable
degree of knowledge about the whole system of pollen
and nectar gathering, including “the relationship of food
availability to size of colony, issues of placement (a hive
should face north, be in full sunshine during winter and
full shade during summer), protection from ants and
wasps, and available water sources, not to mention the
bureaucracy of municipal laws”.
A hive should be inspected at least once a month, she
adds, and during times of either extreme cold weather or
severe lack of food, the bees need to be fed.
Making honey commercially is often supplemented by
offering pollinating services, particularly to deciduous fruit
and nut farms. Peter, a deciduous fruit farmer for almost
30 years, was a founding member of the South African
Pollination Services.
“Successful pollination is a complex operation,” he says.
“Moving the bees must be done at night to allow time for
the bees to orient themselves to a new location.” He says
deciduous fruit trees require varying numbers of hives
within an orchard and very specific placement.
Nowhere else on earth do pollination services assume the
scale they do in the California almond orchards. Beekeepers
from around the US truck in roughly 1,5-million colonies
(nearly 80 per cent of the country’s bee population) to cross-
fertilise the nut trees, covering 800 000 acres.
Keepingbees
Successful pollination is a complex
operation, moving the bees must be done
at night to allow time for the bees to
orient themselves to a new location.

Honey & Bee Feature

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