Chef Micky Munn loves Christmas Day because it brings together two of her favourite things: food and family.
As a self-taught chef who spreads smiles through her delicious Kitchen Confident Food, Micky creates and serves countless Christmas lunches over the festive period. And though she’s also looking forward to sitting back with loved ones and relaxing over the holidays, she savours every moment spent on a festive spread.
“Cooking has been my lifelong passion and nothing brings me more joy than creating dishes that bring people together. I truly believe that you eat with your eyes first, and our slogan ‘we paint with food’ captures this perfectly. I strive to make every dish as visually delightful as it is delicious,” she says, adding that as a chef, she loves experimenting with fresh, vibrant ingredients and crafting meals that both comfort and inspire.
“Christmas is a particularly special time – a season when the kitchen becomes a place of warmth, connection and indulgence. I live for every moment spent preparing a festive spread, knowing that each dish helps create cherished memories with those closest to me.”
In the spirit of Christmas, Micky shares some of her favourite Summer-in-Durban inspired Christmas recipes.
Slow roasted leg of lamb
The secret in this dish is long and slow. And don’t slice the lamb, pull it!
You’ll need: 3kg leg of lamb with bone in; 3 sprigs rosemary, roughly chopped; 10 sprigs thyme, roughly chopped; ½ cup of fresh lemon juice; 4 lemons, halved; 2 large onions, quartered; 3 tbsp olive oil; salt and pepper; 8 cloves of garlic, crushed; 2 cups (500ml) beef stock
What to do: Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place onions and lemon halves in your roasting dish. Pour beef stock into dish. Place lamb on top of lemons and onions. Rub olive oil all over the lamb, followed by lemon juice. Sprinkle crushed garlic, rosemary, thyme. Generously spice with salt and pepper (I love mixing white pepper and grounded black pepper). Cover with lid, or 2 layers of foil (I do both, just in case the lid is a bit loose). Bake for 3.5 hours. Open the lid and tinfoil, turn lamb around, and bake for another 2.5 hours, until the lamb can pull apart with two forks. Remove lamb from oven and place in a serving dish, covering it with tin foil for about 30 minutes. Use the delicious sauces to make a gravy.
Roasted pears with blue cheese, walnuts and honey
You’ll need: 4 Forelle pears; 2 tsp brown sugar
For the filling: 4 tbsp blue cheese, crumbled; 2 tbsp honey; 8 walnuts, coarsely chopped
What to do: Preheat oven to 180°C. Halve the pears lengthways leaving the stems intact (only purely for aesthetic reasons; remove if you prefer). Using a melon baller or a sharp knife, hollow out the core in each half. Place them cut-side up in a baking dish. Sprinkle brown sugar over the pear halves and cover with foil. Bake for 30 minutes or until a knife inserted into the thickest part of the pear yields without any resistance. If they’re still hard, bake for a few more minutes until they soften.
Add the filling ingredients to a small bowl and mix. Fill each hollowed-out part of the pear generously with the filling. Bake uncovered for a further 10 to 12 minutes until the cheese melts and the walnuts become golden. Serve warm, on a bed of rocket.
Roasted pork belly and crackling, served with a sticky, spiced citrus sauce
For best results, the pork belly should be left uncovered in the fridge overnight before cooking, to dry out the skin. Before doing this, use a sharp knife to score the skin (or ask your butcher to do this). Be careful not to cut through to the fat or meat layers.
You’ll need: For the pork belly: 1.2kg pork belly (boneless, with the skin thinly scored); 8 whole star anise; 2 to 3 brown onions, peeled and sliced; 3 tbsp olive oil; 1 tsp Chinese five spice; 1-2 cups ground rock salt (it will be discarded after cooking); 2 cups water
For the citrus sauce: 2 strips Naartjie peel; ½ cup freshly squeezed Naartjie juice; ½ cup brown sugar; 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar; 1 1/3 cup chicken stock; ¼ tablespoon Chinese five spice, ground; 2 cinnamon sticks whole; 6 star whole anise
What to do: For the pork belly: Pre-heat your oven to 230°C. Prepare a deep roasting pan with a fitted wire rack that sits above the bottom of the pan. In the roasting pan, place the chopped onion, star anise and water in the bottom of the tray. Use a paper towel to dry the pork skin. Rub the olive oil and Chinese five spice all over the meat (but not the skin). Place the pork belly skin side up in the tray on the wire rack, sitting over the water bath. The bottom of the pork belly should not touch the water. Mould some foil around the sides of the pork, about an inch higher than the skin. Cover the skin with rock salt so you can’t see any skin (the foil should hold the salt in place). Cook the pork for 30 minutes at 230°C, before turning the oven down to 150°C and continue to cook for a further two hours. Keep an eye on the water level in the pan, as it will reduce over time. If the level gets too low, carefully add a little more water. Remove the pork from the oven and remove the salt from the skin. Cover the pork with foil and rest at room temperature for up to 2 hours. You can start the second cook immediately, if you are short on time. Reserve the star anise for the pork belly sauce.
For the second cook, place the pork belly onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and cook for one hour at 150°C. After one hour, turn the grill up to 230°C and adjust the height of the shelf so that the top of the pork belly is at least 25cm from the top element, to prevent the skin from burning. The skin will start to bubble, puff and become golden under the grill. Keep a close watch, as this will happen quickly. Remove from heat once done in time for serving.
For the sauce, place all of the sauce ingredients into a small saucepan and bring to a low boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer the sauce, stirring occasionally, for around 10 minutes, or until the sauce thickens slightly and becomes sticky. Slice the pork into pieces and serve hot, with the sticky sauce and your choice of sides.
Tropical mango salad
You’ll need: For the salad: 3 medium mangoes; 200g cherry tomatoes; 2 cups red cabbage, shredded; ½ cup coconut flakes, roasted; ½ cup mint (I like to add fresh coriander too); ½ cup peanuts (cashews and pinenuts are also great in this salad but leave out if any nut allergies); zest of one lime
For the dressing: 1 lime, juiced; 11/3 tbsp. fish sauce (vegan fish sauce or soy sauce for vegetarians); 1 tsp brown sugar; 1 tbsp hot water; 1 tbsp avocado oil (extra-virgin olive oil will work too); 1 finely chopped red chilli, optional
What to do: For the salad, peel and cut mango into small cubes. Thinly shred red cabbage. You can use a mandolin or sharp knife. Wash and cut cherry tomatoes in half. Wash mint leaves and shake dry. Roughly chop toasted peanuts.
For the dressing, in a small bowl, dissolve brown sugar in hot water. Add fish sauce, lime juice and avocado oil and mix well.
To assemble, in a large mixing bowl, place red cabbage, cherry tomatoes and mango. Mix together gently. Add half the portion of roasted coconut flakes and peanuts to salad. Mix again. Dress salad and mix to ensure the ingredients are well coated. Tear mint leaves into mixing bowl. Tumble the salad onto a large serving plate. Zest lime over it and scatter remaining roasted coconut flakes and peanuts on top.
Oven roasted cauliflower head with tahini sauce
You’ll need: 1 cauliflower (the bigger the better); Quarter cup melted butter (olive oil for vegans); fine sea salt and crushed black pepper to taste
For the tahini Sauce: Mix together 1/3 cup tahini, stirred well; 3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice; 1 clove garlic, grated (or minced); 2 tbsp olive oil; pinch of kosher salt; 1/4 cup ice cold water, plus more as needed
What to do: Heat your oven to 180°C. Trim the base of the main stem of the cauliflower, so that it could stand upright. Keep some outer leaves intact if they are nice and fresh. Place in a medium pot (make sure that the head fits and that the pot can be closed with a lid beforehand). Add water to a height of 4cm. Bring to a boil and cover (12 minutes until the florets are tender and the cauliflower is no longer pearly white in colour). Remove from the pot and let the cauliflower cool down a bit (about 10 minutes). Move cauliflower to roasting pan, lined with greaseproof paper. Brush the butter on top and massage the cauliflower so all the florets are covered. Season generously with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes, then brush with more butter. Do this every 15 to 20 minutes, until cauliflower has a lovely, charred look. Cover with tin foil and cook until it’s tender. (I check the tenderness of the stem, with a thin, sharp knife). Carefully move to a large serving plate. Drizzle Tahini sauce on top, sprinkle with chopped Italian parsley and roasted almonds before serving.
Details: Follow Micky on IG: kitchenconfident2_durban
