He whips up the most sensational sauces and can make a mean Picanha steak on the braai. She’s a salad queen who loves building big bold platters of food and keeping them coming. Meet My Kitchen Rules SA’s food besties and tenacious home cooks, Abraham van Zyl and Michelle Theron.
Advertising business director Abraham van Zyl, aka AB, didn’t hesitate for a second when his food bestie Michelle texted him and invited him to enter MKRSA. He’s always loved cooking and did Home Economics at school, helped his mom in the home kitchen and watched his dad closely as he worked his magic in front of the braai. His cooking style? Fresh, simple, hearty, real and honest.
Michelle Theron, a commercial property practitioner, thinks it’s fair to say that she probably spends more time thinking, dreaming and focusing on food than she does on anything else because she loves to bring joy by cooking for others. A self-taught cook, she would love to have her own cooking show, having studied drama and never pursuing a career in the entertainment industry.
This dynamic duo share a few of their food antics:Least fave dish to make?AB: I’m not a big fan of fishy dishes, especially anchovies. I once had this on a pizza and until today, I can’t get this taste out of my head.Michelle: Something that is very mundane to cook and where no thought is put into preparing it – like a store-bought chicken schnitzel that you just bang into the air fryer or pre-cooked veg that you warm up in the microwave. There is no fun in preparing these kinds of dishes.Kitchen tools you can’t go without?AB: Lemon zester, a chef’s knife and a clean and dry cloth – I hate it when my hands are wet when cooking.Michelle: Lemon zester and lemon squeezer, the amazing knife set that we were gifted on MKR and my mixer, mincer, shredder and slicer. I still use my mom’s original food processor and it’s a tool that is very near and dear to my heart.Who’s got the most annoying habits when it comes to cooking?AB: When Michelle is under pressure, she gets super quiet and stuck in her head – you can try to speak to her and she just doesn’t listen, she might respond, but she would have no clue what she just said.Michelle: Hahaha! Exactly what AB said about me – he does as well!Your go-to midweek meal?AB: Chicken Parmigiana, a good Thai green curry or brinner (bacon and eggs for dinner)Michelle: Roast chicken stuffed with lemon, garlic and thyme with a simple salad, a rare steak sandwich with lots of mustard, mayo and peppery rocket or any pasta with a simple arrabbiata sauce with fresh basil from my garden.Last meal on earth?AB: Buttery mash with oxtail and a red wine sauce paired with a glass of … you guessed it, red wine!Michelle: A perfect, medium rare cooked steak with golden, crispy chips, a Béarnaise sauce (made with fresh tarragon) and a glass of red wine.Anything you refuse to eat?AB: Tuna out of a can. I’m not a fan of tuna mayo, pancakes with a tuna filling or tuna salad. I would never order this and really struggle to get this down should someone serve it to me.Michelle: Tripe. The idea, the smell – everything about it freaks me out.Would like to cook with?AB: Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen. I love what he stands for, and how he cooks and revives age-old Afrikaans dishes.Michelle: Stanley Tucci. I just finished his memoir, Taste: My Life through food. We’re pretty much the same person in the sense that we are both just normal home cooks with a passion for food. We love eating, and drinking good wine and would travel very far for a good bowl of pasta.Their three cooking tips?• Always prep with a super sharp knife.• Only season your food right at the end – meat, fruit and veggies. All of them contain their own flavours and natural seasoning and get enhanced when cooking. You can always add more salt, you cannot remove it. Also, when you are reducing a sauce, soup or even a stew, you are intensifying the flavour. Be extra cautious not to add too much salt at the beginning of the cook otherwise, there’s the risk of your dish being over-salty.• And butter. Always butter!
Entertaining made easy with AB & Michelle:
Deboned leg of lamb with green sauce
You have to prep this the day before as it intensifies the flavour. Serve with an easy gremolata – it cuts through that rich fatty lamb.
You’ll need: For the lamb – 2kg leg of lamb, deboned; 100ml olive oil; 3 medium- sized carrots; 2 leeks; 1 bunch of celery; 250ml lemon juice
For the green sauce – 50g mint; 50g parsley; 50g spring onion; 3 garlic cloves; salt and pepper, according to taste; 50ml vinegar; 50ml olive oil
For the gremolata 50g mint; 50g parsley; zest of a lemon; lemon juice of a lemon; 30ml vinegar; salt and pepper according to taste
How to:
Green sauce: Add all green sauce ingredients to a NutriBullet Blitz and set aside.
For the lamb: Debone your leg of lamb if not done so already. Flatten the meat with a rolling pin. Spread green sauce over the lamb. Roll the meat into a firm roll and tie it with butcher’s twine. Cover with cling wrap and set in the fridge overnight.
The next day – Sear your rolled lamb on a hot griddle pan for about 15 minutes (make sure all sides of the lamb are nice and caramelised – you want that golden colour everywhere as it provides a massive amount of flavour. Please note, that you aren’t trying to cook your lamb now, you are giving it colour and flavour. Once seared, place your lamb on a roasting rack, covered (with either a lid or foil) and roast for 35 minutes. Depending on the size of your lamb it might take shorter or longer but 45 minutes normally provides you with a nice pink colour and that is what you want.
You can now roast it for another 10 – 15 minutes uncovered, that will make sure the outside of the lamb gets nice and brown.
Once done, let it rest for 10 minutes before carving. Carve in nice thin pieces.
For the gremolata: Chop all greens nice and fine, and place in a pestle & mortar. Crush the greens to extract more flavour, add lemon zest, juice, vinegar, salt and pepper.
Blood orange and Campari cake
This is a deliciously light, and airy orange cake – crisp and crunchy on the outside, dense and chewy on the inside. Serve this with vanilla bean ice-cream or just normal clotted cream.
You’ll need: 4 large eggs; 5 blood oranges and 3 normal oranges (zest from four, juice from all eight for the syrup); 350g full cream yoghurt; 300g castor sugar; 250g unsalted butter, melted and cooled; 350g semolina flour; 100g ground almond flour;
For the Campari and blood orange syrup – 100ml Campari Liqueur; 300g sugar; juice from the eight oranges
How to:
Preheat the oven to 170˚C. Spray a 23cm springform cake tin thoroughly with Spray and Cook.
Whisk the eggs until pale, fluffy and thick. Add the sugar to the egg mixture. Now add the yoghurt and mix at a medium speed. Slowly add the cooled butter to the egg-and-yoghurt mixture. Mix the semolina and almond flour and the orange zest and fold into the liquid mixture.
Pour into the greased cake tin and bake for about 40-45 minutes. Remember to check now and again. The cake is ready when you insert a skewer and it comes out clean. To make the syrup, add all the ingredients in a saucepan and allow it to cook until it’s reduced to a thick syrup. Pour this over the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven.
Follow @abraham_michelle_mkrsa on Insta. Catch all the MKRSA drama every Sunday on M-Net at 6pm.
Text: RIALIEN FURSTENBERG. • Image: M-NET CHANNEL.
