#3 South Africa
- Jen
- Jun 24, 2019
- 6 min read
Updated: Jul 4, 2022
Considering I wrote the countries out and added them to the pan in alphabetical order and dropped them all on the floor it’s quite astounding that I have managed to pick the country that enclaves (there’s that word again) the previous country. What are the odds?! Well, 1 in 197…
At least the journey will be easy this time…not like the four flights it takes to get from North Korea to Lesotho!
Yaaaaas! I’ve been dreaming about South Africa since I had the idea to start this blog. I cannot wait to make my own biltong and get the squad over for a braai!
Two days later…I’m not making my own biltong or having a braai ☹. Rhiannon and I agree that there is nowhere suitable in our house to leave slabs of cow hanging out to dry and we don’t have a barbeque.
Biltong
On a visit back to see my Dad in Cheshire we went to The Brownlow Inn for dinner (excellent steak) and I got chatting to the manager who happens to be from Johannesburg and makes his own biltong. Problem solved! Or not. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any ready to eat but talked me through the process: silverside beef from the local abattoir, marinated in safari white spirit vinegar, salt and a blend of herbs and spices and then hung out to dry for only a few days, which keeps it nice and moist in the centre.
Cook the World dried meat lesson #1: biltong V jerky. Both are dried red meat, typically beef, but can also be venison, springbok or other game. Biltong tends to be cut into thicker pieces so you dry it then cut it into thin strips to eat. It’s like drying out a steak so it is “rarer” (wetter) in the middle. Jerky is cut thinly before drying so each slice is the same dryness. Biltong is dried with salt, vinegar and spices whereas jerky is just spices. Jerky is usually smoked; biltong is not smoked.
My heart was still set on biltong so I paid Wally’s Delicatessen (Royal Arcade, Cardiff) a visit. Anyone who knows me well knows that this a dangerous type of place for me to be unsupervised…which is why I took only a small amount of cash and no bank cards. I will definitely be going back there to stock up on goodies for other countries!
The biltong I picked up from Wally’s, I’m told, is made by a real South African butcher in Sussex. I got some plain and some piri-piri flavour, which is yummy, and I have been enjoying chewing on this with a cup of tea whilst watching Eastenders all week! Happy Jen 😊
South African cuisine, other than biltong
To understand South African cuisine, you have to vaguely understand its history. South Africa is a real melting pot; it has 11 official languages! It was colonised by the Dutch in the 17th century, who brought slaves from Indonesia*. From the 19th century, South Africa fell under British rule and this time the slaves were shipped from India. The typical cuisine of South Africa therefore has indigenous, Asian and European influences, with spices, curries and sambals being brought over from Indonesia and India.
*Cape Malay refers to an ethnic group of South Africans of people originally from Indonesia who were brought over by the Dutch.
Typical South African dishes include:
· Chakalaka & pap: traditional indigenous food (see Lesotho ).
· Potjiekos: (“small pot food”) meat and veg stew.
· Boerewors: meaning “farmer sausage” in Afrikaans.
· Dried meats such as biltong (see above) and droëwors – dried sausage.
· Hoenderpastei: chicken pie of Dutch origin.
· Bobotie: spiced mince meat with an eggy topping, often served with spiced yellow rice. This Cape Malay dish is generally considered to be the national dish of South Africa.
· Bunny chow: a trencher of bread filled with curry. I absolutely love it when you can eat the receptacle your food comes in: no washing up. This is of Indian origin but is very popular throughout the country.
Typical South African sweet treats:
· Koeksisters: plaited deep-fried pastries.
· Malva pudding: saucy sponge pudding.
· Melktert: similar to a custard tart but with a higher ratio of milk in the filling.
· Pampoenkoekies: pumpkin fritters.
Braai
South Africa is not a place to go veggie! Today, most South African families have a braai (barbeque) at the weekend which will usually involve the standard meats: beef, chicken, etc. but there is also a fairly wide market for game/exotic meats too. I love trying new meats and I really want to see what zebra is like. During my research I discovered that there are purveyors of zebra based in the UK but I’m all about eating local where possible and I haven’t seen many zebra farms around the UK so I might wait for the 2021 Lions Tour for some free range braaied zebra. There are a number of ostrich farms in the UK, FYI.
Wine
As wine is one of my top five fave things ever I should mention that South Africa is the ninth largest producer of wine in the world. Grape and wine production began in the early days of the Dutch colonisation and the majority of the vineyards are located in the Western Cape region in the south-west of the country. Popular grapes grown for wine in SA include sauvignon blanc, chenin blanc, pinotage and shiraz.
What I cooked
Fiona and Hattie, AKA my “crazy runner friends”, came over for South Africa night. We dined on the national dish, bobotie, served with yellow rice, followed by malva pudding. We quaffed a delightful Western Cape Merlot sourced from my new favourite wine shop, The Bottle Shop (Pen-y-Lan Road, Cardiff).
There are highly-rated recipes for the bobotie and yellow rice on BBC Good Food (links below) and I definitely recommend both!
They were both super-easy to make. For the bobotie, sauté onion, then garlic, brown beef mince and mix in curry paste, mango chutney, mixed herbs, allspice berries, cloves, bay leaves and sultanas. The only weird step is you then add some white bread that’s been soaking in water so it’s like bread pulp to thicken the meat. The topping is simply eggs beaten into milk. Stick her in the oven until she’s crisp and golden on top. The meat was gently spicy and nicely sweet due to the addition of the mango chutney. The sweet/savoury combo along with the slightly crisp custardy topping made it really moreish. Excellent choice of national dish SA!
The rice is even easier: basmati, butter, sultanas, cinnamon, turmeric, cardamom and water all go in the pan together. Simmer, leave, fluff. The above recipe is fantastic and you could use it with all sorts of curried meals. It was so tasty…I am seriously considering buttering all my rice from now on! I omitted the sugar from the recipe and it definitely didn’t need it with the sweetness from the sultanas.
Malva pudding sounds great: a very saucy sponge pudding, the stuff of dreams! It does have one ingredient that made me suspicious: vinegar. But, balsamic strawberries are supposedly a thing so why shouldn’t we put white wine vinegar in our cake?
Because it curdles the milk and butter.
I did exactly what the recipe told me to and I knew it was going to happen when I melted butter, milk and VINEGAR together. You then cream sugar and eggs together, mix in some apricot jam, fold in flour and add the curdled milk mix. The sponge batter was light and fluffy with all ingredients being perfectly incorporated so the curdling didn’t turn out to be an issue in the end. Weird.
While the puds were baking, I made the sauce by melting double cream, butter, sugar and water together. When the puddings were done, I pierced them several times and poured the sauce over the top. You would not believe how much sauce they can soak up! Turn out to serve.
“This is possibly the best pudding I have ever had.” – housemate Rhiannon.
It really bloody is! It was like a steamed syrup sponge pudding on steroids (if steroids were really tasty). The vinegar and apricot jam just gave the flavour a little je ne sais quoi. The sponge was really light and fluffy and a little caramelised on top. I am sooo happy I made extra for the freezer!
Once we’d calmed down from the puddingasm, the girls picked out the next country: TONGA.
コメント