Food
We ate very well in Cape Town and surroundings. There are high quality restaurants and the prices are very reasonable compared to Europe. We enjoyed some of the Cape Malay foods, especially Bobotie, which I really liked. We tasted and heard about things that we never heard about before.. dried meats: Biltong; Steaks: Kudu, Springboek; Fish: cape salmon (geelbek), elf (or shad), hake, haarders, hottentot (bream), kabeljou, kingklip, monkfish, musselcracker, red roman, red steenbras, skate, snoek, sole, stumpnose, tunny, yellowtail, crayfish, trout, etc. We had excellent oysters (especially good at http://www.knysnaoysters.co.za/) and amazing calamari. It was a culinary delight. Here are some recipes and things that I thought were interesting with respect to food: Cape Bobotie, Biltong, Sour Figs, Gooseberry jam. The wines are amazing and there are too many to name here. I have included the wineries and some of the wines that we tried in later entries.
Cape Bobotie
I included one recipe here, but as you can see from the photos, there are many different types and recipes.
Bobotie recipe (http://www.rainbownation.com/recipes/recipe.asp?type=2&id=9) The origins of Bobotie can be traced back to the eastern influence on South African culture. The Cape Malay society is famous for cooking this dish and it is usually served with yellow rice.
Ingredients
1 kg minced lamb
125ml milk
1 thick slice of white bread, crust removed and soaked in milk
2 roughly chopped onions butter
Salt
1 tablespoon of curry powder (mix the hot and the Cape Malay versions for a good flavour)
1 chili, finely chopped (optional and only if you like your food quite hot)
½ cup vinegar
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 teaspoon of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of chutney
8 -10 crushed almonds (optional)
3 eggs
1 clove of garlic, crushed and finely chopped
6 bay leaves
1 orange, sliced in wheels
1 lemon, sliced in wheels
Oil for cooking
Heat the oil in frying pan and add the garlic, onion and curry power. Cook over medium heat for three minutes, then add the mincemeat. Fry until the meat is almost done, then using your hands, squeeze the milk from the bread. Discard the milk and add the bread, vinegar, lemon juice, sugar and chutney to the mince. Fry for a minute or so and then remove from heat. Take a pie dish and place three bay leaves, two wheels of orange and two wheels of lemon at the bottom. Now scoop the mince mixture into the dish. Decorate the sides of the dish with the rest of the lemon and orange wheels, wedging them between the mince and the sides of the dish so that only a third protrudes. If you are using almonds, push them into the mince. Beat the eggs and 125ml milk, and pour over the meat. Put three bay leaves on top of dish. Place the dish uncovered in the oven and cook for about 30 minutes at 160 deg Celsius. Serve with a plain green salad or chopped tomato and onion, sprinkled with a little vinegar. Make sure you have some chutney near at hand. Serve piping hot with the yellow rice.
Biltong
For Biltong check this web site: http://www.biltongmakers.com/biltong10_recipes0_quick.html
Sour figs
GHOENA IN A GLASS JAR
Errieda du Toit enthuses about our underrated, indigenous sour fig.
The moment you see a jar of suurvykonfyt at a farm stall, grab it. Stockpiling is an even better option. If not familiar with the various types of sour fig, don’t fret. Even some seasoned botanists don’t always know their ghoenas from their ghôkums (names for the plants adapted from Khoi words).
Sour figs belong to the vygie family Mosembryanthemacea. Each of its eight indigenous species Carpobrotus bears edible fruit (the only ones from 1 500 vygie types do so!)
C. edulis is the botanical name for the yellow-flowered perdevy or hotnotsvy, which is fairly common from the Sandveld and the West Coast to the Richtersveld. The berries are quite sweet even when green, while the ripe berry is brown and leathery in appearance.
The true sour fig C. acinaciformis with its purple flowers, is found in the Southern Cape Strandveld (including Bredasdorp and Swellendam), as well as Melkbosstrand. It makes a delicious jam with distinctive salty-sour taste when made from fruit ripened till leathery and shriveled. (Beware, it tastes very tart when green).
C. muirii is a sour fig indigenous only to the Strandveld at Stilbaai, and is prized for its beautiful purple flowers and sweet fruit.
The mountain fig C. mellei, with its pink-purple flowers only grows in sandstone mountains of the Western Cape.
The elandsvy, C. quadrifidus from the West Coast Strandveld bears the largest and most beautiful flowers of all. The fruit is delectably sweet and it can be eaten before it dries out. When travelling to the Eastern Cape, look out for Ghôkum (C. deliciosus) – its Latin name indicates just how good the half-round fruit tastes.
Sour fig in a jar:
For tips on making sour fig jam, I turned to the writings of an expert and forerunner of Slow Food: Betsie Rood, who was raised on the West Coast, and spent 12 years researching indigenous plants, documenting edible veld plants for her benchmark book ‘Kos uit die Veldkombuis’ (Food from the Veld Kitchen).
Her aim was 'not to get readers to go out there and pick them, because many have become extinct or are difficult to source, but to preserve the knowledge of this heritage for future generations.' She corresponded with over 2 000 country cooks to compile her book, which makes fascinating reading.
In her memoirs, Uit die Waaisand en die Kalkklippe (From Driftsand and Limestone), she wrote about the art of ‘konfytkook’, and the special talent needed to get sour fig jam just right. 'It took the skills of a seasoned jam maker like my mother to transform the slightly woody fruits into sticky, dark sour fig jam.' She advised that the best time to make sour fig jam was between Christmas and New Year, wryly commenting, 'as if we hadn’t already more than enough cooking on our hands during this time…'
For readers with jam-making aspirations, this is Betsie’s method:
Soak the fruit in boiled water till the hard dry outer leaves are soft. Then embark on the painstaking cleaning process and remove the stamen and the tough bottom part of the fruit. (The trick is to leave the fruit intact throughout the preparation process). Boil carefully till soft, then cook in a syrup to form konfyt. Pack in sterilized jars, top with syrup and seal.
The syrup is the same as that used for waatlemoenkonfyt. Ratios: 500g sugar: 500g fruit: 750ml-1 litre water: 1½ tablespoons lemon juice.
Sour figs in supermarkets:
With its unique salty-sour taste, sour figs can hold their own against exotic produce the world over. Yet they are still the stepchild of the South African fruit industry.
According to botanist Ernst van Jaarsveld, the sour fig is largely ignored compared with the Citrullus vugaris (an African watermelon species), rooibos tea, and even honey bush tea (Cyclopia), which have made inroads into international markets.
Sour figs have the potential for a hassle-free coastal crop, as this hardy plant happily grows in wind-swept coastal regions, where other crops would battle to survive. As with most vygies, it grows easily from cuttings and its seeds are spread by rain. The plant also adapts easily to a temperarate climate.
Doctor Sourfig:
It calms sore throats, relieves burns, stings, rashes and painful sores. The juice is a remedy for treating blue bottle stings. It is also used as a laxative and purgative.
Sources:
Ernst van Jaarsveld, Die Burger; Betsie Rood, Uit die Waaisand en die Kalkklippe;Renata Coetzee, Spys en Drank.
Cape Gooseberry jam
1. Step one includes basics like de-caping & washing
2. The second step would possibly be to cut fruit into fours. My mum actually likes the taste of a complete berry in her mouth, so we skipped this step.
3. Either way, cut or whole, the fruit needs to be squished & squashed mercilessly.
4. After this add a 1/4 tsp of salt, 4-5 1-inch bits of Cinnamon Stick (for flavor).
5. Add 1/2 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar (to taste). Unfortunately my mum is a great cook and doesn’t really measure anything (cooks ‘andaaz-se’), so I’m quoting approximates here.
6. Put on a high fire & cook.
7. It will boil, keep cooking & stirring
8. Keep on stirring - the aim is to dry out the water - get it thickened till it reaches a jam consistency.
9. When ready the jam will have a beautiful glaze. Notice after cooking the color has changed from yellow to brown.
10. Leave to cool & then bottle.
