Recipes from Southern Africa: Cape Malay Fish Curry

Cape Town's Cape Malay cuisine is uniquely South African. The destinctive flavour of the dishes is a careful blend of aromatic spices, such as cardamom, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, garlic, tamarind and chillies. The strong flavours of the Cape Malay cuisine are a mix of mainly Asian elements, but there are also plenty of African and European nuances too. Enjoy a Cape Malay Fish Curry! Kudos LekkerFoodCookBook!



Ingredients:

• 600 g rockling, hake or other firm white fish fillets, skin removed
• salt, to season, plus 1 tsp, approximately, extra
• pepper, to season
• 60 ml cooking oil
• 1 tsp of fennel seeds
• 1 tsp of cumin seeds
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp crushed garlic
• 1 fresh red birdseye chilli, halved lengthways
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground fennel
• ½ tsp garam masala
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tbsp hot masala, or to taste
• 1 tsp medium masala
• 3 tomatoes, peeled, grated
• 1 tsp tamarind pulp, mixed with 60 ml boiling water and strained
• 1 tbsp brown sugar, or to taste
• 10 fresh curry leaves, bruised
• ½ cup chopped coriander leaves
• yellow rice, to serve

Southern African recipes: A traditional Bobotie (Cape Town)

If there is a typical Capetonian dish, it is the Bobotie. A Bobotie consists of spiced minced meat, chutney, raisins and is baked with an egg-based topping. The dish was introduced to Cape Town and South Africa by colonists from the Dutch East India Company, who learned to love it while staying in Batavia (Jakarta). It was later, at least since the late 17th century, adopted by the Cape Malay community of Cape Town and is until today one of South Africa's most favourite local dishes. Enjoy! Kudos Jodi-Ann Pearton and Darling Lama Productions!

Ingredients:

• 3 slices white bread
• 600ml milk
• 2 chopped onions
• 1 grated apple
• 60g butter
• 30g curry powder
• 900g cooked mince (lamb or beef)
• 30g chutney
• 30g chopped almonds
• 65g raisins
• 30ml vinegar
• salt & pepper
• 4 eggs
• 3 bay leaves

Southern African recipes: Sosaties

Sosaties are one of the great braai foods of Southern Africa. The skewers are sweet and sour as well as a little curry-ish. Enjoy!

• 1.5kg lamb, cut into cubes
• 200gr dried apricots
• 3 tbs oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• fresh chillies, chopped (optional)
• 1 tbs curry powder
• 200 ml vinegar
• 200 ml water or red or white wine
• 2 tbs apricot jam or tamarind paste
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 2 bay leaves
• salt and pepper to taste
• wooden skewers

1. Heat the oil in a large saute pan. Add the onions and saute until translucent. Add the garlic and curry powder and saute for another minute or so. Add the fresh chillies (optional).
2. Add the vinegar, water or wine, jam or tamarind paste, brown sugar and bay leaves and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until lightly thickened. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Place the lamb and apricots in a large bowl. Pour the cooked marinade over the lamb and apricots and toss thoroughly to coat. Cover and refrigerate for at least one day (three days would be perfect).
4. Remove the lamb cubes and apricots from the marinade and thread on skewers that have been soaked in water. Alternate between chunks of meat and the apricots.
5. Grill the sosaties on a hot grill, turning to cook on all sides.
6. While the skewers are grilling, bring the marinade to a boil in a saucepan and simmer for 3 or 4 minutes. Serve hot in a bowl as a sauce for the sosaties.

more Southern African recipes >>

Southern African recipes: Bobotie

"Bobotie" is a Cape Malay dish, which is very popular all over South Africa. It is a light textured curry flavored meat loaf smothered in a golden savory egg topping. Baboties can be cooked in many different variations and therefore there can be a huge difference in its flavors, but they all have in common: they have fruity, spicy taste with a decent hint of curry!
This recipe serves 6 generous portions. We suggest you serve it with (yellow) rice and/or a large salad.

Ingredients:
2 slices stale white bread (remove the crusts)
30ml cooking oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
2,5ml ground cloves
5ml crushed garlic
3ml salt
10 ml curry powder
5 ml turmeric
500g beef mince
2 eggs
30ml hot water
20ml lemon juice
25ml sugar
Topping:
1 egg (lightly beaten)
150ml milk bay or lemon leaves for garnishing

Method:
Preheat oven to 180ºC. Soak bread in water for 10 minutes, squeeze out excess water and crumble. In a large frying pan, heat oil and braise onion until golden (roughly about 7 minutes). Add the ground cloves, garlic, salt, curry powder and turmeric and simmer for 5 minutes. Break the 2 eggs into a large bowl and beat lightly. Mix in the mince. Add the onion mixture from the frying pan to the mince as well as the hot water, lemon juice, crumbled bread and sugar, and mix to combine well. Spoon the mixture into a well greased oven proof dish and bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven.

Topping: Combine the egg with the milk and beat well. Pour over the bobotie. Arrange bay leaves or lemon leaves as garnish. Return to oven and bake at ca. 180ºC for 5-10 minutes, or until topping is set.

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