Traditional Easter Fare

It is that time of year again. Easter. For some reason Easter is celebrated in South Africa almost like Thanksgiving in The United States; Lots of family gatherings and lots of food.

Perhaps it has much to do with being the end of the harvest season. Us city- and seaward oriented folks tend to get somewhat dislodged from Mother Earth and the seasons. But the religious festivals help to keep us in line with the seasons.

For one, I know this festival is very close to the first equinox of the year which falls on 21-22 March. That is when the sun crosses the equator on its way to the northern hemisphere for their summer. It is also the first star gate of the year for some religions.

But here it is Easter. Time for wonderful celebrations and always accompanied with good food and wine. The Cape is no exception and Mother Nature played along very nicely this year and provided lots of good fishing recently. This played magnificently into the tradition to have pickled fish and bread for a picnic lunch in the balmy autumn weather here in the Cape Town area.

I am not a fisherman, so I went to the local fish market by the jetty and bought a fish. Pickled fish appears to be like South African potjiekos, a very personal dish with jealously guarded recipes.

Luckily for us, not all recipes are so closely guarded and we have the famous Cass Abrahams, who published her recipe for pickled fish. This one is special also because it is one of the very traditional Cape Malay dishes, steeped in history.

For me, this was the perfect opportunity to test the Cape Malay style spiciness. The spice mix is simple, the preparation easy and the waiting time forever. I did not even bother doing an internet search, as I had a proper reference handy right on my bookshelf: Cass Abrahams cooks Cape Malay, by Cass Abrahams. The book is available from Amazon books. This recipe is adapted from this book.


This dish is normally made using cheap fish.  The book calls for snoek, which in other parts of the world is called queen mackerel.  However, any fish will do. Especially game fish as they have firmer flesh. The recipe may be made by frying the salted fish in butter or in a light batter. It does not make a difference. I opted for the plain frying in light oil as per the recipe. The dish also calls for vinegar, for which I used apple cider vinegar. This gave a very fruity taste to the dish and I had to add a little regular vinegar to get the acidity levels up. The sugar is added to your own taste, so take care. It is easy to have too much sugar. You can always add some later when the dish has cured for a day or two.

The solid ingredients need to be submerged in the pickle. If not, add a little vinegar and turn the whole lot around. This will get the bottom pieces to the top and allow the top ones some better soaking and curing. Be careful not to break the pieces of fish, else you end up with flaked fish in brine.


Very important: The skin needs to be taken off game fish. The brine or pickle will not penetrate the skin and thus leave your fish not cured and tasting bland. I tend to always skin the fish. You may do this by soaking the cuts in boiling water for a minute or so. The skin will then come off easily. The size of the cuts does not matter. However, I like to have all the cuts with at least one dimension under my control. This means I cut all the pieces to the same thickness, which, in my case, is about 20mm or ¾ inch. This will ensure a similar curing time for all the cuts. Over-curing does not matter, but under-curing does. And make sure the onions are properly cooked, otherwise you end up with very crunchy bits! The onions may be fried in butter before adding to the pickle, if one so prefers.

So here goes.

Ingredients

1 kg game fish. I used yellowtail
2 large onions, sliced into rings
5 thumbs garlic, mashed
250 ml vinegar
125 ml water
10 ml coriander powder
10 ml cumin powder (jeera)
15 ml masala
5 ml turmeric
2 bay leaves
4 pimentos
4 cloves
1 ml peppercorns
Sugar to taste. I used brown sugar

Process

Salt the fish and fry until done. I did mine in batches. Keep these to the side and keep the frying oil. Add the fluids and the dry ingredients, except the sugar, to a saucepan and set to boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for a few minutes until the onions are translucent but still firm. Add sugar to taste.

Pour the hot sauce over the fish and ensure that every piece is properly coated with the pickle. Allow to cool and set into the refrigerator for three to four days. This will allow the flavours to develop and help the fish and onions to cure. Turn the lot every day to get the pickle soaking in properly.

Simple.

This dish goes well with an artisan loaf of bread, real butter and an off-dry white wine.

Bon appetit!



Authored by Johan Zietsman

Last updated on 2015-03-29

Spicy Seafood For A Romantic Summer Evening

Summer has arrived with a vengeance the last few days. Granted,  is still officially spring. But it is quite warm and the southeaster is blowing us into the next century.

Weather which calls for relaxing with friends and loved ones over a light meal. A braai with meat is OK, but the food tends to be heavy. In addition, we have a regular braai once a week at the yacht club. So a lighter meal is in order.

Which brought me to think more towards a salad. But salads are too light to my taste. Even those with something hot, like pieces of chicken or fish. So the choice went to something Asian. Asian dishes are generally easy and quick to make, as well as being on the light side. Of course, this is just what one wants, as it leaves more time to spend with your close ones.

Having gone through all of this reasoning, I decided on a Thai style seafood curry in a coconut sauce. I had this idea in my mind for a long time. Now, at last, the weather is playing along.


This dish is very easy to make, with hardly any messy work. It also is quick to  make, as the ingredients are not heavy and therefore cooks fast. You don't want to overcook fish anyway. The coconut base makes it quite fruity, which adds to the idea that it can serve as something with more body than a salad, but in the same category of light food.

Try to steer away from using a ready mix seafood. These tend to have more of the cheaper cuts. I settled for mussels and small prawns, with a dash of seafood mix. I was a bit put off with the quality of the mix. Next time I shall buy the ingredients directly and make my own mix.

This dish is prepared by making a sauce, then cooking the fish in this sauce. No need for frying the fish. For the coconut one can use a can of coconut milk, mix powdered coconut with water or even use desiccated coconut soaked for a hour in hot water. All will work.

Having read about the latest Banting craze, I am following suit by using real butter to fry the onions. It does make a difference, not only in the taste. The butter triggers your body's reaction to make you feel satisfied, so you tend to eat less because you feel full sooner.
Which, in my case, is good.

This dish goes very well with a fruity dry sparkling wine, as it is not that spicy. Here in South Africa we are blessed with a variety of bottle fermented sparkling wines at a steal. The La Vallee from JC le Roux and Pongracz  immediately comes to mind as a romantic pairing. We also have some magnificent Sauvignon blanc wines from the Durbanville region, our neighbours. Choose your own, bearing in mind the type of company you will have for dinner.

In my case it is my missus of over thirty-five years' standing, so the JC le Roux la Vallee wins hands down.

As for cooking utensils, I used my new stainless steel saucepan from le Creuset. These have a stainless steel lining inside, a layer of high carbon steel outside to make it magnetic for use on induction hobs, and a layer of aluminium sandwiched in between. This causes better heat distribution and more effective cooking. The pot gets warm on the sides too, unlike some other brands of cookware. This better heat distribution also uses less gas. In fact, a lot less. One needs to be careful of burning the food.

The ingredients are simple and few, which makes it easier to get them all together. I used the canned variety of bamboo sprouts. There are others. Some recipes call for the sour variety, others use the plain bamboo sprouts. It seems not to make a real difference.

Ingredients

500 g seafood, I used a mix of prawns and mussels
1 cup basmati or jasmine rice
1 can coconut milk or cream. Or a sachet of coconut powder.
1 medium to large onion, chopped
½ sweet bell pepper, chopped
3 toes garlic, mashed
2 hot chillies, chopped
1 teaspoon medium dry masala
2 teaspoons wet masala (recipe here)
1 dessert spoon brown sugar
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
2 dessert spoons fish sauce
½ cup bamboo sprouts
½ cup sugar snap peas
½ cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
½  cup fresh coriander leaves, chopped
4 bay leaves
some butter for frying
salt and pepper to taste

 Process

Fry the onions and sweet pepper in the butter until the onion goes translucent. Add the wet masala, chopped chillies and mashed garlic and fry these for thirty seconds. Add the dry powdered spices and fry for fifteen seconds or until the flavours come out. Add the coconut milk and stir, making sure that there is nothing sticking to the bottom of the saucepan.

Bring this to the boil, then add the seafood. Add the fish sauce and sugar and check for enough salt. Turn down the gas flame and cook this for ten minutes or until the seafood is almost done, then add the sugar snap peas and the bamboo sprouts. Cook for another five minutes, then take the saucepan off the heat. Add the chopped basil and coriander leaves and mix through. Then set this aside to rest while you cook the rice. This will allow the curry to repose and develop flavour.

Then dish up.

Now is the time to open that second bottle of bubbly...

Bon appetit!




Authored by Johan Zietsman


Last updated on 2014-10-20

Day 5: Cajun Style Snoek and a Rye Loaf

The day dawned breathless yet again. But what a sight! Pastel blue and pink skies in the west, with a hint of stripey clouds, somewhat hazy. A balm to the soul.

We motored the whole day in basically windless conditions. A lazy zephyr every now and then. Navigation instructions for getting to St Helena island from Cape Town appears to be: sail north along the west coast of Africa till you get to the town of Luderitz, then turn a bit left if there is wind. Else, go further north till you find wind, then turn left. If you bump into Africa far north, you have gone too far.

I know this is not accurate, but it gives an idea of the navigation decisions to be made. And it is relatively easy to explain to those not deeply involved in navigation.

Today was the day of baking bread. The first experiment with the gas oven proved to be a bit beyond me. I removed the grid in favour of putting the baking tin directly on the plate. This gave me some more height in the small oven for the bread to rise. Wrong idea. The silicone baking tin did not like the heat from below and burned. Luckily the bread wasn't spoilt. In fact, it was consumed at such a pace that I hardly had time to take a photograph before it was finished.!

The bread, however, did not rise as expected. This could be due to several reasons, which I then researched thoroughly. (I actually brought an e-book or two along!) It has something to do with the sponge that I made with rye flour instead of white bread flour, as well as the sourdough not being sufficiently activated. I just hope and pray that my sourdough did not get infected by another yeast which killed it off. After some deliberation, I washed the sourdough and fed it half a cup of white bread flour. The ambient temperature is on the low side, with no specific warm areas in the boat, so there is another source of worry. Only time will tell. Thus far the washing and feeding part seems to have worked. The sourdough is merrily bubbling away, smelling a bit like pineapple beer. I shall put it in the fridge later on. The next loaf will have less rye and the sponge starter will be made with wheat flour.

We also caught our first fish today. A snoek, no less. Queen mackerel for those from other parts of the world. I was a wee bit worried about how to prepare the fish, as it has a somewhat oily flesh. At home the fish would normally be prepared by having it smoked, barbequed or poached. Only the poaching is open to me here on board, in addition to frying in oil, something perhaps to be avoided. I was somewhat undecided, worrying about this oiliness. In the end I made up my own variation of cajun style spices. I rolled the fish in that before frying in the pan. This was dished up with vegetable fried rice, complete with the first fruits of the sprout growing experiment. The fish came out very tender, still juicy and very flavourful. Snoek is a very bony fish, but luckily the bones are big and easily removed. It is a wonderful experience to eat freshly caught fish. It just has something different to it.

Cajun style snoek

400g fish fillets

2 dessert spoons cornflour (Maizena)

2 teaspoons fish masala

½ teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon black mustard seeds

½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds

½ teaspoon coriander seeds (dhania)

2 teaspoons cumin powder (jeera)

I did not bother with salt on these. Mix all the dry ingredients in a small bowl. Roll the fish fillets in the dry mix, then fry them in a lightly oiled pan.

Vegetable fried rice

2/3 - 1 cup rice, cooked

Some of the stuff below. The choices are endless:

Carrots, julienne

Cabbage, chopped

Bean sprouts

Alfalfa sprouts. This was our own product, freshly harvested

Fresh garden peas

Onion, chopped

Sweet peppers, chopped

Fresh mushrooms. These can be chopped or left whole if they are small. I forgot to add these.

Dried mushrooms, chopped

Process

Easy and simple. Stir fry the vegetables in a lightly oiled pan, add a dash of pepper to bring out the flavour, then add the cooked rice and mix. Add a dash of soy sauce and voila, you have a quick dinner.

If you want to be fancy, fry some fresh ginger and garlic with some white pepper in the oil before adding the vegetables. This will bring out the flavours even more and add some zing to the dish.





This blog also linked to Yeastspotting!

Authored by Johan Zietsman
Last updated on 2012-12-12

Sekstantlesings, viskerrie en tegniese lesse

27 November 2011

Ek was lekker deurmekaar in die nag. Staan toe mos 23h00 op om te begin werk. Drikus lag hom slap, ek moet eers om 03h00 begin. Ek gaan slaap toe maar weer. Iewers in die nag word ek toe wakker, kyk op die horlosie en besluit dis tien minute voor my skof begin. Ek trek toe warm aan en meld aan vir diens, net om te verneem dis toe eers 02h00, ek het nog 'n uur van rus oor.

Gmf.

Na my skof gaan slaap ek toe tot so agtuur die oggend. Renier is besig met sy visgerei se voorbereiding. Nie te lank nie, toe is daar breiwerk op die tol lyn, wat lyk asof die katte daarmee gespeel het. 'n Uur of wat later is dit uitgesorteer en die kuns-aas word uitgesit. Renier is nog besig om te vertel hoe mens nou geduld moet gebruik, dit vat soms twee dae voor jy iets haak, toe sing die katrol. Dis toe 'n bonito van so agt kilogram.

Na 'n kort gesperk word daar besluit om die vis te hou en ek moet viskerrie maak.

Viskerrie

Bestanddele

1 koppie rys

½ koppie bruin lensies

1 blik klapperroom

1 blik ertjies

1teelepel knoffel (en gemmer)

2 teelepel groen masala

1 teelepel heel koljander

1 steranys

1 teelepel heel komyn

1 tee borrie

2 teelepel vismasala poeier

1 stukkie kaneelbas

4 kerrieblare

4 kardamompeule

1 ½ medium ui (of 1 grote)

½ soetrissie (green pepper)

1 klein brandrissie

½ t gemaalde komyn

500g vis in klein blokkies gesny

sout

Metode

Maak 'n klein koevert van aluminiumfoelie en plaas die gemaalde speserye daarin.

Kap die kardamompeule fyn en en braai dit tesame met die ander heel speserye en die koevert gemaalde speserye in 'n droeë pan.

Verwyder die koevert gemaalde speserye sodra die speserye se geur uitkom.

Voeg nou 'n skeut olie by die heel speserye in die pan en braai nou die uie, soetrissie, brandrissie en ander nat speserye tot die uie deurskynend is.

Voeg die klapperroom en die water van die ertjies by, asook die res van die speserye in die koevert. Die kerrieblare kom ook nou by.

Prut die sous totdat dit mooi deurgekook is en voeg dan die rou vis by. Prut die volledige dis tot die vis gaar is en voeg dan die ertjies by. Prut tot alles deurgekook is en haal dan van die hitte af om te rus. Sout na smaak.

Kook die rys en lensies tesame. Verwarm die vis-dis eers wanneer die rys gaar is en dien dan op.

En siedaar, Renier eet vis wat hy gedink het is goor en wou teruggooi!

Volgende keer sal ek meer kaneel en kardamom insit en minder komyn. Die dis sal dan effe soeter smaak met minder byt.

Ons het vandag vir langer wakker gebly en begin kaartspeel. Meer sosiaal verkeer. Dit was 'n lekker warm dag.

Daar was ook 'n paar tegniese lesse. Die boot het 'n magnetiese vloedhek kompas wat saam met die stuuroutomaat werk. Die sensor is reg onder die werkoppervlak in die kombuis. 'n Skroewedraaier op die werkoppervlak het die kompas heel deurmekaar gemaak. Dieselfde vir enige metaalvoorwerp op die werkoppervlakte, inklusief potte, ketel, blikborde, messegoed en blikkieskos. 'n Groot caveat. Die boot het amper in die rondte gedraai.

Die ander les was die enjinolie. 'n Koue enjin wat jy aan die gang sit, hou al die olie terug. Jy sal smaak die enjin het nie olie nie. Laat loop maar die enjin warm en wag dan so tien minute voor jy die olievlakke nagaan. Anders gaan jy groot skrik!

Vandag was ook 'n verdere mylpaal vir my.

Ek kon vir die eerste keer op die reis twee sonlesings met die sekstant neem.Ek sal later die berekeninge doen en ons posisie op die kaart aanstip. Dis die begin van my navigasie praktiese oefening en behels die toepassing van matriek-vlak driehoeksmeting.

Ons is nou al oor die halfpadmerk na St Helena, tans so knap noord van die Valdivia-banke. Dis 'n ondersese gebergte wat die see heel vlak maak en wat groot golwe en 'n deurmekaar see tot gevolg het. 'n Plek wat mens liefs vermy.

Die wind waai betreklik bestendig suid-oos teen so agtien knope met vlae na 25 knope. Die see is redelik plat, met die gevolg dat ons fluks vorder teen so 6-7 knope. Dit onder slegs die genoa. Die wind waai in elk geval in so 'n rigting dat die hoofseil net die genoa sal blok.

Ek het so pas vir my 'n porsie oorskiet viskerrie gaan opwarm en geëet. Dit smaak lekkerder noudat die geure verder kans gehad het om te ontwikkel. Vir 'n eerste viskerrie-gereg voel ek glad nie beskroomd nie. Die kos smaak hengse lekker en is nie te sterk nie.

Dit het vandag by my opgekom dat dit 'n bestiering is dat ek nie die deeltydse doseerwerk gerky het nie. Ek is duidelik meer in my element hier aan boord as voor 'n klas vol studente. Miskien wel later. Maar nou is dit tyd vir my persoonlike katarsis, 'n reiniging van die siel en die liggaam.



Authored by Johan Zietsman
Last updated on 2012-12-12