On Being A Food Snob

Often-times, one hears about a person being a food snob. Specifically food bloggers. I never cared much for such talk, being rather laid back about criticizing other people's efforts. Everyone has a right to do as they please, including preparing food.

Until a recent dining experience made me think again about my norms regarding food and dining. The missus and I went out to celebrate an anniversary and decided to splash a bit and have a proper meal without having to clean up afterwards. We had some pre-dinner drinks, then ordered food. I decided on a rare steak. This time around, the establishment got the dish sort of right on the third try. The first one was overdone and the second one was raw. By round three there was no veggies on the plate, only the steak. The worst part was that the missus had finished her food by that time, so I dined alone. Not good.

I was about to complain bitterly, then held my thoughts in check. My reason said that the dish could be difficult to make, and perhaps before complaining I should try my hand at the same dish before passing comment.

The dish in question was a pan fried fillet, so that set the scene for an experiment at home. The requirements were easy: fifteen minutes time lapse from order to serving a pan fried fillet, rare, complete with side dishes.


Now everybody and their mate here in South Africa pride themselves on being able to produce such a dish on the braai. This one had to be cooked in a pan, which makes it slightly more tricky if you are not used to using a pan. I perused the internet via Google, a wonderful  source of information. And who better qualified as the Braai Master champions. In this case they actually won the competition by preparing a similar dish to what I had in mind.


Steak can be cooked in the oven, in a pan or grilled over coals. All of these methods have their own intricacies and there are tomes written about each. My book on basic methods is quite old, but still has a paragraph or two about preparing steak.

The Braai Master winners had a different approach to the cooking process, which I since used in several experiments using other cuts of steak. Needless to say, they all worked very well. The method involves searing the outside of the cut to seal the juices in, then allowing the meat to rest before completing the cooking process. In this way, hardly any juices are lost and the meat cooks in its own juices, making for a very juicy steak. This makes a sauce really superfluous.

In my experiments with other cuts, I found that one needs to get a rather thick steak, of about 40 mm/1½ inches thick. The method also works for a thinner steak, but the thick cut makes things easier. Of course, this means that the cut is too large for a single portion. No problem. You cut the meat into 12 mm thick slices before serving. Then guests may choose how much meat they really want. Makes life at the table a bit easier. There is a caveat, though. Sirloin and rump has so much juice, you need to be careful when cutting the meat, as the juices will run all over the table if your cutting board does not have a furrow around the edges.

Back to the fillet. For this one I decided on a home-grown rub. Whole spices are ground in a mortar and pestle, after which some coarse salt is added. The coarse salt will be ground to a powdery consistency if ground with the whole spices. This will make the steak too salty, so take care with the sequence of the work.

The steak can be fried in real butter and herbs in the pan, which will make the dish really rich. The choice is yours.

Sear in a very hot  dry pan

Before the time we prepared spicy rice, garnished with onions, sweet pepper, carrots and mushrooms fried together to serve as the main side to the steak. This was accompanied by steamed cauliflower and broccoli with a Hollandaise sauce. All prepared while the steak was resting. Bear in mind that the experiment was about preparing a dish similar to what one would expect in an upmarket restaurant, in the same time frame.

Searing bonfire

So here goes.

Pan fried beef fillet with vegetables and Hollandaise sauce

Ingredients

500g fillet steak
Dollop of olive oil
Dollop of butter

For the rub

1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
½ teaspoon whole cumin (jeera) seeds
1 teaspoon whole black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
some coarse salt to taste

For the Hollandaise sauce

1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon lemon or lime juice
2 dessert spoons water
2 dessert spoons real butter
small pinch of salt
1 dessert spoon chopped fresh parsley

Cauliflower and broccoli rosettes for two servings (About 300g)

Juices sealed in, resting away from heat

Process

Take the meat out of the refrigerator and allow to settle to room temperature. Pat the cut completely dry, else the meat will not brown. Heat a dry pan to very high heat.

Make the rub by grinding all the whole dry spices in a mortar. When the spices are ground fine enough to your taste, add the coarse salt. I used Malden salt. Roll the meat in the rub. When the pan is sufficiently hot, sear the steak in the pan all around for thirty seconds. Not longer. Then dab a dollop of olive oil on the meat, making sure that the cut is covered all around. Hold the meat over the open flame to cause the oil to flame. This will sear the outside of the meat and seal in the juices and flavours. This should last for about fifteen seconds only. Quite fast.

Now remove the steak from all heat and set it aside to rest while you prepare the Hollandaise sauce and the veggies. It does not matter if the steak goes stone cold during this time. It will cook and the temperature will settle while still hot. You have now shocked the meat, not cooked it. The final cooking comes later. Turn down the heat and allow the pan to cool to medium heat.

Cut the large steak into thinner strips

The veggies are steamed in a colander over a little water in a saucepan. While this is on the go, you make the Hollandaise sauce. Add the egg yolk, butter, water and lemon juice to a small saucepan. You can use vinegar instead of lemon juice, but then the sauce is called Bearnaise sauce, so I am told. Heat this very slowly while stirring vigorously. The sauce must not be lumpy. I don't have a double cooker, so this is how I prepare the sauce. Take the pan away from the heat if things seem to get too hot. If this sauce boils, you start over. 

By the time the sauce is ready the steak would have rested sufficiently. You now put the steak back in the frying pan and gently fry it to your taste. This may be tricky, as the meat is now sealed and hardly any juice will come out to give an indication of how far it has cooked. The meat will also be quite stiff and my look bloated as a result of the steam trapped inside. Here is where one may add some butter and herbs if you prefer a different flavour. This should not take more that five to eight minutes.

We are still within the restaurant time frame.

Allow the meat to rest again before cutting it into strips. You may need to warm it again slightly if the weather is cold. Or use a heated plate.

Now dish up and enjoy the fruits of your efforts. This dish goes very well with a full bodied red wine and a loved one to make a romantic dinner.



Then, the next day, come tell me all about being a food snob...

Bon Appetit!





Authored by Johan Zietsman

Last updated on 2016-04-06

Poor Man's Roast

Having a small family is sometimes a hindrance to a food blogger. With just the missus and myself, things get tricky when thinking up new ways to prepare food, given the small quantity required.

The normal way around the problem is to invite friends or family over for dinner. However, that avenue has its own dangers, not the least of which is the cost of having a weekly “Come dine with me” episode playing off in your humble abode.

After some thinking and taking into account that I am under orders not to make another stewed dish, I came up with the idea of a slow roast. This one conjures up visions of a piglet, complete with apple in the mouth and so on. My humble budget does not stretch that far and I have this suspicion that most people do not have an oven that big anyway.

So, after some more reasoning, the idea formed that one can make a roast without having to buy a whole leg or shoulder cut. Chops will do if you stack them in a solid pile. One is then able to purchase only enough for the guests in the house, as you can buy chops in individual portions. Having said this, one should realise that the stack of meat  should be sufficiently bulky to resemble a whole shoulder, for example.

In my case I opted for the cheapest lamb or mutton chops I could lay my hands on. Shoulder and leg chops will do just fine. The reasoning is that  the slow roasting process will take care of any toughness anyway.

Having decided on the process and the cuts, the world is open for deciding on the style and flavours. If you have a tagine at hand, that will work brilliantly, the lid keeping the juices inside and allowing for a slow steaming process. I do not own such equipment, so I used a ceramic baking dish of suitable size. The dish has no lid, so I just covered it with some aluminium foil. A cast iron pot or saucepan will also do, as these come with a lid.

That takes care of your cooking utensils.

As for flavours, I decided on a Persian style spicing. I like the spicy flavours, but again I am under orders to prepare some less spicy dishes. This one has a perfumed spicing, very flavourful and quite rich. It goes well with the fatty meat cuts. The recipe is adapted from the book Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour. A welcome birthday present and addition to my library from my son and his fiance.

I was not able to find all the spices listed in the recipe, so I substituted some after some discussion with my local spice merchant. The lime powder was substituted with dried citrus peel.  This dried citrus peel is of my own making, being mandarin orange and satsuma peel that I dried in the oven, then blitzed in the blender.

Edible dried rose petals are also not really a part of the local cuisine, so I substituted rose water, which most larger grocers sell here in South Africa.


Sumac was something new to me, not having heard of it before. It turns out to be ground-up berries of the Anacardiaceae family of plants in the Rhus genus. Check it out on Wikipedia and on the Spice House web site.

This dish was served with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables. I kept the portions medium to small, as the meat came out very rich. You may want to make this dish when the neighbours are all at home; it will count as psychological torture! The  flavours emanating from the kitchen are really something special, as is the taste.

Spice Perfumed Poor Man's Roast

1 kg lamb/mutton shoulder or leg chops
1 heaped tablespoon sumac
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried & ground citrus peel
2 tablespoon rose water
some salt flakes
some cooking oil

Process

Mix the spices thoroughly, then add some oil to make it into a paste. Add the rose water and mix well. The spices will ensure that the rose water/oil mix does not separate. Cut the sinews and fat layers of the chops to stop them from curling up during the cooking process. Coat each piece of meat thoroughly and stack them tightly in the baking dish. Add some salt flakes between layers. Cover the dish with aluminium foil or put the lid on. Allow this to marinate for and hour or so. In this case you have lots of thin layers, so it is possible to overdo the marinating time.


Set the oven to 160°C/320°F and pop the roast in the oven for three to four hours. By this time the meat should be almost falling off the bones. No need to use a knife here, you flake the meat using two forks.

This I served with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables steamed over the boiling potatoes. A simple dish  with lots of flavour and very little work in the kitchen. It gave me time to enjoy a glass or two of red wine with the missus.

Bon appetit!


Authored by Johan Zietsman

Last updated on 2015-07-29

Flavours of Africa: Oxtail And Samp

Winter arrived properly here in the Cape yesterday, along with the associated rain and cold. Today we have had some thunder and lightning already, with heavy clouds over the Helderberg.

Time for a real winter stew.

For a while now I have been thinking of traditional African stews. A search on the internet revealed very few local recipes. Those that are listed vary from having very simple ingredients to some exotic spicy versions.  Mostly the dishes are from outside of Africa.

So I decided to have yet another version. A stew with an East African slant, if you will. This means that there needs to be a hint of the Middle East in there, with some exotic flavours, but not too spicy. Having reasoned thus far, the ingredients started to settle in my mind.


Lots of cumin, smoked paprika, mixed Madagascan pepper, some garlic, a hint of cinnamon, then some sage and coriander leaves at the end. Coarse sea salt. A dollop of soy sauce. Done. To give  this dish an African flavour, I added red kidney beans as well. My reasoning was that the dish will be served with samp, the broken cooked maize kernels that are so traditional in Africa. Mixed samp and beans is quite popular too, but I decided against this as there was beans in the main dish anyway.

Samp is soaked in salt water for two to three hours prior to cooking. The kernels will soak up some water and wash off some starch. This is discarded and fresh water added for the cooking, which also takes one and a half to two hours. At the end the kernels are nicely swollen and quite chewy. To this I added a dollop of fresh cream and a knob of real butter. This makes for a rich creamy flavour to soak up all the juices from the oxtail.

Oxtail tend to be very tough and has lots of fat. You may not want all the fat in your dish, but do not despair. There is no need to cut the fat off, the process will take care of this. The beauty of oxtail is that one cooks the meat to a very gelatinous consistency, giving the dish an almost creamy texture. In this case I patted the meat quite dry, then fried the pieces in butter and cooking oil until it turned a nice toast colour of brown. The meat is done in batches to not have juices soaking up the heat and causing a cooking, rather than frying process.

The meat is then set aside to rest while you prepare the sauce. Discard the contents of the skillet, that is where most of the unwanted fat will be. This leaves the meat less fatty and nicely caramelised on the outside.

There is another angle to this dish: I made it the day before. This allowed the flavours to develop overnight. When cooking with spices, the flavours tend to be on the sharp side as a result of the frying which lets the oils out of the spices. Allowing the dish to rest will get rid of the very sharp essential oils and leave the basic flavours to marry. The meat also gains some texture, as it relaxes and is therefore a bit more tender.

On the cooking process there is much argument and debate. Some people use a pressure cooker, others like me don't. Some people will have the dish on relatively high heat, while others will use only the barest minimum. I follow the slow route. I believe that cooking any meat fast will cause some chemical changes and the meat will turn out like rubber if you are not careful. Also, I am told, the meat needs to be at room temperature before you start cooking or frying, otherwise it may go tough anyway. Oxtail specifically is quite tough and I have had some very rubbery meat served to me on the odd occasion.

Prepare your food with care and your efforts will be rewarded by the flavours.

So here goes.

East African Oxtail And Samp

Ingredients

750 g oxtail at room temperature
1 large onion, chopped
½ green pepper, chopped
½ cup chopped celery sticks
½ cup chopped carrot
½ cup of carrot, cut into sticks
1 small hot chilli, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped and mashed
1 can whole peeled or chopped tomatoes
2 medium sized fresh tomatoes
1 sachet tomato paste
1 can red kidney beans
some coarse sea salt
some freshly ground pepper
30 ml soy sauce
1 cup strong beef stock
4 bay leaves
small piece of cinnamon bark
3 teaspoons ground cumin
1 heaped teaspoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon coriander seeds
small sprig of fresh sage
sprig of fresh coriander leaves
50g butter
oil for frying
1½ cups dry samp

Process

For the oxtail

Heat up a knob of butter and a dollop of oil in a skillet. Fry the pieces of oxtail until they are nice and brown outside. Fry them in batches if needs be. They must be brown, not grey.  Set them aside to rest. Discard the juices from the skillet.

The sauce is started by heating up some butter and oil in your saucepan. Fry the onions, green pepper, celery and carrot until the onion is translucent. Add the garlic, chilli and the coriander seeds and fry for another twenty seconds. Now add all the tomato and the rest of the dry spices. Add the dollop of soy sauce and the beef stock. Bring this lot to the boil, then add the meat back in. Ensure that the meat is covered in the sauce. Add some water if necessary.

Turn the heat down and allow the dish to simmer for three hours. Then turn the heat off and allow the dish to rest overnight.

On day two,  bring the dish to the boil and add the carrot sticks,some chopped coriander leaves and the chopped sage leaves. Allow to simmer for another one and a half to two hours, then add the beans. Wash the beans of its juice before adding it to the dish, this will probably cause the dish to burn. You don't want that at this stage of the proceedings.  The sauce may be allowed to reduce some at this stage, making for a thicker sauce. Check for the saltiness after the beans have been added. The meat should be falling off the bones by this time.

Bring to the boil, then turn the flame off and allow the dish to rest again for fifteen minutes.

For the samp

Soak the samp for two hours in salty water. Drain the starchy water and replace with fresh water. Add some salt, then bring to the boil and boil slowly for two hours or until the maize kernels are nicely puffed and chewy. Drain the excess water and add a good helping of butter and two to three dessert-spoons of cream. Mix this thoroughly. The result should be a very rich smelling and creamy tasting chewy maize dish.

Now dish up. This dish goes well with a full bodied red wine and good company.

Bon appetit!




Authored by Johan Zietsman

Last updated on 2015-06-24

Boeuf Bourgoignon a la Mode

It has been a while since my last venture into cooking for fun. The recent adventure of sailing a boat from the Seychelles to Gordon's Bay left me with hardly any energy to experiment. Besides, I had to do most of the cooking on board.

But now it is time for having some fun in the kitchen.

It is still winter here in Cape Town and surrounds, so the choice fell on a stew of some description. I searched at length on the internet for some ideas. Perhaps wading through a quagmire of recipes would be a better description. After some random reading, I decided that some experimentation would be in order.

Some recipes require the meat to marinate in wine and herbs for a long time. Especially the French versions. Italian versions cook the meat in copious amounts of tomatoes and tomato paste. All of the recipes, including the Thai and other eastern versions, have lots of garlic. I came across a recipe that requires twenty, yes numerals two zero, knobs of garlic. The mind boggles.


Having learnt a thing or two about getting flavour into a dish, it was clear that the process dominates the flavour. You certainly don't want to make a concoction of herbs and chemicals to obtain flavour.

I am also not partial about cooking with wine, preferring soy sauce. It is either wine or soy sauce, the two flavours clash. And then, in true Banting fashion, I started cooking extensively with real butter. Butter imparts a wonderful flavour and I like to think that the butter adds some fat to the dish, making it nice and rich. In addition, butter makes the meat and onions go brown.

So the choice fell on a French style beef stew, rich in gravy. And I called it Boeuf Bourgoignon a la Mode because it is made in a fashion of cooking that I like and, perhaps, to appease the French culinary purists.

Ingredients

750 g beef shin or chuck
250g fatty bacon
4 knobs garlic coarsely chopped
1 medium to large onion, coarsely chopped
4 fresh tomatoes, coarsely chopped
½ sweet bell pepper
1 small carrot diced
3 medium carrots in coarse wheels
3 shallots, coarsely chopped. Use the green leafy parts as garnish
1 cup mushrooms, button size or coarsely chopped
1 small can tomato paste
50 ml soy sauce (a largish dash, I suppose)
½ cup of flour
Pepper to taste
small sprig fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon dried parsley or a sprig of fresh parsley
1 teaspoon thyme or a sprig
1 dried Thai chilli, chopped
water
150g butter
some cooking oil

Process

The process here provides the stock part of the dish, so no additional stock is required. Start by getting the butter nicely melted and up to a decent hot temperature. While this is happening, cut the meat into cubes, keeping bones if any. Dry the meat diligently, then dust lightly with the flour. This will make the meat go brown. If there is any water in there, the meat will stay a dull grey colour.

First fry the bacon until crisp, then remove it from the pan. Try to keep as much of the juices as possible in the pan. Do the frying in batches if necessary. After the bacon, the meat gets fried until a nice dark brown.

There will be an accumulation of caramelised meat and flour on the bottom of the pan. Leave it there, that will become the stock for the dish. Again, do it batches if necessary. Remove the meat from the pan when done.


Next comes the onions, sweet pepper and the diced carrot. There should be a decent amount of fat in the pan. If it looks a bit dry, add some more butter. Fry the onions, pepper and carrot until they are a light brown, then add the chilli and garlic. Fry these for fifteen seconds, then add all the meat and the fresh herbs. Add the tomatoes now.

Also add the soy sauce at this stage, then add enough water to cover the ingredients. Bring the dish to the boil, then set the gas to the lowest setting, put the lid on, sit back and relax. Drink some wine.

The dish now has to simmer for at least one hour. Stir often with an egg lifter to help the crust come off the bottom of the pan and into the dish. You will notice that the sauce thickens on its own. This is good. Top up the water as the dish goes dry, you don't want it to burn. After an hour the meat should start to go tender.

When the meat is almost done, add the mushrooms,the shallots and the tomato paste. Simmer for another fifteen minutes or so, then remove the pot from the heat. Then start with the mash and veggies to accompany the dish. This will allow the dish to repose. That is a fancy word for letting the dish rest and develop flavour.

I use copious amounts of butter in the mashed potatoes, along with milk, salt, freshly ground pepper and some chopped parsley. Don't go overboard, though. This is supposed to accompany the main dish, not overpower it.

This dish is not really spicy, therefore it will go with a nice full-bodied red wine. This time around you get to drink the wine, not eating it as part of the dish!

Bon appetit!



Authored by Johan Zietsman

Last updated on 2014-08-26

Winter Weather Food: Traditional Groenboontjie Bredie

Perhaps better described as green bean stew for my friends overseas. But something is lost in the translation, methinks. The Afrikaans language just has that extra ring to it.

Most of us grew up with some version of this dish. Cubed meat, some tomatoes and green beans. It is one of those dishes that warms the cockles of your heart on a cold, stormy Cape winter day. The sauce part of it should be quite thick, otherwise you end up with a modified soup. Not what I would recommend.

But that is my idea of what the dish should be like. Slowly simmered, the meat will fall to pieces. And the flavors will be enhanced by the caramelized onion and meat bits on the bottom of the saucepan.


In my younger days these traditional stewed dishes used to be made from meat that was quite fatty. I like the fat, but tend to trim it to some reasonable level. You don't want the fat to set in a half inch thick layer on top. I also  like to add the odd marrow bone. I rather like the flavors so imparted.

Both beef and mutton will do for this dish. You don't need the most expensive cuts as you will be cooking the meat for a long time anyway, until it goes soft like marrow. By this time the sauce should be quite nice and thick too.

Just what you want on a cold winter's evening.

Green beans may not be in season. You may substitute with any other green hard vegetables. I just closed my eyes and bought beans at an exorbitant price. I also added a can of sugar beans that I washed before adding them. The sauce is thick enough. You can also add some mushrooms towards the end. My missus put her foot down on this one, so I bowed to her tastes for this one.

Mushrooms go well with a chicken version, along with broccoli and cauliflower.

I prefer to use the whole peeled canned tomatoes as opposed to the chopped tomatoes. The whole peeled ones cook to a thick sauce, while the chopped version doesn't. The whole peeled tomatoes give a thick and creamy consistency to the sauce.


Add a little sugar if the sauce seems too tangy. It may be the tomatoes coming through too strongly. And add some good quality beef stock. Beef tends to be on the dry side. The stock will help to make the sauce creamier.

This dish is the simplicity itself in terms of ingredients. The process is not intricate either. There is only a sequence of adding ingredients. That's it. Done and dusted.

This dish goes well with rice. Any rice. Use Basmati rice on a special occasion. The dish will go  well with couscous too.

Here goes.

Ingredients

500 g mutton or stewing beef, medium fat, cubed
400 g green beans cut French style
1 can (400 g) whole peeled tomatoes
1 sachet tomato puree or -paste
1 can sugar beans, drained and washed
2 medium potatoes
1 medium onion
1 small hot chili
1-2 cloves garlic, mashed
some butter for frying
some oil for frying
some soy sauce
some water
1 cup beef stock. I used 2 generous teaspoons of stock powder
salt and pepper to taste
some origanum for garnish

Process

Heat the butter in the saucepan. Add the onions and fry until translucent to golden brown. Add the garlic and chili and fry for fifteen seconds. Add the meat and a dollop of oil. This will prevent the butter from overheating.

Fry the meat until brown, then add a dollop of soy sauce. This provides flavour and some salt. Add the can of tomatoes and the tomato paste. Stir well and reduce the heat to minimum. The dish must now simmer until the meat is tender. Add some water if required.

When the meat is tender, add the potatoes. I cut them quite thin, then they cook quickly. Add the beans when the potatoes start to get soft. The beans are already cooked, so they only need to warm up and absorb some flavour. You may add mushrooms at this stage if you so choose.

Add the origanum, salt and pepper to taste. Douse the flame and allow the dish to repose. The meat should be quite tender now, falling to pieces.

Meanwhile cook the rice.

Then dish up.

Bon appetit!


Authored by Johan Zietsman

Last updated on 2014-05-27

Fast Boat Food: Kebab Cheat

This is one of those ideas that  comes to mind when sailing out there and you start feeling hungry. Once you have consumed your two or three sarmies (South African for sandwiches), you tend to start dreaming about something more substantial.

"The heat of the day when the fish won't bite," as the famous song goes. Listen to the ocean, it soothes you and helps you to dream up some more recipes!

Enter the very South African tradition of a braai on board. Most small yachts I have sailed on either have a braai, a grill, an oven or combination of the above. And mostly, when an impromptu braai is on hand, out comes the boerewors. A kind of rustic thick beef and pork sausage, flavoured with salt, pepper and coriander, perhaps some other spices. A delicious meat product which is easy to barbecue. Add to this some veggies and you have a substantial meal.

However, my friend Zirkie Schroeder, blogging as Pink Polkadot Food has a card up her sleeve. She made a kebab (sosatie) using boerewors and some vegetables on hand.

The result is history. Check it out here. A delicious meal in handheld form. Not messy and easy to prepare.

Bon appetit!




Authored by Johan Zietsman.

Thanks to Zirkie Schroeder at Pink Polkadot Food

Compiled for the GBYC newsletter.

Last updated on 2013-08-13

  

The Lamb Shanks in the Cyberstudio

This week I had the most interesting experience and a very large compliment to boot.

Upon my arrival home from a journey on family matters, I received an email requesting a recipe, bio and so on, as input to feature my blog and recipes on Radio Sonder Grense, the national Afrikaans medium broadcaster in South Africa.

And the request came from none other than Nina Timm, intrepid cook, food blogger, mother. The list seems endless. Her blog goes by the name of My Easy Cooking.

Well, after catching my breath, I found a simple recipe that suited the winter weather here in Cape Town. A lamb shank stew. One that we have made at home regularly, that I know works well. No use in showcasing a recipe that is prone to failure!

The recipe and other info was duly submitted and the arrangements made for the interview.

Now this is where the cyberstudio part comes into play. Nina asked me to be in a place where one would hear the wind and the sea, since she was interviewing the Hungry Sailor. Part of the scenery, so to speak. So I decided to go and sit on the Gordon's Bay Yacht Club roof deck. A vantage point second to none with a beautiful view.

Working in a cyberstudio means that you do not really have to sit in a stuffy study at home!

The interview went without a hitch and Nina prepared the lamb shanks using my recipe and in a fashion that I am humbled by the presentation!

Read more about this event on her blog.

This blog post authored by Johan Zietsman.

Last updated on 2013-06-18

Cold Weather Bean Stew

It has been a while since my last affray into the kitchen. I have been working on boats since.

I don't own a boat. I am perhaps now learning more, by working  and sailing on other people's boats, than I would have by owning and sailing my own boat. A more diverse experience.

And it is not costing me real money. A little for diesel here, a snack or two there, perhaps a spare or two of something. Definitely my time. A large portion of it.

And the real value is in the learning. Learning about the vagaries of boats, the cost of ownership and each boat's idiosyncrasies. Yes, it is true. Every boat has her own character and whims. You learn it very fast when going sailing.

Perhaps it is the same with cooking. Every cook has his or her own ideas about cooking. Very few people I know stick strictly to recipes. Which is why one gets such a rich variation in the flavours and character of the same dish prepared by different people.

This morning I had a very interesting conversation with a kindred spirit in another, but overlapping dimension. You could think that you have warped into another world, very much like Douglas Adams' galactic hitchhiker.

And it was a simple question that caused the warp. The question was whether I was planning to make dishes from elsewhere in the world. Which really set me thinking about what I am doing. Is it of interest to people halfway around the world living in a different culture? Am I too South African in my approach?

In the end the answer was really simple, in two ways. 

We here in South Africa have the advantage of a culinary environment born of a fusion of Far Eastern and European cooking. Add in the influence from within Africa itself and you are left with a very rich heritage which overlaps with most of the world's cooking.

Then, to top it all, we have the internet which makes the world very small indeed. Nowadays not even language is a barrier any more, since we have automatic on-line translators. Thus I have friends in the cooking field from as far afield as the USA, England, France, Spain, Brazil, India, Japan, China, Greece and Russia, to name but a few.

My biggest problem in preparing a new version of a dish or just the standard version, is in the fresh ingredients. We simply cannot obtain some of the ingredients here.

I would give much to be able to travel to faraway places, buy fresh produce at the market and prepare a dish or two in their local style, adapted to my whims. Perhaps, one day I shall pack up and go cruising in this fashion.

For today, I shall be sticking with a bean stew. Something to make in a single pot, using meat easily obtainable in my neck of the woods. 

Stock in the making

For the record, this can be looked at as a cowboy stew if you live in the USA, or a cassoulet when in France, or a bean 'poi kee' if you live down under amongst the other South African expats.

The meat gets cut into cubes, the sausage into wheels and the smoked pork belly into thick slices.

I am using ostrich meat and dry beans as a test. I have made this dish before using canned beans and it worked a treat, no pun intended. And this one is really good for a cold weather spell on board. Easy to make and it will keep the crew warmed and energetic for a good while.

There is a caveat. As always. I used a flat shape cast iron casserole. Not the right tool for the job. Use a deep pot, as for soup. The beans need a lot of heat, even though not too high. A flat casserole simply does not concentrate the heat sufficiently. 

Other than that, remember to soak and/or pre-boil the dry beans for a long time, preferably overnight, lest you are left with a semi raw dish at dinner time. And if you want to do this on board, use canned beans, they are a lot less hassle on a boat.

This one came out right, the beans a bit too raw when I wanted to dish up, so we had a very late dinner. But the flavour was excellent, just like the first one. Very easy to make, no stock required at all, the process makes its own stock. Ensure that you cook this dish until everything becomes mushy and amorphous, almost like thick soup.

Ingredients

500 g cubed meat. I used ostrich

100g chourizo, sliced into wheels

100g smoked pork bacon, sliced into thickish slices

250g dry broad beans, soaked, preferably overnight

250g  dry sugar beans, soaked, preferably overnight

1 can peeled and chopped tomatoes

3 small fresh tomatoes, chopped

1 hot chilli, finely chopped

2 medium onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped and mashed

small sprig of rosemary

½ cup fresh coriander, chopped

3 sprigs spring onions, coarsely chopped for garnish

some salt

some pepper to taste

1 l water, as required

Process

Fry the meat in turns in a dry pan. Start with the bacon, then the chourizo, then the cubed meat. At the end of this the meat should be all browned, sitting pretty on the sideline cooking in their own juices while you are doing the rest of the frying. In the pot there should be a layer of fat and some scorching.

Now add the onions to the pot and fry them until they get brown. This will be quick, as they will pick up the scorched meat from the bottom. Add the chillies and garlic and fry these for 30 seconds, then add the can of tomatoes and the freshly chopped tomatoes. Turn the heat down and get these to simmer until everything is cooking nicely, then add the beans and some water.

The heat can be turned down to a level where the pot is just simmering away happily, not too fast. Pay attention to the water level and ensure that the food does not stick to the bottom and burn. Keep adding water as required to keep a thickish consistency.

Add the meat back towards the end, when the beans all start going mushy. Add the chopped corainder, rosemary and spring onions and stir through.

Allow the dish time to repose. That is 'rest' for those of us not of Spanish persuation. Twenty minutes would be getting there. Overnight is better, but I suppose that this dish would be for dinner tonight, not tomorrow night.

Serve on a bed of rice.

Bon appetit!

Authored by Johan Zietsman

This blog post specifically compiled for the GBYC newsletter.

Last updated on 2013-06-06

Flavours of South Africa: Bobotie

Being part of a large blogging community has some interesting side effects. One of them being the greater awareness of what goes on around the world in terms of culinary arts, if you will.

You also get ideas about the mood of the month and what is fashionable or not. I am also a member of the Flavors of the World community on Google+. This is quite interesting from a historical perspective, as South African cuisine is a fusion of flavors from the Far East, East Africa and Europe.

This is a result of the closure of the overland silk and spice route through the Middle East and Constantinople (now Istanbul) around the early 1400's. This led to the opening of the spice and tea route around the southern tip of Africa and the eventual establishment of the victualing station at Cape Town. Which led to my being a white African, so to speak. But that is another story.

The resulting food is quite delicious and flavourful, known as the Cape Malay style of cooking. This style of cooking is kept alive by the very colourful Cape Malay people in and around Cape Town. And the rest of South Africa as well, especially for a dish like bobotie.

Pronounced boh-boo-ti. “Boh” as in “bottom,” “boo” as in “booty,” “ti” as in a short cuppa. Close enough phonetics, I think.

The dish originally was made using minced lamb, which is relatively scarce or unobtainable. Unless you mince your own leg of lamb, of course. Lean ground beef works as well. Bobotie is a baked dish, consisting of spiced minced meat, covered in an egg custard. The flavour is on the sweet side and may be made mild to quite spicy. It is usually served with yellow rice with raisins as a very traditional South African dish. It is quite easy to prepare and well worth the little effort for the exquisite result. It took me longer to do this write-up than to prepare the dish, bar the baking.

The dish will go well with a fruity dry white wine, perhaps even slightly off-dry, depending on the spiciness of your specific version of bobotie. I normally have a light red wine with meals like this, where the South African Pinotage variety is the wine of choice.

I used fresh masala paste instead of the garlic and chilli. There is also some chopped up dried apricots to add to the sweet and tangy taste. Don't fret if you don't have chutney, just use a little more apricot jam and chilli. Or just a little more chopped up dried fruit. The vinegar and other spices will do the trick just fine. Or add some raisins.

I only used the freshly toasted almonds and chopped dried apricots. The result was outstanding. Toasting the dry almonds strengthens their flavour by a large margin, so you can use less, lest the nutty flavour dominates the rest of the spices. The bay/ lemon leaves I substituted with dried curry leaves.

This recipe will be enough for about four to six servings, depending on who dishes up!

Ingredients

500 g lean ground beef

1 thick slice bread/ 2 normal slices

2 large eggs

1 cup milk

1 onion, chopped

1-2 cloves fresh garlic, chopped and minced

15 ml curry powder of choice

15 ml turmeric

15 ml apricot jam

15 ml chutney

5 ml of brown vinegar or lemon juice

5 ml Worcestershire sauce if you feel like more flavour.

50 ml almonds, preferably freshly roasted, then chopped/mashed finely.

50 ml seedless raisins. I substituted 50 ml dried apricots, chopped finely.

some salt to taste.

8-10 lemon leaves or bay leaves.

  

 Process

Chop the bread into small cubes/large crumbs and soak it in the milk. Toast the almonds whole in a dry pan. When they are brown, mash them into coarse crumbs. Squeeze the milk from the bread and keep the milk, add the soaked bread to the meat. Add the chopped apricots, the almond crumbs and all the wet ingredients, except the milk and eggs. Mix this thoroughly.

Rather use less of the vinegar, chutney and apricot jam than more, as these may dominate the other flavours.

Fry the chopped onions until they start to caramelise. Add the garlic and fry until the garlic is also done. Add the dry powder curry and the turmeric and fry for 10 seconds, then add the meat mix to the pan and fry until the meat is done. The meat will turn a nice brown if you used duck fat instead of cooking oil for the frying.

Whisk the two eggs into the milk. Add a little more milk if required. You need about 1 to 1½ cups of the egg mix. Spread the meat in a shallow oven proof dish and arrange the bay leaves/ curry leaves/ lemon leaves in the meat. Pour over the egg mix, then bake this at 180ºC / 350ºF for twenty minutes or until the egg custard has turned a nice light brown in spots.

Remove the dish from the oven and let it rest for another twenty minutes to develop flavour. Or switch off the oven and leave the dish inside for another fifteen minutes.

You can remove the leaves before serving, but it is rather nice to lick them off during the course of your meal...

Serve with yellow turmeric rice.

Bon appetit!

Authored by Johan Zietsman

Adapted from this recipe.

Last updated on 2013-04-29