Recipes
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa
South Africa is a country with many cultural traditions contributing to a varied cuisine. In addition to the traditional African cuisines, there have been Dutch, British, Indian, Portuguese, Chinese, Indonesian and Malaysian contributions to the table. The following two dishes have their roots in the work of Malay and Dutch cooks. There are many resources for South African recipes, including
The Africa News Cookbook: African Cooking for Western Kitchens (Penguin Books, 1985).
Rusks
Makes about 2 dozen
Rusks are hard dry biscuits that would not spoil in a hot climate. Rusks are now eaten all over South Africa as a snack, dipped in coffee, tea or milk.
| 2 cups unbleached white flour |
1/2 cup melted butter |
| 2 cups whole wheat flour (coarsely ground best) |
2 eggs |
| 1/3 cup sugar |
3/4 cup buttermilk |
| 1/2 teaspoon salt |
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract |
| 2 teaspoons baking powder |
2 teaspoons pure almond extract |
| 1 teaspoon cinnamon |
|
Preheat oven to 400F.
In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly mix the dry ingredients. Combine all the wet ingredients, pour them into the dry ingredients, and stir until you have a soft dough, similar to biscuit dough.
Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface and roll or pat it to about a 1/2-inch thickness. Cut the dough into rectangles about 2 x 4 inches.
Bake the rusks about 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets for about 25 minutes until the tops are crisp and browning a little. Remove from oven and sample a couple of warm soft rusks!
Reduce heat in oven to 200F. Loosely pile the rusks on a baking sheet and keep them in at 200EF all day or all night (about 12 hours) to dry. The finished rusks should be very dry and hard. Cool and store in an airtight container. Rusks will keep for weeks.
Variations: Oatmeal-raisin - reduce white flour to 1-1/2 cups and add 2 cups rolled oats and 1/2 cup currents or chopped raisins; Almond - Add 1 cup chopped almond and omit the cinnamon; Peanut - Add 1 cup coarsely chopped peanuts; Anise - omit cinnamon and almond extract and add 2 teaspoons anise extract.
Recipe from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant by the Moosewood Collective, Simon & Schuster, 1990, pp. 44-45. |
Bobotie
Serves 4
There are many versions of this dish, including a vegetarian one in Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant.
| 1 pound lean ground beef or lamb |
juice of one lemon |
| 1 slice bread |
1/2 cup almonds, halved and lightly toasted |
| 1-1/2 cups milk |
1 cup chopped dried apricots |
| 2 eggs |
1/2 cup raisins |
| 2 tablespoons margarine |
2 bay leaves |
| 1 medium onion, chopped |
2 tablespoons chutney |
| 1 to 2 teaspoons mild curry powder |
salt and pepper to taste |
Preheat oven to 325F.
First, in a mixing bowl soak the slice of bread in the milk for 30 minutes. Then take it out and squeeze the milk into the bowl. Set the bread aside. Now beat the eggs into the milk.
When this is done, melt the margarine in a frying pan and saute the onion until golden.
While that is cooking, mix the meat in a bowl with the bread, curry powder, lemon juice, almonds, apricots, raisins, bay leaves, chutney and salt and pepper.
Pour in half the egg mixture and the onion and mix it well.
Spoon the meat mixture into a shallow greased oven-proof dish and smooth the top. Pour on the rest of the egg mixture and bake for about an hour, until the topping sets and the meat is thoroughly cooked.
Serve with rice and a cucumber salad.
Recipe from The New Internationalist Food Book by Troth Wells, Second Story press, 1995, p. 7. |