Pretoria - It is the diversity of our dinner tables that brings such richness to our cuisine traditions.
Here are three of the latest cookery books from women who cook from their hearts and their hearth to bring happiness to those who long for that kind of nostalgia but also introduce new depth for those not familiar with these flavours.
Malay taste at root of many a dish
A Life With Food (R249.99)
By: Cass Abrahams and Marike Bekker
Published by: Lapa
Someone in the food world said to me recently they don’t want any more cookery books with only recipes; they want the full story.
That’s the way these days. If you really want to make your mark in a densely overpopulated field, simply presenting good food isn’t good enough. There’s just too much of that around. But write a book about your food story and then introduce some recipes to illustrate what in this instance is Abrahams’s cultural cuisine, you have yourself a deal.
Anyone who knows anything about food in this country will know the name Cass Abrahams. She has done much to promote Cape Malay food and is probably the go-to person if anyone wants to know anything in this particular field.
It is all about food but it is also the way she captures the life - heart and soul - of a family who tried to be normal and live real lives in an abnormal society. Many who haven’t taken a seat on that side of the table sigh at the thought, but the thing about these amazing stories is that they remind each one of us about the miracle of this country, the way some lived while others were picking all the fruits and how we need to live in a world that is equitable and gives everyone a chance to dream.
It starts with the Abrahams mother and father and how they made a life for their children that would lay the strong foundation to carry them through their extraordinary lives. But part of the story is also the pictures.
It’s a time long before digital and the pictures capture a world that is forgotten, one of family power, of togetherness, of the way people came together to celebrate any special occasion. The food was good, full of flavour and rich with texture and any reason was good enough to turn a meal into a feast especially when the world is such a cold and heartless place. From butter chicken to beef satays with peanut sauce, coconut tartlets to brawn, braai chops with a deninngvleis sauce, Mariam Baderoon’s bollas to pilchard fish cakes, there’s no doubt that even though this is Malay cuisine, there’s a South African heart that beats loudly.
Speaking about Muslims and the way the perception has changed in this violent world of ours today, she underlines: “We are all South Africans - and our food proves it!”
She’s right and often it is the richness of the many cuisines in this country that have all influenced one another that conjures up such memories and nostalgia when we talk about food. No more so than Cape Malay which is the one cuisine which stands arguably strongest and in many minds introduced flavour into our lives. That more than anything is what Cass Abrahams brings to our table, a richness of flavour which is all about family and food.
If you’re looking for something that sings the South African story with pride and passion and tells a story of survival at any cost, this is it. And we need those now - shouted from the rooftops!
That’s exactly what Abrahams and her family stand for - lives led with honour and passion and passed round as often as possible.
A heartfelt recipe
My Little Black Recipe Book (R235)
By Siphokazi Mdlankomo
Published by Metz Books
Anyone who watches the local Masterchef series will remember this ray of sunshine. “Cooking is her life,” she says on the cover of the book. That was easy to see as you watched her operate in the Masterchef kitchens. She had been given an opportunity and was going to grab it with as much vigour and vitality as possible.
Raised in a small village in the Eastern Cape, she was hugely admired for her natural culinary talents and instincts as well as her confident personality determined to face and fight off any odds.
So this book comes as no surprise. In fact, publishers would have been silly not to grab it. This is one where she shares her favourite recipes from simple scones and ginger beer taught to her by her mom to mouthwatering braised oxtail, cinnamon cream pears and other dishes she developed during her Masterchef stint as well as following the competition with her newfound knowledge.
Her range is also a wide one because of her background as well as her initiation, cooking for a family - not her own - as a living. Her strengths are her flavours but also the fact that her whole being is grounded in this land. That’s what she loves and knows.
As one of nine kids in a single-mother household (four siblings and four of her mom’s sister’s kids) yet never going without food, that’s where she learnt the most about the kitchen and food. From cultivating a vegetable garden (something her mother still does) to baking in a three-legged pot because they didn’t have a stove.
That’s what makes this such an fascinating book because for many who feature cookbooks on their book shelves, this will come from a very different yet authentically South African place.
That’s a story all on its own, something we all understand as citizens of this land and it is our biggest strength, our diversity. Her first job was for the Andreasen family, a Jewish family who live in Bantry Bay.
She’s still with them many years later and many of her opportunities are ascribed to them. “They turned this rural girl into a coconut and I’m loving it,” she says. These are the words of someone who embraces the world as it comes rolling towards her.
Every opportunity is there for the taking and while she adopts the new, she holds on as strongly to the old. And as she says so enthusiastically, this one is for domestic workers and to show them that everything is possible. “If I can do it, so can you!”
From the most appetising looking sticky cinnamon bun, arancini balls, potato gnocchi with sage and bacon sauce, brinjal parmigiana olive and caper mash, some stock standard stocks to prawn and pasta parcels, Beef Wellington, tempura veggies and prawns with sweet chilli dipping sauce to something extraordinary for the sweet tooth including decadent looking chocolate parfait, comfy ginger malva pud, a chocolate torte and of course those scones that she was taught in her mom’s kitchen. She reaches far and wide which turns this into something that’s both handy for beginners and for those further developed in their kitchen skills.
It is all about her warmth and passion which seems to run through her food. How can one resist that?
The book is beautifully packaged with thought and care to represent her personality, the pictures are exquisite but more than that it feels like a book with heart because this is a cook with a heartfelt story to tell.
Traditional twist
Simply Delicious (R225)
By Zola Nene
Published by Struik Lifestyle
Nene explains the book herself and for those who don’t know, Express’s resident chef, says: “Food has always been a huge part of my life; important occasions were always marked with a feast of some sort. The book chronicles my food journey thus far - how it started and what shaped me into the chef I am today.”
She speaks through her food - it is all about her choice of dishes which she explores through the people who played a role in her development and who mentored her.
She also explains her culinary choices so that you become more familiar with the person who is showing you how and what to eat and how to cook it.
She spent two years in the UK where she worked in a brasserie in Cheshire and when she returned, she enrolled at Leticia Prinsloo’s Institute of Culinary Arts in Stellenbosch where she worked with chefs like Margot Janse and Chris Erasmus of Pierneef at La Motte.
Her food philosophy is a simple one. She cooks for everyone. Food is her conversation and with what she describes as easy-to-follow instructions, she promises results.
Her roots show up in recipes that she says is her version of pap, sausage and sauce, called pap lasagne, her momâ??s potato salad and coleslaw which is always part of her family dinner table and which are best accompanied by her dad’s braaied lamb chops. She still feels they do it best.
Mealie and sugar bean soup, lamb curry, and her version of roasted sweet potatoes which she serves with a blue cheese dip all fall into this category but she adds some culinary chutzpah to them. In days gone by, when the family savoured the sweet potatoes her grandparents grew in Durban, the texture was denser than now.
To simply boil them as they did then, today’s version of the same thing just tastes bland.
Her range reaches wide. From Croque Madame which she first made when eight years old to Amagwinya (which of course is vetkoek) which she loves best when eaten still steaming hot or cooled down with apricot jam and cheese.
Mealie pot breads served enticingly with curry butter is another from hearth and home and one of the first memories she has of baking with her grandmother. In fact, she remembers starting with the mealies and grinding them for the baking to follow. Now you can just get them from a tin!
Her family is truly her inspiration and she’s very clear about that. But they’re an individual bunch and her mom, who was the one probably most influential in her daughter’s food development, made sure that variety was at the essence of her food repertoire.
That’s especially what Nene explores with her comfort food, which she picked up while travelling and working in foreign kitchens. Then her studies taught her all of the techniques and laid the foundation for her food career. It’s a colourful mix.
Inspired by her parents and their family table to walk the walk, they were also her support and encouragement. Small wonder she turns to that kitchen when she has to find heart.
This is just the beginning and there’s lots more to come from this passionate chef. The best thing is that she knows this, which makes this first book all about nostalgia and memories.
Pretoria News