Cooks show that local is lekker - recipes

Published Mar 10, 2016

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Angela Day reviews two books by two cooks who have become household names in South Africa.

 

Siphokazi Mdlankomo, 39, captured the hearts of South Africans during the third season of MasterChef SA.

The Cape Town domestic worker cooked her way to the finals, and although she didn’t win the title, her life was changed by the exposure.

Siphokazi grew up in the Eastern Cape, and after passing matric, she moved to Cape Town, where she got a job as a domestic worker with a family in Bantry Bay.

Here her talent for cooking and baking was nurtured, and she was exposed to a world of different ingredients and cultures.

When Mdlankomo decided to enter the MasterChef competition, her employers supported her all the way.

She has just released her first cookbook, a collection of family recipes as well as ones she developed during her time on MasterChef.

There are recipes for soups and starters, main course dishes, desserts and baking.

I love that the recipes are all uncomplicated, using accessible ingredients, and they would go down as a treat served at family meals.

You can look forward to preparing recipes like chicken and chorizo cassoulet, garlic and sage roasted pork belly, roasted red pepper and tomato soup, African-style tripe with trendy pap, ginger malva pudding, and a delectable chocolate torte, to mention just a few from the book.

Here are two recipes from My Little Black Recipe Book:

 

Buttermilk waffles

Serves 4-6

200g cake flour

25ml castor sugar

10ml baking powder

5ml bicarbonate of soda

pinch of salt

400ml buttermilk

100g butter

10ml vanilla extract

2 eggs, separated

Preheat the waffle maker.

Place the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a food processor and process to mix.

In a jug, combine the buttermilk, butter, vanilla extract and egg yolks.

Pour in and process until just blended.

In a clean, large bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, and fold into the batter with a metal spoon.

Spoon a small ladle full of batter onto the hot iron and spread almost to the edge.

Close the lid and bake until golden.

Serve immediately with maple syrup, jam, fresh fruit, cream or ice cream.

 

Baked kingklip wrapped in Parma ham

Serves 4

80g butter, softened

30ml fresh parsley, chopped

10ml fresh chives, chopped

10ml lemon zest

600g kingklip, skin removed and cut into 2 fillets

salt and pepper

8 slices Parma ham

5 pieces cotton string

1 lemon, quartered

Preheat the oven to 200degC. Mix the butter, herbs and lemon zest.

Spread the butter mixture over one fillet (keeping a little to spread over the top), then place the other fillet on top, making a sandwich.

Season the fish with salt and pepper and wrap it in the Parma ham slices.

Use the pieces of string to securely tie the fillets and ham. Spread the remaining butter over the fish.

Squeeze some lemon juice over the fish and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Serve with creamed spinach and potato wedges.

 

Zola Nene, the chef on the TV show Expresso, credits her mom for her love of cooking.

“My mother taught me what it means to feed people and to derive joy from that,” she says.

After a two-year stint working in London, she returned home and studied at the Institute of Culinary Art in Stellenbosch. She then worked for a catering company in Joburg before moving to Expresso.

Nene derives her inspiration from having worked with some amazing local chefs, such as Chris Erasmus and Margot Janse.

This is her first book and is a collection of her favourite recipes.

The chapter on Nostalgic Nibbles focuses on the food she grew up eating and favourite recipes from her mother and grandmother.

Scrumptious Scholar Days is filled with recipes from her home-economics school days, where she began to develop her culinary skills.

In Finding my Foodie Feet in a Foreign Country, the recipes are the ones Nene cooked while working overseas.

Tricks of the Trade has recipes inspired by her interactions with local chefs.

Nene has been able to travel extensively, and the book includes recipes from Norway, Thailand and India.

All the recipes have been beautifully styled by her, and look mouthwatering.

There are lots of easy, basic recipes, as well as more challenging ones for experienced cooks.

Here are two recipes from her book Simply Delicious to try:

 

Som tam

Serves 4

2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

2 fresh red chillies, roughly chopped

30ml palm sugar

30ml Thai fish sauce

60ml lime juice

8 cherry tomatoes, halved

2 carrots, peeled and julienned

1 green paw paw (or medium cucumber), peeled, deseeded and julienned

100g peanuts, roasted

In a pestle and mortar, pound the garlic cloves until fine. Add the chillies and press gently to release their heat.

Mix in the sugar, fish sauce and lime juice.

Add the tomatoes and pound lightly – taste for balance, you may need to add more sugar, lime juice or fish sauce according to your taste.

Place the carrots and paw paw (or cucumber) in a serving dish and pour over the dressing.

Toss and serve with the roasted peanuts.

 

Boerie roll

Serves 4

365g bread flour

5ml salt

15ml white sugar

10g instant dry yeast

about 375ml warm water

30ml olive oil

1 onion, sliced

250ml tomato sauce

30ml wholegrain mustard

about 800g thick boerewors

1 large egg, beaten

Mix the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a bowl and stir in enough warm water to form a soft dough. Transfer on to a floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes, adding more flour if necessary. The dough should be smooth and springy to the touch. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm and a tea towel, and leave in a warm place for about an hour to rise until doubled in size.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the onion until golden.

Mix in the tomato sauce and mustard and remove from the heat.

Remove the sausage meat from the boerewors casing, keeping the sausage shape intact. Cut the sausage in half and then squeeze together the two halves to create a shorter, thicker length of boerewors. Preheat the oven to 180degC and grease a baking tray.

Place the risen dough on a floured surface, knock it down to remove all the air bubbles, then flatten and roll the dough into a thin rectangle as long as the length of boerewors and about 10cm wide.

Spread the onion mixture onto the dough and place the boerewors lengthways on top.

Roll up to encase the boerewors in the dough and then roll into a very loose spiral. Place the spiral on the greased tray, brush with beaten egg and bake for 40-45 minutes until the bread is cooked through and golden.

* My LittleBlack Recipe Book, published by Metz Press, is on sale at Loot for R189.

* Simply Delicious, published by Struik Lifestyle, is on sale at Loot for R225.

The Angela Day cookery column is published in The Star, the Cape Argus, the Daily News and the Pretoria News.

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