Easter is less than a week away and for many South Africans that means pickled fish, hot cross buns and chocolate eggs.
In The Great South African Cookbook published by Quivertree Publications, contributor Hilary Biller shares her grandmother’s pickled fish and whole wheat seed loaf recipe.
Biller speaks fondly of her grandmother’s cooking and says pickled fish was always served at Easter and Christmas.
The foodie, author and television cook says: “my maternal grandmother was an excellent cook of traditional Afrikaans food, and I have wonderful memories of meals at my grandparents’ home in Pretoria.
Pickled fish was served at Easter and Christmas and she would always make a big quantity the week before each celebration, which we would greedily eat with thickly buttered, freshly made brown bread.
“My mother continued the tradition and her take was even better than my grandmother’s original version.”
Grandmother’s pickled fish
Serves: 6-8
Prep time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes plus pickling
Ingredients
60g flour
Salt
White pepper
1½ -2kg fresh hake, cut into portions
Oil for frying
Sauce:
1kg onions, sliced into rings
375ml (1½ cups) water
30-45ml (2-3 tbsp) curry powder
100g soft brown sugar
2cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
3 bay or lemon leaves
7½ml (1 ½ tsp) ground coriander
6 black peppercorns
1 fresh chili, seeded and sliced (add more if desired)
375ml (1 ½ cups) good quality white vinegar
125ml (½ cup) cornflour
15ml (1 tbsp) water
Method:
You need to prepare this dish 3-5 days before you wish to serve.
Season the flour with salt and white pepper.
Dip the fish pieces into the flour, coating on both sides.
Heat the oil and fry the fish on both sides until golden brown and cooked through.
Place on a paper towel to drain.
To make the curried pickling sauce, place the onion rings in a large pan, add the first amount of water and bring to boil. Simmer for five minutes.
Add the remaining ingredients, including the vinegar and second amount of water, but excluding the corn flour, to the onions.
Bring to boil and simmer for five minutes.
Mix the corn flour to a paste with 30ml (2tbsp) water and add to the onion mixture.
Bring to the boil and simmer, stirring, until thickened, about another 5-8 minutes.
Arrange the fish and curry sauce in layers in a large glass of ceramic dish (don’t use a plastic container).
Cover and refrigerate for 3-5 days before enjoying the thickly sliced whole wheat seed loaf (see recipe below).
Hilary Biller shares her grandmother's pickled fish recipe
Picture: Toby Murphy
Whole Wheat seed loaf
Makes one large loaf or six mini loaves.
Prep time: 15 minutes plus rising
Cooking time: one hour
Ingredients:
4x 250ml whole wheat flour
3x 250ml cake or white bread flour
250ml (1 cup) bran
20ml salt
1x 10g sachet instant yeast
30ml brown sugar or runny honey
50ml oil
750ml warm water
250ml mixed seeds (sunflower, sesame, poppy, pumpkin)
Method
In a large bowl, combine the wholewheat and cake or white bread flours.
Stir in the bran, salt and yeast. Mix through.
Combine the sugar or honey, oil and warm water and, using a wooden spoon, slowly add to the dry mixture. It may need all the liquid or may require extra. you want quite a wet dough, almost like a thick batter.
Stir through half the seeds.
Spoon the mixture between medium loaf pans, sprayed with cooking spray.
Sprinkle the remaining seeds of the tops of the two loaves.
Lightly press down the seeds so they stick to the dough.
Cover lightly and leave in a warm place until the dough rises to be level with the tops of the pans.
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.
Bake for 50-60 minutes.
Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a cooling rack.
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