South African Sosaties

We are always looking for new braai recipes, especially when heading towards Kruger or the Kalahari.

Just shortly before we left this year we found a recipe for South African Sosaties by AfroFood TV 
and it sounded delicious.

So we gave it a try while at Mata Mata.....

It's a bit elaborate and you need time to let the meat marinade overnight, but it's well worth it!

Ingredients (for 4 persons)

2 Lbs Lamb Cubes (we used beef instead)
2 tablespoons Curry Powder
3 Bay Leaves
150g dried Apricots
2 teaspoon mashed Garlic (we used Garlic Salt)
2 tablespoons brown Sugar
2 tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
6 tablespoons Apricot Jam
Salt to taste
2 sliced red Onions
1 quartered Onion
Black Pepper
Oil for frying

Method

Half the red Onions and slice them thinly.

Fry them until they are tender and slightly brown.

Now mix the garlic, brown Sugar, Balsamic Vinegar, Apricot jam and some salt, for the marinade.

Marinate the meat and place it in the fridge overnight.

Soak the Apricots in lukewarm water until they a tender.

Now assemble the skewers with the marinated meat, Apricots and quartered Onion. Starting with a piece of meat and ending with one as well.

Now braai the skewers.

Meanwhile place the marinade in a pan, cook it for about 5-7 minutes over medium heat, until you get a nice thick chutney.

Now serve together with the Sosaties...
Yum!

Gourmet Hot Dog with Sticky Onions and a Basil and Crème Fraîche Dressing

One of the magazines that I frequently read is the South African Food& Home Entertaining.....
Great recipes and wonderful photos.

Have a look here for their Homepage

In the most recent issue I found a recipe for a Gourmet Hot Dog and, looking for an idea for dinner, I instantly decided that I would love to give it a try.

Ingredients

4 Hot Dog Rolls
4 Hot Dog Saussages

Sticky Onions

3 Red Onions, thinly sliced
2 tbsp Brown soft sugar
1 tbsp  Honey
1tbsp dried Chilli Flakes
oil to fry the onions
Salt, freshly ground Black Pepper

Basil Crème fraîche Dressing

150g Crème fraîche
50g Basil leaves
a squeeze of Lemon juice
1tbsp Olive Oil
Salt, freshly ground Black Pepper 

Method

Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying

pan over high heat.

Add the onions, sugar, honey, dried

chilli flakes and seasoning. Lower the

heat and slowly cook the onions until

they are soft and sticky, about 20 minutes.

Remove from the heat and set aside.

For the basil Crème fraîche dressing,

put the Crème fraîche, olive oil, lemon juice

basil leaves and seasoning in a blender and blitz until the

basil has been incorporated.

Adjust the seasoning and set aside.

Heat a griddle pan over high heat and

grill the saussages for 5 minutes.

To serve, place a frankfurter in a

crispy heated roll, add a spoonful of

sweet and spicy onions and a good

dollop of basil Crème fraîche dressing.

Risotto with Bacon & Roasted Tomato

Not too difficult to prepare, but it needs a bit of time and patience and stirring, stirring, stirring....

Ingredients for 4

Oil for frying
30g Butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
4 rashers of back bacon, finely chopped
250g risotto rice, Carnaroli or Arborio
Chicken stock, fresh cube or concentrate, made up to 1 litre
150ml white wine
6 rashers of bacon
12 cherry tomatoes, take the stalks off if you prefer
50g grated Parmesan
30g Butter


Method

Heat a little oil and 30g of butter in a pot and fry the onion gently for a few minutes until soft, but without colouring, now add the garlic and the bacon and fry everything together.

Add the rice and stir well, the grains of the rice must be covered with the oil and butter mixture, after a minute or so it will look slightly translucent.
Now stir in the white wine.
Turn down the heat to a simmer. The rice must not cook too quickly.
Then add the stock a couple of ladles at a time, stirring each lot in until it is completely absorbed.
Attention the stock must be hot as well, otherwise the Risotto is going to be cloggy.
Keep adding ladlefuls of stock and keep stirring the risotto until it is creamy but still retains a little bite (you might not need to use all of the stock).

When the Risotto is finished (usually after 15-20 minutes), stir in the grated Parmesan and the Butter.
Cover the pan with a lid and allow the Risotto to rest for about 10 minutes.

In the meantime preheat the oven, 200°C.
Place the 6 rashers of bacon on a baking tray and bake until crispy and brown.
At the same time place the tomatoes in an ovenproof dish, sprinkle with olive oil and salt and bake them for about 15 minutes or until tender.
This requires the same time as the preparation of the Risotto.

Fill the risotto into a deep plate, place tomatoes and bacon on top and enjoy.

Handmade Chinese Dumplings "Jiaozi"

There used to be an Asian Shop in our neighbourhood.
They did sell Homemade Dumplings filled with either Minced Meat or Shrimps and I can tell you they were divine.
A couple of years ago they retired and in the absence of a successor they closed the shop.
So no more delicious dumplings…
Only now I was brave enough to try and make my own ones and I have to say we loved them.




Ingredients for 4 people

For the dough

400g flour
200ml water
salt

For the filling

1 piece fresh ginger (2cm)
30g chives
4 spring onions
300g minced meat of beef and pork, in equal shares
1 tablespoon rice wine
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
salt

Method

Mix the flour, some salt and 200 ml of lukewarm water in a bowl and make it into a smooth, elastic dough using your hands.

Peel the ginger for the filling and chop very fine.
Wash the chives, shake dry, clean the spring onions, wash and chop both very fine as well.
Mix the ground meat with ginger, chives, spring onions, rice wine, sesame oil, vinegar and soy sauce thoroughly in a bowl and add salt.

Shape the dough into quarters and then form each portion of dough into a 2cm thick roll.
Cut each roll into pieces about 2 cm long.
Shape each piece into a ball, use a little flour to thinly roll out the dough into circles (approximately 5 cm in diameter).
Spread the filling onto the dough, fold each circle into half-moons and press the edges together with your fingertips.

I use a plastic dough press for this.
Use a big pot and bring about 3 liters of water to the boil, add some salt.
Add the dumplings and cook them for about 4 minutes, remove and drain them.
Now simply dip into the sauce and enjoy.

Usually the dumplings are eaten together with a dip made of:

1 piece of ginger (ca. 2cm)
6 tablespoons of rice vinegar
6 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil

But we prefer a sweet chili sauce ;-)

Szegediner Goulash with Turkey and Yoghurt

6 servings

Ingredients:

4 Onions (250 g)
600 g turkey stew
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons paprika (noble sweet)
salt
pepper
200 ml mild cider or apple juice
400 ml chicken stock (homemade or purchased)
600 g Sauerkraut (fresh pack if possible)
2 bay leaves
150 g yogurt (1.5 % fat)
3 stalks parsley

Method:

Peel onions and cut into very thin strips.
Wash meat and pat dry.
Heat the butter in a heavy saucepan. Sauté onions and meat together while stirring 5-6 minutes.
Sprinkle with paprika, add cider and chicken broth. Simmer covered for 10 minutes.
Add the sauerkraut and bay leaves and simmer for another 30 minutes.
Mix yogurt with salt and pepper.
Wash and dry parsley, shake, pluck off leaves, chop and mix well together with the yoghurt mixture.
Season stew with salt and pepper, now add the yoghurt and serve.

Leg of Lamb with Red Wine and Potatoes

Well I love pot roasted leg of lamb, but I was looking for something different than the usual thing with tomatoes and herbs....
Then I stumbled over this recipe, it sounded interesting.
I made some changes to the original recipe and added some sugar (to soften the acidity of the red wine) and potatoes at the end of the roasting time which perfectly absorbed the taste of the pot-roast....

It was lovely and of course this recipe contains some garlic, never to be missed when preparing Lamb.



Ingredients for 4

1 leg of lamb (about 2.5kg)
1 litre of good red wine
500g onions
500g of waxy potatoes
250g crème fraîche
1 tablespoon mustard
50ml oil
50g butter
4-6 sprigs of thyme (depending on size)
8 garlic cloves
1- 1 ½ tablespoon of sugar
salt, pepper

Method

Heat the oil and butter in a roasting pan. Now fry the leg of lamb from all sides until nicely brown. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from the roasting pan and set aside.

Peel and finely chop the garlic and the onions, add them to the pan and fry until nicely golden brown.

Add the leg of lamb again, fill in the red wine, add some more salt and pepper, the mustard and sugar.
Slide the roasting pan in the oven, turn to 200 ° C and roast the lamb for 2 ½ hours.

Peel the potatoes, cut them in coarse cubes and add them together with the thyme 40 minutes before the roast is finished.
Remove the meat after the 2 ½ hours. Mix the liquid with crème fraîche.

Again season with salt, pepper and some sugar (if necessary) and serve together with the sliced lamb

Chicken Satay

I love easy recipes with a certain wow-effect...
This is one of them, I really love the Satay sauce, it's easy to prepare and so tasty..




Ingredients (for 4 persons)

2 tablespoons peanut Oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
Juice of 1/2 a lime
2 chicken breasts cut into cubes

For the Satay sauce:
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 small onion finely chopped
1 small green chilli deseeded and finely chopped
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
125g chunky peanut butter
6-8 tablespoons of water
Juice of 1/2 a lime

Method:

Mix the two oils together with the lime juice in a bowl. Add the chicken cubes and chill for one hour in the fridge.

Heat the oil for the sauce in a pan. Gently fry the onion, chilli and garlic for about 5 minutes.
Then add the peanut butter, water and lime juice, heat and stir gently, until the peanuts butter is smooth enough for a sauce. If necessary add some more water to make it more fluid.

Dry the chicken cubes thoroughly and place on skewers.
Fry for 10 minutes in the oven or on a braai/ BBQ until crispy and golden brown.
Serve hot with the Satay sauce.

Spaghetti au Gratin with Calf's Liver and Sage

Some of you might not really be a fan of liver....
This is a dish however you might still like.
Give it a try.



Ingredients for 2

200-250 g calf’s liver
pepper
1 shallot
1 small clove garlic
1 tablespoon parsley
1 egg yolk
3 tablespoons cream
salt
nutmeg
3 tablespoons oil
4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
5 tablespoons Madeira
200 ml stock
½ teaspoon cornflour
250 g spaghetti
15 g parmesan
6 sage leaves

Method

Cut the calf's liver into 1 / 2 inch thick and 4 cm long strips, season with pepper, cover and store in a cool place. Finely chop the shallot, garlic and the parsley.
Mix cream, salt, pepper, nutmeg and parsley, whisk and set aside.

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan.
Fry the calf's liver over high heat for 1 minutes, immediately pour into a strainer, collect the juice in a bowl and set aside.

Heat the remaining oil in same pan, sauté garlic and shallots, add the balsamic vinegar and deglaze with Madeira, pour in the stock and reduce by one third.
Mix cornstarch with a little water. Thicken the sauce slightly, season with salt and pepper. Set liver and sauce aside.

Prepare the spaghetti according to package instructions in plenty of boiling salted water, cook al dente.
Turn on the oven grill.
Finely grate the Parmesan. Drain the pasta well.

Mix the hot pasta immediately with the egg-cream mixture mix, spread over two ovenproof pasta plates, sprinkle with cheese, place the Spaghetti under the grill and gratiné for 1-2 minutes, until cheese has melted slightly.

Now salt the calf's liver slightly, add it with the juice to the sauce and bring to a boil again.
Pluck the sage leaves coarsely and stir in as well.
Serve immediately with the pasta.

Lamb Stilts with Cinnamon,Olives, Raisins and Pine Nuts

Another example for comfort food, the right food for this time of the year.
Enjoyed with a nice glass of Red.

Ingredients:

200 g white onions
6 garlic cloves
1 red chili
50 g bacon
800 g tomatos
4 lamb stilts, ready, à 400 g
Salt
Pepper
7 tablespoons olive oil
150 ml white wine
500 ml lamb stock
1 / 2 cinnamon stick
2 cloves
Juice of one organic lemon
1 sprig rosemary
6 stalks thyme
80 g raisins
40 g pine nuts, toasted
100g black olives in oil, pitted

Method:

1. Cut onions and garlic into thin slices, chilli into thin rings. Finely dice the bacon, quarter the tomatoes.
2. Pat dry stilts and add salt and pepper. Heat 5 tbsp olive oil in a heavy roasting pan and fry the lamb stilts over medium heat until golden brown all around. Remove.
3. Put rest of olive oil in the roasting pan, fry onions, garlic, chili and bacon until lightly browned at medium heat. Then add the tomatoes, stir and fry everything for 4-5 minutes at high heat. Add white wine, lemon juice and lamb stock and let boil up. Then add the cinnamon, cloves and lamb stilts, put in a preheated oven at 180 degrees (gas 2-3),on the second rail from below for 2 1/2 hours, simmer open, turning the meat several times, and pour over with cooking liquid.
4. Remove the cinnamon after 1 hour cooking time, otherwise the aroma might be a bit too strong.
5. Add plucked rosemary and thyme, raisins, pine nuts and drained olives after 2 hours of cooking time to the meat.
Serve with baguette.