Cape Malay Cuisine

I've now prepared three dishes from South Africa's Cape Malay cuisine, so I think it's appropriate to post a few words about this wonderful cuisine. It originates with the slaves whom the Dutch East India Company brought from Sumatra in present-day Indonesia to work the farms near their provisioning station in the area of the Cape of Good Hope. These slaves brought with them spices and other ingredients coriander, cumin, cardamom, and ginger. They also used local ingredients in South Africa. So their cooking is a fusion of both.

For more information on this cuisine, see http://www.capetown.travel/attractions/entry/cape_malay_cuisine.

Malva Pudding - A Delicious South African Dessert

In order to complete a South African meal I just prepared, I tried a dessert called Malva Pudding. It was terrific, and very easy to make. It is a cake rather than a pudding in the American sense of the word. In the UK and Commonwealth countries, "pudding" means "dessert." This pudding originated with the Dutch colonists of South Africa. It is often served with vanilla ice cream.

Initially, I forgot the whipping cream that is used in the sauce. After our guests left, I mixed some whipping cream into the remaining sauce and my wife and I had another piece of cake with the proper sauce. It was delicious both ways, but better with the cream. It serves 6 people.

I found this recipe at

http://www.food.com/recipe/malva-pudding-south-african-baked-dessert-118545

 

Ingredients

 

For the pudding
 

- 3/4 cup sugar

- 2 large eggs

- 1 tablespoon apricot jam

- 5 ounces (1 cup & 3 tbsp) all-purpose flour  

- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1 tablespoon butter (a generous tablespoon)

- 1 teaspoon vinegar

- 1/3 cup milk

 

For the sauce
 

- 3/4 cup fresh cream  

- 3 1/2 ounces butter  

- 5 1/2 to 9 tbsps  sugar (I used 7)

- 1/3 cup hot water

- 2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Grease an oven dish. I used an 8 x 8 x 1 1/2 inch Pyrex dish.

3. Beat or whip the sugar and eggs. It's quickest in a food processor, or use electric beaters. Beat until thick and lemon colored, then add the jam and mix through.

4.  Melt the butter (don't boil) and add the butter and vinegar to the wet mixture.

5. Sieve, or simply mix together: the flour, soda and salt.

6. Add this mixture with the milk to the egg mixture in the processor or mixing bowl. Beat well.

7. Pour into an oven-proof dish and bake until pudding is brown and well-risen -- depending on your oven and oven dish this will be between 30 - 45 minutes. (Like the author of this recipe, mine was done in 30 minutes'.

8. In a pot, melt together the ingredients for the sauce, and stir well.

9. Pour it over the pudding as soon as it comes out of the oven.

10. Leave to stand awhile before serving. Serve warm.

 

 

Tomato Bredie - Another Delicious Cape Malay Stew

The first Cape Malay stew I tried was Bo-Kaap Kerrie, a curry stew. It was wonderful. I've just tried a second - Tomato Bredie (tamatiebredie). It was very tasty and is very easy to prepare. It easily serves six.

Bredie is the Afrikaans word for "stew." There are a number of variants on the web, so you might look at a couple of them to see which ingredients best suit your tastes. I found this one at http://www.food.com/recipe/tomato-bredie-308282

Ingredients

- 2 tablespoons olive oil

- 2 large onions, sliced

- 3 garlic cloves, chopped

- 2 lbs meat (chicken or lamb) (I used lamb.)

- salt and pepper to taste

- 1/2 cup wine (red or white)

- 1 lb Yukon gold potato (sliced)

- 28 ounces chopped tomatoes (I used delicious Pomi Italian imported chopped tomatoes from Publix.)

- 1 teaspoon sugar

- 1/2 teaspoon thyme

- 1 teaspoon marjoram

Directions

In a dutch oven or other large pot, sauté onions and garlic in oil, until brown.

Add meat and sauté until brown, add salt, pepper and wine, cover and simmer 10 minutes.

Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes.

Serve over rice, couscous or noodles. (I used couscous.)

A Really Simple, Tasty, South African Cape Malay Salad

When I prepared one of my favorite stews, Cape Malay Curry (http://viaggiviniecucine.blogspot.com/2012/04/cape-malay-curry-fantastic-south.html) for a visiting friend last week, I found a tasty and easy Cape Malay tomato salad to go with it. I found this recipe at http://www.bcliquorstores.com/recipe/food/cape-malay-tomato-salad.

Ingredients

3 large ripe tomatoes, sliced thin

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp sugar

½ tsp ground cumin

1 hot green chili pepper, seeded and minced

1/2 small white onion, finely chopped

2 tbsp sherry wine vinegar

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Directions

place tomato slices on serving platter.

Mix together salt, sugar and cumin and sprinkle over tomatoes along with chili and onion.

Drizzle with sherry vinegar and olive oil.

Let sit for 15 to 20 minutes before serving.

Cape Malay Curry - A Fantastic South African Stew

Tonight, I prepared a fantastic South African curry meat stew - South African Cape Malay Curry (Bo-Kaap Cape Malay Kerrie). It is a wonderful mix of sweet and savory flavors. Although it has a lot of ingredients, it is very easy to make.

The dish originated with the ethnic Indonesians and Indians who were brought to South Africa as slaves in the 17^th Century. They are known as Cape Malays.

I found two recipes for this dish:

1. From food.com. This one appears to be authentic. (http://www.food.com/recipe/bo-kaap-cape-malay-kerrie-south-african-cape-malay-curry-289231)

2. From Cookinglight.com. (http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/cape-malay-curry-10000001041871/)

The version I made is a mix of these two recipes. There were a couple of items that I meant to include from the food.com version, but forgot - carrots and tomato paste.

I served the stew over long grain, saffron, yellow rice.

Below is a table that compares the ingredients of the three versions. Below the table are the directions for the way I prepared the dish.

Ingredients	Food.com	CL	Mine	Comments
Lamb	x			Not at supermarket
Beef		x	x
Canola oil	x	x	x
Onions	x	x	x
Garlic	x	x	x
Fresh ginger	x	x	x
Curry powder	x		x
Coriander	x	x	x
Cumin	x	x	x
Turmeric	x	x	x
Cinnamon	x	x	x
Salt	x	x	x
Pepper	x
Chili powder		x	x
Cloves	x
Bay leaves	x	x	x
Carrots	x
Dried apricots	x	x	x
Bell pepper		x	x
Banana	x		x
Tomato paste	x	x
Wine vinegar	x	x	x
Beef stock	x	x	x
Water		x		I added more beef stock instead
Apricot jam	x	x	x
Yoghurt	x		x
Buttermilk		x		Instead of yoghurt

My Ingredients and Directions

Serves - 3-4

Ingredients

1 lb stew beef, cut into small pieces

1 diced Bell pepper

2 cups diced onion

1 sliced banana

1 large garlic clove

1.5 tablespoons fresh ginger

1.5 teaspoons chili powder

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1.5 teaspoons ground coriander

1.5 teaspoons ground cumin

1 tablespoon curry powder

1.5 teaspoons ground turmeric

½ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons Canola oil

2 bay leaves

2 ¼ cups meat stock

1/3 cup chopped dried apricots

1/3 cup apricot jam/fruit spread

2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

2 teaspoons plain yoghurt

Next time, I will add:

- 2 carrots, peeled and diced

- 2  tablespoons of tomato paste

- 1 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper

Directions

Heat the oil in a large pot or saucepan.

Over high heat, fry the onions and garlic in a large pot, stirring continuously. Add the ginger, curry powder and all the spices and continue stirring for a minute. Season to taste with pepper and add the salt.

In a separate pan, fry the meat until it is browned on all sides.

Add the vinegar and stock, plus all the other remaining ingredients (except the apricot jam and yoghurt). Cover. Reduce heat. Simmer over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until everything is tender, approximately 1 1/2 hours.

Stir in the apricot jam and the yoghurt a few minutes before serving.

Serve this curry over yellow rice