African Kitchen
What better way to experience Africa from home but to taste it! Let us take you into the African kitchen with recipes from all over Africa that can be cooked at home, in the oven or over the campfire.
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Bobotie
Some people say it’s a bit like meatloaf, others say it’s a bit like moussaka. One thing’s for sure: bobotie is utterly delicious! Hearty and comforting, this traditional South African dish features mildly curried and spicy mince, topped with an egg custard and usually served with fragrant yellow rice. If you’re looking to experiment with some new recipes during lockdown, try this one from famous South African TV cook, Justin Bonello, from his book Cooked in Africa (Penguin Global, 2010).
Ingredients:
- Knob of butter
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 250g minced beef & 250g minced pork
- 1-3 garlic cloves, crushed
- Small handful of ginger, peeled & grated
- Big pinch of garam masala, coriander,
- ground cumin & dried mixed herbs
- Half teaspoon turmeric
- 3 cloves & 3 allspice berries
- Handful of dried apricots (chopped), sultanas & almonds (flaked)
- 3 teaspoons apricot chutney
- 4 teaspoons chopped parsley (fresh is best)
- 4 bay leaves (plus extras to garnish)
- 250ml full cream milk
- 3 large free range eggs
Method: Preheat oven to 180C. Heat butter in pan, add onions and allow to sweat. Remove and set aside. Next, reheat pan on high heat and fry beef and pork mince in own fat until brown. Remove from heat, add onions and all ingredients except milk and eggs. Mix well and spoon into ovenproof dish (3-4cm deep), using back of spoon to spread mixture across bottom of dish. Whisk eggs and milk; pour over mince. Bake until egg custard sets and is golden brown; garnish with bay leaves. Serve with chutney (South Africa’s favourite is Mrs Ball’s), rice and green salad.
Top tip: Serve your freshly made bobotie with some yellow rice. Prepare one cup of basmati rice in your usual way (always with a dash of salt!), but add in a pinch of turmeric and two sticks of cinnamon. Once the rice is cooked, remove the cinnamon sticks and add a handful of raisins that you’ve soaked in water for 20 minutes, and then drained. Delish!
Scones
Back in 1996, a working sheep and wheat farm in South Africa’s Riebeek Valley (Cape Winelands region) opened its doors offering peace and quiet in exclusive Victorian farmhouse and cottages. Bartholomeus Klip is just an hour from Cape Town and surrounded by mountains, well-kept farmland and 10,000 acres of nature reserve. It’s also home to an impressive restaurant that serves up delicious, imaginative treats for its lucky guests made from a variety of local produce. The conservatory is full of morning sunshine at breakfast time, and at night soft candlelight makes a romantic atmosphere for diners enjoying the gourmet evening meal. High tea, with its delicious array of sweet and savoury choices, is a speciality of the farmhouse. These scones are often featured!
Ingredients:
- 500g self-raising flour
- 125g butter, grated
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup milk
Method: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Sift flour into a large bowl. Using your hands, rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Separately, beat eggs and milk until combined. Pour milk mix into flour mix and stir using a knife until it forms a dough ball. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out to a thickness of 2.5cm. Using a round cookie cutter, cut out the scones and then place on a lined baking tray. Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of a scone comes out clean. Serve warm with fresh cream and homemade jam!
Chile Vodka Bloody Marys
Enjoy this Chile Vodka Bloody Mary – it may just help ward off unwanted bugs! Recipe from the African Kitchen, by Josie Stow & Jan Baldwin
Ingredients:
- Cubed or crushed ice
- 1.5 litres tomato juice
- 60 – 80ml Worcestershire sauce
- 4 – 8 tots chile vodka (bottle of vodka with 3 – 12 red chillies)
- Juice of 3 – 4 lemons
- Celery salt
Method: Half fill a jug with the ice. Add tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, chile vodka and lemon juice to taste. Stir to combine. Pour the cocktail into tall glasses and sprinkle with celery salt.
Spiced Nuts
This is an easy and amazing snack that the team at Fugitive’s Drift, South Africa serves guests to accompany a refreshing gin and tonic as the sun dips beyond the mountains.
Ingredients:
- 2 kg nuts
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon tumeric
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon coriander
- lots of salt and pepper
- 3 – 4 teaspoons treacle brown sugar
- dash of olive oil
Method: Mix all ingredients, add a dash of olive oil to coat and bake at 160 degrees for 20 minutes or for longer if you want more crunch. Toss / turn occasionally.
Oxtail Potjie
This brilliant recipe is courtesy of Tintswalo Safari Lodge. The secret to making a great Oxtail is a big pot. In South Africa, it’s call a potjie, and it’s a huge steel pot with a lid and handle and preferably with legs so you can place it directly on the fire. The other key to a delicious Oxtail potjie is time – the longer the better.
Ingredients: Quantities will depend on the size of your pot!
- 2 – 3 onions chopped coarsely
- 4 – 6 carrots chopped coarsely
- Bunch of celery chopped coarsely
- 3 – 4 large leeks
- 500 g – 1kg Oxtail
- Rosemary
- Thyme
- Garlic
- Lemon
- a few cups of Beef stock (1 litre for big pot)
- HP sauce
- Chutney (Mrs Balls if you can get it)
Method: First cut up your fresh veggies and add to the pot, mix together. Grill the meat so it browns, put in oven on high or a few minutes so it browns further before adding to the pot. Throw in your spices, garlic and lemon (juice and some zest). Add a few cups of beef stew depending on how much food you want to make. It’s always good to also put a bit of chutney and HP sauce in the mix to balance the sweetness and break down the meat to make it less tough. Remember to start cooking around 10am; the longer you cook, the softer it will get.
Top tip from Tintswalo Safari Lodge: “This meal is best served outside under the stars as the smoke drifts up through the towering fig trees above. There’s simply nothing better than arriving from a day of game viewing, having seen lions and leopards and elephants, and sitting down to a hot meal that’s been simmering on the fire all day.”
Muesli Rusks
During lock down we discovered Drizzle and Drip, a renowned food and travel blog by South African food stylist and photographer, Sam Linsell. Based in South Africa, Sam’s recipes bring together beautiful, seasonal ingredients and the result is mouth bursting flavour that leave you wanting more! This is a fabulous treat with a cup of tea, rusks with oats and raisins. Bon appetite!
Ingredients:
- 500gms self-raising flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 ½ cups oats
- 1 ¼ cup sugar (or 1 cup sugar and ¼ cup honey)
- ½ cup raisins
- 1/3 cup sultanas
- 1/3 cup sunflower seeds
- 1//3 cup pumpkin seeds
- ¼ cup flaxseeds
- 250ml buttermilk
- 125gms butter melted
- 2 large free-range eggs
- 1/3 cup oil
Method: Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F. Sift the flour and salt together in a large bowl and then add the sugar (honey), oats, raisins, sultanas, all the seeds and mix to combine. In a jug measure out the buttermilk then add the melted butter, eggs and oil and whisk to combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until you get a thick dough-like batter. If it is a bit dry, add a splash more buttermilk. It should be fairly sticky. Empty the mixture into a rectangular baking tin that has been lined with baking paper and approx.23cm x 33cm with a 3 – 5cm rim. Spread it out to evenly in the tin. Bake for 45 minutes and until golden brown. *loosely cover with tin foil from about 20 minutes in to prevent the top surface from over brown. Remove and allow to cool.
When the rusks are cool, remove the paper and place on large board. Cut them into fingers the size that you would like. Then place these on a large flat baking sheet lined with paper allowing some space between each rusk. Dry out overnight (8 – 9) hours in a 60C oven or for 6 hours in a 100C oven Turn them over once if you can. If you cut your rusks very thick they might need a little more drying time.
Rolex
If you’ve ever been to Uganda and wandered (or cycled) through a town or village, you may have noticed an unusually large number of street food stalls and shops with “Rolex” painted on the signs. Now you’d be forgiven thinking Ugandans had a watch fetish, but actually a Rolex is a breakfast dish that’s truly divine. This dish is basically an omelette rolled up in a chapati. Recipe thanks to Global Table Adventure.
Ingredients:
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup green cabbage (thinly sliced)
- 1/4 cup tomatoes (seeds removed and finely diced)
- 1 Tbsp red onions (minced)
- salt
- vegetable oil
- 1 large chapati
- hot chilli pepper (optional for topping)
Method: Crack eggs into a large mug. Add the cabbage, tomato, red onion, and salt. Stir together with a spoon until well combined. Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Oil well. Nonstick pans make the job even easier. Add the eggs and spread out into a flat circle with the back of your spoon. Let cook until mostly set and the bottom is browned. Flip and cook another couple of minutes. Top with chapati to heat it up. Remove from pan and, when cool enough to handle, roll it up! Enjoy your bite of Uganda.
Bread Sticks
Who doesn’t love camping and cooking on an open fire. Learn how to make delicious bread on a stick, thanks to this recipe from Carel Verhoef and Serengeti Show Live. Bon appetite!
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of flour
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 2 teaspoons of sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons of butter
- 1 egg
- 75ml of milk
Method: Make a campfire. Mix together first five ingredients with fingertips to create a crumble texture. Add in the egg and mix, then add milk. Create a dough and kneed on floured surface.Roll out the dough and cut into strips. Wrap each strip around a different stick. Don’t overlap the dough to ensure to cooks evenly. Cook over low fire or coals until browned. To remove from stick, hold with your hand (or tea towel) and wriggle off.
Top tip: A good stick is the key – dry, long, and solid, and try to get one that’s thick so at the end of the cooking you can slide it off the stick and put a bbq sausage in its place! Hollow sticks can catch light if you have them in the fire too long.
Camarao Grelhado
Mozambique’s shoreline stretches over 2,000 kilometres along the Indian Ocean. Although the Portuguese first arrived here as long ago as the 15th century, their early activities were restricted to setting up trading enclaves and forts along the coast. So a staple in the diet has always been prawns. This recipe is from the book Cooking from Cape to Cairo by Dorah Sitole.
Ingredients:
- 12 medium-sized prawns
- 15ml lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 5 whole peri peri or hot chillies cruched
- 4 garlic cloves crushed
- 20ml olive oil
Garlic Sauce
- 125g butter
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 2 whole peri peri or hot chillies
- 1 bay leaf
- 25ml lemon juice
Method: Slit the back of each prawn and devein. Mix the lemon juice, salt, peri peri, garlic, and olive oil to a paste, press the paste into the cut of the prawns and close. Sprinkle any remaining paste over the prawns and marinate for 3 hours. Grill the prawns for 20 minutes, using the marinade for basting.
Sauce: Melt the butter in a pan, add the garlic, peri peri, and bay leaf and heat until boiling. Remove from heat, add lemon juice and mix well.
Top tip: Serve the prawns and garlic sauce with rice.
Classic Kenyan Beef Stew
Beef stew is a staple in many cultures, and Kenya is no exception. This hearty recipe is full of flavour and so warm and filling. It can be made with whatever vegetable you have on hand, so feel free to experiment. This recipe is from All Kenyan Recipes.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 kg beef, cubed
- 1 cup of water
- 4 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
- 1 large red onion, diced
- 5 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 inch fresh ginger, minced
- 3-4 fresh tomatoes, diced
- 1 teaspoon tomato paste
- 2 carrots, diced
- 5 small potatoes, diced
- 3 Bay leave
- ½ teaspoon paprika powder
- ½ teaspoon curry powder
- Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
- Fresh coriander for garnishing
Method: Place meat, ginger, garlic and 1 cup of water in saucepan. Boil the meat for roughly 30 minutes on medium heat. Separate meat from broth and set aside (keep broth for later). In a separate saucepan, heat oil on medium heat, fry onions till soft. Add beef and fry until it starts to brown. Add tomatoes and tomato paste and cook till the fresh tomatoes have softened. Add garlic, ginger, curry powder and paprika and mix well. Let the mixture simmer for a minute or two. Add carrots and potatoes and stir well, again let the mixture simmer about five minutes stirring each minute to avoid sticking in the pan. Add the broth. Stir well and throw in the bay leaves, lower the heat to low and Simmer for about 45 minutes or until the meat is tender, stirring from time to time. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with fresh corinder and serve hot with rice, ugali or chapati.