Recipe Requests
I often get requests for recipes, so I decided to put all the recipe requests on this page. If you can't find your fav South African recipe, just email me and I will do my best to find it for you.
These sandwich cookies are popular in South Africa, but you can enjoy them in your own home wherever you live.
The ingredient measurements are a bit weird as they have been converted from US.
Cookie
226.80 g butter, plus
14.79 ml butter
236.59 ml sugar
473.18 ml flour
354.89 ml shredded sweetened coconut
56.70 g semisweet baking chocolate, melted
118.30 ml boiling water
4.93 ml baking powder
Butter cream filling
453.59 g confectioners' sugar, divided
113.40 g butter, softened (not melted!)
0.62 ml salt
4.93 ml vanilla extract
44.37-59.16 ml milk
Preheat oven to 180ºC
Cream together butter and sugar; add flour, coconut, and baking powder.
Dissolve melted baking chocolate by whisking into boiling water; add to mixture.
Roll mixture into small 1-inch balls.
Place balls on greased cookie sheet and, using a fork, press criss-cross to flatten.
Bake in a moderate oven, 350F, for 10 to 12 minutes until desired doneness (some people like them crispier than others); let cool on a wire rack.
Make the butter cream filling: cream one-third of the confectioners' sugar with softened butter and salt in large bowl.
Blend vanilla extract, 2 tablespoons milk and remaining sugar into mixture.
Gradually stir in remaining milk to filling until desired spreading consistency is reached.
When cookies have cooled completely, sandwich them together with the butter cream filling (or chocolate from melting a slab of milk chocolate over low heat or in microwave).
Ripe grapes
10 ml (2 teaspoonfulls) slaked lime per 5 litres grape juice
Remove grapes from stalks, place in a large bowl and crush. Cover bowl and leave till the grapes ferment- a couple of days.
Strain grape skins from surface, measure grape juice and add slaked lime. Stand for 30 minutes.
Skim and strain through a double layer cheesecloth or muslin.
Heat strained juice to boiling point and strain again.
Boil juice rapidly, skimming occasionally until it becomes syrupy.
Pour the jam into hot, dry sterilised jars and seal immediately.
Jewish Tart
Requested by Debbie in California
Ingredients
CUSTARD FILLING
1 litre ready-made custard
15 ml gelatine
30 ml water
PASTRY CIRCLES
90 ml castor sugar
45 ml butter
2 extra-large eggs
430 ml cake flour
15 ml baking powder
1 ml salt
cinnamon sugar (optional)
Method:
Prepare the filling: Heat 250 ml (1 c) of the custard until lukewarm. Sprinkle the gelatine over the water and leave to sponge. Melt over steam or in the microwave oven and stir into the lukewarm custard. Add the remaining custard, mix and chill until just before using. Preheat the oven to 180 ºC. Turn two 20 cm loose-bottomed cake tins upside down and spray the bottoms with non-stick spray or butter lightly. Beat the castor sugar and butter together and beat the eggs in one by one. Sift the dry ingredients on top. Mix to form a soft dough, gather into a ball and cover with plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes. Divide the dough into five parts. Roll two of the parts out thinly to fit on top of the upturned cake tins. Place on top of the upturned cake tins and roll with a cake roller to trim the edges neatly. Place in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes to firm and bake for about 6-8 minutes until the pastry rounds are straw-coloured. Remove from the oven, cool slightly and remove to a wire rack with an egg flip. Leave to cool. Wash the cake tins to cool them, spray with non-stick spray and repeat with the remaining three parts of dough until all the pastry bases have been baked. Leave them to cool completely. Using a wire beater beat the custard (it will be slightly set) until creamy. Place one of the pastry circles on a serving platter and spread a quarter of the custard filling on top. Repeat with the remaining custard and pastry circles, ending with a pastry circle. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Makes 1 medium-sized tart.
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Chakalaka |
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Chakalaka is a great Southern African dish. Just ask any South Africans and they'll all agree. But what is it ? Just ask any South Africans and they'll all disagree. Well I suppose we've at least got consensus on some things so let's start there. It's spicy, it's vegetarian, it's the taste of Africa, it's got onions, tomatoes and peppers in it and after that everybody's got their own ideas. That's not necessarily a bad thing but I suppose it would be nice if we knew what it was, if only to try to share it with others. We can firm things up just a little if we think of it as a side dish although there are some who will throw their arms up in the air and declare that it's more of a sauce than a side dish. So let's call it a wet side dish. It's often served with mielie pap, which is the standard starch eaten on a daily basis by much of our population so I suppose it serves a purpose similar to a sauce. It's also served with bread, samp ( another maize dish ) and stews. Aha, so if it's served with stews then surely it's not a sauce, it's a vegetable accompaniment ? Possibly but what about when it pops up alongside grilled meats ? - vegetable accompaniment or spicy relish ? Sorry did I mention that it can be served hot or cold ? Well if it's cold then it must be a salad and that's probably the origin of the dish in the first place. With it's combination of spices, tomatoes, peppers and vegetables it's very likely that it is a deviation on some salad or achar of Indian or Malay origin which just tasted so good that it became the ketchup of Africa. Many variations also include tinned baked beans so I reckon it was prepared by labourers working in the goldmines as a salad originally but tossed into the pan with whatever was available at the time and then poured over mielie pap, potatoes or bread. Black workers adopted it as a spicy, easy to prepare dish and took it back to their villages with them when they went on leave. The rest as they say is history....we've all been making it ever since to serve at our braais but like all truly great dishes we each have a slightly different recipe handed down through the family or wrested at knifepoint from someone who made the best Chakalaka this side of the Limpopo. Ingredients include onions, tomatoes, green peppers, carrots, cabbage, baked beans, curry powder, peri peri, chilli, garlic, ginger, fresh coriander.....the list goes on and on like any self respecting barbeque sauce. I suppose that inviting people over to your fire is a very personal thing for the modern caveman and so on reflection maybe it's not that important that we have a structured recipe, maybe it's more important that your chakalaka is an individual thing. However if you need a starting point then try this : Chakalaka 250 ml canola oil 30 g fresh chopped ginger 30 g fresh chopped garlic 20 g chopped chillis 200 g chopped onion 500 g tomatoes roughly chopped 100 g green pepper roughly chopped 100 g red pepper roughly chopped 50 g leaf masala 200 g grated carrot 450 g baked beans 10 g fresh coriander Fry ginger,garlic,chillis,onions in the oil. Add the leaf masala or curry powder of your choice. Add the tomatoes and cook for 10 mins. Add peppers and carrots and cook for 10 minutes. Add baked beans and cook for 5 mins. Remove from heat and add coriander. Check seasoning. Serve with whatever you want, hot or cold. |
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Monkey Gland Sauce |
The origins of the dish are shrouded in mystery although one story I have heard seems perfectly plausible. It appears that some French chefs were lured to Johannesburg to cook at the old Carlton Hotel early in the 1950’s. The rich white clients of the fine dining room had plenty of money but lacked sophistication in continental cuisine and try as they might the chefs could not please their customers with the finer nuances of delicately flavoured haute cuisine sauces accompanying the well done steaks. In desperation and with a certain amount of venom, one day, they threw every commercial sauce preparation they could lay their hands on, into the pot and pronounced the resultant mish-mash to be Monkey Gland Sauce. The sweet and sour elements in the sauce struck a chord with the predominantly Afrikaner clientele reflecting so many other dishes in their traditional repertoire – the chefs enjoyed the joke, the customers enjoyed the steak and a legend was born.
No monkeys were harmed in it’s
compilation!
Chopped onion 100 g
Chopped garlic 20 g
Chopped chilli 10 g
Butter 30 g
KWV Port 30 ml
Lea and Perrins Worcester sauce 10 ml
Tabasco sauce 10 ml
Mrs Balls Fruit Chutney 60 g
All Gold Tomato ketchup 60 g
Sweat the onions in the melted butter. Add garlic and chilli to soften. Add
all
other ingredients. Mix well.
600g medium green chillies
15 black peppercorns
5 bay leaves
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
5 teaspoons salt
6 heaped tablespoons caster sugar
1 litre white wine vinegar or rice vinegar
For this recipe you must buy perfect green chillies without any blemishes (you can use red chillies but they will be slightly hotter).
Carefully score from the stalk end to the tip on one side only and remove the seeds (use the handle of a teaspoon for this).
Pour boiling water over the chillies let them sit for 5 minutes then drain.
This will get rid of most of the seeds left behind.
Next put your black peppercorns bay leaves coriander chillies and salt into a large jar or other airtight container.
Put the sugar and the vinegar into a pan and heat until the sugar is fully dissolved.
When this is quite hot but not boiling pour it into the jar with the chillies. Allow it to cool down and then put the lid on put into the fridge and leave for a minimum of 2 weeks before using.
They will keep in the fridge for at least 4 months.
