Recipes and styling by Thulisa Martins. Assisted by Nomvuselelo Mncube. Photographs by Dylan Swart. Article from the September 2014 issue of Food and Home Entertaining Magazine.
Paying tribute to our Rainbow nation’s diversity, we asked locals to share memories of their traditional food cultures. This is our modern take on dishes inspired by the wonderfully rich heritage of SA
IsiZulu – Sindisiwe Fana. My mother (MaNkosi) grew up in Zululand and introduced us to traditional Zulu food. Isigwaqane, made with black beans and ‘millie millie’, is a pap-like dish, which we ate with lamb or beef stew. We also ate madumbe, a potato-like vegetable boiled and flavoured with salt. My family would share this dish on a platter.
Madumbe, sugar bean and inibuya fritters
Makes 6 large fritters EASY 15 mins
The flavour combinations
200g madumbe (potato-like tuber similar to sweet potato), peeled and boiled until soft
200g sugar beans, boiled until soft
200g imbuya (African leafy vegetable)
1 small onion, grated
1 small garlic clove, peeled and crushed
100g feta cheese, crumbled
3 eggs, lightly beaten
30ml (2 tbsp) fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
30ml (2 tbsp) fresh mint,
finely chopped olive oil, to shallow-fry
To serve
salt
juice of 1 lemon
plain yoghurt mixed with small handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
How to do it
1. Mash the madumbe and mix with the sugar beans, imbuya, onion, garlic, feta, eggs and herbs in a large bowl. Sift the flour into the mixture and lightly combine until mixed through. Season to taste.
2. Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat until sizzling. Drop tablespoons of batter into the hot oil and flatten gently to form round shapes. Cook, 2 minutes on each side, until golden brown.
3. Drain on kitchen paper and serve with a sprinkle of salt, a squeeze of lemon juice and a drizzle of herbed yoghurt.
Cook’s Tip
Use normal potatoes if you cannot find madumbe, and spinach if you cannot find imbuya.
Sepedi – Melita Ntheli. Kgodu ya morotse (maize meal cooked with yellow watermelon and sugar) is a Pedi favourite, boiled until thick then spread and cut when cooled and served with tea. The leftover yellow watermelon seeds would be fried and ground. I remember the women cooking dinawa (dried green beans with water and dried corn) for the men while they went to herd cows. It took three days for the men to return home, so this food would be made mostly in winter to last three days.
Yellow watermelon and caramel doughnuts
Makes 6 large doughnuts EASY 2 hrs
The flavour combinations
Doughnuts
200g salted butter, cubed
250ml (1 cup) cold water + extra, if needed
250g yellow watermelon, peeled, seeded and mashed
1kg cake flour, sifted + extra, to dust
7g dried yeast
pinch salt
30ml (2 tbsp) cooking oil, to coat
1L sunflower oil, to fry
Topping
75g castor sugar
5ml (1 tsp) ground cinnamon
1 vanilla pod, seeded
Filling
Nestle Caramel Treat (or visit foodandhome.co.za to make your own caramel sauce)
How to do it
1. For the doughnuts, place the butter in a pan with the water and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and stir in the watermelon. In a bowl, mix together the flour, yeast and salt. Make a well in the centre and add the watermelon mixture. Mix until a smooth dough is formed, adding a little water if the dough is too thick. Knead on a lightly floured surface, 10 minutes. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover and rest until double in size, 1 hour. Roll out on a lightly floured surface and cut the doughnuts with a 7,5cm round cookie cutter. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise, 20 minutes.
2. Heat the sunflower oil in a large, deep pot or deep-fryer to 180°C and fry the doughnuts until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oil and drain on paper towel. Repeat with the remaining batter. Set aside to cool.
3. For the topping, mix the castor sugar, cinnamon and vanilla seeds together.
4. For the filling, heat the caramel in the microwave, 2 minutes, and leave to cool.
5. Pierce each doughnut with a small knife on the side. Fill a piping bag with the cooled caramel sauce and fill each doughnut. Roll the doughnuts in the cinnamon-sugar mix, making sure they are coated evenly.
Cook’s Tip
Use sweet melon if you cannot find yellow watermelon. If you do not have a cooking thermometer to test the oil, drop a small piece of batter into the oil – if it rises to the top and turns crisp and golden, it is ready.
SiSwati – Ntombfuthi Dlamlenze. I grew up in Joburg but visited my grandmother in Swaziland often, so I was always introduced to new foods. I enjoyed umbidvo wetintsanga – cooked pumpkin leaves mixed with groundnuts and eaten with pap. There were meals I didn’t enjoy, like sidvudvu – maize-meal porridge mixed with pumpkin. My gran always had batata (sweet potato) at home, which she would boil or braai, or we’d eat it raw. The leaves would be used in our evening meal as umbidvo (spinach).
Sweet potato tart
Serves 6 EASY 50 mins
The flavour combinations
250g sweet potatoes, peeled, boiled and mashed
125ml (1/2 cup) fresh cream
6 eggs
10ml (2 tsp) cinnamon
155g muscovado sugar
400g puff pastry, defrosted
100g sweet potatoes, peeled, boiled and thinly sliced
How to do it
1. Cool the mashed sweet potato and mix together with the fresh cream and eggs in a blender until smooth, 10 minutes. Add the cinnamon and muscovado sugar and blend for a further 10 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Roll the pastry flat to fill a large 20cm-diameter tart tin. Trim the edges with a knife, prick the base with a fork and refrigerate, about 10 minutes.
3. Fill the pastry with the sweet potato mixture and bake in the oven until the filling has set, 30 – 35 minutes. Garnish with blow-torched sweet potato slices.
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