A Cooking Encounter of the Third Kind
The district of Albany in the Eastern Cape.....is an area not far from here....approximately 120 kilometers by car....it is to this delightful area that Lord Ha Ha and I found ourselves trekking this weekend, which as you most probably know, was the weekend of my 50th birthday!!!!!!!! Half a century??? nearly an antique??? do you think I will become more valuable?? Modestly, (ahem!) I seem to have aged a little better than my veddy proper friends......some of them.........anyway......having been without modem/server and all for approximately., three weeks, not only have my fingers become stiff........but the madness has certainly taken its toll!
I woke to the most gorgeous day, lots of delightful presents....(no car!), however.......very spoilt none-the-less.............and despite having to assist in the awful office (factory office belonging to Lord Ha Ha)
It was a day filled with good will and wishes, starting with a new 2800 modem, new phone lines, and the news that my younger unmarried son had been employed in a delightful position in Botswana.......far from here.............as a Safari guide..............so packing up the Green cake....did I tell you about that?
Oy vey! I cannot cook....I hate the kitchen and I had to provide all the eats for the weekend.....................so I made up everything....To wit, my imagination in the kitchen, is as vivid as when I am re-telling a story...............what do you make for ten people? Cold weather food as well?
Nu? I had 5 chickens smoked, and these I stuffed with mushrooms and red onions, kinda basted them for a while, and wrapped them up. Then I overcooked Jamine rice.....(yuk!) and the party piece was the pudding......................Green cake.......which was a combination of cake, this was the problem, somebody once told me that if I put jelly into the cake mixture, it keeps moist.........so I did, but it was Green................after it had baked, I piled baked apples, brandied peaches, raisins and a glaze made of apricot jam, rebaked it...and served it with custard and farm cream......oh! I nearly forgot........I made a baked vegetable dish toooooooooooooo....layers of every kind of veg I could lay my hands on,little of this, little of that, combined with a mixture of Mango thingy, olive oil and herbs....I just baked that as well................the crowd loved it....for supper......lunch....supper........lunch...............and now hate me 'cos they all got the "runs"..............but then that is the risk one has to take in Africa as well. I really do not think I was entirely to blame...........after all they consumed vast quantities of aged wines, brandies, and port....as well. And they are all pretty old folk too.................fortunately they had fresh oysters and mussels to eat as well........maybe that gave them the runs?..........I was fine.
Whilst in the area, I popped into a farmers meeting in the village and heard the most delightful talk.....there was a lady conservationist, giving a talk on the "living with jackals"......know what those are? kinda like bad foxes....they kill stock. Anyway, she was a glamourous lady, all togged up, and very earnest, telling these old farmers that they must "geld' the jackals, and not kill them, 'cos if they geld them, then they will not breed so much..........one old guy at the back stood up and said, "excuse me lady, but the jackals are not f****** our sheep...they are eating them!" The meeting broke up.
Thereafter, I popped into another farmers do, and bought silk, 'cos one day I am going to learn to knit. This lady farmer, spins silk. Another project for old age. There is a wonderful cheese farm there too.....and I spent lots of Lord Ha Ha's money buying up that product.........of course I overdid that as well..............never mind, perhaps it ages as well as me.
I really do love Africa. This particular trip, in the middle of winter, gives one the feeling of the land. There are of course always negative sides, like the huge veld fires, that burn up everything, but oh the land is so beautiful! So dry and and red. We also had a chance to do a little "dig' which is my favourite pastime, digging around the ancient buildings for artifacts, I found some ming.......more rubbish to store!
Lord Ha HA is not to well to-day, he says he needs a rest from me. Silly old fart........he should have gone away by himself.......he will be sixty this year and acts like seventy........sometimes........but looks pretty good for all of that.
Our schools are all on holiday, which means one now has hoards of hideous children running around the place.......but, we do have this wonderful Art festival starting this week, this takes place in Grahamstown, not far from here. It goes on for 14 days, arts of all types, and nearly half a million people visit this" do."
Great fun! I used to have a stall there, selling clothing.......Lord Ha Ha forbade it after three years.........he said I should act my age and stay home, or just visit......now my son goes in my place and sells his art. Pity, it was great fun, such a wonderful combination of art, people, drugs, song and dance..............the problem started when I was introduced to tiny little jellied thingys.....kinda like a weeny sweet....drink.......they have a decided "kick' to them.......I like the Mango ones, and had too many..........so got into a little "hot-water"....but that was long ago. I am older now.
Since it is only Monday morning.......I shall have to end.......lots of love
bev
**Here are some travel sites I found for Africa .
In charge of the catering for friends, in this case the weekend of my 50th birthday.........and knowing that there might not be any electricity, this is what I prepared.
Baked
vegetables.... à la lioness.......
I am always very aware of colour and texture,
and for some reason apply this to food as well...... Into a large dish..ovenproof.....you
slice, in no particular order, but bearing in mind colour, texture and
taste............. {First cover the bottom of the dish with lashing of
virgin olive oil..}...(wonder why virgin?)....can use old harlots if you
like).....Sliced green and red peppers, butternuts, potatoes, onions (I
used the red variety), courgettes, and anything that looks like it would
bake up well. (I even add cucumbers and left over salad).....in-between
the layers, I spread crushed garlic (from Woolworth's), throw on a bit
of mixed herbs (from a bottle, preferably Italian), but my secret is the
"attchar of mangoes"......(how do you spell atachar)???? its
from an Indian shop, its a sort of mixed veg., curry, spicy stuff......by
the way I add "potted veg., in brine" if I have any....or even
pickled onions....lots more oil, and bake very slowly for ages............the
longer it cooks the better, and now and again check on it, ........throw
a bit of the oil from the side on the top so that it doesn't get dry..........you
can cook it the day before...and warm up....actually tastes better the
next day.....it should be nice and brownish on top......or whatever......Oh!
I forgot the brinjals......(egg fruit?) and mushrooms too......
I usually make a very big dish......notably the weekend of my birthday,
it fed ten......times three meals....and the men then took the bread and
wiped the dish when it was finished.......oy!
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Chicken
...à la lioness.............
I had the butcher smoke, a couple of chickens........mistakenly,
remembering my younger sons' appetite, I had him do a dozen. Into these
beasties, I stuffed, mushrooms, red onions, and I made a dumpling mixture......water
and flour........put them in a pan, a little water and broiled them for
a while. (In the oven).....don't know the temp., The smoking toughens the
skin, and they do tend to look a bit raw.....so it improves them.
They were a great success, and just fell of the bone..........I also served
"Jasmine rice" from Thailand, this has a distinctive flavour
all of its on, and you can sop up the juice with it too.
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Apple
concoction à la lioness..............
A basic vanilla cake mix, which I added a ( which
if one cannot make, use the boxed variety) cup of oil, a packet of green
jelly and some milk, baked it in a large oval dish, and when it was ready,
(thank god it rose!) I cut off the crust....and ate it........ Then I smothered
the top very thick, with a layer of mixed fruit........this fruit was a
mixture of, tinned apples, four varieties, of fresh apples, a pear, lemon
juice, also dried apples which I had soaked the night before, with chopped
dried peaches in brandy......a few raisins, warmed it all up, (mushy) and
whilst the cake was still hot, put this warm mix on top..........and made
a glaze.........this was a few huge spoons of apricot jam, with honey,
lemon and a little water and mazina.....(corn flour), which I boiled up
slightly, threw that on top and let it set . I served this with ice-cream,
custard, and fresh farm cream. oh yes a pinch of cloves in the apples......
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My husbands' favourite South African dish.......
Babotie.........cannot
for the life of me translate that..... 2lbs of mince meat.....either beef or mutton.
1 slice of white bread.
2 eggs
1 dessert spoon sugar.
1/2 tsp pepper.
2 dessert spoons lemon juice....(..or vinegar)
4 bayleaves.
1 cup of milk.
1 dessert spoon curry powder.
1 tsp. salt.
1/2 tsp. borrie........shit, what's this in English? it's a tasteless yellow
spice.....
1/2 cup depitted raisins.
2 tablespoons chutney......
Chop the onions and brown in some oil, throw in the mince and sorta ook
till done. Soak the bread in the milk, kinda drain it and crumble it into
this mixture........(which by now has made me ill!) put everything else
into this mixture except for the bay leaves and 1/2 a cup of the milk,
and one egg. Put this mixture into a bake/oven proof dish, and roll the
leaves up and stick them in.......artistic-like.....kinda straight in......
Bake for 1 1/2 hours at 350 .......about 40 minutes before the meat is
done, take the egg, mix with the milk, and thrown that over the top....bake
till finished............Oy!
When done, this dish looks a bit like a cake in a dish, with a slight yellowish
hue, due to the curry, and should be eaten with Yellow rice, (also coloured
with Borrie, and raisins)
Never mind all this shit...take them out for Kentucky fried chicken........
I am a vegetarian.....by the way, the first lioness in history not to eat
meat.
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Easter
pudding à la lioness........
Once again challenged with the duty of having
to produce a pudding for 25 people, whilst in a seaside cottage on the
Wild Coast, I found in the pantry, packets of hot-cross-buns. I took a
huge Corning wear dish, buttered it, and into this sliced the buns, as
a layer and sides......I first soaked them in milk. Then I sprinkled brown
sugar and a little honey over this, and piled up, precooked, tinned apples.
With a touch of cloves and lemon. I baked this in the woodburning stove
till I thought it was nearly done, and at the last moment , covered the
top with custard, which I had made. This incidently, I made with corn-flour,
eggs, sugar and milk. Rerbaked it, after sprinkling cinnamon on top, and
.... they scraped the dish clean.
