Traditional South African Recipes

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Using these tasty South African recipes, you can use the kitchen as part of your children’s learning experiences as they live in and learn about South Africa. These South African recipes are also just great food for company and comfort times.

Be sure to visit our other pages of South African recipes:
South African Bread Recipes
Traditional Seafood Recipes
Cape Malay Recipes
South African Braai Recipes and
Traditional African Recipes


TRADITIONAL BOERE RECIPES

The Boere were traditionally those people who formed part of the Great Trek from the Cape to the inland parts of South Africa. These people were the beginning of the Afrikaaner nation who account for about 6 million of the South African population.

Beskuit or Buttermilk Rusks

Ingredients

1l Buttermilk
1.5kg self raising flour or 10 cups flour and 8 tsp Baking Powder
3 ml Salt
10ml cream of tartar
430ml sugar
1 cup of mixed seeds (poppy, sunflower, linseed)
1 cup raisins (optional)

Method

Heat cream
Dissolve sugar into buttermilk
Add all the rest and mix well

Put into a large baking tray and bake at 180 for 1 hour
Let cool and cut into squares and separate.
Dry out in the oven for 3 – 6 hrs at 100 C.
Store in an airtight container.

Melktert or Milk tart

Ingredients

Puff pastry
pinch of salt
1 litre milk
I stick cinnamon
100ml sugar
100ml cake flour
Pinch salt
50 ml butter
4 eggs, separated
Ground cinnamon

Method

Preheat oven to 180 o C
Line a 225mm pie dish with some puff pastry. Pre bake.
Boil 1l milk and a cinnamon stick
In a heatproof bowl mix 100 ml sugar, 100 ml cake flour,
Add a pinch of salt.
Add the hot milk slowly to this mixture
Continue stirring over a low heat until the flour is cooked.
Remove from heat and add 50 ml of butter. Allow to cool.
Add 4 beaten egg yolks, and then fold in stiffly beaten whites.
Pour filling into pre-baked pastry shell.
Bake for 20 mins at 180o C, reduce heat to 160 o C for last 10 mins.
Cool, sprinkle with cinnamon and enjoy this traditional South African recipe.

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Oxtail

Oxtail is tough so needs a long cooking time. In the days of old they did not have the ingredients that we use below. But then again they also had much more time to devote to culinary arts! This is a sweet oxtail recipe.

Ingredients

Oxtail (normally 2 packs for a larger family)
Packet of brown onion soup
1 can of Tab
2 cups tomato sauce
2 cups chutney

Method

Rub the oxtail in the soup.
Brown in oil.
Add other ingredients.
Bring to boil, reduce heat. Simmer for up to 6 hours.
Check to make sure that it is not cooking dry. If it is, add a little beef stock at a time.
Towards the end of the cooking you can add potatoes and carrots.
Serve on mielie pap or rice.

Frikkadels

Frikkadels are really just smallish meat balls. They can be sweetened with chutney or flavored with herbs or even tomato based using some tomato puree for a different twist.

Ingredients

500g Mince
Onion finely chopped
˝ cup of oat bran
Salt & pepper
Worcestershire sauce
1 beaten egg

Method

Mix all together and shape into small balls. Fry in oil or bake in a hot oven. Serve with dipping sauces or on mashed potato.

Sout tert (Savory tart)

This is a South African recipe handed down through generations.

Ingredients

3 Eggs
2 cups of milk
2 slices bread
2 cups grated cheese
1 grated onion
Parsley/mixed herbs

Use one of the following:
Tuna, bacon, mushrooms or asparagus with the juice to make 1 cup of liquid.

Method

Cut bread into squares. Mix all the ingredients together and pour into a greased dish. Sprinkle with a second cup of grated cheese. Cook for ˝ hr at 180c.

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Almond cake

Ingredients

125g butter
250ml sugar
2 eggs
˝ tsp almond essence (vanilla also works well)
250ml cake flour
Almond slivers
Method

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and then flour. Do not over mix. Put into a greased 9” pie dish. Sprinkle almonds on top before baking. Bake for 30 minutes at 180oC. Sprinkle some castor sugar on top while still hot (optional).

Guava pie

Ingredients

6 Tbsp butter
6 Tbsp Sugar
Creamed together
2 Eggs
2 cups f flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 punnet guavas baked for 20 mins with a little sugar and water.

Method

Spread ˝ the dough in the bottom of a pie dish, put the warm guavas in and spread the other ˝ of the dough over. Bake for 20mins at 180C. Serve with custard.

Koeksisters

This recipe makes about 2 dozen sticky gooey delicious Koeksisters – a tradition in many South African homes.

Ingredients

4 X 250 ml Cake Flour
2ml salt
20 ml Baking powder
75ml butter
15 ml sugar
2 eggs beaten
250ml cold water
Cooking oil

Syrup
4 X 250 ml sugar 625 ml water 1 large cinnamon stick

Method

Prepare syrup one day ahead by combining sugar and water at a low heat until dissolved. Add cinnamon stick and allow to simmer for 10 mins. Leave to cool and then refrigerate.

Make the pastry by sifting dry ingredients and cutting the butter in. Add the sugar and beaten eggs ad mix until it is a soft scone like dough. Chill.

Roll out dough until about 7 mm thick. Cut into oblongs about 80 mm by 40 mm. Make two vertical cuts leaving a strip at one end still joined for about 10 mm. Plait the strips and secure with a little beaten egg.

Heat oil until very hot. Deep fry koeksisters until golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and dip into the chilled syrup. Remove with a second slotted spoon and leave to dry slightly.

The Illustrated South African Cookbook will be a wonderful extension of these recipes.

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