Posts Tagged ‘south african food’

Autumn is the time for baking

Sunday, April 4th, 2010
During my childhood, Easter was the time to get a new jersey and autumn always meant baking and chestnuts. Mosbolletjies made from fermenting grape must, sweet juicy crunchy koeksisters and rainbow cake. Maggie, who was my mother’s housekeeper, was a brilliant baker, and she did it in the old-fashioned way with no machinery.  All by hand in large Mason stoneware bowls and wooden spoons.  Often times the measurements were done in tea saucers or coffee saucers, teacups and wine glasses.  And somehow they always worked out just fine baked in a huge four ovened anthracite fired Aga stove that warmed the kitchen in winter and provided hot water for kitchen and

My first pot of Yoghurt

Sunday, May 15th, 2011
There are foodie things I have wanted to do for a long time, and know how to do and can talk knowledgably about, but I don’t actually get down and do them. Last weekend I did - I made my first pot of yoghurt. I have a friend, Sophia, who grew up in Douglas in the northern Cape.  She is of Lebanese extract and learnt a huge amount about food from her Lebanese grandmother – and the Lebanese know about food.  Sophia gave me the cutest little white enamel bucket full of Laban – a thick Lebanese yoghurt she had made herself.  Sophia writes

Quince & Lamb Knuckle Bredie

Saturday, May 5th, 2012
Quinces, which have been grown at the Cape for over 350 years, are back in season again. They were planted and mentioned in his diary by Jan van Riebeek’ s gardeners in the Company Gardens in Cape Town shortly after the settlement at the Cape by the Dutch to create a fuelling station for their ships sailing to Batavia. Quinces were popular right up to the turn of the 20th Century but with the urbanization of rural peoples they have become less and less known. However there is hardly a farm which does not have its quince and pomegranate or cape gooseberry hedges - all of which have been at the Cape since the
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