Vegan MoFo - Stopover 15 - South Africa

The cuisine of South Africa is also described as the rainbow cuisine due to the variety of multicultural sources. As well as traditional cookery from it's indigenous inhabitants, there is also a mixture of Dutch, French, German, British, Indonesian, Malaysian and Indian influences. I planned to cook a couple of South African recipes although only one of them made it to our stomachs so I'll start with the sad story and end on a good note!

Even though I'm not much of a corn lover, I had been contemplating veganising a steamed cornbread recipe in World Vegetarian Classics by Celia Brooks Brown for a while. This South African cornbread called mealie sounded like an interesting baking process as the loaf tin was covered in foil and baked in the oven in a bain-marie. The only vegan substitutions I needed to make were dairy-free margarine for butter and ground flaxseed mixed with water for eggs. It was a really simple recipe to put together but the alarm bells started ringing when I checked it after an hour and it was a gloopy mess which hadn't set at all! When this hadn't changed after a further 30 minutes, I decided to take drastic measures and ditched the foil and bain-marie. This allowed the bread to brown on top although it still wouldn't set in the middle, so in a rare occurrence (as I really hate to waste food) this dish met it's fate with the bin. I'm not keen to revisit the recipe as I wasn't fond of the taste of the mixture anyway, it was way too sweet for my liking.

When I was hunting around for recipes I fell in love with the name of a dish called Chakalaka as it seemed to roll off the tongue so seamlessly. Chakalaka has been a staple of South Africans for generations and is often served as an accompaniment at barbecues, sometimes as a cold dish. I was also amused with the inclusion of tinned baked beans in the ingredients which is something I don't generally eat, especially since enjoying a few home-made versions. This was such an easy dish that only required a bit of chopping and frying and the end result was so worthwhile, we've eaten spicy bean dishes three nights in a row and enjoyed this one most. This is a tasty speedy meal for bean lovers as long as you enjoy a bit of spice although this could be altered to suit personal tastes. Chakalaka is usually served with cornbread, it worked well with leftover rice for us and I'm sure it would be great on toast too.


Chakalaka (Adapted from these recipes)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 green capsicum (bell pepper), diced
2 birds eye chillies, finely chopped
2 teaspoon curry powder
3 medium tomatoes, diced
2 medium carrots, grated
1 x 420g tin baked beans
salt and pepper, to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, capsicum and chilli and fry for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally or until softened. Stir through the curry powder for a minute then add the tomatoes. Allow the tomatoes to soften and break down then add the grated carrots. Cook for a further 5 minutes then stir through the baked beans. After a minute or two the baked beans should be warmed through. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with rice, cornbread or on some toast.

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Did you know? I couldn't decide on one fact today so I'm giving you three!

South Africa has three capital cities, Cape Town is the the legislative capital, Pretoria is the executive capital and Bloemfontein is the judicial capital.

South Africa is the only country in the world that had two Nobel Peace Prize winners residing in the same street! Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu used to live in the same street in Soweto.

South Africa is the only country in the world to date that has abandoned it's nuclear weapons programme. Way to go South Africa!

Do you want to know where else I've been this month? Click here for the round up.

Vegan MoFo - Stopover 14 - Madagascar

Madagascar was another exciting pick, it was the first African country to be drawn and apart from Morocco, Egypt and Ethiopia I haven't cooked food originating from African countries before. The food influences of Madagascar vary greatly due to the mix of South East Asians, Africans, Indians, Chinese and Europeans that have settled on the island over the past 2,500 years. Rice is the centre of the Malagasy diet and is eaten at every meal of the day, usually served with an accompaniment called a laoka. The people that reside in coastal areas use coconut milk as the base in their laoka whereas the highlanders are more likely to cook with a tomato base.

I found a selection of Malagasy recipes on celtnet.org.uk and picked out a lima bean and tomato curry called Kabaro au Carry and some fritters which are a common street food called Moko Sakay. Lima beans are one of the few beans I haven't cooked with yet so I was interested to give them a try. The recipe included a curry powder referred to as cape curry powder, this was stated to be most similar to a Malaysian curry powder blend and as I already had some in the pantry, this is what I used. I didn't change anything about this recipe although the cooking time needed to be extended considerably as my beans took 2 hours to soften. This was a fairly mild dish which we all enjoyed, especially the man as he really loves his beans.

Mofo Sakay introduced another new ingredient into my cooking repertoire - watercress. These fritters were a mixture of watercress, tomato, spring onions (scallions), fresh chillies and curry powder. They were simple to put together and fry whilst the beans were cooking away. I was expecting them to be spicier than they turned out, this may have been due to using chillies that had been sitting in the fridge for a while as I usually find fresher chillies tend to have more bite to them. Fritters are usually best eaten straight away yet I found it interesting that the leftover ones reheated in the oven the following day tasted a little different. The peppery taste of the watercress was more prominent as were the spices so even though they weren't as crisp I preferred the heightened flavours.


Mofo Sakay (Adapted from a recipe on celtnet)
Makes about 12 fritters

280g plain flour
1 ½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Malaysian curry powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
360ml water
60g watercress, chopped
3 birds eye chillies, finely sliced
2 spring onions (scallions), finely sliced
1 medium tomato, diced
oil, for shallow frying

Mix together the flour, salt, curry powder, baking powder and pepper in a large bowl. Pour in the water and stir thoroughly until it becomes a thick batter and no lumps are remaining. Fold the watercress, chillies, spring onions, and tomato through the batter.

Pour about 1-2 cm of oil into a deep sided frying pan and place on medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, drop 3 or 4 large spoonfuls of the batter into the oil, ensuring they have room to spread. Fry for about 3 minutes on one side or until the batter is almost set on top. Flip over and fry for a further 2 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to absorb the excess oil. Repeat the frying process until the batter is used up. 

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Did you know?

Although the island of Madagascar is situated closest to the African coast, the cultural roots are more similar those of South East Asia which were the first inhabitants of the country. The residents of Madagascar are known as Malagasy and they do not like to be referred to as Africans.

Do you want to know where else I've been this month? Click here for the round up.

A milestone celebration

Our son's 18th birthday was last week! Wow, it makes me feel old to be the mother of an adult but I am actually quite a young parent as I gave birth to him just after turning 19. On his actual birthday, the three of us went to a favourite local restaurant (which I must bring my camera to next time so I can post about it) and then we hosted a family party on the weekend. It was a great night that was thoroughly enjoyed by all, including the birthday boy.

During the month preceding the event I perused many recipes for dips, finger foods and sweets and pre-cooked a few freezer suitable items along the way to keep myself organised. I actually had to stop at one point because my freezer was full to the brim of baked goods so I couldn't squeeze another item in. The photo below was taken after clearing out the freezer on the morning of the party, pictured are samosas from Terry Hope Romero's recipe testing, pinwheels, sausage rolls from where's the beef and oven baked falafels.

I chose a selection of dips and daringly made a couple that I hadn't tried previously, one of which turned out better than the other. As my mum is seriously allergic to all nuts I decided to keep them out of everything apart from the sausage rolls and changed this Mexican layered dip around to suit. I started with a base of refried beans and layered it with guacamole instead of cashew cream, then topped it all off with chopped tomatoes, olives, spring onions and coriander. This was a big hit, especially with my niece and brother in law.  

A hummus variation with roasted red capsicum, olives and smoked paprika that I made last Christmas, a spiced carrot dip which I wasn't very fond of, and a Moroccan broad bean dip called bessara were the other dips I made to go with pita bread. The bessara was quite similar to hummus although it had a deeper earthier flavour. I stumbled across this dip when I was searching for recipes that used dried broad beans a while ago as I accidentally purchased broad beans when I meant to buy Egyptian fava beans for ful medames.

For sweets, I made a carrot semolina halva from recipe testing and rocky road from Green Gourmet Giraffe minus the nuts. I also made a chocolate cake and frosting from The Joy of Vegan Baking which was decorated with choc-mint balls (see top photo).

Now that the party is over and with recipe testing finishing up soon, I aim to get back into a more regular blogging routine. That's the plan anyway!


Bessara (Moroccan broad bean dip) (Adapted from this recipe)

200g dried broad beans
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 heaped teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
fresh chopped parsley, for garnish

Place the broad beans in a bowl and cover well with water. Allow to soak for at least 8 hours or overnight. Drain the beans in a colander and rinse well with fresh water. Place the beans in a saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered for about an hour or until the beans are tender.

Drain the beans in a colander and allow to cool then place them in a food processor with the garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, cumin, paprika and cayenne pepper. Pulse for a few minutes, scraping down the sides every so often, until it becomes a thick smooth paste. Add some additional water if you prefer a thinner consistency.

Transfer to a bowl and garnish with parsley. Bessara is traditionally eaten warm, I served it at room temperature which was fine.