TASA bush cook competition – Best dressed

Says Anja: “At Sense of Africa we love teambuilding, so our group decided to go traditional and show off our country’s diverse culture. We wanted to add a dose of extra flavour to the competition and it worked well with our traditional dish of matangara (Sweet Burning Bliss). We represented the Namas, Wambos, Caprivians and Tswanas with our dress, and even performed a couple of dances in between!

But… it was tough to cook the whole meal on the fire! These days we’re so used to quickly popping a dish into the microwave, or buying already prepared food, that we’ve lost the skill of cooking on the fire as our forbears did. What’s more, the matangara was a difficult dish, as we had to cook, and cook, and cook a whole lot of ingredients until perfection, all in one massive pot! It seemed like an endless task, but in the end we pulled our meal off very nicely.”

Each member received an FNB body warmer.

Starter

The Orange and White soup

Method

Cook peeled onions, garlic and green chillies in melted butter until soft. Add lemon juice and chicken stock and stir until well mixed. Add water and cubed-and-peeled butternut. Simmer until thick and all ingredients are well blended. Add cream and serve warm.

Main course

Sweet Burning Bliss

Ingredients

Water, sheep’s stomach (soaked in milk the night before), Madras hot curry, onions, potatoes, green peppers, yellow pepper, red pepper, ground black pepper, finely ground white pepper, salt, sunflower oil, mayonnaise, spinach, tomatoes, Top Score maize meal, condensed milk, cream-style sweet corn, butter, matured cheddar cheese

Method

• Cook pre-soaked tripe (sheep’s stomach) in water. Add salt and pepper. Add cubed potatoes, chopped onions and peppers when tripe has softened, and curry and mayonnaise to taste.
• In another saucepan, cook spinach until soft (only a few minutes). When the water has evaporated, add sunflower oil and fry for two minutes. Add chopped onions, tomatoes and green peppers. Fry for five minutes, or until cooked.
• While spinach is frying, add salt to a pot of boiling water. Whisk in maize meal and stir until smooth. Add butter, sweetcorn and finally, cheese.
• Serve warm.

Dessert

Dumplings á la Queens

Method

• Place ingredients for syrup (water, Old Brown Sherry, freshly squeezed orange juice, sugar, butter, grated orange rind, lemon juice, cinnamon, ground ginger) into saucepan and bring to boil while stirring continuously.
• Cream butter and castor sugar for the batter. Add eggs and beat well. Add jam, orange rind and vanilla essence and blend. Sift in flour and salt and add gradually to the mixture. Dissolve bicarbonate of soda in milk, add raisins, and add to the batter mixture. Mix well.
• Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the boiling syrup. Cover and let simmer for half an hour or until it looks cooked.
• Prepare custard in another saucepan and serve with the dumplings.