South African Supper
For the month of August, I pondered for a few days what the theme of this month’s meal should be. I couldn’t think of any holidays to base it around or pick a country that I could center this month’s meal around. After thinking it over for about a week, I decided to pick one randomly, and I chose South African cuisine.
I’ve never had authentic South African cuisine. I discovered during my research that many of the dishes are largely influenced by Indian cuisine, alongside Dutch. This was interesting to me especially because my family originates from South Asia. Since I hadn’t made an Africa-centered meal in a while and we already have many Indian spices at home, I thought South African cuisine would be wonderful to learn more about and make a delicious meal from.
For this post, I made three dishes, Durban chicken curry, roasted eggplant salad, and malva pudding.
DURBAN CHICKEN CURRY
Origin
Curry is known for its South Asian origins, and throughout history, South Asian spices have had a strong influence on various countries’ cuisine. Curry’s international travel is often attributed to trade or British relations. Great Britain colonized India from 1858 until 1947 and with the relationship, the popularity of Indian curry skyrocketed in England. So much so that Chicken tikka masala is cheekily referred to as the national dish of Great Britain.
India’s colonial relationship with Britain spread curry not only to England but to various areas in the sprawling British empire. This included areas in the Caribbean, such as Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas, and Barbados. Some half a million Indians migrated to the Caribbean, spreading the dish there.
The British variation even made its way to Japan and was quickly adopted by the Imperial Japanese Navy. It is believed to have grown so popular as a response to the growing issue of beriberi, or thiamine deficiency in Japan at the time. Today, it is one of the top national dishes of Japan, along with such foods as ramen and sushi. It is reported that the Japanese people today consume curry with rice at least once a week.
Additionally, India’s strategic location along the Silk Road also meant that merchants and travelers from many other nations carried the spices and cooking techniques. Curry quickly spread far and wide.
Curry’s history in South Africa is similar to its history in the Caribbean. The British also had colonies in South Africa, and the migration of Indians and English to the area led to the circulation of the curries. There are many popular South African curry dishes, such as Cape Malay curry, shrimp curries, and red kidney bean curries, along with different ways to eat curry such as the unique bunny chow, hollowed-out white bread filled with curry. I decided on Durban chicken curry. The dish is popular in the Durban port of South Africa and is known for its red color and spicy flavor.
Process
For this curry recipe, the chicken is seasoned first. But even before seasoning the chicken comes making of the seasoning itself. To season the chicken, I combined curry powder, coriander, cumin, cayenne pepper, and cinnamon sticks for a minute or so in a saucepan.
Once the spices had heated up for a minute or so I added onion, ginger, and garlic to the mixture, stirring for another few minutes. Next, I added in the chicken and stirred the mixture, allowing the chicken to be coated in the spice mixture.
I then added in the final ingredients: cubed tomatoes, potatoes, and rutabaga, along with some chicken broth, tomato puree, and curry leaves for its aromatic smell and authentic curry flavor.
Even with the broth and puree, I felt as though there wasn’t nearly enough liquid in the curry. I had followed the recipe to the T, however, it resembled seasoned chicken rather than a stew of any kind. I was a little hesitant, but my mom assured me that the juices from the potatoes, rutabaga, tomatoes, and chicken would start to come out and cover the chicken.
And that turned out to be just the case. I had added some extra broth, but I really did not need to. What had looked like chicken and vegetables just thirty minutes prior now looked exactly like the juicy chicken curry I had been expecting.
Taste
We enjoyed the curry along with a side of rice. It was delicious! I could definitely taste the South Asian influence in the curry through the spices but It was much more soupy and liquidy than chicken tikka masala, chicken handi, or other curries I’ve had in the past. The one thing that could have been improved would have been adding in a little more salt. The recipe was vague in its description of how much salt to add, so I had to determine how much to put on my own and it fell a little short. All in all, I really enjoyed the main dish, it was quite filling but not too much so that we weren’t hungry enough for the other dishes.
ROASTED EGGPLANT SALAD
Origin
Although eggplant isn’t all that popular in American cooking, it's often used in South Asian, Middle Eastern, and European cuisine. Baba Ganoush is one example of this, a spread made from roasted eggplant that is enjoyed in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean countries often as a dip with pita bread. Another common use of eggplant is in the Italian dish, eggplant parmesan. It's made up of layers of sliced eggplant covered with slices of mozzarella and is made in such a pattern to resemble shutters. Another variation of eggplant dishes is Romanian eggplant salad. This salad is similar to baba ganoush in that it can also be enjoyed as a spread.
In South Africa, eggplant salad is typically enjoyed as an appetizer. It's full of vegetables but the main ingredient is roasted eggplant innards.
Process
The process of making the salad was quite surprising to me. I expected it to be made up of a number of fresh, diced vegetables, and possibly drizzled with some kind of dressing. Although, to some extent, this does describe part of the process, the cooking of the eggplant was unexpected. I’d never handled eggplant before, so this was a first for me.
The recipe instructed that I cook the eggplant by broiling it, and completely charring the outside of the vegetable. To do this, I put the oven on the broil setting and laid the eggplant in aluminum foil to catch the juices. It took some time to cook and was quite high maintenance since I had to check on it every few minutes so as to not burn the eggplant, yet completely blacken the outside. Once it was fully cooked, I removed the eggplant from the oven, with mitts of course since it was in such high heat, and then let it cool.
When it was cool enough to handle, I removed it from the aluminum foil and removed the outer, purple layer to reveal the dark yellow meat of the eggplant inside. I then cut this up just as I would with other vegetables, making it into small cubes. Then, the eggplant was placed on a colander above the sink so all of the liquid would be drained. This took about 10 minutes.
As I was letting the liquid drain, I prepared up the rest of the ingredients, which included de-seeded red bell peppers and cucumber along with onion and garlic. To remove the seeds from the bell pepper I simply removed the core and then washed out the outer shell of the bell pepper in order to clean the remaining seeds out.
The onion and garlic were diced into tiny pieces along with the now seedless bell pepper and cucumber. These were then combined with the eggplant and coated with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. I made sure to add the salt as the last step before serving the whole meal in order to not draw out more of the liquid from the vegetables.
Taste
Surprisingly, I loved the eggplant salad! I’ve only had eggplant in dishes a handful of times and have always been put off by its color and slimy texture. Surprisingly, however, I actually enjoyed it. The eggplant worked well with the other vegetables. The eggplant didn’t have much of a flavor and was a little strange if I had it by itself, but combined with the other vegetables, it was a good side dish.
MALVA PUDDING
During the Dutch colonization of South Africa, malva pudding is said to have been introduced to the country. The Dutch were the first to colonize the country and had quite an impact on its history. Food-wise, malva pudding is not the extent of the Dutch’s effect on South African cuisine. Cape Dutch is the name for a unique regional style of South African cooking, that includes the use of certain spices and techniques. The dessert is known for its interesting preparation and inclusion of apricot jam.
Process
There are two parts to making malva pudding. I started with the preparation of the base. To make it, I first whipped together a combination of sugar and eggs until it was thick and lighter in color. Next, I added in the apricot jam. I’m not sure how much of an influence the apricot jam had on the flavor, since I only used about half a tablespoon, but it was in every recipe I researched, so it must have been essential. I then added in some melted butter, milk, and white vinegar. Next was the inclusion of the dry ingredients, including flour and sugar, which I had mixed together beforehand. I had wanted to use oat milk to cut out the dairy but realized I would be using heavy cream, later so it didn’t do much good. The process was actually quite similar to making cake batter.
I then added the uncooked pudding to a greased glass dish and placed it in the oven for half an hour.
While it was cooking, I made the second half of the recipe. This was a sauce that was poured over the pudding. It was mainly made up of cream, butter, and sugar, which is why it was near impossible to make this a dairy-free dessert. I combined all of the ingredients, along with some vanilla extract for the aroma, in a saucepan over heat until the ingredients had melted and merged together.
To pour it over the pudding warm, I put it over very low heat, stirring occasionally, until the pudding came out of the oven.
The pudding turned from a light yellow to brown in the oven. Once I was sure it had been cooked through, by inserting a toothpick in it and making sure it came out clean, I removed it from heat and set it to cool in the glass pan it had been cooked in.
I then poured the sweet sauce over the pudding and served.
Taste
The texture of the pudding was a little different from what comes to mind when I think of pudding. Usually, puddings are a thick, almost liquid mixture that is similar to yogurt. However, this pudding was nothing of the sort. It was definitely much more solid and reminded me of sponge cake. It was still delicious, and the airy texture was light enough that we didn’t feel too guilty about getting seconds. It was sweet but seemed like a pretty basic cake, other than the apricot jam none of the ingredients stood out to me and I couldn’t even taste the jam in the final product. I probably wouldn’t make it again, but it was pleasant tasting and gave an interesting look into South African cuisine.
Conclusion
I loved exploring South African cuisine, from its delicious dishes to its colorful ingredients. The experience was fulfilling not only because I was exploring the country’s cuisine and culture but also because it had such a strong South Asian influence. This allowed me to connect with the process differently as I’d encountered similar dishes to the curry in my own childhood. And this gave me some leeway to stray from the recipe at times. However, even with its strong influence, South African culture is still very unique. I’d never heard of an eggplant salad cooked in the same way or a pudding that resembled a sponge cake like the malva pudding. I enjoyed the experience and would love the opportunity to make more South African dishes another time.
