Heritage Day is next week and we have put together a selection of some delicious recipes to inspire you.
As South Africans, Heritage Day allows us to celebrate all those traditions that are uniquely and proudly South African, and to share the beauty of our rainbow nation.
From braai to vetkoek, you are bound to find something to suit your taste.
Our cuisine is a unique fusion of many different external cultural influences, and dining out is one of the most popular things to do, especially if you are a visitor. From roadside stalls to world-class restaurants, South Africa offers a wide variety of choices when it comes to food.
Here are some great culinary ideas from Ultimate Braai Master winners to make your Heritage Day feast a special one.
Braaied snoek with rooibos and tamarind glaze, by Stephen Mandes
Ingredients for glaze
1 large onion
30ml olive oil
5 Rooibos tea bags
10g fresh thyme
4 cloves garlic
80g tamarind paste
50ml Worcestershire sauce
120g brown sugar
10g salt
10g freshly ground black pepper
10g chopped red chillies
350ml Water (300ml for glaze-50ml for cornflour slurry)
15g cornflour
Method
Sauté the onion in the olive oil until softened. Then add the garlic, chillies, and thyme, and cook for five minutes.
Add in the water, Rooibos tea bags, and bring them to a boil. Once the Rooibos tea has released its flavour, remove them from the pot.
Add in the sugar, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and tamarind paste. Bring this to the boil.
Prepare the slurry with water and cornflour. While the liquid is boiling, whisk in the cornflour mixture. Continue to cook until the consistency covers the back of a spoon.
Preparing the snoek
Ingredients
1 whole fresh snoek
Quick rooibos cure
1 large onion
1 large carrot
50g coriander leaf
6 Rooibos tea bags (tea to be taken out of the bag)
100g sugar
50g salt
Method
Blend all the ingredients together to make a kind of paste.
Introduce the snoek to the cure.
In a large enough tray, pat down a third of the cure, then place the snoek on top of that and cover with the rest of the cure.
This snoek needs to soak up the flavours for about an hour and a half.
Rinse off the cure thoroughly, and pat it dry – it should be smelling delicious!
Once the glaze and snoek are ready, get the coals and grid ready. Remember that snoek is delicate, so we don't want to dry it out. The best way to keep it juicy is to braai it over low coals, to turn it often, and to glaze it every time. It should take you about 25 minutes to braai a snoek.
Flaming rooibos moonshine crème brûlée by Corné “Borries” Bornman
Ingredients
500ml fresh cream
6 egg yolks
80ml sugar
3 bags Rooibos tea – extract tea flavour with 300 ml boiling water, remove bags, and simmer over low heat till concentrated to 50-60 ml
90ml sugar for caramelising on top of brûlée
Method
Heat cream in a saucepan, while dissolving the sugar, add concentrate of Rooibos, sieve liquid, and pour into 150ml ramekins.
Preheat the oven to 150ºC. Place ramekins in an oven pan and fill with hot water till half of the depth of ramekins, so they can cook in the water bath without curdling. Cover with foil, pierce the top, and bake for 30-40 minutes.
Once it is set like jelly, remove it from the bath and cool down.
Flaming rooibos liqueur
Ingredients
250ml high proof white alcohol of 50% or more, i.e. Moonshine
2 rooibos tea bags
80g pure honey
75ml evaporated milk or cream
Method
This process carries a high risk of igniting! Please take care.
Add the Rooibos tea bags to the alcohol, in a bowl of rice or slow cooker. Let it simmer for no more than a few minutes while covered. Boil it too long and all the alcohol evaporates.
Bring any fire or match close by and you’ll have an inferno. Set aside to cool completely with bags inside, far away from an open flame.
Use 150 ml of Rooibos alcohol, and combine that with the honey and evaporated milk/cream. Shake well and refrigerate.
Plating
Finish all plating and decoration for six ramekins. Have the remaining rooibos Moonshine handy. Use the extracted Rooibos tea bags as a garnish, with some fresh flowers.
Pour the rooibos cream liqueur into appropriate serving glasses and place on plated plates, ready to serve once the brûlées have been caramelised.
Spoon 15ml of sugar on top of each set of the custard. Roll ramekin in hand to spread the sugar evenly.
Lightly spritz the sugar with a tiny bit of water. It helps to prevent loose hot bullets of sugar from blowing onto you while burning the tops.
Hold the ramekin with one hand and burn the top evenly with the gas torch, while turning the bowl, so as to allow the sugar to cover the top completely and evenly. The colour should be dark caramel but not bitterly burnt. Keep the gas burner going on one side.
While the sugar is still hot, add a dash (7ml) of the Rooibos Moonshine on top and set it alight.
Send to the table while aflame, taking care not to burn yourself or your guests.