Growing up in South Africa, I was able to not only continue to enjoy my Portuguese heritage through the meals we ate at home, but also be privy to the wonderful South African food.  Things like Koeksisters, Vetkoek, Mince Roll, Melktert and the amazing Malva Pudding.

I actually took Home Economics in school and I remember making it as one of our projects.  I'm sure I don't have to tell you that Home Ec. was my favorite subject in school, do I?  Especially when it was cooking day.

Anyway, I thought I had shared this recipe with you all, but after looking through the blog this morning, I noticed that I hadn't, and the last time I actually made the Malva Pudding was back in 2014.  Wow, that needs to be remedied and fast.  I think I will make one this weekend.



Sauce

1½ Cups cream
½ Cup butter, cut into blocks
¾ Cups + 2 teaspoons dark brown sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon Rhodes Apricot Jam (Just use whatever apricot jam you have on hand)

Batter

2 Tablespoons butter
⅓ Cup + 4 teaspoons dark brown sugar
3 Tablespoons Rhodes Apricot Jam
1 egg
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ Cup of milk
1 Cup flour
¼ teaspoon salt
4 teaspoon vinegar

Serve with custard, cream or ice cream.


Place the cream, butter, sugar, salt and Apricot Jam in a medium saucepan, stirring continually over a high heat, bring the sauce to the boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer for two minutes.
Remove from the heat and keep warm.


Cream the butter and the sugar together until the butter is pale and soft.  Beat in the Apricot Jam, beat in the egg.  Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda into the milk.

Sift the flour and the salt together and add to the batter, alternating with the milk.  Beat in the vinegar.
Spoon the batter into an ovenproof pudding bowl that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.

Pour half of the sauce over the batter.

Bake the Malva Pudding in an oven preheated to 350º F,  for 40 minutes or until risen and golden.
Remove from the oven and pour over the remaining sauce a little at a time until all the sauce is absorbed by the hot pudding.

Serve hot with custard, cream or ice cream.

Or, meatloaf for us folks here in the USA.

This recipe comes from my South African cookbook, it's a typical meatloaf recipe, just topped with mozzarella cheese slices, filled with shredded cheese, onion and tomato.


We love meatloaf, and I'm always trying different variations so we don't get sick of the same thing, thankfully meatloaf is one of those dishes that can be changed up according to tastes, you can fill it with whatever you like, or not fill it. Top it, or don't top it, it's up to you, but the end result is always a serving of comfort food.



1 and half pounds of beef mince (ground beef)
2 teaspoons of salt
1 onion, coarsely grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup of breadcrumbs
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
2 tablespoons parsley
diced tomato and onion
mozzarella cheese

Mix all ingredients well, except tomato and onion and mozzarella. Press beef mixture out on a sheet of greaseproof paper into a rectangle measuring 30 x 20 cm (about 12 by 6 inches).

Spread with some diced tomato and onion and sprinkle with shredded mozzarella cheese. With the help of the paper, roll up from the long edge, like a swiss roll. Place, seam side down, on an oiled swiss roll tin a little larger than the meat roll.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and spread some more diced tomato and onion over the top, and then arrange thin slices of mozzarella, side by side, to cover the top completely. Return to oven and bake for 30 minutes more.

Serve in thick slices.

Serves 6.

Having grown up in South Africa, there are days that I miss a certain food that I used to love.  Boerewors are definitely on the top of the list, but another one which may seen a little weird, is Bunny Chow.



Now before you go and get yourself all worked up, there are NO bunnies in the dish.  NONE!  No fluffy anything in there, so don't let the name freak you out.  But what is Bunny Chow?  If you're South African or grew up in South Africa like I did, you know exactly what it is, matter of fact you may have tried in once or twice or many times, it's the perfect beach food when you're down in Durban.

Bunny chow, often referred to as a Bunny is a South African street dish consisting of a hollowed out loaf of bread filled with curry, that originated in the Durban Indian community.

Though curry and especially Mutton Curry is the most popular with this dish, there are quite a few versions out there, I've seen chicken, I've seen ground beef etc. Whatever you decide to try, it's delicious.

While sitting here this morning looking at my Menu Plan, I started craving Bunny Chow and just knew that I had to fix it for dinner.

Traditionally it is served in a half of a bread loaf, that has been hollowed out, then the curry scooped into the middle.  For me, the best part is that the bread soaks up all that curry gravy *drool*

Only thing I'm doing differently is that I'm making my own filling and using homemade bread bowls instead of loaves :)  You can use whatever recipe you have on hand, the one I'm using I've had for a while and found it on allrecipes.com.



Homemade Bread Bowls

1/2 cup water (70 to 80 degrees F)
1 cup warm milk (70 to 80 degrees F)
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast

In bread machine pan, place the first seven ingredients in order suggested by manufacturer. Select dough setting (check dough after 5 minutes of mixing; add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water or flour if needed).
When the cycle is completed, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into six portions; shape into balls. Place on greased baking sheets.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 30 minutes.



Bake at 375 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.



Cool on wire racks.



To make bowl, cut the top fourth off of bread; carefully hollow out bottom of each, leaving a 1/4-in. shell (discard removed bread or save for another use).



I'm keeping mine to make some homemade bread crumbs as I'm running pretty low :)

Now for the filling, you can find a gazillion different versions out there, it really depends on what you like....but this is how I made mine tonight, just kept it very simple but it was still really good :)

Bunny Chow Filling

1 lb ground beef
1 small onion, finely diced
2 small tomatoes, finely diced
chopped garlic
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 teaspoons curry powder

In a skillet, add a little bit of olive oil and the garlic, cook for a minute or so, don't let the garlic burn though. Add the ground beef and cook until brown. Add the onion and tomatoes, salt and pepper and curry powder. At this point I like to add a little bit of water, not much but enough to give it a little bit of gravy and not allow it to dry up.



Cook for about 15 minutes for the flavors to combine well. Check frequently and stir, also remember to keep adding a little bit of water at a time, you want to end with a nice consistency and definitely a bit of gravy in there, just don't add too much, you don't want it soupy.

I know I'm horrible at writing recipes, I am such a visual and do-er person that writing it down is hard for me. :)

Once done, scoop into the bread bowls and serve immediately :)

There are many things I miss about South Africa, mainly my family and my friends and the surroundings.  I grew up in that beautiful country and there are days that I want nothing more than to go back, to visit everyone, to walk the streets I used to though I know I can't do that nowadays because of the violence and the crime.


In all the things that remind me of home, one of the biggest has to be food and maybe because I love cooking so much and maybe because I associated certain meals with a certain event in my life, or a person, or a time and place.

As I was looking through my facebook today, one of my friends from South Africa who is actually living in Georgia now, mentioned that she was making Koeksisters and it immediately brought me a pang of homesickness, I wanted to have them too, I wanted to take a bite and close my eyes and imagine that it's a warm South African afternoon and that I'm sitting in my kitchen after school, eating one of these.


They take a little time to make but if you double the recipe like I did, you get a huge amount of Koeksisters.

A koeksister or koesister comes from the Dutch word koekje, the diminutive of koek meaning "cake". It is a South African syrup-coated doughnut in a twisted or braided shape.  Many call them Koeksuster too!





Ingredients:
Syrup

* 250 ml water (1 cup)
* 625 ml white sugar (2 1/2 cups)
* 12 1/2 ml lemon juice (2 1/2 tsp.)
* 5 ml vanilla essence (1 tsp.)


Dough

* 375 ml cake flour (1 1/2 cups)
* 22 ml baking powder (4 1/2 tsp.)
* 1 ml salt (1/4 tsp.)
* 20 g butter or 20 g margarine
* 150 ml milk (5 oz or about 3/4 cups) (I had to add a little bit more to get my dough to form, it was way too dry with just the 5/8 cup of milk)
* 750 ml canola oil (3 cups)

Put the water and sugar in a ot and bring to boil on low heat. Stir frequently until the sugar is completely dissolved. Boil for 7 minutes.


Remove the pot from the stove and stir in the lemon juice and vanilla essence. Put the pot into the fridge.


Mix the flour, salt, and baking powder thoroughly in a mixing bowl. Break the butter or margarine into small pieces and add to the four mixture. Add the milk. Mix well until a dough is formed.

Roll the dough out to a thickness of 5 mm (+ or - 1/4 in.). Cut the dough into thin (+ or - 10 mm or 1/2 in.) strips. Take 3 strips and join their ends on one side. Braid the strips to desired koeksister length and join other ends.


Heat the oil in a pot until fairly hot. Put about 3 koeksisters (or what can fit)at a time in the oil and fry them on both sides until they get a golden-brown color.


As you remove the koeksisters for the oil, place them directly ito the syrup from the fridge. It is important to keep the syrup cool, so between soakings, return the syrup to the fridge to maintain its coolness. (I actually place my bowl inside a bigger bowl with a bed of ice and pop some in between the bowls too, it keeps it nice and cool)



Remove the koeksisters from the syrup and allow the excess syrup to drip off. Place them in the refrigerator to cool and then eat!


They are amazing.  You have this twisted donut that is drenched in syrup.


You HAVE to put them in the fridge, they need to be nice and chilled when you eat them.  YUM!


As you can see, I doubled the recipe and it made a HUGE batch, there are so many here that I'm going to give some away to friends, let them taste a little bit of South Africa and see what they think.


Let me know if you try them, they are ridiculously addictive, quite rich and sweet so I don't make them very often but believe it or not, after being in the fridge it takes away some of that sweetness so it's just right.

Enjoy!