Most of the Jewish immigrants came to South Africa from Lithuania and nearby Latvia, Poland, Russia and Belarus, home to the Ashkenazi Jews, in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Sephardi Jews came later from North Africa, Rhode Island and Turkey – and from the 1950’s onwards from Egypt, the Belgian Congo and Zimbabwe. Sephardic food reflects the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food of the countries Sephardi Jews had lived in.

One of the most respected Sephardic cooks in Cape Town was the late Donna Benatar. Born in Israel, a 10^th generation sabra, she came to Africa in 1954 to visit friends in Zimbabwe. There she met her husband-to-be, Egyptian-born Baruch, who at the time was living in the Belgian Congo. They married in 1955 and returned to the Congo, but had to leave in 1974. After a stay in Belgium, they chose to live in Cape Town.

Chraime is considered to be the kings of Libyan food, and the dish that really characterizes the Libyan Jewish kitchen. There are many ways to prepare it and many versions. The fish must be firm and it must ‘float’ in the sauce – that is there must be plenty of sauce. It’s served with white bread and lemon is squeezed over it as you eat. This recipe is from our cookbook of the week – South Africa Eats.

For the fish use kabeljou, Cape salmon or yellowtail, cut into cutlets on the bone, with the skin on, to about thumb thickness, either a smallish fish or the tail part of a bigger fish – this will give some small pieces which is perfect for those people who prefer a smaller portion.

12 pieces of a firm fish – see above

3 large lemons

oil for frying
1 large head of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
2 tins (115 g) tomato paste
1T ground cumin
1T ground coriander
a generous pinch of cumin seeds
1t cayenne pepper (or chilli powder)
a pinch of salt
boiling water

To serve:

lemon wedges
kitke bread

1. Rinse the fish and lightly salt on both sides.
2. Marinate the fish in lemon juice for a while or at least for the time it takes to make the sauce. Have a colander and two plates ready. Place fish in a colander over the first plate and squeeze lemon juice over the fish. After a while move the colander to second plate and pour over the drained liquids from the first plate. Repeat by moving the colander back to the first plate and pouring over the drained liquids. Do this about three times while making the sauce. Discard the liquid that remains.
3. Cover the base of a wide frying pan or casserole, about 29 cm in diameter, with a 5 mm layer of oil. The casserole must be big enough to hold all the pieces of fish in a single layer. Over medium heat, sauté the chopped garlic.
4. Add the tomato paste in the centre of the pot, top with the spices and salt and mix. Cook for a minute or two.
5. Add enough boiling water to create a good sauce consistency.
6. Add the fish and cook on each side for 2 – 3 minutes. Remove fish to a serving dish and pour over the sauce. Serve at room temperature with a generous portion of sauce (to mop up with kitke) and with lemon wedges to squeeze over the fish.

Serves 8-12

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studio. Cookery classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – teambuilding cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our cooking lessons are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and team building cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

Frikkadels – a lovely old-fashioned word – refers both to fishcakes and meatballs. Big, fat ones are fab for dinner, while smaller ones are good with pre-prandial drinks. Fish frikkadels may be flavoured in various ways; in the book Tortoises and Tumbleweeds they have an Indian spin. Any fish can be used, freshly-cooked for the occasion, left-over from a baked or braaied – even tinned salmon, tuna or pilchards if all else fails. Rougail – a salady garnish of Tamil origin that has made its home in the Indian Ocean islands – rounds things off gloriously. Alternatively serve with a homemade tomato sauce, as we do in Wickedfood cooking School in our fish cooking class.

500 g smoked or cooked fish fillets
300 g potatoes, peeled and diced
60 ml chopped coriander
2 eggs, lightly beaten
salt and milled black pepper
juice of 1 lemon or lime
250 ml toasted breadcrumbs
2 limes, to serve
vegetable oil

Rougail:

3 – 4 spring onions, finely chopped
3 roma or plum tomatoes, chopped
60 ml chopped coriander
salt and milled black pepper
olive oil
lime juice

1. Skin and flake the fish. Cook the potatoes in a saucepan of salted boiling water. Drain well and mash. Mix in the fish, coriander and egg, and flavour with salt and pepper and a good squeeze of lemon or lime juice. Shape into patties, flattening them between your palms. Coat with toasted crumbs.
2. Cut the limes in half, brush generously with oil and grill in a frying pan until lightly charred and smoky.
3. Rougail Mix the spring onions, tomatoes and coriander, and season with salt and pepper. Add a little olive oil and lime juice. Spoon into a bowl.
4. Heat oil in a medium frying pan for shallow-frying, and fry the frikkadels until crisp and golden; 2 or 3 minutes on each side should do it.
5. Serve hot or at room temperature – never chilled, as they lose all their flavour. Rougail and charred limes can be presented alongside or in separate bowls.

(Makes about 12; Serves 4 to 6)

More recipes from the book …click here.

Wickedfood Cooking School, Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and teambuilding cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

Every day during the Football World Cup Delia Smith will add a recipe that reflects the cuisine of one of the teams playing. This is her take on the braai. The sauce is suitable for all meats – lamb cutlets, pork ribs or chicken drumsticks. The quantity is enough to glaze six of each, which makes a nice mixture of meats to serve to six people. One important point is that drumsticks need pre-baking in a pre-heated oven at gas mark 180°C, for 15 minutes just before braaiing. This recipe is taken from Delia Smith’s Summer Collection.

6 chicken drumsticks

6  lamb cutlets

6 pork ribs

For the apricot barbecue glaze:

6 dried apricots

2 T dark brown sugar

Few drops Tabasco sauce

¼ cup Worcestershire sauce

¼ cup light soy sauce

1T grated fresh ginger

1T ground ginger

2T tomato purée

1 clove garlic, minced

For the apricot barbecue glaze:

1. Begin by placing the apricots in a small saucepan with just enough water to cover them, then bring them up to simmering point and simmer for 5 minutes. Place them, with the leftover liquid,  in a blender or food processor together with all the other glaze ingredients. Whiz everything to a purée and the sauce is ready.
2. All you need to do now is arrange the meat in a shallow dish, pour the glaze over them – turning the pieces of meat so that each one gets a good coating – then cover and leave in a cool place until you’re ready to cook, preferably overnight. When you light the fire, pre-cook the chicken drumsticks as above, then cook with the other meat.
3. Scrape any sauce that’s left in the dish into a small saucepan, add a glass of white wine to it and bring it all up to simmering point to give some extra sauce.
4. Serve with oven-roasted potatoes, a crisp salad and some very robust red wine!

Serves 6

For more Fifa World Cup recipes from Delia Smith, … click here

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and teambuilding cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

This wonderful chicken and peanut stew, with a thick spicy tomato base is typical of West Africa. Make it as spicy as you like by adding cayenne pepper, and for extra heat, a chopped chilly or two. This recipe is based on one that we teach at Wickedfood cooking School in our West African cooking class.

8 to 12 chicken pieces

±3T oil for cooking

2 onions, peeled and chopped

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2T fresh ginger, finely chopped

1 tin chopped tomatoes

2T tomato paste

1 ½ cups peanut butter

1 stock cube dissolved in 2 cups hot water

2-3t cayenne pepper or to taste

salt and sugar to taste

garnish with chopped chilly or spring onion

1. Trim the chicken pieces of extra fat and skin, and season with cayenne pepper and salt.
2. Heat the oil in a deep pot or casserole dish. Add the chicken in batches, skin side down and fry on both sides until it is browned. Remove and set aside. (Chicken cooks best if the chicken pieces do not touch each other while frying.)
3. Fry the onions until they just start to change colour, then add the garlic and ginger.
4. Stir in chopped tomatoes and paste. Reduce heat and simmer for ±5 minutes.
5. Stir in peanut butter and then the stock and stir well.
6. Return chicken to pot, bring to the boil and simmer on a low heat for 40 minutes. Adjust the spices by adding more cayenne pepper, salt and sugar to taste.
7. Garnish and serve with Fufu, pounded yam, a classic accompaniment to most West African stews, or rice.

Serves 6 to 8

Click here for some other interesting African recipes

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and teambuilding cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

Umngqusho (Mngqusho) -  Samp and beans – is a favourite traditional dish among the Xhosa people in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. It is made of de-hulled dried corn and dried beans. In the case of samp, however, the corn kernels are crushed or broken into pieces which are easier to cook and eat. In South Africa, dried samp and beans are sold already mixed and ready to use. Umngqusho is sometimes served with fried onions, or as a side dish with any stew that has gravy.

3 cups dry samp and bean mix
water
salt to taste

1. Cover the samp and beans with water and soak overnight. Drain and rinse before cooking.
2. In a large pot, cover the soaked samp and beans with cold water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer on low heat for one to two hours, until all is tender and the water is mostly absorbed. Add additional water during cooking if needed.
3. Season with salt. Serve hot.

Click here for some other interesting African recipes

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and teambuilding cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.