World Cup FIFA Good Eats - A Gold Mine of Recipes

Chefs Justin Wilson and Paul Prudhomme taught us about the trinity of Cajun cuisine. Very pleasantly, South Africa has its own trinity of cuisine as well and one point of that trinity is Bobotie. Naming the three, Bobotie, Sosaties, and Bredie are the Trinity of South African cuisine. Bobotie is a delicious casserole, sosaties are much like shish kebob, and bredie is a good meat and vegetable stew.

Colleagues of my father at Jeffery Mining and Machinery (the building is now the State Library of Ohio) resettled in South Africa to work in the associated mining and machinery businesses of that nation. South Africa and Botswana are now very well known for gold and diamond mines, among other mineral and precious metal productions. The South African Department of Minerals and Energy reported in mid-June 2010 that their nation’s wealth was founded on its mineral resources.

In the 2010s, South African mineral deposits include 90% of the platinums of all the Earth, 80% of the manganese of the planet, 73% of all chrome, 45% of our vanadium, and 41% of the Earth’s gold. That is startling! It is a rich place, this South Africa, with cultures and peoples to match. However, crude oil and bauxite are nowhere to be found.

South Africa is also well known for recipes shared with us by friends and colleagues. Below are recipes that have been shared from South Africa since the 1960s. A bit about food from South Africa's nearest neighbor, Botswana, follows, along with some information about the FIFA World Cup 2010. Enjoy all of it, please.

Meat Filling

• 2 Pounds ground LAMB originally, or ground beef or ground chuck
• 1.5 Cups fine-chopped onions
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 Cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 1 tsp Fresh grated ginger
• 1 Tbsp Chutney
• 1 Cup Whole milk, divided equally into two bowls
• 1 Slab of stale white bread, crust removed. Soak in one bowl of milk for 10 minutes. Remove from the milk, squeeze out excess and keep this milk for later, and mash it up with a fork in a bowl.
• 2 Tbsp Fresh or bottled lemon juice
• ½ Tbsp curry powder
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 2 Tbsp white or light brown sugar or honey
• ½ Cup dark raisins
• ¼ Cup chopped blanched almonds
• Salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Egg Topping

• 2 Whole eggs, well beaten
• ½ Cup whole milk
• 1 Medium-sized tart cooking apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped.
• 4 Bay leaves for garnish – Caution diners not to eat them.

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat the oven to 325° F or 160° C.
• Cooking spray a glass oven-proof casserole dish.
• Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat, add the onions and sauté until translucent.
• Stir in curry powder, garlic, ginger, and turmeric and mix well.
• Add the ground meat and continue stirring until browned and broken up.
• Add in the sugar or honey, mashed bread, chutney, lemon juice, and raisins, stir and season with salt and pepper
• Spoon the whole mixture into the prepared casserole dish, and place into the oven for 35 minutes.
• MEANWHILE: Mix the beaten eggs with ½ Cup milk and the excess milk from soaking the bread.
• Remove the casserole from the oven and spread the egg mixture evenly across the surface.
• Add the 4 bay leaves in a circular pattern on top and return the dish to the oven for 15 minutes or until the egg topping has set. Remove and cool slightly before serving.

Serve bobotie with turmeric-flavored rice and sliced bananas, a tomato-cucumber salad, chutneys, or with herbed rice - or try a Wild Rice dish.

Bredies are traditionally named for the starring vegetable included in of them.

Bredie is an old name from the Cape of Good Hope area for this rich lamb/mutton or other meat and vegetable stew. This dish and name are thought to have been an import from the Malay region, coming with peoples who migrated to the Cape from that quarter. So many cultures have emigrated to the nation that South Africa is a cultural and culinary mix of many imports, with a range from Aboriginal to British influences and the unknown.

Usual Ingredients

The meats used in bredie are usually the fattier cuts of meat and usually lamb or mutton. Onions and chilies are strong flavoring agents in bredie seasonings, but the star is usually tomato, pumpkin, green beans, cabbage, dried beans, or cauliflower. Zucchini, yellow squash, or sweet potatoes are delicious alternatives that I enjoy very much.

Serves 4

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1.5 Pounds boneless shoulder lamb or mutton, cut to cubes 1 to 2 inches on a side
• 1 Large onion, peeled and sliced 1/8” thick
• 1 tsp Chopped garlic
• 6 Medium-sized red tomatoes, peeled (see these directions) and cut to ¼” thick slices
• 1 Tbsp Fresh hot chilies, seeded and chopped fine
• 2 Whole cloves
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt

INSTRUCTIONS

• In a heavy skillet, heat the oil over medium until it just begins to smoke.
• Add the lamb and brown it in batches of several pieces. Be sure to turn each piece often with a slotted spoon to evenly brown the surfaces and prevent burning. Remove each browned batch to a holding platter near the stove top.
• When meat is all browned, discard fat except for 2 Tbsp and add to it the onion slices and garlic.
• Stirring constantly, begin scraping up the brown bits that cling to the bottom of the skillet and cooking for about 10 minutes longer. The onions will be a golden brown color at this point.
• Add the tomatoes, chilies, cloves, sugar, and salt and stir.
• Stir in lamb and juices around it.
• Reduce the heat to lowest setting, cover, and cook 60 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Remove the cover and, stirring and mashing the tomatoes occasionally, simmer for 30 to 40 minutes longer, or until the lamb is very tender and most of the liquid in the pan has cooked away.
• The sauce should be thick enough to hold shape on the spoon.
• Taste for seasoning. Pick out and discard the cloves and serve the bredie on a platter, with a side of hot rice.

Additional recipes and stories come from the beautiful and friendly Botswana immediately north of South Africa. Enjoy other stories and recipes from Botswana at the links below.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup spans venues in 9 host cities across South Africa, much like an Olympic Games event and may be bigger in popularity. These include the historic Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria, and Johannesburg in a land the size of about 2 States of Texas. Other paticipating cities include Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth, along with Mangaung, Nelspruit, Polokwana, and Rustenburg.

South Africa Tourism expects 500,000+ visitors into their country throughout the month of the grand Olympics-scale 2010 FIFA World Cup Association Football matches. The preparation costs to South Africa were at least $5 billion in infrastructure and other improvements that people are enjoying.

These infrastructure improvements include a $1 billion international airport in Durban, six soccer-related venues, and a supermodern commuter train system connecting Johannesburg center city, the Johannesburg airport, and Pretoria.

Good news for Travel and Tourism in South Africa is that already in earlier 2010, average revenue expected per accomodations/room was on the upswing. Similar to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics increasing traval to BC after the games, South Africa may look forward to the momentum in travel produced by long-term promotion prior to the FIFA World Cup.

Complaints have been voiced about the vuvuzela (plastic horns) blown during the event, but the louder air horns in the US are part of American football and we are almost accustomed to them, along with body paint and large foam rubber Number One fingers/hats that block other fans’ view. It’s all part of an uproariously good time.