The heavens opened on Monday here in the Cape, our first rain for many months. It’s early for rain, but it’s a little nudge from nature to let me know that the first official month of autumn is only days away. The signs are all around – crisper mornings, earlier sunsets, the trees lining the streets starting to turn brilliant [...]
You’re either going to love this recipe or hate it. Because that’s the way it is with liver and kidneys – no fence sitting allowed. On the farm we ate every part of the animal, so organ days happened. I considered it a unique form of child abuse as an eight-year-old. My relationship with liver and kidneys changed when I became a [...]
Sunday lunch on the farm with gran meant only one thing – leg of lamb. She roasted it low and slow and did very little to it, other than add salt. Fast-forward a few decades and my approach to roasting a cut of anything is still pretty basic. I strongly believe in paying a bit extra for seriously good meat [...]
Spring has hit the Cape in all its floral glory. It’s my favourite Cape season because the days are cool, it’s still green and the dreaded South Easter hasn’t kicked in yet – well, not much. October is pretty much the last month that I can relish cling-to-your-ribs type food like lamb shank before it’s time for summer dresses and salads. The folks [...]
There’s a whole lot of stuff that gran’s generation knew how to do that we have forgotten. For some of them I don’t have much use – how to turn animal fat into soap, for instance. Or crocheting covers for clothes hangers. But when it comes to food, boy did they get it right. Gran knew that beef ‘drippings’ kept [...]
This recipe for what I’ve decided to call liver patties caused some consternation amongst my English family and friends. In Afrikaans these patties of minced liver, grated onion and a few other things are called ‘lewerkoekies’. They’re as quintessentially South African as a recipe can be. I hadn’t given these morsels any thought for a couple of decades because, to [...]