Fish and Shrimp Bobotie

As I mentioned in the last post, the Cellars Hohenort has 2 restaurants, The Greenhouse and The Cape Malay Restaurant. We did not get to try The Cape Malay Restaurant but I did purchase the hotel's very own cookbook simply called The Collection Cookbook.

It turns out that the Cellars Hohenort is a member of a family of lovely boutique hotels all nestled in different parts of the South African Cape. The family calls itself The Collection by Liz McGrath, hotelier extraordinaire. Ms McGrath runs 5 restaurants inside the Collection and decided to compile some of their recipes into The Collection Cookbook.

The fish bobotie was the first recipe I tried. Bobotie is a cornerstone of Cape Malay cuisine and is usually made with minced (ground) meat but the chef decided to try it with fish. In some ways, I simplified it, leaving out the garam masala and mint. In others, not. I added shrimp, replaced the recommended margarine by real butter and soaked the bread in milk instead of water and added a bit of heat with some red pepper.
It turned out beautifully: the fish and shrimp took in all the flavors, the bread got crunchy in some spots and remained soft in others. I think I may have added one more recipe to the quick meal, mix-all-and-pop-in-oven-so-you-can-go-do-something-else category.

The book is divided in 5 sections, one for each restaurant and includes beautiful photos and pared down text. It is a mixture of (mostly) European and South African cuisine. The back includes a "Basics"section explaining how to make pestos, vinaigrettes etc... Given how well the bobotie turned, I feel encouraged to try some of the other recipes.

Fish and Shrimp Bobotie

• 4 slices of bread
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) of milk
• 300 g hake steaks
• 200 g shrimp
• A bunch of parsley
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 30 g of softened butter
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon of pepper (cayenne or something hotter)
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper
• 1 pinch of turmeric
• 1 small tomato, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preparation

1. Pre-heat oven to 180º C (350º F).
2. Soak bread in milk for 5 to 10 mns
3. Steam the hake. This took about 3 mns in the microwave.
4. In 1 ovenproof dish, tear the bread into pieces, flake the fish and add all the remaining ingredients except the eggs
5. Bake until golden brown for about 30 mns
6. Remove and pour the eggs over the mixture and bake another 15 mns.
7. Ready

Yassa (Chicken with Lemon and Onions)

Yassa is one of the more popular dishes out of Senegal. Probably because the ingredients are readily available in most places (no smelly-but-oh-so-yummy, difficult-to-get-by-customs ingredients!) and it can be assembled relatively quickly once you get the pieces in place (marinating the chicken beforehand).

One of its drawbacks, however, is the peeling and slicing of what will seem like a lifetime supply of onions. So I was very pleased to find a solution on page 16 of the newest addition to my cookbook collection: Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater. Clever, that British chap! See below.

Yassa
Serves 4

Ingredients

• 8 pieces of chicken (e.g. 4 thighs and 4 legs)
• 165 ml (2/3 cup) lemon juice ~2 to 3 lemons
• 85 ml (1/3 cup) lime juice ~2 to 3 limes
• 4 to 5 big onions
• 50 g of butter (~3 tablespoons)
• 1 liter (4 cups) of water
• 3 large carrots, peeled and sliced in thin rounds
• 1 small tomato, cut in 4
• For seasoning: 1 onion, 1 clove of garlic, 2 to 3 chilies, salt and pepper
• 8 to 10 olives
• Steamed white rice
• Garnish: 1 lemon and/or 1 lime, sliced thinly

Preparation

Advance prep required: Add lemon and lime juice, a pinch of salt and pepper to the chicken. Cover and refrigerate. Marinating the chicken for at least 3 hours, ideally overnight, is critical. I have tried to cut corners and the result does show, especially on non-free range poultry.

1. Preheat oven to 200°C
2. Remove chicken from the fridge and let it return to room temperature (~30 mns)
3. Peel the onions and cut in half
4. Place onions in a baking/roasting dish and break pieces of butter on them
5. Add a pinch of salt and pepper
6. Roast until tender and soft (~30 mns). Turn halfway through roasting time when one side is brown. Note: Baking the onions is one way to avoid the river of tears that come from having to slice so many onions. The idea comes one of my cookbooks (Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater). He came up with this idea while trying to solve the tears problem inherent in making french onion soup.
7. When onions are ready, slice with fork and knife into small strips
8. Simultaneously (or before or after the onions roasting), remove chicken from marinade (save marinade) and grill the chicken. The goal here is to get nice browning. The chicken will be cooked again so no need for full cooking right now.
9. Warm up a large pot and add onions with remaining butter from roasting pan for 3 mns of additional caramelising
10. Add 1 liter of water to (dirty!) roasting pan, release whatever stuck to the pan with a wooden spoon and pour in the onion pot
11. Add the marinade you set aside earlier, the grilled chicken, the carrots and tomato
12. In mixer, combine elements for seasoning (see ingredients list) to make a paste and add to stew pot
13. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and let it simmer for 30 to 45 mns (depending on toughness of chicken)
14. Add olives and season to taste: a bit of salt, a touch of lemon juice, etc...
15. Simmer for another 10 mns and serve with steamed white rice, with slices of lemon and/or lime for garnish

Tiebou Yap (Rice with lamb)

Tiebou Yap is very simply named for the 2 main ingredients: Tieb (rice in wolof) and Yap (Meat). It is a dish as fit for everyday dining as it is for special occasions. Many of my childhood food memories include this dish but one of the best incarnations I ever tasted was in boarding school. Shocking, I know! Boarding schools are not known for being centers of culinary excellence and mine wasn't 99% of the time. But once a year, we had a major pre-holiday celebration in early December that almost made up for the remaining days of below average fare. The school was and still is on the island of Goree (a UN World Heritage Site worth visiting) and on this occasion, the principal would bring in women from the island to cook this rice dish, the traditional way. They would set up huge iron pots outside the main kitchen and cook the rice for hours on a good old fire. The aroma would tease us for hours. The result always made us forget that the rest of the year, we lived on watery sauces and prison rice. It also convinced our parents that we were simply spoiled brats who complained about the everyday food for no reason!

Tiebou Yap
Serves 6

Ingredients- Rice Dish

• 1 kg of lamb (you can use beef as well), cut into large chunks, preferably with bone
• 1 to 2 pieces of yeet. Note: Yeet is the meat of a mollusk, fished, fermented and dried on the beaches all along the coast of Senegal. It is quite tough and requires a long cooking time which is why it is used in long simmering stews such as this one. It also has a strong and distinct smell and taste, which I adore but can be more of an acquired taste for some. It is not critical to this dish and therefore is optional.
• 250 ml (1 cup) of olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped coarsely
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 teaspoon of ground chili
• 1 tablespoon of ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 1 kg of long grain rice (I use jasmine rice)
• 1 can (~400g undrained) of mixed vegetables (you can use fresh vegetables and combine 200 g of finely diced carrots, corn and green beans)
  

Ingredients- Mustard Sauce

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, diced
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 250 ml (1 cup) of water
• 2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon of salt, pepper and chili each
• 1 teaspoon of vinegar
  

Preparation- Rice Dish

1. Heat oil in a large pot. Make sure it is large enough to accommodate all the ingredients since this is a one-pot dish.
2. Add lamb and yeet and cook while stirring frequently until brown (~15mns).
3. In mixer, reduce onion, garlic, salt, chili and black pepper to a fine mixture.
4. Add to the pot and cook for about 10 mns.
5. Add 2 liters of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer for 1 1/2 hours. This cooking time can be reduced if you use chicken or more tender meat and no yeet. Adjust accordingly. Note: Given the amount of time this dish takes, you can do all the steps up to now the day before and cool and refrigerate or freeze the stew to be completed the following day or later.
6. Rinse the rice TWICE to remove some of the starch.
7. Cover and steam in microwave for 4 mns on high power.
8. Add steamed rice and vegetables to the pot. Reduce heat and cook covered for 20 mns. Note: Before adding the rice, please taste the stew and adjust spices as desired (a bit of salt, a bit of pepper). Also very importantly, make sure there is not too much water for the amount of rice. This can be judged visually with experience but to be safe, I always remove and set aside about 2 cups of liquid (500 ml). After adding the rice and cooking for 5 mns, you can decide to add the liquid back little by little as needed. The goal is cooked rice, not porridge. If you have liquid left aside, you can reduce it by bringing it to a boil in a small pan and serving it as a side gravy with the rice.

Preparation- Mustard Sauce

1. Heat oil in a small pan
2. Add onions and garlic and cook until soft and brown
3. Mix water and mustard and add to the pan
4. Bring to a boil and cook covered for 5 mns
5. Remove cover and cook for 10 mns until liquid is reduced to a gravy-like texture
6. Add salt, pepper, chili and vinegar and mix
7. Cook for 2 mns and remove from heat