Chakalaka: Chef Zola teaches Gordon Ramsay
Turn any plain old beans into Michelin-star chakalaka
Who knew baked beans could be exciting? The fairy godmother in Cinderella: that would be chef and food stylist Zola Nene. When she waves her wooden spoon and dresses them up in tricoloured peppers and other accessories, these plain old beans turn into fancy chakalaka, ready for any party.
Or in her case, a dish worthy of sharing with multi-Michelin star chef Gordon Ramsay and a Zulu chief, for whom they are cooking in the second season of his TV show, Gordon Ramsay Unchartered.
Chakalaka is one of chef Zola’s signature dishes and, last week she hosted a cook-along with more than a dozen fans around Africa for the virtual launch of the show.
Nat Geo Africa hosted the event, dropping off ingredients and a patterned wonderbox for aspirant cooks to test their talents.
The cooking talent in our house lies with my 14-year-old son — lengthy preparation (>10 minutes) and gourmet cooking is not my style — so he was the anointed chef for the day.
Let the record show, I did, however, peel and chop an onion.
(This reminded me of a cooking “experience” years ago when I learnt to cook Turkish dishes with a friend for a story: the sole duties I got were chopping onions and garlic.)
But last week I had more fun, watching my son try to keep up with chef Zola ’ s nanospeed style.
Knives blurred as she demonstrated what to do, on a laptop faraway.
Entertaining TV presenter Katlego Maboe was co-hosting and tempered her speed.
Her runaway enthusiasm does not interfere with her listening skills and chef Zola reined herself in long enough for everyone to catch up.
The steps were simple enough for even me to follow (see how-to below).
I wasn’t the only non-cook there. TV critic Thinus Ferreira tweeted: “I don’t have a cookbook with my name on it in my kitchen ... don’t even know how to peel or cut (or whatever you do) with the garlic stick thingie.” I think he meant ginger?
I discovered during the demonstration that peeling ginger with a teaspoon was better than a knife, saving more of the root.
Cooks participating on #ZolaCookAlong added to the festivities with their own ingredients.
Gordon’s Dry gin was the first of these, but not the only alcoholic contribution in this era of prohibition, prompting Zola to remark on the boozy leanings of her cooking cohort.
Among the not-so-secret ingredients Zola liked were kimchi salt and kulunji seeds.
For her dinner on Wednesday night, Zola had uphuthu with her chakalaka and a lamb chop.
At our house, a hungry man, a lanky fast-growing teen/cook and I had only chakalaka on toast, and we were all satisfied.
That s no surprise actually. On his’latest South African trip, Ramsay told us that after a long day of filming, baked beans on toast was one of his “go-to” dishes.
HOW TO MAKE CHAKALAKA
Chop one onion and 2 garlic cloves
Chop up half a red pepper and quarter of a yellow and green pepper.
Grate 2 carrots.
Finally: peel and grate ginger. Sauté the onions, garlic, ginger and pepper until soft.
Add 1 tablespoon of curry powder and sauté for another minute.
Add the carrots and a tin of baked beans simultaneously with half a cup of water. Simmer for 5 minutes or longer, and it is ready. Enjoy!
• Gordon Ramsay Unchartered Season 2 premieres on August 26 on National Geographic serving up bigger and bolder culinary adventures, starting in KZN before continuing to Indonesia, Louisiana, Norway, India, Tasmania and Guyana.