Contributors to the District Six Huis Kombuis Food and Memory Cookbook share childhood memories and traditions of growing up in District Six.
By Isobel Smith 2kg yellowtail, cut into
pieces Sunflower oil 6 onions 5 cloves 6 garlic cloves 1 cup vinegar 1 tablespoon brown
sugar 4tbsn Cartwright’s curry powder (medium) 2tsp borrie (turmeric) salt to taste 6 bay leaves
CHOCOLATE
Makes 24
NUT AND DATE MIX
2 cups raw cashew nuts (you can use a mix of Cashews and walnut/ pecan/almonds) 1tbsp cacao powder ¼tsp sea salt 10 Mejdool pitted dates (if dry, soak in hot water for 10 mins). Using a food processor, blend the dates.
Blend nuts separately and add to the dates with cocoa and salt.
Take a heaped tablespoon quantity of the mixture and roll into balls. ½ cup cocoa powder 1 cup chopped cocoa butter (can be bought at Dischem/health food stores) 3-5 tbsn agave syrup or
maple syrup Pinch salt *Optional flavours: Cinnamon, chilli flakes, vanilla extract/seeds, desiccated coconut Create a double boiler by placing water in a pan, once boiled place a ceramic or thick glass Wash fish and pat dry.
Season fish and fry in sunflower oil until golden brown.
Place on paper towel to drain oil.
Cut onions into rings and fry in a little oil.
Add remaining ingredients (except bay leaves) into pot.
When mixture boils, remove it from stove and pour over fish. Add bay leaves, cover dish and let it stand for a few days. bowl over the pan so that it fits well without touching the water.
Add the cocoa butter, ensure it is finely chopped.
Let it melt (this takes about 2-3 minutes depending on how hot the water is)
Add the 3 tablespoons of the agave syrup first and stir until combined.
Remove bowl from the pot and place on a sturdy surface.
Add the cacao and any other optional ingredient.
Taste for sweetness and if required add the remainder of the agave.
Add the rolled nut and date balls to the chocolate and using 2 forks remove and place on a tray lined with lunch paper.
Sprinkle chopped nuts or cacao over it as a garnish.
Leave to dry before eating
*Recipe by Dharsh Pillay: Owner of Conscious 108, 108 Greenway Road, Greenside, Johannesburg. By Fatima Sydow
DRY INGREDIENTS
5 cups of cake flour or strong
bread flour 1½ packets of instant yeast (15
grams) ½ teaspoon of salt 6 tablespoons of caster sugar 2½ teaspoons of mixed spice 2½ teaspoons of fine cinnamon ½ a teaspoon of nutmeg 2 teaspoons of fine ginger (I use
fresh ginger grated) 1½ cups of seedless raisins
WET INGREDIENTS
300ml of lukewarm milk 70 grams of melted butter 2 extra large eggs whisked Put all dry ingredients in a bowl and stir till combined.
Add wet ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined.
Transfer dough to a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes and place in a lightly oiled bowl.
Cover and allow to rise for 90 minutes.
Knock down the dough and shape into round balls, placing it 2cm apart on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Cover with tea towel and allow to rise again for 35 minutes.
Take half a cup of cake flour and just enough water to make a soft white thick paste about 5 tablespoons.
Take this paste and spoon it into a piping bag with a thin nozzle or just a plastic bag and cut a small piece with a scissors at the tip corner and pipe down on each row all the way to the last bun and then do the same with the other rows of buns forming the cross shapes. Bake in a preheated oven at 190°C for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
While still hot out of the oven, brush with a simple sugar syrup, take a quarter cup of boiling water and stir in about 4-5 tablespoons of sugar. Stir until dissolved. You can cook this syrup for a few minutes on the stove or omit this step and stir in the sugar syrup a teaspoon of apricot jam until dissolved and brush over hot buns.
*Tip- Do not be tempted to add more flour to dough mix, this will result in a heavy and dense bun. To take it to another level add the zest of one orange. I used freshly grated ginger.
You may use the remaining sugar syrup to brush for a second time after it has cooled.
You can store in an airtight container in the fridge to keep for the next day. Simply pop in the microwave for a few seconds and it will taste oven fresh again.
IF YOU haven’t started making your pickled fish yet, you’re running out of time. You may find yourself in even bigger trouble in the kitchen and coughing up a lot more if you still have to buy your fish.
A few days before Easter you can expect to pay up to R200 for fresh fish.
Fish will be on the menu in many homes this Friday and those who are serious about the pickled fish tradition would more than likely have prepared their fish dish at the start of the week.
However, if you left it to the last minute, fear not because you can still prepare your feast the day before and get the same tasty results.
Contributors of the District Six Huis Kombuis Food and Memory Cookbook shared some of their childhood memories and traditions of growing up in District Six.
Isobel Smith, 83, was born in Nile Street and says she still uses the same pickled fish recipe her mother passed down to her.
“We always had pickled fish on Good Friday, that was the standing tradition in our family but we always had someone to make the hot cross buns,” she says.
“I learned how to make pickled fish from my mother, that time we always used stock fish (hake) because it was inexpensive.
“We would order fish by Monday already and make it before the time, but you can make your fish the day before and it will still be fine because it will still have an overnight draw,” she says.
Patience Watlington, 74, who now lives in Heathfield says her mother never stored their pickled fish in the fridge “and there was no need to”.
“I suppose it’s modern to keep it in the fridge now, but growing up we didn’t have a fridge and the fish would last for a very long time and it wouldn’t go off,” says Watlington.
“My mom was a very simple cook so the fish would just be spiced and fried without batter.
“Once the fish was fried my mother would put it into a huge dish and make the onions, which she would boil then add her spices like curry and borrie (turmeric) and whichever spices she had in her home.
“The onion must still have a crunch to it and should not be overcooked, you can check your onions with the fork.
“We then layer the bowl with fish and add the onion and sauce until the bowl was filled or there was no more ingredients left. “Then we would leave it to cool. “We never ever put our pickled fish in the fridge, ours used to stand on a cupboard with a lid on and that is where it will stay.
“It will be there for long and nothing will happen to our fish,” says Watlington.
Watlington says it’s important to add sugar to the sauce to counter the acidity of the vinegar.
“Sugar breaks the taste and some people like it very sweet. It should have that sweet and sour taste,” she adds.
Ruth Jeftha, 71, says making hot cross buns was a family effort when she was growing up.
“Every year we had to knead and make our own hot cross buns,” she says.
“It became an Easter ritual with my family, my mom made the fish while my sister made the onions but the rest of us would knead and make the hot cross buns. “It was a family activity.” Jeftha adds: “What I like about pickled fish is when it comes to Monday there won’t be any fish left so I would take a slice of buttered bread and eat it with the onions.”
Marion Abrahams-Welsh, 83, says in her family the pickled fish would be eaten after the three-hour church service on Good Friday.
“It’s not just on Good Friday that we celebrate with pickled fish,” she says.
“It is the whole week that’s the celebration of holy week; in every family you have to acknowledge that it is about the death of Jesus.
“We only got it from our parents and great-grandparents and we do it exactly the way they did it.”
Abrahams-Welsh says her father would serve coffee and hot cross buns on the morning of Good Friday.
“In our home my father would bring each one a cup of black coffee and a bun – that was the fast that Jesus broke.
“The fish was such a tradition in the district because that fish cart would come day after day and everyone would go out.
“My grandmother used to buy the biggest yellow-tail because she loved it and we would use the huge basins and the fish was fresh off the boat. “My grandmother made the very best, we still use the recipe because it was so beautifully done and that’s all we had on Friday and nothing else.”