Gourmet Trails South Africa – a food tour

I’m incredibly excited to announce that I will be leading the first Gourmet Trails South Africa food tour in May 2016.

I’m partnering with the fabulous Encompass Africa, travel specialists who focus solely on Africa. I met Jono Wilson, the Managing Director, when he married my beautiful friend Danica, who was the first person I became friends with when I moved to Brisbane over 15 years ago.

While I haven’t yet visited sub-Saharan Africa, I have spent many hours in the company of Jono, Danica and other friends from that part of the world, talking about why they love it, and of course, sampling the food.

The tour starts in Cape Town, meanders through the Garden Route and ends with a three day safari in the Eastern Cape region.

Danica has pulled together a fantastic itinerary, with cooking tours, classes, visits to specialty gourmet stores, organic butchers, dessert shops, wineries, cheese factories, working farms, seafood trawlers, vegetable distribution points and more. The accommodation will be amazing – luxury apartments in Cape Town, an owner run B&B in the Winelands, a working farm on Route 62, a boutique hotel with an emphasis on food in Knysna on the garden route and a safari lodge where we will learn about bush cooking.

There is a lot more information on the Encompass Africa website, and if you want copy of the detailed itinerary just let me know.

One of my favourite South African meals is bobotie. I’ve eaten this a few times over the years, at various South African friends’ homes. It’s really easy to make. It’s traditionally made with minced beef, but I’ve used lamb this time

Bobotie

What you need:

Filling

• 60g butter
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
• 500g minced lamb
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 apple, coarsely grated
• 50g sultanas
• 1 tbsp mild curry powder
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp sugar, dissolved in 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• salt and pepper to season

Topping

• 1/2 cup of cream
• 1/2 cup full fat milk
• 2 eggs
• 3 bay leaves

What you do:

• Preheat the oven to 160c.
• To make the filling, melt the butter in a large frypan, then gently fry the onion, garlic and celery until soft
• Add the lamb mince, breaking it up with a wooden spoon until it’s cooked
• Add the rest of the filling ingredients and cook through. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed to season
• Spoon it all into a large ovenproof dish and smooth it out evenly.
• To make the topping, crack the eggs into a bowl, add the milk and cream and mix together. Pour it over the meat mix, place the bay leaves on top then bake for 30 minutes.
• Serve with a salad.

 

Have you visited South Africa? What was your favourite part? What is your favourite South African food?