Tag: South African
Prego Rolls
Prego Rolls
What a lot of people don’t realize is that South Africa was discovered by a Portuguese explorer in 1488, heavily influencing the country’s cuisine. The Portuguese introduced prego rolls (amongst many other things) to South Africa, becoming a staple at the dinner table. The rolls only have a couple of ingredients and are fairly easy to make if you have the patience to allow dough to rise. Prego rolls are good on their own with butter, but even better as a prego sandwich.
Equipment
- standing mixer with dough hook attachment
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cup warm water
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 tsp sugar
- 4 1/4 cups bread flour plus more
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Add the warm water, yeast, sugar, oil, and salt to the bowl of a standing mixer on low speed. Mix for 2 minutes. Pour in the milk.
- Slowly incorporate the flour into the bowl until a ball forms. Knead in the mixer on medium low speed for 5 minutes.
- Take the dough off the hook. Cover with a towel and let rise for 45 minutes.
- Lightly flour a clean surface. Roll the dough out into one long cylindrical shape. Cut that in half. Then cut 6 equal pieces out of each cylinder, for a total of 12 pieces.
- Roll each piece into a ball and cut an X into the top.
- Place each dough roll on a baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and allow the rolls to rise for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the baking sheet on the center rack.
- Bake for 12 minutes until golden brown.
Boerewors
Boerewors
Boerewors is a popular South African sausage. The sausage is made up of 2/3 beef, 1/3 pork; with coriander, salt, black pepper, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and malt vinegar, with gives the sausage a particular taste that is specific to South Africa. The malt vinegar also acts as a preservative. The sausage is typically grilled in an untwisted single coil link. But you can definitely twist it into links and eat it on a bun. If you don’t have a grill, you can pan fry the sausage, or even broil it.
Equipment
- grinder
- sausage stuffer
Ingredients
- 3 lbs beef chuck
- 1 1/2 lbs pork shoulder
- 2 tbsp ground coriander seeds
- 1 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/3 cup malt vinegar
- hog casings
Instructions
- Mix all of the spices together.
- Grind the chuck and pork shoulder on a medium grind plate 1 time through. Mix in all of the spices and the malt vinegar.
- Let rest for an hour before stuffing to let the ingredients meld.
- Pipe the sausage through a sausage stuffer. I like to use the KitchenAde grinder and sausage stuffer attachments when it’s time to work the beef hammers.
- You can leave the sausage untwisted in a single coil, or you can twist them into 6” links. Let rest for a good 4 hours before cooking.
- Heat up a sauté pan with a tbsp of olive oil over medium high heat. Add in the sausages.
- Sauté for 12-14 minutes, flipping every few minutes to cook evenly.
Chicken Samosas
Chicken Samosas
Samosas are pastries filled with either potatoes, peas, and spices. Instead of the vegetarian variety, the potatoes are replaced with ground chicken in this recipe. Originating from India and East Asia, samosas have made their way into African cuisine from immigration. They are popular all over East, West, and South African countries; each with their own distinct taste. These can be either baked or fried. The samosas can be made in large batches, then frozen down on a baking sheet and stored in gallon sized freezer bags.
Ingredients
Filling
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/2 medium onion diced
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tsp ginger grated
- 1 tsp curry powder
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp white pepper
- 12 oz ground chicken
- 3 tbsp parsley chopped
- 1/2 cup peas
- 1 tsp salt
Dough
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1 cup warm water
Instructions
Filling
- Heat up cooking oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Sauté the onions, garlic, and ginger for 3 minutes.
- Add in the spices. Cook for 1 minute.
- Add in the ground chicken. Break up all of the clumps. Cook for 8 minutes.
- Stir in the peas and parsley. Season with salt. Let cool before filling the samosas.
Dough
- Mix all of the dough ingredients together.
- Need the dough on a floured surface for 3-4 minutes.
- Portion out the dough into 16 equal dough balls.
Assembly Method 1
- On a floured surface, roll out one of the dough balls into a rectangular shape; about the size of an envelope.
- Place a heaping tbsp of the chicken filling in the center of one half of the dough rectangle.
- Fold the bottom right corner up and over the filling to make a triangle.
- Fold the triangle over to the left.
- Fold the bottom left corner up over the triangle and gently seal.
Assembly Method 2
- Roll out each dough ball into a circular shape. Place a heaping tbsp of the chicken filling in the center.
- Make a corner out of the dough circle and fold it up. Shape into a triangular shape and crimp the edges.
- You should yield 16 samosas from this recipe.
Baking Method
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Brush the samosas with oil or butter.
- Bake for 20 minutes, flipping once half way through.
Frying Method
- Heat up 1” of cooking oil in a pot over medium high heat. Add in samosas, making sure to not over crowdthe pot.
- Fry for 4-5 minutes a side.
- Drain grease on a paper towel.
