The dish :
Ostrich koftas – traditional Indian meatballs – paired with herbed cornbread, dried fruit compote and
a red wine reduction
I’ve had a lingering love affair with fusion food since my rookie days
as a virgin chef.
There’s nothing more satisfyingly risky than pairing x, y and z from
vastly different continents and cultures…and discovering that, really, they
were meant to be mixed after all.
Fusion food is the gastronomic equivalent of democracy. Every ingredient
is equal – no matter what it looks like or where it comes from.
This week’s dish reflects everything I relish about Indian, South
African and classic French cuisine : tasty, tantalising and pleasingly easy on
the eye.
Ostrich meat, too, deserves pride of place on our dinner tables. It’s
one of the healthiest animal protein sources available – yet so under-rated.
So, I threw together the traditional South African braai, a couple of
Indian Koftas, a French plating and red wine sauce.
The result? Magic.
Ingredients for Herbed Corn Bread
500g Mealie Meal (I like
the course braai pap, but this is up to your preference)
700g White Bread Flour
35g Fresh Yeast
50g White Sugar
25g Salt
50ml Olive Oil
2 Eggs lightly beaten
700ml warm Milk
30g Chives chopped
1 Onion finely diced
Method for Herbed Corn Bread
Get the braai ready, I
have learnt that briquette’s work best when making braai breads.
Mix together 1 TBSP of the
sugar with the fresh yeast and “cream” them together, add 1 TBSP white bread
flour to this and mix for another minute, add this to the warm milk and leave
to form a sponge on the top of the milk, it can take up to 10 minutes to do so.
mean while mix the mealie
meal with the remaining sugar, flour, salt, chives and onion.
When the yeasty mixture
has formed a sponge, add in the eggs and olive oil, mix lightly.
Add the yeasty mixture
into the flour mixture and knead for about 5 minutes, leave the dough to stand
in a draft free place for about 40 minutes, place the dough onto a lightly
floured work surface and stretch it into a big square about 60cm x 60cm, then
fold the bottom half up to the middle, fold the top half down over that, fold
the right side in to the middle and fold the left side over that, place back in
a container and leave to proof for another 30 minutes, repeat this 4 times,
after the 4th time leave to stand for 1hr30min, then take it out and
place into a oiled potjie pot, leave to rest for 10 minutes then place this in
the fire place with about 8 briquettes underneath the pot, and about 8 on the
lid of the potjie pot, keep replacing
with hot briquettes for about 1hr 30 minutes until it is cooked.
Ingredients for Red Wine Reduction
500ml Drostdy-Hof Pinotage
500ml Beef Stock
1 Bay leaf
1/2 Onion finely diced
2 TBSP butter
1 tsp white sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Method for Red Wine Reduction
Sweat off the onions with
the butter, add in the rest of the ingredients and let simmer on a low heat
until it has reduced down to only a ½ cup of liquid, strain and it is ready to
use
Ingredients for Ostrich Kofta’s
500g Ostrich Sausage out
of the skin
3 tsp Mild Curry Powder
(depending on how spicy you like it)
1 Onion finely diced
2 Eggs lightly beaten
½ cup Toasted Bread Crumbs
3 TBSP PnP Peach Chutney
Prunes for 250g packet PnP
Mixed Dried Fruit finely diced
Salt and pepper to taste
Method for Ostrich Kofta’s
Pre-heat the oven to 180˚c
Mix all the ingredients
together until well combined. Divide the mixture into 12 equal size balls, roll
them tightly and place onto a roasting tray rubbed with oil and bake in the
oven at 180˚c for 12 minutes
Ingredients for Fruit Compote
250g PnP Mixed Dried Fruit
– Finely diced
2 TBSP White Sugar
1 tsp Mild Curry Powder
2 TBSP PnP Peach Chutney
250ml Drostdy-Hof Pinotage
250ml Vegetable Stock
1 Cardomom Pod
Method for Fruit Compote
Place all the ingredients
into a small sauce-pan and leave to simmer for until almost all the liquid is
gone, take off the heat and keep aside until ready to serve.
