Dedicated to South Africans living abroad...and all lovers of Traditional South African food

We have just arrived back from a week at Kruger Park Lodge, click here for a selection of photos taken during our excursions into Kruger National Park.

How about a potato theme for this newsletter! I just love potatoes, they are so versatile, from mashed potatoes to baked potatoes to "slap chips", potatoes are great!

Here is a quick sarmie idea that I particularly like, take a slice of fresh bread, butter and spread with your favorite jam. Then layer with mashed potato and sprinkle with grated cheese!

Where did the potato come from?

A high plateau in the Andean Mountains of South America is the birthplace of the 'Irish' white potato that we eat today. The plateau, known today as the Titicaca Plateau, stretches across part of the countries of Peru and Bolivia. The Aymara Indians developed more than two hundred varieties of the potato at elevations greater than 10,000 feet. Potatoes formed the basis of the Aymara Indian and Incan diet.

Nutritional value

It's quite amazing what an unassuming potato can contain. Within its red, yellow, white or brown protective exterior, a potato can provide much of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of a number of vitamins and minerals.

For example, potatoes can have 600-800 mg of potassium, about 40 percent more than a banana. Potassium is essential to the body because of its role in attaining optimal muscle performance and improving the nerves' response to stimulation. Iron, essential in helping the body convert food to energy as well as resist infection, is also found in potatoes. A Russet Norkotah can have 40 percent of the RDA of iron.

One would expect potatoes to have minerals, as they spend their life underground. But potatoes are also a great source of vitamins, even supplying vitamin C, the sunshine vitamin. Vitamin C is essential to help maintain healthy connective tissue and heal wounds. The many varieties of Washington potatoes are also good sources of B vitamins, helping the body make healthy red blood cells and amino acids.

So think of a potato as a big vitamin pill you can top with butter, cheddar, chives, sour cream, bacon, black beans, cheesy chicken...

You can add those tasty toppings to your potato because it contains no fat or cholesterol and minimal sodium. What it does have is natural fiber, all those vitamins and minerals, and great flavor. And a six-ounce potato contains three grams of highly digestible protein, almost as much as half a glass of milk, giving it the potential of being a meal in itself.

So, for some great recipes with potato as ingredient, scroll down to the recipe section

Don't sweat the petty things, Don't pet the sweaty things

Potatos can even be funny!

Why do potatoes make good detectives? Because they keep their eyes peeled.

Why did the potato cross the road? He saw a fork up ahead.

Why didn't the mother want her daughter to marry the famous newscaster? Because he was a commontater.

What to you say to an angry 300-pound baked potato? Anything, just butter him up

Are you is debt? Do you have a credit record?  Help is at hand.
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The lowest interest rates in 30 years and fantastic investment returns are driving phenomenal growth in the property market. At the same time astute home buyers are demanding the best deal in home loans. Business Originators fits the bill with low rates, the best advice and great cash-back commissions. Click Here

I have a page on Cocktails on my site, so you might find the next bit interesting! Can you perhaps relate?? (By the way, can you add to my cocktail collection?)

Hangover Ratings

* 1 star hangover

No pain. No real feeling of illness. You slept in your own bed and when you woke up there were no traffic cones in there with you. You are still able to function relatively well on the energy stored up from all those vodka and Red Bulls.
However, you can drink 10 bottles of water and still feel as parched as the Sahara.
Even vegetarians are craving a Cheeseburger and a bag of fries.

** 2 star hangover

No pain, but something is definitely amiss. You may look okay but you have the attention span and mental capacity of a stapler. The coffee you hug to try and remain focused is only exacerbating your rumbling gut, which is craving a full English breakfast. Although you have a nice demeanour about the office, you are costing your
employer valuable money because all you really can handle is some light filing, followed by aimlessly surfing the net and writing junk e-mails.

*** 3 star hangover
Slight headache. Stomach feels crap. You are definitely a space cadet and not so productive. Anytime a girl or lad walks by you gag because the perfume/aftershave
reminds you of the random gin shots you did with your alcoholic friends after the bouncer kicked you out at 1:45 am. Life would be better right now if you were in your bed with a dozen doughnuts and a litre of coke watching daytime TV.
You've had 4 cups of coffee, a gallon of water, 2 Sausage Rolls and a litre of diet coke yet you haven't peed once.

**** 4 star hangover

You have lost the will to live. Your head is throbbing and you can't speak too quickly or else you might spew. Your boss has already lambasted you for being late and has given you a lecture for reeking of booze. You wore nice clothes, but you smell of socks, and you can't hide the fact that you (depending on your gender) either missed an oh-so crucial spot shaving, or, it looks like you put your make-up on while riding the dodgems.
Your teeth have their own individual sweaters. Your eyes look like one big vein and your hairstyle makes you look like a reject from a second-grade class circa 1976.
You would give a weeks pay for one of the following - home time, a doughnut and somewhere to be alone, or a Time Machine so you could go back and NOT have gone out the night before. You scare small children in the street just by walking past them.

***** 5 star hangover

You have a second heartbeat in your head, which is actually annoying the employee who sits next to you. Vodka vapour is seeping out of every pore and making you dizzy.
You still have toothpaste crust in the corners of your mouth from brushing your teeth.
Your body has lost the ability to generate saliva, so your tongue is suffocating you.
You'd cry but that would take the last drop of moisture left in your body.
Death seems pretty good right now. Your boss doesn't even get mad at you and your co-workers think that your dog just died because you look so pathetic. You should have called in sick because, let's face it, all you can manage to do is breathe ..... very gently.

****** 6 star hangover

You arrive home and climb into bed. Sleep comes instantly, as you were fighting it all the way home in the taxi.
You get about 2 hours sleep until the noises inside your head wake you up. You notice that your bed has been cleared for take off and is flying relentlessly around the room.
No matter what you do you now, you're going to chuck.
You stumble out of bed and now find that your room is in a yacht under full sail.
After walking along the skirting boards on alternating walls knocking off
all the pictures, you find the toilet. If you are lucky you will remember to lift the lid before you spontaneously explode and wake the whole house up with your impersonation of walrus mating calls.
You sit there on the floor in your undies, cuddling the only friend in the world you have left (the toilet), randomly continuing to make the walrus noises, spitting, and farting.
Help usually comes at this stage, even if it is short lived. Tears stream down your face and your abdomen hurts. Help now turns into abuse and he/she usually goes back to bed leaving you there in the dark. With your stomach totally empty, your spontaneous eruptions have died back to 15-minute intervals, but your body won't relent.
You are convinced that you are starting to turn yourself inside out and swear that you saw your tonsils shoot out of your mouth on the last occasion.
It is now dawn and you pass your disgusted partner getting up for the day, so you try to climb into bed. She/he abuses you again for trying to get into bed with lumpy bits of dried vomit in your hair.
You reluctantly accept their advice and have a shower in exchange for them driving you to the hospital. Work is simply not an option. The whole day is spent trying to avoid anything that might make you sick again, like moving.
You vow never to touch a drop again and who knows, for the next two or three
hours at least you might even succeed.

OK, now hands up all those who have never had a six star hangover!!

Thought so!!

HOW TO START YOUR DAY WITH A POSITIVE OUTLOOK
1. Open a new file in your PC.
2. Name it "work."
3. Send it to the RECYCLE BIN
4. Empty the RECYCLE BIN
5. Your PC will ask you, "Are you sure you want to delete work
permanently?"
6. Answer calmly, "Yes," and press the mouse button firmly....
7. Feel better?

Some South African facts:

South Africa has the second oldest Film Industry in the world.
The Cape Argus Cycle Tour is the largest timed cycle race in the world.
Local Big Macs are now officially the cheapest, about 30% cheaper than anywhere else in the world.
Cape Grace Hotel (120 rooms) was voted World's Best Hotel, by readers of Conde Naste Traveller magazine (this hotel attained the highest score ever in the history of the awards).
M-Net is Africa's largest pay television service, delivering 24-hour programming to dozens of countries across the continent.

The secret is to make yourself appear as stupid as your audience, so they will think they are as clever as you are!

I just spent several hours observing teenagers who were hanging out at our local mall. I came to the conclusion that many teenagers in SA are living in poverty. Most of the young men I observed didn't even own a belt, there was not one among the whole group.
But that wasn't the sad part . . . many of them were wearing their daddy's jeans.

Some of these jeans were so big and baggy that they hung low on their hips, exposing their underwear. I know some of them must have been ashamed their daddy was short, because his jeans hardly went below their knees.
They weren't even their daddy's good jeans, for most of them had holes ripped in the knees and had a dirty look to them. It grieved me that in a modern, affluent society like SA, there are people who can't afford a decent pair of jeans. I have been thinking about asking my church to start a jeans drive for the "poor kids at the mall."
Then on Christmas Eve, I could go Christmas carolling and distribute jeans to these poor teenagers. I don't think this group of guys had even had much to eat, because as they were walking, their heads leaned to one side as if they didn't have enough strength to keep them up. Oh, they tried.
With each step, they tried to lift them up, but to no avail; they always dropped back to the side. This group of guys must be from the same family, because they all walked with their heads bobbing together in the same manner.
But that wasn't the saddest part.... It was the girls they were hanging out with that disturbed me the most. I have never in all of my life seen such "poor" girls. These girls had the opposite problem of the guys ...they all had to wear their little sisters' clothes.
Their jeans were about five sizes too small. I don't know how they could even put them on, let alone button them up. Their jeans barely went over their hip bones. Most of them also had on their little sister's top; it hardly covered their midsection. Oh, they were trying to hold their heads up with pride, but it was a sad sight to see these almost grown women wearing children's clothes.
However, it was their underwear that bothered me the most. They, like the boys, because of the improper fitting of their clothes, also had their underwear exposed. I have never seen anything like it. It looked like their underwear was only held together by a single piece of string.
I know it also saddens your heart to receive this report on the condition of our SA teenagers. While I go to bed every night with a closet full of clothes nearby, there are millions of "mall girls" who barely have enough material to keep it together. I think their "poorness" is why these two groups gather at the mall....the boys with their short daddy's ripped jeans, and the girls wearing their younger sisters' clothes. The mall is one place where they can find acceptance. So, the next time you are at the mall doing your shopping and you pass by some of these poor teenagers, would you say a prayer for them?
And one more thing . . . Will you pray that the guys' pants won't fall down, and the girls' strings won't break?!?!?!?!?!

You know you're flying SAA when you ask the air hostess for the black pepper and she brings you THE SOWETAN...

A jumper cable walks into a bar.
The bartender says, "I'll serve you, but don't start anything."

For affordability, flexibility and reliability, a Barclaycard credit card is the only selection for the smart financial services client. Click here to apply!

It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt. -- Mark Twain

My website highlights:

Add your sarmie to my Wacky Sarmies page
Check out the Animal Facts page
I have a Gallery with great pics!
Elephant Stew - add to the recipe
Add to my Cocktails collection
Visit my Afrikaans pages
South African food and products overseas? Click here!

Looking for a specific South African recipe? Email me and I will do my best to find it for you!

When you have had a look at the recipes below, click here to visit the main recipe page on my site. 

Any comments, positive or otherwise on this Newsletter will be appreciated!

That's it for now,
Take care,
Peter

The Recipes
See Links for Metric Converter

WARM POTATO DISH

4 Large Potatoes
Aromat
1 pkt. Brown Onion Soup
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 Large Tin Ideal Milk
1 Tin Creamed Mushrooms
1 x 250ml Cream

1. Cook the potatoes until don, but not too soft and cut into slices
2. Mix ideal milk, soup powder, mushrooms and baking powder
3. Pack potatoes in layers in a greased ovenproof dish and sprinkle with aromat
4. Add the other ingredients and pour over the cream
5. Bake for 30 minutes at 180°C

Baked potato wedges

Ingredients
1 large egg
30 ml milk
4 potatoes, scrubbed and sliced into wedges
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into wedges
100 ml dried breadcrumbs
1 lemon, sliced into wedges
40 ml sunflower oil
sweet chilli sauce, to serve

Method:
Preheat oven to 180 ºC. Beat the egg and milk together lightly. Place the potato and sweet-potato wedges in a greased ovenproof dish. Drizzle the egg mixture over the wedges and toss to coat. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and toss to coat again. Add the lemon wedges to the dish and drizzle with oil. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, until cooked through and crisp. Serve hot with sweet chilli sauce as a dip. Serves 4.

Bean and potato patties

Ingredients
3 large potatoes, peeled and coarsely grated
1 large onion, finely chopped and lightly sautéed
410 g chilli beans
2 eggs, whisked
225 ml cake flour
5 ml baking powder
5 ml mixed herbs
5 ml sugar
salt and pepper to taste
oil for frying

Method:
Pat the potatoes, dry and mix with all other ingredients except the oil. Heat the oil in a pan and drop in spoonfuls of the mixture. Fry till golden brown and cooked inside. Makes about 30 potato patties.

Pan-fried potato dish

Ingredients
45 ml oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, crushed
7 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and boiled
250 g bacon, grilled and chopped
150 ml grated Cheddar cheese
6 eggs, whisked
125 ml mayonnaise
125 ml chutney
10 ml mustard powder
10 ml salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method:
Heat the oil in a large, flat-bottomed pan and sauté the onion and garlic until tender. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside. Dice the potatoes and add to the onions along with the bacon and half the cheese. Mix gently. Beat the eggs, mayonnaise and chutney together. Dissolve the mustard powder in a tablespoon of water and add to the egg mixture. Season well, pour over the potatoes and stir gently so the egg can run underneath. Cover the pan and return to the hot plate. Bake for 10 minutes over low heat until set and cooked. Remove the cover. Heat the oven grill and quickly brown the potato bake. Slice and serve immediately with fresh bread rolls and a green salad. Serves 6-8.

Potato and cabbage medley

Ingredients
500 g baby potatoes, scrubbed
100 g green beans, topped and tailed
125 g bacon rashers
1 small cabbage, shredded
100 g feta cheese
coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
olive oil
balsamic vinegar or fresh lemon juice
15 ml chopped mixed fresh herbs or parsley

Method:
Boil the potatoes in a little salted water until just tender. Cook the beans in rapidly boiling water to which a little lemon juice has been added until just tender. Drain the beans and plunge into ice-cold water for a few seconds. Drain and mix with the potatoes. Grill or pan-fry the bacon until crisp, chop into smaller pieces and mix with the cooked potatoes and beans. Blanche the cabbage in boiling water for a few minutes and drain. Add to the rest of the vegetables and crumble the feta cheese on top. Season with salt and plenty of black pepper and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar or lemon juice to taste. Scatter the herbs on top, mix and serve lukewarm with crusty bread and extra olive oil and lemon juice or vinegar. Serves 4.

Potato and sweet potato pancakes

Ingredients
2 large potatoes, boiled, cooled and chilled overnight
2 large sweet potatoes, boiled, cooled and chilled overnight
30 ml chives, snipped
2 ml fresh thyme
60 ml olive oil
30 ml chives mixed with creamed cottage cheese or sour cream
salt and pepper

Method:
Peel potatoes and grate into a large bowl. Mix in chives, thyme and seasoning. Heat 15 ml oil in a large heavy frying pan. Spread half potato mixture evenly and cook over a moderate heat until firm and brown underneath, about five minutes. Put a plate over pan and turn potato pancake onto plate. Add 15 ml oil to pan and slide pancake into pan to brown the other side. Repeat above two steps with the remaining potato. Cut each pancake into six wedges. Pile three wedges on each plate and serve with a dollop of cream cheese or sour cream. Serve as a supper or brunch dish, topped with fried or poached eggs.

Potato bredie

Ingredients
500 g onion
sunflower oil
5 ml salt
5 ml paprika
500 g stewing beef
250 ml hot beef stock
500 g potatoes
2 ml dried marjoram
50 ml chopped pickled gherkins

Method:
Peel and chop the onions roughly. Heat a little sunflower oil in a heavy-based pot and fry and onion without browning. Sprinkle salt and paprika over it and set the onion to one side. Cut the stewing beef into cubes. Stir-fry a couple of pieces of meat at a time in the same pot in a little hot oil until brown. When all the beef has been browned return all the pieces to the pot. Add the fried onion, pour in the beef stock and put the lid on. Let it stew slowly for about an hour. Peel and chop the potatoes into cubes. Add them to the bredie about 25 minutes before the cooking time has elapsed and sprinkle the marjoram on top. Allow the bredie to cook until the potato cubes are done. Stir in the pickled gherkins and just let them heat through before serving the bredie

Potato soup

Ingredients
6 rashers bacon, chopped
2 onions, chopped
25 ml butter
25 ml flour
250 ml cream
500 ml milk
500 ml chicken stock
500 g potatoes, cooked and cubed
15 ml fresh thyme
salt and ground black pepper
1 clove garlic, crushed
100 g Cheddar cheese, grated

Method:
1. Fry bacon until crisp. Spoon out and sauté onions in bacon fat until transparent. 2. In a separate pot, heat butter and add flour. Add cream, milk and stock gradually, bring to the boil. 3. Add bacon, onions, potatoes, thyme, salt, pepper and garlic. 4. Heat thoroughly and add cheese just before serving.
 

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