I have a very interesting freebie this time. It's an eBook containing over 400 Franchise (Brand name) recipes. Most of the franchises are unknown in South Africa but the recipes just beg to be tried! Right click here to download the book.

The FunkyMunky Herb eBook is now available. 48 popular herbs, descriptions and uses with photos. Immediately available, will be emailed to you. Only R50 , send me an email for payment details.

I'm very impressed with what I've read so far. What I really like is that your book is a combination of medicinal and culinary advice, unlike many other herb books I've read.
And the format is great - thanks very much. I have an ambitious project to make a herb garden this year - so your section of herb gardens will come in very handy - Shelagh

Preparing the Boerewors by Lo from Biltongmakers

In South Africa boerewors is generally cooked outside on a "braai" (barbecue) and eaten with pap (the good old pap and wors addiction). It can also be eaten on a roll which is know as a boerewors roll. The aroma of a boerewors braai (barbecue) is enough to set all the neighbours watering at the mouth.

Cooking "boeries" is one of the easiest tasks on earth, but I remain astounded by the numerous occasions I have observed this brilliant sausage bastardised to the brink of extinction by so called "braai specialists". They burn it to cinders by leaving it cooking for far too long; they destroy the flavour by placing it over to high a heat; they cut it into shorter pieces during the braai period, letting all the wonderful juices escape into the fire;
Some ignoramusses even prick the wors with a fork while cooking it in order for the fat, as they call the juices, to escape.
"Put the "boeries" on first" they exclaim, "It has to be well done".
Well, each to his own, I suppose, but some of these "braai kings" should consider that they are not only cooking for themselves but for others who want to enjoy decently cooked wors, as well.

Properly cooked wors should be done, but succulent when eaten. It should be grilled the opposite to what has been described above-over medium heat, turned only a couple of times and served when you can still see the juices bubbling inside. A good braai host will always inquire as to who likes their food well done, and leave separate portions to cook longer for those who prefer it so. But, over-cooked meat cannot be undone!

Some hints:

- Sheeps tail fat or brisket fat can be substituted for speck
- Pork casings are the best choice for boerewors, soak in lukewarm water before use and then rinse in coild water
- Never stuff the casings too tightly, this will result in a rubber-like texture
- Press all the air from the casings before stuffing
- Keep the boerewors for at least one day before cooking or freezing to allow the seasonings to permeate.
- Before mincing the meat, cut it into 50 mm cubes. Spread the cubes on a table surface and sprinkle with seasonings and mix lightly. Mince the meat, add the vinegar and lightly mix in diced speck.

Storing boerewors

In the freezer: Do not freeze boerewors for longer than two months. Freeze as papidly as possible. To thaw, remove from freezer and thaw slowly ovrnight in the refrigerator. Do not cook boerewors in a frozen state as casings can easily burst.

In the refrigerator: Roll the wors up lightly and place on refrigerator rack without wrapping to allow for circulation of air. The wors can be stored like this for 3-5 days. 

The UK Lottery never pays less than £3 million every Wednesday and Saturday (± R43 million) with frequent rollovers. You can get your ticket securely by clicking here.

But that's nothing!! The Euromillions Jackpot has has been as high as £ 120 million !! That's roughly R1,740,000,000!!! You can't win it if you're not in it, so click here and get a ticket!

My Recipe CD has now been updated and now includes 50 Recipe eBooks as well as 8 Bonus eBooks (4 eBooks on making, marketing and selling crafts for profit) Click here to take a look and also download your free Low Fat recipe eBook (that works out to about R2 per recipe book! sheessshhh!)

Hello Peter,
Just to let you know that I received my recipe CD today in the mail and I'm over the moon about it.
I'm going to spread the word to others to order copies too. It's most certainly worth every cent..........
Thanks again,
LC

Glenacres Superspar sends out a really nice newsletter full of super recipes. To subscribe, click here and send the blank email. 

Here seems to be a really nice outdoors recipe:

SAVOURY BRAAI BREAD

500 ml cake flour
15 ml baking powder
salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 extra-large eggs, lightly whisked with a fork
410 g can Chakalaka, medium hot
80 ml grated Cheddar cheese
1. Preheat the oven to 180 ºC and spray a 19 x 9 x 6 cm loaf tin with non-stick spray or butter lightly
2. Sift the dry ingredients together and add the eggs, Chakalaka and cheese
3. Mix well and spoon into the prepared loaf tin
4. Sprinkle with extra cheese if desired and bake for about 45 minutes until done.

I guess you can also bake this bread over the coals in a flat bottomed cast iron pot!
 

Go take a look at my Wacky Sarmies page, there are some great sarmie ideas!

Dave, Port Elizabeth, SA

¼ White and Chips.

1 packet slap chips from the Fish and Chip shop (lots of salt and vinegar)
¼ white bread (very fresh, just cool enough to hold is best)

Make a pocket in the ¼ white, smear with butter and stuff it with the slap chips.

This is best eaten with a ½ liter of fresh milk. Take a bite, chew 3 times and take a sip of milk from the bottle. Continue to chew as noisily as you like. It's lekker! 

Source: Sunday Times

1943:   The German army is finally routed in Stalingrad, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin meet for the first time, Beatrix Potter dies, the aqualung is invented, construction of the Pentagon, the world's largest office building, is completed, the ANC Women's League is established.

This dates from the 1890's and is from a book titled  Cape Cookery, Simple Yet Distinctive.

Bredasdorp Pudding

Soak 1 oz gelatrine in cold water for an hour. When quite soft add 1 cupful of boiling water, half pound white sugar, juice of 3 lemons, the beaten yolks of 6 eggs.
Stir it over the fire till it begins to thicken. It must NOT boil. Remove from the fire, and have ready the weel whisked whites of the eggs. Stir all together, pour into a mould and stand it in a cool place to set. 

Nature is wonderful. I envy the jobs of the game rangers and their wealth of bush knowledge. I have often wondered where one can read up on all the interesting facts. I would like to make this a regular feature of this newsletter, if you are able to contribute or would like to comment on the contribution below, please email me.

Ever wished you had a camera for that magic moment? Click here! 

During a visit to the Kruger National Park we were fortunate to witness the mating display of the korhaan where it flew high up and then plummeted down to the ground, stopping just before it hit bottom. Very impressive!

The Redcreasted Korhaan is named for the red crest shown only during courtship display to the female. The male puffs out his neck and throat plumage to show the red crest.

A fairly large bird about the size of a chicken.

A common resident of savanna, bushveld and arid grassland. Eggs are laid on the ground incubated for three weeks by the female. Feeds on Seeds, fruit and arthropods.

The Redcreasted Korhaan is a very shy bird and no often seen at close quarters.
 

Do you have family and friends all over the world? Does it cost you a fortune to buy and mail gifts to all of them? Why not buy one Recipe eBook and email it to everyone! Just think about the savings on postage! For my selection of eBooks (and CD's) just click here.

Afrikaans Newsletter

Subscribe to my Afrikaans newsletter
 

Useless Information

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.
A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.
A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
A snail can sleep for three years.
Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.
Almonds are a member of the peach family.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.
Butterflies taste with their feet.
Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.
"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".
February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.
If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.
It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.
Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.
Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.
Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and "lollipop" with your right.
The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.
The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.
The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).
There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
There are more chickens than people in the world.
There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."
There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables Vitamins.
Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.

There , now you know everything!

Potjiekos recipe

Another new feature, from now on I will feature a potjie recipe with each newsletter. For those of you who are not familiar with a potjie (cast iron three legged pot) you may use a dutch oven.

Here is a different potjie recipe, a Potjie pudding

Ingredients
SYRUP
125 ml water
250 ml hanepoot wine
250 ml fresh orange juice
100 g sugar
10 ml butter
5 ml grated orange rind
1 clove
1 stick cinnamon
25 ml lemon juice
2 ml ground ginger
BATTER
160 g butter
100 g castor sugar
2 eggs, whisked
25 ml apricot jam
5 ml grated orange rind
5 ml vanilla essence
180 g self-raising flour
pinch salt
5 ml bicarbonate of soda
250 ml milk
150 g seedless raisins

Method:
Place all ingredients for the syrup in a potjie and bring to the boil. To make the batter, cream the butter and castor sugar together. Add the eggs and beat well. Also add the apricot jam, orange rind and vanilla essence and blend. Sift the flour and salt together and gradually add to the mixture. Blend well. Dissolve bicarbonate of soda in the milk and add to the mixture with the raisins. Blend well. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the boiling syrup, cover and simmer for about 20-30 minutes or until the surface no longer looks like uncooked dough. Serve with cream, custard or ice cream. Serves 6. 
 

Droë Wors (dried boerewors)

Any good quality wors of the thin variety can be hung out to dry. This particular recipe however, dates right back to the era of the Great Trek in the early nineteenth century.

This is how Droë Wors (dried sausage) tasted hundreds of years ago!

Fundamentally the spice ingredients and the method of preparation remain the same as the boerewors recipe but the meat ingredients differ.

For the Trekkers in those days venison, beef and mutton was abundantly available, but pigs were not suitable company for them and their nomadic lifestyle.

Therefore, we use the same spices and method as for making boerewors , but the meat type and quantity is slightly different.

Traditional Recipe for Dried Wors

2 kg beef or venison (no pork or veal, it goes rancid when dried)
1 kg beef.
500 gr beef fat (no pork or spek)
25 ml salt.
5 ml ground black pepper.
15 ml corriander, singed and ground (see hints and tips).
1 ml ground cloves.
2 ml nutmeg powder.
125 ml brown vinegar.
25 ml brandy (optional).
25 ml marsala (optional).
200 gr narrow (thin) sausage casings.

Cube all meat.
Mix together thoroughly and mince coarsely.
Place meat in large bowl.
Add all dry spices, vinegar and brandy (if used).
Mix together lightly with a two pronged fork.
Place in fridge for +/- 2 hours to blend flavours.
Soak casings in water during this period.
Fit casings to sausage maker and fill with mixture.
Do not over- or under-stuff.

This wors is more suitable for drying than it is for cooking. Due to the absence of pork and spek, it is not as succulent as normal boerewors and many people find the cooked variety of this recipe a bit too dry for their liking.
Also, hang this wors a bit longer than other types of wors as most people prefer it drier than the rest. It should snap like a twig when bent. 

My husband, being unhappy with my mood swings, bought me a mood ring the other day so he would be able to monitor my moods.

We've discovered that when I'm in a good mood, it turns green and when I'm in a bad mood, it leaves a big red mark on his forehead!

Maybe next time he'll buy me a diamond. 

***************************************************

A successful rancher died and left everything to his devoted wife.

She was determined to keep the ranch, but knew very little about ranching, so she placed an ad in the newspaper for a ranch hand.

Two cowboys applied for the job. One was gay and the other a drunk.

She thought long and hard about it, and when no one else applied she decided to hire the gay guy, figuring it would be safer to have him around the house than the drunk.

He proved to be a hard worker who put in long hours every day and knew a lot about ranching.

For weeks, the two of them worked hard and the ranch was doing very well.

Then one day, the rancher's widow said "You have done a really good job, and the ranch looks great. You should go into town and kick up your heels."

The hired hand readily agreed and went into town on Saturday night.

He returned around 2:30 AM, and upon entering the room, he found the rancher's widow sitting by the fireplace with a glass of wine, waiting for him.

She quietly called him over to her.
"Unbutton my blouse and take it off," she said.
Trembling, he did as she directed.
"Now take off my boots."
He did as she asked, ever so slowly.
"Now take off my socks."
He removed each gently and placed them neatly by her boots.
"Now take off my skirt."
He slowly unbuttoned it, constantly watching her eyes in the fire light.
"Now take off my bra."
Again, with trembling hands, he did as he was told and dropped it to the floor.

Then she looked at him and said:
"If you ever wear my clothes into town again, you're fired!" 

Tarragon

Tarragon—a member of the composite tribe, closely allied to wormwood—is a perennial herb cultivated for the use of its aromatic leaves in seasoning, salads, etc., and in the preparation of tarragon vinegar. There is a recipe below.

Tarragon can grow to a height of about 2 feet, and has long, narrow leaves, which are undivided. It can bloom in late summer. The small flowers appear in round heads and are yellow mingled with black. The roots are long and fibrous, spreading by runners.

Two kinds of tarragon are cultivated in kitchen gardens. French tarragon, with very smooth, dark green leaves and the true tarragon flavor, and Russian tarragon, a native of Siberia, with less smooth leaves of a fresher green shade. Russian tarragon lacks the tartness of the French variety.

It loves warmth and sunshine and does best in warm, dry climates. A little protection should be provided to the roots through the winter, as they could be injured during severe frost. Both varieties need a dry, rather poor soil. If set in a wet soil, they are likely to be killed during the winter months.

The green leaves should be picked midsummer. The foliage may also be cut and dried in early autumn for use in a dry state afterwards. The beds should then be entirely cut down to protect from frost.

Tarragon leaves have a fragrant smell in addition to their aromatic taste. They make an excellent pickle.

Fresh tarragon possesses an essential volatile oil, chemically identical with that of Anise, which becomes lost in the dried herb.


Creamy Tarragon Dip
Makes 10 servings

Ingredients:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup milk
4 teaspoons tarragon vinegar (recipe below)
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon fresh tarragon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
romaine lettuce leaves
carrot sticks
Chinese pea pods
cauliflower
zucchini slices

Preparation:
In blender at low speed or in food processor with knife blade attached, blend first 8 ingredients until smooth. Pour mixture into small bowl. Cover and refrigerate.
To serve, line a plate with the Romaine leaves. Arrange vegetables and bowl of dip on the plate.
If dip becomes too thick upon refrigeration, stir in a little milk until it reaches dipping consistency.

Tarragon Vinegar
Makes 1 litre

Ingredients:

1 pint (600 ml) cider vinegar
1 pint (600 ml) white vinegar
3 tablespoons dry tarragon

Preparation:

Place dried tarragon in a clean glass jar. Bring vinegar to a light boil and pour into jar (over the tarragon). Do not cap. Let cool

If the jar has a metal lid, place plastic wrap over jar before putting on lid so the vinegar does not come into contact with any metal. Place in a dry, dark area (cupboard).

After 2 weeks strain the tarragon vinegar through cheesecloth and pour into new clean jar or glass bottle. Add a stem or two of fresh tarragon to the vinegar for a garnish.

Pretty basic simple recipe, easy to make and great to use! 
 

South African Languages

South Africa is a multilingual country. Besides the 11 officially recognised languages, scores of others - African, European, Asian and more - are spoken here, as the country lies at the crossroads of southern Africa.
The country's Constitution guarantees equal status to 11 official languages to cater for the country's diverse peoples and their cultures. These are: Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga.

In each issue I will feature one of the languages.

siSwati
SiSwati, the language of the Swazi nation, is spoken mainly in eastern Mpumalanga, an area that borders the country of Swaziland.

The Swazi people originated from the Pongola river valley in KwaZulu-Natal, migrating from there to Swaziland. Their country was under British control from 1903 to 1968.
SiSwati is one of South Africa's four Nguni languages, and closely related to isiZulu. However, much has been done in the last few decades to enforce the differences between the languages for the purpose of standardising siSwati.
Home language to: 2.7% of the population
Family: Bantu Language Family
Varieties: Thithiza and Yeyeza  

Source: SouthAfrica.info
The all-in-one official guide
and web portal to South Africa.  
 

Recipe Requests

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

Add your suggestions to my Elephant Stew and Wacky Sarmies recipes.
 

Featured Website

Every issue I feature an interesting website with South African links.
 

Holiday Tours Take a break, choose a holiday!

The Recipes

Traditional Boerewors

1.5 kg beef
1.5 kg pork
500 g speck
50 ml whole coriander
25 ml salt
5 ml freshly geround black pepper
2 ml ground cloves
2 ml grated nutmeg
150 ml vinegar
about 90 g casings

Scorch *, grind ansd sift coriander. Cut meat into 50mm cubes and combine with remaining ingredients except speck and vinegar. Mince meat and dice speck. Add speck and vinegar to minced meat and mix lightly but thoroughly. Stuff into casings.

*scorch - whole coriander is lighly browned in a hot, ungreased frying pan and then ground and sifted to remove the husks before use.

Peri-Peri Boerewors

3 kg beef
2 kg pork
250 g speck
75 ml whole coriander
25-3- ml salt
15 ml peri-peri powder
150 ml vinegar
90 g casings

Scorch, grind and sift coriander. Cut meat into 50 mm cubes, mix with remaining ingredients except speck and vinegar. Mince meat, dice speck and mix lightly. Add vinegar and mix lighly but thoroughly. Stuff into casings.

Curried Boerewors

1.5 kg beef
1.5 kg pork
500 g speck
50 ml whole coriander
25-50 ml salt
5 ml freshly ground black pepper
2 ml ground cloves
25-50 ml curry powder
150 ml vinegar
about 90 g casings

Scorch, grind and sift coriander. Cut meat into 50 mm cubes and combine with remaining ingredients except speck and vinegar. Mince meat and cube speck. Add speck and vinegar to minced meat and mix lightly but thoroughly. Stuff into casings.  

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Email me:  peter@funkymunky.co.za