The food of the Karoo food was born out of necessity and created during hardship. When faced with an expanse that could hardly be called lush, the early Boer pioneers looked around them and discovered a region rich with possibilities, a land that would free them from British domination and misrule and despite many challenges, it became the  land that would feed them and their families. They built their farms with courage and tenacity while their wives created the cuisine of the Karoo using what there was and what they could find.  The Karoo in South Africa is about 400,000 square kilometres in size.

There was a time when ancient dinosaurs prospered in the lush wetlands and their remains have made the Karoo famous amongst palaeontologists.  It was a fertile region and “large herds of antelope, zebra and other large game roamed the grassy flats of the region. The Khoi and Bushmen, last of the southern African Stone Age peoples, wandered far and wide. There were no Europeans and no Africans of Bantu extraction. (The area was never wet enough for cattle and this is probably the main reason why it was never occupied by the Bantu). The two ethnic groups mentioned above differed substantially in their cultures and lifestyles – the Hottentots were described as graziers of sheep and cattle, while the Bushmen were hunter-gatherers. “ The Karoo was a battle ground during the Second Anglo-Boer War when 3 of the young republic’s commandos with a handful of Cape rebels fought a bitter battle for their freedom against the British there.  It was an impossible war and new technologies had to be developed to survive the terrain – the Boers invented guerrilla warfare while the British soldiers were forced to implement Kitchener’s scorched earth plan – they burnt down the Boers’ farms and put the women, their staff and the children into the concentration camps (the brainchild of Kitchener) to starve them in order to force the Boers to end the war.  It was a difficult war for the Brits – the land was unforgiving, the Boer women impossible (they forced their husbands to continue with the war and, literally, sent them back to war when they wanted to give up), the sun ruthless and the little water there was, salty and brackish. (Years earlier Adulphe Delegorgue, a French naturalist, who came to South Africa in the 1830’s found the Karoo extraordinarily difficult)and  it is understandable that the Brits suffered badly – the hardy Boers knew the land as it was, after all, their home.  Since most of their livestock were sheep, it is understandable that many of the recipes from that period contain lamb – this one is made to this day.

CORIANDER LAMB

Ingredients

• 600 g stewing lamb, cut into cubes or
• 1 kg stewing lamb if the bone is left in
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 500 ml yoghurt
• 30 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 45 ml parsley, chopped
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 250 ml water
• 15 ml grated lemon zest
• 50 ml fresh coriander leaves, chopped
• Salt land freshly ground pepper to taste
• 7 ml Maizena (cornflour) mixed with a little water to make a paste

Method

• Sauté the onions until translucent, add the lamb and sear until brown.
• Season the lamb to taste, add the spices, the garlic and parsley and stir for a minute or two.
• Pour in the water and cook for about an hour and a half until the lamb is tender, stirring occasionally.
• When the meat is ready, stir in the Maizena paste and the yoghurt, stir and then add the lemon – do not boil as it will curdle.
• Finally add the coriander, bring to simmer to warm and stir well.
• Serve with brown rice.

The early indigenous inhabitants had lived on roots, leaves, wild plants, grass seeds, locusts, gum, river fish, reptiles, ant larvae (known affectionately as Bushman rice), ostrich, ostrich eggs and when they could get hold of it, antelope meat.  When the early Boers arrived they preferred porcupines, hares, tortoises and the occasional ‘aardvark’ (an animal with the origin still unknown, but dating back to the days of the dinosaurs). Nowadays all these animals are endangered and thus protected and some are close to extinction. Tortoises were a delicacy and the Clanwilliam born author and epicurean, C. Louis Leipoldt considered the soup to be a tonic to be recommended for the ill.  Cooking them was a breeze – the heads were cut off and they were placed on the coal fires, shell side down and baked very slowly. Once cooked the shell was cracked and the meat scooped out, the porcupines were covered in muddy clay and baked in the coals – when cooked, the clay was tapped and the prickles fell away leaving only the delicious meat.  The preparation that must have gone into the cleaning must have been mindboggling and we can be grateful that we don’t have to that nowadays.  To this day meat is cooked on fires and the traditional ‘braai’ (barbecue) consists of an ordinary wood fire covered with a grid and for special traditional ‘braais’, complicated stone structures are still used, much like the shepherds used to in the olden days. The next recipe stems from those days and almost every family has their own, specific recipe for these stone ribs. Long ago stones were balanced in an A-frame with a fire built underneath them until the stones were actually red hot. The ribs were placed across them – one on each side of the A-frame and allowed to cook until they were crispy and cooked to perfection. Time was of no consequence then and it is of little consequence nowadays on the farms in the region because farming with sheep is not fast paced, no matter how one looks at it.

STONE BARBECUED RIBS (KLIPRIB)

Ingredients

• 1,5 – 2kg full rack of lamb or mutton rib
• Pineapple,  peeled and halved or pawpaw, pips removed and cut into half
• Freshly ground coriander seeds
• Coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 lemons, cut into quarters
• Chutney

Method

• As the butcher to crack the ribs into two separate sections and rub with the pineapple thoroughly on all sides.
• Season with ground coriander,  freshly ground pepper and salt to taste.
• Barbecue on a hot barbecue until cooked and serve with chutney and lemon quarters.

Today the cuisine is based on the long and unusual cultural tradition but dishes like pofadder (puff adder) – a special fat sausage made from liver, kidneys and offal, minced with fat and flavoured with spices stuffed into intestines is still a local favourite. Skilpadjies (tortoises) are fat parcels of chopped  spiced liver, wrapped in caul fat and barbecued over coals that are loved by locals and visitors alike. The pioneer Boers brought all their food with them and times were difficult in the harsh vegetation – old recipes and cookery books useless. They continued  to cook  in the iron pots brought with them in their wagons – the women had to use the herbs and vegetables that they could gather in the veldt and often, in order to preserve their ever diminishing livestock, they had to shoot venison for the pot.  Bear in mind that vegetables cooked in brack water tasted quite different to what they were used to and provision had to be made for this.  Tea was brewed from the leaves of veld plants and the trekboers drank a liquid called ‘gaat’ (made from ground indigenous tree roots), whilst coffee was imported and interesting brews invented by grinding a variety of strange ingredients – a particular favourite of the Boers during the war was something called mielie coffee. In time an entire cooking culture developed around the black three legged iron pot and to this day, the potjie (little pot) is one of the traditional meals of the Afrikaner and one never turns down an invitation to this.

Ostriches still thrive and a delicious way of eating the ostrich egg (image of yolk above), is hardboiled and mashed with salt, pepper and butter to be spread on freshly baked farm bread.  Bear in mind that one ostrich egg is the equivalent of 24 normal chicken eggs and will require, at least, 60 minutes to become hard. Probably because of the history and years of suffering, the food in the Karoo is as excellent today as it is generous.  In the days of yore, it was normal to eat at lunch time and there was nothing strange about serving  a suckling pig, a whole turkey and a roast to be followed by chicken and pigeon pastries and then desserts like milk tart at a single lunchtime meal. Preserved fruit was commonly served with meat, as it is to this day.  However, meat was plainly roasted, spices only used when they received gifts from the Cape and vegetables rare. The Boer’s wives were excellent bakers  -  they used flour from mills (there were ramshackle mills kilometres away and it often took long trips to obtain anything useable) to bake bread, cookies and tarts for special occasions.  It is interesting to note that the San* people also baked – they made cookies from roasted, ground locusts that had been mixed with honey and baked them  in the sun.  Eventually, many of the veld herbs were used for medicine and even alcohol – a local tipple, known as witblits is popular to this day. Nowadays the cuisine is quite different and while the food is still very regional and the basics the same, the people living in the Karoo have access to all modern amenities and ingredients. What does remain is the fact that they have the blood and the soul of the Karoo is still within them and no amount of money can buy that. Feasting is still the norm but sophistication is now very much the name of the game.

SWEET POTATO AND LENTIL SOUP

Ingredients

• 250 ml red lentils
• 1 kg sweet potatoes, washed, peeled and cut into small cubes
• 1 onion, peeled and finely diced
• 1,25 litres of home made chicken stock
• 45 ml tomato puree
• 50 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 10 ml ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• 2 tsp grated lemon zest
• 1 tsp hot paprika
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

• Fry the onions in the oil until translucent and then add the sweet potatoes and stir well.
• Pour in the stock, the tomato puree, lentils, cumin, paprika, allspice and salt and pepper and simmer for about half an hour until the sweet potatoes are quite soft.
• Cool  the soup slightly and puree with a handheld blender  or, alternatively, liquidize.
• Reheat and serve, garnishing with chopped chives (or parsley or coriander).