It is very important to clean the stomach and intestines thoroughly; you must rinse it well under cold, running water. Place the meat in a pot and cover it with salty water. Bring to a boil and allow to simmer for 3 hours, or until very soft. Add vegetables during the last hour of cooking. You can thicken the sauce using a little flour to make delicious gravy.

The recipe that I have chosen is easy to cook. What makes it special to me and my culture is the way it is cooked. This recipe and way of cooking comes from the Voortrekker (the Afrikaans farmers who moved northward in South Africa) times in South Africa. But cooking in a 3-legged pot over a fire is also an important part of African culture.

The Voortrekkers spent a lot of time traveling. They did not have kitchens and so they came up with a clever way to cook their food. The same was true of with the African tribes, who also spent a lot of time hunting and traveling. All their cooking was done in a little, black 3-legged, round-bellied pot on an open fire. They used the pot to do many things including cooking their main meals, making bread or boiling water.

This recipe is special to my family and I because we often cook this way at our holiday home. We do this at a special place where we can look out over the sea. It is a lovely time to be together as a family. My father thinks that he is the king of potjiekos cooking and none of us are allowed to interfere when he is busy around the fire. It is also very special because it is absolutely delicious and my dad makes it! I enjoy helping my dad prepare the meal.

Mix flour with melted Ghee. Then add milk and water and bind to a stiff dough. Make them into round balls and press your finger deep to make an impression of the fingers, and then fry in the deep oil. Wait for it to cool and break them up. Then mix it in a Kenwood food processing mixer and mincer. Add the Castor Sugar, Elachies and the oil. Mix it well and shape into round balls.

This specific recipe has its origin in India. This food is only served on very auspicious occasions, for example at weddings. This recipe is very special to me because it is very tasty and it is very enjoyable for everyone. It is also an important food for the Hindu gods. When I went to members of my family’s weddings, they served Ladwa. I became very addicted to it and my stomach was a little sore a few hours later.

I’ll always remember that day. There is no step in the food preparation that reflected my culture. There is a story to the Ladwa. One day, a Hindu elephant god called Ganesha was invited to a feast at a place called Chandralok. This god, whom is known for his huge appetite, fed himself with lots of Ladwa. Then, as he got up to walk, he could not balance because of his humongous stomach and fell to the ground.

After he fell, his stomach burst open and all the Ladwa fell out. The moon saw what had happened and roared with laughter. Ganesha was enraged and cursed the moon, causing him to vanish from the Earth. The whole village started to suffer from this incident and the gods called upon Ganesha’s father, Shiva, who is the Destroyer of Evil, to persuade Ganesha to change his mind. Ganesha finally did, but he only modified his curse.

It was announced that the moon would be invisible on one day each month and would hardly be seen on remainding days. The moon would thus only be visible in its full glory once a month. This teaches us the lesson that if we look at the moon on the fourth day of any month a certain person will be falsely accused of a wrong doing.

Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease an 18cm by 29 cm tin. Cream the margarine (or butter) and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolk, mix well. Sift flours, custard powder and salt together, then add to Margarine mixture to form a firm dough. Press mixture into base of prepared tin and bake for 15 min or until golden brown. Remove from oven, spread with prepared topping, return to oven and bake for another 5 min. Cool, cut into squares.

Place Margarine, sugar and syrup in a small saucepan, stir over low heat until margarine (or butter) is melted and sugar dissolved. Simmer gently for five minutes. Stir in the nuts.

This recipe comes from my granny. It has become a family favorite and almost every time I go to see her I ask her if she has made it. A while ago my brother got the recipe and made some but because my brother and I argue sometimes, I didn’t get that much!

I was a little bit jealous that my brother made the recipe and now he says that it is his recipe so I can’t make it, but I am going to any way!

I really like this recipe because I love the taste of it and my gran always makes it so delicious that I always ask for another helping, but if I have already had two she normally says no. I remember when I was younger I would always ask her for the recipe but never remembered to get it from her.

Now I know that my mom has the recipe so I can make it when I want. Soon, I will make Peanut Shortbread cookies. I will try to make them as good as my gran makes them. Then I will give some to her. so that she can try them.

My banana bread comes from South Africa, which is my home country. My grandmother’s grandmother used to sell it to make a living while her husband worked on the farm. She passed it down to her daughter, who made it for her children, including my grandmother, to take to school instead of regular bread, which was more expensive to bake.

My grandmother then was taught the recipe and she taught it to her daughter. She is busy teaching it to me. I remember when I was little my grandmother used to bake it for me to take on a picnic when I went shepherding on her farm. Banana bread should be baked on an open fire, but these days we don’t really do that any more.

The first bread probably originated from Neolithic times, some 12,000 years ago. This was primitive bread, made with a mixture of crushed grain and water, and then cooked on hot stones and covered with hot ashes. The Egyptians probably discovered that wheat made dough rise, which formed a gas and produced lighter, softer bread. The banana originated in Southeast Asia and spread from India, to the Philippines, New Guinea, etc. Banana was cultivated by about 2,000 BC. But these people were rice eaters, and wheat was unknown there, so breads was not a big part of their culture.

Banana bread is one of my favorite dishes! I hope that once you have made, tasted it and read about it you will also like it a lot!

"Contrary to common belief, bananas do not grow on trees! Instead, bananas grow on compacted, water-filled leaf stalks that grow up to 25 feet high. They are the world's largest herb." (Source: The Packer, 9/9/89)

Melt the margarine (or butter), beat the eggs into the margarine, one by one, and sieve in the dry ingredients. Make sure everything is well mixed together. Roll out the dough and place into round pans. (Remember to grease the pans well first). Bake about 6 round flat units, until it is light-brown, at 190 degrees Celsius.

Mix egg yolks, sugar and maizena with a 1/4cup milk. Add to 2 cups of boiled milk and stir on oven plate until well thickened. Remove from oven and fold-in beaten egg-white. Layer the crusts and filling one at a time, and crumble the last dough lover over the top, folding it over edges. Cover with a cloth and let it stand for a day.

This recipe originally comes from France; our last name is French. It has been in our family for generations and we have always loved it. It is very special to me because it orginally comes from my grandfather’s mother. As it has been in my family for such a long time, my mother has been taught how to make it and I am sure that in a few years I will learn too. At my mother’s first attempt to bake it all by herself, she tasted so much of it on along the way that she was sick for a few days afterwards. When my grandma baked the tart, usually on a Saturday afternoon, my mother and her brother and sisters would "taste" so much of the filling that my grandma often did not have enough filling left for the crust! They would be obliged to eat some of the filling as well which, of course, they didn’t mind doing.

On Sundays, my grandma would serve the ‘Jodetert’ to her whole family and they always loved it. Even once my mother was older and started university, she would go home especially on ‘Jodetert’ days to collect the left-overs and bring it back to her friends. My mother does not make this recipe for me as often as I would like, but she has her own life too and I appreciate that.

The times when she has made it, it has been a huge hit and we usually end up with a party of about nine, because my whole family loves it. Very long ago, my grandfather’s mother’s grandparents came to South Africa from France and rumour has it that they brought it with them. It has tracked along the family for generations.

Beat cream until thick, but not stiff. Beat egg whites until stiff. Mix cream and egg whites and add milk and vanilla essence. Pour into a cake tin and place in the freezer. When the ice-cream starts to set, beat with a fork in the cake tin for about half an hour. Leave to set.

We are not sure where vanilla ice-cream originated, but in our family it comes from my great grandmother who lived on a dairy farm in Scotland. This recipe uses lots of cream and she always had fresh cream on the farm! I did not know my great grandmother but she passed this recipe onto my grandmother. My grandmother always used to make this ice-cream on special occasions, like Christmas, birthdays, parties and other fun occasions. This recipe is really special to me because I used help her make it.

Murukku is a recipe from a state in South India called Tamil Nadu. My family is from Tamil Nadu. My great Grandfather’s father came from Tamil Nadu and brought this recipe into my family. My parents, grandparents and I have grown up with murukku. Whenever we go to my granny’s house there is murukku on the table. My brother and I have a meal made only of murukku!

When you have one taste of it, you can’t stop! It is really addictive, even my parents can’t say no to this snack. A few days ago, when I did a speech on Diwali, I wanted to bring some Murukku for the class to taste. As soon as I put my hand into the murukku container, my Mom said, "No!" She told me that it was like stealing gold! In some parts of India it is like gold.

Unlike other cultures, people in India (including my granny and my mom) used to grind rice and chickpeas to make flour, instead of leaving it whole. In India it was their staple food, so think of how much grinding all the women must have done! My mom and my granny used to have a special marble stone in their back garden, where they used to take a rock and grind rice, wheat and chickpeas into flour, for their mothers to use for cooking.

Today, I must admit, Indian girls don’t do half of the traditional methods that they use to do.

Chick pea and garbanzo bean are 2 names for the same vegetable. Each country calls them by different names:

The recipe’s country of origin is India. The significance of this recipe is that whenever a King or Queen died they would make Breyani. This recipe is very special to me because the tradition of making Breyani has been passed down for many years. The memory I associate with this recipe is when my grandfather died.

There is no preparation that is reflective and unique to my culture, other than there being no red meat, because we do not eat red meat. There is a story that goes with this recipe: One day, when one of the Kings in India died everyone made the same food, but then one lady made Breyani. Since she was the only one with a different type of food they agreed that whenever someone dies people have to make the dish, Breyani.

Rinse turkey inside and out, and set aside whilst making stuffing. Spoon stuffing in just before you roast the bird. Mix all the ingredients for the stuffing together, and stuff it into the body cavity of the turkey. Use any remaining stuffing in the bird’s neck cavity. Secure the metal hook around the legs of the turkey and secure its neck flap and wings with string, so as to prevent any stuffing from falling out.

Season the turkey and place it on a rack in a large roasting pan, with the breast side facing upwards. Brush with a little oil and add a little stock, or water, as well as 1 chopped onion into the pan. Remember to add more liquid while the bird roasts, as a lot of it evaporates.

Roast at 160° degrees Celsius for at least 3 hours, or until the bird is a rich brown color. Cover bird’s breast loosely, with buttered paper, and then roast for another hour and 30 minutes or until the juices in the leg joints run clear when the deepest part of the joint is pricked. Transfer the turkey to a serving platter while making the gravy, using the juices from the roasting pan and stock from the giblets. Put the turkey in the oven’s warming drawer for 15 minutes before carving.

The country of origin of this recipe is Britain. A Christmas dinner in Britain used to begin with a wild boar’s head, which was brought to the table accompanied by the sound of trumpets and, following that, a Christmas pudding. After that, the real meal would begin! There would be beef, venison, roasted swan, peacocks and many other dishes, all washed down with wine and ale.

These days, British families enjoy mainly one meat dish - the traditional roasted turkey. After the turkey, the meal is followed with Christmas pudding and mince pies. The Christmas pudding is sometimes made months before the time, and children may help to stir the mixture, making a wish as they do so. Both my mother and father have British parents, so they were brought up with roast turkey being a very important part of their Christmas tradition.

We have always had family celebrations at Christmas time. It is a very special time of year for me. My family and I give and receive presents, sing carols, pull crackers and tell jokes as my cousins, sister and I help our granny and our mothers to dress the turkey for lunch. We also help our granny to make her mince pies and then we help Mom decorate the Christmas cake. Christmas is a special time of year because it brings our whole family together. We get to see everyone in our family as we live in Cape Town and they live in Johannesburg.

The whole cooking of a roast turkey is rich in tradition but we either roast it in the oven or cook it on the Weber (outside barbecue). We usually have roast potatoes, stuffing as well as peas and carrots with the turkey and gravy.

Allow saffron strands to become crisp over a very low heat. Crush it fine with the back of a spoon. Put in a tablespoon of hot water. Keep some saffron aside for tinting 3 or 4 tblsp of cooked rice. This must be spread on top of the rice, in streaks. Fry the onions in oil to a pale golden colour.

Drain and cool. Leave aside one tblsp of fried onions and crush the rest coarsely. Wash and drain the disjointed chicken. Place it in large bowl. Add saffron and smear ginger/garlic over pieces of meat by tossing it around the meat, with a spoon. Add yoghurt, tomatoes, spices, fried onions, whole green chilies, and sprigs of mint and allow it to marinate for at least 1 hour.

Meanwhile, boil masoor in salt water until it is done. Drain off in colander. Boil rice with 2 elachi and 1 piece of tuj. The rest of the lachi,must be must be added to the marinating meat. Rice must be drained when only half-done. (Boil rice as for Pilau, but leave slightly undone). Fry potatoes in the oil that you used to fry the onions. Remove the ghee and set aside.

In large flat-bottomed pot (2-3 liter size) put in oil that was used for frying, plus half of ghee. Sprinkle a handful of rice and massor over the bottom. Now arrange the marinating chicken and masalas carefully over bottom of pot. Spread masoor over the chicken, then the potatoes and then half of the rice. Place peeled hard-boiled eggs on the rice. Then cover eggs with rest of the rice. Many people prefer to tint a little of the white rice with a tinge of saffron. This looks very attractive and puts the finishing touch to Biryani.

Decorate with left-over fried onions, sprinkle rest of ghee and half a cup of cold water over the top. Close and seal lid of pot tightly. Place over high heat for five minutes and as soon as it starts sizzling, lower heat and let simmer for 1 hr.

By this time all the moisture should have evaporated. Serve with fried rice papads, onion kachoomers, and its essential accompaniment, spiced dahi.

The recipe's country of origin is India. This dish is significant as we prepare it for many special occasions. It is very seldom that Biryani is cooked on a normal day. It was known as the Royal Dish, and is made for celebrations and important religious days such as Eid, weddings and for important guests. It is quite fascinating and exciting for me that whenever Biryani is cooked, I know that it is going to be a very special day.

For example, when my brother memorized the Koran, we had a huge function for his great achievement and the royal dish, Biryani, was served. When my uncle got married Biryani was served as well. We use all the finest ingredients and all my aunts get together and prepare the meal. Each of them do different steps and the eldest aunt does the finishing touches.

One day, a long time ago in India, when the Mogals came, the dish was only served to the upper class and wealthy people. Commoners were not able to taste it. Fortunately, everyone can now eat Biryani.

Heat oil and fry onions, spring onions, ginger and garlic until just softened. Add tomatoes, tomato puree, salt, pepper and thyme. Cook for 2-3 minutes, adding small amounts of water to prevent it from drying out. Add fish pieces and cook for another minute. Add 500ml of boiling water, lower heat and cover. Let it simmer for 5 minutes. Add washed watercress and a squeeze of lemon juice. Serve with boiled rice or crusty bread. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

This is a dish which originated from French cuisine, because when the French came to Mauritius a long time ago they brought their recipe with them. The recipe was a fish soup called ‘bouillon’.

The significance of this recipe is that it was handed down in both my mothers’ and fathers’ families, although the two families were from different countries. Going back a few generations, my father’s family and my mother’s family originally came from India. Some Indian families settled in Mauritius (including my fathers’ great grandparents) and other families moved again to settle in South Africa (my mother’s great grandparents). That’s how this recipe was brought from Mauritius to South Africa, and cooked in both places.

This recipe is special to me because I have liked it since I was small and we have it very often, so it has become one of my favorite foods. This dish was traditionally cooked with fish heads, to give it a unique taste, and it was probably more economical to buy. Nowadays, it is cooked with filleted pieces of fish. The soup used to be made with rice water (water that was drained from rice after it was boiled). This was because the rice water was nourishing. It also helped thicken the soup. Nowadays, people are heath-conscious and know that rice water is full of starch, so plain, boiled water of fish stock is used. In the original French recipe garlic is used. Today, however, we use ginger, chillies and coriander, which are Asian ingredients.

I hope you enjoy making this recipe and most of all, I hope you enjoy eating it!

Pour water and malaai (the thick cream that forms on top of boiled full-cream milk) over maize meal. Cool slightly. Add ghee or butter and mix well. Add sifted flour and salt and knead into soft, even-textured dough. Cover with a cloth or plastic and set aside for about 1 hour. Divide through into 5 pieces and roll each out to about 20 cm in diameter. Brush with ghee or melted butter and sprinkle with flour.

Wash and drain the chicken. Meanwhile, brown onions in heated oil until golden brown (Shouldn’t take longer than 5-10 minutes). Add chicken to onions. Pound garlic and ginger together with a mortar and pestle and add remaining spices and 125 ml water to chicken mixture. Cover it and let it simmer for about 20 minutes, or until well blended. Add tomatoes and let it simmer for another 10-15 minutes, or until potatoes are cooked. Serve with Roti and Mrs. Ball’s Chutney.

Roti and chicken curry is a dish that originated in India, and it is a favorite dish of Muslims on Fridays, after mosque. Although the recipe comes from India, it is used in hundreds of countries around the world. It has been passed down over the centuries in our family. Some of the Indians brought with them this dish when they came to South Africa as slaves.

As I am from South Africa I always add Mrs Balls’ Chutney, or pickles and salads to the food. The first thing that I have to do before preparing it is to make sure that all my ingredients are halaal, and that the utensils I use have not been used on any non-halaal foods. Because the recipe originally comes from a poor country, the roti is made out of just 3 ingredients. The curry is easy to make and it makes a lot of sauce that will feed many people.

In South Africa, Muslims - like me - have made the dish milder. We have also adapted it to the tastes of our people, who are a mixture of different cultures. This is a story that reminds me of this recipe: one day, my grandmother was introducing the curry to some friends of hers. She was also telling them how nice it was. She had asked my aunt to make the curry for them to taste, but they didn’t know that someone had put a lot of a very hot spice in the curry, so when they had there first bite they basically wanted to jump out of their seats!

You should cook the Potjie over a fire, outside, in a potjie pot, which is a black cast iron pot with three legs and a lid. Heat the pot till very hot. Brown the meat in its own fat. Add 500ml water and 300ml wine, cover and simmer gently for 1 hour. Add the onions, replace the lid and simmer for another 2 hours. Have an occasional peek and add water if necessary.

Arrange the carrots, potatoes and peas in layers on top of the meat. Cover and simmer for another hour. Mix the water, soup powder, salt and allspice and add. Simmer for 15 minutes.

When the South African trek farmers had to preserve meat Biltong (strips of sundried meat) became popular, amongst other things. The way of preserving cooked meat was to cook large quantities of meat and vegetables and leave it in its own fat in the pot.

Although Potjie Kos is fashionable now, my grandfather made it ages ago. He would cook it when he was in the Cedarberg, when he was hiking and sometimes even in his own garden. About 15 years ago Potjie Kos became popular when there was a competition on television This recipe is special to me because I love helping my dad prepare it at our so-called "Tribal Council" and it is a delicious recipe.

One of my memories that I associate with this dish is that when my dad added mushrooms to it I had a friend with me; neither of us liked the mushrooms so we were calling my cat to come and eat it, but all the cat wanted was the meat.

First, you will have to make the dough. Mix the water, flour and butter together to make the dough into a pastry consistency. Then roll out this pastry. In a big bowl, put any kind of diced (chopped) raw meat, mixed with onions, raw potato and any other filling that you may like.. Once you have done this, you must put a little water onto the pastry, and then put the filling in the middle of it.

This recipe comes from my great-great grandmother who lived in Cornwall, England, many years ago. My great-great grandmother use to make these for my great-great grandfather who worked at a tin mine. For lunch, every day, he would get Cornish Pasties. She would put the Cornish pasties in a drawstring bag so that when it was lunchtime the men did not have to wash their hands. They could just slip the bag down, without touching the Pasties.

I am the 4th generation who has made these Pasties. It is sort of a tradition because we always go to a specific shop near our house to buy them about once a week and I refuse to eat any other kind!

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Then add the three eggs, one by one. Beat the mixture after every egg. Sift the dry ingredients and then add it to the butter mixture. Then add the milk. Once you have finished, grease two 23cm pie plates and then put the butter in them. When you have completed that smooth the batter with a spatula. Then place the apples on top of the mixture with out breaking the pieces. Bake this at 180 degrees C for 25 —30 minutes. While that is cooking you can make the syrup by boiling the cream and sugar for 15 minutes or until it is thick and syrupy. Remove the pie from the oven and then pour the syrup over the pie. Then place the pie in the oven for 10 minutes. Serve hot or cold with ice cream, cream or custard. Then enjoy.

I do not have a folk tale to tell, but the history of our Heavenly apple pie is enough to tell you the whole history of Heavenly Apple Pie. Heavenly Apple Pie came from my grandmother. She was a member of the churches’ guild in Edinburgh, which is in Scotland. After my grandmother and my grandfather were married they sailed from Southampton, in the United Kingdom, to begin their new life in Cape Town, South Africa.

They had very little money at that time. This cost very little to bake and it tastes delicious. My Grandmother used to serve the left-overs at tea the next day. One of the English traditions, which they continued when they first arrived in South Africa, was to have a roast lunch every Sunday, after church. My Grandmother’s apple pie was served every week.

During hot, summer months she used to serve it with ice cream and during cold, winter months she served it with hot custard. I did not get to see my Grandmother but I would loved to have sat down with her on Sunday afternoons and eat it with her, like my mom and my Grandfather did.

First, cut the venison into pieces and then cut the pork fat into cubes. Cut venison and pork fat into an iron flat-bottomed pot and cover the meat with water. Now add the cloves, allspice and bay leaves, then let it simmer for approximately 3 hours.

Add the garlic, salt, pepper, wine and vinegar and let the stew simmer for about another hour. Remove the pot from the stove, take the bones out and cut the meat into smaller pieces if necessary. Put the pot back onto the stove and add a little lemon juice for taste and then boil rapidly. You may add more vinegar and wine if required and boil to evaporate any excess fluid. The stew may be served as is with rice or mashed potato, it can be turned into a pie by covering it with a pastry.

My recipe is a South African recipe with Afrikaans (South African language of especially farmers) origins. My father and grandfather used to hunt springbok and bring it home to my mother, so that she could make ‘Fyn vleis’. One day my father was out on a hunting trip with his friends and they were sitting chatting. They hadn’t loaded their rifles when they suddenly realized that there were about twenty springbok watching them only about six meters away!

By the time they had loaded their rifles it was too late because they had scared the buck away. What a waste! This recipe has been in my family for many years and I especially enjoy it when it is made into a pie. But I am not the only one who loves it — our dog loves it too!

My mother had cooked ‘Fynvleis’ for Aunty Jean’s 70th birthday and had taken it out of the oven to cool while she went outside. When she came back Kelly, our beagle, had eaten half of the stew! Seeing as it was needed for the next day my mother had to begin preparing it again and had to cook all through the night. This recipe is truly South African and can be cooked in a three-legged, black pot called a ‘potjie ‘, an alternative is to cook it in an oven or on a stove. This food dates back to the ‘Trek-boere’ (farmers who moved up North in South Africa) which means that there is probably a folk tale, however I have no knowledge of it.

The oven should be set at 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees F). Firstly you have to mix together the cake flour, baking powder salt, sugar and cocoa (18.5ml). Then, in a separate dish, mix the milk, melted margarine and vanilla essence and add that to the first mixture. Stir till the mixture is well blended together. Then turn the mixture into a greased baking dish. Next sprinkle the brown sugar and cocoa (25 ml) over the mixture and pour the boiling water on top. It will form its own sauce. Bake for 30 minutes. Serve warm and, if you want to, with custard.

This chocolate pudding is an altered form of an old family recipe that has been prepared by many people before me. I enjoy making it and that, to me, is the key to making good food; to enjoy the process and all that enjoyment will improve the result. My whole family enjoys it when my brother or I bake and they delight in eating the occasional pudding or home-made biscuits.

The first time we made it, it exploded inside the oven. Luckily we haven’t had too many hiccups since then! In the end, we added home-made chocolate. You can use custard if you prefer.

A long time ago, my great-grandmother made the chocolate pudding. It all started when my great-grandfather came back from fighting in the Second World War. It was a long time since she had seen him and she decided to make something special to welcome him back. She decided to make his favorite milk chocolates but, unfortunately, the chocolates were a flop so she was left with a lot of chocolate mixture. Hoping that she wouldn’t make another mess, she decided to make a pudding out of the mixture that she had made. The outcome was a much more successful chocolate pudding!

Cut meat into 1-inch squares. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cut the pork fat into small pieces and mix with meat in an enamel bowl. Slice the onions and brown them lightly in butter, adding spices, vinegar, water, apricot jam, curry powder and Turmeric. Boil until fairly thick. Cool the mixture.

Add lemon leaves and bay leaves. Add marinade to the meat and mix well. Allow the meat to marinade for 3 days. Stir each day. Make Sosaties by placing pieces of alternate meat on wooden skewers. The sosaties can now be frozen, so they will be ready whenever you need them for another meal.

This recipe has its origin in Holland. The sailors belonging to the DEIC (Dutch East India Company) traveled around the Cape, trading and also refueling. To avoid the disease Rickets, which is caused by a lack of meat and fresh fruit and vegetables in one’s diet, sailors used spices from the East, and ingredients like Vinegar, to preserve their meat on board the ship.

These recipes were handed on to people in the Cape, and they would alter the marinade according to their own taste and then skewer the meat. These kebabs were called "Sosaties" and they would be barbecued on open fires, especially when some Voortrekkers migrated north in ox-drawn wagons. Sometimes the Sosaties were hung at the back of the ox wagon, to be air-dried. In those days, Sosaties were stored in cast iron pots, which had heavy lids to keep out germs.

My Grandmother, Joyce Cloete, collected these recipes from her forefathers. We would often sit around the fire, barbecuing the Sosaties at night under the stars. At these times our family would hear stories about the past and share our Grandparents' experiences. We store our Sosaties in large tupperware containers, but we noticed that the Tupperware's plastic sometimes gave the Sosaties a strange flavour - modern improvements are not always better!

Many different spices and jams have been added to Granny Joyce's recipe of the Sosaties. Nowadays we buy wooden skewers - an improvement on the easily breakable and burnt sticks used in the olden days.