This is a bit of a sad one.

Our cozy little Dinner Club family is shrinking… Lianne is moving to Scotland, and this is her farewell dinner.

It almost didn’t happen – with the mammoth task of moving her entire life from east-London to an Edinburgh suburb, there was not much time or head-space left for planing and executing a dinner party – but plan and execute she did!

So, Xhosa:

Like Wales and Yucatan, this is not a country – there are no countries in X – but a People: the 2nd largest ethnic group in South Africa, living mostly in its Cape region.

The cuisine of the AmaXhosa, as the people are known, comprises a combination of red and white meat (including game as well as other domestic varieties like goat), vegetables, samp (corn kernels pounded until broken, but not pulverised) and other grains.

The dishes Lianne cooked were delicious and comforting:

Umfino: maize meal cooked with cabbage and leafy greens:

Which served as the perfect bed for a rich Xhosa Beef Stew (Credit: http://southafrica.net/):

Ingredients:

1 cup of stamp (broken corn kernels, soaked overnight)
1 cup of sugar beans (soaked overnight)
500g cubed soft beef shin
2 large onions (finely chopped)
3 tsp crushed garlic
2 Tbsp cooking oil
2 chilli beef stock cubes (crumbled)
1.5 litres of water brought to the boil
2 tsp powdered Paprika
1 Tbsp of mild curry powder
4 large carrots, finely grated
2 bay leaves
1 can of chopped tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

  1. In a heavy-based, large saucepan, heat the oil and fry the onions and garlic until tender.
  2. Add the cubed soft beef shin and bones and allow to brown before adding in the crumbled stock cubes, bay leaves, and water.
  3. Drain the samp and beans from the soaking and add to the pot along with the Paprika, curry powder, grated carrots and can of chopped
    tomatoes.
  4. Cover and allow to simmer on a low heat for about two hours, stirring occasionally to avoid burning, until the samp and beans are soft and a thick, rich gravy has formed.
  5. Taste test the gravy and add salt and pepper to your liking, then allow to simmer for a further 30 minutes.

(Lianne substituted the Stamp & sugar beans for chickpeas, which worked very well.)

For dessert, we had a sweet and light fruit salad with custard:

Apparently, Lianne has a personal connection to this culture in the form of an old flame, some cows, and a drum… I’ll say no more, except to mention that this dinner revealed a whole side to Lianne we’d never been privy to before…

So – a bittersweet encounter. Hopefully, we can drag Lianne back south for some future dinners – so this doesn’t have to mean Goodbye.

Next time will be Z! which appropriately will be squeezed in just before the year is out.

See you at my place, for (new) Zealand food!