Lasagna a la Roger

I am happy to say that all three of my boys have followed my love of cuisine and producing special meals. Roger is a talented Wild Life Artist and his artistic streak has affected his cooking too! Visit his blog , Roger Brown Art of The Wild. It is in my links on the right hand side of this page.

There are many cultural influences that have caused the slow evolution of uniquely Southern African food, and Italian is one of them. There are many Italians in Southern Africa. However in the early years many of the real Italian ingredients were not always found very easily. Things like Roma tomatoes, the proper pungent purple garlic, fresh pesto ingredients and even the right flour to make Pasta.

South African cooks improvised. Here is Rogers version of Lasagna. His addition of pork sausage meat makes this particularly tasty. He has used easily available dried herbs and canned tomatoes.

Ingredients:

Meat sauce

500 g lean beef mince

500g pork sausages

800g tin chopped tomatoes

2 onions

Heaped tespoon dried Origanum (half cup chopped fresh if available)

Sweet basil (half cup chopped fresh if available)

3 cloves garlic

Salt black

Pepper

250g Lasagne sheets

White sauce

1 litre milk

2 large table spoons butter

2 table spoons cake flour

Black pepper heaped teaspoon.

Salt

Half cup grated mozarella and cheddar mixed.

Method

Start off frying the onions in a little olive oil

Add chopped up pork sausages and then the mince ,brown them well.

Add garlic, origanum and sweet basil and the salt and a tablespoon of sugar

Once all brown  add the tinned tomatoes, tomatoe paste and tomatoe sauce

Let it simmer for about 30 min or more.

While that is simmering make the white sauce..

I do this by making a roux. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter on low heat ,then add 2 table spoons cake flour. Add the milk very slowly, adding more only when all lumps have been mixed out. Keep stirring continuously until thick then add salt and pepper and the grated cheese.

Put 3 cm layer of meat sauce in the bottom of a large rectangular baking dish. Then layer the lasagne sheets (Soak them in warm water for 5 min beforehand to soften)

Next layer white sauce then meat sauce then sheets and continue as many times possible. I normally get two layers of each. Finish layer should be white sauce with cheese on top. Grind fresh parmesan cheese over the top if you can get it. Bake in oven for 30 min or until top is well browned at 250C (480F)

Afro-Italian charcoal grilled steak

An aged Italian gentleman inspired this...I was doing some work for him at his holiday home on the coast in the East Cape, and at the end of a long day as the sun dropped over the horizon,  he pulled out a brown paper packet from his car containing some aged rump steaks, and promised me a special treat....

 The basic ingredients consisted of a strong olive oil, fresh ground black pepper, rosemary sprigs picked off the shrub next to the braai/barbeque and 6 or 7 pieces of garlic. These he smashed in their skins and added to the bowl of steak rosemary and olive oil. He also bashed the rosemary a bit before putting it into the bowl. All this was tossed and left for an hour whilst some hot coals burnt down from some acacia hardwood.

The result was the finest steaks I have ever eaten. So simple. The key is to let either the garlic or the rosemary dominate the flavours. That means put in less of the one. He used more rosemary, and not only whipped the braai grid with a rosemary branchlet but also threw a few leaves onto the hot coals whilst he was grilling the steaks. This has got to be eaten rare or medium. If you like it grey and well done just go and chuck a frozen burger patty in the microwave! You will probably enjoy it more.
A bit of explanation...Smashing the garlic and leaving it in the skin, traps the volatile oils so not all of it escapes during the cooking. This is the same reason that you add a very little raw garlic to garlic dishes at the end of cooking. Secondly, bashing the rosemary releases some oils and makes them availabe to infuse.