Casserole of Guinea fowl, Francolin or wild duck

 

Spatch Cock Chicken over The Coals and Fried Rice

Like so many South African recipes, this main meal is derived from many cultures. The peri-peri spatchcock chicken has sort of Mozambique overtones. The fried rice is not strictly African but might have influences of the Cape Malay cuisine of Cape Town.
I have combined the two dishes to make the main meal because they complement one another so well.
By the way..the three sirloin steaks tucked around the edge of the spatchcock on the grill was for a guest that preferred beef! They have nothing to do with this recipe and were merely basted with olive oil and fresh rosemary Italian style.

Lambassa's Cameroon Chicken

This is really a great looking and a genuine African recipe. It come from a little further North than strictly Southern Africa, but it is so similar to many of our ethnic chicken dishes that I thought I would include it. Visit her blog at lambassaa It is in French but is easy to follow. If you prefer, use Google translate which is found here
She has beautiful step by step photos of the preparation. Give it a go! try a little taste of real Africa!
Here is her finished dish.

School Lunch Healthy Chicken and Chips with Peas

Chicken Chips and Peas is a very old favorite of mine. It was born by my English Grandma who used to give us this meal for lunch once a week after school!

I modified this recipe a bit to conform to my new health regime and yet I have to say it was still very similar to Grandmas lunch.
 Ingredients:
Serves two hungry schoolboys.
two large leg and thighs.
Cup of fresh or frozen green baby peas
About three medium potatoes peeled, chipped and parboiled till almost soft. (Yes par-boiled!)
minced or chopped garlic.
fresh ground black pepper.
Mild extra virgin olive oil. (Here's the healthy bit..no deep frying!!) Olive oil is actually GOOD for you.
Method
If using frozen chicken, first of all defrost thoroughly your chicken leg and thighs. It is best to do this overnight in the fridge.
Start the meal by getting the meat going.
Dash a little of the olive oil into a large pan which has a lid. Season with the ground pepper and rub the minced or chopped garlic over the meat. Start turning the heat up until the meat is just sizzling. It will probably be at about 25% of your dial. This is grandmas secret method. Very slow frying. Expect this to take an hour. 30 min on each side. Don't turn more than necessary. A certain amount of liquid will form, but leave the lid off long enough for it to steam off then resume with the lid on. This combination of frying/simmering in liquid is the key to truculently tender meat after about an hour.
Whilst this is going on, lay your parboiled chips out in an oven dish and drizzle a little olive oil over them. Shake and coat as best you can. Put into the oven at 200C (390F) Once its sizzling gently toss again and turn individual chips carefully to coat with the olive oil. Let them brown lightly, tossing as required.
AT THE SAME TIME!!! O' harassed cook, put your peas into a small saucepan with a lid and a teaspoon of REAL butter. Yup. our one exception to strictly healthy food. Baby peas without butter are just not worth eating in my opin! Again gentle heat until the butter melts and the peas steam cook for about 10 minutes.

Serve with ice cold coke in the bottle with a straw!

Peri Peri Parcels

Well on the weekend I tried a slight variation on two of my recipes. Peri Peri Chicken and sticky pork ribs.
This makes them super succulent. As usual, slow cooking is the key.
Ingredients are not critical, but try my peri peri chicken recipe.

On two different days I wrapped pork rashers in foil and chicken legs and thighs in foil. The herbs and spices were as always, fresh grated ginger, chopped chillis and chopped garlic. You will see a sprinkling of fresh chopped basil on the pork rashers. It was an interesting flavor, but I am going to try it with Cilantro next time.The pork rashers were covered and tightly sealed with foil. The peri peri chicken, I wrapped completely in foil. Cooking time was about one and a half to two hours at 180 C. Then 20 minutes unwrapped under the grill to brown.

“Chef Phineas Kuchicha’s boneless stuffed chicken thighs”

This is also called Ballotine of Chicken

I think this falls into the category of African Style Cuisine, because, firstly, the recipe was designed and created by a native African, Phineas Kuchicha who is our incredibly talented Executive Chef at the Game Lodge where we both work, and secondly, this forms part of our Boutique Lunch menu served for our Foreign visitors. It is boned from scratch and prepared by our amazing team of Chefs under Phineas' direction.

This is one of the most innovative methods of preparing chicken I have ever come across. Using legs and thighs instead of the more popular breasts is very much more flavorful and succulent. I really cant encourage you enough to give this a go. You will be amazed.

Ingredients

4x Boned chicken leg and thighs joined complete. (see below how to do this yourself if you don’t have a friendly butcher) Get the biggest you can, because you may waste a bit in the boning.

1 tsp salt
250ml double cream
400g cleaned mushrooms, roughly chopped
100g cleaned and shredded spinach
2 cloves of garlic, chopped

100g bread crumbs

100g chopped onions 

(Boning might waste a leg and thigh whilst you practice, but add it to your chicken stock pot along with the bones you remove. I tried this for the first time last week with a little success. Lay the leg and thigh on a board with the bend facing towards you. Slice from just below the knuckle along the leg bone, over the joint and down the thigh bone. Then snap off the bone with shears at the knuckle. Leave that bit of bone in. Use your fingers and the tip of a knife and push the meat away from the rest of the bone. You may have to cut a bit around the joint area. Don't worry if it doesn't look very neat. You can tidy it up after stuffing when you skewer it.

Method

 

Method

-Marinate the boned chicken in a little oil, chopped 2 cloves garlic, 2 teaspoons paprika, seasoning- salt and pepper, mixed herbs for at least 30min

-fry onions, garlic, mushrooms and spinach for 3min  

-add bread crumbs and cream

-simmer for 4 min till thick and cool for a few min.

-spread the de-boned chicken legs and spoon the stuffing (about a tablespoon) lengthwise 

-roll and secure with a string or thread some tooth picks through so they do not open up when cooking

-preheat oven at 180 degrees celcius (176 F)

-roast in the oven for 15-20min (depending on the size of the legs) till done but still juicy.

Slice across the leg/thigh  and serve as required

Casserole of Francolin,Partridge, Guineafowl or Doves

This recipe is a delicious tender casserole made of any game bird. All game birds are basically similar in their properties. The meat is generally fat free and can be rather tough. Therefore it is safe to follow the same basic cooking times for all. For older birds, increase the time and keep testing the meat.

Francolin are fairly easy to hunt with an air rifle and can be found best in the evenings. Four pm onwards is best.Walk slowly and stop repeatedly through an area where they occur. When they see you they will often run, but will stop. Crested Francolin often fly into a thick bush and hide amongst the branches where they can be dispatched easily. The beauty of air rifle hunting is there is absolutely no stress the the birds or game because there are no crashing shotguns to traumatize every creature for miles around.

You will need:

for 4 people:  2 francolins. OR a guineafowl OR 8 doves OR similar weight in other game birds.
You can leave the birds whole, but I generally chop them into 4 pieces. Two leg and thighs with part of the back and two breasts with a wing each. Then each guest can have a breast and a leg and thigh. Each portion has itsown unique flavors and texture. Heres how a chicken is quartered so you get the idea..

then get together the following:
3 sprigs fresh rosemary chopped roughly.
bunch of fresh basil chopped fine.
pinch of thyme. fresh is best always.
2 bay leaves. Makesure they are fresh. If they have no smell and have been in the cupboard for years then sling them. Keep dried bay leaves in the freezer for freshness.
dash of balsamic vinegar and quarter cup of good wine vinegar mixed.
black pepper.
small glass of red red wine.
7 or 8 segments of garlic sliced and inserted into cuts in the pieces. Fiddly but worth it!
Cup of cream
Piece of butter for browning the meat.
flour.
Large Chopped carrot
Large Onion chopped
One large leek and half the green choppedor 3 or 4 small ones.
Large Parsnip chopped.
half punnet of button mushrooms sliced.
2 cups of chicken stock. (Always try and keep the real thing in the freezer made by boiling leftover bones,skin, etc) Use cubes if you must but make sure it contains no msg. It is POISON!

Method:
Insert the garlic pieces and wet them in the vinegar and red wine.
Roll in flour and let set for 30 minutes. (reserve the vinegar/wine mix)
brown the pieces well in the butter.
Brown the onion and mushrooms well.

Lay the pieces in a casserole dish and place all other ingredients around. Put the chopped herbs on top of the pieces. Carefully pour the wine around and add the chicken stock.

Put the lid on and put it in a medium high oven for 3 hrs or more according to taste. (Some birds are tougher than others) Do not disturb the meat. You want to be able to carefully serve whole pieces when you plate your meals.
 Serve on Rice or a bed of couscous or mashed potato.

African bird Stew (relish to accompany papa/sadza or polenta)

See the hunting fishing and gathering page on the tabs lower down on the right hand side of this blog. You will see how to prepare your birds for cooking. However I know that in many countries pigeons, doves and other small birds are available commercially so why not give this a try. If you are African, living out of Africa, then take a trip back to your early roots, when your grandparent regularly ate food like this. Its good healthy and tasty!
For a good pot of bird stew relish you will need 4 to 6 doves depending on their variety or size. If you are fortunate to get red eye doves, green pigeons or rock doves, then 3 may be enough. If you have an enterprising lad who has collected you a number of assorted small birds then aim for about 750 grams of meat.

A large onion or two small
three quarter cup Sunflower oil. (yes I know its a lot, but it is the basis of the relish and carries the flavor.)
2 tomatoes or half a cup of chopped dried tomatoes. (by far the nicer choice if you have got) I have come across a few indigenous Africans over the years who have opened tomatoes and dried them on the roof of their huts. So using dried tomatoes would be authentic.
Chillis to taste. I use 2 for this amount of meat.
Its now very simple. Cut the birds into quarters. Then brown the birds 1 onion and garlic together slightly and then add the other ingredients. Cover with water and simmer for a long time. Many African women have the pot simmering on the side of the fire for half a day. On the stove top I cook for 4 or 5 hours. Wild birds can be very tough and you need to break down all the sinews thoroughly. In the last three quarter hour add the second onion roughly chopped. Pumpkin if available or cabbage is sometimes added now also.
Then take off the pot lid and reduce the liquid to very little water and mostly oil. That is your bird relish. It is normally fairly salty and eaten by dipping sausage shaped balls of papa/polenta with the fingers of the right hand into the juice and eating. A little piece of bird or vegetable is occasionally picked up with one of the fingers alongside the pap ball and eaten with the papa.
Invite some people over, take away all the cutlery and serve it on two dishes in the middle of the table. They will love it! It makes for a very social meal. I have done something similar for many overseas visitors and they absolutely love this brush with African style food. By the way, water in a bowl is brought before the meal for guests to wash hands, and also afterwards. A towel is supplied.

 Warning for Westerners who eat "traditional style" with Africans. DO wash your hands before eating. Do not use your left hand for eating. It may be used to hold a piece of meat or bone and transferred to the right hand to eat. If you re-dip your ball of polenta/papa into the gravy, turn it around so you dip the un-bitten end. This is a general guide which applies to most African tribes in the region, but I would love some of my African followers to add or correct me if you think of something. Wait for the senior man present to finish the last piece of meat, but DO NOT follow the western habit of leaving a piece. It insults the cook.  (Westerners like leaving the last biscuit or piece of cake. This is the most daft senseless European custom I have ever encountered!! I have had quite heated arguments with some guests who refuse to eat the last piece of food on a plate or dish!)

Guinea Fowl with Red Wine and garlic Sauce

Having shot your guinea fowl............or bought it from Woolworth s or wherever, you may wonder how to make  a successful meal out of it.
Oh, and by the way, having eaten many wild guinea fowl, there is no doubt that the farm raised guinea fowl are far more succulent than wild. Theyalso still have that unique "Guinea Fowly" flavour, but less marked. The meat is a bit lighter and generally the bird is fatter.

Wild guinea fowl have a much stronger gamey taste and can be sinewy and tough unless they are shot in their first year. An older bird is nice, but forget about doing much with it other than creating some sort of stew. That can be very nice too though.

For our dish we are going to joint the bird and simmer it in Red wine garlic and a few other things...
Ingredients for 4 people are:

A large bird or two small.
2 Red onions quartered.
Cup of red wine.
Quarter cup of Apricot or peach jam. (This by the way offsets the slightly bitter flavour found in a lot of African game and wild birds. I don't know about venison elsewhere.)
5 segments of garlic crushed in their shells.
4 whole star anise pods
2 clove pieces, or a good pinch of ground cloves.
Half a cup of dried tomato, roughly chopped.
Teaspoon Coarse ground black pepper.
1 or two fresh green chillies or to taste.
Zest and Juice of one lemon.
Flour.
2 medium carrots quartered lengthwise.

With a cleaver or heavy knife, cut the bird into 4 pieces. Two leg and thigh with a bit of back, and two breast halves and wing.

Thoroughly shake up the pieces in a mixture of the lemon juice, wine, lemon zest, garlic and chillies. Let it sit for an hour or so, and re-mix it from time to time.

Now roll the pieces in flour and shake off. This is my pet method of retaining flavour.  Put a good slosh of olive oil into a heavy bottom pan and brown the pieces slightly, turning them as few times as possible.

Put the browned pieces into a large pot along with the other ingredients and the remains of the lemon juice and wine and add a cup of water. Arrange the carrots and red onion quarters around the pieces. Put a lid on and simmer for an hour. The long cooking time is necessary to get the meat tender enough to come off the bone. DO NOT stir or interfere during the cooking. We want to end up with 4 pieces in a thickened sauce. You may need to add water or simmer a little longer to accomplish this.
This is fantastic served on basmati rice or with mashed potatoes.

Mozambique Styled Peri Peri Chicken

This has to be one of my signature dishes. It is an all time favorite in our family and happily my daughter shares my love for hot spicy food.

Chips has got to be the best accompaniment to peri peri chicken.
Ingredients: for one chicken.
Again as in much of our region, ingredients vary. Peri peri chicken pork or prawns is different in the south of Mozambique to the northern regions.
However there is always;
1)  fresh chillis for medium hot about 4 teaspoons heaped of chopped chillis. Use a mix of green, red, yellow if you can. Green have the best capsicum flavour without too much burn. De-seed the chillis if you want to reduce the burn by half. I like Jalapeno because they are nice and fleshy. As a general rule regarding varieties, the smaller the chilli the hotter. Therefore I find birdseye chillis far too hot without much pepper flavour. The nicest chillis to use are those patti pan shaped and sized ones.
2) 6 large segments of garlic chopped fine.
3) 2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger.

the other ingredients which vary, but I use, is grated zest of a lemon.
2 teaspoons of paprika
a half cup of fresh basil chopped fine.
quarter cup very dry white wine or use wine vinegar.
half cup olive oil
Method:

chop the spices fine and mix them. Add the olive oil and wine..
Chop the chicken into 4 pieces, ie. leg and thighs and breasts. Cut 3 or 4 deep diagonal slices in each piece.

photo the garden chef

Put the chicken into a bag with the marinade and gently roll it until the chicken is well coated. I then take the chicken out and stuff the slices in the pieces with the spice mixture.

Now slow grill for 40 to 45 minute. Keep basting it so it doesn't dry out.
This is great served with chips or rice and a basil and tomato salad.

garlic and thyme fried chicken

At the outset..this is NOT strictly African style, although the flavours are. This I cooked when the cupboard was bare this last weekend, and I tried really hard to make something nice out of very little.

Ingredients:
One chicken jointed.
3 large segments of garlic finely chopped.
teaspoon of chopped thyme. Fresh is best but I only had dried.
2 heap teaspoon paprika.
teaspoon black pepper.
2 eggs beaten.
Flour to coat or plain breadcrumbs.(I normally use plain breadcrumbs)

Method toss the chicken well in the egg mixture along with all the spices. This way the spices get to stick on the chicken pieces.  Then I put all the pieces into a bag of flour and gently roll it around to thouroughly coat them. Let the flour set for 30 minutes then begin frying the pieces a few at a time in medium hot oil until both sides are browned. They will NOT be properly cooked yet. I do this by putting the pieces into a medium oven for another 30 minutes. I also fried some butternut slices and also finished them in the oven at the same time. If it ends up looking like this (photo by Chris Chee) below you have probably got it right!

Perfect spatched chicken on the braai.

A very good Italian friend Vito, inspired me a lot in perfecting this method of cooking chicken. He was a natural braaimaster! It is all about low heat and turn, turn, turn. It must not burn. He consistently braaied perfect chicken. Tender, cooked right through and not burnt. It took a lot of hard work though! My way you dont have to turn turn.
Start off with a raw chicken. You can buy one ready spatched but thats for woosies! Put the chicken on a board on its breast. Sharp knife or better still kitchen scissors and a firm hand start the cut like this:

Then pull it apart and press it open. Use a sharp knife to cut down the centre, inside,  at the back of the breast.  Not right through-just to crack through the bone and cartilage. This is to help it flatten. Not many people know this, but I steal with my eyes and once watched a butcher doing it! You can also insert a skewer as you see in the pic below. This keeps it all nice and flat.
Then any mixture of FRESH herbs you like. Fresh basil, garlic, a little rosemary, all chopped fine and mixed with a little mayonnaise, yoghurt, olive oil or all 3 if you feel like it. Go mad. Experiment. It eont be bad I promise. I always put as many fresh chillies as I think I can get past my wife! Toss it all in a large bag and leave it in the fridge for as long as possible.

Then....GET THE HEAT RIGHT. Get your braai coals well burnt. Should be plenty of them so the heat lasts. Test it by holding your habd over the heat. You should be able to do about 2 to 3 seconds.

Place opened side down on the grill. Now for the secret to tender, succulent braaied chicken! Cover the chicken with silver foil! Roll the edges or crumple them to form a stiff edge so you can lift the foil off and on often for checking and basting.

If it is too hot, and its causing too much flare ups then simply take it all off the braai, have another glass of wine and wait 20 mins. Do not be impatient. Heat is everything. After cooking 20 minutes turn it over skin side down and cook for another 20 min. A total of 45 min should be good. If it looks like its burning then your fire is too hot. Its all about temperature.
Here it is.....