FISH AND SEAFOOD

In the past, our seas teemed with all kinds of fish and seafood. In coastal towns, from the shores of Namibia right round to Mozambique, inhabitants enjoyed the bounty of the sea. Until the 1960s, the people of Cape Town could buy fish directly from fishing boats, which landed at a sandy cove at the bottom of Adderley Street, and the tradition continued at Kalk Bay and Hout Bay on the Atlantic seaboard throughout most of the last century. Sadly, this is now a mere memory for most of us, although Kalk Bay still offers fresh fish for sale from the boats, and now and then you can still see hawkers selling fish from horse-drawn carts or hear the mournful cry of the fish horn, once so common. There is one other exception – KwaZulu-Natal, where the annual sardine run not only provides plenty of fun, but also a rich harvest of these tasty little fish.

BRAISED SNOEK (SMOORSNOEK)

Braising was one of the most popular cooking methods in the early days of settlement in the Cape, partly because of the utensils that were available and partly because it was the ideal way to combine the flavours of the ingredients. Smoorsnoek was, and still is, a popular dish among the Malay inhabitants of our country. Although using snoek is traditional, the Malays also use other fish and the dish is then called smoorvis (braised fish). The green pepper is a Western substitute for the fiery green chilli they generally use.

Braised Snoek and Snoek Curry, two appetising ways to serve this kind of fish.

• 30 ml sunflower oil
• 15 ml butter or margarine
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 large potatoes, thinly sliced
• 2 medium tomatoes, skinned and quartered
• 1 small green sweet pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 kg cooked fresh snoek or smoked snoek, boned and flaked
• 5 ml salt
• 2 ml milled pepper

1. Heat the oil and butter or margarine in a saucepan and sauté the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is transparent. Add the potatoes and sauté for about 5 minutes, or until starting to soften, stirring often. Add the tomatoes, green pepper and flaked snoek. Shake the saucepan to mix the ingredients well and simmer for 10–15 minutes, or until the fish is heated through. Add the salt and pepper and mix well. Serve with cooked rice and a green salad, garnish with sliced lemon.

Snoek in a barrel

Not so very long ago, it was the custom to ‘cure’ snoek in order to preserve it. The snoek was cut into pieces and placed in a brine solution to which saltpetre and lemon leaves were added, and then it was stored in a large wooden barrel. It was left to mature for approximately a week before using; each time the housewife needed a piece of fish, she removed it from the brine solution, rinsed it off and either baked it or used it in a bredie or stew. This method of preserving snoek probably comes from the Dutch way of preserving herring in brine. Meat was also preserved in this way.

Serves 6

SNOEK CURRY

Perhaps the best-known and most versatile Cape fish is the snoek. The Malays discovered long ago that serving it in a curry sauce was a dish fit for the gods.

• 1 kg unsalted snoek, sliced
• 5 ml salt
• 2 ml milled pepper
• juice of ¹⁄₂ lemon
• sunflower oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 15 ml curry powder
• 5 ml turmeric
• 10 ml cake flour
• 250 ml water
• 2 allspice berries
• 1 bay or lemon leaf
• 5 ml vinegar
• 20 ml sugar
• 15 ml smooth apricot jam

1. Season the snoek with salt and pepper, sprinkle with the lemon juice and set aside. Heat a little oil in a saucepan and sauté the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is transparent. Add the curry powder and the turmeric, and mix well. Sprinkle the flour over and stir it in. Add the water and bring to the boil, stirring. Reduce the heat to low and add the snoek, allspice and bay or lemon leaf. Simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Mix the vinegar, sugar and apricot jam, and add to the saucepan. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for another 15 minutes. Add more salt and pepper if necessary. Serve immediately with cooked rice or crushed wheat.
2. VARIATION Other firm-fleshed fish, like yellowtail, can be used instead of snoek.

Serves 6

BRAAIED WHOLE SNOEK

My childhood memories are peppered with recollections of family visits to the beach at Bloubergstrand. The most important part of this well-planned occasion was buying the fresh snoek from the hawkers’ carts along the way, and then braaiing the fish on the beach. Later memories are of freshly caught galjoen on the Namibian coast at Henties Bay – different location, same tradition.

• 1 whole fresh snoek, entrails removed
• 30 ml melted butter or margarine
• 15 ml salt
• 5 ml milled pepper
• 15 ml fresh lemon juice

1. Wash the snoek well and pat it dry. Brush with melted butter or margarine. Season, inside and out, with salt and pepper and sprinkle a little lemon juice in the cavity. Open the snoek out flat and place it, skin side down, on the braai grid (a hinged grid is best). Braai the snoek low over hot coals for 3 minuteson each side, then raise the grid to 30 cm above the coals and braai for a further 15 minutes on each side. Baste the snoek often with melted butter. Serve with Baked Sweet Potatoes (page 75), or wholewheat bread and Grape Jam (page 130).
2. VARIATIONS Other large fish can also be braaied in this way – yellowtail, for instance – or whole smaller fish like harders and elf (shad)

Serves 8–10

FISH IN BANANA LEAVES

1. On the tropical coast of KwaZulu-Natal, fish has been cooked in banana leaves for generations, in much the same way as fish is cooked in dampened newspaper. The fish is cleaned and gutted, seasoned inside and out, and brushed with melted butter, then wrapped well in clean banana leaves and places on a bed of embers. Some of the embers are piled on top of the parcel and it is left to cook slowly. Alternatively, the parcel can be steamed in a large fish kettle over the coals, making the dish a kind of potjiekos.

HARDERS OVER THE COALS

Harders (mullet) braaied over the coals are traditionally served with Baked Sweet Potatoes (page 75). These flavourful little fish have long formed part of the staple diet of fishermen along our coast. Cooked over the coals, fried, used in stews or dried to make Bokkems (below), they are a vital source of nutrition.

• 125 ml sunflower oil
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 6 fresh harders, cleaned and gutted
• salt and milled pepper

1. Heat the oil lightly in a small, cast-iron frying pan over the coals, add the garlic and sauté for about 5 minutes, or until the garlic is transparent. Remove the pan from the coals and set it aside for about 10 minutes to allow the flavours to mingle. Remove the garlic with a slotted spoon and discard it. Brush the harders with the oil, inside and out. Season the fish with salt and milled pepper, and braai over moderate coals for about 10 minutes on each side, or until cooked through. Serve immediately.

Serves 6

BOKKEMS

Bokkems are salted, dried harders, and were once a staple food along the West Coast, where they were eaten like Biltong (page 53) or soaked in fresh water to remove excess salt and then added to stews.

• harders
• coarse cooking salt

1. Gut the harders (it is not necessary to scale them) and wash them thoroughly. Salt the fish very well and layer them in a large container. Leave the container in a cool place overnight. Next day, remove the fish from the salt and thread a length of strong twine through the heads to form bunches of 10–20 fish. Hang the fish out in a windy place until dry – a few days – but bring them in overnight.
2. VARIATION Snoek can be salted and dried in the same way, but the fish must first be ‘vlekked’ – opened along the backbone without cutting it in two. To use, soak the snoek in water to remove most of the salt, then use in recipes like smoorsnoek (see Braised Snoek, page 24).

FISH BOBOTIE

This aromatic version of the traditional meat bobotie was once common fare in the coastal areas, as fish was cheap and freely available.

• 500 g cooked white fish
• 1 thick slice crustless white bread
• 300 ml milk
• 65 ml butter or margarine
• 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
• juice of 1 lemon
• 10 ml curry powder
• 30 ml seedless raisins
• 30 ml chopped blanched almonds
• 5 ml salt
• 1 ml milled pepper
• 2 large eggs
• 2 bay or lemon leaves

1. Remove the skin and bones from the fish, then flake it and place in a bowl. Soak the bread in the milk. Melt the butter or margarine and sauté the onion for 5 minutes, or until transparent. Add the lemon juice, curry powder, raisins, almonds, salt and pepper, and cook for 1 minute. Add the fish. Squeeze the milk from the bread and reserve it. Add the bread to the fish mixture and combine well. Beat the eggs, add the reserved milk and blend well. Pour the fish mixture into a greased ovenproof dish. Pour the egg mixture over the top with the bay or lemon leaves. Bake at 190 °C for 35 minutes, or until set. Serve with rice and bowls of desiccated coconut, Fruit Chutney (page 136) and sambals (see recipes on pages 76 and 77) of your choice.

Serves 6

PICKLED FISH (INGELEGDE VIS)

One of the best-known Cape dishes, pickled fish was perfected by the Malays who served it at funeral feasts. This fish curry is eaten cold. In the past, ingelegde vis was also packed in jars with a layer of fat on top to keep the air out, so enabling it to be stored for many months.

• 2 kg Cape salmon, kingklip, yellowtail or any other
• firm-fleshed white fish
• 4 large onions, sliced
• 750 ml vinegar
• 125 ml water
• 20 ml salt
• 125 ml sugar
• 40 ml curry powder
• 15 ml turmeric
• 2 ml cayenne pepper
• 1 piece root ginger, crushed 10 coriander seeds
• 5 lemon or bay leaves

1. Clean and fillet the fish and cut it into portions. Combine all the other ingredients in a deep saucepan and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the fish and simmer for a further 20 minutes, taking care not to break the fish. Remove with a slotted spoon and layer into a glass dish. Pour the curry sauce over. Leave to cool, then cover tightly and leave to mature in the refrigerator for at least 3 days before use, but preferably longer. Serve with brown bread and butter.

Serves 8–10

FISH POTJIE

Potjiekos – cooking food in a three-legged cast-iron pot suspended over the coals – has been a South African tradition since the days when travellers ventured into the unexplored interior of the country. Game was plentiful when the Voortrekkers and the transport riders travelled the country in their ox wagons, and venison was extensively used. Because of the current popularity of this cooking method, however, all kinds of food are now used to make potjiekos. Seafood makes a delectable potjie, but this combination of white fish and seafood is much more economical and just as tasty.

• 10 ml sunflower oil
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 medium green sweet pepper, seeded and sliced or 1 green chilli, seeded and chopped
• 2 tuna steaks, trimmed
• 500 g hake or kingklip, filleted and cut into portions
• 24–36 mussels, cleaned
• 5 ml salt
• 5 ml chopped fresh oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 5 ml lemon juice
• 30 ml tomato paste
• 125 ml beer or dry white wine

1. Heat the oil in a cast-iron pot and sauté the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is transparent. Add the green pepper or chilli, tuna, hake or kingklip and mussels, then stir in the remaining ingredients. Simmer over the coals for 30–45 minutes, or until the fish is tender. Serve immediately with Pot Bread (page 109) or cooked brown rice.

Serves 6

BRAISED PERLEMOEN

Perlemoen or abalone is considered a great delicacy, but these days, even farmed perlemoen can be hard to come by. The shells are a familiar sight in many a South African home, where they serve as ashtrays or mementoes of a seaside holiday.

• 6–8 perlemoen
• 30 ml butter or margarine
• 125 ml dry white wine
• 50 ml dried breadcrumbs
• 1 ml freshly grated nutmeg
• salt and milled pepper

1. Remove the perlemoen from their shells with a sharp, strong knife. Trim the flesh, then scrub the flat dark side vigorously with a hard brush or pot scourer. Cut into steaks and beat well with a mallet. (It is important to clean and pound them really well, or they will be tough when cooked.) Simmer the steaks in a little water in a saucepan, covered, for 45 minutes, or until tender when tested with a skewer. (They can also be steamed with a little water in a pressure cooker for 30 minutes.) Dice or mince and sauté in the butter or margarine in a saucepan until browned. Add the wine, breadcrumbs and nutmeg, and season well. Simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Serve on rice, with lemon wedges.

Serves 6–8

CURRIED ALIKREUKEL FRIKKADELS

Alikreukel (periwinkles) are seldom available commercially, but are still found along our rocky coastline. This recipe perfectly illustrates the marriage between Dutch and Eastern culinary traditions: frikkadels by the Dutch settlers and spicy curry sauces by the Indians and Malays.

• 24 alikreukel
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 10 ml curry powder
• 2 slices crustless white bread
• soaked in 50 ml milk
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 30 ml finely chopped fresh parsely
• 5 ml salt
• 5 ml lemon juice
• cake flour
• sunflower oil

1. Place the alikreukel in a saucepan, cover with cold water and boil in the shell for about 20 minutes. Remove the flesh from the shell with a long pin. Cut off the flat disk from one end and the intestines from the other. Wash the arikeukel very well under cold running water to remove all the sand, then mince the flesh. Mix the minced alikreukel with all the other ingredients, except the flour and oil, and shape into small frikkadels. Dust with a little flour. Fry the frikkadels in heated oil for about 5 minutes on either side, or until lightly browned and cooked through. Drain the frikkadels on absorbent paper and serve hot with stir-fried vegetables or cooked rice.

Serves 6

PRAWNS PERI-PERI

This recipe was brought to South Africa by Portuguese settlers – mostly from Mozambique and Angola – and has become a favourite among South Africans. It is a quicker version of the original, in which the prawns were marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, bay leaves, peri-peri powder and ground cloves before cooking.

• 50 ml butter
• 36–42 prawns, heads and veins removed

PERI-PERI SAUCE

• 200 g butter
• 2 ml Tabasco® sauce

1. Melt the butter in a large frying pan and stir-fry the prawns for 5 minutes, or until they turn pink. To make the sauce, combine the 200 g butter with the Tabasco® and heat until the butter melts. Serve the prawns on a bed of cooked rice, topped with peri-peri sauce.
2. NOTE The Portuguese make a piquant peri-peri sauce, which is used sparingly for seasoning, by half filling a small bottle with olive oil and immersing the scraped-off upper part of small red chillies in it. The oil is allowed to mature for a few months before using. A little of this can be used instead of Tabasco® sauce in the recipe above.

Serves 6

CURRIED CRAYFISH

Crayfish (rock lobster) is no longer as plentiful as in the days when it was a regular item on the menu of fisherman all around our coast. They enjoyed it simply boiled, and purists still say that this is the best way to savour the sweetness of its delicate flesh. This traditional Malay recipe for curried crayfish, however, is an aromatic blend of flavours that will have even the purists salivating.

The Malays traditionally served crayfish curried.

• 4 cooked crayfish
• 75 ml butter or margarine
• 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 small clove garlic, crushed
• 15 ml curry powder
• 15 ml cake flour
• 2 medium ripe tomatoes, seeded and skinned
• 1 medium tart green apple, cored and grated
• 15 ml smooth apricot jam
• 250 ml Fish Stock (page 10)
• 50 ml dry white wine
• 2 ml lemon juice

1. Carefully remove all the crayfish flesh from the shells and chop it coarsely. Set the flesh aside and reserve the tail shells. Melt the butter or margarine in a large saucepan and sauté the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes, or until transparent. Add the curry powder, stirring well. Remove the saucepan from the stove, add the flour and stir it in well to make a smooth paste. Return the saucepan to the stove. Add the tomatoes, apple, jam, stock, wine and lemon juice, and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Stir in the reserved crayfish flesh and heat the mixture through. Spoon the hot crayfish mixture into the tail shells and serve the curry with cooked rice and fresh pineapple, banana and pawpaw as side dishes.

Serves 4

STEAMED BLACK MUSSELS

Steamed Black Mussels, a favourite treat of holiday-makers along our coastline.

• 12 mussels per person

1. Soak the mussels in cold water for 1¹⁄₂ hours, discarding those that float on the surface or that open. Using a small knife, scrape off the beards, then scrub the mussels under cold running water to remove all the sand and grit. Place the mussels in a wire basket suspended over boiling water in a saucepan, taking care not to let the water touch the mussels. Steam, covered, for about 10 minutes, or until the shells open. Discard any mussels that haven’t opened. Serve immediately with garlic butter sauce or lemon butter sauce (see Note).
2. NOTE To make garlic (or lemon) butter sauce, melt 100 g butter over low heat, add 2 crushed cloves of garlic (or 5 ml lemon juice) and 2 ml salt, and shake or stir well. Serve immediately.

Dried fish

The south-western coast of the Cape is the world of salted and dried fish. If you drive along the coastal road from Cape Town towards Lamberts Bay, you will see gevlekte (butterflied) whole snoek and bokkems hanging out to dry on stands erected alongside sun-washed, windswept bays.

OYSTERS ON THE SHELL

1. Oysters occur naturally along the south and east coast of the Cape, but there is also a cultivated oyster industry in Knysna. The best way to enjoy oysters, say most lovers of this seafood delicacy, is to eat them untainted by any stewing, mincing, frying or other frills. Serve the oysters on the half shell, well chilled, nestling on a bed of crushed ice, with lemon juice or Tabasco® sauce, if desired.

KEDGEREE

The kedgeree served at 18th and 19th century tables in the Cape was vastly different from the present-day one made with steamed haddock, even though they have the same origins. The dish probably came from Batavia, brought here by the Dutch. British colonials from India brought another version with them, which is probably the basis of the modern dish.

• 250 ml uncooked rice
• 375 ml cooked, boned and chopped
• fish or crayfish
• 2 small hard-boiled eggs, chopped
• butter or margarine
• 1 small onion, cut into rings
• 1 small red chilli, seeded and chopped
• salt and milled pepper
• freshly grated nutmeg
• 10 ml butter

1. Boil the rice in salted water for 20 minutes, or until tender. Drain and steam it over simmering water while preparing the fish or crayfish. Mix the fish or crayfish with the eggs and set aside. Heat a little butter or margarine in a frying pan and sauté the onion and chilli for 5 minutes. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste, and stir to mix. Add 10 ml butter and, when melted, add the rice and the fish or crayfish mixture and stir. Simmer for 15 minutes, or until well combined and heated through, shaking the pan from time to time to prevent sticking and burning.

Serves 4–6

SMOKED SNOEK

The old-fashioned home method of smoking any kind of fish took place in a specially constructed smokehouse or, more informally, over untreated wood shavings in a large drum. The modern method, which is actually smoke roasting, is less time-consuming but the results are every bit as delicious.

• 1.5 kg snoek portions
• salt
• untreated oak wood shavings

1. Season the fleshy side of the snoek portions very well with salt, then chill for 1 hour, or until firm. Sprinkle the wood shavings in the base of a heavy-based saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. Place the fish in a metal container (an aluminium foil dish is easiest) and stand it on a trivet or pot stand in the saucepan. Close the saucepan tightly with the lid and smoke the snoek for approximately 15 minutes on high, then about 10–20 minutes on low, depending on the size and thickness of the fish.
2. VARIATIONS Whole trout, salmon trout or angelfish portions can also be smoked in this way.

Serves 4–6

FISH CAKES

This is another traditional way to use up leftover cooked fish. Serve with a spicy tomato or curry sauce for a delicious family meal.

• 750 g cooked white fish, boned
• 1 large onion, chopped and parboiled
• 30 ml chopped fresh parsley or 1 small green chilli, seeded and finely chopped
• 1 slice crustless white bread, soaked in a little milk
• 1 large egg, beaten
• salt and milled pepper
• cake flour

1. Mince the fish, onion, parsley or chilli and soaked bread together. Add the egg, salt and pepper to taste and shape the mixture into patties about 2 cm thick. Dust with cake flour. Heat some sunflower oil in a large frying pan and fry the fish cakes for approximately 5 minutes on either side, or until they are browned. Drain them on absorbent paper and serve with lemon wedges or a spicy sauce and cooked rice.

Serves 4