Roger's View of the World, Love and Seafood Gumbo!
Seize the Day! Put no trust in the morrow! — Horace
I first became acquainted with Michael Tracey’s recipes when my daughter Karen traveled to South Africa for an internship. Needless to say, Karen tortured me with the culinary offerings of some of the wonderful restaurants she discovered from ‘forty ate’ and ‘five flies’ to ‘Cafe Mao’s’ to an extraordinary sushi restaurant smack dab in the middle of an elegant Italian Restaurant on the waterfront!
I wouldn’t mind making some Bobotie soon!
There is no secret that certain parts of the world have food that I find intriguing, delicious and worth the effort. Sometimes old recipes find modern day adherents because the food is timeless and wonderful. In other posts I have talked about the ‘one pot’ cooking method that is duplicated around the world, although I am most familiar with recipes of European origin. In Europe, at one time, a pot continually was cooking and things were thrown in and periodically a portion was drawn out for a meal. I love the story of the famous French tavern that cleaned out their famous pot once a year to the loud objections of their regular patrons!
The early Dutch settlers of southern Africa brought with them in the 1600’s, a large three legged iron pot and a meal they called ‘Potjiekos’ pronounced pot·jie·kos [ póykee kàwss ]. In America our electric ‘crock pot’ does much the same sort of thing, although cooked in the outdoors near or around a fire with hot coals makes a big difference n the final result.
I wanted a Potjie recipe designed with wild game in mind, particularly Elk or Moose and I knew who exactly would be able to give me a start and that was Africhef Michael Tracy. I smiled when I saw one of the ingredients was ‘Rashers’, a term for a particular type of bacon that I haven’t seen since I was a kid…. but I found some and plan to use!
Another favorite of mine is Boerewors… or a nice Afrikaner sausage of beef and pork. I will make plenty of this for the holidays …when we all can sit back over a fire and pour down a cold ‘Castle’ …if I can find a case or two.