Meat Dishes

The following are snippets from the drop down tab:

South Africa is a Land of Venison

Well that’s a “yes” and a “no.” Yes, there are a lot of creatures making venison in this country, with game reserves around every bend of the road. No, venison is not easily found at the butchers, or supermarkets, because of the culture of the country.

Because of the culture? Well, here’s an example. On the West Coast of South Africa there are an abundance of venison animals, from ostrich to eland and many in between, like springbok and kudu. So when we lived there, we decided to do a little detective work. Find some tasty venison, or if there was none to be had, find out why not.

And this is how the story unfolded. Backwards and forwards M and I drove in search of this elusive commodity. Eventually we found a Super Spar – right on the sea – who had venison. We could hardly believe our good fortune. There was ostrich, springbok and kudu. Naturally we bought a fair amount of all three, having been in the (venison) desert so to speak, for some time.

“If it Must Die for You… First Let it live Free Range”

Here’s a fantastic chicken casserole, simple honest food, tasty and nourishing. Because there are only a few ingredients, make sure they are top quality, fresh and locally grown. The translation of ‘umleqwa’, (running chicken or chicken slaughtered at home), suggests that the bird is free-range and organic. To eat it, you first have to catch it.

Traditionally, the chicken will have spent its life scratching around the edges of the *kraal; eating succulent insects, the tastiest greens, tender grass shoots and any grain provided.

The star of this show shouldn’t be a six-week old, cage-reared, antibiotic stuffed, genetically modified, flabby mutant. For taste, this casserole needs a happy chicken with flavorful meat and plenty of it, and not excessively fatty.