A congenial food affair for family and friends

We had family and friends old and new around for a Triple O birthday bash last weekend in Durbanville. Daughter and son-in-law both 40. Me — well, Rebecca was born when I was 30. And me saying, “Let’s go slowly for the next 10.” And all that has still been on my mind as this long weekend approached.

There was brisket, a primal cut of beef that needs slow cooking, and it got that in the smoker that the family has inherited by moving into a new home in Durbanville. I cooked whole chickens in the smoker too, basted with peri-peri sauce I’d made over two days. I’d roasted whole, ripe tomatoes, red peppers, a head of garlic and red onions first, then cooked them down in a pot with white wine and lime juice. Lots of lime juice.

Keen peri-periasts will have spotted that there’s no lemon, only lime. This is because there’s a lime tree in the garden abundant with fruit. Ten or so fall every day; there are bowls of limes all over the house. So: it was lime-laden peri-peri.

It was a time of meaningful connection with friends I had not seen in years, and family close and others slightly removed. And special new friends too; it’s never too late to make a new friend. This I’ve discovered as the big 70 crept up. It was good, it was real, it was a day of life well worth living.

There was an urgency to all the love that swam around that house last weekend; a need for hugs and kindness. Three days earlier, one of our closest friends, Sandra Antrobus, had died while I was on a sea cruise feeling so far away. We’ve had many dinners at Sandra’s big old table. Dined in her lovely old hotel countless times. Dinner parties in our home, braais out back, and that time I performed sabrage on a magnum of champagne, using a heavy kitchen knife (I don’t own a sword). And every one whooped and cheered, and the look of delight on Sandra’s face — I see her now.

Even as I drove into Cradock two days later, I surveyed the town and tried to understand how Sandra could not be somewhere, anywhere in it. The heart of the town, gone. Surely, I always whisper to myself, surely there’s something else.

So I decided that, even though we celebrated my 70th birthday along with my daughter’s and son-in-law’s 40ths last Saturday in Durbanville, I would plan a dinner party for Cradock friends this Sunday night, my actual birthday. (Yes, I share a birthday with Hitler, we don’t get to choose that. Just one more day and it would have been QE2. 🙈)

That’s what dinner tables are for. Locking eyes and minds and finding meaning in it all. We can break the chains of the mayhem and worry out there — by sitting down, sharing food and talking about things that matter, what we like about each other, how we’re doing, and clink glasses and smile into each other’s eyes. We have each other, we’re here.

Good company deserves good food, and Easter is the perfect time to set the dinner table and plan what we’re going to serve our family and friends. With this in mind, I’ve collated (no, not curated, a lovely word now horrendously misused) … I’ve collated, assembled, put together a menu that you can pick and choose from if you’re planning a warm and happy gathering this weekend.

One of my best recipes (according to entirely my own taste) is my parmesan gem squash, which more and more people are telling me they have tried and liked. Most recently, a gentleman (he can only be a gentleman given the generosity of his compliment) wrote to say he had ordered parmesan gem squash at Kleinjan restaurant recently and that mine was much better. Gosh. This obviously does not mean Jan Hendrik’s recipe was not great, so I’ll kind of bask in that for a while. In the meantime, here’s my recipe for doing it in the air fryer. (Sorry, Jan, but let me have this one. 😇 )

Three things about it: use lots of butter, and if in any doubt, use more. Use lots of finely grated parmesan, and if in any doubt? That’s it, use more.

Third: that final glaze in the air fryer, once the parmesan is piled on top, with a knob of, yes, more butter, is what caramelises it and finishes it off with aplomb. 

I used to serve it as a side dish with a roast, but now I use it as a starter in its own right.

Finally, don’t be tempted to add this or that to it — all it needs is the flesh of the squash, butter, parmesan, salt and pepper. A gentle amount of garlic works in it, but for pure gem squash delight, leave it out. I’ll be making them on Sunday evening.

Spanspek is still in season (but not for much longer) and my other signature starter, chilled spanspek soup, is a lovely choice to precede a heavy main course. It’s light and delicious, and is a talking point too.

Spanspek soup? I get that response all the time with a raised eyebrow, usually followed by, “I’ve never heard of that.” This is because, like parmesan gem squash, it is my original recipe and I’ve never found it anywhere else.

I have several variations on it. Here’s the version that is finished with very finely chopped fresh coriander leaves. If you have that weird gene that makes coriander leaves taste like soap (and my heart goes out to you), just leave the coriander out.

For main courses, let’s start with two recipes I published this week: garlic-butter roast chicken with a wine deglaze and salt and pepper leg of Karoo lamb. For luck, there’s also my traditional British leg of lamb with mint sauce, and shoulder of lamb with mint butter. Both can be found in this link.

Both are quite simple, intentionally, and focus on the core ingredient, without too much enhancement.

Chicken is the perfect vehicle for garlic and butter, and this recipe makes for a fine roast packed with flavour. 

I have written about feasting more generically for anyone who might want to enjoy a dinner party with friends and family this weekend, devout or not, Christian or not, Jewish or not (Passover is in progress), but some meats are traditional to both Christianity and Judaism, especially lamb. 

For Passover, obviously there is no pork, but beef such as brisket and whole roasted chickens are eaten. This year, Passover runs from 12 April to 20, this Sunday, and while lamb is eaten during Passover, it is not generally consumed on the last day. Matzah is a required food on this day too.

Lamb is a traditional meat for roasting at Easter in Christian culture. Butter lamb sculptures — literally butter sculpted as a lamb — are displayed on Easter feasting tables in Russia, Slovenia and Poland, and in parts of New York state, where there’s even a tradition of “pardoning” a butter lamb, a spoof of the thanksgiving pardoning tradition. These insights thanks to Wikipedia.

In South Africa we can roast a leg of Karoo lamb to connect with this faraway culture. The joy is that if it has been raised on the wild herbs that flourish in the Karoo veld, the meat is already flavoured, so all Karoo lamb needs is salt and pepper to spike their its charms. And butter, if you like.

While pork is not eaten on Good Friday in devout Christian circles, it is popular for an Easter Sunday feast. A leg of pork, roasted slowly with time for that skin to turn into crunchy crackling, or perhaps a slab of pork belly, which you can even roast in your air fryer, are worth considering for a long weekend feast.

If pork is one of your favourite meats and is suitable for all your guests, consider this recipe for pork shanks with cabbage, apple and soy. 

It is packed with flavour and undeniably rich, but is offset a little by the buttered cabbage. Okay only a little. I’d recommend a potato dish alongside, such as this very desirable potato and leek bake. 

For a dessert to please and impress the people you love, let’s stay with a Karoo theme and make this bread and butter pudding with a touch of the Karoo, which I turned into something special with the use of slices of preserved green figs.

It’s become one of my favourite pudding recipes and even though it is an old-fashioned bread and butter pudding, the figs elevate it remarkably.

Alternatively, but staying with preserved green figs, consider my recipe for a Tipsy Tart made with added green figs. It just works, especially if you love these fruity treats as much as I do. It’s a real spoil and you’re likely to get warm approval.

Or, if you end up with an unexpectedly warm day, make one of my Karoo ice creams. Thus one has great colour, and all of my ice creams are based on the classic French custard base that Auguste Escoffier perfected.

Red prickly pear syrup is available at most farm stalls, so maybe you’d like to take a trip to the country or find a local one in your town or city that stocks such things.

My red prickly pear ice cream recipe makes about a litre so double or triple up if you’re serving a large group.

Have a wonderful weekend. I’ll be celebrating my birthday again… it’s my birthday year. Happy days to you all. DM