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Across South Africa, as the cooler seasons approach, temperatures are dropping and appetite are increasing for nostalgic, warm comfort foods. For everyone, the Easter long weekend is an opportunity to relax, spend time with friends and family and enjoy a hearty meal of soul food.
Hot cross buns, pickled fish and chocolate dishes are some of the most popular dishes to enjoy this time of year, but it’s always exciting to get creative and add a little spin to our traditional favs.
Here are some locally inspired Easter weekend dishes to try - with a twist.
This traditional Cape Malay dish, flavoured with allspice, whole cumin, bay leaves, vinegar and garlic is a South African favourite. The recipe was first introduced as a means of preserving fresh fish in a vinegar and sugar mixture and in true South African style, various punchy flavours and spices were added. The result is a sweet, sour, and spicy tasting savoury flavour that can be eaten either hot or cold. Serve it with warm freshly baked bread and butter, on a spicy hot cross bun or as a side dish with some potato or green salad.
Milk tart is another local favourite. To give your traditional milk tart recipe an Easter twist, consider making it a speckled eggs milk tart. Do this by swapping out the milk tart crust recipe with an oat cookie recipe and adding smashed speckled eggs to your dough. Blind bake the dough before adding the milk tart filling and baking as normal, following any traditional milk tart recipe. Sprinkle the top of the tart with freshly grated cinnamon and decorate with speckled eggs. Serve at room temperature.
If you’re decorating eggs with the kids for Easter, this is the perfect recipe for using all of those leftover eggs. Frittata is made by whisking eggs, fresh cream, salt and pepper together and filling with sauteed vegetables such as spring onions, asparagus, mushrooms, garlic, parsley and grated parmesan or mature cheddar before baking in the oven until set. Add a local twist to the dish by dropping morsels of delicious smoked snoek in the mixture and serve with warm toast smothered in butter and drops of marmite. It’s low-maintenance, full of protein and vegetables and makes a great, lazy-weekend dish to take out the fridge and enjoy hot or cold for the duration of the long weekend.
Many people believe that these moreish, lightly spiced, fluffy buns should be sold the entire year round. Ahead of this year’s Easter, local retailers have gone all out with different variations of hot-cross buns. Some of the more interesting variations include extra spicy, chocolate, choc-chip and sultana hot cross buns. For this year’s Easter lunch Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront will be serving a hot cross bun variation of South Africa’s classic malva pudding. While you will have to go there to enjoy the dish, here is an Easter take on a classic local favourite.
By Chef Norman Heath, Head Chef Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront
Method:
Cut hot cross buns into halves and place on a wooden board covered with a dishcloth. Use a rolling pin over the dishcloth to flatten the hot cross bun halves and set aside.
Mix 500ml of cream with 80g of icing sugar and vanilla extract and whip until hard peaks form. Mix the remaining 500ml of cream with 1 ½ tins of caramel and half of the grated peppermint crisp chocolate.
Layer the dish with hot cross buns, caramel mixture and then fresh cream and repeat until the dish is full. Garnish with dollops of leftover cream and the remaining chocolate.
Refrigerate for at least 5 hours before serving.
The tart can be stored in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Happy baking!
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