The recipe for this delectable 'frikkadel' (rissole) dish comes from Nellie Samsodien. Dress it up with a trendy salad and fiery dipping sauce.

Frikkadels

3 large or 4 medium crayfish tails
1 medium onion, chopped
2 potatoes, peeled
2 eggs, beaten
4 T (60 ml) fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 t (5 ml) Ina Paarman's Seasoned Sea Salt
½ t (2,5 ml) Ina Paarman's Lemon and Black Pepper Seasoning
½ t (2,5 ml) grated nutmeg
2 slices bread, soaked in water
Oil for pan-frying

Remove the shell, discard the alimentary canal and cut the crayfish tails in half. Chop the crayfish and onion together in a food processor and transfer to a mixing bowl. Grate the potatoes on the coarse side of the grater. Add potato, beaten egg, parsley and seasonings to the crayfish mixture. Mix well. Squeeze the water from the bread, crumble the bread and add to the crayfish mixture. Panfry small tablespoons of the mixture in hot oil until golden brown.

Fiery Dipping Sauce

1-2 red chillies, sliced
6 cloves garlic
2 slices white bread
1 T (15 ml) Ina Paarman's Sun-dried Tomato Pesto
½ cup (125 ml) olive oil

Process all the ingredients together until smooth, best to add the olive oil last in a fine stream. Excellent served on the side with the crayfish frikkadels or stirred into fish soup, a potjie, or calamari stew.

Salad

1-2 super fresh butter lettuce
1 punnet fresh rocket leaves (or watercress)
1 x 50 ml Ina Paarman's Balsamic Vinaigrette

Line individual plates with lettuce and rocket. Add 3 crayfish frikkadels and a healthy dollop of fiery dipping sauce. Dress leaves with Balsamic Vinaigrette.

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'Veldkool', or wild asparagus (Tracheandra sp.), grows in the veld on the West Coast. But asparagus is now at its best and works really well in this recipe! We precooked the meat first to avoid overcooking the vegetables.

400 g asparagus tips
600 g green beans, sliced
2 T (30 ml) olive oil
2 large onions, sliced
Oil for pan-frying
1 kg lamb shank
4 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
Juice of half a lemon
1 T (15 ml) Ina Paarman's Chicken Stock Powder mixed with
½ cup (125 ml) boiling water
Ina Paarman's Seasoned Sea Salt and Garlic Pepper Seasoning to taste

Steam the asparagus and beans briefly and dress with a little olive oil. Keep on one side. Meanwhile, fry the onions in oil until browned, then add the meat and braise until golden brown and soft, about 2½ hours, add a little chicken stock or water from time to time. I prefer to bake it in a heavy cast iron pot, with a lid, in the oven at 160ºC. Add the potatoes and bake for a further 15 minutes. Add the green vegetables, lemon juice, stock and seasonings, and stew on top of the stove until the potatoes are very soft. Serve with rice.

Tip
If using veldkool, use 1 kg and remove the stalks - the edible part that looks like asparagus - and steep them in a strong salt and water solution for 10 minutes to remove any insects. Rinse well. Place a heavy object on top to squeeze out all the water and precook for 5 minutes. Toss with olive oil.

Variation
Use water blommetjies and pre-treat like the veldkool.

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500 g long grain rice
5 T (75 ml) olive oil
Grated rind and juice of 2 lemons
1 T (15 ml) Ina Paarman's Vegetable Stock Powder
1 cup chopped fresh herbs e.g. a mixture of parsley and chives

Boil the rice in salted water for 15 minutes. Drain. Toss with olive oil, lemon rind and juice, dry stock powder and chopped parsley. Taste for seasoning.

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½ large or 1 small pumpkin, peeled and thinly sliced
Ina Paarman's Seasoned Sea Salt to taste
10 slices white bread (depending on the size of the pumpkin)
½ cup (125 ml) butter
1 cup (250 ml) apricot jam
1 roll of stick cinnamon, broken into small pieces
Dried orange rind or the grated rind of 1 fresh orange
½ cup (125 ml) orange juice or water (depending on how dry the pumpkin is)

Season the pumpkin lightly with salt. Spread the bread on both sides with butter and jam. Reserve extra butter and jam for dotting on top. Grease the base of a saucepan with butter. Layer the ingredients in the saucepan, starting with the bread layer, followed by a layer of pumpkin, then the sugar, cinnamon sticks and orange rind. Repeat the layers, ending with a pumpkin layer, and dot with butter and jam. Cover with the lid. Cook over low heat until tender, or use an ovenproof glass dish and bake for 1 hour at 180ºC. Add some water or orange juice if the pumpkin becomes too dry. Serve hot.

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Oranges are still lovely at this time and in this delicious baked pudding the flavours are particularly good!

 
 
Syrup

2cups (500 ml) freshly squeezed orange juice
½ cup (125 ml) water
1 cup (250 ml) sugar
2 T (30 ml) grated orange rind

Batter

½ cup (125 ml) milk
1 T (15 ml) grated orange rind
1 egg
1 cup (250 ml) cake flour
A pinch of salt
1½ t (12,5 ml) baking powder
4 T (60 ml) butter
½ cup (125 ml) sugar
2-3 oranges, cut into segments (to garnish)

Heat the syrup ingredients in a heavy-based saucepan. Stir until the sugar has dissolved, then heat to boiling point. To make the batter, beat the milk, orange rind and egg together. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together into a mixing bowl, rub in the butter and add the sugar. Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and mix well. Drop spoonfuls of batter into the boiling syrup. Cover the saucepan with the lid, reduce the heat and boil for a further 15 minutes. Do not lift the lid before the cooking time has elapsed. Serve with Greek yoghurt and the fresh orange segments.

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