Cape Winelands Cuisine – a cook book by La Motte!
The cook book was first published in 2011 and shares a host of traditional curry recipes – from curried fish to chicken, lamb and seafood, as well as sambals to serve on the side. Of course the book also includes a recipe for the very traditional bobotie and even a version containing mussel meat!
Cape Curries are known for their perfume rather than hotness – especially when compared to Durban curries that use more pepper and chilli spice. Cape Curries are milder and have a typical yellow colour, as they always contain turmeric.
La Motte has chosen three of these traditional curry blends, which are now available from the La Motte Farm Shop for only R40. With these traditional ingredients and the Winelands cook book at hand, it’s very easy to prepare a traditional Cape Curry in your own home. One of those dishes that is included in the Winelands cook book has been added below.
La Motte’s Cape Winelands Cuisine Cookbook
Recipe for Chicken Curry
Serves 4- 6
Some of the documented variations of this sixteenth-century curry recipe contained raisins or dry figs, and fresh-water fish such as carp or eel were often used instead of chicken. For this recipe, typical South African ingredients – dried apricots and raisins – are used. Although coconut cream was not used in the original, it is included in our contemporary recipe – the popular way in which chicken curry is served in the Cape Winelands today.
Ingredients
• 3 Tbsp (45 ml) butter
• 1 whole chicken, deboned and cut into portions
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 sour apples, cored and chopped
• 1 cup (250 ml) dried apricots, soaked in water and sliced
• ½ cup (125 ml) seedless raisins
• 1 Tbsp (15 ml) sugar
• 1 Tbsp (15ml) salt
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp (5 ml) tamarind paste dissolved in 1 cup (250 ml) water
• 3 Tbsp (45 ml) curry mix 2
• 3 Tbsp (45 ml) white wine vinegar
• ½ cup (125 ml) coconut cream
• 1 Tbsp (15 ml) chopped fresh sage or fresh coriander leaves
Method
1. Heat a stovetop casserole dish or large saucepan. Brown the butter and add the chicken pieces. Cook on all sides until golden brown. Remove from the pan and set aside.
2. Add the onion to the saucepan and cook for 5 minutes. Add the apples, apricots, raisins and sugar and allow to caramelise.
3. Add the salt, garlic, tamarind water, curry mix ad vinegar and dissolve in the caramel.
4. Add the chicken pieces and cover with the lid. Cook over low heat for 1 hour. (If the sauce reduces while cooking the chicken, ad some chicken stock or water to top up.)
5. Remove the lid, add the coconut cream and sage or coriander and increase the heat to reduce the sauce the desired consistency.
6. Serve with Cape fruit chutney and rice and a glass of 2014 La Motte Chardonnay.
