Last week was the Southern African cooking class. Southern African cooking has so many different influences it's often called a "rainbow cuisine." The class was great fun: we started off making some vegetarian samoosas (reflecting the Indian influences) and ate them while sipping the Cape's famous rooibos tea. After a short presentation, we returned to the kitchen to prepare the main meal (while listening, intermittently, because my cd player didn't cooperate, to: the Soweto Gospel Choir, Miriam Makeba, the Soweto String Quartet, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo). When we sat down to eat we feasted on 2 versions of samp and beans, a classic tomato (and lamb) bredie (stew), grilled periperi chicken (made with roasting chicken, marinated beforehand), chakalaka salad (wildly popular), a fabulous Malaysian shrimp curry (using jumbo wild caught shrimp--yum!), basmati rice, and several South African wines. The class voted to begin with a sauvignon blanc, followed by S. Africa's signature pinotage, and ended the meal with a rosé paired with a yummy custard dessert called a "melktert" (milk tart).
All my students get an A+!
Also, this week an online interview I did for bizymoms.com was posted if you'd like to check it out.
