Ina’s Take on Your Favourite Traditional Recipes
No matter where you are in the world, you can enjoy food from around the globe – Indian, Italian, Asian, Greek, Mexican and so many more.
While we are spoiled for choice and revel in an abundance of exciting and often exotic flavours, let’s not forget our own delicious homegrown cultures, ingredients and dishes.
Influenced by Malay, Indian, and European cuisine since the 17th century, we are at home with curries and stews, and sweet treats like malva pudding and koeksisters. There’s no replacing the comfort foods of our childhood but this doesn’t mean we can’t play with tradition a bit and reimagine our favourite components in new and exciting ways.
Ina Paarman has decades of cooking experience under her apron, and she’ll be the first one to guide you on your kitchen quest if timeless classics are on your menu. However, she’s also at the forefront of taking familiar tastes and giving them a whole new image–all with her signature ease and convenience.
‘Snoek & patat’ with a twist
Snoek, for example. It’s ubiquitous on a braai, slathered with apricot jam, butter, garlic and chilli. Snoek pâté heaped on crackers or toast, or snoek flaked in a dip with sour cream, are great party foods or anytime snack. In Ina’s hands, it teams up with sweet potatoes in a sweet-savoury salad, a combination made in heaven.
Like so many of Ina’s recipes, this one is quick and easy. The sweet potatoes are cubed, tossed in Ina Paarman’s Creamy Honey Mustard dressing and baked in the oven, and once cooled they join the other ingredients on a serving platter: lettuce leaves, and a pack of snoek skinned, deboned and flaked.
Garnish with chopped spring onions, add a generous glug of more dressing and it’s done. Could it be any simpler?
Biltong all along
Staying with the salad theme and something that couldn't be more South African if it tried: biltong. It’s not only for watching rugby with, folks!
Thinly sliced, it marries beautifully with blue cheese and gorgeous ripe figs on a bed of rocket, and ramped up with Ina Paarman’s Creamy Blue Cheese dressing.
Luscious purple figs have a short late summer season, so if they’re not available, you can replace them with preserved green figs, or dried figs soaked in port-style wine.
Blue cheese can be a bit divisive and if that’s the case, swop out for feta and Ina’s Creamy Herb dressing.
"Luscious purple figs have a short late summer season so if they’re not available, you can replace them with preserved green figs, or dried figs soaked in port-style wine."
Satisfy with chicken pie
Old-fashioned chicken pie with pastry lattice is one of our traditional South African gems, says Ina. She includes a recipe for her famous sour cream pastry (which needs to be made the day before), but is quick to point out that shop-bought all-butter puff pastry is an excellent substitute for busy cooks.
It can be rolled out and draped over the top of the pie, but Ina’s insider tip is to cut the pastry into strips for a lattice as it’s a bit less stodgy.
This pie recipe is packed with chicken, obviously, ham and hard-boiled eggs, and lots of bits and pieces that come together for a flavour-packed family meal.
Pack an umami punch
Everyone needs an arsenal of secret weapons in their kitchen, especially those that pack an umami punch. Anchovies, for example. Don’t be put off by their intense saltiness (unless you’re into that kind of thing…); once those little fish have been added to a sauce or marinade, they dissolve away leaving only their magic behind.
Ina uses them for her roast leg of lamb, mashing them with their own oil, garlic and rosemary and first larding the mixture into the meat, and then rubbing the rest on the outside.
Lamb just loves this flavour combination, and so will you when you take that roast out the oven when everything has melded together.
The endlessly adaptable bobotie
No, no, we haven’t forgotten vegetarians. You could say we have saved the best for last because Ina’s own family actually prefers her macadamia nut bobotie to the usual meat version.
The first recipe for bobotie appeared in a Dutch cookbook in 1609. Afterwards, it was brought to South Africa and adopted by the Cape Malay community, who added curry powder. It is often served with yellow rice, which may nod to its Indonesian roots.
Endlessly adaptable, at its most basic, bobotie is spiced mince topped with an egg custard. Ina replaces the mince with macadamia nuts because besides their unique flavour they are affordable, and we always appreciate that. Then she adds things like onions, carrots, apple, ginger, her Masala Spice, Green Onion seasoning, and bread soaked in Tikka Masala Curry Cook-In sauce to create a symphony for the palate.
READY TO GET COOKING?
View Ina Paarman's recipes, or page through her cook book, My Favourite Recipes, where you’ll find all these and more deliciously delightful cooking adventures.
