A crossroads cuisine - Dutch, British, Cape Malay (Indonesian-Indian), Portuguese and indigenous African strands all on one table. Bobotie (curried mince under savoury egg custard), bunny chow (a hollowed-out loaf filled with curry - Durban Indian invention), biltong (cured beef), boerewors (coriander sausage), chakalaka (spiced veg relish), pap (maize porridge), and melktert close every Sunday lunch. Big braai (barbecue) culture; the dish where the sweet-savoury Cape Malay influence shines is impossible to mistake for anything else.
Bread is soaked in milk; mince is browned with onions; curry powder, turmeric and Cape Malay spices bloom. Apricot jam, mango chutney, vinegar and lemon balance the spice with sweet-sour notes. Raisins, toasted almonds and the soaked bread are folded through. The mixture is pressed into a baking dish; eggs are whisked with the leftover milk and poured over; bay leaves are stuck into the surface; the lot is baked until the topping is just-set with a faint wobble.
Boerewors, literally "farmer's sausage" in Afrikaans, is the national sausage of South Africa and the obligatory centrepiece of any braai. South African law actually defines it: minimum 90 per cent meat (beef the dominant component, often with pork or lamb for fat), no more than 30 per cent fat overall, no offal, and a defined spice profile led by toasted ground coriander. That coriander is the signature; combined with clove, nutmeg, allspice and black pepper, and brought together with a splash of malt or brown vinegar, it produces a flavour quite unlike any European sausage. The sausage is always coiled rather than linked, and grilled in a single long spiral that can be turned in one piece with a pair of long forks. Difficulty for the home cook is very low if you can buy ready-made boerewors from a South African butcher, deli or online supplier, which is the practical route for most. Making it from scratch needs a meat grinder and sausage stuffer but the spicing is straightforward. Cooking is the part everyone gets wrong: boerewors is a coarse-ground sausage with chunks of fat in the meat, and it cooks at medium heat, never high. Too hot and the casing splits, fat renders out and the sausage shrivels; just right and it stays plump, juicy, with a deep mahogany crust. The classic accompaniments are pap (a stiff white maize porridge), tomato-and-onion relish (sous), or stuffed into a fresh bread roll with tomato chutney and crispy fried onions as a boerie roll.
Onion is softened in oil; garlic, ginger and curry powder bloom. Carrots cook briefly to tender-crisp. Peppers (red and green) and chillies join. Tomatoes simmer everything down. Tinned baked beans go in last with a splash of vinegar to balance. Eaten warm or at room temperature; tastes better the next day.
A sweet shortcrust pastry rolls thin and lines a 24 cm tart tin; blind-bakes briefly to set the base. Milk warms with butter and a cinnamon stick; sugar dissolves; cornflour and flour whisk in to form a thin custard; eggs temper in off the heat. The custard pours into the warm shell; bakes briefly until just set; cools to room temperature; gets a heavy dusting of cinnamon before serving. Sometimes served chilled.