Botswana Butchery: The Cookbook

Two festive recipes from Botswana Butchery: The Cookbook

 My partner loves meat! And there’s plenty of it in Botswana Butchery: The Cookbook as you would expect from its title and smart black cover which features the restaurant logo, an embossed meat cleaver.

Recipes for every kind of meat are featured: beef, lamb, pork, chicken, venison, rabbit, duck and goat! All expertly created by the chefs from the award winning Botswana Butchery restaurants (in Queenstown and Auckland) but somewhat simplified for the home cook.

I love lighter food with plenty of vegetables so was equally happy, and a little surprised, to find there were also plenty of recipes for salads, vegetables, pasta, fish and seafood. Something to suit every taste!

The festive season is just around the corner. There could be no better excuse for forgetting about calories, throwing caution to the wind and perfecting some of their decadent desserts such as the Milk Chocolate Parfait, Yoghurt Sorbet and Salted Caramel Sauce.

The chutneys and dressings featured in the last chapter provide lots of inspiration for serving alongside barbecued meats, with pre-dinner nibbles or sprucing up a summer salad. And a jar of their apple and currant chutney or chilli jam would make a great little Christmas present.

My partner tackled the Botswana T-bone. I cooked the mushroom crepes filled with mushrooms, ricotta and spinach. Both of these recipes were easy to follow, and very tasty with that special Botswana Butchery Chef’s touch.

We can’t wait to try more. Two on our must do list are the Peking duck (one of the Botswana restaurant signature dishes) which might just replace the turkey on our Christmas table this year (our son in law would love us, it’s his favourite dish) and the chocolate fondants, a delectable and easy summer dessert.

Here are the recipes:

Peking Duck

Botswana Butchery Duck. You will need to begin this the day before so you can marinate the duck overnight in the san chow marinade

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 x 1.8 kg whole duck

¾ tbsp ground Chinese five-spice

50 g fresh ginger, peeled and grated

San chow marinade

125 g hoisin sauce

125 g oyster sauce

250 ml water

½ lemongrass stem, white part only, lightly crushed

1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped

½ red chilli, chopped with seeds

25 g fresh ginger, peeled and chopped

To serve

Asian pancakes

celery sticks

carrot sticks

spring onion (shallot) strips

hoisin sauce

Method

To make the marinade

Place the water, hoisin sauce and oyster sauce in a small saucepan over a medium heat.

Add the lemongrass, garlic, chilli and ginger and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to very low and simmer for 25 minutes, until thick and a bit sticky.

Remove from heat and allow to cool a little before placing in a food processor or blender and blending until smooth. Leave to cool completely.

Place the duck in a non-metallic shallow dish. Rub the duck all over with the Chinese five-spice. Rub the grated ginger into the cavity of the duck. Rub the cooled marinade over the duck, cover and place the duck, covered in the fridge overnight.

The following day, preheat oven to 150°C (300°F). Line a roasting dish with foil then place a wire rack on top.

Place the duck on the wire rack and place in the oven. Roast for 3 hours until the meat is tender and the skin is glazed. Remove from the oven and leave to sit before cutting the duck into portions and serving with pancakes, vegetables and a small dish of hoisin sauce.

Chocolate Fondants

We have no chance of taking these off our menu. We make our fondants using Valrhona Chocolate (66 per cent cocoa), for a rich flavoured chocolate dessert.

Makes 4

Ingredients

125 g unsalted butter

125 g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

3 free-range eggs

4 tbsp caster (superfine) sugar

2 tbsp plain (all purpose) flour

1 tbsp dark cocoa powder

To Serve

extra dark cocoa powder for dusting

4 tbsp crème fraîche

fresh raspberries

fresh blueberries

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease 4 x 250 ml (9 fl oz) capacity individual pudding moulds.

Place the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place over a saucepan of simmering water (making sure the base of the bowl does not touch the water) and melt.

Remove bowl and set aside.

Lightly whisk the eggs, then sift in the sugar, flour and cocoa powder. Add the melted butter and chocolate mixture and carefully mix to combine.

Place the mixture in the moulds until three-quarters full and then place in the fridge to chill for 20 minutes. Remove from the fridge, lightly tap moulds on the benchtop to remove any air bubbles.

To bake, place the moulds on a baking tray and bake for 8–10 minutes until the chocolate fondants are just beginning to come away at the sides and the centres are still a little wobbly.

Remove from the oven and turn out onto serving plates.

Serve each chocolate fondant dusted with cocoa powder, a dollop of crème fraîche and berries.

Recipes extracted from Botswana Butchery: The Cookbook by Al Spary and Russell Gray, published by New Holland, $50.00. Available from all good bookstores or online at www.newhollandpublishers.com.

By Lyn Potter. Read more here.