by admin | Recipes
Sunday lunch in the Karoo. Melt-in-the-mouth tender Karoo lamb roast and veggies with malva for pudding and chocolate cake for afternoon tea. Yeah, that sounds just about right. Sometimes you just want something a bit quicker to make. Maybe quick isn’t the right word. How about beef and vegetable soup, homemade bread and Macaroni Cheese?
This recipe is enjoyed by both guests and family and any leftovers freeze well for a quick and easy light meal.
Quick and Easy Macaroni Cheese
1 cup Macaroni (dry)
2 cups Milk
2 Eggs
1 cup Cheese – grated
1 tablespoon Butter
1 Tomato – sliced thinly
2 teespoon Maizena
2 teespoon Dry mustard
Salt and pepper
A dash of cayenne pepper (optional)
Boil macaroni in salt water until tender and drain
Put cheese in a bowl and reserve some to sprinkle on top
Add mustard, maizena, salt, pepper and cayenne to the cheese
Add eggs one at a time and mix well
Boil milk, butter and macaroni together
Add to the mixture in the bowl
Pour into a buttered dish, sprinkle cheese over the top
Decorate with tomato slices
Bake at 180 deg for 30 +- minutes until browned and set
Serves six
by admin | Recipes
One of the desert favourites on a Karoo farm stay is Pecan Pie. Especially if nuts are grown on the farm. Bakers have been asked, actually begged, to give it to everyone who has tasted it. So here it is. It has an indecent amount of butter (margarine can also be used) in it, but now and then it is such a joy to eat something so decadent and mouth-watering that, oh what the hell, just do it! It’s usually served with lightly whipped cream otherwise you can also serve it with ice cream.
PECAN PIE
Pastry
300-gram Flour
3 level teaspoons of Caster sugar
210 gram Butter (or marg)
Rub well together (you can also use a food processor)
Keep 1/3 aside
Line a tart dish, sides as well
Filling
1 tin Condensed milk
2 Tablespoons Syrup
1-2 Tablespoons Vanilla
100 grams of Pecan nuts (or walnuts)
125 grams Butter (or marg)
Melt topping ingredients in a pot – DO NOT BOIL
Allow to cool slightly and add nuts
Pour over pastry in the dish
Crumble the remaining pastry over the filling
Bake at 180 deg for +- 35 minutes until brownish
If there is anything left afterwards it can be put out at breakfast the next morning and there will always be a few who can’t resist a small piece with their coffee. Utterly indulgent!
by admin | Recipes
Tea time at a Karoo guest farm isn’t tea time without some cake or tart on offer with your afternoon coffee or tea. One of Anne Bowker’s most popular teatime dishes when they ran a guest farmi was Cupcakes, decorated with slices of green fig preserve as leaves with tiny fresh briar roses.
Cupcakes
125 g Butter
155 g Caster sugar
2 Eggs
115g Flour
1 1/2 t Baking powder
150 ml Milk
- Preheat oven to 180 and line muffin tins with paper cases
- Beat together butter and sugar with an electric beater until pale and creamy
- Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition
- Stir in flour and milk and spoon into cases
- Bake for 15 minutes until skewer comes out clean
- Take out of muffin pan and cool on a rack
- Ice when cool with vanilla flavoured butter icing and decorate
Anne makes double quantities every time as they are delicious and get snapped up in no time at all.
by admin | Recipes
Anne Bowker often made these Cheese Puffs as part of their breakfast when they ran a guest farm outside Cradock. There were usually nothing left afterward. And the name describes them to a T. Quick and easy to make.
EASY CHEESE PUFFS
Flour – 1 cup (250 ml)
Baking Powder – 1 dessert spoon
Cheese – 1 cup (grated Cheddar)
Milk – 1 cup
Oil – 50 ml (mixed in the milk)|
Salt – small pinch
Cayenne Pepper – small shake
- Mix all the ingredients together
- Put into muffin tin
- Bake at 180 deg – +- 20 minutes
by admin | Karoo Legends
The Karoo National Park is famous for many wonderful reasons, however in 2015 the most famous reason would be the grand escape of Sylvester the lion.
The story begins during the night of the 4th June 2015 when a 3-year-old lion escaped from the Karoo National Park, triggering a long and arduous chase lasting 24 days. This event had the nation watching and waiting with bated breath and saw the start of a wild goose chase involving many devoted individuals, sniffer dogs and even a couple of helicopters and a microlight.
The first day’s spoor was picked up and it was gathered that Sylvester had more than likely escaped through a gully on the western side of the Park after rain had caused the fence to lift.
By day 3 the media had run with the story and Sylvester was now a nationwide sensation. By now a select team of SANParks’ trackers, Honorary Rangers and various people had “noses” to the ground and were in hot pursuit of their wanderer. By day 12 the action started to increase as the spoor was picked up along the plateau above the Nuweveld Mountains.
Day 15 saw a Gyrocopter and microlight taking off in the hopes of getting an aerial view of Spook. A dog handler and the state vet from Beaufort West, were also brought on-board at this stage. By day 18 the SAPS (South African Police Services) from Fraserburg had joined the search with everyone putting their heart and soul into this great search.
On the 24th day Sylvester had travelled approximately 371km and had been spotted a mere 4 times in the search, killed 27 sheep, 1 kudu and 1 Nguni cow. The start of the capture began about 20km from the Karoo National Park along the steep cliffs of the Nuweveld Mountains. Sylvester was finally darted by Dave Zimmerman, a SANParks’ veterinarian, from within a helicopter. He was then loaded into a sling while the helicopter hovered dangerously close to the edge of the mountain
with blades no more than 2m from the edge – a risky heart-stopping moment for all.
Sylvester was flown back to the Karoo National Park and released into an enclosure for a wellness check. He survived his walkabout in good health and has been fitted with a tracking collar.
The other male lions within the Karoo National Park were making life very difficult for Sylvester, therefore, provoking his intention to roam. When Sylvester managed to escape from the Park again within a matter of months, fearing for his life SANParks made the decision to move Sylvester. It was then that Gerard De Lange, conservation manager at Kuzuko Lodge, stepped in and offered Sylvester a home on the reserve bordering the Addo Elephant National Park.
As of the end of May 2016, he arrived at his new 15,000 ha home. Sylvester had no trouble making friends and finding love. He quickly bonded with two lionesses in the reserve and formed a coalition with a younger male lion named Fielies. He grew especially close to his favourite lioness, Angel, and in June 2018 she gave birth to two cubs.
Kuzuko’s game drives have almost daily sightings of Sylvester. The infamous escape artist also kills regularly and has seemingly developed quite the appetite for adult eland bulls.
Sources:
https://www.south-africa-info.co.za/country/article/1255/the-great-escape-and-capture-of-sylvester-spook-the-lion
https://www.kuzuko.com/sylvester-the-lions-new-life-in-addo/
