Preparing our taste buds

A fun-filled feature of the year-to-come on the NTN will be periodic recipes from Namibia, Land of the Brave. As could be guessed by many readers familiar with dinner time at the Powell's, we couldn't wait to travel to start cooking a little.

This past weekend, we had a Namibia Preview with our friends the Pegg's and the Hygnstrom's--who will be coming to visit us in May/June. We watched "The Gods Must be Crazy" to get in the mood, and we cooked up a great feast. We got a little American-ized view of the brai (Namibian BBQ) with Mark's tasty deer steaks marinated in some secret Namibian seasoning and dove/prairie-chicken rolled in bacon with a bit of cheese for that last artery that needs coating. Great!

I downloaded some recipes from the only web site I could find with Namibian recipes. We tried a mango chutney ("great with light meals or as an accompaniment to meat dishes" says the chef) and a light cake called "Apple Caramel with Custard." I'm not sure where the caramel part comes in, but it's light and tasty--would be a great summer cake in the US.

Mango chutney
1 cup (250 ml) sugar
1/2 cup (125 ml) white wine vinegar
3 cups (750 ml) peel/diced mangoes
1/2 onion chopped (I used purple onion)
1/4 cup sultanas (raisins)
2 T (30 ml) grated ginger
1 garlic clove
1 tsp mustard seed, whole (I used powder)
1/4 tsp hot pepper flakes

Directions: combine sugar and vinegar in large pot and bring to boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer uncovered for 45-60 minutes, stirring whenever you remember. It will thicken. Cool, and serve with grilled steaks. This was really good stuff. A guy/gal could double/triple it for a big crowd or for continued eating during the next week.

Apple Caramel with Custard
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
125 g butter
2 eggs
3 peeled apples
2 cups of self-raising flour (1 cup flour, plus 1 1/2 tsp baking powder & 1/2 tsp salt)
1 tsp vanilla

Directions: Measure out the ingredients. Mix the dry and the liquid ingredients and then mix together well. Grease a baking tray (I used a 9x13 glass dish) and bake it at 180 C for 35 minutes.

Sorry--looking up the amount of butter in 'cups' and the temperature in F is part of the game, Yankie! But, I'll tell you it's a fairly common temp for cooking cakes. And, your butter comes with grams written on it in the US--you just never looked. See what a wide, wonderful world we live in.

So, we have now determined that we can exist in Namibia for a year--even if we have to eat grilled game animals with mango chutney and apple cake every single day.