Top Chef Mozambique 2011

This post is part of the Mozambique 2011 series. The previous post in this series is Art and crafts in Mozambique.

“An army marches on its stomach” as Napoleon once said – and Willie is fond of quoting! Going to do battle with big fish is a serious and energy-consuming affair. According to Willie, the guys who do “kayak fishing” – literally going out onto the sea or lagoon and fishing from your kayak – will paddle up and down for some 6 plus hours (or approximately 25 – 30 kilometers) a day. Then there is the business of walking or running up and down the beach, collecting bait, and actually fighting the bigger fish when they get caught on your line. As you can gather these guys aren’t just relaxing on the beach, waiting for the fish to come to them.

With all this activity, it is important to eat well and eat enough to keep your energy levels high and to ward off any illness. Eat well they do on these trips! Because it was a bigger group going on this fishing expedition, they were split into 4 teams of 2 people per team. Each team was responsible for cooking 2 to 3 dinners for the whole group. This entailed drawing up menus, buying the ingredients back home in South Africa, and transporting all the food (frozen goods in camping freezers) and cooking equipment to Mozambique with them. Breakfasts and lunches were “help yourself” affairs consisting mostly of breakfast cereals and pau (locally baked bread) respectively. Each member of the group had to make sure they brought along their favourite snacks and drinks.

Pau or locally baked bread. These look like bread rolls, but are quite big and substantial. ©WMB

(See this post to see how the pau are baked.)

South African men like to braai (barbecue) meat, but this group was more adventurous in their cooking. All of the guys work in jobs which occasionally take them off the beaten track, and they have learned to fend for themselves very nicely. So besides braai grids, they also took big cast iron pots (excellent for cooking “potjies” or stews), Willie took a wok and another guy took a small Cobb oven (think of a smaller, portable version of a Weber grill). Cooking was mostly done on small gas cookers or on the fire, with limited working space in the kitchen area. Willie also took with him his portable water purification system (three stage reverse osmosis system), to produce clean water for drinking and cooking and mixing powdered energy drinks with. They travelled with a total of 55 liters of water from South Africa, and then had to refill all the canisters three times. Fishing, kayaking, swimming and snorkelling is thirsty work too!

A typical South Africa braai (barbecue) meal – lamb chops and chicken sosaties (kebabs), sausage and “pap and sous” (thick maize meal “porridge” with, in this case, a tomato-based sauce). ©Theo van Zyl

Couta (fish) sosaties grilled on the fire ©Theo van Zyl

I was amazed when I was going through all the trip photos, to see that somebody had taken daily photographs of the evening meals. Although the presentation of the food was very basic, the food looked (and I’m told tasted) delicious. And there was always dessert.

Main courses included:

• Chicken and vegetable stir-fry with Jasmine rice
• Roast lamb with potato salad, peas and corn
• Lamb chops and Rudi’s pepper sausage with a greek salad and pau (local bread)
• Roast chicken with baked potatoes and corn
• Roast pork with baked potatoes, corn and mixed vegetables
• Lamb shank potjie (stew) with green beans and rice
• Freshly caught fish and potato wedges, with peas and a tomato salad
• Couta sosaties (fish kebab) with mixed vegetables
• Traditional South African braai with lamb chops, sausage and chicken sosaties

There were clearly no vegetarians in this group! Because there wasn’t a way to keep vegetables fresh, most of the vegetables used (except for the potatoes and corn) were frozen. Salad ingredients had to be consumed within the first couple of days.

Roast pork with baked potatoes, corn and mixed vegetables. ©Theo van Zyl

Lamb shank potjie (stew) with green beans and rice. ©Theo van Zyl

(You can find a recipe for the lamb shank potjie at the bottom of this post.

Desserts included:

• Fresh fruit salad – which was popular because of the lovely fresh fruit which the local women sold at the camp (see this post)
• Crepe à la nougat
• Stewed Litchis with custard
• Blueberry flapjacks with ice-cream
• Yellow cling peaches with ice-cream

The highlight for many was the chocolate cake which a chef from the nearby hotel made, especially for the one member of the group who celebrated a birthday there. Despite claiming he had limited ingredients to bake a cake, the chef outdid himself and baked what is one of the biggest chocolate (with a caramel filling) cakes  I’ve ever seen!

The chocolate and caramel birthday cake. An absolute winner! ©Theo van Zyl

So who won the title of Top Chef Mozambique 2011? The jury is still out on that one . . . Although Willie reckons the title should go to the dhow skipper and his mate, who after taking them from Vilanculos across to an island, prepared a wonderful meal for them on the dhow.

Food being prepared on the dhow by the skipper and his mate. ©Theo van Zyl

A table was set up on the beach, so the food could be served there. ©Theo van Zyl

The delicious dhow meal. ©Theo van Zyl

The Mozambique 2011 Series:

• This is how it starts . . .
• Why I didn’t go along
• Daily life in Mozambique – hardship and happiness
• Arts and crafts in Mozambique
• Top Chef Mozambique 2011 (this post)
• Chicken run to Pomene
• Sharks getting a raw deal – on the dark side of Mozambique

Thank you to Theo van Zyl and Willie for allowing me to use their beautiful photographs for this post. See individual photos for credits.

A special thank you to Willie for providing the information used to write this post.