antipinkkitten This week’s recipe takes us to South Africa, focusing on cuisine of the Bantu-speakers, with the ingredients available to them.
The Bantu-speakers, or Bantu Peoples, are ancestors of many modern day South Africans. They moved to the Southeastern part of Africa, bringing with them metal working, cattle and crop cultivation. This migration happened numerous times, with their interactions with those in the Horn of Africa; providing a wider range language and cultural impacts.
It was previously believed that Southern African farmers did not exist until the Europeans arrived, however, Archaeological evidence proved that otherwise (along with common sense), showing as evidence as early as 550 B.C.E. The cattle did not appear commonly in the archaeological records, until 700 C.E., still earlier than European arrival.
Focusing on the ingredients for this meal, we stayed basic: Millet, Beef, Onion and Eggplant. Beef (Cattle) and Millet are native without any sort of trade, but Eggplant and Onions became accessible food through the Western Asia trade, along with numerous spices. Millet and Eggplant are fall harvesting, making them the core component of a nice, warming meal.
The Fall for South Africa is March 1st through May 31st; due them being in the Southern Hemisphere.
Stuffed eggplant with millet and sliced beef
Ingredients
- 2 Eggplants, sliced in half – Lengthwise
- 500g Steak, either cutlet or sandwich cut slices
- 1 cup of uncooked millet
- 1 medium onion
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 tbsp of Fennel
- 1 tsp of cumin seeds
- 1 tsp of oregano
- 1/2 tbsp of coriander seeds
- 1 tbsp of cooking oil
- Salt
- Pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Slice the eggplants length wise. Take a spoon and scrap out some of the inside of the eggplant, leaving 1/4 of an inch on all sides. Place insides in a bowl on the side.
- Bring 2 cups of water to a boil, with 1/4 tsp of salt. Once boiling, add the 1 cup of millet. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover the pot; let it simmer for 20 minutes.
- Take the eggplant insides and dice them up. Take the medium onion and slice it thinly.
- Place Eggplant, Onion, Garlic, Cumin Seeds, Fennel, Coriander Seeds and Oregano in a pan with oil, and cook until size reduced by half. Remove from heat
- Take steak and slice them into 1/2 inch pieces. Lightly brown the steak in a pan with oil and set aside.
- Once millet is done, remove from heat and mix with eggplant/onion mixture and steak.
- Take the eggplant shells and place them in a baking dish.
- Take the mixture and stuff them inside the eggplant. It should overfill it slightly.
- Bake for 35 minutes. Once done, remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
We used veal in our recipe, but beef would work perfectly.
Reviews
Meghan’s Review
3 out of 5 stars
This is the same issue as last week. I make a dish, expecting it to be just fine – ignoring the key component that I care about: Appearance. You would think taste would be critical, but I’m shallow. This dish, just like last one, lacked the “pop” that comes with having greens and other colors involved. It felt so “Beige“, which may fit with the autumn-aesthetic, but it also made feel blah. It tasted fine; but again, greens would have made it better.
Brad’s Review
3 out of 5 stars
Tonight’s dinner was just ok for me. It wasn’t too exciting and it wasn’t too unexciting either. If you didn’t know that there was millet in the meal, you would be forgiven for thinking that it was couscous. The only real problem I had was the fennel. I feel there was too much of it and it just overpowered the rest of the dish. If you do make this yourself, I highly recommend making a desert as well. The meal was just so savory that I needed something sweet afterwards. Overall I would only give it 3 or of 5 eggplant emojyes, and yes I know what the emoji means.
