2016 Highlights

As we wrap up 2016 and we look ahead into 2017 and what it brings us..let's take a last look into 2016

6 months ago I started this Blog with minimum knowledge on blogging, with no smartphone, no laptop, no camera and zero resources.....Somedays I would book a food shoot but didn't have ingredients or would have ingredients but my photographer won't be available on that day.

I faced many challenges especially with the Fashion side of the Blog to a point that most associate my Blog with Food only. I guess  I gravitated  more on what I could control, seeing that I'm a Chef.

Next year I promise you will see a Balance of Food, Fashion and Lifestyle

Below are just a few pictures of some of our Blog Posts from the past 6 months. Next years I will also have Scheduled weekly post.

Bye for now...Enjoy your New Year's Eve and be safe. May 2017 rain love and blessing for you all my family

xoxo

Samke

Sugar&Spices

Fish Curry Mini Dumplings served in Sea Shells and Carrot Salad

So it's no secret that I'm a beach baby. The beach is my little escape heaven.
Today like most days, I was missing the beach but this hectic life wouldn't allow me this desire :(

So since I couldn't go to the beach today, I settled on making this spicy mini dumplings in Fish curry served in Sea shells with Carrot Salad......Yes Fish curry and Sea Shell will have to do hey. This is as close as I can be to the beach today hahahahahaha

Usually we make dumplings into medium sizes and we make bigger ones at those family events. You know those family traditional events, when you cook dumplings with goats meat or any other animal that was slaughtered for that event....yep those dumplings 😃😃😃

Today we are taking dumpling to the next level or in this case to the mini level hahaha

Ingredients 

Self-Raising Wheat Flour - SASKO
Salt
Lurk Warm Water
Robertsons Black Pepper

Robertsons Fish Spice
Onions

Ginger and Garlic 

Ra haj Mild and Spicy Curry Powder  

Mix Masala curry powder
Green Pepper
Lucky star pilchards tin fish
Carrot
Chillies
Vinegar 



Method

Fish Curry

*Fry onions and green pepper, add ginger and garlic. When onion and green pepper are soft, add curry powders and let it cook

* Add peeled and grated tomatoes,Salt and Fish spice....let it simmer for a few minutes

*Add Lucky Star Tin Fish( opened and cleaned) and stir together


Mini Dumpling

*Mix Flour, warm water and a pinch of salt. Let it rest for a few minutes, make it into little balls
*Add the mini dumpling balls in the fish curry and let it cook for 10 minutes

  Carrot Salad

*Grate carrot and chop chilles
*Add the carrot and chillies with a pinch of salt and a dash of vinegar

Spoon fish curry and dumplings into the sea shells and add carrot salad on the side. Now Enjoy!


xoxo
Samke
Sugar&Spices

Spinach and Rice Salad with Pan Fried Chicken Breast and Feta

So today I was feeling like eating something lite  and easy to make without slaving in the kitchen for hours and that is how this recipe came to life and it was born......hahahahahaha, yes sometimes I enter the kitchen without a clue of what I will make and to my surprise something comes out eatable lol.

Ingredients

2 cups of Spekko Rice
Robertson Rice Spice
Robertson BBQ Chicken Spice
Salt
Robertson Black Pepper
Big Bunch Spinach
Olive Oil
1 Big Onion
Clover Feta Cheese


Method

Rice

*Wash Rice and put it in your pot with 4 cups of hot water, let it cook. When soft put it in a strainer in the sink, drain it and rinse and put it back in the pot. Put it back in the stove  for a few minutes to eliminate the remaining water and Add the Rice Spice.
*Let the Rice cool off while preparing your Spinach and Chicken

Spinach

*Place your pot on the stove and when hot add olive oil. Add your finely chopped onions and garlic the hot oil
*Add spinach, black pepper and Salt( cook for 2/3 minute, we don't want the spinach to be over cooked and too soft)



Chicken Breast

*Marinate the chicken in black pepper, salt and BBQ chicken spice
*Put it in a pan with hot oil, fry it for 5 minutes on each side

1. Mix the Rice and Spinach Together 
2. Slice the Chicken Breast 
3. Assemble the slice Chicken Breast with Sliced Feta Cheese in-between 

Tips

#The Oil Olive Adds any amazing Flavor to the Spinach and the Salad as a meal 

#You can have the Salad warm or cold

#If you squeeze lime over this salad....you tongue will worship you...wink wink  

xoxo

Samke

Sugar&Spices

Home Girl

As we bid farewell to the month of  September .....which is the most beautiful and heart warming month before Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We call it Heritage month here in South African(On the 24th of September we were celebrating Heritage Day here in South African. It was so beautiful to see our Nation embracing their roots and Heritage, wearing Traditional attires or embracing the next person's heritage), some call it Spring month, Birth of new things month and New Year in some of our sister African Countries.

This year on Heritage Day I  was wearing this Nigerien attire, which by the way reminds me of Half The Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who is  an Nigerian Author.

For me September  however has made me miss home.The South Coast( Mkomass in Amahlongwa Mission) that's where my heart is and my roots get watered. Eating my Granz's food and just listening to her stories, hahaha yes she knows everything that happens in the whole village.

On a serious note though.........I always find knew strength when I visit home, the atmosphere is filled with so much love and life. Each breath I take in feels like I am taking my life back.
There is just something so wholesomely  and spiritual about being home. It's like all my worries are taken away just by setting my foot on the ground. It's a place of no judgement, a place of emotional and spiritual nourishment. Sitting on my Granz veranda and looking at the beach from afar has to be the best view I have ever set my eyes on since my childhood,

Being in my Granz home is like receiving a emotional revival. Knowing that I away a home to run to gives me so much peace and I am truly grateful to have my family. I would be the first to admit that I can keep to myself and sometimes it may seem that the city life is winning me over but I am a Home Girl. I wouldn't trade my Home for anything.

Home is where the heart is


xoxo
Samke
Sugar&Spices

Sigwaqane served with Beef curry and Salsa

Isigwaqane(Savory Bean Pap) has to be one of my ultimate favorite traditional dish. It always takes me back to my Granz  planting fields and to her plan cooking that had no color to it but amazingly tasted delicious......I still wonder to this day how her plan food tasted so good but had no color.

When making this meal, my Granz would boil the sugar beans and when soft and tender, she would add maize meal and mix together till it cooked. She would serve it with mfino(Spinach) or curry.


Today we are keeping it simply yet flavorful.

Ingredients 

4 cups Sugar beans
1 large onion
Ginger and Garlic
2 Knor Vegetable Stock Pot
50 ml Oil
Black Pepper



Method

*Wash sugar beans and put it in the pot with 4 cups of water(preferable hot water, this will help cook in a shorter time)
*Let it boil and add more water if need be.
*Add Knor Vegetable stock pot, ginger and garlic, oil, onion and black pepper to the Soft tender beans and let it cook.
*Add 2 cups of maize meal and stir together with a wooden spoon( wooden spoons are magic )
*Stir for the next 3/4 times till it's cooked

Tip:You can always serve Isigwaqane with Curry, Vegetables, Grilled/ Roasted meat and gravy, it's always up to what you feel like eat on that day

xoxo

Samke

Sugar&Spices

Be Patient with me

I am still learning. I know it’s hard to believe or understand but I am still learning.

I am still learning how to be passionate again without any fear

For I had forgotten how to think with my heart because it’s not acceptable in our society

I am learning how to embrace my roots and my origin without any apologies

I am still learning to love myself without makeup and well styled hair

I am still learning how to love that girl I see in the  mirror without acting overly confident

I am still learning how to love me with my Afro

I am still learning that Vulnerable doesn’t always mean Weak

I am still learning that it takes strength to be delicate

I am still learning that walls don’t always protect you

I am still learning that those very same walls hurt you sometimes

I am still learning that behind them you hurt all by yourself in darkness

I am still learning how to let people in

I am still learning how to eat food that my grandparents enjoyed

I ask again……..Be patient with me

I am still learning that Zulu dancing is a part of who I am and if it makes me look uncool Sorry This is who I am

I am still learning that no matter how much you speak the next person’s language it doesn’t mean you will be acceptable to them

I am still trying to grasp that freedom of speech has less to do with freedom, for regardless of your freedom this society expects us to sugar coat everything so you can be adored and accaptable to them

I am still trying to understand where the freedom in that is

I am still learning that sometimes you have to stop caring before they see that you cared all this time while they were still blind

I am still learning how to pour my heart out without any fear of judgement and scrutiny

Pants                                     - Gift from my Cousin
White Long Sleeve Top        - Edgars
Purple Neck-piece                - free market
Colorful head wrap              - Gift from a friend
African Design Sandals        - China Mall

xoxo

Samke 

Sugar&Spices

Savory Jeqe( Steam Bread) with Peri Peri Beef Livers

Today I was having one of my crazy moments with is like an almost everyday for me....hahahaha. Which brings me to today's Food Post.

I made  Savory Jeqe( Steam Bread) Served with Peri Peri Beef Livers

Ingredients 
Jeqe(stream bread)

4 cups of Flour
2 Teaspoons of Yeast
1 Spoon of Oil
1l Warm Water
Black Pepper
Pinch of Salt
Half A hand of Chopped of Coriander
BBQ Spice


Method 

*In a dry bowl: Mix all the dry ingredients
*Add warm water and mix together
*Add the chopped herbs
*Let it rest for 30 minutes or so
*Coat a round metal or steal bowl with a teaspoon of oil and add your Jeqe mixer in.
*Put your bowl in a big pot with hot water, make sure that the water in the pot doesn't cover the Jeqe mixer/ bowl in it( because youir jeqe/ stream bread will not cook well and it will be soggy) 
*Let it cook for an hour or so( check if it's cook through but poking a fork in the middle)


Ingredients
Beef Peri Peri Livers

Stripped 4 Thick Slices of Beef Liver(steaks) 
3 Big Onions stripes( not chopped)
Oil
Ginger and Garlic
Black Pepper
BBQ Spice
Cayenne pepper
Peri Peri Sauce  

Method 

*Preheat the pan, when hot add Oil
*Add onions and when onions are soft add ginger and garlic
* Add beef liver, black pepper,bbq spice,cayenne pepper
*Add peri peri sauce and let it cook to your preference  

   xoxo

   Samke

   Sugar&Spices

My Soul Cries

My African soul is crying out

Crying out to be nourish

Nourish with its own food

Food that is planted in its own soil

It cries out” what are you feeding me?”

Feed me Amadumbe and Ifino

My roots cry out to be watered

Not with chemical water

With water of the African rivers

"Quench my thirst with Amahewu and Amarul"

My hair is crying out

Crying out to be left alone

My hair screams!!!!!What are all this chemicals?

"Why are you burning me?"

"Are you trying to kill my strong black strength"

"Why are you using glue on me???"

"Am I shoes?"

                                                    

I cry out!!!

Feed me with my own

Nature me with my own

Spoil me with my own

Write songs for my soul

Please me by talking to me in my own language

Touch my heart by pleasing not my body but my soul

I want  to be Kissed by the African Sun"

Mother Africaby BenHeine

   xoxo

   Samke

   Sugar&Spices

Creamy Sigwamba(Creamy Spinach Pap)

 As Africans we have numerous ethnic groups and within each tribal group we still differ from each other. Those from the South might differ in language or cultural customs from the Northern although they are all from the same ethnic group. 

 Which brings me to today’s Recipe, which I originally got from my Granz but I put a little modern twist to it.

Originally in this recipe you boil the spinach/mfino but not today

Ingredients

2 Bunch of Spinach( finely chopped)

2 Cups of Maize Meal

1 Onion( finely chopped)

Garlic

1Table Spoon of Oil

Feta Cheese

Black Pepper

Salt

Method

·         Heat up the oil in a pot.

·         When the oil is hot add your onion

·         Add garlic to the  onion, keep string to prevent the onion and garlic from burning.

·         Add the finely chopped spinach, Black Pepper and Salt for seasoning. Close the pot lid and let the spinach cook through

·         Add Feta

·         Add a cup of maize meal and mix together (without removing the pot from the stove)and add more maize meal if need be

      Let it rest for a few minutes and stir again and repeat for 3/4 times until cooked 

I

I   I served my Creamy Sigwamba with BBQ chicken and roasted vegetables, do share what you served yours with.

   xoxo

   Samke

   Sugar&Spices

Cinnamon ISijingi (Pumpkin/ Butternut Porridge)

Cinnamon ISijingi (Pumpkin/ Butternut Porridge)

Isijingi is a traditional porridge which is originally made out of pumpkin/butternut and maize meal.

My granny used to make this delicious healthy porridge for us whenever we visited her at the South Coast. I would be the first to admit I wasn't always a fan of it reason being; I grew up hating vegetables……hahaha but don’t all kids do!

I recently found out that Isijingi is a known meal even outside South Africa, it’s known in Zimbabwe as Nopi.

I also found out that some Nguni tribes have it as a main course and they eat it at any time of the day.

Today I twisted my Granz original recipe by adding Cinnamon which goes so well with butternut or pumpkin and I will be eating mine with Pineapple Syrup(I can’t let this Pineapple I’ve garnished with go to waste now hey….. wink wink)

Ingredient

1 medium sized butternut (Cubed into small pieces)

4cups boiling water

2 cups maize meal

Table spoon of Cinnamon

 Pinch of Salt

Method:

1.       Cook pumpkin/ butternut with Cinnamon and a Pinch of Salt in boiling water until soft.

2.       When soft smash without removing it from the stove

3.       Add maize meal and mix well with a wooden spoon on a blow before pouring it into the pot

4.       Simmer for about 10 – 15 minutes, stirring continuously until cooked.

Tip : a Pinch of salt always enhances the sweetness of the pumpkin or butternut 

N.B. I had my Isijingi with Pineapple syrup……So do let me know what you served yours with.

Xoxo

Samke

Sugar&Spices

About

AfricanistaFab

Africanista Fab is a platform where we are embracing our African Roots and attesting that, as much as, we are living the modern life we can still clinch who we are and nothing about our heritage is tedious. We are a generation that distinguishes everything technology. Therefore, we have shied away from being original.

Some may ask “why African Food, Fashion and Lifestyle? Well the answer is simple “Why Not, what do I know more than my own roots?”

I am and will forever be a lover of food, fashion, art and whatsoever that touches my soul. You can call me Sugar and Spices if you like…

I have to admit that I have certainly not been much of a cook or a domestic person to begin with, however, being a first born of 5 children, you are obligated to step up to the plate “no pun intended” and visiting my grandparents during school holidays didn’t help either. For instance, cooking for everyone in our household, 20 people to be exact, since all the grandchildren will always go to the South Coast to visit Granz “that is what I call her”. Funny how life is hey…for the longest time I detested traditional food, cooking and the entire experience of going to the engraining fields with Granz; but years later there I was studying to become a Chef and In love with cooking “Thank you Granz”, and then fast forward to now… here I am “Blogging” about food.

•     Food is art and my own expression of love.  So whenever I serve you a plate, I am simply serving you my heart. You will find African Soul Food, African Food with a “Modern Take”, from using African Ingredients and cooking them in a modern way to establish recipes and Restaurant reviews.

•     Fashion is communicating one's self and to me it is not what is trending right now, but what works for you as an individual. You can expect to find “Street Style / Mix and Match Fashion, Traditional Wear and African Glam and everything in between.”

•     Lifestyle is countless things from the way one live their life and the manner of which they choose to live. Under this Category you will find Art, which is a big part of our Heritage from the Ndebele Art, Tribal Face Painting to San Rock Painting and everything in-between. You can also anticipate to see how our nowadays Youth embraces being African with a “Modern Take” of course. You can likewise expect a snick pick at my personal Lifestyle from exceptional occasions with my heart held friends and family to everything in between.

 All in all though this is a Platform where the old meets the new and the African Tradition/ Heritage meets Modern. It’s all about having fun, but not forgetting who you are and where you are coming from.We want our young generation to know their true African origins.

Thank you for dropping by

Sugar and Spices 

Samke

xoxo