Around the World in 12 Dishes: South Africa -- Sosaties

Today we are doing our last post for Around the World in 12 Dishes. The group seems to be a bit defunct right now. There have been no plans for the next season and South Africa is the last country chosen. But I promised Hazel we would continue to explore the world one country a month, so we are going to continue on our own schedule and our link parties. This season I have been writing the introduction posts on Around the World in 12 Dishes website, but as I was about to write the introduction to South Africa I discovered the link code problems which still has not been resolved, so I didn't bother to write it there since there would not be a place to link up. (If I do not get the codes switched to my account by next week I will do my own link codes as a blog hop, so come back and check Bolivia, Senegal and here.) I also added a new picture to my Bolivia post. The arroz con leche looks much better cold!

Johannesburg at Night By Hillbrow_Tower.jpg:Kemptonreporterderivative work: 
Heitor C. Jorge (Hillbrow_Tower.jpg) [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

Since I have not written the introduction to South Africa, I thought I would share it here. The Republic of South Africa is located at the Southern tip of Africa. It 1,739 miles of coastline and to the north is bordered by Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, and to the east ib borders Mozambique and Swaziland. It is the 25th largest country by area and populous. It has eleven official languages--the largest number in the world. It is a multiethnic country. About 80 percent of the South African population is black and the rest is white, Asian or a mixed race. South Africa is often referred to as the Rainbow Nation. This term was first used by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and later adopted by President Nelson Mandela. Both of these men are a great place to focus with older children. Here is a sample of biographies on them that I found at the library.

South Africa is a parliament republic. However the president is both Head of State and Head of Government. They have had regular elections for the past 100 years, however the black citizens were not allowed to vote until the 1990s. Many groups helped fight apartheid in South Africa. Another great topic to focus with children. 

In 1994 they took a new flag to represent their country. The sideways y is said to be the three groups meeting. The red, white and blue represents the European influence (and the colors of former flags) and the black, green and yellow are found on the banner of the African National Congress.

We read about the flag in many of the books we read on South Africa. There are many books for reference as well as a good number of stories from South Africa available.

Through both types of books the reader learns about the climate, the land and the wildlife. The country has three capitals: Cape Town, Pretoria, and Bloemfontein. About 80 percent of the people are Christian (mostly Protestant). 

There are cave drawings left from previous life in South Africa and there is much history to be learned. The rural life tends to be in poverty, but they are able to keep some of the cultural traditions alive. The cuisine is very meat heavy and is a mixture of the different cultures that settled in South Africa. Popular sports are soccer, rugby and cricket. Now on to our recipe. We found this recipe in South Africa book from the Festivals of the World series. 

Many favorite foods in South Africa are grilled on a braai (what we call a barbecue). The recipe we tried is for Sosaties. It said you could use beef, lamb, chicken or pork. We used chicken (because it was on sale).

Sosaties Adapted from Festivals of the World: South Africa

Ingredients:

1/2 cup apple jelly (it called for sweet chutney but I forgot to get it)
1/4 cup mayonaise
1/4 cup tomato sauce
dash of Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon mustard
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup cooking oil
Small pieces of chicken (we used tenders or pieces cut for a stir fry)
Green Pepper (we substituted yellow pepper since they looked better)

Making Marinade

Red Pepper

Method:

Combine everything except the chicken and peppers into a bowl. Whisk the ingredients.

Add the chicken. We put it in a ziploc bag and marinade it in that. Marinade it over night.

Cut the peppers into bite-size pieces. 

Prepare wooden skewers by soaking them for 15-30 minutes. Then skewer the meat and peppers.

The recipe called for us to grill the skewers, but since we have snow banks almost as tall as me and we cannot get to our grill, I broiled them.

Everyone loved the chicken. I knew Steve and Hazel would not eat the peppers, so I made sugar snap peas to go with them.

This is definitely a recipe we will try again. For more posts about South Africa check out: Meerkats, Happy New Year!, Cinderella Penguin, Wish I May, Wish I Might, and Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters.

Zulu Dancers Kwazulu Natal, South Africa
By Hein waschefort (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Now it is your turn to share your recipes, crafts, lessons from/on South Africa! Please check back and join us next month as we Explore the World and start with Italy!

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