Christmas South African Style

Christmas here turned out to be pretty similar to home—lots of food, lots of family, lots and lots of food. Just the meat included seafood, prawns, stuffed chicken, pineapple chicken, beef, leg of lamb, tongue. Ya, you read that right. My host mom asked me to carry over a closed container next door to the feast table, I open it and there’s a two-foot long tongue in all its glory innocently licking the pan. I nearly dropped the pan in surprise.

I made all the deserts for the day which included pumpkin fritters, a couple of huge Christmas trifles, and my specialty peach cake. If you’re up for some pure joy in culinary form, here are a couple of the recipes for you. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Fritters
-pumpkin, boiled and mashed (a pre-made can would probably work)
-sugar
-cinnamon (nutmeg might be a nice addition)
-flour
-eggs
-baking powder


1. Attempt to cut the pumpkin. Look cute until someone(my host dad) takes the knife away and cuts it all up for you. To cook pumpkin chunks, heat up pan with butter and oil, when hot put in rinsed/water soaked pumpkin pieces and cook til soft. Mash like there’s no tomorrow.
2. When cool mix in a couple of eggs, a pinch of baking powder, cinnamon, and lots of sugar to taste. Add flour until it’s a thick batter consistency.
3. Heat a pan on medium-low with oil. Drop in a few large spoon fulls at a time and let each side cook until firm. The middle will be soft and it will turn out thicker than a pancake.
4. De-grease with paper towels carefully. When cool dip in cinnamon sugar. 5. Gluttonously eat all of them before anyone else gets the chance to steal them away.

Christmas Trifle
-sponge cake
-sherry
-several jello flavors
-custard
-whipped cream
-fruit

1. Prepare about three flavors(the more colors the better) of jell-o and set in the freezer.
2. In a large serving bowl (glass looks best) layer sponge cake until the bottom is fully covered.
3. Pour sherry on top until the cake is just about soaked on all sides. 4. Put a layer of fruit on top, canned fruit cocktail works well.
5. Take jell-o out of the freezer. It should be thick without being solid having not set yet. Pour in color layers over the fruit.
6. Layer custard then whipped cream, completely covering the pan.
7. Decorate as desired. Cherries on top are the traditional decoration.

I haven’t had measuring cups since coming here so bear with me and make your own judgments. They’re both delicious so enjoy :)