Karoo Food
Auntie Evelyne’s Lamb Bredie Recipe
Oct
She remembers the clear mountain streams, chasing river crabs and fish, and the fact that all their delicious food came from the farm. This is where she learnt how to cook true Karoo farmstyle food.
After school, she found work at a guesthouse in Nieu Bethesda, where she worked for many years. It was there that people tasted her cooking talents. But when the guesthouse owner got sick and closed her doors in 2000, Evelyne had to envision a new life for herself.
Fortunately the regular visitors to the guesthouse sought her out and asked her to cook for them. In fact a former guest unexpectedly sent her boxes of kitchenware – everything from tablecloths to salt and pepper sets, plates and cutlery. She transformed the outside of her simple township house into a sheltered eating spot.
Auntie Evelyne’s Eet Plek had begun, and has become a notable tourism success story in Nieu Bethesda.
“That’s why I say, you must lift yourself up. You mustn’t wait for Government to sort things out for you.”
This is a place where you come hungry, to find a true Karoo ‘bord kos’ with homecooked goodness. Antie Evelyne cooks what’s in season and available. No preservatives, no processed food.
You might find chicken pie, a plate full of delicious Karoo chops, or slow-cooked bredie, plus caramelised pumpkin, crispy roast potatoes, cabbage slow-cooked in tomato smoor, plus two salads. Maybe soup to start, and something your granny may have served for pudding too.
Antie Evelyne also runs a soup kitchen for hungry children next door called the God Sal Voorsien Sopkombuis (God Will Provide Soup Kitchen), and no meal is complete without a plaintive song by the children she pulls under her protective wing. She also runs a small B+B.
For more information, call her on 083 873 5526.
RECIPE: Auntie Evelyne’s Lamb Bredie
Ingredients:
4kg lamb (from the ribs, shoulder, leg)
4 chopped onions
Half a cup chopped garlic
A cup of beef stock
6 peeled potatoes, chopped into chunks
4 carrots, sliced
2 cups of green beans
Red and green peppers
METHOD:
Cube the meat, then brown it in a little oil. Take it out and replace with the chopped up onions and garlic. Once this is golden and soft (don’t allow to burn), replace the meat and cook with the lid on.
Add a little stock (add more than a cup of needed) then the cubed potatoes and carrots.
Simmer on a low heat until the meat becomes tender. Shortly before serving, add the green beans and red and green peppers and replace the lid. You could also add a some maizena to thicken, and chutney or a little vinegar for taste.
Serve with barley or pearled wheat. Feeds many.
The Universe is working for me – I have just ordered my 1/2 lamb delivery from my favourite Karoo Farmer it will be delivered to my door next week. Printed and filed this recipe in great anticipation for our first cook-up next week. Having eaten at Auntie Evelyne’s we are salivating already. Thank you Karoo Space and Evelyn. xx
Oh dear. It makes me so jealous to see and read about everything in the Karoo, my best place on this planet. I wish everyone the best who lives there – and no frigging fracking
Wholesome food prepared and cooked by a lady with a big heart and a good soul. Thank you for covering all these wonderful people, thus bringing them and their stories to light – people who would otherwise lie forgotten and unacknowledged.
Ag hoe krul my tone om van lekker!
Blessings to the Karroo and its people. it is my favourite place and Cradock tops the list for towns! Best of luck for the Parliament this year! Lucille Cooper.
Wonderfully inspiring, totally delicious and we wish the KarooSpace all the best with fighting the fracking. Protect our farms and protect our farmers should be foremost.
Hope to visit soon…
Hi
I am a blogger working at the accommodation and travelling website lekkeslaap.co.za and I’m writing a blog about 10 restaurants where clients can experience authentic South African food. I want to feature Antie Evelyne as one of these places, but cannot find photos without copyright of it except on your page. Can I perhaps use your photos with the proper credits?
Thanks!
Ankia Wolf
By all means. Happy to help in promoting such a wonderful woman.
Does she have a recipe book that we can purchase and if so what is it called and where can I find it as I live in Canada. THX.
Hi Johanna. Auntie Evelyne doesn’t have a cookbook, but the Karoo does boast quite a few these days. Some of the titles include: Veld to Fork by Gordon Wright, Karoo Kitchens by Sydda Essop, The Karoo Cookbook by Rose Willis, Prickly Pears and Pomegranates by Bernadette le Roux and Marianne Palmer, and Karoo Venison by Lynne Minnaar, Annatjie Reynolds and Albe Neethling. I’m sure at least some of them should be available via Abe Books or somewhere online. Let us know if we can help.
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I have made copies of Auntie Evelyne’s lamb bredie and I am going to try it. It looks delicious.
Best regards to Auntie Evelyne
Dirk van Rensburg