Essecke: A piece of South Africa

The cover

I love history and real stories, history of the common people. It was a damn close thing that I had ended up to undust books in a history department of some university. Of course I love food and cooking as well or otherwise I wouln't be doing what I am doing now. All these themes are combined in one of my favourite cooking book "Karoo kitchen" of Sydda Essop which we bought in our last holiday in South Africa. I have not cooked very much out of this book but I love the photos and the people in it. The whole book is built around people living in the area of Karoo in South Africa. They all have a diffrent background and family heritage and the one thing common is the Karoo. Each of them shares the story of their life and some recipes. I have longing a piece of South African Melktert, milktart, so I wanted to try the Old-fashioned milk tart recipe of this book.

The cover

One of the recipes in the book...I could die for the fantastic savoury pies sold in South Africa

One of the persons in the book telling her story.

This is the recipe I used as the basis for my recipe...with some minor changes

Milk Tart

250 g flour

125 g butter

1 tsp baking powder

40 g water

60 g milk

1 yolk

2 eggs

120 g sugar

17 g flour

17 g corn starch

45 g butter

pinch of salt

I followed the instructions of the book. After cooling the tart down shortly in the fridge I served it with marinated strawberries. Just cut the strawberries in pieces, place them in the bowl and add some sugar, vanilla seeds, orange juice and Aperol. Let them marinate for about half an hour. Strain and thicken the liquid with a little bit of potato starch.