Kapana

Ingredients

Meat

• 800 gbeef topside, silverside or rump, in one piece, well trimmed
• 2 tspcoarse salt

Kapana spice (chilli salt)

• 2 tbspcoarse salt
• 1 tbsphot chilli powder or ground dried bird’s eye chilli
• 1 tbspsweet paprika
• 1 tspground black pepper
• 1 tspgarlic powder
• 1 tspground coriander seed
• ½ tspground ginger

To serve

• 3tomatoes, finely diced
• 1red onion, finely diced
• 2green chillies, minced
• Juice of 1 lemon
• ½ tspsalt
• 8fat cakes (vetkoek) or 4 slices white bread
• 2 tbspbeef dripping or oil, for the grill bars

Directions

1. Build a hardwood fire in an open drum or braai and let it burn down to a deep bed of glowing coals with a light grey ash. Kapana is grilled over wood coals, not gas, and the smoke is part of the flavour.
2. Chill the beef for 30 minutes to firm it, then slice it across the grain into strips 5 mm thick and about 6 cm long. Thin and across the grain is what makes a cheap cut tender in two minutes.
3. Mix all the kapana spice ingredients in a bowl and set it beside the fire in a shallow dish where everyone can reach it. Nothing else is put on the meat before it cooks.
4. Mix the tomato, onion, green chilli, lemon juice and salt into a rough fresh salsa and leave it to sit 15 minutes.
5. Wipe the grill bars with dripping and set them 10–15 cm above the coals, so the surface is fiercely hot; a hand held at grill height should be unbearable within 2 seconds.
6. Season the strips with the coarse salt only, then lay them across the bars in a single layer, working in batches so the grill never crowds and never drops temperature.
7. Grill 60–90 seconds, until the underside has dark bar marks and the edges have curled and crisped, then turn once with tongs and give the second side 45–60 seconds.
8. Pull the meat while it is still pink at the centre. Beef this thin goes from juicy to dry within seconds, which is why kapana is cooked in small handfuls, continuously, and never in advance.
9. Tip the hot strips straight onto a sheet of paper or a board, no plate and no cutlery. Dip each piece into the chilli salt as you eat, with the tomato salsa and a fat cake alongside, and put the next batch on the fire while you chew.

Technique

• Kapana is a market institution, above all at the Single Quarters market in Katutura, Windhoek, where the meat is bought, cut, grilled and eaten within the same hour and vendors compete on the fire, not on marinades.
• There is no marinade. The whole point is fresh beef, fire and a dip of chilli salt afterwards, and adding a wet marinade puts out the sear and makes it something else.
• Because the strips are so thin, the fire must be at its peak. A cooling fire steams the meat grey and toughens it.
• Namibian beef is largely free-range and grass-fed, which is why the cut used is lean and why speed matters so much.

Substitutions

• No wood fire: a charcoal braai works, or a cast-iron griddle heated until it smokes; the meat will be right but the smoke will be missing.
• Cheaper cuts such as flank or skirt work well if sliced very thin across the grain. Fillet is wasted here.
• Fat cakes can be replaced by any plain white roll; the point is something bland and soft to soak up the fat and the chilli.

Variations

• Kapana with oshifima or pap instead of bread, for a full meal.
• Offal kapana, with liver, kidney and tripe grilled alongside the beef, a market favourite.
• Mixed grills with boerewors and beef, sold together at the same stalls.

History

Strips of beef grilled over open fires at Windhoek’s Katutura single quarters market and eaten straight off the grill with chili salt.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kapana?

Kapana is a street food from Namibia: flame-grilled beef strips sold sizzling at open markets with chili salt. Strips of beef grilled over open fires at Windhoek’s Katutura single quarters market and eaten straight off the grill with chili salt.

How long does Kapana take to make?

Kapana takes 20 min of preparation and 10 min of cooking. The recipe makes 4 servings. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Kapana?

Yes, within limits. No wood fire: a charcoal braai works, or a cast-iron griddle heated until it smokes; the meat will be right but the smoke will be missing. Cheaper cuts such as flank or skirt work well if sliced very thin across the grain. Fillet is wasted here. Fat cakes can be replaced by any plain white roll; the point is something bland and soft to soak up the fat and the chilli.

What is the most important thing to get right in Kapana?

Season the strips with the coarse salt only, then lay them across the bars in a single layer, working in batches so the grill never crowds and never drops temperature.