Waterblommetjiebredie

Ingredients

Meat

• 1.2 kgmutton or lamb neck and shoulder, on the bone

Waterblommetjies

• 800 gwaterblommetjies, fresh or tinned
• salted water, for soaking

Base

• 3 tbspoil or lard
• 3onions, sliced
• 4 clovesgarlic
• 1 tspground ginger

Also

• 4potatoes, in chunks
• 1 bunchsorrel, suring, or the juice of 2 lemons
• 2bay leaves
• 1 tspblack pepper
• salt
• 500 mlstock or water

To serve

• white rice
• chutney

Directions

1. Pick them over and pull off the stems and any brown or open flowers. Use tight closed buds. Now soak them in salted water for at least an hour.
2. Use mutton neck or shoulder on the bone, which has the fat and connective tissue for a long cook. Mutton has far more flavour than lamb and a bredie cooks for hours, which is exactly what a tough flavourful cut wants. Brown the meat hard in batches in the fat. Brown it properly with space around it, since that colour is the base of the stew.
3. Lift it out and cook the onions slowly in the same fat. Cook them for 20 minutes until deep golden and collapsed. Take the onions well past soft, since properly caramelised onions are much of the sweetness and body of any bredie.
4. Add the garlic and ginger and cook a minute. Return the meat, add the bay, pepper and just enough stock to come halfway up. Add little liquid. The waterblommetjies release a good deal as they cook, and a bredie should end up thick rather than soupy.
5. Cover and simmer very gently for about 1 hour 30 minutes. Cook it low and slow, which is the defining method of a bredie. Now add the potatoes and cook 20 minutes more.
6. Add them for the last 30 to 40 minutes only. Cooked too long they disintegrate into a slimy grey mass, and cooked too briefly they are tough and grassy. Add a bunch of suring, wild sorrel, in the last 15 minutes, or the juice of two lemons.
7. Taste and season, and adjust the acid. It is done when the meat falls from the bone and the sauce has thickened. Serve it with white rice and a fruit chutney.

Technique

• Waterblommetjies are the buds of Cape pondweed and grow only in the Western Cape.
• The season is short, in winter and early spring.
• Sorrel or lemon is essential to balance the dish.

Substitutions

• Tinned waterblommetjies, which are widely sold and reliable.
• Green beans, which give a different dish entirely.

Variations

• Made with lemon rather than sorrel.
• With white wine in the sauce.
• Tomato bredie, the other great Cape stew.

History

Cooked in the Western Cape in winter when the waterblommetjie blooms in the vleis, a dish with no equivalent anywhere else.

Frequently asked questions

What is Waterblommetjiebredie?

Waterblommetjiebredie is a soup & stew from South Africa: lamb stewed with Cape pondweed flowers, sorrel and potatoes. Cooked in the Western Cape in winter when the waterblommetjie blooms in the vleis, a dish with no equivalent anywhere else.

How long does Waterblommetjiebredie take to make?

Waterblommetjiebredie takes 30 min of preparation and 2 hr 30 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Waterblommetjiebredie?

Yes, within limits. Tinned waterblommetjies, which are widely sold and reliable. Green beans, which give a different dish entirely.

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

Add the garlic and ginger and cook a minute. Return the meat, add the bay, pepper and just enough stock to come halfway up. Add little liquid. The waterblommetjies release a good deal as they cook, and a bredie should end up thick rather than soupy.