Name: Chakalaka and pap (home recipe)
Prep time: 20 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: South Africa
Ingredients: For the chakalaka: 2 tbsp sunflower oil, 1 large onion sliced, 3 carrots coarsely grated; 1 red and 1 green pepper, diced; 3 garlic cloves, grated; 1 tbsp mild curry powder, 1 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp chilli flakes; 1 tin chopped tomato, 400g; 1 tin baked beans in tomato sauce, 410g; 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar; For the pap: 750ml water, 1 tsp salt, 375ml white maize meal, 1 tbsp butter

History

Chakalaka is said to have started in the townships and gold mines around Johannesburg, where Mozambican mineworkers cooked tinned tomato and beans with chilli into a Portuguese-style relish to eat with pap. It travelled with labour migration and is now standard across South Africa, including at Cape Town's shisanyama counters, where a tub of it comes with every kilogram of grilled meat. Pap is the constant beneath it: maize meal rained into salted boiling water and steamed stiff enough to hold a shape, eaten with the hand or pushed onto a fork.

Common allergens: Milk

Make it at home

Yield Serves 6Hands-on 20 minTotal 50 minDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

For the chakalaka: 2 tbsp sunflower oil, 1 large onion sliced, 3 carrots coarsely grated
1 red and 1 green pepper, diced
3 garlic cloves, grated
1 tbsp mild curry powder, 1 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1 tin chopped tomato, 400g
1 tin baked beans in tomato sauce, 410g
1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar
For the pap: 750ml water, 1 tsp salt, 375ml white maize meal, 1 tbsp butter

Method

Fry the onion in the oil over medium heat for 8 minutes until soft, then add the peppers and carrot and cook 5 minutes.
Add the garlic, curry powder, paprika and chilli and cook 1 minute until it smells toasted.
Add the tomato, salt and sugar and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes until thick, then stir the beans through and warm 3 minutes. Take it off the heat.
For the pap, bring the salted water to a rolling boil and rain the maize meal into the centre in a steady stream without stirring.
Cover and steam on low for 10 minutes, then beat hard with a wooden spoon, stir in the butter, cover again and steam 25 minutes.
Beat once more and serve in a mound, with the chakalaka alongside rather than mixed in.

Tip from the editors. Do not stir the maize meal in as it goes into the water: the cone that forms steams from the inside, which is what keeps pap from going lumpy.