Smoorsnoek

Serves 6

To make the ‘smoorsnoek’

2 large onions, sliced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

a generous pinch of ground cloves

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

a blob of butter

2 large tomatoes

1 teaspoon dried red chillies

5 medium potatoes, cubed

750 g smoked snoek

freshly ground black pepper

a handful of freshly chopped parsley

1.       Flake the snoek, taking care to remove all the bones.

2.       Fry the onion in the oil and butter until lightly browned.

3.       Add the garlic and chillies.

4.       Add the tomatoes and braise for a few minutes.

5.       Add the flaked snoek, ground cloves and black pepper.

6.       Add the potato cubes and simmer for 15 minutes or until potatoes are cooked.

7.       Add the parsley.

Tips

Smoorsnoek can be frozen successfully.

Then I cut phyllo pastry squares of about 10cm x 10cm.  I started by placing a layer of pastry on the oven dish, buttered it, added another two layers in the same way, then a thin layer of 'smoorsnoek', a layer of phyllo, and so on - until it was about 6cm tall.  After buttering the top layer, I placed thinly sliced red onion on the top, buttered that slightly, and baked this in a pre-heated oven at 200ºC until the pastry was golden brown.  I served that with my homemade sweet chilli sauce, and a fresh garden salad.