Sunday
Tamatie bredie — tomato
The Cape classic: lamb slow-cooked into a deep, sweet-sour tomato sauce with a whisper of sugar and chilli.
The trick nobody tells you is the sugar. Tomatoes go sour over three hours and a teaspoon of sugar brings the whole pot back into balance.
Method
- 01
Build the base: brown the lamb, cook the onions down, add the garlic.
- 02
Stir the tomato paste into the onions and fry it for 2 minutes until it darkens — this takes the tinny edge off.
- 03
Add the tomatoes, sugar, whole chilli and cinnamon, return the lamb, and add just enough stock to come halfway up.
- 04
Simmer gently, lid on, for 2 hours. The sauce should reduce to something glossy and brick red, not watery.
- 05
Add the potatoes and green pepper and cook 40 minutes more.
- 06
Fish out the chilli and cinnamon. Taste: it wants salt, pepper and possibly another pinch of sugar. Rest before serving.
Keep cooking
