Once upon a time, when we had a little restaurant in Sutherland in the Karoo Hoogland, I had the audacity to bake pumpkin as a side dish – without sugar. I had lived in Sussex, England, for four years shortly before returning to open the bistro, and had forgotten a good deal of my Afrikaans, and evidently some of the details of Afrikaner cuisine too.
I was swiftly put to rights when a man at a corner table sent The Foodie’s Wife back into the kitchen to ask for a cup of sugar and a spoon.
“I have no idea,” she explained, somewhat inadequately. “Let’s just give it to him.”
That early salary payment many people receive in mid-December is such a boon at the time, but the high CoC (Cost of Christmas) soon puts paid to that heady swirl of indulgence. Come early to mid-January, the next payday seems an aeon away. For those who have a freezer into which leftovers get tucked away in bakkies for a rainy day, now might be the time to see what’s in there and can go into a pie this January.
In our household, it’s often leftover curry that gets frozen for a later day, and curry, if boneless (or if you remove the bones), makes a great pie filling; whether mutton, lamb or chicken. The leftovers of a meaty potjie are also good for a pie, as is leftover roast chicken meat or the meat of any roast joint, whether pork, beef or lamb.