Chakalaka Soweto's Chilli/Chili Delight

Doris, award-winning chakalaka maker, at our South African day

Doris Mbekwaphi Mamba was an extremely important part of our lives in Saudi Arabia. I recently wrote about our joint sojourn in Saudi Arabia for the Natal Witness True Stories of KwaZulu-Natal competition and the story, Doris's House, about our various attempts to buy her a house in South Africa was published on 2 February 2012 in the Natal Witness.

Chakalaka is known as a salad in Soweto, others term it a spicy vegetable relish. This is Doris’s special Chakalaka recipe, for which I was inundated with requests. Not only was it a huge hit with the international community (particularly the women hailing from Indonesia and Pakistan), but it even placed first in a chilli/chili cook-off contest against an entire contingent of highly competitive Americans, all the more notable in that she presented a cold, vegetarian dish which went head-to-head against hot, meat dishes. Any American will know just how deeply competitive such competitions are, and my Italian friend, Ilaria, who was one of the judges, remarked to me that the grid on which they had to mark the various recipes included taste and texture and so on and that Doris' Chakalaka was the hands-down winner, streaks ahead of everyone else. In particular, they remarked on the wonderful texture and combination of tastes. So her take on chakalaka is pretty special.

In fact, it is so special that Phillip de Bond, of Tamimi Caterers in Saudi Arabia, not only often asked Doris to make chakalaka for special events (the proceedings from which paid for the wall she built around her house), but when he discovered we were leaving, we suddenly realised it was undocumented. There is no other recipe quite like this already available, Doris' recipe seems mostly made up by herself, she is a gifted cook, and she currently supplements her pension by spending it on ingredients and then cooking batches of bottled goods to sell, the fridge we gave her proving invaluable in this regard.

Chakalaka is made up of ingredients that are readily available or last for a long time without refrigeration, and hence would be easily found in a spaza shop - or local grocery store within a township. During the apartheid era in South Africa, there were very few, if any, shopping malls built in any of the major townships, and hence these mom-and-pop stores were a ubiquitous part of the landscape. Again, given a lack of electricity in many parts of the country, which lack was only systematically redressed post-1994 (or the first democratic elections in the country), it is evident that the kinds of vegetables you can purchase from such a store would be those which do not need refrigeration of any kind. Given the years I spent in developmental research, I was often in spaza shops in the townships and there was generally speaking a very limited selection of vegetables on display. Hence, when Doris first began giving me a list of ingredients to purchase for Chakalaka, it immediately brought to mind a typical spaza shop basket of goodies, and its advent as a dish for me was directly related to the environment from which it arose.

Chakalaka Recipe

This makes a large quantity, enough for a relish for about 40 people.

3 large red onions
1 large bulb garlic – that is, all the cloves of a big bulb
1 thumb ginger (that is, a piece about as big as your thumb)
10 large carrots (6 should do, the ten will make it a bit sweeter)
4 green or bell peppers
3 small boxes tomato paste (about 1 ½ cups worth)
1 ½ cups Crosse & Blackwell Tangy Mayonnaise (this may be hard to substitute)
3 tins baked beans in tomato sauce
Small handful of chopped up chillies – or more chillies roughly chopped – about 6-8 depending on how hot you like it
2 teaspoons finely ground white pepper (this is bought over the counter in South Africa)
Steak and chops spice and barbecue spice
2 teaspoons curry powder (optional – mainly used if not enough chillies)
2 cucumbers - for decoration

Chop garlic and ginger into semi-fine chunks. Peel and chop onions. Fry garlic, ginger and onions and green pepper in vegetable oil, together with all the spices and chillies until the onion is nicely caramelized. Once the onions and green pepper start to stick in the pan and almost begin burning, add the grated carrots. Stir while cooking over a medium high heat, until the carrots turn brown in colour. At this stage, put in baked beans.

In a separate pot on the stove, stir together tomato paste and tangy mayonnaise. Bring to the boil. While boiling, add to the mixture above.

Place in a container with a lid. When the mixture has cooled, place in fridge overnight. The next morning, decorate the mixture with cucumber slices and serve.

The cucumbers make a great decoration, and crunchy addition, to the chakalaka

A great accompaniment to pap 'n wors (a polenta like corn meal and a long sausage spiced with coriander that is unique to South Africa).