South Africa: Cape Malay Spice Rub & Pickled Fish Sosaties (Kebabs)

By Tom Hunt

This recipe draws on Cape Malay cuisine born from the cooking of enslaved people and political exiles brought to the Cape by the Dutch East India Company – primarily from Indonesia, but also from Madagascar and India – who built a spice tradition unlike anywhere else in Africa.

The dish takes its name from the sosatie, skewered meat (sate) in a spiced sauce (saus), traditionally lamb. For the rub, I've drawn on Nadia Graves's family chicken sosatie recipe from her blog, Maison Travers: curry powder, turmeric, coriander and ginger.

For the dish, I've followed the structure set out by Abigail Donnelly, food director at Woolworths TASTE, who marinates firm white fish in coconut yoghurt with curry leaves and grills it on skewers, finished with a sharp cucumber relish.

Other ways to use the rub

• Rubbed onto chicken thighs before roasting
• Stirred into yoghurt as a quick marinade for paneer or halloumi
• Scattered over roasted sweet potato wedges

Ingredients

For the Cape Malay spice rub (makes about 90ml/6 tbsp - one Shadwell spice tube):

• 2 tbsp coriander seeds
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 tbsp fennel seeds
• 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 4 cardamom pods, seeds only
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp flaky sea salt

For the fish:

• 1 cup plain coconut yoghurt
• 2 tbsp Cape Malay spice rub
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• Thumb-sized piece ginger, grated
• 1 fresh red chilli, finely chopped
• 2 sprigs curry leaves
• Salt, to taste
• 600g monkfish or hake fillets, cut into 6cm cubes
• 2 red onions, peeled and quartered
• 200g Padron peppers (or 1 regular pepper, chunked)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Skewers (I used small branches of bay leaves)

Method

To make the Cape Malay spice rub:

1. Grind the whole spices to a powder.
2. Stir in the preground spices and salt.
3. Store in a Shadwell spice tube or an airtight jar, labelled and dated. Keeps up to 3 months.

To make the pickled fish sosaties:

1. Mix the yoghurt, spice rub, garlic, ginger, chilli, curry leaves and salt into a marinade.
2. Toss the fish, onions and peppers in the marinade, cover and chill for 1 hour. Thread onto metal skewers.
3. Heat a grill until hot and cook the sosaties for 5 minutes on each side and serve with your favourite salad.
4. Mix the cucumber with the fish sauce and sugar. Serve alongside the sosaties.