Entertaining with kool frikkadelle

One Friday night a while ago, after a week of entertaining and eating out we stayed in and entertained ourselves with a very South African dish (as far as my knowledge goes) called kool frikkadelle or cabbage meatballs. I think the Afrikaans sounds better regardless of how badly you might pronounce it.

I’ve actually never had it in my life and only found out about its existence while paging through some cookbooks (with pretty pictures of course) earlier this year. What I have had though is my grandmother’s meatballs (okay I hate that word so from now on it’s frikkadelle- work on the pronunciation: frik-ah-delle-eh) and I liked them so much that I asked her to send me the recipe. I was craving them so I decided to make them, but work them into cabbage frikkadelle. It’s a great way to serve something as mundane as frikkadelle.

Ingredients (feel free to increase the spices, think I’d do so next time):
about 10 whole cabbage leaves
10 whole cloves
1 can whole peeled or crushed tomato
salt and pepper to taste

1 kg minced meat
3 thick slices bread
500ml water
2 eggs
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cloves
1 large tablespoon chutney
¾ cup grated carrot

The process:

Immerse the cabbage leaves in enough gently boiling water to cover and cook for 10 minutes or until gently softened. Remove from heat and allow to cool in water. Drain.

Soak the bread in the water. Mix the spices, chutney and carrot with the meat, then add the soaked slices of bread (torn into pieces) and eggs. Mix everything well and shape into frikkadelle (how’s the pronunciation going?).

Pour the tomato into a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium high heat.

Meanwhile, lay down a cabbage leave and place a frikkadel on it, wrap up, and pin shut with a whole clove. When you’re done, place these parcels into the saucepan with the tomato sauce, cover and allow to cook for about 40 minutes, until the meat is cooked.

I served mine with brown rice and a simple salad, and we enjoyed it with a pleasant bottle of wine. Which we bought minutes before the liquor store closed (can’t wait to move back to Taiwan where you can buy booze at ALL HOURS EVERY DAY!) after I threw a little hissy fit. Sorry Alexander!

* Thanks Alexander for the pictures- xx.