Simplicity - Meaty Bones

With rising food prices here in my country, South Africa ... it is necessary for many people to plan carefully when they buy food. I have a popular Facebook page Colyn Kook Man Kos ... Man Kos can be translated as Dude Food but for me it is more about encouraging more men to cook.

So for the past year I have been focusing on keeping a close eye on the cost of the components and ingredients that I use in my stories. Note that I call them stories and not merely recipes. Those that know me, knows that I am quite verbose and I do it specifically to allow someone to read the story and be able to visualize the process and eventually attempt the dish themselves. In this story I am going to assume that you can make a gravy and if you are not familiar with the maize porridge you can substitute that with rice, lentils, beans or mash potatoes.

On Friday night I entertained some people for dinner and decided to treat them with a very old traditional dish. We call it Pap and Vleis and it is basically meat and a porridge made from maize meal. The Americans have something similar and they call it grits.

Red meat has become quite expensive here and premium cuts are many times simply unaffordable. So I decided to see how low I could go and still present my guests with a tasty meal.

There is a National Pork Supplier, ESKORT, here and they sell a product called Meaty Bones ... these are mostly the pork backbone after the prime cuts have been stripped off. The meat left on those bones are good quality and very tasty.

So first I packed the bones into an oven tray, added three cups of chickenstock, roughly chopped onions and sprinkled some soy sauce and mixed barbecue spices over the flesh.

Covered the pan with aluminum foil and placed it in the oven. Temperature was set to 110C. This process took three and a half hours.

I removed the tray from the oven and drained all the juices into a jug. This will form the base of my sauce/gravy.

Now I basted the meat with a commercial ribs basting sauce and covered it again and back into the oven for another hour.

For the "pap" I use coarse ground maize, we call it "Braai" meal ... that would be translated into Barbecue meal ... where meal refers to the ground maize.

I mix white and yellow 50:50. The trick is to allow the "pap" enough time to steam low and slow so that the maize gets soft. For me the texture is right after about ninety minutes. We also make our "pap" much stiffer than the grits made in the USA. In this case the mix was done to end up with a crumbly consistency.

As you can see in the image, it is moist and fluffy. The perfect consistency for the required gravy.

For the gravy I melt two tablespoons of pork lard, add some coarse black pepper, roasting masala and wait for the spices to activate. Then I add chopped onion and soften the onions. Next I add two tablespoons AP flour, two teaspoons roasted brown onion stock powder and stir it into the onions. I allow this paste to cook out for one or two minutes. I maintain a high heat under the pot. I work only with cast iron so my stuff does not burn easily.

Now I add the recovered pan juices in one pour and stir the mix with a metal spoon, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan properly. Very soon that gravy will be very thick, too thick ... now I dilute it with water and milk to reach the right consistency. You want it almost like double cream. Keep in mind that you will need around one cup of gravy per serving. I turn the heat to low, cover the pot and let it simmer for 15 minutes.

To stay in my theme of traditional meat and gravy, I plated in ceramic coated tin dishes with no garnishing. I also only gave the spoons. Then I also provided a bowl for the bones and a wet cloth for cleaning their hands. Do not be stingy with the gravy, that is what ties the whole dish together and give it that luxurious taste and mouth feel.

This image was taken to show you what the meat looks like on the inside.

Now to proof my point about cost ... the total cost to feed five people was R70.00 (4.95 US$) At the current exchange rate. Now I am also aware that meat prices could differ from country to country but these bones should always be in the bottom price range.

For my guests it was a treat and they enjoyed the simplicity.

PS ... If the demand is there I will do the gravy and maize porridge recipes in more detail.

Enjoy your cooking ... greetings from South Africa.