SOUTHERN AFRICA

BEVERAGES

Tea is unquestionably the most widely imbibed liquid in South Africa, as I mentioned earlier. Not only is this an English holdover, but the result of Malay and Indian tradi tions as well.

Usually, tea is brewed in a china pot and served in the English manner with milk and sugar. Cape Malays, how- ever, make tea in an enamel pan, brew it for a while with a spice bag of cardamon seeds and dry ginger, add milk, then pour it into cups in the kitchen.

Milk, unadorned in any way, does not enjoy the standing as a beverage it does in this country. Among the Asians and

Cape Malays, milk is never taken in any form if fish has been on the menu. There's a superstition that fish and milk to- gether cause illness.

However, on other occasions, the Cape Malays favor a milk drink, Boeboer, that's something like a thin porridge. Essen- tially, this is milk or milk and water thickened with pasta and spiced.

BOEBOER

• 1 quart water
• ½ stick cinnamon, broken up and slightly crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamon 1¼ cup sultana raisins
• 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped almonds
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/2 to 1 cup vermicelli pieces
• Milk

Bring water to a boil. Add cinnamon, cardamon, raisins, and almonds. Mix cornstarch with a little cold water and add along with enough vermicelli to make the mixture about as thick as a good soup. Simmer until vermicelli is cooked. Re move cinnamon. Serve stock in mugs or glasses and pass the milk to be added as desired.

Unthickened but spiced milk is traditionally served at prayer meetings held after Cape Malay funerals.

SPICED MILK

• ½ stick cinnamon, broken into pieces and slightly bruised
• V½ teaspoon cardamon seeds, bruised
• 1 quart milk
• Sugar
• Distilled rose water
• 4 to 6 servings

Place cinnamon and cardamon seeds in a cheesecloth bag and place in a saucepan. Add half the milk and allow spices to soak 1 or 2 hours. Bring milk in the saucepan to a boil. Re move from heat and remove bag. Add remaining cold milk, sweeten to taste with sugar, and perfume with a few drops of rose water.

The Cape Province's Mediterranean-like climate is ideal for growing grapes, and a respectable wine industry has matured in the three centuries since the first French Huguenots arrived, seeking haven from religious persecution. At first, the directors of the Dutch East Indies Company sourly decided that Cape wine was better for vinegar than for drinking, but that's cer. tainly not the case today. Both very good red and white wines, as well as brandy, are produced in the Cape area. Cape brandy is the base for a liqueur that many housewives mix themselves and keep on hand to pour over puddings and soufflés and for drinking.

This is Mrs. Pitman's recipe for Van Der Hum Liqueur.

• 36 cloves
• 1/2 whole nutmegs
• 6 sticks cinnamon
• 1½ teaspoon cardamon seeds
• 6 bottles (fifths) brandy
• 2 tablespoons tangerine peel, thinly sliced
• ½ cup orange blossoms
• 3 pounds sugar
• 6 cups water
• 1 bottle (fifth) rum
• about 9 bottles (fifth)

Bruise spices slightly. Break up cinnamon. Place all spices in a cheesecloth bag. Add spices to brandy along with tanger- ine peel (be sure all white pith has been removed from the peel) and orange blossoms. Keep well sealed in an earthen- ware jar or well corked in a small cask. Shake each day for 1 month.

Strain brandy. Boil sugar with water until it forms a thick syrup. Cool. When cold, add to brandy mixture with the rum. Let stand, covered and undisturbed, for 3 to 312 weeks. If using a cask, tap and draw off the liqueur, bottle, and seal with wax. With an earthenware jar, carefully ladle out liqueur, bottle, and seal. In either case, take care not to disturb any sediment that may have accumulated at the bottom of the container. Allow liqueur to age a few months.

This is excellent for flavoring such things as Bavarian cream, or as a sauce for chocolate soufflé or pudding, or as an after- dinner liqueur.