Lockdown Recipe of the Day: Porcupines

The original recipe appeared a century ago, during the First World War, in an American community recipe book. Using this book during the Depression, home cooks showed what could be done with limited rations and tinned tomato soup. Shortly thereafter it also appeared in our country, cropping up in community recipe books from the 1930s to the 1980s, particularly in books from schools from Steynsburg and Napier to Bellville, Bloemfontein and Brackenfell.

Porcupines also appear in What for Supper?, published in the jubilee year of the CPWAA (VLV-Kaapland). Mrs AJ Muller flavours the tomato with cinnamon and cloves. If you want to be more adventurous, I’ve provided a few ideas.

 

(Serves 4–6)

Ingredients

30 ml oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 whole cloves

2.5 ml ground cinnamon

1 tin (400 g) cream of tomato soup or tomato purée (passata) 125 ml water

5 ml salt

2.5 ml pepper

pinch of sugar to taste (the old recipe says 30 ml, but nowadays

we prefer less sweetness)

500 g beef mince

125 ml uncooked rice

30 ml Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

chopped fresh parsley or torn basil for garnishing

Method

Heat the oil over moderate heat and fry half the onion until soft and transparent. Add half the garlic, the cloves and cinnamon (and extra spices, if using) and sauté for 1 minute. Add the tomato soup or purée, water, salt, pepper and sugar, then heat until it starts simmering.

Make the frikkadels while the sauce is simmering: Using a fork, lightly combine the mince, rice, the remaining onion and garlic, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Roll into small frikkadels. Place them in the sauce and simmer, covered with a lid, until the rice is cooked, 45–60 minutes, or in the oven for 60–90 minutes at 180°C. Remove the lid for the final 15 minutes. Remember to remove the whole cloves, garnish with chopped herbs and serve on mashed potatoes.

Bring it up to date

• A few drops of honey will cut through the sharp sourness of tinned tomato soup.


• For a Moroccan flavour, add the following spices while frying the onion: 5 ml smoked or sweet paprika, 2.5 ml cumin and 2.5 ml ground ginger.


• Use fresh herbs instead of the spices, or garnish with a few drops of basil oil.


• For variation, use brown rice or quinoa instead of white rice.


• With a pressure cooker, you have food on the table in half an hour. Carefully place the raw frikkadels in the sauce and spoon some of the sauce over them. Secure the lid of the pressure cooker and cook at high pressure for 10 minutes. Release the steam quickly according to the instructions.