Roasted tomato bredie, a twist on a classic

There’s C Louis Leipoldt’s way, with its many ingredients, and my way, which is inspired by Leipoldt but with much investigation of the many recipes there are for this South African classic.

But sometimes I throw all the recipes out — even my own — and just cook. Because that’s what cooking is all about for those of us for whom it is a passion, not a chore.

And this time, I thought: I’m going to roast the devil out of those bright red tomatoes.

It probably need not be stated that tomato bredie is all about tomatoes, but I’ll say it anyway, because the more tomato you can get in there, the better. So, in addition to a hefty 1.5kg of ripe tomatoes, I used a can of tomato purée too. And that, as you may know, means there has to be a bit of sugar in it to offset the tart acid bite that tomato purée inevitably brings to a dish. 

This could be sugar, or honey, molasses, maple syrup… but guess what I found while I was eyeing the goods in my cupboard: tomato jam. Perfick, as Pa Larkin liked to say in HE Bates’ The Darling Buds of May. So 3 Tbsp of that went into the pot, to do its work in taming that acid.

It had to be mutton rib, and I never make a tomato bredie with any other cut of mutton.

Which brings me to a brief aside: at the annual Karoo Food Festival in Cradock recently, during the Friday night street market in Market Street, I spied a stall near the Victoria Manor Hotel entrance, with a sign that was sorely tempting: “Tomato bredie”.

I enquired. Is it just the bredie or is there something with it?

“Samp, sir.”

Alongside a pot of the bredie was another with samp that looked enticing. Great. I ordered a portion and a standard round tub was brought out. 

She first dipped into the samp and extracted not one, not two, not three, but four generous ladles of samp, which was piled and piled into the tub until it was four-fifths full.

One ladle of bredie went on top, and half of that was bones. And not rib bones either.

“Is that it?” I asked.

Blank.

“That’s a very ungenerous portion of bredie. There’s hardly any meat.”

Blank. I paid and walked away, grumbling. I ate it, and I did enjoy the samp, but honestly, if there were four little mouthfuls of meat it was a lot.

Catering needs to be generous. People will not be happy if it’s too obvious that you’re more interested in taking their money than in the satisfaction of the customers who are paying R75 for four ladles full of samp and one of meat and bones.

Digression over. Back in the pot in my kitchen, there are a few other things too. Onion, obviously. Ginger. Chilli. Cardamom, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, black pepper. A generous hand with the salt.

Most of all, a lot of love and a generous spirit. 

Never will you be shortchanged of your meat in my kitchen.

Tony’s roasted tomato bredie

(Serves 6)

Ingredients

1.5kg large ripe tomatoes

1.5kg mutton rib, cut into small pieces (ask your butcher)

2 large onions, sliced

3cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped or grated

2 heaped Tbsps flour

2 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp garlic and ginger paste

400g tomato purée

8 cardamom pods

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp coriander seeds

A few peppercorns, whole

1 red chilli, chopped, including seeds

2 Tbsp tomato jam (or 2 Tbsp sugar)

Salt to taste (be generous)

Method

Preheat the oven, or an air fryer, to 200°C.

Make a cross at the top of each tomato. Put them in a bowl, add a glug of olive oil and a little salt and back pepper, and roll them around to coat.

Roast them for 20 to 25 minutes. Keep an eye on them while they cook and stop cooking if the skins start to blacken.

Let the roasted tomatoes cool to room temperature while you do the following:

In a large heavy pot, sauté the sliced onions in butter with 2 bay leaves and chopped ginger and remove.

Add the mutton to the pot, put it on the heat and stir while it browns.

Add the flour and butter and stir until the butter has disappeared into the mix.

Cook on a gentle heat for 10 minutes, stirring now and then. 

Put the onions back in with the chilli, garlic and ginger paste, and season with salt and back pepper to taste.

Chop the roasted tomatoes and add them. Add the tomato purée and tomato jam (or 2 Tbsp sugar) 

Simmer the bredie gently for about 3 to 4 hours for the meat to become fall-off-the-bone tender. It’s done when the meat is tender, not when the clock has ticked to either of those times. Serve with rice. Or samp. But not so much that you can’t find the meat. DM

Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the year award, in 2021 and 2023

Order Tony’s book, foodSTUFF, here.

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.

This dish is photographed on a plate by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.