SWEET AND SOUR EISBEIN

My little one, lady Cat, gave the dish its name. While I was preparing dinner she suddenly just came into the kitchen and said “Mom, that smells amazing!”. And so, of course I want to share it with you. I dirtied only one pot so you know it’s a Zita dish…

A cooked eisbein, cut off the bone and diced (I estimate that it amounted to about 350 g of chopped meat, the bone my terrier got weighed about the same…)
1 small red onion, chopped
5 ml chopped garlic
1 chopped tomato
5 ml sugar
5 ml mixed Italian herbs (I was lazy and used dried, if you want to venture into your herb garden, chop up some rosemary, oregano and parsley and use 10 ml of the mix)
½ cup uncooked rice
1 ½ cup of water
30 ml tomato sauce
30 ml chutney
5 ml vinegar
200 g mixed vegetables (I used green beans, broccoli and carrots)

Fry the onion for about 5 minutes on a medium heat in a mixture of butter and oil. Sunflower oil, canola oil, olive oil, whatever you feel like. When the onion is translucent, add the garlic and fry for another minute. Careful, if it burns you’ll get a bitter taste. Add the meat, tomato, sugar, herbs, rice and water to the pan, close the lid and cook for around 20 minutes until the rice is cooked. Add the tomato sauce, chutney, vinegar and vegetables and slowly simmer for around 10 minutes. The vegetables must be hot but still crunchy and healthy.

Note:
In Catherine’s words, there’s stickiness from the chutney, sweet and saltiness from the tomato sauce, and a little spike of acidity from the vinegar. I’m sure you’ll love it.

Recipe: Zita Harber
Photo: Catherine du Toit