Fishguard YFC win cookery title with African feast

A trio of Young Farmers from Pembrokeshire were crowned winners of the National Young Farmers Club’s cookery finals with this amazing African feast.

The three ladies from Fishguard YFC – Jill Luke-Evans, 27, Cerys Davies, 15, and Llinos Raymond, 19 – prepared, cooked and displayed an incredible three courses of scrumptious African-inspired food.

Held on Saturday (23 September) at the Malvern Autumn Show in Worcestershire, teams from all regions of the UK battled it out to impress two top chefs – Hetty Zeigler-Jones and Masterchef finalist Ben Axford.

See also: Harvest 2017 photography competition winner and top shots

The theme this year was “Around the World”, and teams were asked to prepare a meal for two, inspired by food from one of the countries in the YFC travel programme.

“Pembrokeshire YFC won because if you shut your eyes, you were taken to Africa,” said judge Hetty Zeigler-Jones. “It was simple cooking but they used great ingredients and really great flavours.”

The winning team prepared an exotic array of food comprising a bushmeat medley with peanut paste and mango and pineapple chilli blatjang (chutney); spiced goat stew with South African yellow rice, biltong flatbread and creamed spinach; and a trio of deconstructed South African desserts.

Jill Luke-Evans said winning the 2017 cookery crown for her club was the perfect way to end her time as a Young Farmer.

“It’s my last competition as I’m now out of membership age. Fishguard YFC are really proud – my phone has been going non-stop.

“We decided on South Africa straightaway and we wanted to use bushmeat to make it a bit different, with some traditional African desserts.”

See the full list of ingredients and cooking instructions below if you fancy recreating Fishguard YFC’s award-winning African menu.

Medley of bushmeats with peanut paste and mango and pineapple chilli blatjang

Meat skewers and piri-piri blend

• 100g zebra meat
• 100g ostrich meat
• 100g buffalo meat
• Apricots
• Onion cut in to large pieces
• Butternut squash cut into large pieces
• 1½ tsp paprika
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp ground cardamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger 
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground cayenne pepper

Pineapple chilli blatjang

• ½ mango
• 50ml pineapple juice
• 75ml tomato passata
• ½ Italian pepper
• ½ bird’s eye chilli
• ¼ chopped onion
• Juice of a lime quarter
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 4g fresh ginger, finely grated
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 25g honey
• 1 dark molasses
• ½ tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• ½ tbsp mustard 
• 15ml apple cider vinegar

Peanut sauce

• ½ cup peanut butter
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• ¾ cup water
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• Dash oil 

Method

To make the meat skewers and piri-piri blend, mix all the spices together, cut the meat into chunks and cover with the spice mix. Fry the meat and put on skewers, then cook the onions and butternut squash in the same pan as the meat until soft. Add pieces of apricots, cooked onions and butternut squash to the skewers.

For the pineapple chilli blatjang, fry off the onion, ginger and ginger in a little oil for 4-5 minutes. Add all the other ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a low to medium heat and allow to simmer.

Make the peanut sauce by heating oil in saucepan. Add cayenne pepper and toast for 30 seconds. Then add peaunt butter, water and tomato paste. Cook for a few minutes and season with salt.

Spiced goat stew with South African yellow rice, biltong flatbread and creamed spinach

 Spiced goat stew

• 800g goat meat
• ¼ cup oil
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• ½ chopped onion
• 6 cherry tomatoes, chopped
• 1-2 tsp curry powder
• ½ tsp white pepper
• ½ tsp smoked paprika
• ½ tsp fresh thyme, chopped
• ½ red chilli, chopped
• ½ sweet pepper, chopped
• 100ml beef stock
• 100ml passata

Biltong flatbread

• ½ cup water
• 200ml white bread flour
• 5g packet instant yeast
• Coriander
• 50g biltong, roughly sliced
• Plain flour for dusting

South African yellow rice

• 1-2 tbsp butter
• 1 cup rice
• 2½ cups boiling water
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• ¼ tsp powder ginger
• ½ tsp turmeric
• ¼ cup raisins
• Pinch of salt

Creamed spinach

• 12g butter
• ½ chopped onion
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 100ml milk
• 50g spinach, roughly chopped
• 50ml single cream
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg

Method

To make the goat stew, add oil to pan and brown goat meat for 5-10 minutes. Add chopped onion, ginger and garlic. Then add tomatoes, curry powder, white pepper, smoked paprika, sweet pepper and thyme and stir frequently. Add chilli, beef stock and passata continue to stir until the sauce thickens.

For the billtong flatbread mix together flour, yeast and water in a bowl to form a soft dough. Knead by hand, place in a clean bowl and leave in a warm place. Once risen, add the biltong. Divide into four portions and create four rounds. Cook for one minute on a BBQ or grill.

To make the rice, heat saucepan with butter. Add ginger, turmeric, and brown sugar. Saute for a minute. Stir in rice, then add raisins and boiling water.

Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until rice is fluffy and the water has been absorbed.

For the creamed spinach, heat butter in saucepan, add the onion and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the flour, then slowly whisk in the milk. Gently cook until the sauce thickens then add the spinach, stir in the cream and add the nutmeg. Season well.

Trio of deconstructed South African desserts

Vanilla cheesecake with oak and honey crumble, served with an assortment of South African fruits

• 125g cream cheese
• 125g double cream
• 45g icing sugar
• ¼ vanilla paste
• Granadilla, pomegranates and mango
• 130g butter
• 115g plain flour
• 115g sugar
• 115g oats
• 70g honey
• Pinch of salt

Vitumbua

• 1 cup ground rice
• ½ tsp yeast
• ½ cup canned coconut milk
• 2 tbsp coconut flakes
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ sugar
• ½ tsp cardamom
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• ¼ tsp almond extract
• ½ tsp oil
• 1 egg

Coconut rice pudding

• 200ml coconut milk
• ¼ cup water
• 1/3 cup rice
• ¼ cup sugar
• ½ pinch salt

Coconut dipping sauce

• ½ can coconut milk
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract

Method

Mix the cream cheese, double cream, icing sugar and vanilla paste to create the cheesecake. Chop the mango into square chunks. Cut the passion fruit in half and scoop the contents out with a spoon.

Mix the butter, plain flour, sugar, oats, honey and a pinch of salt in a bowl until they resemble breadcrumbs. Then using a frying pan, toast the crumble for 1-2 minutes.

For the vitumbua, soak rice until soft then drain the water. Blend the rice with coconut milk, flakes, spices, yeast and salt. Cover and allow to rise in a warm area until you see bubbles forming. Heat a frying pan or vitumbua on medium heat (brushing the holes with oil) then add batter in small dollops until the pan is three quarters full. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, flip using chopsticks to brown the other side.

To make the rice pudding, dry roast coconuts flakes and put all ingredients in a pan and boil for 20 minutes then simmer.

For the dipping sauce, bring the coconut milk, brown sugar and vanilla extract to the boil. Reduce to a medium-low heat. Cook and stir frequently until mix is thick and reduced by half.