Cooking at home with Erica Platter

Only half-jokingly, Erica Platter describes herself as militant in her mission to convert people to using local, seasonal and fresh produce. Her weapon of choice? East Coast Tables, her cookbook documenting the people and produce on KwaZulu-Natal’s coast.

No stranger to publishing, she and husband John put their name to the Platter’s South African Wine Guide 31 years ago. They moved to Durban’s North Coast after selling the guide 11 years back and their house is nestled on a sprawling estate near Shaka’s Rock, half of which was originally the sugar farm that Erica grew up on. Their bright, tropical and decidedly contemporary African home offers a sensory coastal experience. Stacking doors reveal a wooden deck that runs parallel to the living areas and you can hear, smell and see the glorious Indian Ocean.

Aromas emanating from the kitchen are reminiscent of the heady spices that envelop you when walking into an Indian spice shop. A large plastic carrier bag is filled with various local herbs and Erica can barely contain her excitement in showing off a jug filled with freshly plucked ginger plants whose beautiful pink-tinged roots bear no resemblance to the brown, dried-out specimens found in most shops. She grates and freezes this local ginger in ice-cube trays to ensure a perennial supply.

“I am mad about local ingredients. I think we tend to source too many of our things from far away. Here on our KZN coast we have the most fabulous fish and wonderful subtropical fruit and veg. Really, we don’t need to get green beans from Kenya or salmon from Norway. I am almost militant – I am on an absolute mission to try to see whether I can convince more people to be prouder of our local produce and the different ways that the various communities here use it and the fantastic food that we have,” she says. “If possible, I source from the KZN coast or greater KZN, then South Africa and then the rest of the world. I won’t use Himalayan rock salt – what’s wrong with Khoisan rock salt from the West Coast?”

Her obsession – and the motivation behind East Coast Tables – is two-fold: to encourage people to celebrate seasonal produce and to source it as close to home as possible. Erica has chosen to start with an iced cucumber espresso that proves her point. The mother recipe, from her book, is for an iced avocado espresso, but the local season had just ended so, choosing to ignore the convenience of season-oblivious supermarkets, she substitutes with cucumber from friend Cindy Valayadam’s farm a few kilometres away.

“The most important thing about good food is sourcing and shopping well. If you are clever at buying – or growing – then you don’t have any excuse not to produce a good meal. It is more important than knowing how to make a beurre blanc! I don’t plan a menu until I see what’s available, in season. Local means not only the usual suspects but things like Midlands beef or boletus mushrooms.”

Erica’s love affair with aromatic, bright food continues unabated (she cites the Indian Delights cookbook, its editor Zuleikha Mayat, and her longtime friend Cindy Valayadam as her biggest inspirations) and her main course consists of a fish curry with a hot Tamil paste served with kedgeree rice.

“Often when we’re having a party I’ll make bean curry and kedgeree rice and I’ll ask Cindy to make her famous prawn or baby brinjal and double beans curry.

“You don’t have to cook everything. I think it’s ingenious to buy food that people can cook better than yourself! I would never make the masala for my curried beans from scratch; I always use Cindy’s curry powder.”

In celebrating the spicy, warm and intense flavours of the East Coast, Erica’s book even has guidelines – from husband John – on wine and food pairing in a warm climate. Adamant that sparkling wine is a good match to spicy food, she says: “I think Johan Malan [of Simonsig] might secretly be from KwaZulu-Natal because he makes the most terrific wines to suit our climate! But I also like to drink Graham Beck because [winemaker] Peter Ferreira is from Durban.”

Instead of pairing a wine with each dish, Erica has selected four that work with both courses. Simonsig is represented with its Kaapse Vonkel and Chenin Blanc, while Cloof’s Very Vivacious Viognier and John Platter’s own label Chardonnay make up the remainder of the contingent.

As with most other things, Erica has some very strong views and she’s only too delighted to be asked why her glass of Chenin Blanc is filled with a generous handful of ice (and water!). “I’d prefer not to drink wine with a high alcohol. Dave Hughes goes overseas every year and does experiments for the trade. He recently did tastings of high-alcohol wines with a whole lot of wine masters. Each time, he put a bit of water into one of the wines. And in every single case that was the wine which scored the highest points! I rest my case... Although I do go a bit further and add ice too, because we’re so hot in KZN. And because I like it that way! If a wine has enough personality and intensity, the flavour still comes through.

“The only people who seem to be offended are not winemakers but people who take wine more seriously than I do. I wrote a wine column called ‘Grapes of Froth’ for Wine years ago, and once said that I put ice in a Klein Constantia Sauvignon Blanc – the one that won awards and was fêted all over the world – as it was too powerful for me. The next day Ross Gower dropped off a case of still water and said it was for me to have with all his wines,” she laughs.

Finding it impossible to keep her passion in check, Erica already has ideas for another cookbook which, unsurprisingly, will continue the foodie struggle to put East Coast flavours on tables nationally. In the meantime, she’s raising an ice-filled glass of crisp white to all things local. “Wine is about food, family, friends and fun... don’t take it too seriously!”

ICED CUCUMBER EXPRESSO
Serves six

Serve in small coffee cups or shooter glasses with coffee spoons. Pick your own herbs: dhania, chervil and tarragon work best, but if the basil’s fresher, go for it. Adjust the liquid according to size of the cucumber. Aim for the consistency of a very thick soup. Play the timing by ear as it depends on the ferocity of your freezer, the temperature outside, etc.

flesh of one large cucumber
½ onion, chopped
1 cup chicken stock
1 T sweet chilli sauce
1 T lemon or lime juice
½ cup milk
handful fresh herbs
1 t salt
black pepper

1. Whizz all the ingredients in a blender until smooth. Adjust seasoning.

2. Pour into little coffee cups. Freeze.

3. Remove from the freezer 20 minutes before serving to allow the ice to melt a little. Don’t let it defrost altogether. Pop back into the freezer for a few minutes if this happens.

Chef’s note: You can substitute the cucumber with one large ripe avo.

FISH CURRY WITH HOT TAMIL SAUCE
SERVES SIX

1 cup red masala marinade
1kg fresh fish (couta, dorado, yellowtail)
3 T oil
1 t methi seeds (fenugreek)
1 t mustard seeds
1 T crushed garlic
1 t cumin seeds
3 large tomatoes (grated or blended)
3 t chillies
2 sprigs curry leaves
1 large onion
1 t turmeric
1½ t dhania/jeera powder
salt
½ cup tamarind juice (make by steeping
250g tamarind in hot water for 15 mins, then squeezing and sieving)
1½ cups water

1. Clean, slice (into individual portions), wash and pat-dry the fish. 

2. Make the red masala to recipe below. Cut slashes in fish, smear with the masala, reserving about one tablespoon of paste. Marinate in fridge for at least one hour. 

3. Braise the onions, methi, mustard seeds, garlic and cumin in oil. When the onions soften and
become transparent, add the tomatoes. Lower the heat and stir to blend the tomatoes smoothly. 

4. Now add the chillies, turmeric, curry leaves, dhania/ jeera and salt to taste. Braise for a minute. Add tamarind juice and water. Simmer slowly, allowing the spices to saturate the curry.

5. Lastly, lower the masala-smeared fish slices into this gravy. Simmer slowly over a low heat
until the fish is cooked and has turned opaque. Serve with hot rice.

This recipe was donated to Erica by the members of The Women’s Cultural Group, whose seminal Indian Delights cookbook has sold 400 000 copies.

RED MASALA
1 T dhania seeds
6 or 7 cloves garlic
6 red (or green) chillies
1 T cumin
1 T grated coconut (optional)
1 t turmeric
1½ t salt
juice of 1 lemon
1 T oil

1. Pound (or blitz in blender) the dhania, chillies, garlic, cumin, coconut and coriander seeds. 

2. Add salt and turmeric. 

3. Mix into a paste with oil and lemon juice.

KEDGEREE RICE
A colonial adaptation of khitchri, an Indian peasant dish.
4 T sunflower oil
3 onions, sliced (2 white, 1 red)
1 T ginger, grated
1 T garlic, grated
seeds of 8 cardamom pods
2 red chillies (dry or fresh)
1 stick cinnamon
6 cloves
1 t cumin seeds
1 cup green (or giant) lentils
2 cups Basmati rice
salt
4 cups water
½ t turmeric
12 curry leaves
1 t fennel seeds
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 T fresh coconut, slivered (or desiccated)
1 cup flaked smoked dorado (or Natal or Cape snoek)

1. Fry onions in half the oil with the ginger, garlic, cardamom, chillies, cinnamon, cloves and cumin seeds. Cover the pot at first, for a few minutes, to make onions sweat and soften. Then uncover, and cook over a low heat until the onions begin to turn golden. Don’t allow them to go brown. Remove the mixture from pot. Set aside. 

2. In the same pot, briefly turn the lentils and rice in one tablespoon of oil before adding turmeric, water and curry leaves. Add salt to taste and bring to the boil. Cover and lower heat. Cook until the rice and lentils are tender but not soggy (15 to 20 minutes). Remove the cinnamon stick. 

3. Using the last tablespoon of oil, fry the fennel seeds, crushed garlic and coconut for one minute.
Watch carefully as coconut burns easily. Add the reserved onion mixture to the pan and continue to fry it for one to two minutes, before folding the mixture into the rice and lentils. Fork in the smoked fish. (If you are not going to serve immediately, cover, set aside and heat up later in oven or microwave. But add the smoked fish only after heating, just before taking to the table.

FOR MORE
All recipes from East Coast Tables, by Erica Platter, Clinton Friedman and Gwyn Platter, published by East Coast Radio, available at Exclusive Books for R291.

NO KITCHEN SHOULD BE WITHOUT...

Cooking essentials:
Fresh ginger and garlic
Fresh lemons and limes
Tamarind paste
Chillies
Fresh herbs
Mustard oil
Packo Chilli Bite Mix

Erica’s kitchen essentials:
Global chef’s knife
Coffee machine (Saeco)
Handheld wooden juicer
Food processor