What I wanted

...was a chopped red pepper salad. Not sure why. This one didn't quite hit the mark; I should have used fresh chiles. And I wanted it to be a bit sloppier. If I'd had them I would have added tomatoes.

So, one red pepper, half a red onion, one fresh garlic clove (these were still new, unpapery, crisp), a few slices of baguette, torn up; red wine vinegar, salt, sugar, pepper, chiles to taste. Parsley.

Method: Donder the pepper. That's a South African expression. In other words, chop the bleep out of it. Same with onion. Put in a bowl with the torn-up bread, shake over a couple of tablespoons of vinegar, add salt, sugar and pepper to taste, and mix. Add the chopped fresh chile. Then the parsley. Taste all the way. You need spicy/burny but balanced by salty/sweet. Slosh over a little olive oil. Think of it as solid gazpacho...

Or if you're in Cape Town just head to Anatoli on Napier Street - they still make a good one, to be eaten with the sublime ekmek: long bread puffed up with steam in its pocket, piping hot from the oven, carried gingerly in a napkin to the table.


It's good with this.

Oh, I also had a lamb, but that's another story.