To take an idea and transform it into an organised and measurable commodity is a difficult pursuit, to say the least. When that idea depends entirely on a wild, real life adventure, you might go as far as to call it a madman’s gamble. Truth is stranger than fiction, and real life does not abide by the rules of traditional storytelling… It does not resolve story conflict with cut-and-dried happy endings.

Riaan Manser and Dan Skinstad took on a seemingly impossible task when they decided to kayak around Iceland, and to begin doing so in the dead of winter. I believe that Cooked In Africa embarked on a heroic journey of its own when Justin Bonello took a chance, believed that the adventurers could do it, and made the solid commitment to back them wholeheartedly in order to create the television programme Around Iceland on Inspiration.  I am extremely grateful for my involvement with the project.  

In a parallel to the way that the show’s protagonists began to feel when they realised the extent of what they had gotten themselves into…  When I arrived here, I don’t think anyone in our team imagined the way things would unfold or predicted the challenges that we would come up against. We all have a sense of pride when we think back to the resolutions that we came to together, and we are better filmmakers and storytellers because of it. 

It is immense courage on the part of Executive Producers, Justin Bonello and Peter Gird that creates the projects that come out of this company, and each member of each project team gains immensely as a result of their leadership. Make no mistake – these stories require blood, sweat, and tears from everyone involved.  Because reality is the main ingredient – things almost never work out as planned.  For the same reason, when a project comes to a close – each member of the team knows a little more about the potential of real life.

I have no doubt that the ideas that come out of here will get bigger and better, the images will become more beautiful, the processes will get smoother, and the company will get stronger. Ultimately, the programmes will go from strength to strength in the quest to inspire audience members to go out on limb in their own lives.

You’ll Need
2 tubs mascarpone cheese (250g each)
250 ml cream
18 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1 tot Amaretto
2 tots brandy
at least 6 double espressos
2-3 packets of Savoiardi (Italian finger biscuits)
cocoa powder

Mix together the mascarpone cheese and the cream. In a separate container cream the egg yolks, the sugar, the amaretto and the brandy. Now add the mascarpone cream to the egg mixture and blend using an electric beater until all the sweet creamy ingredients have combined thoroughly.

Decant the espresso into a saucepan and allow to cool. Take enough Savoiardi to line a large disposable foil container (roughly 30cm x 25cm) and dip one biscuit at a time in the coffee; they must be slightly moist – not soggy. Place the finger biscuits in the bottom of the foil container.

Once you’ve covered the base with biscuits, use half of the creamy filling and add a layer on top of the biscuits. Repeat the process, starting with another layer of dipped biscuits and topping it with the rest of the creamy mixture.

Sprinkle with a decent covering of cocoa powder (not chocolate powder). The bitter cocoa and the coffee balance out the rich, sweet spongy mixture. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

This recipe will feed about 12 of your friends.

You’ll Need:

¼ cup olive / canola oil mix
a small handful of fennel seed
a small handful of mustard seed
a small handful of cumin seed
¼ cup curry leaves
big pinch turmeric
4 medium onions – peeled and diced
2 cloves fresh garlic – chopped
a small hand of fresh ginger – peeled and grated
½ cup of sugar
½ cup white wine vinegar
10 green tomatoes – diced
sea salt and black pepper to taste

In a hot pan pour a splash of olive and canola oil, add to this the fennel and mustard seeds, the cumin, curry leaves and turmeric and stir. They will almost automatically become fragrant as they release their oils.

Next, add the onions, a little at a time, allow them to lose a bit of their opaque white colour while stirring constantly. It shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes. You want them to be crunchy – not soft and caramelised.

Then add the garlic and the ginger. This is a sweet sour relish and Geoffrey now adds a bit of sugar, to give it a syrupy texture. Then he adds vinegar and tastes. Add a bit more sugar if you like. Stir. Toss in the finely chopped tomatoes and coarse sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste. You want to let this simmer until all the ingredients are cooked but not obliterated. The idea here is that your relish has a nice crunchy texture, so if you think it’s getting too pap, stop cooking immediately. It may take up to 20 minutes, but then again it may not, so watch it carefully.

Lastly, mix in a healthy splash of good extra virgin olive oil and leave to cool. Bottle and store in the fridge (it should last about a week).

Geoffrey recommends that you serve this relish with a firm piece of fresh white fish. The real trick is to try and keep the onions and the tomatoes crunchy so that you don’t end up with syrupy chutney.

450ml Thai dressing
3 large potatoes – spiralled
500g clean queen prawn tails
cooking oil
2 heaped handfuls of mixed salad greens
½ cucumber – cut in slices
10 cherry tomatoes – halved
100ml prawn oil

For the Thai Dressing:

1 cup fish sauce
1 glass Swartland Chenin Blanc
a knob of ginger – cut coarsely
3 cloves of garlic – halved
2 teaspoons palm sugar
3 chillies

Toss all the ingredients together into a pan and simmer for five minutes, then cool. Pop in the prawns and leave to marinate for about four hours.

For the Prawn Oil:

Prawn shells (from Tails)
1 onion – finely chopped
3 cloves garlic – finely chopped
1 cup dry white wine
1 litre water
1 cup olive oil

Put all the ingredients (except the olive oil) into a pot. Boil for half an hour and then strain through a fine sieve. Reduce the clear liquid a little more, until it’s thickened, and allow it to cool before adding the olive oil and emulsifying.

How to make the Prawn Jumpers:

Start by peeling and topping and tailing the potatoes. Then pass each one through a potato spiraller so that they’re turned into long spaghetti-like strings. Remove the prawns from the marinade and roll them in the raw potatoes strings. Start at the tail and twirl the potato around the prawn – think of the way in which you tie bait on to a hook with cotton when fishing. If you haven’t done this before, start at the thinnest part of the prawn, and work downwards towards the thickest. Deep fry in hot oil until the potato is golden brown and the prawn is just cooked. Place on paper towel to drain.

To serve the salad:

Combine the salad greens, cherry tomatoes and cucumber, add prawn jumpers and drizzle with prawn oil. Eat while the prawns are still hot.

For the Glaze:
1 cup cream
125g butter
½ cup brandy
½ cup sugar

Beat the sugar and eggs in a bowl until the mixture is fluffy and the sugar granules have disintegrated (you can use an electric beater to make this easier), then add the apricot jam and mix it all up. In another bowl, sift the flour, bicarb and salt together at least twice. Next, melt the butter and add the vinegar and the milk. (If the butter is too hot, the mixture will curdle and you’ll have to chuck it). Now add the dry mix and the butter/milk/vinegar mix alternately to the egg mix, folding in well.

Pour the mixture evenly into a butter-greased muffin tray (one with 12 muffin cups). Each muffin cup should be about half filled. Bake in a preheated oven at 180ºC for between 45 minutes to an hour. Because of all the sugar, you can cook the pud until it’s nice and brown.

The magic is really in the glaze. Melt all the ingredients together and keep warm. When the pud comes out of the oven, pour the glaze over the hot baked malva muffins immediately so that it penetrates right through them. Serve individually with double thick whipped cream and/or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Try this and you’ll be an addict forever!

4 cups of flour
½ a cup of sugar
a drizzle of sunflower oil
4 – 5 free-range or organic eggs
about a litre of milk

First up, make a batch of pancake batter. Put the flour, sugar and sunflower oil into a mixing bowl, make a well in the middle then crack the eggs into the well. Next, using a wooden spoon, mix it together until you’ve got a sticky dough.

Next, start adding the milk a splash at a time. Every time you add milk, mix it into the dough, then once fully absorbed add more milk again. Keep doing this until you’ve used all the milk and have batter just a little thinner than syrup.

Put a butter-greased pan onto a medium heat and pour in about half a ladle of batter, spreading it evenly all over the pan. When it’s cooked through, flip it over and brown the other side. Repeat until you’ve used up all the batter, but keep greasing and wiping the pan between pancakes.

Once your pancakes are all done, grate some chocolate (any you like) into a bowl, sprinkle onto your pancakes and roll them up. Stack them into a baking tray, pour in a couple of splashes of Amarula (but don’t drown the pancakes!) and sprinkle some more chocolate over the whole lot. 

Whack it into a pre-heated oven for 10 minutes then get ready to dig in. Seriously delicious!

You’ll Need:

4kg oxtail
4 onions, chopped
8 carrots, chopped
cake flour
salt and pepper
olive oil
good quality organic beef stock
A fine red wine
Maizena – about ¼ cup diluted
about 6 cloves of garlic, crushed
tomato paste

First up, season the oxtail by rolling it around in cake flour, salt and pepper. Then heat up a non-stick pan, add a splash of olive oil and sear the oxtail on both sides. You’ll probably have to do this in batches. Take a roasting pan (the biggest one you have) and stack in the seared oxtail pieces. Once done, take the same frying pan, add more olive oil, and then toss in the chopped onions, carrots and garlic. Once the onions become translucent, whack it all on top of the oxtail. The last thing you need to do is make the stock (probably about 2 cups) add to it one tin of tomato paste and the Maizena, mix it all up and pour it onto the oxtail. Finish off with a generous lashing of red wine. Keep the rest for yourself – you deserve it! You want the oxtail to be just submerged in the stock and wine but not drowning. 

Cover the whole lot with tin foil and whack it into the oven at 150ºC and slow cook in the oven for about 4 and a half hours.

Oxtail is great with good old samp and beans, but if you can’t be bothered, just make some rice.

You’ll Need:

1 onion, roughly chopped
a couple of cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
a good dollop of olive oil
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon Hungarian paprika
2 tins good quality whole peeled tomatoes
8 ripe tomatoes, quartered (skin and all)
1 tin chickpeas
1 tin sugar beans
1 tin butter beans
a bunch of spinach, stems removed and finely chopped
500ml Bulgarian yoghurt
freshly ground black pepper
Maldon sea salt
a small handful of chopped fresh basil

In a deep pot, fry the onions and garlic in the olive oil until they’re translucent. Add the cayenne pepper and paprika, give it a good stir and then add the tins of whole peeled tomatoes, the roughly chopped fresh tomatoes and the juice from the three tins of beans. Simmer on a low heat until the fresh tomatoes disintegrate, then add the beans and simmer for a further 5 minutes.

To Serve:

Put a small layer of spinach in the bottom of the soup bowl, ladle over the soup, and crown with two tablespoons of yoghurt. Flavour with freshly ground pepper, Maldon sea salt and fresh basil. Eat immediately with slices of toasty ciabatta.

I am sad to the core.

On Saturday I got a call from Bool Smuts of the Landmark Foundation, an NGO that specialises in building the conservation economy. One of their projects is the conservation of apex predators. They had trapped a leopard on a farm near Hermanus – a cause for great celebration, because now it meant that this leopard actually had a chance of survival. Me? I am so amazed that a leopard was found in just off the urban belt of the Western Cape and that it has survived everything we’ve thrown at it. Sad fact is that survival for these predators is becoming tenuous.

Isn’t it scary to think that our wildlife can no longer protect itself and that bit-by-bit it’s all disappearing?

The farmer (who reported livestock losses) had agreed to take part in the Landmark Foundation’s conservation efforts and helped set up and monitor a high-tech trap. So this weekend Bool’s team sedated the leopard and put a GPS collar around his neck. This collar works with GSM technologies, which means that it works with a cell phone signal. If you’re a parent and you’ve got a teenager, chances are you have a rule that your kid has to send you an sms to let you know where they are and that they’re safe. This collar works exactly like that – the Landmark research team receive weekly emails from the leopard telling them that he’s safe and showing them where he’s been. Ultimately one of Landmark’s goals is to understand leopard movements and thus safeguard leopards in a bid to increase suitable landscape and habitats for predators and biodiversity outside of protected areas.

Most farmers, however, are dead set against Bool Smuts methods of non-lethal predator control, so much so that he’s received serious death threats. But Bool is not deterred. And it’s in the spirit of what I’ve experienced and seen that I’m no longer willing to keep quiet either.

The Landmark Foundation has saved the lives of about 40 of our spotted friends, but in that time 38 more have perished as a result of gin traps, poisons and hunting. If you’re wondering why you should care, I’ll tell you: Western Cape leopards are being wiped off the planet at an alarming rate, following the same sad story as that of the Western Cape elephants. The way they’re exterminated is just different: If they don’t get killed in gin-traps, a device so horrific that some animals try to chew off their legs trying to escape, they are poisoned or hunted down.

You’ve got to stop for a moment and think. What has happened to our rhinos? Our lions? Cheetahs? The big giants that once roamed our country freely and without fear? The elephants of Knysna and even Table Mountain? These days, when I drive through Cape Town it’s hard to see it as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It’s become sterile and almost ugly (luckily we have mountains and an ocean view to blindfold us).

It wasn’t always like this, but slowly and surely the human mindset of ‘everything is rightfully ours’ has taken over and destroyed just about everything in its wake. This human condition is extremely destructive, but luckily there are a handful of brave individuals willing to salvage what’s left through their conservation efforts. But, there is a point where the responsibility stops with them and starts with us.

It’s obvious that not everyone was born a veterinarian or a wildlife researcher, but one thing we all have in common is the power of choice. I’m not saying go out into the bush and try to track a leopard. What I’m trying to get across is that change starts with the smallest of steps, something I didn’t act on until recently. My experiences of the last few years have changed me in way I can no longer ignore.

As a consumer, you have a choice and when you make the ethical choice, you become a protector of our country’s biodiversity. If you’ve been following my work of the last year, you might know about my talk “The Great Food Hoodwink.” It deals with the issues of where our food really comes from and what’s actually in it. Problem is, now, the more deeply I delve into this topic, the more limitations I have on my weekly shopping list and the food I’m willing to buy. I can no longer just buy free-range beef, mutton or lamb. If it doesn’t say ‘Fair Game’ or ‘Predator Friendly’ on the packaging, I might be supporting gin-traps and the indiscriminate killing of leopards and black-back jackal populations without knowing it. And that would mean I’m responsible for killing more than just the piece of meat on my plate.

I’m not one for preaching, but I can’t turn a blind eye. If you’re informed about what’s really going on, then surely you should make the ethical choice and vote with your money. If we don’t start making smarter choices today, the only leopard the generations after us might ever see will be the picture on the South African R200 note. If you’ve ever seen a leopard up close, you’ll understand just how heart breaking the thought of that is.

Read more about The Landmark Foundation and the work they do, see how you can get involved and share this message with your friends.

Justin.