Mains
Denningvleis
Also known as dendengvleis
Denningvleis is a slow lamb or mutton dish soured with tamarind, which Fatima Sydow called food for when you have money for meat.
- TraditionCape Malay
- Kind of dishMains
- SeasonAll year
- OccasionCelebrations and special occasions or, in Fatima Sydow's words, when there is money for meat.
The story
Lamb or mutton cooks slowly with onions, bay leaves, allspice and cloves, and tamarind sours the pot. Where tamarind is hard to find, cooks use brown vinegar and sugar instead. At first glance denningvleis looks like an ordinary lamb stew, but the Cape Malay cookbook author Faldela Williams wrote of its lingering, spicy undertone.
The name is usually traced to dendeng, a Malay word for strips of spiced dried meat. The cooks Fatima Sydow and Cass Abrahams have linked the dish to dengdeng, a chilli-heavy fried beef dish from West Sumatra, which they see as the forerunner of the Cape recipe.
It is a celebratory dish. Speaking to the writer Ishay Govender, Sydow summed it up as food eaten when you have money for meat.
Stories
Related reading
Sources
Check out these sources
- denningvleis, n. · Dictionary of South African English (Rhodes University Dictionary Unit)
- The complex history of Cape Muslim cuisine (Ishay Govender) · Daily Maverick
- South Africa's heritage foods you can still taste on the road (Lee-Ann Steyn) · Getaway
- A Guide to Cape Malay Cooking Terms: From Koe'sisters to Mavrou (Robyn Samuels) · Crush Magazine
- The Cape Malay · South African History Online
