For some reason curly parsley has fell out of favour. Everyone wants to cook with it’s thinner, sleek looking cousin, Italian flat leaf parsley. I imagine everyone remembers badly garnished plates of restaurant food when they are confronted with poor old curly parsley. 
Just like peace, we should give curly parsley a chance so I’m pairing it with another culinary misfit, flavoured butter. People have an almost primordial fear of butter, as if it could kill faster than a snake bite. I think the fat free products people eat will kill much faster, not from cholesterol though, but boredom.

I’m trying to make perfect marshmallows. I’ve almost got the perfect shade of Eau de Nil, but the taste and consistency is sorely lacking. I also did not dissolve the sugar properly, so each bite has a slight sugar crystal crunch to it. Novel, but I’m not sure I want to pursue crispy crunchy marshmallows.

Once I found the perfect puff, I’ll share the recipe!

Meat is a big thing in Namibia. I’m used to feeling slightly exotic when buying pasture raised and organic beef fillets in Cape Town. Things are different here. Everything is naturally pasture raised and organic and the local spar sells a wide selection of game meat, not just beef, pork and lamb. 
Not that we buy any of the game meat, seeing as we have the whole spectrum running around on the farm. Usually we don’t like hunting but this year has become an ‘us or them’ situation. 
There is a nationwide draught and wild animals that used to live closer to the desert have moved into our area. They are eating up what little grass we have left and we recently realized that neighbouring farms have cut off their water supplies, forcing more game onto our farm. On a quick drive you’ll spot over 150 zebra, 150 gemsbok and 120 kudu’s. While kudu’s pose no threat to the cattle (they eat leaves, not grass) the zebra and gemsbok do.  So once a week we hunt. Depending on what people want, it’s either gemsbok or zebra. It’s very different from buying your meat at the shops. A clean, cling filmed packet of meat shows little or no guilt, sadness or hard physical labour. 
So, I pretty much know where each piece of meat in our fridge comes from. While it sounds great, it’s also a reminder of the various hunting trips, the life taken, the long hours and late nights spent breaking down carcasses and coming home bloodied and exhausted. I have no desire to hunt for pleasure and distance myself from the practice, but at the same time I try to understand that we need to live as well. We need to provide food to the people on the farm and protect the cattle from starvation. I need to stop being a sissy and learn how to skin, clean and break down an animal and how to cook all the various cuts.

I found the springbok nekke defrosting in the fridge and thought I should debone them and create a Julia Child like Bourguignon. Easier said than done. I now know that the neck is a hideous cut for deboning, full of funny little bones and bends. That is why people cook the damn thing whole. After hours of carefully cutting I deboned the necks and started with a bourguignon. If you ever have two springbok nekke hanging out in the fridge, try this recipe, everyone loved it.

INGREDIENTS
250g fatty back bacon cubed
1kg Springbok neck * cubed 
1 cup all purpose flour
Olive oil
3 medium onions, peeled and quartered
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon crushed coriander seeds
1 tablespoon whole Szechuan pepper
1 heaped tablespoon tomato paste
2 cups good red wine
2 cups quality beef stock
Salt 
Pepper
3-4 sprigs sage
250g mushrooms, chopped
4 tablespoons butter
A few sprigs of parsley, roughly chopped.

SERVES 6

METHOD
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and set the oven rack in the bottom ¼ of the oven.
Heat a medium sized pot and dry fry the cubed bacon until the fat renders. Scoop out the bacon with a slotted spoon, leaving the liquid fat in the pot, and set the bacon aside. 
Lightly dust the springbok cubes in flour and fry, in batches, in the bacon fat. Make sure the meat browns properly before removing and doing a new batch. After the second batch there might not be enough fat left to prevent burning, so add a tablespoon or two of olive oil, allow to heat up and fry the next batch. Repeat the process until all the meat has been well browned.
In the same pot, add a tablespoon of olive oil, allow to heat and add the onions. Sauté for a minute and add the pepper, coriander and garlic. Allow the spices to heat through before adding the tomato paste.
Stir and finally add the red wine, beef stock, bacon and browned springbok. Add a good pinch of salt and pepper, stir and place the lid on the pot. Put the pot into the preheated oven and cook slowly for 2 ½ hours.

While the springbok is stewing in the oven, prepare the mushrooms. Cut thin disks of mushroom with a sharp knife, trying to keep uniform slices of about 5mm. Heat a wide shallow frying pan and add a knob of butter. As the butter starts melting, add a few sage leaves and allow to crisp and the butter to brown. Once browned, add some mushrooms to the butter. Not the whole lot, just enough to create an even, single layer. Allow the mushrooms to brown then turn over and brown the other side. Remove browned mushrooms and repeat the process until all the mushrooms have been browned. 

After the meat has been stewing for 2 ½ hours, check to see if the meat is tender. If not, cook for another ½ hour. Once  tender, remove from the oven, add the mushrooms and slowly cook on the stove top for 10 minutes, allowing the mushroom and sage flavours to permeate the meat stew. Check for seasoning and sprinkle with chopped parsley before serving.



* Any meat will do but it makes sense to use tougher cuts of meat more suited to long periods of stewing.