Caramel Rooibos Tart

Cake:
4 extra large eggs
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup strong cold rooibos tea
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp table salts
2 tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp melted butter

Syrup:
2 3/4 C boiling water
1 1/3 C sugar
2 rooibos tea bags
2 tsp vanilla essence

Topping:

1 can nestle treat filling and caramel topping filling (dulche de leche) (google how to make your own from sweetened condensed milk)
1 C fresh cream
white chocolate grated – dream Cadbury bar
preheat oven to 180°, grease a 24 x 32cm oven dish

Cake
beat eggs and sugar
add rooibos and vanilla
sift in dry ingredients and fold in.
stir in melted butter
turn into dish and bake for 40 min

Syrup
Combine boiling water and sugar into saucepan. Add rooibos bags – heat until sugar
dissolves. Simmer for 5 mins, remove from heat, remove bags and add vanilla. Pour
over cake as it comes out of oven and leave to cool.

Topping
Beat nestle treat and cream together
Spread over cooled cake
Top with white chocolate curls

Slow Cooker Sugar Bean Curry

Ingredients:
+/- 1/4 Cup Oil
1-2 Points Star Anise
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 Bay Leaf
3 Tbsp Curry Powder, more or less, season to taste (I use Osman's Taj Mahal Extra Special Hot Curry Powder)
1/2 Onion, chopped
1 Tomato, chopped
500 g (about 1 lb.) Sugar Beans, dried (like Pinto Beans)
3-4 Potatoes, cut into large chunks
*can also add chilli powder (not Mexican chili powder, but ground chillies) to add heat

Heat oil in pot on stove, enough to cover the bottom of the pot. Add spices and onions. Cook until onions are transparent. Rinse beans and pick out any bad/broken pieces. Add to slow cooker with 5 cups hot water. Add spice/onion mix, tomato and potatoes. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours and then switch to low and cook another 2 hours.

Serving Suggestion:
Serve with a hollowed out section of bread, which is know as bunny chow. Could also be served with roti.

*I have also used this recipe to make Chicken Curry - instead of adding beans and hot water, add 4 frozen chicken breasts. Cook about 6 hours on low, until chicken is cooked through. Use a wooden spoon to break chicken into smaller pieces, so it goes further.

The Nguni Speakers

The Nguni Speakers section of All About South Africa (South African History) would fit into Tapestry of Grace Y1.

Before I started with Tapestry of Grace, a friend and I did some homeschool unit studies on South Africa with our 6 children. Now that I am using TOG, I would do one of two things. First, South Africa has 40 weeks in their school year, while TOG only does 36, so I could take a week away from TOG here and there and add in a week of SA History. But if my year is too busy, I would just take the time to read the section in All About South Africa and add one of the books to read, if I have it.

Ideas to Incorporate:

• Make a Zulu shield out of fake fur and wooden skewers
• Make an African Drum
• Make Mealie Meal Bread (see recipe below) or Pap, and serve with chicken and pumpkin
• Learn about Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi
• Learn about Nguni cattle
• Study the Iron Age
• Place a picture of each of the people groups on the appropriate place on a South African map
• Talk about the roles of women and men in the Nguni culture. Have children dramatize.

Field Trip:

Lesedi Cultural Village (Gauteng)
Guests are divided into smaller groups and taken on a guided tour of our five homesteads: Zulu, Xhosa, Basotho, Ndebele and Pedi

Recipe:

Early South Africans were mostly hunter-gatherers. They depended on foods such as tortoises, crayfish, coconuts, and squash to survive. The practice of modern agriculture was introduced by the Bantu, natives of northern Africa. They taught inhabitants to grow vegetables such as corn ("mealies"), squash, and sweet potatoes.

It is customary for children to eat from the same dish, usually a big basin. This derives from a "share what you have" belief which is part of ubuntu (humane) philosophy.

Mealie Meal Bread (I got this recipe years ago - not sure where I got it from!)

1 ½ cups Milk
2 cups Mealie Meal
1 tsp Salt 
4 tbsp Butter (or Margarine) 
3 Eggs, beaten 
2 tsp Baking Powder 

Heat 1 cup of the milk and then blend the other ½ cup of milk together with the mealie meal. Then add the mealie meal, salt and butter to the cup of hot milk and mix well. Cool and then add the beaten eggs and baking powder. Blend well and turn in to a greased loaf tin. Bake at 180’C/350’F/Gas Mark 4 for 30 to 40 minutes.

Links:

The Xhosa People
The Zulu People
Nguni
Nguni Cattle

Iron Age 
Traditional African Clothing
African Jewelry
Swazi
African Farmers

Field Trips:
Lesedi Cultural Village (Gauteng)

Books to look for: 
I have had some success in finding SA books by watching on bidorbuy.co.za, and don't forget your local library!

Zulu Traditions and Cultures by Aubrey Elliot
The Xhosa and their Traditional Way of Life by Aubrey Elliot
Looking at the Zulu by Roger and Pat de la Harpe
Looking at the Xhosa by Roger and Pat de la Harpe
The Abundant Herds: A Celebration of the Nguni Cattle of the Zulu People by Leigh Voigt

Bobotie (pronunciation: Ba-boo-eh-tee)

from Tracy Cox

1 kg mince (2.2 lbs ground beef)
2 onions, sliced (I use 1 - for those of you that know me, even that much is a surprise!)
25 g butter (1 1/2 Tbsp)
20 ml curry powder (4 tsp)
3ml turmeric (heaping 1/2 tsp)
2 slices *white bread, crust removed
250 ml chutney (1 Cup)
30 ml vinegar (2 Tbsp)
15 ml brown sugar (1 Tbsp)
10 ml salt (2 tsp)
3 bay leaves
300 ml milk (1 1/4 cup)
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Fry onions in butter until soft. Add curry powder and turmeric and cook for 2 minutes. Add mince and brown. In bowl, soak the bread in 60 ml (1/4 Cup) milk and mash with a fork. Add 1 beaten egg, chutney, vinegar, sugar and salt. Add to the meat mixture. Transfer to a greased baking dish and spread evenly. Arrange leaves on top. In a bowl, mix the remaining milk and 2 eggs and pour over the mince. Bake for 30 minutes.

The last time I made it I browned the mince separate so that I could drain it, and then I added it to the onions/spices. It still worked great!
*For THM try an on plan bread like cloud bread or Gwen’s Easy Bread.