1. Bogobe Jwa Lerotse
Ingredients:
- 2 cups bopi jwa mabele (sorghum mealie)
- 1/2 lerotse (cooking melon) cut into 3 cm chunks, peeled and seeds removed
- 3/4 cup madila (sour milk)
- water
Bogobe jwa lerotse has a wonderfully subtle flavour given to it by the lerotse melon.
This fruit which looks almost identical to the common watermelon, has orange flesh that is not sweet.
Raw, it tastes a little like cucumber, and when cooked it give the bogobe a unique flavour.
Boil some water (about 1/4 of the pot). When boiling, add enough lerotse to fill the pot and cover.
When the volume reduces, add more lerotse, and continue until all the lerotse pieces have been added.
Cook gently for another 30 minutes, until the lrotse can be whisked with a traditional wooden whisk (lehetho).
Slowly stir in the bopi jwa mabele, a little at a time, while you whisk until all the lumps are broken down. At this point the mixture should be of a creamy consistency - the consistency of typical soft porridge.
Cover the pot and allow to simmer.
Add more mabele while stirring with a cooking stick (liso le le apayang) to avoid lumps.
Continue adding mabele and stirring to a desired consistency and allow to cook for about 15 min and then add the madila, gently folding it into the boiling mixture. Reduce the heat and simmer for another 5 min.
2. Serobe
Ingredients:
- 3-4 kg assorted sweetbreads, either beef or mutton – tripe and intestines can be supplemented with: pancreas, lungs, heart etc.
- Water
- Salt
All the ingredients must be washed thoroughly.
Particular attention must be paid to the many folds and crevices of the stomach lining (tripe), or else the serobe may contain sandy bits.
However, over washing dilutes the intensity of the flavours.
Cook all the innards in boiling water until soft for approximately 2 hours.
The sweetbreads/ offals are then cut into small pieces.
A pair of sheep-shearing shears is ideal for the purpose.
When all the ingredients have been cut up into uniformly small pieces, return them to the pot and boil for another 30 min, adding salt to taste. When properly cooked, the consistency of the dish should ne homogenous - the various different ingredients almost indistinguishable one from another.
This dish can be served with "bogobe" aside.
