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Fish

Smoorsnoek

Smoked snoek flaked and braised with onion, tomato and potato, then folded through rice. A leftovers dish that beats the original.

“Smoor” is Afrikaans for braise. The dish comes out of Cape Malay cooking and answers the question of what to do with the snoek left over from yesterday. It traditionally arrives with rice and a slice of farm bread with jam alongside — a combination nobody outside the Western Cape understands and nobody inside it questions.

Prep
20 min
On the fire
25 min
Serves
6
Effort
easy

When it goes on

Done beforehand

Made in the kitchen. On the table before you light up.

Equipment: Cast-iron pan

This line

Cape Malayfrom 1658

Spices, the sweet-sour handling of meat, marinades, the skewer.

Fresh at the Western Cape April · May · June · July

Method

  1. Get everything ready

    Boil and dice the potatoes, cook the rice, peel and chop the tomatoes, bone the snoek thoroughly. Once the pan is going it moves fast — before that, not at all.

  2. Braise the onions

    Heat the oil and butter and soften the onion rings over medium heat until translucent and just starting to colour. That takes eight to ten minutes and cannot be hurried.

  3. Tomatoes in, ten minutes

    Stir in the tomatoes, sugar and chilli flakes and braise uncovered for ten minutes until it thickens. If it catches, add a splash of hot water.

  4. Potato and fish

    Fold in the diced potato and the flaked snoek and give it another ten minutes. Fold rather than stir — the fish should stay in pieces.

  5. Fold through the rice

    Mix in the rice until evenly distributed. Season with salt, pepper and the herbs.

Tips

  • Do not salt before the fish goes in. Smoked snoek brings plenty, and once it is too salty it stays that way.
  • For something creamier, add a spoon of sour cream at the end — not traditional, but good.
  • The classic accompaniment sounds wrong and is right: white bread with apricot jam on the side.
  • Leftover smoorsnoek on toast is the best breakfast this recipe has to offer.

Snoek is the fish of the West Coast, and anyone who has cooked one at a fire has some left. A whole snoek weighs two to four kilos, and nobody finishes that.

Which is what smoorsnoek is for. It is a leftovers dish, as honestly as one can be — and like almost every good leftovers dish, it is more popular than the thing it is made from.

Why it belongs here: it comes at the start of the afternoon, not the end. You make it while the fire is still being built and put it on the table so people have something while the coals come up.

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