This is the first Portuguese dish I ate with my uncle, in a small bar in Pretoria. I don’t think I’ve had a better version since: tender cubes of beef fillet in a spicy tomato, red wine and vinegar sauce, with chunks of bread to mop up the left over sauce. To give this dish South African flair, beef is replaced with springbok loin.

Ingredients

For the roasted garlic

Wrap 16 large garlic cloves in foil and sprinkle with grapeseed oil. Bake at 100oC for 3 hours or until the garlic is soft. Keep warm in the foil and set aside.

For the sauce

1 large onion, diced
1⁄2 cup Allesverloren Grape Seed oil
1 cup red wine
2 red chillies, finely chopped
2 garlic gloves, grated
50 g brown sugar
1 cup beef/venison or brown
chicken stock
Splash of Worcestershire sauce
1⁄2 cup red wine vinegar
A pinch of smoked paprika

For the venison

800g Springbok loin or any other loin or fillet of South African venison (200g per person)
Salt and pepper to season
Canola oil or sunflower oil for frying

For the ‘roosterkoek’

Makes about 20

1 kg bread flour
10 g instant yeast
15 g salt
15 g sugar
500 ml water

To serve

Spring onions, freshly chopped

Instructions

For the sauce, sweat the onion with one grapeseed grape seed oil until soft. Add the red wine and cook until all the alcohol has evaporated. Add the chillies, tomato, garlic, brown sugar and red wine vinegar and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes. Add the stock, remaining grape seed oil, Worcestershire sauce and the paprika. Cook for 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and blend thoroughly with a hand mixer. This can be made in advance and the sauce is even better after a day or two. (refrigerate)

For the venison, cut into 3cm by 3cm cubes. Season with salt and pepper and fry in small batches in a hot pan until medium rare. Add the venison to the sauce. (If made the day before, re-heat before adding.)

For the ‘roosterkoek’ mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl of a mixer. With the paddle attachment on low speed, pour the water in gradually. When all the water is incorporated, increase the mixer speed to medium and continue to mix for 5 minutes. The dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl into a ball. On floured surface, with your hands, shape into roughly 8cm x 8cm squares. Place on a floured baking tray, cover loosely with floured tea towel and let rise till roughly double in size. Dust generously with flour and cook/braai on medium coals or a griddle pan, for approximately 4 minutes on each side.

Serve the trinchado and ‘roosterkoek’ with the soft roasted garlic heads and spring onions.