RECIPE FOR DENNINGVLEIS

The word ‘denning’ originates from the Javanese ‘dendeng’, meaning ‘the meat of a water buffalo’. Vleis of course is Afrikaans for meat.
Loosely translated therefore ‘Denningvleis’ means ‘The meat of a water buffalo meat’

With that cleared up, denningvleis is a delicious dish, made with lamb (not buffalo), that has all the flavors of eastern spices, but without the bite.

Depending on your budget, you can use de-boned leg of lamb, lamb breast, knuckles or even mutton pieces of you prefer.

Ingredients
1.5-2.0kg lamb
2 large onions (or 4 regular size onions)
6-8 big cloves garlic crushed
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg (1/2 teaspoon powder)
6-8 whole cloves
6-8 Whole allspice
1 teaspoon mustard seed
4 bay leaves
Salt and pepper
2-3 tablespoons lemon juice

Method
Trim the fat from the meat, remove the bones and cut the meat into large chunks.
Roughly chop the onions.

Heat a little oil in a heavy based pot brown the meat a few pieces at a time to colour the outside, remove and set aside.

Add a little more oil, reduce the heat to medium and fry the onions until they become glassy and start to go transparent. Add the garlic and cook for a few more minutes, stirring every 30 seconds or so.

Return the meat to the pot, add all off the spices except the lemon juice with a heaped teaspoon of salt (or to taste) and pepper and mix to combine all of the flavours.
Add about 1 ½ cups of water, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer gently for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes or so.

The meat is supposed to be very tender and juicy. If you have the time, let it simmer on very low heat for a further hour.
Ten minutes before serving, add the lemon juice and stir in well.

Delicious with yellow rice and beetroot salad.

TIP: I tie the whole spices in a piece of muslin cloth. Easily removed afterwards, and avoids the unpleasant experience of biting on an all-spice. Even worse, a cardomon pod in curry or biryani!