Shena's 'lekker' steak

'Lekker' is an Afrikaans word that has found its way into general South African parlance. Roughly translated, it means 'nice', although that does it no justice whatsoever. It isn't always used in relation to food, either, you can wish someone a lekker weekend, or a lekker birthday. Someone can equally have a lekker figure.

Needless to say, we are not talking about the posher echelons of society, here, who may also use the term, but only semi-ironically, the way a Sloan ranger may casually throw in an 'innit?'

At one stage, my uncle was very active in the Round Table. This was at a time when wives were called 'table legs' (and the wives of Rotarians were called Rotary-annes). My aunt often used to have to cater on a fairly large scale, and this dish was a favourite.

She passed the recipe on to our family, and it quickly became my favourite, too. We had a tradition in our house that, on your birthday, you either got taken out for dinner, or the other family members would cook your favourite meal. For many years, on my birthday, we had lekker steak with baby potatoes, butternut and cauliflower. It still rates fairly high on my list of favourite dishes!

Oven temperature

Grill (for method 1)

Ingredients

1kg rump steak
60ml vinegar
60ml chutney
60ml tomato sauce
30ml soy sauce
30ml Worcestershire sauce
10ml flour
10ml mustard (I replace this with black mustard seeds)
1 clove garlic, crushed
salt and pepper to taste (I don't use any salt, but a couple of grinds of black pepper never go amiss)

Method

Marinate for 3-4 hours

Method 1 - preparing on a fairly small scale (up to 10 people, say)

• Cut the steak into individual portions.
• Mix together all other ingredients in a fairly large container, and marinate the steak (covered) for 3-4 hours.
• Remove from marinade and grill (or fry, if you must) until done to preference.
• Place marinade in a saucepan and heat, stirring all the while, until it thickens into a sauce to use as gravy.

Method 2 - preparing on a large scale (in which case, you will have increased your quantities proportionately)

• Cut the steak into individual portions.
• Mix together all the other ingredients in a very large, oven proof container and marinate the steak (covered) overnight.
• If you can be bothered, sear each portion of steak on each side in a frying pan over a high heat, before returning it to the oven proof container, but this is not entirely necessary.
• Bake, covered, at 200C for about half an hour (or as long as needed to acquire your preferred level of 'done-ness').
• Uncover and return to oven for a further 10 minutes.

Serve with potatoes prepared to your preference (wedges work really well!) and veg or salad.