The Biltong Bowl Challenge | Bowl #3

Biltong, Baby Spinach, Avocado, Mixed Grains, Gorgonzola Cheese and Preserved Figs Dressed with Strawberry and Mint Salsa, Pistachio Nuts and Mixed Micro Greens.

Growing up, winter has always been hunting season in our house. By July we would have inordinate amounts of biltong, droëwors and fresh game, filling refrigerators and freezers to the brim. This year, as the season draws to a close, and our stock-pile dwindles, we decided to conclude the season with a ‘biltong-off‘.

A variety of biltong entrees, snacks and salads can even be found at local restaurants and eateries, but we have never seen a biltong bowl. Not even Google could help us out here. Based on this find- or lack thereof- we thought we’d help out . To kick off, our biltong-off,  we’re going to build 3 individual biltong bowls, based on our favourite biltong combinations.

Wiki says:

• Biltong is a form of dried, cured meat that originated in South Africa. Various types of meat are used to produce it, ranging from beef and game meats to fillets of ostrich from commercial farms. It is typically made from raw fillets of meat cut into strips following the grain of the muscle, or flat pieces sliced across the grain. It is similar to beef jerky in that they are both spiced, dried meats, however the typical ingredients, taste and production processes differ.
• The word biltong is from the Dutch bil (“rump”) and tong (“strip” or “tongue”)

• Droëwors (/ˈdruːəvɔːrs/; Afrikaans literally “dry sausage”) is a Southern African snack food, based on the traditional, coriander-seed spiced boerewors[1] It is usually made from dun wors (Afr. “thin sausage”) rather than dik wors (“thick sausage”), as the thinner sausage dries more quickly and is thus less likely to spoil before it can be preserved. If dikwors is to be used, it is usually flattened to provide a larger surface area for drying.

Biltong Bowl #3

Mixed grains, biltong, avocado, gorgonzola, fig preserve, pistachios and baby spinach served with a strawberry, mint, pepper and balsamic salsa. Or, as we like to call it, the fully loaded biltong bowl…

Serves 2

Preparation time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 cup Thinly sliced biltong
• 1 large handful baby spinach – washed
• 1 Avocado
• 2 Whole preserved figs (fig jam)
• 100g Gorgonzola cheese
• ½ cup uncooked mixed grains (you can use bulgur, quinoa, barley, couscous etc.)
• 1 Stock cube
• ¼ cup Shelled pistachio nuts (approx)
• Lemon/ lemon juice for coating avocado -prevents avo from going brown
• Micro greens for garnish

Strawberry Salsa Ingredients

• 1 punnet strawberries (5-6 medium sized strawberries would suffice)
• 2 tbsp verjuice
• 1 Handful mint (about 12-15 large leaves)
• 2 tbsp balsamic reduction (you can use your favourite balsamic infusion too)
• Black pepper- coarsely ground

Method

Cooking the grains

• Follow instructions on packaging, alternatively:
• Boil 2-3 cups of water with the stock cube.
• Reduce the heat, add the quinoa and boil for 12-15 minutes until tender.
• Remove from heat, drain the remaining liquid and cover. Set aside.

Strawberry Salsa

• Dice strawberries in small cubes of about 3 x 3 mm.
• Remove stems and thinly slice mint leaves into small strips or squares.
• In a small bowl combine the diced strawberries, mint, 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper,  verjuice and balsamic reduction.
• Gently stir until the ingredients are well blended

More Preparation

• Slice thin slivers of Gorgonzola cheese or crumble into chunky pieces.
• Peel, have and pit the avocado and cut into 5 mm slices.
• Coat avocado in lemon juice to avoid oxidation.
• Remove pistachios from shells, and roughly chop into large chunky pieces.
• Slice green preserved figs into thin slivers.

Putting The Bowl Together

• Arrange spinach in the bowl.
• Spoon grains into the bowl, partially covering the spinach leaves.
• Arrange the biltong slices in the bowl.
• Arrange the avocado in the bowl.
• Add Gorgonzola cheese and preserved fig.
• Sprinkle with pistachio nuts.
• Spoon strawberry salsa into bowl, or serve on the side.
• Garnish with micro greens.
• Enjoy your fully-loaded billie bowl!