Anyone for hippo?

My boyfriend Rob and I (Penny) have just returned from a three month trip around Eastern and Southern Africa, during which time we ate some exceptional and some exceptionally dull meals. One of the most interesting took place early on in the trip, and incorporated a surprising key ingredient.

After weeks of eating chicken, rice and beans throughout Rwanda and Tanzania, we were looking forward to tasting different game meats as we headed further south. I don’t think we quite expected to see what was on offer when we reached South Luangwa National Park – hippo!

Our camping site offered us a sample of their hippo biltong (a dried meat similar to jerkey) but to properly appreciate the meat we knew we had to buy some fresh fillets. As you can see from the picture, they were huge but extremely lean and tender. We decided to make a hippo stew, a bit different to mum’s old favourite cooked back in Australia.

The result was absolutely incredible – the hippo didn’t need much more than an hour over the heat and came out like high grade fillet steak. I must admit, it took some getting used to cooking and eating animals that we spotted during earlier game drives in national parks but by the end of the holiday we were enjoying everything from springbok to kudu to ostrich.

Most probably won’t be able to get their hands on hippo anytime soon, so I’ve included a generic version of a stew below where you can use beef instead.

What you'll need:

500g stewing steak (chuck or blade)
1 large onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon tomato puree
3-4 medium sized potatoes
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon dried Italian herbs
1 cup red wine

Cut the beef into bite sized pieces, and pat with a paper towel to remove any moisture. Place a tablespoon of oil into a large casserole dish and cook the meat until browned all over. Remove from the heat and place to the side.

Add the onions and garlic to the same dish, and sautee until softened. Cut the potatoes into bite sized pieces, then add to the pan along with the carrots, tomato puree and the wine. Season well with salt and pepper, then add the herbs for extra flavour.

Pour in water until it covers the meat and vegetables, then cover the dish with a lid and cook for 1.5 hours until the meat and the vegetables are cooked through. You can cook this dish either in a moderate oven (around 180 degrees) or over a low heat on the hob.