Ostrich steak burgers with chakalaka ketchup are a great low-fat alternative to red meat, though ostrich is technically a red meat and tastes more like beef than chicken. The burgers in this recipe are served with a chakalaka ketchup, a nod to a very traditional staple dish that grew up in South Africa's townships.
Big Bird
I've already covered many of the South African barbecue classic salads and accompaniments. So, this time I'm taking it in a slightly different direction, serving the burgers with a fairly classic Wardolf salad and mushroom sosaties.
Ostrich steak burgers
I prefer to barbecue ostrich burgers, especially since it's that time of the year again, but there is no reason you can't make this dish indoors. The texture of ostrich steak makes it ideal to sear like a beef steak in a grill pan—the kind with the ridges—though it also cooks well under the grill or in a more traditional frying pan. One of the other key differences between chicken and ostrich is that, because it's a red meat, you can choose to have ostrich as rare as you you wish without health risks. I've even enjoyed ostrich sushi on various occasions.
Okay, so fresh ostrich steaks are not that easy to find in many parts of the world, But, ostrich farming has been increasingly embraced outside of Africa, especially in the USA, precisely because of the health advantages of ostrich meat. There are now a number of producers in the USA that deliver both fresh and frozen ostrich products across the country. And, in the UK and EU, aside from specialist butchers, some larger supermarket chains, including those that deliver, carry both fresh and frozen ostrich products.
Having tried both frozen and fresh ostrich steak burgers, I really don't think there is much difference in quality: it's clearly a meat that freezes well. Just ensure that you have allowed it to fully defrost best seasoning and cooking.
Chakalaka ketchup
I'm serving the burgers with a chakalaka ketchup, a nod to a traditional South African dish born in the country's townships and mining compounds. Migrant works living communally, a long way from home, would all chip in, literally adding something to the pot, and this iconic dish was created. Usually its main ingredients are tomatoes, onions, peppers, baked beans and black pepper, though it can vary and sometimes includes other ingredients such as meat or chicken. Its flavour is peppery rather than spicy in the way that dishes that use chillies are. However, in some regions where there has been a little more crossver between Cape Malay cooking or South African Indian cooking, it's sometimes made fiery hot with cayenne pepper.
The history of the dish is that it was a cheap meal created by and for workers in industrial towns and cities who sent as much of their wages as they could to their families back home in rural regions. Thus, it seldom contained meat, made with cheap vegetables. It was traditionally served with putu pap, a kind of corn "porridge" similar to hominy grits.
Since its humble origins, the dish has become something of a national favourite, served as an accompaniment to barbecued meat at braais, commonly served cold at barbecues. My variation on the theme turns what is usually a kind of tomato stew akin to ratatouille or peperonata into a smoother sauce for the burgers.
High sosatie
Sosaties are a Cape Malay dish, skewers of vegetables and meat, most traditionally lamb, that are marinated in sauces that combine spices, apricots and herbs before being barbecued. While they very much depend on the individual chef's style, they tend to be fragrant and mildly spice rather than fiery hot. This simple vegetarian iteration is basically a hack to cooking the kinds of things—like onions and mushrooms—that you might want on your burger. But, they also make an nice side dish in their own right.
Waldorf hysteria
Here I've chosen to serve the barbecued burgers with an iconic Waldorf salad, named for the august NYC hotel where the legendary maître d'— the legendary Oscar Tschirky—reputedly invented the salad for a charity gala in 1896. Supposedly the original version only featured apples and celery. But, by the late 1920s, a popular cookbook espousing Oscar's unique recipes included other ingredients such as the walnuts. For me, a true Waldorf salad can only be made with these ingredients. The use of raisins instead of the grapes, for example, is a vile form of culinary hubris that I cannot countenance.
Shopping list
for the ostrich steak burgers
1 (or more) ostrich steak burgers per diner
burger buns or other buns of choice
1 to 3 ripe fresh tomatoes, sliced
3 or 4 gherkins, sliced vertically
lettuce or green leaves of choice
Approx. 1 tbspn of za'atar seasoning
A little olive oil, as baste
For the chakalaka ketchup
Approx 250g halved fresh small tomatoes; skin on
1 large onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped pressed or grated
2 tspns minced red chillies
1 small (200g) tin baked beans in tomato sauce
A dash vegetable oil or olive oil
2 tbspns Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to flavour
For the Waldorf salad
5 or 6 celery sticks, quite finely chopped
A buch of seedless green grapes, washed and halved
A cup of walnut halves, broken into fairly large pieces
2 Granny Smith apples, washed and cut into fairly large pieces
2 tbspns whipped cream cheese
mayonnaise to flavour (most likely 6tbspns+)
salt and black pepper to taste
For the mushroom sosaties
200g chestnut mushrooms (halved if very large)
2 red or brown onions, cut vertically into thick "slices"
2 bell or sweet peppers, cut into fairly large pieces
1 tspn dark soy sauce
2 tspns clear honey
1 tspn minced red chillies
2 tspns smooth peanut butter
4 tbspns cider vinegar
juice of 1 fresh lemon
Cooking Method
the chakalaka ketchup
Start with this first. You can cook this days before you use it and store it in the fridge for up to two weeks or freeze it. In a pot with a lid, heat the oil on a high-to-medium heat. When hot, sizzle the garlic for a few minutes, and add the minced chillies
Add the onion after a couple of minutes and sweat until it softens. Add red bell pepper and sweat until it softens. Then add the tomatoes and stir in. Sweat these ingredients together for about 5 to 6mins.
Add the pepper, salt and Worcestershire sauce; stir in. Cover and simmer on a medium heat for approx. 20mins, stirring occasionally and adding a little water if it cooks too dry
Add the baked beans, together with their tinned tomato sauce and stir in. Re-cover and simmer for a further 7 to 10mins; until the elements meld
Using a handheld blender—or decanting to a food processor—"chop" the chakalaka into a reasonably thick "ketchup". You can serve it as a cold condiment with your burgers or reheat it if you prefer
In a shallow pan, heat half of the oil on a medium-to-high heat. When hot, add half of the chopped green chillies, half of the garam masala, half of the turmeric and half of the mild (Madras) curry powder. Stir into the oil and briefly fry, releasing the aromas
Add the chicken and stir in, first ensuring that it seals on all sides. Then, reduce the heat and sauté until the chicken is cooked. Allow the contents to cook until relatively dry, only adding a little water if needed to prevent sticking
Once cooked, remove from the heat and allow to rest
the mushroom sosaties
Press your raw onions, mushrooms and pieces of red bell pepper onto wooden skewers. Try to make sure that you do so in a way that the larger surfaces of these vegetables are exposed; i.e. will expose them directly to the barbecue
In a small ramekin or dish, mix together the honey, soy sauce, peanut butter, lemon juice, cider vinegar and minced chillies and salt and pepper
Baste your sosaties with this marinade using a pastry brush or clean fingers at least 1 hour before cooking
Cook alongside the ostrich burgers for approx. 8 to 10mins, turning regularly. Use the remainder of the marinade to bast them frequently while cooking over the coals. You want a certain element of blackening/chargrilling to happen
Once cooked, serve alongside the burgers
the Waldorf salad
In an appropriate salad bowl, fold your celery, walnuts and grapes together
In a separate bowl, dress your cut apple with lemon—to prevent browning—and allow the juice to since in before adding to the other ingredients
In a small receptacle, mix together the whipped cream cheese and mayonnaise until a "seamless" dressing. Add to the salad and gently fold in
Season with freshly ground black pepper and salt. Take to table in a salad dish and allow diners to serve themselves
for the ostrich steak burgers
You do these at the last minute. About an hour before cooking, season your ostrich steak burgers with a little black pepper, sea salt and Za'atar seasoning
Precisely because the contain so little fat, your ostrich burgers will cook quickly and easily dry out. When the coals are white-hot, add place the burgers on the grille, next to your cooking sosaties. Baste liberally and frequently with the olive oil, turning more than one might a beef burger
A few minutes before your ostrich burgers are looking optimal, toast your burger buns on the grille
Add salad leaves and gherkins to your hot burger buns before adding your perfectly cooked ostrich burgers (you can safely cook them any where from "very rare" to "well done"). Take to table. Enjoy with the chakalaka ketchup, sosaties and Waldorf salad
Alternatives
Vegans and vegetarians
I'm really not going to pretend I have a vegan or veggie alternative to ostrich. On this occasion, sorry.
Pescatarians
As above
Pairings
Technically ostrich is a red meat—and I can totally see how this would work in terms of wine because of it's much beefier flavours than any other "poultry".
That said, hot weather and a lot of other flavours in there, this worked fantastically with the panacea of South African Chenin Blanc, on this occasion a fairly unassuming number from Stellenrust. Please feel free to add you ideas.
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