KAROO CUISINE

Eating and drinking in the Karoo is a culinary experience not to be missed.

The Karoo is a large area with many towns! The region offers a variety of traditional and wholesome Karoo dining experiences to suit all tastes and budgets! From the deliciously diverse flavors of South Africa’s indigenous and multi-cultural rainbow cuisine to culinary specialties from all over the world.

The Karoo is well known for its Lamb.

It is believed that Karoo lamb is tastier and more flavorsome than lamb from other regions, the reason being the different types of shrubbery which the sheep in this region feed on. The fragrant bushes in the Karoo impart an unmistakable ‘herbiness’ to the lamb. Here, the sheep roam freely on farms eating the Karoo vegetation to their heart’s content!

Braaivleis (BBQ): The word braaivleis is Afrikaans for “roasted meat.”

The word braai (pronounced “bry”, rhyming with the word “cry”; plural braais) is Afrikaans for “barbecue” or “roast” and is a social custom in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. It originated with the Afrikaner people but has since been adopted by South Africans of many ethnic backgrounds. The word vleis are Afrikaans for “meat”.

Bobotie: Bobotie, a staple of South African cuisine. It is believed to have originated with the Dutch and gets its name from the Indonesian word “Bobotok”. Bobotie has been part of the South African cuisine since about the 27th century.

Back then it was made mainly with mutton and pork which were combined. Nowadays it is usually made using either beef or lamb mince. Dried fruits such as raisins and apricots can also be added. Flavored with mild curry, the mince is then topped with a milk and egg mixture and baked in the oven. Usually served with yellow rice with raisins.

http://www.south-africa-info.co.za/country/article/279/karoo-cuisine

Personalized guest experience

Personalization is a concept that lies at the very heart of the travel industry: the art of making people feel at home.

The key to successfully personalizing the guest experience is to know your customers, thanks to technology all is changing.

For most of the human population, meeting their personal needs are quite a satisfaction. It’s nice to know that when you visit places and you overnight that they meet your personal needs. It is always said that at the end of a relaxed holiday and you are back home there is nothing better than sleeping in your own bed.

How nice will it be that while you’re on vacation or maybe just on a weekend break, it really feels like home, just with a little bit more flair.  As a typically Karoo person, we love long, good and interesting conversations, delicious food and a good night’s rest.

After all, kindness and good stories alongside the campfire doesn’t cost much.

Every experience that you take on must ensure pure excitement at the end of the day. So that one day all of these extraordinary stories may be told next to the campfire of Karreekloof for the young ones to hear.

It sure is nice to have peace of mind, that when you check in at a certain place and the people receiving you know exactly who you are, where you come from and what your likes and dislikes are.

Here at Karreekloof, we love the taste of good food, we laugh often and we enjoy sitting next to the campfire. You can be assured of a good night’s rest and plenty enough fresh air.

Come and relax with us, lick your fingers clean after a good meal and enjoy the campfire stories.

Preparing Venison

Preparing Venison

1. Use only venison that has been field-dressed correctly.  Choose only deer meat that was cut, skinned, wrapped and refrigerated promptly by a professional or an experienced deer butcher.

  • Venison should also be aged for a period of 10-14 days after being dressed out. This allows the meat to dry out some, reducing the gaminess and making the meat more palatable.

2.  Trim away all visible fat. Unlike beef fat, which imbues the meat with flavor and helps to keep the meat moist, venison fat does not taste good and will do nothing for the texture of the meat. Using a sharp knife, trim away the connective tissue and fat from your cuts of venison before attempting to cook it.

  • You can discard deer fat, though it’s also commonly rendered into tallow, and makes for excellent soaps.
  • “Silverskin” is a thin membrane that you’ll find on many recently-processed cuts of venison, which you’ll want to remove if it hasn’t been already. It can be somewhat tedious but peeling it off the meat as much as possible will improve the flavor and also make it easier to cook.

3.  Marinate the meat overnight before cooking it. Venison has a strong, gamey flavor that you can highlight or mask, depending on the cut and what you hope to do with it. Learning a bit about how to match a cut to a marinade will help you tenderize the meat and add flavor. The best way to marinade venison is in a large gallon Ziplock bag in the refrigerator overnight.

  • Use thinner cuts with marinade and brine larger cuts. At most, an overnight marinade will only penetrate about a 1/8th of an inch into the meat, making marinading a large roast kind of pointless. Use thin strips of flank or backstrap to the marinade to get the most out of the process.[2]
  • For a simple marinade, use Italian salad dressing, or make your own with a half-cup each of vinegar and olive oil, a clove of minced garlic, and a teaspoon each of brown mustard and Italian seasoning (or oregano and basil).
  • For a BBQ marinade, sauteed half a finely chopped yellow onion and 3-4 cloves of minced garlic in about 5 tablespoons of butter until translucent. To this, add two cups of tomato sauce (or a cup of ketchup), a half cup each of apple cider, apple cider vinegar, and brown sugar, and two tablespoons of chili powder.
  • If you’re not a fan of the “gaminess” of venison, use a citrus-based marinade. Citrus tends to mask the strong flavor of venison and can make it more palatable to children and less adventurous eaters. Try marinading a half-cup of lime juice mixed with a half-cup of olive oil, half a cup of chopped cilantro, a minced green chile, a teaspoon of ground cumin, and a shot of tequila.

4.  Substitute the removed deer fat with another fat source. Although the deer’s own fat will affect the flavor of the venison adversely, venison lacks the “marbling” needed to keep it moist and tender, making it very easy to dry it out. Because of this, many experienced venison cooks will “bard” or “lard” the meat with another fat source, such as butter, margarine, oil, or bacon fat.[3]

  • Barding is done by adding fat to the outside of the meat. This method works best on the grill or in the skillet because it involves essentially basting the meat with a fat source. After turning the meat over, you can brush some melted butter or olive oil onto the browned side of the meat to imbue flavor and moisture.
  • Larding is done by inserting fat into the meat, through little cuts. This method works well for larger cuts and roasts that you cook in the oven and works especially will with other meats like ham or bacon. Use the tip of a chef’s knife to make incisions into the thick parts of your venison roast, then push small cuts of bacon, or fatty pork, into the slits. As it cooks, the fat will help to keep the meat moist.

5.  Match the cut to the cooking method. Different cuts are more appropriate for different cooking methods. Some are great cooked up as steaks, while others make better stew meats or candidates for venison sausage.[4] Whether you have a specific dish in mind and want to get the right venison for the job, or you want to find the best vehicle for your cuts, you can point yourself in the right direction:

  • Backstraps or tenderloin are the tenderest and usually the most desirable cut, and can be cooked whole, cut into individual steaks, or cut into smaller chunks for stews and stir-frys. Tenderloin can be served rare-medium.
  • Roasts are best from the lower hams, which should be braised or stewed at a low temperature for a long period of time to ensure tenderness.
  • Steaks are best from the top half of the hams, which are the most versatile section of venison. While it’s initially a bit tough, after being properly-tenderized, this meat can be used for a variety of purposes.
  • Stew meat should come from the lower ribs, the belly, and the neck. If you’ve got a meat grinder, this also makes excellent ground venison or venison sausage.

http://www.wikihow.com/Cook-Venison-(Deer-Meat)

What is Fair Trade Tourism?

The aim of Fair Trade Tourism is to make tourism more sustainable by ensuring that the people who contribute their land, resources, labour and knowledge to tourism are the ones who reap the benefits.

FAIR TRADE TOURISM PRINCIPLES

Defining Fair Trade in TourismFair Trade in Tourism is a key aspect of sustainable tourism. It aims to maximize the benefits from tourism for local destination stakeholders through mutually beneficial and equitable partnerships between national and international tourism stakeholders in the destination. It also supports the right of indigenous host communities, whether involved in tourism or not, to participate as equal stakeholders and beneficiaries in the tourism development process.

Fair Trade partnerships between tourism and hospitality investors and local communities

  • Equitable consultation and negotiation taking into account the interests of local     community stakeholders, including tourism enterprises, and indigenous residents not involved in tourism
  • Transparent and accountable business operations through environmental and social audits
  • Employment of local residents (including indigenous people) to provide opportunities for developing their human potential.
  • Training and development at local community level for managerial positions, if appropriate as part of a public, private and civil society partnership.
  • Investors aware of and adhering to relevant regulations, whether derived from local, national, or international regulation, including a regulation that would apply in the tourists’ countries of origin, e.g. on Health and Safety and environmental controls.
  • Anti-corrupt practices

 Fair Trade between tourists and local people

  • Informed and responsible tourists foster a mutually beneficial exchange with local people, respecting their culture
  • Tourists pay a fair market price.
  • Fair and sustainable use of natural resources
  • Investment and research in environmental protection
  • Implementation of measures which enhance the local environment
  • Consultation with the local community
  • Adherence to relevant national and international conventions, such as the
  • Convention on Biological Diversity and regulations, including a regulation that would apply in the tourists’ countries of origin.
  • People charge a fair market price

http://fairtrade.travel/content/page/what-is-fair-trade-tourism

Fair Trade Tourism Principles