Try these lekker fishy Cape Malay frikkadels

Fancy a nice “frikkie” with a fishy twist? Home cook and TV personality Abidah Mohammed shares her secrets behind perfect flakey, crispy hake frikkadels. 

Mohammed makes these hake frikkadels that will have your family licking their fingers, in just 30 minutes! A light meal filled with nostalgia, these frikkadels capture the essence of Cape Malay food history. They are traditionally served with a “lekker smoortjie” (tomato stew) or a spicy “blatjang” (chutney).  

Face behind the dish

Mohammed is the host of the 18-season, bilingual Cape Town community television series “Proe”. The show is centred around capturing the essence of the Capetonian food culture.

“The show is really about me in the kitchen showing and sharing with my viewers the real meaning of home cooking,” she says. 

Mohammed is a well of wisdom and teaches celebrities in the Cape Town community how to make meals from scratch. She has even hosted the likes of former Western Cape premier Helen Zille.  

Rumbling bellies inspires a legend

Mohammed remembers a time when she suffered a similar fate. In Elsies River she raised her five children, along with her husband. Together, they would survive on a single income. As a stay-at-home mother, she says she has taught her children to understand the value of food and money.  

“I involved them in every financial decision since they were young. When my husband got paid fortnightly then I would put the money on the bed and show them how much we had to work with for the week. There wasn’t always a lot left, but at least our fridge was full.”

For some people, cooking for five growing children might sound like the beginning stages of a never-ending nightmare. For Mohammed, the rumbling tummies of her now-adult children were always a source of cooking inspiration. 

“I was a stay-at-home mother, so there was time to learn, time to do new stuff in the kitchen in terms of cooking and trying different things out. You know how children are, they are all different,” she says. 

Those different palates sparked what she calls the “great tomato bredie standoff” in her home. “Half of them will like tomato bredie with mince and half of them love a tomato bredie in a meaty stew. There is a different taste for each one of them,” she chuckles.  

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