Basotho of Eswatini

Sishwala

Thick maize porridge served under meat or vegetables, the base of the Swazi plate. Stiffer than pap and eaten with the hand.

Serves 6 · 35 minutes

Emasi Emabele

also Sorghum with soured milk

Cooked sorghum eaten with thick soured milk, the Eswatini breakfast and the food most closely tied to the country's cattle-keeping tradition.

Serves 4 · 1 hour, plus 2 days souring

Emasi Emabele

Sorghum porridge served with emasi, thick soured milk, the dish Swazis name as their own. Eaten cold in hot weather and central to the Incwala ceremony's food.

Serves 6 · 45 minutes, plus souring

Sishwala Nekukhwaya

Maize porridge with peanut relish, sold at markets and roadside stands. Cheap, quick and the standard working lunch.

Serves 4 · 40 minutes

Umkhunsu

Beef dried, salted and then cooked, prepared when an animal is slaughtered for a ceremony and there is more meat than can be eaten fresh.

Serves 8 · 3 days drying, then 1 hour

Tinkhobe

Whole boiled maize kernels, sometimes with beans, eaten as a meal in itself. Slow to cook and filling, and what a household falls back on.

Serves 6 · 2 hours 30 minutes, plus overnight soaking

Buganu

Marula fruit wine brewed by women each February, celebrated with a national ceremony at which the first of the season is presented to the Queen Mother.

Serves Makes about 5 litres · 3 to 5 days

Pap and Chakalaka

Maize porridge with a spiced vegetable relish, eaten at braais and in townships across the country. Chakalaka was invented on the mines and has spread everywhere since.

Serves 6 · 50 minutes

Umngqusho

also Samp and beans, Isitambu

Cracked dried maize and sugar beans cooked slowly together with onion and butter, the Xhosa staple and, famously, Nelson Mandela's favourite food.

Serves 6 · 3 hours, plus overnight soaking

Bobotie

Spiced mince baked under a savoury custard with bay leaves standing in it, a Cape Malay dish and South Africa's most-cited national plate.

Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes

Boerewors

also Farmer's sausage, Wors

Coarse beef sausage spiced with coriander, clove and vinegar, coiled in a spiral and grilled over coals. The South African braai is not a braai without it.

Serves 8 · 1 hour, plus overnight resting

Bunny Chow

A quarter loaf of white bread hollowed out and filled with curry, invented in Durban's Indian community and eaten with the hands, no cutlery permitted.

Serves 4 · 2 hours

Braai with Boerewors

Meat grilled over wood coals, with boerewors coiled in a spiral. A braai is a national institution with its own public holiday, and gas is not accepted.

Serves 8 · 2 hours

Potjiekos

also Potjie, Three-legged pot stew

Meat and vegetables layered in a cast-iron pot over coals and left for hours without stirring, so each layer stays itself. The South African outdoor cooking ritual.

Serves 8 · 4 hours

Koeksisters

also Koesister, Syrup plaits

Plaited dough fried and dropped straight into ice-cold syrup so the outside stays crisp and the inside floods with sugar. A South African argument between the Afrikaans plait and the Cape Malay spiced ball.

Serves Makes about 24 · 1 hour, plus chilling the syrup overnight

Cape Malay Denningvleis

Lamb stewed with tamarind, allspice and onions until sour-sweet and dark, from the Cape Malay kitchen built by people brought to the Cape as slaves from Southeast Asia.

Serves 6 · 2 hours 30 minutes

Rooibos Tea

Red bush tea from the Cederberg, the only place on earth it grows, drunk without milk or as an espresso-style red cappuccino. Naturally caffeine-free.

Serves 4 · 15 minutes