8/10/2019 Jackie Cameron - The Witness 31-10-14

1/2

8/10/2019 Jackie Cameron - The Witness 31-10-14

2/2

October 31, 2014 The Witness Supplements 5

NIYANTA SINGH

ROTIS, those delightful floury, hand-rolled,bread-like accompaniments served with curries,have increasingly become a challenge to the mod-ern-day housewife.

Years ago, as a child, I would always help mymom when she was making rotis, and I find mychildren doing that now with me.

But as I got busy with my career and then withchildren, having home-made roti was a rarity inour home. It is a time-consum ing accompanimentto make and usually takes me about an hour tomake dough, roll, and toast about 25 rotis.

These days there is help at hand, however, withmany stores selling ready-made rotis.

Ashburton businesswoman Shashika Jagger-nath is one of those who are making life easierfor roti lovers. Her Top Rotis brand of ready-maderotis is steadily taking its place in most homes.

Top Rotis began in 2011 when Jaggernath hadto pay medical bills for her husband, who suddenlytook ill.

Today, with her husband fully recovered, she isstill making great strides in this once unheard ofindustry she runs Top Rotis from a factory thatturns out between 2 500 and 5 000 rotis per day,employs more than eight staff and is supplyingsome of the provinces leading caterers and super-markets.

Chances are that if you are at a function andthere is roti being served, it has come from Jagger-naths Top Roti factory.

I had to pay the bills and women from our gen-eration know how to make roti, she told eXplore.I saw a gap where working women were stretchedfor time and were hardly making roti anymore,yet still needed to have rotis at meal time.

So I got down to business and started supply-ing rotis to some of the women who were working.

Then I got a lucky break an Indian restaurant

was opening in Durban and they were looking fora roti supplier. Its literally been no looking backsince then.

Initially working from her Ashburton home, Jag-gernath said the demand for her rotis grew as shebegan supplying the Pietermaritzburg Pick n Payand Spar stores and she soon found herself movingto the Mkondeni factory where she is currentlybased.

One day I ran out of flour and dashed into the

Opening January 2015 in Hilton KwaZulu-Natal

YOUR JOURNEY WITH FOOD BEGINS HERE...Contact Jackie Cameron for further information: jackie@jackiecameron.co.za

www.jackiecameron.co.za

Currently supplying to most of the caterers inDurban and Pietermaritzburg, the Food LoversMarket in Pietermaritzburg, the Tsogo Sun hotelgroup (in Pietermaritzburg), the Save Group,

Mndeni Group and small er outlets, Jaggernath hascome a long way from carrying her baby on herhip and making rotis to ensure her bills are paid. Niyanta.Maharaj@gmail.com

Shashika Jaggernath at a store that stocks her Top Rotis.PHOTO: NIYANTA SINGH

CHRISTO Pretorius, executive chef at The TwelveApostles Hotel and Spa in Cape Town, w ill be atThe Oyster Box in Umhlanga on November 5 forthe first of two must-do events for foodies.

Pretorius will be the guest chef in the Grill Roomand is preparing a five-course food and wine even-ing that will showcase Cape Malay spices and fla-

vours using KwaZulu-Natal ingredients.On the menu is chilled garden pea and mint

soup, prawn dhal creamed cauliflower, cumin yo-gurt, pineapple chutney, hydrated sultanas andverjuice, barn-raised quail confit leg lollipop,mushroom agnolotti, shallot puree, hazelnutswith coffee sauce and Graaff-Reinet blesbok pearlbarley with celery root, apple, shimeji mushrooms,cashew-nut cream and juniper berry jus.

Dessert will be roast peach panna cotta, Mada-gascan vanilla, coconut sponge, sour cream and

caramelised white chocolate.The five-course menu costs R550 per person.Also headed to the upmarket hotel is chef and

author of numerous cookbooks Marlene van derWesthuizen, who will launch her new book,Secretsof a French Cooking Class , with a celebratory din-ner in The Pearl Room on November 25.

Van der Westhuizen divides her time betweenher home in Greenpoint in Cape Town and Char-roux in France, where she runs popular cookingclasses.

Other popular titles behind her name includeAbunda nce, Delectab leand Sumptuo us. Her newbook takes the reader and cook behind the scenes,to the inner workings of her 50th cooking classin France.

This is her first culinary visit to KZN and dinerswill get the chance to savour a five-course menu

of dishes from the new book, prepared by OysterBox executive chef Kevin Joseph and his team.

The French-inspired menu includes gruyere andonion tart, roast beef fillet with potato dauphi-noise, haricot vert and creamed leeks , and for des-sert, apricot and almond gratin.

The cost of the dinner is R490 per person.

Van der Westhuizen will introduce her menuand offer insight throughout the evening abouther experiences and food philosophy.

She will also sign copies of her new book, whichwill be available at a special price. To book for theseevents, phone 031 514 5000 or e-mail restaurants@oysterbox.co.za eXplore Reporter.

MY ROTI RECIPE

(adapted from recipes passed on to meby my mom Vijay Singh and mother-in-lawMeera Maharaj)

Ingredients:4 cups of flour (can be brown)2 tablespoons oil2 tablespoons ghee1 tablespoon sugarEnough boiling water to make a softdough

Method:Sieve flour.Add oil, ghee and sugar.Rub oil and ghee into flour so that itroughly resembles bread crumbs.Pour boiling water to make a soft butmanageable dough. Knead.Separate the dough into 25 pieces. Roll in-to round balls (with your hands), dippinginto flour so it doesnt stick.Roll out into flat, slightly thick circles.Toast on a griddle (thawa) first oneside, turning after 30 seconds, then theother side.Apply melted ghee and turn over.Rotis should be toasted to a goldenbrown.Serve with curries, or use as a wrap.

Making life easy for roti lovers

A must for foodiesMarlene vanderWesthuizenwill belaunching herlatestcookbook atthe Oyster

Box.PHOTO:

SUPPLIED

ChristoPretorius willbe cookingup a tastytreat at the

Oyster Box.PHOTO:

SUPPLIED

local Spar for a huge consignment and the man-ager happened to be around and was curious toknow what I was going to bake with so muchof flour, she said.

When I told him I made rotis for sale, he im-mediately asked me to supply their supermarket.I guess I have been lucky.

In the three years since she set up shop, Jagger-nath has marketed her products qu ite aggressive-ly to stores.

We try to get on every possible database. Wehave also gone through the process of gettingour product nutritionally evaluated and labelledso that we can supply to the bigger chain stores,she explained.

Keeping to tradition, though, Jaggernathsstaff use a recipe that was handed down to herby her mother. Everything is traditionally hand-made we do not use machines here. The recipeI use is the recipe handed down from generationto generation in our family. Our rotis are reallyjust the way mom made them.

V SHASHIKA JAGGERNATH

Everything is traditionally

hand-made we do not usemachines here. The recipe Iuse is the recipe handeddown from generation to

generation in our family.