IT takes imagination and just a tiny bit more effort to transform an everyday burger into a hamburger with a twist. I turned to the ancient customs of my Tswana culture and substituted the standard mince patty with skopo meat.
Skopo is meat stripped off the cooked head of a sheep or a cow. According to Tswana culture, this delicacy is eaten last during traditional family ceremonies.
The men in the family are responsible for cooking it and stripping the meat off the skull.
In urban Mzansi, sheep skopo is often sold at taxi ranks and is especially popular with taxi drivers.
The recipe below is for two skopo burgers - just increase the ingredients to make more. Surprise your friends this weekend by dishing up a deluxe skopo burger that’s easy and cheap to make!
INGREDIENTS
250g skopo meat
Spices like chicken spice, paprika and garlic salt
1 tablespoon butter
1 fresh tomato, sliced
1 onion, sliced (optional)
2 hamburger rolls
Slices of cheese, such as cheddar or emmental
Dijon mustard
Tomato sauce
METHOD
Dice up the skopo meat into small pieces using a sharp knife.
Heat up a non-stick pan over a high heat and melt the butter. When it is bubbling furiously, throw in your spices. Let them cook a few seconds to bring out their flavours before throwing in the diced skopo meat.
Cook the meat for about five minutes, stirring all the time to mix the flavours and prevent sticking.
Cut the hamburger rolls in half and smear with Dijon mustard.
Pile patty-sized amounts of skopo meat on to each roll. Layer the cheese, tomato and onion slices on top. Add a gloop of tomato sauce.
Place the top half of the roll on top of your skopo burger tower and devour with your drink of choice!
