Love braaiing, traveling or cooking with friends? How do baked eggs in enamel tin mugs, cheddar braai bread with bacon and roasted tomatoes, or chocolate brownie pudding cooked in a cast iron potjie over the coals sound? “I wanted to write a cookbook for my friends,” says Aletta Lintvelt of her new book, Go! Weekend Food. “A book for weekends away in a country cottage with rudimentary kitchen facilities. A book with meal ideas for impromptu camping trips, lazy brunches with friends and in-between snacks during that long December holiday. Most of all I wanted it to be a cookbook with will be used and not just pretty pictures to look at.”

Aletta is the food editor for Go! and Weg magazine, and has also included a few recipes from individuals she met while travelling our beautiful country. “Louise from Calvinia makes the best skuinskoek ever”, explains Aletta, “and because it is such a traditional recipe, I wanted to include one from a master baker.”

We chatted to Aletta to find out about cooking over the coals, breaking cooking rules and living the holiday.

What does Weekend Food mean to you?
Weekend Food is a state of mind. If you bunk work and take time to make yourself Fancy scrambled eggs with cream and perfectly crisped bacon and chilli salsa you have the Weekend Food state of mind … and it is essential for your mental health to give it to yourself as often as you can. Sometimes after a really crazy day between school lifts and deadlines at work at my city job, I go home and make something like a bunny chow with chicken curry and we eat it outside with our hands on a blanket with the TV off.

Though this is not a specifically a braai book, we notice plenty of recipes for cooking over the coals…
I grew up with holiday in a caravan at the West Coast and I will never forget waking up and seeing my dad and his friends firing up the Weber and making all kinds of fry-ups for us. Most of us already know how to braai – how we like our chops and braaibroodjies etc. But what about all the other meals and times of the day? Cooking over a fire is not that different from using an oven – in the book I give instructions for both in all recipes. Over a fire you do cook more intuitively, I think, and I think there is a certain joy and acceptance of food cooked over coals. It is not about getting it perfect, but about savouring the moment.

You have some unique recipes, like the butternut pie wheels and a potato bake with caramelised onions, tomatoes and coconut milk. So you’re not afraid of breaking ‘the rules’ a little?
That potato bake is insanely good and one of my favourite recipes! I think one of my biggest aims when I developed the recipes for this book was to give people new ideas. Most of the recipes have by test-eaten by my friends and family over the course of the last couple of years and I’m frequently asked ‘what did you put in that?’ I realised that people are open to trying new flavours and tastes, but until someone has made it for them, they can’t picture it.

Every now and then you call for store-bought ingredients like Italian seasoning, corn nachos for chicken crumb, and ginger biscuits to form a crust on roasted butternut. Was this a deliberate move to make things easier and more accessible for your readers?
Yes. I’ll be honest when I cook for myself I stay away from most ready-made spices and ingredients and prefer for cook with fresh herbs, lemons and olive oil. But the reality is that going away for a weekend, you want to simplify the packing of ingredients and you also also want to be able to make something on a whim when you are on holiday in a place with only a small supermarket. That is where cooking with widely available ingredients – where you only have to buy one thing – is handy, even if you won’t normally eat like that all year long.

What cookbooks do you have on your shelf at home?
I have all Nigel Slater’s books. He is in my mind the best cookery writer – with the emphasis on writer – in the world. The way he is able to convey with words what cooking does to your senses, heart and what you are frying in the pan is just incredible. I also have all the Ottolenghi books and most of those written by the Australian food doyenne Maggie Beer. And several books on Indian cooking; a cuisine I adore and a country I hope to visit next year.

What are your favourite restaurants?
Unpretentious ones using good honest simple ingredients like The Kitchen in Woodstock, The Woodlands Eatery in Deer Park and for something a bit more I love sushi and my favourite is 1890 Sushi House in Observatory – a very unlikely place to get the best sushi in Cape Town. I also adore Fish and Chips from Lusitania Fisheries [in Waterkant Street, Cape Town]. If I’m going for broke I go to Bistrot Bizerca.

In quickfire:
Being in the kitchen is… meditation. Chopping, cutting, stirring and tasting is like yoga-moves for your spirit.
My favourite ingredients are… lemon juice, parmesan, chorizo, garlic, chilli and fresh West Coast mussels.
The first rule about cooking is… to only cook what you feel like eating. Otherwise get take-away or make a toasted sandwich. Food cooked without the cook looking forward to savouring the meal is no good.
The best… breakfast is a poached egg with chilli sauce on a homemade fishcake.
The worst… idea is KFC. I really have a big problem eating chicken that are not free-range.
The only… mistakes are the one that you didn’t learn from.
My family… braai every single Sunday, rain or shine.

Go! Weekend Food by Aletta Lintvelt is published by Human & Rousseau and is available from all good bookstores for R199.95.

Try Aletta's Bob Marley chicken wings recipe for yourself.