Celebrating my friend Kristy’s birthday the other day, Lisa brought a lovely melktert. It’s a traditional South African milk custard pie, often baked and served in an enamel plate. The appearance is very rustic and it looks quite rich, but the filling of a good melktert is fluffy and light and the taste very mild. In Tortoises & Tumbleweeds Lannice Snyman writes that traditionally a melktart is ‘flavoured with naartjie (tangerine) peel, blanched almonds and peach kernels.”

The one Lisa brought was from the Food Lovers Market in Park Meadows and came in an enamel dish as it should. It tasted very well indeed. While we were feasting on the tart, Kristy’s 2,5 year old daughter Saffiyah baked her own cake of chocolate, butter, salt and cake (read sand, sand, sand and some stolen rocket leaves from her mother’s herb garden). Will get back to you with a melktert recipe when I get the time to bake.