Reuben’s Skewers

Prawn, bacon and shiitake (mushroom) skewers with sweet and sour sauce (makes four).

 Ingredients:
8 large pieces smoked lardon

½ green pepper, sliced into two-centimetre squares

4 shiitake mushrooms, quartered

2 pinches salt

2 pinches freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup sweet and sour sauce

 Sweet and sour sauce (master recipe)

1 cup rice wine vinegar

1 cup sugar

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp tomato sauce

Juice of ¼ lemon

Method: skewers and sweet and sour sauce

Using four skewers, evenly and decoratively arrange the prawns, green pepper, lardons and mushrooms on each skewer. Season the skewers evenly with salt and pepper and cook on a grid over medium-high heat for three to four minutes.

To serve, drizzle sweet and sour sauce over the skewers.

Sweet and sour sauce (master recipe)

Reduce all the ingredients over medium heat until syrupy.

Reuben Riffel: uniting people with good food

Celebrity chef and MasterChef South Africa (SA)  judge, Reuben Riffel comes from a family that believes cooking and eating well is the secret to a happy life. He has experienced first-hand how good food unite people and this tradition has inspired his personal approach to cooking. His mother (who also worked in a gourmet restaurant), grandmother and aunts would spend hours in the kitchen preparing feasts for the family using only fresh fruit and vegetables grown by his grandfather on a small piece of land in Groendal, Franschhoek.

His own culinary journey started at the award-winning Monneaux restaurant in Franschhoek, followed by a move to Cambridge, England, where he was head chef at Bruno’s Brasserie. Reuben returned to SA to run a restaurant in his hometown, bearing his name. Six months after Reuben’s opened its doors, it was awarded the Eat Out Restaurant of the Year Award, and Reuben himself landed the coveted Chef of the Year Award. Endorsements, a tome of a cookbook, and numerous TV appearances and accolades followed.

Reuben’s soon multiplied and branches opened at Racine restaurant at Chamonix and in Paternoster; and in 2010 at the One&Only in Cape Town – now renowned for its fresh seafood and Cape-inspired dishes.