The La Motte Artisanal Bakery is all about bread and celebrating this humble product’s rich heritage as a staple food. When made with quality flour and yeasts as well as traditional methods of slow fermentation, bread is not only wholesome and delicious, but even an affordable luxury!
To celebrate the everyday beauty of bread as part of our heritage, we’ve reimagined a few local street food favourites, using bread from the La Motte Bakery. Don’t miss these fun and fabulous interpretations by Ilse van der Merwe.
The Cape is known for this gigantic sandwich - a smorgasbord of French loaf, different kinds of meat or sausage, slap chips, lettuce, tomato and sauce/s. We’ve made a mash-up between two iconic South African sandwiches: the Gatsby and the boerewors roll - an enormous boerie in the Gatsby style that can be cut into 4 large or 6 medium portions, made with the La Motte Bakery's extra long Crustique loaf. The regular tomato smoor is replaced by a delicious pickled balsamic onions and some roasted baby tomatoes. For extra flavour, our boerie gatsby is spread with chutney and mayonnaise, and topped with peri-peri sauce. For this braai-style gatsby, we’ve omitted the chips, but you can add some if you prefer!
The Bunny Chow is one of South Africa’s most recognisable and loved sandwiches. Traditionally served in a hollowed out half loaf or quarter loaf of white bread, it is generously filled with Durban-style curry - lamb, chicken or vegetarian. Our version is served as a centrepiece-to-share in the Couronne from the La Motte Bakery: a beautiful crown-shaped loaf made with baguette dough, filled with a boneless chicken curry with soft potatoes. The loaf has a sturdy crust but a very soft inner, perfect for holding the curry without falling apart and soaking in all those lovely sauce. Note: Don’t be alarmed by the large amount of oil. A true Durban curry is characterised by the higher amount of oil used, and because we are using boneless skinless chicken, there is no extra fat in the meat.
A kota is an iconic township sandwich originally hailing from Soweto, but now available all over South Africa. “Kota” might refer to township slang for “quarter loaf”, because the sandwich is assembled in a quartered government loaf, hollowed out. Fillings are plenty, including items like chakalaka, sausages, polony, slap chips and sauces - similar to the Cape’s gatsby sandwich. We have created a slightly daintier breakfast version of this whopper sandwich, using our “anysbroodjie” - a small brioche-style loaf that resembles the also-iconic mosbolletjie loaf, but made (out of season) without fermented grape must. We filled it with fried tomato, crispy bacon, sunny side up eggs and masala spiced chips, served with some chutney masala mayonnaise on the side. The fragrant sweetness of the loaf makes a dreamy combo with the classic breakfast elements, and marries surprisingly well with the potato chips and chutney masala mayonnaise. Notes: 1) The hollowed out part of the bread can be buttered, toasted and served on the side. 2) Traditionally the chips are served on top of the sandwich, but we love seeing those beautiful yellow eggs on top, inviting us to start the day with a sunny gleam!
We’re not trying to replace the classic, iconic South African braaibroodjie! However, we do love trying new things and marrying French and South African favourites. This is our take on a braaibroodjie inspired by classic French onion soup - traditionally served with crunchy gruyere toasts. Confit onions are similar yet even simpler to make than onion soup, cooking down regular onions over low heat in a pot with lid on until they steam and caramelise in their own sugary liquids. The result is buttery soft and almost spreadable, rich in flavour yet soft and sweet. Spread generously on slices of our classic La Motte Bakery sourdough, topped with grated local gruyere-style cheese and sliced tomato, these braaibroodjies still contain most of the elements of a classic braaibroodjie, but with a more crusty outer and a more moist and gooey inner. We bet you’ll adore these braaibroodjies!
