COPPERKapana recipe
Beef cut small and grilled over a wood fire on a steel plate, dusted with kapana spice and eaten standing at the stall.
Ingredients
- 800 g beef sirloin
- 30 g kapana spice mix
- 2 onions
- 3 tomatoes
- 30 ml white vinegar
- 30 ml canola oil
- 5 g salt
- 6 vetkoek
How to make Kapana
- Light a wood fire under a flat steel plate or a heavy cast-iron griddle and let it get very hot: kapana is grilled over wood, never fried in a pan.
- Make the salsa first: chop 2 onions and 3 tomatoes fine, mix with 30 ml white vinegar, 30 ml canola oil and 5 g salt, and set it aside.
- Cut 800 g of beef sirloin across the grain into thin bite-size pieces, the way the vendors do with a machete.
- Brush the hot plate with the remaining 30 ml of oil and spread the meat over it in a single layer.
- Grill 5 to 10 minutes, turning the pieces, until they are charred outside and still juicy inside.
- Dust the meat with 30 g of kapana spice mix, a blend of chilli, paprika and salt, while it is still on the heat.
- Serve straight off the plate with the salsa and 6 vetkoek, eaten with your fingers.
What is Kapana?
Kapana is a traditional dish from Namibia, cooked in a pan, and takes about 40 minutes from start to finish. It is built around beef sirloin, kapana spice mix and white vinegar. The recipe below uses 8 ingredients and is written out step by step.
How long does Kapana take?
At 40 minutes it is quicker than 89% of the 586 dishes in Copper's atlas. Copper's atlas has 11 dishes built on beef sirloin. The method runs to 7 steps, the longest being 10 minutes.
Any tips for making Kapana?
Get the plate very hot over the wood fire and spread the meat in a single layer, so it chars outside and stays juicy inside.
How Kapana compares
Hard to find elsewhere: kapana spice mix (1) and vetkoek (1).
Cooked with the same thing elsewhere
Other traditional dishes built on white vinegar, from other countries.
- Escabeche 🇧🇿 Belize
- Butter tarts 🇨🇦 Canada
- Mangú 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
- Koshari 🇪🇬 Egypt
- Ajvar 🇲🇰 North Macedonia
- Vigoron 🇳🇮 Nicaragua
Copper documents Namibia alongside 197 other countries. Every recipe is free to read, with the full ingredient list and every step.