South AfricanGatsby
Masala steak and chips roll
Gatsby: Cape Town's giant masala-steak, chip and salad roll, cut into sharing lengths
Born in an Athlone fish-and-chip shop in the 1970s, the Gatsby is Cape Town's sharing sandwich: a roll as long as your arm, stuffed with hot chips, salad, sauce and a filling, then chopped into four and handed round at a match, a birthday or after Friday prayers. This version uses masala steak, thin strips of beef fried hard with Cape curry masala, garlic and chilli-garlic sauce until sticky and dark. Many takeaways add sliced polony too, which usually contains pork and/or beef or chicken, so check the label if that matters to you. The usual letdown is soggy chips, so fry them last and build the roll the moment they come out of the oil. Chef's tip: for masala chicken, swap in 600 g thin-sliced boneless chicken thigh and fry until it reaches 74 °C in the thickest piece, with no pink left.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 25 min
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Serves
- 4
- Per serving
- 890 kcal
Ingredients
For the masala steak
- 1 ⅓ lb beef rump or sirloin steaksliced into thin strips
- 3 cloves garliccrushed
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire-style sauce
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 onionsliced
- 2 tbsp chilli-garlic sauce
For the chips
- 2 ¼ lb floury potatoescut into 1 cm chips, rinsed and dried well
- 6 ¼ cups sunflower oil for deep-frying
- 2 tbsp malt or brown vinegar (optional)for sprinkling
To build
- 2 long soft white rollsabout 35 cm each, or one 60–70 cm roll
- ¼ iceberg lettuceshredded
- 2 tomatoessliced
- ¼ cup tomato sauce (ketchup)
- 7 oz polony (optional)sliced; usually pork and/or beef or chicken, check the label
Shop this recipe on Amazon
Search Amazon for the rest
Fresh ingredients (6)
Links open Amazon in a new tab. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Method
0/7 doneStep 1: Toss 1 ⅓ lb beef rump or sirloin steak with 1 ½ tbsp Cape curry masala or hot curry powder, 3 cloves garlic, 1 tbsp Worcestershire-style sauce and 1 tsp salt in a bowl and leave it while you prepare the rest.
Step 2: Heat 6 ¼ cups sunflower oil for deep-frying in a deep pot to 325°F, filling it no more than a third full. Fry 2 ¼ lb floury potatoes in two batches until soft and pale but not coloured, then drain.
8 minStep 3: Heat 2 tbsp sunflower oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. Add 1 onion and the steak and stir-fry, letting it sit a minute between stirs, until the meat is browned and the onion is soft and catching at the edges.
6 minStep 4: Stir in 2 tbsp chilli-garlic sauce and a splash of water and toss until the strips are coated in a sticky glaze. Turn off the heat. If you are using 7 oz polony, fry the slices briefly in the same pan until hot and golden at the edges.
2 minStep 5: Turn the deep-frying oil up to 375°F and fry the chips again in batches until crisp and deep golden. Drain, salt them lightly and sprinkle with 2 tbsp malt or brown vinegar if you like.
6 minStep 6: Split 2 long soft white rolls lengthways without cutting all the way through. Spread the insides with half of 2 tbsp tomato sauce (ketchup) and lay in ¼ iceberg lettuce and 2 tomatoes.
Step 7: Pack in the steak, the polony if using and the hot chips, then squeeze over the rest of 2 tbsp tomato sauce (ketchup). Press each roll shut, cut it into lengths for four people and eat straight away.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 890 kcal
- Protein
- 42 g
- Carbs
- 98 g
- Fat
- 36 g
- Fibre
- 8 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does gatsby take?
- About 40 minutes in total: 15 minutes to prepare and 25 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 4 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- What can I use instead of garlic?
- ½ tsp garlic paste or ⅛ tsp garlic powder per clove.
- What can I use instead of onion?
- 2 shallots per onion.
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to cook it.
Rate this recipe
Sign in to rate and review this recipe.
You might also like
Sandwich grecKebab baguette
In Paris, a "grec" is the late-night kebab sandwich named after the Greek-run shops that first sold it in the Latin Quarter. On rue de la Huchette and rue Saint-André-des-Arts near Saint-Michel, students queue after a night out for crusty bread or pitta stuffed with meat shaved from a turning spit, lettuce, tomato and onion, a garlicky white sauce, and, the Paris touch, a handful of fries pushed right inside. This home version marinates chicken thighs in spiced yoghurt, sears them hard and slices them thin, with oven fries. It contains milk, egg (in the mayonnaise) and wheat. Chef's tip: slice the meat thinly across the grain after resting; thick chunks don't feel like a grec.
French
AmasiFermented milk with crumbly pap
Thick, tangy amasi was once soured in calabashes in Zulu and Xhosa homesteads, and it is still the drink-cum-meal that many South Africans crave on a hot afternoon, poured over crumbly pap as umvubo. At home it is easy and safe with pasteurised full-fat milk and a spoon of live cultured buttermilk as the starter; never use raw milk. Expect something like a pourable, sharper yoghurt with soft curds, cooling against the dry, crumbly maize. The common mistake is fermenting somewhere too warm, which makes the milk separate into watery whey and rubbery lumps. Chef's tip: once it has set, chill it for a few hours before eating; the cold firms the curd and rounds out the sourness.
Lemongrass tofu banh mi
Bánh mì is Saigon's favourite street food: an airy, thin-crusted baguette split and stuffed with pickled carrot and daikon (đồ chua), cucumber, coriander and chilli. At vegetarian stalls near the city's pagodas the meat is swapped for sticky, caramelised lemongrass tofu, as in this version. Eat it for breakfast or lunch, warm, with a glass of iced coffee. Chef's tip: warm the baguette in a hot oven until the crust crackles when you squeeze it, and pull out a little of the soft crumb, so every bite is crisp shell, juicy filling and herbs in balance.
Vietnamese