Classic South African Kota
Overview
A kota is a quarter loaf of bread, hollowed out and packed with fried food. The word is township English for quarter, and that is the whole description: bread cut in four, the soft centre pulled out, and the cavity filled with chips, polony, russians, viennas, cheese, egg, atchar and sauce, then capped with the bread that was removed. It belongs to the townships of Gauteng, where it is sold from small takeaway windows and eaten in the hand without a plate. Kota shops compete on what they will fit into a quarter loaf, and the size of the fill is a large part of the reputation. It is cheap, it is a complete meal, and it is built for people who need to eat between one thing and the next. Atchar is what makes it South African rather than generically stuffed bread. The pickled green mango relish, oily and sour and hot, came to South Africa through Indian indenture and cuts the fried starch that dominates everything else in the cavity. Kota is often described as a version of bunny chow, and the two are related without being the same: bunny chow is Durban Indian, a hollowed loaf filled with curry, and kota is a Gauteng township form filled with fried items. They share an ancestor and are not interchangeable.
AFN Heritage Note
The kota takes its name from the township English for quarter, describing the quarter loaf that forms it, and is documented as a street food of the Gauteng townships. Atchar, the pickled mango relish central to its assembly, entered South African food through Indian indentured migration to Natal from 1860.
Ingredients
Directions
- 1
Cut the centre out of the quarter loaf and set the removed piece aside.
- 2
Heat the cooking oil in a deep pan over medium heat. Test it with a single chip: if it sizzles, add the rest and fry until they start to turn golden brown.
- 3
Remove the chips, drain off the excess oil, season them and set aside.
- 4
In the same oil, fry the Russian sausage until crisp on the outside, about 4 to 5 minutes.
- 5
Assemble by placing the ham at the bottom, then the atchar, the chips, the cheese and the Russian.
- 6
Top with your chosen sauces and use the cut out piece of bread as a lid.
- 7
Serve hot.
Africook’s Notes
Personal notes from Tshego Stone- The atchar goes in early, against the bread, not on top. It needs to soak into the loaf, and that sourness cutting the fried starch is the point of the whole construction.
- Put the cheese directly against the hot chips so it melts. That is what holds the fill together when the kota is picked up.
- Do not hollow out too much. The bread walls have to hold everything, and a loaf cut too thin collapses in the hand.
- Fry the chips first and the sausage second in the same oil. The sausage flavours the oil and the chips do not want that.
- There is no fixed fill. Kota shops build to order and add polony, fried egg, viennas, chakalaka and more. The quarter loaf and the atchar are the constants.
Reviews
4 reviews
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Used a quarter loaf of fresh Albany white bread and an Enterprise smoked russian sausage. Only thing is 30 minutes cook time was way too long for me, if your oil is already hot it takes max 15 min to fry the chips and sausage. Still super lekker with the cheese melted over the chips.
Hardest part here in the UK is finding proper atchar sha, so I got some spicy green mango pickle from an Indian shop nearby. Used a thick unsliced white bloomer loaf from Sainsbury's to hollow out. Once that fried sausage and melted cheese hit the hot chips, e sweet well well!
Tried this yesterday with Rajah curry spice on the chips instead of plain chip spice. Putting the ham slice right at the bottom first is a smart move because it stops the bread base from getting too soggy from the atchar oil. Very lekker.
Made this last night my broer and sommer added extra sweet chilli sauce on top of the slap chips. Fry the russian sausage until the skin splits like you said, so good. Reminds me of late nights in my ma's kitchen.