Kapana recipe – grilled beef strips – Authentic Namibian Street food
Learn how to make this kapana recipe in your own kitchen and you don't have to wait to go to Namibia to enjoy it. Kapana, Namibian grilled beef Strips over open fire is one of the most popular street foods in Namibia. If you've been to Namibia before, you're probably familiar with it. It's juicy, beautifully tender, smoky, cheap, readily available all year round, and can be consumed any time of the day.
Servings: 10 servings
Equipment
- Charcoal grill
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs) well marbled beef steak SEE NOTES
- 2 teaspoons kapana spice mix
- about 2 tablespoons sunflower or olive oil
Instructions
- Cut the meat into long interconnected strips. Normally when we're cutting a giant steak into strips back home, someone is always holding the meat while the other person cuts it into strips. Just to speed up the process.For beginners, I will recommend you cut the meat into about 1 cm (0.40 inches) thick slices first, before cutting it into long strips.
- Place the beef strips, in a casserole dish or similar. Add kapana spice and oil. Using your hands rub the meat very well. Cover with cling film and chill for about 1 hour. In the meantime, make the fire and let the grill heat up.
- About 10 minutes before grilling the meat take the meat out of the fridge to bring it to room temperature.
- Next place the meat on the grill, our grill had about 175 °C (347 °F). After about 3 minutes turn the strips and grill on the other side for 3 minutes. Then turn it again and grill for about 2 minutes. Turn and grill again und grill for about 2 minutes or until the meat has perfect shear marks. (SEE NOTES)
- Kapana tastes best grilled over the fire, but I also made it in the oven and on an electric grill and it still tasted delicious.
Video
Notes
- Beef: When choosing steak for kapana you want to choose well marbled high-quality beef with more fat running throughout the steak. Because fat means flavor and lean means dry kapana. I have used entrecote steak aka. ribeye cut to make my kapana.
- Grilling time: Please bear in mind that the grilling time differs based on the thickness of your beef Strips, your grill time, the cooking temp, the beef cut you chose, and how well you like your steak cooked. So, your Kapana may cook faster or slower than the time provided.