How-To: BBQ South African-Style
By Chuck CageSome Good Braai Recipes
Boerewors (ask your butcher, he might just make it for you)
In the old days, farmers wasted nothing. When a beast was slaughtered in winter, all parts were used, including the trotters, which were used for making brawn and the intestines, which were used as casings for home-made sausage. Every farmer’s wife prided herself on her own special recipe for making sausage. The fillings ranged from beef and mutton to game meat or even game offal encased in game intestines, called “skilpad” and “pofadder.”
Here’s a recipe for your own Boerewors:
Ingredients:
- 1.5 kg beef
- 1.5 kg pork
- 500 g bacon, diced
- 25 ml salt
- 5 ml ground pepper
- 50 ml ground coriander
- 2 ml freshly grated nutmeg
- 1ml ground cloves
- 2 ml ground dried thyme
- 2 ml ground allspice
- 125 ml red wine vinegar
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 50 ml Worcestershire sauce
- 85 g sausage casings
Cut the beef and pork meat into rough 1-1/2″ cubes and mix it with all the other ingredients except the sausage casings. Grind the meat using a medium-course grinding plate. Fill the sausage casings firmly but not too tightly with the meat mixture. The resulting sausage can be fried, grilled or barbecued over coals.
Makes 3.5 kg
Fillet Steak Sosaties (Kebabs)
(Makes About 6)
Marinade
- 30 ml (6 tsp) sunflower oil (or any cooking oil)
- 15 ml (3 tsp) fresh lemon juice
- garlic, chopped
- 3 ml fresh (or dry) chopped origanum
Sosaties
- 600g (just over 1 lb; 500g = 1 lb) fillet steak, cubed
- 6 lamb’s kidneys
- 12 fresh pickling onions
- 1 green pepper, seeded and quartered
- 6 wooden kebab skewers
Remove membrane from lamb’s kidneys and cut the kidneys in half. Prepare kebabs by adding ingredients to skewers alternating between steak, kidney, onion and green pepper. Leave in marinade overnight if possible. Cook kebabs slowly over the coals for about 15 minutes, turning once or twice. Baste often with the marinade while cooking.
PotjieKos
(Picture: “This is the potjie from up close. As you can see, all the soft veggies are on the top to stop them disappearing.)
Beef and Veggies Potjie
In this lovely Potjie, extra salt is not needed as the soya sauce contains enough salt. As substitute for the sherry you may also use Port. It’s enough for 6 people and a size 3 potjie pot is recommended.
Ingredients
- 1 kg stewing beef, cubed
- 1 beef kidney, cubed
- 2 medium onions, sliced
- 125 ml Dried apricots, soaked in water for 1 hour
- 4 carrots, peeled and sliced
- 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced
- 4 medium potatoes, peeled and halved
- 6 baby marrow, sliced
- 250 ml cabbage, chopped
- 1 tomato, peeled and sliced
- 30 ml dried parsley
- 30 ml cooking oil
- black pepper to taste
The Sauce
- 125 ml sweet sherry
- 125 ml soya sauce
- 5 ml black pepper
- 3 ml dry mustard
- 1 ml dry rosemary
- 1 ml dry thyme
- 1 cube beef stock
- 500 ml boiling water
Method
Heat the oil in the pot and brown the meat and kidney till almost brown. Add the onions and brown together. Mix the ingredients of the sauce and add it to the pot. Stir well, then cover with the lid and simmer for 1-1/2 hours. Layer the dried fruit and then the veggies as they appear in the recipe. Sprinkle some pepper over the tomatoes.
Cover with the lid and allow the potjie to simmer for about two hours or until the veggies are done.DO NOT STIR THE POTJIE WHILE COOKING!
(Picture: “This is a wedding with a potjie theme. Notice the porcupine quills in the flowers.”)
Oxtail Potjie (Probably the tastiest potjie recipe!)
Ingredients
- 1500g oxtails cut 2 inches thick pieces
- 10 slices bacon cut in 1 inch pieces
- 1/2 cup Flour seasoned with salt and pepper
- 1 liter beef stock
- 1 can tomato paste
- 1 bay leaf
- 6 black peppercorns
- 1 bouquet garni
- 6 large leeks, chopped coarsely
- 2 large onions, chopped coarsely
- 6 large carrots, chopped coarsely
- 20 button mushrooms
- 1 cup red wine
- 1/2 cup sherry
- 1/2 cup cream
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons crushed garlic
Method
- Dry oxtails with paper towel.
- Put seasoned flour in a Ziplock bag, then add the Oxtail and shake to coat with flour.
- Heat butter and olive oil and sauté bacon pieces.
- Remove bacon and brown oxtail in resulting fat, remove and drain.
- Finely dice four of the carrots. Coarsely chop the onions and the leeks.
- Add the finely diced carrots, leeks, onions and sauté until softened
- Add Oxtail, bacon, bouquet garni, bay leaf, peppercorns, garlic, tomato sauce, red wine, sherry.
- Bring slowly to a boil and cook slowly for three to four hours.
- One hour before serving cut the remaining carrots into 1 inch pieces, add them and mushrooms and continue cooking slowly.
- Just prior to serving, add cream and stir in.
- If you want to thicken the sauce mix some cornstarch with the cream before adding.
DO NOT STIR THE POTJIE WHILE COOKING!
Chicken Potjie
Ingredients
- 1 kg chicken thighs.
- 50 ml cooking oil (or olive oil)
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 4 bay leaves
- grinding of black pepper corns
- pinch of dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- 50 ml chutney
- 500 gram carrots, peeled and sliced
- 6 large potatoes, peeled and sliced
- 500 gram whole button mushrooms
- 125 ml boiling water
- 1 chicken stock cubes
Preparing The Potjie
- Clean the inside of the potjie thoroughly.
- Rub the inside with a couple of gloves of garlic. (if you don’t like garlic don’t do it then!)
- Make a fire of charcoal, briquettes or wood (a gas fire may be used but does little for the ambiance!)
Method
- Heat the oil in the pot.
- Sprinkle the thighs with salt.
- Fry the chicken, a few pieces at a time, until nice and brown.
- Add the spices, herbs and chutney.
- Layer first the potatoes and then the carrots on top of the meat.
- Dissolve the stock cubes in boiling water and add to the potjie.
- Replace the lid and simmer slowly for approximately one hour.
- After one hour layer the mushrooms on top of the carrots.
- Simmer for another 20-30 minutes.
Serve with rice. Serves 4-6 people
Variation
If you want, you can add any other vegetables of your choice, such as cabbage, patty pans, or corn on the cob. Just make sure that all hard vegetables are near the bottom of the pot on top of the potatoes.
Note: Be careful when making a Chicken Potjie because the cooking time will be much quicker than with lamb or beef as the meat is softer.
DO NOT STIR THE POTJIE WHILE COOKING!
Read on to page four for our conclusion.
April 24th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Very neat, Thanks for sharing!
Tim
April 24th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Wow. Fantastic. I am salivating. And could not agree more–cilantro is terrible. Too bad my wife loves it. This causes for many ongoing battles in and around the kitchen.
April 24th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Would the other readers consider Braai like open pit BBQ? That’s kind of what I’m equating it too but I’ve never done either. All I know is that this post made me really hungry. I’m going to have to go find some meat products for lunch.
April 24th, 2007 at 9:46 am
By the way, I love the Maker attitude that went into building the homemade grills in this post. It is inspiring me to crack out the welder and build my own grilling surface for the fire pit in the backyard.
April 24th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Jeff: I recognized the similarity as well, but the recipes differ pretty signficantly. And I agree that Freddie’s attitude is contagious; it reminds us that all it takes to braai (or barbeque) is a desire and some friends to share the experience…
April 26th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Awesome!! Printed it out and am looking to give it a try!!!! Thanks for the post.
April 27th, 2007 at 1:51 am
This was a great article. My brother in law is from South Africa and has always mentioned how much he misses the food there. Our group of friends BBQ/GRILL probably twice a month and I have been looking for something to help my brother in law feel a little less homesick..He constantly mentions the sausage so now I have a recipe to make it with.
Cilantro doesnt suck by way it just has to be used sparingly. In the right recipes it is great. Chop it finely throw it in some tequila with some minced garlic, some cumin and chili powder and tumeric and marinate some chicken in it over night….Great stuff.
April 27th, 2007 at 8:14 am
To make your experience more complete, try to get “pap” or maize meal from a specialist shop or your local SA-goodies shop and cook it as a side-dish for your braai.
There is different ways to cook your pap: Putu pap, smooth pap, etc. It all have to do with the amount of water you add.
Why not try “paptert” or (porrage tart - literally translated)!
To make putu pap you need 2 cups water, a pinch of salt, 3-4 cups mealie/maize meal. Bring the water and salt to boil and add the maize meal. Reduce the heat to medium heat and then put the lid on. Stir and replace lid. Leave for more or less 10 minutes until it is well-cooked. Serve as a side-dish with a braai. Add a tomato-onion-and-herb-with-salt-sause with it and you have your traditional side-dish with your meat. Nice!
Alternatively, try a paptert: It is basically a salty tart with the main ingredient of pap or maize meal. Make the pap as instructed as on the packaging (Note: not as putu pap!!!). Then, when finished, do the following:
Fry one chopped onion with a a few handful of chopped mushrooms until soft and brown in a little bit of oil. Add 3 freshly chopped tomatoes to it.
Now this is the important part:
Take a baking caserole and pack as follows:
Pack one level of filling, then a level of pap and then a level of nice medium chedder cheese. Repeat until you packed the lot with the last top level that of cheese. On top, add 250 ml cream and add some nice herbs.
Put in oven until the cheese melted with a crisp brown layer. Serve. Nice!
April 29th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Re: all parts were used, including the trotters
I’m afraid to ask what “trotters” are, but my life won’t be complete until I know. A little help here.
April 29th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
trotters= feet.
May 1st, 2007 at 4:47 pm
How-To: BBQ South African-Style
After reading some of our recent posts regarding grilling here in the ‘States, one awesome reader named Freddie took the time to write in and tell us a bit about how BBQ works in his home of South Africa. They call it “Braai” (as in br-eye), and…
May 4th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Jeff was right, after reading that article, my mouth watered for some grilled anything! Nice article and nice of Freddie to share his pics of what was obviously a great family get together. They are the same everywhere on every continent, and the grill reminded me of old memories from my own past with chicken grilling….and he’s right, anyone who can grill a chicken properly is a barbeque god!
April 21st, 2008 at 3:07 am
[...] Brave, but I doubt there can be any forgiveness. For the full, awful story, click here. And for the Angry African, I hope the image above haunts you forever. (Said image comes courtesy of Chuck Cage at the excellent Toolmonger blog.) [...]
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:49 pm
[...] Toolmonger » Blog Archive » How-To: BBQ South African-Style They call it “Braai” (as in br-eye), and while the recipes differ a bit from what we’re used to, one thing is exactly the same: the comeraderie of burning some meat with friends. [...]
July 28th, 2008 at 6:56 am
Hello,
I work for Men’s Health magazine, and I’m working on a piece about South African BBQ. I would love to set up a brief phone interview with the author of this post. Please let me know if that’s possible by emaling me at the address listed above. Thank you!
February 18th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Jammer Boet, I don’t do interviews.
September 30th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
If you guys are ever in London, England, I recommend hitting up a company called “South African BBQ.” They do catering and have a food place in Stables Market in Camden.
They sell bad ass biltong too! MSG free and cheapest around.
http://www.south-african-bbq.com