Bring On The Braai

I've talked before about some of the food I tried in South Africa, and a few people have emailed me asking about other foods that they should give a go. If you're looking for authentic South Africa food, then experiencing a South African braai is a must. The word 'braaivleis' is Afrikaans for grilled meat. It's commonly shortened to braai which basically means grill or bbq. So essentially this dish is just traditional South African barbecue! In fact, in South Africa it's really common to have a “Bring & Braai” which is sort of like a pot luck party. Everyone converges on one person's garden and brings meat or side dishes. Meat is the star attraction. Usually it will consist of chicken, pork, lamb, steaks, boerewors sausages and sosatie kebabs. However, Ribs, Fish and Rock Lobster are also common.

One of my favourite Braai recipes is for Pan Braai Steak Flambe

Ingredients

• Matured Rump steak (100 grams pp for starters, 200 – 300 grams pp for mains)
• Olive Oil
• Salt & Pepper
• Klipdrift (South African Brandy – any brandy will do)
• Cream (optional)

Method

1. Pat salt and pepper into/onto both sides of the steak.
2. Place the pan over the flames. This recipe works very well as a starter as it is best prepared whilst the fire is still burning. Use an old pan, or a cast iron pan, or whatever pan you generally use on the fire.
3. Generously add some olive oil to the pan. You might even want to put the oil in the pan before putting the pan on the flames.
4. As soon as the oil is really really hot, place the steak in the pan. Take care not to splash some of the boiling hot oil on yourself. The pan can stay on the flames during this whole process.
5. Turn the meat after about 2 minutes and remove from the fire after about another 2 minutes (very thin steak shorter, very thick steak longer).
6. Add a generous dash of brandy to the pan, take the pan back to the flames and slightly tilt so that the brandy can catch fire.
7. Remove the pan from fire and let the meat rest for a few minutes.
8. Cut the steak into strips (in the pan, or on a cutting board) and return the meat to the pan, so that it can further absorb some of the sauces in the pan.
9. Serve as is, potentially grinding additional sea salt onto the meat if needed.

Door Stopping!

Okay. I gotta make a confession! Here it comes... y'all ready?

My name is Em and I am addicted to my kitchen!

You all know already about my new kitchen right? You already know about my crazy organizing spree right? Well the thing is... now that I have everything where I want it and I have all my accessories either in place or on order, I can't help looking at the door and thinking it would be so much nicer if it matched the new cabinets! (I know, I know) The thing is if I replace the interior door in the kitchen... I'm going to have to do all the downstairs doors as they all lead off the hall and if I do the downstairs doors then I'd feel weird not doing the upstairs. That makes a total of 15 doors including the cupboard under the stairs and the linen closet upstairs. It's not going to happen! So I guess I'll just paint it.

Anyway, enough about doors! What's that got to do with food? Actually, quite a lot because my food for today is Blackened Salmon with Doorstop Fries (see what I did there? Hilairious I am!).

For the doorstop fries you are going to want to cut some BIG potatos into nice fat chips. Fry them in hot oil in a big frying pan, turning them constantly so they brown on all sides evenly. Deep frying won't work as they need to be in too long to cook that way and the outside would burn by the time the middle was right.

The salmon is really easy. Take salmon fillets and coat it with cajun seasoning. Place them skin side down in a lightly oiled pan and fry for about 4 minutes, before flipping and frying on the other side for the same length of time. The cooking time may vary depending on how chunky a fillet it is so just make sure it it cooked all the way through.

I usually serve with a pea puree (just crushed peas with a little garlic butter and seasoning)

Stir Fry On Standby

I am a huge advocate of meal planning. I always plan at least 2 weeks in advance, but usually four weeks. However, we all have those days that we just don't fancy what's on the plan, or we got home late and can't be bothered with that complicated sauce you intended to serve with the chicken. These are the days which are meant for stir fry!

I always make sure I have certain staple foods in my pantry and those include soy sauce and egg noodles. If you have those you have the makings of a stir fry. you can add whatever you like to a stir fry. Chicken, beef,prawns, veggies it's all fair game. Just use your intuition about what will taste good. My favorite is prawn. I always have a bag of prawns in the freezer  and those will defrost in about twenty minutes in a basin of water. But you can use whatever is lying around. If you were meant to have chicken in white wine sauce then chop up the chicken and some veggies and chuck them in a pan with a dash of soy sauce and flash fry on a high heat while stirring continuously. Have your dried egg noodles cooking in a pan of boiling water and add a little stock cube too for additional flavor. Mix together and you have a delicious meal in minutes!

The best thing about one of these impromptu stir fry dishes is that you don't need a recipe! It's all intuition. A dash of this, a handful of that make smart choices and you can't go wrong!

South African Potjiekos

One of my favorite things to make is stew. I know that seems really boring, but it's not! There are so many different things to do when it comes to stew, different types of meat, different vegetables, the choice of stock or a sauce, even the addition of seasonings can really make a huge difference to the flavor. One of my favorite types of stew is called Potjiekos.

I first discovered Potjiekos while traveling in South Africa a few years ago. The dish is traditionally prepared outdoors in a traditional type of cast iron pot with three legs. In fact. the name Potjiekos literally translates to "small pot food". I loved the stew so much that I bought one of the traditional pots to bring home with me (let'snot even talk about the excess baggage fee for a cast iron pot!). It's usually set directly on a fire, but I just set mine on the barbecue and it works just fine!

The dish made it's way to South Africa from the Netherlands in the 17th century where it became popular in small villages because it could be cooked from small amounts of many ingredients. The Voortrekkers would cook Potjiekos on their travels adding whatever wild game they shot to the pot each day. The same pot was used every day, just replacing the bones with new ones and adding more meat to the previous day's leftovers.

This is my recipe for Potjiekos, I don't claim that it is entirely authentic! But, it's my inspired version of this South African dish.

Ingredients

• Cooking oil
• 800g of lamb
• 2 chopped onions
• 5 sliced carrots
• 1 cup of sliced green beans
• 10 pattypan squash
• 250g mushrooms
• 10 baby potatoes (peeled)
• 3 cobs of corn cut into thirds
• 1 bottle of beer
• Chutney

Method

Heat the oil in your heavy pan and fry off the meat and the onions until browned, then add the beer (or red wine if you prefer) and top up with enough water to cover the meat. Leave the meat to simmer for an hour or two until the meat is tender. Add in the potatoes and the corn (and any other veggies which take a long time). Mix the mushrooms and chutney together and layer on top of the other ingredients. Cover the pot and leave to simmer for another 30 minutes. When the veggies are halfway done add in the rest of the mushrooms and the carrots, beans and pattypan in layers on top and continue cooking for another 15 to 20 minutes. Season to taste and serve with rice. 

The secret to great Potjiekos is that you must NEVER stir it! It should come out in layers! Tender juicy meat topped with steamed veggies. Enjoy!!