This past Sunday we hosted a rechte echte South African
Braai!
What is a braai you ask? Simply put, a braai is the
South African version of a barbeque. But it is also so much more than just a
barbeque. You will never hear a South
African say, let’s have a barbeque. Never ever. It’s always a braai. Always. No
matter where in the world you live. Braais are about good food, good company
and having a good time. The humble braai is acceptable for any occasion, including birthdays and weddings, and will happen in any and all weather. Can you tell that South
Africans are passionate about braais?
There are many unwritten braai rules and etiquettes.
The most important two are: a real braai always has a real fire made with
charcoal or wood (this topic is hotly debated with no clear winner. Rightly or wrongly, we are charcoal fans), a
gas braai is not a real braai; and burger patties do not belong on a braai,
ever.
With this in mind we started planning our braai day.
Fortunately, our condominium (apartment block) has lots of common space including
two outside braai areas so making a real fire was not going to be a problem.
Also, Brazilians are big on meat so excellent quality beef is readily available
at very reasonable prices. We were not going to have to break Golden Rule #2
and serve our guests hamburger patties.
But that is pretty much where the similarity between a
South African braai and a Brazilian churrasco ends, the actual event is
otherwise quite different. For a Brazilian churrasco, large pieces of meat are
heavily salted and rotated over the fire on big metal skewers one at a time. When
the meat is ready, it is sliced into small pieces which everyone shares. Sides are
usually rice, beans, farofa (toasted cassava flour mixture), pieces of grilled
cheese, and garlic bread which people help themselves to when they are ready.
For a South African braai, thick individual steaks are
usually marinated and cooked on a grill over the fire. No braai is complete
without boerewors, a thick beef sausage mixed with a special spice blend. Marinated
chicken sosaties and lamb chops (giving rise to the popular phrase tjop en dop
which means a chop and a (alcoholic) drink) are popular choices too. Sides are
usually a variety of salads, potatoes in one form or another, garlic bread,
mielies (sweet corn on the cob) and/or pap en sous (a type of thick corn
porridge with a tomato and onion sauce). We also usually wait for all the meat
to be ready before everyone sits down to eat together. There are of course variations
on this, but this is generally the norm. We were super excited about hosting a
South African Braai but getting everything organised was going to be a
challenge! But we were ready.
Getting ready to prepare the chicken for overnigh marinading
Chicken sosaties and garlic breads ready to go
Preparing the marinade for the fillet steak
Justin hand squeezed 600 ml of lime juice!
Milk tart!
Since we would be preparing everything ourselves from
scratch, we decided to keep it simple and only invite 10 people. Unfortunately some
things would be missing from the braai due to lack of availability such as
boerewors, feta cheese, miellies, chops, and pap.
This was the final menu:
Chip and dip
Homemade garlic bread
Potato salad with mayo, onions, gherkins and egg
Big green salad specially with avo (South Africans eat
avo with everything in a savoury format but Brazilians only eat avo in a sweet
format)
Roasted butternut and red onion couscous salad (normally
with feta cheese)
Fillet steak with a yoghurt, garlic and herb marinade
Chicken sosaties with a honey mustard marinade
A local pork sausage
A milk tart for dessert
Tinfoil parcels (marie biscuits, marshmallows, banana
and chocolate wrapped in foil and heated on the coals).
Braai day started off sunny with a strong breeze but
it clouded over and rained a bit in the afternoon. This helped to keep
temperatures to a comfortable warm and not blazing hot as it has been. It took
quite a while to get everything prepared and ready and there was some last
minute arranging of extra grills on the day, but we had a lot of fun and it was
well worth the effort. We really enjoyed the actual braaing and all the food
worked out well, the chicken sosaties and the milk tart were particularly
excellent. All our guests enjoyed the braai and food too, at least they said
they did ;)
Justin getting the meat on the fire
Isaac, Niels and Justin doing what guys do, chatting with a beer by the fire
Isaac and Justin enjoying braaing
Cheers!
It's milk tart time!
Marshmallows!
For the next few days we will be enjoying one of the
best parts of a braai: leftovers!
Hope you are well and having a good week!
See you on the other side of Easter and a long weekend
in Foz de Iguassu!
