Ons Gaan Nou Braai!

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!