Here are my personal Top 10 Favourite Braai Foods.
Feel free to add yours via the Comments below.
Drinks
1. Beer
Bottom line – a braai without ice-cold beer is not a braai. Serve up local beer from a micro-brewery for something different, but be sure to have your perennial favourites in the fridge too.
Snacks
2. Chip & Dip
This is the simplest dip ever, and can be served with any chips or salty biscuits. I use it at every braai and everyone always loves it.
Empty a tub good quality plain cream cheese (Simonsberg is delicious). Squeeze a generous amount of sweet chilli sauce (try
3. Fresh fruit
While waiting for the fire to be just right, a cold beer helps one cope with the heat, smoke and accompanying thirst. I’ve found that serving up slices of chilled watermelon to those round the pool and fire also makes a welcome thirst quencher - plus it tastes so good one forgets it’s actually healthy too.
4. Toasties
Meat not ready and you’re desperate for something more substantial than crisps and fruit to keep you going? A toastie (toasted sandwich done on the braai) is the ideal stop-gap. Butter the outside of 2 slices of white bread and layer cheese, tomato and onion slices in-between. Braai the sandwich on the grill till the bread is toasted and the cheese has melted.
Side Show
5. Braai Bake
For vegetarians, and as a side dish to accompany your chops, this braai bake is something a little different.
Ingredients
- 2,5 litres water
- 30 ml margarine
- 5 ml baking powder
- 250 ml cream
- 1 sachet Knorr Pap Mix Cheese Flavour
- 1000 ml maize meal
- 500 ml cheese, grated
- Chopped parsley for garnish
Fill a pot with 2l of water, add Knorr Pap Mix and margarine and bring to the boil. Meanwhile mix the maize meal together with the remaining water, then stir into the pot and simmer until cooked. Scoop pap into a casserole dish, sprinkle with grated cheese and pour over the cream. Bake at 180°C for 15–20 min or until cheese has melted and the cream has thickened. Garnish with chopped parsley
6. Potato Salad
It’s a firm favourite with all ages, and really, a braai is incomplete without a huge bowl of potato salad. Everyone has their own recipe but mine includes spring onion, chopped boiled egg and a mix of plain yoghurt, mayo and mustard.
The Main Feature
7. Boerewors, pap en sous
Boerewors is a spicy all-meat sausage made traditionally with beef, some pork and very few fillers. Boerie can be thick or thin, fatty or lean, and comes in a range of flavours using a variety of spices. Served on a hotdog roll alone, with onion and tomato “smoer” (aka train smash) or with a sauce of your choice, you have a simple, delicious boerie-roll which can be a meal in itself. However many South Africans enjoy their boerewors with ‘Pap en Sous’, as follows:
Pap
Pap, a mielie (sweet corn) based porridge is made by adding 3 cups of dry mielie pap to a cup of cold water, mixing until smooth, adding another 3 cups and throwing in a pinch of salt. The mixture is heated on a stove top till hot, then cooked for an hour at a reduced heat, with water added as and when necessary.
Sous
Fry together a grated apple, finely chopped onion, two cloves of crushed garlic and a finely chopped tomato in some oil. Add a tblsp of sugar, 2 tblsp soya sauce, a dollop of tomato sauce and a can of chopped tomatoes and season. Cook till onion is soft.
Serve pap on plate, with a chunk of boerie, and pour over the sauce.
8. Sosaties
Also known in this country as kebabs (different from the food of the same name available elsewhere in the world), sosaties are based on a Malay dish – the word ‘sesate’ means skewered meat. So what you have is lamb or chicken cubes threaded onto long wooden stick,s interspersed with sweet pepper and onion slices and marinated for a few hours prior to cooking. A basic marinade can include onions, vinegar, dry wine, sugar, bay leaves, salt, and spices such as cumin and cinnamon.
Sosaties are braaied over hot coals.
9. Snoek Braai
While many SAffies love their red meat, most agree that there’s nothing quite as special and tasty as a whole snoek, fresh from the fishermen down at
Remember to buy your fish fresh and firm, and to ask for the sellers to gut it for you unless you have the time and inclination to do it yourself.
The simplest recipe, and in my opinion the best, is to melt half a block of butter and add a whole can (small) of Apricot jam and 2 cloves of crushed garlic. Smear this all over the butterflied, seasoned fish, and place it on your grid which should be covered with heavy duty foil, turned up around the edges to prevent the sauce dripping off. While the fish is cooking keep basting it to keep it moist. Enjoy with fresh salad and crusty bread. Beware of fish bones!
10. Potjie kos
Chunks of meat and veg cooked in a three-legged iron pot over the fire, Potjie Kos (‘pot food’) is a hugely popular SAfrican tradition that is definitely a part of our culture.
You’ll need a fair amount of time to cook a potjie of food so don’t start too late in the day or you’ll end up eating round midnight. Stewing meat such as lamb neck or knuckles is a popular choice. This is browned in oil with onion, then cooked up in stock with an assortment of vegetables such as carrots, tomatoes, potatoes and turnips. Serve with rice or pap.
(Image: Paul Watson. Creative Commons License)
