Loin Pork on Braised in Milk on the Braai

June 20, 2013 by Larry Susman in Big Green Egg, Braai, Meat, Recipes, Roasts, Pork

Loin Pork Braised in Milk on the Braai/BigGreenEgg

I haven’t cooked a lot of pork on the braai (except for ribs every week) so I thought I would give this very Italian recipe a go! The key to this being great is to find a butcher that will supply you with great pork to start with, ask him where it comes from and if he doesn’t or cant tell you, go elsewhere. If he can then get him to do the following for you: Ask him to chine and skin the pork loin (chining means removing the backbone from the rack of ribs so that you can carve between the ribs for serving).

This dish is lightly flavoured so that the pork is the star and not the seasoning, so don’t over do it. This can be served with roasted vegetables and potatoes but at this time of year I like to dish it up with a fresh salad and rice.

SERVES 4-6: PREP: 25MINS: COOK TIME: 1-2HR

Ingredients:

1 x 2.25 kg (5 lb) pork loin, chined and skinned
6 x garlic cloves, cut in half lengthways or chrushed
30g x sage leaves
1lt x (4 cups) milk
2 x grated zest of lemons
1 x juice of lemon
Sea Salt & freshly ground Black Pepper to taste

Method how to prepare Loin:

Preheat the Braai to 200°C (400°F)
Prepare the pork by trimming the fat to leave just a thin layer.
Take the backbone off but leave the rib bones on. These bones and fat keep the pork moist while it cooks.

Take the pork and brown the meat on all sides on the braai.
Add the garlic & sage to a baking tin and place the pork on top of them. Doing this makes a rack for the meat and prevents it boiling in its own juices instead of roasting.
Season with salt and pepper and pour the milk over the pork and bring just to the boil.
Add the lemon zest and drizzle the lemon juice over the loin and roast for about 20 minutes.
Reduce the temperature to 150°C/300°F and cook for a further 1-11/4 hours.
If necessary, add a little more milk every so often, to keep the meat roasting in liquid.
Baste the meat with the juices every 30 minutes.
Do not cover this will make sure that the juices reduce and the fat on the pork becomes crisp.

To see if the pork is cooked take a skewer and stick it into the middle of the meat, count to ten and pull it out. Touch it on the inside of your wrist and if it feels hot, the meat is cooked through. Or you can use a food thermometer if you have one.

Always leave the meat to rest for 10 minutes before carving. Strain the sauce as it will look curdled and serve with the meat. All that’s left to do now is serve with a fresh salad and rice and enjoy with a great chardonnay. This took a little time to prepare and cook but it was definitely worth it. The sage and garlic weren't to strong and did not over power the pork. Just remember that if you want to end up with a great dish you need to start with great meat, until next week happy Braaiing.

Peppers Stuffed with Boerewors on the Braai

April 26, 2013 by Larry Susman in Baking, Beef, Big Green Egg, Braai, Food Websites, Meat, Pork, Potjiekos, Recipes, Roasts, Vegetables

Peppers Stuffed with Boerewors on the Braai/BigGreenEgg

Hi and welcome to this weeks Braai blog.

The sun's been out and shinning for over a week now and everybody seems a great deal happier so, it's time to try something from the sunny Mediterranean with a twist. This week I'm going to make stuffed peppers/capsicums. I've used three different coloured peppers but you don't have to you can use green, red, yellow or orange. It really doesn't matter what colour they are as its just different stages of ripening. However here is the twist I'm going to make this out of our Beef & Pork boerewors, it just makes this dish feel more South African.

We will be giving away to 2 free packs of this Boerewors to some lucky winners this week. All you have to do is leave a comment in our comment section at the end of this blog.

SERVES 6: PREP: 20MINS: COOK TIME:20MINS

Stuffing Ingredients:

700g Beef & Pork Boerewors (1 of our packs) or minced plain pork or beef if you prefer
6 x Peppers what ever colour you fancy
90ml x Olive oil
1 x onion, finely chopped
100g x pine nuts, roughly chopped
3 x garlic cloves, crushed
40g x parsley, roughly chopped
5 g x rosemary, roughly chopped
2tsp x fennel seeds, ground
55g x fresh breadcrumbs
250g x ricotta cheese
25g x grated Parmesan cheese
1 x egg
grated zest of 1 large lemon

Method of making and cooking the stuffed peppers:

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and cook the onion and pine nuts until the onion is soft and the pine nuts are light golden brown. Add the garlic and cook for a few minutes more, then set aside to cool.
Take the boerewors sausage meat out of the skins.
Put the herbs, fennel seeds, breadcrumbs, ricotta, Parmesan, lemon zest and egg in a bowl and add the boerewors mince.
Add the cooled onion and pine nuts, season with salt and pepper and mix briefly until all the ingredients are combined.
Cut the tops of the peppers off carefully and then scoop out the insides of all the seeds.
Next spoon the mixture into a pepper so that they come just over the top of the peppers. Repeat with the rest of the mixture and peppers.
Replace the tops back on to the stuffed pepper and they are now ready to cook.
There are a couple of ways that you can cook this dish, I tried both and I think cooking them directly over the braai on a low heat for 15-20 mins is the best. The peppers will protect the stuffing and you will get that charcoal flavour from the braai that we all love. The other way is to place them in a potjie and cook like you would a pot roast for 20-30 mins with the sauce around the peppers or not. Its your choice!

Sauce Ingredients:

800g x tomatoes or
2 x 400 g tins tomatoes
125 ml x Good red wine

Method of making Sauce:

To make the sauce, if you are using fresh tomatoes, score a cross in the top of each one, plunge them into boiling water for 20 seconds, then drain and peel the skin away from the cross.
Finely chop the flesh. Add the tomatoes and wine to the saucepan, season with salt and pepper and simmer for 5 minutes.
Cover the saucepan and, cook for a further 10 minutes.

Now all you need to do is serve this with some Tastic Rice and the tomato sauce on the side, magic. This makes a change to traditionally stuffer peppers and the boerewors takes on a different flavour with the added herbs, give it a go, you won't be disappointed.

We are going to be giving away 2 Packs of Beef & Pork Boerewors this week so please leave some feed back and you could be 1 of 2 lucky people that get a chance to make this recipe. Also I love to hear what you think about what I'm cooking and please feel free to leave suggestions as to what you would like to see me cook in the coming weeks.

Unfortunately this will only be open to people who live on the UK mainland as we cannot deliver any further afield. However please feel free to leave your comment, no matter where you live in the world, we always appreciate your thoughts . Entries will close on the 10th May 2013 and we will post the lucky winners in the comment section below. So be sure to check back and see if you’ve won.

Until next week Happy Braaiing, Larry

Coleslaw, Ribs and Wings on the Braai!

April 19, 2013 by Larry Susman in Big Green Egg, Braai, Chicken, Food Websites, Hot & Spicy, Meat, Pork, Recipes, Salads

Coleslaw, Ribs and Wings on the Braai/BigGreenEgg

Well, summer is nearly here and we have seen the sun on several occasions this week, so I'm going to make a salad to go with what I think is a great meal on the braai. I've made some coleslaw, OK! Its not a meat dish but this salad has a vinegar mix that has to be cooked on the braai, so please don’t think that I'm cheating!! To accompany this slaw, I cooked some ribs and wings and when they are put together they make the perfect meal. Just needed some boerewors as well to finish this off perfectly but forgot to bring it along to cook, du!!

Below is a recipe for the rib rub that I used and then basted them with Jimmy’s sauce to finish them off. On the chicken wings I used Nando's Hot sauce and you can purchase this from our web site or make your own rub following this recipe on a past blog. You can follow the links to see how I cooked these two dishes in the past just by clicking on the links above.

SERVES 6: PREP: 15MINS: MARINATE 1HR: COOK TIME:4-5HR

Rub  Ingredients:

1 tsp garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 tsp smoked Spanish paprika
½ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp dried thyme
½ tsp ground coriander
1 tsp Sea salt

Ribs:

1.5kg Baby Back ribs (3 racks)
1 x Jimmy's Braai Sauce
Method: Check out this edition of my blog to see how to braai them.

SERVES 6: PREP: 15MINS: COOK TIME:10MINS:

Coleslaw vinegar mix:

This will make quite a lot of mix, so you can either cut the amounts down or save some to use at a later date.

125g Sugar
1 cup of white vinegar
½ Cup Salt
¼ Cup white pepper

Coleslaw Ingredients:

1 Head shredded cabbage
1/8 Cup vegetable oil
Pinch celery seeds
30g Sesame seeds, toasted
1/8 Cup vinegar mix

Method of making the vinegar mix:

Place the vinegar in a heavy saucepan on the braai, bring it to the boil.
Once the vinegar is boiling add the sugar and the salt slowly. Make sure that you stir this constantly until everything has dissolved.
Take it off the heat to cool then in a separate mixing bowl place the white pepper then slowly pour the vinegar mixture into it whilst whisking, cover and leave to cool.
Next toast off the sesame seeds until they are a golden brown.

Method of making the Coleslaw:

Place the shredded cabbage in a large mixing bowl.
Sprinkle the oil over the top and mix thoroughly.
Sprinkle half the celery seeds and the sesame seeds over the top and mix again.
Now pour the vinegar mix over the whole lot and give it a quick mix, sprinkle the remainder of the seeds over the top and serve straight away.
Coleslaw is best served while the cabbage is crisp and crunchy, so don’t leave this to sit around for a long time as this sauce will break the cabbage down very quickly.

Its as simple as that but it takes a little effort to make but its worth the time and tastes so different to your regular coleslaw covered in salad cream or mayo.

This will make the perfect accompaniment to the meat that you wish to cook and eat with this.

As normal, I love to hear what you think about what I'm cooking so feel free to leave suggestions what you would like to see me cook in future. Enjoy Larry.

Double Smoked Ham on the Braai/BigGreenEgg

January 11, 2013 by Larry Susman in Meat, Braai, Smoking, Pork, Big Green Egg, Recipes

Ham to Die for on the Braai/BigGreenEgg

Well, it's another week closer to Spring and man I cant wait for this to arrive, its a miracle that I'm still braaiing every week with the weather we’ve had and it gets dark at 4.00pm. You can check me out braaiing with my cycling helmet on and light to see what the hell I'm doing lol. Guess what, it's now going to snow as well this week, so it will be interesting to see how the BGE works when it arrives.

This week I've cooked a leg of pork, to be precise its a smoked ham which I am going to smoke again. I've cheated a bit because I made this at the same time that I made the bread that I blogged about last week. Trust me, when I say these two together were just a match made in Heaven or Hell depending on wether you like or eat pork. So lets get on with it.

SERVES 10-12: PREP: 15MINS: SMOKE Time 2HR: COOK TIME:2-3HR

Preheat the Braai/BigGreenEgg to 200ºF/94ºC.
Place the hickory chips in a small bowl, cover with water and let soak for at least 1 hour.
Ingredients for the first stage of cooking:
4 x Bay leaves
12 x Cloves
10g x Black Pepper corns
1lt x Cider preferably Savanna (I forgot to being it back so we used Bulmers)
1lt x cold water

Method for first stage of cooking:

Take the ham and place it in a very large saucepan and poor the cider and water over it. Add the Bay Leaves and cloves cover and bring to the boil. Leave this to simmer for 2 – 3 hr making sure that you turn it every 30 mins. This helps the salt to be drawn out from the smoked ham. Once its been cooking for 3hrs take it out and peel of the skin of the ham, this would not be great to eat anyway, so through it away. Score the ham in a diamond pattern with a sharp knife, ready for the next stage.

Ingredients for the second stage of cooking:

100ml x Maple Syrup
100ml x Bourbon
100g x Cloves

Method for second stage of cooking:

Mix the Maple syrup and Bourbon together and brush over the ham. Take the cloves and push into the ham in the middle of each diamond. Brush the ham again with the mix and do so continually during the smoking so that it keeps the ham moist. Next add the wood chipping to the braai, place the ham in the middle of the BigGreenEgg and close the lid. Do not open for at least an hour and the baste every 15 mins with the mixture. Once its been smoking for 2 hrs take the ham out of the braai and place on a board and cover so that it can relax for 30mins at least before you carve.

All that is need now is to carve the ham and serve with either freshly baked bread (see last weeks blog) or with mashed potatoes, sauerkraut and some English mustard. Mmmm it tasted as great as it looks. Please leave any feed back below, this really helps me work out what to do, many thanks. Larry.

Chicken Sosaties

December 07, 2012 by Larry Susman in Meat, Braai, Hot & Spicy, Chicken, Beef, Pork, Big Green Egg, Recipes, Lamb, Curries

Chicken Sosaties Braaied on the Big Green Egg

Sosaties (skewered meat) marinated in a curry sauce – traditionally formed part of the rijsttafel of java, an elaborate banquet which always included at least two meat dishes, one fish course and a curry dish, as well as several vegetables, served on cooked rice and mixed with a strong curry sauce. Today we tend to cook sosaties over the coals, and any braai cook worth his or her salt has a 'secret recipe 'for the marinade. Traditionally its made with lamb but you can use any meat that you prefer and I'm going to use chicken today. I will give you my recipe and this is the same recipe that we use in the Sosaties that we sell in out shop. So if you don’t want to make this yourself you can just click here and you can add them to your shopping basket on our website www.biltong.co.uk . You can also buy the ingredients for this recipe from us if you want to make this yourself.

SERVES 4-6: PREP: 15MINS: MARINATE 1HR: COOK TIME:10-15MINS

Marinade for Sosaties

125g smooth All gold or Koo apricot jam

3 x cloves garlic, crushed

1 x piece fresh ginger crushed

2 x bay or lemon leaves

2 tbs Rajh curry powder (choose your own strength) I used hot

25 ml wine vinegar

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp milled pepper

1 x Green pepper chopped

1 x Red pepper chopped

1 x medium onions chopped

Ingredients for the Sosaties

1 kg chicken/leg of lamb or any meat you prefer, cut into 2,5 cm cubes
6 x bamboo Skewers
2 x medium onions, quartered and separated
250 g dried apricots
1 x Green pepper cubed
1 x Red pepper cubed

Method for making Sosatie Marinade

Combine all the ingredients for the marinade in a bowl and use a blender to make into a paste. Add the mixture to a saucepan and bring to the boil and boil for 1 minutes, stirring occasionally, leave to cool. Transfer the marinade to a large dish and add the chicken, peppers and onion and marinate for at least 1 hour (or overnight preferably) in the fridge, turning 2-3 times. Remove the meat from the marinade and thread it onto skewers alternating with the peppers, apricots and onion.

Method for cooking the Sosaties

Preheat the Braai to 300°C (570°F)
Pre soak your skewers for at least an hour before hand, unlike myself who forgot ;-) this will stop them from burning.
Braai the sosaties over moderate/hot coals, or grill in the oven, turning frequently, for 10-15 minutes, or until cooked. On the BigGreenEgg believe it or not you only need to cook them for 2 mins on each side. The heat is so intense that it cooks then quickly but leaves them so moist and tender.

Serve with some Tastic rice and a fresh salad and there it is, a fantastic taste of home. Give them a try chicken, lamb, beef or pork they all work really well with this recipe. Enjoy until next week weather permitting, SNOW on the way!!!!