Wors, Pap en Sous on the Braai!

June 27, 2013 by Larry Susman in Beef, Big Green Egg, Braai, Food Websites, Hot & Spicy, Meat, Potjiekos, Recipes

Wors, pap en sous on the Braai/BigGreenEgg

Mielie meal is a staple food in much of Africa. Unlike European polenta, mielie meal is normally white in colour and quite coarse textured. It makes a delicious side dish or it can be the centre point of a meal. Pap (pronounced pup) means "porridge" in Afrikaans and the consistency can vary considerably from a smooth and quite loose porridge which needs to be eaten with a spoon (slap pap). Through to a stiff paste which can be broken off with the fingers to act as a scoop or spoon for stews and sauces (stywe – pronounced STAY-ver - pap), to a crumbly and dry texture a bit like couscous (krummel – pronounced CROO-mel - pap).

I’m going to be cooking the latter, as I once served up Slap Pap to my wife Jan, many years ago and she said that if I ever made her eat that again she would divorce me lol!!! The method and ingredients are the same but the ratio of pap and water differ depending on which type of pap you wish to end up with.

You can make the Boerewors and Sous(sauce) yourself from scratch. But why bother doing this when we sell what we think is some of the finest Boerewors in the country and a tin of All Gold Tomato & Onion which you can just add a few ingredients to, to lift the sous to something that you would be proud to make.

We are going to give away the main ingredients to make this meal to one lucky person this week, see details at the end.　

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

Ingredients for Krummel (braai) (stywe pap) Pap:

1/2 litre water
500g Braai Pap (Iwisa or Premier Braai or Maize pap)
1tsp salt

Method how to make Krummel (braai) (stywe pap) Pap:

Preheat the Braai to 300°C (570°F).
Bring the water to boiling point in a large, heavy-based saucepan or potjie pot.
Add salt.
Then slowly add the maize meal and stir briefly.
Turn the heat down or move off to the side whichever you can do on your braai.
Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
Using a large fork (such as a carving fork), stir it up until its crumbly and cover again with the lid.
Simmer for a further 20 – 30 minute on a low heat until cooked.
Set aside until you are ready to serve.

Ingredients for Sous(sauce):

1 x Tin All Gold Tomato & Onion (which we sell)
2 x Onions, halved and sliced
20g x Fresh chopped coriander
Salt and Pepper to taste

How to make Sous:

Preheat the Braai to 300°C (570°F).
Place a knob of butter in a frying pan and sauté the onions for a few moments until soft.
Empty the tin of Tomato & Onion sauce into the pan and stir.
Bring to the boil and then simmer for 5mins.
Remove from the heat until you’re ready to use, sprinkle the coriander into the sous just before serving.

All that’s left to do is now braai your Boerewors which you have already brought from us, we hope! You will need roughly 250g per person or one pack per South African, heehee.

Tips on what to do or not to do, when braaiing our boerewors:

Never prick the skins of the wors as this just allows all the juice to drain from the sausage and you will end up with dry, tasteless wors.
Always cook in a coil and cut after you have cooked it.
Cook at a high temperature so that it crisps the skin and leaves the middle succulent.
Cook on one side and then turn over and cook the other, hopefully you will not split the skins when turning as I did. If you do, blast it with some heat and eat before all that lekker juice spills out.
Don’t over cook as we only make our boerewors from whole muscle fresh meat with no other additives other than spices. So our wors will not shrink or swell and split the skins whilst cooking.
It’s best to eat your wors straight off the braai piping hot, absolutely lekker, even if I say so myself.

That’s just like I remember it back home in the old days, when I would return from school and it would be sitting on the table waiting from me, Lekker!

If you would like to try to cook this for yourselves then why not leave some feedback in the comments area below and one lucky reader will win 2 packs of Boerewors, pack of Braai Pap and a tin of All Gold tomato & Onion Sauce for themselves. Entries will close on the 12th July 2013, please check back to see if you were the lucky winner.

Beef Tagine with Sweet Potatoes on the Braai

May 09, 2013 by Larry Susman in Beef, Big Green Egg, Braai, Curries, Food Websites, Hot & Spicy, Meat, Potjiekos, Recipes, Tagine

Beef Tagine with Sweet Potatoes on the Braai/BigGreenEgg

Just a Thought!

Somebody asked me the other day why I keep on promoting the BigGreenEgg, am I on their payroll? I wish!

Well, just to confirm in case I haven’t mentioned it in the past, I'm not. I decided to do this blog after I saw this braai in action, MAN "I thought that this was just the best braai I had ever come across". In fact, just for the record, I struggle to get the BigGreenEggUK or even the USA mother company to recognise this blog. Or in fact even get them to retweet or post this blog on their Facebook or Twitter!!! Not sure why? You guys can help me, please, by retweeting or blogging about this if you want? I think that I'm doing a great job promoting their products.

However, even after my little rant, I must confess that we do sell these braai's and some of their product, just because I personally think that they are great and you can see what we sell by clicking here. I don't think that I'm swayed in anyway because we sell these products but if you think I'm blinkered, please feel free to let me know.

Well, on with this weeks recipe, I knew it was too good to last and summer is over here in the UK, lasted a week this year LOL. Well lets hope not but you never know in this country, so I'm going back to cooking some warm winter dish this week, a tagine. Don't worry if you haven’t got a tagine, you can do this in a potjie or just any heavy sauce pan if needs be.

The traditional tagine pot is formed entirely of a heavy clay, a base that is flat and circular with low sides and a large cone or dome shaped lid that sits on the base during cooking. The lid is designed to help the return of all condensation back into the bottom stopping the dish from drying out and producing a fantastic gravy. With the lid removed the base can be taken to the table for serving. However recently manufacturers have made tagine's with heavy cast-iron bottoms that can be heated and cooked on a braai or stove to a high temperature. I wish I had bought one of these as the tagine I used has cracked. So if you haven't got one with a cast iron bottom brown your meat off in a frying pan.

It wasn’t until I started to eat this meal that I realised that all a tagine is is basically a Northern African Potjie! In fact, this recipe is pretty much a curry for all intents and purposes, similar to the Durban Curry’s from home but with a slight twist, it's cooked in a tagine/potjie. In fact, in traditional Moroccan cooking they would even place hot charcoals on the lid, just like we do with a potjie.

Once again this week I will be giving away 2 bottles of Mrs Balls Peach Chutney just to help make you feel at home when you eat this. See the end of the blog for details, now on with the cooking.

SERVES 4-6: PREP: 15MINS: COOK TIME:2-3hrs

Ingredients for the Tagine:

1kg x Blade or chuck steak (I used Blade)
1 x Brown onion, finely chopped
½tsp x Cayenne pepper
½tsp x Ground cumin
1tsp x Ground turmeric
1tsp x Sea Salt
½tsp x Freshly ground black pepper
½tsp x Ground ginger
1tsp x Paprika
2tbsp x Chopped flat- leaf (Italian) parsley
2tbsp x Chopped coriander (cilantro) leaves
2 x Tomatoes large of 4 small, peeled and sliced
500g x Sweet potatoes, orange ones are best for this recipe
3 x Tbsp olive oil for cooking

Method of cooking the Tagine:

Preheat the braai to 180°C 350°F
Trim the steak of any fat, sinew and cut into 2.5 cm pieces. Heat haft the oil in a tagine or frying pan and brown the beef over high heat. Set aside in a dish to be returned to the onions in due course.
Add the onion and the remaining oil to the pan and gently cook for 10 minutes, or until the onion have softened.

Add the cayenne pepper, cumin, turmeric, ginger and paprika and cook for a few seconds, then add the salt and black pepper.
Return the beef to the tagine along with the parsley, coriander and 270ml water.
Cover and simmer over low heat for 11/2hr or until the meat is almost tender.
While this is cooking peel the tomatoes. To do this score a cross on each them using a knife.
Plunge them into a bowl of boiling water for 20 seconds and then straight into a bowl of cold water to cool.
Remove from the water and peel the skin away, this should just slip off easily, then slice.

Peel the sweet potatoes, cut them into 2 cm slices and leave in cold water until required, this will prevent them discolouring.
Next drain the sweet potatoes and layer them on top of the beef.
Then place the sliced tomatoes on top.
Cover with the lid of the tagine and cook for a further 30mins.
Remove lid and let the braai get hotter up to 220°c 425°F, cook until the tomatoes and sweet potatoes have browned off a little.

All that remains to do is serve with rice or some couscous a fresh salad and of course some Mrs Ball Chutney South Africans pretty mush eat everything with this LOL.

This week we are giving away 2 bottles of Mrs Ball Peach Chutney so you can try this great recipe out. Once again all you have to do is please leave a comment and you could be 1 of 2 lucky people that get a chance to make this really great recipe. Entries will close on the 24th May 2013, give this a try it's worth the time, promise!

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

Paella on the Braai

April 05, 2013 by Larry Susman in Baking, Big Green Egg, Braai, Chicken, Fish, Meat, Potjiekos, Recipes

Paella on the Braai/BigGreenEgg

Well, I'm 2/3rds of the way through my promise to cook every week on the Braai, through rain, snow, -10c and the occasional sunny day! Very occasional, I think it's shone for about 10 days in 8 months but never mind, we BRAAI not matter what's happening outside.

This week I'm having a go at the quintessential Spanish dish “Paella” this is my version of it, it might not be what you think its should be and I'm not claiming to be an expert but this is a great Paella to start with and a good base for experimenting. So have a read and then give it a go and let me know what you think. Basically this is the Spanish version of a Potjie.

SERVES 4-6: PREP: 20MINS: COOK TIME: 20-30MINS

Rub  Ingredients for your Paella:

700g x Chicken Meat (Leg, Thigh or Breast meat diced into bite-size pieces - keep the skin & bone on for extra flavour)
6 x Large Tiger Prawns
12 x Large Mussels
1 x fresh Squid cut into rings
700g x Spanish paella rice
200g x diced cooking choritzo
1 x Red pepper (sliced & roasted if possible)
1tsp of Sweet Paprika
3-4 x medium, ripe tomatoes or a large tin of chopped tomatoes
2lt x Hot chicken or vegetable Stock
1 x Medium onion, finely chopped
Pinch of Saffron (I like quite a bit)
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste
1 x lemon (cut into wedges for decoration)

Don't forget to use a 40cm to 50cm Paella Pan, it makes all the difference.

Method how to prepare and cook Paella:

Preheat the Braai/BigGreenEgg to 200ºF/94ºC.
Add a few tablespoons of the olive oil in the Paella Pan and part cook the chicken pieces a little (longer if they contain bones) until its browned off.
Make up the stock and add a good pinch of the saffron stamens. Let them infuse for about 20 mins.
Next make the "Sofrito", one of the most important parts of the Paella, this is the tomato and onion mix which is the base of the paella.
First sweat the onion in the Paella Pan until soft then add the chopped/tinned tomatoes and fry over a high heat, keep stirring.
It will start to thicken up in to a thick dark paste. When it is a dark red paste you have the perfect sofrito!
Next add the chorizo, paprika and about half of the peppers. Mix around thoroughly and continue fry for few more minutes.

Now add the hot stock to the paella pan. Taste for salt and seasoning. It needs to be quite well salted, bring to the boil and leave for several minutes for all the flavours to mix in with the stock.
Now add the rice, mix around briefly and even out in the pan ensure all the rice grains are under the surface of the liquid. DO NOT STIR the rice after this point.
After about 10 minutes the rice should start to appear though the liquid.
This is the point that you can add all the seafood that you have prepared earlier.
Now turn down the heat and continue to simmer for about another 10 minutes until the rice starts to dry out. (If some rice starts to appear whilst other areas still have liquid you can carefully distribute the rice around with a spoon)

Once most of the liquid has been absorbed, try the rice from under the top surface. It should be cooked "al dente" still with a slight nutty taste.
Now cover the Paella pan with foil and turn up the heat for a minute or so. (You will hear the rice go "pop" as it is caramelising on the bottom of the pan). This is called the "Socarrat" the most highly prized part of Paella. Covering the pan at this stage also helps finish off the cooking of the top layer of rice.
Turn off the heat. Decorate with lemon wedges and leave for a good 10 minutes to rest.

Serve directly from the pan at the table and remembering to scrape to the bottom to get the "socarrat", that's the greatest bit.

Add a crisp fresh salad and you will have the perfect meal for a sunny day, when it decides to come out again lol!

I wasn’t sure how this would work or even if it could be cooked on the braai but I must say it came out fantastically and everybody just loved it. Give it a try and let me know how yours comes out. I would love to hear if you have what you think is the best recipe, just leave it in the comment section below for everybody to see.

Chao Larry

Tomato Bredie cooked in a potjie,
served with Tastic Rice.

Tomato Bredie, in a potjie on the Braai/BigGreenEgg

February 01, 2013 by Larry Susman in Meat, Braai, Vegetables, Food Websites, Hot & Spicy, Big Green Egg, Recipes, Lamb, Potjiekos

Tomato Bredie cooked in a potjie, served with Tastic Rice.

Howzit, well it seems like the weather is never going to get any better in this country for the foreseeable future so we will just have to get used to the water around our ankles. This week I'm going to cook a South African favourite “Tomato Bredie” this is a Cape Malay dish and I got this recipe from one of South Africa’s most famous chefs "Cass Abrahams". I was fortunate enough to spend a day with Cass back in February 2000, how time flies, it only seems like yesterday that we were jawing in the sunshine.

Firstly here are a few tips from Cass to making a Good Bredie:

Always braise the meat with onions and spices before adding the vegetables.
Never boil meat in stock or water – this tends to dry out and toughen the meat.
Always keep the cooking temperature constant – medium heat – allowing the bredie to simmer gently for a few hours.
Don't add liquid. The juices from the vegetables are sufficient to make a loverly thick gravy.
Bredies are best served with Tastic Rice (click here to see on our shopping site)

SERVES 8: PREP: 25MINS: COOK TIME:2-3HR

Ingredients for the Tomato Bredie:
1kg x Mutton rib or chump chops
2 x large onions sliced
½tsp x peppercorns
½tsp x ground cloves
125ml x water
25ml x vegetable oil
2 x sticks of cinnamon
3cm x pice of fresh root ginger finely chopped
2-3 x cardamon pods
2-3 x cloves fresh garlic chopped (optional)
1kg x very ripe tomatoes chopped (or 3 tins)
1-3 x green chilli chopped (to taste)
6 x medium potatoes, peeled and halved
salt, pepper and sugar to taste (I used ½tsp salt, ½tsp pepper and 2 tsp sugar) with some chopped parsley for a garnish.

Method of cooking the Tomato Bredie:

Preheat the Braai/BigGreenEgg to 180°C (356°F)

Place the onions, peppercorns, cloves and water in the potjie or large saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer until all the water has been absorbed. Then add the oil and cinnamon and braise until the onions are golden. Add the mutton, ginger and cardamon pods and stir thoroughly. Turn down the heat, cover the potjie with a tightly fitting lid and simmer gently for 30 mins. Then add the tomatoes and chilli (garlic if you want) and close the lid and simmer for a further 20 mins. Now add the potatoes, salt freshly ground pepper and sugar to taste. Replace the lid and simmer for as long as you can, I cooked mine for a further 2hrs, the longer you can leave it the better it will taste.

Garnish with some chopped parsley and serve on a bed of freshly cooked Tastic Rice. Note, this is not a curry so don’t expect it to taste like one, its a classic South African Stew and boy was this great!

We are going to be giving away 2 x 1kg Packs of Tastic Rice this week. If you would like to win one of the lucky winners then please leave some feed back and it could be you that gets a chance to make this really traditional South African recipe with some Tastic Rice. Also I love to hear what you think about what i'm cooking, feel free to leave suggestions what you would like to see me cook. All the best until next week “Alles van die beste tot volgende week”.