Texan Steak, Blue Bull Steaks or even a Heinke Steek

How to Braai the perfect Steak!

September 28, 2012 by Larry Susman in Meat, Braai, Food Websites, Beef, national braai day, Big Green Egg, Video

Texan Steak Braaied to perfection

Well, what a week we've had in the UK, force 6-8 winds, floods, thunder and lightning how exciting! Anyway I managed to braai this week and what I decided to do was braai a massive pieces of rump steak or what some people call "Blue Bulls Steaks" depending on where you're from. Or as one of my Facebook fans suggested "Heineke Steek" LOL. However we will be selling these on our web site and call them "Texan Steaks" just to keep the peace.

It's a very simple thing to cook a great steak but its just as easy to murder a great piece of meat. If you follow the following simple instructions you shouldn't go to far wrong.

Serves 2 - Prep: 2 minutes (1hr marinating if you must) - Cook Time: 6-8 mins

Ingredients:

1 x 800g Black Gold Rump Steak (300-400g per person) if you are a South African carnivore or less if your from anywhere else, lol.
Sea Salt or a marinade of your choice if you must but these steaks just don't need anything added
2 x potatoes to bake on the Braai
Salads of your choice

Method

Preheat the braai to about 300°C (550°F)
Get the Braai as hot as you can
Idealy you need a lid to cook this way as this stops the flames from rising to high and just burning the meat
Season the meat to your choice (see image below)
If you are using a marinade, always give it at least an hour to absorb the spices
Make sure that the meat is rested and not to cold, don't cook straight from the fridge always let it come up to room temp
The trick when cooking a steak is not to turn it to often, once on each side and the just a quick turn again to put those great diagonal burns in the meat.
For a steak of this size 850g I cooked it only for 4 minutes on each side to get a medium rare steak. Add or subtract a minute on each side depending on if you want to go up or down the cooking scale. This usually works a treat for me, resulting in a steak landing on my plate just the way I want it.
BIG TIP, always let the meat rest for at least 5 minutes after it comes off the braai so that it relaxes and reabsorbs the juices. Be patient and you will be rewarded.

Get a 800g Texan Steak for free!

To launch these steaks on our web site they will be discounted by 15% for the first two weeks that they are on sale, so make the most of this offer if you are a meat lover. Also tell me why (in the comments area below) you think you should be the first to try one of these steaks for FREE and we will send you a 800g steak to try. Sorry but this is only available to people on the UK mainland due to delivery restrictions, entries close on the 4th October 12.

Watch me Braai this 850g Rump Steak

Blue Bull Steak, 850g of Black Gold Rump Steak

It's National Braai Day

September 24, 2012 by Larry Susman in Meat, Braai, Big Green Egg

Blue Bull Steak, 850g of Black Gold Rump Steak

As you all know I'm a native South African living through the currently chilly British summer and today was not a good day if you live in the UK, rain and force 6 winds. South Africans celebrate Braai Day on 24 September (South Africa’s Heritage Day) and as you know we take our braai very seriously!

This is my offering to the celebrations even in these conditions, just thought that I would post this quickly so you don't think that I'm letting the side down. I don't think I could even stand up on the beach today in Seaford (my local beach). It was just like Cape Town on a really bad winters day with the South Easterly wind blowing and rollers crashing onto the beach.

I will be adding to this post later on this week to show you how to cook the perfect Blue Bull Steak above. That's a really large steak to those who aren't from SA this one was 850g bit on the small side but there was only two of us eating. LOL

Hope you've all been Braaing?

Braaied Indonesian Sea Bream

September 21, 2012 by Larry Susman in Braai, Big Green Egg, Fish, Recipes, Video

Braaied Sea Bream Fillets

People have been asking me if I eat anything else but red meat, well yes I do but only under protest! I'm a true Vaalie and when I grew up chicken was about the only thing that was not red, unless you went down to the coast, I never even thought about eating fish. Well since moving to the UK and getting married to a local girl, things have changed a little. I now eat FISH but only game fish and as I cannot get Yellow Tail or the like in the UK I've found that Sea Bass or Sea Bream is a great substitute.

This week I'm trying a new recipe that I came across for Indonesian spiced fish, I've chosen to use Sea Bream but you could use Red Snapper or something similar if you like. In retrospect it would have been a lot easier if I had left the fish whole instead of having them filleted as cooking them even in a special fish cage was not that easy. So if you have a choice leave it whole for a simpler life and I think you will get a better flavour. Check out the short video at the end to see a pro at work filleting the sea bream.

Serves 4 - Prep: 15 minutes (1hr marinating) - Cook Time: 16 mins

Ingredients:

4 Sea Bream (1 per person) you can substitute Red Snapper if you prefer.
Juice of a lime
4 cloves of garlic chopped
2-3 fresh red chillies, deseeded and chopped
2-3 cm of fresh ginger chopped
4 Spring onions chopped
2 tbsp corn/olive oil plus a little extra for brushing the braai with so they don't stick to it
tbsp sea salt

Method

Preheat the braai to about 200°C (400°F)
Clean the fish (sea video at bottom) and remove the scales
If you are leaving the fish whole then make several diagonal deep cuts across the fish
Put the garlic, chillies, ginger and spring pinion into a blender and blitz it into a paste.
Then add the lime and oil to it and stir in.
Rub the fish with the salt on all sides
Then brush the spice paste over both sides of the fish and if you have left it whole put some inside the cavity as well
Place in the fridge for 1hr to marinate
All you need to do now is cook on both sides for about 6-8 mins and a bit longer if you've left the fish whole
Serve on a bed of rive with some stir fried vegetables.

This was a very quick and simple dish to make that I must say tasted far better than it should! They say simple is better and I think in this case it works just beautifully, the flavour of the fish was not drowned out by the spices as you might have thought. The whole dish was just delightful to eat, the only trouble I'm having now, is Jan is expecting me to cook even more LOL.

I'm in need of a little help, so please leave me a few ideas of what I can cook next in the comment section below. Thanks Larry.

Fruity Duck

September 14, 2012 by Larry Susman in Duck, Braai, Pork, Big Green Egg, Recipes, Roasts

Stuff a Duck!

Wow! Have we been having some great weather down in the South (of the UK), I hope that you are all still Braaiing away and have not become soft and put them away at the first sign of a cloud. Thanks for all the great comments about last weeks Curry, a lot of you have been trying this and I hope that you have enjoyed following us. We had 5 lots of prizes last week and the lucky winners are Geoff Worrall, Jane Phillipson, Jim Bates, Liz Riches-Jones and Linda Tingvoll please email me your delivery addresses and we will get them to you as soon as we can. One thing I ask, please email a photo of your creations so that I can post them on our Facebook page for all to see.

This weeks creation is quick and turned out to be really tasty, for the amount of effort that went in to preparing this dish you will be pleasantly surprised.

Serves 4 - Prep: 10 minutes - Cook Time: 12-16 mins

Method

Preheat the braai to about 200°C (400°F)
Using a sharp knife, cut a long slit in the fleshy side of each duck breast to make a pocket that you will layer the shallots and apricots in. You will then seal the parcel with a skewer
Mix the honey and the sesame oil together in a bowl and brush all over the duck both sides. Then sprinkle with the Chinese five spice all over.
To make the spring onion garnish, cut lengthways down the stem of each on both sides and leave in ice cold water until the tassels open out. Drain well before using.
Cook the duck over a medium heat of 6-8 minutes on each side.
Remove the skewers and cut in half, serve on a bead of rice with the spring onions to garnish.

Ingredients:

4 Duck Breasts (1 per person) you can substitute pork chops if you prefer
155g / 4oz dried apricots
2 Shallots or red onion thinly sliced
2 tbsp clear honey
1 tsp sesame oil (olive if you don't have)
2 tsp Chinese Five-Spice powder (Contains: finely ground Sichuan Pepper, cassia, fennel seed, star anise and cloves)
4 Spring onions to garnish
4 bamboo Skewers (pre soaked in water for 1hr)

The apricots and onions counteract the richness of the duck and its high fat contents make it virtually self-basting so it stays superbly moist and when you garnish it with the spring onion it looks particularly elegant. I served this once again with some steamed rice, I know, I like rice and if you come from SA you eat a lot of it. Give it a try, its quick and tastes as good as it looks. Just don't over cook it, otherwise you might as well cook your flops!

Curry for all Seasons!

September 07, 2012 by Larry Susman in Braai, Food Websites, Beef, Big Green Egg, Recipes, Curries, Video

Beef Durban Curry

Just as I thought autumn was here and we were in for some cold weather, the sun comes back out! Never mind, what I have cooked this week is great at anytime of the year. A Durban Curry, GEE, I can just remember those aromas drifting across the cars in the parking area of the Drive-In back in the old days when my folks took me to see a movie. This is where I first experienced the tradition of a Durbs Curry and Rice, we would park up the car and walk along to the food hut. Where we would queue, for what seemed hours, with that aromatic aroma making our stomachs ache until we got ours. We would then chow down enjoying that unique taste but not really appreciating how good it was, until you look back on it now. Perhaps it is though rose tinted glasses but we would then go and play for a while on the Jungle Gym before the movie started, what a shame my kids can not experience this now days.

For those of you who don't know, Durban Curries are very different to the curries that you have in the UK, they are light, aromatic and not cooked with much oil or ghee. We also eat them with a lot of fruit and salad sambals and a huge helping of Mrs Balls Chutney. A Durban Curry without Mrs Balls is just not acceptable and in some households and could cause a riot.

This is a very authentic curry as it uses dried spices to make the very distinctive flavour, its not a packed sauce as such as you will need to add a few extra ingredients but it is a very easy curry to make with this one shot pack. We have been selling these in our shop and I have made these curries many times before and believe me when I say they taste just like they did back home. I am making a beef one but you can use whatever you like, its great with lamb and even better with mutton. Chicken, seafood or even a vegetable one will also be just as good, so just choose whatever you fancy.

We have teamed up with Werners to promote these during September and you can get 10% off on our website with this code at the checkout SEPT12. Even better we are going to give away 5 sets of Werners Durban Curries and a bottle of Mrs Balls Original chutney to 5 lucky people who write a comment on this blog, see bottom of this article for details.

As I said this is very easy to make but there is a bit of preparation time needed to get this underway. You will have to prepare some rice and symbols to accompany this dish but I will leave that up to you guys to do.

Serves 4 People

Preparation time to chop ingredients 10 mins, cooking time at least 2hrs, the longer you can leave it to simmer the better. Even better make this the day before you want to eat it and just re-heat before serving, this gives the dried spices time to release the aromas throughout the dish.

Ingredients:

1 x pack of werners Curry spices, from Mild to Ex-Hot
500g Meat, cubed to bite size
2 x medium potatoes, peeled and chopped to 2-4 cm (I've added sweet potatoes as well)
3 x medium tomatoes chopped or tin if you're lazy like me
3 x large finely chopped Garlic cloves
2-3 tsp chopped fresh Ginger (i like a bit more personally)
1 x chopped red onion
1 x red pepper chopped
Handful of chopper coriander leaves.
Sambals of your choice, we had bananas, melon, onion, peppers, cucumber and tomatoes all chopped up.

Method:

Put the meat into a bowl and add the dry Powdered Spices from the pack to the meat and stir with a wooden spoon until all the meat is coated and there is no loose power left. Place aside and leave to marinate for a short while.
Add all the Non-Powdered spices to a tablespoon of olive / vegetable oil in a large saucepan or potjie (dutch Oven) over a medium heat and fry off the spices until the aromas from the spices start to smell wonderful.
Add onions and peppers
Add the meat and lightly brown for a few minutes. Sirt constantly to stop the meat from sticking
Add the Garlic and Ginger
Add the potatoes, tomatoes and then pour some water over the whole lot until it just covers all the ingredients .
Leave to simmer for 1-3 hours at 200°C (400°F) if in a oven or on low heat if on a cooker plate, as i said the longer the better
Depending on how you like your curry, simmer the water until it evaporates away to the thickness of gravy that you prefer.

All you need to do is sprinkle the chopped coriander onto the top of the curry and serve on a bed of rice and sambals on the side with some Mrs Ball Chutney.

5 lucky people will win a 4 pack of Werners Durban Curry and a bottle of Mrs Balls Chutney!

All you have to do is leave us some feed back in the comment area below, this is once again an inducement to leave feedback but I really would like to know if we are giving you what you want. So don't be shy, let everybody know what your thoughts are good or bad, I want to know. The lucky winners will be drawn at random by Friday next week and posted on here for all to see.

Texan Steak Braaied to perfection

Serves 2 - Prep: 2 minutes (1hr marinating if you must) - Cook Time: 6-8 mins

Ingredients:

Method

Get a 800g Texan Steak for free!

Watch me Braai this 850g Rump Steak

Blue Bull Steak, 850g of Black Gold Rump Steak

Braaied Sea Bream Fillets

Serves 4 - Prep: 15 minutes (1hr marinating) - Cook Time: 16 mins

Ingredients:

Method

Stuff a Duck!

Serves 4 - Prep: 10 minutes - Cook Time: 12-16 mins

Method

Ingredients:

Beef Durban Curry

Serves 4 People

Ingredients:

Method:

5 lucky people will win a 4 pack of Werners Durban Curry and a bottle of Mrs Balls Chutney!

Watch us cook this on the braai (Big Green Egg)