SOUTH Africans across the country will celebrate Heritage Day on Saturday with a good old fashioned braai with friends and family.
For those who enjoy a good braai, My Chef has put together some tips to help you to make the perfect braai, from starting the fire, to how to cook various cuts and meats, and of course what to do with the left overs.
1: How to make the perfect fire. When cooking on a Weber, be sure to let in the air, prepare firelighters and then make a pyramid out of charcoal briquettes. Then light the firelighters, arrange coals, and after 25 minutes or so, the coals should have turned grey. Spread the briquettes, warm up the grid and get cooking. Another little tip, when cooking on an indirect heat, put the lid on and let it cook.
2: The perfect marinade. It’s important to get a few things right and top of the list is the seasoning. With seasoning your marinade could be bland or too salty, so do a taste test to check.
Use fresh herbs instead of dried, and matching the herbs up with the correct protein is not always necessary. You would usually use mint and rosemary with lamb, although this combination also goes perfectly with pork or chicken. Be careful with adding ingredients like honey, as this can burn quickly and leave your meat bitter and burnt on the outside, yet under-cooked in the centre.
You need to add an acid to your marinade, such as vinegar or any type of citrus – lemon juice being the most popular. The acid will help the marinade to flavour and tenderise your meat, so be sure to leave your protein submerged in the marinade for a minimum of 30 minutes. Better yet, leave it overnight.
Fat content in the marinade is also important, you can infuse oils with chilli, herbs or spices by heating them up slightly, then adding your flavouring, letting them cool and storing them. The flavour will intensify day by day. It’s important to add your fat, olive oil, sunflower oil, butter, to the acid to help the marinade form an even coating to the meat as well as to help with the heat distribution. Score your meat where possible to help the marinade penetrate deeper. Ensure you have a balance between acid and fat. The usual measurement would be double fat to acid. This will help prevent the acid from over-tenderising the meat.
3: Valuable tips to braaing and cooking your meat perfectly. When braaiing meat, the common mistake for most people is that their braai is full of different types of meats from family and friends. All types of cuts and marinades are presented to the braai master, usually leaving him or her muddled.
First tip is to get a good wing man or woman – someone to take over the reins when you need to step away from the braai due to the calling of nature. The “Golden Rule” is to never leave a braai unattended.
Spread the coals evenly and group your proteins, so chicken together and steaks together, this will help with your timing and braai consistency. Throw on any items that take the longest first, so any thick lamb chops, boerewors or chicken on the bone. Beef steaks like rump, fillet or sirloin should be cooked medium rare so they can go on at a later stage.
Try not to turn the meat too regularly, three times on each side maximum, seasoning with each turn. Don’t poke your wors or any other meat during the braai process, you will lose important juices and be left sacrificing your cold brew to put out the flames.
When the meat is done, place it in a closed braai dish in a warm, but not too hot area, you don’t want the meat to keep cooking in the dish. Allow the meat to rest before serving, period of at least 10 minutes. Be sure to tell your wingman to put the garlic bread in the oven 20 minutes before go time.
4: Ideas for vegetarian braai meals. Black mushrooms stuffed with pesto and cheese, wrapped in foil and flashed on the braai.
Sliced brinjal, cooked over hot coals then dressed with some olive oil, wholegrain mustard and herbs. Halve then hollow out a butternut with the skin on, stuff it with ricotta, spinach and mushrooms.
With anything vegetarian, wrap it in foil and leave it to bake on the side of the coals, turning regularly.
5: What to do with the left over braai meat. Preheat oven to 190 degrees, chop leftover meat into small pieces, fry with a little olive oil and onion in a non-stick ovenproof pan, mix together some eggs with a dash of milk or cream (2 eggs to 2 tablespoons milk or cream), season well, add a tablespoon of butter to the meat mixture, once melted, add the egg mixture give it a stir and cook for 2 minutes, top with grated gouda or cheddar cheese, place in preheated oven for 5 minutes until cheese is melted, remove from pan and serve as pizza slices.
For more information go to: www.mychef.co.za
