Braai Day 2022

INGREDIENTS

• 16 slices of bread
• Butter to spread on the bread
• 1 packet of streaky bacon
• 8 bananas, halved or sliced into slices
• 1 block (300g) grated cheddar cheese
• Golden syrup

METHOD

1. First braai your bacon, you can either braai it on a grid for the best crispy bacon, or use a pan or lid of your potjie to braai them if you dont have an extra grid hanging around.
2. Spread butter on the outside of your bread. Place the cheese, the bananas, then bacon on the side of the bread that is not buttered.
3. Drizzle some syrup over and close the braaibroodjie with another slice of bread that is buttered on the outside.
4. Braai the braaibroodjies over medium heat, making sure to turn them often. This will enusre that the cheese is melted and the bread is toasted, nice and crispy.

INGREDIENTS

For the rolls:
500g flour
1 sachet of instant yeast
2 teaspoons (10ml) sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup luke warm water
olive oil (1 tot for the dough and more to cover the bottom of your no.10 potjie)

For the steaks:
4 steaks like rump or sirloin, 150–200 g each(as they need to ft onto rolls; buying bigger steaks and slicing them into pieces also works)
butter
2 tomatoes
4 lettuce leaves
Jan Braai peri-peri sauce (you can also attemt to make your own, the original recipe is in the book called Fireworks)

METHOD

1. Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt together.
2. Add the water little by little, checking the form of the dough, sometimes you will need less than 1 cup of water. Add the tot of oil.
3. Knead the bread with both hands until soft and elastic, dust flour over the rolls and form into rolls.
4. Pour olive oil in your potjie and place the flour dusted dough balls into the potjie and place in a warm place so they can rise, about 30 minutes.
5. Place the potjie over low heat with more coals on top of the potjie lid, Bake the rolls for about 30 minutes until done. Check with a skewer to see if the rolls are cooked inside
6. Gently pound each steak with a meat mallet to make it tender and better able to absorb the marinade. As you will eat the steak straight from the roll, you want it nice and soft so the average set of teeth can bite clean through it.
7. Place the steaks in a marinating bowl and pour some of the peri-peri sauce over them. Flip them over using a tool like a spoon and get some sauce on the other sides of the steaks as well. You want to coat both sides of each steak but it is not necessary for the steaks to swim in the sauce.
8. Cover the bowl and place in a cool place like a fridge. Go and light the fre.
9. Slice the rolls, butter them and place two slices of tomato and one lettuce leaf in each.
10. When the coals are ready, and they must be hot to very hot, braai the steaks until medium rare. For a thin 150 g steak this could take about 5minutes.
11. Remove the steaks from the grid and place one in each of the prepared rolls.
12. Let your guests add extra peri-peri sauce until their prego is as hot as they like it.AND …For this meal those vacuum-packed portions of supermarket rump and sirloin steaks are perfect. They usually come in portions over 300 g so buy one or more of those and slice them into the desired num-ber of piece

1. To give the prawns direct exposure to the coals, braai them in a pan with holes in the bottom, a braai basket or on skewers. The prawns are ready after about 6 minutes on medium to hot coals; you will see they are done when the shells change colour from white to pink and the flesh from glassy to opaque.
2. During the 6-minute braai, boil the marinade that is left over in the bowl or bag you used to marinate the prawns in. It’s very important that any sauce used as a marinade should be boiled before using it as a dipping sauce.
3. When the prawns are ready, remove from the fre, pour the hot boiled sauce over them and serve immediately. Alternatively, you can discard the marinade and serve the prawns with fresh peri-peri sauce.

AND….

• You can also braai the prawns in a normal fireproof, paella-type pan. In that case just throw the prawns and all the marinade into the pan and fry over high heat (lots of coals or even flames) for 6 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 1 kg prawns (deveined but preferably in shell and with heads)
• Jan Braai Peri-Peri sauce
• 1 tot chopped parsley

METHOD

1. Thaw the prawns by putting them in a bowl of cold water for 30 minutes.
2. Devein the prawns: Cut open the back of each tail with kitchen scissors starting at the gap between the head and the tail, and then pull out the whole vein using the tine of a fork. This is not a particularly tough job, but takes a while to complete for 1 kg of prawns.Your fishmonger will probably do it for you at a minimal charge so don’t be shy to ask.
3. Drain the prawns and then drizzle the marinade over them and toss, ensuring all the prawns are coated with sauce. Chucking the prawns and marinade into a plastic bag and sealing it is also an easy way to do it. Let them marinate for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

INGREDIENTS (SERVES 6)

• 1 kg whole fillet steak
• ½ cup olive oil
• ½ cup brandy
• 1 tot Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tot balsamic vinegar
• 4 garlic cloves (crushed and chopped)
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 onion (sliced)
• 1 tot butter
• 1 tot sugar
• 2 avocados (peeled and sliced)
• 1 lemon (juice)
• 150g biltong (sliced)

METHOD

1. Slice the 1 kg fillet steak into four roughly equal portions of 250g each.
2. Add the olive oil, brandy, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper to a bowl and mix thoroughly. First prize is to use a blender and second prize is simply to whisk with a whisk, fork or spoon and lots of natural energy.
3. Place the pieces of fillet steak in a fairly tight-fitting marinating bowl and pour the marinade from the previous step over it. Flip the meat and toss it around to get marinade on all sides. Alternatively add everything to a resealable plastic bag. Now refrigerate for at least 4 hours and not longer than a day.
4. When your coals are ready, remove the steaks from the marinade and put the marinade to one side for later use. Add the sliced onion to a pan with the butter, and fry for a few minutes on the heat until it starts to brown. Then pour all the remaining marinade and also the tot of sugar into the pan. Mix, toss and let it simmer for a few minutes until the mixture starts to thicken.
5. During this time, braai the steaks over hot coals for about 10 minutes, turning them at least three times so that all four sides of the fillet steak medallions face the coals at least once.
6. Plate the braaied steaks and artfully arrange the onion sauce over them. Put half a peeled and sliced avo on top of each sauced steak and squeeze some lemon juice onto the avo. Finish with a generous scattering of biltong.