(Or how to barbeque meat for the rest of us)
To "braai" or barbeque (Bar-B-Q) meat is a South African tradition. We usually do it once or twice a week, probably more. It's a chance to get your friends and/or family together, sip some wine or down a couple of cold ones.
In this Instructable, I am going to show you how, with a little preparation and some scientific genius, you can "braai" like an expert and serve up the most succulent meat.
What you will need:
Some red meat, preferably rump, fillet or sirloin. I got rump.
Some Pineapple juice
Some Balsamic Vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Coriander
Other Spices
Dish
Fork
Before starting wash your hands, the work area, the dish and fork. General hygiene rules apply when working with food.
Get everything together and lets start
To "braai" or barbeque (Bar-B-Q) meat is a South African tradition. We usually do it once or twice a week, probably more. It's a chance to get your friends and/or family together, sip some wine or down a couple of cold ones.
In this Instructable, I am going to show you how, with a little preparation and some scientific genius, you can "braai" like an expert and serve up the most succulent meat.
What you will need:
Some red meat, preferably rump, fillet or sirloin. I got rump.
Some Pineapple juice
Some Balsamic Vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Coriander
Other Spices
Dish
Fork
Before starting wash your hands, the work area, the dish and fork. General hygiene rules apply when working with food.
Get everything together and lets start
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Signing UpStep 1: Preparing the Meat: Pineapple Juice
Place the meat in the dish and perforate it with the fork on both sides. Then add 5 to 10 drops of Pineapple juice onto each piece of meat and perforate them again. Do not turn the meat over this time but leave them for 10 to 20 minutes. Turn them over, add the Pineapple juice and perforate again. Wait another 10 to 20 minutes before going on to the next step.
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Read this for a friend, Who's african + I'm having over for a BBQ tomorrow..
(Didn't want to dissapoint him with out english 'burgers & sausages')
Great Instructable!
Vetkoek is brilliant! You will love it. You can put anything inside depending on your personal preference.
(1) Grated cheese and jam,
(2) Grated cheese and marmite / oxo / bovril,
(3) mince,
(4) Curried Mince,
(5) Honey,
(6) Syrup,
(5) + (6) with cheese, ...
Well anything you can make a sandwich of you can put in a vetkoek. Cut the vetkoek in two and make an interesting burger. Eat it hot with the butter melting inside. Tuna works well as well.
I am very sure you will impress us. Just do it!
Yumyumyumyumyumyum
5 stars
The only problem with ostrich here is it is really expensive. However it is really really mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm so it is well worth it... And don't get me started on ostrich biltong!
We are lucky, though, to have a South African butcher near to where I live, which means that we can get these great meats and boerewors. Not quite the buck boerewors that my uncle makes, but it is still delecious.
I am now very hungry.
City Summer:Max Min Winter:Max Min
Cape Town 26 16 18 7
Bloemfontein 31 15 17 -2
Johannesburg 26 15 17 4
Pretoria 29 18 20 5
Durban 28 21 23 11
Pietersburg 28 17 20 4
We do get snow on the Drakenberg mountain nearly all year round. It is however not easy to get there. (Draken - meaning dragon and berg meaning mountain(s), so Dragon mountains or Mountains of the Dragon(s) would be a correct translation.
Getting back to food, ostrich is very tasty, very healthy and unbeatable when it comes to impressing your friends. It is poultry but the cuts look and taste like fillet if prepared correctly. It absolutely just melts in your mouth. I think I will make an instructable on that.
I never knew that the Drakenberg mountains were named after dragons- but then again I never really looked into it. You learn something new every day, I suppose! We considered driving up there to see some relatives, but after hearing it was hard to get to we drove all the way from East London to Plettenberg bay, Knysna, Ooutswaren and some other towns like that instead. Basically we went from East London to almost all the way to Cape town and back.
I think I would agree with you on that- It is delecious and apparently it is something like 40% more lean than beef or something. I personally think that it tastes better than beef. Unlike most birds it is red meat, which surprised me at first.
In one day, if I recall correctly, we had ostrich fillet for lunch (yum), rode on an ostrich at one of those tourist farms (awesome), ate ostrich biltong on the way back to where we were staying, and had ostrich burger and something-wors for supper (yumyum).
If you are making an instructable on ostrich, make sure to send me the leftovers (if there is any)!
Z
I will never bar-be-que again, it's Braais all the way from now on!!
Chefs Secret Tip: When you use lemon/lime juice sprinkle some brown sugar on the meat as well, that also provides that "sweetness".
i read this yesterday and bought and cooked a nice bit of rump on the "braai" today and it was fantastic!
A very handy trick with the hand too. that will be very useful in future :)
Thanks a bunch.
I did not know of the finger tips and the right temperatures either.
Does the finger tip works for other types of meat (veal, duck, game)?
Mickaël
Here in Argentina we roast the meat over embers, not flame. Coal must be totally red, otherwise it produces carbon monoxide that permeates the meat and after eating causes headache.
Generally we turn the meat only one time. The moment for turning is when you feel a bit warm the upper raw meat, touching it with the back of the hand. If the piece is thick, obviously the cooking time increases. As sauce we use almost exclusively "chimichurri", or merely table salt if failing. Chimichurri has many different but similar recipes.
Unfortunately I can not give you a chimichurri recipe, because I actually bought it. You can find many recipes on the Web, and translate them with Google Translate.
I know charcoal is the most repeatable method of preparing a good braai, but there is no replacement for the heat and smell of Namibian hardwood. I prefer "Kameeldoring" [translates to Camel Thorn] is a hardwood like Mesquite a wood praised by American BBQ enthusiasts.
Nothing beats a good braai! Well done on preparing the meat for the fire, nice combination of ingredients, I prefer waiting for the flames to die down thought.
I am working of a basting sauce for pork ribs using molasses, will post in Dec.
Just a little pointer - the steak you cooked is actually medium-well. True definition of medium-well is pink but no blood, medium should have a little blood in it but no translucency.
Anyway, great job, going to give this a try on the next sunny day down here in Melbourne!!
Sunshiine
sunshiine