Monday 12 January 2009

Surreal Sub-Zero Boerewors Braai

The first Friday after arriving back in the UK from our jaunt in South Africa and Australia and we were just recovering from extreme jet lag on top of enduring a cold snap of sub-zero temperatures. Desperate to light the brazier and hankering to re-live some of our South African experiences, this was an evening driven by pure obsession.

Bizarrely, not far from us there is a post office/general store at Farmoor near Oxford where you can get hold of almost anything exclusively South African, thanks to the slightly eccentric post master (Farmoor stores).

I called in on my way to our office in Oxford and couldn’t believe my luck when I actually got hold of a proper braai tool (grilling rack), the last one in the shop. I also picked up two one kilo coils of boerewors from the fridge (made in the UK by another entrepreneurial South African) and started planning the detail for the evening.

Wanting to make the most of the experience, I trawled the web for the best accompaniments and ideas for a boerewors meal and managed to find what I was looking for. A fellow blogspot member had an article titled The Ultimate Boerwors Roll; hot dog rolls filled with boerewors, a range of condiments, fried onion, avocado and cucumber. Perfect.

On my way home that Friday evening, I picked up some freshly baked rolls, English and Dijon mustard, a jar of tomato and chilli chutney, plus the avo and cucumber.

The temperature was approaching minus 3 degrees when I prepared the charcoal cooking fire in the outdoor brazier. It was cold and dark, but beautifully still and dry with an absolutely clear sky.

The boerewors cooked perfectly over the embers in my newly acquired braai tool and the family enjoyed hot boeries around the table with condiments of their choice simply served on a piece of kitchen paper.

A wine top up was required so I walked to the local Co-op and found (for the first time in this shop at least) a couple of bottles of Spier red from the winery at Stellenbosch that we had visited only weeks earlier. Even stranger that as I was browsing the shelves I was humming lines from the new Goldfish CD we bought whilst in Cape Town.

After our meal we were joined by our friend and neighbour, Caroline. The charcoal embers were used to start a proper fire fueled by well dried English larch from the local sawmill that I had been keeping in the garage.

We heated mulled wine on the fire and contemplated how surreal but perfect it was to be enjoying the outdoors while several bucket loads of larch kept us warm and happy.


4 comments:

Ross said...

Wow, thats a great little story you've posted. Shows how you can enjoy our cuisine in any climate :)

Minus 3... holy crap, that is cold! We're currently sitting in 30 odd degree temperatures with a humidity factor pushing it into the 40's... Durban.

Glad to see my recipe was of use to someone. And yeah, the cellphone pictures add to the atmosphere/spontaneity. I actually photograph food professionally, so don't feel bad at all. Your pics are great.

~Ross

firefoodie said...

Thanks, that makes me feel better! Now I see why your pics are so good. Keep at it. Anthony.

Anonymous said...

googling"how to braai boerewors and accompaniments" I stumbled on your blog and this is exactly what i need. I too will be having a winter braai for our English neighbours next week on Guy Fawkes night, and I've been promising them boerie rolls and thought I would serve with loads onions and tomato sauce type thing. I dont want to do the whole mieliepap en sous thing, just soup and boerie rolls. I of course will have the vegetarian version (since I turned veggie when I left SA) but watch this space for update on what my English husband and guests think. We have a chiminea so will be gathering around there too and Ive just found some internat tips on how to make burning wood smell nice. So thanks again!

firefoodie said...

Hi there, thanks for your comment, I really look forward to hearing how it went. Hopefully it won't be sub-zero for you...

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