Book Review by John Fraser
South Africans may have tragically diverse heritages, but if you go far enough back within this rainbow-anointed cradle of humankind, I suspect you will find early man (and woman, though the braai is a much more masculine affectation) hunting and gathering all day and braaiing up a feast after working hours.
Except for the vegetarians. They just gathered, poor sods.
I have always loved braaiing — though on one occasion I spent the whole afternoon exiled to my room after my brother and I thought up the fun idea of stuffing some firecrackers in with the charcoal. My dad was not amused. Please don’t try that one at home.
For me, a simple boerewors sausage in a deliciously unhealthy white bun, topped with mustard, is a feast for a king. On Saturdays in Pretoria, where almost every supermarket or butcher’s shop has its own boerie roll production line, you often have the added gourmet touch of a few dollops of delightfully caramelised onions.
A potato encased in foil and baked in the coals, or sometimes atop the braai — ideally sliced open and topped with artery-hardening lashings of butter and a generous heap of satanic salt — turns this simple feast into a banquet.
Reuben Riffel’s latest book, Braai, gives the humble braai a Michelin three-star upgrade. It is orgiastic in its illustrations of magnificent barbecued grub, with an impressive array of recipes. There are also recipes for your vegetarian chums, showing that braaiing is not just a carnivore’s recreation.
In his introduction, this gastronomic national treasure from Franschhoek explains his own delight in stepping out of the kitchen for the more primitive, but no less tasty, joys of the fire pit.
“A braai improves the day, let’s put it like that. Even if the day didn’t start well, as soon as you light a fire, there’s a camaraderie around you, whether it’s your family or your friends. Everyone wants to jump in, there’s chatter, there’s a sense of togetherness; the smells, the happiness, the freshness, the connection,” Riffel writes.
“There’s something about lighting a fire and cooking food over it that’s deeply primal. It’s in our genes, in our DNA.
“I like to see a fire as an extension of the kitchen, using the same spices and flavourings that I enjoy cooking with inside, but cooking over a fire for the extra flavour and a touch of smoke. It’s something to enjoy and relax over, whether you’re cooking with friends on the weekend or just making a weekday meal for the family.”
The blurb for Braai is a glam-fest of name-dropping, listing the celebs and world-class chefs with whom or for whom Riffel has cooked. This star-spangled who’s who (and who’s cooked for whom) includes Martha Stewart, Denzel Washington, Sean Connery, Nobu Matsuhisa, Paul Hollywood, Vineet Bhatia, Atul Kochhar and Marco Pierre White. Due, presumably, to constraints of space, my own name is glaringly absent.
On top of founding some of SA’s best restaurants, we read that Riffel has also “set up kitchens in a snowy base camp on Antarctica [and] on a ferry crossing Lake Kariba from Zimbabwe to Zambia, and served gourmet three-course meals on a bush trip through the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. In between, he’s found time to serve as a judge on MasterChef SA, star on CNN’s Culinary Journeys and host two TV series, 5 Sterre met Reuben and Recipe for Success”. And all that before lighting the braai.
Despite all this adventure, Riffel writes that his dream scenario is still cooking over fire.
“There’s a happiness that goes with cooking on a fire, a freedom and festive feel to it — that is what I love about it,” he writes.
“Growing up in Groendal near Franschhoek, a family braai was more about the kuier than the food. I remember chops, wors, chicken — always the same formula. It was never heavy on barbecue sauce or marinades, just seasoning and straight on the braai.
“My dad and uncles would be standing around the fire for hours, me and my cousins running around playing. Mom and the aunts shouting out from the kitchen door, ‘When are you going to be done with the meats?’ That’s basically how it played out. And then it’s a rush to get it done. Look, we had some really great braais, but also probably more with overcooked chops and dried-out wors. But it was always very simple.”
So, what of the recipes?
“The recipes in this book are the tried and tested ones that get the thumbs up from friends and family and range from incredibly simple to more creative. You’ll find different meats and seafoods, loads of vegetables and salads, and a good helping of quick and easy snacks to keep everyone happy kuiering by the fire while you cook the main event,” Riffel explains.
Just a few of these recipes to tempt your taste buds: sardines with spicy mint and cucumber, tuna fillet with Matsuhisa dressing, sesame and soy skewered sirloin, butterflied lamb shoulder, and brined chicken with peri-peri.
Of course, Riffel’s recipes are written for the braai, but if it is raining or snowing or there is a plague of locusts or taxmen on the way, they can all be adapted for an indoor kitchen. You won’t get quite the same smoky taste, but, on the plus side, there is less chance of getting the cooking times wrong.
I tried a few of these recipes, opting for the simpler stuff as I wasn’t entertaining. The smashed beefburger was excellent, with an oh so simple sauce that was oh so yummy.
The tandoori lamb chops were also impressive, but the first time I tried them I followed Riffel’s very brief cooking time, and they weren’t well enough done. If only one had a proper temperature control on a Weber.
Next on the list will be the chicken satays — one of the finest ways to cook chicken, even though Riffel’s ingredient list is long and there are quite a few exotic products that may be hard to find. My larder is not often crammed with kecap manis, or pastes of prawn and tamarind. But don’t be put off by this. There are several simpler dishes
Possibly the most value from this book comes from the way in which it can widen your horizons, offering set-in-their-ways, slightly boring braaiers the wings to aspire to more lofty culinary heights.
I remember being on a holiday in Spain in a seaside apartment block, which had a balcony with a braai. One morning, we all set off to the market, bought some swordfish steaks and cooked them atop the coals. I basted them with olive oil into which I added a small quantity of every herb in the cupboard. Served with a simple salad, it was an exceptional, memorable meal.
So, I can’t wait to try Riffel’s tuna with Matsuhisa dressing. Nothing elaborate. Just a dressing with a combination of onion, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sugar, mustard powder, ground black pepper, and vegetable and sesame oils.
They may be useless at rugby, but the Aussies have an exciting food scene, and Riffel writes that he found himself drawn towards Australian chefs for braai inspiration.
“Braaiing seafood in summer especially appealed to me. Australia is a melting pot of cultures, and so I read about the use of Asian or Italian and Greek ingredients. Back then, we didn’t even have things like soy sauce in the shops, so it was all new. But they’ve got a clean approach that I like. I was never trying to become a fire-cooking expert; I just wanted to go beyond the usual braai stuff … Simple flavours are what work so well with cooking on a fire.
“You really don’t have to get complicated when you’ve got quality fresh ingredients. Another food memory from my childhood is going to help my dad, who was a carpenter, on a job in Hermanus. My uncle went diving for abalone, then they tenderised it a little bit, quickly lit a fire and cooked it on a simple wire-mesh braai grid he’d made. The memory of that flavour is like a photo in my mind: the charred abalone on the mesh, deliciously sweet and tender.
“These are the flavours and thoughts that come back to me when I’m cooking over a fire. I often like to use fire for everyday cooking, instead of the oven or stovetop.”
The snow will melt, and summer will come a-knocking. When it does, arm yourself with this book and get a-braaiing.
The last word goes to Riffel: “Be more adventurous on the fire. Experiment more, have fun on the braai and relax into it. Sure, there’s a nostalgia about cooking over fire, but it’s also about evolving, trying new things and creating new food memories for the future.”
This review was first published in Business Day
ZA Confidential 