A real "braai"

Being in Sweden one of the things that I miss most from South Africa (excluding my family of course...and the warm weather...and the beach...) is a REAL braai. Now, don't get me wrong, people have plenty of "grill parties" here in Sweden and some of them produce some pretty good food...BUT!!!

They just don't compare to a REAL South African braai. And I think that one of the main reasons for this is the fact that there is nothing...NOTHING even close, to South African boerewors. For those of who who are underprivileged and have never tasted boerewors, or worse yet, don't even know what it is...let me explain.

Boerewors is a LONG sausage filled with minced meat and a delicious combination of spices. The fun thing with boerewors is that you braai the whole long sausage in one pieces (quite an art!), which keeps the wors nice and juicy and flavoursome.

Luckily I am blessed with lovely friends here in Jönköping. So during the summer, Lisa and I decided to have a go at having a real South African braai, boerewors and all!

So we bought in the necessary ingredients and got going and we had loads of fun along the way! Somehow we ended up without a working machine to stuff the sausages with so we had to do it by hand! Ha ha! It took a LONG time, but in the end it worked out so well!

What is a sausage without the sausage "skin"?

The mince mixture, ready to be stuffed

I was also lucky enough to have my mom here in Sweden so she made her DELICIOUS "pap en sous". Pap is also typically South African and is a type of maize/corn porridge which is eaten together with a sauce made from tomatoes and onions that has simmered together for many hours. Together with good friends and more good food, all in all, the braai was a success!!!

This is what a REAL braai looks like!

Delicious!!!

Boerewors recipe:

1 kg minced meat (50% pork, 50% beef)
25 ml whole coriander seeds, grounded
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black peppar
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 tbsp brown sugar
100 ml (1 dl) red wine vinegar

Sausage casings, soaked in water

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.

2. Drain the sausage casings and put one end over a filling horn. Carefully pull the whole casing onto the horn, leaving about 5 cm off. Tie a knot in this end.

3. Having 2 pairs of hands at this stage is really helpful. Feed the filling into the filing horn while your assistant guides the casing on the other side, moulding the sausage by hand to make it uniformly thick.

4. Once all the meat has been stuffed, remove the casing and tie a knot on the end.

5. Braai over medium hot coals until the skin has a nice grilled, brown colour and the inside is still juicy.

Happy braaing!

Love,
Heidi