Lamb on the Spit

A South African favourite for any special occasion with a lot of people is the Lamb on a Spit Braai. This can feed anything from about 25 to 40 people, depending on the size of the lamb and the participants appetites.


It can be an absolutely wonderful meal, accompanied by fresh bread and salads. However it has been many years since I have experienced a really good one. It is such a simple meal to cook that I am always amazed at how people can get it horribly wrong.


O.K. the first things are the fire and the actual spit. The fire needs to burned down to a good bed of coals and then the coals need to be heaped into both the shoulder and leg area's as these parts take longer to cook the the middle of the lamb. You need to have another fire burning so that you can add more coals as necessary. The spit should be made of Stainless Steel. A mechanized rotating spit works much better and requires much less basting than a hand turned one. As it is turning the fat from the lamb bastes itself as it is cooking. A word on the basting sauce. A simple basting sauce of sunflower oil, lemon juice and some braai spice is all you need. Forget about all these "secret" concoctions containing mayonnaise or whatever.


You need to braai for 4 or 5 hours until the lamb is ready. The cooking time is dependent on several factors such as the size of the lamb, the heat of the coals and the height of the lamb above them. I once went to a spit braai and the lamb had been braaied from 10.00am. The cook had placed the lamb too high above the fire and at 10.00pm that night it was still raw. It is trial and error and good judgement.


O.K. sounds simple. This is usually where things start to go horribly wrong. A lot of people, after carving the lamb up then start to do terrible things to it. A common error is putting it in serving dishes and then pouring some or other disgusting "secret" concoction over it.Usually containing mayonnaise, barbeque sauce, tomato sauce and a few other weird ingredients or a combination of all. You are left with a greasy disgusting mess. The perpetrators of the these crimes should be strung up and beaten. One guy I know wraps the whole lamb in tinfoil and braais it. When it is cooked, he cuts it up and immerses it in his own recipe sauce, probably containing all of the above and serves. It is one of the worst things I have ever eaten. At another work Xmas party there was a spit braai done by a "professional" caterer. The lamb was braaied somewhere else and bought to the party. Cold and congealed fatty crap was what I remember. I have yet to have one decent lamb on the spit prepared by one of these Professional Spit Braai specialists and believe me, I have had plenty.  


On a last note. A 1st grade lamb is often better than a "Super" grade one as there is less fat. Because you are cooking it for a long time, the 1st grade one is just as tender.
    

Weapon of Mass Destruction - The Braai Bak

The worst culprit in ensuring that the food at your braai is inedible.

O.K. this is actually a roasting pan, often made of aluminium, that some people say will poison you as well. This has become a popular utensil that people use to store the cooked meat in while busy braaing another batch or having another dop before eating. It is usually left at the side of the fire and sometimes even on top of the grid to keep the food warm.

What it actually does, because of the lid on it, is to steam the usually already overcooked meat while it is standing. This causes whatever juices are left in the meat to run out even more. Even if the meat was not overcooked before placing it in this diabolical utensil, by doing so, will guarantee that it will be ruined.  

What I recommend for keeping the meat warm while standing is either a good old fashioned wooden board, if the weather is not cold and the standing time short, or a hot tray with an open serving plate on it.    

Whole Loin of Lamb on the Braai.

O.K. enough whinging and whining now!


Last night I stayed over with family in Riebeeck Wes and we did a lovely braai. We actually cooked some Wors as well. The other day my neighbour gave me 3 packs of Kudu Wors that he had made himself after a hunting trip. It was probably one of the nicest Wors I have eaten for many years.


Anyway, this is a favourite of mine. Get the butcher to cut you a whole piece of loin of lamb and then just cut through the bone so that you can carve it up after braaing. Cut slits into the top of the loin and stuff these with slivers of garlic and fresh rosemary.


Get the fire ready. We used Vine Stumps (Wingerd Stompe) and added a few more as well once the fire was burning nicely to give a good bed of hot coals.

Place the meat on the braai while the coals are still very hot. This will seal the juices in and give a nice charred effect.

Braai for about 25 minutes, turning frequently, and remove from the fire. Allow to stand for 5 minutes. This helps the juices set and not all run out as soon as you carve it up. It is still a bit pink and juicy on the inside as can be seen in the image below. I was going to post an image of the carved up Loin, but had had too much wine by then to hold the camera. Braaing is very thirsty work.

The Lamb Loin Chop Rip Off

One of my favourite things cooked on a braai is Lamb Loin chops. I like them done like you would get a steak in a good Steakhouse. Cooked over very hot coals so that they are charred on the outside but still medium/rare and juicy on the inside. Most people however throw them on the fire, leave them for 45 minutes while have a few "Dops", turn them over and then leave them for another 45 minutes while consuming another few "Dops". The dry and cremated remains are now ready. Anyway, each unto his own and the purpose of this chapter is to show how we are being totally ripped off for these by the local butchers. 


This is an image of the typical Loin chop that you get here in South Africa.

 What the hell is that disgusting "thingy" hanging from the chop at the bottom left??? It is actually a piece of flank(stewing meat) that is left on by the butcher in order to boost his profits. It is chewy and at R120.00 per kg (Price I paid at Pick n Pay yesterday) is an insult to our intelligence. (I made the butcher cut it off BEFORE weighing the meat).
If you ever watch overseas cooking channels on T.V you will notice that this is a purely South African thing.


Here is an image from Google Images of what Loin chops should look like. Time to stand up and stop taking it.

Boerewors

O.K. I have been very slack with this blog but with "National Braai Day" coming up on the 24th September, it is time to get it up to date.


Today I would like to write about a particularly nasty element to the braai, known as "Boerewors", "Boerrie" or simply "Wors". The name translated means "Farmers Sausage".
Now this used to be one of the really nice elements of the braai, succulent, spicy and juicy. I remember when I was young and living in Stellenbosch that there were two Tannies (Aunts) who used to make boerewors once a year for the Church Fete. It was so superb that people used to queue up from 5.30am to get it and it was always sold out within an hour of the doors opening at 8.00am. The Wors was so good that it was a meal on its own and you would rather eat it than the usual lamb chops at the braai. "Sigh" how things have changed!


Nowadays Wors is regarded as a "Filler Upper" so that you are not still hungry at the end of the meal. If you ever go into a butchery department of your local supermarket and watch the butcher cutting up a carcass, he has a large white plastic container on the floor next to him, into which he throws all the excess fat and other inedible bits. Do you think that these are going to be thrown away? No ways, they are the ingredients for the next batch of Boerewors!! My friend, Neil always jokes "Foreskins and Eyelashes" are the main ingredients of Wors these days. Along with a huge amount of fat.


Now the only way to cook this abomination is to braai the hell out of it so that all the fat runs out. You end up with a dry, still greasy and tasteless mess. Antacid tablets are a must after eating this stuff. Seriously, this rubbish can kill you.


I have heard that things are different in the Northern Part of the country,where the making of Boerewors is still an art. However, sadly, here in the Cape, most of what I have written definitely applies.

Number one Culprit. The Braai Fork.

When I was about 5 or 6 years old, my family quite often used to go down to a friend of my parents farm on the Crocodile River in Gauteng. About an hour or so's drive from Johannesburg where we lived. 

The lunch was usually lovely lamb loin chops cooked on the braai and I have fond memories of this. Now, let me explain. My mother was a Cordon Bleu cook and this is where I got my love of good food and cooking. 

Needless to say, she did the braaing and would brook no interference from the manne, I remember her first lesson to me. This was before the days of braai tongs and the only way to turn meat was with a fork. She stressed that the only way to turn a lamb chop was to only stick the fork into the fat and NOT into the meat. She explained that if the meat got pierced, all the juice would run out. 

Now even at that age a had a questioning mind and I decided to put it to the test. I was allocated 2 lamb chops to cook. One I only turned by piercing the fat section and the other I speared it full on in the middle. When I ate my meal, the results were easy to determine which was which. The pierced chop was dry and the fat only pierced one was juicy and succulent.

I have passed the little bit of advice to many friends over the years. Some have listened and others ignore my foolish rant.

Here we go

O.K. What prompted me to start this blog is the average South Africans obsession with one of our national pastime known as the "Braai". (Barbeque for non South Africans).

To me this has usually signifies tasteless overcooked meat. The cooking is usually done by the men in the family/group/tribe accompanied by copious amounts of alcohol ending up in less than a gourmet experience.

I have a friend, Dion, from my windsurfing and cycling days who used to invite us around for a braai at the drop of a hat. He had just built a Braai Lapa with its own bar on to his house and was justifiably proud of it. The problem was that we used to arrive at about 7.00pm expecting a roaring fire and smells of garlic bread. When one arrived, nothing was happening except an invitation for a dop. Now I am usually ravenously hungry by this time of day and would suggest we get the fire started. "Lots of time for that" was Dions reply. About 8.00pm he would start the fire and by 9.00pm it had burned down to a lovely bed of coals. "A bit too early" Dion would say and add a lot more wood to the fire. About 10.30pm the fire would be "reg" again and the meat would go on. After cremating it for about an hour he would then announce that it looked ready and this dried tough and taseless mess would go into the "Braai Bak" to keep warm while we had another drink. (There will be a whole separate chapter on the "Braai Bak").

After a while I got wise and would arrive at 7.00. Light the fire myself,  cook my meal as soon as it was ready and then eat it. Dion could then add more wood to the fire and do his thing.