Argentina Barbeque Sauce Recipe: Chimichurri

In Argentina, they serve Chimichurri barbeque sauce alongside their famous flame grilled steaks and tastes great on on rare, char-grilled, flank steak. It can also be used as a marinade and is very popular in many Latin American countries.

Chimichurri BBQ Sauce ingredients

• Half a cup of olive oil
• Quarter Cup of Red Wine Vinegar
• Quarter Cup Water
• 1 Tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 Tablespoon paprika
• 1 Teaspoon bay leaf (laurel); very small flakes
• 1 Tablespoon coarse salt
• 1 Teaspoon ground black pepper
• Half a cup of chopped leaf-parsley (fresh)
• 1 medium onion; finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic; finely grated
• Half a red bell pepper, de-seeded and finely diced
• 1 tomato, peeled, de-seeded, finely chopped
• Some hot chili flakes to taste

To Make the Chimichurri Sauce:

• Combine all of ingredients in a large bowl except for the oil and vinegar. Toss well to make sure that the salt is spread evenly around the ingredients. Leave to stand for 30 minutes.
• The next step is to mix in the vinegar and water, again leave for 30 minutes.
• The last step is to add the oil, mixing well. It is important to ensure that the liquids cover the rest of the ingredients. If they do not, add equal parts of oil, water, and vinegar until they are covered. Transfer the sauce to a non metallic bowl or jar that can be covered and put in the refrigerator to allow the flavors to marinade overnight. For the ultimate sauce, prepare at least two or even three days ahead.

This recipe is part of a series of the best barbecue sauce recipes from around the world, including the USA, the best braai sauce recipe from South Africa, best BBQ sauce recipe from Australia and the best barbeque sauce recipe from Argentina. View all BBQ Sauce Recipes >>

The best BBQ Ideas…
If  you have another BBQ sauce recipe, please send it in and help make this the ultimate braai / bbq / barbecue / barbeque sauce recipe resource ever!

Braai Sauce Recipe

For the best braai sauce recipes, I have mostly gone on what I learnt as a child growing up in Zimbabwe. Commercial braai sauces were not available in the shops and we only went down to South Africa for the traditional beach holiday in Durban once every two years, so we made our own braai sauces and marinades, here are a few of my favourites. For those of you who don’t know a South African braai is our (including Zimbabwean) word for barbecue/ barbeque/ BBQ.

This recipe is part of my section on the best BBQ sauces from around the world the other sections include: the best barbecue sauce recipe from the USA, best BBQ sauce recipe from Australia and the best barbeque sauce recipe from Argentina, you can then try them out and let me know which you think is best!

Ok lets get started on the best Braai Sauce Recipe from South Africa:

South African Braai Sauce Recipe

This is a braai sauce recipe that we often used, it can also be used as a marinade or for basting your meat on the braai, you can then use the rest as a braai sauce.

Braai Sauce ingredients

• 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, crushed or grated
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 1 green sweet pepper, de-seeded and chopped
• 50 ml brown vinegar
• 15 ml cooking oil
• 1 tin whole tomatoes, chopped (don’t buy a tin of chopped tomatoes as they are not a good quality)
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
• 30 ml Worcestershire sauce
• 2 ml Tabasco Sauce, you can use cayenne pepper as a substitute
• 50 ml brown sugar
• 5 ml French mustard
• 30 ml fruit chutney – preferably Mrs Balls Original Chutney

To Make the Braai Sauce:
Making this braai sauce is really easy, all you have to do is:

1. Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan
2. Fry the onions, garlic and sweet pepper until the onions are translucent.
3. Add the vinegar and the remaining ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes.

South African Babotie Recipe

Babotie like many other classic South African recipes reflects the diversity of South African culture. The spices in babotie come from Indonesia, whilst the Dutch introduced ground meat (mince) to South African and Babotie, like shepherds pie from England used to be made with leftovers from the Sunday roast. The original recipe is likely to have come from the Dutch East India Company and their colonies in Indonesia, with the name coming from the Indonesian Bobotok.

Babotie has spread throughout Africa with the settlers and you can find different versions of the recipe in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and Kenya. Interestingly there is also a variation of babotie in Argentina brought by the boer settlers from the early 20th century where the babotie is placed into a pumpkin and then baked.

The meat in Babotie
The original recipe of babotie was mad with pork and mutton, today most recipes for babotie are made with beef or lamb.

Babotie Fruit and Spices
Babotie is not an overly spicy dish and because it often contains fruit (dried apricots and raisins or sultanas) the flavour is well balanced. Babotie can be traced right back to the 17th century in the Cape and these original recipes would have contained ginger, majoram and lemon rind. The later introduction of Curry Powder has made the recipe much easier to make, but the basic principals still remain the same.

Classic South African Babotie Recipe (Beef)

Babotie Ingredients, To make a classic South African Babotie you will need:

• 2 – 2 1/4 pounds good quality lean ground beef
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 2 peeled and sliced onions
• 1 thickish slice of white bread
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon medium curry powder – you can also have hot if you wish
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• freshly grated pepper (about a half teaspoon)
• 3/4 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 1/2 tablespoons malt vinegar
• 1/2 cup seedless raisins
• 2 tablespoons strong chutney (Mrs balls Mango is the best for this)
• 2 bay leaves (or fresh lemon leaves if available)
• 2 medium eggs

To make Babotie, first preheat the oven to about 180 C

Heat the oil in a saucepan add the onions and cook until soft. Add your minced beef and cook through.

During this time, soak your bread in the milk, remove excess milk (not all of it) and then mash the bread with the fork. Keep the milk as you will need it later.

Add your bread, curry powder, sugar, salt, pepper, turmeric, vinegar, raisins, chutney to the beef mixture and cook for a few minutes. Becareful, because of the bread it can easily burn.

Once cooked, spoon the mixture into a baking dish, and place the bay leaves on top. Bake in the oven for about 50 minutes. Meanwhile beat the eggs into the milk mixture and then carefully pour over the beef mixture about 25 minutes before the end of the baking time, this will form a lovely crust on the top.

Serve the Babotie with steamed yellow rice, sliced bananas and extra chutney.

Traditional South African Sosaties Recipe

In Zimbabwe as kids, we often called them skewers, here in the UK they call meat on a skewer a kebab. They call a braai a barbeque (BBQ) but what ever the name, it is hard to beat the traditional South African Lamb Sosatie on a real charcoal or wood braai!

Lamb Sosaties on the braai
Below are the ingredients and the method to making the perfect Lamb Sosatie for the braai. You can use other types of meat like chicken or beef, but lamb always seems to taste the best.

Lamb Sosaties Recipe

Lamb sosatie Ingredients, To make traditional South African Lamb sosatie you will need:

• 500g Lamb (boned shoulder or leg of lamb)
• 2 large onions
• 50ml olive oil
• 4 cloves of gralic
• 1 tablespoon of curry powder
• tumeric 1 x teaspoon
• brown sugar 1 x tablespoon
• 4 crushed bay leaves
• 1 x tablespoon of lemon juice
• 2 x lemons cut into small wedges
• 120ml meat stock
• 125g dried apricots
• 1 x green pepper cut into bite size pieces to fit onto the kebab
• butter
• Skewer sticks

To make the Lamb Sosaties, first cut the lamb up ito 25mm cubes, slice one onion into wedges (for the skewer – you could use shalotts) and the other chop finely, peel and crush the garlic. Heat the butter in a saucepan and sauté the chopped onion, garlic and curry powder for a few minutes. Add the tumeric, lemon and meat stock, bring to the boil.

The put the meat in a non-metal bowl with the bay leaves at the bottom. As soon as the marinade comes to the boil, pour it over your meat mixture and then allow it to cool and place in the fridge to marinade overnight.

The next day when you are ready for the braai (barbeque), skewer the meat, apricots, green pepper and onion wedges (shallots) onto the sticks.

For the sauce, pour the leftover marinade into a saucepan, add some butter and salt and pepper to taste, bring to the boil and serve warm with the sosaties and lemon wedges.

The best way to cook the sosaties is over a hot braai (barbeque) turning them as you go, but you can also cook them under a grill.

As a variation, and if you like hot food, why not try adding crushed chillies, more garlic and some peri-peri to the marinade.

UK – Southern Africa Cookbooks on Amazon.co.uk

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Ok, that’s it for now, if you would like to contribute to this section, check out the page on writing for Chirundu.com otherwise check back soon for some more African Food Recipes and Ideas.

Koeksisters are basically a South African syrup-coated twisted doughnut (sounds good already!) They originally come from the Cape Malay people in South Africa where their koeksister recipe has a texture a little like cake, is spicy and is often coated in dried coconut. The Afrikaners have a slightly different koeksuster recipe that is more crispy and sweeter with more syrup on them.

The word Koeksister actually comes from the Dutch word for small cake – koekje. Nowdays they are usually eaten as a snack, often at a rugby match or possibly at a braai. Koeksisters are really easy to make and the recipe for the crispy, syrupy version of koeksisters is below.

Koeksisters Recipe

Below are the ingredients and method on how to make traditional South African Koeksisters.  If anyone has the recipe for the Cape Malay version of Koeksusters please send it in.

Koeksisters Ingredients, To make traditional South African Koeksisters you will need:

For the Koeksister Batter:

• 1 egg beaten
• 2 cups flour
• 6 tablespoons of milk
• 6 tablespoons of butter (margarine can also work)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of salt

The koeksister syrup:

• 4 cups sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar
• ½ teaspoon of tartaric acid
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence or
• 1 teaspoon of grated orange rind or
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon or
• 1/3 teaspoon of ground ginger

To make Koeksisters, It is best to make the syrup first and and then leave it in the fridge overnight.

Make the Koeksister Syrip
Very easy, just add the dry ingredients to the water and bring the mixture to the boil. Allow it to simmer for about 10 minutes or until it starts to turn syrupy. Set it aside allow to cool and then place in the fridge overnight.

Make the Koeksister Batter
First sift the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl (flour, baking powder and salt). Then cut or rub the margarine or butter into them, similar to making pastry.

Add the milk to the beaten egg and then add this to your flour mixture and again like pastry it is important to handle as little as possible. Then place this koeksister dough in the fridge for at least an hour.

Roll the cold dough to a thickness of about ¼ of an inch and cut into strips that are approximately 3 and a half inches long and about 1 inch wide. Then cut each of your strips into three lengthways, leaving one side uncut at the end, and plait the pieces, pressing the cut ends firmly together at the end. (hope this bit makes sense, but basically just imagine you are plaiting hair and you will get the idea.)

Fry Koeksister dough
Heat the vegetable oil in a deep pan and remove half of the syrup from the fridge and deep-fry the koeksisters in the oil until they turn golden brown. Drain them on absorbent paper.

Then dip the koeksisters into the cold syrup, for a few seconds it is important to do this whilst they are still hot to get the right texture as this will seal the syrup outside and leave the inside of the koeksister dry in contrast.

As you follow this process with more koeksisters, the syrup will gradually become warmer, so when about half way through the koeksisters use the second batch of syrip that you have in the fridge.

Thats it, hope you enjoy your koeksisters and rugby

Check another South African sweet dish of Malva Pudding.

If you have any of your own food recipes that you would like to add, or would like to add anything else to Chirundu.com, please see more on >> Contributing Articles

I hope you enjoy your koeksisters, check back soon for some more of the African Food recipes!

Barbecue Sauce Recipe

Because the UK has such short and unpredictable summers, when the sun does shine, people really appreciate every second and so barbecues are very popular. I can’t think of a better way to enjoy a perfect summers day in England than with a group of friends enjoying good food on the bbq. Part of the good food is having tasty succulent meat so here are some of the best British barbecue sauce recipes.

You may be wondering what the best British barbecue sauce recipe is doing on a site about African food, well this recipe is part of a section on the best BBQ sauces from around the world, others include the best braai sauce recipe from South Africa, best barbecue sauce recipe from the USA, best BBQ sauce recipe from Australia and the best barbeque sauce recipe from Argentina, you can then try them out and let me know which you think is best! View all BBQ Sauce Recipes >>

Right, enough talk, here are the best British Barbecue Sauce Recipes:

British Barbecue Sauce Recipe

Spare Rib Barbecue Sauce
This barbecue sauce is really simple and takes less than half an hour to make and is perfect for coating / basting spare ribs and bland sausages. You can also use it as a dip.

Barbecue Sauce ingredients

• 3 crushed cloves of garlic
• 1 finely chopped small onion
• olive oil
• 1 finely chopped red chilli
• 1 teaspoon crushed fennel seeds
• 50ml dark soy sauce
• 300ml tomato sauce (ketchup)
• 55g dark brown sugar
• salt and pepper to taste

To Make the Barbecue Sauce:
Really simple, as all you need to do is fry off the onion and garlic in the olive oil adding the fennel seeds, chilly and sugar. You then add the soy sauce and tomato sauce and season with your salt and pepper. Let it come to the boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and leave for a few minutes for the flavours to mingle.

View all BBQ Sauce Recipes >>

Making Boerewors can be fun and is actually not that difficult. The great thing is you can experiment with the basic recipe to make the perfect boereworse for you.

The Traditional Boerewors Recipe

Boerewors Ingredients, To make traditional South African boerewors you will need:

• 1 kg beef.
• 1 kg veal or lean pork.
• 1 kg mutton.
• 500 gr spek (firm pork fat from under the skin).
• 25 ml salt.
• 5 ml ground black pepper.
• 15 ml corriander
• 1 ml ground cloves.
• 2 ml nutmeg powder.
• 125 ml brown vinegar.
• 25 ml brandy (optional).
• 25 ml masala (optional).
• 200 gr wide sausage casings.

To make the boerewors, first you need to cube all meat and spek, then mix it all together and coursely mince the meat.

At the same time place the corriander in a dry frying pan and alow to cook until it browns and then break up the seeds.

Place all the meat and dry spices in a bowl and add the vinegar and brandy and lightly mix together and then leave to marinade in a fridge for a few hours.

You will then need to soak the sausage casings in water and then fill them with your boerewors mixture (firmly, but not too tightly) with your sausage maker (See below if you don’t have one)

Thats it! That to me makes the perfect traditional boerewors.

If you dont want to make your own, you can » Buy your boerewors at the SANZA shop here >>

If you have any of your own best braai recipes that you would like share on Chirundu.com, I would love to hear from you. More information on submitting an article >>

Braai Recipes | BBQ Recipes

The southern African Braai (barbeque) is more than just eating food cooked on a grill outside. In South Africa, Zimbabwe and many other places in Africa it is a way to get together with friends and enjoy good food, good weather and a few cold beers.

These are some of the best braai recipes that we have collected and used over the years. and I hope you enjoy them, If you have any recipes that you would like to add a recipe,  please feel free to contact me.

All you need for the perfect rugby braai

Braai Equipment

• The Best Braai

Main Courses on the Braai

• Make your own Boerewors
• Barbecue Ribs Recipes
• Sosaties Recipe
• Barbecue Beer Can Chicken Recipe

Side Dishes

• Mielie Pap and Sadza Recipes

Sauces and Relishes

• Chakalaka
• South African Braai Sauce Recipe
• BBQ Sauce Recipe from Australia
• Chimichurri: Argentina Barbeque Sauce Recipe
• English Barbecue Sauce Recipe

View all Braai Recipes >>

The Best Malva Pudding Recipe

Malva Pudding is a classic South African Food dish, that origionally comes from the Dutch, it is a sweet pudding, which is usually served hot with sauce, custard or ice-cream and you will often find it on the dessert menu in many South African restaurants.

Malva Pudding is made with apricot jam and has a spongy caramelized texture. The name “Malva” comes from Malvacea wine from Madeira. The dessert and desert wine used to be served together after main course at Cape tables. There are many variants of Malva pudding like the Cape Brandy Pudding which also include brandy and dates and the Tipsy Tart which contains only brandy.

Malva Pudding Recipe

Malva Pudding Ingredients, To make traditional South African Malva pudding you will need:

• 1 cup of milk
• 1 cup of (light) brown sugar
• 3 teaspoons of apricot jam
• 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoon of vinegar
• 1 cup of plain white flour
• 1 egg
• 4 teaspoons of butter

Malva Pudding Sauce

• 1 cup whipping cream (not whipped)
• 6 ounces butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup hot water

To make Malva Pudding, first beat the egg and brown sugar together untill the mixture is thick and light, then stir in the apricot jam.

Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda together.

Melt butter and vinegar together and then addthe milk.

Add the sifted dry ingredients to egg mixture alternating with milk mixture.

Pour batter into greased oven-proof dish. Bake at 180 C for about 30 minutes, or until lightly browned.

For the Sauce:
Melt together the ingredients for the sauce and pour over the pudding as it comes out of the oven.

UK – Southern Africa Cookbooks on Amazon.co.uk

USA – Southern Africa Cookbooks on Amazon.com

Sadza Recipes | Isitshwala | Mielie Pap | Nshima | Ugali

Sadza has many names throughout Africa, the shona name for Zimbabwe’s staple food is Sadza, the Ndebele word for it is isitshwala, in South Africa it is known as Mielie Pap, in Zambia they call it Nshima, in Eastern Africa (Kenya and Tanzania) the name for sadza is Ugali and in Malawai it is called Sima. Along with all the different names for it, there are also many variations on how to cook it and what is the best way to eat it. What I hope to do in this document is to list some of the more common ways to make and eat this wonderful food. Hint: many of these recipes are also perfect for the braai or barbeque.

Zimbabwe Sadza neHuku

Zimbabwe’s Sadza is always eaten with meat or a vegetable relish.

• Sadza neHuku = Sadza and Chicken
• Sadza neNyama = Sadza and Meat (red)
• Sadza neBeans = Sadza and beans
• Sadza neMatemba = Sadza and Kapenta
• Sadza is also eaten with mopane worms

How to Cook Sadza | Krummelpap

Sadza, Isitshwala or Pap Ingredients
To make traditional Zimbabwean Sadza (isitshwala) you will need:

• 2 – 4 cups white mielie meal / cornmeal / maze meal.
• water

To make the Sadza (isitshwala):
First boil about 4 cups of the water in a pot.

Set aside about 1/4 of your mielie meal and mix the rest with about 3 or 4 cups of water to make a thick paste – make sure you have a strong arm and wooden spoon!

Then slowly add this paste to the boiling water, stirring all the time, this will prevent lumps from forming and bring to the boil again, don’t talk too much with your friends around the braai or it will stick and burn the bottom of the pot! Keep cooking and stirring for a few more minutes.

Then slowly add the remaining mielie meal to the pot. The sadza should be very thick and smooth, it should then begin to pull away from the sides of the pot and form a large ball. Cook for a few minutes more.

That’s it, then transfer it to a bowl and serve your sadza (isitshwala or pap) with relish or meat (nyama)

Sadza (pap in South Africa)

Sadza (pap) along with a good relish (see the Chakalaka Recipe) is a must for a genuine braai. Not only does it full up the kids cheaply but tastes great aswell! The only other dish that I can think of that comes close to it for the use as a side dish at a braai would be pototo salad. Ngwere Ngwere sadza, mushe, mushe sadza, ngwere-ngwere SADZA!! » Buy Sadza Here >>

Krummelpap

Krummelpap is on of the South African methods of cooking pap (Sadza). It is more crumbly (krummel) that normal pap or sadza. It is traditionally eaten for breakfast, with milk, butter, and sugar. It can also be eaten at dinner and served with Gravy and you will often find krummelpap at a “real” South African braai. I would describe krummelpap being somewhere near polenta and couscous.

Krummelpap Ingredients
To make krummelpap, you will need:

• 750 ml (3 cups) water
• 10 ml (2 ts) salt
• 600 g (4 cups) mealie meal (you can also find pap these days)

How to cook Krummelpap:
Poor the water in a pot or potjie. Then pour in the mealie meal to form a cone like pile in the center of the potjie. Do not stir the pot yet, but reduce the heat and add some salt, put the lid on potjie and let pap simmer for about five minutes, until a skin forms.

Once a skin has formed, stir the pap with a fork until it is fine and crumbly. Cover the poitjie again and let pap simmer for about another 45mins.

If you know of other methods to cook sadza / pap please contact us and let me know!

I hope you enjoy your sadza (pap), check back soon when I show you some more African food and Mielie meal recipes.

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