In Zimbabwe and indeed South Africa, Corn or Maize is known as “mealies.” For many people they are part of their daily diet where they are ground to make Mielie Meal and then made into dishes like Sadza. There are also a number of Southern African Recipes to make bread from Mealies that are not only delicious but really easy to make. I have gathered together three of below, the first one uses corn off the cob, but the others use tinned corn (sweetcorn):

Traditional Steamed Green Mealie Bread Recipe

To make this bread you need to use a slightly green mealie (at the hard dough stage). You will know if it is right, if you take a kernel and press it and some liquid shoul come out, but most of the starchy kernel should remain between fingers.

Ingredients

• 750 ml Fresh green mealies, cut off the cob
• 75 ml flour
• 25 ml sugar
• 10 ml baking powder or sachet yeast
• 5 ml salt
• 30 ml butter

Method

• Cut the kernels off cob and then rub the cob with the back of a knife to remove remaining portions of kernels
• Mash/mince these green mealies
• Mix together all the ingredients
• Moisten a cotton cloth and sprinkle with a light coat of flour and then put in a colander
• Pour mixture into cloth and bind tightly, but allow space for bread to rise
• If using yeast, use buttered tins and allow mixture to stand till bubbling and started rising. Cover tightly
• Steam for 2 – 2.5 hours
• Serve hot from the pan with butter – and a dusting of pepper

Easy Mealie Bread (Corn Bread)

This is one of my favourite Zimbabwean / South African recipes and the best bit is that it is soo easy:

Ingredients

• 2 cups biscuit mix
• 1 cup creamed corn (Usually found tinned)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 2 ounces butter, melted

Method
Place the biscuit mix, creamed corn, and sugar in a large bowl. Add the egg and milk, and stir just until combined. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a 9″ baking pan. Place the mealie mixture into the pan, and coat with the melted butter. Bake for 20 minutes. Easypeasy!

Cheesy Mealie Bread (Corn Bread)

• 480 g (4 cups) self-raising flour (or 4 cups plain flour + 4 tsps baking powder)
• pinch of salt
• 50 ml (3 tablspoons) sugar
• 30 ml (2 tablspoons) cooking oil
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 200 ml (3/4 cup) milk
• 1 x 410g can cream style sweetcorn or fresh baked corn
• 100 g strong cheese , grated
• a little grated onion
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley

Method

• Mix the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl
• Beat together with oil, eggs and milk and add to the flour mixture
• Add the rest of the ingredients, mix thoroughly and place in well-greased circular pot
• Sprinkle a little cheese, onion and parsley on the top
• Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Centigrade for about an hour (this may vary depending on your oven)

Related Reading

• More African Food Recipes
• Mielie Pap and Sadza Recipes

Zimbabwean & South African Cook Books

Like roast pork and apple sauce, chicken and beer go very well together and this excellent barbecue beer can chicken recipe not only helps to keep the meat nice and moist when cooking it on the braai, but the beer, herbs as well as the smoky flavour that you only get from a “weber roast” make for a unique and very tasty roast chicken.

Only on a Weber Barbecue?
You don’t have to use a Weber braai, any kettle type barbeque will do with lid large enough to cook a chicken standing upright and I suppose you could use a covered roasting tin on the grill of a standard braaivleis. Of course you do not even have to cook this recipe on the barbeque, as “beer can chicken in oven” works well although with most ovens you will have to lay the chicken on it’s stomach and you will miss out on the unique BBQ smoky flavour.

Ingredients

2 kg / 4-5 lb whole chicken
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 can of beer – brand at the discretion of the chef!

For The Rub
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried garlic, you can use crushed garlic
1 tsp granulated onion
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Optional
Add Flavoured Wood Chips to the barbecue for additional smoky flavours.

Indirect Cooking Method

To cook this beer chicken recipe or most roasts in a kettle barbecue, you will use the “indirect cooking method” and to do this you pace two heaps of charcoal on opposite sides of the bottom grill, with a gap in-between. Weber bbq’s come with special grates or charcoal holders for this. In this way, the coals providing the heat are placed out to the side. When roasting or baking, the food is placed on the upper grill between the two fires, directly above a foil drip pan. This method of cooking is known as indirect cooking.

When you are almost ready to cook the meat, place a drip pan on the grate under the grill in the centre of the bbq between the two fires. This way the heat of the charcoal will not be directly under the chicken which would make it burn.
The pans will catch any fats, juices and bastes which fall from the chicken during cooking. When selecting a drip pan, it is important that the pan be large enough to catch all of the drippings from the food above.

Prepare The Chicken

1. Combine the rub ingredients in a bowl
2. Rinse the chicken inside and out under water and remove and discard the neck, giblets, and any excess fat. Pat dry the chicken with a paper towel.
3. Lightly brush or spray all over with the vegetable oil and season, inside and out, with the rub.
4. Open the beer can and drink half of the beer then place the half-full can on a flat surface and slide the chicken over the top so the can fits inside the cavity.

Cooking the Chicken

Keeping the can upright, balance the chicken on its two legs on the grill of your barbecue. You can get special beer can chicken roaster grills (see image below) or ChickCAN Rack’s (see accessories at the bottom of the page) that help to keep the chicken steady whilst cooking, but if you are careful you can get away without using one.

Barbecue over indirect medium heat until the juices run clear. During the cooking, try and keep the lid closed as much as possible.

Once cooked, carefully remove the chicken and the can from the braaivleis, being careful not to spill the beer as it will be hot. Let the chicken rest for about 10 minutes before lifting it from the can. Discard the beer.

Cut the chicken into serving pieces and serve warm.

Weber Barbecue’s for Beercan Chicken

To cook beer butt chicken on the braai, the most important piece of equipment is the actual grill itself, I highly recommend a Weber. Amazon have a huge selection of Weber Barbecues and Accesories both in the US and the UK:

UK
Weber Barbeque’s on Amazon.co.uk

USA

Weber Bbq’s on Amazon.com

Beer Can Chicken Roaster Grills

Not essential, but a these purpose built stainless-steel racks, or ChickCAN’s let you cook a chicken via the beer can method with less worry about the hot can spilling or getting knocked over. A 12-ounce can of beer or soda fits securely in the stand’s center (which protrudes into the bird’s cavity), while the circular wire base spans a wire grill more securely than individual "feet" and supports a chicken up to four pounds in weight.

UK
Beer Can Roasters on Amazon.co.uk

USA

ChickCAN roasters on Amazon.com

Flavoured Wood Chips

Alder, Apple, Cherry, Hickory, Mesquite, Pecan, Oak, Tobasco and even Jack Daniel’s! Wood chips for the barbecue come in many flavours and add a fantasic and completely unique flavour to your roast chicken or any other meat.

UK
Wood Chips on Amazon.co.uk

USA

Wood Chips on Amazon.com

Ok, so the above example of an “Extreme Braai” would probably not make it into everyone’s top 10, but what does make the best braai? There are probably as many answers to this question as there are opinions as to the best way to make boerewors.

I know that there will be many of you that swear by your 44 gallon drum, cut in half to make a braai, or that your gas skottel braai is the best and yes I too love my parents half drum braai back home in Zim and the skottel has to be one of the best gas braai’s especially for breakfast fry-ups, but what is that saying: “when in Rome do as the Romans do”, and in my case it was more of “when in the UK” and here drums and skottel’s can be hard to find (although not impossible).

Weber Charcoal Barbecue

I have had my Original Weber charcoal barbeque for over 5 years now and still use it and in my opinion they must be one of the best charcoal braai equipment that you can get and here is why:

Flexibility
You can just use the grill to cook old favourites like boerewors and steak, but then use the cover and a whole new world opens up. I have cooked many fantastic roasts on the Weber and there are many in the southern hemisphere, that them to cook their Christmas turkey.

Durability
As you may have heard the UK weather is not the best! Yet I have left my Weber outdoors with no cover on every summer, only taking it into the shed in the winter and yet there is still almost no sign of rusting. I am still using the original grill and everything still works 100%, so whilst you can get cheaper imitations, I would recommend against it unless you only need it to last for a single summer.

Portability
Some people swear by their brick braai and yes, they can look and work great, but just make sure it is located in a good spot. I like the fact that I can move the Weber, following the sun throughout the day, which is very important here in the UK!

Where to Buy Weber Braai’s

Amazon have a huge selection of Weber Barbecues and Accesories both in the US and the UK:

UK: Amazon.co.uk
Weber on Amazon.co.uk

USA: Amazon.com

Weber on Amazon.com

Your Opinion

I would love to get your opinion and photos of your favourite braai, just leave comments below or contact me.

More Information

• Braai Recipes
• Make your own Boerewors
• The Main photo in this article is of the “Extreme Braai” – the multi functional braai, made from recycled metal found on the scrap metal yard, carefully put together to make everything functional!

Ogh and before I forget, a BBQ/Barbecue should be something you wait in line for to get your hair cut and has nothing to do with cooking great food outdoors

Buy Boerewors on Amazon!
If you do not have access to a local butchery that makes boerewors, you can now buy it online on Amazon both here in the UK and in the US:

Boerewors for Sale On-Line

As with pretty much everything these days you can now buy your favourite braai meat online both here in the UK and in the US:

UK
Boerewors on Amazon.co.uk

USA

Boerewors on Amazon.com

Many thanks to “Richard” for sending in this South African Recipe for Cape Malay Koeksisers. If you have any African recipes that you would like to share, please contact me.

Cape Malay Koeksister

The success of this recipe depends on the smoothness of the potato mixture.
Makes: 36

Ingredients:
• 6 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 250ml (1 cup) milk
• 60ml (¼ cup) vegetable oil
• 60g butter, melted
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 packet (10ml/2 teaspoons) instant yeast
• 60ml (¼ cup) sugar
• 5 x 250ml (5 cups) flour
• 5ml ( 1 teaspoon) salt
• 7ml (1 ½ teaspoons) ground cinnamon
• 5ml (1 teaspoons) ground ginger
• 2ml (½ teaspoon) ground cloves
• 5ml (1 teaspoon) ground naartjie peel
• 2ml (½ teaspoon) ground cardamom
• 5ml (1 teaspoon) whole aniseed
• Vegetable oil for deep frying

Syrup:
• 250ml (1 cup) water
• 250ml (1 cup) sugar
• 2 green cardamom pods
• 1 stick cassia, or cinnamon
• Desiccated coconut, for sprinkling over

Preparation:
• Boil the potatoes in water until sift.
• Drain and mash roughly.
• Add the milk, 60ml (¼ cup) vegetable oil, butter and egg.
• Mash well making sure there are absolutely no lumps.
• Place the yeast, sugar, flour, salt and all the spices in a large mixing bowl.
• Add the mashed potato mixture and mix well to form a smooth dough.
• Cover the dough with cling wrap and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in volume (about 1 hour).
• Knock down the dough and turn out onto a well-floured surface.
• Form into oblong shapes (60mm x 25mm or 2 ½ inch x 1 inch) and allow to rise for 15 minutes.
• Deep fry in hot oil until golden brown.
• Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper towel.

To make The Syrup:
• Place all the ingredients for the syrup in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
• Stir over low heat until syrup forms a film on the spoon.
• Dip the koeksisters in the hot syrup.

To Serve:
• Sprinkle with coconut on all sides.

Related Links:

• African Recipes Home Page
• Another recipe for Koeksisters

I was  introduced to the South African Vetkoek, whilst studding to be come a field guide (safari guide) in the Limpopo region of  South Africa, but their history goes back to the days of the Voortrekkers who found it much quicker and easier to make than bread.

Pronounced ‘Fet Cook’, they are delicious alternative to bread and can be eaten as a savoury dish, served with a beef mince sauce, or sweet with golden syrup or apricot jam and a with a cup of strong black coffee.

Basically Vetkoek are deep fried dough balls (buns) and are similar to Dutch “oliebollen”, the main diference being that oliebollen are sweet and contains raisins.

The traditional way to make vetkoek is to use a yeast bread dough, but as with this quick and simple vetkoek recipe, you can use baking powder as the raising agent.

Vetkoek Ingredients

• 2 cups (500 ml) flour
• 2 teaspoons (10 ml) baking powder

Or you can replace the flour and baking powder with self-raising flour

• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ½ t (2 ml) salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup (250 ml) milk
• Enough oil for deep-frying (about 12 cm deep)

Method

1. Sift the flour, baking powder and the salt together
2. Whisk the egg, milk and sugar
3. Make a well in the dry ingredients, add milk and egg mixture and mix to very soft dough. Add more milk if necessary.
4. Heat the oil to between 180 °C and 190°C.
5. Ladle level spoonfuls of batter into the hot oil (12 cm deep) and bake until brown on both sides, before removing from oil.
6. Use towel paper to absorb the excess oil.

Done. It is as simple as that!

Long before you could just go to the shops and buy “Ouma Rusks”, real life grannies would actually make them for their families. It’s true I promise!

In South Africa, the are known as Beskuit (South African rusks) and are brilliant to dunk in your morning tea or coffee and make great snacks for rumbling tummies; morning, noon and night. They are also still used as a traditional way to treat stay-over guests by waking them with a tray of freshly brewed coffee and rusks.

So if you now live somewhere where you can’t just go to the store and buys rusks, or if you just fancy making them for yourself, below is the recipe:

Ingredients:

“Slip an extra shrimp on the barbie” the phrase coined by actor Paul Hogan, has come to stand for what most outsiders imagine is an Australian BBQ. Actually Australians use the word prawns and not shrimps and they hardly ever put prawns on the barbie, which is a shame as there are some excellent prawn bbq sauce recipes.

Whatever the case BBQ’s are really popular in Australia which like South Africa has loads of sunshine and a laid back way of life perfect for barbecuing.

This article is part of my best BBQ sauce recipes from all around the world, so also check out the best braai sauce recipe from South Africa, best barbecue sauce recipe from the UK, best BBQ sauce recipe from Australia and the best barbeque sauce recipe from Argentina.

Lets get cracking, here are my best BBQ Sauce Recipes:

BBQ Sauce Recipe for Beef Spare ribs

A really simple bbq sauce, in fact to make the sauce there, no actual cooking is required! It is perfect as a marinade or for basting onto beef spare ribs.

BBQ Sauce ingredients

• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons mustard powder
• 1 teaspoon chilli powder
• I teaspoom of ground mace
• Half a teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons each brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

To Make the BBQ Sauce:
Super simple to make, just place all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and stir together.

Beef Spare Rib marinade
To marinade the spare ribs, pour the BBQ sauce into a large shallow non metallic container and then add the ribs, mix together, cover and refrigerate overnight, turning the ribs a few times. Cook on the BBQ and enjoy!

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.