Jan Braai lights fire with new cookbook ‘The Democratic Republic of Braai’

As we kick-start September, spring is in the air and we think of our food heritage, which is, of course, the braai. Jan Scannell, aka Jan Braai, lives to braai. In 2005 he created National Braai Day; his aim was to create a celebration of the one activity all South Africans have in common, cooking over the fire.

And just to fire up enthusiasm, his new cookbook, his sixth, The Democratic Republic of Braai is launching on Monday. He says it’s our democratic right to eat properly braaied food and his new publication features a selection of recipes that are certain to light your fire — and, yes, no Jan Braai cookbook is without a recipe featuring boerewors, this one with another South African favourite, Old Brown Sherry.

A “slider” is the culinary term for a miniature hamburger or, more accurately, a small piece of meat served on a mini bread roll. Forming and braaing miniature patties seemed like too much hard work as the preparation and the braaing would be complex. Boerewors was an easy solution. My other problem with sliders is that they are sometimes heavy on the bread and light on the meat.

Again, this is something we can solve by simply not closing them with another piece of bread, thereby upping our ratio of meat to bread. Sherry, the original Old Brown type, is a value-for-money product to braai with, and one of the core ingredients of this recipe. The sweetness of the sherry complements the spiciness of the boerewors perfectly.

SHERRY BOEREWORS SLIDERS

Ingredients:

1.2kg boerewors (medium thick)

500ml (2 cups) sherry

1 tot olive oil

1 tot butter

3 onions (finely chopped)

3 cloves garlic

1 long fresh baguette

Skewers

Method:

1. Cut the boerewors into pieces of about 6cm each.
2. Put the pieces of meat into a bowl and pour the sherry over them. Cover the bowl and let the boerewors marinate in a fridge for a few hours.
3. Remove the boerewors pieces from the sherry and skewer them. It doesn’t matter how many skewers you use as it’s not a case of a skewer per person. Do not discard the sherry.
4. When the fire is lit, heat up a fireproof pan or potjie and sauté the chopped onion in the oil and butter for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute.
5. Pour all the sherry that the boerewors was swimming in into the pan or potjie with the onion and garlic and bring to the boil. Stir regularly and let this cook and reduce by half.
6. Put the marinated boerewors skewers in a hinged grid, close the grid and braai over hot coals for about 8 minutes until done. Give each side at least two looks at the coals, meaning you need to turn the grid at least three times in total.
7. During the braai, you or one of your braai party members can cut the baguette in thin slices (we want maximum meat-to-bread ratio so keep the slices thin).
8. Arrange the slices of baguette on a platter and give each piece some of the sherry and onion sauce.
9. When the boerewors is ready, take it off the fire, pull out the skewers and place a piece of braaied sherry-infused boerewors on each prepared slice of baguette.