Summer Vibes

How nice is it to see the sun and to feel some warmth after the weeks and weeks of wet weather.  Since we are finally enjoying some warm dry days, we think it is worth getting outside and cooking before summer abandons us.  There really is nothing like that first unmistakable smell of charcoal burning that signals summer food.

If you don’t cook outside very often then you might be, as I once was, slightly intimated.  If you are anywhere near my age and from the UK you too will have memories of sausages looking more like charcoal than a sausage and yet, somehow, still raw in the centre.  In the 80’s barbecuing did not come naturally to us Brits - unlike the South African contingents reading this.  Cooking over fire has become second nature to South Africans and braa’ing is something that is done almost as often as cooking inside. 

If you are not South African, you may be asking what is a braai?  A braai is another word for bbq - except to braai you would have to cook over fire (meaning using charcoal or wood) as opposed to using gas.  If you want that true smoky taste you think of when you think of barbecues then I would highly recommend using either charcoal or wood.  Whilst gas will cook nicely and you will be cooking outside, the flavour will be totally different.  Cooking over fire does however take some practice, although one that really is worth pursuing because once you get the knack you won’t want to cook any other way.

I am still learning to cook with fire although I am getting better.  One of the things I struggled with a little initially was smoke in my face when I was trying to brush glaze over.  I laugh about it now because it is so obvious to just move around the other side the opposite way to the wind but at the time it was frustrating and that just did not click. 

Something you need to understand is that with any recipe you use that cooks outside, it is not as easy as setting the temperature to 180c and cooking for 20 minutes in your oven, you need to look and feel whatever you are cooking, trust your judgement and always ensure it is cooked before dishing.  If you don’t have a temperature probe investing in one is a great idea, you can pick them up from around £5 for a basic one.  My basic one has pictures of animals along with etched zones for each so you can clearly look and see the temperature your meat is at.

All manner of reasons will determine the speed in which your fire will be ready after lighting it, these include the type of braai that you use and whether it is open, whether it has a lid, or vents and what kind of fuel you use.  My advice is this, grab yourself a cold drink, surround yourself with good company and laugh and chat away the time while you wait for your coals to burn to the right temperature.

I have recently learnt about direct and indirect cooking and to simplify this, it is where you have a hot and cooler side.  This can be achieved by putting the coals all to one side - directly above is your hot zone and to the side is your indirect zone.  Alternatively you may have a braai that has a heat deflector so anything over the deflector would be your indirect cooking zone.  Chicken we always cook over indirect heat until pretty much cooked before moving it over, anything with a sugary glaze should also be cooked over indirect as the sugar will burn easily.  Pollo asado is a prime example of a chicken dish that needs indirect cooking but which works really well cooked over fire.  Steaks however work really well over direct heat as they char beautifully and get that crispy fat you only get over fire. 

Hennie’s sweetcorn

Talking of new obsessions, when we were in SA recently we went to this restaurant called Hennie’s which had the best sweetcorn I have honestly ever eaten.  Since that day we have cooked it a lot, it is buttery, sharp, salty and with an umami edge that makes this incredible.  You must try it, it is super super easy and oh so good.

So how do you decide on what to cook with?  There are a few different types of charcoal and these are:

Lumpwood charcoal.  This is made solely from hardwood and no chemicals are added. The charcoal is manufactured by baking the logs at a very low temperature in a near oxygenless environment which removes all moisture and impurities for the coals. As a result, you are left with charcoal that has a very high carbon content. Lumpwood charcoal is easy to light, burns cleanly and at a high temperatures over and extended period of time. It is great for searing steaks to grilling hamburgers and cooking chicken wings on indirect heat.

Briquettes are made from compressed charcoal dust with the help of binders and chemicals. Briquettes tend to not burn as high as lumpwood charcoal but they still get quite hot. The difference with briquettes is more of a constant temperature which allows you to cook low and slow as well.

Choosing between lumpwood charcoal and briquettes depends on your personal preference, there is really no wrong or right answer, when it comes to braai-ing it is all about trying new things and seeing what works for you. Lumpwood charcoal is more expensive than briquettes and contains uneven pieces that can make it hard to regulate temperatures whilst briquettes are evenly shaped and the same size so easier to regulate temperatures but they can produce chemical smells and leave an aftertaste in your food. 

When lighting your braai, do so about 30 minutes before you want to start cooking, the coals are ready when they are ‘white hot’ (a coating of grey ash with a red glow beneath). You can control the temperature in various ways depending on your braai. You can either adjust the grill height or if like us you have a kamado grill or kettle braai, you can adjust the temperature using the vents.

You can also use wood as your fuel source instead of using charcoal or briquettes. We used to have a Landmann and used cook with wood, you would build a little stack of logs - say 3 going horizontally, 3 vertically then 3 horizontally, putting the firelighters and kindling between.  Light the wood and leave until the wood has burnt down to charcoal effectively and all of the flames have died down and the charcoal white hot.  Wood does take longer to burn down so you might want to light your fire earlier than if you were to cook on charcoal or briquettes.  Make sure your logs and kindling are kiln dried and food grade and the same goes for your firelighters, added chemicals leak that nasty taste into your food.

Whatever you use, coal or wood, do ensure the source is sustainable and, if you are reading this from the UK, buy British. 

Caradoc lumpwood charcoal

We have recently discovered Caradoc charcoal, an independent family owned and run business that produces lumpwood charcoal, smoking chips and firelighters.  This is not cheap charcoal it is however far superior to other charcoal we have used and, because it burns hot and gets to temperature quickly it is also efficient. 

When we first started to cook with Caradoc charcoal we found it was brilliant for cooking steaks as they seared really nicely and were perfect inside.  More recently we have been doing slower longer cooking and, in our Kamado Joe, it lasts really well, you just need to add a few extra pieces when needed to ensure the fire stays hot enough to finish cooking.  I love that it is of British origin, has no nasty firelighting chemicals and that I know it is sustainable.  Caradoc is the only fuel we now use when we braai as it is superior to anything else we have used.

Have you heard of a dirty steak?  A dirty steak is basically where you cook your meat directly on the coal (literally directly on the coal).  Reading into dirty steaks, people love it so much and talk about it very highly.  We have not been brave enough to try yet, I just can’t imagine how it tastes, does any of the charcoal stick to the steaks? Does it taste gritty?  It is something that we will try.  If this sounds like something you would fancy, you need to make sure your charcoal is of the highest quality and with absolutely no chemicals added.  This is where charcoal such as Caradoc’s is absolutely essential.

If you want to slow cook then you will need a braai with a lid and don’t lift too often, this then mimics more of an oven, although you need to remember to top up the charcoal a little if necessary while cooking.  We have a potjie pot and over the last year have really got into potjies, our favourites being a seafood potjie, although the mussel one is also gorgeous and all you need is fresh bread to serve it with which you can warm over the coals.

My favourite thing to cook over fire though has to be wings, which you will all know is something I am pretty obsessed with.  In fact, if you do a search on our site you will find many. Rhona often asks as we test new recipes if we don’t have enough and how many wing recipes are too many?  Honestly I do not think there is a negative answer to that because you can never have too many surely.  Can you? Recent new recipes to add to the wing collection is nduja and peri peri wings.

Enjoy the warm weather while it lasts and let us know what you cook.

Kelly x