I have prefaced so many of my posts with the following message: A traditional recipe is not one that stays the same over time or over cultures or over space (i.e. area or place). People use recipes as starter points and reference and they then manipulate according to various other things. Also, every family has their own recipe, which in a sense defeats the purpose of talking about only one singular traditional recipe. It would be more fitting to realise the multitude of recipes from different families.

I think one of the most striking dishes of this is the South African Sosatie. The name comes from "sate ("skewered meat") and saus (spicy sauce)" (Source: Wikipedia). It is similar to kebabs from other cultures. Again, the amalgamation of different cultures' food into South African food heritage. In any case, every person will make their sosaties/kebabs differently. I normally opt to use less meat and more vegetables for health and taste reasons. I also use my own sauce, and I use much less (because most sauces are overly sugared).

Sosaties/kebabs are basically meat on a skewer, but like I said, I like to add some veggies to make it a bit more healthy and all the fat from the rendered lambs meat bastes the veggies to make them even better! Please read on below to see how I make these sosaties!

I use various vegetables for these sosaties. Mainly it is onion, tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms (but fruit like pineapple is also an awesome addition).

I cut the pieces into smallish cubes that will not be too small as they become small when on the fire. They reduce quite considerably.

Half of the sosaties are made with meat, and half is made with only vegetables. Again, I use considerably less meat than normal because of the reasons listed above. Normally, it would be more meat than fruit/vegetables.

For the sauce, I use a lemon and nectarine chutney I made, with vinegar, and lemon juice.

I marinade them for a couple of hours in the fridge but not too long because fo the lemon juice.

Time to braai (bbq) them!

This is a super awesome weeknight dish, as it takes almost no time except the minimal prep work. But that you can do ahead of time. The wood fire gives it an awesome taste and I just enjoy this so much! I really hope you can give this recipe a try, and that you can appreciate the beauty of meat made over an open fire.

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