South Africans are known for their biltong and boerewors and braai! This is our staple food and I think all the cultures in South Africa, to certain extends, participates in this pastime and cooking method.

Rather than giving a recipe, I will try and describe the process and the context surrounding this cooking method, because the recipe is not all that important. In South Africa, a "braai" (or bbq) is an event and not way of cooking. It is about the conversation around the fire and the beer and wine you drink together with friends and family. It is also about sharing and "bearing" too much food so that you can eat it the next day for breakfast while you still think about the previous night (and drinking coffee for the headache!).

We normally braai sheep (or lamb) and drizzle it with lemon juice. (A funny story on the side: in South Africa, we don't consume that much vegetables and around the fire people refer to chicken jokingly as vegetables. So when people pass you the chicken they would ask and tell don't forget about the vegetables!)

But again, the event of braaing is not about the meat or the food, it is about getting together and enjoying family and friends. It is about the storytelling and the drinking of beer. It is about listening to good music, or maybe to let someone in the family play guitar.

But in any case, here is a recipe of some kind.

Recipe for all the food:

The meat is marinated with lemon juice while braaining over hot coals for say 10-15 minutes. Salt as needed.

The pineapple is braaied the same, so also the chicken (again with lemon juice continually dripped over it).

The boerewors we sometimes call "banny wors". This was done by certain people when they didn't have enough coals. You braai it over very hot coals or direct fire. The fat that renders out of the sausage aggravates the fire and that heat cooks the sausage in such a way that the inside is still very juicy.

My mother's recipe for sweet potato: in an oven bake sweet potatoes for 20-30 minutes with orange juice and butter or oil until the sweet potatoes are cooked and the orange juice has caramelized.

I really hope you give this a try! Maybe you also have open fire cooking in your country? It is really something else and so good.

• food
• southafrica
• africa
• braai