The Bush Chef

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Learn a couple of South African Cooking tips...

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Need to rippen Avocado Pear's?

Forget about placing them in a brown bag...in dark cupboard.

The best method to rippen them is to place the 'green' rock hard avo's in your fruit basket with a couple of banana's and they'll rippen in >3 day's.

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Addo Lemons are a must for every braai or BBQ!!!

Here are a couple of great things you can do with lemons at a braai:
1) Scrub a dirty braai grid or your dirty hands with lemon 1/2's. or
2) Squeeze lemon juice over an Avo in the salad to stop the Avo from going brown. or
3) Squeeze lemon juice over braai meat, it's a natural tenderiser, removes the need for salt while braaing and brakes down the fat. or
4) Place a 'squeezed dry lemon' over the heat and you will be able to use it again. or
5) Place a slice or two in your Coke or G&T while braaing...
6) If you are making a marinade and it calls for lemon juice, don't forget to include some finely grated rind (no white pith, it's bitter)

Enjoy!!!

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Braaing South African Steak Like The Pro's.

The art of cooking a steak to perfection (medium, medium rare or rare)
A 'Safe' way to achieve this is by 'feeling' the meat with your tong's. This meat feel is demonstrated in the diagram below:



'The hotter the fire the better'
Some steak marinades are purposefully high in oil and cause a 'flame up' when the steak is dropped onto the fire. This seals the steak (more flavour and tenderness)

If you are going to serve a steak as a excellent braai starter. Remove it from the fire earlier, allow it to stand for a minute or two, slice into finger pieces and serve on a board (it will 'bleed' while resting and become a 'pink medium')

An add-on trick to this 'tong control' is that if you require a medium to well (burnt offering) you can roll your tongs over the meat while cooking, this effectively bleeds the meat and results in a bloodless or grey(medium) steak quicker (the more time on the heat the tougher the steak)

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Restaurant Style Burgers

This recipe can be used when you are looking for a quick and easy meal or have burgers on the fire (a big hit with the kids)

1 packet brown onion soup per kg of beef mince (reduce in propotion to amount of mince)
Course beef mince is better, but any mince will do.

*hand mix mince and soup*
*divide mince mixture into desired amount of patty's required*
*allow the burger patty's to stand for 5mins before putting them on the fire or grilling*

***this same mixture can be used to make cocktail meal balls or spagetti bollognaise balls***

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South African Smoked Fish Recipe

Oily fish is best (snoek) but any fish will do.
Course salt rub is very important to remove the natural moisture (the smoked fish will be soft (pap) if this is not followed.

The secret is to create a smoked fish paint or basting which is applied before smoking:
* 1/2 cup dark rum
* 1/4 cup honey
* good pinch of course black pepper
* t-spoon crushed garlic

bring to boil on stove (remove alcohol and thicken) or microwave until tacky.

Allow to cool and paint fish evenly before smoking.

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HERB KEBABS (FISH/MEAT/CHICKEN)

Are you Basil or Rosemary bushes getting wooded?

The next time you are looking for something different for the braai (BBQ) cut yourself a couple of skewer sticks with a difference:

* cut herb bushes 15cm from branch ends and remove any of the small side leaves (keep leaves for marinade) but leave the end leaves on the cleaned skewers (last 5cm of leaves).
* cube your meat, chicken or fish (2-3cm squared) and cover with marinade of your choice overnight.
*thread the cubes onto the herb skewers (you can alternate with onion, green pepper or dried fruit (left overnight to soak and soften in water or sherry)

EASY TUNA or FISH MARINADE
* 2 Cups Orange Oros Concentrate
* 1 Packet Greek salad dressing
* Crushed herbs (from skewers)
* 2 T-spoon crushed garlic
* Good Dash of oil