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Braai's... the national past-time

As previously mentioned, braai's (pronounced bry) are the national past-time of South Africans. In Australia we barbeque... in South Africa they braai. On Saturday we were treated to a weber 'posh-nosh' cooking class (thanks Badalassi!) and learnt the in's & out's of a perfect braai. We learnt that basically anything can be cooked on a braai, and confirmed that the only way to eat roast chicken is if it's cooked on a braai. Seriously!

A braai consists of charcoal briquettes which are lit with fire lighters and let to heat & smoke for around 30min. Once red hot, the briquettes have about 2hrs of heat for cooking. The heated charcoal slowly smokes the food and gives it a delicious flavour.

At our cooking course we baked a whole fish wrapped in newspaper, prawns, a whole baked pumpkin, pizza, fillet of beef, chicken teriyaki, whole duck with oyster sauce & peri-peri baby chickens. Our favourites were the roast chicken and the fillet of beef. Yum!

Pete preparing the camping-style braai one weekend at Pilansberg (every camp site has one)

Charcoal briquettes

Duck cooking on braai

The end result of the cooking class!

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