This is the best time of year to celebrate that great South African tradition of the braai. Sunshine and blue skies, holidays and cold beers with your mates.

Tourists often don’t get it but those who take the time to partake and understand this wonderful South African tradition learn in a very good way that a braai is not a barbeque or simply a way of cooking a meal over coals. It’s a smashing event where there are flames and fire and smoke and huge piles of meat, friends and salads and drinks – and somewhere along the way, a meal will morph out of the process.

I love making a fire, I will cook outdoors for any rhyme or reason, it is just so much fun and a Christmas Day braai is one of those South African traditions that need to be cherished and preserved. The art of smoking meat is also becoming very popular and although it generally takes quite a long time, the effort required is not too much, so it leaves plenty of time to stand around and chin wag with your Christmas guests.

Sweet & Spicy Smoked Brisket

Photo: Sean Calitz, Veld to Fork

Brisket is the meat smoker’s Nirvana; if you claim to put the “King” in Smoking, you need to be able to prepare a proper smoked brisket – low ‘n slow. The wonderful layers of fat and long muscle fibres make brisket perfect for this sort of cooking as long as you understand from the outset that this is less a way of cooking than a labour of love. The spice rub gives it a sweet yet spicy note that complements this fine piece of beef to a tee.

If you attempt this recipe, I am assuming that you have a basic knowledge of smoking techniques and a decent hot smoker. This recipe is not for the beginner, as it requires a lot more finesse, gut feel and nuance than the basic recipe suggests. That and lots of beer…

This rub is a good combination of sweet and heat. You can adjust the heat by using mild or medium chilli powder (or a combination). If you really want to make it spicy, add an extra tablespoon of cayenne. The sweet in this rub will balance the heat without detracting from it.

Ingredients:

1 whole free range veld or grass reared boneless brisket (4-5kg)
80g paprika
40g mild or medium chilli powder
125g brown sugar
40g ground black pepper
20g cayenne
20g garlic powder
80g medium salt

Preparation:

Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Dry the brisket thoroughly (this is very important) and generously sprinkle the rub all over the brisket. Do not rub it in, just pat it on if necessary. Prepare smoker and add brisket, thick end closest to the heat. Place a bowl of water next to the brisket to keep the moisture in. Smoke, fat side down, at 120 C for 8- 12 hours until you reach an internal temp of 72 °C.

The rules of thumb here are:

• About 1 ¼ hours/500g of brisket @ 120 °C
• Keep the smoker closed as long as possible, with minimal opening, as this lets the heat and smoke out and will slow down the whole process. “If you’re a-lookin’ – you ain’t a-cookin’!”
• Use a meat thermometer that can be visible from outside your smoker and baste and open as seldom as you can and only as often as you need to.
• If the brisket starts to dry out or form a crust, wrap it in brown butchers paper and continue cooking.
• Don’t rush your cooking and try to keep a consistent temp in the smoker, fluctuating temps will cause your cooking time to differ.

When done allow to rest for at least one hour and slice thinly, against the grain and serve hot with lashings of mustard on fresh bread and a crisp salad. That and lots of good beer!

Spicy crusted whole barbecued rump

If you have a large crowd coming, this is a great way to turn a steak braai into an event. It will easily feed 10 hungry people so adjust the size of your rump according to how many people you want to feed, a rough guide is to have 300g of meat per person. I like to cook it in my Webber braai over an indirect heat. (25 briquettes on each side)

This also works great with venison, so if you have a nice kudu rump, use that instead, just be sure not to over cook it. Medium rare is best.

Ingredients

1 whole matured rump (+- 3.5 kg)
Olive oil

For the rub

50g cracked black pepper
30g cracked coriander seeds
50g coarse salt
20g mustard powder
50g finely chopped fresh rosemary

Method

It is very important that your cut of meat is at room temperature and well matured so be sure to take it out of the fridge early enough for it to attain the correct temp.

Add all the rub ingredients together and mix well.

Rub a generous amount of olive oil all over the meat followed by the spicy rub forming a thin crust. Sear the meat in a super-hot griddle pan or similar until well browned and transfer to the Weber immediately, close the lid and cook for 20mins per 500g or an internal temp of 63 °C for med rare. Once ready, remove, rest for 10 mins and slice – scrumptious!

Reverse-seared Tomahawk Steak

Photo Sean Calitz – Veld to Fork

Serves 4

If you feel the need to deal with your inner carnivore at Christmas. What could be more satisfying on a grill than a massive, bone-in Tomahawk steak?

The tomahawk steak is a 5–8 cm thick cut of beef rib-eye that has 15 cm or more of extra rib bone attached and is French trimmed. It’s called a ‘Tomahawk’ cut because it resembles a single-handed axe or tomahawk and varies in size from about 700 g to 2.5 kg. Now that is man-sized and it looks very manly on the braai grid. It is also the perfect-sized beast to reverse sear for the best results.

It is great to share with a few mates or, if you are hungry enough, to try to eat on your own.

Ingredients

1 kg Tomahawk steak (or bigger, if you are Carnivorous enough)
50 ml olive oil
30 g fresh rosemary, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 bitterly cold beers
A few rosemary sprigs tied together as a basting brush
50 ml melted butter

Method

Take the steak out of the fridge and allow to come up to room temperature. Generously season the steak with the olive oil, chopped rosemary, salt and pepper. Place on a cool grill, off any direct heat and with the hood on, until the meat reaches about 10 °C less than the desired final target temperature (see chart below), turning on all sides every 10-15 minutes or so.

While you wait, have a few of those beers with your mates.

When the steak is at the first target temperature, remove it from the grid and set aside to rest for a minimum of 10 minutes, uncovered. Don’t go mess up all your hard work now by doing something stupid like putting a lid on the resting dish or covering it in foil!

In the meantime, make a nice new bed of coals and ensure they are super hot.

After resting the steak, use the rosemary sprigs to baste the steak generously with the butter and then slap it onto the super-hot grill. Sear for about 4 minutes each side until the steak is crispy and brown on the outside. Once done (check internal temperature for final target temperature), take it off the grid, cut* along the bone to separate the meat, and then slice.

Serve with a couple more beers or a full-bodied red wine, some buttery baby potatoes and a decent coleslaw.

* There is no need to rest it again as you already did that after the slow cook.

A GUIDE

Reverse-seared steak temperature and timing for 5cm-8cm steaks in a 120 °C kettle braai

Doneness In kettle Final temperature Oven time

Rare 40 °C 49 °C 40–45 minutes
Medium-rare 46 °C 54 °C 50–55 minutes
Medium 52 °C 60 °C 55–60 minutes
Medium-well 57 °C 66 °C 65–70 minutes

NB: All time ranges are approximate so use a meat thermometer. DM

Gordon Wright is a chef and author of two best-selling cookbooks, Veld to Fork and Karoo Food (Penguin). He lives on a Karoo farm near Graaff-Reinet.