It all started with my friend Joe from France who was coming to visit for a few months and I wanted to show him how we as South Africans have a typical braai. Living in the city can seriously lack enough braais for my liking. I started inviting a few friends that also live in Cape Town CBD who I knew would love an escape to suburbia and before I knew it the guest list got a bit out of control and we had about thirty five people confirmed. The last event (Let's go fly a kite) where we had some male friends / partners join us too, which isn't the norm at a Social Club event was so much fun and such a success, so I was super excited for this big event with loads of wonderful friends!
My favourite thing to braai is definitely braai broodjies and I thought that a fun element to add to the day would be to have a braai broodjie bonanza competition. I ran the idea past a few friends and they thought it was a super idea. Next up was the planning, which wasn't hard at all. I already had a great venue, my moms backyard, I had 3 x braais and I had a bunch of amazing people confirmed on the guest list. So I divided everyone up into six groups, told each group to bring a salad, booze and their ingredients for their braai broodjies.
Everyone arrived and got settled in, then I welcomed everyone and explained the order of the events for the day. I was going to use a microphone, but unfortunately the one that my friend brought didn't work, so I opted for a PS. chocolate that my friend gave me and used it as a mike. The next thing I knew Julia was next to me, pretending to do sign language. Everyone was in stitches laughing as the recent event of the fake interpreter at Mandela's memorial was still fresh in everyone's minds.
Here everyone was just arriving and starting to relax with an ice cold drink in their hand:
The groups had to come up with their own team names and they were quite original. Here's the names the teams came up with:
- Doggie Broodjie Style
- Team Awesome
- The Spring Broodjies
- Los Carnes
- Braai-in's Braai Broodjies
- The Sub Pimps
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| "The Spring Broodjies" even got team button badges made |
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| Here is "The Spring Broodjies" preparing their broodjies in the kitchen |
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| "Los Carnes" preparing their broodjies outside |
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| Here is "Doggie Broodjie Style" striking a team pose |
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| "The Sub Pimps" posing politely for the camera |
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| Here is "Braai-in's Braai Broodjies" team and a dude in a speedo |
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| Here is "Team Awesome" with their gourmet braai broodjies |
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| We had Santa hand out shooters to the team to encourage some team spirit |
There were so many different varieties of braai broodjies that the teams made and I couldn't believe what wonderful combinations they came up with. Here's what they made:
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| Team Los Carnes |
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| Team Los Carnes |
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| Team Los Carnes |
Los Carnes:
Their braai broodjies was made on a ciabatta bread and the toppings were a mild French cheese, red pepper pesto and Spanish chorizo served with caramlised onions and green salad with feta and strawberries, paired with Merlot.
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| The Sub Pimps |
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| The Sub Pimps |
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| The Sub Pimps |
The Sub Pimps:
They had a braai broodjie with peaches and peanutbutter - sounds strange, but was a lovely combination and they paired it with a pasta and biltong salad.
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| Team Braai-in's Braai Broodjies |
Braai-in's Braai Broodjies:
This team had three courses of braai broodjies. The starter was pesto, mozzarella and bacon. The main was onion marmelade, smoked chicken and mozerella. The dessert was phyllo pastry, nutella and marshmallow.
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| The Spring Broodjies |
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| The Spring Broodjies |
The Spring Broodjies:
They made a Spring Broodjie which is like a Springbokkie in honour of Mandela and traditional South African style with a bunny chow flare. They made a green curry mince with potato and sliced up veggies on freshly baked bread from Knead. They had a foil stencil with the numbers 46664 (Mandela's jail cell number) cut out of it and then placed that on top of the bread whilst braaing it and that made the exposed area toast the numbers onto the braai broodjie. Brilliant!
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| Team Awesome |
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| Team Awesome |
Team Awesome:
They made a vegetarian version braai pie which consisted out of phyllo pastry with jalepeno relish, caramelised onions, smoked mozzarella, rocket and black sesame seeds served with micro greens and a carrot, apple and beetroot salad.
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| Doggie Broodjie Style |
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| Ettienne minced duck breast to add to one of the braai broodjies that their team made |
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| Doggie Broodjie Style |
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| Doggie Broodjie Style |
Doggie Broodjie Style:
Three French guys was part of this team and first I had to explain what the hell a braai broodjie was and then they were like: "challenge accepted" They were the winning team! They made three kinds of braai broodjies, here Etienne explained what they made:
1. Fig & Duckbreast Broodjie , with Rocket and Slices of Fairview Brie Cheese. (To do the meat: first, peel-off the fat of the duck breast and only put the fat in the freezer. Once freezed cut cubes of both (1cm) and use it in the grinder adding chopped garlic and parsley. Then recompose in one piece)
2. Eggplant Broodjie (toasted eggplants and rolls (put olive oil all around before placing them in the grill - prevent over baking) and add after grill cube tomatoes/mint/basil salad and parmesan on the top, a bit of olive Oil)
3. Revisited French croque monsieur (Butter basted toasts grilled/Dijon mustard/Very thin slices of ham/Melty cheese)
Yes I know your mouth is watering hey? It was YUMMO!
I had three judges that had the difficult task of judging each team, but the fun part was tasting every braai broodjie. The judges that had various credentials, such as inventor of the EC Braai, spit roast champion in Argentina and VERY regular braaiers. They did an excellent job of going around and making notes on each team members participation, cleanliness of the work area, ingredients and cooking methods. Then the most decadent moments which I'm sure they enjoyed the most: tasting all the creations!
What a fun day with the most amazing people who made it insanely phenomenal!
Thanks to all the teams, all of you gave a 150% and I am really glad that I wasn't a judge, as everyone's braai broodjies was unbelievable mouth watering and original and I think every team should have won.
Congratulations once again to Team "Doggie Broodjie Style" for winning. The rest excellent efforts was put in, thanks to you: "Team Awesome", "The Spring Broodjies", "Los Carnes", "Braai-in's Braai Broodjies" and "The Sub Pimps".
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