Braai Shenanigans - DIY Pork Kebabs, Brown Onion Tatoes, Lime & Coriander Corn

The weather was super on Tuesday and we all know what that means in South Africa... yip, BRAAI TIME - but I wanted to do something a little bit different for the meat this time around, so I gave my hand at recreating something which we had bought some time back as a "ready to braai" product - and I really enjoyed! It seemed a relatively simple concept.

I bought a few packs of pork chops and cut the rind off with a little bit of the meat attached. Then I carefully removed the tough outer rind with a blade and only left the soft juicy fat which lies just under the skin. I then cut those into cubes and rolled them into a basting which consisted of a sticky soy marinade, sweet chilli jam and some honey. Then I shoved them onto skewer sticks with a spicy peppadew inbetween every single piece of meat.

I am not normally a fan of kebabs because the meat is always so dry and uninteresting. What appealed to me most about these was the fattiness of the pork meat - and I do have to say, the end result was absolutely YUMMY!!!! I will definitely make those again - and the best part is that the rest of the chops which I sliced off, along with the rind... I have now frozen and is enough for another meal entirely.

I had a serious craving for some tatoes so I decided to make my brown onion and garlic jacket potatoes which are ALWAYS a winner! You will need pack of baby jacket potatoes, a pack of dry brown onion soup powder, some freshly chopped garlic, butter and some freshly chopped parsley. Boil the potatoes until they are just tender but firm (do not over cook them until they are all splitting open, otherwise you will just have one big sloppy mess.)

Once the potatoes are cooked, drain them and then add all the other ingredients. So the full packet of soup powder, the garlic, a nice dollop of butter and about handful of chopped parsley. do not toss them yet. Pop the lid on and let the butter melt. You can go back to it after about 10 minutes. I actually forgot to buy parsley lol and my garden batch has just been cut back so, I skipped the parsley this time around. While you are sitting out the ten minutes for the butter to melt, turn the oven on to grill and place the tray at a medium to low level.

Once the butter has melted, and the grill has heated nicely... take the pot of potatoes - with the lid tightly secured (with a dishcloth in hand, as some pots do leak a little.) give the potatoes a couple of shakes and swirls and then turn it upside down for a second or two... allowing the butter and other ingredients to coat everything nicely.

Then throw them into an oven friendly dish and scrape the last of the goodies from the pot over the potatoes. Pop them under the grill and keep a keen eye on them for about ten minutes, giving them a toss with a wooden spoon about every three minutes until they are beautifully golden roasted. They are without question, one of my favourite sides and if you do decide to give them a try I do not think you will be disappointed!

Jude and I both love mielies so I decided to add them as the last side. I have made them like this countless times before because they are just that tasty! The uniqueness of the coriander, lime and pepper is what sets it apart from the average piece of corn! I actually forgot to take a photo of these - I will blame the wine lol, so I have stolen two pics from the previous time I shared these so you can at least SEE what they look like, because they are real eye candy! And the great thing is that the butter is so simple to make - it comprises of a dollop or two of butter, some freshly ground salt and black pepper, the juice and rind of one lime and about a handful of freshly chopped coriander (dhanya / cilantro).

Last but definitely not least, I made one of my favourite salads - in my opinion it beats a traditional green salad hands down every time... and that is a salsa style salad, which consisted of diced cucumber, spring onions, tomato and then a sprinkling of coriander, rocket and other micro herbs. Normally I would add other things like diced sweet bell peppers, radish etc. but well, I was being lazy haha!

The weather cooperated for the remainder of the afternoon, the wine was good and considering Jude went back to school the following day, it was a super way to end off the holidays!