‘I like T-Bone steaks, because they are in the shape of Africa.’ – Desmond Tutu, Patron of National Braai Day

South Africa celebrates National Braai Day on 24 September every year. A day for all the citizens of South Africa to unite around braai fires with family and friends. The driving force behind this initiative is a man known as Jan Braai.

In his second book, Red Hot, Jan Braai moves beyond instructions for braaing steak, chops and wors, he challenges us to try various curry potjies, soups, chicken mayo braaibroodjies and even malva pudding and apple tart, all cooked on a fire! The recipes are new but the book has the same fantastic photos, clear and easy-to-follow recipes and Jan’s characteristic touches of braai humour.

Jan Braai’s first book, Fireworks, sold over 30 000 copies in both English and Afrikaans in its first six months of release. His hit television show starts its third season in July 2013 and the season runs until December.

About Jan Braai

His real name is Jan Scannell and he lives to braai. He started the National Braai Day initiative in 2005 and his aim is to create a national day of celebration cantered around the one activity all South Africans have in common, regardless of race, language, gender or wealth, cooking over a fire. Jan has braaied with a wide variety of people in every corner, nook and cranny of South Africa and has travelled extensively around the world gathering knowledge and techniques for cooking great food on an open fire. For more about Jan Braai visit www.braai.com.

Book details

• Red Hot by Jan Braai
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  EAN: 9781920434502
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Andrea Burgener has written a column for Times LIVE about the incongruity of vegetarians and vegans owning pet carnivores. She shares information on a company that sells ethically produced pet food for people feeling conflicted about what they’re feeding their pets.

Burgener, author of Lampedusa Pie, also shared a recipe for Black Coffee Lamb:

Humans are the weirdest animals. Committed vegetarians, and even vegans, obtain pet carnivores (dogs and cats, mainly) to whom they must feed a lifetime’s supply of other animals. Some of these humans turn their carnivores into vegetarians, and I know not what to say about this matter.

For wealthy and conflicted vegans/vegetarians (and human carnivores concerned about provenance), who lie awake at night wondering whether feeding Fluffy is really supporting the road-kill industry, there is an answer: Acana. It’s unlike any other pet food out there.

• Complete article: Times LIVE

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• Lampedusa Pie by Andrea Burgener
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  EAN: 9781920434458
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Andrea Burgener was one of the guests on a recent episode of Jenny Crwys-Williams’ Book Show on Talk Radio 702. Crwys-Williams spoke to Burgener about her cookbook, Lampedusa Pie.

Listen to the podcast:

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• Lampedusa Pie by Andrea Burgener
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  EAN: 9781920434458
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Leonie Joubert and Tim Noakes will be at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa to talk about their book, nutrition and feeding Southern African cities.

Joubert is the author of The Hungry Season and Noakes wrote Challenging Beliefs.

Don’t miss it!

Event Details

• Date: Friday, 31 May 2013
• Time: 8:30 AM for 9:00 AM
• Venue: Sports Science Institute of South Africa,
  The Auditorium,
  Boundary Rd,
  Newlands,
  Cape Town | Map
• RSVP: laura@panmacmillan.co.za, 0117313344

Book Details

• The Hungry Season: Feeding Southern Africa’s Cities by Leonie Joubert, Eric Miller
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  EAN: 9781770102293
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The master of South Africa’s favorite past-time, Jan Braai, recently made a road trip from Cape Town to Mossel Bay to explore the back roads of the Southern Cape.

Braai writes that the N2 is not at all unpleasant, despite his initial misgivings, and shares his experiences in the towns along the way. For tasty braai recipes, get your hands on Jan Braai’s Fireworks:

There may be worse stretches of road that I don’t know of, but in my world the most unpleasant is the N2 highway between the Hermanus turn-off and Mossel Bay. For the first bit from Cape Town, you still see False Bay. Then the road snakes through the mountains past the edge of Grabouw, but beyond the Hermanus turnoff, it’s a vast desert of fields in various shades of dust and heat. It’s a three-hour chasm you want to cross safely, with minimum damage to your wallet, both in terms of petrol expenses and traffic fines.

• Complete article: Getaway Blog

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• Fireworks by Jan Braai
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  EAN: 9781920434434
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Andrea Burgener has shared a recipe for Beer Cake with Eat Out, taken from her newly published cookbook, Lampedusa Pie.

This malty cake is filled with raisins and baked with a cinnamony crumble topping. Burgener recommends eating the cake warm, topped with custard or cream and stewed apples:

for the base:

125ml + 1 heaped tbsp butter
500ml sugar
3 eggs
560g self-raising flour
250ml raisins
500ml beer (lager style or similar)

• Complete recipe: Eat Out

Book details

• Lampedusa Pie by Andrea Burgener
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  EAN: 9781920434458
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Andrea Burgener, author of Lampedusa Pie and owner of The Leopard restaurant in Melville, discussed her distinctly non-conformist career in the food industry with Matthew Burbidge.

Prior to The Leopard, Burgener owned Superbonbon and Deluxe and all three of her restaurants have offered something fun and adventurous. Of her quirky approach to food and dining Burgener says, “I make decisions like somebody in their own house … It’s not brain surgery; you’re just serving someone some supper.” She discusses working with Braam Kruger at the Kitchenboy restaurant in the mid-1990s and mentions roasting a liquorice allsorts studded lamb with him one day at his house.

Burbidge picks out some of the recipes he’s enjoyed from Lampedusa Pie, saying that “‘Potatoes cooked under a brick’ was a revelation”:

Food is an adventure for The Leopard’s Andrea Burgener, whose sense of fun shines through in her book, Lampedusa Pie.

Andrea Burgener is the enfant terrible of Johannesburg chefs. You won’t be pandered to at her restaurant, The Leopard, where you have to bring a doctor’s note if you want your salad dressing on the side.

“Don’t they trust us to dress a salad?” asks the ebullient Burgener, who has kindly agreed to cook something for me at her home out of her new cookbook Lampedusa Pie (Macmillan), out now.

• Complete article: Eat Out

Book details

• Lampedusa Pie by Andrea Burgener
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  EAN: 9781920434458
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An obsession with food.

A nostalgia for the taste of childhood.

Living in a fractured and constantly shifting city.

These are the strands that Andrea Burgener weaves together to create an irresistibly quirky collection of recipes in Lampedusa Pie.

Andrea describes herself as a magpie cook attracted to an eclectic combination of tastes that evoke her world. She reinvents breakfast expectations with crème brûlée and pumpkin fritters but also reveals the secret to the perfect hollandaise sauce. Discover the recipes that elicit a sigh of comfort from Andrea – roast chicken with bread sauce or a Sri Lankan potato and mustard curry. Delight in the playfulness of making your own butter. Celebrate the exuberance of a party with a bright crimson soup or the seventies nostalgia of strawberry friandise and devils on horseback. Stretch yourself to explore an Ethiopian-inspired steak tartare, an Ivorian fish or the famous Lampedusa pie.

Drawing on recipes from her restaurants Superbonbon, Deluxe and The Leopard as well as the inspiration of other local and international food experiences, Andrea will take you on a journey of discovery in your own kitchen.

About the author

Andrea Burgener is a self-taught chef and food writer based in Johannesburg. Her first professional kitchen experience was in Braam Kruger’s Kitchenboy restaurant, before that she studied Fine Art at Wits University. She juggles her time between her family, running a busy Johannesburg restaurant, The Leopard, and writing food articles for a range of publications.

Book details

• Lampedusa Pie by Andrea Burgener
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  EAN: 9781920434458
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Jan Braai has written about the basics of fire-lighting for the Getaway Blog as he suspects this is what may be standing in the way of cooks who are reluctant to take their culinary skills outdoors.

He has broken the process down into easy steps, starting with what wood to use and ending with getting an even spread of coals to cook on:

There’s a ridiculous notion among South Africans that women cannot braai. This is simply not true. On average, and I must be very clear that I’m generalising here, women in South Africa are slightly more experienced in cooking than men. Hence, logic dictates that they will also be better at it. Which leads me to the question, why don’t women braai more often?

I think the answer is simply that many of them don’t know how to make a fire. That is the stumbling block. Because, let’s be frank, once that fire has burned out and you have a bed of red-hot coals, it’s simply a source of heat on which to prepare your food, similar in operation to a stove, but resulting in meals with more flavour. (Make no mistake, there are some atrocious male braaiers out there, but their failure usually stems from the habit of completely overcooking, drying out and/or burning the meat.)

• Complete article: Getaway Blog

Book details

• Fireworks by Jan Braai
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  EAN: 9781920434434
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Even if you didn’t have the kind of day you wanted for Valentine’s Day, Jan Braai, author of Fireworks, has great braai ideas in the Getaway Blog that should hold you in good stead for next year.

Prawns are always a great way to entertain, and just about everyone enjoys them. So, you want that special someone to love you? Get over to that braai!

Most people can speculate with varying degrees of confidence on the date of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. It’s on a Sunday – or is it a Saturday? – and it falls either on the first or last Sunday of some month. That month is not February, but it’s not as late as July either.

There’s no such confusion about Valentine’s Day, though. Everybody knows that date – 14 February – in the same way, South Africans know to recognise National Braai Day every 24 September. But while this name gives you a very clear indication of what you’re expected to do on the day, the how-tos of Valentine’s Day are slightly more ambiguous. Here’s what I suggest you do.

• Complete article: Getaway Blog

Book details

• Fireworks by Jan Braai
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9781920434434
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