Meat · In Afrikaans: Rashers
Pork belly rashers
Thinly cut pork belly in a curry and honey marinade, crisp in twenty minutes over medium coals. The side that lies next to the wors on every South African grid.
In South Africa rashers are not breakfast bacon but roughly one-and-a-half centimetre slices of pork belly cut across the strip. They are cheap, fatty and therefore exactly what a fire wants.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Marinating
- 4 hr
- On the fire
- 20 min
- Serves
- 6
How hot
Medium
You can hold your hand over the grid for 6 seconds · ≈ 175–200 °C
Every coal stage explained →When it goes on
The main round
The actual food: wors, chicken, fish, skewers.
Equipment: Grid
This line
The hinged grid as a baking tin, the packet product as an ingredient, the vegetarian main course at a meat fire.
Method
-
Toast the spices
Heat the oil and soften onion, garlic and ginger. Add curry powder and turmeric and fry for two to three minutes until fragrant but not dark. Stirred in dry, curry powder stays floury.
-
Finish the marinade
Stir in honey, soy and vinegar, bring to the boil, then cool completely. Warm marinade part-cooks the surface of the meat.
-
Marinate
Salt the slices lightly, mix with the cold marinade, cover and refrigerate for three to four hours; overnight is better.
-
Drain them
Wipe off the excess marinade before they go on and keep it. What clings to the meat burns in the coals; what you kept becomes sauce.
-
Braai
Over medium coals, six seconds on the hand test, for 15 to 20 minutes. Turn every three or four minutes. The fat drips — so keep them off the hottest spot or you get flare-ups.
-
Baste at the end
In the last five minutes brush with the boiled marinade so it glazes rather than burns. They are done when the edges are crisp and the middle is soft.
Tips
- Pork belly is fat and meat in layers. It wants longer than a steak and less heat — 20 minutes at six seconds is not a compromise, it is the point.
- Rashers in a roosterkoek or flatbread with chakalaka make the best braai sandwich there is.
- No time to marinate? Salt, pepper and braai. Pork belly is good undressed too.
Rashers are the least dramatic item on any South African grid. They cost little, they need no technique, and they explain why there is almost always more meat at a braai than four people can eat.
What makes them interesting is the curry note. It comes from the same Cape Malay kitchen as the sosaties and suits pork fat better than any barbecue sauce: turmeric and curry stand up to fat, where tomato and sugar only get sweeter.
The one rule is: not over the hottest spot. Fat drips, fat burns, and a flare-up turns a slice of pork belly into charcoal in ten seconds.
Goes with this
Side · Pap
Pap — stywe pap and krummelpap
Sauce
Monkey Gland Sauce
Done beforehand
Sauce · Monkey Gland Sauce
Monkey gland sauce
Snack
Braaipastei
Medium
Snack · Braaipastei