Boerewors and Askoek Directly in the Coals
by Jan Braai
from Atmosfire
“‘As’ is the Afrikaans for ash and whereas roosterkoek is baked on a ‘rooster’ (a grid), askoek is baked directly on the coals and hence might have a fine dusting of ash on it, before you easily wipe it off, that is.”
Introduction
"Boerewors braais very successfully directly on coals as long as you have a large bed of very hot coals. Medium coals means ash and sand will stick to the boerewors whereas a deep bed of red-hot coals will simply braai the boerewors and naturally separate from the boerewors casing when the boerewors is cooked. To prep the boerewors and make the braai easy, you coil the boerewors and skewer it with either metal skewers or two pieces of thick steel wire, at 90 degrees to each other."
Ingredients (Feeds 6)
|
1 |
pack boerewors |
For the Askoek
|
4 cups (500 g) |
cake wheat flour |
|
1 |
sachet instant yeast |
|
½ |
tot salt |
|
1½ cups |
lukewarm water |
|
1 |
tot olive oil |
|
|
butter |
Tools
|
2 |
metal skewers |
Method
Make a very hot fire. Bigger is absolutely better.
Prepare the askoek dough: In a bowl, mix together the flour, yeast and salt. Then, add the water and olive oil, and use a wooden spoon or your hands to mix until everything is combined and the dough comes together and is soft and elastic.
Cover the dough with cling wrap so that the cling wrap sticks directly onto the surface of the dough and leave it somewhere warm to rise for 1 hour.
After 1 hour, sprinkle lots of extra flour onto the surface of a table or work area. Remove the cling wrap from the dough. Scrape the dough out of the mixing bowl onto the floured surface. Divide the dough into six equal portions – easiest is a dough cutter and second prize is a knife. Use your two hands to roll the six pieces into balls. Sprinkle more flour over them. Now roll each ball with a rolling pin or wine bottle to a flatter shape, almost like a small pita bread. If things are sticky, add more flour.
Prepare the boerewors: Keep the boerewors in one long piece and coil it into a circle on a flat surface. Insert two metal skewers all the way through the boerewors at a 90-degree angle to each other, effectively putting the boerewors on a skewer cross. This way you can braai and turn the boerewors easily with your tongs on the open coals without it breaking. This trick also works when you have to braai boerewors on an open grid.
Once the coals are ready, scrape them open and place the bread discs directly onto very hot coals. Braai them, turning often, until baked all the way through. This will only take a few turns and minutes. Once they are done they will look beautifully toasted and obviously have a few charred spots. Remove the bread from the fire and scrape and wipe off any significant coals and ash. A fine layer of ash here and there is acceptable and part of the meal. Sand is not acceptable and means you did not have enough coals.
While you braai the bread, also braai the boerewors directly on even hotter coals. This takes about 6 minutes and you turn the boerewors once. Remove the boerewors from the fire and scrape off the odd coal sticking to it, which will be less than you anticipate if your fire was big enough and your coals were hot enough.
As soon as you’re ready, it’s time to serve. Remove the skewers from the boerewors. Break the bread, generously lather with butter and serve with the boerewors.
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