After spending months on an overland journey, cooking food on the braai (the Afrikaans word for barbeque or cooking on the fire) can become repetitive. With ingredients limited to meat, meat and more meat, it was long overdue for Lulu and I to try cooking something a bit more exciting.
While camping at Coffee Bay, on the Wild Coast, we were able to source some freshly caught crayfish from some local fishermen. Lulu managed to bargain with the guys to buy two large, fresh crayfish for the incredible price of £4 ($6).
Our freshly caught crayfish getting ready for the braai
We were excited to eat our lovely, fresh crayfish – but neither of us had cooked crayfish in the shell on an open fire before! So we were lucky that Anna, a works at the Coffee Bay Campsite, offered to teach us to cook crayfish on the braai.
How to cook crayfish on the braai – Xhosa style
Anna brought over a ‘Xhosa pot’ – or a no.3 sized potje pot – to our campsite and began to boil some water. Once the water was boiling, she put our crayfish into the pot – easy peasy, so far!
- Anna stoking the fire
- Our campsite
- Potje pot on the Braai
- Anna chilling
Anna showed us when to remove the crayfish from the braai – when they were bright orange in colour. She then showed us how to remove their shells and remove the vein and stomach lining (yuck!) before we could eat the meat.
We debated whether to make a curry with the crayfish but in the end we went with a simple garlic, mushroom and butter sauce that would be drizzled over some pasta.
It was delicious and one of my favourite dishes we’ve made so far on our journey!
Braai-ed crayfish in a mushroom garlic sauce over pasta – YUM!
Look forward to hearing about what amazing dishes you have ever made on the braai that evoke good memories…
