Let The Games Begin!!

This is the first barbeque of the season! In fact, this is a pretty traditional South African "braai" since there is just straight-forward grilling of lamb and chicken over hardwood coals; no slow cooking with smoke. I prepared a leg of lamb two ways: very traditional "sosaties", and lamb steaks marinated in lemon juice and fresh mint leaves to let the lamb speak for itself. The sosaties consist of cubes of lamb which have been marinaded for several days first in milk and sliced onions, then a mixture of vinegar, brown sugar, fresh ginger, kari leaves, very hot curry powder and last but not least, apricot jam. I follow the recipe of the great polymath, C Louis Leipoldt. This extraordinary man was a medical doctor, poet, author, epicurean, chef to statesmen, and philosopher. I'm sure that I'm forgetting some other talents... As if this wasn't enough food, I had some chicken thighs which were rubbed with ground coriander and hot pepper. When they reached the table, the sosaties were served with a concentrated (and boiled) form of the brew in which the meat had marinated, the lamb steaks with a yoghurt-based sauce of chopped mint and coriander, as was the chicken, all over wet rice with a spoon of turmeric to color it yellow in the South African way. Dessert was nougat made with honey by Zulu ladies working on a farm in Kwa-Zulu province, washed down with Rooibos tea. This "bush" tea is grown in the mountains of the Western Province of South Africa in just the area where Leipoldt's grandfather, a Moravian missionary, had founded the settlement of Wuppertal, deep in the Cedarberg mountains. It's good to take the time to remember one's culinary roots every now and again.