A South African Midwinter Night's Dream

Johann made his first pizza! Biltong of course!

Our guests arrived promptly at 4:00. Vince had already started the wood fire in the fire basket about two hours earlier in order to make enough coals for the braai later and the spareribs were slowly smoking away on the Weberbraai. This was going to be a proper South African braai - but with an American twist.

We opened a bottle of Namaqua Red Muscadel to start the evening. Then we set about preparing the starters. The pizzas were a group effort. Everyone designed and made their own mini-pizzas in the convection oven. Vince deep-fried buffalo wings on the the skottel outside and we served them with crunchy crudite and a house-made blue cheese and buttermilk dressing. South African cheese and biltong sat side by side with American BBQ spareribs. Butternut squash soup was served in warm in mugs to be sipped around the fire basket.

dozens of candles and the fire basket provided plenty of light

Then promptly at 6:00, the lights went out. Level 2 load-shedding had apparently been initiated just about the time our guests arrived but we had not been checking our phones for alerts. TIE.

Vince's iPad provided continuous music via the inverter

Luckily we had planned to eat and sit outdoors. We had already used the ovens inside for everything we really needed for our meal. (Truth is we could have baked the pizzas in the Weber if necessary too.) We had baked the malva pudding and pot bread earlier that afternoon. The gas heaters were already all set up outdoors anyway to keep us warm during our South African midwinter night's dream dinner under the stars.

The fire basket was blazing. We had faux fur throws and hot water bottles at the ready. The candles were all out and had already been lit around the edge of the garden for atmosphere. Now they would be doing double duty and actually provide the light we needed to carry on with our dinner party.

braai by flashlight

At 7:30, Vince put the meat on the braai - Lamb, beef, chicken, and boeries. Asparagus on the braai too. 

deep fry skottel in the garage

He deep-fried the pork belly on top of the gas skottel to complete the mixed grill main course. I brought out the already prepared Greek salad and we dined al fresco as planned.






 

a romantic candlelight dinner just as we planned

Then at 8:30 just as surprisingly as before, the lights went back on. Just in time to grind some coffee beans and warm up the Amarula custard for the malva pudding. (Once again, if necessary, we did have enough ground coffee on hand and we could have warmed the custard on the gas bistro stove.)

And luckily since our guests were South African and unfortunately well-acquainted with fickle Eskom load-shedding, there was no need to explain and apologize about our lack of electric service. We hardly even noticed. It was a perfect South African dinner party!

Besides, there are other ways to keep warm on a midwinter night!