Braai Pie

It’s no secret that we enjoy a ‘braai’ (barbecue). We also like pies. Now, if one put these two together, what do you get? Of course, a Braai Pie!

On our recent weekend away at one of the most amazing places we’ve visited, The Shire, we decided to make a Braai Pie. (We will soon share our weekend at this beautiful place).

What is a Braai Pie?

According to Google, the concept is pretty simple (and it really is)! All you need is puff pastry and your favourite meat, vegetables and cheese and then you ‘braai’ it. It is literally a pie on the ‘braai’.

Put it on the table:

One can really put anything in this pie. The only fixed ingredient is the puff pastry (*) and baby spinach (**). You can fill the pie with whatever you have in your fridge/pantry – even the roasted chicken of the previous night.

* We couldn’t find puff pastry in the store so we bought shortcrust pastry. This worked really well and was even a bit more ‘studier’ ​​than puff pastry. Shortcrust pastry will probably be our choice again for a next Braai Pie.

** Baby spinach is actually also a ‘required’ ingredient in a Braai Pie. But we could not find it in our stores as well and had to do without it. If you have baby spinach, use it as the first and last layer on the pastry (it must be raw and dry to prevent too many juices from seeping through and getting the dough wet).

You can thus see that we had to make our Braai Pie without the two main ingredients! But miraculously, our Braai Pie was a success and very tasty.

Ingredients

2 rolls (400g each) of puff pastry/shortcrust pastry

200g bacon bits

½ punnet white mushrooms, sliced

1 red onion, diced

½ red pepper or green pepper (or both), diced

2 tomatoes, sliced

1 cup cheddar cheese, grated

1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated

The following can also be done on the fire, but because there was a stove in our chalet, we prepared the ingredients in a pan on the stovetop. Fry the bacon first until it is cooked and golden brown.

Bacon bits in the pan

Fry the onion and pepper(s) in a little oil until soft. Scoop it out and then fry the mushrooms until soft and brown.

Time for the veggies

Now it’s time to move outside and light the fire, while at the same time enjoying our lovely view.

Our fire and view at The Shire

After the puff/shortcrust pastry has thawed, unroll the dough and place one of the sheets on the grid.

First sheet of pastry on the grid

If we had baby spinach, we would have put that on first. But instead we started with the cheddar cheese. Do not cover the entire sheet of dough – leave a small edge open to prevent the ingredients from running out when heated on the fire. The next layer is the sliced tomatoes.

Cheese and sliced tomatoes

Next up is the fried onion and pepper, followed by the fried mushrooms.

Time for the fried veggies

We put the fried bacon bits on last and then finished with the mozzarella cheese. (If we had baby spinach, this would have been the last layer).

Bacon bits and mozzarella cheese

Place the second roll of dough on top. Seal the dough the same way you would when making a pie. Brush a little beaten egg on the dough to give the pie that golden brown colour when it’s cooked.

Braai Pie ready for the fire

Close the grid on the pie and place it high above the coals. Remember, although the ingredients are cooked inside, the dough is raw. You have to constantly turn the grid so that the dough can cook and get that nice golden brown colour.

Turn the grid constantly on the fire

Almost ready

It’s the first time we’ve made Braai Pie without baby spinach and we were relieved that the pie didn’t get soggy. But to save yourself the stress, use baby spinach – apart from preventing the ingredients from running out, it also gives the Braai Pie a delicious taste.

Braai Pie

Maybe, in a future post, we can show you how to make a Dessert Braai Pie …