National Braai day in South Africa – Butternut Delight –

Heritage Day (Afrikaans: Erfenisdag) is a South African public holiday celebrated on 24 September. On this day, South Africans across the spectrum are encouraged to celebrate their culture and the diversity of their beliefs and traditions, in the wider context of a nation that belongs to all its people.

In 2005, a media campaign sought to “re-brand” the holiday as National Braai Day, in recognition of the South African culinary tradition of holding informal backyard barbecues, or braais.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_Day_(South_Africa)

We also had a braai. I made a butternut dish my mom used to make years ago. With that we had lamb chops and boerewors. (Boerewors is a type of sausage, popular in South African cuisine. The name comes from the Afrikaans words boer (“farmer”) and wors(“sausage”), and is pronounced [ˈbuːrəvors], with a trilled /r/.Boerewors must contain at least 90 percent meat – always containing beef, as well as lamb or pork or a mixture of lamb and pork, the other 10% is made up of spices and other ingredients. Not more than 30% of the meat content may be fat. Boerewors may not contain any “mechanically recovered” meat, this is meat derived through a process where meat and bone are mechanically separated.

My sister made a beautiful spinach salad to compliment this meal. http://flippenblog.wordpress.com/

 

Butternut Delight

Ingredients
2 medium butternut squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
4 teaspoons butter
Salt and pepper
Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Place butternut squash halves on a large baking sheet flesh side up. Place 1 teaspoon butter in the middle of each squash. Season with salt. Roast 25 minutes, until flesh is fork-tender.

Filling

Ingredients

1 onion cdiced

1 green pepper diced

Half a punnet (or more) mushrooms, chopped

200 gr bacon. diced

2 cloves of garlic , crushed

about 150 ml cream

Method

Fry onion, green pepper and garlic in some butter.

Add the mushrooms and  bacon to the onion and fry until cooked.

Add the cream and let it it reduce for a while.

Cut the butternut halves lengthwise , spoon mixture onto the butternut, grate some cheddar cheese over it. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and bake for about 10 minutes.