What? Gluten-free sosaties? I hear you asking. “But how can sosaties have any gluten? Unless they happen to include chunks of bread.”
Well, heres’s the thing: a good many of the packaged sosaties you can buy from your local food emporium, will, in all likelihood, have a measure of gluten added to the marinade.
This usually occurs when one or more of the ingredients used to make up the marinade contains gluten, like soya sauce, which is made from fermented soya beans and roasted wheat.
There are soya sauce brands that are gluten-free, but that nicety seems to elude our major food retailers.
Soya sauce is one example, and there are no doubt many others.
Of course, if one diligently read the ingredients label, which any gluten-intolerant with a shred of sense would do, the attendant problems associated with gluten consumption can be avoided, but that means you’ll be the one sitting alone to one side at the braai while everybody scoffs delicious sosaties.
Unless, of course, you’re married to the kind of spouse who thoughtfully crafts marinades specially for you that contain no gluten, and finds ready-
made chicken sosaties on skewers that have not been sacked in marinade. Since this is rather unusual – I’ve never seen raw un-marinated sosaties before – I’ll let you into the secret. They are made by free-range chicken producer, Elgin Free-Range Chickens.
Dear sweet Elspeth made two marinades for me: smoky barbecue and sweet pepper and chilli.
Smoky BBQ ingredients
30ml canola oil
1 large onion: finely chopped
10ml freshly crushed garlic
1 can (400g) chopped tomatoes
1 small can (70g) tomato paste
30ml soft brown sugar
30ml Worcestershire sauce
5 to 10ml smoky chipotle seasoning. Heat can be added or subtracted to taste.
45ml red wine vinegar
30ml Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper
Method
Cook the onion in the oil gently until soft and translucent and just beginning to brown.
Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for five minutes. Blitz with a stab blender, let cool completely and pour over sosaties to marinate for between one and 24 hours.
Sweet pepper and chilli ingredients
1 large sweet red or yellow pepper: seeded and coarsely chopped
3 to 4 red chillies: seeded and chopped. Size is a deciding factor here, so to taste.
60ml olive oil
30ml fresh lemon juice
5ml salt
2.5ml ground black pepper
Method
Add enough water to just cover the chopped peppers and chillies and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Drain off all liquid and add the rest of the ingredients.
Blitz with a stab blender. Pour over chicken and marinate in the fridge for between one and 24 hours.
Braai the sosaties over a medium fire, turning regularly, and basting with the balance of the marinade.
Serve with oven-roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes and baby tomatoes, and a crisp seasonal salad.
Preparation: up to 24 hours.
Cooking time: 20 to 30 minutes, or until done through.
Yield: Makes 10 to 12 sosaties
