Bokke braai & cheese board
The perfect rugby snacks with Castello cheese
Ahead of the next Springboks game, Castello asked me to make a Bokke braai board. Match-day food should be easy to share, straightforward to prepare and substantial enough to keep everyone going until the final whistle.
For this Bokke braai board, I cooked two Castello camembert cheeses over the fire, made a smooth whipped feta dip and turned ordinary wholewheat wraps into crisp braai bread.
The first camembert is topped with slow-confited whole garlic and crumbled Castello DanaBlu (Danish Blue). The second is cooked in a cast iron pan with blistered tomatoes, rosemary and balsamic vinegar. Add braaied boerewors, a few extra Castello cheeses, pickles and the grilled wrap triangles, and you have a complete match-day board.
Serves: 6–8 as a shared starter
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: Approximately 45 minutes
Braai setup: Medium coals with a cooler area for indirect cooking
Ingredients to make the Bokke braai & cheese board
For the whipped Castello Marinated Feta
500 g Castello Danish feta, drained
60 g cream cheese
2 tablespoons oil from the marinated feta or olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper
1–2 tablespoons milk, if needed
For the garlic confit camembert
1 Castello camembert
6 small whole solo garlic bulbs, peeled, or 12 whole garlic cloves
Approximately 250 ml olive oil
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
40–50 g Castello DanaBlu, crumbled
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the roasted tomato camembert
1 Castello Camembert
300 g cherry or baby tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the braai wrap triangles
6 wholewheat wraps
2 tablespoons olive oil
Flaky sea salt
1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs or finely chopped rosemary, optional
To complete the board
Braaied boerewors
Castello Havarti
Extra Castello DanaBlu
Pickles
Fresh rosemary
Microgreens or fresh herbs
How to prepare your Bokke match day braai & cheese board
Place the whole garlic and rosemary in a small cast-iron pot or saucepan. Cover with olive oil and position the pot on the cooler edge of the braai.
Cook very gently for 35–45 minutes. The oil should barely bubble and the garlic should slowly become golden and soft enough to crush with a spoon. Remove the garlic from the oil and season lightly.
Make the whipped feta while the garlic cooks: Place the Castello marinated feta, yoghurt, reserved marinating oil and lemon juice in a food processor.
Blend until completely smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides when needed. Add one or two tablespoons of milk if you want a softer, more pourable consistency.
Season with black pepper and transfer to a serving pot. Keep it chilled until you assemble the board.
To prepare the camembert and DanaBlu, heat a small cast-iron pan over moderate coals. Brush the Camembert with some of the garlic oil and brown it for approximately 2 minutes per side.
Move the pan to indirect heat, cover it and cook for another 4–6 minutes. The Camembert should feel soft in the centre without splitting open.
Transfer it to a serving plate and top with the confit garlic and crumbled Castello DanaBlu (Danish blue). Finish with a spoonful of warm garlic oil and black pepper.
To prepare the second camembert, brush it with olive oil and brown it in a cast-iron pan for approximately 2 minutes per side. Remove it from the pan.
Add the tomatoes, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey, chopped garlic and rosemary. Season with salt and pepper and roast for 8–10 minutes, until the tomatoes blister and start breaking down.
Place the camembert back in the centre of the pan. Cover and cook over indirect heat for another 4–6 minutes. Spoon some of the roasted tomatoes over the cheese before serving.
To make the wholewheat wrap triangles, cut each wholewheat wrap into six large triangles. Brush both sides lightly with olive oil and season with flaky salt and herbs.
Place the triangles on a clean braai grid over medium coals. Toast for 30–45 seconds per side, until marked by the fire and crisp around the edges. Keep an eye on them because the wraps can go from toasted to burnt very quickly. Cook them in batches if necessary.
Now it is time to assemble your match-day board: Place the whipped feta, both warm Camemberts and the braaied boerewors on a large wooden board.
Fill the spaces with Castello Havarti, extra DanaBlu, pickles, herbs and the toasted wholewheat wrap triangles.
Serve immediately while the Camembert is still warm and soft. Enjoy! Please tag me on Instagram if you’ve made this recipe - I’d love to see it!
The Roasted Dad’s tips
Build a two-zone fire so you have medium coals for browning and a cooler area for gently warming the camembert.
Keep the camembert rind intact until serving. The rind holds the cheese together while the inside softens.
The whipped feta and garlic confit can be prepared earlier. Cook the camemberts and toast the wraps just before the board goes to the table.
More recipes
Below the newsletter block, you will find some more recipes.
There are a lot of different types of meats you can cook on the braai. How about this Prime Rib Roast with Exotic Mushroom Sauce and Pak Choy? You can also make a Leg of Lamb on the braai or a Lemon & Herb Peri-Peri and Rosemary Deboned Leg of Lamb. I’ve also made Ostrich Fillet Kebabs with Nectarine and Rosemary on the braai.
Other than meat, South Africans also love to put seafood on the braai. This braaied snoek recipe with plum jam is a winner.
If you’re looking for a side on the braai, you can either make this pull bread with pesto, mozzarella and Hellmann’s mayonnaise, or make traditional braai broodjies (keep an eye out for my secret ingredient). If you have leftover gammon, these gammon braai broodjies are also to die for.
About Shawn Godfrey
Photo credit: Niki M Photography
Shawn Godfrey is an entrepreneur based in Cape Town, South Africa. After the Covid-19 lockdown saw his business in financial distress, cooking was the creative outlet that helped to keep him sane. To keep track of his recipes, and encourage friends and families to join him, he starts his instagram account The Roasted Dad.
Fast-forward to late 2021 - on a whim Shawn (encouraged by his wife Lianne) enters MasterChef South Africa. It is a crazy time of life: running a 200 people business and struggling to keep it profitable, two small children with a third on the way, and about to move into a new house. But when Shawn gets selected to be one of the 20 contestants participating in the fourth season of MasterChef South Africa, he decides to go all in. Leaving his 7-month-pregnant wife to look after their then three and one-year-old children, he battles it out and comes back home five weeks later with the trophy and a million rand prize money in his pocket.
It all started with an Instagram account, but The Roasted Dad is so much more now. Shawn has stayed his entrepreneurial self and whilst he hosts Private Dinner Parties and Cook-with-Me Demos, does Restaurant Take-Overs, he still runs the lighting company and several other businesses.
On his blog, Shawn shares Restaurant Reviews and Accommodation Reviews, and gives an insight into the wild and wonderful life he leads together with his wife Lianne, and their three children Aiden (8), Olivia (6) and Harvey (4).
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