Gochi-gochi — a Shona onomatopoeia for the sizzle — is Zimbabwe's pick-your-cut braai culture: at butchery-bars in Harare and Bulawayo you buy raw beef or goat by weight and the resident griller cooks it on the spot, sometimes spiking smaller pieces onto sticks. It is the social grill institution of Zimbabwe (with close cousins across the border in Zambia), eaten with sadza and salt rather than sauce.
Also known as: gochi gochi, gotchi-gotchi, Zimbabwean braai, choose-and-grill
Watch it made
Ingredients
- 800 g beef T-bone, rump or pork chops, thick cut (butchery pick-your-cut style)
- 1.5 tbsp coarse salt
- 500 g white maize meal for sadza
- 3 tomatoes, chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 green chili (optional)
How to make it
- 1
Burn hardwood down to a thick bed of coals — gochi-gochi is named for the sizzle, and wood coals are the sound system.
- 2
Season the meat with coarse salt only, the butchery-braai way, and lay it on the grid.
- 3
Cook thick cuts 6-8 minutes a side, moving them between hotter and cooler zones instead of flipping constantly.
- 4
While the meat rests, fry the onion, tomatoes and chili with a pinch of salt into a quick relish, and whip the maize meal into stiff sadza.
- 5
Slice the meat and serve on a communal board with sadza and the tomato relish.
Pro tip: Salt generously and late — at a Harare butchery-bar the cut goes from scale to grid in minutes, and coarse salt on the crust is the entire seasoning philosophy.
