Homemade braai pizza: It’s not just for chops and boerewors

Method

• For the dough
• Mix ingredients together. Knead until smooth and bouncy. 
• Cover, let it double in size and rise for about an hour. This will make enough for four large sized pizzas. The dough can be frozen if you don’t use it all in one go.
• For the tomato base
• Here you can be a bit more flexible. You can go ahead and use tomato paste all on its own or you can get a bit more adventurous and add crushed garlic, herbs and chillies to it. You can also use passata or blended tomatoes.
• Assembling and cooking the pizza
• For this experiment, I followed the recommendation from several braai masters who suggested that the coals be medium – you should be able to hold your hand about 10 cm above them for around seven seconds.
• The alterative option, of course, is to do it the wood-fried oven way where you tango with coals that are steak braaing heat. If you’re brave, go forth and try this. But, be warned, things will happen very, very quickly.
• The most important part of pizza on a braai is to make sure you have all your assembly line ready. Have all your ingredients laid out and read.
• First, you need to get the base firmed up just a touch. It’s a tad tricky to transfer stretchy dough straight onto the grid, so this is the best method for a novice to avoid mishaps.
• Put it straight onto the grid and leave for about minute until that happens. Then, transfer the base to a wooden chopping board with a little bit of flour and flip it over so that the side that was facing away from the coals is now on the bottom.
• Add the tomato base, toppings and cheese and delicately transfer back onto the braai grid. Make sure the toppings aren’t piled too high – the cheese won’t melt if it is. Keep an eye on the bottom of the grid, if the base starts to go a bit too black, remove and finish it off under the grill – if it’s your first time trying this method, you might have to go this route. Don’t be ashamed, it’s a learning process.