Time for a little potjiekos...

As most people know well, us South Africans are almost religious about our braais! We will look for any reason to congregate and burn some wood and whilst it is always a good day to braai... we do like to change things up every now and again, especially during the cooler Winter months and that is where potjiekos comes into play!

The word potjiekos literally translates into "small pot food" and is essentially a "stew" which is cooked in a cast iron pot over slowly fed wood or charcoal... but ask ANY South African and they will tell you very quickly that potjiekos is not just a stew... it is actually different in many ways and the process of making it is almost an art in itself. There are a HUGE variety of pot sizes available that feed anything from 1 person to something like 60 people. Ours is a size 3 which if full can feed about 6 to 8 people.

There are very specific procedures involved in the care and preparation of the pot itself as well as in the creation of what goes inside. The very first thing you will learn that differs greatly from any regular stew, is that you do not stir the contents inside a potjie once they are all in. Many people are quite perplexed by this, but the primary reason is actually quite logical - and that is so the individual ingredients don't get all mixed up together and therefore retain the original and unique flavours.

Many years ago, my mom bought a book on potjiekos... it is a fantastic little book and although incredibly old school, having no photos but rather line drawings - it is filled with a wealth of knowledge on the making of potjiekos as well as countless recipes... with everything from "dronk hoender" (tipsy chicken), oxtail, mutton, biltong, shin, kudu, duck and countless more! Each recipe carefully detailing the creation of the pot from start to finish! I have tried a few of them over the years and they have always been absolutely magnificent!

Weekend before last we decided to make a simple beef pot. Nothing from the book... just Jayne "winging it" hahaha!!! So we bought a pack of stewing beef and some veg and prepped the fire! Once the wood coals were ready, I added some olive oil, the roughly diced onion, garlic, and green peppers... Once those have cooked until lightly golden I added the meat to seal.

Prior to that I had prepped all the veg which is essentially the last thing to go into the pot as it is the quickest to cook. I also pre-made the "stock" which essentially incorporated ALL the seasoning... ie. I mixed up some chicken stock (I find beef stock too rich), salt, pepper and a few other additional spices with about a litre of water. Once the meat was sealed, I added a little red wine... but only a little because it is a precious commodity here now haha! and I let the alcohol evaporate for a minute or so, and then added the stock mix which I had made earlier. Lid on and left for one hour. We took our time with this post because it was beef and if beef is cooked too quickly, as most of you will know... it is horribly chewy!

After an hour, we added all the veg... except for the baby marrows, because those cook incredibly quickly and you don't want them to turn to mush! When you open the pot to add the veg... like I said, you do NOT stir anything... you simply place the veg on top of the meat and onions and then close the lid again for about another 30 to 40 min. We then opened it again and popped in the marrows and left it for another 15 min and then removed it from the fire.

There are some great recipes where you actually add uncooked rice on the top too and then allow it to cook from the moisture provided within the pot... but we didn't opt for that route on this occasion. The pot was absolutely delicious and I do apologise... but after enjoying the afternoon outside with a few glasses of wine, I was quite happy to tuck into my plate of food and completely forgot to take a plated snap shot haha!

It is always interesting to discover new recipes and methods of cooking from around the world... you will quickly realise that what may be very familiar to you, is not always to others... Anyhoooo, so there's a little introduction to potjiekos for all of you haha!