My first potjie
This past weekend I braved Makro and the evil hordes that invade it on weekends to buy my first potjie since I had asked some friends over on Sunday for a late lunch. Since I had never made a potjie before, I did some online searches and found a few articles—but in the end, I decided to just go crazy. From all accounts, the food was good, so here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1.3 kilos of beef, cubed into about half-inch sizes
- 3 very large carrots, diced into bite-sized pieces
- 4 large sweet potatoes, cubed into about half-inch sizes
- 2 pounds of button mushrooms, diced
- 2 green peppers, diced
- 2 large sweet peppers, diced
- A cast of other things I forgot about now and will unveil during preparation.
Cooking: Take the meat and add some freshly ground thyme, rosemary, and Robinson’s meat tenderizer. Put that in a container, add a couple of dollops of Mrs. Ball’s chutney, BBQ-flavored marinade, and Bandito hot sauce (I used the 5-heat-level one). Close the container, shake, and store in the fridge, turning it every so often until needed. Mine sat for about 3 hours, but the longer you leave it, the better.
Once your potjie is nice and hot, add all the veggies plus half a liter of water and leave for about 30–45 minutes. Next, add the meat and the basting sauce it has been in to the mix and throw in two cubes of beef stock and two packets (50g each) of tomato paste. Mix well, close the lid, and leave for 2 to 3 hours, stirring every 15–20 minutes. Eventually, the liquid should reduce and you’ll get more of a thick sauce than soup—think of it as a stew almost. If it starts to catch on the bottom, it’s ready (and has been for about 10 minutes or so). Move it to low heat and dish up on rice.