Extreme Potjie. Because half measure isn't an ingredient.

Yet Another Lamb Potjie

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There are so many lamb potjie recipes. Seriously. But this one is nice. And pretty easy. And has some interesting stuff in it (lemon, soya, mushroom soup). Can't remember where we found it. We reckon the secret is in the mushroom soup/gravy powder.

INGREDIENTS:

1 kg leg of lamb, cut into 3 cm cubes
1 tablespoon butter
3 medium onions, sliced
10 baby potatoes
10 whole baby carrots, peeled
8 whole baby marrows
250 ml meat stock
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp celery salt
2 tbls worcestershire sauce
2 tsp soya sauce
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp dried thyme (and/or rosemary)
1 tbls brown gravy powder
1 tbls mushroom soup powder
Garlic


METHOD
1  Heat the butter in the pot with some garlic. Fry that shit up!


2  Stir fry the onions until tender

3  Move the onions to one side and place the meat next to the onions. Using a large spoon place the onions on top of the meat. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes until the meat renders its own juice

4  Place the potatoes on top of the meat without letting them touch the side of the pot

5  Layer carrots and then the courgettes around and on top of the potatoes

6  Mix 125 ml of the stock with the salt, celery salt, worcestershire sauce, soya sauce, lemon juice and thyme (or rosemary) and add to the potjie

7  Cover and simmer for about 90 minutes

8  Use the remaining 125 ml of meat stock, mixed with the gravy and soup powder to thicken the liquid in the pot

9  Another hour on consistent heat, at least!


Serves 4-6 people

Lamb Knuckle Potjie Recipe

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Righto boys and girls, dames en here, braaimasters and saladmakers. We're here today with Potjie Master Terry Faul for a traditional Lamb Knuckle potjie. It's an easy one, and damn tasty (aren't they all). We suggest adding chilli. But then we always say that.

Lamb Knuckle Potjie Recipe:

 

Enough Lamb Knuckle to feed your party
1 Onion cut in quarters
Bag of Potato quarters
Bag of Carrots (cut 'em chunky)
Thing of Mushrooms
2 x Cans Mexican Tomatoes
1 Beer (any beer, local is lekker)
1/2 botte red wine (not the great stuff, but not turps either)
Hot curry powder to taste


Brown the lamb using the curry powder. Remove the meat from the potjie and put it in a tray while you cook the onion with some olive oil. When the onions are soft, add back the meat and continue to stir.

Add the canned tomatoes, all the veg. Pour in the beer (have a sneaky sip first) and the 1/2 bottle red wine (nog 'n sneaky sip).

Put lid on. Remember: no peaking and no stirring. Listen for the GURGLE. Maintain and good GURGLE volume by adding coals underneath when necessary. Keep at low heat for at least 3 hours. 5 hours would be ideal.

Smash it in your face.

Traditional Lamb and Dumplings Potjie Recipe

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Ok. So the plan here was to give ourselves some credibility, and show you that we don’t only know the artsy fartsy recipes.

The original potjie is the golden target of all good potjie purists. Anyone can whip out the Tofu rubbish. Not just anyone can pull together the original herbs and spices that Colonel Sanders would give his left nut for.

So for this installment of Extreme Potjie - we take a trip back in time to original potjies, the South African way.

 

Traditional Lamb and Dumplings Potjie Recipe


The flavour

1 tsp each of the following, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, pepper corns, coarse salt (kinda like the same stuff you would put on biltong before drying)
4-5 bay leaves
3-4 cloves
Chillis to preference.

Donder this all together in a pestle and mortar, or otherwise wrap them up in some cloth and moer it with a hammer.

 

The Other Stuff

500g lamb (knuckles, chops - anything with a some bone on it)
Three cloves garlic (diced) - always better to use fresh
500ml to 1 litre Stock - oxtail or beef will do
Bottle of white wine - don’t waste the good South African stuff, perhaps some French plonk? 
2 Onions (diced)
Potatoes, carrots, mushrooms and any other veggies you smaak.
1 tin butter beans.

 

How to do it

Get your potjie pot piping hot with some oil in it. Gooi the garlic, and onions in. When the onions are soft and transparent, throw in the spices (properly crushed and beaten) and the lamb.

Brown the lamb (brown on all sides but still succulent). Ponder for a while on how gay the word "succulent" is.

Pour in 500ml of the stock and about a glass of the wine. Gooi the lid on and leave it.

Because we are doing dumplings, we'll need more liquid than normal. This you will have to assess yourself because due to the heat of the fire and variations in cooking time - it might change from one pot to the next. What you need to keep in mind - is that right at the end, after all your veggies and stuff are in, you're going to chuck in about 8-10 golf ball size pieces of dough. They golf ball dough things need to be covered by the remaining liquid.

Now the lekker thing about a potjie is that as long as you have enough liquid you can never overcook it. Just make sure you have a steady gurgle (never a boil). As we've said before, and will say again - just listen. Let the pot talk to you.

After you've had a few beers, watched the first half of the Sharks donnering the Cheeta’s, its time to throw in the tatoes (read potatoes if our slang is getting you down). Hint: the smaller the spud, the quicker they cook.

Go back and sit on the couch for the second half. After another twenty minutes or so, tune the wife to “gooi in the rest of the veggies except the mushrooms, because you're watching the game”. If you get hit, don't blame us.

Keep an eye on the liquid level, a bit of wine here and a bit of stock there to keep everything in balance.

After the game grab the lads, stand around the fire and tell them how this recipe has been passed down the family tree for centuries. Stick a fork in the potatoes to see if they soft. When you're satisfied that potatoes are done, chuck in the butterbeans, and stoke the fire - aim to maintain current rate of gurgle for about another hour.

It's dumpling time. Gooi in the dumplings, making sure that each one is just covered with liquid. If you experience a nagging thought that you're creating lamb soup - fear not! The dumplings should soak up a lot of the liquid. Throw the mushrooms on top and cover. Now: make sure that no one lifts the lid for the next half hour - your dumplings might collapse.

Go and listen to Naas and Darren chat about how the Bulls are going to moer the Stormers into next century. Get your bowls ready and make sure the wife has cooked your rice. If you get hit, don't blame us.

Just before the next game starts, give each oke a bowl, grab some rice, ladle in some potjie, and ensure that everyone has a fair share of the dumplings. Sit back, enjoy and look forward to another great year of Bok rugby.

(TEASER: Dumpling recipe to follow. Google it in the mean time you lazy yaks.)


Much love,
Darren Ogden
Potjie Master.

La Lamb and Mint Potjie Recipe

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Another potjie from cohort and braai-man Darren Ogden. This one was created alongside (multi-tasking, yes, men can do it) the Quick 'n Dirty Chicken and Apricot Potjie on the banks of the Tyolumnqa river in the Eastern Cape.

This recipe is slightly more involved, but hell, potjies are a pretty easy platform to work from eh? In fact, Darren pretty much made this one up on the fly. Lamb is good. Mint is good. Potjie is good. Coincidence? I think not!

 

La Lamb and Mint Potjie


1.5 kg lamb shank
2 cans tomato and onion
1 can butter beans
50g tomato paste (tomato sauce can be subsituted but that's lank classy)
2 handfuls fresh mint
Rajah's curry powder (or other)
750g baby potatoes
2 Red Onions
3 Carrots (medium sized)
Garlic to taste
Ginger to taste


Get the oil super hot before throwing in the tomato and onion and garlic / ginger. You want to hear a TSSSSSSS! Otherwise stoke the coals up, you're too cold. Brown the meat, adding the curry powder in about half way through. The lamb will take a little while to brown properly - don't be scared to leave it on there. When you're satisfied, chuck in all the rest of the ingrediants.

Chop up the vegetables into little chunky bits. Now for a bit of creativity. You're going to need some liquid that this whole concoction can stew in. And we leave it up to you. Any liquid - about 350 to 500 ml of it. Go crazy! Red wine, white wine, beer...

You probably want to leave this potjie on for just under 4 hours. Remember to listen out for the gurgle and don't lift the lid too many times.


La Lamb and Mint enjoyed with our kind hosts, the Faul family and friends.

Lamb Rogan Josh Stove Potjie Recipe

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Home early? Feel like a pre-beer, bottle of wine and a lazy cooking experience? The Stove Potjie is the thing for you... Coupled with a Rogan Josh approach - be prepared for tasty dinner

Lamb-rogan-josh-stove-potjie

Lamb Rogan Josh Potjie


200g Cubed lamb
Oil 2 teaspoons
Rogan Josh spice
1/2 teaspoon Thyme
250 ml beef stock mixed with hot water
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Half a handful of cherry tomatoes
1 giant potato! Cubed.
2 chopped carrots or other vegetables (to taste, really)
Coriander


It's so simple, it's criminal. Heat potjie pot with oil in the bottom. Fry up the lamb. Add the Rogan Josh spice. Fry up the lamb a bit more. Add the stock and tomato paste. Throw everything else in. Wait 2 hours. Grab that beer and open that wine. Of course - coriander goes into the pot right at the end. While you're tasting the wine.