Potjie

Vince has a thing about cast iron. He loves to cook in it. We have several heirloom pieces in storage in the US, pieces he's lovingly seasoned and maintained despite the extra care necessary each and every time you use it.  A couple of skillets, a griddle, a mold for madeleines, ear of corn-shaped molds for cornbread sticks and several round molds for popovers and Sunday Yorkshire pudding.

seasoning the potjie

So I knew there was no stopping him when he saw the wall rack of three-legged cast iron cauldron-shaped Dutch ovens on special at the Builder's Warehouse on Saturday when we were running some errands. It didn't matter that we have a full complement of Creuset Dutch Ovens about to be delivered after crossing the entire Atlantic Ocean by freighter at great expense. I saw the look in his eye. If you can't beat him, you might as well join him for a good meal.

Called a potjie, the cast iron oven is used to cook the South African national dish, potjiekos. Introduced to South Africa by the Voortrekkers, the Boer homesteaders who made the great migration from The Cape to the Transvaal to escape persecution by the British in the 19th century, the ovens were perfectly suited to stew meats and vegetables over an open fire in the veldt. We used our fire basket in the backyard.

The traditional meat for a potjie is lamb so that is what we used for our inaugural potjiekos. Potatoes, sweet potato, mushrooms, onions, garlic, celery, carrots, mini corn, and baby marrows which are small zucchinis and squashes, red wine, stock, tomato sauce and grape tomatoes. Rosemary and other herbs and seasonings. Easy enough. The trick of course is to get the heat just right to slow cook it for a long time.










We made dumplings but you can also serve it on a bed of couscous or pap. Excellent for a winter's night!

Next time we are making my favorite, a Cape Town fish and water onion potjiekos on a bed of rice.