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DB, my grandfather always cooked potjie for us vegemites, but all I remember is him saying, that which takes the longest to cook goes at the bottom, then you layer it up to least amount of cooking time necessary. He also did not bleive in stirring....his potjies were veeeery good

DB, easy and cool.
All marrows on the shelf of Wollies, or P and P. Onions, most lovely, red onions, full garlic cloves, sliced sweet potato, butternut, lots of butternut, any other veg.
Chop badly in untidy chunks.
Make a load of Basmati rice.
Spray the loading dish with something.

Place one layer of rice, and then the veg.

The sauce.
What is your mood, but basic cheese sauce...
eish, I fall flat.
maybe someone can help me here.

MM's cheese sauce.
Depending on the size of the dish.
Throw in a dollup of butter. Mix butter in slowly.
Add mustard and milk, as you need it and pray.

Add any kind of cheese.. feta, blue cheese, anything.

oops, mix butter and flour in slowly, and slowly add milk.
The magic of a sauce is in this step.
If you get this right you can diss both the devil and the so called "universe"

Here is something new, and I love it. Fry onions and garlic in olive oil put in your Impala steaks or any meat till brown. Pour over a glass off coke, and simmer for +-1/2 hour. Put in the veggies baby Murrow's. patty pans, carrots, potato, cherry tomato's, sweet potato, apricots and mushrooms. Cook that concoction for an hour.
Sauce: Mayonnaise, Chutney, Toma ta sauce, Worcestershire sauce, Wild African cream, Curry powder, Salt, Pepper, Sweet basil, Parsley. Pour that over and cook for another 1/2hour.
Stirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr and eat, mind your fingers, cuz that will also taste gooooooooood with the sauce!

Thanks Woerie, game is often a difficult meat to cook.

That sounds great, strong enough to tackle any game.
I might add in another suggestion.
Together with the game, throw in a bit of boerrie.

Another good idea I learnt while doing Gundog trials back in the day. If you need 2 Guinea Fowl and you only have one put that in a no 4 pot and add a whole chicken with a mixture of Wine and Chicken stock and simmer softly ...very softly for 4 hrs and then addd the rest of the bits for another hour or so and what do you know the strong flavour of the guinea fowl seeps into the chicken and you have your 2 guinea fowl!!! It worked really well...those Winterberg farmers and their Grey wings are something else!!

Ok, I know potjie-recipes are a south african domain, but here is my suggestion for a vegetarian potjie.

Take any veggies you can get or that you like.

My favourites are:

Onions
Garlic
Mushrooms
Butternut
Sweetcorn
Potatoes
Peas
Courgette
Carrots

Brown the Onions and Garlic in (preferably) olive oil, add the other veggies after that, add some water and vegetable stock just to cover the veggies half.
Simmer the veggies until not raw anymore but with a bit of ‘bite’ still left.
My preferred herbs are tarragon, rosemary or thyme.
If you would like you can add some grated goats cheese before serving ( Malcolm did that , when we had the braai with Freda and him up in Punda, and it was delicious ) or stir in some cream cheese .
Nothing more needed than a slice of toast or some braai roasted potatoes (if there are not already potatoes in the potjie) and of course a good white or red wine to accompany the dish.

( Oh I forgot, to make it perfect you have of course to be in Kruger with all the sounds, smells and sights of the african bush around )

Yummy:
Another veggie dish:
Woolies Durban Curry,
one chopped onion,
whole garlic cloves,
one small tub of mango yoghurt,
potatoes,
butter nut,
one tin corn kernels,
tinned butter beans.
About quarter hour before serving add chopped baby marrows.

Serve with Basmati rice.

Think about it....

Take MM's recipe, but add a thick bechamel sauce to the potjie, put the grated goat's cheese on top, put a couple of red hot coals on the lid, and presto! After 30minutes you will have a delicious veggy bake!

I have to ask...what is mielie pap?


Sounds both Afrikaans and cerealish.


But...what would I know?

Hi FeeBee. Mieliepap is porridge made of maize meal. The sweet version with milk and sugar can be eaten as breakfast. The other version is made with water and salt and tastes delicious with tomato and onion gravy.

It is eaten in a lot of African countires. Here's a recipe:

Another two favourites when dealing with mielie-pap is the following:

1. fresh "krummel-pap" served with butter, sugar and cold milk
2. Pap-tert. "stywe" pap is placed in an ovenproof dish, about 3cm thick, topped with tomato and onion relish, a layer of pap again, another layer of relish, topped with grated matured Cheddar cheese, and then baked in the oven untill melted.

"krummel-pap" is prepared the same way as normal pap, but much less water is used to make it, giving it a crumble effect.

"stywe-pap" just means that the pap is cooked in such a way that it has a very thick consistency.

A lot of people like to add fried bacon pieces to the tomato and onion relish, giving it a smokey flavour

I really really like the idea of a Forum Recipe book...

I have two favourites, although one does not quite qualify for potjie as such...

The first "recipe" is for an oxtail pot:

Oxtail
Baby taties
Carrots
Onions
Two chillies (green & chopped)
Two cans of tomato mix (I use the Ratatouille mix that contains brinjal and marrows)
Sage and little thyme
Lots of freshly ground black pepper
Garlic
One bottle of GOOD pinotage (red wine) - don't use plonk, a good wine really enhances the meat flavours

Fry onions in olive oil
Brown and seal oxtail
Add thickly sliced carrots
Add cans of tomato mix
Add Chillies
Add whole bottle of wine - yes, to the last drop
Cook slowly
Add taties an hour before serving

I serve the oxtail with instant polenta.

I also do a leg of lamb on the coals - this is utterly delicious and the advantage is that you have left-overs for sarmies the next day.

Ask your butcher to debone and butterfly the leg of lamb.

One tub of Greek Yogurt
Lemon juice
Olive Oil
Rosemary
Chrushed garlic (lots)
Lemon zest

Put meat in a container and cover with the above ingredients - let it marinade preferably from early morning untill you get back from a day of game viewing.

I cover the leg of lamb on triple foil for the first two hours of cooking and turn it frequently. Open up for the remaining hour and baste with the marinade until cooked.

It's a long process I suppose, but ideal for cool evenings with a good glass of red and some exciting campfire stories.

We serve this with taters and vegetables (baby carrot, beans,baby cabbage, baby brinjal and baby corn) which we cooked in little foil packets for the last hour or so next to the meat on the coals - add butter, pepper and salt and a dollop of cream before you seal the little foil bundle. (use three layers of foil as well)

Pardus, I like your Leg of lamb recipe. I do this as well, but with a bit of a differance.........

I use sourcream instead of greek yogurt, and I add a 1/2 cup of dry sherry to the marinade.

I have never tried your method of "slow cooking", as I tend to handle the leg/lamb as a big piece of steak:

Brown both sides on some hot coles THEN place the grill on a higher level for about 20min on each side.


But the leftovers the next day are the best

Pardus , may i add a small refinement for making the dish a little less rich and fatty as we are all watching the diet , not so .
After the slow cooking but before adding the taters , pour off all the stock / cooking liquid into a dish or pot . Then add ice cubes which instantly congeal the fat rendered down from the oxtail into floating , pale yellow globs which can be scooped out with a (preferably slotted) spoon into a 3rd container . Then return the delicious yet healty gelatinous stock back for the final cooking .
The hut attendant will appreciate the fat as their diet is low-low-cal and he will use it for making sheba etc.

i agree , it would be nice to have a "bush" cooking topic index (like on caravanparks.com) . these days one is more health conscious so it's not just meat on the coals and a tin of baked beans .