Butch’s potjie recipe

My late brother-in-law gave me this one which he got from his Gran when they lived in Rhodesia. It’s been my favourite ever since and of course the only way to cook this great meal is in a cast-iron pot heated over a wood/coal fire the way the ‘locals’ do.

 

Ingredients:

2 pounds cubed lean meat, lamb, beef, pork but not chicken

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon Worcester sauce

1 large onion slices

1 green pepper chopped small

1 teaspoon crushed garlic

2 desert spoons tomato paste mixed in 7 tablespoons cold water

6 medium potatoes peeled and cubed

4 large carrots peeled and sliced

2 sticks of celery (white only) chopped

2 leeks (white only) chopped

1 pound green beans chopped

Handful dry beans that have been soaked overnight

1 small cabbage chopped

½ teaspoon mixed spice

1 packet mushroom sauce mixed in 1 pint cold water

 

Heat the oil in the pot, sprinkle the meat with salt and pepper and brown slightly. Remove the meat from pot and put aside.

Sauté the onion, green pepper and garlic, for 15 minutes then return the meat to the pot, pour the tomato paste, Worcester sauce and mushroom soup mix over the meat and simmer gently for ¾ hour.

Add the vegetables in layers, potatoes, carrots, celery, leeks, beans, cabbage, add a little salt and pepper, sprinkle with the spice and simmer for another 2 hours.

 

At this point my wife and I normally put small dumplings on top of the Potjie but I haven’t got a 1900’s recipe so we use a modern one containing  suet.

 

ENJOY!