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A potjiekos recipe for beginners, layered lamb, carrots and potatoes in a three leg cast iron potjie over coals
Gert

Potjiekos for beginners

The first potjie to cook if you have never used the pot: lamb neck, layered vegetables, one cup of liquid and a lid you leave alone.
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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 4 hours
Total Time 4 hours 30 minutes
Servings: 6 people
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: South African
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1.2 kg lamb neck, cut into thick pieces on the bone chuck steak or beef shin work the same way
  • 30 ml oil
  • 2 large onions, sliced
  • 4 carrots, cut into thick pieces
  • 4 medium potatoes, halved
  • 1 handful green beans, trimmed
  • 1 bay leaf
  • salt
  • black pepper
  • 250 ml stock or water one cup, and no more

Method
 

  1. Brown the meat. Set the empty potjie on the coals, add the oil and let it get properly hot. Brown the lamb in batches so the pieces are not crowded, turning until each one has real colour on at least two sides.
  2. Soften the onions. Tip the sliced onions into the same pot and let them go soft and golden in the fat left behind. Five minutes, no rush.
  3. Return the meat and start the layers. Put the lamb back in on top of the onions, add the bay leaf, a good pinch of salt and plenty of black pepper. Layer the vegetables on top of the meat in the order they need to cook: carrots first, then potatoes, then green beans on top. Do not mix them in.
  4. Add the liquid, and no more. Pour the stock down the side of the pot rather than over the top. The vegetables release plenty of their own moisture, and too much liquid is where most first attempts go wrong.
  5. Lid on and walk away. Three to four hours for lamb neck. Lift the lid twice at most, briefly, to check the pot is steaming rather than galloping. If it sounds like it is frying, pull a couple of coals out. If nothing is happening, add a small handful.
  6. Do not stir. Not once. Stirring collapses the layers and breaks up the potatoes. If you want the flavours to meet, hold the pot handle with a glove and give the whole thing a gentle shake instead.
  7. Check it is done, then thicken if you want. The meat should slide off the bone with a fork. If the sauce is thinner than you like, take the lid off for the last twenty minutes.

Notes

A number 3 potjie feeds roughly six people; anything smaller struggles to hold heat. You need enough charcoal or hardwood to keep going for four hours. This is bone-in lamb, so whole-cut rules apply, but if you ever cook a potjie with sausage or minced meat in it, Food Standards Australia New Zealand recommends cooking minced or rolled meat to at least 75 degrees Celsius in the centre, with 70 degrees the general benchmark for everything else.