Beef Dutch oven (POTJIE)

[umhloti]

I always love making Potjie aka dutch oven . SO i decided to make a beef Potjie yday in my BBQ kettle due to the wind . It gives it a lot of protection and then i can also leave the pots lid off with the lid of the kettel on . I dont leave the pots lid off for to long but this also ads to the smokey flavour .

Because it cooks for 4 -5hrs or longer thats another reason i did it in my Kettle to save my charcoal and not waste it by the strong wind making it burn far to fast over the 5 or so hours of cooking . Believe it or not but even good charcoal cost money .

Recipe below:

Beef any, the cheaper the cut the longer it will need to cook but will also be tastier ( cheap cuts are normally tasty but tough so hence the longer cooking will tenderise it and melt in your mouth )

Coriander, pepper, rosemary , sage, basil ,oruganum, . ( salt to flavour but most veg stocks have a lot of salt in them today so check before you add salt )

Sprinkle some lemon rind and rosemarry chopped up on the food when serving it the flavour and smells will be heaven !!!!!!!!!

Vegetables of your choice . Harder vegetables in first then softer as you go along .

What i normally do is I take one or two of each of the veg and dice it up in a blender to give myself a start with stock etc . so eg one potato , carrot , garlic , mushroom, brocoli, green runner beens, ( I call this my veg mix)

Then rest of my veg goes in hole as previously mentioned in good time .

Saty your onions in a very hot Potjie with oil etc then ad your meat I dont brown meat to much as it will be in there for hours. ( browning is over rated if you going to cook it for hours)

Then the Veg mix, 2 cubes veg stock in a 500ml boiling water, half bottle wine , tin of tomato and even a (packet of tin soup powder also if you want for extra stock ) then start adding your vegetables and give it a few hours.

Very important to watch your fire now becuase of the cast iron its very dense and holds heat well so only have a small amount of coals spread evenly and top it up when needed by just adding one or two every now and then on top if the current coals less is better .

Enjoy

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[umhloti]

pot open

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[umhloti]

more see the steam

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[minesamojito]

Wonderful recipe and photos matey, thanks for sharing, love your veg stock idea.
Only one point I'd disagree on is Browning meat being over rated, in my opinion this gets the tastes of the browned meat into the meal early on, and it adds greater depth of flavour, hence why chefs deglaze the pan after cooking meat to make a gravy.
Other than that I love this recipe and will be giving it a go with my own potjie.
Cheers
Marcus

[umhloti]

Thanx Marcus .

Yes i know what you mean re the browning you are correct . And maybe should have chosen my words better in my above explanation/ description

But when its such a hot cast iron pot people tend to brown too long and end up burning the meat.

ANd what i do is a type of browning but not for very long and Yes the flavours you are correct thats what you are after and thats why i have the meat in with the onions only so that the meat can get " browning" but only slightly and you can see a small pasting of brown in the pot from the juices . people like jamie oliver would also follow this theory when doing long slow cooks in a pot .

But traditionally and still most particularly South Africans would take the onions out and put it on the side before they brown the meat separately and then add the onions again . I feel that this can end up burning the meat and over browning it .Its also a lot of messing around with in out etc and the onions loose their heat and if the onions are still in the pot in my opinion they almost give the meat a bit of protection buffer not to get to much direct contact with the pot but touches here and there during the "browning" process .

So after 4-7hrs no matter what we do it will still be lovely .

But i have also had or tasted Potjies before that after the 5hrs mark with lots of or more than enough liguid in it during this peroid that you have burnt pieces of meat and then youy wonder how long did the person brown the meat for . This isnt the kind of mistake that I or yourself will do but novices that arent used to cooking with cast iron pots . I think people underestimate the heat that these pots can get on a fire .

As always I love your feedback Marcus and everybody else's so bring it on LOL And thank you for looking at this

[cannyfradock]

Great pictures Q.....keep em comin!!

I'm a wood-fired oven nut but any outdoor cooking is something special......and can't be replicated indoors.

I'm seriously thinking about investing in a decent grill, but after watching a S.A. film called "Section 9"....I'm not sure about prawns anymore...

Terry

p.s.... No pics on the short ribs. I tenderised them like I do with pork ribs in a pot of slightly simmering water with leeks, onions, carrots and celery. Normally I would finish in a hot oven (or grill) with a sticky sauce, but they was so tender and tasty when they came out of the pot......we just eat them as they were.....with the veg and soup.

[umhloti]

Thanx Terry

Sorry for only responding back now. What can I say that the picture didnt all ready tell us it was lovely.

SOunds like you had a feast with those ribs Terry . I thought you might still have put them on the BBQ/WFO to add some smokey taste etc . Please take some photos nxt time always nice to get the shots. WIth your Butchering experience you could do a tutorial for all of us on ribs etc

[rivergirl]

We did them again this weekend but after seeing Dr sweet smokes on Facebook .......... Am going to have to have them again!!