The Williams Potjie
BY J’ SOMETHING
Chef’s note: This Potjie triggers so many memories for me… One of the most relaxing methods of cooking has to be cooking in a potjie – or a “drievoet”, as my wife likes to call it. Uncle Elton, my best friend Brent’s dad, would spend the whole day around that pot and I just never understood it, not until I started making my own potjies at home. This is my tribute to the famous Williams’s potjie on Currie Street.
INGREDIENTS:
INGREDIENTS:
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 large onion
- 4 carrots (2 finely chopped; 2 roughly chopped
- 3 celery sticks, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 150g minced chourico
- 1kg lamb knuckles, dusted in flour
- 1 cup red wine
- 2 cans chopped tomatoes
- 1tbsp brown sugar
- 4 cups lamb (or beef) stock
- 4 potatoes, roughly chopped
- 300g green beans
- 1 can cannellini beans
- Heat the olive oil in a pot, add the onion, finely chopped carrots, celery, garlic, paprika and chourico. Fry until the vegetables have softened, then remove from pot and set aside.
- Place the knuckles into the pot and cook until browned. Return the vegetable mixture to the pot.
- Add the red wine and allow to reduce. Once reduced, add the tomatoes and sugar, and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Add the stock, roughly chopped carrots and potatoes. Cook for 1 – 2 hours or until the meat us nice and tender.
- Lastly, add the green beans and cannellini beans, and cook for a further 10 minutes – and you are done!
- Best served with rice.