My Easy Cooking

Seafood Potjie

Potjiekos is as South African Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Table Mountain and and am convinced if all the politicians in South Africa would join me for a delicious Seafood Potjiekos, maybe on top of Table Mountain, we could solve a few issues right there and then. Potjiekos, literally translated “small pot of food”, is meant to bring people together around simple, rustic food, a principle that is very near and dear to my heart.
Basically potjiekos is a stew that is cooked on the open fire in a round three-legged cast iron pot and was originally made by the Voortrekkers from the game that they hunted throughout the day. These days potjiekos is made with chicken, beef, lamb and although the original idea was to add just simple vegetables, these days recipes include, pasta, fruit, creams and a variety of sauces.
While growing up, we used to always camp out this time of the year and because it was holiday our eating routine changed and mom would always treat us with well, holiday food…..hamburgers, hotdogs etc, but by about the 4th day, my father would say: ” Lovey, I think it is time for some proper food, otherwise we might die of scurvy ( a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C)! After this friendly reprimand of dad, mom would always haul out the pot to make potjiekos…. Mom’s pot would then have lamb, lots of carrots(to fight off the evil scurvy), potatoes, and onions. Lots of black pepper, yum!! The greatest part of eating a potjiekos was always the good times we had around the fire, singing, joking and just bonding as a family so when I my hubs and I got married someone gave us our first cast iron pot as a wedding gift and till this day, we are trying to keep the tradition going.

Ready for judging

This past weekend we had a Potjie kos Cookoff at our church and because there were so many interesting pots such an as Paprika Chicken, Kudu with Fruit, Oxtail and Lamb Curry , I knew I had to be really inventive to nail this competition. I decided to go with my Proudly South African Seafood Potjiekos!

For the recipe, visit my other blog: www.my-easy-cooking.com