Sara's Messy Kitchen: Poitjie Night

Last weekend I made and ate my very first Poitjie... I've only been living in Cape Town my whole life, I thought it was about time.

Poitjiekos (POY-KEY-KAWS)- Literally translated to 'Little Pot Food', is a South African stew prepared in a three legged cast iron pot over coals.

After doing a little research I came to a conclusion... There is no right or wrong way to make poitjie. Everyone has a different opinion on how it should be done, and the only thing they all seem to be able to agree upon is that you ARE NOT ALLOWED TO STIR IT!

With this in mind I set out to create what I thought would be the best poitjie! Lamb and veggies with potatoes and red wine... There is no going wrong with a combination like that.

Then came the tricky part- Controlling the fire. It took a lot longer than I thought to get the coals just right,but finally we got it there(with a secondary fire going for extra coals). However, I can't take credit for controlling the flaming beast, that goes to the boys! Thanks guys.

3 hours later than anticipated, 100% on time if you're running on South African Time or Braai Time, I got the poitjie going!

Girls on Braai Duty

At which point there were only 4 things left to do... Pop on the lid, grab a glass of wine, put the boys on fire control, and wait it out!

Lids on, Drinks out!

We cooked ours for about 3.5 hours(the time varies depending on which kind and cut of meat you use), and by about 21.30 we were finally ready to tuck in... Mind you, I have been informed that this is early in poitjie terms!

Holy crap!!! It was so worth the wait. The meat was so tender and the sauce was so tasty. Paired with some smokey braai rolls, we had the perfect combination!