The Lamb neck-pepper-pasta potjie ala Dad (interpreted by Desert Rose)

Image from : www.ez-gas.com

po·tjie póyke] (plural po·tjies) noun  Definition: South Africa cooking pot: a rounded three-legged cast-iron pot in which food is cooked over an open fire [Late 20th century.<>]

 

Alright, so pour yourself the inevitable glass of red wine and get the following ingredients together:

(this will probably be enough for ± 8 – 10 of your friends)

1kg Lamb Neck chops (The new Farmhouse Butchery has them – saw it there last weekend)

Flour for dusting

2 large red onions

4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 red and green pepper each, chopped roughly

The bottle of Brandy (KWV makes a good one) that’s stuck in the back of your cupboard cause you’ve stopped drinking brandy and Coke as a rule.

Black Pepper soup & Mushroom soup each prepared to specs on packet (Now I’ve never managed to find this in any Dar supermarket, but let’s pretend you had a packet…… guess any resemblance to a peppery packet soupy thing will work)

Packet of Tagliatelle – cooked for 5 mins and drained

Bottle of Chutney (Mrs. Balls only. If you don’t have it, don’t make this recipe! Shoprite – if you’ve got 4 hours every morning to deal with traffic or sometimes it is on display for 30 mins in Village Supermarket until all the South Africans get to it)

Grated Cheddar Cheese (3/4 cup if you have to be specific)

Punnet of fresh mushrooms (ha ha again – but don’t worry, you can actually find it every now and again at Shoppers Plaza or Village Supermarket)

METHOD:

If you are brave, get the guys to build a fire and do this over the open fire – best way! Remember to monitor the coals all the time – must not be too hot.

Otherwise doing this on a normal stove will be fine.

-       Drink your wine at regular intervals.

-       Sauté onions, garlic, red and green peppers

-       Remove and keep separately

-       Dust the chops with flour and add to potjie, braai for a few minutes until brown all over

-       Add a dash of that KWV Brandy and flambé the meat – please take caution when doing this!!

-       Add onions and pepper mix in

-       Season with salt

-       Add the pepper and mushroom soup until potjie is about half way covered.

-       Add pasta on top

-       Add a helluva lot of chutney (leave kidogo (little bit) in the bottle)

-       Add grated cheese and mushrooms on top and add that tiny bit of leftover chutney over all of this

-       Simmer this at a long, slow heat and be carefull that the chutney doesn’t burn – probably 1 hour?!!

-       I would serve this with some salad and if you want rice!

-       Enjoy!!!!