Lamb and Mint Potjie Recipe

Another potjie from cohort Darren Ogden. This one was created alongside (multi-tasking, yes, men can do it) the Quick ‘n Dirty Chicken and Apricot Potjie on the banks of the Tyolumnqa river in the Eastern Cape.

This recipe is slightly more involved, but hell, potjies are a pretty easy platform to work from eh? In fact, we pretty much made this one up on the fly. Lamb is good. Mint is good. Potjie is good. Coincidence? No.

La Lamb and Mint Potjie

• 1.5 kg lamb shank 
• 2 cans tomato and onion 
• 1 can butter beans 
• 50g tomato paste (tomato sauce can be subsituted but that’s lank classy) 
• 2 handfuls fresh mint 
• Rajah’s curry powder (or other) 
• 750g baby potatoes 
• 2 Red Onions 
• 3 Carrots (medium sized) 
• Garlic to taste 
• Ginger to taste

Get the oil super hot before throwing in the tomato and onion and garlic / ginger. You want to hear a TSSSSSSS! Otherwise stoke the coals up, you’re too cold. Brown the meat, adding the curry powder in about half way through. The lamb will take a little while to brown properly - don’t be scared to leave it on there. When you’re satisfied, chuck in all the rest of the ingrediants.

Chop up the vegetables into little chunky bits. Now for a bit of creativity. You’re going to need some liquid that this whole concoction can stew in. And we leave it up to you. Any liquid - about 350 to 500 ml of it. Go crazy! Red wine, white wine, beer…

You probably want to leave this potjie on for just under 4 hours. Remember to listen out for the gurgle and don’t lift the lid too many times.

La Lamb and Mint enjoyed with our kind hosts, the Faul family and friends.