Mid week lamb potjie

I got that midweek "I feel like doing a potjie" kinda feeling and when I told Janet she was up for it, "Do it on Wednesday and invite Frank over." she said, this means that she doesn't have to spend the time in the kitchen cooking and Pumi comes on a Thursday so she doesn't have to clean up, it's all good and she knows what she's doing.

We had just recently taken delivery of a whole, fresh Karoo lamb so I had plenty of meat, I took out about a kilo and a half of knuckles and neck, I knew it was too much for three people but left-overs are great!

If you've been reading my stuff at all you'll know that I like to get all of my ingredients prepared beforehand and all ready so that I don't have to keep running back and forwards to the kitchen, (or trying to send Janet back to get stuff for me) here clockwise from top left; chopped onions, green peppers and crushed garlic - potatoes - my meat - peeled and chopped butternut squash - chopped mushrooms - green beans - chilli beef and green pepper soup powder.
My trusty pot over my gas burner, I know that this is traditionally done over a wood fire but for convenience (and temperature control) I prefer to do it over gas. First I heated up some vegetable oil good and hot and then chucked the meat in and stirred it around to brown nicely.
Once the meat was browned I took it out and set it aside and then fried the onions, peppers and garlic in the lovely oil and meat juice until they were soft and translucent. In the meantime I mixed a packet of Chilli beef and greenpepper soup powder and a mutton stock cube into a cup of red wine, I then put the meat back into the pot and poured my mixture in along with a tin of tomato and onion mix and a Castle Lager.
I turned the heat down, put the lid on the pot and left it to simmer for half an hour, every now and then I would go over and lean in close to the pot just to hear the soft bubbling sound and by then the aroma was getting our juices flowing.
In the meantime Frank and I were talking crap and enjoying a few beverages, he is going to the "Freedom Road Rally" in Stillbay with a whole lot of the local guys on Friday, I normally go to this rally but for various reasons I can't make this one and I'm quite sad!
After half an hour I gave the pot a stir and added the potatoes, butternut and green beans, a cone of salt, a good sprinkle of Aromat and another of mixed herbs, I made sure that the heat was enough to keep a good simmering action and closed it up for another half an hour.
After that I added the mushrooms and about 100ml of cream and when I was sure that the potatoes were cooked we were good to go. It was a good potjie, Janet and Frank both said so and Frank took a "doggy bag" home, I was happy and I enjoyed doing it, we could have fed another four people easily but anyway we will have left-over meals for a couple of evenings.

And now for something completely different...........here's a picture that Dick sent me, something that I would dearly love to be able to do; Ain't gonna happen though, this guy's wheelying my bike! I would be too shit scared of dropping my baby.

I have spoken to my friends Craig and Monica at West Coast Yamaha in Vredenburg about taking their demo Yamaha 1200 Super Tenere out for a ride so that will be my next post, I'm looking forward to that one, watch this space!