Braai Life

Recipes / Potjie

Oxtail potjie

Oxtail simmered for four hours in red wine and tomato with cloves and herbs, topped with vegetables and finished with a chutney and vinegar sweet-sour twist.

Coals
Low coals
Prep
30 min
On the fire
4 hr 30 min
Serves
6

Ingredients

  • 1.8 kg (4 lb) oxtail, cut at the joints, excess fat trimmed
  • 3 tablespoons oil
  • 3 onions, sliced
  • 1 tablespoon crushed garlic
  • 2 red chillies, split, optional
  • 7 whole cloves
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 tin (400 g / 14 oz) chopped tomatoes
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 350 ml (1 1/2 cups) dry red wine
  • 500 ml (2 cups) beef stock

Vegetables, in the order they go in

  • 500 g (1.1 lb) baby potatoes
  • 4 carrots, cut into thick chunks
  • 2 celery stalks, cut into chunks
  • 250 g (9 oz) mushrooms, halved, optional
  • 2 bananas, thickly sliced, optional

Sweet-sour finish, optional

  • 2 tablespoons Mrs Ball's chutney, or mango chutney
  • 60 ml (1/4 cup) brown vinegar or malt vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons tomato sauce (ketchup)
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 1 tablespoon mild curry powder

Dumplings, optional

  • 250 ml (1 cup) self-raising flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • About 100 ml (7 tablespoons) cold water

Method

  1. Set a No. 3 potjie over medium coals, 5 to 6 seconds in the hand test. Heat the oil and brown the oxtail in batches, about 5 minutes a batch, so the pieces are dark on all sides. Lift them out.
  2. Add the onions, garlic, chillies, cloves and bay leaves to the pot and cook for 10 minutes until the onions are soft.
  3. Return the oxtail with the rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, wine and stock and bring to a simmer.
  4. Put the lid on and rake coals away until only a few remain under the pot, for low coals of 8 to 10 seconds in the hand test. Simmer for 2 1/2 hours, adding two or three fresh coals every 20 minutes to keep a slow bubble going.
  5. Layer the vegetables on top of the meat without stirring: potatoes first, then carrots, celery, mushrooms and the banana last. Replace the lid and cook for 1 hour more.
  6. If you are using the sweet-sour finish, mix the chutney, vinegar, ketchup, honey and curry powder and pour it down the side of the pot. Replace the lid and cook for 30 minutes.
  7. For dumplings, rub the butter into the flour, baking powder and salt, then stir in enough water to make a soft dough. Drop spoonfuls onto the top of the pot, put the lid on with a few coals on it, and cook for 15 to 20 minutes without lifting the lid.
  8. Skim the fat from the surface with a spoon. Serve from the pot with pap, rice or samp.

Done when: the meat slides off the bone when prodded, the sauce is dark, glossy and thick, and a skewer pushed into a dumpling comes out clean.

Tips

  • Oxtail carries a lot of fat. Trim it before browning and skim during cooking. Better still, make the potjie a day ahead, chill it and lift the fat off in one piece.
  • It cannot be rushed. Under 4 hours the meat is chewy.
  • Go easy on salt until the end. The wine and stock reduce and get saltier.
  • Keep the lid on. If it looks dry, add hot stock down the side, never cold.
  • It is even better reheated the next day.
  • For a sweeter pot, swap the 3 onions for 2 red onions and 10 pickling onions left whole.

Oxtail is a prized cut in South Africa, and a potjie is the way most people cook it. It takes the better part of an afternoon, which is the point. The chutney, vinegar and curry stirred in at the end is a Cape Malay touch, and sliced banana on top of the pot is an old Natal and Cape habit that softens into the sauce.

Read potjie basics before you start, and reading your coals for keeping a low fire going for four hours.