CapeCook
The most important ingredient you need for an oxtail potjie is time, it’s not a piece of meat that is going to be tender in half an hour or so, try four or more hours more than likely. I guess you can use normal curry powder, but I prefer to make a spice mix consisting of 2 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp cumin powder, 1 tsp coriander powder, 1 tsp ground turmeric, ½ tsp ginger powder, ¼ tsp cloves, ¼ tsp cardamom and ½ tsp dried chili flakes.
The rest of the ingredients are:
1kg oxtail pieces
3 Tbls corn starch (maizena)
2 tsp Worchestire sauce
1 medium onion chopped
70g tomato paste (1 small tin)
1L beef stock
10 small onions (pickle onions)
12 baby potatoes peeled.
Oil for frying the meat and onions
Salt
Pepper
Heat your potjie over open flames with a little oil inside. Dust the meat with the corn starch, shake off any excess, fry the meat a couple of pieces at a time until brown, remove each batch when brown, when all of the meat are brown, put back in the pot add the Worchestire sauce and fry another two minutes or so. Remove the meat and remove the oil from the pan, leaving only enough to fry your onions. Add the chopped onions and the spice mixture and fry until the onion are soft, add the tomato paste and fry another minute. Put the meat back in the pot and mix with the onion and spices until it completely covers the meat, flavor with salt and pepper. Add the beef stock and bring to the boil, after a couple of minutes remove some of the coals to reduce the heat. Simmer until the meat is soft but not falling from the bone; add the baby onions and potatoes simmer for about half an hour until soft.
Serve an a bed of rice, that’s suggestion is easy, what to drink with it is not,
some say beer, some say a semi-
OXTAIL CURRY POTJIE