Cooking in Namibia

Potjie-Recipes for your trip

The Namibian Farm cuisine is known for it's variety: it is almost unbelievable that, in this lonely and empty expose of the desert, so many lodges and guesthouses appear, that can prepare such delicious Game and meat dishes with fresh vegetables.

Several kind of meat, sausages but also pumpkins, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, onions, beans and sweet potatoes is accessible in supermarkets, to stock up for self catering on camping tours is not a problem. This is made possible by a round, cast-iron Pot with three legs, the "Potjie". Several ingredients are prepared over a camping fire, with the addiction of spices, to make a hearty stew. If there is not enough firewood or coal, animal dung will do too. We put together two recipes for you.

Curry-Chicken Potjie with apricots (Potjie Size 3 for 6 persons):

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tabelspoons cooking oil - heat up
• 12 chicken pieces/drumsticks (1,5kg) - roast
• 1 big onion
• 2 pieces of fresh garlic
• 1 piece of fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons of Curry (allow ingredients to simmer for five minutes)
• Salt, nutmeg, coriander, kurkuma (turmeric) to your liking
• 0,5 l Ginger Ale (use it to deglaze)
• 4 ground cardamom kapsules (rarely available in Namibia, you may also leave it out), 1 cinnamon stick,1 bay leaf - put in a little cotton puch or a "tea-egg"
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 250 gr dried apricots (dried peaches will also do) on top

Preparation:

Put all the ingredients into the potjie as described above. Put on the lid and let it cook for about 2 hours. Take out the cotton pouch/tea egg. Add ¾ Becher Joghurt with 1 tablespoon of flour and stir it in. Serve it with rice.