Chef on the hoof
Today I bought a cast iron casserole dish. It’s quite a cool casserole dish – a version of what people in these parts call a ‘potjie’, inexplicably pronounced ‘poikie’.
Potjies are very popular as an alternative to frazzling slabs of dead kudu over a roaring fire. Instead, you fill a heavy, three-legged cast iron pot with various ingredients, including slabs of dead kudu if you so desire, set it over a roaring fire and sit drinking wine while it bubbles aromatically away.
The casserole dish I bought is part of an attempt on my part actually to learn to cook. I thought, I can either be miserable and bitter, and eat toast, or I can spend too much money of fancy kitchen ware and become fat and jolly. I like the idea of spending money, so it wasn’t a tough decision.
Last night, I had it in my head to try a new recipe for beef stew. Unfortunately I didn’t realize that it required the use of a casserole dish. All of the pans that my house came with are made of tin foil, and have one wobbly handle, making sieving spaghetti a dangerous challenge. None of the lids fit. Clearly none were suitable for casseroling.
So I bought a cast iron one instead, despite several misgivings about how my extremely small counter-top stove is going to cope with it. I’m worried that I may have been rash and that it’s not even going to fit in the oven.
Should this be the case, I will just have to make sure I take it with me everywhere, in case the opportunity to casserole should unexpectedly crop up. It’s very heavy, and cumbersome, but it does come with a handy carry bag, just to make life easier for the roving chef.
Sometimes I marvel at a national mentality that provides specially designed carrying cases for casserole dishes, and I relish the opportunity to use it.
All the same, I really, really hope it fits.
June 8th, 2006 at 7:12 pm
ooh, man, i love a good beef stew and a pot with a carry case – its like peanut butter and choccy, or a chainsaw at the end of a gun, the perfect combination
June 9th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
PeeJay, I agree. The chainsaw-on-the-end-of-a-gun was always my favour weapon in Doom. It’s next on my list of ‘fancy kitchen ware’ to purchase.
June 16th, 2006 at 10:59 am
Mmmm. Kudu. If you’re in London and hankering for Kudu, you can get it at Meat City, in Clerkenwell – as I discovered one night when I wandered in looking for, “Two steaks of something lean and flavoursome that I can grill.”
The butcher was cleaning up and the choice was some lamb, some zebra, a piece of camel or two Kudu steaks.
Cooked them with a port and cranberry glaze – just gorgeous.
Good luck with your casserole. If it doesn’t fit in the oven, you can cook it on top of the stove. Cast Iron dishes work beautifully on top of the stove too – but keep the head own low, because my cast iron casserole will stay boiling on the lowest heat setting on our stove.
June 16th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
Damian – it does fit in the oven! I have also used it on the hob though, and it is the most fabulous piece of kitchen ware I have yet bought. Have you tried springbok? It is truly delicious.
February 7th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Hi THERE , If you don’t mind me saying so your blog thingy is all very fluffy and tasty and so on, but would love to see a bit more passion for what you actually do in Namibia, who pays for it and what their objectives are…
Party on
Terry
Nam LOVER