Our weekend in a few photos …
Above are a few pictures of our lovely long weekend away.. the nights might have been freezing but the days were beautiful and I loved every minute! – Except the freezing at night, thank goodness for our heater!!
We arrived at Chelmsford then set up camp at the Sandford site, which is placed with outlooks of the dam and the waterfront. There was ablutions that have hot water showers, flush toilets and basins with washing facilities, so that was a big save.
The fresh water fishing provided us with an excellent opportunity to catch carp and scalies. The nature reserve (that was right next to the campsites) offered me exciting game viewing opportunities on Saturday morning while drinking my tea, I saw herds of springbok, blesbok and zebra, as well as a significant amount of the rare and elusive oribi antelope. The rest of the people, including Wes, went to fish at winter games on the other side of the dam. They left at 05:30am while it was still dark and feezing.
I was left behind – by choice I might add – I said I will make the poitjie that will be ready when they get back. The poitjie was the cherry on top of a wonderful day watching Zebras and feeding the birds. Everyone loved it .. I was so chuffed!! I made a Chicken Poitjie and here is the recipe:
EASY CHICKEN POITJIE WITH DUMPLINGS
Serves: 10
Cooking Time: 2.5 hours
Potjie
45 ml (3 T) oil
3 Onions, diced
4 bay leaves
2 Tbsp crushed Garlic
4 Tbsp Mild curry powder – depending on the heat you want
1 Tbsp Tumeric
2 Tbsp Garam Masala
2 Tbsp Chillie powder – optional
3 Tbsp Chillie flakes – optional
2 kg chicken thighs & drumsticks
2 tsp salt
250 ml (1 c) chicken stock
50g Tomato Paste
4 large potatoes, cubed, I used this to thicken the sauce
10 – 12 Baby potatoes
4 large carrots, sliced
250 g whole button mushrooms
4-6 baby marrows, sliced
salt and pepper (optional)
I also added Butternut, sweet potato, celery. However, the veggies are all up to you. You can basically add what you enjoy.
I added 250ml of cream, so if you were worrying about the heat the cream neutralises it completely. Only the flavour of all the spices comes through.
I used already-made bread dough, but if you want to make it yourself here are the ingredients:
Dumplings
250 ml (1 c) cake flour
7 ml (1½ t) baking powder
2 ml (½ t) salt
60 g Margarine, diced
10 ml (2 t) dried parsley – optional
60-80 ml (¼–1⁄3 c) milk
You can make a Poitjie either on Gas or on a fire; I made it on gas because it is easier to regulate the temperature. If you use fire, make sure you have two fires going to feed new coles under or around the pot so that there is always heat.
Potjie Heat the oil in a heavy-based cast-iron pot.
Add the onions, let them brown a little, add your garlic and bay leaves. Let that lightly brown and then add all your spices and then chicken pieces and salt and fry a few pieces at a time until golden brown. Add your stock and tomato paste.
Add your potatoes. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 45 minutes.
Add the carrots, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the mushrooms and baby marrows, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add some water if the potjie becomes too dry.
All depending on how long veggies take to cook add them accordingly; you don’t want them getting too soggy.
Before I added my dumplings, I stirred the cream in.
Dumplings
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Rub the Margarine into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the parsley and just enough milk to form a soft dough.
Drop tablespoonful’s into the potjie and cover with the lid.
Cook for at least 15-20 minutes without lifting the lid until cooked. (The dumplings are cooked when a knife inserted into the thickest part comes out clean.)
You can either have this with rice or pap, we just had the dumplings. It was more than enough and so filling.
So I hope you all had a great weekend and celebrated Youth Day in the correct manner!!
Hope you try this Poitjie recipe, It really was Yum!
Lots of Love.
Whitney Xx
peace and cake 