Beef shin potjie — a feast for a slow day

Give a few slices of beef shin a bit of a French treatment. This isn’t beef Bourguignon as such — there are no mushrooms in it, for example — but there is bacon, and red wine, and herbs including rosemary and bay leaves. So it does stem from that rustic Gallic tradition.

I like a bit of sweetness in a meaty potjie. A goodly splash (or maybe two) or jerepigo went into it — that fortified red wine made from late summer red grapes ripened to attain a plummy richness that is divine in this style of dessert wine. They’re particularly good at that up at Orange River Cellars in the Northern Cape. Alcohol tends to be high, the wine deeply fruity, and this adds a delicious something to a beef potjie.

And the time that a potjie needs adds its own dimension to the texture and flavour of the contents of the pot. The bones of the shin, with the river of marrow running through them, slowly release all of what granny used to call “their goodness” into the stew that’s developing.

That gelatinous gift becomes almost an ingredient in its own right. It thickens the cooking stock and adds a whack of flavour, while the fats oozing into the stew enrich everything. Never underestimate what bones do for a stew.

But never rush a potjie (a meat one, that is, seafood is quite different and chicken always needs less time). But red meat requires your patience and will honour that with flavour and texture.

That’s your reward.

Tony’s beef shin potjie

(Serves 2-4)

Ingredients

4 thick slices of beef shin

3 or 4 Tbsp butter

1 large onion, sliced

2 celery stalks, diced

4 carrots, peeled (or not) and diced

200g streaky bacon, chopped

2 Tbsp flour

500ml beef stock (I used 2 Ina Paarman beef stock sachets stirred into boiling water)

400ml dry red wine

100ml jerepigo (or other fortified red wine)

1 x 400g can of chopped tomatoes

3 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped

3 bay leaves

3 or 4 rosemary sprigs

Salt

Black pepper

4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

Method

Prepare a fire and ensure you keep it going so that you can add coals around the perimeter of the potjie and a few coals on the lid, as needed.

Slice the onion, crush and chop the garlic, peel and dice the carrots and celery.

Boil a kettle and pour 500ml water into a jug with the beef stock from two sachets. Add to it the red wine, jerepigo, and chopped tomatoes. Add the rosemary sprigs and bay leaves, and the chopped garlic. Season with salt and black pepper. All of this will be poured into the potjie when the time comes, so just keep it to hand.

Having made sure the potjie is clean and dry, put some coals underneath it and let it heat up. Add the butter, let it start sizzling, then add the onions and bacon and cook for a few minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon as needed.

Add the celery and carrots and continue in the same way.

Add the slices of shin on the bone, and cook for 10 minutes or so, stirring so that they brown all over.

Sprinkle over 2 Tbsp of flour, stir to coat and let it cook for a few minutes, stirring now and then. This will ultimately thicken the stock that the meat is cooking in.

Pour in the contents of the jug, stir, put the kid on, and put a few hot coals on the lid.

When it’s cooked for an hour, peel the potatoes and cube them. Add them to the potjie, stir, put the lid back on and continue cooking. Taste, and add more salt and/or pepper if needed.

For the duration, the potjie should be at a gentle bubble, so put your ear to the side of it. If the boiling sounds too violent, there are too many coals underneath the pot. One solution is to push them so that they are around the edges of the potjie rather than directly underneath it.

Manage the coals with the object of that gentle bubble.

The potjie is done when the meat is tender. That may take about three hours all told, but if after that time it’s not quite tender enough, keep it going until you’re happy with the meat.

If you’re serving it with rice, or polenta, or even pasta (and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t), make sure you’ve cooked that by the time you want to serve the potjie. DM

Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the year award, in 2021 and 2023

Order Tony’s book, foodSTUFF, here.

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.