On the heat. Mild

Ingredients

• 2 kg lamb knuckles
• 3 tbsp oil
• 3 onions, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic
• 500 ml stock, 250 ml red wine
• 3 bay leaves, 6 allspice berries, thyme
• — THE LAYERS, IN THIS ORDER
• 6 potatoes, halved
• 4 carrots, in chunks
• 300 g baby marrow
• 200 g green beans
• 200 g mushrooms

Method

1. Brown the knuckles hard in the pot in batches. Crowd them and they will steam instead. Set aside.
2. Onions and garlic in the same fat until soft. Meat back in, liquid and aromatics in, lid on.
3. Low coals under the pot — you want a bare tremble, not a bubble. Two and a half hours, untouched.
4. Now layer the vegetables on top in the order given, densest first. Do not stir at any point from here. That is the whole discipline of a potjie: it steams in layers and each thing tastes of itself.
5. Lid on, another hour. Check only by lifting the lid, never with a spoon.
6. Serve straight from the pot, digging down through the layers. Rice or pot bread.

Cook's note. Why not stirring matters. A stirred potjie is a stew. The layers hold distinct textures and the vegetables cook in meat steam rather than boiling in liquid.

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