{"id":728,"date":"2014-09-19T07:48:04","date_gmt":"2014-09-19T07:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/?p=728"},"modified":"2014-09-19T07:52:51","modified_gmt":"2014-09-19T07:52:51","slug":"fish-thursday-night-potjie-not-to-be-missed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/?p=728","title":{"rendered":"Fish Thursday night potjie not to be missed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cloaked in mystery and guarded with a vigilance befitting a state secret the massive gathering of paddlers that will converge on Cradock for the Hansa Fish River Canoe Marathon on 10 and 11 October always ask, and never get an answer to questions about the legendary Karoo lamb potjiekos dinner served to the participants the evening before the race starts.<\/p>\n

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Hours and hours and countless singed leg hairs go into the preparation of the Hansa Fish River Canoe Marathon’s the legendary Thursday night potjie.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s the best kept culinary secret in the country, and not even locals in the inner sanctum of the race organising committee are allowed to see the recipe, which is kept under lock and key.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe at the Fish River Tennis Club assemble a team of about ten couples who take great pride in putting on the potjie for the 800-1000 hungry mouths on the Thursday night before the race,\u201d said director of all things potjie, Valerie Collett.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get together a while in advance and decide on how many pots we\u2019ll do that year, where we\u2019re going to get the meat from, etc.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe men then get together and slaughter the sheep which are then left to hang for a week. All the guys then regather for a morning of cutting the meat up and prepping it for the big day!\u201d<\/p>\n

While many look forward to sitting down to their portion of the delicious plate of the typically Karoo dish at the 33rd edition of the Hansa Fish in a few weeks\u2019 time, the closely guarded secret recipe continues to remain hush-hush amongst the privileged few.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my fourth year overseeing the potjie at the Fish and still we don\u2019t know whose recipe it is!<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I moved to Cradock eight years ago I was given \u2018the file\u2019 that had been assembled since the race\u2019s beginnings and in there was the closely guarded secret recipe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is kept under lock and key year round until just before the race when I, and only I, take it out and have a glance!<\/p>\n

\u201cThe recipe isn\u2019t shared with anyone, not even those making the potjie on the day know all of the ingredients that go into the pot and especially not the recipe for the secret ingredient behind the taste \u2013 our sauce!\u201d laughed Collett.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can however confirm that some of the ingredients are Karoo lamb \u2013 of course, potatoes, onions, mixed veg and a surprising yet vital ingredient is dried fruit!\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

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Close on 1000 hungry souls gather on Cradock Sports Grounds’ fields to enjoy their heavily laden plateful of the Hansa Fish River Canoe Marathon’s legendary Thursday night potjie.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like forbidden fruit dangled in front of them, annually paddlers and spectators suffer the bittersweet sight of the abundance of uniquely South African cast-iron pots \u2013 patiently resting on a carefully crafted and monitored bed of coals and containing the highly anticipated mouth-watering mixture \u2013 that flank the yellowed dusty fields of the Cradock Sports Club on the Thursday before the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really is a daylong operation! The making of the roosterbrood starts at 6 o\u2019clock in the morning, the first fires are lit at 10 o\u2019clock and the rice begins being made around 11 o\u2019clock!<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the day the men do most of the work regarding the potjie as they make sure things don\u2019t burn, there are enough but not too many coals burning away under each pot etc. and they get absolutely singed throughout the day!<\/p>\n

\u201cAs one can imagine, there is plenty of testosterone flowing throughout the day each guy tries to out-do the next. Everyone has their own theories \u2013 when to add what, to stir or not to stir. It\u2019s all very funny and at our annual report-back meeting we always have a very tongue-in-cheek nomination of the best potjie of the year,\u201d explained Collett.<\/p>\n

Once finally finished working its magic, the highly anticipated plate of goodness is then served on a bed of rice and with a traditional roosterbrood \u2013 filled with the love and care of the local farmers\u2019 wives and workers and the decades of history of the region \u2013 and complimented perfectly with a bottle of the sponsor\u2019s bitterly cold brew.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rice is made in massive polystyrene cooler boxes lined with foil. 8 kilograms of rice are poured into the cooler box before 13 litres of rapidly boiling water is stirred in with a pinch of salt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are then closed and wrapped up in blankets to keep the rice warm for that evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cA local husband and wife and their fantastic team of female farm workers are in charge of making the roosterbrood. They\u2019ve got their own fires going from 6 o\u2019clock in the morning and they just keep pumping out batch after batch of roosterbrood which we find just goes so well with the potjie!\u201d added Collett.<\/p>\n

Massive crowds are once again expected to be wowed by 2014\u2019s Friday and Saturday night concert performers, top South African musicians LCNVL as well as Shortstraw and Gangs of Ballet, however few will be willing to give up their prized golden potjie ticket entitling them to a generous portion of the local farmers\u2019 renowned Karoo lamb cuisine the night before the starter\u2019s gun fires.<\/p>\n

The Hansa Fish River Canoe marathon takes place on Friday 10 and Saturday 11 October 2014.<\/p>\n

Interesting Numbers:<\/span>
\n<\/strong>Karoo lamb \u2013 240kg
\nPotatoes \u2013 56kg
\nRice \u2013 50kg
\nOnions \u2013 40kg
\nFlour \u2013 100kg
\nMouths feed annually \u2013 1000
\nPotjie pots used \u2013 8
\nWood \u2013 3 bakkie loads<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cloaked in mystery and guarded with a vigilance befitting a state secret the massive gathering of paddlers that will converge on Cradock for the Hansa …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":733,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/PotjiePrepSLIDER-150x50.jpg",150,50,true],"full":["https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/PotjiePrepSLIDER.jpg",1050,350,false]},"categories_names":{"2":{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/?cat=2"}},"tags_names":[],"comments_number":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":731,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions\/731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}