It’s November, the weather is great, people are braaing every weekend, and we’re rapidly heading downhill towards summer holidays, Christmas and … wedding season.
Female columnists and women’s magazines will focus on this topic over the next few months, so I decided to beat the rush, so to speak, and discuss an all-important topic now: what present to buy your braai relatives and friends when they decide to exchange take-away salads for permanent salad makers.
Since the first of my friends took the plunge and married a few years ago, I’ve been pretty consistent in giving them a particular present (if all your friends are already married this will make a great Christmas gift too). I’m referring, of course, to the immortal, timeless, cast-iron pot or, as we call it in Afrikaans, the swartpotjie.
The mark of a good wedding present is that it should last, unlike say crystal glasses, an item that all too frequently pollutes gift registries. I very rarely buy gifts off the registry, both out of principle and because on the morning of the wedding I never know where to find that little registry card that came with the invitation a few months earlier.
The offering should be relevant to the male half of the bridal couple as well, as this is usually the person who put me on the guest list in the first place. It’s just as important that the present I give be useful, even if the couple already has one, and a braaier can never have too many pots.
There is something symbolic about the cast-iron pot: it really does last a lifetime, until death do you part; the lid fits the pot; and preparing a great potjiekos meal entails the various ingredients cooking together under pressure and heat to ultimately create one combined taste, ‘a marriage of flavours’ as chefs like to call it.
If, like me, you’re prone to last-minute wedding gift shopping, it’s a good idea to buy a few cast-iron pots as they won’t spoil in your cupboard. Keep them at home, perfect to grab on your way to a Saturday-afternoon wedding function, while cursing under your breath that said couple scheduled their wedding on exactly the afternoon that your rugby team finally has the chance to score a bonus-point, four-try victory.
The cast-iron pot is an iconic symbol of the South African braai and no self-respecting man should try to run a household, let alone raise kids, if he doesn’t yet posses the ability to create at least one great meal in a potjie.
These days, cast-iron pots retail for about R300 to R600. There are three types of potjies: classic, bake and flat. Start with a size 3 classic shape (the round-bottom one with three legs) and a size 10 bake pot (the flat-bottomed one without legs). After that you can expand your range to include various sizes of each and also buy a platpotjie, which is the pot of the classic shape, but without legs and a small flat part at the bottom, perfect for using on a stove when there is a hurricane outside or for transporting by car to unmarried friends for a Sunday lunch.
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