Page 2 - 07 March 2025

PAGE 2 · THE REPORTER 07 MARCH 2025

Potjiekos, the dish consists for hours on end – resulting
of a variety of ingredients, in tender roasts and stews.
t y p i c a l l y m e a t a n d The pots were also perfect
vegetables, layered in a for storing meat until the
round cast-iron pot and next cook. by Antony Sguazzin, Bloomberg
placed on open coals. This ‘Breaking in’ a new pot is South African agricultural accounted for 44% of the
style of cooking dates back essential exports rose 3% to a record trade, Asia and the Middle
to the 1500s and epitomizes $13.7 billion last year led East 21% and the European
South African cuisine, A new pot should be ‘broken by shipments of citrus fruit Union 19%, the organisation
rivaled only by the ever-so- in’ to get rid of iron taste and and grapes, an industry known as Agbiz said. The US
popular braai. any residue in the new pot. body said. received 4% of shipments.
The inside of the pot should
The origin of potjiekos The increase is the sixth Still, agricultural imports
then be scoured with
The origins can be traced sandpaper, washed and c o n s e c u t i v e a n n u a l jumped 8% to $7.6 billion
back to Leiden in 1574 greased with fat, after which expansion of the sector’s because of higher prices of
during the Eighty Years’ War. a mixture of leftovers or old export trade as the country some of the commodities it
A “Hutspot”, which is still vegetables should be seeks to open up new brings into the country such
cooked at the annual cooked in the pot for a few markets for its produce, a as wheat, palm oil and rice,
remembrance day of the hours. The pot should be report released on Monday the group said.
Siege of Leiden, closely rinsed with warm, soapy by the Agricultural Business That meant the agricultural
resembles potjiekos, as it is a water and the inside coated Chamber of South Africa trade surplus shrank 2% to
layered “stew”. The Dutch with oil or fat after each use, showed. $6.2 billion from the year
hutspot originated in the to prevent it rusting. Other African countries earlier.
Netherlands during the siege
and was made up of a mix of
vegetables and sometimes
meat.
The original hutspot recipe
came from the cooked bits
of vegetables left behind in
pots by Spanish soldiers
during the siege, which the
hungry Leideners then ate.
The dish became a symbol
of their victory and has been
adapted to modern times.
When the Dutch settlers
arrived in the Cape in 1652,
their tradition of cooking in
cast-iron pots came with
them. These containers were
ideal for the time, as they
retain heat extremely well
and as such food simmers