2013 Cooking Club week 21: Bobotie

Bo bo what?? Bobotie(pronounced Boo boo tee, or Bo boor tee)

Bobotie is a South African dish, considered by many to be the national dish. It has it's roots in both African and Indian cooking, and each area in South Africa has it's own version, but Durban Bobotie is arguably the best, due to the large Indian and Asian population(the highest outside of the Indian Subcontinent) Bobotie is a spiced mince, baked with an egg custard on top. Sounds delightful, doesn't it? I promise it is very tasty though!

Apologies for the lack of pictures, I'm in my parents at the moment and my mother was hanging over my shoulder while I made this, and distracted me :mad:


Ingredients

1 kilo of minced Lamb or Beef
1/2 an onion diced
1 large Tbspn Curry powder(Rajah is the South African brand I prefer, but is hard to find in Ireland)
2 Tbspn hot Chutney
1 Tbspn Apricot jam
1 Tspn Worcestershire Sauce
Pinch of Tumeric
2 cloves of Garlic, crushed, or a good pinch of Garlic powder
1 handful of Raisins(optional)
3 Eggs
1 Slice of white bread(without crusts)
350 Ml Milk
Pinch of salt

Method
Soak the bread in a little milk, until it softens and separates.
Fry the onions in oil until translucent. Add the curry powder, chutney, apricot jam, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, bread(keep the milk for the topping), and rasins, if using. Add the mince on top and fry until browned. Beat one of the eggs and combine with the meat mixture. Spoon into a casserole or pyrex dish, and smooth out the top.

Beat the remaining two eggs, and combine with the milk, pinch of salt and Tumeric. Pour over the meat mixture, and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for one hour, or until the egg custard is set and nicely browned. serve with rice or a salad.









You don't really need to add the raisins tbh, they do add a certain sweetness to the dish, but I find South Africans tend to err on the side of diabetes when it comes to adding sugar or fruit-the chutney and apricot jam is enough for me.
Do try to find a decent Indian curry powder(or paste) Chinese curry lacks the smokiness and depth that you'll find in Indian curry.