So, after a very lazy week or so, I have gotten back into the kitchen 🙂
I eased back in with something relatively easy – Bobotie, from South Africa. Although this dish has a few origins, from the Indonesian Bobotok, to a version from the Dutch with is probably the same thing as they were vast travellers and most likely brought it to SA.
I ate this once before, at a place in Cottesloe called Zulu. Unfortunately that restaurant is long gone, despite being awesome. Mine tasted a little sweeter, probably because I went overboard with the apricot jam, but it was still really good and filling and different to something I would normally make with minced beef.
It’s kind of like a Greek moussaka, but with a curry twist, and egg topping instead of eggplant, which is a nice change. Some recipes called for the topping to include bread, others wanted the bread in the meat, so I did the latter. Next time I’ll try the bread in the egg topping, as that sounds like a yummy French toast kind of topping. This was for two people.
Bobotie:
250gm of beef and pork mince
½  onion, diced (I used red, but use brown or white if you have it)
2 cloves garlic, smooshed
1 teaspn apricot jam
1 tblespn sultana or raisins, chopped
½ teaspn turmeric (plus a sprinkle for the topping)
1 teaspn curry powder
splash worcester sauce
butter for frying
salt and pepper
2 slices bread, chopped and soaked in milk
2 eggs
Bay leaves
Heat butter in a pan and gently sweat the onion and garlic. Add the dry spices, Worcester sauce, meat and soaked bread (reserve the milk – just press the excess out with a spoon before adding to pan) and fry til no more pink is left in the meat. Add the jam and sultanas and stir in well. Keep on low heat.
Beat the two eggs in a bowl with a sprinkle of turmeric and beat in the leftover milk from the bread.
Before transferring to a baking dish, add salt and pepper to taste. It’s at this point I added more jam, which was too much, so be careful. Press meat mixture into the dish, flattening the top. Pour egg mixture over the top, garnish with some bay leaves, and bake til set.
We ate this with rice, although it’s filling on it’s own, or with some crusty bread.
Yerm.