Bobotie From The Cape Recipes

BEST BOBOTIE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.
• Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the onions in the hot oil until soft. Break the ground beef into the skillet and cook until brown.
• Place the milk in a shallow dish. Soak the bread in the milk. Squeeze the excess milk from the bread. Set the milk aside. Add the bread to the beef mixture. Stir in the raisins, apricot jam, chutney, curry powder, salt, and black pepper. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.
• Bake in the preheated oven 1 hour.
• While the bobotie bakes, whisk together the reserved milk, egg, and a pinch of salt. Pour over top of the dish. Lay the bay leaf onto the top of the milk mixture.
• Return the bobotie to the oven until the top is golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove bay leaf before serving.

CAPE MALAY BOBOTIE RECIPE

Steps:

• In a medium to hot pan cook the onions until soft, then add the mince and brown, mixing well to combine with the onions.
• Soak the bread in milk and mash it in a bowl with a metal fork.
• Put 1 egg, half a cup of milk and the bay leaves aside.
• Place this mixture into a greased oven proof dish and bake at 180°C for 30 minutes.
• Mix all the other ingredients together and then combine with the mince, allowing it to cook until the flavours have combined for about 5 minutes.
• Beat the remaining milk and eggs that you put aside earlier and pour over meat mixture. Float the bay leaves on the top and bake for another 30 minutes.

BOBOTIE - SOUTH AFRICAN CAPE MALAY CASSEROLE

Steps:

• Soak the bread in the cup of milk, set aside.
• In a large, non-stick skillet, brown the ground beef.
• Add the onions, garlic, curry powder and turmeric and cook until the onions are soft.
• Add sugar, vinegar, raisins, apple, salt and pepper.
• Pour in water and gravy mixture and cook gently until it starts to thicken.
• Remove from heat and cool slightly.
• Gently squeeze excess milk from the bread (add the milk to the custard topping) and tear apart into chunks.
• Fold into meat mixture together with the beaten egg.
• Place the meat mixture into a greased 9 x 9" casserole dish and bake at 350°F for 15 minutes.
• Remove from oven and cool completely.
• Prepare custard topping.
• For the custard topping: beat together the milk, eggs and salt.
• Gently pour over the cooled meat mixture.
• Sprinkle with nutmeg and place bay leaves on top.
• Return casserole to oven until the top is set- about 20 to 25 minutes.
• Serve warm (not hot or better still, room temperature) alongside yellow rice and sambals on the side.
• Cook rice in the usual manner adding turmeric and salt to the water.
• Drain and fluff up, add almonds.
• Place the sambals in small serving dishes and allow guests to help themselves.

BOBOTIE, FROM THE CAPE

Steps:

• *It might not be easy to find the breyani mix of spices we can get here. But it is only a mix of some or all of the following spices, which you could mix yourself and crush or process coarsely: fennel seeds, coriander seeds, cumin, pimento berries, cardamom, black pepper, star anise, bay leaves and cassia or cinnamon sticks.
• Set oven at 350 deg F/180 deg Celsius For fan/convection ovens the heat can be 10 deg. lower.
• In a small bowl, tear up the slices of bread roughly, and pour over the ½ cup milk. Set aside.
• Peel and chop the onion. Heat about 3 tablespoons oil in a large pot. Fry the onion over medium heat until translucent.
• Add the curry powder, coarsely crushed breyani spices and turmeric. Stir, and let the spices fry for a few minutes. Add more oil if they stick: usually quite a bit of oil is needed.
• Add the chopped, peeled tomato, sugar, grated apple and lemon rind and stir through. Fry for a minute, then add the meat.
• Break up the meat so that the ground meat is loose. Add the salt. Stir often, and mix through with the spice mixture.
• Add the apricot jam, and stir so it melts into the meat mixture.
• When the meat is sort of medium done, remove the pot from the heat. Stir through and let cool a little.
• Take the bread which has been soaking in the milk, and break it up into wet crumbs. The bread will have absorbed all the milk. Add the milky crumbs to the meat mixture, and mix through.
• Break the egg in a bowl, whisk, and add the milk.
• Add this milk-egg mixture to the meat as well.
• Turn into a greased oven dish, and stud with almonds on top. Bake for 40 minutes in the preheated oven.
• Whisk the last egg with the milk and enough turmeric to turn the mixture a nice yellow colour. Take the meat out of the oven, pour over the custard, and bake about 15 minutes longer, or until the egg custard has set.
• Serve with Yellow Rice (Begrafnisrys), a green vegetable such as broccoli, and a salad.
• After tasting the bobotie, feel free to play around with the spices next time!