Bobotie-Licious

My favorite dish while I lived in South Africa was something called Bobotie (ba-bo-tea). You can read about the history of the dish here. I haven't heard of any restaurant serving this dish in the Los Angeles area, so the only way I can eat this is if I make it. Just like all the food I make, it's completely tweakable, and this is a dish that really does vary depending on where you eat it, or with who makes it. My favorite way to eat it when I lived in South Africa was in a flaky pie casing. Many people add raisins, bananas and other dried fruit. I typically don't really like to mix much fruit with meat, (or at least have fruit cooked in with it). I tend to enjoy my bobotie a bit move on the savory side. There are still hints of sweetness in the dish, but I need the right balance. Don't forget, this dish is often served with some sort of fruit chutney (I will talk about my apricot jalapeno chutney in a moment). I made it for my wife for the first time last night, and am happy to say it was a success.

Before we get started these are two VERY IMPORTANT things to never forget when cooking!


#1. Always prepare all the ingredients before you start cooking and have them set out. The last thing you want to do is have ingredients over-cooking in the pan while you are rushing to prep the rest, or looking for something.

#2. Chop and cut all your ingredients evenly and to the same size. This will help everything cook evenly.


I use my mother's recipe as a starting point.

This is what you need:

1 lb. ground beef

1 thick slice bread

1 cup milk

1 onion, chopped

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons curry powder

2 teaspoons salt

Pinch of pepper

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1-3 teaspoons brown sugar

2 eggs

4-6 bay leaves

Sliced almonds

This is what you do:

Brown the ground beef in a skillet until no longer pink. Don’t over-cook it because it will finish cooking in the oven. Drain grease from the meat and set aside.

On a dish, soak the bread in ½ of the milk until very soft. Then mash it with a fork.

Melt the butter in another skillet; add chopped onion and sauté. Add the curry powder, salt & pepper and stir in the hot skillet for 2 minutes. Add the lemon juice, soaked bread, brown sugar, desired amount of almonds and the ground beef. Stir well to remove lumps from the meat.

Transfer all of mixture to a slightly buttered casserole dish and smooth down the top. Beat the eggs in a small bowl with the remaining milk. Pour egg mixture over the top of the meat mixture. I like it when the eggs seep into the meat mixture a bit instead of just having it all sit on top. It will also hold the dish together better this way. Arrange the bay leaves on the top of the Bobotie.



Bake at 325-350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the egg mixture is set and meat is browned nicely. If meat gets too done before the egg mixture sets, cover with foil and keep in oven a bit longer.


Chutney is a must with Bobotie. There are soooo many different kinds of chutneys and just as many ways to make and tweak them into exactly what you want. Here is the chutney I made last night to go with my Bobotie. You will notice I used plum jam. This is because I had no other fruit to add and I happen to have a home made jar from my dear friend Cindy in the fridge. I get so much joy out of experimenting while cooking and adding the plum jam really paid off.



This is what you need:


2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 teaspoons finely chopped peeled fresh ginger

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/2 of a jalapeno pepper(this adds a good kick. use less if you are ascared of the heat)

3/4 cup dried apricots (6 oz)

1/2 cup of plum jam

3/4 cup water1/3

cup red-wine vinegar1/4

cup sugar3/4 teaspoon salt

This is what you do:

1. Cook garlic and ginger in oil in a 1- to 1 1/2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring until golden. About 1 to 2 minutes.
2. Add mustard seeds and cook for one minute, stirring, until fragrant

3. Add and mix in all remaining ingredients. Lower heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally until almost all liquid is absorbed for around about 20 minutes (chutney should be moist).








Serve the Bobotie with rice and the chutney on the side. Try it out and let me know what you think!




Next up is a Veggie Tikka Masala for Meatless Monday. You can read all about it tomorrow....