Bobotie

Ingredients

• 800 g beef or lamb mince
• 2 thick slices of white bread
• 400 ml milk
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 tbsp mild curry powder
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 80 g raisins
• 80 g dried apricots, chopped
• 3 tbsp mango chutney
• 2 tbsp cider vinegar
• 50 g flaked almonds
• 3 eggs
• 4 bay leaves
• 40 g butter

Method

1. Cook the curry powder out

   Soften the onions in the butter, then add the curry powder and turmeric and fry for two minutes. Bobotie is a mild, fragrant dish rather than a hot one, and cooking the powder properly is what keeps it from tasting dusty.

   12 min

2. Soak the bread

   Soak the bread in the milk, then squeeze it out, keeping the milk for the topping. The bread is the binder that makes bobotie soft and almost custardy rather than crumbly like a mince pie filling.

3. Brown the mince

   Add the mince and cook until browned and any liquid has boiled away. Wet mince makes a bobotie that weeps under the topping.

   12 min

4. Sweet, sour, and nuts

   Stir in the squeezed bread, raisins, apricots, chutney, vinegar and half the almonds, and season well. The sweet-sour balance is the whole character of the dish — taste and push it further than feels normal for a meat bake.

5. The savoury custard

   Press the mixture into a dish, beat the eggs into the reserved milk, and pour it over. Lay the bay leaves on top, standing upright in the custard. Press the meat flat first or the topping runs into the gaps instead of sitting as a layer.

6. Bake

   Scatter the rest of the almonds and bake at 180°C for 40 minutes until the custard is just set and golden. Rest 10 minutes and serve with yellow rice and chutney.

   40 min