Project Food Blog #2: Bobotie (Classic South African Minced Meat Casserole)

227 0 Lunch, Egg, Meat

Bobotie (Classic South African Minced Meat Casserole)
Bobotie (Classic South African Minced Meat Casserole)
Bobotie (Classic South African Minced Meat Casserole)
Bobotie (Classic South African Minced Meat Casserole)

November 17, 2024

5/5 - (2 votes)

Bobotie (Classic South African Minced Meat Casserole) is promising to bring you a fascinating cooking experience in your own kitchen. Made with various ingredients but this recipe is worth trying once in your life, guys!

Recipe Description

Voting for Round 2 is open! Please take the time to cast your vote for PGEW to advance to the next round! Voting will close at 6 pm Pacific Time on Thursday, September 30th. Thanks in advance! – Kimberly

Okay, it’s official: I think I’ve just found my new favorite dish.

Obviously the following recipe is quite a departure from what I normally post on PGEW, which is the whole idea of the second challenge for Project Food Blog – recreate a dish from a culture outside of your own. But it’s not so far-fetched if you consider Poor Girl’s personal food history. Having grown up with both parents in the restaurant business, one of our favorite things to do as a family was to “restaurant hop” and check out new flavors & cuisines at any of the Bay Area’s many wonderful restaurants. Thai, Indian, Persian, French – you name it, we tried it. I loved these outings with my parents, not just because it was our way to spend quality time together and people-watch (the Morales family sport), but because it opened up an entirely new world to me through food, a world I had yet to see for myself. Not that I was any stranger to traveling when I was young – in addition to seeing different states, we used to spend every summer vacationing in Colombia, my mother’s birthplace. I’m eternally grateful for those summer trips because I was able to learn about a completely different way of life: one filled with many struggles, but also full of laughter, random parties, and of course, plenty of food.

But that’s the most distant place I’ve traveled to thus far, despite being seriously bitten by the travel bug. Dreams of visiting Thailand, France, Madagascar, and Bali, among many others, dance around in my head on a very regular basis. To scratch that wanderlust itch, I “travel” by continuing to try foods from places I hope to visit someday. This gives me a chance to experience these different cultures through their flavors, textures, and aromas. One area of the world that has always fascinated me is Africa, particularly its eastern and southern countries. An anthropology nerd, I find most of Africa rich with cultural treasures and natural beauty like none I’ve ever known. As a food geek and lover of complex flavor combinations, African cuisine intrigues me more than any other world cuisine: I find it exotic, mysterious, and full of history behind each and every captivating bite.

I had originally intended to try making Doro wat, a traditional Ethiopian chicken stew made with a spicy, smoky, red pepper broth. It seemed flavorful and like a true adventure to prepare, but most importantly, it was Poor Girl friendly (gotta stick to that budget!). However, I had invited my mom up for the weekend, and since she is severely allergic to peppers, I didn’t want to prepare something she wouldn’t be able to enjoy as well. Hellbent on trying my hand at African cooking for this challenge, I did what I always do and gleaned inspiration from my fridge and cupboards to see if there was something I could make that wouldn’t require too much in the way of extra ingredient purchases. Several hours of research later, I “traveled” south – way south – and ended up in South Africa, where I was greeted with a traditional dish called bobotie.

Bobotie (pronounced Bo-booh-tee or bah-BOH-tee depending on whom you ask), is a classic South African dish made with minced or ground meat (typically beef or lamb), dried fruits like raisins and apricots, bread, and a generous amount of curry and other spices, all topped with a light egg custard. Often touted as the national dish of South Africa, bobotie actually finds its most ancient roots in Indonesia. First adopted by the Cape Malay community, the recipe eventually made its way to different African colonies as settlers traveled throughout the southern part of the continent. Like most national dishes, there are as many variations of the recipe as there are South African grandmothers cooking it in their own kitchens, making the research I did for this dish fascinating and fun. From slight differences in how much turmeric should go into the dish and when, to varying accompaniments of dried coconut, chutney, or sliced bananas, there are many ways to make this dish your own. For my attempt, I actually ended up taking the best tips and measurements from three different bobotie recipes, including good ol’ Martha Stewart’s version (I had no idea she could get so exotic!).

I was fortunate enough to have pretty much everything I needed for this dish except for the meat and the apricot preserves. I headed to my new favorite Midtown store, Grocery Outlet, where I found a great deal on some Danish apricot preserves (seriously, where do they find these random things?). For the meat, I decided to check out the deals at Safeway. Unfortunately, they didn’t have anything great in the way of beef sales this weekend, and the packages of ground beef that were affordable were rather heavy on the fat. Instead, I decided to buy a nice cut of lean beef and grind it myself at home. With the spices, bread, milk, eggs, and other ingredients ready to go, I set out to make my first bobotie.

Details Recipe Information

Calories: 302.8
Fat: 11g
Cholesterol: 14.3mg
Sodium: 419.1mg
Potassium: 463.7mg
Carbohydrates: 33.7g
Protein: 11.1g

Ingredients

Minced Meat Filling:
1.5 lbs lean ground beef
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp curry powder
1/2 tbsp turmeric
1 tbsp ground ginger
3 tbsp apricot preserves
1/2 cup raisins
2 slices white bread
1 cup milk
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp fresh lemon zest
Salt & pepper to taste
6 bay leaves
Custard topping:
1 + 1/3 cup milk
3 medium eggs
Pinch of salt
Pinch of nutmeg

Method

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 325°. Butter a 9″ x 9″ casserole or baking dish and set aside. Heat a large skillet and add the olive oil. When the oil is heated, add the diced onions and saute over medium heat for 8-10 minutes, or until translucent and lightly browned. While the onions are cooking, soak the bread slices in the milk and set aside. Add the curry powder, turmeric, ginger, salt & pepper to the onions and mix together well. Next, add the ground beef and nuts, and cook for about 10 minutes, or until cooked through.

Step 2

Using a fork or clean hands, mash the soaked bread in the milk until it reaches a slightly liquidy paste-like consistency. Pour the mixture into the skillet with the meat and stir to combine, cooking until the mixture slightly begins to brown the bottom of the pan. Add the apricot preserves, raisins, lemon juice, and zest, and mix well until everything is completely combined. Remove from heat. Pour the meat & bread mixture into the buttered casserole, smooth with a spatula to create an even surface and bake for about 40 minutes.

Step 3

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, salt, and nutmeg until combined. Carefully remove the casserole from the oven and increase the heat to 350°. Gently pour the custard on top of the meat casserole, top with bay leaves, and return to the oven for about 20-25 minutes, until the custard is no longer runny in the middle and set around the edges. Remove from oven and allow to stand for about 10-15 minutes before cutting. Serve with yellow rice and apricot chutney, and enjoy!

Aside from the few minutes of the extra labor that the meat grinding and blanching & toasting my almonds incurred, I found bobotie surprisingly easy to make. Really, once all the spices are measured out and the onion chopping is complete, all you’re basically doing is sauteeing and baking. I think I found the custard topping the most intimidating because I wasn’t sure if it would turn out correctly, but going with my gut and adding that third egg really made the difference. My custard was light, fluffy, and moist, and did not sink into the meat mixture to create a big old mess as I had feared. I definitely recommend adding the bay leaves about halfway through the custard baking, so that they will act as a lovely garnish by not sinking into the custard, while still lending their signature flavor to the dish.

Bobotie is traditionally served with steamed yellow rice, so I made a light, aromatic rice side to go along with my casserole. I also used the rest of my apricot preserves to make a different version of cheater chutney, which was a nice addition but not really necessary as the bobotie itself is just bursting with complex flavors. Smoky, savory, and sweet all at once, with the hearty texture of the meat & bread mixture, evened out by the delicate fluffiness of the custard, I still can’t get over how amazing this dish is! Even my mom said she was “deliriously happy” with the entire meal, a wonderful compliment for any cook to hear. The best part about this is that it’s extremely filling, so even if I’ve written that this will serve 4 to 6 people, it could easily serve about 8 folks. It also makes for amazing leftovers, as it tastes just as wonderful when it’s cold!

All in all, I’d say this “trip” to South Africa was a success, and I couldn’t be more grateful to Project Food Blog for making us step outside of our culinary comfort zones in order to try something new. Even the most adventurous cook has her weak points, and I found this particular challenge helped me improve both as a blogger and a cook. Voting for Round 2 starts Monday, September 27th, so if you enjoyed reading about this bobotie experience as much as I enjoyed writing about it, please cast your vote for yours truly! Thanks for reading!