How To Make Bobotie | Native South African Dish

Hi there!
Over the weekend I learnt to make Bobotie, a native South African dish and I can’t exactly tell you if I got it spot on, but I know it tasted really gooooood!
Firstly, Bobotie is pronounced “Ba-Boor-Tea. It is a native south African dish with ground meat as the main ingredient. Bobotie is a Cape-Malay creation, and they spice it up even more with cumin, coriander and cloves.
There are many local variations, but the idea is that the mince should be tender and creamy in texture, which means long, slow cooking. Early cooks added a little tamarind water; lemon rind and juice is a more modern adaptation.

INGREDIENTS

1. • minced lamb or beef, or a mixture of the two
   • butter, vegetable oil
   • 2 onions, chopped
   • 2 ml (1/2 teaspoon) crushed garlic
   • 15 ml (1 tablespoon) curry powder
   • 5 ml (1 teaspoon) ground turmeric
   • 2 slices bread, crumbled
   • 60 ml (1/4 cup) milk
   • finely grated rind and juice of 1/2 small lemon
   • 1 egg
   • 5 ml (1 teaspoon) salt, milled black pepper
   • 100 g (3 ounces) dried apricots, chopped
   • 1 Granny Smith apple peeled, cored and chopped
   • 60 ml (1/4 cup) sultanas (golden raisins)
   • 50 g (1 1/2 ounces) slivered almonds, roasted in a dry frying pan
   • 6 lemon, orange, or bay leaves

FOR THE TOPPING

• 250 ml (1 cup) milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 ml (1/2 teaspoon) salt

LET’S GET COOKING NOW

1. Set the oven at 160°C (325°F). Butter a large casserole. Heat butter and oil in a saucepan and fry the onion and garlic until translucent. Stir in the curry powder and turmeric, and cook briefly until fragrant. Remove the pot from the heat.
2. Mix in the minced meat. Mix together the crumbs, milk, lemon rind and juice, egg, salt, pepper, apricots, apple, sultanas (golden raisins) and almonds and mix in. Pile into the casserole and level the top. Roll up the leaves and bury them at regular intervals. Seal with foil and bake for 1 1/4 hours. Increase the oven temperature to 200°C (400°F). Mix together the topping milk, eggs and salt (you may require extra topping if you’ve used a very large casserole), pour over and bake uncovered for a further 15 minutes until cooked and lightly browned. Serve with rice. ” Kufurahia chakula chako” (That means “enjoy your meal” in swahili 😉

Be sure to let me know what you think about it when you make yours. Bye for now.
PS : I couldn’t succeed at getting good pictures so I decide to download these better looking images from Google