Image Credit: © Inge Loots, All Rights Reserved.

Originally, this South African meat dish was made from leftover meat with fruits and curry. It’s served with chutney or blatjang. I usually eat it with a salad and geelrys (yellow rice). I will explain how to make geelrys below today’s recipe. This is a great summer dish.

Ingredients

  • 500 grams minced beef or mutton
  • 2 onions
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • oil (not olive oil)
  • 2 bananas
  • 1 big apple
  • about 25 grams raisins
  • about 25 grams chopped almonds
  • 2-3 tablespoons of chutney (recipe)
  • 1 slice of bread with crusts removed
  • 1 egg
  • about 100 ml. milk
  • 1-2 tablespoons curry
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger root
  • salt and pepper to taste (or one crumbled stock cube)
  • 4 bay leaves

Directions

Peel the onions and chop them into small pieces. Glaze the onions with the pressed garlic in the oil. Add the minced beef and stir-fry until golden. When the minced meat is brown and loose, add the fruit and the raisins. Stir well to make sure everything is mixed. Allow the flavors to mix for about 5 minutes on medium heat.

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees C / gas mark 4). Add chutney, almonds, paprika, curry, ginger root, salt and pepper and turn the heat to low. Let it simmer for about 5-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, pour 100 ml. milk and add one egg in a bowl. Mix well and dip the slice of bread in the mixture until fully soaked. Stir the meat and fruit mixture on the stove well, then add the soaked bread. Leave the egg/milk mixture in the bowl. The bread will bind the dish. Let it sit for a while on low heat. You can add a crumbled stock cube to enhance the flavor if you want to.

Grease an oven dish and pour the mixture in. Pour the leftover milk/egg mixture over and stick four bay leaves in the dish. Put the dish in the oven for about 30 minutes. This gives you the time to make the geelrys.

For the geelrys you need about 700g rice, 1 stick of cinnamon, about a handful of raisins and 2 teaspoons of turmeric. If you feel fancy you can enrich it with 2 sliced onions and grated coconut.

In a large pan bring a water to a boil. Add the (basmati) rice, cinnamon stick, the raisins and the turmeric. Cook according to the instructions on the package. While the rice is cooking, glaze the onion rings in a frying pan until translucent.

When the rice is cooked, drain it and remove the stick of cinnamon. Let it rest for a bit and then mix the fried onion in the rice. Also mix 4-6 tablespoons of grated coconut to the rice.

The bobotie should be finished by now. Take from the oven, remove the bay leaves and serve warm with the geelrys, chutney and a green salad.

Smaaklike ete!