Bobotie is a South African dish consisting of spiced, minced meat baked with a custard topping. The recipe probably originates from the Dutch East India Company colonies in Batavia. The name comes from the Indonesian word ‘Bobotok’.
Bobotie is a dish of some antiquity: it has certainly been known in the Cape of Good Hope since the seventeenth century, when it was made with a mixture of mutton and pork. Nowadays it is more likely to be made with beef or lamb, although pork lends the dish moistness. Early recipes incorporated ginger, marjoram and lemon rind; the invention of curry powder has simplified the recipe somewhat but the basic concept remains the same. Traditionally, bobotie incorporates dried fruit like raisins or sultanas, but the sweetness that they lend is not to everybody’s taste.
Bobotie was transported by South African settlers to colonies all over Africa, and recipes for it can be found originating from white communities in Kenya, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. There is also a delicious variation that was popular among the 7,000 Boer settlers who settled in the Chubut Valley in Argentina in the early 20th century, in which the bobotie mixture is packed inside a large pumpkin, and the pumpkin baked until tender.
Ingredients
1 kg minced beef
1 slice of white bread, crust removed
200ml milk
2 eggs
100g butter
20ml lemon juice
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of crushed garlic
½ teaspoon mild curry powder
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
¼ teaspoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon chopped, blanched almonds
6 fresh orange or bay leaves
50g seedless raisins or dry fruit (optional)
Cooking instructions
Preheat your oven to 170ºC. In a shallow dish, pour 100ml of milk over the bread and leave to soak. In a frying pan melt the butter over a medium heat, and add the onion and garlic. Cook for a minute or two until the onion begins to colour, and then add the curry powder, turmeric and pepper. Cook for another minute, stirring well, and remove from the heat. Drain the milk from the bread and add the soaked bread to the mince, then add the cooked onion mixture, salt, lemon juice and almonds, and the raisins if you decide to include them. Mix the meat mixture well, kneading it with your hands to amalgamate the flavourings.
Generously grease a baking dish and scatter the cumin seeds inside. Spoon in the meat mixture, pressing it down to ensure a flat surface, and bake for 40 minutes or until it begins to colour on the top. Beat together the remaining 100ml milk and the two eggs and pour the mixture over the meat. Roll the orange or bay leaves into cylindrical ‘cigars’, and poke them into the mixture so that a little of the leaf roll protrudes above the surface of the egg custard, and bake the dish for another 10 minutes.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
0 
I love bobotie and make it often as it’s an easy authentic South African dish to make in the UK (i.e. does not depend on haveing a supply of snoek, springbok, naartjies or other SA favourites!). Fascinated by the Argentinian version…
Hi Michael
I am doing a bit of work on the Chubut Afrikaners, and so came upon your recipe. I have tried making bobotie in a pumpkin. It looked spectacular. It took two hours to cook. I par-fried the meat, fearing it would take too long for the heat to reach the meat. I used your recipe but quintupled the spice and added 1T green masala. It was delicious, and now we have a glut of cooked pumpkin. The traditional custard on top can be enhanced with a bechemel sauce, cheese and spices. Much better crust, more flavour. Next my wife is going to do a mousaka in a pumpkin. Kind regards, Mark Sandham
Glad you found this useful! I would love to see a picture of the bobotie in a pumpkin. If you can put it online somewhere send me a link please.