Name: Bobotie
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: South African
Ingredients: a handful of fresh or dried lime leaves; 2 eggs, beaten; 1 x 400 g/14 oz tin chopped tomatoes; 1–2 tablespoons tomato purée; salt and freshly ground black pepper; 1 tablespoon red or white wine vinegar; 900 g/2 lb lean minced beef or venison; 3 tablespoons green or golden sultanas, or raisins; 1 tablespoon apricot jam; 2 tablespoons mango chutney; 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce; 1 tablespoon Zanzibar Spice Mix or South African curry powder; 2 teaspoons Harissa Paste; 1 tablespoon turmeric; 2 teaspoons ground ginger; 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon; 2 teaspoons jaggery or musovado sugar; 2 tablespoons ghee; 2 onions, chopped; 300 ml/½ pint milk; 3 slices white bread, crusts discarded and cut into cubes

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Spirit & Spice

By Ghillie Basan

Published 2019

About

This is a classic South African dish of Cape Malay origin that includes Indian spices and colonial cupboard ingredients like mango chutney, apricot jam and Worcestershire sauce (which, along with strawberry jam, often got flung into spicy food during the colonial years in Africa, India and Malaysia). For white South Africans, this is a national dish and is often whipped up for parties and celebrations; in East Africa it appears on the menu in safari lodges and in the homes of white Kenyans;